5 Excellent Ways to Build Lean Muscles & Why Muscle-building is Beneficial

As awareness about health is growing, people have understood that there is a difference between weight of fat and weight of muscles, and that muscle weight is healthy and they don’t need to reduce it. Yes, it’s true that having strong muscles is actually healthy and keeps you active, unlike the fat that make you feel heavy and exhausted. But, how can you build such muscles? Earth’s Wisdom today wants to share with readers a few ways to build lean healthy muscles and their benefits.

1. Choose Exercises You Enjoy

Remember, you don’t need to follow a strict pattern of exercise. Instead, choose movements or activities that you enjoy and try to include strength training in your lifestyle so that you won’t have to do it separately and get stressed if you miss it.

Here are some strength training exercises of which you can choose 2 to 3 per week as per your liking:

• Bodyweight exercises
• Lifting
• Power yoga
• HIIT (high intensity interval training)

2. Be Flexible with Movements

If a particular exercise is not bearable for your body, you have all the rights to change it to suit your needs. If you can’t bend your knee fully, you can bend only up to the point where you feel comfortable. The amazing thing in this is that, after a certain period of time, you will actually be able to bend the knee a little more. Till then, be kind on your body and keep trying patiently and smoothly.

3. Lighter Weights can Give Same Results

Here’s the good news. If you are scared with a thought of lifting very heavy weights but think that it will help you get great muscles, you may feel relieved with a finding of a recent research which says that you can train with lighter loads and more repetitions which will give you the same results as that of heavier weights but fewer repetitions. The indication for stopping the workout is that your muscles can’t do even one more and ask for a break.

4. Mix Isometric and Isotonic Exercises

Isometric exercises don’t involve any contraction and relaxation of muscles but place a demand stagnantly on the targeted muscle or muscle group, whereas isotonic exercises involve muscle contraction and the tension on muscles remains the same throughout the exercise. Mixing these two exercises in your fitness regimen is a way to build lean muscles. If your joints are achy, go more for isometric exercises. Start from 30 seconds and then increase timing a little every time.

Here are some isometric exercises:

• Boat pose
• Plank
• Wall sit
• Warrior pose/s
• Glute bridge

Here are some isotonic exercises:

• Squats
• Triceps dips
• Crunches
• Push-ups
• Donkey kicks

5. Choose Exercises that Use Multiple Muscle Groups

Whether you take a static pose or do repetitions, your exercise that targets multiple muscles or muscle groups are the most effective. For example, side-plank rotations, mountain climbing or burpees typically increase your heart rate and give you a good cardio.

Benefits of Muscle Building

If you compare fat and muscles of same weight, you’ll find that fat requires more space than muscles. It’s a myth that muscles weigh more than fat. Thus by adding more muscles and reducing fat may not lessen your weight but can offer you a more slender look.

Also, even women won’t get a body-builder masculine look with muscle-building unless they follow a special diet and fitness program targeted for that purpose.

Muscles also burn down more calories than fat does, during exercise as well as at rest. Thus, if your muscle mass is increased, you can burn more calories.

Although it should be confirmed with more research, increased muscle mass has been found to make one less hungry which is beneficial for weight loss and reducing the risk of type 2 diabetes.

Finally strong and lean muscles improve your posture because they can fight aches and pain.

So, aim at building healthy, strong and lean muscles rather than just losing weight. Happy muscle-building!

Also in Wisdom News