Effective Steps to Building Muscle

By Mandy Gibbons

When you think of building muscle you tend to envisage huge freaky physiques - like the ones that you frequently see in the some of the muscle mags. Everytime they flex their clothes burst open with buttons flying off everywhere. I know - that's a bit over the top :-) but you get my drift.

The reality is that building muscle isn't just about having biceps like pop-eye. Although don't take for granted, not for a minute, the years and hours of hard work - and sacrifice - men and women training their bodies, to reach these types of results, make - it is truly inspirational.

Maybe YOU also want to build massive muscles, or maybe you just want to increase your muscle a little without getting as muscular. You can! Don't be afraid of muscle, if you haven't already incorporated lean muscle into your program then you should make friends with the idea because it really is worth it.

A Toned Appearance and Lean Muscle Mass

Using lighter weights and more repetitions you can achieve a toned appearance without bulking up. If you're building muscle for Body Shaping, your weights will need to be slightly heavier for some body parts yet lighter for others. Being able to transform your current body type by using resistance or weight training is exciting and possible. You can actually sculpt your body to suit your body-type's requirements.

Both men and women are enjoying the benefits of increasing their lean muscle. Remember not all men want to look huge - the athletic look in men is very popular at the moment and guys are choosing to train towards maintaining a lean appearance.

No matter what the gender - a toned body eg shoulders, abs, legs look great in summer - and lets face it - we all want to feel confident in the clothes we wear in the warmer months of the year.

Body Building / BIG Muscle Mass

To create large amounts of muscle mass you need to damage the muscle to a certain extreme for your muscles to respond, repair and grow into strong, healthy muscles. Using heavy weights can most definitely assist with this both efficiently and effectively.You'll also need to ensure that you give your body every opportunity to rest and recover to help prevent muscle depletion.

If you're keen to get Big and Buff there are loads of great resources on the net for bodybuilding. VFT has a whole section dedicated to Bodybuilding so please feel free to browse around and check article written specifically for this topic.

Training to Build Muscle

This varies on your goals of what you want your body to look like. For example: there are different weight training techniques you can incorporate into your workouts to help stimualte new muscle faster - or to help break plateaus.

Using a program that is suited to your body type and fitness level is very important when trying to build muscle of any kind. Don't expect to reach your goals by just turning up at a gym and messing around with a few weights and hoping for the best. Because it just doesn't work that way.

No matter what your goals are in regards to building muscle you need to make the time to dedicate yourself to your program. Unless you're genetically gifted with super muscle growing powers it'll take a month or so to start to seeing changes. And it can be a good 12 or so weeks before you really get to sew the rewards from your training efforts. Don't get impatient. Understand that you need to treat your workouts - and your muscles- with lots of TLC to help your program run smoothly and more efficiently.

Eating to Build Muscle

For huge muscles and muscle mass you will need to consume more calories than you're expending. A healthy eating program which includes all of the food groups will make a huge difference to your results. Sufficient protein and carbohydrates will help you get through your training and is important for healthy repair of your muscles. If you battle putting on muscle mass then you'll have to really ramp up your calories.

If you want to build lean muscle then you may want to reduce your calories slightly and arrange your diet to fit in with your training goals.

If light toning and fat loss is what you are after then you will once again also need to carefully watch your calorie and fat intake, while still ensuring that your body gets sufficient nutrition. No matter what your training goals are never starve yourself. Regular meals through-out the day are very important.

Starting Your Muscle Building Program - the take home tips...

1. You don't need a lot of equipment, even dumbbells on their own are great to start with.
2. Make sure you have a program to follow that suits your needs and gives you sufficient instructions on how to perform your exercises.
3. When performing your exercises keep your knees slightly bent, your back straight, chest out and your tummy firm, even when you are performing seated exercises you need to make sure you have good posture.
4. Don't swing your weights about. If you are finding that you are swinging your body around to lift your weights then you should lower the weights until you are ready to advance.
5. Perform your exercises correctly. If, as I mentioned above, you have to swing your body - or your weights - around then you are probably more likely to be giving your lower back a crappy workout rather than the body part you thought you were training. Don't waste precious training time by not using good form while training.
6. Always keep a water bottle near by so have easy access to fluids while training. This will keep you from dehydrating.
7. Make sure you perform a warm up before training and then cool down after wards. While your muscles are still warm, after your cool down, perform your stretches.
8. Sleep! You need to have sufficient sleep to ensure your body has time to repair itself and recover from your day's training and general activities.
9. Organise your eating plan ahead of time so that you can have your meals on hand. This will help prevent you from consuming junk as well as keeping up with regular meal times.
10. Protein. You will need sufficient protein intake in your diet to help supplement your muscle development. Protein shakes are fantastic for this if you're finding it difficult to include sources such as chicken, fish, meat (all are to be lean, skin or fat cut off) low fat yogurt, low fat cottage cheese, egg whites etc...

If you battle with body fat increasing your lean muscle mass can help turn your body from floppy to firm and toned. Did you know that the more lean muscle you have the higher your metabolism - that's right, you'll be burning more calories day and night. Ya gotta love it!