Muscle building and the importance of recovery

Have you ever wandered through a bookstore and found yourself browsing through a bodybuilding magazine? If so, you probably remember some fancy advertisements and recommendations for a magical supplement that supposedly gives great results. You probably also remember photos of accomplished bodybuilders and tips on improving your training sessions.

However, there will probably be one crucial bit of advice that is missing from any of these bodybuilding articles. I’m talking about the importance of the recovery phase. If you’re serious about making significant gains in your muscle building program, you’ll need to implement a good strategy for recovery (or resting in between workouts).

First of all, what exactly is the recovery phase? Well, let’s review how muscle is built in the first place. In order for your body to build muscle, you first have to give your body a reason to build it. You see, on a basic biological level muscle is an expensive asset to have, and the body would rather not have to maintain it. The only way to stimulate new muscle growth is to give the body a reason to build it, and the way to do this is to take advantage of our basic biological need to survive.

When we lift a heavy weight that the body is not used to, the muscle is damaged on a microscopic level. Because the body does not want to be put under this same stress ever again, the muscle will be rebuilt bigger and stronger (provided there is enough material for growth in the form of protein and other nutrients).

So how does this tie in to the importance of resting during the recovery phase? Simply put, the muscles must be given time to rebuild before they are put under heavy stress again.

As a matter of fact, some well known muscle building experts recommend only training a few hours per week. Too many people go way over this because they think that more is always better.

In addition to carefully planning your workouts to avoid over training, you must make sure that you’re getting plenty of sleep in order to experience the best possible muscle gains.

Sleep is, after all, when the body tends to repair. As we discussed above, the body does have to repair itself and build your muscles bigger and stronger than they were before. That’s why resting, and yes sleep, are crucial to your success if you’re serious about maximum muscle gain. How do I build lean muscle , visit Jon Cardozo’s Web site at http://maximum-muscle-gain.com . Learn the secrets to building a muscular physique and avoid the myths of the bodybuilding industry.