How to Gain a Pound of Muscle Every Week

People always want to achieve fast results when it comes to weight loss or muscle building. Some may even try those “quick” muscle building pills (aka) that do not actually provide safe results.  A healthy and acceptable way of losing or gaining weight is actually 1 pound per week. Anyone losing or gaining more than that may just be involving water loss or water retention.

For, it is important to undergo a steady course of muscle building rather than fast results to ensure optimum muscle growth and not just water collecting in your muscle fibers. To achieve muscle growth of one pound per week, the following measures should be undertaken:

Maximize muscle growth through protein intake

Muscles need proteins in order to grow; however, our bodies also utilize proteins for other body processes such as the synthesis of different hormones and cell repair. Due to this, there will be lesser proteins for muscle growth. To supplement the muscles with enough proteins, it is important to increase the amount of proteins that you take in from adequate sources such as:

• Meat: meat is the best source of proteins. Choose lean and white meat as much as possible such as fish, chicken and turkey. You may eat red meat provided that select leaner portions and avoid animal fat.
• Legumes: Legumes also are good plant sources of proteins, toxins free, full of valuable fibers, good fats and precious vitamins.

Eat more carbohydrates

This does not mean that you need more carbohydrates than protein, but it actually needs you to increase your carbohydrates in times of exercise or work-out in order to be utilized for energy production. Without adequate carbohydrates, your muscles will use the stored proteins to be converted to energy instead of being used for muscle growth; thereby minimizing the ability of the muscles to grow.

Build large muscles first

It’s better to work on your large muscles first such as your legs, back, chest and arm muscles. This allows you to see improvements faster and also makes your workout more systematic. Make sure to perform pull-ups, push-ups, deadlifts, squats, dips, bench presses and military presses to work on these large muscles.

Consider a protein and carbohydrate shake before exercise

Aside from increasing as well as carbohydrates, it is also essential to have a proper timing when to take other protein supplements.  Before any given workout, studies show that those who drink a high protein-carbohydrate shake before any workout gained more muscles than those who drink after the workout. In this line, it would be best to supplement your daily protein intake with a protein and carbohydrate shake, like those that Bodybuilding and Vitacost offer, before any exercise.

Never do workouts every day

According to research, muscles grow at rest rather than at work. Working out stimulates protein synthesis to make muscle grow, but growth only happens faster the workout. It is then recommended to rest every other day to allow the muscle to grow in time for the next exercise the following day.

Take milk before bedtime

Since milk contains high amounts of protein, drinking warm milk before bedtime will help you build more muscles at night. Also, it aids in a deeper sleep, which also helps stimulate muscle growth through the secretion of important hormones.

Promote early, uninterrupted sleep

As stated above, a good sleep will stimulate the synthesis of human growth hormone, which is also an important substance for muscle growth. Make sure that you sleep early because the peak of HGH production an hour before midnight.

These tips are proven ways to build muscles effectively, but steadily for a healthier body building.

style="text-decoration: underline;">Author’s bio:

Dr. Amarendra is a fitness consultant in YourLifeTube where he shares  and the latest . Vitacost and Bodybuilding are two of the largest online supplements stores