Kayla Young
OrangeTheory Fitness is a place known for helping people get fit and maintain their fitness. They are well known for their classes that feature HIIT to burn calories and lose fat.
But apart from losing weight and burning fat, you might wonder, “Does OrangeTheory build muscle?” The answer is a resounding yes, you can build muscle at OrangeTheory!
It is a gym, after all, and it has different equipment to help you build muscle. But muscle-building really isn’t the primary focus of OTF.
So how do you build muscle at OrangeTheory? And how much muscle do you expect to build out of using their facility? We’ll be talking about that below.
Contents
Does OrangeTheory Build Muscle?
OrangeTheory is most famous for its awesome classes. This is the biggest selling factor for this company.
The class structure helps members burn calories by focusing on cardio exercises that increase the heart rate. They put everyone’s heart rate zones up on their leaderboards for all to see.
That way, you keep burning calories after a day working out on the treadmill or in the rowing class.
However, not all people just want to burn calories and lose fat. Many want to build muscle while they work out!
Working out at OrangeTheory makes muscle building possible because you’re also going to use all your muscles.
In virtually all OTF locations, there is a room with weights that you can use for your arm curls and lifting exercises.
Is OrangeTheory Good For Building Muscle?
The focus of OrangeTheory isn’t really on building muscle. If you want to get swole, you’ll need to pick a different gym.
The primary aim of OTF is to get you fit and healthy as a whole. That means it incorporates various exercises with all sorts of benefits like calorie-burning, flexibility, endurance, and strength.
Does OrangeTheory make you bulky? No, definitely not.
It’s a balanced gym: there is some strength training, but that’s not the primary focus.
Although OTF can help you build muscle, you won’t build as fast as you would if you have other muscle-building equipment that other gyms offer.
Gyms like Gold’s Gym and Crossfit focus and specialize in muscle building. With them, you’d gain more muscle in less time.
Tips OrangeTheory Muscle Gain
Building muscle isn’t just about lifting heavy things. Yes, the muscles grow the more you use them but that is not the only factor.
Muscle-building can be successful when you exercise, sleep well and eat right.
In the initial phase of muscle-building, you can expect a fast rate. However, as you already have gained muscles initially, the gain becomes slower.
If you want to build muscles, here are a few tips that you should remember:
Be Patient
Although the initial phase of building muscles can be fast, it still takes time. You wouldn’t build big muscles after a day of lifting weights. Usually, with proper exercise, diet, and rest, people could see a noticeable difference after about 2-3 months.
The rate of muscle-building is also different for each person. Age, sex, and genetics could be a reason for it. The key to building muscles is being consistent and patient with the process. It may seem that nothing is happening today but just give it time and continue with your progress.
Select Your Exercise
When you build muscles, you need to target the specific muscle you want to build. That will depend on the exercise that you perform. If you want buffer biceps, focusing on bicep curls would be a good exercise to do.
Such isolated movements are great but you can also target multiple muscle groups with the compound exercise you do. However, isolated movements are more preferred by beginners because they are easier to do. Most also find them safer for beginners to do.
Don’t Forget To Eat
If your previous goal is to lose weight and burn fat, then cutting on your calorie intake may work well. However, for you to gain muscle, you should also bulk up or eat more than you usually do.
Bulking-up helps you to gain muscles because there are enough calories and nutrients to grow the muscles. Most of those who build muscle focus on eating protein. However, carbs and fat are also needed.
Eating enough also prevents your body from breaking down the muscles because you don’t have enough calories.
Push Yourself But Take Rest Days Too
It’s great if you could push yourself to do the exercises as hard as you can. However, you should also give your body and muscles a chance to rest so that it can grow.
That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t exercise on some days. It only means that you should not exercise to the point of exhaustion all the time.
Conclusion
OrangeTheory may be known for its classes that raise your heart rate to burn calories.
However, you can still build muscle through their classes and fitness facility. Their classes are combinations of various exercises that will help you build muscle.
They typically have a weight room where you can use the weights to target muscles you want to build. However, their equipment for muscle building is limited.
There are other gyms that focus on bodybuilding that offer such equipment.
See also:
