Archive for the ‘Strength Training’ Category

Three Tips For You To Build Muscle Faster

Monday, January 25th, 2010

If building muscle was easy, everyone would walk around looking like an action hero. But most of you know that getting big and ripped isn’t as simple as some television infomercials would have you believe.

There are plenty of guys who work out hard and wonder why they don’t get any more muscular. These folks spend month after month in the gym, working their tails off with nothing to show for it but exhaustion and injuries.

What they lack isn’t enthusiasm or heart. They have plenty of both; I’ve seen skinny guys in the gym working out harder than some of the semi-pro athletes I know. It really brings home to me how difficult it is for these fellows to gain weight and muscle when I see Division-One college athletes (many of whom are the equal, in terms of strength and conditioning, of professional sports players) working out with less intensity and apparent effort.

So if you’re ready to increase muscle size faster, incorporate the following techniques into your workout schedule. You just might be surprised at how something so simple can have such a positive impact on your fitness program.

Train movements not muscles

Any time I see someone in the gym who is using an unusual or uncommon exercise variation, I invariably hear someone ask, “what muscles does that exercise work?”

The people who ask these sorts of questions are conditioned to think of strength-training exercises as benefiting only a single muscle. For instance, they think curls work the biceps, bench presses work the chest, and squats work the front of the leg.

It never occurs to them to consider that exercises — which I call movements — are best when they force you to use several muscles all at once. After all, this is how we go about our daily activities, and it is how our bodies function best. When I ask my body to perform a movement, I want all my parts to move synergistically.

It is a huge mistake for guys who want to build muscle to waste their time and energy on isolation exercises that only stress a single muscle.

Instead, the best way to increase muscle is to use compound exercises that involve two or more joints and their attendant muscle groups.

So, drop the curls, leg extensions, and deltoid raises. Instead, add squats, overhead pressing, rows and pull-ups, and other multi-joint compound exercises to your workout schedule. It will be intense, but it will be worth it.

Eat big to get big

What else do skinny fellows who complain about not being able to get huge all seem to have in common?

They all weight exactly the same as they did a month or two (or three…) ago.

Get it? They don’t gain weight by eating right and putting on the pounds. And they wonder why they can’t get more muscular.

Where is the muscle going to come from unless you get your three to five well-balanced meals a day? You’re not the Incredible Hulk, who could gain mass just by getting angry. If you want mass, you have to eat it, one bite at a time.

Rest and Recovery

R&R seems counterproductive to guys who have been working out as hard as possible in a futile attempt at packing on the pounds.

They don’t understand that muscles are not built in the gym, they’re built in the kitchen. In fact, your muscles are weaker and less-capable after a workout than they were before you set foot in the gym.

It seems obvious when you think about it, but lots of non-muscular guys never give it a moment’s thought: the gym doesn’t build your muscles, it damages them.

To rebuild your gym-damaged muscles, you need rest — sometimes several days’ worth — and recovery in the form of nutrients.

I can’t stress it enough: if you are not making progress despite proper nutrition and exercise selection, take a week off and allow all your micro-injuries to heal. When you come back, you should be able to work out with more intensity and a renewed sense of enthusiasm.

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Why Eating Right Is So Important When Body Building

Tuesday, January 19th, 2010

When you are a body builder, it is extremely important to remember that following the right diet can make or break your muscle building efforts. If you don’t follow the proper diet, your muscles will fail to develop properly and your Strength Building Workouts will have all been for nothing. So, again, I say, don’t expect to see incredible results while body building if you are not eating the correctly.

So, if you are still eating the diet that you have been eating even when you weren’t body building, don’t expect to see any noticeable changes in your body’s shape, because again, without giving your body the nutrients it needs for body building, your muscles won’t develop the way you want them to. Body builders follow an extremely intense training series that can cause intense stress on your muscles, causing the tissue to rip and tear. That is where the right foods come in, in order for your muscles to repair themselves.

A body builder’s main goal is to increase their muscle mass, and the only way to achieve this goal is by increasing the number of calories that they consume on a daily basis. A body builder’s second goal is to lower their body fat percentage, which requires a reduction in the amount of calories that you consume. Now it is obvious that these are two conflicting prescriptions for body building, and that is why it is so important to know the right things to eat when you are body building.

So, what do you eat? Well, you need to eat foods that are high in protein. The best proteins to eat for body building are those that are lean, meaning they don’t contain a lot of fat. Proteins provide the nutrients that construct muscle growth and thus is obviously an extremely important nutrient to consume when body building.

There are two different types of proteins, natural proteins or synthetic proteins, better known as steroids. Now, I think you can guess what I am going to say next, you will want to avoid these synthetic proteins and stick with the natural ones. Synthetic proteins can have some very adverse side effects when used with body building, including, women growing facial hair, irregular period, shrinking of testicals, libido decrease, kidney problem, baldness, heart ailments, enlarged clitoris, liver conditions, insomnia, depression, and an increase in aggression. That is why it is very important to only include natural proteins in your diet when you are body building, or at any time for that matter. These lean proteins can and should include things like fish, eggs, chicken, beans, and dairy products.

You will also want to make sure that you eat plenty carbohydrates when body building, because they are high in calories as well. As you can see, calories play a big role in increasing muscle mass. This is because they are like fuel for your body. So, if you are going to be putting significant strain on your body when body building, you will want to make sure you consume enough good calories and carbohydrates, so you will have enough energy to complete all your intense Strength Building Workouts.

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Top Five Ways To Strengthen And Exercise Your Lower Back

Thursday, January 14th, 2010

Everyone knows the value of a good abdominal workout. But fewer people acknowledge the worth of a consistent lower-back training program.

If your lumbar region — including the lower back muscles and the spinal-stabilization muscles — is weak, you risk serious, debilitating injury that can literally change your life in mere moments.

Fortunately, there are some good ways to strengthen this area; you can incorporate this sort of lower-back training into your existing workout with very little trouble.

Myth: the lower back is difficult to work out

Lots of people are afraid to put any real stress on their lumbar area. A bit of pain or fatigue in that area immediate sets off their alarm bells.

But as long as you approach things in a rational manner, training is not only worthwhile and beneficial, but enjoyable too. After all, we all like the peace of mind that comes with knowing we’re creating a more capable, injury-proof body.

Unfortunately, this area of the body takes the longest to recover from an intense workout of virtually any body part except the forearms. So you can’t work it out every day and get very good results. But a two or three day per week workout will work wonders for anyone who feels they have a weakness in this area.

Here are some decent ways to work the lumbar area:

Hyperextension benches or roman chairs

These pieces of specialized training equipment are usually found only in good gyms and health clubs. But lately, manufacturers have been producing good-quality hyper benches intended for the home fitness buff. Now, if you want to use a Apex hyper bench, you can get it without going to a gym.

Good mornings or stiff-legged deadlifts

If you have a simple barbell, you can train this area of the body with either one of these two exercises. Good mornings isolate the area, while stiff-legged deadlifts (SLDLs) work it in conjunction with the hamstrings.

Both are excellent additions to your regular weight-training program.

Bodyweight floorwork

If you have an exercise mat, you can use bodyweight training to strengthen your lower back. Although it’s generally recognized that this area of the body is the most difficult to target with bodyweight moves, that doesn’t mean it’s impossible. Anyone who does working out should use some floorwork exercises too.

Supermans, for instance, are a good isometric workout for the lower back. Give them a try, you’ll like them once you get strong enough to hold the position for a while.

Rowing

Although rowing places the greatest demands on your upper back (the lats), it can also work your lower back quite heavily. Use a rowing machine, a barbell row, or even an exercise band to get the workout that you’re looking for.

Don’t neglect the lower back

It’s ironic that this section of the body — which causes major problems for so many people — is usually neglected by fitness-conscious individuals. Keep it in mind as you design your workout routine; you’ll be glad you did.

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