Posts Tagged ‘how to build muscle’

When building muscle up without even knowing it you can put your self at serious risk of injury, illness and dramatically restrict your progress. Sure it is fantastic that you wish to train and build muscle up but at the same time just one single injury, one moment of carelessness can put you out of action for weeks or months and with consequences related to both health and financial matters. With this in mind the guidelines that follow should allow you to avoid such traumatic incidents. Here we go with our build muscle up safely guidelines:

1) Always check and double check you have put the barbell collars on before you start lifting. Even a slight loseness can unbalance the bar and make side weigh more. The heavier side will drop down and the weight disc can slip further and drop off. When this occurs that side of the bar will be extremely light and leveraged upwards by the heavy side. Next the barbell will flip mercilessly through the air and possibly cause real damage to people or equipment!

2) Use a spotter if you sre doing one rep maximums. This is person who watches you and is ready to help you out if you start struggling. The last thing you want to occur is to have yourself stuck weighted down by a heavy barbell, you may laugh but I’ve seen it happen.

3) If you are ill stay away from the gym. Seems too obvious but I frequently see bodybuilders who are obviously suffering from a high fever and cough, splutter there way through a workout. More often than not the trainer beats none of their best scores and only lands themselves in bed for a few days. Exercising actually for a while at least lowers your immune system so if you are already feeling ill then by exercising you give the illness the ideal opportunity to take a bigger hold of you.

4) Use proper technique. If you perform exercises incorrectly like swinging barbells using your body’s momentum then you not only risk serious injury but you will also make little progress as you aren’t targeting the muscle group well enough. Strictly correct form must always be used.

5) Do not do too much. It is very common when motivation is high especially for newbie’s that you want to lift weights as often as possible. This motivation is fine but working out everyday or even every second day will likely be too much for the majority of people unless a split routine is used. Lifting weights again when your muscle have not yet fully recovered from a previous workout will actually weaken your muscle not make them stronger.

6) Not dieting properly. Emphasis will have to be placed on muscle building nutrition if you want your muscles to grow. You will be working out in vain if you do not take on board sufficient calories to support muscle growth. During the day eat frequently high quality nutritional meals.

7) Showing off to your friends. Lifting too much weight and competing with friends can be great motivation but also can be a recipe for disaster. It is much more productive to try to beat your own personal best scores. Record your workouts in a training log so that you know what your personal best to beat is. This will be much more fruitful and reduce your risk of injury.

Warm-up sufficiently. If you fail to do your muscle are more likely to snap and give-way. This can put you out for weeks or months. It is very simple to do, 5-10 minutes cardio, stretching exercises followed by a few warm up reps will do fine.

With those above guidelines in mind and with correct muscle building nutrition there is no reason why you should not build muscle up happily and safely where ever you train.

 It is a well known fact nowadays that to build muscle diet is a key component that will determine whether you are successful or not. If your diet is poor regardless of how hard you train you won’t grow. So we will briefly outline some basic guidelines for a ‘build muscle diet’ and then we will take a look at some awesome bodybuilding foods.

Ok, quick guidelines for a diet to build muscle:

1) Eat 5-7 meals per day. This will allow you to comfortably take on board enough calories to grow. {It will ensure that your body maintains high energy levels throughout the day}. 

2) Divide your meals up in to approximate portions of 50% carbohydrate, 30% protein and the remainder can come from fats.

3) Eat about an hour half to two hours before your workout and eat immediately or at least within an hour after your workout. The post workout meal should be high in protein and may be a meal replacement powder drink. taking a energy drink or eating a snack before retiring to bed is a good idea also as this means your body will have enough calories to support growth throughout the night. Also eat as soon as you can upon waking as your muscle will be short on energy at this time.

4) Take supplements if you can afford it. Try supplementing with these: essential fatty acids, multi-vitamin pills, whey protein and creatine. Supplements can be added to your diet if you wish to build muscle even more easily.

5) Regularly drink small amounts of water. many of the reactions in the body require the presence of water. They will occur much more easily when water is not limited. Muscle growth won’t happen without water. However you will feel bloated if you try to drink too much water at once.

Alright, so we have go the basic covered. Now what food exactly is good for muscle building purposes. Here are some great foods for your to try:

Protein is needed for growth and repair of muscles. Clearly this will be important for muscle building fanatics.Excellent sources of protein are: Chicken Breast, Egg Whites, Turkey Breast, Salmon, Tuna Cottage Cheese, Lean Beef, Whey Protein.

Carbohydrate fuels day to day activities and workouts and also provides calories to support muscle growth.In your diet to aid muscle growth and provide energy try to include the following foods: Brown Rice, Baked Potatoes, Whole Wheat Pasta, Sweet Potatoes, Bagels, Oatmeal, Fat Free Yogurt and Beans.

Build muscle diets often neglect to mention that fats are important too. Some essential metabolic functions require certain types of fat. For fats that build muscle try to include in your diet: Avocado, Olive Oil, Nuts, Flax Seed Oil, Natural Peanut Butter and Fish Oil

Vitamins and minerals play a wide variety of roles in all of the important reactions in the body including muscle growth. Great source of vitamins and minerals are: Broccoli, Cauliflower, Asparagus, Green Beans, Peas, Carrots and Spinach.

You should be able to pack on a good deal of muscle mass if you follow the above guidelines. Remember that lots of calories are required by the body for both energy and to support the growth of enlarged muscle tissue and growth. If you do not eat enough calories then you aren’t going to grow. Follow these above rules and a sensible ‘build muscle diet‘ containing these types of foods and you should have no problems building muscle.

What comes to mind when you hear the phrase ‘muscle building’? Normally this is done for the purpose of competition or for vanity. Both professional bodybuilders and amateurs who are just starting out will soon develop those solid, toned muscles that everyone longs for. With all the appeal that body building offers, how do you ensure that all standards will be realized and the main criteria shall be fulfilled? To begin the discussion on this interesting topic, you would need to realize that there are two parts to an effective body building program, exercise and proper nutrition.

No Nonsense Muscle Building Review

Every successful body building program needs a systematic and effective weight lifting program. The weight lifting routines can be rather demanding, therefore a high level of strength and endurance is usually necessary. While weight lifting is often linked to athletic purposes, it is good to note that they do include those that are using it for other purposes as well. It is very helpful in assisting the body to recover after a serious injury while building an attractive physique at the same time. Weight lifting can be incorporated as part of a health or rehabilitation program.

Burn the Fat Feed the Muscle Review

Following a good diet and nutrition program is important for a successful body building program. To ensure that an aspiring bodybuilding champion gets proper nutrition it is good to follow this rule of thumb: maintain a diet that consists of 40% protein, 40% carbohydrates and 20% fat. Complex carbohydrates are the main source of energy for the body. Brown rice, oatmeal and sweet potato are foods that are high in carbohydrates. Remember to include foods that are rich in carbohydrates such as brown rice, sweet potato and oatmeal. Fiber is very important in your diet as it helps facilitate the easy digestion of consumed food and helps expel toxins from the body.

Muscle Gaining Secrets Review

You need to drink plenty of fresh water during your body building program to help hydrate the cells and prevent your body from using your muscle mass. The habit of consuming plenty of fresh water is a good way to maintain your health and bodily systems. You can even drink between exercises! It is a good idea to have a training instructor to help you develop the right lifting techniques and proper stimulation of the body parts to ensure you do not create any long time damage to those healthy tendons and ligaments. Often, the presence of a good instructor would be necessary to teach you the way to lift weights and how to perform proper stimulation for the body parts without creating any damage to the ligaments and tendons.

there are many articles, websites, magazine columns and so on that all supply information and advice about the easiest ways to build muscle. So if there are so many different ways to build muscle then why is it so difficult for people to do so? The answer is in part within the question. With so much differing advice about, both on the net and in bookstores, web sites and magazines, how on earth is someone new to weight training supposed to make sense of it all?

Whilst some of this advice is good, much of it is irrelevant to the novice bodybuilder who just needs to get the basics down properly to start making progress. So with that in mind here are three sure fire steps to help anyone build muscle easily.

1) Train intensely. Try to include the following proven muscle building exercises in your routine: dead lifts, rows, squats, benchpresses and pull ups. These classic proven mass builders will ensure you build muscle easily. Try to veer away from exercises that promote isolation of individual muscles, these are really for muscle carving and defining and not for building mass. Remain focused in the weight room, push yourself hard for no longer than 45 minutes then leave.

2) Pay attention to muscle building nutrition. For many years experienced trainers have been quoted as saying that 80% of bodybuilding success is down to correct muscle building nutrition. This is still true today! As a general guide half of your food should come in the form of carbohydrates, protein should make up 30% and the remainder should come from fats.

The following foods are recommended, for carbohydrates: potatoes, rice, pasta, brown breads. For protein: turkey, beef, chicken and fish especially tuna and mackerel. these foods will supply all the fats that you need naturally. If you really wish to boost your progress and have the money available then try taking the following: whey protein, essential fatty, acids, creatine and a good multi-vitamin product.

3) Rest. Muscle recovers and grows whilst you are at rest so naturally you should spend sufficient time allowing your body to grow. Many novice bodybuilders do not understand just exactly how important it is that their body has a chance to recover properly after each workout. Two workouts per muscle group a week will be sufficient for most people.

Ok, I said at the start it was simple process and it is. If you just stick to those basics you too can build muscle easy. basically that is all you need to know, although you can delve much much deeper of course into all of these topic areas. Now with those things in mind, ensure correct muscle building nutrition, train hadr and intensely and give yourself time to recover!

When  a personal trainer first asks a new gym attendee what their goals are, they most often hear replies such as: “Build muscle lose fat”,  “build muscle then lose“, “burn fat build muscle”, ”build muscle and burn fat”. So it seems that most people want to get bigger muscles but also reduce their waistline and lose fat. In this article I ask is it possible to do this or is it just a myth sold to you by marketing gurus and slick advertisements?

Is it possible to simultaneously to build muscle mass and lose fat?

The answer is a resounding ‘yes’ although it is only possible with a good deal of discipline, calorie counting and with a fair amount of difficulty! To build muscle you need to take on excess calories than you work off throughout each leaving enough left to build muscle but not so much that they get stored as fat. If you don’t consume excess calories then you you won’t build muscle for sure, with too many extra calories then you may grow some muscle but you will of course add body fat tissue at the same time. The trick is too eat just enough calories to build muscle but not enough so that you put on fat. There are

If you wish to avoid adding fat at the same time as building muscle then you really have to work out your exact calorie requirements and then stick to them. to work out your calorie requirements then use the following simple equation that provides an approximate answer:

Find out your body weight and you percentage body fat e.g. 200 pounds with 10% body fat.

Figure out what your body’s lean mass is.g. 200 pounds taking off the 10% body fat leaves 190.

Times you lean body mass by 19 e.g. 190 multiplied by 19 equals = 3610

This is then the amount of calories you approximately need to eat to gain muscle mass provided you are doing effective workouts too. Whilst this is an approximate figure if you consumed 500-1000 extra calories then you would likely make more muscle gains and put on some body fat. this number of course is only an approximate figure and it would be difficult to track the number of calories you consume in a day anyway.

So I am guessing you are not overly excited at the prospect of the above methods, if so what are the alternatives available to you. Well the two step option is the most highly recommended and it is what most bodybuilders do. First thing you need to do is build muscle then lose weight. You will hear this also called a bulking phase followed by a cutting phase. This is a whole lot easier a in this first phase you can simply consume as much high quality food as you like, eat lots and often. Therefore all you need to do really is to take on board more calories than the above total. This bulking phase which should last 3-6 months will see you put on a few kilos in body fat but mainly you will gain muscle mass. Now you start to eat less calories and increase the cardio-vascular sessions so that you work off more calories per day than you take on.

This will lead to loss of body fat and over the course of a few months you can maintain the muscle mass and just lose the body fat. So in actuality looking at the results a year later you will have indee have built muscle and burnt fat but you will have achieved this by going through two stages. The final outcome is exactly the same however you will have made your way there a good deal easier by using two distinct steps.

If your aim is to build muscle then lose fat I highly recommend you do so in two distinct stages, build muscle then lose fat. Expert author Tom Venuto has the entire process and more broken down into simple steps for you, read the ‘Burn The Fat Feed The Muscle E-book’ Review here for more information on how to build muscle then lose fat.

Ok, great, so you have finally decided that you are going to do something about your skinny physique and try and pack on some muscle mass. Whether it is because you want to look good at the beach or you have just watched another ‘Rocky’ movie or you just want to improve your sporting performance. So obviously you are aware that you are going to have to life weights. However you may not be aware of what you are supposed to be eating for muscle building nutrition. This short guide will show you exactly what to eat but first we’ll go through a few of the basic guidelines for a sensible muscle building diet.

Firstly to build muscle eat more often. Try eating 5-7 small meals per day. This is due to the fact that excess calories are required in order for your body to support muscle gains. If you don’t get enough calories then you cannot build muscle. 5-6 small meals every day will mean that you can take on enough calories without stuffing yourself too much at any single meal.

Secondly, you will have to significantly reduce the amount of junk food in your diet. Go admit it, we are all at times prone to eating junk food at some time and it is these measl that we need to cut out.

Thirdly, you are going to have to consume more water than you did before. carry a water bottle around with you and keep one in your car. nearly all of the bodies reactions need H2O to some extent and of course it is required for muscle building reactions too.

Fourthyl, each meal should contain roughly the following proportions of carbohydrates, proteins and fats. Attempt to split your meals in to seperate amounts of 50% carbohydrate, 30% protein with the rest to come from fats.

Fifthly, you will need to educate yourself as to the kinds of foods that you should be eating. Here is a start to illustrate what some of the best muscle building foods are:

For protein: turkey, chicken, fish and shellfish, eggs, red meats, dairy products. These are brilliant sources of quality protein so include them in your daily meals as regularly as you can. Be aware that these are high in saturated fat so you would be wise to mix them with the following foods that supply protein but with much less fat: Egg whites, Lean meats like poultry and fish, Non-fat or low-fat milk and dairy products (skim milk and cottage cheese are terrific foods), Turkey breast, Lean cuts of red meat and skinless chicken breast.

For carbohydrates and sustained energy release: bread, bagel, pasta cereals, brown rice, oatmeal, and potatoes. For instant hits of energy take on board: fruits such as grapes, bananas, apple, raisins, orange and sports drinks.

The fat portion of the meal will naturally come from the foods that you will be consuming and will thus take care of itself. Also be sure to get plenty of vitamins and minerals from leafy green vegetables. If you want to buy supplements then you should go for a decent whey protein, essential fatty acids, creatine and a good multi-vitamin to start with.

Finally a word on timing of your meals. To build muscle eat within one hour of finishing your workout, before bed and immediately on rising. If you wish to pack on muscle mass then these are very important times. With the above muscle building diet guidelines in place then you are in an excellent position to start building muscle mass fast.

Just before I tackle the main purpose of this article which is to show how to build muscle vegetarian style I will briefly outline the different types of vegetarians. Vegans won’t eat dairy products or any other products of animals, pesco-vegetarians will cosume fish and other dairy products whereas lacto-ovo vegetarians will both consume milk and eat eggs but won’t eat meat. This is enough detail for our purposes here although bear in mind there are a few other types.

Why be vegetarian?

Due to the nature of the food that vegetarians avoid they are at a significantly reduced risk of the following: hypertension, cancers, coronary artery disease, and diabetes mellitus. As you can see the reasons for becoming vegetarian are quite compelling and that is before we even talk about the idealistic side of things such as saving animals, keeping food available for others, saving the rainforest, being more enviromentally friendly and so on.

Alright so how if I am vegetarian can I get enough protein to pack on muscle mass?

The answer to this question very simply is Soy. Soy contains all eight essential amino acids and in fact has higher levels of protein than beef. Soy is easy to get you hands on in forms such as: seitan, miso, tempeh, textured soy protein, soy milk and of course tofu. These can all be put in to a variety of delicous tasting dishes. Decent amounts of amino acids and proteins can also be found in rice, beans, seeds, legumes, nuts and even in vegetables.

Alright so that is protein dealt with but what about vitamins and minerals, particularly zinc, vitamin D, calcium, iron and vitamin B12?

Well, supplements should be taken by vegans for this. Vitamin B 12 is found easily in dairy products making this no cause for concern for other types of vegetarians. The others can easily be gotten from a decent meal replacement powder. Of course however many minerals and vitamins are easily available in the form of leafy green vegetables and fruit that you should not overlook if you wish to build muscle vegetarian style. 

So, overall there are many health benefits to being a vegetarian and being a vegetarian need not prevent you from achieving your bodybuilding goals. Planning is the key and this is just as true for none vegetarian bodybuilders also. With the above guidelines in mind go ahead and build muscle vegetarian style!! 

There is much advice floating around both on and offline about how to build muscle fast. As a personal trainer myself here are a few little known facts and secrets that I personally consider worth your while contemplating on your quest to build muscle mass:

I often hear that you should train each muscle group just once a week. Whilst this may produce optimal progress for extreme hardgainers it is not true for most people. Sure, you should avoid overtraining but like most things in life you won’t get good at something by practicing it just once a week, this is true to a certain extent in weight lifting also. Muscle groups should be trained no less than twice per week. Ideally you should rotate your workouts through periods when you are near overtraining and periods where you near undertraining. This provides times of great stress for the body and also times when the body has more time for growth and repair than necessary. This technique will help you avoid training plateaus.

Make sure your workouts last no longer than 45 mintues. If you deem that time limit to short then possibly your routine is too lengthy or you are not remaining focused and intense in your workout efforts. If you really focus on quality and intensity and avoiding distractions 45 minutes ought to be plenty. If your workouts last longer then this then testosterone levels drop dramatically due to the increased production of cortisol which actually causes the body to eat muscle tissue and store fat. exactly the opposite to what we want.

You need to cycle your training. after a while your body adapts to a routine so that it no longer stimulates growth. You should change your routine before your gains diminish completely. You need to ensure that you don’t change your training sessions to frequently either. Doing this will confuse your body too much and prevent it from getting into a nice groove and feel like you are just simply spinning your wheels.

Regardless of whether you follow the above rules or not you will never make big gains if you simply use the wrong exercises. The right exercises are exercises that allow you to perform multi-joint movements and are know as compound exercises. The best ones are: dead lifts, bench presses, rows, squats, pull ups, shoulder presses plus any exercise that moves your entire body through air ie, not just moving individual limbs. If you use these exercises, with a few of their variations and correct muscle building nutrition then you can’t help but stimulate muscle mass growth. With those tips in mind, go hit the gym and build some serious muscle mass.

As we are all aware a good muscle building diet is critical to build muscle mass. The timing of your meals is also important. I suggest that you have a good solid meal about two hours before your gym session. This should give enough time to mean that you don’t hit the gym when you are bloated or still feeling full and sluggish.

Ideally this preworkout meal should be something that you are used to and that you know won’t make you feel heavy and bloated as you want to be at your best to give your all in the gym. You should try to include some slow burning energy such as oatmeal but make sure that you have some protein first. If you don’t eat protein first then you are putting yourself at risk of becoming tired. This occurs as both the protein and carbohydrate cause the body to release specific chemicals that have differing affects. Protein stimulates the release of tyrosine which signals your brain to be alert and energetic as opposed to the carbohydrate that stimulates the release of tryptophan which instructs the brain to make you feel lethargic. Therefore always eat the protein first.

If you really want to know how to build muscle fast then great advice is to drink a protein and carbohydrate shake about half an hour before you workout. This will significantly boost your energy for your workout. Ingredients might include whey protein, maltodextrin, wxymaize or dextrose. The total drink should have around 25 grams of protein and about forty grams of carbs. Doing this will boost your insulin levels which is one of the bodies most powerful muscle building hormones. What’s more it will also reduce the production of cortisol which has a negative affect on building muscle.

Remember that spending time in the gym when you start your session already hungry and lethargic is not likely to make it a productive session. Always try to have fruit or meal replacement powders or bars handy should you not have time for a proper pre-workout meal.

As regards caffeine why not try get your hit from a nice antioxidant loaded green tea it provides less caffeine but is also a good deal better for you in many ways. One more thing, don’t forget to keep taking on board the water all day. Ok bear those things in mind and you’ll be hitting the gym in peak mode for an awesome muscle stimulating workout which you will be able to grow from because you will have had the correct muscle building nutrition.

Normally bodybuilding articles talk about how to build muscle, diet, training workouts, muscle building nutrition and so on, however whilst these are all really important there is one things slightly different I would like to introduce to you and your muscle building armoury. It is known as the reticular activating system (RAV).

The RAV works alongside the visual parts of our brain and directs our attention to certain things that our sub conscious has programmed into it, to be important to achieve our goals. This sub-conscious thought pattern that we have is literally what makes us notice, hear and take action on the things that we do on a daily basis.

Neuroscientists now have evidence to prove this and therefore even skeptics should belive now that positive thinking and the law of attraction work. If you do not know what the law of attraction is it is basically the premise that ‘what you think about, you bring about’ or ‘thoughts become things’. Now in the past this was thought of as being a bit to new agey for the majority of people however there is an increasing acceptance of this mental approach worldwide.

Now it doesn’t matter if you take the neuro-scientists approach about it or the metaphysical approach to it because it will work either way. Therefore by reprogramming our subconscious mind it is possible to activate our RAV which in turn will ensure that we take the correct steps to achieve our goals as we will simply be recognisiing the most effective way to get there more easily. Some people will experience beneficial co-incidences that will significantly aid there progress, this is from uncommon but often gives this ‘law of attraction’ a slightly magical feel whereas in reality those things were probably there all the while anyway!

So what use is any of this to a bodybuilder? Well think about your current thought patterns. What is it precisely that you are saying to yourself on day to day basis. Are they thoughts such as ‘losing weight is impossible for me’ or ‘My muscles won’t grow’ for if they are then that is precisely what your RAV system is selecting for you to notice and take action upon on a day to day basis. It is therefore your everyday sub conscious thought process that you need to alter to positive muscle building thought processes such as: ‘muscle mass come quickly and easily’ or ‘I am getting huge fast’ and so on.

How can you change these patterns? Here are a couple of things to try:

1)       Visualisation: first you need to set aside 5 minutes or so each day to do this. Simply shut your eyes and visualise in your minds eye exactly how you want your physiques to be. Large biceps, huge chest muscle, enormous thighs and so on, ensure that you can see as clearly as possible this vision and keep it in your minds eye with a sense of strong self belief.’

2)       Speak out aloud clearly and confidently simple statements like: I am extremely fit and healthy, I am huge and muscular, I am growing more and more each day and so on.

Make sure you practice these everyday. For most people just 21-30 days is all that is required to over ride the old thought patterns and to start operating on the new ones. Following that, don’t stop doing them keep going to continually reaffirm your new thought patterns.

If you don’t believe that this stuff works then I suggest that you take a look at a few sportsmens autobiographies or sports studies books, I gaurantee that you will find these processes talked about in depth, particularly visualisation which is an amazingly productive technique that should get daily usage!

Ok with these positive thoughts and feelings in mind, go build muscle mass!