A majority of clients that I work with are looking to lean out and tone up (terms that drive me up the wall, but I will leave it alone for now). However, I do have clients who’d like to put on weight by increasing their lean muscle mass. This scenario requires different training, nutrition and lifestyle changes. Let’s break down a few considerations:
Increasing Calories-To increase lean body mass, the body needs a caloric surplus. I usually shoot for a 300-500 calorie per day surplus over a client’s baseline with a focus on protein and carbohydrates.
Increase training intensity by building load, volume, or both-If you want to out on muscle, you have to train hard. That doesn’t mean maximum intensity every day, but it does mean that training should be uncomfortable most of the time. Increasing the load, adding more sets, or going for more reps are a few simple ways to increase the difficulty of your workouts. As a bonus, I wouldn’t vary the exercise selection too much as it takes time for the body to adapt to any exercise. Choose 10 exercises total, and work through those on any given day.
SLEEP-I can’t emphasize this one enough. Sleep is integral to putting on lean body mass as sleep is where recovery takes place and growth hormone is released (growth hormone aids in muscle synthesis).
This is only a small chunk of the many considerations I make when working with a client who wants to add muscle to their body. For a more in depth look, you’ll want to listen to my most recent podcast with Scott Hagnas (link in my bio).
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If you have any questions you'd like Scott and I to answer, write an email to sean@flochfitness.com.