According to Texas, bigger is better, but in actuality, bigger isn’t always better. There is nothing wrong with getting bigger, in fact, a lot of people have that as one of their goals but in our eyes, if you are wanting to get bigger than that better come with gaining more strength. The two can certainly go hand in hand. As your muscles grow, they literally get bigger which could give you a bigger physique if that is what you are going for. You can also gain more muscle and get smaller too if you have some body fat to lose. Regardless of your goals, having muscle is important for the health of your body. Here are some tips to follow if you are looking to gain muscle in a quicker way but also gaining it in a healthy way.
Stop Cutting Calories
Your muscles can’t grow from nothing and they certainly can’t grow from a deficit in calories either. You need to eat more. If this is scary to you, rest assured that if you are eating correctly, then you don’t have to worry about gaining those unwanted pounds, but instead gaining the wanted muscle. Following these tips will help you gain the wanted muscle. To actually know what diet to follow to gain muscle, that should be left up to a registered dietitian to work one on one with you creating a program that is desired specifically for your body and your goals. However, according to National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA) guidelines, you’ll want about 12 to 15 percent of your daily caloric intake from protein, 55 to 60 percent from carbs, and 25 to 30 percent from fats.
Eat Protein
You need to make sure you are eating protein and then most likely you then need to eat more. Your body is constantly draining its protein reserves for other uses, like making hormones. Since your body is constantly using protein for multiple reasons it often leaves your muscle without a whole lot to work with. You need to build and store new proteins faster than your body breaks down old proteins. The golden rule is to consume 1 gram of protein for every pound of muscle your body weighs. For example, if you weight 17 pounds, then you need to consume 170 grams of protein per day.
Exercise Large Muscles
You don’t want to neglect the largest muscles in your body. Those are the muscles that will really be a big difference in your physique when they change in size. Focusing on the larger muscle groups a few times a week can create a difference in your physique. Of course, don’t forget to list heavy. Remember you are trying to gain muscle not maintain or lose any muscle either from a lot of cardio, for example.
Sleep
Sometimes it feels like a broken record, but really sleep is SUPER important. It is equally if not more important than your workouts. Of course, don’t take this to the extreme and think that just sleeping will create more muscle–it doesn’t quite work that way. Studies show that a challenging resistance training workout increases protein synthesis for up to 48 hours immediately after your exercise session, so after a big workout day, take it easy. Your muscles grow when you’re resting, not when you’re working out.
Eat Cabs After a Workout
It may sound scary to eat carbohydrates when you aren’t working out, but research shows that you’ll rebuild muscle faster on your rest days if you feed your body carbohydrates. Not only on rest days but consuming post-workout meals with carbs increases your insulin levels which then slows the rate of protein breakdown.
