A lean body has a healthy proportion of muscle mass. Muscles make your body appear trim and also strengthen it. However, people go wrong in their muscle building endeavour often. It is useful to know of a few basic tips to build muscle. If you want to build muscle, remember the most important thing is to increase the intensity of exercise.
We have to challenge our body by doing more repetitions, lifting heavier weights etc. This helps to build muscle in our body. But, why is it so important to increase the load or intensity of exercise every time. Suppose we do 5 sets of a particular exercise. Our body is very intelligent and figures out how much muscle we need to do 5 repetitions. It will build equivalent amount of muscle in our body. If we continue to do the same number of repetitions, our muscle mass will not increase. This is because we already have enough muscle to do 5 repetitions.
On the other hand, our body will need to build muscle if we increase the number of repetitions. This will happen because our body does not have enough muscle mass to do more than 5 repetitions. So, we must continually challenge our body by doing more strenuous exercises. This will make our body build more muscle with time.
Diet aids immensely to build muscle in our body. Your daily diet should include whole grains, vegetables, fruits, dairy products and lean meats. In addition, take some muscle building supplements and protein powders. To build muscle you will also have to eat some extra calories, as the activity of building muscle requires extra energy. The number of extra calories required is not the same for everyone. However, most of the people need to eat about 250-500 extra calories daily. You have to be very careful with your intake of extra calories. If you eat more calories than are required to build muscle in your body, they will get stored as fatty tissue in your body.
Do not be disappointed if you do not get great results after following all the rules to build muscle. There are many factors that help to build muscle, apart from the exercise you do daily. Your genetics and hormones affect the built of your body enormously. Also, be patient with your progress. You will not build muscle overnight; the changes will be noticeable slowly. Most of the men gain about 0.25 and 0.5 pounds of muscle weight in a week. On the other hand, the muscle weight gained by females is only about half of this.
