Maintaining a strong core is extremely important because your core is where all of the movement in your body originates.
Smoothies are a great option for a midday snack, a pre-or post-workout meal or an energizing breakfast.
Increasing your daily protein intake without overdoing it on calories and carbohydrates can be a difficult task.
Muscle building supplements guide.
Precautions should always be taken to avoid injuries.
Tips for Healthy Living for Men
Healthy Eating:
The key to achieving and maintaining a healthy weight isn't about short-term dietary changes. It's about a lifestyle that includes healthy eating, regular physical activity, and balancing the number of calories you consume with the number of calories your body uses. Staying in control of your weight contributes to good health now and as you age.
When it comes to gearing up for workout, carbs are your gym BFF. The key is to have a mixed bag of complex and simple ones so that the release of energy during your workout is slow and steady throughout your routine. Whole-wheat toast with fruit gives you both types of carbs with the bonus of being super easy to digest. Complex carbs
will keep your motor humming, while the fruit adds an extra kick of
energy. For those training for a race, bananas are perfect in raising
potassium levels, which drop when you sweat a lot. For an added bonus,
add a dash of cinnamon. The spice has been linked to stabilizing blood
sugar and improving brain function.
What do you think of this story?
Getting ready for a long run? Eat some yogurt first. It's easy on your stomach
and when paired with trail mix can give you the little rev your body
needs. Just make sure to choose a mix that is mostly nut and dried fruit
based with as little fillers as possible. (Yes, sadly we're talking
about those little chocolates!) The healthy sugars from dried fruit
provide that quick energy boost while seeds and nuts will keep insulin
levels from dropping mid-workout. Just remember, a little bit goes a
long way. Seeds and nuts are high in fat, which means they take longer
to digest. Too many and you could start feeling sluggish and slow as you
sweat.
You already know eggs are a great source of protein and help
aid in muscle recovery and growth. Switch it up from the usual scramble
and make a veggie-packed omelet. Garnish with a few slices of avocado
for fiber and monosaturated fats (the good kind!). Similar to olive oil,
avocados can help your body better absorb fat soluble nutrients that
your veggies have like vitamins A, D, E and K. These vitamins are
stocked with antioxidants, the best boost for your body, inside and out.
**********************************************************************************
Maybe you've had sand kicked in your face. Maybe you've lost one too many attainable women to beefier guys. Or maybe you've read so much about weight loss that actually admitting you want to gain weight is a societal taboo. Whatever the reason, you want to bulk up. Now.
But forget about your alleged high-revving metabolism, says Doug Kalman, R.D., director of nutrition at Miami Research Associates. "Most lean men who can't gain muscle weight are simply eating and exercising the wrong way," he says.
Here's your fix: Follow these 10 principles to pack on as much as a pound of muscle each week.
1. Maximize muscle building. The more protein your body stores—in a process called protein synthesis—the larger your muscles grow. But your body is constantly draining its protein reserves for other uses—making hormones, for instance. The result is less protein available for muscle building. To counteract that, you need to "build and store new proteins faster than your body breaks down old proteins," says Michael Houston, Ph.D., a professor of nutrition at Virginia Tech University.
2. Eat meat. Shoot for about 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight, which is roughly the maximum amount your body can use in a day, according to a landmark study in the Journal of Applied Physiology. (For example, a 160-pound man should consume 160 grams of protein a day—the amount he'd get from an 8-ounce chicken breast, 1 cup of cottage cheese, a roast-beef sandwich, two eggs, a glass of milk, and 2 ounces of peanuts.) Split the rest of your daily calories equally between carbohydrates and fats.
3. Eat more. In addition to adequate protein, you need more calories. Use the following formula to calculate the number you need to take in daily to gain 1 pound a week. (Give yourself 2 weeks for results to show up on the bathroom scale. If you haven't gained by then, increase your calories by 500 a day.)
A. Your weight in pounds: _____
B. Multiply A by 12 to get your basic calorie needs: _____
C. Multiply B by 1.6 to estimate your resting metabolic rate (calorie burn without factoring in exercise): _____
D. Strength training: Multiply the number of minutes you lift weights per week by 5: _____
E. Aerobic training: Multiply the number of minutes per week that you run, cycle, and play sports by 8: _____
F. Add D and E, and divide by 7: _____
G. Add C and F to get your daily calorie needs: _____
H. Add 500 to G: _____. This is your estimated daily calorie needs to gain 1 pound a week.
4. Work your biggest muscles. If you're a beginner, just about any workout will be intense enough to increase protein synthesis. But if you've been lifting for a while, you'll build the most muscle quickest if you focus on the large muscle groups, like the chest, back, and legs. Add squats, deadlifts, pullups, bent-over rows, bench presses, dips, and military presses to your workout. Do two or three sets of eight to 12 repetitions, with about 60 seconds' rest between sets.
5. But first, have a stiff drink. A 2001 study at the University of Texas found that lifters who drank a shake containing amino acids and carbohydrates before working out increased their protein synthesis more than lifters who drank the same shake after exercising. The shake contained 6 grams of essential amino acids—the muscle-building blocks of protein—and 35 grams of carbohydrates. "Since exercise increases bloodflow to your working tissues, drinking a carbohydrate-protein mixture before your workout may lead to greater uptake of the amino acids in your muscles," says Kevin Tipton, Ph.D., an exercise and nutrition researcher at the University of Texas in Galveston.
For your shake, you'll need about 10 to 20 grams of protein—usually about one scoop of a whey-protein powder. Can't stomach protein drinks? You can get the same nutrients from a sandwich made with 4 ounces of deli turkey and a slice of American cheese on whole wheat bread. But a drink is better. "Liquid meals are absorbed faster," says Kalman. So tough it out. Drink one 30 to 60 minutes before your workout.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Smoothies are a great option for a midday snack, a pre-or post-workout meal or an energizing breakfast.
Increasing your daily protein intake without overdoing it on calories and carbohydrates can be a difficult task.
Muscle building supplements guide.
Precautions should always be taken to avoid injuries.
Tips for Healthy Living for Men
Healthy Eating:
- Eat a variety of fruits, vegetables and whole grains every day.
- Limit foods and drinks high in calories, sugar, salt, fat and alcohol.
- Eat a balanced diet to help keep a healthy weight
Healthy Weight:
When it comes to weight loss, there's no lack of fad diets promising
fast results. But such diets limit your nutritional intake, can be
unhealthy and tend to fail in the long run.The key to achieving and maintaining a healthy weight isn't about short-term dietary changes. It's about a lifestyle that includes healthy eating, regular physical activity, and balancing the number of calories you consume with the number of calories your body uses. Staying in control of your weight contributes to good health now and as you age.
Be Active:
- Be active for at least 2½ hours a week. Include activities that raise your breathing and heart rates and that strengthen your muscles.
- Help kids and teens be active for at least 1 hour a day. Include activities that raise their breathing and heart rates and that strengthen their muscles and bones.
- Physical activity helps to:
- Maintain weight
- Reduce high blood pressure
- Reduce risk for type 2 diabetes, heart attack, stroke, and several forms of cancer
- Reduce arthritis pain and associated disability
- Reduce risk for osteoporosis and falls
- Reduce symptoms of depression and anxiety
- Wear helmets, seat belts, sunscreen, and insect repellent.
- Wash hands to stop the spread of germs.
- Avoid smoking and breathing other people’s (secondhand) smoke.
- Build safe and healthy relationships with family and friends.
- Be ready for emergencies. Gather emergency supplies. Make a plan. Be informed.
Manage Stress:
- Balance work, home and play.
- Get support from family and friends.
- Stay positive.
- Take time to relax.
- Get 7-9 hours of sleep each night. Make sure kids get more, based on their ages.
- Get help or counseling if needed.
Most Important: Get checkups:
- Ask your doctor or nurse how you can lower your risk for health problems.
- Find out what exams, tests and shots you need and when to get them.
- See your doctor or nurse for regular checkups and as often as directed. Get seen if you feel sick, have pain, notice changes or have problems with medicine.
What to Eat Before and After a Workout
Ready to sweat? Not so fast! Here, the best foods to eat before and after a workout so can fuel up the right way. Munch on these for your best sweat session yet.
Before: Whole Wheat Toast with Sliced Banana and Cinnamon
When it comes to gearing up for workout, carbs are your gym BFF. The key is to have a mixed bag of complex and simple ones so that the release of energy during your workout is slow and steady throughout your routine. Whole-wheat toast with fruit gives you both types of carbs with the bonus of being super easy to digest. Complex carbs
will keep your motor humming, while the fruit adds an extra kick of
energy. For those training for a race, bananas are perfect in raising
potassium levels, which drop when you sweat a lot. For an added bonus,
add a dash of cinnamon. The spice has been linked to stabilizing blood
sugar and improving brain function.
Next:
After: Grilled Chicken and Mixed Vegetables
Before: Greek Yogurt and Trail Mix
Getting ready for a long run? Eat some yogurt first. It's easy on your stomach
and when paired with trail mix can give you the little rev your body
needs. Just make sure to choose a mix that is mostly nut and dried fruit
based with as little fillers as possible. (Yes, sadly we're talking
about those little chocolates!) The healthy sugars from dried fruit
provide that quick energy boost while seeds and nuts will keep insulin
levels from dropping mid-workout. Just remember, a little bit goes a
long way. Seeds and nuts are high in fat, which means they take longer
to digest. Too many and you could start feeling sluggish and slow as you
sweat.After: Veggie Omelet with Avocado
You already know eggs are a great source of protein and help
aid in muscle recovery and growth. Switch it up from the usual scramble
and make a veggie-packed omelet. Garnish with a few slices of avocado
for fiber and monosaturated fats (the good kind!). Similar to olive oil,
avocados can help your body better absorb fat soluble nutrients that
your veggies have like vitamins A, D, E and K. These vitamins are
stocked with antioxidants, the best boost for your body, inside and out.Before: Smoothies
Need a snack on-the-go on your way to the gym? Stick with a smoothie. Not only are they time-friendly, building your own blend has a bunch of exercise benefits. For a foolproof formula, use your favorite sliced fruit, a cup of Greek yogurt and some granola for a thicker consistency. If you're picking one up, check the label to make sure it's made from whey or milk-based proteins. And no need to go overboard -- 10 to 20 grams of protein before exercising is plenty.After: Salmon with Sweet Potato
Tips for Beautiful SkinAside from the usual protein perks, salmon has bioactive peptides, small protein molecules that play a role in inflammation reduction, helping to regulate insulin levels and give you joint support. Sweet potatoes pack in those complex carbs as well as help to restore glycogen levels, which get depleted after workout.
**********************************************************************************
10 Muscle-Building Tips
Pack 10
A skinny guy's guide to adding a pound of muscle every week
Maybe you've had sand kicked in your face. Maybe you've lost one too many attainable women to beefier guys. Or maybe you've read so much about weight loss that actually admitting you want to gain weight is a societal taboo. Whatever the reason, you want to bulk up. Now.
But forget about your alleged high-revving metabolism, says Doug Kalman, R.D., director of nutrition at Miami Research Associates. "Most lean men who can't gain muscle weight are simply eating and exercising the wrong way," he says.
Here's your fix: Follow these 10 principles to pack on as much as a pound of muscle each week.
1. Maximize muscle building. The more protein your body stores—in a process called protein synthesis—the larger your muscles grow. But your body is constantly draining its protein reserves for other uses—making hormones, for instance. The result is less protein available for muscle building. To counteract that, you need to "build and store new proteins faster than your body breaks down old proteins," says Michael Houston, Ph.D., a professor of nutrition at Virginia Tech University.
2. Eat meat. Shoot for about 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight, which is roughly the maximum amount your body can use in a day, according to a landmark study in the Journal of Applied Physiology. (For example, a 160-pound man should consume 160 grams of protein a day—the amount he'd get from an 8-ounce chicken breast, 1 cup of cottage cheese, a roast-beef sandwich, two eggs, a glass of milk, and 2 ounces of peanuts.) Split the rest of your daily calories equally between carbohydrates and fats.
3. Eat more. In addition to adequate protein, you need more calories. Use the following formula to calculate the number you need to take in daily to gain 1 pound a week. (Give yourself 2 weeks for results to show up on the bathroom scale. If you haven't gained by then, increase your calories by 500 a day.)
A. Your weight in pounds: _____
B. Multiply A by 12 to get your basic calorie needs: _____
C. Multiply B by 1.6 to estimate your resting metabolic rate (calorie burn without factoring in exercise): _____
D. Strength training: Multiply the number of minutes you lift weights per week by 5: _____
E. Aerobic training: Multiply the number of minutes per week that you run, cycle, and play sports by 8: _____
F. Add D and E, and divide by 7: _____
G. Add C and F to get your daily calorie needs: _____
H. Add 500 to G: _____. This is your estimated daily calorie needs to gain 1 pound a week.
4. Work your biggest muscles. If you're a beginner, just about any workout will be intense enough to increase protein synthesis. But if you've been lifting for a while, you'll build the most muscle quickest if you focus on the large muscle groups, like the chest, back, and legs. Add squats, deadlifts, pullups, bent-over rows, bench presses, dips, and military presses to your workout. Do two or three sets of eight to 12 repetitions, with about 60 seconds' rest between sets.
5. But first, have a stiff drink. A 2001 study at the University of Texas found that lifters who drank a shake containing amino acids and carbohydrates before working out increased their protein synthesis more than lifters who drank the same shake after exercising. The shake contained 6 grams of essential amino acids—the muscle-building blocks of protein—and 35 grams of carbohydrates. "Since exercise increases bloodflow to your working tissues, drinking a carbohydrate-protein mixture before your workout may lead to greater uptake of the amino acids in your muscles," says Kevin Tipton, Ph.D., an exercise and nutrition researcher at the University of Texas in Galveston.
For your shake, you'll need about 10 to 20 grams of protein—usually about one scoop of a whey-protein powder. Can't stomach protein drinks? You can get the same nutrients from a sandwich made with 4 ounces of deli turkey and a slice of American cheese on whole wheat bread. But a drink is better. "Liquid meals are absorbed faster," says Kalman. So tough it out. Drink one 30 to 60 minutes before your workout.
Transform Your Body!
Burn fat, build muscle, and look awesome with The Men's Health 60-Day Transformation, an all-new DVD program from the creators of The Spartacus Workout. Pick up your copy today!
Burn fat, build muscle, and look awesome with The Men's Health 60-Day Transformation, an all-new DVD program from the creators of The Spartacus Workout. Pick up your copy today!
Latest Fitness Stories
-
-
-
The Ultimate Kettlebell Workout
IF YOU THINK KETTLEBELLS ARE JUST GLORIFIED dumbbells, keep reading. "A kettlebell's center of gravity actually shifts during the course of the exercise," says Jason C. Brown, C.S.C.S., owner of Kettlebell... -
Giant Muscle Secrets
An NFL team is a fire-breathing gridiron machine, and each moving part has unique fitness attributes. Recently, scientists at the University of Connecticut looked under the hood of the New York Giants—winners... -
The Upper-Body Spider-Man Challenge
The Men's Health Urbanathlon isn't just another race. It's a 10-to-12-mile run filled with obstacles that test your strength, mobility, and willpower. In order to finish, you need to train hard. That's... -
The Muscle-Blasting Burpee Ladder
Completing 110 burpees in a row is extremely difficult. Doing them on one leg at a time in a suspension trainer—as this week's challenge requires—will make your muscles scream and test your willpower.... -
When You Definitely Shouldn't Power Through the Pain
Pain is often a sense of pride for gym goers. You're not working hard enough unless you hurt. But that pain won't do you any good if you're sidelined by it later. Figuring out how much pain is okay... -
Run Faster without Running More
Runners are often wary of lifting weights for building speed. But in a recent study in The Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, runners who supplemented their normal training with strength workouts... -
Can YOU Survive 3.1 Miles of Burpees?
The burpee—which entails going from a squat to a pushup position to a squat again as quickly as possible—may be one of the hardest body-weight moves known to man. Banging out a few sets is a muscle-burning... -
The Lower-Body Burner
If you want to be an unstoppable athlete, you need a strong, powerful, and agile lower body. It'll help you move faster, jump higher, and blow past your opponents. It'll also give you a leg up on the competition... -
So You Think You Can't Design a Good Workout? You Can—with These 3 Tips
The topic of program design is an extensive one. There are entire books, seminars, and conferences dedicated to it. People spend years studying it, so it's no surprise that the average guy has trouble... -
The Kettlebell Move That's So Hard It's Called the Death Crawl
Kettlebells work for bodybuilding because they are so mechanically unwieldy. They're awkward, heavy, and difficult to balance, so they challenge your muscles in unique ways. One of our new favorite kettlebell... -
Is 5 Minutes of Exercise Really Enough?
Earlier this week, the New York Times reported that "Running 5 Minutes a Day Has Long-Lasting Benefits." Since then, a frenzy of news reports have suggested that perhaps 5 minutes of exercise a day is... -
Listen to This to Crush Your Next Workout
Need to psych yourself up before a big presentation or tough workout? Cue up the Jock Jams. Bass-heavy music can make you feel more powerful, says a new study from Northwestern University. How come?... -
Hit the Beach with a Six-Pack
Need a fresh workout? Try this, from Craig Ballantyne, C.T.T., creator of Turbulence Training. It's great for busting through fitness plateaus, triggering new muscle growth, boosting athleti
Best of Chest Workout - Exercises Healthy Fitness Bicep Tricep
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
No comments:
Post a Comment