Safely Building Muscle Through Diet And Exercise

Muscle building is both an art and a science. You will work hard to sculpt your body into great shape, but must do so in a smart and sensible way. There are many things you should know about muscle building to make sure you are doing it correctly. The following article will give you plenty of ideas to develop a great muscle building routine.

When attempting to build muscle mass, it is important to ingest the right foods. If your efforts to add bulk are stagnating, it could be because you have an insufficient nutritional intake. To add bulk, you need to consume at least 4000-6000 calories each day from foods, which are calorie dense. Some examples of calorie-dense foods are pasta, nuts, eggs, bagels, trail mix and steaks. Since vegetables have low calorie-density, keep their intake to a minimum.

If you are working toward "bulking up" your muscles, do not do cardio for more than 90 minutes per workout. Too much cardio can cause the body to form "lean muscle" instead of the bulk that you desire. Cardio is very important, but put a limit on it for best results.

Consume more calories each and every day. If you are trying to gain some muscle weight, you will need to be eating more. Make sure these calories come from healthy foods, do not allow yourself to fill up only on junk, it will not help you out at all.

Exercise

When you are done with a workout, stretching is very important, so that your muscles can repair themselves and rebuild. If you are under 40 years old, maintain the stretch for at least 30 seconds. Anyone over the age of forty should hold stretches for sixty seconds at the minimum. This can ensure your safety while building muscle.

If you are wanting to add more muscle definition to your body, try compound exercises. This is especially important when you are just starting to build muscle mass. Compound exercises are ones that exercise several muscle locations simultaneously. Once you have built your base muscle mass and strength, it is okay to start introducing more isolation exercises into you muscle building workout regimen.

When lifting weights, you should attempt to end your session with a pump. Studies have demonstrated that your strength and muscle size can be increased by pushing an additional amount of blood into your muscles through a high-rep set after your normal sets. Try ending with a set of twenty reps or even one hundred reps of an isolation exercise.

Nutrition

If you are trying to build muscle mass, it is important to eat calorie-dense food at the right time. The best time to eat your heaviest meal of the day is after you have completed your muscle-building workout session. It is at this time that the energy demands of your body are at peak levels since your body needs the nutrition to repair and build muscles. If you continue to eat some more calorie-dense food every couple of hours, you will provide an opportunity for your body to add even more muscle mass.

A great way to build muscle is to pay close attention to nutrition, and eat a good amount of protein and carbohydrates. By eating every two hours, and ensuring you get no less than 1.5 grams of protein for each pound of your own weight and no less than 2 grams of carbohydrates per pound. You will have the nutritional tools necessary to build muscle.

As previously stated, muscle building has many elements to it that must be combined strategically for maximum results and to avoid injury. Please consider the tips from this article wisely and incorporate them into your routine to build strength and muscle in a healthy and lasting way. Muscle building will keep you healthy and fit and can be very enjoyable when done the right way!