Lose Fat Not Muscle
What is the best thing to take pre-workout to gain muscle, not lose fat?
I have been taking supplements like Animal Pump and NO Xplode for a while, but it seems like those work better for turning fat into muscle rather than straight muscle building. I weigh about 175, and have little body fat and need something to build muscle. Am I taking the right stuff or should I be using something different?
Hi Zack,
It may or may not be necessary to take supplements to gain muscles. Just know that to bulk up and gain a lot of muscle mass, you must do a lot of resistance training progressively but also consume a lot of calories at the same time. The extra calories that you consume are to supply the energy for your workouts as well as to replace and build lean tissue. To gain one pound of lean tissue, you must consume 2,500 extra calories. Therefore, to gain one or two pounds of lean tissue a week, you will need to consume about 350 or 700 extra calories daily, respectively. You must also do a lot of resistance training so that the extra calories consumed are used for gaining muscle mass and supplying needed energy, and not to be stored as fat. Since muscle tissue is more protein than fat or glycogen, it is suggested that you consume about 2 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight daily (if the protein is plant-based, more is required). Any extra calories that still needs to be made up after considering the protein requirements can be done with higher calorie foods.
If you are not used to resistance training, you must start slow and gradually build up. It is not necessary to consume the recommended amount of proteins and calories stated above when you first start out, as you will not be lifting much and all the extra calories will not be used up to either supply fuel for the workouts or replace and build lean tissue, causing your body to store much of the extra calories as fat. Also, make sure your body can adapt to the progression rate and gradually be accustomed to heavier loads. Then, increase your calorie and protein uptake as you increase your resistance training duration, frequency, and intensity. But again, you must take care to not overtrain, as this will lead to adverse training effects, including a decrease of lean muscle mass.
Workout:
Warm up: Be sure to always warm up before engaging in physical activities. If you don’t have time to warm-up, you don’t have time to exercise. (Not enough room here to provide more detailed information).
Reps: Usually, high-intensity low-volume workouts are better for bulking up. This means that the sets should be near maximal (you should only be able to do about 4-8 reps per set) and consequently, you will not be able to do as many reps or sets compared to a low-intensity workout.
Sets: The number of sets you’ll be able to do is dependent on your fitness condition. Always listen to your body to prevent overtraining. I will not prescribe a certain number of sets per day as your body will be better at doing this during the workout itself, but it may be helpful to set a goal in your mind before working out. However, if for example, you have a goal of doing 15 sets that day, but feel like your body is not responding normally during the 7th set, then it only seems logical to discontinue the workout and get the needed rest your body is calling for. In general, you should try to go for about 15-20 sets (this may be per day or on workout days, depending on the routine that you choose) when your body has gotten accustomed to such work.
Routine: Because there are various types of workout routines out there all claiming to be the best and most efficient and also because individuals will respond differently to different exercises and routines based on genetics and other factors, I will not be able to say which one is the best. I will mention, however, two of the top (but very different) routines you might want to be consider.
1) Resistance train six to seven days a week by working different muscle groups each day (i.e. arms on Monday, chest on Tuesday, back on Wednesday, legs on Thursday, etc.) You may want to start out with some sort of combination so that you do not overtrain your muscles while they are still adapting to more amount of work.
2) Do only whole-body exercises (bench press, squat, power clean, deadlift, etc.) every other day with a few sets of abdominal workouts once or twice a week. This means that you shouldn’t bother yourself with exercises that just work a single group of muscles (i.e. bicep curls, triceps extension, etc.)
Although it is not clear which routine is more effective (may be dependent upon the individual), as long as you’re doing the exercises properly and not overtraining, then there will definitely be benefits. Therefore, it may not hurt for you to switch from one routine to another to see if you can tell which ones work for you best. Who knows, you might actually get the best workout this way as you will be implementing the concept of muscle confusion by switching to different routines after a period of time.
Rest:
Make sure you get plenty of rest. 8-10 hours of sleep everyday is suggested.
I hope this helps!
-Alvin
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