Posts Tagged ‘Build Muscle’

Weight Training Programs That Build Muscle

Monday, December 21st, 2009

Weightlifting programs a keys are too large or cracked. But many people lift weights and then immediately over and running on the treadmill for 30 minutes. This is counterproductive.

How often have a marathon runners runners with large muscles seen or cracked? Probably not too often. This is that exercises lead walking and other endurance type, that to shrink your muscles. This makes hard, without going too quickly exhausted, enabling Muskelfasern more metabolisch efficient and turn to go long the runners.

But if you try fast constructing Muskelmasse then runs for a long time only to negate a lot of work, particularly with the weights. If you like I goal is to build Muskelmasse but remain simultaneously the slim, if not even something bold lose.

Here is the way to do so. Separate day cardio day of your weight training as much as possible. And instead of walking or cycling for a long time at a constant speed interval training for a shorter period of time can.

For example, if you train with weights every second day heart do the days in between. Interval training is absolutely fantastic. If it to fat burning their far more effective than long term simply for one.

What is interval training? Interval training works like this. Suppose you choose Run as your Cardiotraining. Doing means it at intervals that would jogging to a moderate pace say, one minute, then you would Sprint as fast as you for approximately 30 seconds. After the Sprint jogging at a slower pace for a minute then had back again Sprint you and so on.

The short outbreak of speed and effort regularly published a chemical in the body, which helps you burn fat.

To separate your weightlifting shipments from the heart as far as possible. What is 20 minutes instead of walking or cycling at a constant speed over time interval training.

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Bodybuilding Training For Hardgainers – Unique Approach to Training For Massive Muscle Gains!

Sunday, December 20th, 2009

I was always wondering why my friends were getting bigger in the gym while my muscles did not respond to training as much as I would expect. Then I realized that as a skinny hardgainer I will have to do much more than just “train hard” and “lift heavy” – as many of the bodybuilding “gurus” and magazines would advice. After a bit of research about ectomorph body type I realized there are many genetic challenges hardgainers have to overcome in order to be able to build muscle.
One of the reasons why hardgainers struggle with “getting bigger” is a higher ratio of type one muscle fibers in hardgainer’s body. In general, there are several types of muscle fiber in our body, but the two that we deal with the most are type one and type two muscle fibers. Type one muscle fibers are your endurance related fibers (e.g. marathon runners have a higher ratio of type one muscle fibers). At the other hand, type two muscle fibers are the ones you get your power from, these are explosive power type fibers. The way hardgainers should target these two muscle groups is completely different than what a “normal” bodybuilding program would suggest!
Other reason for very slow (if any) muscle growth is the fact that hardgainers are biologically challenged when it comes to neuro-muscular communication, which results into poor muscular response and slower muscle building process. In other words, when you’re working out and lifting weights, your type two muscle fibers are much harder to target. Research has shown that only 20 to 30 percent of them are actually hit by your heavy lifting training! That is why the “lift heavy approach” does not really work for hardgainers.
So what advice would I give to skinny guys that do not want to be disappointed seeing all their hard work gone to waste?
One way to overcome the hardgainer’s training challenge with targeting type II muscle fibers is to gradually increase your body’s neuro-muscular communication throughout your workouts by using a “Rest Pause” format. This format is used in many different variations. The aproach I am going to show you might be a bit controversial but it is definitely worth trying because it can greatly magnify your bodybuilding results:
- Pick up a weight that is about 50% of your one-rep max
- Perform 5 repetitions and then rack the weight
- Wait 10 seconds
- Perform another 5 repetitions and rack the weight again
- Wait 10 seconds
- Perform another 5 reps & so on…
By gradually increasing overall workload in your sets with this twisted “Rest-Pause” format, you will slowly activate your Type II muscle fibers. The ten second rest periods will give you just enough time to catch your breath and regenerate energy for the following set. This technique dramatically improves neuro-muscular communication and results in 3 times better muscle growth.
When applied correctly, this “advanced” bodybuilding training technique is actually the HOLY GRAIL for hardgainer training.
Enjoy and lift smart!
Andy Mikulka

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Gain Muscle With This Unique 3-phase Approach to Training For Hardgainers

Monday, November 30th, 2009

As one of the ‘cursed’ skinny guys I was always wondering why is it that my muscles do not respond to physical stimulation during and after the workout as other people’s musles do. After a deep research I’ve found the answer in the ‘Hardgainer Project X’ program written by Jeff Anderson, one of the most sought after specialists in this area.
One of the most important things that many bodybuilders don’t even think about is that muscle isn’t just plain “muscle”. Your body is actually comprised of several different “TYPES” of muscle fibers (7 to be exact), each with its own purpose and function. The two types that we’re most concerned with, when it comes to putting on mass, are called your “TYPE 1″ (also known as your “slow twitch” fibers) and your “TYPE 2″ (known as “fast twitch” fibers).
While number one musle fibers are connected to long endurance exercises, the second type muscle fibers are related to explosive power exercises. Hardgainers or for example marathon runners who have ectomorph body type have a higher ratio of the type one muscle fibers while in the body of a sprinter with powerful and really muscular legs dominate type two muscle fibers. The way these two muscle fiber groups should be trained is completely different!
Unfortunatelly, hardgainers are biologically challenged when it comes to neuromuscular communication which results into poor muscular respond and slower muscle building process. So when you’re working out and lifting weights your type two muscle fibers are ‘lazier’ and harder to target. The research has shown that only 20 to 30 percent of those muscle fibers are actually hit by your heavy lifting trainig. It might be disappointing then for you to see all the hard work and all the ‘professional’ advice you’ve been give gone to waste.
In Jeff’s program, or should I say, complex trainig system, he explains and uses a unique 3-phase approach called ‘bridging technique’. Its secret lies in improving the neuromuscular communication and activating the muscle fibers (type two) in such a way that they reach maximum stimulation by the end of the workout. It is a variation of a technique called ‘rest-pause’, but his three-phase approach works even better! And here’s how:
· Pick up at weight that is about 50% of your one-rep max.
· Perform 5 repetitions and then rack the weight
· Wait 10 seconds
· Perform another 5 repetitions and rack the weight again.
· Wait 10 seconds
· Perform another 5 reps
· And so on…
By gradually increasing overall workload in your sets with a “Rest-Pause” format, you slowly activate your Type II muscle fibers while regenerating available energy with short 10 second rest periods.
He goes into in-depth detail about the value of this technique in the Hardgainer Project X program and actually show you how to GREATLY magnify its effects by incorporating a unique 3-Step Training Formula that blasts your Type II muscle fibers to maximum recruitment increasing overall stimulation by up to 80-90%!
That’s about a 373% increase in recruitment and activation of reserve satellite muscle cells!
Enjoy!
“The Smart Hardgainer”
Andy Mikulka

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Training to Maximize Your Muscle Fiber Types

Tuesday, November 24th, 2009

Knowing your personal muscle fiber make-up can be an invaluable aid when it comes to properly targeting your training program. If you’re working your muscles in the wrong way, you’ll be cheating yourself out of hard-earned results.
Every muscle in your body is made up of a bundle of small fibers. In each bundle, you have two main types of fibers: slow twitch and fast twitch. I will explain exactly what these are in a moment. The percentages of these different fiber types that your muscles are made of can help you determine exactly how you should train each particular muscle group in your body.
Slow Twitch: These are also known as Type I or red muscle fibers. They are responsible for long-duration, low intensity activity such as walking or any other aerobic activity.
Fast Twitch: These are known as Type 2 or white muscle fibers (divided further into A and B). They are responsible for short-duration, high intensity activity. Type 2B fibers are built for explosive, very short-duration activity such as Olympic lifts. Type 2A fibers are designed for short-to-moderate duration, moderate-to-high intensity work, as is seen in most weight training activities.
By looking at elite athletes in different sports, you can see extreme examples of each make-up of muscle fiber. At the slow twitch end is the endurance athlete, such as the marathon runner. These athletes can have up to 80% or more of slow twitch muscle fibers in their bodies, making them extremely efficient over long distances. At the fast twitch end is the sprinter. World-class sprinters can have up to 80% or more of fast twitch muscle fibers in their body, making them extremely fast, strong and powerful but with limited endurance.
How to Find Your Muscle Fiber Type:
To find the predominant fiber type in a particular muscle in your body, we need to test the repetition limits of a muscle compared to its maximum strength. Keep in mind, these limits can be altered by your training and are, therefore, just rough estimates.
First, determine your one rep max (known as the 1 RM) for an isolation exercise for that muscle group, e.g. the dumbell curl. Find the weight you can only do one rep with. You want to use an isolation exercise because any exercise that uses any other muscle groups will skew the results.
Once you’ve figured out your one rep max, take a weight that is 80% of it (multiply your max weight by 0.8 to get this) and do as many reps as possible with it.
- If you can do only 4 to 7 reps with 80% of your 1 RM, you have mostly fast twitch fibers in that muscle.
The reason you will only be able to do 4 to 7 reps with 80% of your 1 RM is that fast twitch muscle fibers are strong but don’t have great endurance. You will be able to lift more weight but you be able to do as many reps with it.
- The ability to get approximately ten reps with 80% of your 1 RM is the typical fiber-type mix for a muscle. This works out to about a 50/50 split between fiber types.
- If you can do 12 to 15 or more reps with 80% of your 1 RM, your fiber make-up is probably mostly slow twitch fibers.
Slow-twitch fibers are not as strong but have excellent endurance. This means you won’t be able to lift quite as much but you’ll be able to do a lot more reps with it.
Repeat this procedure for each muscle group you wish to determine a type for (it will vary from muscle to muscle). By knowing what type of muscle fibers you have, you can tailor your training towards developing them to their maximum potential.
Though there are always differences in individuals, there are some general similarities in fiber types in muscle groups from person to person.
For example, in most people, the outer, visible muscle of the calf (the gastrocnemius) is primarily made of fast twitch fibers while the soleus (which lies underneath the gastrocnemius) has a higher percentage of slow twitch fibers.
Two more examples of this similarity between people include the abdominals and the hamstrings. These two muscle groups are both generally made primarily of fast twitch fibers.
How to Train Your Muscle Fiber Type:
When you’re training with weights, your goal is to work as many muscle fibers as possible. Affecting more muscle fibers means greater gains in strength and muscle mass.
If your fibers in a particular muscle consist primarily of slow twitch fibers, in order to affect the greatest number of those muscle fibers, you’ll need to train that muscle with higher reps, shorter rest periods and higher volume. This is because they take longer to fatigue, they recover quickly and they require more work to maximize growth.
Unfortunately, slow twitch muscle fibers are limited in their potential for growth so even if a muscle group is primarily slow twitch, you should definitely include some lower rep training to maximize the fast twitch fibers you’ve got in that muscle.
If you find you have a hard time gaining size in a particular muscle, it could be because it has a predominance of slow twitch muscle fibers. Higher reps (e.g. 12 to 15 reps), higher volume (more sets) and shorter rest periods (30 seconds to a minute between sets) can help you to maximize those muscles. This doesn’t mean you should use light weight, though. You should still strive to use weights that are as heavy as possible that will cause you to reach failure in those higher rep ranges. If you don’t use heavy weights, you won’t give your muscles a reason to grow.
If your fibers in a particular muscle group consist primarily of fast twitch muscle fibers, you’re one of the lucky ones. You’ll have a much easier time building mass in that muscle – fast twitch muscle fibers have greater potential for size than slow twitch. The more fast twitch fibers you’ve got, the greater your ultimate muscle size can be. These muscles are most likely your strongest and quickest to develop.
To maximize your muscles with fast twitch fibers, you’ll need to train with low to moderate reps (e.g. 4 to 8 reps), rest periods of around 1 to 2 minutes and a moderate training volume (too much volume will compromise recovery).
If your muscles have a fairly even mix of fibers, you can evenly divide your training between focusing on the lower-rep, fast twitch fiber training and the higher-rep, slow twitch fiber training. This will help you to develop all the fibers in your muscles, maximizing your ultimate development.
Training your muscles according to their fiber type makes sense. It will help you to get better results from your training by allowing you to more specifically target your training according to the exact specifications of your muscles.

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Tips For Training Duration, Muscle Mass and Fat Loss Workouts

Monday, November 23rd, 2009

The duration of training in one workout session has been the cause and source of many conflicting views in modern-day body building circles. Just how long should you train in one session? As shall be argued with facts hereunder, the basic understanding that should help you determine your training duration is that, the duration should be set according to the body building objectives. When the training duration extends for longer expanses of time, the body becomes very efficient in burning body fat deposits. But for muscle gain training, research has irrefutably proved that short but intense exercise bouts have better results than extended periods of training at below par intensity levels.

The whole workout should not last beyond an hour, with the optimum duration being 45 minutes. This means that you should train three body parts in one session, each one of which should be concentrated on not more that fifteen minutes to allow tome for warm ups, rest, breathing and stretching exercise. Today however, body building literature is more inclined towards expansive training bouts at low intensity. This is not a wrong training strategy as long as you are intent on burning body fat deposits. Fat deposits are usually depleted if the training is at low intensities but for longer durations.

On the other hand, a body builder who is training for strength and muscle mass, the ideal are those exercise that are done is short bouts at the highest possible intensity without resulting to poor exercise form. To begin with, shorter but intense durations in training burns much more glucose than fats but they achieve the ultimate muscle challenge for endurance.

When you begin an exercise, you usually burn more glucose using your Fast twitch muscle fibers and very little of free form fatty acids. You have to sustain the exercises for a minimum of 20 minutes before you cross over the point at which the body initiates metabolic processes to burns fat and also glucose at an equal percentage. Eventually the body gradually decreases the glucose amount used so as to preserve your glycogen level as is necessary in maintaining blood sugar/glucose and fueling brain activity. Simultaneously, the body increases the amounts of the curbs and the fat burnt for energy.

Body builders intent on strength and mass gains should never get to this point of training duration. Aerobics are especially based on this level of training, extending duration to points where only fats and curbs are being utilized for energy and thus faster fat loss. So, for those who want to loose body fat, duration should be high. This stage of metabolism, fueled by fats and curbs, is what we call oxidative metabolism. It needs vast amounts of oxygen to burn the fats and if the oxygen level runs out, the glycolysis metabolism begins and glucose is burnt instead.

That is why, high intensity athletes like sprinters fail in high aerobic endurance but are lean and shredded in their voluminous muscle mass while marathoners are thin and lean, without muscle mass and yet they endure for longer at low intensity.

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Taking A Marathon Race In Body Building

Thursday, November 12th, 2009

Body building requires that you have a good progress and take the appropriate measures which will aid in making everything a success in the routine. This is why programs are set and followed so that one can have a progressive period which will outline good results from the starting point to the end. But there are instances where body building gets a plateau and results vanish and this is where one needs an extra effort in bringing success in the training. For the competitors in this field, it is a time that one faces difficult situations and has to come up with a marathon race to catch up easily.

A marathon race will require that you take the appropriate steps in your training. These steps will demand that you input for intensity in the trainings meaning that you have to work harder and better. Sets are the main elements when setting up training and this is what is required in body building. You need to increase the number of sets when it comes to taking a marathon race in body building. The number of repetitions in the respective sets should also be taken seriously and added up to make a good format of exercising and this means that you will eventually develop muscles efficiently and in good time.

Rest in body building is a major factor to be considered when one is involved in a marathon race. It means that. You have to reduce the intervals of rest in all cases when time is against you in the training. At times, people want to catch up and reduce the amount of fats drastically and averaging their weight properly and this is where a marathon is required. You need to factor in some training between the training sessions and this is what must always be upheld in the body building field.

Any marathon in body building will require huge stores of energy and this call for the body builders to think about it and take the appropriate steps. When you are doing a marathon, it is equally important to have supplements for instance energy drinks with you so that you do not put too much pressure in the body or use up the muscles developed. The energy drinks will also be relevant because they will create some valuable sources to be exploited for the workouts and eventually allow for a development of muscles in a specific duration of time.

After one takes a marathon, there are some elements which are common and might need a closer check. Injuries are some of the most featured happenings in any marathon for body builders. This is because of the intensity increased in terms of workouts and the few hours used in resting. However, they should not be taken as fatal outcomes but must be appreciated by the body builders as they come. When injuries happen, there is no doubt about it that, we should take time and think about the progress needed and the inputs required so that one can recover quickly and do the other trainings as soon as possible.

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Train Like An Athlete Because A Watched Pot Never Boils

Monday, November 2nd, 2009

Most men and women start resistance training and aerobic training because they want to change the way they look. They want to build muscle to change the shape of their body. They want to lose fat to reveal a tighter, harder physique. Normally, they want to do both to get the most physical changes for their efforts. So they go out and look for muscle building and fat loss workout programs.
And that’s their first mistake!
Bodybuilding programs combined with long, slow aerobic exercise has failed time and again to produce the strong, lean, athletic bodies most men and women are after. Don’t believe me? Just walk into any commercial gym and see how many people there have successfully reached their physique goals. I guarantee you it won’t be much, because they are using the bodybuilding and aerobic exercise duo.
To get a better understanding of what I mean, let’s reverse engineer your workout program. By that I mean, let’s look at the result you want first, and then figure out how to get it. This approach promises to be revealing.
Now, in order to make this process as simple as possible I’m going to use some generalizations. When I ask most people what they want to end up looking like as a result of their workout program, very few say bodybuilder or marathoner. And when I say very few, I mean almost NONE.
The fact is, most people want to look like some form of athlete. They want a strong, muscular, lean, athletic body. They want the kind of muscle and low body fat that exemplifies a high performance physique.
So, why are they training like a bodybuilder and marathoner? Good question!
I propose your train like an athlete to get the good looking body of an athlete. Sounds like a simple solution, but I can’t tell you how hard it is to get “regular” people to adopt athletic training. They would much rather focus their efforts on things they can see, like building muscle and reducing fat. And this ultimately leads to failure in reaching their physique goals.
Have you ever heard the expression, “A watched pot never boils”. If you’ve ever been in hurry and tried to cook pasta you know what I mean. If you stand over the pot waiting for the water to boil, it seems like it never boils. However, when you are busy doing other things, the next thing you know, the water is boiling.
The same thing happens when you are trying to transform your body. If you focus on the things you can see (building muscle and fat loss) it seems like you are not making any progress. However, if you concentrate on something else (performance), the next thing you know the physical changes you wanted are staring back at you from the mirror.
So, here’s what you need to do to finally reach your fitness, fat loss and physique goals: train like an athlete. And by that I mean, train for performance. Train to get stronger, more powerful, faster, more flexible, more agile and coordinated… and the next thing you know, you’ll have the body you want. Athletic training is not just for athletes. It is for every man and women who what the physical attributes of an attractive athlete. (And in my experience, this is most of us!)
So, stop watching the pot by training like a bodybuilder and marathoner. Divert your attention to performance based training and focus on improving your athletic performance. You body will naturally make the physical changes you can see in order to improve performance. This means, building strong muscles and burning performance robbing fat. And that, my friends, is how you finally get the body you’ve always wanted.
Don’t you want the strong, lean body of a champion athlete?

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