Best Way To Build Muscle

Archive for June, 2009

People often ridicule what they do not fully understand, therefore certain products sometimes do not gain any respect. The lack of respect can come from people who have no knowledge of the subject in question. When the newspaper, radio, tv and other forms of media get hold of this misinformation on a certain subject it can help form the opinions and of others, even before they have tried the subject in hand themselves.

There is a history behind the natural bodybuilding nutritional supplement. It is not fully understood why there is so skepticism behind the protein bar where the body building nutritional supplement is concerned. However if you look at the general history of food and eating habits in the USA, you start to be able to piece together the reason why there is a misguided mistrust where the protein bars and the essential bodybuilding supplement products are concerned.

There was a revelation in the 1960’s and the 1970’s of processed food. This then proceeded to change the way we all ate and this was not a change for the better in any case. Every now and again a new amazing product would come on the shelves telling people it did something that it didn't, a product pretending to be something it certainly was not. One of these products that has helped the reputation of the protein bar was a drink called 'Tang'. This drink and the protein bars have been linked as similar products, which in fact they are not.

'Tang' was marketed as a very healthy, orange powdered drink and with celebrity endorsements such as the famous Buzz Aldrin, sales went literally through the roof. ‘Tang’ was actually used by the astronauts when they flew on space missions. This also helped the sales shoot up and keep going. However unfortunately for ‘Tang’, it was found to be a processed drink that was full of nothing but sugar and had no such nutritional value that it claimed it had. Sales started to plummet back to earth with a bump. Since this was classed as a nutritional supplement in sorts, then it gave the rest of the actual nutritional supplements a bad name and a bad reputation.

Remember though that there are some protein bars that are actually full of sugar, these must be avoided at all costs, unless you want to gain weight at a rapid rate. So take care when choosing a protein bar and a bodybuilding supplement and make sure your going for a low sugar variety.

Plenty of guys would love to grow some muscle. but the key to achieving successful muscle building is to do the training on a consistent level.

Muscle gaining should not be a short term goal. If you think thast you will add a load of muscle to your frame in a few weeks, then you are mistaken. You will need to set aside days each week, where you will train with weights. This should be done on a consistent basis.

Don't assume that you will need to train daily. Regularity of training is the key, and not the quantity. You choose to train 2-3 days a week. It all depends on your time constraints. You should be aiming to train at least 2 times a week.

Try not to make the mistake that a lot of other people do. Do not go out and spend a ton of money on supplements and various powders. You may want to do this at a later stage. All you need to do is to find a good bodybuilding program. Stick to it for a consistent period of time, and you will see results.

Most beginners run out and purchase magazines. They buy the bodybuilding mags. They look at the pictures of these massive guys and think that they can look like them. Forget it; for 99.9% of you out there, it is never going to happen.

The professionals are the exception and not the rule when it comes to building muscle. They are blessed with great genetics, and a lot of them shoot steroids into themselves on a daily basis.

You don’t have their genetics and you certainly don’t want to be pumping steroids into your body. You will need to take a different route. Do not start following the training routines that you read about in magazines. They are not for you. Doing these sorts of routines will lead to overtraining.

As your a beginner, you should be doing full body workouts 2 0r 3 times a week. Do not split your training for different body parts. The body grows faster if a greater number of muscles are hit at the same time. This is a routine that you can do for many months before you start split training.

You will also build a lot of muscle by doing it this way. Stick to a handful of big exercises, and you won't go far wrong. You will also need to make changes to your diet. Your body will require lots of good nutrition to cope with the pressures of the training.

If you are not getting enough healthy food, your body will not have the resources to repair itself. This will not get you the muscle that you want. Try to eat regular meals rich in protein. This gives your body the resources to grow muscle.

There are many good bodybuilding programs out there. Once you have found one, stay with it. Try not too train too often. Try to eat decent food. Try to rest more. These are the major factors to gain muscle.

Of course, body building is a sport.  But it is not a sport that you should play exclusively.You know what, you can also use other kinds of sports to help you build your body.  Although these may be tiring and time consuming, some sports are great ways for you to build strength, balance and endurance, as well as muscle. Other sports are also great ways for you to relax and recharge.

There are a number of sports that will help you increase your endurance.  After all, endurance is a vital part in natural bodybuilding.  Some examples of sports that build endurance include baseball, football, track sports and basketball.  These sports involve a lot of running. Thus, you not only significantly improve your endurance, you also burn fat and enjoy an effective cardio workout.

Now, if it is balance you are after, you can try doing some gymnastics, rollerblading or skiing.  These sports require a great deal of balance, which results in helping you learn how to balance effectively, quickly and intuitively.  You will be surprised by how much muscles you also work out with these sports!  These muscles may be ones that do not  even get the work out they need while you are doing a workout in the gym.

Yes, you can indulge in other sports while you are body building and this will not, in any way, affect your performance in body building.  However, you need to avoid getting injured, which is a common risk when you are indulging in sports such as rollerblading or football.  Having an injury is one way that other sports will hinder you from obtaining your goals in body building programs.Body builders can actually participate in a variety of other sports.

There is this mistaken notion that if you want to bulk up, you have to avoid other sports that require agility and speed.  Wrong, you don’t need to slow down for fear that you will hurt yourself while paying a certain sport.  What you should keep in mind is that there are some sports that need body power.For instance, in football, you have to push your way through the enemy's line of defense.For rollerblading, you need a combination of power and strength.  Baseball, on the other hand, requires you to have power in order to hit the ball right out of the ballpark.  Instead of fearing that you will have to slow down because of your bulk, you will be surprised to find that you are not slowed down in any way.Rather, you have more strength than your other non body builder friends.

Rest assured there are millions like you who believe they simply can’t lose weight.It’s now time to look again at yourself if you think you can’t lose weight.If you had a step by step system to follow every day weight loss would be much easier.

I guess you’ve heard it many times, eat less, exercise more and you’ll lose weight.Those words are meaningless as they don’t go into enough detail.We need details. We need a system to guide us every step of the way

If you have a set of rules to follow, rules which will result in losing weight, you will find this much easier.Every day we can follow the rules and be certain we are doing things right.On our own we don’t follow rules and stray from what we should do.

On our own we tend to simply go round in circles and certainly not losing the weight we desire to.With a daily set of steps or rules we can follow we have the ability to know 100% we are doing it right.We have a list of daily tasks which we simply tick off and then are sure we are doing it right.

Following a proven system every day should result in the goal that you seek, that’s long term weight loss.The difficult part is actually following the rules and sticking to it.We can give ourselves a helping hand by spotting some of the danger signs.

If we have knowledge of a subject we also have power over that subject.It’s no different in the battle to lose weight. The correct knowledge gives you the edge in your fight to lose weight.Here are a handful of reasons that may be why you can’t lose weight; you may be surprised at some.

Getting enough vitamins?Vitamins & minerals really help in the battle for weight loss. Minerals play an important part in helping our body’s use fat for energy instead of using muscle for energy. We need to put our body’s in a state that will make us burn the fat and not the muscle. The correct vitamins and minerals will do this for you.

Water water everywhere. We all know lack of water can quickly kill you, we should be aware that too much water can also kill. It’s still important to drink plenty when on a weight loss regime, but it’s far more important to get the balance right. You should not drink too much that you feel bloated, this will be no good. I like to drink little and often, it works for me. It might work for you also.

On your own. If you are trying to lose weight without any help or support it can be an impossible task. If you haven’t got a friend you can talk to or exercise with try joining some online forums. You’ll find lots of dieting buddies online and lots of encouragement.

Are you eating enough? An odd one but eating too little causes your body to go into starvation mode and actually store fat. Your body doesn’t know where its next meal is coming from so hoards the food it does get. Then any normal meals you eat are also stored as your body is now confused.

You might think you can’t lose weight for lots of reasons, but mostly you will be wrong.You will benefit by getting hold of a step by step system you can stick to.You give yourself every chance of success with a system you can follow.

Diet systems & reviews -:-

Are any of the reviews of the many diet system out there worth reading? I think so yes.Many systems give you duff info, useless generic info that says you will lose weight if you do this etc. This is rarely the case though.

If you follow the system to the letter then there are some good systems out there, systems that will work for you.I know it’s hard to stick to the rules every day. I know only too well from my own fight with weight.Read up on what I think of several systems and save yourself some time researching.

If you still think you can’t lose weight then get that thought out of your mind. You can & will lose weight.Anyone who rigidly sticks to the (right) rules can lose weight.In fact some of the more popular weight loss systems have thousands, if not millions of happy customers.

We’ve listed some possible reasons why you can’t lose weight.Now you need to look at a few systems that will help you lose weight.It’s all down to you though. Without you making a concrete decision to shed some fat you will end up back here in a few months time. The time to do it is now!

The idea of building muscle quickly seems to come up all the time, based in part on our “get it now mentality”. There are definitely ways to help you build muscle quickly, which will depend partly on your genetics, your program and your desire to succeed. Some guys and gals are what we call hard gainers and there are some that can build muscle effortlessly. There are things you can do to build your muscles quickly and increase both size and muscular strength regardless of your genetic potential. It’s important to include good quality protein by eating a high quality diet. Free weights instead of using machines, and the right amount of rest between workout sessions.

You can reach your muscle building dreams by following this 5 point list.

Begin To Build Muscle Quick

1. Nutrition
High quality meals must be consumed in small increments. 5 to 6 smaller meals eaten throughout the day would be ideal. Each meal should have a good balance of protein, carbohydrates and fat. This is crucial for you to be able to effectively fuel your workouts and maintain the right insulin and blood glucose levels. The amount of protein you consume per day should be one gram of protein for every one pound of lean muscle weight. Since your body can only consume about 25 to 35 grams of protein at any one time it is important to limit your protein intake to these amounts. Any more than that will just be wasted.

2.Protein Shakes
Adding a high quality protein supplement with the correct amount of amino acids that can easily be assimilated is an effective way to get the correct amount of protein. Even if you are eating a well balanced diet of meat, fish and chicken these don’t necessarily have the right amount and quantity of amino acids. It’s also necessary to include more vegetables and fruit in your everyday diet. Amino acids which are easily used by our bodies can be found in many different types of vegetables.

3. Free Weights
Weight training using free weights is a perfect way to build muscle quickly. The size and strength of your muscles is directly related to the stress you put on your muscles. Your muscles will grow stronger and bigger as you increase the weight you are lifting because your body must adapt to the added stimulus. Free weights will also workout a larger portion of your musculature by placing stress on the smaller stabilizing muscles used to balance the weight that is being lifted.

4. Workout without weights
Body weight exercises is a perfect way to compliment your weight training program. Once again you are bringing into play the ancillary muscle groups, which are helping perform each particular movement. To increase your chances of great muscular growth you should include push ups and pull ups. Your strength, endurance and also definition will benefit from these exercises.

5. Rest and Plenty of it
Critical to your success is that you must understand that your muscles don’t get bigger and stronger while you are working out. Your muscles get bigger when you are resting. Avoid over training and make sure to get plenty of rest. Weight lifting breaks down our muscles at the cellular level and in order to repair and grow larger these cells must have adequate rest and the proper nutrition. If nothing else you must remember this.

Take these into serious consideration and begin applying these in your daily workout routine and you will be able to build muscle quickly.

I hope you enjoyed this article on how to build muscle quickly. I also did a review of a very high quality product you might want to take a look at here: The Truth About Building Muscle And for more great ideas on building muscle and getting ripped you will also want to visit Rocko’s site, you can see it here: Build Muscle Quickly

Testosterone is an important element in building muscle.  This is actually a hormone that exists in both males and females but it is more concentrated in men.  Testosterone causes much of the male characteristics – such as a strong sexual drive, a deep voice, aggressiveness, and of course, muscles.  This hormone is located in the testicles (for men) and in the ovary (for women).  Because of what testosterone can do it is a highly popular ingredient in most bodybuilding supplements.

Body building affects your body, depleting some nutrients as you work out.  Thus, you need to have natural bodybuilding supplements to replenish what your body has lost during your body building regimen.  The supplements also nourish and strengthen your body.  One main hormone that is depleted during workouts is testosterone.  That is why it is necessary for you to take in testosterone supplements, just like the doctor ordered.

Having a low testosterone level can be marked by the following: a loss of energy and strength, as well as muscle mass.  Of course, this is not what you, as a body builder, would want to happen.  A low testosterone level also sometimes mean that you will find it hard to lose your body fat.  

Some men experience a deficiency in testosterone, some lose it even at the early age of 25.  Low testosterone levels also often means that the person is plagued by mood swings that leave one unhappy and depressed.

There are a variety of testosterone supplements available.These are classified depending on the age ranges, as well as for the purpose of the supplement.  This means that you have to consult a nutritional specialist of a doctor before taking anything.It is important that you first check your levels of testosterone before taking in supplements and afterwards, you should monitor the level of this hormone present in your body.

Some testosterone supplements you can choose from include Eurycome Longfolia, Viaroid, 6-OXO and 17-HD.  What is important is that you should ask a professional first.  It is dangerous to take in supplements without first knowing the right type and the right dose for you.

Remember, body building is a lifelong sport.  Even if you plan to retire from the sport or if you have accomplished your goals in body building, you will need to make use of essential bodybuilding supplements.  Combine this with training sessions and regular exercise, along with some exercise and a good, balanced and healthy diet.  The combination will prove to be very potent in keeping you fit for your entire lifetime, even when you have stopped doing your body building workouts.

Have you ever really learned what it takes to make big gains and build muscle mass? Do you believe you can start working out, train like a mad man everyday, buy the next best supplement and “Bam” you’re a bodybuilder. It isn’t that easy. To get the results you are looking for it will take a comprehensive plan of action and the right exercise program. Below are three simple ways to supercharge your muscle-building program and do it in the shortest amount of time as possible.

Compound Exercises To Gain Muscle Mass

If you hope to build muscle mass then doing compound exercises are not optional. There is no way around it compound exercises must be included in your workout program. Forget what everybody has told you, compound exercises are the absolute best thing you can do to pack on the muscle. Mass building exercises like pull-ups, bent over barbell rows, bench presses, squats and dead lifts should be included in your muscle building routine. You will make better gains in overall muscle mass by doing these compound exercises instead of isolation exercises. You will gain more muscle quicker because you are using more of the supporting muscle groups to help with each lift.

The Squat and Dead Lift

The two exercises responsible for building the most overall body mass are squats and dead lifts. These two basic exercises are the best of the best! There is no way you are going to get the mass you want unless you include these two exercises. Alone, these two exercises, work out about 80% of your entire body, including your traps, shoulders, arms, back, glutes, hamstrings, calves and a major portion of your core muscles.

By doing squats and dead lifts you force your body to release greater amounts of growth hormone, which ultimately will result in larger muscles through out your whole body. The by product of this means more muscle mass because of the increase of weight you can use in your other lifts! If you are a hard gainer then squatting and dead lifts are especially critical because of the hormonal spikes, and the amount of muscles used in the lift which will affect your whole body.

Rest Less In between Sets: Your Gateway To Adding Lean Muscle Mass

When you do compound exercises in conjunction with supersets you invoke an anabolic response that dictates you rest less in between exercises to maintain this state. Your rest in between sets should be no more that 30 seconds, just enough time for the lactic acid buildup to subside.

Can you think of a time in the past where you saw someone timing their rest periods in between sets? For those of you weight lifters that are serious about building muscle mass then it’s time to get a stopwatch and time your rest in between sets.

The rule of thumb is that the more repetitions you complete the less rest period in between sets and the less reps you do the more the rest period in between sets. This is overlooked or not known by many weight lifters and is critical in determining whether or not you create the correct anabolic response in your body.

You know as well as I do that it’s not as simple as just going to the gym and doing some basic weight lifting exercises. Perhaps you add some protein to your diet and “presto” your huge. You know it doesn’t work that way. You really want to begin building muscle mass then apply the three steps listed above, period!

Learn the secret behind building massive muscle. Check out the muscle review I did on five of the most popular Muscle Building Programs on the net.

Everyone knows to build muscle mass one of the best exercises for the upper body is the bench press. One of the first questions you are likely to be asked by another bodybuilder is ‘how much can you bench press?’. Of course i ti probably not the best measure of total body strength it does naturally have a very macho feel to it and of course is very impressive. So lets cut to the chase and find out how to build muscle fast and get a bigger bench press:

Grow your triceps. Up to two thirds of the muscle mass on your arms is made up the tricep muscle alone. it is more than likely that weak tris are restricting your bench press progress. The best exercises to build muscle mass on your triceps are using barbells and dumbells: close grip bench-presses and skull crushers. Less effective are isolation type exercises such as tricep press downs. They will definetely help add weit to your bench press.

Why not try training your triceps individually by themselves. More often than not muscle building programs will suggest that you train the triceps along with the chest. Try training them on their own for a change. Doing this allows you to attack them when they are fresh and really concentrate and focus on hammering them to stimulate growth. Do this for a number of weeks and see how much more poundage you can press.

Variety. have you been repeating the same old workout for months? time to switch things around a bit. After your muscles have done the same workout a few times, they have already adapted to it and therefore the need to grow has been removed. Keep changing things, they can be subtle changes like altering the grip width or reversing the order of your routine or they can be larger changes like doing super sets, compound sets and so on, these will give you a real pump by the way.

Make sure you are not doing too much! While with most things in life more is better, in muscle building this is not quite true. Overtraining your chest muscles means it takes longer for them to recover and develop. Always focus on technique and intensity above quantity. A short intense workout is much more effective than a long drawn out one.

Quality rest. Your muscles don’t grow in the fitnes centre! Their growing time is when they are resting. You won’t grow if you don’t allow enough time to grow. Of course do not workout again when your muscles are still, a fair rule of thumb is to limit yourself to 6-9 sets each session for each muscle group, any more and you risk overtraining.

Take a rest from training. if you have hit a chest muscle mass building plateau then have a break. let your body fully recover, get rid of all the niggles aches and pains and then comeback fresh a week or two later with renewed energy and motivation.

Give your chest a more intense workout by doing negatives. Negatives are when you get the help from two spotters to intially aid you to press the weight upwards but who then let you take the full weight and lower it by yourself under control. This is done because people are able to lower more than they can lift. Therefore if we are able to make the body lower more weight it is probable that this will aid us for the lifting phase too. The lowering portion of the lift is know to trigger more muscle growth than the positive effort phase.

Do a diet review. Are you consuming around 6 meals a day with at least 1 gram of protein for each pound of bodyweight that you have? If you are not then it is quite possible that you are restricting your gains by not adopting fully a muscle building diet. In each meal try to get the proportions of them to be 50% carbohydrate, 30% protein and the rest can be made up of fats. Take supplements if you have the money to, things like: whey protein, essential fatty acids and multi-vitamins.

Focus on your technique. Are you pressing correctly. Faulty technique can push the focus away from the chest muscles group and put you at a heightened risk of getting injured. Check that you are not constantly moving your feet up off the floor and that your grip is not too narrow or too broad, these are two mistakes that are easy to make.

By following the guidelines above you will be giving yourself the best chance to build muscle mass on your chest fast. Go do it!

After choosing your weightlifting guide and learning about nutrition there are still other things that are useful to the bodybuilder. Some of these are bodybuilding supplements. Protein powder is the first supplement that many weightlifters will suggest. This helps you consume more calories and more proteins. Put the powder in water or milk and drink it. While others would suggest a specific weight gaining powder. In a few shakes you can add an extra twelve hundred calories to your daily intake.

While many do not need help with weight gain, additional protein is very important. The most effective bodybuilding supplements for this is milk in the form of whey powder. This is easy to digest and is absorbed by the body quickly. Some people prefer soy powder, which is significantly cheaper. It is not as good as whey and it is suggested that other bodybuilding supplements be used with it. Another possibility is to eat plenty of eggs, the only thing is that most people get tired of the taste.

Although most people will not refer to milk as one of the bodybuilding supplements others say it is. If you could drink a quart of milk several times a day you would get the protein you need since you would consume thirty-two grams in each quart. Bodybuilders have the tendency to have specific diets so they don’t get enough vitamins sometimes. Therefore it is recommended that along with whatever bodybuilding supplements you are taking you should also take a daily multi-vitamin.

Creatine and glutamine are othe popular bodybuilding supplements. Creatine happens to be a muscle builder. It quickly builds muscle mass because its stored right by it. The interesting thing about this one is that it tends to hold the water around the muscles and so makes the muscles look bigger than they actually are. Over time muscle mass will replace this water. Glutamine is expensive but is good because it can assist in muscle repair. If you are working on a bodybuilding program you do not need to use all of these. Choose the ones most suitable to help achieve your goals.

For more info… Check out the Top 8 Bodybuilding Books

We all know that we absolutely must have regular exercise to get or keep our bodies in top shape. Working up a sweat not only helps us burn fat and lose weight, it can protect us from preventable diseases such a strokes, heart disease, diabetes, maybe even some forms of cancer.

But exercising doesn’t have to be something you dread doing every day. You can have more fun exercising than you ever thought possible by incorporating dance into your workout regimen.

1) Dancing is a wonderful way to get your heart pumping and to burn calories while you’re having a great time. Our bodies were mean’t to move and regular dancing can be an important part of keeping your body in tip-top shape.

2) A regular dance workout can help improve your balance and coordination, protect your bones, increase your confidence, relieve stress and make you sleep better at night. You’ll feel sexier and more comfortable in your body when you make it move regularly.

3) Dance exercise can help you feel more energetic and reduce your anxiety levels. If you dance in the mornings, you can start your day with a smile that will carry you through the day and make the little annoyances you have to deal with seem a little more bearable.

4) If you have children, dancing is a wonderful activity that you can do together as a family. Your children will love seeing you dance around and be a little less serious for a change. Dancing gets everyone laughing, making you feel closer as a family as you do something that will improve everyone’s health.

5) A dance workout is not as strenuous as running or as complicated as weight lifting, but you’ll still find yourself working up a sweat and burning some serious calories as you work through a dance workout. Moving your body the right way will work all the major muscles, improving your posture, strength and stamina as you go through the rest of your day.

The best part is, you don’t need any special equipment, training or a gym membership to take advantage of the health benefits of dancing. All you need is some space in your living room, some music or a dance workout DVD and you’ll be ready to go!

Kenn Kihiu is a fitness expert and the creator of DanceX Fun Dance Exercise Workout DVD’s for both adults and kids. To learn more about Kenn or DanceX visit http://www.dancexfitness.com