Using a combination of a balanced diet and heavy lifting, you can add muscle without gaining a great deal of fat. Getting enough protein, enough training and enough rest can lead to improvements in your physique, as well as strength and power. Using compound exercises and high intensity exercise is the key to getting the most out of your workouts. Consult your physician before beginning any diet or exercise program.
Compound Exercises
A compound exercise is an exercise that spans multiple joints and recruits multiple muscles. A good example is the squat, in which you flex at the hips, knees, and ankles, while recruiting your legs, hips and core. The deadlift is performed in a similar manner, but it also recruits the upper back and stresses the lower back more heavily. Chin-ups and rows span the shoulder and elbow joints, and stress the back, biceps, forearms and posterior deltoids, or the muscles on the back of the shoulders. Both the bench press and military press span the shoulder and elbow joints, and the bench press works the chest, shoulders and triceps. The military press works the shoulders and triceps and stresses many muscles of the upper body for stability.
Training
To get the most out of your workouts, you need to train with a high degree of intensity, preferably more than 75 percent of your one-repetition maximum for each lift. This will help elevate your testosterone levels, which contributes to your ability to build muscle. You should also keep your rest periods short, no more than 90 seconds. This will help keep cortisol levels low, and cortisol is a hormone that can contribute to muscle wasting as well as fat storage. Train your entire body three times a week on nonconsecutive days. This will give you plenty of time to rest.
Protein and Carbohydrates
You need protein, possibly twice as much protein as an inactive individual. You should try and get most of your protein from whole food sources, such as beef, chicken, milk, eggs and fish. If necessary, supplement between meals with a protein shake, but be sure and read the ingredient labels before you purchase so you do not get unwanted fat and sugars. You need carbohydrates to fuel your workouts and to replace the sugar that you burn while training. This is particularly true post-workout, where your muscle and blood sugar levels are low and insulin levels are high. This is the ideal time to consume a shake of dextrose and whey, which is easily digestible and will not only help you recover, but help you grow.
Fats Are Essential
Steroidal hormones, such as testosterone, are produced from dietary sterols, such as cholesterol. It is for this reason that a diet too low in fat can reduce your ability to produce testosterone. You also need essential fatty acids, such as omega-3 and omega-6, which are both required for your body to convert the sterols to steroidal hormones. You should get fat in your diet, but still avoid saturated fat and trans-fatty acids. Oily fish, such as salmon and swordfish, are high in omega-3, and flax, nuts and seeds are all high in omega-6.
References
- PubMed.gov: Acute Hormonal and Neuromuscular Responses to Hypertrophy, Strength and Power Type Resistance Exercise
- PubMed.gov: Acute Testosterone and Cortisol Responses to High Power Resistance Exercise
- "Journal of the American College of Nutrition"; "Beyond the Zone: Protein Needs of Active Individuals, Individuals"; Lemon; 2000
- PubMed.gov: Dietary Supplements Affect the Anabolic Hormones After Weight-Training Exercise
- PubMed.gov: Decrease of Serum Total and Free Testosterone During a Low-Fat High-Fiber Diet
- PubMed: Dietary Omega-3 Fatty Acid Supplementation Increases the Rate of Muscle Protein Synthesis in Older Adults: a Randomized Controlled Trial
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