It can be very discouraging to know that you’ve made the effort to exercise regularly, and tried to push yourself when you’re working out, but you can’t see any results in the muscle department. Building muscle isn’t as difficult as it might seem, but there are four important things you need to know.
Take a Close Look at Your Diet
This is a really simple change you can implement today to turn your body into a muscle building machine. The key is to eat smaller meals, more frequently. This means that your usual three daily meals will be split up into six meals and that you will start to eat about every three hours.
This has the added benefit of improving your metabolism because your body will be burning fat more regularly, instead of storing it. You want to aim for meals that consist mainly of complex carbohydrates and protein — around 30 grams or one ounce of protein at each meal.
Here are some examples of foods that are high in protein: milk and cheese products, lean meat, chicken, fish and egg whites. Foods high in complex carbohydrates include: potatoes, brown rice, whole grain breads and cereals. Foods that are high in sugar and salt might taste good, but are not good for muscle building.
Assess Your Need for Supplements
There are three supplements you should consider adding to your diet; these are protein, carbs and creatine. They can be quite expensive, and it is worth shopping around to find a good price. Whey protein powders are specially formulated to quickly provide high quality protein to your muscles.
A good time to drink protein shakes is straight after your workouts, to rebuild your muscles. When planning your diet, keep in mind that your bodybuilding supplements need to be taken at the right times to operate efficiently.
The best times are in the morning before your breakfast, right after you workout and just before going to bed. This should be all you need to take if you have a healthy diet. And don’t replace meals with these supplements; they are not intended to be meal replacements.
How You Can Train Smarter
Working out is one of those things in life that doesn’t get better results from doing it more often. In fact, it’s quite the opposite. Professional bodybuilders and powerlifters train about four times per week, so you can see that it isn’t quantity of training that you need, but that you should pay attention to the quality.
An effective workout is ALL about quality and the kind of exercise you do. The most important kind of exercise are the compound exercises. These are composed of at least two movements, for example the seated row, wide grip pull, bench press and the squat.
This kind of exercise employs the use of multiple muscle fibers which means a greater number of muscles work hard at the same time, and this will yield a better result. A good combination for your workout is only one isolated exercise for every three compound exercises. Here is an example of a well balanced bicep and back workout: wide grip pullups, bent over row, seated row, then standing bicep curl.
Your biceps get plenty of muscle work in the first three exercises, then the isolated bicep curl focuses a little more attention in this vital area. The optimum training time per session is one hour and each muscle group can be trained for a week at a time.
Now Think About Your RnR
Rest and recovery are very important to the serious bodybuilder. Rest is not simply a luxury, but it is an essential part of your program. This is because your muscles are actually growing when you’re resting. You may look pumped up when you’re working out, but this isn’t because your muscles are growing then; it’s because they are being broken down and become swollen.
If you don’t rest, your muscles will simply never grow. It is also important to get enough sleep in order for your muscles to repair and grow. Now you can see why you need to eat right before going to bed: your body can use the nutrition to rebuild your muscles while you sleep.
The post Are You Having Trouble Building Muscle? appeared first on Male Health Club.