We all know muscle is the foundation to youth right? Keeping strong and lean will increase your life expectancy and the quality of your life dramatically. This is why I always stress to older people the importance of lifting weights and challenging themselves doing so. It’s never to late to start and once you do start it can become addictive! Getting strong is a very rewarding process. Keeping strong toned muscles can help prevent bad posture, injuries, osteoporosis, metabolic damage, bad backs and so much more.
The one problem is – Building muscle TAKES TIME. People can get fit extremely fast, fitness gains can be apparent in only 2 weeks BUT there really isn’t a short cut way to build muscle fast. There needs to be stages of tearing the muscle (the weight lifting) Stages of replenishing and repairing the muscle (food and supplements) and stages of letting the muscles rest and regenerate (sleep and time). It can takes years to build a good solid base of muscle and most people just don’t have the patience for that so they give up and do what they have always done – gone back to looonnnnnggg, slow paced cardio training.
Here’s why I don’t want you doing that anymore.
1) Slow paced cardio is good for very little other than mental clarity (getting out of the office at lunch and going for a walk) And pumping your blood to help the body release toxins and carry out it’s functions more efficiently.
2) Slow paced cardio will NEVER build muscle or be the most effective way to lose fat.
3) Slow based cardio will always leave you frustrated when results don’t appear after hours of work has been put in.
This does not include high intensity cardio based training. This trains your body in a much more effective way. It increases your fitness fast, it builds endurance, power and strength and it burns fat in a very effective way. Again, it is still not going to have you building muscle in the way lifting weights will. I’m talking lifting as heavy as you can for 5-8 reps and doing 4-5 sets of this. Lifting so heavy it feels like your eye balls may pop out!
Here’s how you build muscle AS FAST AS POSSIBLE.
– Lift HEAVY weights in a functional way 5 days per week. (get a personal trainer! essential)
– Cleanse your digestive system before you start with an appropriate detox so your body absorbs nutrients and proteins to replenish muscle and build new cells. With out the right amount of protein, vitamins and minerals your body WILL NOT repair muscle tissue.
– Take glutamine daily to support you immune system and help aid muscle repair.
– Take vitamin C daily to build new, strong cells and tissue.
– Take cod oil or fish oil to aid in transportation of fluid around your body and to encourage your body to drop fat.
– Eat clean, whole food 3 hours apart 6-7 meals a day. Use protein shakes for snacks.
– Drink plenty of water to help your body flush toxins.
– Get at least 8 hours sleep at night so your muscles can regenerate.
– Be CONSISTENT be PERSISTENT. It will happen!
Follow these points and you could be seeing muscles gains in as little as 4 weeks!
Leonee Parker
Holistic Nutritionist, Personal Trainer and weight loss life coach.
