Workout-X Guide To Lean Muscle
01. Introduction
03. How Muscle Fibers Are Built
04. Achieving Lean Muscle Mass with Diet and Exercise
06. Using Dietary Supplements to Gain Lean Muscle Mass
08. The Benefits of Building Lean Muscle Mass
09. Lean Muscle Mass and Health
10. Tips for Increasing Lean Muscle Mass Over Time
11. Calculating Lean Body Mass (LBM) In Order To Increase Muscle Mass
12. Maintaining Lean Muscle Mass for Life
Introduction
Lean muscle mass is made up of muscle fibers that aren’t bulging, but are rather toned and taut. Lean muscle mass is what you see on athletes and other sports enthusiasts. Before you can acquire it, you will need to know the essentials of building and maintaining lean muscle.
Where lean muscle mass is concerned, it isn’t about the size of the muscles that becomes the main focus. Instead, you will concentrate on the fact that you have it and it’s toned to an appealing shape. The shape and tone of lean muscle can actually look more appealing to that of tippling muscles. It can also be less intimidating.
The process of building lean muscle mass is similar to that of building any type of muscle. Diet and exercise are two very important essentials to building muscle. Strength training will give you the lean muscles you desire. The key is to choose the style of training that will build lean muscles that are well toned.
Technique is a very important part of building lean muscle. Before you can successfully carry out that technique, you will need to first learn more about it along with what all you’ll need in order to achieve the lean muscle mass you’ve heard so much about.
This guide will teach you all about lean muscle mass and how to properly build it. Remember, you are planning for the long hall and you’ll use this information throughout your life to maintain what you’ve worked so hard to achieve. You’ll learn how muscle fibers are built and what type of training you’ll need in order to ensure the muscle mass you build is of the lean variety.
Find out how both diet and exercise contribute to the building of lean muscle mass and the roles they both play in your overall health. Learn what foods are best for you to eat and the specific exercises that should make up your regular routine. You’ll also learn how to build a routine that works based on the information you see here.
Dietary supplements can also play an important role in building lean muscle mass. Read about some of the more natural options that are safe to use and are proving to be a success.
Learn about the benefits of building lean muscle mass and their direct impact on your overall health. The diet and exercise changes you make will affect your entire body and help lower your risk of certain diseases and conditions.
Read about how you can increase the amount of lean muscle mass you build over time. This will promote overall muscle growth and also contribute to your continuing good health.
Find out the significance of lean body mass and learn how to calculate it. This, too, will help to increase your lean muscle mass.
Finally, lean how to maintain lean muscle mass for the rest of your life. Sure it’s about sticking with your healthy diet and exercise, but a little constant motivation certainly can’t hurt. Maintaining your muscles will also become more important and possibly more difficult as you go through the aging process. The important thing to remember is that you can remain both healthy and muscular.
This guide will give you all the information you’ll need to not only get started with your new life-changing fitness plan, but also maintain it for life. Follow it and see what a true difference lean muscle mass will make to your entire body.
What Is Lean Muscle Mass?
Before you can achieve lean muscle mass, you must first gain a clear understanding of what it is and how to obtain it. There are different types of muscle mass and ways of gaining each one. When beginning a training program, it is crucial to know what style and techniques to use in order to reach the goals you have set.
Lean muscles are toned, not bulky. They are shaped and sculpted and may be very defined. You acquire them with strength training just as you do the bulkier ones. The difference is in how you train.
Your diet will make a big difference. When strength training, you want to eat plenty of protein. This is because muscles need to be fed while they are growing. Stick to healthy foods like fruits and vegetables. Lean meats are good, too as they contain some of the protein you will need. There are also dietary supplements available that will promote muscle growth. As a general rule, you should eat five to eight small meals each day instead of three large ones. This gives you body time to process the food and will help you both before and after a workout.
As your muscles are worked, they are broken down. They grow during the recovery process, so it is important to give them the proper amount of time for this as well. This is why you should only strength train each muscle group a few times a week.
When lifting weights, you may find yourself bulking up. Since this isn’t your ultimate goal, you will need to structure your workouts in a way that will help you gain lean muscle mass instead.
Balancing your diet and exercise will also help you gain lean muscle mass. Make sure your diet is not too rich in protein or you may find your muscles bulkier than you prefer.
Lean muscle is very sculpted in appearance and will make your body become very defined. You will also find any fat you may wish to rid yourself of disappearing. Your workouts will be structured to tone your muscles, so you won’t be gaining a ton of muscle mass very quickly. Instead, you will be gaining it over time. This is also something you will be able to do throughout the rest of your life.
Lean muscle mass becomes more important as you approach and begin the aging process. The more lean muscle you are able to gain before that time, the easier it will be to maintain it as you grow older.
Lean muscles have a very unique appearance. You can shape them to fit your body type and will find you are probably healthier all around for putting together a fitness routine that will enable you to gain the lean muscle mass and great body you desire. In order to begin doing this, it is important to know just how muscle fibers are built.
How Muscle Fibers Are Built
When you begin building lean muscle mass, some important changes will take place. It is important to understand those changes before starting your new diet and exercise plan.
Your diet, of course, will help you shed the fat and enable you to gain muscle. You will learn later on in this guide what types of foods you need to eat in order to keep your body strong. These foods, which will be comprised of vitamins, minerals and proteins, will contribute to overall good health.
When you exercise your muscles go through a transformation. Cardio is what you’ll use to burn fat while weight training will help sculpt and tone muscles. When you lift weights, you muscle fibers are broken down. Because of this, they need time to recover between workouts. While cardio will be a part of your fitness routine four to five days a week, you will only strength train each muscle group three times a week. The time between workouts is when the recovery time will take place.
Muscle fibers grow from being broken down and then recovering. There are certain exercises that can be performed for bulking up and certain ones that you can do for building lean muscle mass. You will, of course, want to incorporate those into your strength training routine.
The effect of your weight lifting will depend on the specific exercises you perform, the type of weights you use and how often you train. Genetic factors can also play a part in the end result.
There are two basic types of fibers that make up muscles: slow- twitch and fat-twitch. Slow-twitch muscles are used for endurance activities. You can stimulate them with the use of light weights and long reps. Often times, that type of training will not result in bulky muscles. It will, instead, help tone and sculpt muscles whish will give you lean muscle mass.
Fast-twitch muscles can force output very quickly for shorter time periods. Here, heavy weights and short reps will stimulate these fibers. This is what will result in muscle growth that is visible.
You will, of course, want to concentrate on training the slow-twitch fibers in order to gain lean muscle mass, though you may want to incorporate some fast-twitch exercises into your routine in order for your muscles to grow a bit along the way. Both types of exercises serve a definite purpose and you will encounter many of them at some point in the process.
Recovery, as was mentioned above, is a very important part of building any type of muscle. This is where your muscles will actually begin to grow. When the fibers are broken down, they sustain some damage. The stress that is put on your muscles during exercise is what will encourage them to begin growing, but the recovery process is necessary in order for this to take place. As they recover, they heal and begin to grow. Toning is a type of growth and you will need the recovery time in order for this to take place.
Your slow-twitch fibers will help your muscles grow longer and leaner. This is what will give you that toned body you desire. Next, you will learn how diet and exercise both directly contribute to the building of lean muscle mass.
Achieving Lean Muscle Mass With Diet and Exercise
As you know by now, both diet and exercise play a direct role in achieving lean muscle mass. What you eat is crucial to whether or not your body is healthy and in shape and exercise is what helps your muscles grow. One without the other will not produce the desired result.
A healthy diet should be viewed as a lifestyle change. You aren’t going on a “diet” as much as you are changing the way you eat. You have to maintain this healthy diet in order for it to be successful. This means eating plenty of fruits, vegetables and proteins.
Fruits and vegetables are full of the vitamins and minerals that are essential for your body to function as it should. They also help your muscles remain healthy. Proteins can be found in many different foods as you will learn in the next section. Lean meats are a great source of protein. Growing muscles use this protein during the actual building process.
A good diet will serve you well, but in order to gain lean muscle mass, you will need to follow a good exercise routine. This means doing cardio everyday as well as strength training. As you learned in the last section, you will only train each muscle group about three times a week. This is because your muscles need time to recover after being put through the rigors of training. You can alternate different groups on different days, as you will learn later on in this guide, which will enable you to work on one group while another recovers. This is how many weight trainers choose to train because it gets them in the weight room several times a week.
Since you are using diet and exercise to acquire lean muscle mass, you may find yourself losing weight in the process. While it’s true muscle actually weighs more than fat, you are going for a leaner, more toned look. Because of this, you may find the fat dropping off and muscle showing up in its place. It is important to remember fat isn’t turned into muscle. The fat is shed and the muscle built all with a healthy diet and successful exercise program.
You will learn in the next section how to structure your diet. Find out what you can eat as well as what you should avoid. Then, learn how to build your exercise plan. Both diet and exercise are crucial lifestyle changes that will make big differences in your life. By choosing the right combination, you will find yourself well on the way to a lean body and overall good health.
The Lean Muscle Mass Diet
As you have learned in previous sections, what you eat is a major contributing factor to building lean muscle mass. A healthy diet is essential. You need to eat the right foods in order to keep your bones, organs, tissues and muscles healthy. It is what also helps you build muscle as you exercise.
Eating to build lean muscle mass is different from eating to bulk up. This is an important distinction and one that should garner a great deal of attention. The right combination of foods, along with a well-thought out exercise plan will help you avoid gaining fat while enabling you to maintain the lean muscle you develop.
Your lean muscle mass diet will consist of three main components: carbs, proteins and low fat foods. When you are training regularly, it is a good idea to eat carbs about three times a day. You don’t want to consume too many carbs, but your body will need them during the strength training process. You will want to stay with the low carbs, that is, those your body will not turn directly into fat. This means staying away from breads and baked goods, and instead eating cereals and grains. Stay with the healthy cereals that do not contain a lot of unnecessary sugar.
Proteins can be found in lean meats such as poultry or fish. You can also get protein from eating some fruits and vegetables. These will also supply you with the vitamins and minerals your body needs to function properly.
Believe it or not, there are actually good fats that exist and your body does need them. These can be found in more healthy oils such as olive or flaxseed oils. Always cook with these oils whenever possible and stay away from foods full of vegetable oils and other very fatty substances.
As a general rule, you should eat somewhere between five to eight meals a day. These will need to be small meals. Eating three large meals a day will keep you from gaining unnecessary weight and will also help your body process the food you eat throughout the day. It also enables you to feed your muscles both before and after your workouts. You can even use dietary supplements to aid in gaining muscle mass, as you will discover in the next section.
You should balance your diet by consuming all three of the components listed above in each meal. It is a good idea to vary the amount of carbs you eat, making sure three out of the five to eight meals contain low carbs. Low carbs are a good idea first thing in the morning because your body doesn’t need to process a lot of sugars at that time. The key is to find just the right balance so you do not remain hungry between meals and your muscles are well fed for both the workout and recovery processes. The dietary supplements you use will also help with this as they are specifically designed to help you gain the lean muscle mass you desire.
Using Dietary Supplements To Gain Lean Muscle Mass
Dietary supplements are often used in conjunction with a healthy diet and exercise plan to aid in gaining lean muscle mass. There are many to choose from and they can be quite costly, but there are several that are safe, healthy and won’t break the bank. The key is finding the ones that work for you and sticking with them.
Protein is one of the most common dietary supplements weight trainers use. It is most often used in powder form since this is easy to add to various foods and beverages. One great way to utilize protein powder is by making protein shakes. These can be concocted in a variety of ways. Some people add ice cream or low fat frozen yogurt along with fruit or even peanut butter with the powder added in for a very tasty option. Another would be to make a fruit and yogurt smoothie, then add the protein powder. No matter how you use it, protein is good to consume both before and after workouts. It helps the muscles while you are exercising and subsequently aids them in the recovery process. This is why it should always be a part of the post-workout meal. Be sure to still eat plenty of protein in your diet because your body will need it.
Multivitamins can also be considered dietary supplements. They contain all the essential vitamins your body needs to function as it should and build strong, lean muscles. While you will get vitamins and minerals in many of the foods you eat, your body will need the extra as you are putting it through the riggers of a workout. Even if you eat a vitamin rich diet, it is possible to miss a few essential vitamins. Failing to get even one of the essentials can keep you from gaining lean muscle mass or at the very least, slow down the process entirely. You will take one multivitamin a day, preferably in the morning since this is usually the easiest time for most people to remember to do it. When selecting a multivitamin, choose that is made up of whole foods and not synthetic ingredients.
Glutamine is another dietary supplement that is important for building lean muscle mass. This is an amino acid that is naturally produced in muscles. It aids in recovery and helps prevent you from losing muscle. You will need to take a glutamine supplement an hour before working out. Be sure to follow the dosage instructions on the package and don’t exceed the recommended dose.
As stated above, there are many different types of dietary supplements available. These are just a few that are extremely important to lean muscle growth. Before taking any type of supplement, you should always know what it is and what it is designed to do. Read all instructions before using and follow all directions. This will help you both before and after the exercise part of your fitness plan, which you will learn about in the next section.
Lean Muscle Mass Workouts
Knowing what exercises to do in order to gain the lean muscle mass you want is important. You learned in an earlier section that training for the longer, leaner muscles requires less weight and a higher number of repetitions, otherwise known as reps. This is what will keep your muscles toned instead of bulking you up.
When you begin planning your workouts, you will need to concentrate on exercises that will target each muscle group. Some people choose to work their arms and shoulders on Monday, Wednesday and Friday while working their back and legs on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. You may even want to combine it all into four or five days a week so you will have two to three for rest.
The key to your workouts will be choosing one that is designed specifically to help you gain lean muscle. Weights or cables are best for weight training. While machines will certainly work, they won’t give you the free motion and versatility that weights and cables will, which is why they are preferred.
When building lean muscle mass, use multi-joint, compound exercises. This will exercise more than just one muscle or part of the body at a time. This can include: squats, deadlifts, bench presses, stiff legged deadlifts, bent-over rows and close-grip bench presses.
When you are building lean muscle, you want to stay away from the isolation exercises that only target one part of your body at a time. These include: flyes, concentration curls, leg curls and leg extensions.
Add cardio to your routine. Many weight trainers begin their routines with five minutes of light cardio. This warms up the muscles and prepares them for the strength training to come. It would also benefit you to always stretch both before and after your workouts. This also helps to warm up your muscles and can help avoid injury.
Take recovery time seriously. When your muscles are worked hard, the fibers are broken down. Since you will be using lighter weights and doing more reps, you may not feel the need to always let your body rest. This, however, is essential to building lean muscle and not sustaining injury. Your muscles need time to recover in order for proper growth to take place. Your body will thank you for it in the long run by responding accordingly.
You can always consult a gym if you are unsure about the specific exercises you should add to your routine. A trainer will be able to give you tips just for you and you will then be able to put together the right exercise plan. Next, read about the benefits you will receive when gaining lean muscle mass.
The Benefits of Building Lean Muscle Mass
Building lean muscle mass provides many benefits. You will be physically fit and strong. Strength serves a multitude of purposes. It enables your body to withstand medical procedures and surgeries and helps you recover from various diseases and conditions more quickly.
Building lean muscle mass also helps to preserve and prolong your life. You will be lowering your risk of disease, especially where the heart is concerned. A stronger body means a stronger heart and this will serve you well into the future.
Building lean muscle mass will also help raise your metabolism. This will give you energy throughout the day so you can work more efficiently.
As you age, your muscles will become weaker and smaller. Building lean muscle mass and maintaining it throughout your life will keep this from occurring. While you may need to work a bit harder as the aging process takes hold, maintaining your muscle tone won’t be as difficult as it would be if you had not been building it over time.
The presence of lean muscle will also help you perform physical activities more easily. Your entire body will be stronger so you’ll be able to play your favorite sports.
Lean muscle will provide you with more muscle then fat which is healthier all around. This will shorten the recovery process whenever you are injured or fall ill.
There are also mental benefits to building lean muscle mass. Because you will have more energy, your ability to concentrate will increase. You may even find your short term memory improving because both your body and brain won’t be as tired.
Increasing lean muscle mass will also improve your physical appearance. This, too, can help with self-esteem. You will have the amazing body you’ve always dreamed of and will develop a more positive attitude about how you look.
Developing lean muscle mass will make you look and feel great. Once you get into the routine of a healthy diet and exercise plan, you will see positive changes occurring almost right away. Though it does take hard work to get the muscles you desire, you will find it worth it all in the end. Once you have built your lean muscle mass, you will be used to your daily routine. This will make it easier to maintain throughout your life. The changes that occur will bring about other positive changes and events that you’ll find forever rewarding.
Lean Muscle Mass and Good Health
As you read in the previous section, lean muscle mass can promote overall good health. Though genetics do play a significant role here, losing fat and gaining lean muscle mass can make a very big difference in how you feel and how healthy you actually are throughout your life.
Eating healthy is the first step. A well-balanced diet, as previously described, will provide your body with all the nutrients that are needed for muscles, bones and organs to function as they should.
Exercise is the second component to building lean muscle mass and working toward overall health. This is what will actually begin the muscle building process.
You can exercise every day, but if you aren’t eating foods that are good for you, it won’t give you the desired result. The same goes for eating healthy without exercising. The two go hand in hand.
Once you have established a diet and exercise regimen, you will begin to notice a big difference in how you look and feel. Your body will feel better as a whole. Eating healthy will make it easier for your food to digest. This will help all the systems that enable your body to function work properly.
By eating healthy and exercising, you will strengthen your heart and facilitate blood flow to all parts of your body. This can help to reverse heart disease in some cases and decrease your chances of a heart attack or stroke.
Cardio exercises are very important to good health and should be incorporated into your fitness regimen. It is recommended you complete cardio for at least 30 minutes a day in order for keep your heart and other organs healthy. This should occur three to five times a week. You can alternate it with your strength training. While you will do five or so minutes of cardio before your weight routines, 30 minutes of cardio first thing in the morning will benefit you the most. This will increase your metabolism and provide you with energy throughout the day. It will also help you burn more calories.
When putting your diet and exercise regimen together, keep good health in mind. Know what you objective is and incorporate elements that will enable you to achieve it. Don’t try to push yourself beyond your limits. This can actually have the adverse affect, thus damaging your muscles and other parts of your body. You can also sustain injury if you over use your muscles, which will then result in a set back.
Most of all, have fun. Eating healthy isn’t so difficult once you get used to it and exercising can be very rewarding. The more enthusiastic you are about your daily regimen, the better the results you will receive. Now it’s time to learn how you can increase muscle mass over time.
Tips for Increasing Lean Muscle Mass Over Time
Since you are working so hard to build lean muscle mass, you will want to take the necessary steps that will enable you to increase and maintain it over time. As was discussed earlier in this guide, as you move toward the aging process, you will be more likely to lose muscle tone. Continuing your diet and exercise program will help you maintain your muscle tone. As you grow older, it may be necessary to change up your routine a bit so your muscles will remain as toned as they are now. You will even be able to increase your muscle mass this way. Below are some tips that will help you with this process.
It is recommended to perform eight to 12 reps of eight to ten exercises in your normal routine. These should target the following muscle groups: chest, back, shoulders, upper legs, lower legs and arms. Free weights are recommended, but if you are unable to sue them, the machines will work. The key is to stick with multi-joint compound exercises as mentioned earlier. These exercises will work more than one muscle at a time. If you are 65 or older, you should strength train two to three times a week. Be sure to add more reps with lighter weights. Your fitness level should be taken into account. Overuse can cause injury, so be careful not to push yourself too hard.
Exercise your whole body. As your muscles get weaker, exercise will become more important. Getting your entire body in shape will help you remain physically fit.
Listen to your body. As you age, it may be necessary to decrease the amount of exercise you do. You may also need to use lighter weights when strength training. If you feel you are over using your muscles, pay close attention to what your body is telling you and adjust your fitness routine accordingly.
Maintain your cardio. This is very important, especially since cardiovascular exercise works wonders for heart health. Though you will be incorporating five minutes of cardio into the beginning of your strength training routine, you may also want to add 30 to 45 minutes of cardio to your exercise regimen. It is recommended you do this three to four days a week.
As you age, your body will change. This is inevitable, but you can still maintain muscle tone along the way. Remember, you are never too old to exercise. You will, of course, need to take any existing health conditions into account, and choose your exercises accordingly. If you begin working out before you begin going through the aging process, you will have an overall healthier body and can then maintain the lean muscle mass you’ve worked so hard to achieve. Next, you will learn how to calculate your lean body mass and how it will help you continue to increase your lean muscle mass over time.
Calculating Lean Body Mass (LBM) In Order To Increase Muscle Mass
Lean body mass, or LBM, is an estimation of how much you weigh without factoring in your body fat. This basically means the amount your bones and organs weigh. By measuring your LBM, you will be able to get a good idea of the amount of lean muscle mass you are gaining. The same is true of losing muscle.
This is a critical number when you are trying to gain or lose weight. This makes it more important to you than your body weight because it gives you an accurate way to find out just how much lean muscle mass you are truly gaining.
It is entirely possible for two people who weigh the same to look radically different. This difference is, in part, due to their LBM numbers. You can weigh the same as your exercise partner in body weight but both have different LBMs.
Because your ultimate goal is to lose fat and gain muscle instead, your LBM will give you an accurate idea of the success of your training. That is why it is useful to know how to calculate your lean body mass.
You must first get your actual body weight, then take your body fat percentage. Once you have done this, your LBM is easy to calculate. You will be calculating your body fat in pounds, then subtracting that number from your actual body weight.
There are equations you can use when calculating LBM. You may also choose to use online calculators to help you come up with the answer. The equations are as follows:
Body fat in LBs equals (total body weight)*(body fat percentage) in decimal form
Lean body mass equals total body weight-body fat in LBs
This can be illustrated as follows:
The lean body mass of a person weighing 173 LBs who has a body fat percentage of 17.5 percent could be calculated in this way:
(173)*(.175) equals 30.3 LBs of body fat
173-30.3 equals 142.7 LBM
The accuracy of the number you receive when calculating your lean body mass will depend on the accuracy of the numbers you use in your equations. Because it can be difficult to calculate your exact body fat percentage due to the various methods available for use, you should not always consider your LBM to be an accurate gauge of your exact fitness level. Instead, use it as a ball park figure of sorts to help determine where you are in relation to where you need to be in order to achieve your specific fitness goals. Keep in mind, you will use these goals as you work to maintain lean muscle mass throughout your entire life.
Maintaining Lean Muscle Mass for Life
Now that you have learned how to build lean muscle mass, it’s time to talk about how to maintain it for the rest of your life. You’ve learned what is needed to acquire lean muscles and keep the amazing body you’ve worked so hard to achieve.
The key to building lean muscle mass for life is sticking with the plan. This means continuing to maintain your healthy diet and exercise regularly. Before long, you will grow used to the positive lifestyle changes you have made and they will become integrated into your everyday routine.
Always set aside time for exercise. Even if you split up your routine a bit, doing cardio in the morning and strength training in the afternoon, you should always make sure you have time for fitness. This shows you are putting good health first, the end results of which will remain visible in many ways throughout your life.
Eating a healthy diet all the time can be very difficult, especially with all the temptation you may find around you. Often times, people commit to lose weight or gain lean muscle mass and are able to do so for a time before dropping the program altogether and reverting back to their old eating and exercise habits. Even more often, many people join a gym, only to quit a few weeks or months later.
Working out can be taxing but also very rewarding. If you tough it out and work through the difficulty of beginning a weight training program, you will find it gets easier as you go along.
Eating a healthy diet and working out all at the same time presents some major life changes that are hard to incorporate into your daily routine at the same time. You can begin by thinking positive. Remind yourself of your ultimate goal which is to build lean muscle mass. Since you want it to remain for the rest of your life, you’ll need to keep reminding yourself of that goal. Once you have begun eating healthy and working through your new exercise routines, the task at hand will become even more important. The first time you notice a positive change in your body, you’ll most likely be encouraged to keep going. It’s the results you receive that serve as great motivation and they are definitely all worth the effort and hard work you are putting into your new life changes on an ongoing basis.
Just think of all the information you have gained from this guide alone. You have learned what lean muscle mass is and how muscle fibers are built. You know how diet and exercise play an important part in gaining lean muscle mass and the role of dietary supplements.
You are aware of the benefits of gaining lean muscle mass and the positive effects it will have on your health. You have also acquired some useful tips along the way, learned how to calculate your lean body mass and now know just what it takes to maintain your lean muscle mass for life. Now all you have to do is formulate a plan and begin.
