Looking to Gain Some Lean Mass

More and more women are realizing the importance of packing on lean muscle to their frame to help them offset the chances of osteoporosis later on in life , help them function more easily in their day to day activities, and help to create a nice tight appearance.

So whether your goal is to one day compete in a bodybuilding, fitness, or figure competition or you are simply looking to increase your strength and generate a better physique, here are some things to keep in mind.

The Workout Routine

The first component of increasing your mass is your workout routine. This is not the time for endurance cardio sessions. Instead you want to focus on putting more of your energy into lifting heavy enough weights that you create small microtears in the muscle tissue so that when given rest they will rebuild themselves back up stronger and bigger (in a process called hypertrophy).

Get Some Rest

This is not to say that you should be spending every waking hour in the gym trying to lift more and more weights each session. Notice in the previous sentence how I explained that muscles grow back bigger and stronger with rest? That is a key point.
If you do not give your muscles enough rest between workouts you will actually only further tear them down with each succeeding workout, thus actually causing a decrease in strength and size.
This is definitely not what you want. So the main thing to remember is that you will need to create a fine balance between spending enough time in the gym to progressively overload your muscles, then back off and allowing them a chance to heal.

A Split Routine

When designing your workout, your best bet will be to incorporate a split routine. I find you'll see the best results lifting on a one-to-two part per day schedule, whereas others do better on an upper/lower or push/pull schedule where each part is worked twice a weak.
The First Component Of Increasing Your Mass Is Your Workout Routine.
So, if you are just starting out and looking to increase your mass, you may want to chose a full body program done 3 days a week or a 2 day split program done twice a week (so 4 total days of strength training).
If you are more advanced, then you can further break your workouts up and concentrate more specifically on certain muscle groups. For example,
• One day for Chest and Triceps
• One day for Legs
• One day for Shoulders and Traps
• One day for Back and Biceps
When using this routine keep in mind that many of the compound lifts you are performing are working other muscle groups at the same time so you will want to ensure you are training both of those groups together on the same day so they will still get sufficient rest between sessions.

Reps & Sets
When looking to put on muscle mass, you will want to be within the 8-12 rep range, performing between 2 and 5 sets per exercise. Once again, the more advanced you are, generally the more sets you will be able to perform.
In order to keep the muscles growing you must change your workout routine periodically. The body has a miraculous way of adapting to the stresses we place on it and without a constant change of stimulation you will find yourself coming to a halt in your progress.
Try and add different exercises to your program, or you could also turn to more advanced principles such as drop sets, compound sets or supersets to shock your body into growth once again.

Rest Breaks
Try not to spend too much time going to get a drink of water and then get caught up chatting to someone you ain't seen for time. You will want to keep your rest periods between 60 and 90 seconds. This will give your muscles enough time to recover so that you can push them hard once again and will enhance the release of testosterone in your body.

Cardio & Nutrition

Performing cardio will slow down your bulking process, although this depends on the intensity/duration of the cardio performed.

If you are choosing to include cardio in your training program, your best bet is to perform one to three HIIT (high intensity interval training) sessions.
This type of cardio is not of long duration so it won't give your body mixed messages as to which type of muscle fibers you are hoping to train, as resistance and sprint training calls upon fast twitch fibers whereas endurance training calls upon slow twitch fibers.
When someone performs a great deal of aerobic work, such as hour long runs, the body wants to adapt in order to suit this type of exercise, thus promoting slow twitch fibers (giving you a long stringy type of look) over the fast twitch fibers. Since it is the fast twitch muscle fibers you are after, you will want to avoid endurance cardio sessions and keep them short and sweet.

Also, by performing HIIT sessions, you will not lose your cardiovascular conditioning so you will still be able to walk up the stairs without feeling like you need a ventilator. 

If you are lifting 5 days a week and are doing 3 sessions of HIIT a week, this may be too much for your body to handle and you will begin to feel more worn down than anything.

Calorie Needs

The one downside to performing cardio sessions, is that they burn precious calories that you could have been using for muscle growth.
This means that you are going to need even more calories above what is needed to maintain your daily activities and add muscle.
Luckily, if you perform your cardio in the method I suggested, you will only be going for 15-20 minutes at a time and won't be burning massive amounts of energy. This should easily be able to be replaced in your diet.

Conclusion

That is the training component to gaining lean muscle mass. You have to push plenty hard in order to see results. If you just go into the gym and give half your effort, your body is not going to see a need to adapt, or become stronger and grow; you will remain how you are.

If you train with great intensity every time you are there, followed by giving yourself enough rest to recover, you will unlock the key to a new body that you've been dreaming of.

Building muscle is an energy consuming process and unless you are supplying it with enough and the right kind of building blocks, you won't see many results either.

You'll need to make changes in your diet to ensure all this hard work in the gym doesn't get wasted.

Workout Motivation

Workout Motivation: 20 Ways to Get Going

I often hear people say, I need to workout, but I just can’t get motivated. Even seasoned athletes experience highs and lows occasionally before getting started.

There are so many ways to motivate yourself to exercise, and I want to share some ideas that have helped me. Sure I’ve had days when I’ve struggled with exercise. Just like everyone else, there are days when I’m too tired, or have too many things scheduled to find time to exercise. My workout is my time for myself, so I have a secret stash of motivational jolts that keep me on the fitness trail.

1. Remind yourself how good you feel after your workout. I always feel on top of the world after a good workout. It’s a natural high. Allowing myself to dwell on those thoughts help to motivate me to get going.

2. This is your special time for yourself. While many women make time to take care of others (kids, husband, other family, co-workers, boss), they often neglect taking time out for themselves. Instead, make your “you” time a priority, and don’t break that exercise appointment.

3. Think about the calories you will burn. If you count calories, you know that the more you exercise, the more calories you burn. You have to burn 3500 calories to burn off 1lb of fat.

4. Exercise should be fun. If it isn’t, choose an activity that you enjoy. As long as you’re moving, you’ll reap benefits.

5. Think about how you’re going to look as you continue to exercise regularly. Imagine a slimmer, fitter you. Now let that body image drive you.

6. Magazines. It motivates me to read fitness magazines. I get energized when I read about other people striving for the same goals as me.

7. Cover models. When I see a cover model that looks really good (and most look terrific) it helps motivate me to work harder.

8. Blogs. I enjoy reading blogs about people who are into fitness training. I can relate to the ups and downs they go through, and learn from their experiences.

9. Success stories. I find the success stories of others to be motivational inspirations.

10. Reward yourself. Especially if your having trouble getting motivated. It doesn’t have to be anything expensive, a book, a magazine, a pretty new nail polish, or a small bouquet of flowers.

11. Fitting into new clothes. The love of clothes is a great motivator for staying in shape. If you want to look good in all the new styles. Work out!

12. Adrenaline rush. I get a rush when I exercise and it lasts long after my workout.

13. Stress relief. Stressed from a long day at the office? Get out and work it off. It really helps to have this physical outlet to let go of all that tension.

14. Time for contemplation. Sometimes, I enjoy losing myself in my thoughts when I exercise. I’ve found it often helps me uncover solutions to daily problems.

15. A workout partner. Not only is it much more fun to exercise with a friend, you have a sense of responsibility to them to keep your workout appointment.

16. An exercise class. Sign up for a class, perhaps with a friend, and you’ll be motivated to get there and work out.

17. A coach or trainer. Worth the money, just for the motivation.

18. An exercise Journal. People who keep a journal of their workout routine have a far better chance of success than those who do not. The journal is your own personal checkpoint to remind you where you came from, where you are now and what your intended goal is to be.

19. Looking at a before picture of yourself. You often don’t realize how far you’ve come. Find an old picture of you taken before you began working out.

20. The dread of feeling disappointment from not exercising. I hate the guilt, frustration and feeling like I have missed something very important when I skip my workout. So I remind myself of that when I’m feeling too tired or lazy to workout.

15 min HardCORE workout