Help - Can't gain any more muscle?
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Answers:
The following healthy living recommendations will help you if you’re trying to lose weight, tone up your muscles, have aspirations of building lean muscle mass, are attempting to get a wash board stomach, or just want to feel better:
*1) Burn more calories then you're consuming everyday and measure your results using the following formula: Calories Consumed minus Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) minus Physical Activity minus the Thermic Effect of Food (TEF). A website that explains this formula in more detail and will help you determine how many calories you need to reach or maintain a certain weight is at http://www.primusweb.com/fitnesspartner/library/weight/calsburned.htm
Get a diet and fitness calculator that you can put on your computer or cell phone. This will allow you to easily calculate the above formula, set goals, log your daily calorie consumption, and register your physical activities.
Set realistic goals for your ideal body weight. Here are two websites that will calculate a suggested body weight:
Adults: http://www.halls.md/ideal-weight/body.htm
Teens/Children: http://www.kidshealth.org/kid/exercise/weight/bmi.html
It is difficult and unhealthy to lose more than one or two pounds per week. There are 3,500 calories in a pound. If you eat 500 fewer calories per day for a week you will lose one pound. If you burn through exercise 500 more calories per day for a week you will lose one pound.
*2) Eat natural and organic foods found on earth versus something created by a corporation to make money. Eat meals in small portions throughout the day and take a good multi-vitamin supplement.
Avoid “High Glycemic Load Carbs” (sugar, pastries, desserts, refined starches such as breads, pasta, refined grains like white rice; high starch vegetables such as potatoes) and drink lots of water. Read this article for more information on high GL Carbs:
http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/carbohydrates.html
Do not try fad diets or diet pills. Here is an excellent food pyramid that anyone can follow: http://www.rayandterry.com/html/images/PyramidLRG.gif?osCsid=26a424be471d1337e7c2f105d5c64d9d
*3) Exercise on most days by doing cardiovascular training and/or resistance training activities.
Read a book or find a certified trainer to make sure your doing all resistance training exercises correctly. A great book to buy that teaches you the resistance training basics is “Weight Training for Dummies”. A superb magazine to buy with resistance training routines that will not get you bored is "Muscle and Fitness". Signup for the free newsletter. An excellent free online resource is at http://www.exrx.net/
A good book to buy that teaches you the cardiovascular training basics is “Fitness for Dummies”.
*4) Get plenty of sleep. Sleep experts say most adults need between seven and nine hours of sleep each night for optimum performance, health, and safety.
*5) Educate yourself continually on health issues and make a life long commitment to good health. A great free publication is “Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2005”. A superb book to read is “You The Owner’s Manual”. An excellent periodic publication is the “Nutrition Action Health Letter”. A reputable test you can take to measure your biological age is at http://realage.com
Look at all areas where you can enhance your health. For example, make improvements in the quality of the air you breathe. Review outdoor air quality forecasts where you live and get an indoor air purifier. Send me an email or yahoo instant message to "gainbetterhealth" if you want an indoor air purifier recommendation and if you have any questions.
*Click on all the source links below to get the full benefit of the recommendations. The answers presented to your health questions are not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health providers with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition.
Other Answers:
You need more sleep thats when your body creates more muscle. Switch up your routine do different exercises, because sounds like you hit a plateau. Ever been to www.bodybuilding.com before? They have good prices on supplements and lots of training articles.
Eat not just more protein (mainly whey and milk) but also carbs. Your total calorie consumption has to be higher than normal or your body won't synthesize any new tissue. This also means no aerobic exercise at all, while you're building mass.
Lift weights every 2-3 days, NOT every day.
You can't gain muscle mass without gaining fat, though. Your body either is in the state of anabolism (i.e. creating tissue) or catabolism (losing tissue) or some balance. This means that most of the weight you gain will be actually fat which you will have to burn later on with aerobic exercise. Don't expect to gain more than 1 pound of muscle per month, and perhaps as much as 3-4 pounds of fat per month. Either way, you should be gaining weight steadily.
Weight training can put alot of demands on your nervous system, to where you become "overtrained", and you become stagnant in your muscle gains, and can even actually lose muscle mass, especially if you are not getting enough rest.
"Muscle Confusion" is also a factor too.
If you do the same exercises, sets, reps, grips, and tempo, your body will adapt to that, and stop responding.
I suggest you take one week off, to let your body totally repair itself, mabey do some light cardio (fast walking) 2-3 times, in that week of rest. (to keep you interested).
And then when you get back into the weight training, start with just varying you reps and tempo, and work on different exercises, sets, and grips as you go along.
Try this for a rep and tempo change.
3 weeks.
12-15 reps. Fast.
3 weeks.
6-9 reps. Slow.
3 weeks.
9-12 reps. Fast.
3 weeks.
3-6 reps. Slow.
Train to absolute failure every other workout, and increase your protein intake, to 1 - 1 1/2 grams per pound of bodyweight. "Whey Protein" works well.
Good Luck
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