When you are starting with bodybuilding it can be hard to keep track of everything that you need to do to get in perfect shape. Furthermore, being in perfect shape is different for everyone because some people want to bulk up and have big muscles while others want to build lean muscle mass. If you are a novice bodybuilder that prefers to have lean muscles instead of becoming big and bulky there are a few things you can do to ensure that you get exactly what you wanted.
The Basics Of Lean Muscle Building
The first thing you need to know when starting as an amateur bodybuilding enthusiast is that you already have the most important thing for building lean muscle; your body. There’s also a common misconception that you have to do weightlifting to build strength and lean muscle but that’s not true at all. You can also do bodyweight exercises, HIIT (high-intensity interval training), power yoga classes, and so on. Any activity that improves your strength would help you build lean muscle. With that said, lifting weights usually bears the best and fastest results because you have a lot of different equipment that you can use in the gym that makes it easier to target the various areas and isolate specific muscles and muscle groups.
Visit The Gym More Often
Building muscle requires dedication and building lean muscle isn’t any different. You will have to increase the amount of time you visit the gym. Ideally, you would be able to go 3-4 times per week as a novice bodybuilder. It may be hard at first, but you must stick to the plan and endure the hardship at the beginning because it gets easier once you make it a habit and you see the preliminary results after a couple of weeks.
You have to put in more effort and exercise more often if you want to stimulate your muscles to grow and become lean.
Do More Compound Exercises
Compound exercises are exercises that engage bigger muscle groups such as deadlifts, pullups, squats, and so on. These exercises involve more muscle groups making it easier to add more weight which will stimulate lean muscle building. This doesn’t mean that you should only do these types of workouts because isolation movements work well too. Doing a large variety of exercises is one of the most important factors which brings us to the next tip.
Mix Up The Exercises
Your entire body can adapt to different conditions and situations that it’s put in. It’s the same with your muscles when you do the same workout over and over again. After a while those exercises won’t engage your muscles as well as they used to when you started, so mixing up the exercises from time to time is an important chain that will help you build leaner muscles if you are an amateur bodybuilding enthusiast. If you’ve been doing 8-12 reps for a while, swap them out with a static exercise or increase the weight and do fewer reps. You can also lower the weight and do more reps instead. The important thing to take away here is that any change can stimulate your muscles to become leaner.
Give Yourself Time To Recover
Recovering after a workout is just as important as the workout itself because when you recover your muscles are actually growing. When you are in the gym, working out, you put stress on your muscles and your muscle fibers to the point where they break down. When you rest, your muscles are healing from the damage done and grow in size and strength to be able to withstand the stress you put them through the next time.
Consume Enough Protein
Protein is used as a building block in our muscles so naturally, it’s very important if you want your muscles to be lean and have the right nutrients to recover after a workout. This is a common mistake that many amateur bodybuilding enthusiasts do and it’s critical for your muscles to have the right nutrients to grow stronger and leaner. The right amount of protein isn’t easy to determine for the novice bodybuilder so it’s best if you consult with a personal trainer or a licensed nutritionist and get a proper meal plan for building lean muscle. In general, you should consume between 0.8 to 1g of protein per 1 lb. of body weight each day.
