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.
If you have been weight training for a period of time and want to see results a bit more quickly, work on your large groups of muscles, such as those in your legs, back and chest. Some great exercises for those groups are deadlifts, squats, bench presses, dips and military presses.
Don’t forget about life outside the gym. While muscle building is a great goal with plenty of benefits, remember that life goes on. Some who try to build muscle seem to forget about other activities; make time for friends and relatives. Even better, invite some of them to the gym with you. A well-rounded life is a happy life, and you will feel better about building muscle if the rest of your life is in place.
You should consider getting a personal trainer. A personal trainer is trained in what specific exercises will help you build muscle. Your personal trainer will also help you with a variety of tips including things like what you should be eating as well as supplement advice. In addition to this, your personal trainer will push you when you need to pushed to go that extra mile to help you build your muscles.
Calculate your consumption of protein daily. You need to consume about one gram of protein for every pound of body weight each day. Consuming the right amount of protein will increase the muscle growth you get from the weight training that you are doing. Varying the consumption by a little here and there is not going to make much of a difference, but you should strive for the same amount daily.
When working out to build your muscles, it is important to know what your limits are. If you are someone who is highly motivated, it is sometimes really easy to push yourself too far. Understand your body and know what it could take. Do not try to compete with someone else especially if they are training at a much higher intensity than you are. You do not want to injure your muscles in the process.
Before starting your muscle building, you need to sit down and come up with a realistic plan for yourself. This is important because it helps you to follow a set guideline and helps you to reach your goals much faster. If you don’t do this, you are likely to give up.
Offset chest and shoulder presses with a few sets of pulling exercises, such as pull-ups, pull-downs, and rows. Balancing your exercises in this way will help to work out the muscles that are neglected during the presses, which will in turn lead you to bulk up faster and increase your strength.
Planning out and keeping a wise schedule for your workout regimen means you can grow your muscles while minimizing your risk of injury. People new to workouts concerning muscle building must limit their workouts to two times a week. More experienced individuals should try to go about three times per week.
Utilize supersets in your workout regimen. By doing two exercises back to back without resting, the working muscles are placed on a much higher demand. Supersets typically include opposing muscle groups, which include biceps and triceps. By doing an isolation move after a large compound exercise, additional growth can occur.
Try to eat every 3-4 hours. If you don’t eat frequently enough, you can slow down the rate at which your body creates new proteins, which create muscle tissue. Divide the total number of calories you need in a day by 6, and try to shoot for 6 mini-meals spread out over the course of the day.
Measure body fat, not body weight. Do not get discouraged if you are attempting to build muscle and you do not see a change in your weight. You can lose fat while you gain muscle, resulting in a weight that does not change. A better indicator is measuring your body fat. If your weight is holding steady (or even increasing) while your fat levels are dropping – you are gaining muscle.
Muscle building and cardio routines go together like peanut butter and jelly. Not only do they both work towards the same thing, but they also have a high level of synergy together. This means that including some light running into your routine can have large results in your muscles.
Pre-exhaust weak muscle groups to ensure that you hit all the areas you want to target. Certain exercises may cause bicep fatigue before your lats are exhausted. You can solve that issue by doing a type of isolation exercise that does not require use of the biceps as much. The result is that your lats are exhausted ahead of time and then when you row, your bicep won’t limit you.
The “rest pause” method can help you power on to the end of an exercise that challenges you. Simply take a brief break (no more than ten to 20 seconds) in the relaxed part of the exercise. Remain in position and gather the stamina you need to pump out three or four more reps instead of giving up.
Continue to challenge your body. When you start lifting weights you will reach a point when the lifting becomes easy. When this happens add more weight. By continuing to challenge your body you will help to create the level of intensity that most effectively tears down muscle, so that your body continues to have the opportunity to build it back up.
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.
