Weight lifting can be lots of fun if done in a correct and safe manner. You can enjoy your workouts, your results, and all future benefits of building muscle. The first thing you should do is develop a program, then learn the proper way to perform the exercises. The tips here should help you learn more about muscle building.
Building muscles requires an increase of food to fuel your body and feed your muscles. You ideally want to consume what it takes to increase your weight by a weekly pound. Try to find ways to increase your caloric intake. After a few weeks, if you do not notice a weight change you may want to start consuming more calories.
Protein is the foundation of any weight training diet. Protein is the building block that muscles are made of. If you do not consume enough protein, it will be extremely difficult to increase your muscle mass. Make sure that two or more of your larger meals, as well as a couple of your daily snacks, contain protein.
Workout Routine
Vary your workout routine from week to week. If you do the same workout routine day in and day out, there is a higher chance that you will get bored, and probably stop your workouts altogether. Change the order in which you do your exercises, and rotate new exercises in and out of your routine. By changing your workout, you keep your workout fresh and you’ll be more likely to stick with it.
Carbs are a key component to building muscle. Carbs are the element that gives your muscles the energy necessary to perform each day and recover for the next. Make sure that you understand that you should be consuming around two or three grams of carbohydrates for just about every pound of your body weight.
Ramp up your food intake on days when you will be doing your muscle-building workouts. Approximately one hour prior to exercise, eat an additional amount of calories than you normally would. This doesn’t mean you should go crazy with your diet on the days you work out. Instead, it means that you should eat a little more compared with the days that are not working out.
Compound exercises are an important part of any bodybuilding plan. These particular exercises will allow you to exercise several muscle groups in each lift. One example is the bench press, that works your chest, triceps and shoulders, all in one exercise.
Don’t bother lifting for more than an hour at a time. Your body will begin to produce cortisol, due to the stress it’s enduring, if you push beyond sixty minutes. The cortisol can block testosterone and waste the efforts you are putting toward your bodybuilding. Restricting workouts to 60 minutes or less helps you get more out of each workout.
Train opposing muscles when you are in the midst of a workout; try doing the chest and back together, or the hamstrings with quads. Doing this allows a muscle to rest during the time the other one is working. This will allow you to bump up your workout intensity and you won’t have to be in the gym as long.
Building muscle does not necessarily mean that you will appear ripped. Since there are so many kinds of bodybuilding routines, you have to figure out which is one is the best for you. Extreme muscle gain might require you to ingest a few supplements to achieve the desired results.
It is important to remember that certain groups of muscles are more difficult to build than others. Fill sets are wise in order to focus on the slower muscles. A fill set is a short set focusing on your weak groups of muscles you can do a few days after working hard on this same group.
Use variety in your gripping when focusing on the back. Use either a staged or mixed grip when doing deadlifts and rack pulls, as this will help you become stronger. Using a staggered grip will help twist the bar in one direction as your underhand grip moves the bar in the opposite direction. Using these grips will prevent rolling of the bar in your hands.
If you are trying to build muscle, be diligent when it comes to diet and fluid consumption. You need to be hydrated all the time. Muscle is 70 percent water, so you NEED it now more than ever. Also limit alcohol consumption, which has been shown to reduce muscle fibers when used excessively.
Although you might want to blast through your workouts at full-speed, it is advisable you do not do this. You will see more impressive results by doing your repetitions at a slower pace, regardless of whether you need to use less weight. A general guide to strive for is to expend a total of 20 seconds on each rep.
Add a 10-minute stretching period to the beginning of your workout. That will help you avoid injuring your muscles, because stretching warms up your muscle groups before they need to lift something heavy. This routine can also help you to avoid normal everyday injuries caused by tight, inflexible muscles. This will allow you to continue your exercise plan unhindered.
Be certain you have enough protein to eat before you work out. Ingest at least 20 grams of high-quality whey protein right before you do a workout. This will help with muscle recovery after your workout is finished. In addition, protein gives your muscles the energy they need to get through the workout.
Having a healthy body is a great feeling, and to get this body building muscles is important. Lifting weights, in addition to light cardio exercise, will give you better results more quickly than just doing cardio exercises alone. Use them together and you may be surprised with the quick results you see.