Toning up the body for muscular look

All those who take morning walks regularly and visit gyms have one object in common – to remain fit. However, there are many, who are keen to have a muscular body too.

However, a large number of such people make a common mistake of imitating professional bodybuilders. Following their routines will get you nowhere. The average person needs a different approach — one that builds muscle fast and prevents physical and mental overtraining from doing too much, too soon. These 10 tips will help you to build muscles.

1. Get Stronger
More strength is more muscle. Get into strength training — weight lifting is recommend because it allows you to start light and add weight endlessly. Body-weight exercises work too.
* Weight lifting. Start with an empty bar. Learn proper technique. Add weight each workout to keep pushing your body out of comfort zone.
* Calisthenics Push-ups, pull-ups, dips, etc. Switch to harder versions or add weight when they get easy.

2. Use Free Weights
You can lift the heaviest weights using barbells. More weight is more stress, thus more muscle. Dumbbells are great for assistance exercises, but not for your main lifts. Stay away from machines.
* Safe. Machines force you into fixed, unnatural movement patterns which can cause injuries. Free weights replicate natural motions.
* Efficient. Free weights force you to control and balance the weight. This builds more muscle than machines, which balance the weight for you.
* Functional. Strength built on machines doesn’t transfer to free weights or real life. No machine balances the weight for you in real life.
* Versatile. You can do hundreds of exercises with just one barbell. Saves a lot of money and space, especially if you want to build a home gym.

3. Do Compound Exercises
Don’t imitate professional bodybuilders. Isolation exercises are ok once you’ve built base strength and muscle mass. But if you’re starting to build muscle, exercises that hit several muscles at the same time are better.
* No endless biceps curls -> pull-ups, chin up, barbell curls.
* Also no triceps kickbacks -> Bench press, overhead dips, push-ups.
* And definitely no leg extensions -> Squats, deadlifts.

4. Train Your Legs
Squats work your whole body and they’re the most important exercise. You’ll look totally different once you can squat 1.5x your body-weight. That’s a free weight squat with hips coming lower than knees.
All your muscles tense when doing squats and deadlifts. They work your body as one piece and let you lift heavy weights. Don’t lose time with biceps curls. When you can squat and deadlift heavy weights, you’ll have bigger arms.

5. Do Full Body Workouts
Body part splits with isolation exercises is fine once you’ve built a foundation — that’s once you can squat 1.5x your bodyweight.

6 Get Recovery
Pro athletes workout 5-6 times a week. But they didn’t start that way. They added workouts as they got stronger and bigger. You’ll overtrain if you jump into their routines. As a beginner you need more recovery.
* Rest. Muscles grow when you rest, not when you workout. Start with three full body workouts per week and focus on intensity, not gym time.
* Sleep. Growth hormone releases when you sleep, building muscle. Aim for eight hours sleep. Nap post workout if your lifestyle allows.
* Drink water. Avoids dehydration and helps muscle recovery. Drink two cups of water with each meal, and sip water during your workout.
* Eat. “Eat like a horse. Sleep like a baby. Grow like a weed.” Your training is useless if you don’t eat plenty of whole foods.

7. Eat Whole Foods
You’ll achieve a lower body fat, so the muscles you’ve built show better. And the vitamin and mineral content helps recovery. Stop eating food coming from a box. Eat whole foods.
* Proteins. Meat, poultry, fish, wheat, eggs, milk.
* Carbs. Brown rice, oats, whole grain pasta, quinoa.
* Veggies. Spinach, broccoli, tomato, salad, carrots.
* Fruits. Banana, orange, apple, pineapple, pears.
* Fats. Olive oil, fish oil, real butter, nuts, flax seeds.

8. Eat More
You need food for energy and for muscle growth and recovery. More frequent meals also boost your metabolism, helping fat loss.
* Eat breakfast. Get calories from the first hour. Read how to build the habit of eating breakfast.
* Eat post-workout. Get proteins and carbs post workout to help muscle recovery and replenish energy stores. Try this post workout shake.
* Eat every 3 hours. six meals a day. gives your muscles a steady intake of protein, speeds up muscle repair and recovery, boosts your metabolism.

9. Gain Weight
You’ll never look muscular weighing 140lbs at 6 ft, no matter how much training you do. Here’s the most important part.
* Eat calorie-dense foods. 100g raw spinach is 25kcals. But 100g raw rice is 380kcals. Eat pasta, oats, olive oil, mixed nuts, etc.
* Get stronger. Increase your squat to 1.5x your body-weight. Increase your deadlift to 2x body-weight. More strength is more muscle.
* Drink whole milk. If you don’t mind gaining some fat, drink 1 gallon whole milk daily on top of your current food intake. Gains of 40lbs in six months are do-able when combining this with three weekly squat sessions.

10. Get Protein
Proteins have the highest thermic effect. You need 1g protein per pound of body-weight daily to build and maintain muscle. That’s 160g of daily protein if you weigh 160lbs/72kg. Eat whole proteins with each meal.
* Red meat. Ground round, steaks, deer, buffalo.
* Poultry. Chicken breast, whole chicken, turkey, duck.
* Fish. Tuna, salmon, mackerel.
* Eggs. Eat the yolk, it’s full of vitamins.
* Dairy. Milk, cottage cheese, quark cheese, yogurt.