Create A Bodybuilders Body: October 2011

Thursday, 20 October 2011

Training to failure

CREATE A BODYBUILDERS BODY

Learn From People's Advice And Mistakes On How To Gain Muscle

        You've got to find what works best for you. Alot of people train each muscle to failure but i have got my best results when i don't train to failure. I never do a routine for more than 4-6 weeks because most of the time a change is as good as a rest. I try to stop 1 rep before failure which enables me to train more frequent and stops burnout. This way of training definately definately gives me more gains over a period of time .

                                                                         Owen from Pittsburgh

Wednesday, 19 October 2011

Bodybuilding Rest

The biggest piece of advice i could give anyone would be that your bed and your kitchen are just as important as the gym. I know plenty of people who train hard but don't get enough quality sleep or eat the right food and then complain when they're not progressing as much as they think they should.

Lewis from Oxford

Monday, 17 October 2011

Bodybuilding Photos

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Post your answers to one or both of these questions:-

1. What's the best piece of advice you've received since you started bodybuilding? Wether it be from a book,a training partner or just someone in the gym.

2. What's the biggest bodybuilding mistake you've made since you started?

JUST CLICK ON COMMENTS AT THE BOTTOM OF POSTS

I'll be updating blog with answers i get from emails and forums to go along with your answers!

CREATE A BODYBUILDERS BODY

Learn From People's Advice And Mistakes On How To Build Muscle

         My advice would be to take a photo of yourself about once a month and you should be able to see the changes over a period of 6-12 months. Sometimes it's hard to see changes in your body if your looking in the mirror every day so it's easy to get discouraged.
        To keep motivation high seeing photos of yourself a month apart will be easier to see the muscle mass gained, definition, fat loss etc.

                                                         Joel from Detroit

Friday, 14 October 2011

Chest Training Tips

When bench pressing, make sure you do the exercise on a slight incline. When doing a flat bench press the front shoulders come into play more. A 30 degree incline puts more focus on ther chest.

Graham from Sheffield

Tuesday, 11 October 2011

Advice on abs

CREATE A BODYBUILDERS BODY

Learn From People's Advice And Mistakes On How To Bodybuild

    The secret to getting a great set of abdominal muscles is finding a good abdominal training program and followoing a diet that reveals them. To be able to see see your abs you usually need to get your body fat levels below 10%. You could have the best set of abs in the world but if there covered by a layer of body fat and water nobody would ever know.
       So i would advise a body fat level of around 7% to be able to show them off. Nothing looks better than adding a great set of abs to a great physique so in order to reveal them doing an abdominal training program alone won't cut it. Its your diet and cardio that gets your body fat levels low enough to show your abs.

                                                     Dylan from L.A.

Monday, 10 October 2011

Bodybuilding Dehydration

Don't underestimate the importance of drinking plenty of water every day. A mere 2% drop in body fluids can affect physical performance by up to 20%. The recommended intake for the average man is 8-10 glasses of water a day ( which is apprximately 2 litres ) but depending on the amount you perspire during the day and while working out you would probably need to take on a little extra fluids. A sign of dehydration is when your your urine runs dark yellow so a good rule is try to take enough fluids so that your urine runs clear every day.
Danny from Belfast

Sunday, 9 October 2011

Forced reps and partial reps

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Post your answers to one or both of these questions:-

1. What's the best piece of advice you've received since you started bodybuilding? Wether it be from a book,a training partner or just someone in the gym.

2. What's the biggest bodybuilding mistake you've made since you started?

JUST CLICK ON COMMENTS AT THE BOTTOM OF POSTS

I'll be updating blog with answers i get from emails and forums to go along with your answers!

CREATE A BODYBUILDERS BODY

Learn From People's Advice And Mistakes On How To Gain Muscle

      I got some great results when i started using forced and partial reps to break out of plateaus. A plateau is a point in a bodybuilding exercise where no additional progress is being made. In other words your still doing the same reps with the same weight and you are not able to improve.
      Forced reps are were you do reps of an exercise to failure and then your training partner gives you just enough help to do an additional rep or two which takes your muscle past the point of fatigue.
     Partial reps are when you've completed a set of full reps, you carry on with half and quarter reps until you can't move the weight another inch.
        I only do these reps when i feel like i've hit a plateau on a certain exercise. Be careful NOT to do these reps every time you go to the gym because this could lead to overtraining.

                                                            David from Leeds

Saturday, 8 October 2011

Advice on technique for shoulders and back

    Read an article which changed the movement and technique i now use for the dumbell shoulder press. Most people start the dumbell shoulder press with their palms facing away from their body and extend the movement upwards keeping their palms facing away from their body. The movement i now use is were i start the dumbell shoulder press with my palms facing towards my body and as i extend the movement to the top i turn my palms so their facing away from my body.This movement felt more natural to me and helped me make some great gains on my shoulders and was apparently one of Arnold Schwarzenegger's favourite shoulder exercises.
             Another great exercise for me was to change the grip when doing barbell rows. When i first started i did the exercise with my palms facing towards my body, i now do the exercise with my palms facing away from the body and pull the barbell into my waist which gives my back that squeeze feeling. Your focus should be on form and control rather than how heavy your lifting. Really started noticing massive gains on my back when doing this exercise along with close-grip pull downs.

                                                              Rob from Leicester

Friday, 7 October 2011

Advice on form, length of workout and post workout recovery

CREATE A BODYBUILDERS BODY

Learn From People's Advice And Mistakes On How To Build Muscle

Always try to maintain complete control over the weight with perfect form at a moderate pace. At the fully contracted point of any movement try to stop the weight dead and hold for a second. Aim to do this on every rep and every set.

                                                          Paul from Sydney

   Best piece of advice for me was from a training partner advising me to keep my workout under an hour. After being told i went away and did a bit of research. Found out after 60 minutes of training the levels of the catabolic hormone cortisol increases and testosterone decreases. This is counteractive for any bodybuilder. Soon taught me its not quantity but quality time in the gym that counts

                                                                   Ray from Sunderland

Make use of the 30 minute nutritional window straight training to speed up post workout recovery. Straight after you workout your muscles are in urgent need of nutrients to start the recovery. Try to eat your post workout meal within 30 minutes from finishing training or at least take some good supplements.

                                                           Lee from Liverpool

Thursday, 6 October 2011

Diet Advice

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Post your answers to one or both of these questions:-

1. What's the best piece of advice you've received since you started bodybuilding? Wether it be from a book,a training partner or just someone in the gym.

2. What's the biggest bodybuilding mistake you've made since you started?

JUST CLICK ON COMMENTS AT THE BOTTOM OF POSTS

I'll be updating blog with answers i get from emails and forums to go along with your answers!

CREATE A BODYBUILDERS BODY

Learn From People's Advice And Mistakes On How To Bodybuild

           Advice on the diet side, always try to eat about 4-6 medium size meals a day rather than say 3 big ones. After 3-4 hours of no food your body switches to a catabolic state which means the body beleives that it is starving and starts feeding on lean muscle tissue and starts preparing to store calories as fat.

                                                                   Tom from Carlisle

         Your meals should consist of carbohydrates,protein and fat. It's important to try and get these in the right ratios. A good guide is usually a meal consisting of 40% carbohydrates, 40% protein and 20% fat.

                                                                Karl from Birmingham

   The 2 most important times to fuel your body are just before your workout and just after your workout. At these times your nutrition has to be 100% "on" to gain muscle.

                                                                  Jay from New Jersey

Wednesday, 5 October 2011

Varying bodybuilding routine and 3 parts to build muscle

CREATE A BODYBUILDERS BODY

Learn From People's Advice And Mistakes On How To Gain Muscle

Say you do 10 reps of an exercise to failure or to the point that you couldn't possibly do another rep, it's only really the last couple of reps that break down your muscle fibre, the reps before that have just been leading to that point. Once i understood this i was able to really give everything on the last couple of reps or doing the reps before that would have been a waste of time. Then it's up to your diet and rest to make the muscle grow.

                                                                  John from Plymouth

   Keep shocking your muscles! Don't just do the same routine day in day out. Varying your routines makes your muscles respond better.My advice on how to gain muscle is don't let your body go into cruise control.

                                                         Dan from Aberdeen

   There are 3 parts to bodybuilding - TRAINING - DIET - REST. You've got to do each one correctly if you want to reach your full potential. It's no good training correct if your diets poor and your not giving your body enough time to rest and recuperate. Each part must be done right to build muscle.

Michael from Swansea

Tuesday, 4 October 2011

Overtraining, writing down bodybuilding goals and major muscle building exercises

CREATE A BODYBUILDERS BODY

Learn From People's Advice And Mistakes On How To Build Muscle

The best piece of advice for me when i started bodybuilding was always listen to your body. Don't become robotic with your training. Just because your meant to train your chest on a certain day and you don't feel like you can train 100% i take an extra day or two. Also if i've been training for a while and i feel a bit flat i'll take as much time as i need away from the gym to recharge my batteries. Always listen to your body!

                                                             Mark from London

Best piece of advice for me when i started bodybuilding was always take care of your back when training. Don't get caught up with how heavy your lifting, just make sure your form is correct. I damaged my lower back when i first started bodybuilding and have regretted not taking the advice seriously ever since

                                                        Sam from Newcastle


When i first started bodybuilding i never wrote anything down to do with my training sessions, i just memorized the exercises,sets and reps. Then a training partner told me to always keep a log of my sessions and try to constantly improve every time i went to the gym. Seeing things written down helped me to acheive my goals quicker.

                                               Steve from Rochdale

If you've just started bodybuilding my advice would be to focus on the building exercises not the detail exercises. Isolation exercises play a vital part but the major muscle builders are the big compound exercises such as :- Bench Press,Dips,Rows,Chins,Squats,Deadlifts and Leg Presses

                                                  Big Trev from Doncaster

Monday, 3 October 2011

Bodybuilding

This Blog is for those who want to learn from other people's bodybuilding experiences. Learn from people's advice and from the mistakes they've made!

Hi, my name is Billy Howard, the reason i've started this blog is to see if by asking two simple questions i can create a constantly updating wealth of information on bodybuilding.

The two questions are :-

1. What's the biggest bodybuilding mistake you've made since you started?

2. What's the best piece of advice you've received since you started bodybuilding? Wether it be from a book, a training partner or just someone in the gym!

SHARE YOUR ANSWERS WITH THE WORLD!

So i invite everyone to get involved and post your answers to these two questions. Don't forget to leave your name and where your from!
I'll be updating posts with the answers i get from emails and forums to go along with your answers.

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