Build Muscle Up with Simple Lifestyle Changes

If you want to get 100% better at something, how would you approach it? I can think of two primary approaches. The approach you select will be somewhere along this continuum: performing one activity twice as well (or 100 percent better), or performing 100 activities 1 percent better. I think that most people attempt the first approach, but the latter is much easier to implement.

Taken a step further, to make each of these 1 percent building blocks more effective, you could also focus on things that occur outside of your workouts. So you focus on changing your habits and making fractional improvements in many areas that will stack on top of one another to give you huge benefits.

So here are five easy lifestyle changes you can make to help you build muscle up.

1) Replace Traditional Cardio with Interval Training

Traditional aerobic activities have a negative impact on muscle gaining because it burns branched chain amino acids (BCAA) and glycogen. Instead, focus on interval training for fat burning, for example a 400-meter sprint followed by a 400-meter recovery jog, repeated 3 more times.

2) Increase Total Time Under Load (TTL)

Instead of focusing on the number of reps, concentrate on the total time your muscles are under load. Try spending 2 seconds on the negative contraction, 1 second at neutral (bottom of the exercise), and 1 second on the positive contraction. Emphasizing the negative is an easy way to overload muscles and promote muscle weight gain.

3) Eat More Fish

Not only is fish high in protein, it is also a natural source of essential fatty acids, which are vital for both your muscular health and your overall health. Omega-3’s make your muscles more sensitive to insulin, so they aid glycogen storage and increase the absorption of amino acids into your muscles, while also preserving glutamine storage.

4) Recovery

Your body will only build muscle up by repairing it in response to your workouts. When your muscles are repaired, they are made stronger than before to respond to the higher stress levels put on them. If you don’t allow your muscles time to recover, they can never rebuild.

5) Cheat on your Diet

If you haven’t yet read the Cheat to Lose Diet, you should. It’s a pretty interesting theory into how the body metabolizes food. The short story is that your body burns fat in response to the presence of a hormone in your body, and that hormone comes as a direct result of overeating! So once a week, cheat, and follow your cheat day with two very low-carbohydrate, high protein days. You’ll enjoy the cheat day and burn more fat to boot.