#17. How to build muscle for health and fitness.

We are talking about building muscle, bulking up, getting swole. Now, just joking. We're going to talk about building quality muscle, how much you need to prevent injuries, balance out your body, have longevity, and what amount of muscle helps with fat loss as well. Yeah, cool.

So the most important thing about muscle building is protein, so make sure you head over to our website in-situ collective com free and pick up your high protein recipe books so you can have a better quality meal with lots of protein in it. Also, if you have a look around on our website, there is a favourite products page so you can see the protein supplement that we recommend and like to use. Daily, yeah. So yeah, make sure you do that. So let's get straight into it on why you would want to build muscle or have a high-quality muscle on your body to look good while looking good. I think that's just one of the side effects of doing all these things and having a very balanced, good, good quality muscle. I feel like that's a little the main reason people aspire though to get more muscle, but today we're going to tell you why. That shouldn't be your main goal. Yeah, if you do all these things and focus on these things, that just comes naturally. Yep, so first one, I want to talk about what was preventing injury so. Generally, an injury comes from a weakness somewhere in your body. It could be a weakness in your knee and then you hurt your shoulder. So stuff like that. So have good quality muscles around your joints and when I say build muscle also, just clarify this to start with. I don't mean getting massive so when I say building muscle you could have. You know, let's talk about your bicep 'cause it's the easiest thing and I'm looking at mine right now, but your bicep could have a thousand muscle fibres in it, and then you could lift some weights. Do all the things we're going to talk about, and then it could be the same size, but it could have 10,000 muscle fibres in it, so that's just better quality muscle, not necessarily bigger. Still the same size, it's probably going to weigh a whole lot more 'cause it's got a lot more fibres in it, but when

I say building muscle, that's what I'm talking about. So when you build muscle around all your joints. The muscles support your joints so your joints don't cop with all the load. They're not working as hard, and all your muscles are taking all the attention and everything out of, you know, jumping lungeing, walking, reaching, lifting stuff and that sort of stuff. So you want good quality muscles so you don't hurt yourself. And he added that, no, that's pretty good balancing the actual body. So I want to put this in this one. In further mothers out there, so I don't know how many mums I've trained who have imbalances in their body and it's causing hip pain, knee pain, shoulder pain. Elbow pain because they carry their child on one side. A year it may be two and then they have multiple and then they have another one and they carry that and then it just creates an imbalance. So when I train these mothers and say you need to build muscle there like I don't want to bulk up. I don't wanna break up but essentially what's happened. They've already booked up one side of their body and one side just needs to catch up. So when I say bounce out your body we need to balance out your body so you got the same amount of muscle or close to the same amount of muscle on each side. So you do not have a hip back shoulder. Issues I guess that goes for anyone that does or has a unilateral job as well. So like if you're using one arm at your job or lot, or you have like a dominant arm, I guess that you do everything with obviously doing things for each side of your body to work on your muscle is super important because it's usually the weak side that has the injury. Yep, yeah, it could be a strong side from overuse. These issues as well. That's true. Tradies trade is a big one on this as well. Those don't know. I used to be a trader, so. I don't know exactly the pain that you go through of backs, knees, shoulders because you're essentially just using one side of your body for the majority of the day and most of its load-bearing.

So again you build muscle on one side and the other side lacks. If you want a really good example, look up some elite level. Tennis plays, Oh yeah, they have a huge army on their racket arm. Alright, so longevity is the next one, so this is going later into life. So how many of you out there have grandparents who have had a hip replacement and knee replacement? All that sort of stuff. Now, this is not just me talking **** again. These plenties of studies have done those that are later on in life who have a good quality muscle. Don't get all those hip replacements. All that sort of stuff. They don't have the. Balls, that sort of stuff that they need to rely on people because they've got good quality muscles that support their joints and they can move through a wide range of motion which keeps them active longer in life. Yeah, this I feel like a really good example. Of that is, there's a man that comes to the box that we go to Roy who is 64. Now sure, yeah 60s, but in the 60s, right? Another 60 found out how old he was. I was like there's no way every other person that I know that's in their 60s is. Yeah, you know, not doing that great and he's doing CrossFit like everything like probably 5-6 weeks and smashing it. Yeah, it's just like you could have that rather than relying on people to get around and help you as you age. And then the last one I've got here is. It helps with fat loss. So. The more muscle you've got on your body, the more energy it takes to fuel those. Muscles and your body will use fat to help reduce energy. Help the proteins do what they need to do to fuel those muscles so the more muscle you got, even not necessarily bigger. More muscle fibres in those biceps are going to be burning more calories, nothing just living.

This means you get a hold of less body fat, less visceral fat, and you're just going to be healthier all around again. It's not necessarily about looks or how you look, it's just about not having that fat that gives you health complications early in life later in life. All that sort of stuff. Cool so that said I am going to go into things you should focus on in the gym and then Mac will go over nutrition things you should be focusing on at home. So the first one you should be doing again resistance training so adding resistance to movements and the best way to do that is with weights. So barbells, dumbbells, kettlebells, body weights as well. But so you want to try and do compound movements so that is squatting down up. Deadlifts proper technique shouldn't be scared of deadlifts if you're doing it properly. It is one of the best movements. You can do a shoulder press, bench press, anything that is multi-joint so using one or more joints two or more joints I should say. And using as many muscles as possible so you know you think about a back squat you think can just. It's going to work my legs, but if you're doing the back squat right, you should be working every single muscle in your body. Yeah, 100%, but that doesn't. That doesn't sort of excluding individual muscles like we're back to the biceps doing bicep curls. So for those mothers or the traders out there that I gotta one stronger side, you want to work that other side individually as well. So if we're talking about biceps like the mother? That child in that one side her whole life, and that's more developed in the other side. What I'd recommend doing is grabbing a dumbbell 10K whatever doing biceps on the weaker side. So bicep curls on the weaker side. See how many reps you get to, and then equal that on the other side, yeah? So then you're doing the same amount of reps on each side, but the weaker side gives you that Rep range that you should be trying to hit.

It just gives that sought to catch up, so that's why you should be doing big compound movements. But as well as smaller accessory stuff just to support the unilateral, making sure both sides are equal. Makes sense, yes. And if you're filing a good program, it should be in there anyway. Yeah, you should be doing those compound movements, but also exercises that complement each side, and then the next question. I always get asked if the Rep range is so. When it comes to Rep range, it doesn't necessarily matter for muscle growth, so back in the day it was you had to do between 6 and 12 reps and if you went over 12 reps it was going to ruin your game, ruin your gains, and if you went below 6 it was going to be strength and all that sort of stuff and many studies have been done now to show it doesn't matter if you're doing strength like under 6 reps your body is going to build. Better quality muscles to adapt to that strength gains anyway, and you can go up to 30 reps and still build muscle so it doesn't matter. You just have gotta be putting your body under resistance. For a certain amount of reps, if you're used to doing 30 reps, start doing 10 reps and your body will change and adapt to the 10 reps and vice versa. I guess it's like your body can't count how many reps you doing. You know like and even throughout the day, you're doing wraps without them being intentional wraps. So I guess. That makes sense as to why the number doesn't matter so much. Yeah, so as you get a bit more advanced into this sort of stuff, it's a little bit hard for beginners, but it's just a bit more mind-body connection, so back. And I was talking about this the other day like I can just activate my glutes straight away without even really thinking about it. Yeah, where Max or struggles to get her glutes woken up and activating for things like squats and all that sort of stuff.

And you do want to activate those muscles during the movements, but again, that is very personalized and. Uhm, you need a PT. Yeah, you need somebody coaching you through that so I didn't want to touch too much on that. And that's pretty much all I've got so. It's pretty straightforward, even if you're doing HIIT training and all that sort of stuff. I'm not saying don't do it, but having even a day or two of the full-body you know working each muscle, full compound movements each day in the gym is going to benefit you for health, longevity, injury prevention. Oz at hormones. All that sort of stuff. So if you're running doing cardio cycling, all that sort of stuff still add in one or two days of resistance training each week for health and longevity. Yeah, cool. I guess on the same topic of training days we had a conversation the other day about how it would be more beneficial for people that are trying to see progress. I guess with muscle-building strength, endurance, fitness, anything like that. Uhm, if you're training five or six days a week, he would probably be more beneficial for you too. Cut a date sacrifice. I guess. A day of training to work on your nutrition. So say you spend one-hour every day training. Cut out a day a week and spend that one hour meal prepping or meal planning or shopping for like. I know fruits and veggies rather than overtraining six days a week. Yep, 100% good segue. Yeah, and I've said this to a client recently who is trying to build a bit of muscle around the injury. I can give you the best exercise, but if you're not eating and fueling your body properly to support that muscle growth, it's a wasted time. It's a waste of time, yeah? 100% cool. So the first thing I want to start with was focusing on a calorie surplus before we started recording.

We did discuss how you can build quality muscle, not site, not so much size. I guess being in a calorie slight calorie deficit or at maintenance. But ideally, if you want to build size you need to be in a calorie, Sir. Plus the way to figure that out I guess is with. A calorie calculator. So if you want to DM me, I have a really good one that's quite in-depth. A couple actually that I could suggest. But yeah, essentially a calorie surplus is eating more energy than your body needs. Which is quite hard when you're trying to build muscle because. Your body uses a lot of energy too. We like Jack said, maintain the muscle and repair the muscle because essentially you're tearing the muscle fibres when you weight train. So you need to make sure you're eating enough calories to allow your body to build the muscle that you want. I guess. Yeah, it takes a lot of energy for your body to build extra muscle cells. Yeah, we're trying to go through this. More, we've tried different things all the time. I guess just for reference to clients and I'm trying to eat in a calorie surplus and it is quite hard actually and I feel I notice the days when I've eaten under my calories and we've weight trained and I have far less energy start to show like cold and flu symptoms because I'm trying to do two opposing things at once I guess so calorie surplus is very important. Second thing, probably the second most debatable. The second most important thing is adequate protein, probably power. Yeah, so obviously your muscles are made from proteins, so you need to make sure you're giving your body enough proteins to build muscle, same as calories.

The way you can figure out how much protein you should be having is if you get a good calorie calculator then it will give you a recommended protein intake and then I'll probably add a little bit more to that because it's always under and the more stuff that we are learning about how I'm having an adequate amount of protein. The more we like wow, we need to eat a lot of protein, yeah, so do you want to talk about the thing that you learned yesterday in your course? Yeah, so if you've been listening in for a while to our content, we've always said you need to have two to 2.5 times your body weight in grams of protein. Yeah, so if you weigh kilos, that is to grams of protein each day. And of course, I've been doing that was sort of the industry. But if you are carrying a lot of extra weight, if you have an extra 50 kilos and 150 kilos we're talking up around 300 plus mark of protein each day, which is not necessary, it's just more protein than your body needs. So the industry standard now just for a rough guide is your height.

So for every centimetre of height, you are one gram of protein, so I'm centimetres, so I have 82 grams of protein every day. So pretty simple, just measure yourself how high you are and that's how much protein you need each day in dreams. That's way easier than the other way to figure it out. And how do you know how much protein you're eating? You have to track your calories. I should imagine that before saying we've been in a calorie surplus, I guess you can try and intuitively do it, but most likely if you need to be in a calorie surplus you won't be hungry and you still have to eat more calories and more protein.

The next point I had was on creatine. I feel like Jack has been talking about creatine. Almost every single episode because it is so important and it is the most studied supplement in the world. The most studied supplement. There's nothing to be scared of about it. I feel like there's a lot of fear around creatine and like bulking and you know, but no, we all need it. It has a similar effect I guess as being in a calorie surplus and eating enough protein helps your body build muscle more efficiently and hold water in the muscle so your muscles look more full I guess. But it's not only really good for muscle building, but it's also really good for your cognitive function. Yeah, your hormones as well. There's a small per cent of creatine stored in your brain, so your brain needs it. Acral creatine can't make it as such. You have to get it from your diet so the places you would find creating is in red meat. Fish Oh yeah, and fish, but not much. Probably not quite. If you're trying to build muscle. Not the amount that your body needs to build muscle, so getting a good supplement is ideal. I have a really good creatine email coming out on Friday, so if you aren't on our mailing list. Be sure to go to our website and scroll to the bottom of any page. I'm sure and you can sign up and it will just explain the benefits of creatine and what it's all about. A bit more in-depth. Did you have anything you want to say about creatine? Seems you'll love it so much. I feel like I'm talking. I could do another 20 minutes on creatine itself, but basically, it's just given your energy. Creating is just energy for your body to function properly. Yeah, I'll leave it at that. Fun Uptown mailing list. so So next I've got adequate vegetables. I feel like you're like what? How did vegetables going to make me get muscly or stronger, but your body just needs vitamins and minerals to do every process like just to survive.

And if you aren't eating enough vegetables after your training session, in particular, it's very hard for not only your muscles to repair, but every part of your body like yourselves to replenish your hormones too. Uhm, stay balanced like I think we did a podcast. Did we do a podcast? Not that longer on post-training nutrition and we went into why vegetables, vitamins and minerals are so important to helping you recover and allowing you, I guess to weight train or hit train again and get a benefit out of it. Because if you aren't recovering properly there's no point you're doing another training session. Cool the last point. Second, the last point I've got is adequate water, so our bodies need water to transport all of these vitamins and minerals and proteins around our body so that we can through our blood so that we can use them essentially. And if you aren't drinking enough then it's not only detrimental to a guess. The nutrients in your body's ability to repair, but also you are the lubrication of your joints. It's important for your brain function, like how you can think how well you can focus on digestion. Yeah, what is just great for everything. Yeah, and I can't stress how important everyone of those is without the other like he can't just go OK I'm going to take creatine and I'm sort of yeah, you've got to sort of taking all of them on board and start improving on each one. You don't have to make huge changes but just improve on each one a little bit. So drinking a little bit more water, having creatine, having a few more veggies. Increasing your protein intake and just maybe tracking your calories. Seeing how you're travelling is just a great thing to do just for you. Overall health, yeah definitely. I think there's one more thing that we should touch on that isn't nutrition or fitness based, but it governs everything, everything, everything, and it's sleep. As we talk about sleep all the time, but like

I said, if you're not eating enough or having enough protein, water, vegetables, or creatine if you're not sleeping enough, obviously your body can't repair like we need sleep. There is just no way about it and not just a little bit of sleep quality sleep, especially if you are trying to build muscle or. Yeah, and shave any health goal well. Everybody thinks your body is adapting to the weights and everything during the workout. And yes, it is a little bit, but your body is going to adopt a lot more while it sleeps, yeah, so. Sleeping a good workout is nothing without a good night's sleep. Yeah, before and after, so make sure you have enough sleep just to recover from the workouts and let your body adapt so it can build those muscles. Your hormones will balance better so you have more energy to do the things you need to do. Fewer injuries, all that sort of stuff, so make sure you have enough sleep is the most important thing you can take away. From this, we can talk for another 20 minutes. Something on sleep and the effects of minimal sleep, but I think we've done that before. Maybe we need to do it again many times. Yeah, I guess also with your sleep you'll notice not with your sleep. With your training, you'll notice if you are overtraining undereating it will severely affect your sleep. So they all go together like hand in hand, yeah? And it's OK to stuff one of them up like you might start overtraining then not realize. But then your sleep starts to drop off and you end your mood drops. You libido drops. Was allowed to eat food drops, so if that's all that sort of stuff happening, you know some things out of balance and you've got to sort of re-check and you know start counting calories. Have looked at program all that sort of stuff, yeah? Cool, we will leave it there. I feel like we could go on a little bit more about sleep, but that'll do. Yeah again, if you've listened this far, thank you very much.

You've got something out of it, sheriff somebody else. Again, I can't stress how important this subject is for longevity, so give this episode to your parents. Give it to your grandparents, get them moving. Just get him lifting small dumbbells, band workouts, anything low impact just to start building a little bit of muscle. And get him on a healthy track so they can live a long healthy life. Yeah, and you start doing it as well. And then take a screenshot, tag us on social, put it in your story, tag us and we'll share it as well. Thanks for all your support and listening to you on Friday. See you on Friday for the wrap-up.