How to Build Lean Muscle?

When it comes to getting in shape, there’s one thing we all aspire towards – lean muscle. It’s about cutting body weight and gaining muscle mass, leading to a fitter, healthier and more athletic physique than mere weight loss can provide.

However, with weight loss typically comes muscle loss, making the building and maintaining lean muscle not quite as simple as you might imagine. So, how is it done? Here’s five tips.

Alter your diet

Your diet plays a huge role not just in losing weight, but putting on muscle too. Believe it or not, not all foods are created equal, and some can have an incredible role in helping you tack on muscle. We’re talking about staples like brown rice, cantaloupe, eggs, spinach, quinoa, oranges, apples, cottage cheese, beef (grass fed) and beetroot.

Each of these foods is easy to source, easy to cook with and utterly delicious, but their primary upside is that they’ll help you grow your muscle mass whilst losing fat at the same time.

Be prepared to eat more often

Are you a three-meal-a-day sort of person? Well, be prepared to eat more often. If you’re serious about gaining muscle, it’s recommended that you eat five to eight times a day. Of course, this food should be lean and nutritionally valuable (like those listed above), but you’ll find that by eating more often your muscle mass grows much quicker than if you paired a low-calorie diet with regular training.

Learn to love the gym

Most people looking to improve their physical health visit the gym once or twice a week, but if you’re serious about gaining lean muscle you’re going to have to hit the gym much more often. We’re talking about three to six times per week, with the majority of those sessions including weight training.

The more muscle you develop, the more calories you’re going to burn and the more food you’re going to have to eat to feed those muscles. It’s a cycle, and if you can get yourself into the groove, you’ll find lean muscle comes as naturally to you as perfect squat form does.

Don’t be afraid of cardio

Some might try to tell you that if your goal is lean muscle, you should avoid cardio. The reason for that is because cardio is terrific for burning fat, but hasn’t traditionally been recognised for its role in supporting muscle growth.

Well, we’re here to tell you that it’s simply not true – cardio does play an important role. Specifically, cardio increases blood flow, which in turn increases nutrient delivery to your muscles, helping them to repair, recover and grow to the height of their potential.

Of course, it should be stressed than an all-cardio plan won’t result in lean muscle, so be wary that though it has its place, it’s no silver bullet.

Get enough rest and relaxation in

It’s hard to overestimate the impact that sleep has on your body. Without enough of it, your body can’t function properly, resulting in not only a lack of concentration in everyday life, but also lower performance, slower recovery, worse eating habits and lowered motivation. Put simply? It’s crucial to your achieving your fitness goals.

If you are passionate about fitness the why not turn your passion into your profession by becoming a fitness instructor. Lifetime Training offers a range of fitness instructor courses to suit all levels. Get in touch to find out more!