I promise you if there was some sort of magic pill that would do half of what the supplement companies advertisements would claim, you would have heard about it.

The reality is that anyone who has ever built an athletic physique has adhered to four basic core principles:

• Aerobic Training
• Resistance Training
• Nutrition
  
• Rest and Recovery

No pill or magic pixie dust is ever going to be able to take the place of these.  There are plenty of people that you have known that could concentrate on only one or two of them and achieve results, but I promise you it is for a short time.  The fall is usually rather rapid.

Of course we have all gotten by with only three hours sleep before.  Maybe when you were younger you did not have to watch the desserts so much.  Unfortunately that is temporary.

If you are going to get to that looking good, feeling good stage, you are going to have to drive on all four wheels.  If you do this your journey will be quicker and you will look fantastic!

Don’t believe me about the supplement companies.  Look closely at any of their advertiserments, especially those on T.V. or magazines and you will notice some very, very tiney print on the bottom.  Usually it takes the form of ‘these statements have not been verified by th F.D.A’ or my other favorite ‘Results not typical’.  And there is always the faithful stand-by ‘when combined with a proper workout and nutrition program.’

Don’t be fooled, you can get fantastic results, you just don’t have to have your wallet systematically plendered by pharmacutical compaines in the process.

To Your Health!!

When building muscle there are basically two types of exercises that you are going to be doing and each are equally important.  Aerobic and Anaerobic.  Aerobic is basically anything that does not require resistance, but gets your heart and lungs worker harder.  Good examples of this are jumping rope and cycling.  The purpose is that we are building up our heart and lungs, getting more oxygen into our system.  Believe it or not aerobic exercise is one of our key components for building lean muscle.

Before you start to resistance workout (lift weights) do five minutes of an aerobic exercise.  This is going to warm up the muscles and reduce the chances of you getting an injury.  Keep in mind that anaerobic exercise is suppose to be done in short intense bursts without requiring a vast amount of oxygen.  This is why you need both types of exercise.  The aerobic is going to build up your endurance so that you will be able to get your muscles to the fatigue stage.  Without aerobic to complement your weight lifting you are going to hit a plateau rather quickly.

If you have been working out and struggling for significant gains I am willing to bet that the weight you are working out with is to light.  We want to workout with a weight that we can only lift 8-12 times maximum.  This is our optimum range for muscle growth.

Also we want to keep our workouts short, absolutely no longer than 45 minutes, 30 is actually better.  Remember anaerobic is suppose to be done in short intense bursts.  We basically want to shock our muscles into growth.

As you read more about muscle building you are going to find plenty of opinions, people are going to be talking about super sets, pyramid sets, etc..  Do yourself a favour and keep it simple.  One set per exercise, that is it.  If you have proper form and don’t cheat you will see some amazing results.

Each workout session which you should only be doing twice a week.  Your body is going to need time to recover from those short intense bursts we talked about earlier.  If you do this correctly, you should only be investing an hour a week!!  The goal is to work smarter not harder.

Also keep in mind that each workout session is going to involve you working the entire body.  I know everyone wants to build the chest and guns (the biceps), but in order to do that we need to work the entire body.  When we work the entire body we are actually forcing the body to produce more testerone and this is key to building that good muscle mass that we want.  Please keep in mind that the actual lifting and lowering of the weight is to be done rather slowly.  Our goal is to put as much stress on the muscles as possible, but for a short period of time.  A cadence of 5 up 5 down is perfect.

In the beginning you will be amazed at how much harder that is to do than just lifting in a rapid fashion.  When you are lifting and lowering fast you are actually cheating yourself because you are using momentum to get that weight up.  We want a nice even controlled motion.

Follow these steps and I am confident that you will build that impressive physique that looks good on the beach.

To Your Health

It really is going to be different this time because now you have a plan.  You have an actual concrete plan that will work.  First thing is first though, you need to take a picture of yourself.  I know this is a bit painful and I am not talking about a full nude shot or anything like that, but a picture of yourself without a shirt on.  The reason will become more evident.

When you look at your day one photo, the one that you took when you decided to turn it all around, it will remind you of how far you came.  I know you don’t want to do it, but I am not asking you to post it on the web or anything like that, it is just for your own records.  This will show you how you truly look, the good, the bad and the ugly.  Don’t worry though this is soon to be the old you.

In one month you are going to take another photo of yourself and you will be amazed at the progress you have made.  Actually look at the two photos and how far you have come.  Now you are starting to see some real progress.  Just imagine how you are going to look next month.  Starting to feel better about yourself now.  Next month you won’t be able to wait to take that photo!

Without further ado here is the recipe:

• 1 cup oranges
• 1/2 cup of bananas
• 1 cup of mangos
• 1 cup of orange sherbet (I use blue bell)
• 1/2 a cup of ice
• 1 scoop of unflavored protein powder (about 64 grams)

I am telling you it tastes awesome it is the best tasting orange smoothie I have ever had!  For those of you out their counting here is the breakdown.

Calories : 620           Calories from fat: 45

total fat 5g 7%

Saturated fat 2.5 g 13%

Cholesterol 10 mg 4%

Sodium 100 mg 4%

Total carbohydrates 135g 45%

Dietary fiber 5g 19%

Sugars 114g

Protein 68g

Vitamin A 130%

Vitamin C 100%

Calcium 15%

Iron 4%

Start blender on low then once you get that good whirlpool going switch to high.  Once all of the ingredients are blended thoroughly pour into shaker bottle.

Enjoy!!

The number one reason is that without aerobic training you will lack the adequate stamina to push your muscles to failure so they can grow.  Like any other endeavour you need stamina!  It does you no good to go into the gym huffing and puffing and only reaching 50% of you maximum effort.

Without sufficient aerobic exercise you will be counting calories like a mad mathematician.  It is far easier and saner to just incorporate some aerobic training into your workout.

Aerobic training might be the most efficient way to flush out the toxins that working out leaves in your body.  After resistence training your body builds up quite a bit of toxins, most notably is lactic acid, yes lactic acid, that toxin that is responsible for that painful burning sensation that that you experience during and after your workouts.

If this were not enough add in the cardivascular benefits of regular aerobic exercise.  It strenghtens your heart allowing more oxygen into your body, making your heart stronger so that it can work better.

All of a sudden aerobic exercise does not sound so bad does it.  It has also been proven to reduce the risk of just about everything such as high blood pressure, stroke, diabetes and colon cancer.

One of the immediate pay offs for us however is the fact thataerobic training vastly improves your quality of sleep.  If you have read my other article on how to build muscle fast you will realize that we get quite a bit of benefit from aerobic activity just from the mere fact that you will be sleeping better.

Also as a side note many studies have reported that people who partake in a regular aerobic activity have a reduced rick of depression and anxiety.  This can only help us not only in our goals towards fitness, but in all areas of our life.

Of course aerobic training alone is not going to build our muscles.  Aerobic training is going to provide some immediate benefits to our program however.  Building stamina so that we can get the most from our resistence training.  Improving our quality of sleep so that our recovery stage will be far superior to what we would have without aerobic training.  Providing more oxygen into our system to making our bodies more efficient and stregthning our heart.  I stress that aerobic training alone will not get us to our goals it is just an important spoke in the wheel.  You are still going to need a workout program to follow.

To Your Health

Remember, Rome was not built in a day and neither will your new body.  Do not fall for claims that you can achieve massive results in a week.  Perseverance is the key to your success when beginning to build muscle.  Think of your body as a building and exercise is the architect.

When you first start working out your body goes through what can best be described as an adaptive period.  It is learning how to control the weight you are lifting.  It is for this reason that you must really concentrate on correct form and posture, do not be too concerned about how much you are lifting but rather how you are lifting.  The adaptive period can last anywhere between 2 – 4 weeks.  This is why many work out programs change your routine less often than more advanced ones.

The more you train the quicker you will leap over the hurdle of adapting.  Many programs follow a 3 week on and one week off approach to give your body time to adapt and time to heal.

The good news is that once you are through the adaptive period your body will experience explosive growth.  These are the results that will keep your morale high.  Once your body feels like it is getting all of the movements down it will be time to change and you will experience another adaptive period.  Of course the good news is that after that adaptive period you will experience that muscle growth!

Keep this in mind when it seems as if you are struggling with a workout, it is not only natural but a good thing.  You are laying a good foundation to build that lean muscle mass.  Everyone who has experienced muscle growth went through the same thing so you are in good company!

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When you embark on your odyssey to build lean muscle, and that it was it will feel like, because it can be quite an arduous journey. You must keep some basic aspects in mind. This is by no means meant to cover everything there is to know about building lean muscle, but more as a guideline.

1. Speed. When going for the maximum gains possible keep in mind the speed in which you are lifting the weights play a vital role in your development. Slower is often times better. Lifting slower will put more stress on your muscles ( a good thing) giving them incentive to grow bigger and stronger than before.

2.  Breathing. You see it all the time, someone who holds their breath while lifting. We want to breathe freely and evenly at all times. Holding your breath causes your body to tense up an will act as a hindrance to your muscle growth.

3.  Motion Control. We never want to jerk the wight up and down. Lift at slow and even pace smoothly and consistently. Not only will you dramatically decrease your chances for injury, but you will dramatically improve the conditions that are optimal to your success.

4.  Number of Reps. This is vitally important. We only want to do 8-12 reps of an exercise. This is the optimal range that will do the most good.

5.  Correct Weight. This goes hand in hand with rule number 4. We want to choose a weight that we can only lift 8-12 times. A weight that you can only lift within that range is going to build more lean muscle than a weight you can only lift 3 times, or a weight you can lift 20 times.

6.  Keep focus. It is easy to get distracted when you are in the gym. It is natural to have your mind wonder, or want to talk to your friends. If however you can stay focused your results will come much quicker.

7.  Limit the number of workouts. It may seem as if you can go to the gym everyday, and you can, just do not workout everyday! Your body needs times to recover from the workout that you put it through. Over-workout will actually have the opposite effect that you want.

This may not seem like earth shattering advice but when you are first learning how to build muscle you want information that you can immediately put to use. There is so much information available that it could fill volumes. It is easy to suffer from information overload. When that happens most people do nothing because they are more confused than they were when they started.

If you follow these 7 simple rules you will be way ahead of the game. Most importantly you will actually be making progress because you are being proactive. Having the courage to take the first step is often what counts most.

To Your Health!

Building muscle is a mental mindset you must have as well as a physical one.  In the hopes of keeping everyone motivated I have actually found the measurements of Charles Atlas.  You remember the Charles Atlas ads in comic books growing up.  Whatever your feeling of him are you have to admit he is synonymous with muscle gain.  He is the quintessential skinny to muscular success story.

Charles Atlas’ measurements were as follows:
Height – 5′10″
Weight – 180 pounds
Neck – 17″
Chest (normal) – 47″
Biceps (flexed) – 17″
Forearms – 14.5″
Waist – 32″
Thighs – 23.75″
Calves – 16.25″

What actually impresses me the most is that theses results are quite achievable for you average guy.  Atlas won just about every contest there was to win and many sculptors paid him to be the model for their statues.

Just thought this would give everyone an achievable goal.  Sure you may not get this level of success in a week or a month, but it is a good goal to have for the long haul.  Take a real close look at those numbers and compare them to your own and I’ll bet your not as far off as you think.

To Your Health!

When everyone begins learning how to build muscle they often find themselves in information overload by slick advertising, latest hyped work out and of course the popular celebrity diet that is all the buzz.

You have no doubt noticed that this article’s title is How to build muscle…….Fast, I do not want to imply or suggest that you are going to build huge muscles in 5 short days. What is absolutely possible however is that you can increase the odds for natural muscle growth. This short guide will certainly lay down the common sense rules to the fastest way to build muscle.

Let us summarize all the fundamental aspects of muscle building. For those of you that are more experienced this can serve as a kind of back to the basics of muscle building. Without further ado I give you…….

How to build Muscle……..Fast

1. Lift Weights. As simple as it sounds when you begin your plans for muscle building, weights need to figure rather prominently. Bodyweight exercise are excellent for toning, building strength, but you are going to need weights.

2. Force the muscle to Grow. Your muscles adapt just enough until they have no reason to get any bigger. Think of your muscles as a slacker. If he knows he can lift 50 pounds as many times as you want him to, he has no incentive to want to get stronger because your happy with the 50, so he is happy with the 50. You have to test him by next time making him do a little more so he has to get stronger to do 55 pounds. In order to do this he needs to get stronger and under the proper conditions getting bigger is just a by-product. This does not mean increase the weight every single time you work out, but you will need to keep track of how much your lifting.

3. Train for Growth. There are a plethora of reasons why people work out. But if you are working out to build muscle, keep that in mind. That is not quite the same as training to build strength. Often they go hand in hand, but keep in your mind’s eye what your primary goal is. Basically do not do just compound exercises, and be mindful of how many reps it takes you to go to failure.

4. Train for Failure. What is that you say? Yes this is the one time where failure is not only an option, but exactly what we want. Most experts will agree that the optimal rep range for maximum muscle growth is 8-12 reps. So we want to be lifting a weight that we can only lift 8 to 12 times. If you can lift that weight 20 times it is to light to stimulate muscle growth.

5. Vary Your Exercises. I am not talking about muscle confusion. There are basically to types of weight lifting exercises compound exercises and isolation exercises. Compound exercises are exercises that their primary goal is to get as many muscle groups as possible involved. We want to do this for two main reasons. These exercise involve many muscle groups and they actually promote the release of growth hormone, and that is exactly what it sounds like…we need it. Good types compound exercises are military press and deadlifts. Secondly they will build strength that will enable us to lift heaver weights. Isolation exercises are exactly what they sound like the primary focus is on muscle or one set of muscles. This is not to say that there are no other muscles involved, but the main focus is on one. We want to do isolation exercises because we want a muscle to go to failure. A prime example would be the bicep curl. There are plenty of other muscle groups involved, but the bicep is the prime target, that is the muscle that we are targeting for failure within our 8-12 reps. It is for this reason that both type of exercises are in any muscle building workout. Bottom line you need to work the whole body.

6. Eat..then eat eat some more. Up until now your body has been getting away with what you have been feeding it. But building muscle is going to require food. Its like an automobile if you want to drive you have got to put gas in the tank, otherwise your just sitting in the driveway. That may be a bad analogy but I thin you get the idea. Smoothies are a great way of getting some awesome calories into you quick and easy. Remember one pound of muscle=3500 calories a week on top of what you eating now. For my favorite smoothie recipe click here.

7. Protein. Protein is one of the most important things you can put into your body. Every time that muscle gets bigger, it ripped just a little. Don’t worry this is exactly what we want. Our body uses protein to repair these rips so they are bigger and stronger than before. I know there is a far better scientific explanation, but this will suffice for now.

8. Rest. When we resting is when our body is actually doing some pretty miraculous stuff. It is repairing itself, getting ready for the next battle. Like any other soldier it needs some downtime. Obey your body, you know in your heart of hearts when your body is saying I need rest and when you are just being lazy. Avoid injuries at all cost. Get injured you are going to be sidelined and your goal will be further away now. Don’t make your life difficult. Rest

9. Get in Get Out. Sure when you go to the gym you are going to see plenty of people that looked like they were there hours before you got there and are showing no signs of quiting when you are getting ready to go. Again refer to that image in your mind’s eye. If your goal is to be able to say I spent 5 hours in the gym yesterday, then by all means go for it if you don’t injure yourself first. If however your goal was to build some muscle to look good at the beach I would recommend 45 minutes max. If you like you can spend the other 4 hours and 15 minutes in the whirlpool, then you can have both.

10. Water,Water,Water. Yes it is that important, important enough to say it three times. In the interest of simplicity think of your muscles as crops and you are the farmer. If you want the muscles to grow you are going to have to water them. Drinking water is an essential part of building muscle.

You can do this. Many, many people have gone from skinny to muscular or overweight to in shape and you can to. Just don’t get all caught up in whatever new workout the Hollywood insider is boasting about. Keep in mind when Charles atlas was at his peak he weighed 180 lbs. He was not some 280 pound giant. Maybe next time I will post his measurements. Until then as Charles Atlas would say ‘To your Health’.

Our Top Rated Program

When trying to build muscle and gain weight most people make the mistake of trying imitate professional bodybuilders. This is a mistake because most of them are investing huge amounts of money in supplements that could choke a horse. Duplicating their routines will not help you build muscle.

Your everyday man needs a different plan. A plan that will prevent burnout both mentally and physically. Here is how we are going to build muscle and I promise anyone can do it!!

1. Build Strength. If you build up your strength, muscle will follow. No one ever built muscles without building their strength. I personally recommend weight lifting combined with bodyweight exercises. If you are just starting out do bodyweight exercises only for the first two weeks before starting with weights

• Weight Lifting. To begin with start with a light weight that you can manage. Once you get comfortable and learn proper technique then you can start adding more weight

• Body Weight Exercises . There is a reason that people still do push ups, crunches and dips, they work!!

2. Machines vs. Free Weights. If you are going for maximum muscle growth in a shorter period of time I would recommend free weights.

• Safety. Believe it or not free weights are actually safer than machines. In an effort to isolate a specific muscle machines will often force you into not only an uncomfortable position, but sometimes one that puts too much stress on joints.

• Inclusion. Free weights will force all of your muscle groups, not just the primary muscle group you are working on to balance and control the weight

• Reality. The strength that is built using machines does not seem to translate into the real world. We have all seen what looked like strong people until you asked them to help move a couch! Who wants to just look strong?

• More bang for the buck. If you decide to work out at home instead of joining a gym You can do a lot more exercise with limited amount of free weights for a lot less than the purchase price of one machine.

In the next article we are going to discuss which exercise you should be concentrating on to build the muscle you want and what you need to do while training.  While these articles serve as a good starting point for anyone wanting to build muscle it is highly recommended that you follow a system.

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