Content

• Steps
• Advice
• Warning

Building muscle can be tough, especially if you're a girl. This is partly because testosterone levels are lower in women than in men. However, with a few lifestyle changes built on healthy nutrition and muscle building exercises, girls can also increase muscle mass and strength.

Steps

Method 1 of 4: Build muscle in adults

1. 

   Consult your trainer and / or doctor. Before you begin exercising to build muscle, you should consult your doctor. Muscle building exercises have strict physical requirements, and people with certain chronic illnesses (such as heart disease, high blood pressure, or stroke) will not be suitable for this exercise.
   • If you have high blood pressure (hypertension), do not lift heavy weights without first consulting your doctor. If your blood pressure is higher than 180/110 mm Hg, you can not Lift weights until blood pressure returns to normal through the use of medication.

   

   
   

   Claudia Carberry, RD, MS

   Nutritionist Claudia Carberry is a licensed nutritionist specializing in kidney transplantation and weight loss counseling at the University of Arkansas Medical Sciences. She is a member of the Arkansas Institute of Nutrition and Dietetics. Claudia received an MS in Nutrition from the University of Tennessee Knoxville in 2010.

   

   Claudia Carberry, RD, MS
   Nutritionist

   Claudia Carberry, a nutritionist, advises: "The best way for women to build lean muscle is through strength training exercises."

2. 

   
   
   Make a plan to do muscle-strengthening exercises. Strength-strengthening exercise requires the participation of every muscle group in the body, and forces them to work out against a certain weight. By making muscles work against the weight, you are forcing the muscle fibers to react to the tension you have added, thereby increasing the size and definition of the muscle. In order to build muscle, you need to add strength training exercises (also known as resistance training) to your weekly exercise regimen.
   • The usual muscle strength training program will use weights (dumbbells / dumbbells), exercise machines, elastic bands, or even your body weight (push ups, bar sprays, belly sticks).
   • Establish a comprehensive, balanced endurance program for building muscle (see section three).

3. 

   
   
   Do not exercise too much cardio (cardio). Muscle building is not fat burning. The best way to increase muscle mass is through weight training, while the way to get rid of muscles is to do too many cardio exercises (you've never seen a Marathon runner. Big muscles, right?).
   • However, you should not completely eliminate cardio as they will improve the cardiovascular system and provide many health benefits, including strengthening bones, lowering blood pressure, and minimizing chronic diseases. (diabetes, cancer, cardiovascular disease), and mood improvement.
   • Also, keep in mind that reducing the overall amount of fat in your body will make the muscles "clearer" and your body will look firmer and healthier.
   • The key to planning cardio during muscle building is sprinting instead of aerobic exercise over long periods of time. You should only spend 20 minutes on high intensity exercise, in which you need to rest 1 minute after an intense sprint for 30-60 seconds.
   • You should separate cardio from weight training. Never do cardio after weights, do these exercises another day.
   • You should only do cardio for 20 minutes, 3-5 times per week.

4. 

   Get plenty of rest. In fact, weight training causes the muscles to go into a catabolic state (breakdown of muscle protein). In response to this process, your body needs to regenerate muscle tissue, and during this time, you're "building" muscle. Therefore, you need a balance between muscle training and adequate rest.
   • You should only do resistance training for 3-4 days a week and don't work out the same muscle group for several consecutive days.
   • Make sure you get enough sleep each night; Adults need at least 7-9 hours of sleep each night.

5. 

   Learn about the correct technique and understand the risk. Lifting weights not only puts stress on your muscles, but also your joints and bones. If you don't do the exercise correctly, you run the risk of injury.
   • Remember to always consult a trainer and take time to learn how to do each exercise correctly before adding more weight.
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Method 2 of 4: Build muscle for kids and teenagers

1. 

   Consult a pediatrician. Before engaging a child or teen in any strength-training activity, you need to consult your doctor first. The muscle building program for kids of this age range will be slightly different as their bodies are still growing. Exercising too much and too hard can cause injury and long-term effects on the body of a young person. Having a pre-existing medical assessment will help you and your baby determine:
   • Training target.
   • Understand proper technique.
   • Risk factors, such as injury and about the use of steroids or other supplements.
   • Keep in mind that since the primary goal of muscle strength training is to increase muscle size, it is important to discuss with your pediatrician about steroid use, especially if your child is involved. Training program for competition.

2. 

   Do strength training exercises. This type of exercise focuses on lifting weights but uses your own body weight (like crunches and push ups), and you can also add in resistance and agility training to increase strength. as well as the size of the muscles.
   • Weightlifting is the most common strength training technique used in sports and basic exercise.
   • To start, you should consult with a fitness trainer, who can help you or your child learn about each type of exercise and how to do them correctly.
   • Always warm up first to reduce the risk of injury by devoting at least 5 - 10 minutes to cardio exercise.
   • Gently stretch your muscles before and after your workout to improve muscle elasticity.

3. 

   Start with light weights and gradually switch to heavier ones as your body gets stronger. Using too heavy weights can cause injury. At the same time, you also need to learn about each exercise correctly before adding more weight.
   • Maintain body movement during each movement: move slowly, breathe, and understand the range of motion. If you do the exercises too hastily or make the wrong movements, you will suffer injury.
   • Listen to your body. The intensity of the exercise will depend on the number of repetitions, your weight, and how long you rest before each set. Don't overdo it.
   • However, you can still push yourself. If you don't challenge your muscles and start moving to heavier weights, your muscles won't grow.

4. 

   Stay away from powerlifting or competitive weightlifting. Teens and young children should not engage in competitive weightlifting, powerlifting, or bodybuilding. They require you to build many muscle groups and are not suitable for young children, and they also carry a high risk of injury.
   • Consult your doctor if you are unsure what type of weightlifting or strength training exercise you or your child should do.
   • The bodies of adolescents and children are still developing, so the risk of injury is higher.

5. 

   Add aerobic exercise to your weekly exercise program. Aerobic exercise (or cardio) is a physical activity that increases your heart rate and works in conjunction with your respiratory system. Regular aerobic exercise has many health benefits, such as maintaining body weight, reducing stress, improving the cardiovascular system, reducing the risk of chronic diseases (diabetes, cancer), and releasing mood-enhancing endorphins.
   • Aerobic exercise that includes weight-bearing exercise, such as walking, dancing, tennis, and jogging, will also help strengthen bones.
   • Adding aerobic exercise to your weekly routine will help balance strength training and give you a better foundation for later.

6. 

   Know the risks. Any physical activity has risks, and this is especially true for strength training exercises. According to the National Injury Surveillance System, between 20,000 and 26,000 strength training-related injuries have occurred in people under the age of 21; 40-70% of injuries are caused by muscle tension, mainly in the lumbar part.
   • Muscle strength training programs must be carefully planned and implemented to minimize the risk of injury. You can achieve this by:
     • Have someone watch or supervise you while you lift weights.
     • Understand the instructions of the exercise to avoid injury.
     • Know how to use the exercise machine.
     • Clean up the training area to eliminate dangerous substances.
     • Includes warm-up and cool-down exercises.

7. 

   Avoid exercising too much. Excessive exercise can harm the body and lead to catabolism (breakdown of muscle protein). During your teenage years, the body is still growing, so excessive resistance training or burning too many calories can cause your body problems.
   • Your training session should be 1 hour or less and you need to rest a day (or two) between workouts to give your muscles time to rebuild.
   • Signs of overtraining that you need to watch out for include: a rapid increase in heart rate while the body is resting, difficulty sleeping, and exhaustion.
   • If you or your child has any of these symptoms, reduce the duration or intensity of your exercise and consult your doctor.
   • Note for parents: Excessive exercise can be a sign of an eating disorder. If you think your child is overtraining, look for the following symptoms: frustrated by missing a session, exercising even when sick, frustrated sitting still because you can't burn calories, and think you gain weight without exercising for a day.
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Method 3 of 4: Focus on the right muscle group

1. 

   Take advantage of muscle coordination exercises. Exercises that work on the main muscle group (muscle coordination exercises) will help increase your muscle mass significantly and increase your metabolic rate. For example, push-ups will work your chest muscles, triceps, and delta muscles in a single exercise. Separate exercises such as the triceps will work only on the triceps.
   • Combined exercises will affect more muscle fibers with each lift, so you'll spend less time in the gym.
   • Try building a routine of 4-day muscle-coordination exercises for the upper / lower body or 3 days for the entire body to avoid overworked muscles that often occur in individual exercises.
   • Use individual exercises to improve muscle clarity once you have achieved your goal.

2. 

   Build muscles in the legs and buttocks. To increase muscle mass in the lower body, you need to do exercises that focus on the muscles in the thighs, calves and hips. When it comes to building muscle, increasing weight (or resistance) and reducing the number of reps is key (as opposed to improving endurance).
   • To build muscle groups in your thighs, you need to do exercises that focus on your hamstrings, hamstrings, and inner hip muscles, such as knee bends, thigh braces, and step ups (podium exercises. ).
   • To build muscles in the calf muscles (abs, sandals, and forelegs), you can do stand-up exercises or a leg lift.
   • Some leg exercises (such as thighs and knee bends) will also work on the muscles in the hips and buttocks (outer glutes, inner muscles, flexors and outer spins), but to add a few more Specifically for these muscle groups, you should try hip stretching and thigh pedal exercises.
   • You should also use obstacles that are heavy enough that you can only do 4-8 reps at most for each of these exercises. If you can easily do more than 8 reps, then you are using too light resistance and are training for resistance instead of building muscle.
   • Note for minors: always consult a trainer or pediatrician before performing these exercises. Your body is still growing, so you should avoid too intense and heavy exercise.

3. 

   Strengthens and builds muscles in the back. To build muscles in your back, you should focus on training for muscles, big round muscles, scapula (upper, lower, middle), shoulder lift, rhombus, subspine muscle, small round muscles and muscles below the scapula.
   • There are quite a few different exercises you can use to build these muscle groups. You can try doing weightlifting exercises (like dumbbells, dumbbells, and sit-ups), or do bar-pushes, back-arm pulls, back buckets, and shoulder crunches.
   • You can use dumbbells / dumbbells and exercise machines or even elastic or body weights for the above exercises.
   • Strengthening your back muscles will also help improve your posture.

4. 

   Strengthening your abdominal muscles will help you get firm abdominal muscles. To build abdominal muscles, you should focus on training straight abs, transverse abs, intercostal muscles, lumbar muscles, and lower back muscles.
   • When it comes to abs groups, you can use your body weight to do back flexes, straight back crunches, leg lifts, or you can try a different move and use dumbbells. / single, string or beam to add weight and help your abdominal muscles work more.

5. 

   Build pectoral muscles. Women often look down on training for chest muscles, but this is not the right thought. Working your chest muscles will help you maintain muscle balance, especially if you're building back muscles; focusing on just one side of your body will leave you in an unbalanced shape.
   • To work on the pectoral muscle group, you should focus on exercises that focus on the big pectoral muscles, the small pectoral muscles and the front serrated muscles.
   • Choose from two or three different types of exercise, such as push ups, back dumbbells, free weights, chest presses, and / or chest compressions.

6. 

   Strengthens your arms and shoulders. Many women want slim, muscular arms and shoulders. To achieve this, you need to attack the deltoid muscle group (the anterior, medial and posterior muscles) as well as the spina biceps and triceps muscles, the biceps, the forearm muscle, the flexor and wrist stretchers.
   • To build shoulder muscles, you can do shoulder push or vertical dumbbells, front shoulder lift, vertical paddle, or backhand stretch, you can use string, dumbbells / dumbbells or barbells for extra boost. weight.
   • When exercising for the arms, you can use dumbbells / dumbbells or an exercise machine to practice movements such as dumbbells, triceps training, triceps training, biceps curl, wrist curl and exercises using the roller.
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Method 4 of 4: Build muscle with nutrition

1. 

   Start the morning with oats. Building muscle starts with paying attention to what you eat. When it comes to choosing the right carbs that are less processed and have a low glycemic index (GI), there is no better breakfast dish than oats.
   • In addition to being high in fiber and low in calories, the benefits of oats include: providing an ideal variety of micronutrients, reducing hunger and increasing feelings of fullness, and reducing energy consumption in next meal (second meal effect).
   • Overall, oats are a great way to add healthy carbs to your diet.
   • Avoid pre-packaged oats, as they are high in sugar and artificial colors. Stick to shredded oats and include some healthy toppings like chopped peas and blueberries.

2. 

   Eat lean meat. Eating high-quality, protein-rich lean meats is an important part of building muscle. Your digestive system breaks down meat proteins into amino acids, which are the building blocks of muscle tissue and are essential for muscle repair and repair after exercise.
   • Eat lean cuts of beef (like steak, top loin, and top rump) or ground beef with less than 7% fat. Low-fat beef is popular among bodybuilders for its nutritional content (zinc, iron, and many B vitamins) and its high-quality protein.
   • Use skinless chicken or low fat turkey, which are great sources of lean protein.

3. 

   Use low-fat dairy products and eggs. These foods also contain essential nutrients and protein for building and maintaining muscle mass. Dairy products will also help strengthen bones in babies and teenagers.
   • Add low-fat cottage cheese to your diet. In addition to being a healthy dessert when combined with a variety of fresh berries, it also contains protein that is slowly digested and is ideal for muscle maintenance.
   • Note: If you are lactose intolerant, you can take soy products rich in calcium and Vitamin D.
   • Add eggs to your diet, they are packed with protein and nutrients (including essential amino acids, choline and vitamin D). Although eggs are considered high in cholesterol, many recent studies have shown that it is not harmful to health.

4. 

   Add nutrient-rich carbs to your meals. Muscles need energy to contract, and this energy comes from carbohydrates. If you don't consume nutrient-rich carbs, your training will be tough and you will feel tired. Your first meal post-workout should be heavy in carbohydrates.
   • Eat fresh fruits and vegetables that contain antioxidants to keep your body healthy.
   • Fruits and vegetables also contain essential vitamins, minerals and fiber.
   • Add whole grains (like brown rice and whole-grain pasta) to your meals, as they are high in carbs and healthy fiber.
   • In addition, brown rice will help improve growth hormone levels, and this is a necessary part of lean muscle growth, strength enhancement, and fat loss.
   • Stay away from white breads and pastas made with refined flour.

5. 

   Don't forget to eat healthy fats. Although fat is often known with a "bad reputation", your body still needs fat for energy, to absorb fat-soluble vitamins, and to maintain healthy skin and hair. But not all fats are good, and you should only eat foods with healthy fatty acids.
   • Consume foods high in polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats, such as beans, avocados, seeds, and oils (like olive oil, rose oil, and flaxseed oil).
   • The above foods are also rich in omega-3 and omega-6 - they are essential fatty acids that your body cannot produce on its own.
   • Eat fish. In addition to being high in omega-3 fatty acids, fish is also a good source of protein.
   • Avoid saturated and trans fats found in butter, regular milk, beef, processed foods and fast foods.

6. 

   Supplement with whey protein. Whey protein is very popular among athletes looking to build muscle, mainly because it is a fast, convenient and affordable source of protein. Scientific research shows that whey protein is an excellent source of protein for both adults and children.
   • Use whey protein right after your workout to replenish and promote muscle growth.
   • Be sure to include healthy protein from a variety of foods, not just whey protein powder.
   • Adults need to consume 20-30 grams of whey protein powder per day, not to exceed 1.2 grams per kilogram of body weight. You should be careful when taking it in high doses and only be used for a limited time.
   • Children need to take from 0.8 to 1 gram of protein per kilogram of body weight per day. You need to increase your protein intake if you are building muscle and consult with your doctor about the amount of whey powder you should take (if any).
   • Note: too much protein is bad for you and can lead to kidney disease, cancer, and osteoporosis. Always consult your doctor if you are unsure of how much protein you should take, and before starting any protein supplement.

7. 

   Take vitamin supplements (if needed). A healthy, balanced diet is the best way to ensure that you are getting enough vitamins and minerals. However, if you are deficient in certain vitamins and minerals, you can take a supplement.
   • Always check with your doctor before taking any dietary supplement. Too much fat-soluble vitamins are quite toxic to your body.
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Advice

• Get enough sleep. Good sleep will keep you awake and focused, and you won't want to fall asleep while training or competing.
• The training process will take a long time, so don't expect results to show up overnight. To be successful, you must be patient.
• Don't forget to drink water. Exercise increases your need to drink water and to prevent dehydration you should drink about 10-12 glasses of water a day.

Warning

• Don't try too hard! You should only do muscle-building exercises 3 - 5 days per week to allow your muscles to recover.
• Always consult your doctor before starting any exercise program.