Lift Weights to Build Muscle Mass!

June 13, 2009 by admin  
Filed under Muscle Building Exercises

The only way to build muscle mass is to lift heavy weights; no ifs or ands about it. Yeah! Aerobics, calisthenics and cardiovascular exercises and strength training or resistance build a little muscle but these are lean muscles; these exercises are best for overall fitness but if you are interested in building muscle mass they are not good enough.

Work! Build muscle by lifting weights 30-45 minutes a day 5 days a week. Challenge yourself; focus on 5 diverse weight lifting training exercises commonly known as compound exercises for each muscle group as follows:

Routine number 1:

  • For your shoulders it is necessary for you to do the seated barbell shoulder presses, seated dumbbell shoulder presses, barbell upright rows, dumbbell side lateral raises and bent over lateral raises.
  • For your chest it is necessary for you to do flat barbell bench presses, incline barbell bench presses, decline barbell presses, dumbbell bench presses and push-ups.
  • For your triceps it is necessary for you to do French presses, close grip bench presses, tricep cable push downs, dips and tricep push-ups.
  • For your abdominals it is necessary for you to do decline bench sit-ups, leg raises, pull down cable crunches, seated knee ups and regular crunches.
  • For your legs it is necessary for you to do barbell squats, leg presses, lunges, leg extensions and lying leg curls.

Routine number 2:

  • For your forearms it is necessary for you to do barbell wrist curls, barbell reverse wrist curls, dumbbell wrist curls, dumbbell reverse wrist curls and reverse barbell curls.
  • For your biceps it is necessary for you to do standing barbell curls, standing dumbbell curls, regular curls, pinwheel curls and cable curls.
  • For your back it is necessary for you to do dead lifts, pull downs, chin ups, bent over barbell rows and back raises.
  • For your calves it is necessary for you to do standing calf raises, machine assisted calf raises, seated calf raises and leg press calf raises.

At least 3 sets of 10 repetitions of each of the aforementioned compound exercises will give you the results you are looking for. Yes You Can! I know that this all sounds like a lot of hard work and it is nevertheless you can do it if you are serious about building muscle mass.

Remember! Nothing in life worth having comes easy. Next! In addition to lifting weights 30-45 minutes a day 5 days a week you must consume plenty of protein. An excellent way for you to achieve this would be to substitute one or two well balanced meals with high protein meal replacement shakes.

How To Gain Muscle Weight

April 22, 2009 by admin  
Filed under Muscle Building Tips

Whenever you see a man or woman who is well built and has a lot of muscle mass, you assume that they are bodybuilders. It’s not uncommon to correlate muscle mass with bodybuilding because it does go hand in hand. Did you know, however, that there are three parts to building muscle mass? These three parts are anaerobic weight lifting, balanced dietary program and proper weight lifting. Here are nine easy ways you can boost your body’s muscle mass.

Nine Ways of How To Gain Muscle Weight

How To Gain Muscle Weight Tip #1 – Focus On Eccentric Phase

Did you know that muscle mass occurs because your body’s muscles are contracting when you use them? All too often people will place most of their focus on the concentric phase of weight lifting, paying little attention to the eccentric phase. This phase can lead to hypertrophy; thus lengthening the muscle.

When you pay attention to the eccentric phase, you can overload the muscles, causing them to expand the muscle mass.

How To Gain Muscle Weight Tip #2 – Increase Your Intake of Fish and Red Meat

It’s essential to have omega 3 fatty acids in your diet when you want to boost your muscle mass. To get this necessary vitamin, increase how much you consume of fish and red meat. How do the fatty acids in these foods help? They will allow your muscles to become sensitive so that they absorb insulin. The vitamins will also help bring the amino acids into your muscles and preserve the glutamine.

How To Gain Muscle Weight Tip #3 – Increase Sodium Intake

How many times have you heard a physician say, “Lower how much salt you ingest?” Believe it or not, it’s with good cause. However, a bodybuilder must increase their salt intake. Salt, for a bodybuilder, has the needed minerals they need to encourage muscle growth. It also helps to store carbohydrates and absorb amino acids. Salt will also help in making your muscles sensitive. Keep in mind that there is a drawback to increasing your salt consumption: you have the possibility of retaining water.

How To Gain Muscle Weight Tip #4 – Layoff Aerobic Exercises

If you are trying to build your muscles mass, you won’t do it with aerobic exercises. Why? Your body needs the amino acids and glycogen that are burned off with these kinds of exercises. You can also sap your energy and strength. If you are seeking to boost your resting metabolic rate so you can burn off more calories, you only need to add on mass to get this done.

How To Gain Muscle Weight Tip #5 –Do Heavy and/or Intense Lifting

It’s important to stress your muscles out when you are lifting weights. Make sure to do some heavy and/or intense lifting to make this possible. Remember you don’t want to get hurt doing this so make sure you know your limits.

How To Gain Muscle Weight Tip #6 – Add More Calories To Your Diet

If you are looking to build your muscle mass, you won’t be doing it with a low calorie diet. It’s essential that your body has the nitrogen balance it needs to encourage muscle recovery. To keep off unwanted fat, confine it to a two-day time.

How To Gain Muscle Weight Tip #7 – Give Your Body Some Rest

Resting your body is also essential to gaining muscle mass. When your body has the time to rest, it increases the anabolism and glycogen levels it needs to put on the muscle mass. Take time out from working out and give your body some down time.

How To Gain Muscle Weight Tip #8 – Middle of the Night Feeding

People trying to lose weight should never eat during the overnight hours. However, if you need to build muscle mass, you are encouraged to drink a protein shake or eat during the nighttime hours so that anabolism can take shape.

How To Gain Muscle Weight Tip #9 – Take Supplements

If you are healthy and want to build your muscle mass, try taking supplements to help you out. Many of these supplements have creatine, which is an added boost to gaining muscle mass to your body.

6 Simple Muscle Gaining Tips

March 19, 2009 by admin  
Filed under Muscle Building Tips

If you’re anything like me with an average body type, you’ve discovered the fruitless perils of working longer at building muscle mass. In fact, if you’ve already discovered these effective muscle gaining techniques, you’ve seen how conventional wisdom doesn’t build muscle.

Effective muscle gaining techniques often defy what we’ve been taught before – sometimes training less will take your muscles farther. But if you’re anything like me, when I don’t see results I start training harder and longer.

You know the scenario: You’re training on a daily or every second-day basis, yet you look the same as before.

I’m going to show you why, and what you can do through 6 very simple muscle gaining tips that will catapult your workout and your body to the next level.

6 Muscle Gaining Tips:

1.) Train Briefly but with Intensity.

Working out for hours and hours is not smart training. It’s exhausting for muscles, which need short yet powerful training for one hour maximum. Work your muscles smarter by training with intensity for short periods. Your muscles will repair faster because you haven’t depleted the glycogen in your body.

2.) Train Progressively.

Progressively you gain muscle continually if you either increase your repetitions, or increase your weight. It’s preferable to increase your weights, and keep your training within one hour if you want to constantly challenge yourself and gain a pure muscle mass.

If you’re working with less weight than you can handle, you won’t achieve your total muscle capacity. Always challenge yourself and go beyond your limits.

3.) Train in Cycles.

If you continually train before your body has a chance to recover, your muscles won’t grow larger. It’s not necessary to train the same muscle groups every day, or even every-second day.

Additionally, it’s essential to take time off and rest on your body completely at least one full week within a 2-3 month interval. It’s even better if you can take a full week off once a month.

Your body needs time to repair and do its natural building after you’ve worked hard.

4.) Cross-Train.

Push yourself to the limit. Not only do we need to push to total failure by working past what our muscles have adapted to, we need to vary things up.

Even if you continually work to total failure by continually increasing your weights, your body will still recognize an internal thermometer of ‘routine’ if you don’t mix it up. Our bodies don’t like the same food groups every day – they don’t want the same old training routine week after week either.

Try new muscle exercises from time to time. Even better, utilize multi- joint muscle routines, not just singular muscle exercises.

5.) Train with Visualization.

Training with visualization is a proven technique which works. Studies have shown visualization works effectively in all sports and competitions.

Studies have shown those who trained but didn’t include visualization did moderately well. Those in studies who trained and visualized are those who excelled. And those who participated in the visualization only did as good as those who only trained.

This is incredible information! Never underestimate the powers of the mind coupled with total concentration and focus. Set new goals for yourself every day and push yourself!

6.) Train the Whole Package.

Not only do you need the right body-training formula coupled with assertive visualization training, you need to train your whole body with the proper rest, diet, and supplement regime. Training is an intensive lifestyle choice.

Make sure to study all the best foods and natural supplements on the market to ensure your body is trained to total health. A healthy body is always a beautiful body.