Lean Muscle Workouts

The program aimed at lean muscles is simple. Follow cardio alternate day, strength training with light weight alternate day, stretch your body after the workout and eat a good diet which has enough proteins to aid you in muscle building. However, if you are overweight then before you focus on building lean muscles, you must focus on weight loss workout and then gradually make changes in the routine to aim at gaining lean muscle. Also, if you are underweight, then you should follow the below workout with a diet which is rich in healthy and

Lean Muscle Workout Routines

Cardio Workout
Cardiovascular exercises work best when aiming at a lean muscle workout. As cardio helps to shed off fat, and helps to put on some muscles too. An excellent example of cardio exercise that helps to put on lean muscles is swimming, which is a total workout and helps to built muscles. Because, swimming increases your cardio capacity, improves your strength and improves flexibility, also it is a low impact exercise which makes it perfect for people with injuries. But, you can also consider running-jogging, cycling or skipping as your cardio workout. Jump rope is a good workout for women as it helps to get rid of thigh fat.

Strength Training
There are many exercises that you can use, however as a beginner or for lean muscles it is important that you don't push heavy weights or do too many reps. Just do two sets of 20 reps with light or medium weight, and that should be enough for women. For men the sets can be pushed till three sets of 20 reps each. You can go with weight training exercises, or use your own body weight. Exercises like push ups, pull ups, squats, lunges, ab crunches, dumbbell exercises, machine weight exercises, all can be used.

Stretching
After you are done with cardio or a strength training session, it is important that you follow with some stretching muscle toning workout. Stretching improves your flexibility, and helps to cool down. Also, if you hold the stretching exercise for long it will help to improve your flexibility drastically and help to tone-up better.

Diet
Apart from following the workout routine to build muscle, you must also take care of your diet. A good diet which has lots of good protein sources like lean turkey, fish, dairy products and soya is important. You also need to include healthy carbs to your diet. Also, eat plenty of fruits and vegetables to provide fiber, vitamins and minerals to your body. As you will be working out you will be sweating and the water content will deplete from your system, so make sure you keep drinking around 2-3 liters a day to keep yourself hydrated.

Sample Lean Muscle Workout Routines
Here is a sample workout plan to build muscle. When following the plan as a beginner, stick to lighter weights. And as you get stamina you can add a little bit more weights and reps. But, do not exceed the limit for muscle building, or you will start gaining bulk, which is not aimed for.

Week	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
1st Week	cardio exercise for 45 minutes (5 minutes walk + 10 minutes jogging + 30 minutes cardio exercise)	● ½ an hour of cardio exercise ● 15 minutes of shoulder workout ● 5 minutes of stretching	cardio exercise for 45 minutes (5 minutes walk + 10 minutes jogging + 30 minutes cardio exercise)	● ½ an hour of cardio exercise ● 15 minutes chest workout ● 5 minutes of stretching	cardio exercise for 45 minutes (5 minutes walk + 10 minutes jogging + 30 minutes cardio exercise)	Rest
2nd Week		● ½ an hour of cardio exercise ● 15 minutes of abdominal exercises ● 5 minutes of stretching		● ½ an hour of cardio exercise ● 15 minutes of lower body workout ● 5 minutes of stretching
3rd Week		● ½ an hour of cardio exercise ● 15 minutes of triceps and biceps workout ● 5 minutes of stretching		● ½ an hour of cardio exercise ● 15 minutes back exercises ● 5 minutes of stretching

So, form a routine and regularly follow it, make sure you follow a good balanced diet too, to help the body put on muscles. Apart from the workout and diet, you should also let your body take proper rest and get 8 hours of sleep daily.