Category Archives: Body Building

There is more to physical exercise than just cardiovascular fitness. Muscle strength is an equally important component to overall personal health and fitness. Anaerobic activities are short in duration, and emphasize building muscle, rather than burning oxygen.

Anaerobic activities include: football, pushups, sit-ups, soccer, softball, sprinting, weight lifting.

There are three primary benefits from strength training.

Maintain and Enhance Lean Muscle Weight – Everybody loses a half pound of muscle for each year that they age past 20, if they do not incorporate some type of strength training into their exercise routine.

Injury Prevention and Increased Capacity – Strengthening your major muscle groups will diminish the stress of impact forces and lessen the risk of exercise-related injury. Strong muscles also help everyone to do daily tasks with ease and efficiency. Daily activities such as climbing stairs, getting out of bed, lifting groceries, cleaning the house, and mowing the lawn all become easier to do.

Health must be Earned and Learned

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The after 50 set back that occurs in many people is due to improper diet. Once you past the age of 50, you must begin to rebuild your body — if you wish to avoid senility and retain sound mentality and physical vigor. As long as you supply the body with the materials it needs to rebuilt and repair cells you will have good health.

Re-examine your dietary habits — make sure your daily intake of food is nutritional. Slowly eliminate processed food (which is white flour and their products, french fries, cake, cookies etc.) and sugar from your eating habits. Now, you might say what’s left? There are many natural foods that are super in nutritional value and will do wonders for your muscle size and overall shape. It’s time you began to build a knowledge and understanding for good nutrition while you build your body. Be aware of the vitamins, minerals in food and what fantastic things these foods can do for you and your body.

Protein is the bodybuilding substance needed to form new tissues and cells and rebuild and repair old one. Your blood, tissues, organs, skin, hair, and nails are about 95% protein, along with your bones and nerves. Meat, fish, eggs and poultry are known as complete proteins. Others include soybeans, sunflower seeds, and peanuts. 60% of protein consumed is changed into sugar (glucose), that’s why sugar is completely unnecessary in your bodybuilding diet.

2/3 of your diet should be protein — the other third should be made up of fresh raw fruit, vegetables, nuts and seeds. Liver is the most effective source of complete protein. It’s the number on food that not only builds your body up, but greatly increases your energy. It relieves fatigue and neutralizes many dangerous drugs within your system.

Fat produces an energy reserve, slows down the rate at which food is digested and is a source of heat and energy, and a cushion for vital organs. Fish is practically a perfect food. It’s excellent source of high quality protein, vitamins and minerals. Eggs, are another superior protein food, 1-2 a day are recommended for everyone. They supply a full measure of minerals. True, they do contain cholesterol, but they are an excellent source of lecithin, inositol and many other effective cholesterol controlling agents. Powdered milk is outstanding because it consist of an abundance of fat free protein, vitamins and minerals. It’s known to rejuvenate the heart, brain, and verves and strengthens the failing body.

Natural carbohydrates invigorates the body and supplies is with warmth and vitality. The potato is not to be eliminated from your bodybuilding diet. It’s a vegetable and contains many nutritional elements and it’s very easily digestible. Honey is in the blood stream 20 minutes after eaten. It’s the best heart stimulant you can use. Honey has much greater advantage over sugar. It fills any void that may occur in the daily intake.

Here are the 4 fine qualities of honey:

a wholesome food

it’s a purifying cleanser

it has regenerative power

it’s a sweet that has natural laxative qualities

REMEMBER: It is not how much you eat — it’s what happens to the food after you have eaten it. Eating large quantities of food will not help your muscle building progress it it’s the wrong food!!

Physical Power of Positive Thinking

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The positive thinker has quite an advantage in
that he is able to achieve his goals much quicker, devote his energy to positive
feelings toward himself and others. He’s able to drain such time consuming
thoughts, as resentment, irritations, guilt reactions, and annoyances that have
collected throughout the day and refill his mind with refreshing and happy
thoughts.

Love and positive thinking is the internal force that gives you new hope, joy
and vitality. It’s for people who truly want a powerful new lease on life!!!
Remember that your brain is the central power
station of the body. A diet that consists of mainly junk foods and sugary
carbohydrates will cause physical illness to the brain when, on the other hand a
proper nutritional diet promotes positive thinking which frees you from mental
conflict and helps you to achieve success that much sooner.

The positive thinker is able to love someone besides himself, and with the world
so full of hate, only proves the fact that the diet of today is full of junk
food. Hate will only tear your mind apart further. That’s why you naturally feel
physically good when you’re happy — your entire body is well nourished and
working together — now, isn’t that what bodybuilding is all about!?

You CAN adapt your self to any change whether
it be in diet or physical exercise! Remember, the mind governs the body. Harmful
thoughts such as: fear, hatred, anxiety and over sensitivity originate when your
brain cells are starved. Positive thinking is impossible when the mind is
undernourished, and a mind that is constantly undernourished becomes touchy and
irritable.

Your mind along with your body must be kept in top physical condition, otherwise
it will dwell on destructive thoughts towards yourself and others. With the
correct diet you are able to think positive and encourage yourself through a
tough bodybuilding routine — and the results will appear much faster.

Real Muscle – Real Fast

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Adding muscle seems to be a mystery to most, yet if you pick up a copy of any fitness or bodybuilding magazine and you’ll almost always see a headline like this: “Gain 15 Pounds of Muscle in 6 Weeks.”

If it were so easy you’d have millions of muscle-heads running around. Even though building muscle tissue can be a challenge, I’m going to outline some very specific principles that can pack on the muscle faster than you can throw away that copy of “Muscle and Fiction”!

Before we get started though I want to clarify a few points.

The ridiculous claims made by most fitness and bodybuilding magazines are only there to get you to buy that issue – nothing more!
If you are serious about strength training you need to be reading books and NOT cheesy fitness magazines
Ok… here we go.

In order to add muscle tissue you must force the body to add it. Your body won’t just add a pound of muscle just because you followed a 3-set workout that you read about in Muscle + Fitness. You need to give the body a reason to make improvements – in this case add muscle tissue.

You have to provide what I call a “stimulus”. This can be done in many ways and I’ll address a few in just a moment. Basically, you need to force the body to add muscle by subjecting it to levels of stress it is not used to. Some methods are more obvious than others but all can work. Here are a few examples of how this can be done effectively.

First, the basic and common methods:

Increase weight or resistance
Perform more repetitions
Perform more sets
Move the resistance slower
Rest less between sets and exercises
Now for the more advanced methods:

Pre-exhaust (perform an isolation exercise first and immediately continue with no rest on a compound movement. ex. chest flye and then chest press)
Static holds (hold the resistance in the hardest position of the range of motion. ex. the top position during a leg extension)
Partial reps in weak range (perform a portion of the rep where you are weakest. ex. the top half of a rep of leg extensions)
Strip-set (after a warm-up set, perform 3 sets back to back with no rest while starting with the heaviest weight possible and each time strip off some weight to allow you to continue)
1 ½ reps (perform one full rep and then on the second rep only perform half the normal range of motion and then return to starting position to begin the next rep. ex. one full rep of lat pulldowns, pull second rep all the way down, resist weight back up but only half way and then pull back down)
These are just a few examples of methods of increasing intensity to ensure progress. The key point to remember is that whatever you do it must be progressive in order for it to elicit a physical change. This is even more critical for those looking to add muscle size.

Although this article is geared towards individuals who are interested in gaining muscle size, the principles can also be used for individuals who want to build strength, increase metabolism, or tighten and tone muscles.

Here are some general recommendations for different goals…

If your goal is to tighten and tone muscles:

  • Focus on increasing reps, decreasing rest, and changing exercises frequently.
  • Train each muscle group twice per week.
  • Perform fewer sets of many different exercises (1-2 sets per exercise)

If your goal is to increase strength and power:

  • Focus on increasing weight
  • Train each muscle group once every 7-10 days
  • Perform multiple sets of each exercise (2-5 sets per exercise)

If your goal is to increase muscle size:

  • Focus on shocking muscles by changing variables frequently (exercises, set and rep schemes, rest time, etc)
  • Train each muscle group on a variable schedule (experiment by training a muscle group 3 times a week and then once every ten days)
  • Perform multiple sets for a while and the perform single sets for a week or two

Some final reminders:

The recommendations above are general and of course would need to be adapted and adjusted for your personal goals and experience. For those of you who are advanced and may be thinking there’s no way you can build strength by training once every 10 days I challenge you to try it for at least 4 weeks, or those of you who think that you need to stick to the same basic movements like bench to build size I challenge you to try shocking the muscles by changing the exercises you perform each week for 4 weeks, and those of you with little experience I hope that you’ll throw away the fitness magazines and learn what really works.

by Jesse Cannone

Four Keys to Successful Bodybuilding

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Mental Attitude

As long as you have the desire to physically develop your body — that’s half the battle! How you feel about yourself is extremely important. Ask yourself how much bigger you’d like to be, then go after that goal! DO NOT let anything get in your way. Gaining muscular weight is very personal. Only you can put out the effort — and only you will get the rewarding results!

Your mental attitude is the first thing you should deal with — you not only have to prepare your body but, your mind too. Believe in yourself! There will be many times when a strong mental attitude towards yourself is just what you need to get you through a difficult day of training or perhaps keep you on that diet. Nothing at all will stop you from being successful. You are at the wheel — think positive — and follow this program and you’ll be amazed at the muscular weight you will see in a matter of weeks.Diet

You might think that gaining weight is now problem — you simply overeat! Right? WRONG! To increase your body weight as a bodybuilder means to increase your muscular weight. This makes a special nutritional diet extremely necessary. A DIET THAT IS BOTH HIGH IN CALORIES AND HIGH IN PROTEIN IS THE ONLY WAY TO GAIN SOLID BODYWEIGHT!

Many people who have failed in building their bodies properly were just not eating enough of the right foods. You can exercise, train night and day, but, if you are not supplying your body with proper building materials (nutritional food), then you are wasting your time.

The number one rule for your diet is to completely avoid “JUNK FOOD”. What makes a certain type of food junk? The fact that the nutritional value of its contents is ZERO!! In other words, it’s like eating dead food. It does absolutely nothing to increase the quality of your blood, heart, lungs and mind. Modern technology has promoted such food by demineralising, devitaminising, and bleaching food to the extent that by the time it’s available to the consumer — it’s absolutely USELESS!! In fact it does us more harm than good. The ice cream, cakes, candy, soft drinks, tea and coffee filled with refined white sugar decays in your body and clogs your vital organs with slimy, sticky poisons until those parts of your body can no longer function. Now, is this any way to build muscular weight?

Start your day off to a super start with a good breakfast. It should consist of eggs, and bacon, plus a protein drink made with milk. Avoid dry cereals no matter what the advertising tell you. Confine you meals to wholesome foods that will benefit you health and help you build strong muscular weight. Supplements are also very helpful. Take vitamins in tablet form and include wheat germ in your meals whenever you can. When you plan and prepare a meal think of the nutritional value first. The most important basic food items are: milk, eggs, lean meats, fowl and fish. These foods should be consumed in large quantities. Other important foods include fruits, vegetables, nuts and soups. They will round out your diet along with your vitamin supplement. Rest & Relaxation

Rest and relaxation is also an essential part of your bodybuilding program. Studies have been conducted which have proven that a loss of sleep results in loss of accuracy in perception, memory and reasoning. A late evening on the town, or perhaps just a sleepless night usually results in a very disorganized day after. You find it difficult to perform many tasks that require physical and mental co-ordination, and your endurance is greatly weakened.

Relaxation is of utmost importance in the field of bodybuilding. When you train and exercise, your muscles get quite a workout. That is why it is extremely important to learn how to relax those muscles, so they can look forward to a night of complete rest, which is necessary for tissue repair and growth.

Just because you spend 8-10 hours in bed, does not mean that you have relaxed your muscles for that period of time. In fact, even when you are asleep you are not totally relaxed. Tensions have built up through-out the day, and remain in the muscular system and these tensions result in sleep that is not beneficial.

Perfect relaxation is vital to increase muscular growth, so, if your job causes you many tense moments through-out the day, then, you must try to relax as much as possible in the evening. A high protein meal after a heavy training program (described later), is the most effective way to achieve complete relaxation.

Eating too much food before you go to sleep will make it extremely difficult to sleep, however, going to bed on an empty stomach could be worse. Each individual is different What you have to remember is that YOU ARE IN CHARGE of your own body, so, it’s up to you to find out what works best for you.

Try to control those late nights and you’ll find that adequate rest is not only important, but tremendously rewarding. If you get to bed about the same time every night and get at least 8 hours of good sound sleep, then, your body will thank you by growing strong muscular weight. Complete 100% rest at night will prepare you for a successful and fruitful training session the next day.Exercise

EXERCISE FOR ADVANCED TRAINING YEARS — AND HELPFUL HINTS FOR EVERY BODYBUILDER!! In order to get the most out of your exercise routine, you must provide your body with complete muscle stimulation. For this, heavy weights are necessary. You will perform all the movements in 5 sets of 5 repetitions, using the most weight that you can handle. Begin with light weights the first two sets of each exercise, this will enable you to warm up. The remaining 3 sets should be done quite vigorously in order to attain the best results. Approach those weights as if you are going to destroy them. TAKE CHARGE!! You are in control!!

You have probably read about bodybuilders who spend numerous hors training 6-7 days a week. Experts now recommend shorter programs for only 3 times a week or more (if you are on a split schedule). If your muscles disappear when you shorten your program — then — they weren’t worth having to begin with. Muscles that are well nourished — will not disappear in a matter of days or because you’ve cut down on the training time. The gains you make from this system will be the most effective and will stay with you a long time!!

Quality, not quantity is important. many bodybuilders work out too long, instead of working out for shorter periods and making every short minute count. In other words give it all you’ve got!! total effort and a positive attitude is how you should approach every training session — and it’s with this enthusiastic disposition that your results will appear much faster.

Follow program 1 for 4 weeks (3 times a week), then go on to program number 2 for the next 4 weeks. REMEMBER: to add more strength and muscle to your body you must add more weight to your exercises, eat good nutritional foods, and get plenty of rest and relaxation and you’re on your way to a stronger and larger muscular shape.


PROGRAM NO. 1

PROGRAM NO. 2

SIT – UPS

As many as you can do

SIT – UPS

As many as you can do

LEG RAISES

As many as you can do

LEG RAISES

As many as you can do

STANDING DUMBBELL PRESSES

5×5

CHIN TO BACK OF NECK

6×5

SQUAT

5×5

SQUAT

6×5

DEAD LIFT

5×5

FRONT SQUAT

6×5

BENCH PRESS

5×5

DUMBBELL BENCH PRESS

6×5

BARBELL ROWING

5×5

SINGLE ARM

6×5

BARBELL CURL

5×5

DUMBBELL ROWING

6×5

SEATED DUMBBELL

6×5

CURL

6×5

Simple Proven Formula for Weight Gain

Get a physical check up before you begin a bodybuilding program. Make sure you have no internal problems or some type of physical flaw, that will prevent or delay you from satisfactory progress. It’s always wise to get advice fro a good medical doctor. If you are in good health, proceed to the next step.

Revise your diet so that it’s well-balanced — include 2 quarts of whole milk everyday as well as the necessary food supplements.

Get at least 8-9 hours of sleep per night.

Do not engage in any form of vigorous or competitive athletic activity.

Do everything to maintain a calm, pleasant mental outlook.

Train 3 times a week on alternate days, or use the ‘split routine’ — as suggested here.

A good pump achieves muscle growth

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For bodybuilding and physique athletes, the pump is of substantial importance and is something to be sought. For strength athletes, the pump is much less significant. If it’s experienced at all, it’s a by-product rather than something sought directly. Regardless of your reason for training, progressive overload, not pump, should be the primary factor used to judge the effectiveness of your workouts.

The pump is the short-term sensation you experience during training when your muscles fill up with blood faster than the blood can leave the area, making the muscles appear fuller and larger. It’s a tight, swelled feeling, often accompanied by an increase in vascularity. Pump workouts generally involve medium (8-12) or higher (13-20+) repetitions, supersets/trisets/giant sets, and/or brief rest intervals between sets.

You’ll hear some strength coaches and functional training experts knock pumping workouts because they claim pumping is cosmetic only and emphasizes “form over function.” That may be true, however, if you’re interested in bodybuilding or physique development, then maximum pump can be very beneficial.

Most bodybuilders and even most exercise physiologists would agree that workouts that produce maximum pump can provide up to 20-25% of the increase in muscle size. This comes from sarcoplasmic and mitochondrial hypertrophy and increased capillarization. However, the pump has virtually nothing to do with increased myofibrillar hypertrophy – the actual fiber growth that’s responsible for 75-80% of the increase in muscle size. That type of fiber growth comes only from heavy training, which produces little, if any pump. Sarcoplasmic hypertrophy looks good and is beneficial to bodybuilders, but you do tend to lose it more quickly with de-training.

In his book, The Encyclopedia of Modern Bodybuilding, Arnold Schwarzenegger pointed out another benefit of the pump, the psychological effect. It feels good and is very satisfying to watch your muscles swell up and see the veins bulge right before your eyes in a matter of minutes. Arnold wrote, “When you are pumped up, you feel better and stronger, and it’s easier to motivate yourself to train hard and achieve a high level of intensity. Sometimes you will walk into the gym and feel tired and lazy but you will get a fantastic pump after a few minutes of work and suddenly feel strong and energetic.”

A good pump can be a good indicator of an effective workout from a bodybuilding standpoint. The late bodybuilding guru and trainer of the stars, Vince Gironda, taught that a workout taken to maximum pump and then stopped before the pump began to subside was the optimal volume, tempo and duration:

“My own method would be to exercise until I noticed a pump loss,” said Vince. “I would then check back the number of sets and reps required to achieve this effect (noting the tempo and the amount of rest between sets). In this way I was able to calculate my personal exercise level.”

As important the pump might be for bodybuilders, the criteria that’s MUCH, MUCH more important than pump is PROGRESSIVE OVERLOAD. Nothing is more important in bodybuilding or strength training than progressive overload. This means you must beat your previous workouts and increase the amount of weight you use in a slow, steady and systematic fashion.

Remember something, you can get a pump by dropping down on the floor and doing a few sets of push ups, but that doesn’t mean you are going to get permanent gains in muscle size.

Some of the best gains I have ever achieved came from combining heavy strength workouts using a 5-6 rep max on basic exercises, with maximum pumping methods such as supersets, short rest intervals and medium-high reps.
I also believe that pump workouts combined with strength workouts give the muscles a more “polished” look than low rep strength workouts alone. High rep workouts alone do little more than flush blood into the area worked and contrary to popular belief, high reps do NOT get you “ripped.”

The “ripped” look is mostly a matter of low body fat, but if body composition is equal, the trainee who has done both types of training will usually have a more “finished” look to his or her physique than the trainee who only does low reps with heavy weight. If you look at powerlifters and strongmen, you’ll notice that even the ones with low body fat lack the polished look that competitive bodybuilders possess.

So if you’re a strength athlete, then don’t measure your workout effectiveness based on pump. Focus on heavy weight and progressive overload. If, on the other hand, your goal is bodybuilding or physique development, then strive for BOTH pump and progressive overload for best results, but realize that pump alone is never going to cut it.

By Tom Venuto, CPT
GHF’s Fat Loss Expert