Have you been training for years and you can’t increase the volume of your muscles
An incorrect diet can be responsible for not achieving your goals in your training. And you should eat a lot and well, but not just anything. The success of your training program depends 70% on your nutrition.You have to be constant and not fool yourself. You have a period of adaptation to the new diet and once it is over, in addition to not wanting to go back to before, you will be surprised how your body could function with what you gave it, much less gain size. But, how to start
Here we leave you some keys
To increase muscle mass, some strategies must be implemented, such as consuming more calories than are spent, increasing the amount of protein that is eaten during the day and including good fats in the diet. To all this, add a good sports routine. You should know that if your purpose is to gain muscle mass, it is important that you are aware of the importance of the binomial physical exercise + diet.
But step by step. You should know is that each person needs to follow a plan adapted to their physical conditions. To calculate them, in addition to taking into account the basal metabolism and the expenditure for physical activity , you must know certain essential generic tips to achieve the objectives.
CALORIC SURPLUS
To develop diets for muscle volume , the first thing that must be clear is that it has to be a diet that provides more calories than the body needs for its maintenance, that is, we are looking for a caloric surplus.
These energy needs will be increased since more energy is required to promote protein synthesis. Only with a ”margin” of 300-500 extra calories, our body can afford to create additional muscle mass; after all, these new tissues also have to receive enough nutrients.
But watch out for this. This caloric increase in our dietary guidelines can lead to a weight gain of up to0.5kg of muscle mass per week, but it depends on other genetic and metabolic factors that are your case. Do not overdo it and control your diet, so as not to gain fat mass at the same time.
Food
A good diet for muscle volume, in addition to providing the athlete with extra calories, must contain a correct distribution of the main macronutrients; proteins, carbohydrates and fats.
It is worth mentioning that the strategies in its distribution and approach can be several. You can choose to:
Increase the frequency of our intake.
Eat foods and/or drinks with a high caloric density without significantly increasing the volume of our meals.
Guarantee an optimal intake of carbohydrates before, during and after exercise.
Plan meals in advance to avoid skipping meals and ensure you always have good options at hand.
Having said that, we will go on to talk about the foods within these three macronutrients that can become great allies.
1.Carbohydrates
It is essential to increase the consumption of carbohydrates in our eating pattern. This macronutrient should constitute between 60-70% of the total caloric value of our intake. By consuming foods with a high amount of carbohydrates, we will increase our glycogen deposits,which is the main fuel of our body and will help us train better and optimize sports performance.
For this reason, it is important to know how to choose which complex carbohydrates should be included in the diet, preferably those that are rich in fiber such as: l
Fruits and vegetables
Legumes
Tubercles
Dried fruit
Rice, in case it is really for you difficult to reach a caloric surplus.
Integral pasta, not in excess
2.Proteins Proteins
have a great role in the diet of an athlete who wants to increase the size of his muscles. The function of this macronutrient is essential, since it is responsible for therepair of damaged tissues and increased muscle.In a correct diet for muscle volume, proteins should constitute between 30% and 40% of your diet.
Consuming protein just before bed can speed up muscle growth. In the hours of sleep is when the body regenerates and grows more and better muscle.
High-protein food sources include: Low-fat
dairy products (quark, cheese, yogurt)
Low-fat meat (beef, chicken, turkey, pork tenderloin)
Fish (salmon, mackerel, herring)
Red lentils, kidney beans, peas , quinoa, chickpeas, soy
3.Healthy fats
Fats are also very important in your diet, they are responsible for carrying out regulatory processes in the body, facilitating the assimilation of the rest of the macronutrients and producing muscle- forming hormones such astestosterone.
If there is a fat deficit in your diet to gain muscle mass, the production of anabolic hormones will be insufficient. In addition, they are the macronutrients that provide more energy and help maintain intensity and protect the muscle.
A contribution between 25-35% of the total caloric value of our diet is recommended, even so, it is essential that we prioritize the consumption of healthy fats such as:
Oils (nut oil, walnut oil, coconut oil, olive oil)
Avocados, flaxseeds, sunflower seeds
Nuts (almonds, Brazil nuts, cashews, pistachios, etc.)
TRAINING
To gain muscle mass, It is important that the training is carried out on a regular basis, it being recommended that this be 3 to 5 times a week and the same muscle group is worked 1 to 2 times, since muscle rest is essential for hypertrophy.
It is important that the training is done intensely , and it is recommended to start with a mild warm-up, which can be through aerobic exercises .or through the rapid repetition of a bodybuilding exercise that will be part of the day’s training.
After bodybuilding training, it is recommended that aerobic training is also carried out, which will help in the process of increasing metabolism and caloric expenditure, also favoring hypertrophy.
Recovery
Likewise, it is also important to allow time for the muscle to rest and grow, this is because during the exercises the muscle fibers are injured and send a signal to the body that indicates the need for muscle recovery, and it is during this that gain muscle mass
It is also important to take into account post-workout recovery. An intake should be made during the 6 hours after training, preferably during the first 2, since it will be the optimal time to recharge muscle glycogen.
A correct mixture between carbohydrates and proteins must be made, since the evidence shows that adding a certain amount of protein to carbohydrates after sports practice helps to recover glycogen deposits.In fact, several studies claim that protein consumption along with strength training leads to greater muscle hypertrophy than carbohydrate consumption.
Ideally, the recuperator is in the form of a drinkin order to facilitate the digestion and assimilation of these foods. It is also important that this compound, as we have already mentioned, by simple carbohydrates or high glycemic index, and by proteins, for its anabolic power . As for the proportion , it will depend on the person and their conditions, but the ideal formula is: 1-1.15g carbohydrate/kg weight/day and around 0.4-0.5g protein/kg weight/day.
SUPPLEMENTS
The first step should always be to correct our habits and achieve the best results from a correct diet. From that moment on, and after the adaptation process, some supplements can be beneficial in the process.
The supplements that have been seen to be beneficial in terms of increasing the percentage of muscle are: whey protein, creatine and β-hydroxy-β-methylbutyrate (HMB),
