Bodybuilding Workout

Posts Tagged ‘muscle building nutrition’

Holding down two jobs, meetings to get too, kids to pick up from school and so on there are so many distractions, pressures and time constraints that if we are not careful can only lead to one thing… {not sufficient time to plan and arrange your meals}. As far as muscle building nutrition goes that is the ultimate crime. The main reason is because it leads to eating fast food.

Fast food is exactly what you don’t want to eat to build muscle up. Too much fat and very little nutrient value combined with little in the way of decent energy providing nutrition. So, how is it possible to not go to fast food joints when you have all of these limiting time constraints and how cane we eat properly if we do go there?

Here are a few golden rules for eating at fast food restaurants in order to build muscle up:

Avoid the apparently good value for money drink and fries. A portion of medium fries can get up to as much as 400 calories with around 20 grams of fat and the drink we are looking at around 200 calories with bags of sugary content!

Always choose the grilled version. You can save around 80 calories coming mostly from fat by eating a McDonald’s grilled chicken sandwich as opposed to a premium crispy chicken. A simple choice but often overlooked.

Give the dessert a miss. Go for the kiddies size if you really have to have one of the many sugary snacks available.

Make sure that you don’t go over the top with the sauces. Many of these have very little muscle building nutrition that are high in fat content. You know what I mean, those small little packages containing mayo, tartar sauce and so on. Look over these if at all possible.

If it is not possible to avoid a fast food restaurant then what can I eat?

If you want to build muscle food that you could eat at McDonalds would be:

For the main part of your meal a Premium Grilled Chicken Sandwich will give you 420 calories, 10 grams of fat, 51grams of carbohydrates and 32 grams of protein. A Grilled Honey Mustard Snack Wrap would give you around 260 calories, 9g fat, 27g carbs and 18g of protein. The Asian Salad Grilled Chicken would give you 390 calories, 12.5g fat, 38g carbs, 33g protein with the low fat Sesame Ginger Dressing. Probably the best option is the Caesar Salad Grilled Chicken that provides 220 calories, 6g fat, 12g carbs and 30g of protein.

If however you reside in Australia the choices might look slightly different as follows:
A Lean Beef Burger: 250 calories, 8g fat, 25g carbs, 18g protein or a Herb Fusion Chicken Salad: 100 calories, 2g fat, 3g carbs 20g protein.

Great breakfast choices include a Egg McMuffin which yields you with 300 calories, 12 grams of fat, 30g carbs and 18 grams of protein. Possibly a Sausage Burrito including 300 calories, 16g fat, 26g carbs, 12grams of protein or If you are looking for just a snack then how about the Fruit ‘n Yogurt Parfait which beaks down into 160 calories, 2g fat, 31g carbs, 4g protein.

I hope that gives you some idea of exactly how you can eat relatively healthily even at a fast food joint if you make the correct choices. Of course it would be better to allocate some time for planning decent meals throughout the week but if you can’t do this then the above selections should be a good guide and on some level help you burn the fat feed the muscle.

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We hear loads of advice and guidance on what to do to build up muscle but much of it is conflicting. For that reason we are going to clear up a few things right now about what not to do to build up muscles. Here we go, 7 things not to do when trying to build muscle up:

1) Train for more than 45 minutes. training longer than this can be counter productive as at this point a hormone is released that actually inhibits the muscle building process, train for less than this and the hormones are at the right level for building muscle.

2) Eat lots of all types of food. Frequently you hear others say to consume as much of all types of food as you possibly can. Well sure we need excess calories to build muscle mass but do you really think that stuffing yourself full of E numbers, simple carbs (sugars), fatty red meats, fast food and so on is going to benefit you long term. Of course not, stick to sensible nutritious foods and you will put on lean muscle mass and save your body from long term health problems too.

3) Isolation muscle building exercises. That refers to movements such as tricep kick backs that isolate one individual muscle alone. This is not an efficient use of time and energy. Stay with compound multi joint exercises such as squats, pull ups,presses and so on. These exercises stimulate muscle growth in more than just one muscle at a time.

4) Do not ignore aerobic exercise. I’m sure you have heard that you should steer clear of aerobic stuff as it consumes valuable calories that could be put towards building muscle. yes this is correct but come on there is a sensible balance to be had. Sure get big, but do you really not want to be able to walk up a few flights of stairs without losing your breathe. For long term health include aerobic exercise 2-3 times a week in your program and eat more calories to make up for this energy use-age.

5) Switch exercises a lot. You may know that variety keeps the muscles growing, that is true but at the same time not allowing your muscle to establish an exercise groovecan also stop you from making the progress you otherwise could do. Stick with an exercise for a couple of months before dropping it.

6) Lift too often. A major cause of limited muscle building progress is over training. One to two workouts a week for each muscle group should sufficient fro most people.

7) Stop trying. Way too many people stop working out just because there muscle growth eases up somewhat. This is the exact time when you should be rising to the challenge and training with more intensity, paying attention to muscle building nutrition and showing determination.

Go get huge!

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A typical dilemma for any active sportsmen who lifts weights and wants to gain muscle mass is that they know there goal to build muscle up conflicts with the fact that they do a lot of cardio-vascular work. How can someone like this build muscle fastest whilst still doing cardio, indeed is it even possible?

Quite often it is suggested that in order to build muscles fastest you have to keep cardio training down to as limited an amount as possible. This is regularly stated because of the fact that aerobic training does two particular things that may restrict muscle growth, they are: 1) burn an abundance of calories 2) speed up your metabolism. These two things both add weight to the problem of consuming enough calories. The next question to naturally consider is that of how many calories should I be taking on board each day?

Well, to maintain weight each day you must eat enough calories to cover the energy expenditures of your body as if it were at rest (this is known as the basal metabolic rate), then consume enough extra calories to cover the exercise that you will do. If you want to add muscle mass on top of this then you have to add an extra 500 calories every day.

Is it possible to work this number out?

Yes, certainly one method of doing so is by using the Katch-McArdle formula (BMR based on lean body weight). Here it is:

Men: BMR = 66 + (13.7 X wt in kg) + (5 X ht in cm) – (6.8 X age in years)

Women: BMR = 655 + (9.6 X wt in kg) + (1.8 X hght in cm) – (4.7 X age in years)

Once you have gotten this figure you should then multiply it by one of the following to allow for your daily activity levels:

Sedentary = BMR X 1.2 (little or no exercise, desk job)
Lightly active = BMR X 1.375 (1-3 days/wk sports/light exercise )
Mod. active = BMR X 1.55 (sports 3-5 days/wk/moderate exercise)
Very active equals BMR X 1.725 (sports 6-7 days/hard exercise/wk)
Extr. active equals BMR X 1.{9 (hard daily exercise/sports & physical job or 2X day training, i}.e marathon, contest etc

So, should you be doing cardio and weights frequently then you should multiply this by at least 1.725. This will cover the amount of energy for your daily needs. This amount then needs to be altered to suit your goals. Presuming it is muscle building, you would need to add at least a further 500 calories per day.

So, for arguments sake lets say the number you figure out is 3000 calories then that would mean 6 meals everyday which each contain 500 calories. To follow this strategy one snack or meal would be based around 11 gram coming from fat, 62 grams coming from carbohydrate and 37 grams coming from protein. This is due to the fact that a gram of protein or carbohydrate equals 4 calories where as a gram of fat equals 9 calories.

Correct muscle building nutrition and working out your calorie needs like this is what is going to ensure you build muscles fastest, not any miracle new exercise!

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Bodybuilders are always looking for ways to blast through muscle building plateaus, mix up their routines, discover new ways to stimulate muscle growth and increase strength. Finding and using new and different exercise techniques is essential for muscle building success as your muscles soon adjust to the demands of new exercises and will not be able to grow until new different stress is placed upon them.

There are a great deal of ways in which to trigger growth including the regular progressive overload principle of using certain amounts of sets and reps and doing as many repetitions as you can until your muscles fail. Other variations include: compound sets, drop sets, partials, supersets, 21s and such like. However here we will be looking at stimulating muscle growth using negatives.

So, what exactly are negatives? And how can you build muscle fast using negatives?

Well, negatives are done as follows. Using bench pressing as an example, lets say your usual bench-press is to do 110kg for 8 reps. You have become stale and your struggling to add anymore muscle and got stuck at this weight. Put another additional 20kgs on to the bar and have your gym partner aid you in pressing the bar until your arms are nearly locked out. Now with the weight at the top your spotters remove their hands and all assistance and you lower it steadily and under control. Then once more let your friends assist you to press the weight back up. Do this again and again until you are able to no longer do the exercise with correct technique.

Why should I make use of these negatives? And will I build muscle fast using negatives?

Well it happens to be that your muscles are actually in the lowering phase stronger than what they are in the lifting phase. So, you can actually force your muscles to handle more weight than they are used to using negatives. Do a few workouts such as this and you can trigger muscle mass growth and thus improve your weight training efforts for your normal routine and increase your overall muscle mass.

Does doing this pose any problems?

due to the fact that your muscles will probably not be used to performing this type of work and also for physiological reasons you will more than likely be very sore on the next few days after your training session. Certainly do not workout again until you have totally recuperated and keep high your protein intake and be completely sure to take a quality protein shake straight after your weight session.

Negatives can be made use of for any exercise but work best for the classic mass builders such as the major compound multi-joint exercises like: squats, shoulder presses, dead lifts, pull ups, and so on. However use these sets infrequently as a occasional way to break your way through training plateaus and to trigger muscle growth.

With those points in mind keep taking on good solid muscle building nutrition, rest plenty and workout vigorously and regularly and you will likely have no problems stacking on muscle mass. Now go ahead and build muscle fast using negatives.

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Ok great, so you have decided now is the time in your life that you would like to pack on some muscle mass. Whether it is because you want to look lean and trim for your holidays or you have just seen another ‘Rocky’ film or you just wish to make a bigger impact on the sports field. So clearly you know that weight training is going to be necessary. However you may not be aware of what you are supposed to be eating for muscle building nutrition. This short guide will show you precisely what to consume but intially we’ll walk through a few of the basic ground rules for a sensible muscle building diet.

Firstly to build muscle eat more often. Attempt to eat 5-6 meals every single day. This is because your body is going to be needing extra calories in order for it to have supplies to actually build muscle mass with. You will not be able to build any muscle mass if your body is running short on calories. 5-6 small meals every day will ensure that you can get enough calories without filling yourself overly at any single particular meal.

Secondly, cutting out or severly reducing the amount of junk food in your diet is a must. Go admit it, we are all at times prone to eating junk food at some time and it is these measl that we need to cut out.

Thirdly, you will be needing to drink much more water than previously. try to keep a bottle of water to hand at all times, perhaps leave one in your car. nearly all reactions in the body require water to some degree and that includes muscle building reactions also.

Fourthly, split your small meals into the following amounts of fats, carbohydrate and protein. Try to divide them into 30% protein, 50% carbohydrate with the remainder coming from fats.

Fifthly, you will need to educate yourself as to the kinds of foods that you should be eating. Here is a start to illustrate what some of the best muscle building foods are:

For protein: turkey, chicken, fish and shellfish, eggs, red meats, dairy products. These are great sources of protein so try and include them in your diet. However caution is advised as these foods are high in saturated fat so it would be sensible to mix them with the following foods that supply protein but with a great deal less fat: Egg whites, Lean meats like poultry and fish, Non-fat or low-fat milk and dairy products (skim milk and cottage cheese are terrific foods), turkey breast, lean cuts of red meat and skinless chicken breast.

For carbohydrates and long term release energy: bread, brown rice, oatmeal, bagel, pasta cereals and potatoes. For instant hits of energy take on board: fruits such as grapes, bananas, apple, raisins, orange and sports drinks.

The fat portion of the meal will naturally come from the foods that you will be consuming and will thus take care of itself. Also make sure you include plentiful lefy green vegetables which are packed full of vital vitmains and minerals. If you wish to give yourself a boost with supplements then I suggest you go with: a decent multi-vitamin, whey protein, essential fatty acids and possibly creatine.

Finally a few words of advice on exactly when to eat. To build muscle eat within one hour of finishing your workout, before bed and immediately on rising. If you wish to pack on muscle mass then these are very important times. With the above muscle building diet guidelines in place then you are in an excellent position to start building muscle mass fast.

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 It is a well known fact nowadays that to build muscle diet is a key component that will determine whether you are successful or not. If you don’t have good muscle building nutrition then no matter how much you lift you won’t progress. So just briefly we’ll go over a few simple rules to follow for a superb ‘build muscle diet’ and then we’ll uncover some of the best foods for building muscle mass.

Ok, quick guidelines for a diet to build muscle:

1) Eat 5-7 meals per day. This will mean that you can easily eat the required amount of calories in order for you to grow. {It will mean that your body has high levels of energy throughout the entire day}. 

2) Divide your meals up in to approximate portions of 50% carbohydrate, 30% protein and the remainder can come from fats.

3) Eat about an hour half to two hours prior to your workout and eat immediately or at least within an hour after your workout. The post workout meal should be high in protein and may be a meal replacement powder drink. Also eat a meal or take a protein shake before sleeping so your muscle have quality calories to use to support growth throughout the night. After waking eat as soon as possible as your muscles will be low on energy at this time.

4) Take supplements if you can afford it. Try supplementing with these: essential fatty acids, multi-vitamin pills, whey protein and creatine. Whilst you know correct diet to build muscle is essential adding supplements can give an extra boost also.

5) Regularly drink small amounts of water. many of the reactions in the body require the presence of water. They will occur much more easily when water is not limited. Drink plenty of water as this is required for muscle growth. Try not to drink massive amounts at once as this will leave you feeling bloated.

Well, we have gone through the basic points then. Now what food exactly is good for muscle building purposes. Here are some great foods for your to try:

Protein is needed for growth and repair of muscles. Naturally this will be an important factor for those wishing to stack on mass.Fantastic sources of protein include: Cheese, Egg Whites, Turkey Breast, Salmon, Lean Beef, Chicken Breast, Tuna Cottage Whey Protein.

Carbohydrate is the bodies supply of energy and fuel for day to day activities and for supporting muscle growth. Include in your diet these excellent carbohydrates to help build muscle, :  Brown Rice, Whole Wheat Pasta, Sweet Potatoes, Baked Potatoes,  Bagels, Oatmeal, Fat Free Yogurt and Beans.

Build muscle diets often neglect to mention that fats are important too. Fats are required by the body to sustain it’s metabolic functions. For fats that build muscle try to include in your diet: Avocado, Olive Oil, Nuts, Flax Seed Oil, Natural Peanut Butter and Fish Oil

Vitamins and minerals play a wide variety of roles in all of the important reactions in the body including muscle growth.Great sources of vitamins and minerals are: Broccoli, Cauliflower, Asparagus, Green Beans, Peas, Carrots and Spinach.

With those few points in mind there is no reason why you shouldn’t be able to pack on muscle mass relatively quickly. Remember that lots of calories are required by the body for both energy and to support the growth of enlarged muscle tissue and growth. you are not going to grow at all if you aren’t taking on board excess calories. Follow these above rules and a sensible ‘build muscle diet‘ containing these types of foods and you should have no problems building muscle.

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There are numerous articles, websites, blogs, magazine columns and such like that all give information and advice about the easiest ways to stimulate muscle growth. so, if there are all these varied methods to stimulate muscle growth then how come it is so such a difficult task for certain people? Well, the answer is partly supplied by the question itself. With so much conflicting and individualistic advice about, both on the net and in bookstores and magazines, how on earth is someone new to bodybuilding supposed to know what to do?

Whilst some of this advice is good, much of it is irrelevant to the novice bodybuilder who just needs to get the basics down properly to start making progress. So with that in mind here are three sure fire steps to help anyone build muscle easily.

1) Train intensely. Make use of the all time classic muscle mass building exercises such as: deadlifts, rows, squats, benchpresses and pull ups. These time proven exercises will help you build muscle mass easily. Try to veer away from exercises that promote isolation of individual muscles, these are really for muscle carving and defining and not for building mass. Remain focused in the weight room, push yourself hard for no longer than 45 minutes then leave.

2) Pay attention to muscle building nutrition. For decades now experienced and successful trainers have been quoted as saying that at least 80% of muscle growth success is due to correct muscle building nutrition. This is very true even today! As a general guide half of your food should come in the form of carbohydrates, protein should make up 30% and the remainder should come from fats.

The following source of food come highly recommended, for carbs: rice, potatoes, pasta, brown breads. For protein: chicken, turkey, beef and fish, especially mackerel and tuna. naturally these foods will supply all the fats that you need. If you have a few spare dollars to spend then try supplementing with: whey protein, essential fatty, acids, creatine and a good multi-vitamin product.

3) Rest. Muscle recovers and grows whilst you are at rest so naturally you should spend sufficient time allowing your body to grow. This sounds such simple advice but so many people out there do not give their body enough time to recover from their last session and grow. Training each body part twice a week will be more then enough for most people.

Ok, I said it was simpie and it is. If you just stick to those basics you too can build muscle easy. Of course you can go into as much detail as you like within any one of those subject areas but in essence that is all you need to know to grow. With that in mind get out there, train hard, eat well and grow!

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Just before I tackle the main purpose of this article which is to show how to build muscle vegetarian style I will briefly outline the different types of vegetarians. Vegans won’t eat dairy products or any other products of animals, pesco-vegetarians will cosume fish and other dairy products whereas lacto-ovo vegetarians will both consume milk and eat eggs but won’t eat meat. This is enough detail for our purposes here although bear in mind there are a few other types.

Why be vegetarian?

Due to the nature of the food that vegetarians avoid they are at a significantly reduced risk of the following potentially life threatening diseases :coronary artery disease, hypertension, cancers and diabetes mellitus. As you may agree the reasons for changing to be vegetarian are compelling indeed and that is before we even discuss the idealistic side of things such as being less cruel to animals, saving food for others, preserving the rainforest, becoming more enviromentally friendly and such like.

Alright then, as regards protein where am I going to get sufficient muscle building supplies from?

Well the answer is pretty straightforward, Soy. Soy contains all eight essential amino acids and in fact has higher levels of protein than beef. Particularly good sources of soy include: seitan, miso, soy milk, tempeh, textured soy protein and of course tofu. These ingredients can form the basis of a good deal of tasty dishes. Furthermore to ensure you never go short on protein beans, legumes, seeds, rice and even vegetables all supply decent amounts of amino acids.

Alright so that is protein deficiency crossed off the myth list now how about vitamins and minerals like: zinc, vitamin D, calcium, iron and vitamin B12?

Well a supplement would actually be appropriate for a vegan here. Vitamin B 12 is found easily in dairy products making this no cause for concern for other types of vegetarians. The others can easily be gotten from a decent meal replacement powder. Of course however many minerals and vitamins are easily available in the form of leafy green vegetables and fruit that you should not overlook if you wish to build muscle vegetarian style. 

So, overall there are many health benefits to being a vegetarian and being a vegetarian need not prevent you from achieving your bodybuilding goals. Planning is the key and this is just as true for none vegetarian bodybuilders also. With the above guidelines in mind go ahead and build muscle vegetarian style!! 

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There is much advice floating around both on and offline about how to build muscle fast. As a personal trainer myself here are a few little known facts and secrets that I personally consider worth your while contemplating on your quest to build muscle mass:

I often hear that you should train each muscle group just once a week. Although this might produce solid progress for extreme hardgainers it is not going to be true for most people. Sure, you should avoid overtraining but like most things in life you won’t get good at something by practicing it just once a week, this is true to a certain extent in weight lifting also. Muscle should be trained more than once a week, twice would be ideal for most people. Ideally you should rotate your workouts through periods when you are near overtraining and periods where you near undertraining. This provides times of great stress for the body and also times when the body has more time for growth and repair than necessary. Training plateaus can be avoided by doing this.

Ensure that your training sessions don’t exceed 45 minutes. If you deem that time limit to short then possibly your routine is too lengthy or you are not remaining focused and intense in your workout efforts. If you really focus on quality and intensity and avoiding distractions 45 minutes ought to be plenty. If your workouts last longer then this then testosterone levels drop dramatically due to the increased production of cortisol which actually causes the body to eat muscle tissue and store fat. completely the opposite to what we are after.

Ideally you should cycle your training. after a while a workout loses its ability to stimulate growth as your body has already adapted to it. You should change your routine before your gains diminish completely. You need to ensure that you don’t change your training sessions to frequently either. Doing so could confuse your bodies muscles overly so and stop it working its way into a nice groove.

If you use the wrong exercises you are unlikely ever to make big gains. The right exercises are exercises that allow you to perform multi-joint movements and are know as compound exercises. The time proven exercises being: bench presses, rows, squats, pull ups, shoulder presses plus any exercise that moves your entire bod through air ie, not just moving individual limbs. If you use these exercises, with a few of their variations and correct muscle building nutrition then you can’t help but stimulate muscle mass growth. With the above recommendations in mind and allied to correct muscle building nutrition it is time for you to go get huge.

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As we are all aware a good muscle building diet is critical to build muscle mass. What is also important is the timing of your meals. Around two hours prior to your workout is when I recommend you eat your meal. This should give enough time to mean that you don’t hit the gym when you are bloated or still feeling full and sluggish.

In an ideal world this preworkout snack ought to be something that you are used to and that you know won’t make you feel heavy and bloated as you want to be feeling your best to give your all in the gym. Make sure it contains slow burning energy such as that found in rice and oatmeal and that you consume the protein part first. If you don’t eat protein first then you are putting yourself at risk of becoming tired. This happens because both the protein and carbohydrate cause the body to release certain chemicals that affect the brain. Protein releases tyrosine which signals your brain to be alert and energetic whereas the carbohydrate triggers the release of tryptophan that tells the brain to become sleepy. Therefore always eat the protein first.

If you really want to know how to build muscle fast then great advice is to drink a protein and carbohydrate shake about half an hour before you workout. This will significantly boost your energy for your workout. Ingredients should include whey protein, maltodextrin, wxymaize or dextrose. Try to shoot for about 25 grams of protein and about 40 grams worth of carbohydrate. Doing this will raise your insulin levels which is one of the bodies strongest and most effective muscle building hormones. Furthermore it will also stifle the amount of cortisol that is made by your body which has a very bad impact on muscle building.

Remember that you aren’t going to breaking any personal bests in the gym if you are feeling tired and hungry when you start your workout. Always try to keep fruit or meal replacement powders or bars to hand should you ever not have time for a proper solid pre-workout meal.

Try and substitte your caffeine intake with green tea rather than a cup of coffee this is loaded with lots of anti oxidants aswell as having many other valuable health benefits. Finally, don’t forget to keep drinking water throughout the day also. Ok bear those things in mind and you’ll be hitting the gym in peak mode for an awesome muscle stimulating workout which you will be able to grow from because you will have had the correct muscle building nutrition.

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