Eating the right foods is just as important as training hard. It can actually determine how fast you build quality muscle. So, what I’m going to do is share with you 15 foods that build muscle. That way, you can quickly and easily build muscle mass in a short amount of time.

The top 15 foods you should eat to build muscles are:

1. Steak (red meat)- good source of protein. Steak has vitamins and other nutrients in it that are crucial for muscle growth. The fats in steak has been shown to help increase your testosterone. If you’re serious about putting on muscle, add this to your meal plan.

2. Brown Rice- great carbohydrate source. Slow digesting, which means it won’t spike your insulin levels.

3. Pasta- great source of carbs. Two cups provide about 90 grams of high-quality carbs. This will definitely help you build muscles.

4. Avocado- Helps increase your testosterone and also has other health benefits.

5. Eggs- This is a must if you are trying to build muscles. Great protein source.

6. Chicken- Lean protein. Great for anytime of the day.

7. Fruits (apples, bananas, strawberries)- Carbohydrate source. Also, fruits have many health benefits.

8. Oatmeal- Complex carb. Great for helping with carb intake.

9. Turkey- Great for lunch. Excellent protein source.

10. Salmon- Good source of protein. Salmon has omega fatty acids in it. Its a serious mass builder. You should eat this at least three times a week.

11. Cottage cheese- slow-digesting protein. Cottage cheese is a great late night snack.

12. Salad- Add olive oil and vinegar to your salad. It has alot of health benefits.

13. Tuna- Lean protein source. Tuna also has fatty acids in it. It’s great for helping with muscle growth.

14. Whole wheat bread- Great carb source.

15. Almonds- Great as a snack. Almonds have a decent amount of protein in it. It also has healthy fats in it. And is good for increasing testosterone levels.

Eating these foods is important if you’re trying to build muscle. Don’t skip meals. Make sure you eat every 2-3 hours. You should intake at least 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight per day and 1.5 grams of carbs per pound of body weight per day.

An example would be if you weighed 200 pounds, you would consume 200 grams of protein per day and 300 grams of carbs per day. This will ensure that your body is constantly in “muscle-building” mode. If you don’t intake enough protein, your muscles won’t grow.

These are the 15 foods that build muscle. Add them to your meal plan. Train hard. Drink plenty of water. And watch how fast your muscles grow.

Building muscle quick is easy to do. All you have to do is follow simple blueprint that allows for maximum muscle growth over a short period of time. So, what I’m going to share with you are some tips on how to build muscle quick. That way, you get the most out of your effort in the gym.

The first thing you have pay attention to when trying to build muscles quickly is your nutrition. You have to eat alot of protein and carbs in order to grow. Make sure you eat at least 1 gram of protein per pound of bodyweight and 1.5 grams of carbs per pound of bodyweight.

An example of this would be if you weigh 200 pounds, you’ll want to consume 200 grams of protein per day and at least 300 grams of carbs per day. This will help your body stay in “muscle-building” mode all day, everyday.

Some foods you should eat are red meats, salmon, eggs, cottage cheese, fruits, chicken, turkey, whole wheat breads and pastas, and brown rice.

Along with nutrition, you should train hard in order to quickly build muscle. Make sure you do mass building exercises. These exercises consists of bench press, squats, deadlifts, barbell curls, and military press. You should do about 4-5 sets of 6-8 reps.

Be sure to train at least 3 times a week. Don’t train more than 5 times a week, though. You don’t want to overtrain your muscles. If you do, you’ll actually lose muscles instead of building muscle.

Before your workouts, you should consume whey protein with complex carbs (oatmeal, apple, or banana). And after your workout, drink 40 grams of whey protein (about 2 scoops) with simple carbs (powerade, white bread with jelly, bagel, or baked potato). This is important if you want to build muscle quick.

These are some tips on how to build muscles quickly. Use these tips and watch how fast you grow.

When I say “muscle building,” I’m sure the first thing that jumps into your head is NOT high-rep training!

In fact, when trying to build muscle, most trainers will actively stay FAR away from anything resembling high reps (and when I say high reps, I mean anything more than 13 to 15 reps per set).

Here’s the thing…that can actually be a huge mistake!

Just like heavy weights and low reps, the higher rep ranges can be a very valuable and even essential tool in your muscle-building arsenal.

I’ve got three high-rep training techniques I want to share with you right now. And I’m going to explain exactly why each one is critical to your muscle-building success.

1. Very Light Weight, Very High Reps

Yep, I know this sounds absolutely CRAZY. How can light weight and very high reps do anything for building muscle? Here’s a hint…it’s not about resistance…it’s about physiology.

In order for a muscle to grow, first you’ve got to stimulate growth by overloading it with resistance – no argument there. But after you’ve stimulated the growth, you’ve got to supply nutrients to the muscle cells to help them rebuild.

What if your blood supply is poor to the trained muscle? Got a muscle group that doesn’t pump up very easily? It’s probably one of your hardest muscle groups to develop. Poor circulation means fewer nutrients get to that muscle for recovery and rebuilding, leading to reduced growth.

THAT is where light weight and very high reps come into play. You see, very high reps have the effect of increasing capillarization in muscle tissue (simply defined, capillaries are the tiny blood vessels where blood cells release their nutrients to the rest of the cells in the body).

Bottom line, you do a set of 100 reps and your body responds by increasing capillary density in the targeted muscle, which sets the stage for future muscle growth.

The high reps sets don’t directly cause muscle growth (the resistance isn’t high enough), they just improve blood circulation to the target muscle so when you DO train heavy and for lower reps, your target muscle gets more nutrients and can grow and recover more easily.

Want to put this tip to work?

Pick a “hard to pump” muscle and at the start of EVERY workout you do for that bodypart (e.g. every time you train biceps), do a single set of 100 reps with a very light weight. Basically, pick an exercise and just crank out the reps. Do this every time you train that bodypart and you soon will start to notice a difference in how easily that muscle pumps up and how well it grows.

2. Moderate-Weight, High-Rep Training

This sure sounds like an oxymoron. After all, how can you use moderate weights when you’re performing high reps!

As a matter of fact, you CAN. In fact, it’s one of the best training techniques you can use for building muscle fast. It’s a technique even elite powerlifters (who normally train with very low reps) use to increase muscle mass.

There are definitely certain exercises that lend themselves more to heavy-weight, high-rep training. Squats, for example, are the best example for this technique (you may be familiar with the popular “20-Rep Squat” program),

This moderate-weight, high-rep training has many of the same circulation benefits of the very high rep training but with the advantage of increased resistance, which will help directly stimulate muscle growth in addition to helping improve circulation.

Using myself as an example, I used squats with this technique and worked up to performing a set of 40 reps with 315 lbs (believe me, THAT was fun…). I’ve also managed a set of 25 reps with 225 lbs and a set of 70 reps with 135 lbs on the bench press.

This technique can be used with any exercise, really. You’ll find some exercises work better for it than others but basically, you’re taking a weight that is a bit lighter than your normal working weights and you’re just focusing on cranking out the reps.

Like the previous technique, I find this is best done at the beginning of a workout when you’re still fresh. You’ll be able to get more reps out of the exercise that way. Some trainers like to use it as a back-off set (powerlifters generally use it this way), doing the high-reps with moderate weight after finishing with the heavier stuff.

So next time you’re about to do squats, put a moderate weight on the bar and just see how many reps you can crank out! Forget about what you’re going to do on the rest of your sets – just get as many as you can. Your legs will be hit with a whole new muscle-building stimulus!

3. High-Rep Partial Training

This final tip brings us into an interesting area. High-rep partial training actually allows you to do high-rep training with HEAVY weight! In fact, you will be amazed at how much weight you can use with this style of training.

We’re going to be getting the benefits not only of the increased circulation that I mentioned with light-weight, high-rep training, but we’re also going to get the substantial muscle-building benefits of using heavy weights at the same time.

Another benefit…because you’re using heavier-than-normal weights, you’re going to be working your connective tissue very effectively as well. And, because you’re using high-reps, you’re going to be forcing a LOT of blood into that connective tissue, which is notorious for its normally poor blood supply. This helps immensely with strengthening and healing.

High-rep partial training is fairly straightforward to perform. It’s best done in a power rack, where it’s easy to adjust the range of motion. For example, using bench press, you can set the safety rails to a few inches below the lockout position.

Working in only that top range of motion (which is the strongest segment of the range of motion) means you can use a LOT more weight than you normally could for the full-range exercise.

So you set up the bench, set up the rails and add some weight. Now you just perform as many partial reps as you can! To give you an idea of weight and reps, I’ve done sets of 50+ reps with 315 lbs on high-rep lockout partial bench press.

High-rep partial training can be done at any point in your workout, as an addition to your “normal” training (1 or 2 sets) or as the complete bodypart workout on its own.

The Final Word

Overall, I’m a big fan of high-rep training for building muscle, when PROPERLY used. These three techniques are very effective for not only setting the stage for muscle growth but actually building the muscle itself!

I’ve always been impressed with the physiques of Military personnel and gymnasts, haven’t you? I mean, they many not be the biggest people with bulging muscles. But their lean, athletically muscular body both looks great and hints of high performance.

It is a shame most people think you need to lift weights to build an attractively muscular, strong, functional body. Bodyweight exercises also build muscle, and in my opinion, a more useful type of muscle than weight lifting alone.

Most Exercisers Think You Need To Lift Weights To Build Muscle

Let’s be honest… lifting weights is the best way to build muscle. But that doesn’t mean you can’t build muscle without weights. It just means if is best if you are looking to MAXIMIZE muscle size.

But maximizing your muscles is not necessarily the goal of all exercisers. I for one, don’t want the bulky, pumped up muscles of a bodybuilder. I prefer tight, solid muscle that is strong and powerful in moving my own body and weighted objects equally well.

The point is, who cares if weight lifting is the best for building muscle if it doesn’t fit your goals. After all, you don’t need a Ferrari to go to the corner store.

Military Calisthenics Builds Muscle Without Weights

If you’ve ever had the opportunity to see someone before and after they go through Basic Training, you’ll know what I’m talking about here. After a few months of Basic Training (which is predominantly bodyweight exercises), the new recruit is leaner, stronger and more musclular. You can see it in the way they carry themselves. And the great thing is, this is useful muscle and not just pumped up muscles.

Gymnasts Are An Example Of What Can Be Achieved With Bodyweight Exercises

If you are still in doubt that you can build muscle without weights, just take a look at a gymnast. Those muscles and fine physique are build by moving their own bodyweight around. And you have to be impressed with the level of strength, explosive power and physical ability they posses.

Many Former Weight Lifters Report More Functional Muscle

In my own experience teaching people to use bodyweight exercise, many men and women have said that they feel, look and perform better than they did when they just lifted weights. While their muscles might not be the biggest they’ve ever been, they are more useful. They are better suited for meeting the challenges of sport, work and life with excellence. (And really, isn’t that why you should be exercising in the first place?)

You can build muscle without weights. And while if might not build bigger muscles than weight lifting, I would argue it builds a better quality of muscle. Just try a bodyweight only program for a few months and you’ll see what I mean.

Finding the best lower ab workout is not always an easy thing to do. It can be frustrating to keep trying to work the lower abs if you feel like you are not doing it right.

In this article, you will learn what it takes to have the best lower ab workout around.

Before we get into 3 exercises, it is important that you understand some basics about training the lower abs.

The first thing that you should understand is that just working the lower abs will not result in losing fat in that area. In order to lose fat in that area, you need to lower your body fat percentage.  If you have a lot of fat to lose, then the best lower ab workout in the world won’t do the trick all by itself. The same goes for someone who just has to lose the last few pounds.

The good news is that doing a great lower ab workout safely and effectively will help to strengthen your core, as well as tone those muscles up for when you are in the single digits with body fat percentage =)

Losing fat all over your body requires that you do the right combination of strength training (don’t worry you will not get big and bulky), a special type of cardio called interval training, and most important, have a great diet.

Once you have those things under control, your fat loss efforts will be guaranteed.

But you came to this page looking for the best lower ab workout around, so here are a few exercises you can try right now.

Remember that training your abs is different than training other muscles. If you were working your biceps, you might try doing 3 sets of 10 reps for a few different exercises. For your lower abs, you will want to do a special sequence of exercises with little rest in between. This is called abdominal circuit training.

Here are some of the best lower ab exercises to try

1. Alternating Supine Leg Walks

Start off by laying on your back with your hands under your buttocks. Lift your legs so they are vertical. Contract your abs so your midsection is tense.

Then, lower 1 leg so your foot is a few inches from the ground. Hold there for about 1 second, then return that leg to the starting position. Alternate which leg you lower.

Try a reps and really try to feel the lower abs working.

2. Supine Reverse Crunches

Start off by laying on your back with your hands under your buttocks. Lift your legs so they are vertical, then bend your knees at a 90 degree angle. Contract your abs so your midsection is tense.

Keeping your knees bent at the same angle, slowly lower them until the back of your feet are a few inches above the ground. Then, bring your knees up towards your chest and really squeeze your abs while doing this.

Repeat.

3. Leg Lifts

Start off by laying on your back with your hands under your buttocks. Lift your legs so they are vertical.

Contract your midsection by engaging the upper abs.

Then, lower both legs so that the back of your feet are right above the ground. After holding that position for a few second, return your legs to the vertical position.

Repeat.

All three of those exercises are part of getting the best lower ab workout possible. If you have any lower back problems at all, you should not hesitate to see a doctor for exercise advice. Now you know the basic components of having one of the best lower ab workouts. Remember your safety comes first!

Good luck, and remember to keep learning and stay persistent. =)

Hi, this is Tom, the author of this article. I recently went through an intense 9 week fat loss phase using a program written by a good friend of mine.