Many people want to lose weight. They want to look toned. They don't want to build muscle. They don't want to bulk up. Losing weight and gaining muscle is not just a simple crunch of numbers. You may have heard that you should be eating 1,200 calories a day so you can burn off a pound of fat in a week… or something similar to that effect. If that isn't enough for you: Forward Thinking Fitness is here to tell you that you WANT to build more muscle. Why? An increase in muscle mass helps to boost your metabolism and helps to give you that toned appearance you're craving.
Resistance-Training Workouts
When Forward Thinking Fitness looks at body transformations, we have to set realistic goals for clients. Typically, we will re-evaluate our clients every six to eight weeks to see how they've progressed and if those goals were crushed (almost always, yes). But most people, after we explain the way you need to get toned, ask us: “How much muscle can I gain in a month?” To get to that answer, we need to take a look at physical activity levels, nutrition intake and hormone balance.
When it comes to physical activity, the only types of workouts that will help with muscle gain are resistance-training workouts. These can be high intensity, heavy lifting or just general compound movement workouts—think weighted squats or a dumbbell press. When you train your muscles to resist weight, the muscles break down. This allows them to regrow and repair at a larger size through proper nutrition.
Macronutrients
With your nutrition intake, we need to take a look at three different macronutrients that are essential to your well-being. Protein is the first and most important factor to build muscle. Diets high in protein help with the muscle building process, as they are the essential building blocks for muscle growth. Carbohydrates are necessary for energy expenditure in order to go through with some of those workouts that are necessary in order to start the process to build muscle. Lastly, healthy fats are important because they help round out your nutrition intake and also help to keep your body fat at bay.
Hormones
This is where things get a little complicated. Three hormones are responsible for muscle protein synthesis: Growth Factor 1, Growth Hormone and Testosterone. These hormones increase in activity after a workout to help with rebuilding that muscle you just tore down. Some of them are released at their greatest strength during sleep, which is why getting a good six to eight hours of sleep at night is super important for your health!
Age & Sex
Women are less muscular than their male counterparts and gain less muscle mass than men because their baseline for muscle mass tends to be lower. There are plenty of studies out there detailing muscle gains for women. While some studies have shown up to 1.5 pounds of growth for women starting their resistance training from ground zero, Forward Thinking Fitness has seen up to 2.5 pounds of muscle growth in six weeks during our programming for our female clients. Certainly, as training continues, the muscle growth gets a little slower. Just as well, older females have a more difficult time building muscle. This is because you may need to put in more consistent work to get back the same results as a younger counterpart would have.
Change
So how do we combat this so we can get you to that lean body mass that you're looking to get to? The answer is simple. Change up your routine, and be consistent with your nutrition!
Here are some easy tips to help you along the way:
- If you are currently taking in .5 grams of protein for each pound your body weighs, increase it to 1 gram.
- Take in at least 20 grams of protein after a workout.
- Consume protein right before bed for additional benefit of restoring your torn-down tissue.
- Constantly vary the exercises you perform, weight you lift, reps you do and the sets you run through.
- Partake in resistance training at least three times per week.
- Supplement with a protein powder. This is an easy way to get in 20–30 grams in a filling and satisfying shake.
If you are looking to get toned and have the body you've always wanted, hit the weights and don't look back. You'll be surprised when you put on a little over a pound of muscle in just four short weeks!
Forward Thinking Fitness | 6750 Iroquois Trl. Suite 12, Allentown | trainftf.com
This post is a sponsored collaboration between Forward Thinking Fitness and Lehigh Valley Style.
