Tips to build lean muscle needed

jamest817 wrote: »

Hey everyone,

I'm looking for tips to get lean muscle. I currently weigh around 72kg and am 5ft 9. I have pretty defined muscles at the moment but I want to increase the size of my muscles but not gain fat. If you need my body fat percentage I can work it out. I don't want to lose my abs as I put weight on.

I'm just looking for tips to increase the size of my muscles, without putting fat on.

My diet is pretty good, I eat very healthy. I eat a lot of fruit veg, I mix up carbs and protein sources. I eat nuts for snacks etc.... Although, I'm now aiming for 2600 calories a day, increasing my carb intake and protein intake. I'm trying to limit my fat intake also but this is proving to be pretty hard. Only supplements I am now taking is protein powder, amino acids and Creatine.

I need advice on the following points mainly.

- exercise tips, what specific type of training should I be doing? (I work out around 4-5 days a week. I do a mixture of cardio and weights)

- diet / nutrition tips

- anything else you guys think I may have missed

Regards,

• If you're consuming adequate protein throughout the day and you're not training in a completely fasted state, you aren't likely benefiting from the additional amino acids. I mention this because it could save you money.
• Eat enough calories to gain bodyweight slowly. 1-2lbs/month will likely be a good slot to land it. The FASTER you gain, the more fat you're likely gaining. At some point if you gain too slowly you may be reducing rate of muscle growth. If someone is more concerned with mitigating fat accumulation vs maximizing rate of muscle growth then gain a bit slower. And if you're less concerned with fat gain and more concerned with optimizing rate of muscle growth, gain a bit faster -- just be aware that you can only gain so much muscle, and any extra fat that wasn't necessary means more dieting later, which is potentially counterproductive.
• Get in adequate protein. Ideally I'd space these out so that you're getting in 3-5 servings of protein daily. In a caloric surplus I think 1.8g/kg bodyweight or 1g/lb lbm are both fine approximations.
• For training, get on a structured program and don't design your own unless you know what you're doing, and the overwhelming majority of people think they know what they are doing and in fact don't. Your program should have adequate training volume, you should be training your entire body at least 2 times per week as a minimum frequency per bodypart, and your program should have you progressing over time (training performance should go up). Lyle's Generic Bulking Routine (GBR) is something you can google as a good program to run. There's also a thread in the forums with a huge library of programs.