Abstract
Exercising and fitness are among the most popular activities in the contemporary world. Even though many individuals are involved into them, not all are aware about the proper ways of achieving the best results in the shortest periods of time. For this paper, I conducted a research and located the studies describing some of the most effective diets and exercise types for gaining lean body mass.
Main
In the contemporary world exercising and being fit is gaining more popularity, especially among younger people. Millennials are focused on physical and aesthetical benefits of frequent exercises and often choose high protein diets in order to enhance the results. Both men and women are interested in gaining lean mass, developing prominent muscle and fitter bodies. This is why my wellness goal for this paper was to test the myths and realities of exercising. My objective was to gain five pounds of lean body mass by April by means of exercising and keeping to a high-protein diet.
Developing a plan considering the ways to achieve my wellness goal I chose a combination of several strategies. First of all, in order to gain lean mass an individual is to exercise regularly. I compiled a training schedule which included two or three workout sessions a week, the average length of one session was one hour. The exercises I did included weight lifting, squats, and bench press. This way, my target groups of muscles were leg, chest and arm muscles.
In order to enhance the results of my training sessions and speed up the development of my muscles I decided to employ special diet rich in protein. I made this decision based on the study by Brown, DiSilvestro, Babaknia and Devor (2004), which tested the effects of soy and whey protein bars on the development of lean body mass during the exercise sessions of the participants and compared the results to the data collected from the control group which had the same training program but consumed no protein bars at all. According to the study, the participants who had 33 grams of protein a day during the training period gained lean body mass, while the control group’s results showed no changes in lean body mass.
Another study written by Hartman, Tang, Wilkinson, Tarnopolsky, Lawrence, Fullerton, and Phillips (2007) compared the changes of lean body mass between the groups of participants consuming soy milk, no fat fluid milk and carbohydrate sports drinks (control group) right after the training sessions and one hour after that. The research demonstrated that the group of participants keeping to fluid milk diet showed the best results. The control group demonstrated 2.3 % change in lean body mass, the group consuming soy milk showed 3.1% change and the group keeping to fluid milk diet had 3.9% body mass change (Hartman, Tang, Wilkinson, Tarnopolsky, Lawrence, Fullerton, & Phillips, 2007).
The selection of my exercises also came from these two studies as both of them employed weight lifting leg, chest and arm exercises as the most effective ones for gaining lean body mass. Based on the research results I chose to include soy protein bars into my diet during the training period and to consume no fat fluid milk as the best lean body mass enhancer. I must admit, these results were a bit surprising because I was sure that carbohydrate sports drinks were the most efficient products for gaining lean body mass.
In conclusion, many individuals today are pursuing the goal of developing athletic and fit bodies with prominent muscles, yet many are convinced that regular and intense training is enough for the achievement of this objective. The scientific researches show that plain exercising does not help to gain lean body mass and dietary enhancers rich in protein are required.
Reference List
Brown, E. C., DiSilvestro, R. A., Babaknia, A., & Devor, S. T. (2004). Soy versus whey protein bars: Effects on exercise training impact on lean body mass and antioxidant status. Nutrition Journal, 3(22), 1-5. Web.
Hartman, J. W., Tang, J. E., Wilkinson, S. B. Tarnopolsky, M. A., Lawrence, R. L., Fullerton, A. V., & Phillips, S. M. (2007). Consumption of fat-free fluid milk after resistance exercise promotes greater lean mass accretion than does consumption of soy or carbohydrate in young, novice, male weightlifters. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 86(2), 373-381. Web.