If you want to gain weight and muscle mass through training, you’ve come to the right place. Simply put, gaining size and strength depends on heavy resistance training. When your weight training isn’t heavy enough, there is little or no increase in muscle growth. However, lifting weights that are too heavy can also cause injury. So, you must increase your muscle mass and capacity, without injuring yourself. Keep in mind that you need a positive energy balance, which means the energy from your daily diet must be more than the energy you spend training.

Using Nutrition to achieve your muscle mass goals

You need a high-energy diet to achieve muscle mass/growth. You can achieve this by increasing your protein and carbohydrate consumption, as both support body mass gains. Carbohydrates supply the energy for your high intensity training. They are also one of the only energy sources used during weight lifting. If you don’t have enough carbohydrates available to meet your body’s energy demands, your body will use energy from your protein and fat stores. We recommend maximizing your carbohydrate stores prior to exercise to delay your body from using your protein stores. Consuming carbohydrates before your exercise will also allow you to give 100% to your training.

Some Carbohydrate facts:

• Carbohydrates provide energy for weight lifting
• Carbohydrate stores within your body have to be topped up through your diet
• Ensuring that you have enough carbohydrates prevents muscle loss
• Consuming the right amount of Carbohydrates ensures maximal training effort

A high intake of quality protein is also essential for muscle growth. For adolescent athletes and those doing strength training, daily protein requirements could be as high as 2.0g per bodyweight kilogram per day. This will vary depending upon your training intensity. As your body mass increases, you will need to adjust your protein intake.

What to do after training

The post exercise period is essential for optimizing your nutrition because energy stores are being restocked, and muscle growth and repair are happening. We recommend a protein powder that contains protein and carbohydrates. When you consume both at the same time, you improve the release of insulin, which is responsible for driving the nutrients from the bloodstream into the cells. Simply put, Insulin stimulates protein production in your cells, which in turn, maintains and increases your muscles.

Some post exercise tips:

• Consume 20-30g of protein after exercise and 1g of carbohydrates per bodyweight kilogram to assist the recovery process and aid muscle growth

Mr. Vitamins recommends

Balance Sports Nutrition’s Mass Product Range Here at Mr Vitamins we have a whole department dedicated to Sports Nutrition, with expert staff, who train themselves, always available to answer whatever questions or concerns you have regarding your health and fitness program. They can give you specific advise on the best supplements to take for your fitness needs.  All you have to do is drop by Mr Vitamins and ‘Ask a Sports Specialist’.