First decide what you want to do, either tone your muscles or build your muscles. If your answer stick around for future posts about how to tone, but for now we are going to focus on building that muscle mass. Well obviously the first step is start training, weight training to be exact. A fun fact not everyone knows is while you are at the gym you actually don't build muscle! It's true, you are actually destroying your muscles and tearing them! But don't worry thats a good thing, your muscles begin to grow in the recovery process. So that is where we will begin, what you should do AFTER a workout and during the day as well.
Eat, Eat, Eat!
To gain any kind of mass you will need to increase your daily calorie consumption. Specifically foods with a high protein content such as meat, chicken and eggs. Keep in mind you can't just eat high protein foods, you have to have a well balanced diet. Be sure to include your vegetables, carbohydrates, fruits, and yes even some fats. Some good examples of things to eat would be things such as spinach, bananas, brown rice, whole wheat products, oats, olive oil and many more foods, it's up to you!
In the muscle recovery process there is nothing quite as important as protein. Protein helps heal your muscles and supply them with nutrients they need. The standard is you should consume 1 gram per pound of body weight. Now with this said, that would be a lot of steaks in one day so instead almost every person trying to build you will see consuming a shake like drink during the day or right after their workouts. These are protein supplement shakes. There are two types of protein you can get, Whey or Casein, both with advantages over the other. Keep posted for posts giving you the best supplement advice!
Whey protein is to be consumed directly after your workout or within 30 minutes after. Whey is fast absorbing protein, usually fully absorbed within 45 minutes, and aids in the repairing of your muscles. You will notice that your muscles won't hurt as much thanks to the protein.
Casein is a very slow absorbing protein. You would not take this after a workout, but instead around bedtime. Consuming it right before bed allows it to settle and slowly work its way through your body, repairing the muscle fibers.
So now you know what to do after a workout and during the day, but what do you do for your actual workout? It is actually quite simple, focus on certain muscle groups on certain days. For instance spend one day and focus entirely on your biceps and triceps. When determining weight to lift, aim high. Aim for around 6 reps at a relatively high weight and do it for 3-5 sets. When working out, machines are great, but when it comes to building mass machines are NOT the answer. Using free weights and bars allow you to move in a free range of motion. This works your muscles way better than being constricted on a machine. Don't get me wrong machines are great, but if your looking to gain size fast free weights are your best bet.Want an actual workout plan guaranteed to work? Stay tuned for posts of the actual workouts!
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Before you begin your journey to your own 'perfect body,' you must first step back and think to yourself, "What do I want to accomplish?" Maybe you want to lose a whole pile of weight, or maybe you want to build up muscle, or maybe you want to tone up and chisel out your features and get that ripped body; whatever you choose, it all starts with setting a goal. I will outline every step of the way to help you with that process for each of these goals.
I know a lot of you are probably reading this saying, "Six meals a day?! I'll for sure gain weight!" But that is not at all the case, when I say eat six meals a day I don't mean go out and have yourself a buffet for three of those meals, I'm saying eat small meals portioned correctly. One of the greatest tips that not many people know when it comes to losing weight is this, never give your body the chance to get too hungry. The longer you wait to eat again, the hungrier you become, and the hungrier you become the more food you are likely to eat at your next meal. It's as simple as that, eat! And of course I mean eat healthy. Below are just a few things you should consider switching in your diet and also an example of how a six meal day might look.
Just to give a brief rundown of what each are, high impact exercises include things such as running and plyometrics. They are considered high impact because of the toll they take on joints and ligaments. As you can imagine running can take a toll on some peoples bodies, however it is not necessarily a bad thing. Using high impact workout you strengthen those ligaments and joints making you a stronger person, also high impact workouts tend to burn more calories due to your feet always moving and doing something.
Low impact exercises are less straining on your body. Low impact exercises include things such as a slow walk, swimming, cycling and elliptical machines among other things. As you notice these are all things that do not require your feet to impact the ground with great strain. Some argue low impact exercises are all around better for you, saying not only is it better for your joints, but can burn even more calories than high impact training. When it comes down to it however, the choice lies with you. Both are an excellent way to lose weight and keep it off.
When people think of losing weight the first thing that pops into their minds is diet, diet, diet. That word alone scares people into thinking they can't do it. So for those of you who hate that word, I have good news for you; you don't have too! When you talk about losing weight it's not about how much food you put in your body, it's what kinds. As a matter of fact, if you cut too much food out of your daily consumption you can actually gain weight! When your body is food deprived it goes into survival mode and instead of burning fat cells,it stores them. So we aren't going to focus on limiting food but instead on eating the right foods. Below is a list of foods you should start eating to start you on your path to your dream body.
Get the munchies a lot? Try grabbing for some celery sticks instead of those tempting pretzel sticks. A fun fact about celery, it actually burns more calories to eat it than are actually in it!
Black beans are part of the high protein foods. Black beans can supply you with up to 20 grams of protein without any of the fats found in other foods! Protein is vital when trying to grow and recover muscles.
