Bodybuilding

Building muscle mass is a multi-pronged approach which requires a proper mass building workout routine, proper nutrition, sufficient rest and good supplements.

When it comes to selecting the proper workout method, the best way to build muscle mass is by using free weights.  Any serious weightlifter will tell you that dumbbells and barbells are the key to building up mass.  In addition to working your primary target muscle, free weights such as barbells and dumbbells involve secondary muscle groups as well and force your body to exert more effort and engage more muscles.  Machines have more muscle-isolating kinetics to them and are mainly used in routines when you are looking to get muscle definition and separation.

To build mass and allow for enough recovery time you should be exercising between 2 to 4 times per week.  More than 4 times per week will not give you enough time to rest and will force your muscle into cannibalizing themselves.  Mass building workouts are ones where you do a low number of sets (2 to 3 max) and go super heavy on the weights where you perform 4 to 6 (sometimes repetitions.  Thus, these workouts are demanding and sufficient rest is paramount!  Another element involves changing-up your routine every 3 weeks.  This keeps your muscles guessing and avoids hitting plateaus in development.

Proper nutrition is another piece of the mass building puzzle.  You need to add to your body’s daily calorie intake, and consume more calories than you burn.  Then you will take those calories and meld them into super strong and massive musculature by doing proper and frequent exercise.

Begin by consuming about 1.5 grams of protein for each pound of your body weight.  Later, you can up the intake if you want to further your results.  Proteins build and rebuild tissue and without them you cannot achieve any muscle growth.  It’s also important to consume carbohydrates in sufficient quantities, for three purposes.  First, your body draws on them as the fuel to burn in the furnace.  They provide you energy during your workouts.  Second, when you’re burning carbohydrates, you’re not burning the proteins that you need to build mass.  Third, you need them after a workout to spike your energy levels.  You should eat a small serving of carbohydrates at every meal, and snack on carbs both before and after your workout.

Just remember when you’re choosing carbohydrates to stick with the complex rather than simple carbs.  Simple carbs, from fruit and dairy products, are not the kind you need. You want the complex carbohydrates from whole grains, pasta, rice, and legumes, or beans. They are full of fiber and will burn slowly in your body’s furnace.

<strong>Mass Building Routines - The Importance of Recuperation</strong>

When you are building mass it is important to rest enough.  If you are a novice, begin with two workouts per week; eventually you can advance to four.  But it’s important to rest muscles for 48 hours between workouts.  If you train too often, or if you fail to give muscle groups adequate rest, then your body will draw on protein as fuel and will actually eat-up your hard earned muscle.  Furthermore, getting sufficient hours of sleep every night is also important because this is the time when our body goes into rebuild and recovery mode.

Finally, proper bodybuilding supplements in the form of whey protein and vitamins are also a key component of building muscle.  Unless you are a great cook and have time to cook 4 to 6 meals a day, you will be hard pressed to achieve your goals without taking pre-workout and post-workout protein shakes.  Of course there are other supplements that you can use to build muscle and enhance your strength and energy, but whey protein is the absolute foundation upon which you build your supplement intake.  Eating 4 to 6 meals per day that are evenly spaced will get you on the right track to achieving your muscle building goals.

In conclusion, your muscle building efforts are a synchronized approach where you need to incorporate different elements which all act in perfect synergy to help you achieve you goal of building muscle mass.  A good workout routine coupled with proper nutrition, rest and supplementation are all key components.  Take away one and you will have crippled your efforts and subsequent results.

Zack Micevic is a certified fitness trainer and nutritionist as well as a natural competitive bodybuilder. He has written many articles across the internet about building muscle mass, fat burning, proper nutrition for athletes and providing comprehensive advice and free fitness and bodybuilding workouts.

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Stabilizer Muscles Are More Than Just Injury Prevention

Many gym goers are focusing on flatten stomach, tone arms and legs or maybe trying to improve their sports performance with strength training. Unfortunately, most fitness enthusiasts and athletes pay too little attention to the structure, stability and alignment of their body. It’s not cool to have six-pack abs with back pain or other injuries that are causes by muscle imbalances. Many people are training mirror muscles but don’t understand importance of stabilizing muscles and injury prevention. They will wake up only when injuries happen.

Your body has two types of muscles - movers and stabilizers. The primary role of movers is to produce the movement while the role of stabilizers is to stabilize the joints and the spine during a movement. So, stabilizing muscles give support to the trunk and joints’ function by controlling and limiting extra movement. The movers are most prominent muscles in your body, but they cannot function well if the stabilizing muscles are weak. Too much movement (called instability) in the spine or joints (such as hips or shoulders) can cause pain, degeneration and poor biomechanics. When you move with good muscle recruitment, and stabilizing muscles are working well, there will be minimal wear and tear in your joints. However, stabilizer muscles are more than just injury prevention. They are reducing the waste of energy and muscles are working together more efficiently and more ergonomically. In the athlete’s world that means better balance, co-ordination, power and speed - they all need a good stabilizer muscles to produce superior performance.

Core Stabilization

Core stability means an ability to contract the deep abdominal and back muscles - transverse abdominus and multifidus muscles. These muscles are responsible for stabilizing your spinal segments to help support your trunk in dynamic and static positions. The core is your “powerhouse”, the center of power. Core muscles’ strength and stability are important components to prevent injuries and back pain. Good core stability corrects posture and ensure more efficient and functional movement patterns of your other muscles and joints. 

Hip & Knee Joints Stabilization

The gluteus medius and maximus muscles stabilize your hip joint and pelvic. By strengthening gluteus medius muscles will also help prevent knee injuries. When weak hip stabilizers exists, the iliotibial band gets overworked which can lead knee pain, iliotibial band syndrome (ITBS) or trochanteric bursitis.

Knee joint stabilizers are more ligaments than muscles, but there are still quadriceps and hamstrings muscles that help stabilize the knee joint. Quadriceps include four muscles and two of them are more important to stabilize the knee joint - vatsus lateralis and vastus medialis. The iliotibial band also affects knee stability.

Shoulder And Shoulder Girdle Stabilization

The shoulder joint is most mobile joint in your body and needs a lot of stability to function correctly and prevent injuries. Prime stabilizer in your shoulder joint are the rotator cuff muscles: supraspinatus, infraspinatus, teres minor and subscapularis. These muscles are holding the ball of your shoulder joint tightly against the socket when shoulder is moving. Weak or fatigued rotator cuff muscles can lead to soft tissue injuries, like shoulder tendonitis and bursitis.

The muscles that move the shoulder blade also play a role in stabilizing the shoulder joint. The muscles that attach on the inside of your shoulder blade (scapula) are the key muscles for scapular stabilization. These include the middle and lower trapezius, rhomboid major and minor, and serratus anterior. The scapular stabilization is essential in preventing shoulder injuries.

Pilates Trains Your Stabilizer Muscles

Pilates is a good lumbar spine and joints stabilization exercise method, its’ foundation is strengthening stabilizer muscles. The main focus is on keeping your pelvic and spine stable while other parts of body are moving. You are contracting the deep stabilizing muscles, transverses abdominis and multifidus so that  superficial muscles (movers) of the extremities have optimal coordination and motion. The core stabilizers are present in all Pilates movements but it also strengthens your shoulders, shoulder blade and hip and knee stabilizers. Pilates help achieve and increase quality of movements and functions of all joints and muscles, from head to toe, by creating body awareness, co-ordination and endurance. Pilates is a good exercise for injury prevention as well as to improve your optimal sport performance.

Tuula Niskanen has college degrees of Physical Therapy and Physical Education. She holds advanced certifications in Spinal Stabilization Training, Golf Conditioning and Comprehensive Pilates Teaching. She offers private and semi-private Pilates classes with reformer and other equipment at California Pilates Center studio in Carlsbad , CA.

More about Tuula’s Pilates services at PilatesWise website http://www.pilateswise.com .

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Many people go to the gym each week, never really knowing which exercise works the correct muscle.

The trapezius also referred to as traps, are the large shoulder muscles at the back of the neck. In this article, I am going to give you six of the very best exercises to work your traps.

Four of the exercises will involve using resistance using either weights or weight machines whilst the other two are exercises you can do at home or practically anywhere.

 Exercise 1: Forward Bend Rowing

Ideally, with this exercise you will use something about the size of a suitcase. If you can use a suitcase packed full of clothes, so it has some weight that is perfect.

STEP 1: Stand with your legs about shoulder length apart, bend forward by bending your knees but keeping your back completely straight. Place your hands either side of the suitcase and lift.

STEP 2: Only use your biceps and your back and then slowly lift the suitcase towards your chest. When you reach your chest hold the case there for about 10 seconds, and then slowly lower it back down to the starting position.

 

Exercise 2: Ball and Barbell Bounce

In addition to giving your traps a super workout this routine will also work your lower back and your lats.You will need an exercise ball and a pair of  light dumbbells to do this exercise..

STEP 1: Pick up your dumbbells then lie face down on top of the exercise ball, bend your elbows and lift the weights upward.

STEP 2: Whilst keeping the weights level lift them up until you are pushing your shoulder blades together. After lifting all the way simply lower the dumbbells and repeat. My suggestion is to start off by doing 10 repetitions of this exercise and then increase the number as your confidence and stamina increase.

 

 

Exercise 3: Straight up Rowing

 

This exercise works your traps and gives your back a fantastic stretch.

STEP 1:Sit in a standard gym rowing machine, bend your knees slightly and then pull your elbows in tightly towards your torso. The key thing with this exercise is to pull the machines handles all the way in to your stomach on every single repetition.

This exercise, is fantastic for your pectorals and will build your traps quickly if done correctly each repetition.

 

Exercise 4: The Heavy Dumbbell Pinch

 

STEP 1: Start by raising your arms high above your head to stretch. Then lift two reasonably heavy dumbbells and hold them down at your sides.

STEP 2: Whilst holding the dumbbells lift them and try to raise your shoulders up towards your ears.

 

STEP 3: Hold your shoulders in that lifted position for 5 seconds then lower to your sides and repeat.

 

Exercise 5: Stand and Row

 

Like in exercise three, you will be using the rowing machine at your gym.

STEP 1: Stand straight and grab the handle then extend your arms straightout..Keep your back completely straight and bend at the knees, dropping to a squat position slowly.

STEP 2: Pull the rowing machine handle back slowly all the way to your chest. Stay upright whilst releasing the handle back towards the machine.

 

In the next article in the series, I will be covering the five best exercises for the triceps.

 

 

Paul Ritchie is an Australian based business person who enjoys writing.Paul discovered a great system that makes small continuous recurring profits using the internet.You can see Google Sniper at Paul’s website

http://www.guruswipe.com

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Exercise1: The Triangle Push up

 

STEP: 1 Assume the normal push up position, then place your hands beneath your chest with your palms forming a triangle. Put your thumbs and first finger together.

STEP: 2 Lower your body and slowly drop your chest down and almost touch your hands. Hold in the down position for 5 seconds, then raise, and repeat for as many repetitions as you can. Do not be surprised if this is only three or four in the beginning.

This is one of the hardest push-ups; you can do, so build your repetitions by one or two each day. If you aim to do, many of these push ups straight away you might end up quitting the exercise in frustration, so work up slowly it this exercise will give you tremendous results in time.

 

Exercise 2: The Reverse Triceps Kickback

 

 For this exercise, you will need a bench and two dumbbells.

 

STEP 1: Lift a dumbbell in your right hand and put the opposite knee up on the workout bench. Plant your other foot, flat on the ground.

STEP 2: Lift the arm holding the dumbbell back and then up to your side.

STEP3: Keep the weight at about a 90-degree angle at your elbow. Try and straighten your arm as far as it can comfortably go.

STEP 4: Lower from the straight position back to the 90 degree position at your elbow. Obviously, the next thing to do is repeat the process with the other arm.

 

 

Exercise 3: The Tri -ceps Power Dip

This exercise will work all the major muscles in your chest as well as powerfully working your triceps.

STEP 1: Ideally you will be using some dip bars on equipment at your gym, but as long as you have two very solid things that you can dip between this exercise is great.

Put one hand on each bar and then lift your entire body weight upward, until your arms straightened out. Hold yourself up like this for five seconds.

STEP 2: Keep your elbows push in towards your ribs as you slowly lower yourself downward. Bend your elbows until you can fee your forearms pointing down towards the floor.

STEP 3: Once you reach the down position hold yourself in this position and then power yourself back up to the original starting position.

This is a tough exercise in the beginning, but once your muscles are accustomed to these new pressures, your strength and endurance will improve quickly.

 

Exercise 4: Heavy Dumbbells Rollover

 

STEP 1: Lie down completely flat on your back, bend your knees upward.Grab the heaviest Dumbell you can comfortably lift above your chest safely.Raise the dumbbell up whilst keeping your arms almost straight, and then hold.

STEP 2: Hold the dumbbell over your chest and then lower back to your starting position very slowly. The key to this exercise is keeping your arms as straight as you can. Bending your arms a lot will reduce the effect that the exercise is having on building your triceps.

Do not try for many more then five repetitions has each set with this exercise, if you can easily do many more then that at the beginning you are probably using a dumbbell that is too light.

 

Exercise 5: Machine Cable Push

 All large gyms will have a machine where you can attach a bar to a cable that is connected to weights. You will see a few different connections that can be attached to the machines cable. Grab the bar that you can grip on either side with both hands.

STEP 1: place your feet about shoulder width apart, bend at your knees slightly.Have your palms facing in towards each other, and slowly pull the bar down towards your mid section. If the strain is to little add some weight and conversely if you can hardly lift the weights off the ground reduce the amount of weight.

 STEP 2: Lower the bar slowly and evenly whilst dropping your elbows inward. If the weight is right it should be that even a small downward movement should really be working your triceps quite hard.

 

Paul Ritchie is an Australian based business person who enjoys writing.Paul discovered a great system that makes small continuous recurring profits using the internet.You can see Google Sniper at Paul’s website

http://www.guruswipe.com

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If a person really wants to burn fat and lose weight, most of the time they turn to a cardiovascular workout. What many people do not realize that they need to build muscle to burn fat. This is the whole concept behind popular workouts!

Building muscles are something that is quite trendy among all the people worldwide. But when it comes to gaining muscles instantly, the majority of them tend towards the traditional means of it such as workout continuously in the gyms and various fitness centers. However, this is a common approach, and you could be out of the box by attaining the same muscles without any hard work. Now, the question arises is there any approach available to gain the muscles exponentially without tough workout.

One of the biggest parts that make up the muscle building process of recovery stage. The key to building muscle quicker is to speed up the rate at which your muscles rebuild and recover. There are some very quick and simple ways that you can dramatically decrease the recovery time of your muscles.

Post Nutrition

Post nutrition is by far one of the most important and crucial parts of the recovery phase. After your workout your muscles are in desperate need of 2 things carbohydrates for energy which can be pulled from simple sugars and protein. With the post workout mean timing is absolutely crucial as the longer you wait to provide your body with nutrients the less likely your muscles will be able to fully recover from the workout. It is suggested that you take in about.4gr of simple carbohydrates and about.2gr of easily digestible protein per pound of body-weight.

Get Adequate Sleep

Whether our bodies are repairing injuries,sickness or muscle the biggest part of it is done while our bodies are at rest, it is at this time that our bodies can divert and focus the most resources towards repairs without having to worry about other body functions that are used while we are awake. It is recommended that you get from 8 to 10 hours of sleep every night to allow for enough time for a complete recovery.

Avoid Alcohol on Workout Days

Along with all of the other negative effects of alcohol it is also plays a huge negative effect on the muscle building process. The reason for this is that alcohol actual greatly decreases the ability for your body to digest and use protein which means that protein synthesis in your body is greatly reduced. This in turn causes a massive increase in the time it takes for your muscles to recover.

One of the single most important things to remember when looking to maximize muscle growth and muscle building potential is to focus on post workout recovery. These 3 simple tricks will not only allow your muscles to heal faster but will also help to maximize muscle building results.

For visit more information on how you can naturally build more muscle faster.

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We all know our bodies started out as dynamic calorie-burning machines in our early years, even without strenuous fat burning exercise.
Somewhere along the way, they seem to have forgotten how to be that way any more.

In fact, we may actually notice that our bodies have progressively acquired the contrary habit of “not burning unwanted calories”. Of actually possessively holding on to fat.

The pace of life is faster nowadays, and from that we all make the cardinal mistake of deducing that a “busy life” is an “active life”. We assume that our tiredness is from over-exertion, while it may even be from disillusionment.

Starting a purposeful walking program works in two ways — one, it directly impacts your physical calorie burn and weight loss situation; and two, the self-assertion involved in setting strong new weight goals and staying with the walking program, day after day, despite all odds, helps wear away the fearful negativity that makes your body hold on to fat! It’s the numero uno stress-busting fat burning exercise.

(Fat is nothing but excess energy fuel solidified and stored for future use, anticipating future starvation!)

And no matter what fat burning exercise you try, unless the mind’s perception of its surrounding environment is changed it’s hard to actualize results.

What the body has learnt how to do very well, is to save fat feverishly for the “rainy day”, even add on more and more …- because from everything it interacts with around it, it anticipates a lot of present and future stress!

Fat burning is essential to every health and fitness program. Excess stored body fat has significant implications to health and obesity is now the leading cause of death in the United states.

Fat burning exercise and fat burning foods work together to burn body fat and to use body fat as fuel. Aerobic exercise done at the correct intensity is a great fat burning workout.

In order to get you started with burning your fat and building muscle at the same time, click the link below for more information

The Best Fat Burning Exercise for Men

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There are so many vertical jump exercises out there. So much has been written on vertical jump training and vertical jump exercises. But you should be careful when using any exercise to train your vertical jump - since most of what you read on the internet as exercises to train your vertical may not really work for you. So which exercises can improve your vertical leap?

To answer this question, I would start by saying that vertical jump training is not suppose to be any difficult. In fact you can personally make some research and build your own set of training exercises which can actually help improve your vertical jump. However, there is so much cabbage on the internet about vertical jump training. Most of these free articles you read about vertical jump exercises are written by ghost writers who know nothing about jump.

If you really want to train your vertical jumps, or to take your jump heights to the next level, with the best vertical jump exercises that actually work, then I suggest you download a copy of Jacob Hiller’s Vertical Jump Manual.

The jump manual is a comprehensive vertical jump training system prepared by a professional jump coach Jacob Hiller, and is well renounced as the best vertical leap training system you can find today on the internet. This program is helping thousands of athletes every month in diffident countries all over the world, to reach their required jump heights.

Jacob Hiller, author of the Jump manual spent well over 8 years developing the fundamentals for his jump training program and many renounced basketball coaches have voted his program as the most effective system in increasing vertical jump heights.

Click Here: The Jump Manual, to read more about Jacob Hiller’s jump manual, and also discover the best vertical jump exercises to help you increase your jump heights.

Do You Want To Know The Effective Vertical Jump Exercises Which Actually Work? Click On The Following Link to Instantly Download Jacob Hiller’s Vertical Jump Manual.

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Usually people underestimate the advantages of hamstring stretches to jump higher. They fail to believe that some exercises as simple as stretches can actually make a difference in the jumping potential of a body. Well in spite of what the common conception is, the fact is highly logical and easy to understand. More importantly, it is an important skill to have in certain sports like basketball.

The human body, though a very complex mechanism makes do with a very simple mechanism in terms or bones and muscles, the bones provide solidity whereas the muscle provides flexibility.

Only when a body is healthy in both senses, in terms or the bone as well as in turns of the muscles will a body be able to perform to its full potential. The muscles in a human body are very like to rubber bands, dependent upon their flexibility and strength to ensure better movement for the body.

The body acts as a whole in more places than you might think, take jumping for instance, first try to jump as high as you can, then try to jump as high as you can while keeping your hands and the rest of the body parts except your legs stiff, even a task as simple and natural as jumping requires the usage of muscles across the body.

In order for the muscles of a body to function in their prime, a body also requires an uninterrupted inflow of blood and energy as well as constant practice.

Take a rubber band for instance, once you keep it in constant use, the rubber remains flexible and prime and once you stop using it for a period of time, the rubber turns supple and once you start using it again, it remains supple for a length of time before returning to its prime flexibility, the same holds true with the muscle sin the body.

You will be surprised with what some simple flexing and stretching exercises can do to your bodies’ muscles.

Are you looking to learn how to Jump Higher permanently? Visit the author’s website at http://www.verticaljumpguidereview.com where he tells you about the Top 3 Programs for maximizing your vertical jump explosion!

For a limited time, you can also get a FREE Jumping e-course on tips for jumping higher!

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