8 ways to increase muscle mass

1. Lift weights. There’s no way around it. In order to stimulate muscle growth, you have to hit the gym. For best results, stick mainly to free weights (instead of machines). They’re far more effective at building muscle.
2. Train for hypertrophy. Hypertrophy is increasing the volume of your muscles, and in order to do this, you should train with heavy weights at a medium/low number of repetitions. I generally go for 8 repetitions, but anywhere in the 8 – 10 range is ideal.
3. Train until muscle failure. On your last rep, your muscles should be totally fatigued; it should be impossible for you to do another rep. If you feel like you could do another rep, you need to increase the weight.
4. Keep pushing. Your muscles will only build when forced to adapt to a heavier weight, so constantly progress to higher levels of resistance. It’s called progressive overload, and it’s exactly what you need to be doing.
5. Keep your body fueled. It takes a lot of calories to maintain muscle. As you increase your muscle mass, you need to increase your caloric intake. If you fail to bump up the number of calories you consume, then your body will be unable to maintain your muscle and your gains will cease. I recommend using the Harris Benedict calculator as a starting point. In addition, muscles require water to grow – make sure you’re staying well hydrated!
6. Eat enough protein. There are a lot of calculations for protein consumption. Since you’re very active and increasing your muscle mass, you’ll want to eat just over a gram of protein per day per pound of lean body mass (lean body mass is your body weight in pounds – pounds of fat on your body). It’s not an exact science, but at 145 lbs and with a lean build, I suspect you’ll need around 175 grams of protein per day – no small feat!
7. Don’t overtrain. You shouldn’t be hitting the weight room for longer than 45 minutes (and in fact, training longer may be counterproductive). Also, ensure that you are resting sufficiently in between workouts, and that you aren’t training muscles that are still sore from a previous workout.
8. Continue with moderate cardio. Almost no one should be doing cardio for durations in excess of 45 minutes (it starts breaking down muscle at around that point – which can actually slow down your metabolism), but especially someone looking to increase muscle siz

The Bikini Workout

This workout includes strength training which is an essential part of keeping young and healthy, not just for men but for women as well. Achieving the perfect bikini body is a combination of strength training and aerobic exercise. Women have traditionally been scared away from strength training due to fear of becoming too muscular. Training in this way is proven to help with weight management as well as providing shape and tone to the butt, thighs and arms whilst increasing strength for maximimum fat burning. This workout is aimed at women who have a certain amount of workout experience and includes exercises that are based around multiple joint  movements that challenge stability as well as traditional weight training movements. The advantage of this is that it encourages all the muscles in the body to work harmoniously with each other, creating a balanced tone physique that is less prone to injury. Functional movements are more similar to the types of movements we do in our everyday lives. So performing exercises in this way will enhance the quality of your life by giving you more energy, stability, improved coordination and posture. Strength training has a number of benefits for women, as it helps to maintain muscle, increases strength and bone density and maintains an effective metabolism for weight management. This improves body image and self esteem. Workout Terminology: Compound Sets: This workout uses compound sets. Compound sets make your workout more efficient by allowing you to get more work done in less time and with greater results. A compound set is performing a set of one movement, followed immediately by another set of a different movement that targets a completely different muscle group than the previous one did. Once both of these sets are complete, your compound set is finished, and you will be able to take your planned rest period.

DAY 1 MORE         WORKOUT A Instructions:   Print Workout Perform cardio after your weights session. Focus on technique and move the weights through a complete range of motion. Exhale as you lift the weight, and inhale as you lower it again. Complete all reps & sets of each compound set and circuit before moving on. Rest period between compound sets is 120 seconds. Rest period between repeat of circuits is 90 seconds. Use a weight that is heavy enough so you can just manage the required number of reps. Exercises: Show All | Hide All 1 Cardio Interval 2 miles  Fartlek Training: Set your mild/moderate intensity interval length and high intensity interval length however you want! 2 Specific Warm-up 2 sets Squat 10 reps  3 Specific Warm up 2 3 sets Squat, Barbell 12 reps  4 Circuit 1 - Legs 3 sets Deadlift, Dumbbell, Straight Leg 15 reps  Squat 15 reps  Calf Raises, Dumbbell 15 reps  5 Compound Set 1 - Chest and Back 3 sets Bench Press, Dumbbell 15 reps  Bent Over Row, Dumbbell 15 reps  6 Circuit 2 - Arms and Shoulders 3 sets Bicep Curl, Curl Bar 15 reps  Tricep Kickback, Dumbbell, Standing 15 reps  Shoulder Press, Dumbbell 15 reps  Tricep Pushdowns, Straight Bar 15 reps  7 Abs: Feel the Burn 2 sets Crunch, Iron Cross 25 secs  Bicycle Crunch 40 secs  Superman 30 secs