How To Improve Muscle Mass And Strength
Whether you’re an athlete or a regular person, both muscle and strength building is equally important for your overall health.
As you age…
Your muscle will become harder to build and maintain. At the age of 30, for instance, you’ll notice that your muscle starts to deteriorate and have an increased rate of loss of muscle. The loss of muscle is especially faster with people who are inactive.
So, here are just some tips on how to improve muscle mass and strength:
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1. Load Up On Protein
Protein is a key ingredient in muscle building. When it comes to eating protein, it’s important to take in enough to ensure that your body has what it needs to grow stronger. Ideally, this should, more or less, make up around 10% to 35% of your calories, especially when you’re trying to build muscle and strength.
There are many different sources of protein that you can consume, making it easy to get enough in one day. If you decide to take supplements, it’s important to understand and compare the differences of various products, such as knowing True Mass vs. Serious Mass. Doing so will help you choose a supplement that’s suitable for your needs.
Furthermore, foods such as fish, eggs, and meat are high in protein. If you’re having a hard time eating, you can also take protein in the form of shakes or drinks. As a guide, here are protein levels of some common and basic food:
- 1 big egg has around 6g of protein
- 3 oz baked but skinless chicken has 26g of protein
- 3 oz grilled salmon has 21g of protein
- 1 cup of cooked quinoa has 8g of protein
- 1 cup of low-fat milk has around 8g of protein
- 1 cup of plain low-fat yogurt has 12g of protein
The recommended dietary allowance of protein for adults is around 0.37g per pound of your body weight.
2. Eat More Carbohydrates
Carbohydrates also play an important role in powering your muscles. This is mainly because some parts of carbohydrates are converted into glycogen, which is stored in your muscles and fuels your workouts.
Half of your calorie intake in a day should be composed of carbohydrates. However, this doesn’t mean eating up pizza or donuts. You should be having carbohydrates of good quality and low in fat. Examples of these include cereal and whole-grain bread. In addition to that, fruits, vegetables, and low-fat milk are also sources of good carbohydrates for your diet.
3. Eat Regularly or Every 3 Hours
When you’re trying to build muscles, the activities you undertake will also speed up the rate that you burn calories. Because of this, it’s important that you eat regularly or at least every 3 hours.
Doing so will ensure that you’re getting the right amount of food, energy, and nutrients that you need to build more muscle. This way, you’ll be burning fat and replacing it with more protein to build more muscle whenever you move or work out. If you don’t get enough protein, not only will you notice your energy going down, you’ll also be burning muscle instead of fat.
4. Have Healthy Fats
You may not be aware of this, but healthy fat is also important for muscle building. This is because what’s being converted into muscle is actually fat. On top of that, it’s actually fat that your body relies on when it’s getting energy to pump up your muscles during your workouts. As a rule of thumb, healthy fat should be composed of 20% to 35% of your overall calorie intake.
If you’re not yet sure which food to include in your diet, you can try including walnuts, almonds, pistachios, extra-virgin olive oil, canola oil, salmon, halibut, trout, sardines, and mackerel into your diet. Fat usually has double the calories compared to protein and carbohydrates. So, when eating these kinds of food, make sure you still keep track of their calories and serving sizes.
5. Stay Hydrated
Another part of your muscle-building program is to drink plenty of water. You should be drinking about 8 glasses a day or more to keep your body hydrated throughout the day. This will help prevent dehydration. You want to drink more water than you sweat and urinate because you don’t want to experience muscle cramps because you’re losing fluids.
Other than preventing muscle cramps, water plays a big role in building and repairing muscles. This is because water helps flush toxins out of your body, which helps make your muscles stronger. Furthermore, water has a number of benefits, including speeding up the metabolism and your recovery process. In fact, experts even say that when your muscles get used to getting plenty of water, they’re more resistant to injuries and illnesses.
6. Exercise and Resistance Training
Exercise is an integral part to strengthen and build your muscles. When it comes to building strength and muscles, key areas you’d want to work on are your hips, legs, back, abdomen, shoulders, chest, and arms. When training for muscle building and strengthening, there are certain exercises you need to follow. Examples of these include using resistance banks, lifting weights, pull-ups, push-ups, and sit-ups.
If you’re trying to become stronger, an approach you can take is not to train more but instead, train heavier. This means you need to achieve quality more than quantity. To illustrate, instead of doing 15 to 20 reps of bench presses or deadlifts, do 5 reps instead but with more weight. It’s okay to take your time as long as you try to lift heavier each time. As you do this, you’ll start building your strength.
Conclusion
After you get your muscle-building routine going, you’ll be amazed at how quickly you’ll see results. In addition to maintaining a workout regimen, you’ll also be eating right, which results in a healthy body. This means that you’ll have to watch what you eat and make sure you’re getting the necessary protein to keep your muscles intact.
In the end, you’ll be pleased with the results and be looking better and fitter than you’ve ever been.
Last Updated on November 15, 2020
