Your weight lifting and diet are both extremely important aspects of your training. Both are required to help you build muscle mass and get you into the best shape possible. Your weight lifting will only relate to 50% of your results. The remaining 50% of your results will come from a consistant high protein diet and other minor factors such as rest and sleep. Too many people neglect their diet making results in the gym harder to come by.
Weight Lifting and Diet
Your weight lifting routine needs to be effective in order to provide proper stimulus to the muscles, forcing them to grow bigger and stronger. You can either choose to perform a weight lifting split or a proven weight lifting program. A simple weight lifting split could look something like this:
Monday
Chest + Back
Wednesday
Biceps + Triceps
Friday
Shoulders + Traps + Abs
This kind of split is known as a 3 day split. You should add around 3-4 exercises for each muscle group. For example, a good chest and back workout is likely to include the following exercises.
Back.
- 3 sets of deadlifts
- 3 sets of barbell rows
- 3 sets of dumbbell rows/Lat pulldowns
Chest.
- 3 sets of flat barbell bench press
- 3 sets of incline barbell bench press
- 3 sets of incline chest flyes
You can also create 4 or 5 day splits if you have the time to workout 4-5 times a week. If you do then ensure you are only hitting each muscle group hard once a week. If you dont like weight lifting splits then you can also choose to follow a proven weight lifting program. Check the weight training routines that build muscle page for all the necessary information regarding these type of programs.
Your Diet. Your weight lifting diet needs to be high in protein with sufficient calories, carbs and fats. To put on weight and muscle you will need to be eating more calories than your body needs each day. Dont eat thousands and thousands more calories than your body needs. A sensible number to shoot for is 500 calories over your body’s maintenance level. This should allow you to put on weight and muscle while minimizing fat gains. Also known as clean bulking.
A lot of emphasis is put on a weight lifting diet and for the beginner it can seem complicated and confusing. Let me briefly explain to you the simplest way to construct your diet to help you maximize your gains in the gym.
Calories. Start by consuming 500 calories over your maintenance level each day. When weight gain stalls increase your calories by another 200-300.
Protein. How much protein do you need to build muscle? At least 1 gram per pound of bodyweight. If you weight 160 pounds you need at least 160 grams of protein every day. The best protein foods to build muscle are lean cuts of beef/steak, chicken, turkey, lamb, pork or fish. Basically all lean cuts of meat. Other great protein foods are eggs, whey protein shakes, cheese, cottage cheese and milk.
Meals. Consume around 4-7 meals throughout the day that allow you to reach your calorie and protein needs. These dont have to be full blown meals. You may count a protein shake with milk as a meal. Try and base your meals around a quality protein source such as chicken and get around 30-40 grams of protein each meal.
Space your meals out throughout the day. 3 hours apart is a sensible choice. Getting up earlier will make meal consumption a lot easier. Spacing out your meals and eating them 3 hours apart when you get up at 12 o clock will not allow you to meet your calorie and protein requirements for the day.
Make up the remainder of your meals with complex carbs and vegetables such as jacket potatoes, sweet potatoes, brown rice, wholemeal pasta, wholemeal spaghetti, brown bread, broccoli, carrots etc. Dont neglect your diet when weight lifting. The better you eat the better the results.
