How To Build Muscle and Tone Up

You want to tone up, get stronger and know How to Build Muscle but want to make sure you’re doing the right things! Here are a few quick tips on how to gain muscle the right way to get you started.

1. LIFT A VARIETY OF WEIGHTS

Lifting heavy weights will definitely help you to increase your lean muscle mass. That and incorporating explosive exercises into your workouts like sprinting, and jumping if high impact exercises are in the cards for you. When doing so you target your type II muscle fibers. But it IS important to know that studies show that type I fibers (aka slow-twitch “endurance” muscle fibers) also have growth potential and can also help you to tone up! An example of this is doing high repetitions while still using moderately heavy weights. Something where you can perform 15 to 30 or 30 to even 50 reps! “The burn” is what you’re going for here.

Once every week or two, target those type I fibers with moderate-weight, high-rep work (e.g., 3–4 sets of 15-50 reps per exercise). 

2. PERFORM MULTI-JOINT MOVEMENTS

As mentioned above strength training is the most efficient way to build lean mass — so it only makes sense to tell you that if you pack your workouts with compound (multi-joint) exercises like squats, deadlifts, lunges and pull ups you’ll build that beautiful strong muscle you’re looking for. 

Of course you want to mix up your workouts with a range of multi-joint and single-joint moves for the best results. However, multi-joint exercises have studies to back them up showing that they increase testosterone in the body – which is your muscle enhancing hormone (psst and fat burning hormone). Whatever you do, don’t skip out on the compound exercises!

3. GET THAT 7-9 HOURS YOU KNOW YOU NEED

You’ve heard it time and time again, and I’m going to say it to you again. YOU NEED to make sleep a priority in your life. Sure you’re busy. Most people are! But making sure you hop into bed on time allowing yourself to get at least 7 hours of sleep is crucial for your health and muscle mass! Getting less than that on a regular basis can cause an important process in your body called protein synthesis (aka muscle growth) to come to a halt. 

Plus, a little (okay, maybe big) something called your human growth hormone which naturally spikes while you sleep won’t get released efficiently which will harm your energy levels, other hormones and fitness goals! 

5. MANIPULATE YOUR WEIGHT TRAINING 

Yes, you need to challenge your body and muscles with heavier weight to trigger growth, but you also need to be smart about how you go about it. If you increase the amount of weight you’re lifting too quickly, you’ll increase your risk of injury. So, increase they weight you’re using in wise increments. But just be sure to do it! Too many women are afraid to lift heavier weights in fear of getting “bulky”. Listen up! YOU WILL NOT maximize your results or what your body is fully capable of without manipulating your weights! Using just 3, 5 and 8 lb dumbbells during your workouts may not be challenging your muscle at all and you could find yourself “stuck in a rut” or hitting a major plateau! 

So how do you know if you need to increase your weights? Pay attention to how difficult your last few reps are of an exercise. If you have good form your last 2-3 reps should be quite difficult to complete! If they aren’t, it’s time to up your game and reach for a heavier weight.

6. ALLOW TIME FOR RECOVERY

Muscle grow and your efforts from your workout all takes place AFTER the workout. So make sure you’re allowing for proper recovery between workouts. What is recovery exactly? In practice, that means eating healthier, stretching and foam rolling/trigger point, packing in the protein, drinking plenty of water, using glutamine to reduce inflammation and soreness, getting good quality sleep and not overtraining! Be sure to at least take 1 to 2 days off per week to allow your body and mind to fully recover from an intense week of workouts! These “off” days can be active recovery days where you swim, go for a long walk outside, hike or get in a relaxing yoga session. Your body knows best, listen to it! 

Bottom line is this – if you have a strength training plan to follow that’s helping you to improve and grow, are patient, focused, and consistent with your workouts and recovery, you will see results.

If you haven’t yet, go ahead and grab your own copy of my FREE 5-DAY WORKOUT PLAN to get you started. From there we can chat about a fitness plan that would the perfect fit for you, your lifestyle and your goals! My style of coaching is all about finding a balanced, healthy lifestyle that fits perfectly with your schedule that still allows you to go out on Friday night and enjoy yourself.

Don’t wait! Get your week of workouts and then shoot me an email ([email protected]) when your week is up and let me know how it went.  I’d love to support you on your journey!