This article focusses on the only three things required for muscle gain/fat loss.
Everyone who has ever stepped into a gym or has done any kind of physical activity aims at becoming the best version of themselves. This means either they want to loose fat or gain muscles. In simple words they want to gain muscles and loose fat. People search for a 100 things on google and google gives them 1000 ways of doing it making it more and more confusing. Apparently none of them work too. Today, I am going to tell you 3 very simple and most effective ways of loosing fat/gain muscle which are very simple and doesn’t require any huge investment. These steps have been practically tested and gives definite results if you stick to it.
A lot of people I meet ask me ‘What is more important. Workout or Nutrition?’ And a lot of you at some point in your fitness journey might have thought about it. ITS NEVER A CHOICE. ALWAYS BOTH. Training jump starts the process of change and nutrition ensures its completion. Now let us understand each leg in details.
Progression Overload
This is the first step in the chain and it governs all kinds of workouts whether strength training or cardiovascular or flexibility. In simple words it means to challenge the body with a load which it is not used to so that the body can forced in improving itself to adapt to that load.
For eg- If 20 lbs for 10 reps is a challenging weight for shoulders for a shoulder overhead press the body goes through wear and tear. Now next time the body is not going to go through the same wear and tear for the same weight and reps. So either you increase the poundage or increase the number of reps. This is known as progression overload. So next time either you do 25 lbs for 10 reps or perform 12 reps with 20 lbs. A lot of people I see make this common mistake and hit the plateau which results in nothing but disappointment.
Nutrition
Nothing can outclass a poor diet. 1-2 hours of high intensity training requires 20-22 hours of good eating along with ample amount of rest and recovery. This is where most of us give up. I see a lot of people training very efficiently at the gym in the morning and uploading a selfie with pizza in the evening. This is not going to help you reach your goal.
A well balanced diet requires a balance between protein, fats and carbohydrates
Proteins are the building blocks of the muscles tissues and is the most important macronutrient for gaining muscles.
Fats are not bad and should be a very important nutrient in your diet. These fats are very important and are termed as essential fatty acids which are very important for some functions of the body. (For developing sex hormones, outer protection of the cell etc) I also prefer using fats as the primary source of energy as it gives more calories per gram as compared to carbohydrates.
Rest and Recovery
Overtraining is the enemy of gains. A lot of people I meet tell me ‘we have been training 7 days a week for the last six months but are not getting any results’ This is because the body is not getting enough recovery time to enhance the size of the cells. All the hormonal changes that controls the growth of the body happens in recovery period and that is why it is of utmost importance to give the body ample amount of rest to recover from the wear and tear. An ideal routine would be
- 7-8 hours of sleep everyday
- Strength training not more than 5 days a week
- All the muscles should be trained only once per week
All these three components are interdependent on each other and without one you cannot achieve your ideal body composition. To summarize – train heavy, eat well, sleep like a baby and become a champion.