17 Muscle Building Facts I've Discovered I've been a personal trainer and natural bodybuilder for thepast 5 years. During that time, I've discovered a lot of musclebuilding facts and fitness observations.
I wanted to share some of the most important ones with you, inthis article.
Here are 17 of the most important muscle building facts I'velearned over the years.
1. People do not see great results with their muscle buildingendeavors simply because they are misinformed and misled as towhat works and needs to be done. My job as a trainer is toinform and to educate people as to what really works.
2. In order to stay with your fitness routine for the long run,you need to identify the "why" behind what you're doing.Uncover, specifically, what you want to change and why you wantto change. Use this to become your driving force.
3. You absolutely must associate pleasure with your musclebuilding routine and pain with not committing to your fitnessroutine. Humans by nature do things that are pleasurable andavoid things that create pain.
4. We are after long-term, permanent results, so there will beno quick fixes and gimmicks. We are going to create a lifestylechange that will be easy to live with. No counting calories orpoints, just make better choices and healthier, moderateportions.
5. Always think quality over quantity. This means more workingout is not better when it comes to building muscle, better isbetter. Most people I come in contact with work out too much andeat too little.
6. The key to permanent fat-loss is to speed up your metabolism.Once this is done, weight-loss becomes permanent.
7. The whole process of changing your body takes time. Commityourself to at least three months to literally transform yourbody. You may see some results before then, but three months iswhat it takes to see great results.
8. During the first couple weeks of a muscle building program,you'll notice that your scale weight either doesn't change or itmay go up a bit.
Throw the scale out the window, it doesn't distinguish betweenfat and muscle, so when you initially gain a bit of muscle atthe start, the scale weight will go up. That's a good thing.Over time the scale weight WILL go down.
9. You must eat often and in moderate amounts to speed up yourmetabolism. If you eat often, your body utilizes and breaks downyour food often, leading to less stored body fat.
10. Eat 5-6 small meals/snacks throughout the day. The easiestway to do this is
to eat a moderate breakfast, lunch, anddinner, and then a small snack between breakfast and lunch,lunch and dinner, and then a small snack at night. You mustcondition your body to eat every 3 to 3 1/2 hours. You cannotrestrict calories too much, this will slow down metabolism andabsolutely stop progress dead in its tracks.
11. You must create a synergy between proper nutrition, moderateaerobic exercise, and intense, brief weight-training. Theanswers to weight-loss lie within each one of these. This is whydiets, Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig, and other programs are notlong-term successful. One or more of these elements is missing.
12. Small, steady steps will lead to progression, which willlead to results, which will increase motivation, which willagain increase results, which in turn will lead to long-termchange.
13. For best results with building muscle and losing fat, 5 daysa week, 30 minutes a day is most beneficial. More than 5 daysand you risk overtraining. Less than 5 days and you may not seeoptimal muscle building results.
14. You must incorporate resistance weight-training into yourweight-loss efforts. Fat is metabolized by muscle, muscleliterally will burn more calories just to maintain itself.Increased lean muscle tissue helps your body to speed up itsmetabolism (again, increased metabolism being the key toweight-loss.
15. Too much aerobic activity will be counterproductive to yourmuscle building efforts. 2-3 days a week, 20-30 minutes eachsession is optimal. Again, more is not better, better is better.
16. Diets do not work, so never try to diet. Diets are a flawedmethod which create to much pain (pain/pleasure principle). Youcan diet for a short time, but the physical and psychologicalcravings come, leading you to binge and eat more than you wouldhave.
17. Pick one day a week and cheat. Eat anything you want, and Imean anything, but just make it a moderate amount. Then bestrict for the other 6 days a week.
These were some of the most important muscle building facts I'velearned over the past 5 years. Follow as many as you can andyou'll soon see more results from your time spent in the gym.
About the author:
Shawn Lebrun is a personal trainer and drug-free bodybuilderthat offers a proven muscle building and fat loss program. Getthe most muscle and definition possible in the least amount oftime:
Musclebuilding and fat loss program
