4 Secret Muscle Building Principles They Don't Want You to Know

The desire to gain muscle and lose fat is common.

The people who actually achieve an uncommon body are few and far between. Fortunately, whether you want to start a new muscle building workout routine or improve the one you're already on, knowledge is power.

The more you know about how your body works the better off you'll be.

Interestingly, there are some keys to building muscle or muscle building principles that, once you know them, can help you build a new body, literally.

The smartest and best way to build muscle is to discover the truth about how your body works so that you'll be in control of how it looks.

That fact is, you are an artist.

You can actually choose to mold, create and shape your body into any shape you want.

Your tools? Instead of a paint brush or clay, you have a fork and heavy resistances.

Progressive Overload

The overload principle states that the neuromuscular system must be placed under stress in order to achieve adaptations such as the building of muscle and connective tissue. Specifically, "progressive overload" is a systematic and gradual increase in the demands placed on the muscles and systems of the body. This increase in demand, if supported nutritionally, will result in the strengthening of the body as an entire unit. This is one of the most fundamental principles of body building, muscle building and strength training.

Muscular Hypertrophy

When a specific muscle group is overloaded (or over stressed) with heavy resistance, among the many adaptations, the body responds by building more muscle. This is known as muscular hypertrophy. Hypertrophy is an increase in muscle mass. This increase in muscle mass is always coupled with an increase in strength. Hypertrophy is a one of the many natural by products of a progressive overload resistance training program.

Specificity Principle

The term specificity, as applied to body building and muscle building, is the idea that the body will respond to the specific demands placed on it. If the body is trained like a cross country runner, it will respond to those demands and become more efficient at running cross country.

If the body is trained like a body builder, it will respond to those demands in a specific way and become better at building muscle.

The principle of specificity in athletic training and muscle building requires the training mode to reflect the desired outcome.

Mechanical Advantage

The human body is composed of many different systems. For people that want to build muscle and who understand the overload principle, it makes sense that if you know more about where levers occur in the muscular and skeletal system you'll be better equipped to place stress and demand on the body exactly where you want to and where to eliminate it, if necessary.

The more you know about how the human body works the better you'll be at controlling its function and appearance - at will, if you choose. The application of the muscle building principles of progressive overload, hypertrophy and leverage are three terms that will help you build muscle fast.