How to build muscle? The answer has eluded many bodybuilding enthusiasts who naively believe all they had to do was workout harder. Do more push ups. Lift heavier weights. Go to the gym more times every week. And in time, they’ll enjoy bulging muscles and six pack abs.
But the truth about how to build muscle is that it isn’t entirely about exercise or workouts. You also need good nutrition. In fact, without the right eating habits, it won’t matter how hard you workout – you won’t build muscle.
Your body needs protein to develop muscle mass. And before the calories are devoted to gaining muscle, you need to burn off any extra fat. The ideal bodybuilding diet contains less fat and more carbs that serve as fuel to meet your body’s metabolic demands. Here is how to build muscle:
1. Eat Well After Workouts
After workouts, your calorie intake is what determines whether your muscle mass will increase. A protein supplement or shake one hour post-exercise is extremely beneficial to gain muscle. You are essentially providing your muscles with the building blocks they require to add new bulk. A regular meal taken shortly afterwards provides the other nutrients that you body requires for its metabolic activity.
Eating enough calories with the right mix of protein is among the most important factors that govern how to build muscle. This mix is critical, just like the kind of exercise routine you choose or the number of reps in your workout.
2. Make It A Habit
Eating a nutritious meal once in a while after you workout, but relapsing often into junk food binging won’t help you build muscle fast. You will require discipline that is sustained over time in order to gain muscle through better nutrition.
Find the types of healthy food that you like and enjoy. That way, you will find it easier to stick with your diet. Try out different combinations to hit upon the few that are both convenient to prepare, tasty to eat, and easy enough to sustain over time. There are dozens of guides, programs and coaches who can help you with advise and resources on what to eat to gain muscle.
A weight calculator can be helpful in computing the number of calories you require for your energy needs. Make sure you get enough of them and the right balance to cover all your body’s demands. Keep a stock of the right ingredients to prepare your meals. If you fail to plan, you won’t maintain your health eating habit. This is more important if you’re busy and short of time. Everything must happen on auto-pilot – and for that, you must plan in advance.
Here’s why it matters. If you don’t eat well, it won’t matter how hard you exercise or wish for bigger, stronger muscles. Understand that when you ask how to build muscle, the answer begins with what you eat.
3. Maintain A Record
A food journal can be helpful in planning your muscle gain program. Jot down your eating habits and the types of food you eat in a day. You can do this in a specialized nutrition diary or just in a regular notebook. What matters is that you keep meticulous records of whatever you eat. These logs will come in handy later on, when you evaluate your muscle gain and see if you’re on track to meet your goals.
You must be able to say, for sure, whether your muscle gain and weight loss are in line with whatever goals and targets you set for yourself. Review them every month to judge how well you’re doing and make suitable changes. When people ask how to build muscle, they’re often not aware of the need for such record keeping or the vital benefits of doing so. It is easy to course-correct and get back on track when you know you’re sliding off it. And the only way to tell is by looking at your records and log books.
By eating the right types of nutritous food, following a routine with discipline until it becomes a habit, and keeping detailed records which you review at intervals, you can practically guarantee that you will build muscle and lose fat. For more information about how to build muscle, check out these powerful body building courses at http://www.bodybuildingreviews.org