Building muscle quickly is all a matter of perception, and muscles is a natural fat fighter. Fast, in this case, means months or even years depending on one's workout plan. It takes commitment, dedication, and patience. You can't start a workout routine to build muscle and notice much of a difference to your muscle mass in the first month or two. You can, however notice the difference in how you feel, increase your stamina and lose weight almost immediately when accompanied by a proper nutritional diet. Feeling better and losing weight should be the incentive that will keep you on track to achieve your goals with your workouts routine to build a lean body.
Set goals! Make short term and long term goals as it relates to your workout routine. Don't set goals that are unattainable or out of reach. Write them down. Then you can take pride and have a sense of accomplishment when they are achieved. When you go to the gym or work out, keep track of what you have done. You want to balance your workouts to assure that you are working all of the muscles in your body. Workout hard between 40 to 70 minutes, 3 or 4 times a week and never for more than 90 minutes at a time.
Turn single joint exercises into multi-joint as much as possible. When doing a bicep curl you are bringing your wrist up to your shoulder and back down again utilizing one joint, your elbow. Try this instead. When bringing your wrist to your shoulder move your elbow toward your back in more of a rowing manner. You still have the elbow flexion, but now you have the shoulder moving and utilizing all of the muscles around it, in your chest and back. The last exercise has accomplished much more in the same amount of time.
When doing squats often considered the king of muscle building exercises, you stand with your legs about shoulder width apart, feet pointed straight out, drop your hips back keeping your upper body straight. Drop down as if you are sitting down in a chair and stop when your knees hit about a 90 degree angle. This is putting pressure on your quads, hamstrings and gluts. Then you come back up and do it again. Now try it this way instead. Keep the instructions for the squats the same except when you come up, jump up, bringing your arms over your head jumping jack style, clap your hands together and repeat. Not only are you utilizing almost every muscle but you are using all of the smaller muscles that help you stabilize your body. This helps you gain and maintain a more efficient body and builds muscle mass more quickly with faster weight loss.
Hundreds of books have been written about weight loss and fitness nutrition. I'm going to try to fit some of the most helpful information into this paragraph. With a workout routine, natural whole foods are the best. Stay away from processed food as much as possible. Protein is a necessary part of your diet for the growth of muscles. This includes lean red meat, dairy products (egg are very high in protein), fish and chicken among others. Do not cut them out of your diet.
Soy protein is not a great source of protein and shouldn't be substituted as the main protein in your diet. Only eat carbs after a workout and limit your intake. Eat 6 to 8 small meals every 2 to 3 hours daily. Eat vegetables with every meal, yes, every meal! One of the great things about vegetables is they are low in calories. Only drink water and green tea.
Below is my favorite recipe and I prepare it in much larger batches and separate it into smaller portions that are easy to take anywhere and microwave.
Total calories for this meal is 390, protein 29g, fat 20g and is perfect for my caloric intake with 6 meals a day. 4 ounces (1 cup) Oriental vegetables, 3 ounces lean sirloin, 3 or 4 dashes of soy sauce, 1 tsp teriyaki sauce, 1tsp lemon juice, 1tsp lime juice, 1tsp minced garlic, 1 large red bell pepper, 1 cup of frozen green beans, 1tsp BBQ sauce, 1Tbs Olive oil Salt & Pepper to taste.
Blanch vegetables in boiling water for 5 minutes. Drain vegetables and sautee in frying pan with olive oil, minced garlic, salt and pepper until the vegetables are starting to brown. Cut sirloin into small bite size pieces and add to frying pan along with the remainder of the ingredients. Simmer for 5 to 10 minutes or until sirloin is cooked to your desired temperature. Then dig in and Enjoy! Don't Forget to check out some of my books on diet and exercise and the different types of workout routines here.