Do you want to bulk up? No problem, just lift weights, increase your calorie intake, and keep going. But if you're looking to develop lean muscle mass specifically for a ripped, muscular body, you'll need a more focused strategy.
Everything you do, from what you eat to how often and what kind of workouts you do, will have a big impact on whether or not you succeed in gaining lean muscle mass.
The following ten suggestions will help you on your path to getting jacked and shredded.
1. Increase The Frequency Of Your Workouts
If you want to keep the muscle you already have, going to the gym twice a week is acceptable, but if you want to add some size, you should think about going 4-5 times a week. The greater exposure to a training stimulus can aid in putting on mass, even though these sessions may need to be a little shorter to allow for recovery.
2. Change Up Your Strengths
While it is true that sets in the 8 to 12 rep range are particularly helpful for building muscle, keep in mind that your body is an adaptive creature that has to be challenged to change. Consider doing some lower-rep strength work for four weeks as well as some higher-rep (20 to 30-rep sets) strength-endurance work for a training block, as opposed to staying with a set and rep strategy for the entire season. Variety can encourage the growth of muscles.
3. Focus On The Big Lifts
Squats, deadlifts, overhead presses, and pullups are examples of compound exercises that employ a lot of muscle and effectively add mass. Additionally, during these workouts, you'll be able to load the bar with more weight, and last time we checked, moving more weight is a crucial part of developing more size.
4. Use Targeted Isolation Movements
Even while you should prioritize heavy weightlifting, your program can still include isolation exercises like biceps curls and calf raises. These workouts enable you to strengthen weak body areas and increase program volume, which is essential for gaining muscle. Additionally, because you cannot overload them with the same amount of weight as you can in a squat or deadlift, they are less stressful on your nervous system, allowing you to recover from them faster.
5. Put Recovery First
While your time in the gym will undoubtedly have a training effect, it is your time outside of the gym that will allow you to recover and progress.
Get decent, regular sleep (8–9 hours each night) and attempt to minimize outside stress in addition to making sure your eating is on target. How much these elements really have an impact on your potential to improve your body composition may surprise you.
6. Include Supplements
While taking supplements may not always be necessary, they can certainly fill up some nutritional gaps and enhance performance.There is evidence that supplements like creatine, fish oil, multivitamins, and post-workout drinks can improve strength, performance, and recuperation. And even if supplement results are hardly magical, if you haven't tried any of these tactics yet, it might be worthwhile to do so.
7. Stay The Course
While it's critical to switch up your training regularly enough to promote adaptability and prevent plateaus, it's equally crucial to stick with a regimen long enough to see results. It's crucial to provide your body the constant exposure to identical movement patterns over time that it needs to develop its strength and effectiveness. There's a reason why it's called "training."
8. Consume Lots Of Protein
You are aware that protein is essential for maintaining muscle mass and that most people consume far less protein than they require daily. If you want to gain some quality size, you should consume 8g to 1g of protein per pound of bodyweight.
