Best Way To Build Muscle

Posts Tagged ‘build muscles fastest’

A typical dilemma for any active sportsmen who lifts weights and wants to gain muscle mass is that they know there goal to build muscle up conflicts with the fact that they do a lot of cardio-vascular work. How can someone like this build muscle fastest whilst still doing cardio, indeed is it even possible?

Quite often it is suggested that in order to build muscles fastest you have to keep cardio training down to as limited an amount as possible. This is said because cardio workouts do two main things that work against muscle building, they are: 1) use up a lot of calories 2) increase the speed of your metabolism. Both of these two things contribute to the same problem, namely, not getting enough calories on board. How many calories ought I to be eating is therefore the next natural question?

Well, to keep at the same weight every day you would be required to consume enough calories to cover the energy usage of your body as if it were resting (basal metabolic rate), then eat enough extra calories to provide energy for your workouts. If you want to add muscle mass on top of this then you have to add an extra 500 calories every day.

Is there a way to figure out this total?

Yes, certainly one method of doing so is by using the Katch-McArdle formula (BMR based on lean body weight). Here it is:

Men: BMR = 66 + (13.7 X wght in kg) + (5 X hght in cm) – (6.8 X age in years)

Women: BMR = 655 + (9.6 X wght in kgs) + (1.8 X ht in cm) – (4.7 X age in years)

Once you have gotten this figure you should then multiply it by one of the following to allow for your daily activity levels:

Sedentary = BMR X 1.2 (little or no exercise, desk job)
Lightly active equals BMR X 1.375 (light exercise/sports 1-3 days/wk)
Mod. active = BMR X 1.55 (sports 3-5 days/wk/moderate exercise)
Very active equals BMR X 1.725 (hard exercise/sports 6-7 days/wk)
Extr. active equals BMR X 1.{9 (hard daily exercise/sports & physical job or 2X day training, i}.e marathon, contest etc

So, should you be doing cardio and weights frequently then you should multiply this by at least 1.725. This will give you the figure that will cover your daily energy needs. This total then needs to changed according to your specific goals. Presuming it is muscle building, you would need to add at least a further 500 calories per day.

So, for arguments sake lets say the number you figure out is 3000 calories then that would mean 6 meals everyday which each contain 500 calories. Each meal would then be made up of 62 grams of carbohydrate, 37 grams of protein and 11 grams of fat. This is because 1 gram of carbohydrate or protein is 4 calories and one calorie of fat equals 9 calories.

Correct muscle building nutrition and working out your calorie needs like this is what is going to ensure you build muscles fastest, not any miracle new exercise!