Posts Tagged ‘bodybuilding’
How You Can Build Muscle Fast
Building muscle fast isn’t as easy as you might think, but I’m glad to say that it isn’t as difficult as some would have you believe, even if you are a hard gainer. It comes down to getting the most effect from the training you do.
Here are 5 effective tips for people wishing to gain muscle fast.
1. Make sure to get enough food and rest
If you want to get serious about building muscle fast, then you need to get serious about what you eat. Building muscle mass is taxing on your body, and you need to make sure it has enough energy to support the new growth. Most guys having trouble gaining muscle fast, is eating way to little food. You need to eat a solid meal 5-6 times a day. Make sure the food you eat is high quality, junk food won’t build a healthy body.
Giving your body time to recover between workouts is equally important. You need to work smarter not harder in order to be building muscle fast. And when you work out you should go at it with maximum intensity, and after that you give your body time to rest and recover completely before your next workout.
2. Never Perform More Than 10 Reps
Doing more than 10 reps per set is emphasizing your slow-twitch muscle fibers which have less opportunity for muscle growth. You need to activate the highest amount of muscle fibers in each set, especially if you are a hard gainer. Always choose your weights knowing that more than 10 reps are keeping you in ’skinny land’. If you want to gain muscle fast you need to lift heavy.
3. Reduce Your Workout Time
I you perform more work in less time you have increased your work intensity. Work refers to the number of sets, reps and weight within your workout. Next time you enter the gym, try to complete your workout in less time. Take shorter rests, and quicker breaks between exercises. This can make you feel really out of shape! This tip is one of the easiest you can use to improve the density of your muscles as well as your fitness level.
4. Only Do One Exercise Per Muscle Group
You don’t need to mutilate a muscle for an hour to get growth out of it. Your goal is to simply trigger your muscles into growth. Not exhaust them to death. Once they experience an unknown assault (stimulus), your body will be forced to adapt and build new muscle to counter future assaults! Therefore, once you have outperformed your last workout in a given exercise, it is time to move onto the next.
5. Do No More Than 3-5 Sets Per Muscle Group
You have to question a hard gainers workout intensity if they do more than 3-5 sets per muscle group. Remember, building muscle fast for the hard gainer requires following a new set of rules.
Your first 1 or 2 sets should be around 85% maximal intensity. The third set at 95% maximal effort and the fourth (and sometimes fifth) set at 100% maximal effort. This last 100% effort set contributes the most to building the muscle. Any more sets than this, simply exhausts the muscle and delays your ability to recover. In this last set you should perform at least 1-2 extra reps or 5-10 extra pounds above last workout. You have then sparked your muscles into growth and it’s time to move on.
It is your goal to aim for a 5% or higher increase in your strength every two weeks. You might experience progress a bit quicker with large muscle groups like back and legs opposed to smaller muscles like biceps and triceps.
When you follow this progress you will be building muscle fast, plus in 6 months you will have about twice the strength you have now!
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Using Muscle Building Supplements The Right Way
Most muscle building fanatics get carried away and want to achieve too much, too soon, resulting in a search for steroid-like growth, in the least amount of time, sacrificing their overall health in the process. To see solid, long lasting results from your efforts, you first need to get the basics in place, and then proceed on in a steady, consistent manner.
The primary purpose of muscle building supplements is to provide the body with the correct balance of nutrients that may be lacking, thus correcting any biochemical imbalances. It’s simply a mistake to think that a supplement or combination of supplements is going to turn an incorrect diet or regime into the right one.
Still, sometimes your body can do with a little assistance, and there are some worthwhile muscle building supplements. It is just a case of finding a diet and regime that is working well for you first. Once you have that established, then adding muscle building supplements into the mix can significantly improve the progress that you make.
So, lets look at the important components, from a dietary aspect, of a muscle builders regime…
Water - No, there is no mistake, and I’m not losing my mind, water definitely tops my list as the number one essential to a proper workout regime. Just think, water comprises almost 3/4 of the total muscle tissue. In other words, it is what muscle is mainly made of.
Protein Powder - Protein powder is cost-effective while being a super convenient way to add much needed protein and calories to your current dietary program. All you need to do is mix the powder with a little milk or water, et voila, you’re ready to go! If you’re one of those extremely lucky individuals who don’t naturally put on weight, but you want more muscle mass, protein powders are just what you need. The most popular being Whey protein, derived from milk whey.
Minerals & Vitamins - Give a conventional multivitamin or multi mineral supplement a go. You may not really need it, but it certainly can’t do any harm. Due to the fact that some individuals follow extremely limited dietary programs, comprising of repetitive food consumption, it is not uncommon to develop vitamin deficiencies.
Creatine Monohydrate - This is the most commonly used muscle building supplement. Why is that? Well, put simply, it works! By all means try out other supplements, but always use them as an addition to creatine, not as a replacement for it. The fact that so many fanatical muscle builders use it is evidence enough of its worth.
Visit this product review website to read more about finding the best bodybuilding supplements for your need.
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Finding The Right Body Building Routines
Every person will respond differently to exercise and body building routines. Some of the major aspects that will affect muscle growth are your current strength level, ability to heal or recover, body type and genetics. If you are just starting out or even intermediate you should never model your workout after an advanced or pro bodybuilder. If you jump right into a program consisting of advanced body building routines, you may risk overtraining and injuries, which could leave you wanting to give up entirely.
Body Building Tips
You should set your goal and objective for body building to be reasonable and realistic. You will experience the fastest results and body changes in the first couple of months after beginning to work out. But as your muscles become more used to working out, your progress will start to slow down. To keep advancing you need to follow a stricter diet and well planned body building routines.
Keep your body building routines to no more than 30 to 45 minutes for every session, but work out with intesity, this will also help you avoid overtraining. You should have no more that 3 or 4 workout days each week, giving you one rest day between each wokout day. In addition to working out it’s equally important for muscle building to make sure you allow your body enought time to rest.
Focus on Compound Movements
Compound movements are defined as exercises that target different muscle groups at the same time. These targets more muscles than the isolation exercises that advanced bodybuilders may include to try to bring out more definition.
Most experts recommend that beginners start out with light free weights to gain a sense of balance and proper execution of the exercises. Dumbbells and barbells should be the core of your workouts.
Recommended exercises
The squat is one of the most important exercises for beginners as well as advanced body builders. If done right it’s completely safe and can really help develop your body. The muscle groups involved include the core muscles, abdominals, lower back, the traps, glutes, quads or thighs, hamstrings and parts of the calves. A good starting point is to do 2 sets of 12 - 15 repetitions.
As part of your body building routines another important exercise to use is the bench press. It effectively targets the deltoids/shoulders, triceps, chest, rib cage and parts of the forearms. Do 2 sets of 10 to 12 repetitions.
Then there is the bent over row that is easiest to perform using a barbell, this exercise targets most of the back, biceps, rear deltoids, and part of the forearms. Also do 2 sets of 10 to 12 repetitions.
There are several other good exercises, such as the military press, the barbell or dumbbell curl, and the lying triceps extension. For these three exercises, again do 2 sets of 10 to 12 repetitions.
You may want add 2 sets of ab crunches for 12 to 15 repetitions to the above exercises.
Additional Tips
Do some warm-up exercises for 5 to 10 minutes before doing any lifting. A short jog on the threadmill is sufficient. Before each exercise you should do a lighter warm-up set to prepare the muscles and get a feel for the exercise. Finish you workout session with some stretching for 10 minutes.
You should never use wieghts that are heavier than you can easily complete every set using correct form. If you use bad form or weights that are to heavy, this can easily cause overtraining or injuries. In addition to your body building routines, to keep track of your progress you should definitely keep a training journal. And as your strength increases you can gradually add more weight to the exercises.
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Nutrition Essentials for Bodybuilders
A solid nutrition program, backed with knowledge on nutrition, is necessary for any serious bodybuilder. Many uninformed bodybuilders go to great lengths on their training and are often met with disastrous results.Stressed and fatigued bodies are the only outcome of wrong nutritional beliefs and practices. All a bodybuilder has to do to avoid this is to arm himself with basic knowledge on nutrition and practice it. You can avoid falling into the trap of a poor nutrition program by maintaining a log of your food and caloric intake, and making sure you follow the key nutritional guidelines for bodybuilders in training.
Many misconceptions surround nutrition. Fairly recently, high protein diets have become popular. However, limiting yourself to eat only protein has its downsides. Catherine Jackson in her book “Nutrition for the Recreational Athlete” maintains that a high-protein diet often causes irritability and lowers endurance in an individual. This can be remedied by initially consuming adequate amounts of calories. Below are some warning signs indicating that you might have poor nutrition and some tips on how to get back on track.
Get enough protein from a variety of sources - Too little protein often results in decreased strength, which can make it very difficult to maintain a consistent workout program. It would be ideal if you were getting your supply of protein from a variety of sources. It would be better if you source your protein from organic products such as chicken breasts (or white meat), egg whites and soy-based products.
Consume carbohydrates as well - Irritability is often the result of low blood sugar which means you might not be getting enough carbohydrates in your diet. In addition, a lack of carbohydrates will affect your ability to focus. Get your fill of carbohydrates from fruits, vegetables and whole grains for optimal blood sugar level.
Increase in sick days - Getting a cold or catching a flu that doesn’t go away could also be signs of a weakened immune system. Combat this by incorporating different food groups into your diet. Consume foods that are high in B vitamins and minerals such as milk, fish and soybeans.
Decrease in pace - If you think your pace is on a decline then you might not be getting enough energy before your workout. You’ll need to eat some type of carbohydrate at least 1 hour before your training session, if you want to increase your speed.
Loss of motivation - Lack of motivation is a sign of burnout. Make sure you’re eating small meals throughout the day to maintain a steady level of energy. Distribute your food intake throughout the day to stabilize your energy level. Successful athletes are generally known to eat at 2-3 hour intervals.
Your training efforts would not mean much if you’re not following a sound nutritional plan. Consider taking natural supplements, such as Stemulite Fitness Formula, to strengthen your nutritional regimen. It’s hard to get all the nutrients you need while training, specially if you are on a diet. Take Stemulite together with a proper nutritional regimen to boost your training results and performance.
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Health And Fitness Is The Way To Great Looking Body
Are you tired of going to the gym and standing in line waiting to use weights or an exercise machine? Maybe you do not have the time to spend at the gym but you also cannot afford all of those expensive machines. It can be a real conundrum because you want to get a good workout that will burn fat and build muscle but you do not know how to make it happen. You may want to check out Zack Even-Esh’s “The Ultimate Underground Training Manual” to see if it will work for you.
Why is “The Ultimate Underground Training Manual” so successful and worth purchasing? It is because Zack Even-Esh has designed a weight training system that takes advantage of Mother Nature. Most weight training ebooks focus on equipment and that is where this ebook is different. Zack has taken the focus off going to a gym or owning a bunch of equipment. He instructs his followers to use rocks, bags of sand and even tree branches to use in their workout routines.
Come on now, could it really be that simple? Well, if you actually think about what Zack is saying and then take a look around your backyard, it may actually make sense to you. It is not that hard to walk outside and find a rock and begin lifting it up and down. Now, granted, it may be difficult to find the right tree branch that can support your weight to do pull-ups but even that is not so far fetched as to be impossible. Zach’s techniques are based on sound advice and are quite reasonable. He even takes it a step farther and puts in mixed routines as well as speed routines for those who are getting bored with their workout regime or simply do not have enough time to devote to an hour long workout.
Even though “The Ultimate Underground Training Manual” does still use some barbells and weight lifting equipment, you actually do not need them. That is the whole purpose behind this ebook. You may not get that heavy, muscle bound body of a professional bodybuilder but you will get a toned, fit body that can help enhance your life. Now if you do live in an apartment you may not have bags of sand laying around but you can still use what you can find.
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