What do you want out of life? Would you like to live for a long time, be happy and enjoy great health? It all starts with taking care of your body, and the first steps towards all of your goals is through building lean muscle. Read on for some simple ideas to help you do just that.
Remember that muscles grow during periods of rest, if you are trying to build muscle. So, try limiting your weight training to 2 or 3 days per week with a day of rest in between. On the off days, you could concentrate on doing cardio exercises to give the muscles a break.
If you would like to build more muscle mass, try to do less repetitions of heaver weights. You will need to increase your weight gradually and strive to lift the heaviest that you possibly can for a minimum of five repetitions. When you can life for five repetitions, it is time to increase weights.
Set muscle building goals for yourself and evaluate your progress. It can be discouraging to see great muscle bound bodies around the gym, but you have to know that those bodies did not happen overnight. Set specific goals you can reach, and monitor your progress. If you are not seeing the results, you want, you may have to tweak your workouts to get back on the right track.
Short term goals are a good motivator, especially if you give yourself rewards for achieving them. Since it will take quite some time to gain muscle, you must remain motivated. Make your rewards coincide with your goal to gain muscle. Investing in a new piece of fitness equipment will prevent your workout from becoming boring and help you achieve your goal.
If you cannot get to the gym for some reason, do not skip your workout altogether. You can simply do chin-ups, pushups and dips in your home. Even with all of the fancy equipment at the gym, they still remain the best forms of upper body building that you can do.
While training hard to build muscle, make sure to consume plenty of carbohydrates. Carbohydrates provide your body with the glucose that it needs for energy. When you’re working hard you need energy to survive. Failure to consume enough carbohydrates can result in your body breaking down muscle to provide it with the protein and carbohydrates that it needs to survive.
You want to keep pushing until your body reaches near failure. Failure is caused when your body will not allow you do go any further with your training because it is just too tired. When you start your session for the day, start heavy and lessen the amount of weight that you lift, so you can continue to lift even after your body is tired.
Create the illusion that your body is larger than it really is. You can do this by focusing on the higher chest, your upper back and your shoulders. Train these specific areas. If you do this, your waist will seem smaller than in reality and make you look larger overall.
Pay attention to your body fat and measure it on a regular basis. Try not to be discouraged if there is not significant weight loss when building muscle, because your weight might not change much using a weight and muscle building routine. Your body fat is a better measure of your overall health as opposed to weight.
Try the farmer’s walk in order to make your cardio exercise a more productive part of your muscle-building workouts. Hold a dumbbell in each hand at your sides and keep your abdominal muscles sucked in tight while you walk. Start off with a ten-minute walk, and aim to increase this to 20 minutes as you practice.
Knowing what supplements to take can make a big difference in muscle building. Many people use dietary supplements to help them build muscle. Educating yourself on proper supplement intake is just as important as strength training itself. So it is important you understand what supplements to take before you begin a workout and after a workout.
Be patient when you are building muscle. Building your muscles properly does take time. There is no exercise routine or magic supplement that will help you develop your muscles overnight. So be sure to take your time and do it properly in order to keep yourself healthy and help prevent an injury.
Make sure you are getting enough protein. The ideal diet for muscle building contains one gram of protein for every pound of your body weight every day. For most people, this can be achieved through diet alone, and protein supplementation is not usually necessary. Supplementing your daily protein consumption beyond this will usually yield no benefit.
You have loved ones you want to spend time with, I’m sure. You might have a career you love, or a hobby that you enjoy. Whatever your reason for wanting to stay healthy and have great longevity, it’s up to you to take what you’ve learned from this article and put it to use today.
