Everyone always says that there’s no secret to losing weight, toning your body and building muscle, but surely there’s something more to it than just exercising and eating healthy! It’s true that any kind of results in size gain is going to be from a lot of hard work more than anything else, but there are things that you can do to help build muscle and keep it. Check out these six tips and start incorporating some of them into your regime for better results.
1. Eat Enough Food
You can’t build muscle from nothing! You need the right food to fuel your body and gain mass. Recommendations can be quite varied in terms of how much you need to consume - it really depends on your current body type. A daily intake of around 40 calories per kilogram of body weight is usually considered a pretty good measure to go by.
2. Increase Your Protein Consumption
The right kind of calories is going to do a whole lot more for you than just eating any greasy or fatty foods. Protein is crucial to burning fat and building muscle at the same time - something that is very difficult to do when you aren’t eating well. Foods like steak and chicken are protein-rich and you can give yourself a boost with a protein supplement.
3. Eat With Regularity
You want to be eating more and more regularly to build muscle faster. Providing your body with the energy it needs consistently will keep it in a muscle-building state. Eating a small, energy-packed meal every two to three hours while you’re gaining can lead to incredibly positive results.
4. Work Out Every Other Day
Your body doesn’t build muscle while you’re working out, but rather while your body is resting. Protein synthesis is increased after working out for up to 48 hours. Maximise your growth by letting your body rest the day after an intense weight session.
5. Stay Hydrated
We’re 70% water. Every pound of muscle in your body can hold up to three pounds of water, so when we dehydrate they tend to suffer tremendously. Without enough water you aren’t going to be achieving the best results, so make sure you keep a bottle on you at all times.
6. Load Up Before Working Out
Give your body the fuel it needs by eating a slow-burning meal before you start your session. Clean Carbs like Oats are perfect foods, and, combined with a whey protein shake and a muscle-building supplement like creatine will give you the power your body needs and the nutrients to build muscle fast.
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Beet Root Juice Improves Sports Performance
It probably doesn’t matter whether you play hockey, football, rugby or volleyball. According to the human study published by sports scientist at the University of Exeter in the European Journal of Applied Physiology, all team sports players perform better if they use concentrated beetroot juice. This nitrate-containing product makes them significantly faster.Nitrate – present in large quantities in lettuce, beetroot and spinach – changes in the body into nitrogen monoxide, NO for short. How this happens scientists don’t know – but they do know that supplements containing nitrate-rich extracts enhance sports performance.A popular theory says that NO improves the circulation in muscle tissue, so muscle cells are able to absorb more oxygen and glucose; another theory claims that NO makes muscle cells’ energy metabolism more efficient.The most popular nitrate-rich extracts in the sports world right now are made from Beta vulgaris – beetroot to most of us. Beetroot extracts have become so popular among endurance athletes that doping hunters are regularly confronted with red urine samples.Most beetroot research has been conducted on exertion that lasts longer than six minutes. So far there’s been no research on shorter, more explosive exertion. The researchers decided it was time to change matters. There are hundreds of thousands of athletes who play team sports, and it’s the short, sharp bursts of movement that are most important to them. The researchers decided to study the effect of beetroot juice on team sports players.The researchers used Beet It, produced by James White Drinks. On the day before the experiment 14 male recreational team sports players drank 140 ml of the stuff in the morning and the same amount again in the evening. On the day of the experiment they drank 140 ml 2.5 hours before the test, and one hour later they drank another 70 ml.The researchers repeated the procedure with a placebo.The researchers got the subjects to perform the Yo-Yo Intermittent Recovery Test. This involves running a distance of 40 m in less and less time. Between the spurts, the subjects were allowed to rest for 10 seconds. The test stops when the subjects can no longer manage to run the 40 m in the allowed time.The figure below shows that the subjects managed an average of 1636 m after taking a placebo, and 1704 m after drinking beetroot concentrate. So beetroot makes explosive exertion 4% faster.Before starting the Yo-yo Intermittent Recovery Test, the researchers got their subjects to do some non-intensive exercise. At this point, the beetroot supplementation had no statistically significant effect on the glucose level.During the Yo-Yo Intermittent Recovery Test, the effect was statistically significant: the glucose level was significantly lower in the subjects who had had the beetroot extract. It seems that beetroot helps the muscles to absorb more glucose during intensive exercise.“The results of this study suggest that nitrate may be an effective ergogenic aid for intermittent high-intensity exercise performance in recreational team sport players”, the researchers conclude.Source:Eur J Appl Physiol. 2013 Jul;113(7):1673-84.Source: http://www.ergo-log.com/Read More
Keep Cortisol In Check To Maximise Your Muscle Gains
While there are some of us who have to force ourselves out of the door to go to the gym, there are others who have a hard time taking a day off. We’re talking about the training fanatics, the people who show up at the gym six days a week, month after month. These guys and girls are usually in good shape, extremely dedicated, and all struggle with a central problem – the hormone cortisol. Yes, a lot of people who train frequently have to deal with the body’s mechanism to release cortisol whenever it gets stressed. Cortisol is a catabolic hormone, which means that it breaks down muscle tissue and increases the fat in your body. If you’re looking to build muscle mass and lose weight, cortisol is your enemy. While it might be counter productive for your training, cortisol actually does perform some very important functions in the body. Cortisol lowers the stress levels in your body. 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This isn’t a rule of thumb however, and you should exercise whenever your schedule allows you to.As mentioned before, a diet that is high in protein along with BCAA supplementation will help you control your cortisol levels. Having a carb-heavy meal immediately after a workout has also been shown to hinder the release of cortisol in the body. If you’re constantly unable to gain muscle size and strength, have a lot of belly fat or feel bloated during the day, you might be struggling with excessive cortisol in your body. Cortisol causes the release of myostatin, also known as growth differentiation factor 8, which breaks down muscle in the body. On the other hand, if you’re frequently tired and feel drained, you might have inadequate levels of cortisol in your system. Cortisol generally suppresses other muscle building hormones such as growth hormone, insulin and testosterone. When cortisol levels are low, these anabolic hormones are found in greater amounts in the body. 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