Tips on making your body stronger
By Susan Kocab
Building lean muscle is an essential element of living a healthy lifestyle. Better yet, the more muscle you have the more you get to enjoy life because the stronger you feel the better you feel.
Whether you are looking to lose weight, increase energy levels, boost confidence or simply build physical strength sculpting lean muscle reaps major health benefits for your body and your mind. Here are five simple tips increase your muscle gains.
Tip No. 1: Have a strength-training regimen
Strength training regimens are workouts that strive to increase lean muscle tissue in the body. Strength is built by increasing the load you place on the muscle. Essentially, this means a strength-training regimen should include a weekly workout regimen that has you lifting heavy weights for each muscle group. The legs, the shoulders, the arms, the glutes.
Simply, you should strive to workout each muscle group once to twice per week if you want to replace fat tissue with lean muscle.
Tip No.2: don’t be afraid to eat
While you are putting your body through all that hard training your muscles are being broken down. So, you must eat to refuel for the muscle rebuild.
Naturally, the body burns more calories in a day to maintain a pound of muscle rather than a pound of fat. This means, muscle gain significantly boosts your metabolism turning your body into a calorie-burning machine!
Like any machine you need to make sure it’s fueled. Food is fuel and having a well-balanced diet that includes all your healthy macronutrients, protein, fats and carbs, is essential in building lean muscle.
Tip No. 3: Opt for low-impact cardio
This might be a win if you aren’t into high-intensity workouts, such as running or any other fast-paced cardio workout. With lean muscle comes a naturally ignited metabolism. If you are regularly strength training three to five days per week then you are free to cut back on the intense cardio sessions.
Instead, replace them with lower-impact cardio options such as swimming or walking on a treadmill at an incline for 20 to 30 minutes two to four days per week. This will ensure that you aren’t over training but retaining the muscle being built.
Tip No. 4: Get Enough Sleep
Sleep is a heavily overlooked element when it comes to health and fitness. While sleep serves many vital functions, including heightened cognition and mental alertness. Sleep is also a vital component in building and recovering lean muscle tissue. Without adequate sleep, seven to nine hours per night, your workouts could be near wasted and here is why:
Your body goes into recovery mode during sleep, replenishing muscle glycogen. While you sleep your body also releases the human growth hormone (HGH), a primary hormone that allows muscles to recover and grow. Not only that, sleep deprivation also can cause your muscle mass to actually decrease. Certainly, adequate sleep is essential in keeping your hard-earned muscle.
Tip No. 5: Drink enough water
Water is the single most critical nutrient in the body. Up to 60 percent of the human adult body is made up of water. Lack of water can cause dehydration in the muscles, reduce endurance, decrease strength, heighten chance of cramping and slow muscle rebuilding.
Along with that mild dehydration can cause extreme fatigue. Inevitably, leaving your workouts and performance lacking and muscle degenerating.
Building lean muscle isn’t just for bodybuilders, building muscle is essential for staying strong, feeling energized and living the best life you can! Use these simple tips to ensure your muscle-building progress.
Susan Kocab is a the owner of Fitzone Labs in the Rio Vista Shopping Center, 7135 W. Ann Road, Suite 140. Contact her at [email protected].