It's common knowledge that the harder you work at something the better your results be. Perhaps we believe this and accept it as one of our central doctrines because it simply seems so obvious. While working hard to achieve superior results may be true much of the time it certainly isn't true all the time.
In school you are told study hard so your grades will be better. In sports you are told to practice harder and longer so you will be a great athlete. But when it comes to weight lifting spending long hours in the gym doesn't translate to better physical development and more muscle mass. What seems like a truism for many of us simply isn't true when it comes to building more muscle, precisely why so many weight lifters unnecessarily spend dozens of hours in the gym.
"So will spending less time working out actually help me develop more strength and muscle mass?"
The answer is absolutely yes. Over the course of tens of thousands of years the human body has evolved to become a highly adaptable organism that can adapt to nearly any external conditions that are placed upon it. For example, we perspire to cool ourselves down when the temperature rises and develop a sun tan when we are exposed to excessive UV light. And when we break down muscle tissue by lifting heavy weights are muscles respond by becoming bigger and stronger.
By resistance training the muscle is strained beyond its present capacity and the body immediately recognizes the threat and responds by gradually increasing the muscles size (called hypertrophy) in order to prevent harm. As you increase the weight and repetitions performed each week (called progressive overload) the body is forced to adapt and grow in response until the body's strength and development limits are reached.
Building muscle is basically that simple but what is often forgotten is that muscle tissue can only develop and become bigger provided that they also have sufficient recovery time. If your muscles are deprived of sufficient rest between workouts then muscle growth can not really take place. Once you have stressed your muscles beyond their current capacity you have essentially done your job. Adding additional stress (working out longer than you should) only increases the recovery time necessary for muscle growth.
Here are 4 basic guidelines to maximize your muscle gains:
1. Limit your heavy workout sessions to a maximum of 4 sessions per week.
2. Limit your heavy workout sessions to no more than 90 minutes per session
3. Get at least 8 hours of sleep each night
4. Limit yourself to 4 sets on smaller muscle groups such as the shoulders, biceps, and triceps
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