So you are thinking that you want to get started with a muscle building workout? You check out the local gym but the cost of membership over a year is really expensive.

So you then have a quick look around on the internet, pick one of the muscle building workouts that looks good, and get started.

Hold on a minute! Before you get started with muscle building workouts you really should have a think about what you want to achieve. Do you really want the ultimate, huge bodybuilders look? This will need extensive training and huge commitment on a regular basis. Or perhaps whilst still wanting a muscular, well defined look, you do not really want to get too huge. Maybe it is strength training or for a specific sport where stamina is very important too.

Many muscle building workouts cover applications for both men and women which may be different depending on the desired results. The workout programs need to be very comprehensive and ensure that you get a full body workout and ensure a balanced development of your physique

There are many muscle building workouts available, some are focussed on gaining muscle as fast as possible, others are more fitness orientated and work on strength training whilst still building muscle mass.

A factor that is often over looked with these workout programs is that they also need to ensure that there is adequate fat loss or else muscle definition will not be shown to its best. Therefore diet and nutrition guidance also needs to be included.

As with any type of exercise, you will only see good results if you carry it out correctly. This means having the correct technique and there is probably more to this than you think. The correct number of sets and reps, how and when to increase weights, exercising to the point of failure and correct warm up and warm down routines all need to be correct.

These are only the very basics, there is a lot more to effective technique and this is probably one of the areas where a lot of people fail without expert guidance.

There is obviously a lot to consider before you decide which muscle building workouts may be right for you.

1) Hanging Knee Raises – Do these by grabbing onto a pull up bar with your body straight. Then lift your knees up to your chest and back down. It may be hard at first because you need to prevent yourself from swinging but this is an effective exercise for your lower abs.

2) Reverse Crunches – These are way more effective than basic floor crunches. Instead of doing crunches you learned in gym class do these.

Start by laying on the floor with your legs straight up in the air. Then bend your knees at about 90 degrees. Bring back your knees so they touch your chest and then forward again to the starting position. That is one rep. These will be hard at first if you have never done these but try to do 2 sets of 12-15 for a start.

3) Swiss Ball Crunches – These are just crunches on an exercise ball. The reason why these are so effective is because they actually target your lower and upper abs since you have more range.

Doing regular sit ups on the floor strains your neck while doing them on an exercise ball eliminates the strain and works your abs better. To make it more challenging you can hold a dumbbell above your chest and make sure you arch your back as far back as you can.

These are some of the most effective ab exercises you can do to sculpt your mid section. But to be honest there is more to losing belly fat and building muscle than that.

There is also cardio and other exercises that will really burn belly fat and make your six pack abs pop out. The most effective exercises are compound exercises like squats, chest presses, rows, and deadlifts.

Also you cannot just rely on six pack ab exercises. Your diet may be the most important factor between having a beer belly and six pack abs.

Your diet should be made up of natural foods like lean meats, fruits, vegetables, oats, beans, and nuts. To burn belly fat very fast then adapting to a new lifestyle including all the above is how to do it very fast.

Learn More Here

Cardio and strength training work best together to get the most burn. Many people like to do either “cardio” or “weights” to build a better body, but experts agree it is better to combine the two for best results.

People will choose cardiovascular exercise because walking, running or biking seems to fit in a daily schedule easier, and this is better that doing nothing at all but really the goal is to make both a part of your fitness program.

In a perfect world we all would be doing both cardio and strength training in very workout we do. By so doing wee would burn the maximum amount of calories possible.

Just lifting weights will certainly help build muscle mass which increases metabolism and burns calories, but doing both burns more calories and builds muscle to burn more calories in the future.

To lose weight you need to burn more calories that you’re eating, but the benefits of cardio and strength training extend beyond losing pounds. You will lower bad cholesterol and blood pressure while boosting good cholesterol and your overall mood.

Strength training helps with injury prevention and combats two issues everyone encounters as we get older and that is loss of both bone and muscle mass.

Strength training can be misunderstood and as a result totally avoided even though there are a lot of benefits.

People think they must be in a gym using weights or machines for strength training. You can use your own body weight, tubing or hand weights which can be inexpensive and effective.

You can also use a buddy for resistance.

Face a partner placing your hands on their shoulders and have them resist while you push them across the gym floor or a school field if outdoors.

People need to do things they like or they will not stick to it. You may have to try a few things before finding something suitable for you.

Why not try teaming up with your spouse or friend and this winter try snowshoeing, cross-country skiing for cardio and for strength use your own body weight or sign up for a gym session with a trainer. It’s easier when you have a partner to be consistent and it will also be more fun.

Don’t think of your workouts as cardio or strength based only.

Instead choose a full-body strength workout with short cardiovascular bursts mixed in to get the maximum effect of your workout session.

This way you are getting everything in one workout and the most bang for your buck.

As an example you could do a set each of pushups, seated rows and overhead shoulder presses – and then a cardio interval ranging from one to five minutes long. Repeat the circuit a few times for best results.

You don’t need to have long tiresome workouts. Keep them short and intense. About 60 to 75 minutes is ideal or your stress hormones get to high and you actually break down muscle tissue.

If you feel that your physical condition is not exactly as you would wish it was because you have extra fat, you should consider losing it through weight lifting. Many people associate weight building with body builders, but this should not be taken as a way to get very muscular and strong. Controlled weight lifting is one of the most effective ways to lose weight and keep it down. It is suitable for people over the age of 12, both male and female.

Step 1: get clearance from a doctor
Before getting into the weightlifting program, it is vital to get a medical clearance from a doctor to be sure that you have no unknown or underlying issues with your health that may pose a risk while training. Even if you feel or look perfectly fine, it is always advisable to get this clearance to be sure that you will be in a position to exercise regularly and can take pressure that may be applied on you by your trainer.

Step 2: Start with three to four dumbbell weightlifting sessions
If you have easy access to weightlifting machines at the gym, you can easily do dumbbell lifting casually at first. This can be three to four sessions to start with but you can increase with time. At home, you can perform dumbbell sessions while watching TV or listening to music to help you take your mind off the strain.

Step 3: Move more even when not exercising
At times when you are not training, it is beneficial to physically move more because it also contributes to your weight loss. For instance, at your place of work or college, if you have to get to a higher floor in a storey building, you should take the stairs instead of the lift. When you have extra time at home in the evening, walk the dog or jog to burn more calories.

Step 4: Walk more often
You should mix walking with jogging whenever you can. You can start small; walking for ten minutes a day for the first week and increase this to about one hour in your third or fourth week. You can do this either outside in the park, around the neighborhood or using a treadmill.

Step 5: Perform Circuit training sessions
A good circuit program combines dumbbell weightlifting with rapid movements between exercises. At the beginning, you can perform one circuit program each week, then two, three up to six sessions a week when your body is fully adapted to the training.

Besides these training programs, it is vital that you eat healthy food to avoid gaining the same calories you burn in your training exercises. The basis of healthy eating should be:

i) Your meals should have moderately low fat but with high fiber contents. Animal fats should be kept at the minimum.
ii) Do away with refined food like cakes, sugar drinks sweets, biscuits and white bread
iii) Maintain a low-carb diet but do not go too low either. You need energy for daily practice but ensure that the food you take contains good fat.
iv) Instead of yogurt, soy, cheese or full-fat milk, choose low fat dairy products in your diet.
v) Eat lots of fruits, beans, seeds, nuts, grain bread and cereals.
vi) Always go for lean, low fat meat or vegetarian meals. Keep the consumption of fast foods to the minimum.

A perfect fat loss workout is one that taps into every last calorie-burning, metabolism-boosting, lean muscle-building mechanism there is. By burning the maximum amount of calories during the workout, spiking the metabolism after the workout and causing absolute muscle fiber microtrauma (you have to break muscles down for them to build back stronger, which in itself requires lots of calories to fuel the process; not to mention the additional calorie-burning that will take place daily, thanks to the new lean muscle), your fat loss “force” will be firing on all cylinders.

So what type of fat loss workout hits on each of these blubber-torching mechanisms to the greatest and most prolonged extent possible? Well, I like to call such workouts my fat loss explosion routines, but really they’re an intricate mix of cardio workouts, weight training workouts, plyometric training and body weight training. Here’s how I create fat loss workouts that are “slim waist certified”:

Fat Loss Workout Requirement #1:

Begin the workout with total body weight training. Simply put, this is more demanding and requires peak energy levels, which is why I like to begin with weight training. After a thorough warm-up, complete either an intense circuit, a superset, a quad-set or do straight sets with super short (30 seconds or less) rest periods. Workout like a maniac, making sure to include all muscle groups, for fifteen short, but very intense minutes.

Fat Loss Workout Requirement #2:

Follow up your intense fifteen minutes of weight training with some cardio work to finish off the metabolism and tear into deep, hard to reach fat stores. If you’re worried about losing muscle mass, I recommend ingesting 20-30 grams of whey protein mixed with water, before starting the cardio portion of our fat loss workout.

The cardio session can last anywhere from 5-45 minutes, depending on your fitness level and how quickly you’d like to see results. Choose to follow either a demanding body weight circuit that is mixed with plyometrics or you can perform interval cardio outdoors or on a piece of cardio equipment. I prefer to start my clients with an intense 6-minute body weight and plyometric combination circuit and then progress weekly from there.

If you’re a relative beginner and your fitness level is lower, you may need to perform steady-state cardio until you’re ready to work at a higher level of intensity. Start with 5-10 minutes of light jogging or walking on an incline and progress weekly from there, starting with an increase in intensity and then transitioning to a longer duration.

Fat Burning Workout Requirement #3:

Work to become more fit. Don’t think about weight loss when you’re approaching your workouts. Instead, focus on getting in better shape, getting stronger, more endured and more explosive as the weeks go by. When you train for performance your body is forced into fat loss, muscle toning and body sculpting.

This is exactly why performance athletes have such dynamite physiques – by designing their workouts to improve their abilities, a lean body with a slim waist is simply an awesome byproduct to a different motive.

Fat Loss Workout Requirement #4:

Workout as hard as possible, without overdoing it. This one’s a slippery slope because it is possible to over-train and therefore diminish your weight loss results, especially when fat-storing stress hormones like Cortisol get released.

Having said that, most people are working out nowhere near the level they should be. Losing body fat is an easy concept, but very hard work. And it gets even harder as you make improvements, thanks to your body constantly working against you to keep things in “normal order.”

The only way around these fat loss roadblocks are to outsmart the body with advanced workout tactics such as these and make sure to increase your intensity and challenge yourself more and more.

Take these fat loss workout requirements and mesh them into a program that fits your abilities and your preferences. By doing this, you’ll surely be training in a way that is slim waist certified.

It is more difficult for skinny guys to build muscle mass. This has led to many skinny guys thinking that they can’t gain anything. Fortunately this is far from the case, in fact once you learn how to gain muscle on a skinny body, it is pretty easy.

The first and biggest step is your nutrition. You need to eat a lot more if you want to gain some weight. I am not talking about fast food either, try to increase the normal or clean amount of foods you intake. This way you won’t make the same mistake I did and gain a lot of fat when you began gaining muscle. (Trust me going to Carls every day isn’t smart, it doesn’t mean you can’t cheat once a week, just don’t make it daily).

The next step for learning how to build muscle for skinny guys is your protein. Protein builds muscle and you need a lot of it. Include this in your meal plan, eat about .5 to 1 gram of protein per every pound of body weight you have. I promise nice big muscle mass will appear quicker then you would believe possible if you do this.

Make sure to keep your workouts correct. Workout 3 times a week and target a different muscle group daily. Give yourself enough time to rest afterward! Sleep often, your muscles actually build while you sleep, not while you are awake.

I hope these things have helped you learn how to build muscle for skinny guys. Just remember to keep working and you will get there!

High intensity cardio workouts are the best cardio workouts in terms of your health. If you are going to engage in cardio workouts then your workouts have to go beyond the act of just jogging or cycling. Now, I’m not saying jogging and cycling are bad, but I am saying that cardio strength training should be an integral part of your cardio training whether or not you jog or cycle!

Best Intense Cardio Workouts!

The best intense cardio workouts have to include interval and cardio strength training combinations. In other words, you can’t just expect your cardio exercises to solely be “aerobic” in nature. Aerobic means with oxygen, but remember that cardio can be anaerobic too. This is where the intensity factor comes into play with the cardiovascular conditioning side of your workouts. Keep reading if I have your attention.

Anaerobic conditioning means that you basically perform a high exertion form of exercise which causes an oxygen deficit that isn’t made up until the actual bout of the exercise is slowed down or stopped. For instance, if you perform a series of kettlebell swings, sprints, or a series of burpee calisthenics you won’t be able to sustain the high level of exertion and intensity as long, but the benefit comes in the intervals of work when the bout is performed. This is where you get used to combining the elements of both strength and cardio into the equation and this allows you to structure your workouts in order to manage your bouts of work to rest intervals.

This more intense interval or cardio strength training combination is where you stand to burn off a ton more calories and speed up the overall progress of your fitness and overall conditioning. These types of cardio workout exercises are much more impactful in terms of you getting into shape than by engaging in some low impact lower intensity bouts of exercise. The fastest way for you to get into shape is to learn how to challenge your body, but within proper measures of course.

If you haven’t started to implement cardio strength and interval type drills into your intense cardio training then you haven’t fulfilled your workouts. Take the time to learn more by accessing more of my articles on the subject for free. There is no substitute for effective training and this is effective my friend. Remember that most anyone can train hard, but only the best train smart!

How many calories do you need for gaining muscle? How much protein? How many calories are you eating?

I get these questions a lot, and people really want to see my nutrition while using Jay Ferruggia’s mass workouts.

So here it is…my calories, protein, nutrition plan, post-workout drinks, everything.

This was my best eating day, some days I slip and am probably closer to 4500 calories.

The bottom line is that you have to eat a lot of calories to build muscle. Most guys undereat and then complain about not being able to build muscle. They don’t get stronger, they don’t get bigger, but they just keep working out and spinning their wheels.

You can’t be afraid of gaining 0.04% body fat. It’s going to happen. However, you’ll look so much better because you are going to gain pounds and pounds of muscle.

That’s all possible with a good workout program, one that has you training 3-4 days per week on either a total body split or an upper-lower body split. If you train hard enough, you won’t have enough energy for that 6-day per week crap.

By the way, I’m not using any muscle building supplements. No protein shakes, no Nitric Oxide products, no creatine, no pro-hormones. Creatine works, but you don’t need any of that other worthless junk.

1 cup oatmeal

1 cup plain yogurt

2 oz walnuts

1/2 cup blueberries

3 eggs boiled

3 pieces wholewheat toast

1 tspn natural peanut butter

1 apple

1 tbsn fish oil

2 bananas

2 cups chocolate milk

4 slices whole wheat bread

3oz chicken breast

2 ounces chedder cheese

1 apple

1/2 tomato

1 apple

2 oz almonds

8 oz steak

1 cup asparagus

1 cup broccoli

1.5 cups pasta

1/2 cup pasta sauce

1 cup oatmeal

1 cup plain yogurt

2 oz walnuts

1/2 cup blueberries

3oz chicken

1 cup white rice

1/2 cup mixed vegetables

1/2 cup bbq sauce

1 cup milk

Total: 5551

Fat: 229 grams, 2062 calories, 38% of total calories

Sat: 54 grams, 482 calories, 9% of total calories

Poly: 85g, 768 14%

Mono: 72g, 645 12%

Carbs: 667g, 2316 43%

Fiber: 88g, 0 0%

Protein: 257g, 1026 19%

Alcohol: 0 0 0%

So there you go…that’s how many calories, how much protein and how much food I’m eating to build muscle using the Muscle Gaining Secrets workouts.

Time to eat more calories and protein.

Here are 15 random fat loss tips that will help you to get into the best shape of your life. There is no particular subject for these tips, they cover diet, exercise, rest and anything else that can help you to lose body fat.

1) Drink enough water – If you are dehydrated which is very easy to do if you aren’t careful, your metabolism will slow down. This is because every single chemical reaction that takes place in your body requires water to do so. This includes the burning of body fat. To find out how much water you should be drinking take your body weight in kgs and multiply it by.033. Your answer is how many litres you should go through in a day.

2) Exercise little and often – A long drawn out session will end up losing its intensity and also leave you with elevated cortisol levels and reduced testosterone. This will waste away muscle, which lowers your metabolism and then body fat storage is next!

3) Don’t be afraid of fats – Your body requires fats in your diet, they are not just essential for optimal health but are essential for you to live! We have been eating high fat diets for thousands of years and have been extremely healthy. Its only recently that everyone has been cutting fats right back in our diet and now degenerative diseases are very common. Eat foods like eggs, meat, raw milk and butter to get your

4) Use whole body exercises – Muscles burn a lot of energy when they work. So the more muscle you work, the more calories you will burn. Also the more muscle you train, the more muscle you will grow which means your resting metabolism will be higher.

5) Cut back on carbs – The majority of people are eating far too many carbohydrates than they need to. The carbohydrates are then turned into fat and stored in the body. Without really making many other changes to your diet, if you cut back on carbohydrates you may find you lose weight with just that.

6) Improve your posture – When your posture is bad your causing a lot of stress on your body. This raises your cortisol and leads to stored fat and loss in muscle. Also you are fat more likely to become injured during training when your posture is bad which will mean you are unable to train. If your not able to train then there will not be much progress in getting the physique you are after.

7) Eliminate processed foods and sugar – There really doesn’t need to be much of an explanation to this. These are not only two of the worst things you can do for fat loss but also for your health. Cut them out of your diet and see the benefits in a very short space of time.

8) Protein and fat for breakfast – If you have a breakfast that is high in protein and fat you are likely to stay fuller for longer. Your concentration, mood and energy will be nice and high for most of the day if you do this. Your neurological system is set up for the day when you have a good breakfast. If you opt for cereal and juice you will end up hungry, grumpy, sleepy and ultimately fat!

9) Asleep by 10.30 – From about 10.30 to 2.30 your body is going through physical repair. After this you enter mental repair. So if your going to bed at 12 or 1 you are missing almost all of your physical repair which leaves you very little potential to burn that body fat and build some muscle.

10) Cut back on cardiovascular training – To get long term fat loss its important that you build some muscle so that your metabolism is nice and high. If you just do cardiovascular training you will waste away your muscle and lower your metabolism. You will also end up raising your already high cortisol which can further lead to a physique you do not want.

11) Reduce your stress – This point is pretty much related to every other tip in this article. Stress is stress! Doesn’t matter if its physical stress, mental stress, poor nutrition causing stress to the body or electrical stress. All this stress adds up and places your hormones totally out of whack. And yes you guessed it, this will lead to more fat and less muscle.

12) Don’t do sit ups for reduced belly fat – You must know by now that doing hundreds of sit ups per day will not burn extra body fat from your mid section. Exercising your whole body is the quickest way to burn fat from your mid section. When it comes to stomach exercises just stick with a hard exercise that limits you to 8-12 reps as your abdominals respond best to these ranges.

13) Supplement with cod liver oil – Cod liver oil provides us with omega 3 fatty acids which pretty much all of us are deficient in. Not only this but cod liver oil provides vitamin A and D in high quantities which we are also often deficient in. There are just so many benefits to taking cod liver oil that it comes right at the top of the most important supplements you could take.

14) Eliminate alcohol – Alcohol is a poison. Yes there are benefits to drinking a small amount of red wine such as the antioxidants. But you can get enough antioxidants from things like berries. Cut alcohol and within a few weeks you will be loving the results.

15) Stop spending time on your computer! – Yes i’m serious. Stop reading this article right now. Don’t spend another few hours surfing the internet looking for ways to pass the time. If you have just read this article and think your motivated to make a change then prove it right now! Get up and do some exercise. Just 20 minutes of press ups, lunges, squats, jump squats, burpees etc.

Good luck!

Treadmill vs running outside to boost PNF STRETCHING

It has become common knowledge that cardiovascular exercise is extraordinarily beneficial, no matter if you’re interested in improving your appearance or just want to reap the health benefits of it. That said, not all forms are cardio are born equal to each other.

Some people will tell you that gardening, doing house work, yoga, or a leisurely game of tennis are all good forms of cardio exercise. While doing these things are certainly better than sitting at home on the couch, they’re not effective forms of exercise to burn significant amounts of fat, or have a noticeable improvement in cardiovascular health.

In order to burn fat, you need to do surpass a minimum threshold of intensity, and maintain that intensity for at least 20-25 minutes, 3 or more times per week. Gardening, no matter how vigorous, is not going to get your heart beating enough to pass this minimum threshold of intensity. To meet the require level of intensity, you’re going to have to do something, well, vigorous. It’s got to get your heart beating, and you got to get your sweat rolling down your face. The best ways to do this, biking, the elliptical machine, the rowing machine (or rowing), cross-country skiing, the Stepmaster machine, jumping rope, and swimming. But, by far, the most efficient fat burner has always been running.

When it comes to running, you can do one of two things. You can strap on your running shoes and go for a jog out in the great outdoors, or you can hop on a treadmill and sweat off the pounds. That said, running on the treadmill and running outside is not the same thing, in fact, they’re much different then most people think.

At first glance, it’s hard to understand how these two things differ. After all, no matter which one you’re doing, you’re still running. The difference is as follows; when you’re running outside, you’re using your hamstrings a lot to pull your body forward across the ground. When you’re on a treadmill, the ground is moving for you, so you don’t need to use your hamstrings to pull your forward. Your quads are used to lift your leg forward, but your hamstrings don’t get worked at all.

If you only run on a treadmill, your quads will become incredibly over-built, and your hamstrings will be left in the dust. This will result in a serious muscle imbalance. If you predominantly run on a treadmill, you’re going to have to take a couple of precautions. First, work out your hamstring muscles independently, to prevent muscle imbalances. Second, make sure you start a PNF stretching routine, to help prevent injury by possible muscle imbalances.