Muscle Growth
There is one key term that needs to be understood by anyone wishing to build muscle - Progressive Overload.
There are lots of other factors that contribute towards building muscle such as nutrition, supplements, recovery, training type, and sleep but they won't count for anything if don't understand Progressive Overload.
In order to stimulate growth the muscles need to be pushed more than have been previously. If the same demand is put on the muscles as in the pervious session then there is no reason for your body to adapt. You are already strong enough for the required demand.
Our bodies are very clever, they will adapt to demands put on the body, know as anabolism in terms of muscle growth. This works the same if muscles are not used, the reverse effect of your muscles breaking down know as catabolism.
To stimulate an anabolic effect (muscle growth) the muscles need to be worked with increased demand in the form of either repetitions or load. Depending on the goals of each individual muscle building the reps and sets are adjusted to hit a particular type of muscle twitch fibres to maximize either size, performance or both.
Creating the optimum environment for muscle growth pulls in lots of different factors, recovery and nutrition being the next two most important factors after overloading but the number one contributor for disappointed weight lifters is the lack of progressive overload!
The overload doesn't need to be massive. As the 'progressive' suggests, small but regular increments in demand will make a big difference to your training.
Article supplied by Alan Cook, amc-training.com