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Exercise Equipment: What’s Right For You?

Here are a few pieces of exercise equipment that may help you achieve your health and fitness goals with a description for various applications and workouts from Lucas James Personal Training.

Stability, Core & Resistance

*Exercise Ball Exercises: Seated Crunches, Side Crunches, Back Extensions, Stability Ball Shoulder Press, Stability Ball mountain climbers, Squat & Reach

Swiss / Stability Ball – The greatest benefit of training with a stability or swiss ball is that it helps target your core muscles that are essential for stability and flexibility.  Another added bonus is that you can incorporate your stability ball with other equipment at your gym such as dumbbells, barbells and other free-weights to augment your typical workout.

*Kettle Bell Exercises: Dead Lift, Bent Row, Front Squat, Single Sided Ab Cross-over

Kettlebells, for as simple as they are, often look like intimidating pieces of equipment. However, they’re simple to use just like a regular dumbbell and actually make traditional dumbbell exercises more challenging.  Since the weight in a kettlebell is not evenly distributed you are forced to engage accessory stabilization muscles to workout harder. Kettle bells can be used to target your arms, shoulders, back, gluts, and core muscles.

*Medicine Ball: JackKnife Crunches w Medicine Ball, Medicine Ball front squats, Russian Twists, Medicine Ball Abdominal-Toss, Wood-Choppers with Medicine Ball.

Like Kettlebells, medicine balls are weighted and can be used for a variety of exercises.  They vary in weight depending on your intended use and proficiency.  Medicine Balls are often used in tandem with core abdominal exercises to add resistance and increase muscle tone.

Resistance & Strength

*Resistance Band Exercises: Resistance Band Chest Flys (Incline, Flat & Decline), Tricep Extensions, Tricep Kick Backs, Bicep Curls, Reverse Back-Flys, Lat Pull-Throughs, Side Deltoid Raises, Front Deltoid Raises, Shoulder Press, Abductor Side Leg Raises, Squats, Lunges.

Resistance bands are widely used for both general strength and conditioning, as well as, rehabilitation and injury prevention. They are inexpensive and highly portable, making them ideal for exercising at home or within a circuit training routine to help condition your cardiovascular system. Since they are light-weight pieces of exercise equipment they are easy to travel with as well, so no excuses!

*Light Dumbbells: Core exercises with dumbbells braced between your feet or legs. (Hanging Leg or Knee raises), Bicep curls, Tricep extensions, Tricep kick-backs,  front rows for your traps, Shoulder press, Shoulder Side and Front Raises, Lying chest flys and chest press.

Dumbbells are a great and versatile piece of equipment, but can be highly immobile and difficult to bring around if you need to be mobile.  You can use them individually or together, depending on the exercise and your personal goals and preference. There are adjustable dumbbells available that allow you to manually adjust the weight and change between different exercises and movements. Most commonly however are fixed dumbbells of a specific weight that require you to spend money on additional sets of varied heaviness.   A majority of Dumbbell exercises can be done just as easily with resistance bands, as noted above.

Flexibility

*Pads & Foam such as a Yoga Brick or Foam Roller: Exercises typically include stretching movements to elongate muscle fibers and help stretch your muscles.  Some stretches are: Calf Stretch, shin stretch, hamstring stretch, gluts stretch, IT band stretch, quad stretch, lats-back-spine stretch.

Foam roller exercises are sometimes referred to as self-myofascial-release (SMR) exercises, because they can be used to relieve deep muscle tension without any assistance.  SMR is a form of soft-tissue muscle therapy that helps reduce muscle pain and tension and increase range of motion. It is essentially a way to massage and stretch your while increasing your flexibility to allow for increased muscle fiber development and strength. Foam rollers are often used for injury rehabilitation as well.

Endurance:

*Cardio Machines & Exercise Bikes: Can be use for…you guessed it: Cardiovascular conditioning / endurance and toning.

Since Treadmills, Ellipticals and Exercise Bikes are quite expensive, they are typically the last piece of exercise equipment you’ll invest in, unless advised by a doctor.  Even then, they are available for use at most sports and athletic clubs and gyms.  Exercise Bikes are the best piece of cardio-equipment for building your leg muscles while engaging in cardio exercise.  While you can increase the incline on a treadmill and resistance on an elliptical, you don’t quite get the isolation effect that you do from sitting on a bike.  When exercising on any piece of cardio equipment, make sure to vary your routine, just as you would with resistance training.  Try alternating between fast sprints and long medium paced intervals to confuse your muscles and increase your calorie burning potential!

High-End Fitness Equipment & Manufacturers:

When looking for high-end or professional fitness equipment, don’t be fooled…pay attention to the details! Machines might look similar but perform completely different!  If you’re looking for an elliptical machine note that the Precor brand invented the Elliptical Fitness Cross trainer.

Keep your eyes open for ellipticals with:

*Adjustable incline – changing the degree /motion of your workout and therefore the way you’re targeting your muscles.

*Adjustable resistance – changing the degree of difficulty, increasing resistance allowing for a strength training effect.

*Electronic Features – such as a Heart Rate Monitor option & Calorie Counting function.

*A true ‘Elliptical motion’.  Its important to note that the elliptical motion provides the truest simulation to walking and running available without impact force on your lower extremities.  When trying a machine note the feel of the motion. Some machines may have a bad spot or ‘kick’ where your heel can come off of the platform. You want to avoid this bounce in your motion.

*Dependent upper body motion. Various machines will include upper body levers to add an upper body workout element.  This can also help with stability and balance while cross training.

Treadmills are the most popular piece of fitness training equipment. Star Trac is a pioneer in new technologies for treadmill training such as integrated video screens with personalized digital trainers to take you through a cardio workout.

*Look for a 60 inch deck for runners with a wide stride.

*Nicer treadmills have a top speed of 12 mph and 12% maximum incline. They often have stronger motors with a longer lifespan than cheap models.

*Look for a prominent gauge luster with buttons you can read while engaging in exercise.

How to Read Nutrition Facts, Information & Labeling

Choosing between McDonalds, Starbucks or Subway might be the toughest dietary choice you’ve had to make recently.  But for the rest of us who struggle with interpreting the nutrition information and data on a nutrition facts label at the super market, it often feels like we’re reading an ancient manuscript.  That’s why our expert nutritionist Jason Apfel, at Lucas James Personal Training, has broken down food labeling into a few simple steps so you can easily understand all that nutrition mumbo-jumbo!

If you’re concerned with maintaining a healthy body weight, the most important nutrition fact to note is proper serving size and portioning for each food or meal. With this in mind, the first place to look on the nutrition facts label is the serving size and the number of servings per package.  Why is this so important? Well, while you may be eating healthy foods, it’s just as important to eat the right amount of food to ensure healthy weight maintenance, weight-loss or growth, all of which depend on your total daily calorie intake.

Remember, when you take in more calories than your burn throughout the day, even when engaging in exercise, you’ll gain weight. Vis-versa, if you eat less than you burn, you’ll loose weight.  When weight-loss is concerned, you need to reduce your calories by a total of 3,500 calories per week, or 500 each day, to loose one pound of body weight.  You can keep track of calories through noting the proper serving size on any food product package.  Serving sizes are now standardized for similar foods to make it easy to compare like-products.  The measure for serving size is even provided in the same units, such as cups or pieces per serving, to make items easier to compare.                                         *American Heart Association Image

Aside from the obvious reasons, why is serving size important? It ultimately influences the listed amounts of everything else on the nutrition label such as carbohydrates, fat, protein etc. This is because the amount of each listed nutrient is based on the portion size.  For example: the larger the portion, the more grams of each nutrient listed. Often foods that are unhealthy, such as butter or processed chips, have relatively small serving sizes to make them appear healthier than they are! Ask yourself “How many servings do I consume”? To help you keep track of calories.

When you hear the term ‘calories’ you may think amount weight.  However, calories actually provide a measure of how much energy you receive from eating a given amount of a specific food. Calories come from the three main macronutrients Carbohydrates, Fats and Proteins, not from micronutrients such as vitamins and minerals. Each of the main macronutrients contains a different amount of energy or calories per gram.  For example, carbohydrates and proteins contain 4 calories per gram while fats contain 9 calories per gram, making them more calorically dense.   Aside from the biochemical structure of fats and the way they are metabolized, fats are ‘worse’ for us when weight-loss is concerned, because they contain more calories –making it harder to loose weight.

Some foods are also higher in calories than others. For example, fruits and vegetables tend to be lower in calories, especially fat, and are devoid of saturated fats found in animal products.  Plant foods also typically contain more minerals and vitamins than animal products do.  On the flip side, animal products such as milk and meat tend to be higher in protein content and important minerals such as iron and calcium.

Since calories are really a measure of energy, the calorie section of the label can help you manage your weight through energy balance as previously described. It’s crucial to remember that the number of servings and portion size you consume determines the actual number of calories you take in.

Nowadays, when deciding on your favorite restaurant and fast-food items the calorie content and even nutritional information is available on the menu depending on where you live.  This may be startling, but recent legislation had required every large restaurant chain in the nation, including fast food chains, to provide caloric information on their menus and drive-throughs. This new federal law passed in 2011 by the Obama administration requires restaurant chains that are comprised of twenty or more locations to disclose the caloric content of their food items, as well as a description of the daily recommended calorie intake for a healthy person (~2000 calories per day. The legislation takes this one step further, requiring that vending machines also list the amount of calories in the food items they’re selling.

So next time you’re considering a Big-Mac at McDonalds, Frappucino from Starbucks, or tuna sub from Subway, you might just be staring down at a sign, reminding you how bad some of these food choices are.

Just how bad are some of these items & what should you eat instead? Well, just for fun we’ll fill you in!

At Subway:

AVOID- Their 6″ version of a Tuna Sammy has 530 calories and 31 grams of fat, and over 1000 mg of sodium (more than half your recommended daily intake).

The Healthiest Subway Options:

-6″ Ham Sub has 261 Calories, 4.5g fat, 17g protein and 39g carbs

-6″ Roast Beef has 264 Calories, 4.5g fat, 18 g protein and 39g carbs

-6″ Roasted Chicken Breast has 311 Calories, 6g fat, 25g protein and 40g carbs

-6″ Subway Club has 294 Calories, 5g fat, 22g protein and 40g carbs

-6″ Veggie Delight w/o cheese has 200 Calories, 2.5g fat, 7g protein and 37g carbs

-6″ Honey Mustard Turkey w/ Cucumber has 275 Calories, 3.5 g fat, 22g protein, 42g carbs.

At Startbucks:

AVOID – A Peppermint White Hot Chocolate has 730 calories, A Mint Chocolate-chip Frappucino has 680 calories, and a Tazzo Green Tea Frappucino even has 650 calories!

AVOID the Blueberry Scone with 460 calories and 22 grams of fat.

The Best coffee:  Drip coffee has only 5 calories! A little extra if you decide to add a splash of dairy.

The Best breakfast selection:  Starbuck’s ‘Perfect Oatmeal’ is fiber-packed with heart healthy oats and only has 140 calories. If you add their ‘Perfect Nut Medley’ containing almonds, pecans and walnuts add an additional 100 calories to the total.

At McDonalds:

AVOID – The Double Quarter Pounder with Cheese contains 740 Calories, 42g of fat (19g saturated fat) and 1380mg of sodium. Even their Grilled Chicken Club has  570 Calories,  21g of fat (7g saturated fat) and 1720mg sodium (almost a total day’s worth of sodium!!!)

The Healthiest McDonald Options are:

-The English Muffin with only 140 Calories, 2g Fat, 4g Protein and 25g Carbs

-The Chicken McGrill w/o mayo has 340 Calories, 7g Fat, 26g Protein and 45 g Carbs

-Their Hamburger has 280 Calories, 10g Fat, 12g Protein and 35g Carbs.

The Best Workout Programs & Workout Routines

                 Finding the time to exercise while balancing a busy work schedule and personal life can often be both emotionally and physically draining. However, when your health is concerned, it’s important to prioritize and make time for a regular and consistent workout schedule.  Figuring out how to workout, what kind of exercise is best and how much is enough can be a daunting and difficult task, especially if you’re not a fitness professional. For this reason at Lucas James Personal Training we’ve taken the guess-work out of creating a workout routine that best fits your daily routine, that you can do on the go and with minimal to no equipment. Here’s some of the best workouts and exercise routines for maintaining a healthy body and mind while still leaving time for family, friends, work and leisure.

• On-the-go (Quick 15-30 minute workouts)

-Lunges With your shoulders back, chest forward and back straight, step one leg forward into a lunge position. Make sure you’re on the ball of your back foot with your front foot flat on the ground in front of you. Drop your back knee straight down making sure the knee of your front leg does not come pass your the ankle.  Pretend as if there is a wall directly in front of your torso making sure not to ‘lunge’ forward. The movement is a lunge straight down.  After 15-20 reps on one leg, alternate sides. Remember to breath! Inhale on the downward movement and exhale on the way up.

-Squats With your back straight, shoulders back and chest forwards, step your feet out sideways – shoulder distance apart with a slight bend in your knees.  ‘Sqaut’ straight down, maintaining a straight back, and sit into the squat as if you are about to rest on a small stool. As you squat downwards, raise both arms out in front of you for stability and to maintain proper posture. Remember to breath! Inhale on the downward movement and exhale on the way up.

-Push-ups Lying face down towards the floor, place your hands shoulder distance apart at chest level and feet making sure your body is perfectly inline.  Keeping your back straight and hips level with your legs and torso press downwards towards the ground until your arms are bent at a ninety-degree angel.  Push upwards back to your starting position. Remember to breath! Inhale on the downward movement and exhale on the way up.

-Vertical Jumps Starting in the ‘Squat’ position as described above, jump upwards, exploding off your feet using your quads and squeezing your gluts to propel you upwards.  Jump as high as possible.  Make sure to keep the intensity high, to increase your cardio-vascular endurance.

-Sit-ups / Crunches Lying in the prone position, bring your feet towards your gluts and plant them flat on the ground in front of you so that your legs are bent slightly. Resting with your hands crossed in front of your chest – crunch upwards, engaging your abs. Make sure to bring your shoulders and upper-back up off of the ground to ensure you are using your core muscles.  Remember to breath! Exhale on the way up.

-Burpies This is a cardio-plyometric exercise comprised of two exercises mentioned above (push-ups and vertical leaps).  Start by standing straight, drop down and kick out your feet into a push-up position, do one repetition, kick your feet inwards to your chest and stand up quickly, moving directly into a vertical leap, and explode upwards. This is one repetition. Repeat for a minute straight to get ample resistance and cardio training.

-High-knees  End strong with one-minute of jogging in place, making sure to bring your knees up tight to your chest. Remember to get into a good rhythm and breath normally throughout the duration of the exercise.  Make sure to time yourself!

• Workplace Workouts

Don’t drive to work…walk, run or ride your bike!

Clearly you’ll reap more health and fitness benefits by exercising on your daily commute to work.  If you ride the bus or take other public transit, try getting off a few stops earlier than usual and walk, jog or run the rest of the way.  If you’re one of those people who just lives ‘too far’ and drives a car to work, try parking at a near by business or far away from your building in the parking lot and walk the rest of the way to your office.  Keeping this in mind, always take the stairs no matter where you are rather than an elevator!

Stand more than you sit!

Your body burns more calories standing than it does sitting.  If you’re on the phone in your office stand while talking.  Even better, try pacing while you talk or even try static lunges in the same spot, alternating legs, while in your office.

Take a fitness break

There are many simple exercises you can perform at work without any fitness equipment at all.  Some simple examples are:

-Wall-sits: 30 Seconds to 1 min or More! (Glutes & Legs)

-Desk Incline Push-Ups: As many as you can do at a time! (Chest & Arms)

-High-Knees: 30 seconds- 1 min So you don’t get too sweaty! (Cardio)

-Sit-Ups or Crunches: Until you feel the burn! (Core)

Try keeping simple fitness equipment at work.

If you need equipment to keep you motivated, try bringing an inexpensive resistance bands, small hand weights or a stability ball to work.  Try doing bicep curls, tricep extensions and other exercises throughout the day. You can even trade in your office chair for a stability ball!  Not only will you have an arsenal of fitness tools to keep you in shape during those short coffee breaks, but you’ll improve your balance and core strength by sitting on a swiss-ball behind your desk.  You’ll be engaging in passive exercise and no-one will be the wiser. You can even use your swiss ball for wall squats, plie squats or throughout the day and power up before meetings!

• The Best Cardio Exercise Routine (Interval Training)

The majority of fitness journals and university research studies suggest working smarter not harder. This means exercise efficiently not for ridiculous amounts of time.  When cardiovascular exercise is concerned this is especially true.  Instead of going for a few short sprints or jogging for 20 miles, switch things up.  By changing your resistance (incline) and speed throughout your cardio exercise you force your body to alternate between burning carbohydrates and fat for energy.  Not only will this boost your metabolism, but increase the toning effect for your lower extremities! Also, you’ll spend less time on cardio, but reap the same benefit of long jogs!  A simple twenty-one minute example of a cardio interval is:

• The Most Efficient Workout (Full-Body Circuit Training)

If you can’t decided between cardio training and weight-lifting, do both! Circuit training is an easy way to workout a variety of muscle groups and is a simple way to get a quick total body workout by combining multiple forms of exercise.  Circuit training helps to train for both cardiovascular endurance, promoting weight-loss and enhances resistance-training routines by elevating your heart rate throughout resistance exercise to help augment your muscle building potential and increase strength all at once.  Circuit training forces our bodies to adapt to multiple forms of exercise and physical stress.   A circuit workout is typically comprised of multiple exercises, training both your lower and upper body muscle groups through a series of repetition or time-based intervals with little to no rest in between each set.  Each training circuit is normally repeated 3-4 times.

Here’s how to create an effective circuit training workout:

Guidelines from: http://www.sport-fitness-advisor.com/circuittraining.html

Healthy Vegan Living

Veganism, often seen as the natural extension of or progression from vegetarianism, can provide numerous benefits to animal ecosystems, the environment, and our own health, through healthy dietary and lifestyle changes.

According to the American Dietetic Association, both vegetarian and vegan diets can offer a number of nutrition and health benefits.  Among these benefits are lower levels of saturated fat, cholesterol, increased dietary fiber and nutrients such as folate, antioxidants and vitamins.  Vegetarianism and Veganism have also been reported to be associated with lower body mass indices (BMI) than non-vegetarians as well as decreased health risks for cardiovascular disease, diabetes and even some forms of cancer.

Since animal foods such as meat, dairy, and eggs are high in saturated fats and cholesterol they tend to have a more stressful effect on our bodies than plant foods, causing hypertension and other health issues.  The most powerful cholesterol-lowing agents are soluble fiber, unsaturated fats, and phytochemicals, all of which are found almost exclusively from plants.

While there are rumors of dietary deficiencies resulting from vegan diets, it is one-hundred percent possible to receive all of the necessary nutrients, vitamins and minerals from a vegan diet, with proper supplementation from vitamins and minerals.

Vegan options that include whole grains, vegetables, fruits, and beans, are low in fat, contain no cholesterol, and are rich in fiber and nutrients.  These healthy sources are nutritionally dense foods that help promote proper growth and development.  In terms of protein, vegans can get all the protein they need from legumes such as beans, tofu and peanuts, as well as other sources as grains including rice, corn, whole wheat breads and pastas.  Foods such as broccoli, kale, collard greens, tofu, fortified juices and non-dairy milks as soy, almond or rice milk, are all important sources for calcium to maintain proper bone health. When immunity and circulation are concerned, iron from chickpeas, spinach, pinto beans, and soy products will satiate our body’s need.  Vitamins such as B12 can be obtained from fortified foods or dietary supplements.

When exercise is concerned, the vegan diet can supply all the necessary components for fueling our bodies, but extra attention should be paid towards eating prior to a workouts in order to provide the body the with proper fuel and hydration it demands during and after high intensity activities. The key is to choose foods that will prevent hunger, provide additional carbohydrates as energy and minimize possible digestive complications.  Since vegan diets can easily turn into low-calorie diets, its important to eat the proper portion sizes, which can be larger than normal due to the high amount of vegetables and plant foods.  This will help to provide you with the energy needed to rebuild your muscles and promote healthy body conditioning.

Here are a few suggestions healthy serving sizes when trying to maintain a healthy vegan diet from the Vegan Society.

- 2-4 servings of vegetables, plus 2 to 3 servings of vegetables from the ‘green leafy’

sub-group

- 6- 10 servings of bread, pasta, rice and fortified cereals

- 2- 3 servings of beans, pulses and protein foods

- 1- 2 servings of nuts and seeds

- 2- 3 teaspoons of oils and fats

- 1- 2 servings of fruit, plus 1- 2 servings from the dried fruits sub-group

- 3 servings from the fortified non-dairy sub-group (such as soya milk)

- 8 glasses of water daily (more if very active)

In addition to this, adults should try to eat:

- Vitamin B12 – 2.4 micrograms daily

- Vitamin D – 5 micrograms daily

- Calcium – 600 milligrams daily

Proper Diet & Exercise for Building Lean Muscle

It’s important to remember that there are no shortcuts when your health is concerned.  The same goes for gaining lean muscle mass or ‘bulking up’.  Here’s some insight and advice from celebrity personal trainer Lucas James and nutrition expert and trainer Jason Apfel on maximizing workouts for those looking to build lean muscle and augment their strength and power.

During the first few weeks of any new training regimen, gains in strength and endurance develop quickly as your body begins to recruit new muscle fibers and acclimates to an increase in physical activity.  At first, muscle mass does not increase as quickly as its size does. This is primarily due to an increase in metabolism, which helps your muscles burn fat more efficiently giving them a more defined appearance.  An increase in water uptake by your muscles enhances their apparent size and aids blood flow and nutrient transport to the muscle tissue giving you a ‘pumped’ feeling. Adequate hydration is essential to proper health and building muscle. It is important to drink 8 to 10 glasses of water, or about 70 oz daily as recommended by the Dietary Guidelines for Americans.  The Institute of Medicine advises that men consume roughly 3 liters (about 13 cups) of total beverages a day and women consume 2.2 liters (about 9 cups) of total beverages a day.

While your strength and endurance improve you eventually set the groundwork for incorporating increased resistance and heavier weight with more dynamic exercises and movements that aid in building actual mass and lean muscle weight.

Even if you are focused on building your upper-body musculature, it is crucial to incorporate legs into a well-rounded routine at least once a week.  Performing lunges, squats, and other exercises that work your quads, hamstrings and gluts prompt an increase in muscle building potential.  This is because the muscle groups of the legs are the largest muscles in your body.  As you exercise these large muscles they produce increased levels of testosterone and other natural hormones that are beneficial to building muscle and burning fat.

It is also important to be sure that resistance levels, or the weight used, and the number of repetitions you do are high enough to fatigue the muscle and maximize your potential for growth.  When lean muscle growth and muscle mass is concerned, it is recommended to perform three to four sets of 8 to 12 reps for each exercise.  Aside incorporating the right exercises and using the proper weight, working out the right way is best.  When trying to build muscle mass, it is crucial to work out efficiently.  This means, giving yourself ample time in between sets to allow your muscles to rest, as well focusing on isolating the right muscles and focusing on perfect form.

Make sure to create daily splits throughout the week that alternate the working muscle groups. Weight training creates tiny micro tears in muscles, which repair and rebuild during periods of rest.  If you neglect to let your muscles repair by continually working the same muscles every day, the muscle will start to breakdown instead of buildup.  More importantly serious injury can result if muscles are not allowed adequate time to repair.

In term of your diet, muscle building requires a careful balance of carbohydrates, fats, and protein as well as plenty of vitamins and minerals.   It is important to note that the best source for all of these nutrients is from natural foods rather than supplements or food products.  Aim for healthy carbohydrates from fruits, vegetables and whole grains, while avoiding simple sugars that can cause a spike in insulin levels and inhibit growth hormones that prompt muscle growth.  Make sure to shoot for ½ -1 gram of protein for each pound of body weight and opt for five to six small, balanced meals every day.

How to Gain Lean Muscle Mass:

How to Gain Lean Muscle Mass:

Throughout the years I’ve been modeling and personal training the number one goal I’ve tried to personally achieve is bulding lean muscle mass and maintaining low body fat. One thing that’s very important in the fitness and modeling industry is to have good porportion throughout the entire body.  I’ve seen hundreds of guys who have a great upper body and lack mass in their lower body or vice-versa.   To have good solid mass throughout the entire body without looking unproportional can be hard to achieve, but pays out when done the right way! It takes time and consistency, but if you stick with it the results will show.

Building muscle mass the “Clean” way can be time constraining and maybe a little more expensive, but it shows better results from what I’ve done and taught. My clean way to building lean muscle mass is done by adding clean and healthy calories to your current daily meals. The average male needs to increase his daily calorie intake 500 to 2,000 calories a day depending on his goal. Some men get the mix up that they can eat whatever food to add for those additional calories, but really those calories should be clean and healthy foods eaten.

In order to keep your existing body weight you really should consume one gram of protein per pound of body weight. For example, if you weigh 175 pounds then you need to consume 175 grams of protein a day to maintain that weight. Ideally, if you’re trying to gain lean muscle mass you should increase your protein intake to your goal weight. So a 175 pound man who wants to gain 20 pounds of lean muscle to get to 195 pounds will need to intake 195 grams of protein. From my experience in gaining lean muscle mass it’s important to try to keep your daily protein and calorie consumption to 75-85% real non-processed or enhanced food. By that I mean don’t rely on protein powders, mass builders, supplements, or or other enhanced foods for the majority of your meals. Your body reacts and process real natural food better then going on the supplement bandwagon. In my experiences I’ve seen better gains in my mass and physical size by eating natural foods, but the downfall is that it will cost you more money. More food means more trips to the grocery store and more meat to buy. I know that it’s convenient to have an afternoon protein drink that is 300 calories and 40 grams of protein without having to make any food, but if you were to eat a large grilled chicken breast and some vegetables instead you would be better off.

Gaining Lean Muscle Mass Key Factors:

I. Set and Rep Count

Generally, in lean mass building sets and reps should be kept to a maximum of three to four sets with less than eight repititions per set.

Common Sets and Reps for Lean Gaining Muscle Mass:

8x6x4x2

8x7x6x5

9x6x3x1

8x6x4

8x7x6

II. Rest Time Between Sets:

A huge factor in building muscle mass is your rest time between sets. It’s better to wait longer than to start too soon.  Remember you want have to rest time between the sets to lets your muscles recover and avoid your heart rate getting to high. I recommend to rest 2-3 minutes between sets. At times it can be hard wait that long, but once you develop a consistent routine you’ll get use to it.

III. Hear Rate Monitoring:

Your heart rate should be at 60 to 70 percent of your maximum heart rate. At this rate you’ll peak into a fat burning zone, but won’t burn to many calories during your workout. It’s a good idea to invest in a heart rate monitor that has a strap to go around your chest. To calculate your muscle building heart rate use this formula.

Click Here for Calculating Heart Rate Zone

IV. Breathing and Form

Breathing and form the one the most important elements for weight training. Breathing through the mouth is high recommended when participating in weight training, sports, and other cardiovascular activities. When breathing during your weigh training session you want to keep these tip in mind

- Breathe out when when pushing or pulling on reps.  Make sure that your neck is always up and never positioned down in your throat. When your chin is down you will cut off oxygen to your lungs therefore excreting more energy, lose stamina, and rick potential injuries.

- Inhale between with mouth open.

When lifting weight it’s very important to have full extension in movements in your reps. For example on barbell bench press, the bar should hit your chest on the way down and the on the extension up your arms should be fully extended out straight to remember to breathe out.
V. Nutrition and Protein Intake

Keep in mind that my lean muscle mass building program is used for men that are looking for a natural way to gain lean muscle and to look bigger porpotionately . This program is not designed if you’re looking to do “Bulking” for bodybuilding or competitions. Also, this program is not designed for strength training although you will see gains in your weights when lifting.

The protein your body stored is a process called protein synthesis—the larger your muscles grow. But your body is constantly draining its protein reserves for other uses—making hormones, for instance. The result is less protein available for muscle building. To counteract that, you need to “build and store new proteins faster than your body breaks down old proteins,” says Michael Houston, Ph.D., a professor of nutrition at Virginia Tech University.

In addition to adequate protein, you need more calories. Use the following formula to calculate the number you need to take in daily to gain 1 pound a week. (Give yourself 2 weeks for results to show up on the bathroom scale. If you haven’t gained by then, increase your calories by 500 a day.)

A. Your weight in pounds.
B. Multiply A by 12 to get your basic calorie needs.
C. Multiply B by 1.6 to estimate your resting metabolic rate (calorie burn without factoring in exercise).
D. Strength training: Multiply the number of minutes you lift weights per week by 5.
E. Aerobic training: Multiply the number of minutes per week that you run, cycle, and play sports by 8.
F. Add D and E, and divide by 7.
G. Add C and F to get your daily calorie needs.
H. Add 500 to G. This is your estimated daily calorie needs to gain 1 pound a week.

A 2001 study at the University of Texas found that lifters who drank a shake containing amino acids and carbohydrates before working out increased their protein synthesis more than lifters who drank the same shake after exercising. The shake contained 6 grams of essential amino acids—the muscle-building blocks of protein—and 35 grams of carbohydrates.

Since exercise increases bloodflow to your working tissues, drinking a carbohydrate-protein mixture before your workout may lead to greater uptake of the amino acids in your muscles,” says Kevin Tipton, Ph.D., an exercise and nutrition researcher at the University of Texas in Galveston.

For your shake, you’ll need about 10 to 20 grams of protein—usually about one scoop of a whey-protein powder. Can’t stomach protein drinks? You can get the same nutrients from a sandwich made with 4 ounces of deli turkey and a slice of American cheese on whole wheat bread.

Research shows that you’ll rebuild muscle faster on your rest days if you feed your body carbohydrates. Post-workout meals with carbs increase your insulin levels, which, in turn, slows the rate of protein breakdown. Have a banana, a sports drink, a peanut-butter sandwich.

If you don’t eat often enough, you can limit the rate at which your body builds new proteins. Take the number of calories you need in a day and divide by six. That’s roughly the number you should eat at each meal. Make sure you consume some protein—around 20 grams—every 3 hours.

Eat a combination of carbohydrates and protein 30 minutes before you go to bed. The calories are more likely to stick with you during sleep and reduce protein breakdown in your muscles. Try a cup of raisin bran with a cup of skim milk or a cup of cottage cheese and a small bowl of fruit. Eat again as soon as you wake up.