Recently updated on June 21st, 2023 at 09:03 am
Training your muscles enhances your quality of life, and it can improve how you do your day-to-day activities. Retaining muscle mass is essential as people age since it can protect your joints from injuries. More importantly, it can help you gain a better balance and eventually reduce the risk of falls.
When training these muscles, you need to consume protein, which is essential for muscles. Protein helps repair and maintain your muscle tissue since this would slightly tear when you exercise. However, when you’re low on protein, the muscles you retain would be less than adequate. You may even lose muscles and experience a decrease in strength.
Overall, physical performance when you’re low on protein is reduced. This page discusses what you can do to gain and retain muscle mass, especially when you’re low on protein. Continue reading to learn how you can achieve your dream body!
Try To Consume More Protein
If you are low on protein, you must change your diet as soon as possible, especially if you’re training at the gym. As mentioned above, protein is essential when repairing your muscles. If you aren’t consuming enough protein, your training muscles won’t have the needed materials to grow.
The only move you have to make when you’re low on protein is to make an effort to add more protein to your diet. Protein is essential since it’s the building block of muscles itself. Consider adding the following protein-rich foods below:
- Sardines
- Chicken Breast
- Oats
- Lentils
- Cottage Cheese
- Tempeh
- Eggs
- Turkey
- Tuna
- Milk
- Salmon
Don’t just rely on exercising at the gym; you must also manage your diet well.
Try Taking Supplements
If you go to the gym, you may know something about supplements. But did you know that the Leading BCAA Supplement Choices on the market can help you improve muscle retention? Supplements aren’t just about endurance anymore.
BCAA supplements typically contain numerous ingredients that help with muscle growth and also aid you in getting those extra vitamins. A notable ingredient, glutamine, is in these supplements, and it’s widely used in supplements taken by bodybuilders and athletes. It’s suitable for muscle repair and growth.
These BCAA supplements are also packed with the following essential ingredients:
- Whey protein
- Caffeine
- Taurine
- Beta-alanine
- Citrulline malate
Assess Your Training Style
How you train also affects how your muscle is maintained. Assess your training style and decide whether it retains the muscles you’ve worked out. You can do this by going on the Internet and searching about the exercises you can do that train your muscles and retains them.
For illness prevention and overall health, cardio is recommended; however, if you’re trying to preserve your muscle mass, you may not benefit as much from these exercises. Instead, your body would become lighter due to too much endurance training and eventually burn muscle.
However, there’s a solution to this if you like having cardio in your exercise routine! You can add weight training to your routine and ensure your diet is nutritious and full of protein.
Weight training or resistance training works your muscles and therefore increases muscle strength. If you’re a beginner, you can benefit by training twice or thrice weekly. You can try out different forms of training, like using weight machines, resistance bands, and free weights.
You just have to balance out cardio and resistance training in your workout. Doing this shall allow you to strengthen your muscles as you condition your lungs and heart with cardio exercise. A well-rounded routine enables you to reach your body goals much faster. Be sure to consult with an expert for maximum benefit.
Get Enough Sleep
Like how your protein repairs your muscles, sleep can also help you recover them, making sleep just as important; when you sleep, your body will mend itself. Recovery is essential since the body needs to recover to grow stronger. So, when the damage is repaired as we sleep, the muscle can then grow.
Manage Your Carb-Intake
Besides protein, carbs are another essential food item you should add to your diet. Energy is essential when training at the gym; the body gets energy from carbohydrates. But when you build muscle, you must consume 5-6 grams per kilogram of your body weight daily.
When incorporating carbohydrates into your body, be sure to get them from healthy foods since you can also find them in unhealthy foods. The following are great examples of healthy carbohydrates:
- Beans
- Yogurt
- Corn
- Fruits
- Whole grains
- Berries
- Lentils
- Vegetables
- Brown rice
- Potatoes (white and sweet)
- Quinoa
Final Thoughts
Have you noticed that no matter how much work you put in the gym, you still aren’t getting the muscles you’ve hoped for? If you’re low on protein, then this might be the cause of your dilemmas. As mentioned above, protein is an essential item in your diet, and if you aren’t getting enough, it will be hard to retain muscle mass.
If you want to change this, you need at least two things to gain and retain muscles: a nutritious diet and a proper exercise routine. Consistency is a must when it comes to these things, and you must practice discipline.
