What should be your Priority: Build Muscle or Lose Flab?

You are so desperate to get rid of that abhorrent flab in the body.

Okay, this if fine. But now, you also want to put on muscle. And the problem is that you can't possibly achieve the two goals at the same time. So how do you go about the entire thing then?

Well the answer to this question can be a bit tricky. It totally depends on two things: a) your honest assessment of what you look like now and b) what you hope to look like in the not-too-distant future. Every guy wants to look like the award-winning bodybuilder on the day of the contest. But the fact is that even seasoned bodybuilders don't look the same every time of the year. Experts say that professional bodybuilders usually build up a lot of muscle before cutting down and dehydrating just before a contest.

 

Know your Goal

What you really want to do is carve a physique with which you can love day in and day out. It should be sustainable. Take a look at yourself in the mirror: Do you have a decent amount of muscle but too much fat? Or are you pretty defined but lack any real muscle? Once the goal has been determined, your next step is to kick-start a disciplined fitness-and-nutrition plan that will change your strength accordingly. If you have respectable strength, then go straight for a cutting programme. If you've got a six-pack but want to get bigger, you're going to have to put on some fat along with that new muscle.

First, Get the Diet Right

If your goal is to get lean,

you must consume six small-and-balanced meals/snacks every two to three hours in a day. The meals should be rich in protein and should contain low-glycemic carbohydrates. Take extra care to incorporate fruits, lots of veggies, fiber-rich foods and plenty of water in these meals.

If your goal is to build some muscle,

experts recommend at least 2 grams of protein per kilo of body weight. Those six meals per day must be sizable, and one should include a post-workout whey protein recovery shake. While you don't need to eat as clean (very less fat, no junk) as those trying to shed pounds, you must carefully aim for a nutrient-rich diet. Even if you're consuming calorie-rich foods, make sure that they also have some nutrients. For example, you should go for “paneer tikka” rather than “shahi paneer”. Make sure that you don't miss workouts because with all that food, your body will be generating both muscle and fat, and intense workouts will be instrumental in ensuring that much of it is the hard stuff.

 

Now: Build Strength or Burn Fat

Strength building

  is all about hoisting heavy weights approximately three workouts a week. A good (and balanced) idea will be to have a variety. You can do a push day (chest, shoulder and triceps), a pull day (back and biceps) and a leg day. Consider major compound moves (involving more than one muscle group), such as bench presses, incline presses, military presses and triceps presses on push days; pull-ups, deadlifts, back rows and straight bar curls on pull days; and squats and lunges on leg days. Make sure you rest for 2 to 3 minutes between sets. And we strongly recommend doing all this under the supervision of a well-qualified trainer, especially if haven't spent much time in the gym in the past.

Now the fat-burning programme is not so different from this, it's just that everything is done at a faster pace and with a higher rep rate (repetition rate). While you'll still do three workouts a week, the breakdown will be chest/back, shoulders/arms and legs, which more freely allows you to superset exercises. For example, if you're doing three supersets of push-ups/deadlifts, you'll do the two exercises back-to-back (one superset) and rest 45 seconds between each superset. Aim to get at least 15 reps per exercise, per superset.