What are the training methods for men’s fitness and muscle gain?

To build muscle, men do not need to follow any internet-famous god-level training method. It is enough to grasp the three cores of "progressive overload + standard action mode + eating and sleeping matching". All training systems with names on the market are essentially adapted to people at different stages around these three points.

Two years ago, I took care of a young man who just entered the workplace. He was 182cm tall and weighed only 118kg. He followed a fitness blogger for five days of training, Monday for chest, Tuesday for back, Wednesday for back, Wednesday for shoulders, Thursday for arms and Friday for legs. He practiced more actively than anyone else. He spent two hours in the gym every day. As a result, after three months, his weight had not changed by one pound, and his arm circumference was exactly the same as before. To put it bluntly, he did not choose the right method to adapt to his stage. The novice's muscles recover quickly, and only stimulating each muscle group once a week is simply not enough to reach the growth threshold. Later, he was changed to full-body training three times a week. Each time, he practiced squats, pushing, pulling, and pull-ups, plus one or two isolation movements to make up for weaknesses. Each muscle group could be touched three times a week. Then he was forced to eat two eggs and drink a bowl of rice every day. He gained 7 pounds in two months, and his shoulder lines were obvious even when wearing a T-shirt.

When it comes to this, there must be some people who want to argue, saying that five-point splitting is a method used by professional players, why is it useless? In fact, it’s not that the method is wrong, it’s that it’s suitable for different people. The muscle mass of professional athletes has approached the genetic ceiling, and each muscle group needs to be squeezed to the extreme before being given sufficient recovery time. However, ordinary enthusiasts have trained for less than two years, and their muscle mass has not yet reached that threshold. The efficiency of high-frequency stimulation is much higher. When you can bench press 1.5 times your body weight and deadlift can pull 2 ​​times your body weight, it will not be too late to switch to differentiated training. There is no plan to trick professional athletes at the beginning.

There are still many people who are confused about whether to use heavy weights to build muscle. The two groups have been arguing for several years with no results. One group says that it is necessary to hit 1RM to stimulate deep muscle growth, while the other group says that it is muscle-friendly to use light weights and multiple repetitions to failure. I have stepped into this pit before. When I first started training for a year, I competed with others on bench press weights every day. When I deadlifted 200 pounds, my waist flashed, and I raised three It took me only a month to dare to touch the barbell, but later I figured out that we ordinary enthusiasts are not competing in powerlifting competitions. Doing sets with a weight of 8-12RM, and doing 1-2 reps to failure in each set is just right. It will not cause irreversible damage to the joints and stimulate the muscles enough. If you really want to test the ultimate weight, testing once a month or two is enough. You can't make fun of your waist and rotator cuff every day.

In fact, movements are not that important. Don’t sit there for a long time staring at the fancy fixed equipment as soon as you enter the gym. Compound movements are always the basis for building muscle. Squats, deadlifts, bench presses, pull-ups, and bent-over rows should account for 70% of your training volume. They are like steel bars for building a house. The remaining isolation movements are the cement that fills the seams. For example, if the outer contour of your chest is not obvious, add a few sets of ropes to hold your chest after bench press. If you have weak posterior shoulders, pull two sets of face muscles after each exercise. Pull, and gradually you will make up for your shortcomings. Don't reverse the order. Do isolation movements for half an hour first. If you lose interest when practicing compound movements, then you have picked up the sesame seeds and lost the watermelon.

To be honest, many people have no problem with training, but they are stuck in eating and sleeping. I once had a colleague whose size did not increase after practicing for a year. I had lunch with him and found out that in order to be afraid of getting fat, he only ate less than half a bowl of rice every meal, and only relied on a piece of chicken steak at noon for protein. How could this possibly build muscle? To put it bluntly, building muscle is like saving money. Training is to cut holes in your muscles, and eating and sleeping are to fill them with money. Only when you fill in more than you remove can you save muscle. During the normal muscle-building period, you need to eat at least 1.6-2.2g of protein per kilogram of body weight. Carbohydrates are about twice as much as protein. You must sleep enough for 7 hours a day. Otherwise, no matter how hard you train, you will only destroy the muscles and you will not be able to save anything. As for the skinny guy I just mentioned, he only ate 2 eggs a day before, but later he changed it to 4 eggs a day plus one and a half spoonfuls of protein powder, and he ate less than half a bowl of rice every meal. He gained 8 pounds in just two months without much increase in body fat.

By the way, don’t be superstitious about any god-level supplements. Protein powder is a convenient source of protein. If you can eat enough eggs, milk, and lean meat every day, you don’t need to buy it at all. Those nitrogen pumps and muscle-building powders that claim to increase muscle after eating are just icing on the cake. If the foundation is not laid, it will be useless.