Whether you want to get that lean, cut look or simply burn fat tissue and build muscle to get that svelte, healthy appearance, you need workouts to build muscle. It’s more than just strength training. While some strength training can build muscles and some muscle building exercises build strength, it’s all about which part of the muscle tissue is the focus. Strength focuses on the neuromuscular system and functionality. Muscle building focuses on making more new muscle fiber and increasing the fluid within the muscle cells to make them bigger.
You can use a split workout schedule or do a full body workout.
It doesn’t matter what type of workout you choose, using exercises that build muscles helps. For the upper body, using bench presses, rows, dumbbell curls, lateral raises and incline dumbbell presses can be examples of workouts to use. For the lower body, leg presses, seated leg curls, standing calf raises and Romanian deadlifts build muscle tissue. Compound style exercises work several muscle groups at once, making them more efficient at building muscles. Barbell squats are examples of a compound exercise.
Don’t forget the bodyweight exercises that build muscles and increase strength.
Push-ups, pull-ups and hanging leg lifts if you have a pull-up bar, planks, lunges, and squats are just a few of the bodyweight exercises you can do to boost your muscle building. You can modify these workouts by going slower, add pause reps, rest less and adjust the body’s angle and position. When you modify an exercise, it can make it more difficult, as in going from a knee bent push-up to a straight leg push-up or make it work another group of muscles, like putting your hands closer together or further apart in a push up.
Focus on both diet and exercise.
You have to eat a healthy diet and increase specific foods to build muscle tissue, especially if you want lean muscle mass. You have to eat enough to have the nutrients to build muscles, but not eat so many calories that you put on fat. Protein should be a top priority. It should be anywhere from 15 to 33 percent of your caloric daily intake. Greek yogurt, salmon and chicken breasts are examples of animal protein and beans, tofu, lentils, almonds and chickpeas are examples of plant protein. You also need about 20 percent of your calories to come from healthy fat and the rest to come from healthy sources of carbohydrates. You’ll boost your muscle building ability when you eat right.
- Go easy on the cardio if you’re trying to build muscle tissue. It burns tons of calories, but doesn’t discriminate between fat tissue and tissue as the source. Modify your workout to make it a HIIT workout or kettlebell workout that builds muscle and gives a cardio workout at the same time.
- Don’t workout too long or too often. If you’ve exercised for 75 minutes, you’ve reached maximum muscle growth time. Doing more can actually sabotage your efforts, just like doing it every day can prevent healing that creates the scars to make your muscles bigger.
- Don’t forget to get adequate sleep. You need sleep to improve muscle growth. It’s when your body heals the micro tears in the muscles that make the muscles bigger.
- Our personal trainers will develop a program specifically for your needs. If you’re working out at home, our online advisor can create a program that will help you build muscle tissue, lose weight or achieve any personal goal you have.
For more information, contact us today at BioFit Performance