There are many elements and strategies for muscle-building. If you want to increase your knowledge and train smarter, this page provides a good starting point. It contains links to all of the key muscle, strength and fitness pages, reviews, and articles on this site.
Whatever your personal fitness goals may be, Organic Avenue has an ever-expanding library of articles and reviews that can help. Becoming fitter and stronger enriches life in many ways. It can also help prolong your time on this earth. There are lots of good reasons to train.
It’s easy to think the only people who are interested in gaining muscle and strength are bodybuilders and competitive weight lifters. That’s not true. Plenty of other athletes need to do it too.
Take footballers, for example. Apart from having a high degree of physical fitness, speed, and agility, footballers also need to have strong muscles. Getting big is not the name of the game. Too much bulk would slow them down, but they do need to have good physical strength.
Shot putting, javelin throwing, rugby, boxing, these are all pursuits where some extra muscle helps.
It’s not just about putting in the time training.
If you want a strong fit body you need to eat right and get plenty of rest too. These are two important aspects that should never be overlooked. Food provides the body with the nutrients it needs to build muscle and affect cellular repairs. Sleep is the all-important downtime when a lot of the work is done.
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Exercise: It’s Not Just About Muscles
Although competitive bodybuilders need to focus on keeping their bodies nice and lean, some people focus too much on muscle and strength. Go to any gym and take a look around and you will see certain individuals who have huge muscles and a belly to match. They may be as strong as an ox but it’s not healthy carrying around all that excess fat. A good training routine shouldn’t just focus on muscle and strength it needs to focus on overall fitness too.
If you need tips on how to lose weight, Organic Avenue can help you with that too. All of our top weight loss article and diet supplement reviews can be accessed via the links on our weight loss page.
Working Out: Is Your Attitude Right?
Maybe you only want to tone-up and stay in shape or perhaps you are at the other end of the scale. Lots of men and women who work out do so because they want to get big.
Whatever your reasons may be it’s no good just training once in a while, you need to make a commitment. Getting fit and keeping fit are two sides of the same coin. Both require regular, ongoing exercise. You also need to realize things don’t happen overnight.
The fastest sprinters trained hard to get where they are. The biggest and strongest men and women in the gym have probably been training for years. It’s the same with those girls you see with the killer curves. They’re not genetically lucky. They’ve committed to getting fit and looking good and turn up to train instead of letting themselves go.
For people like this, working out isn’t just a hobby. It’s a part of their lives.
Nutrition for Building Muscles
When you think about eating to build muscles and strength, it’s easy to become overly focused on protein. It provides the amino acids the body needs to make muscle, so no big surprise there.
Building muscles isn’t just about protein though. Your muscles need other nutrients too, such as carbs for energy. Vitamins and minerals are just as important as well. For instance, B Vitamins help your body extract energy from food.
Zinc and magnesium are good for your muscle as well. They help your body produce testosterone. It’s the most important bodybuilding hormone your body has got. Testosterone also boosts energy levels and helps you to burn fat. It helps your bones stay nice and strong too.
You also need a certain amount of fat in your diet. Of course, it’s important not get too much of it and to avoid the unhealthy, saturated kind, but fat is a nutrient, you need a certain amount. If you try to cut it out entirely you are likely to feel more hungry than normal. You could also feel more tired and a zero fat diet would be no good for your skin.
You hear a lot of talk about eating a balanced diet. A balanced diet is one that provides all the nutrients your body needs. That’s the kind of diet you want. If you are training to improve muscle and strength, you may require additional protein, but there are limits to how much your body can use. Giving it too much can actually damage the health.
The Role of Supplements
Using the right supplements at the right time can be an excellent way to train harder and increase your muscle and strength. But they are not the most important thing.
A good pre-workout formulation can give you energy, help you train harder and longer and see better results. Testosterone boosters and protein powders can help you gain muscle mass and fat burners can help you get lean. Certain legal steroids can do both.
Whatever your needs or personal training goals, there’s probably a supplement that can help, but none of them is a substitute for commitment and hard work.
Whether you want to get fitter and faster, improve your muscle and strength, or do all these things together. Training, diet, and adequate rest are the most important things. They will get you there in the end. Supplements are an additional extra. They won’t do much on their own but, when used with the right training and diet, along with adequate rest, supplements give you an added edge and help you to be the best you can be.
