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Posts Tagged ‘build muscle mass’

Maybe you have experienced this before whereby you have decided to improve your health and fitness and in the first instance you feel really motivated. Perhaps you saw an inspirational movie that caused you to take action, maybe a friend of yours you hadn’t seen for a long time showed up having lost a heap of weight or having piled on muscle mass or maybe you are just sick of feeling lethargic and overweight. Whatever the initial stimulus was, you began exercising and then continued to exercise for a while.

However after a while your motivation decreased, you got busy at work, you got tired of making the effort or the results weren’t as good as you’d hoped for and you unconsciously quit your healthy exercise lifestyle. If that all sounds familiar then here are a few easy ways to help regain and sustain your motivation for a healthier lifestyle: 

Try setting an enjoyable goal. For example,what about planning out a mountain biking/kayaking/hiking holiday in an exotic tough part of the world such as the Himalayas,The Alps or The Candadian Rockies. With this trip in mind you really have a goal to aim for. You will need to be in good physical health in order to enjoy your trip to the fullest. If your trip is in 5 montsh time then you can plan a realistic schedule with your fitness goals in mind.

Optin to take part in a local area event. I bet there are plenty of local events that you can get involved with simply have a look on line. Choose one of these events as a target to shoot for. Inform a close friend of yours about your future intentions so they can act as a buddy and provide encouragement to you and come to support you on the day. 

Take up a sport or hobby, this doesn’t have to be an ultra serious thing just a light hearted game of soccer or hockey at the weekends but it gives you an easy and enjoyable way to monitor your fitness levels. Of course the initial couple of sessions may be very taxing but you will soon notice an improvement and start to look and feel better.

Visualise. Ok this might sound a bit odd at first but try and find a bit of time each day to sit and visualise in your minds eye exactly how you wish to feel and look. Carrying this out trigger powerful signals to be sent to your sub conscious mind that are about your everyday decisions and day to day actions. Repeat this daily and continuously and your behaviour will naturally alter itself and begin to take you towards your goals automatically. This works by the way, nearly all top sportsmen use this in some form or other.

Try to involve both your friends family and even your pet dog if you like. You are much less likely to lose interest and quit the more people that are involved. You are much less likely to not go and exercise if your friend is on the other end of the phone asking where you are.

Educate yourself. Be curious find out about how to build muscle up, find out how to get a 6 pack, find out how to shed pounds, find out what muscle building nutrition you need for no nonsense muscle building and so on. By improvingyour knowledge you are more than likely to increase the rate of your improvement and therefore maintain motivation levels.

Don’t compare yourself to others. I don’t care who exactly you are there is aways going to be people fitter, sexier, more muscular or whatever than you are. Accept this fact and realise that you all go through this process of life from your own differing perspectives. Pay more attention to how you feel than to anything else, if you feel good then you are likely getting healthier.

So, with those tips in mind go hit the gym and do whatever it is that you enjoy doing to keep fit, build lean muscle mass or whatever else you want to do, you can do it, just keep it fun. The following is highly recommended for lean muslc growth burn the fat build the muscle book.

So, how many kilos can you bench? It is one of the most often asked questions by strength athletes and bodybuilders the world over. 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 in this article we will provide you with three tips for developing your bench press.

1) Use drop-sets. These are really effective for giving your chest a massive muscle burn and really stressing the muscles. To do these quite simply do your bench-press exercise as normal but once you can no longer do anymore reps simply take off a weight disc and bang out as many more reps as you possibly can. Then once more take some more weight off the bar and perform as many more reps as you possibly can. Keep reducing the weight on the bar in this fashion until their is no weight left or until you are not able to complete any more reps. This is a very intense technique and will leave you sore for a few days after. Ensure that your protein intake remains at a high level in order to aid you in building the muscle back stronger.

2) Cease training your chest. Rather train the triceps by themselves for a change. By doing so you can focus on strengthening your tricep muscle a great deal more. Once you have done this for 3-4 weeks return to your regular bench-pressing workout and you will are highly likely to top your previous best bench-press. 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. Because you triceps take a great deal of the work load during benchpressing it is obvious that you will be able to press more if you strengthen your tricep muscles.

3) Ten Sets of Ten. This is another really hard core technique, indeed Arnold Schwarzenegger was a fan of this. Basically you benchpress as much weight as you can handle for ten reps and then complete another ten repetitions. Continue doing this until you have done ten sets consisting of ten reps each. You will have to reduce the weight gradually but allow yourself two to three minutes rest between sets. The idea of this is to really give your chest muscles some new stimulus to grow. Once more expect to be particularly sore for maybe a week or so following this workout but also expect increase your maximum bench-press on your return to the gym. 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.

Muscle building nutrition is actually very simple and is a major factor in your bodybuilding success. However many people seem to get confused when they are putting together a muscle building diet. For that reason here is a simple and easy to understand and implement set of rules that anyone can use to pack on muscle mass. Here they are:

1) Eat 5-7 small meals each day. This ensure your muscle have a continual supply of energy and decreases the chances of the body storing food as fat. Scrap your three meals per day mindset. This is definitly one of the most important weight gain tips going.

2) Every meal needs to contain at least 30 grams of protein and also a lot of quality carbohydrate. carbohydrates are widely available from rice, pasta, potatoes and bread. Great protein sources are tuna, red meats, egg whites and milk.

3) Use supplements. The most basic supplement required is a protein supplement that ought to be consumed immediately after training and before sleeping.

4) Steer clear of simple (sugary) carbohydrates. Even though your energy will rise quickly it will drop down leaving you deflated soon enough. It may also produce problems with your insulin metabolism and trigger the storage of excess fat.

5) Avoid fats and too much salt. Good fats from olive oil, peanut butter and fish are good for you and should be in your diet but bad fast from vegetable oil butter and animal fats need to be avoided like the plague, that rules out junk food too!

6) Eat a pre workout meal. This should consist of a decent amount of complex carbs and also protein about an hour before your training session. this will make sure that protein is immediately available to your muscles and also give them plenty of energy for your training session.

7) Be sure to get post workout nutrition. Carbs and protein are essential at this time due to that fact that the muscle have just been broken down. Superb for this is a whey protein shake. Make sure you get at least 40-50 grams at this time.

Remain well hydrated. This is undoubtedly the most crucial part of your diet. Your muscle tissue quality is reliant upon this and it is also critical for all reactions that take place within the body.

And lastly be sure to consume lots of quality calories. You have to consume more calories than you burn off in order to build muscle. You are not likely to add any muscle if you simply do not take on board enough calories. So now you know how to get bigger muscles know excuses go do it!

Depending on where you look there is a lot of great information out there on how to build muscle up. However what follows are a number of tips that can really aid you in terms of stacking on muscle mass. Here they are:

Try drinking green tea. This can inhibit the enzyme that inhibits nor-epinephrine which mean that you should experience increased levels of this muscle building metabolic hormone which can also help in fat loss too. It is also packed full of antioxidants which are great for general health and also for post workout recovery.

Eat 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. Oily fish, natural peanut butter, avocado and oily dressings are all excellent sources of this.

Eat casein protein. This type of protein takes a greater length of time to digest so therefore it creates an ongoing release of protein. 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 between 20 and 30 grams of whey protein as soon as you can on waking. Upon rising take a protein shake. This will put a stop to the catabolic state of your body that you may have been going through whilst you were sleeping and furthermore give you a great start on achieving your daily protein intake target.

Try using dropsets for those bodyparts that you have difficulty making grow. 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.

Take on board lots of water. It is important not to under estimate the positive benefits of reminaing well hydrated during the day. water is very important for a great deal of chemical reactions in the body especially muscle building reactions.

Continue learning as much as you can. There a great variety of alternative strategies to develop your physique. 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.

Spending hours in the gym to build muscle up and not making progress? Good news! There is every chance that there is just one reason stopping your from masive gains. this knowledge alone will help you enormously in your attempts 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 exactly is this well kept secret? A new miracle pill or something?

No not at all. It is a hormone know as cortisol, known about for a long time but ignored by many weight lifters.

Exactly what 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. Cortisol levels are greater in the morning and drop slightly through the day.

What exactly does it do?

Well it increases short term memory, helps rid the liver of toxins and helps regulate blood sugar levels. However it can increase blood pressure and reduce bone density if your cortisol levels are excessive, although this is not normal. However it will decrease muscle mass as it promotes the use of muscle as energy and not 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 drink too much caffeine as this can also cause corisol levels to rise.

3) Keep your workouts down to one hour in the gym. wear headphones if this helps you to stay focussed.

4) Try to relax as stress causes the body to release more cortisol.

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 the time when your muscle mass building hormones are highest and your level of cortisol is lowest therefore attempt to get 8 hours sleep.

With those no nonsense muscle building tips in mind you should be able to give your workouts a great boost and help you to build up muscle more efficiently.

As we are all aware a good muscle building diet is critical to build muscle up. What is also important is the timing of your meals. 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.

In an ideal world this preworkout snack ought to be something that you are used to and that you know won’t make you feel heavy and bloated as you want to be feeling 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. You risk making yourself lethargic if you consume the protein after the carbohydrate. This happens because both the protein and carbohydrate cause the body to release certain chemicals that affect the brain. Protein stimulates the release of tyrosine which signals your brain to be alert and energetic as opposed to the carbohydrate which stimulates the release of tryptophan and instructs the brain to make you feel tired. Therefore always eat the protein first.

If you really want to know how to build muscles quickly then great advice is to drink a protein and carbohydrate shake about half an hour before you workout. This will give you a good boost of ebergy for your session. Ingredients should include whey protein, maltodextrin, wxymaize or dextrose. Try to aim for 25 grams of protein and around 40 grams of carbohydrate. Doing this will boost your insulin levels which is one of the bodies most powerful muscle building hormones. Furthermore it will also cut down the amount of cortisol that is produced by your body which has a negative impact on muscle building.

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 keep fruit or meal replacement powders or bars to hand should you ever not have time for a proper solid pre-workout meal.

If you are a regular coffee drinker then try and switch your coffee for a green tea which contains less caffeine but has lots more health benefits. Finally, don’t forget to keep taking on board the water, this is critical too. 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.

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 doing a muscle building routine build muscle fastest whilst still doing cardio, indeed is it even possible?

Well often you will read that in order to build muscles fastest you should keep cardio workouts to a minimum. 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. These two things both add weight to the problem of consuming enough calories. This takes us to the question of exactly what amount of calories should I therefore be taking on?

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. If you want to add muscle mass on top of this then you have to add an extra 500 calories every day.

Can I work this number out?

Yes, certainly one method of doing so is by using the Katch-McArdle formula (BMR based on lean body weight). Here it is:

Men: BMR = 66 + (13.7 X wt in kg) + (5 X ht 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 (little or no exercise, desk job)
Lightly active = BMR X 1.375 (1-3 days/wk sports/light exercise )
Mod. active = BMR X 1.55 (moderate exercise/sports 3-5 days/wk)
Very active = BMR X 1.725 (sports 6-7 days/hard exercise/wk)
Extr. active = BMR X 1.{9 (hard daily exercise/sports & physical job or 2X day training, i}.e marathon, competition etc).

So, if you are doing cardio and weights frequently then you should multiply this by at least 1.725. This will give you the figure that will cover your daily energy needs. This figure needs to then be adjusted according to your goals. A further 500 calories a day need to be added if your goal is indeed to gain muscle mass.

So, let’s say your final number is 3000 calories then you ought to be trying to eat 6 meals/day of 500 calories. To follow this strategy one snack or meal would be based around 11 gram coming from fat, 62 grams coming from carbohydrate and 37 grams coming from protein. This is figured out as so due to the fact that one gram of protein or carbohydrate is worth 4 gram whereas one 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!

‘Why am I not getting bigger?’ is one of the most common question from bodybuilders around the world. After all you are training hard, with good muscle building nutrition in your diet, yet your gains are still minimal. The frustration can be a huge blow to your motivation after so many months of hardwork. So, what exactly is the answer? Well, there are a few likely causes, see if any of these ring a bell with you, together they show you how to build muscle up:

1) Are you eating enough? Under eaters could be the real name for many hardgainers. As this is frequently the reason for small muscle gains. Consuming frequent high calorie meals is the key to build muscle mass! Eating every two hours is a good guideline and will enable you to take on board as many calories as possible. Make sure you snack lots on food such as: dried fruit and nuts, yoghurt, cottage cheese,  cereal and milk, protein bars, fresh fruit, and protein shakes, etc

2) Are you getting enough protein? To build muscle mass fast you should aim for 1.5 grams of protein for each pound of bodyweight per day. Great sources of protein include: chicken, fish, turkey as well as dairy products. You need the excess calories in order to grow so don’t be overly worried about purchasing the low fat type. Sure you need quality calories but make your life easier and eat everything, remember you can go through a cutting up stage in a few months time. Taking whey protein shakes  is another great way to get on board quality protein, purchase the big 5 pound tubs to get the most for your money.

3) Have your routines become unproductive? If you are able to say aloud your routine without thinking too much it could well be that you have been doing it for too long. Your body is not going to grow if you are not providing stimulating workouts with lots of variety. What about really mixing things up with aided lifts, negatives, partials, super sets and so on. You could try 10 sets of 10 reps for any major exercise like squats, simply reverse your workout order, do more supersets (get ready to be sore!) or just give yourself a week off from training to allow your body to fully recover. Make sure you use any of the endless variations that are possible.

4) Are you resting enough? When was the last time you saw someone go into the gym pump iron and then walk out half a stone heavier? Never. Obviously, your muscles grow when you are at home resting, not when you are pounding iron in the gym. If you do not get enough rest than you are limiting the time available for your muscles to grow. If anything over compensate and give your body more than enough time to grow. Try decreasing your session to just one workout per muscle group per week. Also decreasing the amount of sets done for each body part, try just 3-5 intense sets per bodypart per workout. Give them a go and the results will be the validation of them!

5) Are you drinking enough water? Your progress will suffer dramatically if you aren’t drinking enough. A lot of water is required in order for your to build muscle mass. Carry a bottle with you in the car and never stop drinking from it.

So the initial question: “Why am I not growing faster?’as you now know has potentially many answers. After viewing the guidelines above don’t forget them, try and make the necessary changes today. If you are not hitting just one of the above guidelines then you may possibly have found the probelm underlying your limited growth. Some alterations are required if any of these guidelines are not being properly followed. Of course there may well be other reasons why you might aren’t growing but they are are the usual suspects. Now go hit the gym and gain some weight!

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 would anyone want to 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.

Ok, so if I am vegetarian how on earth am I going to get adequate supplies of protein?

Well, suprisingly the answer is extremely simple. Soy contains all eight essential amino acids and in fact has higher levels of protein than beef. Particularly good sources of soy include: seitan, miso, soy milk, tempeh, textured soy protein and of course tofu. These can all be put in to a variety of delicous tasting dishes. Furthermore to ensure you never go short on protein beans, legumes, seeds, rice and even vegetables all supply decent amounts of amino acids.

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

Well vegans would be wise to take a supplement for this. Vitamin B 12 is found in dairy products so other types of vegetarians ought to never go short of this. As regards the others a decent meal replacement powder will see you through to getting adequate supplies of these. 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 up 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. Of course planning ahead is crucial however this is just as key for meat eating bodybuilders too. With the above guidelines in mind go ahead and build muscle vegetarian style!! 

We all know that top of the list for most body builders is a huge impressive set of biceps. They are one of the most visible and striking muscles that win you lots of plaudits with your peers. so, how come then so many bodybuilders still have no real bicep size even after months or years of bicep training.

Well, it may be of interest to you that this small muscle is often very poorly trained. By that I mean that many people go about building biceps muscle in completely the wrong way.

Here a number of guidelines will be put firmly down that will ensure that you can grow big biceps in the shortest possible time. So here is out brief how to get big biceps and how to build up muscle fast guide.

1) When doing your back routine you will already be working your biceps very hard indeed. So, concentrate on improving at these exercises and your guns will follow and get larger.

2) Do not overtrain the biceps. This is suprisingly easy to do because of the back workouts so don’t do more than a max of 4 sets for your biceps.

3) Select the best exercises. The best mass building exercises for arms are: Pull-ups with an underhand grip followed by rowing exercises. If you simply have to do more sets for you biceps then try standing barbell curls. Avoid seated concentration curls – exercises like these are designed as shaping and carving exercises to shape arms that already have a lot of muscle mass. if that doesn’t sound like you then other exercises will be more suitable.

4) Ensure the rep range is between 5-7 to maximise muscle size improvements. Use a training log to make sure that you are still making progress. This ensures you will have motivation as you are trying to beat your previous pbs.

5) Is your calorie intake high enough. You have to consume a good deal of calories if you actually do want to support muscle gains. eat at least 5 times per day measl containing: pastas, fruits, leafy greens, lean white meats and such like. These are the types of food that contain the necessary calories and nutrition to boost your growth.

6) Get plenty of rest. You’ve probably heard before that your muscles do not grow whilst you are pumping iron they grow when you are at rest. Therefore don’t you think you should be getting enough rest to let them grow. If you are not then you are wasting your time trying to build muscle.

So there we have it, our brief muscle building guide to biceps. Now you know how to get bigger biceps check you are following those guidelines and you may just boost your bicep size and build muscle mass quicker than you expected. Just do it!