Coach Tips: Building Muscle & Getting Fitter at the Same Time

Introduction

One question that often comes up is surrounding building muscle whilst getting fitter at the same time. Understandably, gaining muscle, getting stronger, and getting fitter is a desirable outcome for most people, however it can be difficult to balance the inputs we need to give our body for this desired result. This short article will unpack the topic. 

Getting Fitter & Gaining Muscle

We can 100% be getting stronger, getting fitter and building muscle all at the same time. But we need to make sure that we are strategically doing that over a training block. In order to do this, we periodize our training block and progress that block at different times within those specialisms/goals. 

So, typically at the start of the block, we will start with a higher volume and slowly start to increase the volume and the intensity throughout the early phases of that block, which is going to favor hypertrophy.

Then as we get towards the end of the block, we will start to increase the intensity of our conditioning and our strength work, and we will decrease the overall bodybuilding volume within that block, which is what's going to allow you to peak your strength and your conditioning whilst maintaining the muscle mass gains that you will have done over the course of the block.

Nutrition Tips

In order to build muscle, it is imperative that you are in a caloric surplus. A caloric surplus is absolutely necessary for your body to repair, recover and gain weight. It is also important that you support your training with enough protein every day. We recommend around 0.8-1.2g of protein per lb of body weight. In order to help reach your daily protein target, feel free to take a look at our plant protein, micellar casein and whey protein powder.

Conclusion

It can be very difficult to balance trying to improve multiple elements of fitness all together and at the same time, so we have to be a little bit more intelligent as to how we place that volume and intensity over our training blocks. Gain, our functional bodybuilding programme, is designed with this exact goal in mind, helping those on the programme to get bigger, stronger and fitter at the same time. If you're looking to take your endurance to he next level, be sure to take a look at our Peak Endurance Supplement.

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