Strength training for weight gain encourages anabolism, a phase of metabolism that repairs muscle tissue to support muscular growth. Include plenty of lean proteins and complex carbohydrates in your diet while strength training for weight gain; these foods support optimal anabolism because they supply your muscles with adequate recovery nutrients. Foods such as millet, whole wheat spaghetti, chickpeas and garbanzos provide rich sources of recovery nutrients.
Physiology
Each of your muscles are comprised of fast and slow-twitch muscle fibers. Strength training for weight gain targets your fast-twitch muscle fibers which contain more contractile components, which are known as myofibrils. The myofibrils contain the contractile proteins actin and myosin. Your body breaks down actin and myosin during these workout sessions. Weight gain and muscular growth occur during your post-workout recovery.
Repetitions
Strength training for weight gain includes low-repetition exercises with heavy weight. The National Federation of Personal Trainers recommends performing exercises with four to six repetitions per set. Select a weight that you can only complete four repetitions with at the onset of your program. Increase the weight only after you can complete six full repetitions throughout the entire range of motion without any assistance or forced repetitions.
Frequency
Inadequate rest prevents muscle mass gains because muscular growth only occurs during rest. Never perform exercises that target the same muscle group on back-to-back days. Rest each muscle group for at least two days while strength training for weight gain. Bodybuilding.com reports that adequate rest helps ensures that you get the most out of each workout. Resting your muscles replenishes glycogen for energy, allowing hormones like testosterone to return to optimal levels.
Exercises
Compound resistance exercises require multiple joint movements and recruit multiple muscle groups. Compound exercises are beneficial while strength training for weight gain, because they maximize the amount of muscle tissue that you target with each exercise. Target every major muscle group in your body at least once each week. Divide a full-body workout into three days. Complete chest and back exercises on the first day. Perform shoulder, biceps and triceps on day two and target your quadriceps, hamstrings and trapezius on the third day.
Variation
Change the exercises that you perform for each muscle group, as your body adapts to individual exercise movements in three to four weeks. This adaptation increases your risk of overuse injury and discourages balanced muscular development. You may switch from free weights like dumbbells and barbells to selectorized lever-loaded and pulley exercise machines. Subtle changes like shifting your grip -- the distance between your hands -- on a barbell can introduce changes that help keep your muscles in an adaptive state.
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