Consuming a large amount of calories is a must if you want to pack on muscle mass for a larger, stronger, more powerful frame. However, food alone won’t get you to the promised land. To achieve this sought-after balance of muscular harmony, you need to build quality muscle mass through a combination of diet and exercise.
Combined with the right nutritional approach, the following exercise tips will better serve you towards achieving the goal of developing greater lean muscle mass.
1. Use Free Weights
Use dumbbells instead of the smith machine or cables. Resistance machines are great to add definition, but for real size, use the free weights section. Dumbbells will make your ancillary muscles work as well and they will build compound mass. The greater range of motion (possible with the dumbbells) increases the number of muscles used in the training, therefore yielding better results.
2. Use Compound Exercises
Utilize the following compound exercises to increase the size of every muscle fiber in your body:
Flat bench
Muscles Worked: Pectoralis, Major Pectoralis, Minor Anterior Deltoid, Triceps Brachii Serratus, Anterior Coracobrachialis
Every few weeks, add as much weight on to a certain exercise and see what your 1 rep max is, this will give you a rough guide to see how far you have come along in your off-season in regard to overall strength (as well as slightly boosting the ego).
4. Get Your Protein
You need protein for your muscles to grow; the more, the better. Include lean red meats in your daily diet, as they contain the right nutrients to make muscles grow. It is actually quite simple: the combination of a high protein diet and the right kind of workout will make your muscles grow like you never thought possible.
The general rule of thumb in bodybuilding is that you need a minimum of 1-1.5 grams of protein per pound of bodyweight to build quality muscle. (eg: 180-lb. person needs to eat between 180-270 grams of protein per day).
5. Supplementation
In addition to training and eating properly, remember your BCAA’s (Brain Chain Amino Acids)
The benefits of BCAAs are:
support protein synthesis
better testosterone to cortisol ratio for muscle building
leucine can help increase strength
glutamine can help aid recovery and assist in curing DOMS (Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness)
6. Get Your Sleep
Your muscles grow while you are resting, so by not giving yourself enough quality Zzz, your body isn’t able to recover and repair your muscles as well as it could if you were getting adequate sleep. In addition to being tired, another drawback of sleep deprivation is that important muscle-building hormones are negatively affected. These hormones include testosterone, growth hormone, cortisol and insulin.
Cortisol
This is a catabolic stress hormone which increases fat storage in the body and also aids in breaking down your hard-earned muscle tissue to use for energy. It has been proven that your body produces excess cortisol when you don’t sleep enough.
Testosterone
The more testosterone you produce, the more muscle you can gain. Lack of sleep decreases testosterone production.
Growth Hormone
This important hormone regenerates your body and helps build and maintain muscle mass. Once again, skimping on quality sleep will decrease this hormone’s production.
Insulin
Without enough insulin in your body, you’re not able to maximize your intake of nutrients into your cells. Not getting enough sleep will cause your body to increase insulin production, and if your body produces too much insulin it can cause diabetes, excess fat storage, or even heart disease.
Your muscles grow while you are resting and sleeping, so by not giving yourself enough quality Zzz, your body isn’t able to recover and repair your muscles as well as it could if you were getting adequate sleep.
