Posts Tagged ‘Bodybuilding’

I have been out of the sport for close to ten years. I noticed when I was in my early twenties I could eat a bunch of carbs. That is not the case now. I notice when I go low carbs for an extended period of time I get headaches. I also notice I don’t have the energy to train as hard after a few days off of carbs.

I’m going to talk to you about my muscle building secret. There is so much misinformation out there on this subject that it is almost impossible to figure out how to build muscle correctly. I’ve been doing this for almost a decade now and I’ve only really understood what it takes for a few years now. It requires a lot of dedication to the process and a use of all the science that is out there. All of us can put on muscle if we use the correct information backed on science to make our plan. I’m going to share what I’ve learned that will help you.  Read more... (343 words, estimated 1:22 mins reading time)

Next to “how many reps should I be doing”, “how often should I train” is the most often asked question in gyms by the people who are trying to be serious about building muscle. And for good reason. It is probably the least understood and most complex ingredient to a muscle building plan. It might also be the most important. Here is the answer.The first thing you must know is that muscle building is a continuum and therefore by definition you are never “done”. Hence where along the time line continuum are you, because that is the first variable that makes this a complex situation. The second variable is the related mass continuum. Muscle is a very metabolically active tissue. It takes a lot of work for your body to maintain it. Therefore the more muscle you have, the more it needs to be trained. The old “use it or lose it” philosophy. But you aren’t trying to simply not LOSE it you are trying to ADD to it, which now becomes the third variable. So as you can see the answer to how often to train can become quite complex very quickly. But there are some general guidelines that can help most people become more efficient at muscle building.The first is, if you are a beginning lifter (depending on age this is someone lifting for less than 6 months, 20 something’s and teenagers 3 months), train your whole body in each workout and try and do this every other day for 3 sessions then take two days in a row off. Secondly, if you have a base of lifting (not a beginner as defined above), stop training your whole body in each workout. Instead divide your sessions into 4 groups, legs, back, chest and shoulders. Train each of these twice a week, doing two groups at a time. Now you are at 4 training sessions every 7 days instead of 3.Thirdly, after plateauing, break arms out as a fifth group and train each group 3 times a week, doing 3 groups in each workout. This means each of your training sessions will be longer than before and there will be 5 workouts every 7 days. If this starts to sound like a lot of training, you are right. Remember, the more muscle you have the more it has to be trained to grow. Obviously, regardless of your level never isolate the same body part on consecutive days. Don’t work your chest two days in a row, for example. Fit abdominal work in as many days as you would like. For most people this is a body part that can’t be over trained. For advanced lifters, abs becomes the sixth group and gets trained 3 times a week like any other muscle group. Now you can see why professional bodybuilders have split sessions daily and train, basically every day. You can also see why “how often should I workout to build muscle” is a very complex question and really is unique to everyone.

I’m here to talk to you about a muscle building diet that can help you put on more muscle. Most people think that the magic happens in the gym, but the fact is that your muscles won’t grow unless your diet allows them to grow. Your diet is what provides the nutrients to feed those muscles as they grow and without the proper food, they’re just not going to grow. Doing your hourly workout isn’t enough because when you leave the gym, you have to care for those muscles the rest of the time. Inside the gym, you work hard. Outside the gym, you eat right. I’m going to show you exactly what a muscle building diet should look like. Eating smaller meals more often is an important part of any muscle building diet. If you’re getting a meal in every few hours, you’re going to make sure you have a high metabolism and the correct protein synthesis to insure muscle growth. Metabolism is just an important part of the process. You don’t want to put on fat, you want to put on muscle. As for protein synthesis, just think of it as a level in your body. When it is up, you can build muscle, when it’s down, you can’t. Keep it up all the time by eating.  Read more... (338 words, estimated 1:21 mins reading time)

Building more muscle on your body, as well as losing all of that unwanted and unnecessary body fat is a dream of millions of people all over the world.
However, how many people actually go through the process of muscle building? Not many.
Whether it is that you are not able to take time out of your day to focus on your appearance, or if you’re just flat out too lazy to handle the rigorous work out sessions, most people come up with enough excuses to avoid the importance of a healthy, muscular body appearance.
The truth of the matter is, simply, it is not as hard as it may seem.
Keeping yourself in shape is a very important aspect of life that is most commonly forgotten about, especially in times of today where it is cheaper to spend money on fattening foods than it is on health items.
However, if you get enough motivation to give it a try, you will quickly feel better about yourself, gaining more confidence, strength, and performing just as you have always thought of doing.
It is very important to feel strongly and highly about yourself, especially when it comes to your physical appearance; it will increase your mood as well as your standards and gain an over all better lifestyle for yourself by eating healthily and adequately without feeling regretful about it.
Although muscle building will not happen in a single night, dedication to your goals will in turn pay off.
When you are comfortable with the way you look, and satisfied with your results, you don’t have to continue working out and building up your muscle for the end of time.
Once you have achieved your image of the ideal body, it will make it easier for you to maintain this perception and keep up with your goals more easily.
This applies with everything; conquering one single goal of overcoming your physical appearance will indefinitely better your outlook on completing other kinds of goals.
There are endless results to gaining more muscle and increasing the look of your physical appearance.
A little known fact about working out to gain muscles, is the decrease in the risk of having osteoporosis.
This is because your great cholesterol intake will overcome your bad cholesterol intake.
On top of this, your risk of heart diseases will also be reduced, as well as kidney failure and other such things having to do with your cholesterol intake.
In addition, you will also become stronger. You can now achieve things that you couldn’t before conquer.
For example, while you may not have been able to lift a piece of furniture before, now you can see yourself rearranging your entire living room!
Finally, the given: your physical appearance will now thrive, looking better than ever before and at the same time, losing your unnecessary body fat that was never appealing to you.
Some people may consider muscle building to lead to a better, more enjoyable, and overall free kind of life. Strength is key in society.
More times than not, you will someone who is having trouble making it up the stairs, or who pants and stops for a break after jogging across the street, or playing with their children;
This is not how we were meant to live. We were meant to enjoy our lives, while we had a life to live and taking care of our bodies is fundamental to this.
Muscle building helps people to function easily and accurately, making everything a breeze.
Your body will be enhanced, and your appeal will be heightened, making it easier for you to be happier with your own life than you were before.

Are you eating your prescribed six bodybuilding meals a day and not gaining muscle?

Have you been blowing your hard-earned cash on body building supplements with techie names like “Nitric-this” and “Cell-Max-that”, yet still fall short of getting the size gains you’re after?

You’re not alone. Thousands of muscle building enthusiasts are needlessly struggling – grunting and sweating for painfully little progress – and mislabeling themselves “hard-gainer”.  Read more... (743 words, estimated 2:58 mins reading time)

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Number 5 – Not Monitoring Your Progress:

So many people just go through the motions with their workouts. They get into the habit of showing up at the gym day after day and mindlessly go through their routine. How many people do you see at the gym with no written plan and no way to keep score to tell if they are making progress?

For a lot of these people going to the gym just becomes a part of their social life. Now I agree that this habit is a lot healthier then hanging out at the local pub. But the time you spend in the gym could be a lot more productive and result in building a lot more muscle.  Read more... (1081 words, estimated 4:19 mins reading time)

Everywhere you look, it’s either the best supplements to get ripped, or top foods to max muscle gains – it seems like eating to boost health and performance simultaneously isn’t important, isn’t possible or it’s simply too boring to talk about.

 

Don’t become another victim to eating just for looks and performance.  It’s very important to eat the right foods for the right reasons, and staying healthy is definitely one of those reasons.  Remember, if you aren’t healthy, everything you’re working towards, and all the training you’ve done means nothing. 

   Read more... (656 words, estimated 2:37 mins reading time)

There are a number of steps involved in a successful muscle building program.  To be successful all must be given equal amounts of attention. A chain is only as strong as its weakest link right?  The difficult aspect of this is that one variable in muscle building is addition by subtraction.  That’s a hard concept for most serious lifters to get their mind around.I am talking about the overlooked key to muscle building, rest and not over training.  If you’re serious enough about lifting to do it regularly in the first place, then you don’t have to be told to hit the gym, lift hard, eat right and get rest.  You already know these things, and you try and do them as best as possible.  But here’s where most people make the big mistake.Does it not make sense that, if you are doing everything “right”, that every chest work out you have, you lift exactly the same as before OR MORE?  That is the point of muscle building, right, to get stronger and bigger.  Does that happen?  Probably not.  Most people write it off to having an off day, or “being tired”.  Well duh.  Then it’s obvious that you didn’t allow yourself enough recovery time or you haven’t gotten the proper amount or quality of rest. People justify this lack of progress in each workout as “doing something is better than doing nothing”.  WRONG.The entire concept of muscle building is to build the muscle.  Not wear it out.  Sessions in the gym that do not make your muscles bigger and stronger are making them weaker and smaller!  That’s over training!  A perfect illustration of this is boxers.  After they have trained and peaked for a fight they take an extended period of time off.  One fight doesn’t make them that tired.  It’s a matter of not over training their bodies.If you use being tired, whether it’s from a day at work or a lousy night’s sleep, as a reason for not being able to match previous workouts, then again, you miss the point of muscle building.  It requires a maximum effort to exhaust the muscle, so that it can recover and grow.  Without the ability to exhaust the muscle because of a lack of energy means no growth.  Why again are you in the gym?So ask yourself going in how do I really feel?  Don’t fall victim to the age old trap of mediocrity, “movement equals progress”.  It doesn’t.  Only movement in the correct direction does.

I have found when corresponding with many gym goers and fitness enthusiasts, that there is a massive disconnect in what they say and practice depending on the day of the week 

 

These are people who train hard, eat right and do all things they’re supposed to do to the point that they’re on auto pilot, soaring towards their goal.  Then, something strange happens.  One day, usually on the weekend, all of these habits seem to walk to the back of the plane, kick open the emergency exit door, and jump out without a second thought.  Read more... (1476 words, estimated 5:54 mins reading time)