Here are a few tips to gain muscle.

1) Diet: eat clean. To gain muscle and a minimum amount of fat, you need to eat a good lean quality protein source. About 1 – 2 grams per pound of lean body weight must be divided over 5 – 6 meals per day.

Carbohydrates: Complex fibrous carbs in the form of fresh vegetables are best for gaining lean weight. Potatoes and other starches should be eaten early in the day so they can be burned off while you’re active, preferably as a post workout meal.

Good fats need to be taken in at each meal: olive oil, flax oil, Udos essential oils or fish oils. Eating wild-caught salmon 2 or 3 times a week is a good way to get your fish oils.

Remember, each meal, even if it is a snack, should contain protein, carbohydrates and good fats. Stay away from sugars. If you have to take them, then eat them in the form of whole fruit early in the day.

Avoid getting your nutritional calories from liquids, instead opt for food sources.

Make water your main drink, and drink enough each day. Here’s a simple rule of thumb to determine your basic water needs. Divide your body weight in half and turn that figure into ounces. That is the figure you need to start with, you may need more if you are really active. Example: you weigh 100 lbs. 100 / 2 = 50 ounces of water.

A few exceptions to the rule include fruits, vegetables and protein shakes.

When made with the right ingredients, these can be very effective fast meal replacements, snacks or post workout meals. Precision nutrition has a whole section on these types of shakes with a lot of recipes and they are categorized as either anytime or post workout shakes.

You will need to determine your caloric needs to maintain your present mass, and then add about 15% – 20% more calories to that to increase your weight and gain muscle.

Muscle gaining tips for exercise:

Go for the big compound lifts to get your body to burn more calories. These would be: Clean and jerks, squats, deadlifts, squat presses, benches; flat and incline, dips and pull-ups. Always get your big lifts done before going into your isolated lifts.As far as reps go, vary it. Some days go for strength with heavier weight and lower reps. Other days go for more reps with a lighter weight. Keep the intensity high always, and you need to be flirting with failure on every working set. I like to do one warm up set and 3 – 4 working sets.

Get in get your workout done, if you’re spending more than an hour you are doing too much and/or you are not working intensely enough. Overtraining produces the same bad effects as under training. Remember that training provides the stimulus to get the muscle to recover and grow. During rest, the muscle actually recovers and grows. So get your 8 hours of sleep in and don’t overtrain.

In general, muscle gaining tips are:

1) Follow a healthy diet and make sure to consume lean protein.

2) Exercise intensely enough to stimulate the muscle to grow without injuring yourself

3) Make sure to get plenty of rest to allow your muscles to get better and grow.

4) Rinse and repeat. KISS (keep it simple, stupid)

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