Vous voulez prendre du muscle ? Vous allez à la salle de sport jour après jour, mais vous n’arrivez toujours pas à gagner ce muscle qui fait tourner les têtes ou cette force de levage brute ? Qui n’a pas envie d’avoir une paire d’épaules en forme de rocher, une poitrine en forme de trésor et un impressionnant développé couché de 220 livres (ou plus) ?
Vous êtes nombreux à vous demander pourquoi vous ne prenez pas encore de muscle. Eh bien, presque toujours, vous ne comprenez pas l’objectif du muscle squelettique et la raison pour laquelle il se développe.
Le plus souvent, les nouveaux adeptes des salles de sport oublient de s’informer sur la nutrition avant d’entrer dans la salle de musculation. En général, ils ne consomment pas assez de protéines pour assurer la croissance musculaire et la récupération après l’entraînement. Il ne s’agit en aucun cas de négliger les autres besoins alimentaires, mais l’apport en protéines est essentiel pour obtenir les gains souhaités.
Parlons d’entraînement ! Certains adeptes des salles de sport n’ont pas de véritable programme d’entraînement. Après des décennies d’observation de l’environnement des salles de sport, les « nouveaux » passent souvent d’une machine à l’autre, sans vraiment savoir ce qu’ils font. Le pire, c’est lorsqu’ils se contentent de parler à leurs amis ou de faire défiler leur téléphone à l’infini !
Un autre problème est celui du repos et de la récupération. Pas seulement les haltérophiles, mais les gens en général ne se donnent pas la possibilité de dormir ces heures cruciales pour la récupération musculaire et hormonale.
Dernier point, mais non des moindres, la « cohérence ». Beaucoup de personnes qui fréquentent les salles de sport ne sont pas cohérentes avec leur programme d’entraînement. Par exemple, ils peuvent s’entraîner pendant quelques mois, puis s’arrêter pendant quelques semaines, voire quelques mois. Pendant cette période d’arrêt, les gains musculaires sont interrompus, voire inversés, ce qui entraîne une perte musculaire notable.
Si vous êtes coupable de ne pas avoir travaillé, tout n’est pas perdu, car des changements peuvent être apportés dès aujourd’hui.
Dans le corps de l’article, nous avons couvert tous les points ci-dessus de manière beaucoup plus détaillée, vous donnant une idée de la manière d’atteindre vos objectifs en matière de musculation et de remise en forme.
Comprendre les muscles squelettiques
Sans entrer dans un jargon trop technique, le corps humain compte environ 640 muscles. À l’intérieur d’un muscle, on trouve des microfilaments plus petits qui constituent des centaines de milliers de fibres musculaires. Les fibres musculaires se contractent pour favoriser le mouvement d’une articulation.
Les microfilaments d’actine et de myosine des quelque 100 000 fibres musculaires du biceps en sont un exemple. Pour effectuer une flexion du biceps, l’actine glisse sur la myosine pour raccourcir les fibres musculaires (flexion du coude). Pour allonger le muscle, les microfilaments reprennent leur position initiale.
Si les fibres musculaires sont surchargées en soulevant des poids, les muscles devraient devenir visiblement plus grands et plus forts au fil du temps en guise d’adaptation au stress. Ce phénomène est également connu sous le nom de synthèse des protéines musculaires induite par l’entraînement en résistance.
Ces adaptations peuvent préparer un haltérophile à résister à des forces plus importantes (soulever des poids plus lourds) tout en réduisant les risques de claquage ou de rupture musculaire. Nous reviendrons sur ce point dans la section suivante.
Factors affecting muscle growth and how to fix them
Muscle growth can be damaged by a lack of protein intake, suboptimal workouts, lack of sleep, and lack of consistency.
Importance of protein intake
Protein intake is just as important as going all out in the gym (not literally) when it comes to muscle growth.
Dietary protein is made up of the nine essential amino acids found in food sources such as whey, milk, eggs, chicken and beef. A high daily protein intake promotes muscle protein synthesis, a scientific term for muscle growth and recovery.
New weightlifters are not always able to consume sufficient amounts of protein. As a result, they miss opportunities to muscle gain and recover properly after workouts.
Total dietary protein intake
According to practitioners, weightlifters can aim for 1g of protein per pound of body weight, which should be enough to “nourish” the muscles for them to grow. For an average 160-pound man, that’s 160g of protein per day.
Maximize muscle protein synthesis
According to the literature, by eating a quality meal, muscle protein synthesis (muscle building) outweighs muscle protein breakdown (muscle loss).
This allows people to stay in “muscle building/recovery” mode for a good 3 hours before going back down. At this point we can have another meal or snack to stimulate muscle recovery again. An intake of 30 to 40 g of high-quality protein per meal or snack should be sufficient.
This in no way means that it is more important to focus on meal timing than total protein intake. However, to go further, a weightlifter could spread the total protein intake over 3 to 5 meals and/or snacks.
This could be 3 meals of 40 g of protein (chicken breast, fish fillet, pieces of beef, etc.) and 2 snacks of 20 g of protein (shakes and protein bars, etc.). This diet allows you to achieve the goal of 160 g of protein that we mentioned.
Some supplements like BCAAs can be taken with meals to boost your overall amino profile if you opt for lower quality protein sources like soy.
BCAAs can also be taken a few hours after a meal to slightly prolong the anabolic response. Why not take a look at the range of high quality products BCAA at Biaxol supplements?
The role of resistance training in muscle development
Beginners are guilty of not overloading the muscles enough to promote strength and hypertrophy (muscle growth).
Ideally, these weightlifters could hire a trainer who would help them determine their maximum weight 1RM. For example, a maximum bench press might be 133 pounds (100% intensity) for the average novice man.
Once weightlifters have an idea of their current strength, they can adjust the weights to place themselves within the lifting ranges of hypertrophy.
Decades of research have shown that these lifting ranges for muscle building are around 65-85% intensity. By default, repetition ranges are limited to 6-12 per set. In practice, this might look like a 100-pound bench press (75% intensity) for 10 repetitions and three sets.
On the other hand, weightlifters can choose to periodize their training and go through muscle training phases. As the name suggests, strength training emphasizes lifting force.
In turn, a weightlifter’s maximum strength may increase. After 10 weeks of correct lifting (including all lifting phases), an increase in strength of 10 to 20% is realistic. Staying modest, a weightlifter’s maximum strength could increase from 133 lbs to 146 lbs (10% strength gain).
At this point, the weightlifter can return to muscle building phases and lift more weight at a given intensity, which helps increase muscle overload and gains. The 75% bench press can go from 100 lbs x 10 reps to 110 lbs x 10 reps.
Muscle growth is the goal of many. Typically, many experts take their clients through a week of learning proper exercise cues and movement patterns. This week can be followed by four weeks of hypertrophy training, then four weeks of strength training just before starting the next training cycle.
The importance of sleep
Not to mention all the technical aspects, certain stages of sleep contribute to the recovery/repair of body tissues and the maintenance of hormonal balance. Therefore, if you do not get enough quality sleep, you risk losing your muscle gains.
Sleep needs vary from person to person, but on average we should get 7 hours of sleep.
Here are some general tips for getting longer, better quality sleep:
- Give yourself the opportunity to sleep by going to bed on time.
- Use your bed only for sleeping to create positive associations.
- Wake up early regularly to accumulate hours of sleep throughout the day.
- Avoid naps
- Avoid caffeine 12 hours before bed to keep the body relaxed.
- Avoid screens an hour before bed or apply a blue light filter to promote the release of melatonin.
- Include foods rich in melatonin, such as dark red cherries, in your diet.
Regularity: The need for a regular workout routine.
Many weightlifters start training regularly, but then start to run out of steam. To build visible muscle, a weightlifter must maximize muscle protein synthesis induced by resistance training each muscle group at least once a week. The regularity of this workout can help a weightlifter continue to add muscle to their structure instead of interrupting their workouts and losing muscle.
Takeaway message
In total, the body has many muscle groups composed of muscle cells and microfilaments. These muscles are responsible for movements in the joints.
These muscle cells are broken down through resistance training, then enlarged and strengthened using amino acids. amino acids through supplements and a high-protein diet. Dietary protein goals of 1g/lb body weight, spread throughout the day, should maximize muscle building.
Remember that getting enough sleep is also crucial for the body’s recovery and hormonal balance. This can be improved by applying the tips we have highlighted. Finally, be consistent to continue increasing your muscle gains, it makes sense, right?
Always consult a licensed trainer or healthcare professional before making any significant lifestyle changes.
After reading this article, you will never have to say the words “Why am I not gaining muscle” again.
If you have any questions regarding the use or purchase of the products, please do not hesitate to contact us directly.
Please remember that this article does not constitute medical advice and is not intended to diagnose, cure, treat or prevent any disease, disorder or medical condition. It should in no way replace advice and treatment provided by your doctor or a licensed health care provider.
Reference
Duda, K., Majerczak, J., Nieckarz, Z., et al. (2019) Physiology of muscle and exercise: Chapter 1 – Composition of the human body and muscle mass., 3-26
Wilson, JM, Wilson S., Loenneke, J., et al. Effects of amino acids and their metabolites on aerobics and anaerobics. Sports Strength & Conditioning Journal 34 (4): 34-48, 2012
Chaves, TS, Scarpelli, MC, Almeida, JG, et al. Effects of resistance training overload progression protocols on strength and muscle mass (Effects of resistance training overload progression protocols on strength and muscle mass) International Journal of Sports Medicine, 45(07): 504-510, 2024
Dattilo, M., Antunes, HKM, Medeiros, A., et al. Sleep and muscle recovery: Endocrinological and molecular basis of a promising new hypothesis. Medical hypothesis, 77(2): 220-222, 2011
