Before we get to our main topic i.e. how to build lean muscle, we need to fully understand the term lean muscle. Muscles are one of the most essential parts of the human body and are meant to provide strength to the body. Providing energy and strength is not the only purpose of muscles, well toned muscles lead to a well tone body and add to the beauty of the physique. The muscle is a fibrous bundle of tissues that has the unique ability to contract and flex and helps the body in movement.

Therefore having healthy and strong muscles is something very important. While the efficient working of the muscles is affected by the layer of fat, it is essential to have fat free muscles. This is where the term lean muscle appears. Lean muscle is simply defined in terms of lean muscles mass which is the whole content of the body minus the body fat. That is the fat free muscle content of the body. Now that we have understood the term lean muscle mass, let’s discuss how to get lean muscle mass.

Gaining lean muscle mass, as the name implies, is usually linked to body building. In body building the main goal is to achieve more muscle in the body without gaining any extra amount of fat. Since fat stands in the way of efficient performance of the muscle, knowing how not to build up fat in place of muscle is important. Here on (site name) we have gathered all the possible ways of gaining lean muscle that you would find both useful and promising regarding results.

There are two main sources for build lean muscle mass. One is through the diet you take and second of course, is workout. The best possible results are achieved when you take a muscle building diet along following the lean muscle workout routine. Let’s have a look at both these one by one.

Nutrition that helps you build lean muscle mass!

When the rest of the world is sweating off in struggle of losing weight and you are in search of means to gain weight, trust me you are on a happier side. Gaining weight is way lot easier than losing weight. And if you love to eat, it’s not at all a strenuous task. Few things need to be kept in mind for weight gain for lean muscle, top of which are carbohydrates.

• Carbohydrates: Carbohydrates are the essential ingredient that needs to be added to the diet of a weight gain dreamer. Add more and more carbohydrates to your diet and get bulkier with each bite. The role of carbohydrates is to release insulin which in turn pulls all the available nutrients in blood. This helps the amino acids to work effectively to store fat…and hence weight gained. The carbohydrate complex when taken around 6 times a day helps gain the required amount of muscle for those who have a genetic tendency for weight gain or those who are in their early teen; While for those who have passed their teenage years long back, gain weight easier compared to the young adults, as the metabolism rate decreases with and tendency to gain weight increases. Now that we know that the carbohydrates are the main fuel for body, still one must stay conscious that carbohydrates need to be taken with care as the amount of consumption goes in proportion with the volume and intensity of the weight lifting.

• Best Time for Carbs Consumption: Once you know that carbohydrates play the vital role in energizing the body and to gain lean muscle mass, you might start consuming them round the clock. Therefore it is important to know that there are times when the consumption of carbohydrates can boost the lean muscle gain process. The best time to consume the carbs is the morning time, to maximize its effect of protein sparing and muscle building. The second best time is right after the workout, at this time the insulin level is high in the body that pulls the amino acids out of the blood and sends them to the muscle tissue. Third best time for carbs consumption is the around hour prior to your workout.

If you would follow this routine for the intake of carbohydrates, you will observe a positive lift in your muscle gaining.

• Best Carbohydrate filled foods: when it comes to building lean muscle, most of the people go for training and ignore the fact that the nutrition also does help a lot in gaining more muscle. They train and train hard avoiding their diet routine. Training no doubt adds a lot of muscle but when accompanied with proper food plan, it not only helps you gain more but also fulfills the nutrition demands of the body which is essential not only for those who want to gain muscle, but for everyone of us in general. Here we have gathered a list of carbohydrate rich foods that will be good for your body and mass both.
  • Beef: when you are on the road to gain lean mass, lean beef is the ingredient that needs to be there in all your meals. Beef is not only rich in all muscle increasing factors including iron, zinc and B-vitamins; it also provides the body with such proteins that are superior to the proteins you find in other foods. Also does it supply high quality amino acid that in turn supplies nutrition to muscle tissues.
  • Eggs: Eggs are your most economic and high nutritious solution for the muscle build up because they are not only rich on proteins and amino acids but they also contain abundant amounts of vitamin D and right kind of fat, the fat which is not harmful.
  • Fish: Fish is known for its richness in omega-3s along with the proteins and Vitamin D. Omega 3s protect your body from gaining surplus fats and are essential fro the proper functioning of the organs.
  • Whole Grains: the answer to your question how to gain lean muscle has whole grains in the answer. Whole grains are highly nutritious compared to the refined grains and are easier to digest and are metabolism friendly. Brown rice stands first in the list of best whole grains for weight loss.
  • Fruits and Vegetables: fiber is an essential nutrient your body needs in order to digest the food properly and the best sources for this fiber are fruits and vegetables. Also are they rich in vitamins and nutrients that strengthen our immune system.

These are the five very basic foods that you can add to your daily diet and consume easily.  You might be taking them already. There are several other foods that are rich in carbohydrates and aid the muscle building process, first make a habit of taking these on regular basis and then move on to next ones.

Having discussed the foods that help build up the lean muscle in your body, let us give the second answer to your question: how to build lean muscle. Doing trainings and going through Regular workouts help the muscle build up process a lot. Here we have compiled a workout routine that serves everyone best, men or women, young or old, trying to get big or simply looking forward to get a toned body.

How to build lean muscle for beginners: building lean muscles through workout could be a tedious task for the beginners, it is therefore recommended to start the workout routine with simple exercises and with the rest days every second day. Taking rest at the initial level is essential because all your muscles are stiff in the start and they need to get relaxed after the tiring workout routine. Also the beginners are recommended not to lift heavy weights in the start of the routine. First let the muscles get flexed and then burden them with lifting weights. Once your body has adopted the change, it will now be convenient to start challenging it a bit. Three days a week is the best workout routine in start. Later on you can increase the days of work out and get the heavier weights too.

Lean Muscle workout for intermediate trainers: having successfully finished the three days workout routine on the beginner level, you are now in the right position to move on to the intermediate level. Now the workout routine would follow on two consecutive days and en a day off to rest down the body. The weights you will lift during the workouts would get a little heavier and the duration too would extend. Furthermore, instead of doing full body exercises like that of the beginner level, you will now split your workout in upper body and lower body. One day you will be doing the upper body workout and on the next day would you practice the lower body workout, next day would be off and then the same upper lower body routine would continue.

Lean Muscle workout for pro level trainers: practicing the intermediate level workouts for a couple of months, you could now confidently move on to the next level of workout which is for the professional and the most advanced type of workout. This is a five day workout programe where you train for three days and take a break and then for two days and take a break. Since you reach this level of training after several months or years of training in the intermediate level, your muscles would not grow on the same ration as they did for the previous levels.  It is therefore advised to lessen the amount of weights you carry and put a little less effort in the workouts so that the muscles would go on gaining within their capacity and get enough time to relax and rebuild in the off days.

Here are the proper lengths of time for each level of training

• Beginner: 6 months or less of weight training.
• Intermediate: 6-18 months of weight training.
• Advanced: 24 months or more of weight training consistently.

Based on your individual efforts and priorities you need to decide which level of training you can move on with since consistency is the key to doing anything and everything. If you have left muscle building for long time, then consider yourself at beginner level because as soon as you stop practicing the muscle building routine, your body will start restoring itself to the condition it was in prior to the workout.

As discussed earlier, the muscle building requires the proper nutrient at proper time as well in order to gain healthy muscle. Health is the main thing, if you have good health you can have good muscles that are both strong and energetic. So keep good health as your top priority. And take good nutrition. Take the workouts with taking proper days off. Stressing yourself out to too much weight building or training can result in the wastage of muscles. We therefore need to be careful in the selection of proper diet plans and exercise routines.

Here I would like to bring to your notice the fact that there are supplements available as well that are used also to build muscle and add protein to your body. These supplements are made with steroids that boost the energy level of the body and strengthen it for sometime but the natural protein and carb source are far better than these supplements. Discussing the role and specifications of these supplements is beyond the scope of this article. Still your trainer might advise you to take these supplements according to your anatomical requirements.