Archive for the ‘General’ Category
May 2nd, 2010 | 
Author: When I go to the gym I often see people who start lifting weight without or only with a very short warm-up. This can lead to injuries easily. A proper warm-up at the beginning of each workout is very important. I cannot emphasize this enough.
To warm up your muscles will help you in two ways:
1) After an intense warm-up your it will be easier for your body to handle more weight and this is important for maximum muscle growth as well as muscle stimulation.
2) The risk of getting injured is a lot lower when you warm up properly before you start your workout.
I think these are two really good reasons to invest some time in your warm-up. I suggest about 15 to 20 minutes.
So what does a good warm-up phase look like?
Start with a few minutes of moderate cardiovascular training, for example using a treadmill, a cross trainer or a bike. This kind of warm-up increases the secretion of synovial fluid to lubricate your joints. Another positive effect is that your lungs and your heart will be stimulated and your body’s core temperature will go up.
During your warm-up I recommend that you focus on your training program and visualize your weight lifting exercises. This will not only help your mind but also your body to prepare for the workout.
For your success your mental attitude is really important. This fact is often ignored by many weight lifters.
So let’s say you spent 5 minutes on cardio, then it’s time for the next part of your warm-up:
Choose the first compound exercise of your training program and perform for five warm-up sets. For example if today is the day when you train your legs and you a main part of your leg training is doing squats then do five warm-up sets of them.
Begin with a high number of reps using a light weight. Increase your weight and lower the number of reps set by set.
Ok, now here is one important thing that you should always keep in mind during your warm-up:
You must not exhaust your muscles when performing these fives sets – under no circumstances!
What you do is just a warm-up to improve the blood flow and prepare your body for the weight lifting exercises that will follow.
You may ask now how many repetitions you should do and how much weight you should use.
Well, this depends on the total weight you use for your muscle-building exercises. Let me give you a simple rule that usually works very well:
Set 1: Use 50 percent of your max muscle-building weight and perform 10 reps
Set 2: Use 60 percent of your max muscle-building weight and perform 6 reps
Set 3: Use 70 percent of your max muscle-building weight and perform 4 reps
Set 4: Use 80 percent of your max muscle-building weight and perform 3 reps
Set 5: Use 90 percent of your max muscle-building weight and perform 1 rep
After you’re done with your warm-up start your actual training immediately.
Please don’t ignore the tips regarding your warm-up that I gave you in this article. They will help you to stay injury-free and to achieve better results.
Posted in General | 
Tags: how to warm up, proper warm-up, warm up properly, warm-up, warm-up phase | 
No Comments »
Are you one of the guys who spends two or more hours in the gym and thinks that the longer you work out during each training the bigger your muscles will get? If this is the case the truth might shock you. Please read this article carefully to understand why long workouts are actually counterproductive to your muscle gaining goals. Learn how long an ideal weight lifting routine should be.
It is a common misconception that the long workout takes the better its results will be. This might seem logical at first but nevertheless it’s not true.
For the best muscle growth results your training sessions have to be short and intense. To spend hours in the gym won’t help you at all. It actually might slow down your progress.
Why is this? Let me explain it.
Our body responds to any form of exhausting exercises by releasing cortisol (a hormone) after 45 minutes. To provide more energy to the body the muscles tissues break down when cortisol is released.
Instead of gaining muscles you might finally even losing them by working out for too long.
So what is the ideal time for a muscle building workout? You training should take 60 minutes (warm-up and cool-down phases not included). After 60 minutes your body needs time to recover to repair and rebuild broken muscle tissues.
Another positive aspect is that it is definitely easier to focus on your training for 60 minutes than for hours. If you know that your workout will be done within this time frame it will help you to take the maximum advantage of each of your sets. Usually the mental focus diminishes after 30 minutes and this makes it harder to train efficiently.
Of course a shorter training session allows you also to spend more time on your other hobbies or activities.
Working out for hours increase the risk of getting injured which would slow down your muscle building progress. So it’s the best to get your exercises done in 60 minutes.
However the length of your workout routine is just one factor that plays an important role in your muscle building progress. You should invest some time to learn more about other factors as proper nutrition or the best exercises for optimal muscle growth results.
Don’t forget that education is not less important than dedication in bodybuilding.
In this video you’ll find some information on how to get strong, massive arms.
Posted in General |
Tags: build biceps, build triceps, develop big biceps, get big triceps, get massive arms, get strong arms |
No Comments »
There are many weight lifting courses out there promising that you’ll get a great muscular body when you follow them. It sounds reasonable at first to go with a course that was developed by a professional bodybuilder because he has already got an impressive body so it’s obvious that he knows what to do.
Unfortunately those programs are usually not very helpful.
It is true that these bodybuilders have great physiques but the advice they give you in their training programs are not so impressive at all.
There are a lot of dubious and dishonest things in the professional bodybuilding world and it’s better to stay away from it.
Many of these professional weight lifters are genetic freaks and programs that help them to gain muscles won’t help the average Joe. Most of these guys have bodies that responds to almost all kinds of workouts.
The use of steroids and hormones to boost the intensity of their training is unfortunately common in this scene. These bodybuilders take a high risk by flooding their bodies with anabolic steroids and growth hormones. Those substances help theme to put an unnatural level of stress on their bodies while working out. It’s not healthy to follow their paths.
It is true that their weight lifting programs are highly effective for them but they have genetics that about 99% of the population doesn’t have. That makes their workouts for the vast majority of people a waste of time.
Nevertheless a lot of magazines about bodybuilding publish and promote this kind of training methods.
When you look through the pages of those magazines you’ll see that there are tons of advertisements for supplements and all kinds of products that claim to put some big muscles on your body when you use them.
These magazines are just big advertisements that want you to buy their products. That’s the sad truth.
That doesn’t mean that all supplements are unhealthy or a waste of money. There are supplements that can help you to achieve your bodybuilding goals as long as you train properly.
Some of them are for example protein powders and creatine.
But don’t believe bodybuilding guides that promote the use of ecdysterone, citrulline and myostatin. Believe me, it’s better for you to stay away from them. You would just waste you’re a lot of money buying them and wouldn’t get back what you want.
Many people followed these hyped training guides and never saw the promised results. The programs were just scam.
Of course you can read bodybuilding magazines to find out what the professionals are doing but don’t care too much about their advice. Mostly it will not be helpful for you. Even worse, some of their workout guides might lead to injury or hinder your bodybuilding progress.
A healthy workout, proper nutrition and maybe a few good supplements are all you need.
I hope this article opened your eyes when it comes to programs developed by professional bodybuilders. If you are looking for more helpful tips and information on weight lifting and a great muscle building course anyone can follow then click here!
Posted in General |
Tags: bodybuilders programs, bodybuilders workouts, guides of bodybuilders, professional bodybuilders |
No Comments »
A lot of people think that harder you work the better the results will be. Although this is often the case it is not always the truth. Referring to lifting weights you might think that you will be able to gain muscles faster by training longer or more often.
Isn’t that obvious? Well, not really.
No matter what you might think, it is a fact that this is not true when it comes to bodybuilding! This common rule does not longer apply.
Ok, I guess I know what you want to say now:
“You mean that it will help to get massive muscles by spending less time in the gym?”
Yes, exactly! Training less often can actually help you to get massive muscles, and it becomes obvious why this is the case when you think about the basics of the muscle-growth process.
All the processes in your body are designed to keep you well and healthy. Evolution made sure that the human body can adapt to something you put it through and finally come out stronger than before.
If the body is deprived of food or water starts to send out signals of discomfort. In the presence of UV rays it reacts by tanning and developing calluses to protect the skin, and so on.
When we work out, we break down our muscle tissues. So what is the body’s response to that? – If your answer is “you get massive muscles” then you’re absolutely right.
Your muscles will respond if your body feels like you have posed a threat to its muscles.
The reaction of the body is to increase the size of the muscles (hypertrophy) because it wants to protect you. Therefore the best way to get massive muscles is to keep the body in a state where is it permanently forced to adapt. To achieve this you can either increase the weight or the number of reps or each week.
Doesn’t sound too complicated, right?
It is actually not hard to understand but please keep one important thing in mind: your muscles need enough time to recover otherwise it won’t work. It’s not possible that the process of muscle growth takes place if you don’t give your muscles sufficient recovery time.
The best thing is to use the minimum volume necessary to get an adaptive reaction so that your muscles can grow and become massive. This should be your goal whenever you work out.
All you have to do is to trigger the muscles’ alarm system by pushing them past the level where they feel comfortable. If you put more stress on your muscles they will need more time to recover.
In the gym I regularly see people who train too often and do too many sets than necessary to get massive muscles. The strain of weight training at high intensity is underestimated by most people.
So don’t follow a training program that will only hinder your gains because you won’t reach goals.
To get massive muscles I recommend you to follow the three guidelines below:
- Don’t train more often than 3 day each week.
- The duration of your workout should be under 60 minutes.
- To train the large muscle groups like your chest, your back and your thighs you should do 5 to 7 sets and for the small muscle groups (shoulders, triceps, biceps, abs, calves) only 2 to 4 sets.
You should reach muscular failure during the concentric phase of the exercise when you perform your sets. Increase either the weight or the number of repetitions each week to progress. It will hinder your gains to increase the duration of your workouts period or the frequency of your training if you train with full intensity.
For a complete no-fail bodybuilding course check out the Muscle Gain Truth program.
Posted in General |
Tags: build massive muscles, get massive muscles, work out less often to build solid muscles |
No Comments »
I am constantly surprised at how far off-base many people in the gym truly are. Nearly everyone is desperate to figure out the key to gain muscle fast, but few people actually know how to appropriately channel their efforts to reach their goals.
For many aspiring bodybuilders, getting a massive chest and big biceps and triceps is the only goal. Every week, they begin to hit set after set of endless bench presses or barbell curls in search of the significant muscle gains that they crave.
It is no real surprise when their dream of putting on muscle mass quickly does not become a reality.
Despite the fact that gaining muscles fast in your chest and arms is a great addition to your physique, in the end these muscles do relatively little in comparison to the much more intricate muscle groups that a lot of people neglect.
The back muscles are what I am speaking about: lats, traps, spinal erectors, rhomboids, and also lower back muscles.
The reason why these types of muscles are neglected is actually obvious ….
1) Your back is not something you can see in the mirror, and certainly not one of the most “showy” muscles.
2) Back training certainly puts a lot more stress on the entire body compared to any type of chest or arm training can.
3) Quite a lot of lifters honestly don’t understand how essential the development of these muscles is.
Here is a secret for you….
Those of you that ache to look broad, thick, and strong within a short period of time, practically nothing achieves this faster or better than a well developed back.
70% of your upper body muscle mass is located in your back!
If you need a strong, solid upper body, all you need are bulging lats and broad trapezius muscles that will be obtained by gaining muscle fast on your back.
You desperately must develop that muscular back, so get up off that bench press and place down the EZ-curl bar for just a second and let me share a simple, step-by-step workout which you are able to use for gaining muscles fast.
Think about these four major movements to properly develop your back….
1) Deadlifts
I can’t stress the importance of this lift enough. If you’re focusing on gaining muscle fast, there is nothing as effective as the fundamental, bent-legged barbell deadlift.
The deadlift gives your whole physique a workout and is definitely the most instrumental exercise in developing a strong and solid back. The deadlift induces growth in the entire back complex and is the cornerstone of any effective bodybuilding routine.
2) A vertical pulling movement
This will help you get that broad, v-tapered appearance from behind since you are targeting the lats. Try chin-ups (overhand or underhand), lat pull downs, and v-bar pull downs.
When it comes to gaining muscle fast, I suggest a basic overhand chin-up to get the job done. This is the most important of all vertical pulling exercises and definately will stimulate your lats to the max.
3) A horizontal pulling movement
Horizontal pulling movements, also better-known as “rows”, place their emphasis on the upper/middle portion of the back and definately will also stimulate the lats. It is possible to choose from one of the numerous different rowing movements-cable rows, seated machine rows, dumbbell rows, and bent over barbell rows.
Stay with a basic free-weight rowing movement if your goal is developing muscle fast. Barbell rows are what I recommend, despite the fact that bent over dumbbell rows certainly are a excellent option as well.
4) A shrugging movement
Although it’s not as essential as the above described lifts in developing muscle fast, it is still helpful to target the upper traps and develop that mountainous, diamond-shaped look from behind. Just use a basic barbell or dumbbell shrug.
Let us review all this information…
Deadlifts – 2 sets of 5-7.
Overhand Pull-Ups – two sets of 5-7.
Bent Over Barbell Rows – 2 x 5-7 repetitions.
Barbell Shrugs – 2 Sets of 10-12.
When you want to gain muscle mass fast, optimal gains in back size and strength are easily achievable with the above routine.
This routine may not seem like a big deal, but when you take each set to muscular failure and focus on quality rather than quantity, you will get a lot more than sufficient stimulation for your back growth. Personally, I’ve used this same routine for a lot of years and continue to see constant progress in both back size and strength.
You have to keep a written record of the workout routines and increase the weight that you lift or the number of reps that you perform within the presented repetition range every single week.
As soon as you begin doing this training once per week with full effort, you’ll see serious gains in your upper body and it will look wider, thicker, and much more muscular.
A detailed program that shows you how to build muscles fast is Sean’s Muscle Gain Truth!
Do you need nutritional supplements as a bodybuilder? This is an essential question that needs to be clarified.
“Is pumping iron sufficient or do I need supplements to gain muscle mass?”
We must deal with this topic.
Given the billion dollar revenues of the supplement industry, supplements to get muscle mass might seem like a good solution, nevertheless let’s first of all ask ourselves what we mean whenever we say “need”.
The fundamental question is, “do we really need supplements?”. The answer is fairly simple once you try to find out what exactly they are needed for. Take a look at these kind of questions….
“Are supplements to develop a muscular body and power something that bodybuilders need in order to experience gains in size and strength?”
Your answer? A big, resounding NO!
Your body does not require supplements to gain muscle mass or strength, so please don’t believe the propaganda that is spread by the supplement industry.
If you concentrate on consuming enough amounts of protein, carbs, and fats while training at full intensity, you will see a great improvement in your strength and muscle size.
If you believe you will need supplements to gain muscle, you’re wrong. ’Nuff said. You can get stronger and bigger without them.
Therefore supplements to get muscle mass should be completely avoided by bodybuilders, correct?
NO.
There’s another question to look at….
“Should bodybuilders use supplements to increase muscle mass and strength in order to truly maximize their muscle and strength gains?
What do you think? No doubt!
Even though you don’t need supplements to gain muscle mass and strength, they actually ARE very important in case your goal is to become as big and powerful as you can. When you purchase the right products and utilize the correct dosage you will gain an extra edge and see faster gains compared to someone who hasn’t gone down the supplement route.
The quest to achieve the ideal physique requires plenty of effort and time, whether at home or in the fitness center, so it only seems to make sense to put in a few extra money towards supplements to increase muscle in order to best maximize your gains.
You must ask yourself, “What am I willing to give for extra muscle gains?”
If the price of a bottle of creatine may be worth this extra boost in strength, then go for it! If this tub of whey protein simplifies your meal preparation, then you certainly should go for it.
“Do you truly require supplements to develop muscle?”
If you’re looking for the most significant gains possible regarding muscle mass and strength, then a specific and easy supplement program will want to be one of your priorities.
I recommend trying the following 4 supplements:.
1) Whey Protein
2) Creatine
3) High-Potency Multivitamin
4) Essential Fatty Acids
These four important supplements help in building up your body, improve your fat burning capability, and also help to increase your lean muscle mass. Remember the fact that there are many of useless supplements—but these four will keep you on track because they have a proven track record and are well worth the price.
Consider these options to help give you an extra advantage and reach your muscle-building goals more effectively.
For more info check out the Muscle Gain Truth course!
If you would like have a muscular physique, developing your shoulders is really a main part of the process. Round, thick and massive shoulder muscles will help the upper body appear broad and give you this v-tapered appearance that is pursued by just about every bodybuilder. And the great news? You’ll be able to develop shoulder muscles with very little work.
Numerous serious lifters will argue that underneath clothes, muscular shoulders make the best contribution toward the entire look of the upper body.
The shoulder regulates the lifting and rotation of your arm and is a three-headed muscle. Your shoulder consists of anterior (front), medial (middle), and posterior (rear) regions.
Using a raise and an overhead press is actually sufficient to activate all 3 heads of the muscle.
An overhead press is definitely the underlying basis of any kind of training program to develop shoulder muscles. There is no other exercise that could top the shoulder-stimulating effects of the simple, but powerful overhead press. Overhead presses can be performed using either dumbbells or a barbell, but if you want the most bang for your buck, then stay with dumbbells when planning to develop shoulder muscles.
If you want to develop shoulder muscles, dumbbells will be the best way to get a full range and even motion because they prevent you from using your more powerful arm to do most of the work. Additionally, using a barbell puts part of the strain on your upper chest and not allowing you to concentrate on your shoulders only.
Try out the seated overhead dumbbell press—it’s one of the greatest moves to develop shoulder muscles. The bench which you use for this particular workout must have a vertical support for the back. You should press the hand weights up to the point where your elbows almost lock out, after that lower them back down.
The next exercise to consider is a basic side lateral raise to build shoulder muscles with the help of dumbbells. The side lateral places the most stress on the medial head of the shoulder. This valuable exercise helps you increase your shoulder width and will take you one step closer to attaining a wider upper body.
Hold your weights with your palms pointing inwards while standing with the knees slightly bent. Bending your elbows slightly, lift the dumbbells to your shoulders and go back to the starting position.
If you’re trying to get big and strong shoulders, really the only exercise routines you need are the side lateral raise and also overhead press. Due to the fact the shoulders are triggered by practically every upper body exercise, it’s not necessary to do a lot of additional work to build massive shoulder muscles.
Are you aware that if you do too much to build the shoulder muscles, you can in fact slow down your results? That’s the reason why performing isolation exercises for the anterior and posterior heads isn’t the best plan.
In case you do a lot of chest pressing movements the anterior heads are already being triggered, and in case you do many rowing exercises, the posterior heads get hit. Even though a few additional sets are fine, avoid going for too much of volume.
It is all about quality if you want to develop shoulder muscles, not quantity.
Look at these sample shoulder execises….
Shoulder Routine #1
Seated Overhead Dumbbell Press – 2 sets of 5-7 reps
Standing Dumbbell Side Laterals – 1-2 sets of 10-12 reps
If you wish to carry on with with isolation exercises for the front and rear heads, try out the following program.
Shoulder Routine #2
Seated Overhead Dumbbell Press – two sets of 5-7 reps
Standing Dumbbell Side Laterals – 1-2 sets of 10-12 reps
Standing Front Dumbbell Raise – 1 set of 10-12 reps
Seated Rear Lateral Dumbbell Raise – one set of 10-12 reps
There you go.
Never be a slacker—push it to concentric muscular failure on every single set and keep it going till you can’t perform more repetitions without losing proper form. Keep track of your workouts and push yourself for increased performance each week by just adding more weight or increasing the number of reps.
For a total body workout porgram that covers effective weight lifting exercises as well as nutrition plans click here!