All You Need to Know About Lean Muscle and Lean Muscle Body

So, you have heard this term being thrown around in some contexts. But, what really is lean muscle. Is it a type of muscle? Is it a type of body? Is it some kind of supplement? Lets find out.

What is Lean Muscle?

Technically there is no such thing. The most logical term that is closely associated with it is "Lean Body Mass". Lean body mass is nothing but (your body weight - fat weight in your body) expressed in percentage terms. So, the lower the fat content the higher is your Lean Body mass. One of the constituents of the lean body mass are the muscles. But, obviously it does not mean that if you have lower fat content in your body you have great muscles. You could be a skinny guy with very low fat content and yet have a high lean body mass.

So, what is lean muscle mass then? Well if there was a way to measure the accurate mass / weight of muscle tissues in our body, then a good lean muscle body would have a high Muscle to Fat ratio. But, of course this kind of metric is not spoken about in any literature. But, it just gives you an indication of what it means in physiological terms.

Lean Muscle Body (LMB) is often used to describe the visual appearance of a person. This type of a body is used to describe a person who is not very bulky (like professional body builders), they are lean. Yet, they possess a well chiseled muscular look. In short, they are athletic yet muscular. This is also referred to as the hollywood look or the shrink wrap look. Popular Hollywood celebrities like Cam Gigandet or Brad Pitt sport this look.

So is it good to have a LMB?

Most definitely. If we just go by the physiological definition it is great for the overall balance of the body. A lower body fat percentage in the range of 10-15% is recommended for men and a range of 15-20 for women.This is the ideal fat volume to maintain good overall cardio-vascular health.

Visually, you will possess an extremely attractive and fit physique, which will be envy of others. You will also improve your strength and endurance if you try to achieve this physique and maintain it. This is a great plus and has many benefits apart from just the health benefits.

Many of us often think that this body type can belong to an elite few who have lots of money and time at their disposal to actually build a good physique (like actors and athletes). While it is true that more focus can be placed on getting a good physique if your living depends on it (eg. you are an actor, and you need to have a good physique to be in business), it is not necessarily true that common people like us cannot develop this physique. With some amount of motivation, dedication and the right information about lean muscular physique, you too can be well on your way to building an enviable body.

To get more free information about Lean Muscle and Lean Muscle Physique, head over to Lean Muscle Central.
Here you can download a free ebook that will give you all the tips and tricks that you need to build a lean muscle physique.

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Beginner's Guide to Getting a Ripped Body

Getting a ripped body requires the individual to follow a strict regime of controlled diet and various exercises. The first thing that an individual should do is check whether the body is suited for body building or not. Previous muscle or ligament tears can prove to be a big deterrent towards body building. Hence consulting a physician before hand is always advisable.

You should also list your goals of bodybuilding. Your general goals might be to gain muscle or weight or reducing the fat layers while retaining the muscle in your body. Each goal requires its own time to be achieved. For instance, losing fat while, trying to build muscle requires a lot of effort, time and patience. Trainees often become frustrated when it takes time to see results and end up quitting.

Hence using a body fat percent analysis tool is recommended. Using this tool you can decide how much fat you would like to burn and then calculate the time it would take to achieve your goal. Usually body fat of 30% and above is considered obese hence in such cases you must concentrate on losing the fat completely before gaining muscle. This requires a lot of time and effort hence you need to be patient.

For male trainees with body fat between 20%-30% require about 4-5 months to lose the fat completely then another 5-6 months is required for muscles to start developing. Having body fat between 15%-20% is considered ideal for body building beginners since this gives you the option of deciding which one is more important to you: losing fat or gaining muscle.

Irrespective of the time it takes to lose fat and build muscle you must maintain a set nutrition plan which includes about 5-6 meals in a day. Before you start training you must also ask your trainer to check the tolerance limits of your body by trying out the basic exercises for the initial few weeks before starting with hardcore training.

Choose a gym which has many types of equipment to choose from and trained personal trainers who will help you with your exercise regime. Training in the gym also does not mean just concentrating on your chest and arms; to get a ripped body you must train all your muscles at least twice a week.

Diet:

Diet is the key to getting a ripped body naturally and fast. You can increase your fat loss only by having a caloric deficit diet, which means that you burn more calories than you consume. Hence keeping a close watch on the number of calories you consume and burn is essential for getting a ripped body fast. Caloric deficit diet does not mean that you have to starve yourself.

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Building Muscle - How to Build Muscle Using Herbs

The following list of herbs can be found in tablets or capsules. You don't always have to mix in your herbs into a smoothie or meal. It is highly recommended that you take your herbs in the morning. They provide energy as well as build muscle.

1. Ginseng - used to boost your body's testosterone levels as well as gives your body stamina and longevity naturally. Ginseng is basically the natural version of steroids. It comes from the roots of the Asian ginseng plant. As stated before, you can find ginseng tablets to provide your body it's daily dose. If you are a tea drinker then you can go to your local store and find Ginseng tea to drink.


2. Fo-ti - What in the world is fo-ti? Fo-ti is a Chinese plant that is similar to Ginseng. It boosts stamina and longevity as well to assist you with building muscle. The difference between Ginseng and Fo-ti is that ginseng is much easier to get your hands on especially if you aren't to big on ordering items online.


3. Isoleucene - is so important to building muscle. It builds protein in your body and is the essential to building muscle mass. Foods that contain isoleucene are: egg whites, soy milk, turkey breast, lamb, chicken, tuna fish, and cottage cheese. A protein shake


4. Cayenne - Cayenne gets the blood circulating at a faster rate. Not only does cayenne help build muscle but it also helps prevent heart disease. You can rub down your poultry with cayenne rub or dash a reasonable amount of cayenne pepper on your meats, starches, or vegetables.


5. Oats - Oats build strong muscle as well as decrease your appetite. Now just because a food has oats in it does not mean that it will help build your muscle. Foods like oatmeal will benefit you but foods like oatmeal cookies won't benefit you. Stay away from the instant oatmeal because it doesn't provide as much nutrients as regular oatmeal. Instant oatmeal that is cooked in the microwave is not as beneficial to your body because the microwave actually removes most of your nutrients from your food. If you aren't a fan of oatmeal then having a bowl of honey nut cheerios or a bowl of regular cereal with oats in it would be it's equivalent.

You don't have to fill your body with harmful chemicals to build muscle. The earth is filled with excellent nutrients that are all around you.

http://www.BuildMuscleLikeCrazy.com

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Muscle Building Principles

Principle One- Lift Heavy

This is self explanatory but I see way to many people in the gym lifting way to light and not even reaching failure. To grow you must push your muscles to the point to where they must adapt by getting bigger and stronger. Basically when you contract a muscle using resistance (weight) you create little tears in muscle fibers, which must grow back bigger and stronger. The most common rep range used to build muscle is 6-12 reps with relatively heavy weight.

Principle Two- Fail

You must go to failure when lifting. This doesn't mean go to failure on every single set, but the majority of sets you should fail in the desired rep range e.g in the 6-12 range you should fail anywhere in between, if you can go above 12 increase the weight, if you cant reach 6 reps decrease the weight. YOU MUST FAIL TO SUCCEED.

Principle Three- Progress

You should be increasing the weight week to week. When you first start training your strength gains should be quite fast. Remember you must keep giving your body a reason to grow or else it will plateau and your gains will come to a stand still.

Principle Four- Keep Workouts Short

In general your workout should be 45 minutes to an hour and a half no longer. Its widely accepted that you will cause drops in testosterone (vital muscle building hormone) if you workout too long/overtrain. Length of your workout will be directly related to the rest you take in between sets (60-90 seconds).

Principle Five- Structure Your Workouts

Your workouts should be well structured. They should start with heavy low rep compound lifts e.g bench press, and then followed by lighter high rep isolation exercises e.g chest flyes. The main reason behind this is that you will have more energy at the start of your workout for lifting heavier loads.

Principle Six- Use Correct Form

Form is everything, when you use bad form e.g using your back while doing barbell curls, you decrease the stimulation on the bicep, and your just cheating your results. There is a time and place for cheating and that called forced reps. (I will do an article on that later, this article is just a basic outline of building muscle). Also when you use weight you cant handle you increase the chance of getting an injury. Trust me injuries are no joke they are very taxing physically but more so mentally.

Principle Seven- Eat Enough Calories

In reality you must eat more calories than you spend to grow. You may grow slightly if your just starting lifting without changing your diet. Most people say you need an excess of 3500 calories in one week to gain a pound of muscle. This is a myth in my opinion. 1 gram of fat = 9 calories 1 pound of fat = 3500 calories

1 gram of protein = 4 calories 1 pound of muscle = approximately 1800 calories ( including glycogen store)

You do the math, if your gaining a pound a week most of it is probably fat. Eat a surplus of about 150-300 calories daily to gain muscle slowly but surely. You cant bully your body into building more muscle by eating 5000 calories.

Principle Seven- Protein Power

Ideally you should get around at least 1 gram per pound bodyweight. You need protein to provide your muscles with the building blocks it needs to grow and repair. Don't think if you eat 500 grams of protein a day you will gain muscle twice as fast than eating 250 grams. Your body can only synthesize a certain amount of protein daily,after that it is either stored as fat or excreted as urea. This is determined by genetics and hormone levels. Why do you think pro bodybuilders get so big, they take hormones e.g testosterone to increase protein synthesis... they can expect to grow more on extremely high protein diets.

Principle Eight- Sleep To Grow

Ideally you should sleep 8-9 hours a night, realistically you should sleep at least 7 hours. Sleep increases hormones such as testosterone, growth hormone, leptin and also improves insulin sensitivity. All key for muscle building.

Principle Nine- Supplement Wisely

Supplements are to supplement an already good diet not replace it. You should only supplement what you cant get in your diet from whole foods. I recommend whey protein, fish oil, multivitamin, pre workout or creatine ( if you have the money). This is not an essential muscle building principle but it will give you that extra 10%.I will do a separate article on supplements in the future so check back under the nutrition header.

Principle Ten- Educate Yourself

Probably the most important muscle building principle. You cant go into this process of building muscle blindly, you have to know what your doing. Unless your some genetic freak who gains muscle just looking at a dumbbell, you have to do your research.

Check out ExtremeBodyFit.com for more articles like this.

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