1. Lift weights for no more than three to four days per week. Doing so is not only unnecessary but can quickly lead to over-training, especially if you are doing other physical activities such as cardio or playing recreational sports on a regular basis.
2. Limit your workouts to 30-45 minutes and 15-20 total sets. If you can't build muscle and gain strength in that time frame then I’d say you are half assing it. You have to remember that results are greatest when energy levels and mental focus are at their highest. That is during the first 30-45 minutes of your workout. Going beyond that point causes both of these to plummet.
3. Use big, compound exercises and lift heavy. Deadlifts, military presses, squats, bench presses, rows and chin ups should always be the main focus of your muscle building workout programs. These have been the best muscle building exercises since the beginning of time and that will never change.
4. Continually try to get stronger and always track your progress with a training journal. Progressive overload is the most basic but often forgotten principle in weight training. It states that to make progress you need to constantly increase the amount of weight you lift. Follow this rule and you will get bigger and stronger. Ignore it and you will get nowhere. If you are benching 225 right now, you better be benching 315 by this time next year if you want to build muscle.
5. Train with a multitude of rep ranges. Doing this allows you to target both slow twitch and fast twitch muscle fibers and maximizes your muscle building capabilities. Reps from 1-20 should be used to target both fast twitch and slow twitch fibers.
6. Always change your weight training program every 3-4 weeks. After 3-4 weeks on the same program you will start to burn out and your results will slow down. To keep your body in a muscle building state, be sure to change your workouts frequently. If you have been lifting for several years, this may need to be done every two weeks because you will adapt more rapidly to the same stimulus.
7. Make a serious commitment to eating. Proper nutrition plays a huge role in your muscle building efforts. Without adequate calories you will never grow optimally. Force feed yourself if you have to and be sure to time your carbs correctly, meaning around training and at breakfast, while cutting them out at night if you want to stay lean while building muscle.
8. Be sure to get at least 8-10 hours of sleep per day and take naps whenever possible. When you are sleeping is when you are building muscle. Sleep is the time when you recover and grow. Without adequate sleep you will never reach your true potential and your muscle building efforts in the gym may be wasted. Do not overlook this important factor.
9. Utilize recovery methods. Training and eating properly are not enough to ensure the fastest muscle building results. You also have to be sure to use whatever recovery methods you can to accelerate your progress. Some of these include taking contrast showers or baths after training, stretching after training and on off days, icing, using foam rollers and whatever else you can think of to help you recover faster.
10. Find a good training partner. While I left this for last on the list it may, in fact, be the most important factor of them all. Without a good training partner your results will always be less than what they could be. It is imperative that you try to find someone to push you and to compete against if you really want to take your muscle building efforts to the next level.
By Jason Ferruggia
Jason Ferruggia is a world famous fitness expert who is renowned for his ability to help people build muscle as fast as humanly possible. He is the head training adviser for Men’s Fitness Magazine where he also has his own monthly column dedicated to muscle building. For more great muscle building information, please click http://www.musclegainingsecrets.com/
Thursday 26 January 2012
Tuesday 24 January 2012
Incline Dumbbell Bench Press - Exercise Explained Video Series
CHEST EXERCISES PART 6
To setup for the Incline Dumbbell Bench Press set an incline bench to an angle of about 30 degrees and place the dumbbells at the bottom end of the bench. Grasp the dumbbells and sit down on the bench, place the ends of the dumbbells on your knees. Rock back onto the bench using your legs to help push the dumbbells up.
Your arms should be fully outstretched holding the dumbbells and you should be laying back on the bench, which is set at a 30 degree angle. This is the starting position. Keeping your body fixed, slowly lower the dumbbells down until they are about level with your upper chest. Then slowly raise the dumbbells back up wiyhout pausing and without locking your elbows out at the top of the exercise. Repeat for desired reps.
Control the dumbbells throughout the exercise by lowering them slowly and not letting them touch at the top of the movement and not letting them touch your body at the bottom of the movement. Also don't lock your elbows out or rest at the top of the movement. And finally, don't set the angle of the bench too high, doing this will involve the front shoulders too much.
In these videos heavy weights will not be used as the emphasis is on explaination and correct form.
Sunday 22 January 2012
How to Develop Perfect Abs
Seeing all those models or athletes posing on the covers of magazines or on a contest stage exposing their perfectly sculptured abdominal you might believe that it is impossible to accomplish the same thing. Well, the good news is that anybody who can train and follow some nutritional guidelines can form perfect abs. The bad news is that very hard work and even personal sacrifices are required.
- In most of the cases, crucial training or nutritional mistakes are involved. First of all, you have to understand that if you really want to get ripped you will have to start treating your abs like any other body part. As you already know, in order to develop your chest, arms or back the best training method is weight-resistance.
- I never really understood why people are trying to form their abs just by using gravity. It is time to start working with weights. For example, try doing sit-ups and hold a weight-plate in the same time. You will instantly notice that you won't be able to perform more than 8 to 10 reps. However, you will feel your abs pumped and burning. By using this weight resistance method you will add volume and size to your abdominal, which is your primary target. You should also remember that abdominal like any other body part need resting periods in order to regenerate and develop. So, do not over train them. Three to four times a week is fine.
- After following the previous procedure for a couple of months you will notice that your abs have grown dramatically. Now it is time to make your work visible. So, how do we expose our well-trained abs? The answer is minimum fat and protein-rich nutrition combined with lots of cardio.
- Reduce your carbs intake and if needed replace your protein shake with one that contains minimum carbs and a high-protein percentage. I know that this will not be easy for some of you, but you must avoid sugars, fried food and fat. In the same time, increase your protein intake by consuming lean beef, chicken-breast, fish, etc.
Cardiovascular exercise is very important in this phase. At least, half an hour every day is obligatory in order to trigger the fat loss procedure around the abdominal.
As a conclusion, we might say that sculpturing a perfect six pack is realistic for every one of us who is determined to work hard in the gym and follow the guidelines listed above.
By Phil Heath
For "The Most Powerful Fat-Burning System Ever Created!" CLICK HERE
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