Friday, February 13, 2009

Important Facts You Should Know About Muscle Building

By Ricardo d Argence

Weight training and muscle building aren't just great for bodybuilders, they should be important parts of any person's healthy exercise routine. Whether you're working out to get healthy or to improve the definition of your muscles, the tips below will help you reach your goal.

Protein is necessary in order to build muscle, if you do not have enough protein you could go on lifting weights forever and still not build any new muscles. However, the question has always been how much is enough? Bad news are: protein sources like red meat and milk are high in fat. And fat is not desired in bodybuilding.

The basic rule for serious bodybuilders is to consume at least a single gram of protein for each pound of body weight. That means if you weight 170 pounds you should be eating 170 grams of protein every day in order to build muscle mass. If you're worried about that fat content, choose skim milk and low-fat protein sources such as fish and chicken over red meat.

Some exercise and weight lifting buffs almost become addicted to working out. You can see them in the gym almost daily doing their routines. While that dedication may seem impressive, they could be doing their bodies more harm than good. The reason is that medical research is showing that building muscle isn't all about the exercise.

You need to let your muscles rest for a time after exerting them like that. In order to recover between sessions, a person should eat well-balanced meals, drink plenty of fluids after working out, and take a day off before another sesssion.

Adequate sleep is essential to your weight lifting routine if you want to increase your muscle mass. During the night, many of your bodily processes take place. Your body can redirect energy resources to these other tasks because it's not being used for anything else, that's the reason.

Muscle development depend on multiple processes, one of those is protein synthesis. Your body needs enough time to complete these processes, so you need to make sure to get the recommended amount every night. Make sure to sleep for at least eight hours every night.

Talking about your workout routine, compound movements are going to build muscle faster than other types of exercises such as squats, which target isolated muscle groups. If you do not lift properly then the muscle groups will not get the most benefit from the workout.

It is very simple: just choose weights that feel heavy to you! That doesn't particularly mean that you want the heaviest available on the rack. If you're going to really benefit from your efforts, it just means that you need to feel the muscles working when you lift that weight. It could be as much as 20 pounds if you are new to bodybuilding. - 16004

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