Posts Tagged ‘build muscle mass’
7 Overlooked Tips For Packing On Muscle Mass
Depending on where you look there is a lot of great information out there on how to build muscle up. However here a re a few tips that you may not have heard before but can certainly help you in term of building muscle up. Here they are:
Try drinking green tea. This can inhibit the enzyme that inhibits nor-epinephrine which mean that you should experience raised levels of this muscle building metabolic hormone which can also aid in weight loss. It is also full of anti-oxidants and can help significantly in terms of post workout recovery and also general health.
Ingest the healthy fats. These are critical to the safe functioning of many part sof the body such as the heart, brain, energy production and hormone regulation. Great sources of this are: oily fish, natural peanut butter, avocado, and oily dressings.
Ingest casein protein. This specific protein is digested by the body very slowly and is therefore released in to the body gradually. This is great news if you consume it just before sleeping because your body can then make use of it in order to build muscle up whilst you sleep.
Ingest 20 to 30 grams of whey protein first thing. Upon rising take a protein shake. This will put a stop to the catabolic state of your body that you may have been experiencing whilst you were asleep and also give you a solid start on achieving your protein intake target for the day.
On body parts you find difficult to grow try using dropsets. This is a very intense technique that can stimulate growth in even the most stubborn body part. Simply do your set as normal and when you have squeezed out your last rep reduce the weight by 10 percent and do more reps, then reduce the weight once more. Continue repeating this process as many times as you can bear but the next day you are likely to experience significant muscle soreness and a tremendous burn at the time.
Ingest lots of water. Do not underestimate the benefits of reaming well hydrated during the day. water is of upmost importance to all muscle building reactions in the body and that includes reactions for muscle growth.
Keep learning and educate yourself. There are a great deal of different methods to stimulating muscle growth. try out alternative methods and find out which one helps you build muscle the most.
So, by applying some of the above weight gain tips you should be able to build up muscle even faster than before. If you wanto to look lean and ripped we highly recommend the following burn the fat build the muscle ebook. Finally, good luck.
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Get A Bigger Bench Press With These Awesome Tips
So, how many kilos can you bench? It is gym enthusiasts favourite question to ask all around the globe. In fact the amount you can bench is a great yardstick for over all strength and is probably the best way to gain muscle mass on your upper body and therefore the exercise has reached almost mythical status. So here we shall outline three great tips that will really help you improve your maximum bench press.
1) Use drop-sets. These are fantastic in giving you a real burn and really forcing your muscles into new muscle growth. To do these simply perform your bench-press exercise as you normally would and when you can not do any more simply take off a weight disc and do as many more as you can. Then reduce the weight once more and pump out as many more as you possibly can. Keep stripping the bar in this manner until there is very little weight left or until your muscles are not able to perform any more. This technique will leave you rather sore for quite a few more days than normal as it is very intense. Make sure your protein intake is high to help build the muscles back stronger for the next few days.
2) Don’t train your chest muscles. Instead hit your tricep muscles on their own. You can really focus on increasing the strength of your triceps by working out like this. Once you have done this for 3-4 weeks go back to your benchpress and I can you will more than likely beat your previous best. This is because your chest will have had a really good rest period to completely recover from lots of previous training session and also your triceps will now be stronger. It stands to reason that by increasing your triceps strength you will be able to bench more as they take considerable strain when doing regular benchpressing.
3) Do ten sets each consisting of ten repetitions. This is one more intense and tough technique, indeed Arnold Schwarzenegger was a big fan of this technique. Basically you press as much weight as you can for ten repetitions and then perform another set of ten reps. Repeat this until you have done ten sets of ten reps. You should be lowering the weight gradually from one set to the next and you’ll probably be needing 2-3 minute breaks in between each set. The idea of this is to really give your chest muscles some new stimulus to grow. Again expect to be sore for a week after this workout but also expect to increase your benchpress when you do return to bench pressing again. This is perhaps the fastest way to gain muscle on your chest if done correctly nd is great no no nonsense muscle building.
OK, I hope you found that useful so why not go ahead and give those tips a try in your next pecs workout.
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Build Muscle Up Fast: You Are One Secret Away From Massive Gains!
Spending hours in the gym to build muscle up and not making progress? Excellent news! There is a very good chance that you are struggling to build muscle up for one very important reason. Just this simple knowledge can help increase your power to build muscle up. For many beginning bodybuilders this will be the first time they have heard of it and as such it could beneift them greatly.
So what is this unique secret? An amazing new miracle pill or something?
No not at all. It is something known as Cortisol and has actyually been known about for a long time but its affects are still ignored by some.
What actually is cortisol?
Cortisol is a hormone released by the body steadily throughout the day and is produced in response to stress such as weight lifting. Levels of cortisol decrease steadily througout the day so are lowest in the evening.
What does it do?
Well, it actually improves short term memory, helps detoxify the liver and aids in regulating the blodds sugar levels. However it can increase blood pressure and reduce bone density if your cortisol levels are excessive, although this is not normal. However critically it does diminish muscle because it aids in the body using muscle for energy rather than fat. This is the primary reason why training sessions should be less than one hour duration. They will actually be reducing their progress and not increasing it after this time!
Here are a few guidelines to ensure that you are not wasting your time trying to build muscle up:
1) limit your cardio workouts, too much cardio causes the body to release cortisol which as explained is not what we need.
2) Try to not consume too much caffeine as this will increase your cortisol levels.
3) Keep your workouts down to one hour in the gym. wear headphones if this helps you to stay focussed.
4) Stress causes the body to release more cortisol too so try to relax, although granted this is easier said than done.
5) Consume small frequent meals as infrequent meals make the body assume it is starving and will thus try and use muscle mass as a form of energy before it makes use of fat reserves by releasing more cortisol.
6) Sleep. This is when your cortisol levels are lowest and your muscle building hormones highest so aim for 8 hours if possible.
With those building muscle tips in mind you should be able to give your workouts a great boost and help you to build up muscle more efficiently.
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7 Muscle Building Errors To Avoid
We hear loads of advice and guidance on what to do to build up muscle but much of it is conflicting. For that reason we are going to clear up a few things right now about what not to do to build up muscles. Here we go, 7 things not to do when trying to build muscle up:
1) Train for more than 45 minutes. training longer than this can be counter productive as at this point a hormone is released that actually inhibits the muscle building process, train for less than this and the hormones are at the right level for building muscle.
2) Consume lots of all foods. Often you hear people say to eat as much of everything as you possibly can. Well of course we need extra calories to add muscle mass but do you really believe that stuffing yourself full of E numbers, fatty red meats, fast food, simple carbs (sugars) and so on is going to be healthy for you long term. Of course not stay with the nutritious muscle building foods and these will then make sure that you develop lean muscle mass and prevent your body suffering long term health problems.
3) Isolation exercises. That refers to exercises such as tricep presses that place focus on one individual muscle alone. This is not an efficient use of time and energy. Stick to multi joint exercises like presses, squats, pull ups and so on. These exercises stimulate muscle growth in more than just one muscle at a time.
4) Ignoring cardio-vascular fitness. I’m sure you have heard that you should avoid aerobic stuff as it uses up valuable calories that could be used for burning muscle. yes this is correct but come on there is a sensible balance to be had. Sure get big, but do you really not want to be able to walk up a few flights of stairs without losing your breathe. Train aerobically two or three times a week and just consume additional calories to make up for these sessions.
5) Switch exercises a lot. You may know that variety ensures muscles keep growing, that is correct but naturally at the same time not letting your muscles establish an exercise rhythm can also limit your progress that you might otherwise make. Stick with an exercise for a couple of months before dropping it.
6) Over train. The major cause of lack of muscle gain is over training. For most people 2-3 sessions a week will be suffice.
7) Give in. Way too many people stop working out just because there muscle growth eases up somewhat. This is the exact time when you should be rising to the challenge and training with more intensity, paying attention to muscle building nutrition and showing determination.
Go get em!
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Build Muscle Up: Three Things You Absolutely Must Do
Just as a tree cannot grow with out sufficient water, sunlight and soil no matter what else you give it, to build up muscle your body also has several things that you absolutely must provide it with in order to grow. No amount of fancy exercise equipment, supplement or outfit will allow you to grow muscle if you do not take the following essential steps:
1) Eat big. Some people never really embrace this fact! If you want more muscle mass then you are going to need to supply your body with a supply of excess calories for it to build muscle up with. If you are not taking on extra calories then your body has nothing to build up muscleswith. A good way to make sure you do not forget this is to buy a set of over sized crockery. In this manner you constantly remind yourself each meal of your need for calories for muscle growth. Consuming a high number of calories will be easier if you break your meals down into 5-6 meals.
2) Workout intensely. If you are not training hard in the gym then your muscles have no reason to increase in size and strength. Give your muscles a reason to grow by training intensely for up to 45 minutes. Stick to the time proven mass building exercises like: bench presses, deadlifts, shoulder presses, squats,. These are the most efficient mass builders preferable over many others.
3) Drink ample amounts of water. Just as your body needs excess amounts of quality calories for to support muscle growth your body also needs water for all of the muscle building reactions to occur. Your workouts will of course increase your need for water. Attempt to have a bottle of water to hand throughout the day.
And of course just as you cannot expect a plant to grow if you throw harmful substances and so on on it there are several things you absolutely must not do in order to build up muscles
1) Do not over-train. You are more likely to decrease your strength then increase it if you train too much. Why? Following an intense training session your muscles are actually broken down by micro-tears. It then builds itself back up bigger and stronger than previously over the next few days. You will always be unable to grow if you do not allow you muscle sufficient time to recover. Rest is a key factor.
2) Do not stuff your body full of useless calories. Sure you need to get a lot of calories on board to build muscle up but you need quality calories as well. Food products such as these: leafy green vegetables, pasta, fruit, rice, eggs, fish, chicken, potatoes and so on should be normal. For muscle building these are all awesome.
3) Do not quit ever. The same thing does not work for everybody all the time. If you are not making progress change things and experiment with different exercises, a different diet in fact do whatever it takes but never ever give up. Focus on your goal and you can make it. do not forget to enjoy the process of growing and being healthy, don’t punish yourself for not turning into Arnie overnight it will take time, keep a training log to monitor your progress and for motivation.
So ask yourself honestly and sincerely if you really are adhering to these guidelines as best as you can. If you are not then if you really want to build muscle up then wouldn’t now be a good time to change?
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Building Lean Muscle Mass: Little Known Exercises That Work
There are hundreds of different exercises you can do with free weights and resistance machines or with just your body weight to build muscle mass. You should include mainly multi-joint compound exercises in your workout as they build muscle fastest. The most popular and effective of these are: dead lifts, squats, bench press, pull ups, shoulder presses and rows.
Whilst they are very effective your body needs to be constantly challenged in new and different ways if your goal is building lean muscle mass. For some reason theses following exercises are often overlooked which is surprising as they are real mass builders. From time to time try and include these exercises in your workouts. Variety provides new stimulus for your muscles to grow and prevents you from getting bored.
For calf muscles try running on the sand, skipping or donkey raises. You will get a real burn in your calves and get good growth from running on sand and or from skipping using a jump rope. as your calf muscles are generally used to endurance activities like walking all day they tend to respond better to longer endurance type exercises when seeking muscle growth. Donkey raises are when you place your toes on the edge of a 3-4 inch high block bend over to 90 degrees at the waist and rest your hands on a bard or bench at that height. get a friend or training to jump on to your back then pump your calves to move all of your body weight and theirs up and down. This exercise makes you use muscles surrounding the calves as stabilisers too making it more difficult than using a machine to train them.
Can you remember the last time you performed dips to hit your chest muscles? The entire chest region and triceps can be hit by doing dips. Many older gyms have installed parallel bars for when this exercise was really popular in the past. Different grips can be experimented with as they often form a v shape. This means you can really hit different areas of the chest and triceps effectively.
Try performing stiff legged deadlifts to nail your hamstrings. This exercise is really effective for the hamstrings yet used very little. The motion is the same as deadlifts but you must maintain straight legs throughout by bending at the waist, keeping a straight back and lifting the barbell upwards. Warning these can make you very sore and also on lifting the weight keep it close in to your legs for good control.
Make use of bicep hammer curls for upper arm growth! The pal of your hand is kept facing in towards your body at all times, this is the only difference from regular curls. This directs much stress on to an inner bicep muscle giving it both thickness and size throughout and is named the brachialis muscle, the exercise also hits the main bicep muscle too.To stop yourself from cheating and swinging the bar to aid your curl stand with your back flat against a wall whilst curling.
When was the last time you noticed anyone hitting their quads with lunges in the weights room? These are great for providing mass and shap for the quad muscles. With a pair of dumb belss in your hands take a decent stride forwardsand bend both knees down to 90 degress step backwards and repeat with the other leg. A great option if you do not want to squat.
For developing muscle definition and for a great cardio workout how about trying boxing padwork great for the upper body or uphill sprints for your legs or hitting an exercise bike for uphill intervals after a leg workout. Thats is a real beauty of a muscle maker!
so go ahead and switch your workout around a little to include some of these great exercises for building lean muscle mass.
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Forgotten Exercises That Work!
There are hundreds of different exercises you can do with free weights and resistance machines or with just your body weight to build muscle mass. You should include mainly multi-joint compound exercises in your workout as they build muscle fastest. The time proven and most effective are: shoulder presses, bench press, pull ups, dead lifts, squats and rows.
Whilst they are very effective your body needs to be constantly challenged in new and different ways if your goal is building lean muscle mass. These following exercises work astonishingly well and are yet for some reason often overlooked. For variety every now and then try and include them in to your routines. Workout routines can be prevented from getting boring and can stimulate more muscle growth by introducing variety.
Try running on the sand, donkey raises or a jump rope for getting big calves. Running on the sand is very taxing and the bouncing motion in skipping will provide a real burn. because the muscles in your calves are normally made use of in activities that are largely endurance based such as walking they often grow more when stimulated using higher rep ranges. donkey raises involves placing your feet on the edge of a block of wood, weights disc or step bending over at the waist to 90 degrees and resting your hands on a solid surface for support. get a friend or training to jump on to your back then pump your calves to move all of your body weight and theirs up and down. stabiliser muscles all around the calve have to be used in order to perform these correctly making them more difficult.
For the chest muscles when was the last time you did some dips? Dips are a tremendous mass builder for the entire chest region and also the triceps. Many older gyms have two long bars that run parallel to eachother for exactly this. Often they form a v shape which allows you to use different grips. This means you can really hit different areas of the chest and triceps effectively.
What about doing stiff legged deadlifts to really punish your hamstrings. This exercise is really effective for the hamstrings yet used very little. The motion is the same as deadlifts but you must maintain straight legs throughout by bending at the waist, keeping a straight back and lifting the barbell upwards. Maintain control of the weight by keeping it close to your legs whilst raising it and be warned that this exercise can leave your hamstrings very sore the next day.
Make use of bicep hammer curls for upper arm growth! These are the same as regular dumb bell curls only you keep the palm of your hand facing in towards the body throughout. This directs much stress on to an inner bicep muscle giving it both thickness and size throughout and is named the brachialis muscle, the exercise also hits the main bicep muscle too. Stand with your back straight and flat against the corner of a wall to prevent yourself from using moment to assist the movement for a real burn.
When was the last time you saw anyone do lunges in the gym? These are particularly good for giving your quads mass and shape. With a dumb bell in either hand take a large stride straight forwards and then bend both knees down to approximately 90 degress, return to the start position and do the same again on the other leg. A great option if you do not want to squat.
For developing muscle definition and for a great cardio workout how about trying boxing padwork great for the upper body or uphill sprints for your legs or hitting an exercise bike for uphill intervals after a leg workout. Thats is a real beauty of a muscle maker!
With those few exercises in mind go ahead and mix your program up a bit for more muscle mass.
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To Build Muscle Fastest Should I Avoid Cardio Workouts?
A typical dilemma for any active sportsmen who lifts weights and wants to gain muscle mass is that they know there goal to build muscle up conflicts with the fact that they do a lot of cardio-vascular work. How can someone like this build muscle fastest whilst still doing cardio, indeed is it even possible?
Quite often it is recommended that to build muscles fastest you ought to keep aerobic training down to as little as possible. This is often stated due to the fact that aerobic training sessions do two particular things that may restrict muscle building, namely: 1) burn an abundance of calories 2) speed up your metabolism. Both of these two things contribute to the same problem, namely, not getting enough calories on board. The next question to naturally consider is that of how many calories should I be taking on board each day?
Well, to keep at the same weight every day you would be required to consume enough calories to cover the energy usage of your body as if it were resting (basal metabolic rate), then eat enough extra calories to provide energy for your workouts. Each day you need to eat a further 500 calories if you wish to build muscle mass.
Can I work this number out?
Yes, there definitely is and one way of finding this total is by following the Katch-McArdle formula (BMR based on lean body weight). Here it is:
Men: BMR = 66 + (13.7 X wght in kg) + (5 X hght in cm) - (6.8 X age in years)
Women: BMR = 655 + (9.6 X wght in kgs) + (1.8 X hght in cm) - (4.7 X age in years)
Once you have gotten this figure you should then multiply it by one of the following to allow for your daily activity levels:
Sedentary = BMR X 1.2 (desk job, little or no exercise)
Lightly active equals BMR X 1.375 (sports/light exercise 1-3 days/wk)
Mod. active equals BMR X 1.55 (sports 3-5 days/wk/moderate exercise)
Very active = BMR X 1.725 (hard exercise/sports 6-7 days/wk)
Extr. active = BMR X 1.{9 (hard daily exercise/sports & physical job or 2X day training, i}.e marathon, contest etc
So, should you be doing cardio and weights frequently then you should multiply this by at least 1.725. Your daily energy needs will be safely covered by this amount. This amount then needs to be altered to suit your goals. Assuming your goal is muscle building a further 500 calories each day need to be added to this amount.
So, for arguments sake lets say the number you figure out is 3000 calories then that would mean 6 meals everyday which each contain 500 calories. Each meal would then be made up of 62 grams of carbohydrate, 37 grams of protein and 11 grams of fat. This is due to the fact that a gram of protein or carbohydrate equals 4 calories where as a gram of fat equals 9 calories.
Correct muscle building nutrition and working out your calorie needs like this is what is going to ensure you build muscles fastest, not any miracle new exercise!
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Tips To Build Muscles Fast
Here are a few quick tips to help you build muscle as fast a you possibly can. No messing around here seven top build muscles tips:
1) Eat frequently and often. For newcomers to bodybuilding you may find it hard to take on board enough calories to build muscle mass. Consume about 6 meals each day and eat very large portions every day to overcome this problem.
2) Rest plentifully. Your muscles need times to rest in order to grow. They do no grow in the gym. So just as you should workout to build muscle mass you should also rest a lot to get big.
3) Don’t train for longer than 45 minutes a time. This is because training longer than this causes your body to release a hormone that is detrimental to muscle building. Finishing your training after more than 30 to 45 minutes means that your body’s hormones are at the perfect level to support muscle building.
4) Maintain a logbook of your training. tracking your progress provides information on what workouts work well for you. You can then use them again at a later date. They also allow you to have meaningful goals for every training session providing motivation and confirmation that you are getting better.
5) Make use of supplements. If you have cash spare make use of the following supplements to enhance your ability to build muscle mass: whey protein, multivitamins, essential fatty acids and possibly creatine. If you do not have money for this do not lose heart, you can make awesome progress with simple good old correct muscle building nutrition.
6) Train with determination, focus and intensity. Maintain intensity in your workouts by using techniques like: negatives, super sets, giant sets and drop sets.
7) Don’t give up! You are going to be in this for the long haul. Sure you want to get big as soon as possible but remember the journey to get what you want is half the fun. So with those brutally effective building muscle tips in mind go out and get huge.
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Build Muscles Mass Fast By Applying These Techniques
Stressing your muscles in different ways is one of the keys to continuous and uninterrupted growth to build muscles mass. By completing the same weight training routine again and again your muscles become very familiar with that particular type of stress and little by little the routines ability to trigger muscle growth will lessen. Fortunately there are a few easy things we can do to shake things up a bit build muscles mass and get your muscles growing again.
1) Progressive Overload. Well actually this should be done as a matter of course. You may either keep trying to do more reps or keep increasing the weight. A combination of the two is fine also
2) Giant sets. This is when you do one exercise set and then follow this immediately with another exercise for the same muscle group. For example, lateral pull-downs done straight after rows. You ought then rest for a minute or two and the repeat.
3) A superset is where you do one regular set immediately followed by an exercise for the opposing muscle group. This can create a really good pump in that muscle group. Such as, rows after bench presses, tricep pushdowns followed by bicep curls.
4) Repititions that are forced. On a regular set, instead of failing on the last rep you basically get a friend to asisst you in completing the final rep and then to help you in doing a further 2 or 3 reps. The assistance should mean that you can still only just do it yourself and should be minimal.
5) Negatives. This is when you do a normal regular set to failure and then with the help of a partner complete another rep but then you have to lower the weight under complete control and slowly yourself.
6) Drop set exercises. Do a regular set until failure, lower the amount on the bar and do a few more repetitions, decrease the amount of weight lifted once more and continue doing more reps and keep doing this. This is a very intense technique that creates a real burn and can help build muscle mass a great deal.
This is just a start on the different varieties of exercise that can be done to build muscles mass but be warned these can leave you feeling quite sore for the next few days so always ensure that you allow sufficient rest between exercises.
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