Top 4 Must-Know Tips for Body Building
Muscle building is a process that takes massive effort, time and resources. Requiring patience, passion, commitment and consistency, the process of building muscles healthily requires a careful blend of good diet, Human Growth Hormone (HGH) levels, general exercises and muscle-targeted workouts.
Human Growth Hormone
Secreted by the anterior pituitary gland, Human Growth Hormone (HGH) promotes the synthesis of new protein tissues. It is deeply involved in muscle recovery (repair), which is part of the process of building new muscles. HGH also promotes the quality and duration of heart beats; boosts energy production, and enhances deep sleep. During intense workouts, longer periods of physical exhaustion and energy-consuming events, large quantities of Human Growth Hormone are usually produced, resulting in enhanced protein synthesis and muscle growth. To accelerate muscle building as a result of human growth hormone, muscle builders should opt for at least 7 hours of sleep every day because deep-enough sleep results in the production of large quantities of HGH as a deep sleep protection measure. Quantities of HGH in the body can also be increased through proper nutrition and supplementation.
Muscle Building Diet
The diet for building muscles should have a high calorific value. Experts recommend at least 2,500 calories per day. Secondly, the diet should contain at least 1 gram of protein for each pound of body weight in order to boost muscle growth. Eating regularly and drinking plenty of water will also accelerate muscle growth. Thirdly, muscle building diets should include sufficient quantities of fat to help with the distribution of vitamins A, D, E and K, and make the skin healthy. Necessary fats include monounsaturated fats (such as canola, olive, avocado, sesame oils and nuts), polyunsaturated fats (such as cottonseed, corn, flaxseed and soybean oil) and Omega-3 fats (from omega-3-enriched foods and fish such as sardines, trout, tuna and salmon). The diet should also contain sufficient quantities of minerals and vitamins.
Exercise Guidelines
To maximize on the diet and build muscles quickly and effectively, it is advisable to warm up before doing any intensive exercises. Low-intensity exercises such as simple jogs will get the mind and body into the right state and prevent injuries. Stretching of cold muscles is forbidden because pre-workout stretching can cause poor performance and result in injuries. Muscle building exercises should be intense but run for shorter durations of time. For instance, daily training schedules should not exceed 45 minutes but should involve harder exercises and heavier weights. Moreover, the entire body should be worked out during routine exercises in order to enhance the generation of hormones epinephrine and nor-epinephrine, which will stimulate muscle growth. Therefore, routine workouts should include compound exercises such as dead-lifts, rows, squats and pull-ups in order to use many different muscles.
Cardio training should be limited because intense cardio exercises will burn amino acids and glycogen and limit muscle growth. When cardio exercises are part of a muscle building plan, it is better to keep them light and to include more food to make up for the lost calories. Between workouts, it is critical to have proper rests so that the body can recover. In fact, muscle builders should have at least 7 hours of sleep every night and avoid alcohol and caffeine. Muscle builders must also avoid the temptation to over-train. Over-doing exercise regimen can engorge body muscles with oxygen-rich blood and cause muscle wasting. Over-training is characterized by insomnia, strength loss, chronic fatigue, loss of appetite, lowered sex drive, chronic soreness and depression, all of which are counterproductive to muscle building goals. Muscle builders should also find quicker and effective ways of relieving stress because the stress-related hormone cortisol can encourage the burning of muscle tissue.
Specific Muscle Exercises
Doing bench-presses routinely will help to build chest muscles while lifting weights and doing push-ups will work the triceps regularly and result in desirable muscle growth. Triceps can also be targeted with arm exercises such as dips, skull crushers and overhead dumbbell presses. Similarly, arm exercises such as individual arm curls with dumbbells, arm curls on weighted bars and pull-ups are effective for building biceps. The hamstrings and quads should be worked out with standard squats, Belgian squats with dumbbells and front squats with weighted bars. Likewise, abdominal muscles should be targeted with core exercises, planks and crunches (both oblique and standard crunches). The abdomen will define the muscles of the stomach and should be subjected to a variety of exercises.