When you ask some body builders about the reason why they bulk up ,most of them will say it’s because they want to look good. Yes, there are people who perform physical training to improve their health, and there’s no doubt that physical wellbeing is directly linked to better mental health, and is even used as a way to deal with depression, but… A lot of people just want to improve their looks.

And there’s nothing wrong with that. Whether you have a goal to improve your looks or become healthier, along the way, you will achieve both, so there’s no problem with taking that approach.

Now, there are people who’d like to take things a little further and specialize their muscles, and looks, to look a little more on the hulk-side. And that can be achieved if you train and take extra steps to achieve vascularity and muscle swelling, also known as a pump.

What’s Vascularity and Pump

It might be weird to talk about how some people actually want to achieve these two factors, but you would be surprised. I open this section of the article like this because it might be weird for newcomers who know nothing about bodybuilding, vascularity, and muscle pump, so keep that in mind.

Vascularity can be described as the condition where bodybuilders, muscle trainers, and athletes (or even normal people) achieve highly prominent and visible veins. So, when your veins are really present in your arms (or other parts of the body) and you can not only see them but feel them in your body’s skin layout.

Muscle pump is when the muscles become swollen and enlarged due to physical effort, mostly linked to weightlifting and muscle training. This enlarges muscles with blood, and usually expands and stretches the muscle tissue, thus, leading to hypertrophy.

It’s Benefits

There’s a reason why people want to achieve both muscle pump and vascularity, and you can check them in more detail over here https://www.menshealth.com/fitness/a19520337/muscle-pump-builds-size-and-strength/.

Still, in my experience and research, I’ve found out a rather logical current of thought regarding both conditions: hypertrophy. Many probably don’t know this, but hypertrophy is a condition that is achieved when muscle tissue is stretched (pretty much damaged) from physical effort. Pump and vascularity are good visible signs of hypertrophy, and they actually happen when your muscles have swollen.

This hypertrophy is properly dealt with during our sleep, and the healing process use components we get from food such as proteins, minerals, and macronutrients. These compounds, as well as the quality of sleep you get, decide how effectively your body deals with hypertrophy.

After the muscles have been healed, due to the stretching of the muscle tissue, they end up becoming stronger and larger, thus, creating muscle mass along the process. The logic is simple: the more tension you manage to put in the tissues, the stronger they become.

Of course, reaching more vascularity and muscle pump becomes harder the stronger you get, so you have to adapt yourself to your physical activities and come up with good training methods. You can also add some of the best supplements for pump and vascularity to the mix for better and faster results.

Although supplements can be very useful because they can provide you with more energy and endurance during your workouts, it all depends on how you work. Your training routine, as well as the rests you put in between, are very important, but what’s most important is knowing what’s the effort bar you have to follow when it comes to weight, repetitions, and sets.

The Right Mindset

There’s something very important when we talk about training, and that is having the right mindset. Of course, things like discipline and consistency are key factors to determine how fast and effectively you get results, but there are other things to consider.

What I would like to ask for you is to make sure you are not slacking off, but also, make sure that you are not putting yourself under too much pressure. It’s a difficult balance to achieve, I’m sure of it, and considering that everyone has different power levels of strength as well as endurance and experience, it’s even harder to achieve.

That’s why during the first months of training, you should not look to get results right away, but get to learn yourself and your body. Learn how much weight you can deal with different exercises, and learn how many sets and repetitions you can go. Get to know how much rest you need in between exercises, and learn if you can handle less rest as time goes by.

Ideally, you want to rest around 90 seconds between exercises and put enough weight for you to feel tired after 13 to 15 repetitions, but it all depends on the person. Your goal is to achieve hypertrophy, but without putting too much pressure on your muscles that could cause damage. You should also try to exercise your muscles at least twice a week if you want to get results and let them rest when needed.

Finally, add enough calories, carbs, and protein to your diet depending on your goal (weight-gain or weight-loss) and make sure to rest properly.