Archive | Building Muscle

Safe Muscle Building Tips – How to Avoid Injury

Going to the gym seems so wonderful. It can be a place where you can meet other people who love taking care of their bodies. Most of course go there to work their muscles out. There are a lot of people who are busy toning their muscles until they get their desired body shapes. But look around you, and see that there actually are a lot of variations in the way people do their own workout program. Safe muscle building is one reason why most fitness clubs give new members one or two free sessions with a personal trainer. Using these free sessions introduces to the new gym users the different equipment and machines so as to avoid accidents in using them. After the free sessions, members are supposed to be ready to do their own workouts. But still after these sessions the pointers given are easily forgotten.

It is so important to always warm up before any workout and to cool down after. Among the safe muscle building pointers, this one is usually the most forgotten. The body needs to be physically prepared before it undergoes any rigorous activity like lifting weights. Aside from that, it increases the blood flow to supply the muscles with energy that they need during movement. It is also important to cool down to reduce your pulse and to signal the heart to go back to its normal function. If you stop suddenly you may feel dizzy or worn out because the blood will not be able to return to the heart. Also, some people still commit a lot of mistakes in using the different machines and free weights.Sometimes they use the wrong machines for the muscle group that they want to train, or perhaps, they really don’t know how to use the machine. It is also common that people use the correct equipment but perform a wrong execution of the exercise. And we know that wrong execution is equivalent to a potential injury.

If safe muscle building is our goal, then we have to be able to enjoy it. Get the results you really want by following a good muscle building program. Have one and enjoy a healthy body.

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Building Muscle – Top Muscle Building Nutrition Myths

If you’re ever tried to build muscle, you know that without proper nutrition, you aren’t going to get results. Nutrition comprises at least half the game when it comes to building muscle, so it’s critical you take some time to make sure you know fact from fiction.

The following are some of the top muscle building nutritional myths that are circulating around. Be sure you don’t fall prey to any of these!

1. You should eat everything in sight.

While you definitely need more calories in order to gain weight, there is such a thing as too much . The problem with overdoing it with your eating is that you will end up gaining a great deal of fat mass along with the muscle tissue because the body can only process so much muscle at a time.

For example, if you over eat by 1000 calories a day and only 500 of these can go towards muscle tissue building, the remaining 500 will be turned to fat. Unfortunately the body cannot just ‘bank’ calories for later muscle building and must do something with this excess.

So, if you aren’t gaining weight, for sure, eat more so that you are. But, at the same time, don’t eat so much that you’re rapidly accumulating fat mass along with it. Later on, that accumulated fat mass is going to be a pain to try and take off.

2. Eating more protein increases your chances of building muscle

Here’s another very common thought process among individuals. They believe that since muscle is made out of protein, the more protein they eat, the more muscle they build. Unfortunately, it doesn’t quite work this way.

The body has a set need for protein each day, which includes things such as keeping your immune system healthy, keeping all the essential processes in the body running, and building and repairing bodily tissues – including muscle.

Once you’ve consumed enough protein to meet these needs, any extra protein will be broken down, with part of it being excreted by the body and the other part either used for energy (depending on how many carbohydrates in the diet are present) or else being turned to body fat.

So, if you aren’t getting sufficient protein in the first place, most definitely – you MUST do this – without exception if you hope to build muscle. If, on the other hand, you are already consuming enough, any extra will just be added calories that could have just as easily come from carbohydrates or dietary fat.

3. Avoid eating large amounts at night in order to prevent gaining fat with your muscle gain.

Finally, the third myth that’s quite common amongst muscle-building people is that they think in order to keep the fat gain to a minimum, they should just eat fewer calories at night.

This is partially true in that the timing of your calories can play a role. To maximize muscle recovery and synthesis, you’ll always do better consuming a large dose of calories around your workout. This is the prime time your body is ready to use the nutrients for muscle building. BUT, and this is a big but, it still does boil down to total calories taken in during the day.

If this means you choose to have a meal before bed and it’s still in line with your daily allotment for calories, it will not lead to fat gain any more than a meal eating a few hours earlier.

So, be sure you don’t believe any of these false muscle building notions. The sooner you can get your diet in line properly, the sooner you will start seeing results.

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Get Six Pack Abs

A nice 6 pack is something that really draws attention. For those who have 6 pack abs it is nice to get those looks of admiration and know that all the work you put into them is paying off. For those of you just looking longingly, there is good news.

You can have 6 pack abs. It takes work and dedication, but you have all the necessary tools to give yourself your own 6 pack that will get attention. Learn the two main keys that you will need to get your mid section in shape and you will be well on your way to getting those 6 pack abs of your dreams.

Nutrition

The first step in the process of building a 6 pack is getting your diet on track. You need to cut out the fat and other food items that cause you to gain fat, retain water and bloat.

You probably will not be surprised to hear that you need to cut out those refined carbs – white flour, bread, pasta. You also need to cut sugar and salt as much as possible from your diet. These foods are known to increase fat gain and will cause bloating in your stomach which will hide your stomach muscles.

You should aim to eat five to six mini meals everyday. Do not skip a meal. This way you will stay full and not feel hungry or have cravings. Eating like this will also help you to keep your metabolism up so your body will burn calories more efficiently.

Exercise

Diet is only half of the equation here to get 6 pack abs. You also need exercise. You actually need three different types of exercise.

Cardio, also called aerobic, exercise brings your heart rate up. It helps to turn your body into a fat burning machine. It is the best exercise for getting learner all over. You want to do cardio about 3 to 5 times per week. Make sure you are pushing yourself and working hard in each cardio session.

Strength training helps you to build your muscles. Muscles are fat burners. They burn fat even when you are not working out. You should do strength training at least two times per week. Make sure you are pushing yourself here, too.

You also need to do target exercises that work your stomach muscles. These help to bring out the definition in your 6 pack. You want to work all three areas of the stomach – upper abs, lower abs and obloquies.

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Muscle Building Tips – What Are the Best Ab Exercises?

Trying to educate consumers and aspiring exercisers as to what are the best ab exercises is no easy task and it is an issue that is made all the more demanding by virtue of the fact that there is such a gross amount of misinformation out there. Many people assume (wrongly) that the best ab exercises are exercises which focus solely on the abdomen region and so the likes of sit ups and ab crunches are favoured over other exercises. Needless to say, the exerciser who actually implements these exercises in their exercise and fitness regime will quickly discover that they are on a hiding to nothing.

We gain fat whenever the number of calories we ingest on a daily basis exceeds the number of calories our body actually needs at a given time. The excess calories are stored around the body as fat deposits and whilst a small amount of fat in and around the body is perfectly ok, when it is in excess, this is when it manifests itself as flab.

Without a shadow of doubt, one of the best ab exercises around is swimming. Swimming is an extremely effective aerobic exercise which means that in addition to the various muscle groups within the body being exercised and challenged in a safe, injury free environment it also means that the body’s metabolism is significantly accelerated.

The best ab exercises will be any form of exercises which increase the body’s metabolism and for those of us who do not have the advantage of a degree in nutrition, biology or personal fitness then a quick definition is in order: metabolism refers to the rate at which a body converts calories into energy. At the risk of grossly oversimplifying the process, the faster your metabolism then the more calories you will burn in any given period of time.

Please note that weight lifting and other exercises which are specifically designed and intended to help sculpt muscle tone and mass also have a crucial role to play in the process and this is because the body will require far more energy to sustain muscle tissue as opposed to fat tissue. Therefore, the higher the muscle content on your body then the higher your metabolism will be. I would like to issue one final caveat to the issue of what are the best ab exercises and that is this: make sure you opt for an exercise you will enjoy, and more importantly, where you are at a reduced level of risk of sustaining an injury during the course of it.

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6 Pack Abs – Cardio Exercise For 6 Pack Abs

Many people out there seem to think that doing countless sit-up and crunches all day will result in toned 6 pack abs. This is a great misconception and nothing could be further from the truth. The truth is that everyone, no matter how big their belly is, has 6 pack abs underneath that extra layer of fat. The key is to get rid of this fat layer and as a result expose those abs. Sit-ups and crunches will only assist in the actual muscle building of the abs themselves, but without losing that fat layer you won’t be seeing any abs at all.

One of the most efficient ways to lose fat (aside from eating correctly) is performing cardio exercise. This could be swimming, running, cycling or even fast-paced walking.

Perform Fasted Cardio

A very useful tip is to perform your cardio on an empty stomach when trying to achieve those 6 pack abs. I recommend doing your cardio first thing in the morning before breakfast. When we wake up in the morning our body is in a catabolic state. Catabolism means ‘the breaking down’ of body tissue, this is the optimum time to perform your fat burning exercises as your body is literally in fat burning mode. In addition to this, because you haven’t eaten any food before the exercise your body will break down mostly fat in order to fuel your exercise session rather than food in your system. The idea is to leave our body no choice but to burn mostly fat.

Maintain Your Optimum Fat Burning Heart Rate

When performing any exercise our body decides what resources to use for fuel based on how intensive the exercise is. It all comes down to our heart rate during the exercise. Research shows that our body tends to burn fat optimally at a specific heart rate. This heart is roughly 63% of our maximum heart rate. One is able to maintain this heart rate by slow jogging, fast-paced walking or other similar low intensive activity. One wouldn’t think so but this low intensive style exercise is optimal for fat burning! See the end of the article for a resource link which explains exactly how to calculate 63% of your max heart rate.

Perform HIIT To Your Boost Metabolism

Aside from low intensive cardio, it’s also a good idea to throw in some high intensive interval training (HIIT). This basically involves performing short bursts of intensive activity. An example would be sprinting (running) as fast as you can for half a minute, and then jogging for half a minute, then sprinting for half a minute, then jogging again and simply repeating this process. Although HIIT will not burn as much fat as low intensive cardio during the exercise itself, it is able to boost one’s metabolism even after you are have finished the exercise. For the next few hours after the exercise your metabolism will be a lot higher than it was before performing the exercise. This means that by doing HIIT you are literally turning your body into a fat-burning machine for the remainder of the day.

It’s important that you apply a combination of the above points. There is so much misleading information out there that can simply lead to fat gain and bad health, so be very cautious about what you read.

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Muscle Building Diet – Nutrition Guidelines In Order To Gain Muscle Mass

In order to maximize your weight gains in the gym, you need to maintain a strict muscle building diet. In fact, even if you lift a ton at the gym, it will amount to nothing if you don’t eat right.

So what does a muscle building diet contain?

Here are some basic guidelines:

1. The key to muscle building nutrition is that you need to create a calorie surplus in order to gain muscle mass. The biggest mistake people make is to try to lose weight and build muscle tissue at the same time. It doesn’t work that way. Muscle tissue weighs a lot and requires calories in order to build. So the 1st thing you need to remember is that you basically need to eat a lot.

2. Muscle Building diets are basically made up of 3 macronutrients: protein, carbs, and fats. Here are the basic ratios of each macronutrients:

  • Protein – 30%-60%
  • Carbs – 30-60%
  • Fat – 20-30%

The exact proportion of the 3 macronutrients differ for each person and depend on your present goals. For instance, if you’re looking to build muscle and cut fat at the same time, you should aim for less fat in your diet. If you aim to gain the most weight fast, go for a higher dose of protein and carbs.

Good sources for each of the 3 food groups are:

Protein – fish, chicken, turkey, and egg whites

Carbs – Whole flour paste, whole wheat bread, wild rice, cereals.

Fats – Olive oil, coconut oil, flax seeds, nuts, almonds, and seeds

3. Breaking your meals down – The 3rd basic guideline of a great muscle building diet is to break down your meals into smaller ones. If you want to bulk up, you can’t settle for 3 meals each day, no matter how big they are. In fact, eating too large meals is bad because our body can only handle a certain amount of food at the same time. A much better course to take is to break your daily calorie intake into 6 small meals. In this way, your body will be able to utilize the nutrients you put into it in a much better way, and you will also feel much more energetic.

There’s a lot more to creating the perfect muscle building diet. However, these 3 guidelines are a good place to start.

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Muscle Building – The Truth Behind the Science

Many people do not understand the correct science behind building muscle. So many struggle to achieve results they would like. There are a few proper “techniques” that you can apply to your muscle building agenda that could change your results incredibly.

1) Compound movements

– They stimulate the most total muscle fiber at one time.

This means that you can work a wide range of muscles by performing only a small number of exercises. For example, the bench press is an awesome compound movement for the chest, but it also stimulates the shoulders and triceps at the same time.

-Also they increase anabolic hormone production.

Muscles do not grow merely by being directly stimulated with weights. Muscle growth also occurs as your body kicks up its production of anabolic muscle-building hormones such as testosterone and growth hormone. The best way to increase the production of these hormones is through the use of intense, compound exercises.

2) Do not Overtrain

Ultimately it is, but the most important thing to realize in relation to all of this is that the muscles can only grow bigger and stronger if they are provided with sufficient recovery time in between workouts. Without the proper recovery time, the muscle growth process simply cannot take place.

3) Improper Meal Frequency

Most people are stuck on the traditional approach of “3 square meals a day” consumed roughly every 5-6 hours. For the best muscle-building and fat burning results, you should literally take the OPPOSITE approach. Instead of consuming 2-3 big meals every 5-6 hours… you should be consuming 5-6 small meals every 2-3 hours.

– Eating frequently keeps your body in an anabolic state.

– Your fat burning metabolism will stay raised

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Six Pack Abs Exercises

When going to the beach or swimming pool which body part do you really think most catches the eye? According to research the most watched body part happens to be the abs. There are many exercises that you can do to help you achieve those six pack abs. First you need to remember that everybody naturally has abs, however some peoples abs are just covered by more fat then others.

The first thing that is great to use is called the ab machine. The abdominal machine is found in many gyms and makes you do a crunching motion by directing you in the proper position. You can increase and decrease the resistance as you wish. When doing exercises make sure to move in a slow motion and flex your abs while doing the exercise. If you have more resistance then you will see more of a difference when attempting to define your abs.

You can use any item such as a book, a dumbbell or anything else that you may choose. You should put the weighted object in the position of either being over your head and hold it in place with your hands. You should perform these exercises the exact same way that you would if you were not using any type of weights.

Another great ab exercise to do would be hanging leg lifts. You simply use a pull up bar and allow your legs to hang down however also making sure that they are relaxed so that your knees do not bend and your toes are pointed.

Yet another simple exercise to do would be to lay flat on your back on a mat with bending your knees and your feet positioned flat on the floor. Put your hands by your ears however making sure they are not actually touching the head and crunch your midsection up and across, trying to touch your right elbow to your left knee. Make sure that you concentrate on flexing your stomach and then slowly go back to the starting position and repeat. These are just some of the various exercises you can do to achieve those six pack abs.

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Beginners’ Guide For Bodybuilding Supplements

Should I use bodybuilding supplements to build muscle mass quickly? What are the recommended supplements for body building beginners?, Are my daily supply of nutrients through diet sufficient to gain muscle mass? These are the questions that every aspiring bodybuilder and everyone interested in gaining muscle mass ask themselves and others often.

The unanimous answer to these questions related to bodybuilding supplements is a definite yes. Bodybuilding supplements are an essential component of any weight training especially if you want gain bigger muscles faster. The various supplements have their own benefits and they work by complementing each other to support muscle mass gain. Most of us have diets that cannot supply the recommended amounts of proteins and as such we need them to help us build a good muscle mass.However there are so many different kinds of supplements that it is easy to get lost in choosing the ideal one.

I am trying to help solve the conundrum faced by most beginners through this article. Rest assured that as a beginner you only need basic supplements to gain muscles effectively and quickly. Other supplements are required as you progress through the levels of intermediate and advanced bodybuilder.

What are the basic supplements that one should choose from as a beginner?

“Protein Supplements – Proteins are the cornerstone for any bodybuilder aiming for muscle mass. The rule of thumb is that one needs 1 gram of protein for every pound of your bodyweight per day gain bigger muscles more rapidly. This amount might look minuscule but in reality most of us do not get this from our daily diets and as such we need external supplementation. The best protein supplement for beginners and also advanced bodybuilders is Whey Proteins.

“Creatine Supplements – Alongwith proteins, Creatine supplements help build bigger muscles better. Creatinine helps improve weight training and also boost energy levels so that workouts can be more intensive and thus provides for greater gains.

“Glutamine Supplements – Glutamine makes up for 605 of the amino acids in muscles. Glutamine is a non-essential amino acid and helps muscle recovery after strenuous workouts. Glutamine also guards against muscle loss due to catabolic states, especially after a hard workout.

“Multi Vitamins and/or Minerals Supplements – Muscles need vitamins and minerals for its good health and recovery after workouts. Vitamins and minerals act as anti-oxidants and will help prevent free radical damage to muscles following a workout.

Thus as a beginner bodybuilder try these supplements for building better muscle mass faster.

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Muscle Building Tips – 3 Ways To Lure The Muscle Building Genie Out Of The Bottle

Believe it or not but you have the equivalent of a muscle building genie within you right now as you read this ready to help you in building muscle mass. Testosterone, growth hormones (GH) and insulin like growth factors (IGF) lay dormant within your body and can be thought of as the genie within you waiting to be stroked the right way and unleashed to do your bidding. Here are 3 muscle building tips to lure the genie out of the bottle and help you in building muscle mass.

1.Hyper Adaptive Cycling – Shock The Genie Out Of The Bottle

Your body does not want you to build muscle. It would do anything to stop you from building muscle mass because large amounts of muscle all over your body is not natural to the body. It is much easier for your body to build and maintain fat than to build muscle mass and maintain it. This is where Hyper Adaptive Cycling comes in to shock your muscle to grow. Hyper Adaptive Cycling is a natural way of tricking your growth mechanisms in your body so that your muscles remain in a confused state and never can adapt to your muscle building workouts. This is important because once your muscles adapt to your weightlifting workout muscle development and growth slows down and often stops all together and this can be extremely frustrating. Another name for this problem that most bodybuilders will experience at some stage is ‘the plateau’, which is a dreaded place which is so hard to escape from once your in it. So add Hyper Adaptive Cycling into your muscle building workouts and watch your muscle mass growth accelerate without plateau’s.

2.Protein Deprivation – Starve The Genie Of Protein

A powerful way of boosting your muscles growth in your muscle building workout is to introduce protein deprivation cycles into your weightlifting routine. At certain stages while you are in the active process of building muscle mass you will be loading up on protein but then at various stages you will be depriving yourself of protein. Basically in the deprivation stage you will be ingesting very little protein from your diet. This method is a great way to trick your body to produce more growth hormones that will aid in recovery and muscular growth. It is also a powerful way to get your body to boost your bodies natural levels of testosterone which is the key hormone in helping you to grow massive amounts of muscle mass. But there is an art to the timing of protein deprivation cycles which needs to be fully understood and mastered before being attempted. Combined with Hyper Adaptive Cycling, the results are often spectacular.

3.Body Part Training Frequency – Kick The Genie Into The Anabolic Zone

The anabolic zone is where your body has an optimum amount of stress and support for sustainable muscular growth. One of the best ways to optimize your muscle building workout to allow you to enter the anabolic zone is to train each body part once a week and no more. With a few exceptions most muscles need at least that amount of time to rest, heal and recover. If you work the same body part every few days you are limiting the amount of growth that you should be benefiting from if you let the body part recover fully before blasting it again with another potent muscle building workout.

There you have it 3 muscle building tips to help you unleash the genie within you to help you in building muscle mass. Introduce these 3 muscle building tips into your weightlifting workout and watch as your results skyrocket!

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