Building muscle has several advantages for women and shouldn't be avoided for fear of looking bulky. Besides making you stronger and increasing your endurance, muscles give your body shape and show people that you are active and fit. Having muscles helps you burn fat and raises your metabolism as well as strengthening your bones. Fortunately, building muscle isn't difficult. It takes a commitment of time and the knowledge of how to do it correctly.
Self-Assessment
To begin a muscle building regimen, you need to know how many calories you need to consume to fuel your new muscles.
Calculate your Basal Metabolic Rate with the formula:
655 + ( 4.35 x weight in pounds ) + ( 4.7 x height in inches ) - ( 4.7 x age in years ).
The number you get is the amount of calories needed to sustain your body in its current condition. Any excess calories that you eat will go toward fat storage or muscle growth, depending on whether you exercise.
As part of your self-assessment, you also need to determine your base strength. Spend a day at the gym or at home testing the weights to see which amounts are challenging. Keep a record of how much weight you should begin with on each particular exercise. Update it with your progress, each time you lift.
Food Intake
Muscles need fuel, but to avoid packing on fat with those muscles, you need to eat the right kinds of fuel. Protein contains amino acids, the building blocks of muscle fiber. According to Strong Lifts, a weight lifting website, you should eat 1 gram of protein for every pound of body weight. This protein can come in the form of meats, seafood, eggs or grain products, or it can come shakes or bars. Just watch your sugar and calorie intake with the shakes and bars, because they can often be high in sugar to make the products tastier.
Strength Training
Exercising for long periods of time isn't necessary and can sometimes hamper your efforts to build muscle by burning high amounts of calories that you need for growth. Choose a handful of compound exercises that work several muscles at once and do two sets of no more than 8 to 10 repetitions. Any more than that, and you are building endurance, not strength. Be sure to use weights that are challenging. You should barely be able to complete the last rep with good form. Free weights are recommended over machine weights, since they require extra muscles to stabilize the weight. Take a one-day break between lifting sessions to allow your muscles to heal.
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