How to Double Your Muscle Gain

A body building workout program should be tailored to your body type in order to get positive results. You have to remember that your body is different from other people. You have different metabolism rate and you also have a different body structure that will require a different body building program. If your friend has a great body building program, don't expect that the same program will work for you.

One mistake that most people make when it comes to body building is that they stick to a program that doesn't work at all. Besides, if you see that your body building program is not working, why should you stick to it at all? Why should you keep on doing it? It's a complete waste of time and energy.

Try to give a work out program a week or two. This way, you will be able to see if there are any improvements or not. Do not use the same work out program for three months if you don't see any positive results right after two weeks of using the program.

Here are some tips that will be able to maximize efficiency when you work out and also maximize your body building exercises.

First of all, you need to remember that half reps will not cut it. Do only full reps even if it is strenuous. However, you have to avoid overtraining at the same time. Always remember that in body building, resting is very important. Try to rest for at least a day between workout sessions. This way, you will be able to give your muscles the rest it needs in order to grow.

You also need to keep in mind that when you go on a body building exercise, you are deliberately injuring your muscles. What you are actually doing is injuring your muscles in order for it to grow. When you injure your muscles through body building, you are letting the body adjust to your activities and let it grow stronger and bigger muscle tissues. This is what actually happens when you go body building.

If you are overweight or you are fat, then you have to remember that the best way to reduce fat is by adding cardiovascular exercises in your body building program. Cardiovascular exercises burn calories and fat as it is an aerobic exercise. Weight lifting is considered to be anaerobic exercises which mean that it burns sugar.

The correct execution of the exercises is also very important in promoting muscle growth. A lot of people make a mistake of doing each exercise too fast. Some just allows the weight to drop. This is a mistake. Going slow on each repetition is actually more beneficial as you are concentrating. For example, if you are doing standing barbell curls, don't do it too fast. Instead, lift the barbell up until you fully contract your biceps and slowly lower it down to the starting position. The lowering motion actually is more effective than the curling motion or the lifting motion in promoting muscle growth.

With slow, smooth, and controlled motion, you will concentrate on the muscles more which means that it is more effective in promoting muscle growth.

These are just some of the many ways on how you can gain muscle at a fast rate. Always remember that with the proper diet, proper execution of the exercises, and the right amount of rest, you will be able to get the results you want fast.


 

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What Causes Muscle Growth?

In order for muscles to grow, three things are required:

1. Stimulus – exercise is needed to make the muscles work, use energy and cause microscopic damage to the fibers.

2. Nutrition – after intense exercise the muscles need to replenish their stores of fuel.

3. Rest – it is during the rest or recovery phase that the muscles repair the microscopic damage and grow.

Muscle size increases due to hypertrophic adaptation and an increase in the cross section area of individual muscle fibers. Intensive exercise impacts more on the strength influencing fast twitch type II fibers, therefore the increase in muscle size is accompanied by greater strength.

This will deplete the muscle's energy stores and cause microscopic damage to the muscle tissue. During recovery, these stores of glycogen and phosphocreatine will replenish from carbohydrates and creatine ingested as food or supplements. Amino acids supplied in the diet will trigger the protein synthesis that repairs the damaged muscle and lead to the creation of bigger muscle fibers.

To achieve continuous improvement you will need to keep reaching for higher levels of training intensity otherwise the improvement process will grind to a halt. Fortunately, this is relatively easy to plan for provided certain basic principles and rules are clearly followed. Subsequent articles in this series will examine these principles in detail.


 

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Gaining Muscles Takes Time… How Long?

Some people think that gaining muscles is as easy as popping a can of soda. Well it's not that easy. You have to wait for months to see acceptable results. You have to consider a lot of things if you're aiming for firm and perfect muscles. First, the things that you eat must be healthy in order for you to sustain your body's exertion in gaining mass. You have to observe the proper ways of exercise and your muscle growth should be assessed. Here, you will know whether or not you have the appropriate genes to be able to build and gain muscles more quickly than the other.

If you don't see anything that fits your type, worry not, because this is just one of those many factors that can determine the duration of muscle growth. It is also helpful that you know the type of body that you have and the kind of muscle that you wanted to build because through this knowledge, you will know the right kind of exercise and nutritional program that will suit your body's requirement to grow.

There are three body types and the specific characteristic underneath it.

Type 1 – Endomorph
As an endomorph, you have a naturally large frame for a body and a round face with wider hips and bigger bones but has slower metabolism. This is the type of body that gains body fat and weight easily but also the type of person can have the capability to gain mass in a quicker way. The only problem that you will encounter is that your muscles tend to hide under the fat that you have which will make you look bulkier and clumsier. Even if you develop six packs, it wouldn't be that prominent because of your fat tummy.

That is why, you have to grow muscles and at the same time burn the unnecessary fats for your muscles to be revealed and more defined. End point: you have to spend more time inside the gym because aside from wanting to refined muscles, you have to burn those fats away.

Type 2 – Mesomorph
These are the persons who are naturally blessed with a body that has a wider shoulder and a more muscular body. You also have a small waist and a frame fit for entering athletic competitions. Because your body has lower contents of body fat, you also have an increase metabolic rate. Because of your general predisposition, you can pack those muscles and develop it really fast. You have the tendency to naturally excel in any kind of sport that you want because your body can easily adapt to it.

Type 3 – Ectomorph
Skinny type and small muscles that is what you are. You have a high level of metabolism with narrow hips, waist and shoulders. With this kind of stature, you will find it hard to gain on some muscles and weight. No matter how much effort you put in eating, you'll still get the skinny frame. This kind of frame will make it harder for you to build some mass because your proteins and fats don't last long.

People who fall under one of these criteria can have the specific unilateral characteristics or others may have mix of it. Either way, you now know that it will greatly depend on your body type and on how long you can gain muscles.


 

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Gaining Muscle in your Gut, the Dream Six Pack Abs

More than having a spectacular looking chest muscles, a bulging biceps and triceps combo, most people would definitely want a well toned and sculpted six pack abs. The problem though is that the stomach muscles is one of the most difficult to develop. Well not really, they are developed as the same rate as the other muscles are, but, because body fat can also be very difficult to get rid off in that area, for stomach muscles to easily be seen, you first have to get rid of your body fat in that area.

There are so many body builders who get easily discouraged because after all their hard work they are not able to see any developments. Little do they know, their stomach muscles are already progressing, but they are not able to see the progress as there are fats covering the muscles in that area. Most of them would just get discouraged and abandon the idea. So what needs to be done then? First things first, one must not be easily discouraged, you may already have great looking abs underneath all your stomach fats, so the common thing to do is to get rid of the fats to make them show.

What you need to do to eliminate fat is to do some hard hitting cardio exercises to eliminate the fat and sweat them all away. To do this, you must go in a diet, no, I'm not saying starving yourself, all you need to do is to burn away all the calories you ingest. So even if you pig out, it's okay all you need to do is to burn them all away, that is if you're willing to do cardio exercises half of the day.

So to avoid this predicament, keep away from foods heaping with saturated fats. A diet of pizzas, burgers and processed meat will do you no wonders, that is if your goal is setting the record for the heaviest person on the whole world or the fastest weight gain in a year.

Some of the best cardio exercises you can do won't even cost you a cent. The point here is to get your heart rate running at full nitro mode. Running, swimming, biking and maybe just going up and down the stairs at a fast pace can easily help in achieving your goal. Anything that can make you sweat and get your heart rate pumping will do the job. Doing this for about 15 to 30 minutes each day will show significant results. In no time at all, you will be burning body fat in no time at all.

Cardio exercises though will only work if you already have developed abs. So if you don't, you should integrate exercises that will shock your stomach muscles to develop. Crunches in different forms would be ideal. Avoid doing the same exercises everyday as the muscles may get accustomed to them and just adapt to them inhibiting muscle growth. In one day concentrate on the center muscles, the next day work on the side muscles.

Also try to increase the intensity of your workout. Use weights if possible. This is so that the muscles don't easily get accustomed to the exercise and make it comfortable with the process.


 

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Gain Muscles the Right Way: The Facts about Body Building

As an ultra skinny person, you will find it very hard to gain muscles. If you think that spending a lot of time in the gym and doing long workouts will be able to help you gain muscles, you better think again. Although this may work, you have to consider that there are incorrect ways to do it and there are correct ways to do it.

By sticking to the principles of body building, you will be able to get the results you want in no time at all. So, if you are ever wondering why you can't gain muscles besides the fact that you spend a lot of time in the gym, here are some tips that will be able to enlighten you.

First of all, some people think that lifting weights rapidly will get them to gain muscles at a much efficient rate. However, what this does is exactly the opposite. You have to remember that in body building, you need to do each exercise in slow controlled movements. Fluidity is the key to exercising. This is because slow controlled movements encourage maximum muscle contractions, which means more efficient muscle building.

A few hours before and after you hit the gym, eat foods with high protein content. This will strengthen your muscles more and it encourages muscle tissue repair, which means that you will be able to gain muscles faster. Some people go on a diet and never eat anything before and after they go to the gym. This is a mistake. Besides, where will you be able to get the energy for all that heavy lifting?

Another mistake is exercising the same muscles everyday. This will do exactly the opposite when you want to gain muscle mass. Always remember that rest is the key to muscle gain. Always give the muscles you worked out today at least one or two days rest. For example, if you worked out the back and biceps today, never do the same exercises the next day. Give it time to repair itself and build more muscle tissues.

You need to remember that you don't gain muscles when you are working out. You injure it. When you rest, the body will compensate for the muscle tissue injury by producing more muscle tissues. The result is muscle gain. Resting is the best way to repair muscle tissues so get plenty of rest.

Every time you hit the gym, always go for heavier weights. However, don't try to lift weights that are too heavy for you that you can't complete a set and don't go for weights that are too light that it doesn't provide contractions in your muscles.

These are the things that you have to remember about body building. Always keep in mind that going to the gym everyday will not cut it. If you want to gain muscles, then you have to properly exercise each muscle group, eat the right kinds of food, and also get plenty of rest.

Remember these tips and you can be sure that you will be able to gain muscle in no time at all. Try exercising two muscle groups in one day and exercise two different muscle groups on the other day. Or, if you really want to be sure about your body building program, you might want to consult a professional trainer. They will be able to help you out with what kind of body building program and exercises that is right for you.


 

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Weight Lifting – What Every Beginner Should Know!

Here are a few things that beginners should know about weight lifting.

First you put good strain on your joints as well as your bones when you lift weights. This strengthens your bones. Strong bones protect our bodies against breakage and osteoporosis.

Another important point about weight lifting is that as your muscles increase in size your body becomes more shapely and firm – more attractive.

Weight lifting also helps you more vigorously perform your aerobic exercise, which in turn will increase your cardiovascular endurance and help your heart. The reason you are able to perform at a higher level is the weight lifting has increased your muscular strength, and therefore your ability to tolerate more intense exercise.

Weight lifting also gives you nice after effects to your metabolism. By adding muscle to your body through weight lifting, you likely will increase your metabolic rate. If you increase your metabolism you increase the amount of fat burning enzymes in your body. This means you'll burn more body fat even at rest! What a great bonus!

When you lift weights you should find the right weight that allows you to do 8-12 repetitions of the same movement with the same weight. If you are able to repeat it more than 12 times the weight is too light for you. If you can't do at least 8 reps the weight is too heavy.

This 8-12 repetition practice is called a set. A beginning weight lifter should only be doing one or two sets of any weight lifting movement at one time.

Beginners often forget to breathe when they lift weights, which is dangerous because it can elevate your blood pressure. You should concentrate on inhaling on the eccentric or lowering phase of the lift and exhale on the concentric or lifting phase of the lift.

When weight lifting, you should always work your largest muscles first. Smaller muscles get tired faster. If they tire too quickly they can't help you work your large muscles. The first things you are going to work are your chest, back, shoulders and thighs. Then you do weight lifting exercises for your arms, abdominals and calves last. If you're new to weight lifting, I would suggest picking 6-8 exercises that covers all the major body parts above. Perform these exercises 2-3 times per week making sure you allow at least 48 hours between workout sessions, so your body has time to recover.

Good Luck!


 

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Gain Muscle and be a Fashion Icon

Gaining muscle mass is considered as one of the dreams of every male all over the world? Why? It adds up to their masculinity and makes girls want them and gain more confidence. Admit it, if you're still in high school and someone asks you about what you want your body to look like, you'll choose the jock that has a pea for a brain but a body of a ramp model rather than a geek hiding underneath glasses who's a walking encyclopedia. But really, gaining muscle isn't all for those who can't gain brain. It's just that, some would compensate gaining muscles rather than knowledge.

Much said. Would it be nicer if you have hunk-like muscles and a very intelligent personality? You're like a walking package. Women love muscles more than an intelligent mind, well, not entirely. But most of them do. On the other hand, gaining muscles is for those who are conscious about their body. With the trend of having nice abs and mass, it would be nice if people see gaining of additional mass as something healthy and not just to prove masculinity.

Let's face it. Because of the appearance conscious society that we live in today, some men result to drastic measures in order to maintain their supple physique even with the absence of exercise. If you are that type who uses artificial products like steroids, then it's time that you renew your ways because there is no way that you can get something out of nothing.

There is a natural way of having the muscles that you love to have. You just have to be more committed and disciplined in order to follow the ideal way. Here are some of the most important tips in order to shape yourself up.

1. Modify your diet.
It is not enough that you exert so much effort in bodybuilding. You also have to maintain the required dietary allowance that you need in order to be in top shape. Easting foods which are rich in fatty acids (omega-3) and fish are rich in protein and will help you grow. Some of the fish which are rich in omega-3 are lake trout, salmon, herring, mackerel, sardines and tuna.

Veggies or plant crops which are also rich in omega-3 such as walnuts, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, spinach, soybeans, tofu and kale can also be included in the diet. Foods rich in omega-3 provide our muscles sensitive to insulin which help to fuel glycogen storage and hinder entry of amino acid into muscles.

2. Intake of sodium.
To encourage the growth of your muscles, you should increase healthy sodium intake in order to increase the fluid of your muscles. Sodium can enhance the absorption of amino acid and storage of carbohydrates in our bodies. Because of the effects it can do to the cellular fluid, you are to expect that sodium can add to gain weight which lessens muscles to strain and injure soft tissues.

3. Train.
If you really wish to have muscle gain, you have to work on some exercises which need resistance like dumbbells that are considered as free weights. They would train your muscles in the ancillary portion to build a mass that will be compounded on them. Dumbbells can be versatile and at the same time useful for building muscles because of the range of motion you can exert when you carry them.


 

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Gain Muscle and Eliminate Fat: Tips on How to Do It

It is a fact that having those love handles and that beer belly as well as those man boobs can be quite embarrassing. If you want a body that you can be proud of and a body that you can show off whenever you are at the beach, then you may want to start working out.

So, what are the proper workout routines to burn fat and gain muscles?

Basically, the best muscle burning technique is through cardiovascular exercises. This helps in burning a lot of fat and calories which will significantly help in weight loss. Diet is also an important factor in order for you to lose fat and in most cases this is the most difficult part of weight loss.

Dieting doesn't mean that you have to starve yourself in order for you to lose fat. Eating right is.

What this means is that you need to eat less fatty foods and eat more foods that your body needs in order to function everyday. Eat foods that have plenty of fiber and in order to promote muscle growth, eat food with plenty of protein, such as beef.

You should also decrease the amount of carbohydrates you eat everyday. By reducing at least 25 percent of the total carbohydrates you eat everyday, you will see that it will give you a lot of difference when it comes to losing weight and burning off fat.

Doing a lot of cardiovascular exercises will also help in burning off fat. Every morning before breakfast, try to at least go jogging or walk for 30 minutes. This will significantly improve your weight as well as your body. By exercising before you eat breakfast, you will be able to turn on your metabolism rate and make it a lot faster. This means that you will be able to burn fat a lot more efficiently than not exercising in the morning at all.

Eating breakfast is also important as it helps jumpstart your metabolism rate. Always remember that it is advisable that you eat your breakfast. It actually helps in weight loss.

Also, when you reach the gym, it is still advisable to perform cardiovascular exercises. Try running for at least 15 minutes on the treadmill and it will burn at least a hundred to a hundred and fifty calories.

After doing cardiovascular exercises, it is now time to develop your muscles with weights. For maximum muscle gain, you might want to use as much free weights as you can. Try to minimize the use of the machine as the machines only focuses on the primary muscle and not the supporting muscles. If you want to gain muscle mass, it is recommended that you should strengthen the supporting muscles too. This will help in muscle growth. In fact, if you don't strengthen the supporting muscles, you will end up not being able to promote the primary muscles to grow.

These are some of the things that you have to remember about fat loss and muscle gain. Muscles burn fat and by exercising, you will be able to promote muscle growth and at the same time, promote fat loss. With these tips in mind and following it, you can be sure that you will be able to get rid of that fat and develop a body that you can be proud of.


 

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Five Effective Ways to Gain Muscles

If you have spent all your life inside the gym just to find out that nothing's happening aside from muscle pains then you must be doing something really wrong. You have to assess yourself. Fact is, gaining muscle mass can't be done in just a day. You can't even see it coming even if weeks have already passed. Muscle gain is achieved only after months of rigid exercise and it requires lots and lots of devotion and determination in order for your body building program to work.

Either way, here are five of the most effective ways to help you boost up your knowledge and skills in totally achieving your muscle growth goal. You can choose to follow these tips or guidelines just in case.

Have a meaty diet
In order to increase the mass of your body, you have to increase protein intake. That would be simple, right? Meats should be categorized as red meat because they contain certain nutrients that are required for your muscles to grow. You don't need scientists to figure that one out. You just need to combine protein with the right kind of food like veggies or juice drinks which will help you to further acquire the buffer you need.

Use weights, the free ones
Here, you can use the usual dumbbells in order to add to the movements of your exercise. This equipment can also improve your ancillary muscles in order to have a wider range of motion. Free weights are also helpful in increasing the number of muscles that you want.

Safety first
Above all else, before and after you start your routine in the gym, you have to observe proper safety in order to avoid or prevent any injuries that may occur. When you're bodybuilding, be sure that you take it one step at a time. Don't combine heavy weight with intensive sessions of workouts because you make yourself more vulnerable to get injured. It's very common for bodybuilders to experience strains, torn and disc slips. You can avoid these things from happening just by being more aware of the different precautionary measures. You also might want to warm up so that your body's circulation will be more efficient once you start the real session.

Flirt with alternatives
If you think that you already have met your requirements for your body, you can do other maximums in order to assess yourself. This will give you the opportunity to check the status of your overall strength. However, when you do something more strenuous, you have to make sure that your muscles can handle the stress otherwise it will have a negative feedback on your muscles. Thus, in the duration of your bodybuilding time, you are still expected and recommended that you increase the weight.

Observe for improvements
In order to assess that you have achieved something, you have to determine how far you've come. You can check your present status from other people or muscle teams. This will teach you other terms on how to improve some areas of your strengths and weaknesses. In observing people, you will be able to see how far you've come in gaining muscle mass or how much more there is to do.

Comparison is always effective to improve someone's ideals and capabilities.


 

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Weight Gain Myths

The vast majority of myths about weight gain are mostly passed down from "gym talk" and so-called experts who know nothing about the body's workings.

Myths that lead to wasted time, frustration and if are taken blindly as truth, can really set back your progress in the gym. Don't believe everything you hear in the gym when it comes to exercise and weight gain, do the research yourself.

Simple, basic principles apply to all weight and muscle gain such as progressive overload, variable frequency of reps and high intensity workouts. Lets take a look at some of the most common weight gain myths.

High repetitions burn fat while low repetitions build muscle.

Progressive overload is needed to make muscles bigger. Meaning that you need to perform more reps than you did for your last workout for that particular exercise. If you perform the same amount of reps at each workout nothing will change on you, also if the weight doesn't changes on the bar nothing will change on you. You need to become stronger.

Definition has two characteristics, muscle size and a low incidence of body fat. To reduce body fat you will have to reduce your calories; the high repetition exercise will burn some calories, but wouldn't it be better to fast walk to burn these off? Better still; use the low reps to build muscle, which will elevate your metabolism and burn more calories (less fat).

Vegetarians can't build muscle.

Yes they can! Strength training with supplementation of soy Protein Isolate has shown to increase solid bodyweight. Studies have shown that athletic performance is not impaired by following a meat free diet, and people strength training and consuming only soy protein isolate as a protein source were able to gain lean muscle mass.

Strength Training will make you look masculine.

If it is not you're intention to bulk up from strength training you won't. Putting on muscle is a long hard slow process. Your strength-training regime coupled with quality food will determine how much you will bulk up. To bulk up you also require more food. Women don't produce enough testosterone to allow for muscular growth as large as men.

By working out you can eat what ever you want to.

Of course you can eat whatever you want, if you don't care how you want to look. Working out does not give you an open license to consume as many calories as you want. Although you will burn more calories if you workout than someone who doesn't, you still need to balance your energy intake with you energy expenditure.

If you take a week off you will lose most of your gains.

Taking one or two weeks off occasionally will not harm your training. By taking this time off every eight to ten weeks in between strength training cycles it has the habit of refreshing you and to heal those small niggling injuries. By having longer layoffs you do not actually lose muscle fibres, just volume through not training, any size loss will be quickly re-gained.

By eating more protein I can build bigger muscles.

Building muscle mass involves two things, progressive overload to stimulate muscles beyond their normal levels of resistance and eating more calories than you can burn off. With all the hype about high protein diets lately and because muscle is made of protein, it's easy to believe that protein is the best fuel for building muscle, however muscles work on calories which should predominately be derived from carbohydrates.

If I'm not sore after a workout, I didn't work out hard enough.

Post workout soreness is not an indication of how good the exercise or strength training session was for you. The fitter you are at a certain activity, the less soreness you will experience after. As soon as you change an exercise, use a heavier weight or do a few more reps you place extra stress on that body part and this will cause soreness.

Resistance training doesn't burn fat.

Nothing could not be further from the truth. Muscle is a metabolically active tissue and has a role in increasing the metabolism. The faster metabolism we have the quicker we can burn fat. Cardio exercise enables us to burn calories whilst exercising but does little else for fat loss afterwards.

Weight training enables us to burn calories whilst exercising but also helps us to burn calories whilst at rest. Weight training encourages muscle growth and the more lean muscle mass we possess, the more fat we burn though an increased and elevated metabolism.

No pain no gain.

This is one myth that hangs on and on. Pain is your body signalling that something is wrong. If you feel real pain during a workout, stop your workout and rest. To develop muscle and increase endurance you may need to have a slight level of discomfort, but that's not actual pain.

Taking steroids will make me huge.

Not true, strength training and correct nutrition will grow muscle. Taking steroids without training will not make you muscular.

Most steroids allow faster muscle growth through greater recovery, while others help increase strength which allows for greater stress to be put onto a muscle. Without food to build the muscle or training to stimulate it nothing will happen. Most of the weight gain seen with the use of some steroids is due to water retention and is not actual muscle.

Strength training won't work your heart.

Wrong!! Strength training with short rest periods will increase your heartbeat well over a hundred beats per minute. For example, performing a set of breathing squats and you can be guaranteed that your heart will be working overtime and that your entire cardiovascular system will be given a great overall body workout.

Any intensive weightlifting routine that lasts for 20 minutes or more is a great workout for your heart and the muscles involved.

I can gain muscle and lose fat at the same time.

Wrong. Only a few gifted people with superb genetics can increase muscle size while not putting on body fat. But for the average hard gainer, they have to increase their muscle mass to its maximum potential and then cut down their body fat percentage to achieve the desired shape.


 

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