Gaining mass is a crucial step for those who want to increase body volume and build muscle sustainably, without storing fat. But how do you gain muscle and body mass effectively? While gaining weight can be quick for some, others take longer and need a special program such as weight gainers: it all depends on your morphology, age, training level, etc. In any case, strict adherence to the instructions is fundamental to the success of this process. Thus, the diet is essential, but not the only one! It is also necessary to follow an adapted sports training!
What diet to increase your mass?
Whether you are an athlete, a bodybuilder or any other sportsman, it is fundamental that you strictly monitor what is on your plate in order to succeed in gaining mass. Here are 5 tips for a nutrition that promotes the development of mass.
Focus on proteins
Proteins are known for their ability to boost muscle growth. For a healthy and effective protein diet, it is necessary to opt for natural proteins and varied sources. Include them in each of your meals, with a volume of 5 to 6 meals daily, and your muscle and body mass will grow very quickly!
Gaining mass is a crucial step for those who wish to increase body volume and build muscle sustainably, without storing fat. But how to gain muscle and body mass effectively? While gaining weight can be quick for some, others take longer and need a special program such as weight gainers: it all depends on your morphology, age, training level, etc. In any case, strict adherence to the instructions is fundamental to the success of this process. Thus, the diet is essential, but not the only one! It is also necessary to follow an adapted sports training!
What diet to increase your mass?
Whether you are an athlete, a bodybuilder or any other sportsman, it is fundamental that you strictly monitor what is on your plate in order to succeed in gaining mass. Here are 5 tips for a nutrition that promotes the development of mass.
Focus on proteins
Proteins are known for their ability to boost muscle growth. For a healthy and effective protein diet, it is necessary to opt for natural proteins and varied sources. Include them in each of your meals, with a volume of 5 to 6 meals daily, and your muscle and body mass will grow very quickly!
Eat fatty foods
Fat is often put aside by athletes for fear of storing fat in the body. However, you just need to choose the right foods to stay healthy while promoting mass gain. To do this, opt for foods rich in “good fat” such as olive and rapeseed oil, avocado, mackerel, flax, sardines, walnuts, almonds, eggs, peanut butter, etc. These nutrient intakes, all rich in omega 3, allow your muscles to feed themselves.
Take vitamins and minerals
They are often forgotten, yet vitamins and minerals are as essential for the proper functioning of the body as proteins, lipids or food supplements. They not only build muscles, but also facilitate recovery by strengthening the immune system. They are therefore the keys to staying in shape on a daily basis. To gain muscle mass, vitamins B, C and D are to be preferred, as well as magnesium, calcium, sodium and potassium.
Drink water
For good muscle building, staying hydrated daily is essential. Indeed, a large part of the muscles is composed of water. To perform well and build bigger muscles, you should drink about 3 liters of water a day, depending on your level of training. So don’t wait until you feel thirsty and take sips. You are well hydrated when the color of your urine is light yellow, and dehydrated if it is dark yellow.
Eat enough food
Too many beginners make the mistake of cutting back on their caloric intake in order to remove any fat in the body and gain dry muscle, which only results in a caloric deficit. If you are having trouble gaining mass, the best solution would be to focus on starchy foods or to add calories to your meals in a healthy way, thanks to protein shakers such as mass gainers.
What sports program to gain muscle?
Nothing is more effective than a good workout to increase muscle volume. Here are 5 training tips to gain bodyweight effectively.
Warm-up properly
Every athlete worth his salt knows that you can’t start a workout without warming up. This minimizes the risk of tearing, fracturing, stretching or any other type of injury, as well as facilitating blood circulation and oxygen distribution in the muscles. In short, with a good warm-up, you will have more endurance. Therefore, you should start your workout with sets of light loads.
Train the major muscle groups
To facilitate muscle mass gain, basic exercises should be favored. While targeting specific muscles will increase their strength, working the large muscle groups will involve several joints at once. This will allow you to work your entire metabolism from the top of your body down through your abs, producing more hormones. To make sure you don’t focus on your upper body alone, for example, practice squats: they firm up your thighs and make them more voluptuous.
Keep your sets short and intense
As most weight trainers know, using heavy loads in short, repetitive, intense sets is more effective than endurance for increasing the size and strength of the targeted muscle. The proof is in the pudding, cyclists have much larger muscles than sprinters! Do 6-8 reps per set, with 4-8 exercises for each muscle group and using your maximum load during a one-hour session. These short, but intense efforts will rapidly increase the size of your muscles. But be careful, to prevent your body from adapting to stress, vary the order of the exercises in each workout.
Do without cardio
Cardio is the right workout for those who want to lose weight, not the other way around. It is an exercise that burns calories and amino acids, which should be avoided when you want to focus on weight gain. For those who absolutely want to practice it to keep an eye on their body fat, 3 sessions per week will suffice. It is also essential to separate the weight training sessions from the cardio sessions, or only do the cardio towards the end of the session, so that most of your energy is devoted to training to build muscle.
Don’t forget to rest
Overtraining would not only be dangerous for your health, but it would also make it ineffective to gain mass since it will cause your muscles to melt. As you will have understood, recovery is essential to remain efficient and reach your goals. Train only every other day for a 1-hour session each day, and don’t forget to recover between sets. Also make sure you get at least 8 hours of sleep a day, and stay away from any kind of stress.
That’s it, you know all the nutritional and sports tips to gain weight quickly and efficiently. Now it’s up to you!
