I will provide in this article 10 tips for those who wish to maximize muscle growth. Although some of them are based on limited scientific evidences, it’s very likely that my tips will help you gain muscle mass safely.
1. Increase your calorie intake. Obviously, you can’t gain muscle mass by starving yourself. Eat lots of natural foods every day. Avoid refined, junk foods.
2. Make sure you take in a fair dose of high-quality protein with every meal. Good sources include fish, eggs, meat and chicken. Contrary to popular belief, there’s no reason to avoid whole eggs. It should be noted that very high-protein intake can excessively suppress appetite and thus should be avoided. Two grams per kilogram of bodyweight should be sufficient for most gym rats.
3. Follow a moderate carbohydrate diet about 40 to 45 percent of total calories. While carbohydrate restriction offers significant benefits to individuals with various metabolic disorders, a low carbohydrate diet isn’t optimal for those who wish to maximize muscle growth. There’s some evidence that ingesting carbohydrate supplements prior to and during resistance training my improve resistance training performance. Also, the ingestion of carbohydrates following resistance exercise enhances the synthesis of muscle glycogen, which may result in a faster recovery from resistance training, thus possibly allowing for a greater training volume. A recent study that Ball State University examined how carbohydrate status may affect stimulation of anabolic signaling pathways in response to resistance exercise in human skeletal muscle. In this study, experience cyclists performed 30 repetitions of knee extensions at 70 percent of one repetition maximum after low 2 percent or high 77 percent carbohydrate diet, which resulted in low or high pre exercise muscle glycogen content. According to the authors of this study, “the present finding suggest that… exercising in a glycogen-depleted or malnourished state may disrupt mechanisms involved with protein translation through the Akt pathway. In this manner, adaptations to an acute bout of exercise may be blunted.”
4. Eat moderate amounts of fat (i.e. 30 to 35 percent of total calories). Good sources include fatty fish and olive oil. Avoid trans fats. Monounsaturated and saturated fats raise testosterone.
5. Use moderate amounts of leucine-enriched whey to boost muscle growth. Two shakes, with one containing at least 25 grams of whey protein and about 5 – 10 grams of leucine, per day should do that trick. Also, take in a post-exercise recovery drink containing hydrolyzed whey protein, high-glycemic carbs, leucine and creatine monohydrate immediately after resistance exercise. Such drinks strongly augment insulin secretion and raising the blood level of insulin is key to miximizing muscle damage and stimulating protein anabolism following exercise. In addition, there’s evidence that carbohydate0amino acid ingestion during resistance exercise suppresses muscle protein degradation, especially if you haven’t taken in any protein amino acids before exercise. If you naturally wake up once or twice a night, this might be a good time to take in small protein shake or some essential amino acids to prevent catabolic state.
6. Creatine supplementation can help you build muscle mass and strength. Use about 15 grams of creatine monohydrate per day (e.g., 3×5 gram dose). By the way, a recent study suggested that creatine plus beta0alanine supplementation may be more effective than creatine alone.
7. Supplement with a comprehensive vitamin-mineral complex, include fair doses of vitamins C and E, magnesium, chromium, zinc and potassium.
8. Limited evidence suggests that low-intensity resistance exercise with slow movement and tonic force generation may promote muscle mass gains. Such exercise enhances that intramuscular hypoxic environment, which appears to be a factor for muscular growth. Hypoxia refers to a deficiency of oxygen in tissues. Muscle flow can be blocked during heavy exercise because of the compression of blood vessels. When flow is restored, blood flow to the area can increase dramatically (reactive hyperemia). This phenomenon is a local response to low oxygen and increased metabolites and a good example of it is “the muscle pump” following weightlifting exercise. So, the muscle pump appears to contribute to muscle growth, as suggested by Arnold a long time ago. However, I’m certainly not suggesting that you shouldn’t perform heavy lifting. Even Arnold competed in several powerlifitng competitions. I’m just saying that some “pumping” may be beneficial.
9. Ibuprofen and other similar drugs appear to inhibit muscle growth, so their use should be avoided. Smoking may have similar effects, because it decreases testosterone and increases cortisol.
10. Finally, don’t listen to the sports nutrition traditionalists, who advice consists mainly of paying attention to the very high-carb food pyramid, eating lots of leafy vegetables and trying to control fat intake. They apparently feel that reliable scientific research ended around 1980.
via Paleohacks Paleo Cookbook Review http://ift.tt/1ESB1BH
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