Free Muscle Building & Health

If you are wanting to add some muscles to your legs, you don't always have to go out and join an expensive gym thinking that you have to use weightlifting equipment in order to achieve your goal. Doing complicated leg weightlifting machines just isn't always needed to build as well as maintain your leg muscles. If you set up a regular exercise plan you can simply do this in the privacy of your own home. You will need to combine strength training along with some regular aerobic exercise and a healthy diet.

You should begin your day by doing some leg stretches. This is going to get you prepared for your daily activities as well as your exercise. You can stretch the hamstrings by sitting down on the floor and put your legs straight out in front of you. Lean forward and reach for your toes, breathe deep for at least 20 seconds. You should do this at least 3 times and then go on to stretch your quads. You can do this by standing up and make sure that your legs are hip width apart. Take one foot and bring it up toward your buttocks making sure to bend your leg at the knee. Hold this position for 20 seconds and then do the same thing with your other leg. You also will need to stretch your calves and you can do this with standing calf raises. Just stand up erect and then slowly get onto your tiptoes and do that for 1 second and then lower. You should repeat this 20 times.

Unless you happen to be overweight you should have no reason to worry about lowering the calories that you take in each day. However, if you are overweight you might want to take in a few less calories each day. If you want to build good muscle you actually should increase the calories that you eat every day. So you need to pick foods that are high with lean protein, good carbs, fats that are healthy. This would be lean meat, fish and whole grains. You need to limit your fried and processed foods as well. If you happen to be a very active person it's probably a good idea that you eat several small meals every couple of hours. This will keep your metabolism going at a higher rate.

You should only work your upper legs out every other day. The kinds of exercises that work out the upper legs are going to isolate your quads, thighs, hamstrings and glutes which is the only way you are going to build muscle. Good examples of upper leg exercises would be some squats as well as lunges. You also can do these with dumbbells in each hand and hold them over your head to make it more challenging.

The days in which you don't do your upper leg exercises you should do your lower legs. This would be the calves that have two main muscles, the gastrocenemuis which is the back of the leg and then the soleus which is under the gastrocenemius.

When you combine good strength training with a good diet and some aerobic exercise you are going to improve all of your muscles and will also help you to lose fat. So make sure to pick the kind of aerobics that will also target your legs. Examples would be walking, biking, jogging and running. Start with just three aerobic sessions a week and the maximum amount of time should be for 30 minutes each day.

If you are wanting to increase your muscles you will soon find out that it is a very difficult thing to do especially if you don't stick with a program or you don't do the exercises correctly. To be able to build your muscles you need to have structure, discipline and you must be completely dedicated to what you do in your workouts, what you eat as well as what you drink. Below are some things that can hinder the growth of your muscles.

One of the biggest factors that will hinder your muscle growth is the drinking too much alcohol. The reason for this is because it will limit the protein synthesis that is needed by your muscles. Drinking too much alcohol can also keep your body from distributing nutrients like vitamin A, B, C, calcium as well as zinc, all of which are vitally important for the development of muscles.

Another thing that will hinder the growth of your muscles is if you allow yourself to become dehydrated. Remember that your muscles are made up out of protein and water so how much water you drink or don't drink on a daily basis is going to impact the way that your body will build or not build muscle. In order for you to build good muscles is for you to drink at least 8 glasses of water each and every day, which is 72 ounces of water. Without this amount of water in your body you are not going to be able to build the muscles. The water will saturate your muscles and this then in turn will increase the anabolic environment that will then help your muscles to grow. One thing to take into consideration is the amount of water a person needs to take in also will depend upon their height, weight and the amount and level of activity they are putting their body through.

If you do not take in enough protein into your body you are not going to be helping the growth of your muscles. Proteins contain the essential building blocks for your muscles and that would be amino acids. The lower amounts of proteins that are taken in the lower amounts of amino acids there will be and this will hinder muscle growth. The reason for this is that the muscles will lack enough fuel for them to produce the energy to grow. If you want to build muscle it is important that you have one to two grams of protein for each pound of body weight that you carry on your body. So if you weigh about 150 pounds then you need 150 to 300 grams of protein each day of the week. If you eat less than 100 grams each day your muscles will find it just too difficult to function and be able to grow.

Another factor that can hinder muscle growth is weight training. You heard that right. Although this is suppose to be part of building muscles, it's not going to do any good if you don't do it right. For instance if you over train, you will not give your muscles the rest they need and it will be harder to recover. If they don't have enough recovery time they will not be able to increase in size. Understand that growth only takes place when you are actually resting. So if enough rest is not given the muscles don't have a chance to rest and grow.