Buff Body Solutions: Tips for Building Lean, Defined Muscles
Understanding health and fitness can be confusing at the best of times – the science of it all is pretty complicated, and it feels as though opinions are constantly changing. One minute, numerous studies apparently support a particular claim or exercise, then the next, a new study shows that doing the very same thing is terrible for your health and could lead to health issues for your body and health!
What do you do when one expert says one thing and another with the same amount of clout says another?
Fortunately, there are some simple solutions that more or less stay the same no matter what as you go through the process of building lean muscles, and making the most of your body. If you’re looking for chiseled abs, amazing biceps, and an incredible six pack just in time for the holiday season, the following tips could be ideal for you.
1. Increase Protein and Reduce Carbohydrates
As difficult as the task may seem to be, the first step in building muscle definition for a lean body, is passing on the pizza and junk food in exchange for protein. The key to lean muscle mass is to lower your regular intake of simple carbohydrates, and improve the amount of protein you get every day.
If you already have some bulk to your body, then you should aim to decrease body fat, whereas if you’re pretty skinny, you’ll need a bulk-training program that focuses on limited carbs.
Remember that bulking up tends to come with a pretty significant cost in terms of energy. The more muscle you pack onto your body, the more calories you will be burning, and the harder you will find it to do some tasks. On the other hand, aiming for definition leaves you stronger and robust for everyday activities. What you eat is crucial, but exercise helps too, so make sure you’re getting the right workouts into your routine.
2. Start Using Power-Based Exercises
When developing a new workout, your starting move should be a power-based pull or push exercise, like an incline bench press, heavy bench, or weighted pullup. As you start to increase the weight, you should be decreasing your reps so that you can build more mass. For the first set, warmup with around 10 reps at 50% of your standard rep max, and gradually move up. Remember to rest for a couple of minutes between each round to ensure that you don’t end up with an injury or debilitating issue.
3. Don’t be Afraid of Exhaustion
It may not sound like the most fun in the world, but if you’re looking for lean and defined muscles, then you’re going to need to exhaust your muscle groups. This means pushing yourself to the max with an exercise that requires some control – even though you may feel as though you’re at the point of serious fatigue. Consider using a dumbbell press or pushups, and do as many reps as you can before relaxing for a minute.
You do not want to hurt yourself though, you have to know when to stop and what your limit is. Though as you work out, you should be able to push past that limit a little more each time.
4. Make Use of Super Sets
Try to avoid the principles typically associated with bulking up, even if you’re starting from a particularly skinny frame. For lean-muscle building exercises, you need to use exhaustive supersets that will help you to tear through leftover muscle fibers and force your body to repair itself even stronger and better than before.
Make sure to complete around fifteen reputation for four rounds, with short periods of rest between each set. Your sets should alternate between push and pull, so the first superset may contain stability ball hamstring curls and glute ham raises, while the second includes step ups and lunges with dumbbells.
5. Take Care of Your Body
When building muscle or working out, it’s important to remember that recovery drinks aren’t just there as a way to treat yourself after a difficult couple of hours at the gym. By staying hydrated with a complex protein and carbohydrate beverage during your workout routines, you should be able to replenish the crucial sugars your body is using up during exercise. This means that the nitrogen pool in your body will be continuously filled to give you the best possible foundation for encouraging protein synthesis.
Naked and Odwalla offer outstanding health drinks for anyone working out or about to work out. Some of them do not taste so good but they are healthy! Drinking some Coca Cola is certainly not helpful for your body.
Also, don’t neglect rest and recovery. The only time that your body can truly start to resynthesize is during period of rest, when you’re sleeping. Make sure that you get at least seven hours of snooze every night (although eight to nine may be even better). While your goal is to get lean, you also need to be sure that you can stay healthy.
About Benjamin Roussey Benjamin is from Sacramento, CA. He has two master’s degrees and served four years in the US Navy. He enjoys sports, movies, reading, and current events when he is not working online.