No matter where you live, if you’re working out, you probably want to burn fat and build muscle tissue. Clients in Irvine, CA, who want to lose weight, often use a personal trainer to learn lean muscle workouts that help them do both. While doing any type of workout will help you lose weight, not all workouts will help you build muscles at the same time. Building muscle tissue is important. The more muscle tissue you have, the easier it is to keep weight from returning in the future. Muscle tissue requires more calories for maintenance than muscle tissue does.
It all starts with a good strength building program.
Cardio workouts do burn calories, but those calories come from both fat and muscle tissue. It actually can reduce the amount of muscle tissue you have and lower your metabolism. Strength building exercises, like lifting weights also burns calories, but it builds muscle tissue at the same time. The effects of workout increase your metabolism for hours after the workout, too. What are the best lean muscle tissue building exercises? The best ones are the ones you do consistently. Do weight training two to three times a week. Don’t do strength training every day. Give yourself a day or two rest in between strength training sessions.
Strength training can include pumping iron, resistance bands, HIIT workouts, bodyweight exercises or even power yoga.
While pumping iron is often what people initially identify as strength training, lifting weights is just one way to build lean muscle mass. HIIT workouts can give you an aerobic workout, while you’re building muscle tissue, too. You can even vary it to include flexibility training. Bodyweight exercises are excellent for muscle building, particularly for those who can’t make it to the gym. Resistance bands are also an inexpensive, easy to store addition to anyone’s at home workout. They’re great if you travel frequently.
Strength training should include both isometric and isotonic exercises.
Isometric exercises include the plank or a glute bridge. Isotonic workouts are squats, crunches and pushups. In isotonic exercises the muscles change length, while in isometric exercises, they don’t change length as they work against a force, think plank where you hold the position. Alternate your workout based on how you feel. If your joints are feeling stiff and sore, choose the isometric workouts where you get into position and hold.
- Don’t worry about increasing weights, increasing reps works just as well. You can get results from either increasing weight and doing the same number of reps or increasing reps. Both methods provide the same results.
- When you do compound workouts, you’re burning more calories, while building lean muscle tissue for several muscle groups. Think squats, pushups and deadlift.
- If you can’t do the exercise yet, modify it until you’re stronger. If you haven’t worked out in a long time, some of the best workouts for lean muscle mass might be too difficult. Work your way up to them. Do modified, bent-knee pushups until you can do regular ones or step ups before box jumps.
- Improve your diet. Eating a healthy diet is important to build lean muscle mass. You need extra protein, but also all the nutrients necessary for building muscle tissue. That means plenty of vegetables and fruits.