Staying in tip-top shape never ends; it’s a lifestyle and a commitment to always evolving your fitness habits, especially as you age. This is especially important if you are on a mission to add some bulk to your frame.

Exercising to improve lean mass and build strength will not only help you look good, but it will also be good for your health. Aside from being fit, strong and healthy muscles will help you do simple tasks more efficiently, whether you have to bike, lift a couch, or even push a car.

Follow these tips below to help you improve lean mass and build strength:

• There are specific workouts that you can do to help you obtain more lean muscle and increase size. These are overhead presses, bench presses, deadlifts, and squats. These workouts aren’t just useful for powerlifters – these are big moves that are effective for increasing lean muscle and boosting your overall strength. Compound movements such as these work because they promote more hormone response in the body, which in turn makes them effective in strength building instead of using isolated movements. In addition, you can also load the bar with more weight with these workouts.
  
  
• Even though compound workouts will help you, this doesn’t mean that you should completely skip isolation movements like calf raises and bicep curls. By integrating these movements into your workout, you’ll be able to add volume while helping you focus on singular body parts that need help. Recovery time is also better with these workouts.
  
  
• Gym time is important but you should also prioritize getting good rest which is crucial for growth and repair. It’s also necessary to ensure that you are getting the right nutrition that you need to keep your whole body healthy and strong. If you can, try to limit stress whenever possible.
  
  
• While planning your diet, consume 1 gram of animal protein for every pound of body weight. Eventually, you can increase to 1.5 then 2 as the months go by. Make sure that you are eating high-quality sources of animal protein and avoid food that is high in fat, such as mayonnaise, fast food, cheese, and bacon. Try to eat 5 meals per day with each having around 50 grams of protein in the beginning. You can add calories to your meal every 2 weeks but make sure that the workout you are doing is also supporting the added intake.
  
  
• Sodium helps improve your performance. Salt can even be more effective than creatine. When your body consumes sodium, it increases the absorption of amino acids and will also contribute to improved carbohydrate storage.
  
  
• Not everyone needs to take supplements but it can help give you the added nutrients that you may not be getting from your diet. Certain supplements can also help you boost your performance, especially taking multivitamins, creatine, fish oil, and many kinds of workout shakes all of which also contribute to better recovery. If you decide to take supplements, keep in mind that these are not one-off miracle solutions that will help you improve mass and build strength because you will also need to ensure you are doing your part in and out of the gym.
  
  
• Get into the occasional cardio workout but not just any cardio – for increasing mass, high-intensity interval training (HIIT) is recommended. Instead of going every day, HIIT is most effective for your specific fitness goals if you go just once or twice a week at most. It can also improve recovery because HIIT promotes blood flow, reduces lactic acid, and decreases muscle soreness.
  
  
• Keep your workouts to around 45 minutes long. This is important when considering the impact of hormones on your progress. Studies show that around 45 minutes is just the right amount of time needed to keep your catabolic (muscle-breaking) hormones down and anabolic (muscle-building) hormones up. Any longer than 45 minutes and you just won’t be doing much for yourself. Besides, you can get more down when your focus and energy are highest, this is usually at around 30 minutes.
  
  
• If you’re going to have a snack, make it ice cream. Any kind of ice cream eaten 2 hours after your workout will be good for you. Studies show that ice cream is a great snack for building mass and strength because it promotes insulin release more effectively than other types of food.
  
  
• Before you go to sleep, have a combination of protein and carbohydrates. This kind of combination can reduce the breakdown of protein in your body. A small serving of cottage cheese, raisin bran, some fruit, and a glass of milk are good ideas for pre-bedtime snacks.
  
  
• Sometimes, the environment where you do your workouts can also make a difference. Find a great place where you can focus on your goals and be inspired to do better because you’re around like-minded people. The right kind of gym will boost your enthusiasm and motivation, and you’ll see better results in a shorter period.
  
  

Last but not least, it’s also important that you keep track of your progress by writing down improvements in your body. Each morning when you wake up, weigh yourself and write it down; whether you use a journal or Excel sheet it won’t matter as long as you do it. It also helps to write down how many meals you ate each day and what you ate, the hours of sleep you got, and the supplements that you took.