The days off at the gym can be your allies in the fight to gain muscle, especially for those who don’t like to sit still
There are those who like to go to the gym all day to ensure muscle gains. However, this strategy may not be ideal for optimizing results: taking a few days off and taking advantage of them to do less intense activities that will help you regain muscle is much more beneficial.
After all, off days are no excuse to be completely stopped. As a physical educator, Cau Saad recalls, “interleaving intense workouts with moderate and light workouts is also a great alternative so you don’t want to miss your training pace.”
To reinforce the argument that it is not enough to go to the gym every day to gain muscle, Cau points out that there are at least two other things that must be taken into account: diet and the aforementioned rest, which is often forgotten in routine. who makes the gym.
“This is when the repair of muscles and other tissues happens,” he reiterates. Failure to do so can even be counterproductive, disrupting gains and leading to overtraining when the body becomes fatigued and more susceptible to injury.
So there is no doubt that resting is crucial for mass gain – but how can you use idle days to optimize strength training results?
How to increase muscle mass faster? Enjoy the days off!
There are a number of things you can do during your days off at the gym to gain muscle more efficiently and quickly. Remember, however, that any activities you choose to do should be lighter than your strength training so as not to negate the benefits of this strategy.
According to the physical educator, some options that can be taken into account range from dance classes to walking, through water aerobics and abdomen classes.
If you prefer something even less intense, you can resort to traditional stretching, which helps prevent injury, relax muscles and irrigate the blood vessels in the triggered region, intensifying the supply of nutrients to aid muscle regeneration and, consequently, mass gain.
Cau points out that activities like these also help “dissipating and neutralizing lactic acid, the cause of muscle pain that is produced during great physical exertion.”
So the key to enjoying your days off at the gym without missing a beat is to intersperse intense workouts with quieter activities. This guarantees a week free of physical inactivity and does not run the risk of overloading your body and injuring yourself.
