Learn the Best Way To Gain Muscle

Learn the Best Way To Gain Muscle
By Michael Perry

Some individuals have an extremely hard time gaining weight and muscle mass. Millions of frustrated people search endlessly for the best way to gain muscle and increase their body mass. Diet, exercise, and supplements are the most popular methods used to aid in gaining muscle and adding weight. Individuals looking for the best way to gain muscle will benefit greatly by following a sensible diet and weight training regimen designed to stimulate the body by consuming the proper foods and building muscle tissue.

You must increase your caloric intake significantly if you want to gain weight. A diet consisting of plenty of protein and fats will give your body no choice but to gain weight. The goal is to give your body enough calories to build muscle, but not so many to cause a large gain in body fat. The best way to gain muscle is to force your body to gain mass by increasing the amount of food you consume and promoting muscle growth by training with heavy weights.

Weight training is the quickest way to build muscle mass. Weight training stimulates growth while the increased caloric intake provides fuel for the body to use in building muscle tissue. If you fail to consume the proper foods while training with weights, you will lose muscle rather than build upon it. You will gain muscle mass more quickly if you use free-weight exercises and lifting heavy weights. Your body will respond to this by building muscle.

Your body can be forced to gain weight and muscle if you eat correctly and train properly. The best way to gain muscle is to give your body the fuel and the stimulation it requires to increase your muscle mass.

Michael is a former skinny guy who managed to pack on over 20 lbs of muscle. He attributes most of his success to the information about how to gain weight he learned from http://www.musclegaintips.com

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How To Build Muscle and Lose Fat While Traveling

How To Build Muscle and Lose Fat While Traveling
By Bob Giddy

As a bodybuilder travelling is one of the most testing times, as travelling and bodybuilding don't go hand in hand. As the majority of people have to travel at some point, whether it's for business or pleasure, even if you are in the minority of professional bodybuilders you'll still have to travel between competitions. Travelling can create some serious problems for bodybuilders as it can very difficult to travel and maintain your discipline and training while travelling. While it's difficult to continue training and sticking to your diet, with a bit of discipline you can keep pumped and lean all year round even if you are a regular traveller.

Go to the gym before

Whenever you are about to travel, get down the gym the day before or on in the morning before you leave. Ideally try and stay somewhere with a weight room, however more than likely if there is a weight room the opening hours will be varied and the equipment limited. If there isn't a weight room or the equipment is lacking there is no reason why you can not do plenty of cardio training, such as running. If you do a heavy weight session before you leave your body will have some time to recover while you travel, ideally try and schedule your travel so that they coincide with your normal rest days.

Pack your protein shakes and healthy snacks

One of the biggest challenges which bodybuilders have during travel is having the right nutrition and eating the right foods. Always aim to eat healthy and if you can stick to the foods you eat normally, don't let yourself be tempted into eating junk foods it's not worth it. If you are faced with a long flight make sure that you pack healthy snacks and protein shakes so that you your nutritional needs are met, as airplane food is not designed for bodybuilders, make up a packed meal if necessary. Remember always to take a bottle or two of water when you fly as it's easy to be come dehydrated on flights and paying for drinks can quickly become expensive.

Think strategically

Once you arrive in your destination, think strategically. Speak to your reception and find out where the nearest supermarket or grocery store is and buy in some good, nutritious healthy food, and then find out about your hotel's gym facilities or local what gyms there are locally if your hotel doesnt have one.

Don't overindulge

If you eat out don't over indulge, as you bodybuilder you should know what foods are good for you and which are bad, try to stick to your diet plan and if you do over indulge, put in some extra cardio work to burn it off. In conclusion if plan ahead, be disciplined and do everything you can to ensure that you stick to your training and diet plan, there is no reason why you cannot travel and maintain the body of your dreams.

Do you want to learn how to pack on massive muscle, melt away fat and get the body of your dreams? If so, get your hands on free bodybuilding training tips for beginner bodybuilders by clicking the following link: http://teenbodybuildingtips.info

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Which MuscleWhich Equipment

Which Muscle-Which Equipment
By Scott Jameson

If you are a newbie to the gym, all the equipment may look confusing. Now I am sure over time, you can watch others use the equipment and get the hang of how to use it but not necessarily will you know when to use it. In other words which muscle group are benefiting.

You see, most workouts consist of focusing on one muscle at a time. Generally you should not do one exercise for chest, followed by an exercise for legs and then followed by an exercise for back. It just doesnt maximize the intensity of your workout. You should perform the entire workout on a given body part or muscle group before moving to the next.

Okay, so which exercises hit which muscle groups? I will detail that out below but keep in mind this is a shopping list that you choose. Also, this list is not all encompassing. I sure I could add a dozen more exercises but I will just list some of the basics. Also I will not list the machines for the specific muscle groups below. The machines are self defining. BUT you should add some of those machines to your routine.

Chest

• Flat Bench Press-Barbell
• Incline Bench Press-Barbell
• Decline Bench Press-Barbell
• Dumbbell flies with flat, incline or decline bench
• Standing Cable Crossover Flies

Back

• Wide Grip Pull Ups using body weight (hands forward)
• Wide Grip Seated Cable Pull down
• T bar rows
• Bent over barbell rows
• Seated Cable Row
• One arm dumbbell rows

Shoulders

• Seated Bench Barbell Presses
• Seated Bench Dumbbell Presses
• Side lateral flies-Dumbbells
• Front Alternating flies- Dumbbells
• Seated bent over (chest on legs) flies Dumbbells
• Barbell Shrugs
• Dumbbell Shrugs

For a more complete listing of muscle groups,exercises and pictures go to http://www.bodybuildingprogramzone.com/article195.htm

Scott Jameson is a bodybuilder and trainer for over 30 years. He has a passion for bodybuilding and helping other achieve this success. He regularly applies the techniques in this article. See more of his articles at http://www.bodybuildingprogramzone.com

If you want to more information on a Bodybuilding Program - Check out the Zone, the site with a passion for you to succeed.

This article may be reproduced on your website provided you acknowledge Scott Jameson as the author and must show link

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The Mommy Muscle Do Your Age In PushUps Plan

The Mommy Muscle Do Your Age In Push-Ups Plan
By Curt Conrad

If you want to get in shape, do your age in push-ups. Why do your age in push-ups? Well, it's a good, tangible, precise goal to shoot for and it guarantees you'll always get better with age.

Most important, this goal reinforces a key fact of physical reality for moms with young children... Your children will keep getting heavier as they age, making the physical care of them harder and harder on YOUR body. Having a fitness goal like doing your age in push-ups will keep you ahead of the challenge.

Ok, hopefully you're on board with this so let's go for it.

If you've never done push-ups before, it's likely you may not be able to do even one full repetition. That's OK. Push-ups use stabilizing muscles in a way that's different from almost any other exercise. You need to condition these stabilizing muscles so you can move on to doing a full push-up. The best way to get you there is with a modification.

How to do a Modified Push-Up

A modified push-up gives your muscles a mechanical advantage until you get strong enough to push your full body weight. There are two primary ways to do this. Both are pictured at the begining of the post.

Modification One: On the ground you do push-ups from your knees instead of your toes.

Modification Two: Do a push-up leaning against a bench, wall or other elevation. The picture shows a StrollerFit class doing this modification from a ledge. (Click on the pic to really see the form)

Once you can do 15 back-to-back modified push-ups, you should be able to do one full push-up.

Full Push-Up Form:

Start in the modified form from the ground, but instead of pushing from your knees, raise them off the ground so only your hands and toes are touching the floor.

- Make sure your back is straight.

- Tighten your stomach

- Inhale and lower your body until your chest is just below your elbows (going lower than that can put unnecessary strain on your shoulders).

- Exhale as you push yourself back up and repeat.

- Get a good rythm. Don't go too fast or too slow.

- If you still are unsure of how to do a proper push-up, contact a good personal trainer or find someone who was in the military to demonstrate- they'll know for sure.

> Some people experience low back tightness as they do push-ups. If your back starts to hurt discontinue the exercise and try again in your next workout. Typically your low back muscles condition out of this as they get stronger stabalizing your torso during push-ups. Just don't push them too hard at first. They'll let you know when they've had enough for the day.

If you feel your back tightening while doing push-ups, it may be that your abs aren't tight and your back is sagging or arching. Be especially vigilant to keep proper form as you do your last few and hardest reps. This is when most people tend to sag or arch their backs.

Now that you've got the form here's another tip...

Set incremental goals - set smaller age goals, like doing your baby's age first, then your cat or dog, then one of the Olsen twins - you get the picture.

*If you are doing push-ups as part of a longer workout, be sure to do them first or at least do them before you start additional exercises for your chest, triceps or shoulders.

Your Basic Mommy Muscle Do Your Age In Push-Ups Plan (Takes 21 minutes or less a week, 7 minutes a workout)

First Set: Warm-up with 10 modified push-ups to get some heat and blood into your muscles. Rest one minute.

Second Set: Do as many push-ups as you can. Rest for two minutes

Third Set: Do as many push-ups as you can. If it's at least half the number of your first set - congratulations, your workout is over. If you didn't get there, rest 2 minutes and do one more set of as many as you can. (This technique will keep you making fast forward progress even if you're having an off day)

*Note - your goal should be to do at least one more push-up on the second set of each workout. Try and do a little better than your last workout each time. Don't be to hard on yourself if you don't improve every workout. Fitness development can sometimes follow a one step back, two steps forward pattern. The key is a weekly upward trend.

Keep a piece of paper handy to record your progress and watch your numbers rise. By the way, these workouts should take you no more than seven minutes.

Do this workout 3 times a week on non-consecutive days and you'll see rapid and steady impovement toward your incremental goals. If your consistent, you'll be doing your age in push-ups before you know it.

Curt Conrad, CSCS, is Founder and President of StrollerFit Inc. an international product and franchise company that helps parents exercise with their babies. He is author of The StrollerFit ExerBook. His companies have helped thousands of clients enjoy better life through better fitness. http://www.strollerfit.com

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Why Do My Muscles Get Sore After A Workout?

Why Do My Muscles Get Sore After A Workout?
By Josh Stone

Muscle soreness - something I'm sure EVERYBODY can relate to. Even if you've never stepped into a gym, I'm sure that sometime in your life, you've done some sort of exercise/heavy work (mow the lawn, paint the house, wash the car, etc) - and experienced muscle soreness. Wanna know why you get sore? Then read on.

24 hours to 48 hours after a hard workout, most people begin to experience soreness in the body parts trained. This is called Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness, or DOMS.

DOMS is caused by tiny microscopic tears that occur in the muscle as a result of high intensity exercise (such as weight training, intense cycling, etc). After the workout, the muscle begins to rebuild itself (provided it is allowed enough time and nutrients to recover). This is the rebuilding process which creates new muscle that is bigger and stronger than before. In other words, your muscles are growing. Your muscles grow when you are at rest - not when you're at the gym.

DOMS pain is different from the burning sensation and pump you feel during a workout and also different from the pain you get from an injury. DOMS is often used as an indication of a productive workout as it means you've trained intensely enough to break down muscle tissue.. and now, as a result, you will be rewarded with new muscle growth.

Beginners who have never exercised before would experience quite severe DOMS at first. However, the human body is an amazing thing and even the beginner's body will slowly adapt to the workload and eventually - these episodes of soreness will be less severe. Remember the first time you blasted your biceps in the gym, only to realise that you could barely hold a pencil to write on a piece of paper the next day? Well, do you still experience such soreness today? Understand what I mean?

We need to constantly 'shock' our body with new routines and progressive overload in order to constantly and steadily stimulate muscle growth. Expect the soreness to return everytime you try something new at the gym though.

Now a question Ive been asked too often:

What if I'm still sore from my previous workout? Should I still train?
I say if the soreness is very minor, then yes - go ahead and train right through it! As blood gets in the area and your body temperature increases, the remaining soreness will dissipate. Those of you who are so kiasu and addicted to the Les Mills classes that it's practically impossible to discourage you from skipping a class would be able to relate to this - the soreness going away as you start exercising again.

However, if there is a substantial amount of soreness remaining from the last workout, this is a sign that you have not recovered enough and your body is still 'healing'. Listen to your body and take it easy.. perhaps just go for cardio and skip the weights for the day. You can probably reduce soreness by stretching the body part AFTER the workout and by getting circulation into the area with cardio. However, if you constantly ignore the signs and if you keep training and 'breaking down' muscle tissue before it has a chance to recover, the effect will be the opposite of what you want - you will get weaker and smaller.

Although you cant achieve the same level of soreness all the time, personally, I consider soreness to be an indication of a successful workout. I also consider the complete dissipation of the soreness as a sign of full recovery. There are some who may not agree with me but then again, this is how I train by experience.

I'm quite content with the soreness I'm experiencing in my back right now as a result of the mean barbell rows I attempted last night Could definitely do with a good backrub

Josh Stone, also known as DM, is the author behind the site http://www.dailymuscle.com which offers the author's personal views on real-life fitness, bodybuilding, sports nutrition, cardio, fat loss, training information, and on all things that surrounds fitness.

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Causes Of Backpain: Poor Posture Or Muscle Strain

Causes Of Backpain: Poor Posture Or Muscle Strain
By Paul D Osborne

Back pain is a common phenomenon in the United States with nearly 80% of the population suffering from it. However, a large portion of them are unaware of the reasons or the causes of this problem. A strain in the muscles is the most common cause of backpain. Although back pain may emerge suddenly, it may be caused by a problem which has plagued us for a long time.

Back pain is generally not a serious problem and disappears quickly in most of the cases. However, medical advice is essential in cases where the pain persists for a long time. It is a general notion that bed rest is the best cure for back pain. But evidence has shown that rest does not aid in the recovery of a person suffering from Back pain. It is much better if one carries on with normal activities while taking some measures for relieving the pain. It is essential that we find out the true causes of the backpain.

Back pain is one of the most common ailments with 8 out of 10 people experiencing it at one or the other point of time in their life. Backpain can be acute, recurrent or chronic. A poor posture or an injury to the back muscles or problems like tumor, infection or Osteroarthritis can be the major causes of backpain.

The most common cause of backpain is a poor posture or positioning. Sitting or standing in one position for a long time also results in backpain. An imbalance of the muscles which arises when some of our muscles are being used regularly while others are not. This is also a major cause of backpain.

Overuse or underuse of the back are also one of the causes of backpain. Inflammation and swelling often occur in the joints and ligaments, especially in the cervical and lumbar regions, as people grow old. A herniated disc or spinal stenosis which refers to the narrowing of the spine also results in back pain.

Conditions that can result in spinal stenosis include infection, tumors, trauma, a herniated disc, arthritis, thickening of the ligaments and disc degeneration. In the case of the old people, Spinal stenosis is a result of the degeneration of their vertebrae. Any kind of injury which damages our muscles, joints, ligaments, and vertebrae also a cause of backpain.

A tumor in the spine results in the compression of the muscles or the nerve roots in the back and are the major causes of backpain. The muscles in the back may also get compressed due to an infection in the vertebrae and may result in serious neurological deterioration.

Paul Osborne is the executive editor of http://backpain-resources-online.com &http://lowerbackpainrelief.org Both sites offer a host of information, tips and advice forlower back pain relief.

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6 Simple Steps To Catapult Your Muscle Gains

6 Simple Steps To Catapult Your Muscle Gains
By Gary Matthews

What if I were to tell you that throughout the years there has been a growth of strength training techniques that have no scientific proof to back them up.

Well there are hundreds of them, do yourself a favour, have a look at the facts presented in this outline of muscle gain principles and make up your own mind.

Below you will find the Scientific Guidelines for strength training that have always been around for a long time but not followed by many main stream training systems these days.

1. Limited Energy Level

A strength-training program should be short and simple as you only have a limited amount of energy per training session.

Scientific studies reveal that blood sugar levels (energy) start to deplete after 30 mins, so exercise selection and the time taken to perform them is crucial.

What you should be aiming for is stimulating as many muscle fibres in the shortest period of time available.

Your blood sugar levels deplete after high intensity training (usually between 20 - 30 minutes) and remember that you need energy to recuperate after the workout.

The trick is to give yourself a high intensity workout before your blood sugar level depletes, and then you will have given your body the exercise that it requires to gain the maximum amount of muscle possible.

2. Progressive Overload

Progressive Overload is the main exercise principle you need to be aware of in order to get the results that you're after with strength training.

The two most important points are:

* Complete your exercise with perfect technique
* Push to total failure when doing a set and overload the weight on the bar progressively. (Overload your targeted muscles to beyond what there used to)

Basically this means that when the body is stressed by high intensity training beyond its normal demands, the body will adapt to these new demands of improved strength.

When I say ormal demands, I mean what level of stress/strength your body is used to now.

An example: The set that you performed last week using the same technique and weight, your body will now have adapted to. If you stay at this level your muscles will not become stronger or bigger, so this is where the Progressive Overload plays a major part.

Once your muscles have adapted to a particular weight then it'll be time to overload them further (add more weight, speed, repetitions). You'll need to keep on repeating this process of overload if you want to become stronger.

Remember to always use 'Good Technique' Technique must never be sacrificed for extra load.

3. Training Frequency

The sad reality is that the popular high volume type of training that you find in bodybuilding books and magazines (and used by the stars) is irrelevant to the majority of the population and has a shocking failure rate.

What is good for Joe Star is probably not good for you. Everybody has different genetics; most of us have poor genetics and are not taking steroids like the stars.

The only way the majority of us can make any gains at all is to perform short intense workouts followed by long periods of rest so that we don't overtrain.

4. Over-Compensation

Many studies conducted around the world have shown clearly that recuperation from strength training requires far more rest time than previously thought.

Infrequent, short, high intensity weight training sessions, followed by the required amount of time to recover and become stronger is necessary for you to increase your functional muscle.

Here's what you need to do - allow your body enough recuperation time for over compensation to take place, so that the muscles can adjust to their new strength and growth.

5. Exercise selection for intensity

I can't stress enough of how exercise selection is absolutely crucial. There are only a few exercises that you really need to perform. These exercises consist of multi-joint movements.

These particular exercises are far superior to that of isolation exercises (working 1 muscle group at a time) because you are required to use more muscles from every muscle group.

By using these exercises your whole body will be worked hard.

6. Visualization

Over my 20 years in the industry, I've noticed that this area is by far the most neglected by mainstream health and fitness professionals...

Most books or courses concentrate on the physical side of muscle gain or fat loss and completely neglect the mental side of things.

By training your mental state as well as your physical body you can even further progress in muscle growth.

Now that you know these strength-training principles put them to the test straight away and stop wasting your time in the gym.

Gary Matthews is the author of the popular fitness eBooks Maximum Weight Loss and Maximum Weight Gain. Please visit http://www.maximumfitness.com right now for your 'free' muscle building e-course.

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5 Tips for Building Muscle Now

5 Tips for Building Muscle Now
By Gregg Gillies

If you're frustrated with your muscle gain or fat loss goals, I sympathize with you completely, and understand exactly what you are going through. I worked out for years before finally figuring out the correct ways to build muscle and lose fat.

I finally figured ou that the routines and body building tips touted by professional bodybuilders and the muscle magazines just aren't going to work for most people. But take heart, you can reach your muscle mass and fat burning goals.

Putting together a program that incorporates the following body building tips will point you in the right direction and get you making gains you hadn't thought were possible.

Tried and True Body Building Tips

Train Intensely - You must work each set until you can't do another repetition in good form. There is no point in stopping at a set number of reps (such as 8), if you are capable of doing 12. Your body needs to be challenged or it will not adapt by building new muscle or burning off body fat.

Cycle Your Intensity - In order to prevent burnout and overtrainingfrom training intensely, it's important to take a week off fromtraining every 8 - 12 weeks. If, like me, you can't stay outof the gym that long, you should train for a week at a very lowintensity level.

Train Briefly - Your workouts need to be short. This is a very important weight lifting tip. You should never need to do a weight lifting routine that takes over an hour. If you are in the gym that long, you aren't working intensely enough. You can workout hard or long, but you can not do both. And to succeed in building muscle, you need to workout hard.

Train Infrequently - Your body needs time to recover from your weight training routine, so that in can adapt and grow. If you train with weights before your body is completey recovered, you won't add new muscle and will eventually over train, a big no no.

These are extremely important body building tips. It seems that your body's potential for strength increases far outweighs your body's ability to recover. What this means is that as you grow stronger, your body needs more time between weight training sessions in order to recover.

Bench pressing 300 pounds is a far greater stress on your body than bench pressing 50 pounds, even if both were maximum attempts at the time.

Train Progressively - You need to constantly challenge what your body can do by continuing to add more weight and/or repetitions to your previous best effort as often as possible.

Following is a sample weight training routine that incorporates the above weight lifting tips. If you put the other pieces in place, such as your nutrition plan and supplementation plan, you'll be well on your way to great gains and transforming your physique.

1 - Squats

2 - Deadlifts

3 - Chin Ups

4 - Dips

5 - Bench Press

6 - Military Press

Here's another weight lifting tip - break in to this routine. For the first few weeks, try working out 3 times per week on nonconsecutive days, performing 2 working sets of each exercise, doing 12 - 15 reps per set.

Don't train to failure.

After about a month, you can lower the reps on everthing but Squats and Deadlifts, to the 8 - 10 rep range. Start training to failure on some sets.

After another month, begin training to failure on all working sets and consider only weight training two times per week to accomodate the higher level of intensity and strengh that you've developed.

Gregg Gillies is the founder of http://www.buildleanmuscle.com His articles have appeared in Ironman Magazine. He has written two books and is a regular contributor to Body Talk Magazine. He publishes a free fitness newsletter available at his site that includeslots of weight training tips, fat loss, nutrition and exercise program information to help you build your best body as quickly as possible. check it out at Build Muscle and see how you can get a customized muscle building nutrition plan at http://www.mynutritionjournal.com

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