Exercises to Effectively Increase Bicep Muscle Mass

Have you ever wanted to have a great looking body that you can be proud to show off in the beach? First of all, muscle gain is different from weight loss. You have to remember that there are quite a lot of exercises out there that are designed to target different parts of the body. Some exercises are targeted for fat loss, while there are others that targets muscle gain.

If you want to gain muscles, then here are some exercises that you may want to know about which can help you gain muscle mass in just a short period of time.

For starters, the biceps are the most sought after muscle group that most people want to build up. Besides, you would definitely look great if you had big biceps, wouldn't you? So, here are some of the exercises that you may want to know about in order for you to gain muscles on your biceps.

The first exercise that you should do is the standing bar curls. With a barbell curl, you will be able to directly target in exercising the biceps. You will be injuring the biceps more, which means that it will allow you to build up your muscles in your biceps.

To do this exercise, you need to stand with your feet at about shoulder width apart. Hold the bar with an underhand grip. The starting position is where you are standing as instructed, and the arms should be straight with the biceps fully extended. Your upper body should be leaning slightly forward and with one explosive motion, curl your arms with the weight concentrating on your biceps.

Then, you have to remember that when you go back to the starting position, you need to extend your biceps slowly. Remember that lowering the weight actually is more effective than the actual curl. Lower the weight slowly and not just drop the weight all the way down.

If the straight bar is putting a lot of stress on your wrists, which for some people does, then you might want to try the EZ bar curls. This will put your wrists in a much comfortable position and will help you lift the weights much easier and in a much comfortable way but will not decrease the overall impact on your biceps.

Standing alternate dumbbell curls are also a great way to build muscles in your biceps. What you do is hold one dumbbell on each hand at your sides with the palms facing each other. Then, curl one dumbbell at a time and at the same time rotate your palm forward as you lift. After you fully contract the biceps, lower the dumbbell with the arm rotating back to its original starting position. Do this with your other arm. That's basically it. You don't need any machines or special benches to do these exercises.

For both exercises, you might want to do 10 repetitions with 3 sets.

The key here is to overload your biceps. After exercising your biceps, you have to let it rest for at least two days. You need to remember that when you lift weights, you are actually injuring your muscles in order for it to grow more muscles to support the weight you are constantly lifting. This means muscle gain.


 

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Exercises That Will Promote Muscle Gain

Have you ever wanted to have that body that you can be proud of? Do you want to confidently walk around the beach with your shirt off? If you answered yes to any of these questions, then what you want is to gain some muscles or to have a muscular or ripped body.

If you want to get a ripped body, then you definitely need to go to the gym and start lifting weights. However, you have to remember that lifting weights alone will not promote muscle growth. There are basically lots of things that you need to consider when you go to the gym and when you want to build muscles. First of all, not all exercise programs are designed for body building. Also, not all exercises are effective in promoting muscle growth.

If you really want to gain muscles, then here are some body building tips that you need to remember.

First of all, body building is basically a three day exercise regime. On the first day, you should try exercising the chest and the triceps. You should at least do four exercises for each muscle group. For the chest, you should do the bench press, inclined barbell press, lying dumbbell fly, and cable crossover. For the triceps, try the kickbacks, barbell triceps presses, close grip bench press, and V-Bar pull down.

For the second day, work your back and biceps. For the back, you can do the bent over barbell row, Romanian dead lift, dumbbell lying row, and cable seated row. For the biceps, you can do the alternate dumbbell curl, standing barbell curl, preacher curl, and cable curl.

For the third day, work on the legs and shoulders. For the legs, you should do the squats, leg press, leg extension, and seated calve raises. For the shoulders, do the barbell behind neck press, military press, Arnold press, and shoulder press.

For every exercise, you should do at least 3 sets with 10 repetitions for each set. You should also remember that in each day, you should exercise your abdominal muscles with sit ups, weighted knee raise, and hanging leg raise. For each exercise, you should do at least 2 sets with 30 repetitions each.

These are samples of the exercises that you should do. You can work out 3 times a week or if you have time, you can work out 6 times a week with Sunday as your rest day.

It's usually up to you on how you schedule your workout regime. However, you have to remember that you shouldn't forget to rest. And, you have to have adequate sleep in order to promote muscle growth. Another thing that you need to remember is not to do the same exercises for two consecutive days.

Also, every two weeks, you might want to change the whole program with whole new sets of different exercises for the same muscle group. You will see that there are quite a lot of exercises that you can do.

Remember these tips and you can be sure that you will be able to promote muscle growth or muscle gain. As you can see, it is quite easy for you to build muscles on your body. All it takes is dedication and proper execution of the exercises. In just a short time, you will see positive results with your body.


 

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Eating More to Gain Muscle

That doesn't sound right, does it? Most people go on strict diets when developing their body. A lot of us dream of having a healthy and great looking body. Some spend countless hours in the gym, and spend thousands of dollars on equipment just to gain muscles. Some people even have medicine cabinets lined up and filled to the brim with gain muscle medications and supplements. The fact is, a lot of these people find the process too tedious and too slow.

Going back to eating more for gaining muscle, this may sound incredulous to some as popular notion would have people cutting back on their food intake so that body fat will be diminished allowing muscles to be more pronounced. As there are more body fat covering the muscles, they are not able to fully expose all the cuts and lines that give the body muscle definition.

But we have to remember that as we cut off our calorie intake, you are not giving your muscles the proper nutrition it needs to help make them grow bigger. What you need to do is to increase your calorie intake if you want to gain weight, but this pertains to gaining weight because of muscle development, and not body fat. Ingest proteins and fats to provide your body all the calories it requires to gain muscle but be wary in ingesting too much calories because then the result would be the development of body fat.

This is where having a good workout routine comes in. As you do your regular workout, targeting the muscles which you want to develop, you will be able to burn all the calories you have ingested allowing it to go to your muscles to help them develop, and at the same time, avoid them into turning into body fat.

For faster muscle gain and growth, do workouts that include heavy weights. Be very patient and persistent. Some people tend to give up as frequent lifting of heavy weights can literally be a pain. If you are not accustomed to lifting weights, then it's highly likely that you will feel soreness in your muscles. This is natural; in fact, this is one way your body is telling you that your muscles are growing, think of it as growing pains.

Weight lifting will promote muscle gain and as you eat more, the increased caloric intake will supply the boost your body will need to promote the growth of muscle tissues. When building muscle tissues, you will also be gaining strength. If you diet too much and not have the proper food intake while weight lifting, you will just lose muscle instead of your goal of building them. Doing free weight exercises in addition to lifting heavy weights will help in gaining muscle faster. Your body will be able to quickly respond in its process of building muscle.

So how much is eating more and yet not gaining body fat? That all depends on you, your body structure will determine this. A nutritionist will be able to determine how much calorie intake you will need in gaining muscle.

With a steady food intake specially developed for you and a proper workout, you will soon be able to develop the body you have always wanted and also gain the self confidence and pride that will make you feel a whole lot better about yourself.


 

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Want To Own A Muscular Greek God Body?

If you are clueless at the gym and yet hungry for plain, good 'ol professional advice to help you on the road to that sculpted physique of a Greek god, fret not! All you have to do is to have a solid commitment, use the knowledge gleaned from this article and you will attain the body you want pronto. But remember to warm up and cool down, as well as stretching before and after each session; Or even better, after each set for better muscle recovery and prevention of injuries.

Use Free Weights instead of Machines More Often

Machines will have its uses, but for a start, concentrate on free weights. That means work almost exclusively with barbells and dumb bells. Free weights recruit many stabilizing muscles for balance and control. That means you will work a lot more muscle parts other than the intended ones. That will give rise to little bumps, striations and definitions all over your body instead of one huge lump of muscle on your intended muscle. Because of the extra stimulant created, your muscles grow faster too. Why else do you think all professional body builders almost exclusively use free weights?

Compound Exercises Instead Of Isolation Exercises

Use as many compound exercises as possible to your workouts. Compound exercises are exercises that involve 2 or more joint movements. Because they utilize more joints, that means greater muscle mass are involved. Greater muscle mass means heavier weights. Heavier weights means greater muscle gain.

Some excellent compound exercises are the Squat, Deadlift, Chin ups, Dips, Bench press, Barbell Press, Lunges, Bent-Over Barbell Row…etc.

Train with Intensity

You must train intensively like a mad man for your muscle to grow. Try to do more reps or add more weight than the previous session or your muscles will think, "Ah… we've done that. Nothing new, so no need to grow bigger and stronger."

Because of this, it is important that every time you train hard, you give your body time to recover as it has suffered strains and actually sustained many small scarring. Your muscles grow when you rest, especially when you sleep and not in the gym. So sleep at least 8 hours a day. Also, do not train everyday or work the same muscle group more than once or twice a week. If your training was vigorous enough, do no more than an hour per session.

Try not to do cardio work on the same day as your weight lifting work. In fact, during the muscle building phase, you should do less cardio work as aerobic exercises burn muscles. You can increase your cardio work when we come to the cutting phase, to lose fats and gain rippling definition.

Correct Technique And Form

Everywhere, everyday, you will see people using wrong form and technique when training with weights. This not only compromises your growth, it will also make you susceptible to injuries.

Wrong form occurs usually when people try to lift weights that are too heavy, whether out of vanity or ignorance. As a guide, always lift with strict focus on the muscle you intend to build for that particular exercise. Feel it contract and extend. Lift the weights deliberately and slowly. Never ever swing your weights up especially when doing bicep curls or the military press. Lower the weights slowly, taking about 3 seconds instead of letting gravity pull the weight down. You must fight gravity to stimulate the muscles, if not, half of your effort is going to waste. Another common mistake is when people arch their back when they are doing their bench presses. By arching your back, you are using your spine to press the weight up. Your back must be pressed against the bench at all times for the exercise to be effectively working on your chest! However you MUST arch your back when doing squats and deadlift.

With some exceptions, as a general rule, if you can lift a weight in good form for more than 10 reps, it is too light. Conversely, if you can't lift it more than 5 times in good form, it is too heavy.

To Grow Fast and Huge, You Must Perform Lower Body Exercises!

This is what most people don't realize. Your lower body makes up 60-70% of your musculature. If you don't train them, not only will you look spider-legged, your entire body will not grow as quickly and as large. Don't think that you can hide those skinny legs in your pants! Most people do not train their legs because squats, dead lifts and lunges can be very grueling exercises. But it is precisely because of such intensity that you will produce more growth hormones when you sleep and overall muscular development is stimulated.

EAT and EAT Correctly

Losing weight and building muscles cannot happen at the same time although there are methods to do so and will be too technical to describe here. To lose weight, you must have a caloric deficit. To build muscles, you must have more calories, period! So do not be afraid to eat. Have plenty of protein, moderate complex carbs and some good oil like Omega, olive, flaxseed, fish etc., especially immediately after a workout. That is when your body is most nutrient hungry and will absorb whatever you eat very quickly. The longer you delay eating after a workout, the less effective it will be. Even better, take quick absorption protein shakes and high glycemic carbs during this time. The carbs will induce insulin production almost immediately and shuttle the protein to your muscle cells very quickly.

Eat about 2 gm of protein for each kg of your bodyweight or 1 gm per pound of your body weight. Spread your meals evenly throughout the day about 3 hours apart. It is advisable that you have supplementation of Creatine, Protein, Multivitamins and L-Glutamine.

Yes, you will probably gain weight, but a lot of it will be muscle weight because muscles are heavier than fats. You may also gain some fats because of the extra calories consumed. Don't worry, it is a happy problem because the more muscles you have, the easier the fats are to shed when you come to the cutting up phase to get those rippling definitions.

Easy isn't it? Now that you know the facts, the rest is up to your determination.


 

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Eat Right to Gain Muscles Correctly

Without proper diet, you can't expect to gain the muscle that you want. It is not enough to know all weight gain exercises to be able to achieve your desired muscle mass. You have to also be particular about what goes in and out of your body. Diet will support your bodybuilding methods. Here are some ways to ensure that you acquire the correct diet in you weight gain activity.

Get at least two times your body weight
For example, if you weight 100lbs, you must eat a diet that will give you at least 100 up to 200 grams of protein so that you are assured to obtain muscle growth consistently. For those who are into full time bodybuilding, it is advised that you consume 2 to 3 times your bodyweight in regards to protein.

Protein varieties should be considered
You should a have protein varieties to consider. One of which is red meat which is rich in protein although there are also alternatives like fish. Cottage cheese, soy, nuts, beans and rice are all rich in protein. On the other hand, these products have different kinds of amino acids which is why varieties are much, much better.

Supplements are good
Other sources of protein can be taken from supplements wherein you don't have to buy meat just to attain the required protein in your everyday consumption. Soy proteins and whey are some of the common examples. You have to make sure that when you incorporate these in your meal, increased fluid intake must be assured or else it will strain the kidneys or liver and will contribute to a certain impact on the part of the organs. Increased fluid intake will be helpful in flushing out the negative effects of consuming high protein.

Balance
If you are doing a strenuous routine or anything aerobic, if you don't eat a diet that is high in protein it will cause your muscles to lose its strength and mass. There are numerous college and even high school athletes that are faced with muscle strength that are declining through the season of their game because they are unaware of this fact. Following this will not do any harm and instead becomes advantageous.

Carbs galore
Carbohydrates should always be included in your diet because it's responsible for the energy that you exert when you lift weights or any heavy object. You will not be pumped up without taking in carbs with your proteins. Carbohydrate is one essential element needed in the production of energy.

Words of advice:

* Drink loads of water to be able to replace the fluid that was lost in your body and to eliminate the waste product of protein metabolism. This will also prevent your high-protein diet from harming or damaging your organs and is actually helpful to make you lose weight.

* Calories must be minimized if you really want to gain the weight that you desire. It will be difficult on your part to exert a lot of efforts without gaining anything.

* Never consider taking steroids. It will only give you more negative than positive effects. You should consider gaining muscle the natural way so that measures will be healthier on the part of your body. Even health experts won't advice the use of steroids because of the numerous negative side effects that one can get.


 

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Boost Your Metabolism While Gaining Muscles

Your body has a rate that metabolizes food into energy to be stored in forms of fats and glucose. The more your body increases its percentage of utilizing energy, the more your muscle gains mass. In order gain firm muscles, your body will have to adapt to the stress cast upon your body and muscles.

These instructions are of the moderate type. Following the ways will let you boost your metabolism and at the same time gain the muscle mass that you desire.

1. Do a 10-minute warm up. You can do a brisk walk in order to get blood pumping. This kind of warm up exercise can increase the amount of circulating blood inside your body. Muscles should always be nourished by free-flowing blood in order to maintain a good bodybuilding state. Your muscles will also become more receptive to any kinds of resistance.

2. Be sure that you target larger muscle groups in order to boost the level of your metabolism and provide the needed resistance your body needs to build the muscles. You have to maintain consistency in order for you to capture results in just a couple of months.

3. Start on your hips, buttocks and thighs. Do some lunges to raise the amount of your metabolic rate. You should first hold on to something hard to be able to attain balance. As you build the muscles that you need, you have can now stick to supporting the lower part of your body and holding dumbbells to raise the muscle resistance and metabolism.

4. Stand straight then use the dumbbell which has the heaviest proportion that you can lift comfortably over the head. Grasp it at the level of your shoulder with the palm of your hand facing forward then push it overhead in a straight manner until your arm have reached its full extension before it returns from the position where you started. Do this exercise in 10 repetitions, slowly so that you will not strain your arm after which, switch the dumbbell to the other arm. Do the repetitions at least three times from either hands. You have to be sure that your body and arms can tolerate the repetitions otherwise you are prone to muscle wasting as well as injury.

5. Alternate exercises. For the last one mentioned, you can do the dumbbells and after several repetitions, go down with the push-up. This is very efficient because of the evident use in military training. Push-ups, in general, provides resistance to weight that is needed to build muscles and at the same time increasing the rate of metabolism. If you are having difficulties with push-ups, you can start with simpler ones like knee push-ups.

6. For other upper-body exercises, you can use the dumbbells so that you can target the shoulders, upper muscles of the chest, forearms and muscles of your deltoid. Dumbbells have greater chances of increasing the rate of your metabolism faster that other equipments do.

7. Lastly, consider to alter certain areas in your lifestyle that is in conjunction with the exercise that you are habitually maximizing. If you consume more fats before, then try toning it down to limited amounts. Instead, consume something that has a higher content of protein, calories and nutrients.

It is also good that you consume vegetables, whole grain and citrus fruits. This will give you more advantage for your muscle gaining technique.


 

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Alcohol Can Ruin Muscle Gain

You heard it right. Alcohol is one of the major reasons for wasting your most beloved physique and muscles that you have taken care of for years. Alcohol is considered as one of the most significant causes to lose your muscle's nice features. Despite of what health experts are trying to imply about the negative effects of alcohol, others are still on the verge of tiring themselves with it. Drinking alcohol will definitely ruin muscle gain.

Alcohol is considered as one of the most influential drinks ever invented. Not that it tastes funny but also this drink can now be considered as a drug because of its addictive effects which can affect your life including your family, friends and work. If you really want to maintain your six packs (abs not beer) and your mass, you have to be conscious about drinking alcohol because it can cause deterioration of your years of fruitful labor. What are the effects of alcohol in your body?

1. Increases estrogen and decreases testosterone levels.
If you wanted to increase your muscles, then you have to maintain or increase the levels of testosterone inside your body because it is that hormone that can gear to building your muscles. It will be a loss on your part, as men, if you allowed estrogen to overcome your testosterone levels because that can also cause secondary female characteristics.

2. Affects protein synthesis, big time!
You know that protein is one of the most important nutrients that your body needs in order to gain those additional mass. When you hinder protein synthesis because of too much alcoholism, you tend to hinder for protein to be distributed all throughout your body. Protein synthesis will be slowed down for about 20% the normal status.

3. Strips the body of minerals and vitamins.
Alcohol has a diuretic effect on the body which promotes increase excretion of minerals and vitamins inside the body. When too much alcohol is consumed, it tends to strip off some of the important elements that our body needs namely Vitamin A, B complex, C, calcium, phosphorus and zinc. These elements are drained in rapid manner which can cause comprise to our body's balance. In order to function properly, one must maintain the sufficient amount of minerals and vitamins inside the body that definitely involves supporting muscle growth.

4. Dehydration can and will occur.
Haven't you noticed that every time you drink alcohol, you tend to ask for cold water or soda just to get rid of your thirst? This is because, as what is already said, that alcohol is fast-acting diuretic that can increase your body's ability to dispose water. No doubt about it, every time you visit the John, the essential vitamins and minerals in your body are lost in your urine. If this continues to happen, the water in your body can't sustain the necessity because of the increase excretion and muscle demand. And muscles are composed of about 60-70% water!

4. Increases storage of fats
Drinkers are known to possess large bellies. That's because alcohol can trigger deposition of fats inside our bodies. Alcohol contains about 7 calories every gram which is the main reason why alcohol can make people fat in an unnatural way.

You have to take care of how you manage drinking most especially if you are maintaining an ideal body weight and size. A few drinks occasionally aren't bad as long as you can handle the effects. Otherwise your muscle gaining goals can be totally affected in a very negative way.


 

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A Gaining Muscle Primer for Teenage Boys

High school, most of us have many happy memories about it. Many of our most memorable experiences come from this carefree moment in our lives. And as each student prepare for this time of their lives, they also discover the joy of meeting the opposite sex. Teenage boys for one will do most anything to create a good impression and one of them is having a well chiseled body. This is when most teenage boys would think about working out and lifting weights.

Remember your own teenage years? Do you continually compare muscle gain with some of your friends? It was that then and it is still that way now. In fact, it is more prevalent today as more teenage boys are becoming more conscious of their bodies. There is simply no denying it; gaining muscle is the in thing.

As a parent, it is wise to support this mentality, not only will your teenage son be able have a healthier body, they will also develop self confidence. The problem is, some boys would go take the easier route. They would take steroids or whatever to help facilitate the fastest way in gaining muscle; this will not help them at all, especially in the determination and motivation department. As a parent it is their duty to show them the proper way to grow muscles.

The best way to gain muscles would always be the tried and tested means, the proper diet and a rigorous and painstaking weight lifting workout regimen. A proper diet will be determined if your son is overweight or underweight. In the first scenario, your kid should lose weight first and eliminate body fat. Muscle building will follow suit after at least a significant weight loss is experienced.

This diet would mean eliminating fats and calories; just enough should remain for fueling muscle growth. In the latter, it is the opposite, a skinny kid should eat more but should have the proper intake so that body fat is not created, rigorous strength training should be done simultaneously to build up bulk, mostly of muscles.

It is not advisable to immediately push a teenage boy into a full intense workout as their body is still developing. They should be gradually introduced in the program to allow their body to adjust. Make sure also that they have sufficient rest as teenage boys are a bundle of energy. Redirecting this energy in a well planned workout program will allow them to maximize the use of their energy.

Most importantly though it is the attitude that should be set first before embarking on a gaining muscle journey. Teenage boys are easily distracted and they can easily forget that they are working on a goal. They must be determined to finish what they will be starting. With full commitment, they will be able to achieve success in gaining muscle in no time at all.

These are just some of the things one must consider when starting a program of gaining muscle. There are lots more, but most importantly, it is all about discipline. Having a healthy and great looking body works wonders to a person, especially to a teenage boy. There is nothing quite like the present to start on this fruitful journey. So there you go.


 

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Want To Build Big Muscles? Here Is How To Gain Muscles Fast.

Want to build Big Huge Muscles? Then you must Squat! The Squat will build big muscles on your entire body frame.

There are 3 types of people in this world.

First, there are those that make things happen. They calculated and know very sure what they want, then they take action and get it no matter what happens. They single mindedly pursue their ambition and they will ultimately succeed. In bodybuilding, they want to grow big and strong with big huge muscles. They SQUAT and squat and squat again. Have you ever seen anyone who is big, have huge muscles and have a well proportioned body like a Greek god who does not squat? Never.

Then there are those who watch things happen. They will savor the world around them. Then say, we will see what happens next. If it works, well we will decide if we are gonna do it.

These are the majority of the average Joes. They want to grow big muscles and be strong and muscular but are reluctant to make the effort to include the squat in their workout routine. Even if they do, they will do it haphazardly and will give up before they achieve their objectives. Then the excuses will flow. "Squats are too hard on my knees" or "Doing squat will stunt your growth" or "Squats are for my back" or "I just want a well toned body." Excuses from sour grapes. That is why average joes just remain well… average. We will debunk those excuses later in this article.

Finally there are those that are always saying "Omigosh! What happened?" Needless to say, these people are the ones oblivious to what is happening around them. They will walk leisurely on a treadmill reading a book at the same time when others are raising their heart rates to improve endurance and burn fats.

They are the ones doing dumbbell curls after dumbbell curls when others are doing bench presses, dead lifts and squats. They are the ones who ask the champions why the champs are growing biiger muscles and getting fitter all the time whereas they are at the gym longer, more regular and yet not achieving any result. They will take note of the advises and the next time you see them, they are back to what they were doing. Reading that confounded book on the treadmill. They actually expect changes to take place by doing the same things. How is that possible? Then they will say, "Ah… but you are just lucky to have good genes!" What nonsense!

To build muscles fast and big, you must SQUAT! The squat is often touted as the king of exercise and is grouped together with the dead lift and bench press, collectively called the Big Three for power and muscle mass building.

If you want to build big muscles and enjoy a symmetrical physique, you must squat. Period.

In most gym, the squat rack is there collecting dust. Why? Because most people think that their legs will be hidden by their pants. Why bother? How dead wrong they are. Wait till you see them in their shorts or swim wear. You will see Spiderman ..er ..I mean spider legs.

Another reason why people avoid squatting exercises is because the squat work on many major muscles and is grueling work. When you perform squats correctly, you will huff and pant, wheeze, head spinning woozily, see stars, sweat profusely and your entire body will be screaming for you to stop.

Of course the exercise is brutal! You are working out about 75% of your entire muscular structure including your shoulders, traps, back, gluteus, hams, calf, abs and many other synergistic muscles in a single exercise, isn't that supposed taxed your strength, endurance and your cardio health? Isn't that the best exercise? Isn't that why the results from squats will be astounding?

As an added bonus to building big muscles , you will be burning fats like crazy since the squat, given the intensity placed on your body, your metabolism zooms straight up! If your body fat ratio is high, it will help you lose body fat.

And because of the degree of difficulty, squats also force your body to release higher amounts of growth hormone , resulting in new muscle growth in all areas of your body. In addition, squats will cause a spillover effect, enabling you to gain strength in all of your other lifts. Awesome! It just befuddles me why, with all these benefits, people are avoiding squats like a bubonic plague. As for the hard gainers, squat will pack on pounds after pounds of muscle on your entire body! So hard gainers, you must squat to grow big!

If you squat with the correct form, heavy weight and sheer intensity, you will see good results in just weeks. Not just your lower body. Your entire frame will take on a different form. A total body transformation. Guaranteed!

You must know that since squats are performed with heavy weight, so correct form and techniques are critical and cannot be compromised. Anything less, you may sustain serious injury. However, when you adhere to the proper technique, you will be very safe and will enjoy all the benefits that come with the squat. Don't cheat yourself and substitute squats with leg presses. They are of a different class!

Debunking Excuses!

It's bad for the knees – In fact, it's on the contrary. Just like the muscle tissue in your body strengthens when exposed to stress, the tendons, ligaments and other connective tissues in your body will also thicken in response to weightlifting. That means, it actually improve knee health when you squat. It also strengthens all the muscles around your knee and thus providing your knees with support when the muscles are strong and less stress is placed on the knees on your day to day activities. I know. I used to suffer from knee pain until I started squatting and now, my knees are in perfect health that I can even play competitive soccer. Knee problems only occur when you squat improperly like resting at the bottom of the movement or letting your knee protrude over your toes.

It's bad for my back – For the same reasons about strengthening your tissues, squats also exercises your lower back. When done in correct form, it actually builds strong muscles on your lower back and not only correcting you from bad posture that results in a bad back, it may even give you a healthy strong back. Again, it will only hurt your back if done in poor form like bending forward or doing it with a rounded back instead of arching it during the movement.

It will give you high blood pressure and bad for the heart – Sure, your blood pressure will rise as your heart will beat faster from the exercise. That is only temporary and not dangerous unless you already have those problems in the first place. Other than that you are actually exercising your heart and cardio vascular system to strengthen it. How can that be dangerous? Don't most exercises elevate heart rate and increase blood flow? Then they should ban the treadmills and close all swimming pools! Do you buy that nonsense?

So, now that you know that squat is the king of bodybuilding exercises, are you the type that makes things happen or are still contend to be wondering what the heck happened?


 

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You Don’t Get Six-Pack Abs By Simply Doing Specific Abs Exercises

The most common mistake that people continue to make when developing that much-coveted six-pack abs is to concentrate and spend the entire time working out on their abs. It sounds weird, right? But the thing is this is surprisingly true. People have this misconception that you have to have abs-specific exercises in order to build that rock-hard, flat tummy. In order for you to achieve that, you have to focus your time in stimulating a fat-loss/burn hormonal activity in your body and at the same time in increasing its metabolic rate.

However, that will not happen when you concentrate too much on training smaller muscle group such as your abs. The right thing to do at this specific matter is to focus majority of your time working out on your major muscle groups such as the chest, back, and legs. In this way, you stimulate your metabolism as well as the fat-burning hormones, which are essential in effectively developing a six-pack abs.

Top Exercises to Get That Maximum Midsection Six-Pack Definition

As mentioned, defining your midsection starts from losing or reducing body fats. Therefore, the most ideal exercises that will work with your goal are those that do hanging abs trainings, good quality floor exercises, which all focus on full body trainings with calisthenics. Some of the top exercises recommended include the following:

Squats
Lunges
Deadlifts
Presses and cleans
Lying leg thrusts
Sprints
mountain climbers
step-ups
Various forms of snatches and swings
And other overall body exercises

Top Suggestions for Your Diet

The general rule of thumb here is to have a diet that is natural and as unprocessed and whole as possible. Processed and over-processed foods are unhealthy; therefore can totally ruin your hormone balance in your body as well as on the stimulation of its metabolism. For example, refined grains, refined sugar, refined, hydrogenated veggie oils, highly-processed foods are the worst kinds you could ever have in your diet. They contain worst ingredients that form unwanted fats and toxins. Instead of these junks, you should be opting for the following:

Whole grains
Natural sugar sources like whole fruits
Natural fat sources like avocados, eggs, fish, nuts, organically-raised meat, coconut milk, and so on, so forth.

There are just so many natural and inorganic foods you can choose to eat, so there is no reason to say that it is so hard to keep a whole-healthy and nutritional diet when they can be easily acquired from just about anywhere. This type of foods gives you all macronutrients which are good because they also provide your body an assortment of vitamins and minerals, antioxidants, and others.

Some Advice for Your Diet

The most important thing to avoid when it comes to maintaining your diet is to stay away from nutritional programs that contain high-protein, low-carbohydrate, low-fat, and any combinations. These programs have you focusing on only one or few macronutrients against another, which is completely unnecessary because you need the whole of macronutrients that your body needs.

If it will help you, you can go to a professional, like to a nutritionist expert, fitness expert and seek their advice as to what exact types of food diet that will complement your fitness goal of developing a six-pack abs. It will never hurt to get their professional opinions especially if it will be all about the entire macronutrients your body needs for metabolism and fat-loss.


 

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