It is no secret how much harder it is to gain muscle mass than fat. For muscles, you have to work hard and be more careful, while also maintaining other parts of your life. Both exercising and eating healthy are crucial while resting and having a regular sleeping schedule are also important. It is also necessary to know what to avoid, as there are many misconceptions out there.
Let us start with these basics to help you healthily gain muscle mass. It is safe to say that nobody can argue with these, and you are safe to implement them in your life.
- Lifting Heavy Weights
If you always work out with less than what you can actually lift, you will not gain additional muscle mass. Lifting heavy weights stimulates damage in muscle fibers. Your body responds by muscle growth, in order to keep up with the newly needed strength. Basically, you will need to show your body that from now on, you will lift heavier weights all the time on a regular basis. It is pretty simple if you think about it. You are training your body to grow more muscles because you need it.
- Start eating more Calories
The next step is to support your body with the right fuel for it to be able to grow more muscles. In order to do this, you need to have a caloric surplus. This means that you should eat not only enough to maintain current body weight and health but to power the new training and muscle growth. A balanced diet and multiple meals and snacks during the day are of great importance. Healthy supplements and vitamins are also a great help. Feel free to check the selection at expresshealthshop.com.
image source: muscleandfitness.com
- Get Rest
This step is overlooked too often, and by too many people. You do not actually get bigger while in the gym. This is a myth. As we mentioned, working out only damages your muscles. After you are done in the gym, other than the calories, the right amount of rest is what benefits you the most. Your muscles and the whole body need sleep and rest to function properly and realize what happened and how to proceed. So you can see that the part of gaining muscles that happen outside of the gym is equally important as hitting the gym.
Now to quickly go over what you absolutely need to avoid while training to gain muscle mass.
- Overtraining
This is probably the worst thing you could do. When you overtrain, you are giving your body a lot to take, and it needs a lot more time and calories to recover. So the next time you start working out, it is not yet completely rested. If you do not rest, you can permanently harm your body, or get a serious injury. When you feel like you need rest, listen to your body and take a break. It will do you more good than continuing with your workout while tired.
- Not Tracking Your Workouts
In order to keep track of your progress, you need to keep a record of how many reps you do, how many sets, and with what weight. Simply working out until you are tired will not do it for you. You need to know and feel your progress and remain on the thin line between overachieving and overtraining.
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- Trying to Train out of an unhealthy life
This is a bad thing to do, as everything needs to fall in place in order for your lifestyle to be healthy, not just working out. Enough sleep and rest, a good workout schedule and a balanced diet all contribute equally to a healthy life while gaining muscle mass. Simply working out while still drinking a lot of alcohol, smoking, or eating junk food will diminish your results.
To summarize: Lifting heavier weights will benefit muscle growth. Your fuel should be more calories (remember to check out expresshealthshop.com for some supplements to help). Rest your body well after workouts!
Do not overtrain, always keep track of your workouts and do not try to be healthy simply through exercising.
Follow these steps and you will be golden!
