weight loss health

The combination of a healthy diet and weight training is the key to build lean muscle, but here the emphasis is on diet. Proteins, carbohydrates and a meager amount of fat comprise a muscle-building diet plan. We can already hear many of you complain about the extra number of calories it would add to your daily diet. You can get the thought out of your mind because we will teach you how to build lean muscle without adding fat. Let's get started.

Diet and Nutrition

As already stated above, the right food choices are crucial not only because they build muscle mass faster but also prevent the pounds from creeping in. An optimal diet is vital because it provides energy to exercise and resources to help the body recover.

When it comes to building muscle mass, protein is the main food group. They provide building blocks needed to grow your muscles in strength and size. Fish, milk, eggs, chicken and meat are the richest sources of animal proteins. If you are a vegan, you can eat plant-based proteins such as legumes, nuts and seeds, grains and non-dairy milk.

Creatine is another dietary element you should include in your diet if you want to build lean muscle. Creatine belongs to the family of amino acids. This amino acid is synthesized in the liver, kidney and pancreas. Fish and meat are primary sources of creatine. Carbohydrates are important in a muscle mass building diet too. It supplies the body with energy - fuel needed to exercise. Carbohydrates are divided into three categories - fibrous (fruits and vegetables), simple (sugars) and complex (bread, rice, cereal and pasta). Carbohydrate should be limited to 6-11 servings per day. Fat is also important if you want to build muscle mass. Now the main question - how can you eat fat when you are struggling to lose weight? The answer is saturated or healthy fats.

It is also essential to drink an adequate amount of water if you want healthy muscles. Dehydration does not allow the muscles to function efficiently. You should aim for minimum 8 glasses of water every day. Water intake should be increased in summer.

Diet and nutrition also includes meal timings and number of meals. As far as possible, you should not skip meals. Skipping meals disturbs your metabolism. It depletes energy stores in the body. Lack of energy makes it hard to perform exercises diligently and harder to gain lean mass. Eat several small meals throughout the day. You should eat a meal every 3-4 hours. Eating several small meals and snacks throughout the day prevents binge eating.

Training Routines

Exercise stimulates muscle growth. The exercise routine should be a 3-day split. It involves working out on 3 alternate days of the week, say Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Each day is dedicated to working out a specific muscle group. Like aerobic exercises help your burn fat faster, weight training helps you achieves a perfectly sculpted body. Side-by-side you should also perform aerobic activities. Strength training will tone your muscles but fat will prevent it from showing up. Aerobic activity will help burn the fat. Cardiovascular activities you can perform include swimming, running, walking, biking and skipping.

While it may sound unconventional, getting adequate amount of sleep will also strengthen and grow your muscles. Sleep helps the body recover after exercise. You should get at least 7-8 hours of sleep at night.

Many seasoned gym goers reach a point in their training cycle where they simply can't lift any more weight. Try as you might you can't get any further without risking injury and stagnation.

Of course there are options available to you. Firstly you could try supplementing your diet or improving the quality of the foods that you eat or more specifically increasing the amount of protein you consume each day.

You could of course try changing around your workouts, but this can only delay the inevitable sticking point waiting for you around the next corner.

It is at this point that many desperate muscle fans will look seriously at the possibility of taking steroids but this obviously is taking things down an entirely different route and such matters are outside the scope of this brief article.

So only a couple of options remain. You could try advanced training techniques such as forced reps or negatives, but these rely upon having a dependable and capable training partner, something that not everyone can muster easily.

So the last option is using training aids, belts, attachments, gloves and the whole purpose of this short piece is the use of weight lifting straps.

Weight lifting straps are an invaluable aid in exercises that require any pulling or lifting action. Basically anything where the relatively small muscles of the forearms fail to cope with the heavy weights needed to stimulate the larger and more stubborn muscle groups of the lats and traps etc.

It is all too common to be unable to fatigue these large muscles because the weaker forearms aren't able to keep up.

So the solution is a simple one - use weight lifting straps or hooks. Hooks are exactly what they claim to be - a bent hook made of metal that hooks over a bar or handle on a machine to allow the isolation of bigger muscle groups.

Lifting straps are for exactly the same reason, but don't rely on a hook. You get the grip by wrapping the fabric of the strap around the bar and then clenching your grip around it. In terms of benefit it really depends on what you prefer but both will do the same job.

If you're stuck in a rut with your dead lifting or can't break in new muscle with your pull ups it might be well worth investing in a pair of lifting straps for yourself.

It stands to reason that if you can increase the load that you are using you will get new muscle growth, so what are you waiting for - go and get yourself a set and push yourself on to new heights.