3 Easy Steps to Building More Muscle While You Lift

Eat before, during, and after training

As we mentioned before, weight lifting causes reaction due to hormones that lead to muscle growth. In simpler terms, when you train, your body enters a mode to prepare for building muscle. This mode is called anabolism, an anabolic state.

However, researchers have discovered that you don't enter this muscle building anabolic state until you eat. That is, if you lift weights and don't eat, you're not building muscle. If fact, you're actually losing muscle, since weight-lifting sessions damaged your muscles. Muscles don't grow when you train them; they grow in recovery between session, as they feed on protein and energy.

Thus, to maximize your muscle growth rate, you have to make sure your body has plenty of energy and protein available to your muscle at the times when your muscles are the hungriest: during the workout and right afterwards. Energy and protein from consumed food will fuel the muscle building mode, and your muscle will build up. Since your body begins digesting food about half an hour after you've eaten it, you should eat a pre-workout meal 30 minutes before each workout.Digestion slows down when you are working out, and many lifters experience discomfort when they eat food during the workout. One way to prevent this is to drink your energy and protein instead.

The post-workout meal tops off your muscle-building eating with, again, solid or liquid food.

Here's a meal-workout plan:

Pre-workout:

Carbohydrate Content - 0.2 g / lb of body weight
Protein Content - 0.2 g / lb of body weight

During workout:

Carbohydrate Content - 30 g
Protein Content - 15 g

Post-workout:

Carbohydrate Content - 0.4 g / lb of body weight
Protein Content - 0.2 g / lb of body weight