FitnessRum

I emphasis that “get tighter” doesn’t mean anything – fat can’t be turned in to muscles. BUT so many people use it, I want to be understood, so I will speak their language. If you want to just get tighter, so you have to burn fat, which is not much but at the same time you can gain some muscles because they make the body look fit.

I.E. if you want to look fit, you have to burn fat (no matter you are thin). If you don’t want to look thinner, it’s good to gain muscles, which will naturally happen when you start to work out. Every beginner gain muscles!

The difference between workouts for shaping up the body (gaining a few muscles) and these for gaining really serious muscles is mainly in the weights you train with and the number of reps.

I emphasis that if you have never worked out before, in the beginning when you start working out, you will gain muscles even with bodyweight workouts (first 2-3 months). I wrote several times about adaptation that this is essential feature of our body. Thanks to it we adapt to all kind of stress (physical, emotional, psychical etc.) and to survive.

If you just want to “be fit” (i.e. not to gain muscles) – just do bodyweight workouts and use small dumbbells 3-4-5 kg each. When we start to work out our body adapts to new condition and gain muscles to face the challenges. If we don’t increase the exercises, weights, there would be no need for more adapting, so the muscles will stop grow. Gaining muscles is not infinite process, body has limits, and usually men suffer because they can’t gain more and more muscles. The limits come from the ligaments, bones, nervous system, etc. I.E. gaining muscles can’t last forever.

If you want to gain muscles in certain zone – train it with bigger weights and do it regularly. Gaining muscles is great way to sculpt zones of the body you don’t like because they are small. For example flat bottom, slim hands and calves. If you don’t have noticeable waist, you can correct it if you wide your upper body – shoulders doing push ups, rowing and exercises for shoulders. About the regular working out – it doesn’t mean to unbalance your body training just one body zone. You train the whole body but add some more exercises for the zone you would like to change. Don’t do anything fast or sharply – body needs time to accept each change!

Why with a Rumi’s workout you can gain muscles and DON’T gain muscles at the same time? 

Example interval workout, working interval 50 seconds, rest 10 seconds

1. Back lunge
2. Rowing
3. Push ups

Variant 1 for gaining muscles
When I want to gain muscles I work out with a back pack where I put 17 kg – rice, books whatever I have. One rep takes me about 5-6 seconds, or I do no more than 10 reps for the 50 second interval. At the moment you increase the weight you do the reps slowly, and for the same time you do less reps with bigger weight.

Variant 2 just to stay fit (“get tighter”) Когато не искам да покачвам мускули, When I don’t want to gain muscles I work out just with the weight of my body or with notably lighter weights. One rep takes me about 3 seconds and for 50 seconds I do about 16-17 reps.

I.E. one and the same interval training can achieve different goals, depending on the weights.

Above I talked about the weight 17 kg – I just cant put anything else in my back pack, it’s not the magic weight to gain muscles. This could be small weight for some people, for others impossible. You can do 10 reps for 50 seconds with 10 or 30 kg, choose weight that is suitable for you.

What are the heaviest weights to gain muscles? 
When I test my max strength for the last time, I did squats 2 reps with 52 kg. The first rep was great, the second I needed a little help.

Some experiments show that new muscle fibers are engaged when working out with about 80% of the max weight. Above 80-85% of the max no new fibers are involved, but the nervous system is more engaged. It is said that for max muscle gain 80% of the max weights is most appropriate or in my case 80%*52 kg=41-42 kg.

If I want to work out with this kind of weights, the workouts I do now will change significantly. I will need longer rest between the sets if I want to do 10 reps per set. There is no way to do 8-10 squats per 50 seconds with 40 kg and to take rest just 10 seconds.

The “Regularly working out and volume of the workouts (sets, reps, weights)” factor
Ballet dancers have well developed calves and they don’t use weights. They just lift on their toes thousands of times per day. Their body reacts to this stress and gain muscles in the calves.

If you want rounded booty – do swing every day. Even if you don’t use big weight there would be result. After some time, if you want bigger butt, increase the weight more. Just don’t forget to train all body.

Summary:
If you don’t want to gain muscles, just do bodyweight workouts, use weights only for the back (or do pull ups). The body weight exercise for the back is Pull up, but it’s really huge weight, to be able to lift yourself. If you can’t pull up, then do rowing with dumbbells.

If you want to gain muscles in certain zone – train it regularly, gradually increase the weight and volume of the workouts and don’t forget that our body is a system, so you have to train all parts, if you don’t want to have injuries in the system.