Want to build muscles? Maybe you are trying hard, but are not able to lose that excess fat and build muscles. Most people, who try gaining muscles, but do not get expected results, are actually exercising and eating in the wrong way.
The best option to get those muscles is to work out properly and eat the right stuff. Perform pull ups and bent over rows if you wish to develop your back muscles. Likewise, you should lift weights and perform pushups for growing your pecs. Build leg muscles with dead lifts and squats, and target your biceps with dips and arm curls. For abdominal muscles, planks and crunches are the best option.
Get enough protein as protein supports muscle building. One must have at least 1 gm of protein for every kilo of body weight. For example, if a person of 180 lb should take in about 81-145g of protein. About 28 g of cooked meat contains 7 g of protein. Further, the body needs sufficient amount of water for building muscles. Water intake should be 60% of the body weight (in ounces). To calculate the amount of water in milliliters, multiply the body weight by 40.
Change your eating habits. Instead of having two or three large meals, have five or six smaller meals during the day. You can have a quick protein shake to increase your protein intake. Eat healthy fats. Yes, you are reading it right! Fat is good for you as long as you are taking the right kind and right amount of fat. The amount of saturated fats should be curbed to 20 gm or lower. However, unsaturated fats are beneficial. Not only beneficial, but also necessary. Fat is essential for the correct distribution of vitamins A, C, E and K in the body.
As per the total caloric intake, around 50-70 gm of monounsaturated fat is good for your training. These you can get from avocado, olive, canola, and nuts like almonds, cashews and peanuts. Polyunsaturated fats are present in corn, sunflower seeds and oils, and cottonseed and soybean oils.
Omega-3 fatty acid is good for the health of the heart and blood, eyesight and development of brain. Some good sources of omega-3 fatty acids are salmon, tuna and sardines. Adding to that, you must include multivitamin tablets to your routine. This will make sure that the body is getting apt amount of minerals and vitamins that are required by it to maintain health.
Apart from a good diet plan, excessive exercising is a must. This should not come across as a surprise that in order to build muscles, the process of tearing the old muscles and rebuilding them till they are bulkier must take place. Before starting any exercise, begin with a less intense routine, so as to warm up all the muscles you would be working on. Do not stretch too much before workout. Stretching done before workout may result in poor performance. It should always be done post workout.
Also, training with higher repetitions will give you endurance, but you will not be able to build strength or size. Do not train for any more than 45 minutes. Every month or two, vary your routine. This is because, the body starts becoming used to the stress, so you will reach to the point, where the benefits of weight lifting will take a diminishing curve. Hence, what best you can do is change things by increasing and changing your schedule of exercising. Do six to eight reps per set at maximum weight. The more you lift weights, the more you should vary your lifting routine.
Keep in mind that the entire body is part of the routine. Greater the amount of muscles used during training, the more hormones will be produced. This will further stimulate the growth of the muscles. Give equal attention to all the muscles. Perform five sets of rows after five sets of bench presses. This will lead to growth and flexibility. Compound exercises like dead lifts, squats, rows and pull ups use different muscles. Do not lift extremely heavy weights in a short span of time as the chances of getting injured are high.
Go for cardio training. It is recommended to include 150 minutes of cardio in one week. Cardio simply means running, swimming or doing anything that involves movement. It quickly burns the calories, so if you overdo it you will be left with less energy for muscle building. Thus, if you are going big on cardio exercise make sure your calorie intake has been taken care of accordingly.
Moreover, your body needs time to get into repair or recover mode. For this, you need at least 7-8 hours of sleep. Also, do not overwork yourself. You may sometimes feel that more is better. However, this is not true. To keep yourself from over training, maintain a routine so that there is a lot of time to break down the muscles and even more time for recovery.
