10 ways to be healthy and build muscle

When it comes to fitness, everyone is under the impression that they have the key — the absolute solution to achieve any weight or bench-pressing goal.

Some people claim you should bulk up and eat tons of food to build muscle; some claim you should build muscle while losing body fat through altering your carbohydrate and fat intake. But the problem is that these solutions don’t always work for the average student that is juggling classes, work and a social life.

Only through self-application can one find what works best for them. However, before anything can change, you should start with nutrition.

Nutrition alone can have a dramatic affect on your physique. It can increase your muscle size or decrease body fat, and it can give you far more energy and even boost one’s overall well-being. Knowing the best, high-quality foods to eat and when to eat them can reap tremendous rewards to the novice trainer or even an elite athlete wanting to prepare for an upcoming competition.

When trying to get into shape for the first time, it’s best to start by changing your diet. Training is not superior to nutrition, nutrition is not superior to training, and neither is superior to the body’s ability to recover from the two — all are part of an equation that help your body adapt to physical activity.

Here are 10 ways to improve the outcome of your training sessions.

1.  Using a reverse grip when doing presses for the chest engages the chest by more than 30 percent in comparison to standard incline bench press.

2.  Add variety and change your posture in order to sufficiently target and stress various locations of the muscle fibers. Such changes can include changing hand placement, changing the angle of a bench, or spacing of one’s feet when squatting.

3.  One of the best diet approaches is simply to get a moderate to high amount of lean protein, moderate to high amount of carbs and moderate to very low amount of fat. When you are aiming for size, increase the amount of carbs; when trying to burn fat, simply lower your carb intake throughout the day.

4.  Dumbbell presses are superior for chest development as opposed to barbell presses, simply because the range of motion allows your arms to move in a plane that is ideal for better isolation of the pectoral fibers as opposed to incorporation of the deltoids or shoulders.

5.  If you’re losing steam in your workouts, Music can have a positive effect on your mood when training. Similarly, ballet stretches can assist your muscle in recovering and growing.

6.  Using supersets is a great way to add intensity in one’s workouts. Training opposing muscles loosens you up and allows one to be stronger in both muscles.

7.  Train intelligently and efficiently. Aim to be done with training within one hour if possible — otherwise a nasty little hormone called cortisol will negatively affect your workouts if you train for too long.

8.  Testosterone is the king of muscle growth. Testosterone is what separates the huge muscle men from the aesthetic beauty of a model. Men produce high amounts of testosterone, which gives them a natural advantage in rapid growth of muscle tissue.

9.  Try to cut down on the intake of saturated fat; focus on mono- and poly-saturated fats like avocados, olive oil and nuts. Too much saturated fat can increase the storage of fat on one’s physique. Healthy fats can assist with much-needed functions in the body such as hormonal production.

10.  Also fuel up on the body’s most needed resource — water. It is the most abundant product in your body and therefore should always be replaced. Keeping your body hydrated will improve your health, appearance and overall well-being.

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