Muscle Building Techniques

Many bodybuilders are upset. Even though they produce a wonderful effort to achieve their fitness goals muscle growth seems to be impossible to them. Perhaps, you are in an equivalent situation. Right here you have the top 10 reasons why bodybuilders fail to achieve muscular expansion.

1. Bodybuilders who do not build muscle is duethey do not know what state there body is in to begin with. Without accurately assessing your current state you can't determine which system of training will help you reach your goals.

2. If you don't train properly you will never stimulate you muscles to expand. Improper training is 1 of the biggest reasons why virtually all people never get the desired results form training.

3. Bodybuilders don't know what route to take to get there (build muscles). Virtually all bodybuilders have no real system that changes as there body gets utilized to the training stress it is now dealing with. They hike in the gym pick random exercises and rep ranges put there time in and come home. Where is the science in that?

4. (which happens primarily with steroid users who artificially build there muscles) is athletes cannot keep the muscles they built with drugs because they do not know how to train or even eat in the 1st place. When they prevent taking drugs there muscles disappear leaving them skinny, fat and in a worse state then if they had never wore drugs.

5. Virtually all bodybuilders don't regularly monitor biofeedback to determine when to change their training to carry on growing. So if you were not keeping record of your training there isn't a way you are maximizing your gains. Journal keeping allows you to track your process above years enabling you to fine tune your training and keep the gains coming constantly.

6. Virtually all people select exercises that act only operate their strengths. Seldom or even rarely do they operate on their weaknesses and produce a truly great balanced physique.

7. Bodybuilders get sucked into bogus well marketed supplements and glitzy magazine builds on look for fast fixes instead of implementing a systemized, training and nutrition program.

8. Virtually all people don't generate enough intensity in the gym to force the body to expand. Intensity is a extremely misunderstood term in bodybuilding and virtually all individuals are kidding themselves into believing it is training intensely enough to really expand.

9. Extremely couple bodybuilders actually invest in professional specific coaching to help them achieve their best results. Think about this, what athlete in the globe got to the top of his game without coaching. I personally will explain, absolutely none! Many bodybuilders erroneously think that they can maximize muscle expansion with out coaching. Guess what? It is dead wrong!

10. Virtually all people let their EGO get in the way of learning the correct and virtually all effective way of training. They don't listen to or even follow sound science or even look at what more people have to say. They spend their time shooting down authorities in the sport or even spouting off about their have hair brained training routine. Neat athletes are life long learners. They check their ego at the door and are always considering ways to advance, integrate and apply new training information.

I personally may go on about these failure reasons for a whole book however you get the idea. Analyze your have thoughts and training and see if there exists anything holding you back. Then eliminate your weaknesses and move forward on the path to greatness. By constant and honest self analysis you are able to be sure to achieve greatness in any field. 

Unfortunately, drug usage has get rampant in sport and society itself. This is the current state of bodybuilding today. Many athletes get frustrated with their progress and begin applying drugs.  

Current bodybuilding practices are so devoid of a scientific system in training that it's led to far flung and insane drug apply. This abuse of drugs in turn has destroyed even more physiques and mass-produced the current crop of bodybuilders look even more like cartoon freaks and leftovers from the Frankenstein labs.  

Not only have current bodybuilders misplaced the respect of society, bodybuilding has turn into the laughing option of the sport globe. The primary reason for this is that bodybuilders have misplaced respect for themselves and their bodies.

There are lots of dieters, trying every sort of plan to lose weight and get healthier. But, rather than examine diet plans or the details of how and why low-carb diets work, here are some useful tips that can be used in any diet plan — and, really, in any sensible approach to eating.

Tip 1: Drink 8 to 10 Glasses of Water Every Day

You’ve heard this one over and over. But, it isn’t easy and too few people actually do it. Your body needs water to keep your system clean, to process food, to keep your skin in good shape and more. Sure, it’ll use any liquid, but pure water works best. But - there’s no taste, at least with pure water. This can be difficult since we’re conditioned to want sweetness and flavors. But, it gets easier the more you do it. It’s a matter of re-conditioning your taste buds, and yourself. Once started, you’ll begin to crave water.

Drink a glass, or even two, as soon as you wake up. Especially in the beginning, those are the easy two. And they’ll help you remember.

If you can’t stand the taste of water, try a purifying pitcher or filter, or add a few drops of lemon or lime to your water - but no sugar or sweetener. Check out the flavored waters, too. Just keep an eye out for additives.

Tip 2: Eat Breakfast

Don’t skip breakfast. If you need to go to bed earlier so that you can get up 20 minutes earlier each morning - do it! Breakfast is vitally important to good health and weight control. According to Dr. Barbara Rolls a professor of nutrition at Penn State University, “Your metabolism slows while you sleep, and it doesn’t rev back up until you eat again.”

Eating breakfast is good for overall weight loss and it helps you stay on track with your diet the rest of the day. Skip breakfast and you’re more likely to binge.

Short on time? Keep hard-boiled eggs and high-fiber, low starch fruit in the fridge. If you plan to eat fruit during the day, breakfast is a perfect time to do it.

Tip 3: Eat 3 Meals and 2 Snacks Every Day

This could be a hard adjustment to make. Hey, you’re busy! You already have a “full-plate”. When are you going to eat more?

But, exactly like eating breakfast will increase your metabolism, so will eating more often. This also helps you curb bad-carb intake by making sure that your snacks are planned and occur regularly throughout the day.

Tips 4: Avoid White Foods

This is an easy way to remember what not to eat. If it’s made from sugar, flour, potatoes, rice or corn - just say no. Yes, those rice cakes are actually an unhealthy high-carb snack.

Look for color. Buy broccoli, lettuce, bell peppers, green beans and peas, brown rice (in moderation), leafy greens like kale and spinach, apples, melons, oranges and grapes.

Not only colorful, they’re also high in fiber, nutrients and important antioxidants. Eating colorful fruits and vegetables will give your diet variety as well as give you added health benefits. Eat your veggies.

Tip 5: Prepare Your Own Food

While more restaurants offer so-called low-carb menu items, many of them are not ideal low-carb fare. There are many recipes for quick and easy meals that you can prepare yourself at home. Do this as often as possible.

Cooking your own foods, you know exactly what the contents are and you’ll be able to better control hidden sugar and other processed junk.

This tip saves you money too. Even if you end up going to the grocery store more often, you’ll save versus eating out.

Tip 6: Eat Some Protein At Every Meal And With The Snacks

In addition to everything that’s been discussed before, eating protein helps you burn more calories. Jeff Hample, Ph.D., R.D., a spokesman for the American Dietetic Association says that, “Protein is made up mainly of amino acids, which are harder for your body to breakdown, so you burn more calories getting rid of them.”

Beautiful - eat a protein rich snack and lose weight. How about a few slices of turkey or ham or some string cheese?

Eating protein also helps you feel full so you’re less likely to crave unhealthy snacks.

Tip 7: Invest In Good Cookbooks

Can’t figure out what to eat? Need variety? Get a cookbook. Granted, not all recipes in a cookbook are low-carb, but you’ll be surprised at the number of low-carb and low-carb friendly recipes you can find in your standard Betty Crocker Cookbook.

Cookbooks are great reference tools that contain handy tips on purchasing cuts of meat and preparing meats, fruits and vegetables in new and exciting ways.

Plus, new low-carb cookbooks are hitting the shelves all the time. So be sure to take advantage of these resources to try something new, different and delicious.

So that’s the seven tips, but here’s an extra. Stay out of the center of the supermarket. It’ll be easier to stick with your low-carb lifestyle if you learn this common thread in most grocery store designs: the healthy foods are on the perimeter aisles.

Think about it, when you go into the grocery all the healthy stuff, fruits, vegetables, meats, and dairy products, tend to be around the stores walls. You only rarely need to enter the center aisle areas if it’s a store that keeps butter and cheese in the center near the frozen foods. Usually all of the foods that you need for your low carb diet can be found on the perimeter of the grocery store.

Train yourself to start on one end of the outer aisle and work your way around. It will be much easier to avoid carb cravings and fill your basket with healthy items if you do so.

Just these few tips can make a significant difference in how successful you can be with your diet. Use them as part of your approach to dieting and a healthier lifestyle. You’ll love your new self.

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Richard writes on a variety of health and e-business
subjects. Carb Werkz has recipes, articles,
news and diet resources. For more tips, low-carb diet
information, and books and manuals visit
http://www.Carb.Werkz.org

There are two main types of diabetes, type I and type II. Type I diabetes is characterized by the pancreas making too little or no insulin. An individual with diabetes type I will have to inject insulin throughout the day in order to control glucose levels. Type II diabetes, also known as adult onset diabetes, is characterized by the pancreas not producing enough insulin to control glucose levels or the cells not responding to insulin. When a cell does not respond to insulin, it is known as insulin resistance. When a subject is diagnosed with type II diabetes, exercise and weight control are prescribed as measures to help with insulin resistance. If this does not control glucose levels, then medication is prescribed. The risk factors for type II diabetes include: inactivity, high cholesterol, obesity, and hypertension. Inactivity alone is a very strong risk factor that has been proven to lead to diabetes type II. Exercise will have a positive effect on diabetes type II while improving insulin sensitivity while type I cannot be controlled be an exercise program. Over 90% of individuals with diabetes have type II.

Exercise causes the body to process glucose faster, which lowers blood sugar. The more intense the exercise, the faster the body will utilize glucose. Therefore it is important to understand the differences in training with type I and type II diabetes. It is important for an individual who has diabetes to check with a physician before beginning an exercise program. When training with a diabetic, it is important to understand the dangers of injecting insulin immediately prior to exercise. An individual with type I diabetes injecting their normal amount of insulin for a sedentary situation can pose the risk of hypoglycemia or insulin shock during exercise. General exercise guidelines for type I are as follows: allow adequate rest during exercise sessions to prevent high blood pressure, use low impact exercises and avoid heavy weight lifting, and always have a supply of carbohydrates nearby. If blood sugar levels get too low, the individual may feel shaky, disoriented, hungry, anxious, become irritable or experience trembling. Consuming a carbohydrate snack or beverage will alleviate these symptoms in a matter of minutes.

Before engaging in exercise, it is important for blood sugar levels to be tested to make sure that they are not below 80 to 100 mg/dl range and not above 250 mg/dl. Glucose levels should also be tested before, during, after and three to five hours after exercise. During this recovery period (3-5 hours after exercise), it is important for diabetics to consume ample carbohydrates in order to prevent hypoglycemia.

Exercise will greatly benefit an individual with type II diabetes because of its positive effects on insulin sensitivity. Proper exercise and nutrition are the best forms of prevention for type II diabetics. It is important for training protocols to be repeated almost daily to help with sustaining insulin sensitivity. To prevent hypoglycemia, progressively work up to strenuous activity.

As with individuals with type I diabetes, carbohydrates should also be present during training to assist in raising blood sugar levels if the individual becomes low.

Muscles generate heat and force for movement, help us breathe, and keep our bodies upright. Skeletal muscle tissue is composed of two fibers, actin (thin fibers) and myosin (thick fibers). These two fibers give the muscle a striated appearance. In order for muscle to contract it must first be stimulated by nerves called motor neurons. A single motor neuron and the muscle fibers stimulated by it is called a motor unit. The recruiting motor units play a large part in the force of the muscle during contraction. The more motor units (muscle fibers) recruited, the stronger the force of contraction.

Muscle fibers are classified as Type I, Type IIa and Type IIb fibers. "Fast" and "slow" twitch are also two other classifications for muscle fibers. Type I fibers (slow twitch) fibers are more resistant to fatigue than Type IIa or IIb fibers and have a high capacity for aerobic metabolism, fatigue faster and are mainly anaerobic.

Slow twitch fibers are mainly for endurance while fast twitch are for speed and performance. A muscle will generally have an equal amount of both fast and slow twitch muscle fibers. In regards to hypertrophy (muscle growth), fast twitch fibers grow faster and larger than slow twitch. Within the fast twitch muscle fibers, type IIa fibers are considered intermediate between fast and slow twitch fibers in relation to speed and contraction. For example, Type IIa fibers can become more glycolytic or aerobic depending on the type of training an athlete performs. If an endurance runner were to stop running and start weight lifting, then his or her Type IIa fibers would become more glycolytic in order to handle the stress of the activity.

Muscle growth and endurance is an adaptation to stress. For example, a sprinter will develop large quadriceps and hamstrings in order to adapt to the stress, while an endurance runner will develop more endurance to efficiently handle the stress. Type I muscle fibers respond to stress by becoming more efficient and stronger with slight hypertrophy, rather than the extreme hypertrophy seen with Type IIa and IIb muscle fibers. This is the premise behind trainers recommending 6 reps for pure strength/muscle gain and why 10-15 reps are recommended to "tone" a muscle.

Finally, there are four different actions a muscle can perform; isometric, eccentric, concentric, and isotonic. An example of an isometric contraction would be pushing against a wall. Lifting a dumbbell during a bicep curl is considered the concentric portion while lowering of the weight is called the eccentric portion of the exercise. There are also called the positive and negative portions respectively. And finally, isotonic contractions are those that involve full body actions such as skating or running.

Your goal is clear and well defined. You want to pile as much muscle as possible in your body-frame. But only if your organic system is in the correct anabolic balance, muscular growth will take place. You will probably know that a high intensity weight training program is obviously a very important part of the muscle building process. However obtaining the maximum muscle mass depends on putting the building blocks in place. This goal is achieved besides through proper nutritional practices; therefore you must learn and apply the following anabolic enhancing principles:

1. Fully repairing rest:


Get plenty of rest both in terms of adequate rest days between training sessions and sufficient sleep. Your muscles only recover and grow if you get the proper and adequate recovery time into your training program. Similarly, you can only optimize your body's levels of testosterone and growth hormone if you spend enough time sleeping.


2. Drink plenty of water.


You are probably thinking: "Hey, Are you kidding me?" My response to your thought is clear and right to the point. Failure to drink adequate quantities of water will lead to dehydration and adversely affect your muscle mass gaining potential. Don't forget that muscle is 70% water so a generous intake will maintain muscle volume and help growth.


3. Increase your calories through better nutrition.


Unless your main goal is to body fat loss you need a positive caloric balance if you want to build muscle. Make sure that your daily calorie intake is 10% higher than your energy expenditure for daily maintenance.


4. Protein.


Protein is the basic raw building block needed to muscular growth. Protein supplies the amino acids that the body uses to repair and build muscle following intensive exercise. Aim to consume 1 to 1.5 grams of protein per pound of body weight each day from food like beef, fish, poultry, eggs, milk and whey. Spread the load over at least six meals to derive the optimum benefit and avoid overloading the liver.


5. Carbohydrates.


Carbohydrates are needed to energize the muscle building process. Carbohydrates stimulate the release of insulin which pushes the amino acids into muscle cells to begin the process of repair. The body uses carbohydrates as a source of energy - consume too little and the body will steal protein that would otherwise be used for repairing and building muscle. Aim to consume 1.5 to 2 grams of carbohydrate per pound of body weight each day from foods like potatoes, pasta, rice, vegetables and whole wheat bread.


6. Proper Supplementation.


Consume quality supplements to support a sound nutritious diet. For most people it should be enough to add high-quality whey protein, creatine and l-glutamine to your daily diet.


7. Aerobic Exercise.


Don't overdo the aerobic exercise. Your aim is to increase muscle mass therefore you don't want to burn excessive calories that could be utilized for bulking up.

Human body is an adaptive machine. Heavy weights really play a very important part in building bigger muscles. They help you literally rip and tear muscle fibre so it grows back stronger. But to keep your muscles guessing, and for consistent, minimum pain muscle growth, you need to work with lighter weights at regular intervals.

For each exercise, lift your absolute maximum, once. Then, carry out high-rep sets (15-25 reps per set) with weights set at 25% of the initial maximum weight. According to Chad Waterbury (Source: Men's Health (August 2005, page 62), a strength and conditioning coach, working with these will help deliver essential oxygen, amino acids and hormones to the muscles, without any major trauma occurring to the muscle-or the people around you.

The more variation you can build into your routine the better the results. Occasionally including high reps in your routine is a great way to shock your muscles into new growth. It also gives your joints a break from constant pounding with heavy weights.

by: Nick Nilsson

When you think about gaining muscle, stretching is probably not the first thing that pops into your head. But did you know that stretching plays a critical role in building muscle?

Every muscle in your body is enclosed in a bag of tough connective tissue known as fascia. Fascia is important for holding your muscles in their proper place in your body. But your fascia may also be holding back your muscle growth. Think for a moment about your muscles. You train them and feed them properly. They want to grow and will grow but something is holding them back. They have no room to grow! Because fascia is so tough, it doesn’t allow the muscle room to expand. It is like stuffing a large pillow into a small pillowcase. The size of the muscle won’t change regardless of how hard you train or how well you eat because the connective tissue around your muscles is constricting the muscles within. The best example of this is the calf muscle. The lower leg is riddled with fascia because of its tremendous weight-bearing duties in the body. It is because of this fascia that many trainers have great difficulty developing their calves.

The solution: stretching.

Using the pillowcase example from above, imagine you can expand the size of the pillowcase by stretching it. Suddenly, the pillow within has more room and will expand to fill that new space.

By stretching your muscles under specific conditions, you can actually stretch your fascia and give your muscles more room to grow. The key to effective fascial stretching is the pump. The best time to stretch to expand the bags that are holding in your muscles is when your muscles are pumped up full of blood. When your muscles are fully pumped up, they are pressing against the fascia. By stretching hard at that time, you increase that pressure on the fascia greatly, which can lead to expansion of the fascia.

One of the major reasons Arnold Schwarzenegger had such incredible chest development was that he finished his chest workouts with dumbell flyes, an exercise that emphasizes the stretched position of the pectoral muscles. He would pump his chest up full of blood during the workout then do flyes, holding the stretch at the bottom of the flye. This gave his chest room to grow to amazing proportions.

Fascial stretching is more rigorous than regular stretching but the results can be amazing. When you stretch hard enough to cause the fascia to expand, you will really feel it! When you are stretching the fascia, you should feel a powerful pulling sensation and pressure as the muscle works against the fascia to expand it. Be sure you do not stretch so hard that you cause the muscle to tear or cause injury to yourself. You will rapidly learn to distinguish the difference between a good stretch and a bad stretch. You should not feel any sharp pain, just a steady pull.

Hold each stretch for at least 20 to 30 seconds as you must give your fascia time to be affected by the stretch. Stretch hard like this only when you have a fully pumped muscle as you must give your fascia a reason to expand. If your muscles aren’t pumped, just stretch normally.

You can find instructions for stretching at: http://www.fitstep.com/Library/Info/Stretching1.htm

One set of hard stretching after each set you do for a muscle group, besides the obvious benefits of increased flexibility, can have an incredible effect on the size of your muscles and their further ability to grow.

About The Author

Nick Nilsson is Vice President of BetterU, Inc., an online exercise, fitness, and personal training company. Check out his latest eBook "The Best Exercises You've Never Heard Of" at http://www.thebestexercises.com or visit http://www.fitstep.com. You can contact him at betteru@fitstep.com or subscribe to BetterU News, his fitness newsletter at betterunews@fitstep.com.