Archive for February, 2009

8 Proven Muscle Building Tips

Saturday, February 28th, 2009
Shawn Lebrun asked:


Building muscle requires the right combination of training and nutrition information. That includes muscle building tips that are proven to work.

Using the wrong information can be detrimental to your progress. So be careful who you listen to in the gym. Even though everyone has an opinion, not everyone is right.

The only way to build muscle is by following 3 synergistic principles:

1. Hard, heavy and smart weight lifting 2. Quality nutrition 3. Quality rest

All three must be in place if you’re going to succeed in building muscle. If just one of these elements is missing, you’re not going to come anywhere near your potential.

Here are 8 simple, proven muscle building tips that you’ll want to include in your training and nutrition program.

Tip # 1. Evaluating your body.

By evaluating your current body composition, body weight and body measurements, you give yourself a starting point. This will be very important in deciding what your nutritional and weight lifting goals will be.

Tip # 2. Setting your goals

Looking at the big picture and breaking it down into small mini goals will help you achieve your muscle building goals. It’s important that you identify your goals and periodically monitor and adjust your goals on an ongoing basis.

It’s better if you were to break your goals down into long (3 to 6 months), short (1 to 2 weeks), and immediate term goals. Make sure your goals are realistic. Record your goals and keep them in a handy place where you have constant access to them.

Tip # 3. Keep a weight lifting log and diet log

It’s important that you write everything down. By keeping track of your progress you are keeping yourself honest and motivated. A weight lifting log and diet log can help you get better results. You can look back at the end of each week and figure out if you were on target with your goals.

A weight lifting and diet log will show whether your goals are realistic and give you insight into your exercise and eating patterns. If you’re building muscle and strength, you won’t have to wonder what works, because you’ll have a full description of everything you’ve done to reach your goals. This will be your blue print for muscle building success.

Tip # 4. Setting up your weight lifting program

Setting up your weight lifting program is a lot easier once you know your body statistics and goals. You must decide whether you’re a beginner, intermediate, or advanced weight lifter.

Once you know your current weight lifting status, build your weight lifting routine according to that information.

It’s suggested that you incorporate free weight exercises into your muscle building programs as opposed to machines. In order to build muscle you need to concentrate on the basic movements like the squat, shoulder press, bench press, dead lifts, barbell rows and chins.

One of the most important muscle building tips is to keep your workout short, heavy and intense.

Tip # 5. Nutrition

Nutrition is one half of the key to building muscle. Without the proper nutrition, you might as well pack your bags and go home. No amount of super sets, negative sets, tri-sets or pre-exhausting will build any amount of muscle mass without the proper nutrition.

To be honest, nutrition will be that element of your muscle building program that will make the difference between an o.k. physique and one that commands power.

The trick to unlocking your muscle building fury is to find your optimal nutritional state. To build muscle you need to consume more total calories than your body uses each day.

Remember this very important muscle building tip; nutrition is the key to building real muscle. Try eating 6 times per day and make sure each meal is balanced with the optimal amount of calories, protein, carbohydrates, and fat.

Tip # 6. Build a diet that supports your nutritional goals

Once you find out what your nutritional goals are, you need to build a menu that will support your goals. Try and find menus that are easy to cook and taste great. The trick is to adjust the menus and recipes to match your nutritional goals.

Tip # 7. Use only proven muscle building supplements

Weight lifting supplements are meant to enhance an already great muscle building program. If you have the right combination of nutrients and the right weight lifting program, proven supplements may enhance your performance.

In order for weight lifting supplements to function properly, they must be taken at the proper times and in the proper amounts.

Tip # 8. Rest

Blasting your body at full throttle all the time will slowly run you down. You need to take some time to rest and relax. Have fun, kick back and relax and enjoy the fruits of you labor. Let your body get into a good rhythm of work and rest.

By getting quality rest you will ensure that you get the most out of your muscle building program. Sleep is vital to building muscle. Make sure that you get enough rest to properly repair your body.

It is during sleep that most growth and repair occurs. Without adequate sleep the body becomes weakened. It is very important that you get the correct amount of sleep because muscle growth happens while you are resting, not while you are training. If you were to lift weights on a steady basis and not get any quality rest, your body would slowly fall apart.

Weight training tears the muscle tissue down and the diet provides the necessary fuel and material for repair, but it is during sleep that the repair and growth process occurs.

Therefore, sleep is as vital to building muscle as is your training program and diet.

You should aim for 6 to 8 hours of rest each night. Don’t be afraid to take a nap in the afternoon or after work to add a little energy to your workouts. Rest is one of those muscle building tips you really don’t think about but is so important.

Use the muscle building tips above in your workout program and you’ll soon start seeing results.

As you progress in your program, make sure to challenge yourself and change your muscle building routine around. This will add a new angle to your training and improve the your results.



Tyler

The Essential Top 6 Best Muscle Building Supplements

Wednesday, February 25th, 2009
john ferreira asked:


If you’re old enough to remember, or lucky enough to have saved some bodybuilding magazines from the 80’s then you could see which muscle building supplements they were advertising then and which ones are still being advertised today. There’s a few that have carried on because they work. Truth is, so many products come and go because they’re fads and simply don’t do what they promised.

It’s easy to get your head spinning and wondering about all the ads in the mags and what people say about this new product and that. If you’re serious about bodybuilding but haven’t been at it for several years or you aren’t getting ready for a contest, then the best advice about muscle building supplements is “stick to the basics”.

There have been a few constant, proven supplements that have helped people speed up their muscle building process. Products that have not gone away and won’t because they are part of the basic building blocks of a complete bodybuilding program. Here they are:

1) Protein Supplements (Whey Protein, Meal Replacements, Protein Bars)

2) Creatine

3) Glutamine

4) Multivitamins & Minerals

5) Essencial Fatty Acids

6) Glucosamine

1) Whey Protein

Since muscles require protein and lots of it for growth we give the NO.1 spot to protein. Of all the types of protein available whey protein is the beat you can put into your body. Why? Because it rates highest in “bio-availability” meaning the largest amounts will be absorbed into your body than any other type of protein.

Whey Protein has all of the essential amino acids and is high in the Branch Chain Amino Acids which will prevent your muscle tissue from breaking down during your workouts.

The two main types of whey protein you’ll find on the market are isolate and concentrate. Both are of the highest quality and the difference is isolate tends to mix better in liquid and some people say it tastes better. You can also buy products which are a mixture of both isolate and concentrate whey protein.

To make sure you get all your protein requirements every day, whey protein is the way to go.

Meal Replacements (MRP’s)

Meal replacement powders have become very popular probably because of their convenience. Whereas whey protein has just one type of protein and no real amounts of carbs, fats, or vitamins and minerals, a MRP usually has several types of protein like casein, milk, egg, and whey combined along with carbs, vitamins and minerals so it really is more of a meal.

The good thing about MRP’s is the convenient packets and the more complete nutrient value but the the downside is they are more expensive than the pure protein products.

Protein Bars

Protein bars can have their place. You can take them anywhere with you and just start chewing, no powders to mix or anything like that so convenience is really the key with bars. The downside is they are usually higher in sugar and are made with a lower quality protein found in the other products mentioned above..

2) Creatine

This supplement is the most popular muscle building product used today, and for good reason… it really does work. It has been proven in the lab and in the gym.

Here’s what it does for you:

1) will increase your lean muscle and strength

2) will speed up your recovery time

3) decrease lactic acid production

4) decrease mental fatigue

Recently, more studies have been made on creatine and there is great news about it’s benefits for not only muscle builders but for all around health. It has been shown to improve symptoms of Parkinson’s disease, and Huntington’s disease. It improves sarcopenia which is a loss of muscle mass due to aging, improves function of the brain, and improves cardiac function in those with congestive heart failure.

A truly modern supper supplement if ever there was one.

3) Glutamine

Glutamine another of the basic and essential muscle building supplements. It’s noticeable effects won’t be as instant as creatine but rather help you get faster overall gains in the long term. It is one of the amino acids who’s major role is to make protein for your body. It promotes muscle growth while decreasing muscle catabolism, which is when your muscles get stressed and start to break down after being heavily stressed from a hard workout which will have a negative affect on the glutamine levels in your body. Providing sufficient amounts of glutamine will eliminate this muscle-robbing catabolic state.

Your body gets gluamine from protien-rich foods like diary, poultry, red meat, fish and beans but to get a lot of it you’d have to eat real large amounts of these foods so a supplement for additional glutamine is a good idea.

4) Multivitamins & Minerals

In a perfect world, with a perfectly balanced diet you wouldn’t need to take a multivitamin & mineral pill but unfortunately most of us don’t eat perfectly balanced diets and if we did chances of our food being nutrient rich and organic are not too good.

There are thousands of reactions going on in our bodies which rely on enzymes. Vitamins ensure that enzymes are there in quality and quantity to make sure these chemical reactions happen efficiently in our bodies constantly.

So vitamins are important for overall health but for muscle building as well. Hard workouts will tax many vitamins in your body and therefore to keep the muscle building process happening in a positive way, supplementation is key.

5) Essential Fatty Acids

A good portion of your diet needs to be fat. No, not the kind that comes from greasy fries or doughnuts but the good, natural fat we can get from peanuts, avocados, cold water fish like salmon, olive oil and flax seed oil.

Fatty acids will improve your metabolism, increase your testosterone production and your growth hormone secretion therefore playing an important role in building muscle.

6) Glucosamine

When glutamine joins forces with glucose, they form a sulfate called glucosamine. Most simple carbohydrates are used as an energy source but glucosamine gets right into the structure of your body tissues.

The sulfate chondroitin can also help to prevent injuries by getting around your joint surfaces and giving a smooth range of motion. This works well with glucosamine and some companies have created products using both.

Not only does it help in reducing joint inflammation and pain, it actually treats the problem by rebuilding damaged cartilage and connective tissue.

There you have it, the top 6 best muscle building supplements you can use to round out your work out program to get the maximum amount of gains. Remember, these supplements won’t work unless you do! Most of your gains will come from hard work and a good diet. Used as part of a good training program you will see results a lot faster with the proper supplements.



Brandon

The Most Powerful Muscle-Building Tool Available

Wednesday, February 25th, 2009
anonymous asked:


The bodybuilding debates will never end. The endless arguments over how an effective muscle-building program should be structured will most likely continue until the end of time. Just scour the Internet message boards, flip through any muscle magazine or talk to the sales rep at your local supplement store. No matter who you talk to or what you read, it seems that everyone is an expert these days.

If everyone is an expert, confident in their own ideas and beliefs, how can the average beginner possibly know who to listen to? He or she is instantly confronted with endless questions that seem to have no clear-cut answer.

How many days should I train per week? How many sets should I perform for each muscle group? What type of rep range should I be using? What are the most effective exercises for stimulating muscle growth? How long should my workouts last?

These questions go on and on until he or she is eventually led to believe that building muscle is an infinitely complex process involving rocket-science precision and an intimate understanding of human physiology. I mean, that’s what takes to build muscle, right? Wrong! Believe me, there are answers to these important questions, and if you are willing to put in the time and effort you will most definitely find them. But that’s not what this article is about.

You see, amidst all of the confusion and endless debating, the majority of lifters end up losing sight of the big picture. Beyond all of the specific workout principles, such as rep range and exercise selection, remains one crucial principle, a principle that lies at the very heart of the muscle growth process. If this principle is not given full attention, or even worse, completely ignored, building muscle becomes next to impossible.

The bottom line is that muscles grow as they adapt to stress. When you go to the gym and lift weights, you create “micro-tears” within the muscle tissue. Your body perceives this as a potential threat to its survival and reacts accordingly by increasing the size and strength of the muscle fibers in order to protect against a possible future “attack”. Therefore, in order to continually increase the size and strength of the muscles, you must focus on progressing each week by either lifting slightly more weight or performing an extra rep or two. In doing this, your body will continue to adapt and grow to the ever-increasing stress.

Building muscle is all about building strength!

So what is the most powerful muscle-building tool available? Quite simply, it is a pen and a piece of paper!

Every time you go to the gym you must write down exactly what you accomplished and then strive to improve upon it the following week. If you aren’t always getting better, then you’re either staying the same or getting worse. Every week you should have an exact plan of attack ready to be executed. You absolutely cannot afford to start throwing weights around aimlessly without a clear-cut goal in mind.

The specifics of building muscle are important to understand and implement, but regardless of what style of training you’re currently using the ultimate deciding factor between success and failure is progression. You can sit around all day obsessing over specific principles, but the bottom line is that if you aren’t getting stronger every week, you absolutely will not be getting any bigger. Examine your training approach closely. If you haven’t been paying laser-like attention to the amount of weight you’ve been using, the number of reps you’ve been performing, and then striving with every ounce of your energy to improve upon those numbers each week, you are completely ignoring the very foundation of the muscle growth process. If you want to see the best gains in muscle mass and strength that you possibly can, a pen and a piece of paper is the most important tool you could possibly have in your arsenal.



Alyssa

Muscle Building Myths and Lies

Saturday, February 21st, 2009
Jimmy Smith asked:


There is many times throughout the day where I will just sit and read training articles and books. I will thumb through a few magazines or visit a few websites with my jaw to the floor. There are so many unrealistic training recommendations out there that it is no wonder why people are not growing. The worst part is when I go into the gym and actually see these people following this misguided advice.

Muscle Building Myth Advice 1 The Safety Of The Smith Machine

The most common piece of misguided training advice that I have ever seen is to use the smith machine because it is safer than barbells or dumbbells. The thought is that using the Smith machine will allow you to safely handle heavy weight since the machine is locked in on two columns. While this is good in theory, it does nothing at all to help save us. The advantages of a barbell or dumbbell is individual characteristics are taken into account.

Spend five minutes watching the Smith machine. You will see a five footwoman going to use it for squats then you will see a six foot two hundred pound guy go and use it to squat. This should clearly illustrate that the machine does not account for any differences. That is not safe!

Barbells and dumbbells account for individual muscle tightness factors as well. Someone who works at a computer all day has different muscular restrictions than a mechanic. Plus, it is also actually harder to lock the machine into place when you are training with a heavier load since you have to force your wrists into a awkward position. Just showing more benefits of dumbbells and barbells

Muscle Building Myth Advice 2- You must always stay with higher reps to build muscle

Yes, higher reps are better for building muscle since they cause more muscle tissue breakdown All things considered, you should train with higher reps. However there is a big backlash for anyone who advocates the need to go with lower reps. Lower reps do not cause as much damage as higher reps but they still have a place.

If you do not train to get stronger, you will not increase your muscle size. You must push yourself past your current limits. By pushing yourself, I amtalking about increasing your ability to handle greater training loads. This will then allow your higher rep work to cause more muscle damage and growth. Too many psuedo-trainers advocate going to failure as the only way to grow. They will point to years of professional bodybuilders having success with this type of training.

That is an awful argument for higher reps. Sure, higher reps will cause you to grow but there is a direct relationship to higher rep training and steroid usage. As drugs became more popular so did higher rep training. Higher rep training is just another tool in the toolbox.

Muscle Building Myth Advice 3 Never Train Your Core First

This is another piece of misguided training advice. Most people leave ab or core training to the end of the workout and think that they need to leave it there. The common thoughts are that you need to do bigger muscles first. That is false. What if your core is weak? What if you have low back pain which hurts you every time you squat?

What if your workouts are more productive if you activate your core before you train? There are specific circumstances that do require your core to be worked first. Provided that you do not do too much work then you will be fine. Look at people who struggle squatting. You will see that they end up bending in their upper body as they continue to go higher in reps. This is not going to happen if you do some core activation work first. Ensure stability then take it from there.

Muscle Building Myth Advice 4 Always Advocating High Intensity Training

No one ever looks at the drop off rate during muscle building programs. The mind is ready before the body is ready when most people go to train. If you want to get the most out of your training, you go into the gym with the intent to really have a good workout.

That, however, can be a problem. If we consistently go into the gym and train at a ten, like most people do, the chances of us having sustainable progress is not going to be as good as it is going to be. We need to train at lower intensities in terms of our mental capacity to allow ourselves to consistently go into the gym and hit it hard.

This is more important than you think. Do you ever feel like you fade as your training week goes on? This is due to continually training at high intensities. It is better to go at an eight for four to five days a week than a ten for two days.



Caleb

Discover The Most Direct Muscle Building Foods

Friday, February 20th, 2009
Swalesta asked:


You should be able to find several indispensable facts about muscle building foods in the following paragraphs. If there’s at least one fact you didn’t know before, imagine the difference it might make.

Bodybuilding is only not wholly about how much and how hard you workout. Another drop for a well sculpted strength is eating plenty of muscle building foods that will unite the effectiveness of your exercise and give you the preferred results. The rules in selecting muscle building foods is to eat a lot, but not all in one sitting. The alternative rule is to eat frequently - up to eight meals a day - but proper the portion sizes much negligible so that you be able to utilize all of the calories that you swallow before eating any more. This will maintain your fat down and your muscle accumulation high, which is the perfect composite for mending more muscular body.

Find Out What to Eat

Muscle building foods tend to divide into three categories;

1. Protein: Protein is an significant essence, since this is the building blocks that muscles need. There are abundance of high protein foods that you can pick from, but some of the finest include eggs, low-fat yogurt, chicken breast, tuna and protein shakes.

2. Carbohydrates: There are two types of carbohydrates; complex and simple. Complex carbohydrates are the greatest option as a muscle building food since they are slow-releasing. These foods consist of potatoes, brown rice and oatmeal. Simple carbohydrates, like fruit, should be consumed right before or after exercise to get the most out of them.

3. Fats: fat is another vital material in muscle building foods, but not the fat that you get in most of out diet options today. Look for high worth fats like olive oil and flaxseed oil that will aid in natural functions.

Knowing When to Eat

It not a good idea to eat a high diet muscle building foods if you don’t eat them at the exactly time scheduled a day. As we already mentioned above, eating numerous, tiny meals is much more successful than eating three large ones every day. Your body should consume just enough energy in the form of muscle building foods to get it through the next three to four hours. It is also significant that you eat first thing in the morning and right before bed at night. Your muscles will do the mass of their building work at night while you are sleeping, so nourish them appropriately with muscle building foods at bedtime. It is also a good idea to eat right after an exercise, when your muscles are in fix manner and require the nutrients the most.

Muscle building foods can be significantly serving you to accomplish the shape that you wish for. With the suitable arrangement of diet and exercise, you can see the results that you are working towards.

There’s a lot to understand about muscle building foods. We were able to provide you with some of the facts above, but there is still plenty more to write about in subsequent articles.



Kaitlyn

Common Muscle Building Myths

Thursday, February 12th, 2009
Shawn Lebrun asked:


There are some common muscle building myths out there that seem to never go away.

As a result some people believe them and it can hinder the benefits they get from their efforts.

Being able to separate the truth from the myths about muscle building will help ensure you devise a plan of action that is going to get you terrific results.

Some individuals assume that cutting back on calories is essential when you are engaging in muscle building practices.

However, the opposite is true as you need to consume more calories.

You definitely need to make sure you consume the right foods though. Plenty of protein will help you get the energy you need.

Your body also needs plenty of fresh fruits, vegetables, and water.

You should try to eat a combination of such foods every 3 hours. Perhaps the biggest myth about muscle building is that you have to lift weights every day.

You only want to do so every other day so that your muscles can rest.

It is during that resting and repairing stage that you will see the size and definition of your muscles improving.

So by lifting every single day you prevent your body from being able to produce those results. Some individuals believe that you don’t need to incorporate any other type of exercise into your routine when you are muscle building.

However, in order for your body to be as healthy as possible you need to include aerobic exercises to help your health and your circulation.

In fact, if you do this on the days when you don’t lift weights you will have a very well balanced workout routine.

There is a myth that muscle building will cause a person to become less flexible than they are right now.

This is a concern for many athletes as they don’t want to lose their ability to perform well in a variety of sports.

There is no truth to this though and many football coaches encourage their players to lift several times a week.

One myth you definitely don’t want to pay attention to is that you have to lift large amounts of weight in order for muscle building to be effective.

This particular myth can result in a person injuring themselves because they attempt to lift more than they reasonably should.

You need to focus on lifting what you can and then increasing your endurance from there.

Don’t compare what you can lift to anyone else but do motivate yourself to keep on making progress.

Many people also feel that if you aren’t feeling the pain then you aren’t going to make the gain.

While you should feel the results of your muscle building efforts you shouldn’t be in pain day after day because of it.

Pay very close attention to what your body is telling you. That way you aren’t going to do unnecessary damage to your body.

It is important to research the information you find about muscle building. That way you will know for sure if it is credible or not.

When you don’t take the time to do so you may be investing your time and money in methods that don’t work.

You can also increase your chance of getting hurt during our muscle building routine.

There are plenty of reputable magazines, websites, and trainers out there that can help you discover the right ways to go about effective muscle building.



Jonathan

17 Muscle Building Facts I’ve Discovered

Wednesday, February 11th, 2009
Shawn Lebrun asked:


I’ve been a personal trainer and natural bodybuilder for the past 5 years. During that time, I’ve discovered a lot of muscle building facts and fitness observations.

I wanted to share some of the most important ones with you, in this article.

Here are 17 of the most important muscle building facts I’ve learned over the years.

1. People do not see great results with their muscle building endeavors simply because they are misinformed and misled as to what works and needs to be done. My job as a trainer is to inform and to educate people as to what really works.

2. In order to stay with your fitness routine for the long run, you need to identify the “why” behind what you’re doing. Uncover, specifically, what you want to change and why you want to change. Use this to become your driving force.

3. You absolutely must associate pleasure with your muscle building routine and pain with not committing to your fitness routine. Humans by nature do things that are pleasurable and avoid things that create pain.

4. We are after long-term, permanent results, so there will be no quick fixes and gimmicks. We are going to create a lifestyle change that will be easy to live with. No counting calories or points, just make better choices and healthier, moderate portions.

5. Always think quality over quantity. This means more working out is not better when it comes to building muscle, better is better. Most people I come in contact with work out too much and eat too little.

6. The key to permanent fat-loss is to speed up your metabolism. Once this is done, weight-loss becomes permanent.

7. The whole process of changing your body takes time. Commit yourself to at least three months to literally transform your body. You may see some results before then, but three months is what it takes to see great results.

8. During the first couple weeks of a muscle building program, you’ll notice that your scale weight either doesn’t change or it may go up a bit.

Throw the scale out the window, it doesn’t distinguish between fat and muscle, so when you initially gain a bit of muscle at the start, the scale weight will go up. That’s a good thing. Over time the scale weight WILL go down.

9. You must eat often and in moderate amounts to speed up your metabolism. If you eat often, your body utilizes and breaks down your food often, leading to less stored body fat.

10. Eat 5-6 small meals/snacks throughout the day. The easiest way to do this is to eat a moderate breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and then a small snack between breakfast and lunch, lunch and dinner, and then a small snack at night. You must condition your body to eat every 3 to 3 1/2 hours. You cannot restrict calories too much, this will slow down metabolism and absolutely stop progress dead in its tracks.

11. You must create a synergy between proper nutrition, moderate aerobic exercise, and intense, brief weight-training. The answers to weight-loss lie within each one of these. This is why diets, Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig, and other programs are not long-term successful. One or more of these elements is missing.

12. Small, steady steps will lead to progression, which will lead to results, which will increase motivation, which will again increase results, which in turn will lead to long-term change.

13. For best results with building muscle and losing fat, 5 days a week, 30 minutes a day is most beneficial. More than 5 days and you risk overtraining. Less than 5 days and you may not see optimal muscle building results.

14. You must incorporate resistance weight-training into your weight-loss efforts. Fat is metabolized by muscle, muscle literally will burn more calories just to maintain itself. Increased lean muscle tissue helps your body to speed up its metabolism (again, increased metabolism being the key to weight-loss.

15. Too much aerobic activity will be counterproductive to your muscle building efforts. 2-3 days a week, 20-30 minutes each session is optimal. Again, more is not better, better is better.

16. Diets do not work, so never try to diet. Diets are a flawed method which create to much pain (pain/pleasure principle). You can diet for a short time, but the physical and psychological cravings come, leading you to binge and eat more than you would have.

17. Pick one day a week and cheat. Eat anything you want, and I mean anything, but just make it a moderate amount. Then be strict for the other 6 days a week.

These were some of the most important muscle building facts I’ve learned over the past 5 years. Follow as many as you can and you’ll soon see more results from your time spent in the gym.



Kevin

Six “little-known” Muscle Building Tips Part 1

Monday, February 9th, 2009
Vince Delmonte asked:


So you think you know everything about building muscle? If you have read everything, tried everything and heard everything about muscle building but still resemble the silouette of a Calvin Klien model instead of a buff fitness model than I promise these three ‘little-known’ muscle building tips will accelerate your muscle gains immediately!

1. Body Weight Training

This was once a popular muscle building technique but is very commonly ignored. Why? Perhaps because most body weight training is simply hard and can put a dent in your precious ego! As far as I am concerned, if you can not work with your own body weight than you have no freaken business using external loading such as barbells and dumbbells.

It’s incredible how many attempt to use heavy weights with a microscopic range of motion but can’t do a set of push ups, a squat to the floor or even one chin up. Don’t get me wrong, there is definitely a place for external loading with heavy weights but not until you have the ability to master the following bench marks:

Males should aim for 1 set of 80 push ups, 1 set of 20 chin ups, 1 set of 20 1-leg squats, 1 set of 40 dips and 1 set of 20 pull ups.

Females should aim for 1 set of 40 push ups, 1 set of 5-10 chin ups, 1 set of 10 1-leg squats, 1 set of 10-15 dips and 1 set of 3-5 pull ups.

These standards will ensure a solid foundation of general fitness and muscular endurance and lead to building muscle mass more easily in the following stages of your weight training program.

2. Flip Your Program Upside Down Every 3 Weeks

This is an extremely powerful tip to building muscle mass, not to mention one of the easiest tricks to ensure your body side-steps plateaus forever. Consider that you have been training your chest shoulders and triceps every Monday. In you next phase, three weeks later, you should do the complete opposite. You will train your triceps, shoulders than chest on Friday. This will prevent plateaus because each muscle group will have an opportunity to train completely fresh.

Let’s say you are training your back, biceps, forearms and abs on Friday. Than you will train your abs, forearms, biceps, and back on Monday (in the opposite sequence). You will literally switch everything upside down. Again, this will ensure that these muscles receive an opportunity to train first in the week when your body is the most fresh.

You will curse my name when you blow the heck out of the smaller muscles first and than train the larger muscle groups last. Yes, I know this months issue of Bodybuilders Digest said to never train the smaller muscle groups before your larger muscle groups. I have heard it before so stop analyzing, trust me and give it a try. You be the judge and don’t be surprised if you see new levels of muscle mass and strength after this one technique.

3. Spend More Time At The Grocery Store

If you are serious about building muscle, accept the fact that you will need to spend more time than you do right now in the grocery store. Have you ever opened the fridge for something to eat and all you found was Aunt Wilma’s Thanksgiving turkey leftovers with mold on it? Ever gone into the cub boards and discover only a few leftover bags of potato chips from last weeks Super Bowl party?

To ensure a optimal environment for building muscle and fat loss you must ensure your cub boards and fridge are constantly stocked. This will mean more frequent trips to the grocery store. Chuck the crap that is in your kitchen right now and replace it with good stuff and keep on replacing it. Don’t ever let that supply of good food run low.



Vevaeh

The Unexposed Secrets of Muscle Building

Sunday, February 8th, 2009
Peter Noopy asked:


How does one build chest muscles? Building chest muscle is one of the primary concerns of those who are interested in competing in amateur or professional bodybuilding competitions. The reason for this is the chest constitutes one of the main muscle groups that need to be improved aesthetically; and so aside from strength training, isolating this particular muscle area is a must for those who want to sculpt.

Strength training may also be employed, aside from specific weight training regimens. What are taken into consideration with strength training? One must be familiar with the terminology, too. Form is the specific type of exercise that is put into practice to introduce resistance to the skeletal muscles. Regimens employ different forms; combinations of forms are determined by the objectives of the body builder. Rep, also known as repetition, is the number of cycles of a particular form of training, while a set is a particular number of cycles in a particular combination of forms. The other important component of training regimen is tempo: the speed at which an exercise is performed has different consequences for the body and specific muscle groups.

According to a common trend in body building, if one wants to build chest muscle, then a specific training for that muscle area with sets that range from five or six to around twelve or thirteen repetitions per specific set are adequate. Such a routine would be able to increase the muscle size and would also build endurance in the body. The studies suggest that the number of repetitions may vary between eight and fifteen. The sets per particular training session should range from four to eight sets of eight to fifteen repetitions.

Now, how about the period of relaxation between sets? It has generally been accepted that there are no particular figures that could encompass every kind of metabolism and body type. Though, figures reveal that the time period between repetitions and sets of chest-sculpting exercise may vary between two to five minutes. These figures are included on the basis of results provided by them.

For the duration between the sets, varies from exercise to exercise meant for specific parts which includes: five to ten seconds to build strength, four to eight seconds to build power, twenty to sixty seconds for hypertrophy or muscle building, eighty to one hundred fifty seconds to increase the endurance of the body builder. Now, one may try all types of duration, so that there would be balance.

Now, if you are already trying out the suggest durations, then one should also know that there is such a thing as “progressive overload”. It works this way: muscles were made to support the skeletal system; but they may be trained to lift and resist increasingly heavy forces, in the form of weights or other types of resistance-inducing equipment. Progressive overload should be tried only with the help of trained professionals, or with fellow bodybuilders that have already passed through the initial phases of progressive overload.



Jessica

No Nonsense Muscle Building

Monday, February 2nd, 2009
BigBenson asked:


No Nonsense Muscle Building is by Vince Delmonte who has helped out hundreds and hundreds of people already and has given them their dream bodies. Many people have broke down in tears after getting the results they never thought possible.

What’s Inside of No Nonsense Muscle Bilding?

Well here’s a Sneak Peak:

* How To Build Muscle

* Massive Eating & Nutrition

* Recovery Methods - Accelerate Recovery

* No Nonsense Maximum Muscle Growth Program

* Maximizing Hormones For Maximal Muscle Building & Fat Loss

* Injury Prevention & Avoiding The Causes

No Nonsense Muscle Building addresses each topic separately and has made it very simple for beginners to understand the fundamentals of muscle building.

Vince Delmonte has been featured Maximum Fitness Magazine, He is a top expert trainer and a Fitness Champion. You know this program is for real especially since “Skinny Vinny” wrote the program.

No nonsense muscle building is made up of nine “Growth Principles”. They cover the entire basis of muscle building and gaining massive rock hard eye popping muscles.

If you are serious about gaining weight and building up a massive body then just check out Vince Delmonte’s new program “”No Nonsense Muscle Building” you will not be let down. I guarantee it. You know why I guarantee it? Because Vince offers a 100% 56 day never heard of money back guarantee. It isprobably one of the best programs for building muscle, gaining weight, and increasing your strength that has ever hit the market.

No Nonsense Muscle Building is an amazing program for building muscles, gaining weight, and increasing your strength by leaps and bounds with a complete workout, eating, and cardio system.



Jack