Building Muscle vs. Building Strength
Often confused with one another, muscle size requires slightly different training than muscle strength. Hypertrophy training refers to the type of exercise needed to grow the size of your muscles, but is often accompanied by improvements in strength as well.
Note that the larger your muscles are, the more capacity you have to build strength. For some people, it may be beneficial to start with hypertrophy training in order to achieve greater strength gains later on.
Why Building Muscle is Important for Cheerleaders
In order to be a great tumbler, stunter, jumper and dancer, a certain amount of muscle mass and strength is required. Once you reach your optimal level of muscle mass, your athletic performance will improve greatly – this will make everything in cheerleading easier!
Aside from cheer, having adequate muscle mass also helps manage your weight, increase your bone density and decrease your risk of developing chronic diseases.
How Does Muscle Size Increase?
Size will only increase when you challenge your muscles to handle high levels of resistance/weight. As you work against your chosen form of resistance (ex: lifting weights), your muscle fibres actually get damaged.
Then, your body uses protein to help repair, replace and build back the damaged muscle cells. As little bits get built on after each workout, your muscles will increase in size and mass over time.
How to Build Muscle
Building muscle requires you to follow a carefully designed training program targeted for that specific purpose – not just any workout will do! Although regular exercise may yield some results, you will improve a lot quicker with a tailored program.
In addition to being specifically designed for muscle growth, your training must be consistent, long-term, progressive and challenging enough for your body.
Factors That Affect Muscle Growth
Training Status
There are quite a few things that influence how easily our bodies put on muscle mass. One of the main factors is training status/experience. The more trained you are, the slower you’ll see improvements in muscle growth. Since beginners generally start from nothing, they’ll see super quick improvement in the first few weeks or months of their training.
Biological Sex
Your biological sex also plays a role in muscle growth. Biological males tend to build muscle more easily due to a higher level of testosterone and a naturally larger muscle mass. But, regardless of sex, muscles will grow at different rates for everyone since body types vary.
Body Type
Here are the 3 body types and a description of how each one impacts muscle growth:
- Ectomorphic – Naturally thin frame and has a harder time putting on muscle and fat than others. Although muscle size is unlikely to increase drastically, strength can still be improved with resistance training.
- Mesomorphic – Naturally more muscular and can build muscle mass quicker than those with other body types.
- Endomorphic – Naturally have a higher body fat percentage and less muscle mass. Despite a curvier frame, they can still build muscle by doing resistance training.
Nutrition and Recovery Habits
Lastly, your nutrition and recovery habits will impact the progress you see. Support your training with healthy meals that are high in protein, and make sure to take adequate rest to ensure your muscles have time to repair themselves.
Conclusion
Overall, if you’re looking to build muscle you must follow a well-designed hypertrophy training program, support your training with adequate nutrition and rest, and take your body type into consideration. Don’t become overly discouraged if you’re naturally an ectomorph and can’t get yourself to look like a bodybuilder! Everyone will need to do different things to reach their muscle-building goals, so embrace your body shape and figure out what is best for YOU.
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