Some people increase their muscle mass for sport, where others do it because they have to or because they enjoy it. There is information in this article will help you build the muscles of your dreams. This helpful information is detailed in the following article.
To increase muscle mass in the most efficient way possible, you need to warm up before each and every workout. When your muscles become stronger, they’ll experience lots of additional stress making them susceptible to injury. That is why you need to warm up. Prior to lifting, exercise lightly for about 10 minutes, and follow it up with about 4 light warm-up sets.
Set short term goals and give rewards to yourself when they’re achieved. Achieving long term goals requires that you provide yourself with motivation along the way. Make your rewards coincide with your goal to gain muscle. For instance, you can get an hour-long massage. Massages help you recover in between workouts, and they also improve blood circulation.
You must eat carbohydrates, if you wish to build muscle. Carbs give your body the fuel it needs to do the exercise you have to do every day. When you work out heavily, you should have between two to three grams of carbohydrates for every pound of your body weight.
Stretch for a few minutes after working out in order to facilitate muscle repair. Someone who is under forty should hold each stretch at least thirty seconds. People over that age need to hang on longer; holding each stretch for a full minute is recommended. This way you’ll be less likely to become injured as you complete your exercises.
You should not increase your protein intake the minute you begin working out. This calorie increase can lead to weight gain if there is not enough exercise. Gradually boost your protein intake by just a hundred calories a day or so. This gives your body the opportunity to convert the new fuel into muscle tissue.
One deterrent of successful muscle-building can be slow-growing muscle groups. Fill sets are an effective means of targeting those difficult muscle groups. A set of about 25 to 30 reps is sufficient in order to target this group. Do this about 2 to 3 days after you worked on the group.
One way to work around muscle groups that are holding you back is “pre-exhausting.” For instance, your biceps could fatigue before lats on rows. Using an exercise that isolates your lats first, a straight-arm pull-down for example, gives your lats a harder workout than your biceps. Your lats will already be tired, allowing your biceps to keep pace with them as you exercise.
Carefully choose the exercises that you include in your routine; certain ones may actually make it more difficult to build muscle. It is quite possible to sustain an injury by doing neck movements, split squats and dips, as they can place joints in precarious positions. Instead, use heavier weights primarily for exercises such as rows, presses, deadlifts and squats.
Hopefully you’ve found information here that you can use to improve your muscle and weight lifting routines. Take note of some of these tips, and read them as often as you need to in order to put the information to use. Soon you will be on the road to reaching your fitness and bodybuilding goals.