The Seven Capital Sins of Muscle Building
If you want to build up muscle over time, it’s crucial for you to develop good habits. Building muscle continuously requires you to be regularly doing the right thing and taking the right steps. Unfortunately, people sometimes get into bad habits without being aware that they’re risking their health and adversely affecting their progress. To help you make the right decisions, here is a list of the 7 worst muscle building habits and how to avoid them:
1) Steroids. This is, without a doubt, by far the worst thing you can do if you’re trying to build muscle. Taking steroids is dangerous and has a wide array of negative side effects: Vomiting, nausea, mood swings, acne, bad breath, premature balding, tremors, jaundiced skin, swollen joints, liver damage, cardiovascular disease, high blood pressure and a shrinking of your adult height. If that’s still not enough reason to avoid steroids, there’s more: Impotence, sterility, testicular shrinkage, pain when urinating, and male breast development. That’s all that needs to be said.
2) Attempting to lift weights that are too heavy. Being competitive and trying to beat your training partner might be good motivation, but it’s important to be careful. If you lift too much weight, then you’re increasing your chances of injury, which can cause you to lose form and slow your muscle building progress. If you need to use momentum to lift or lower the weight, or can’t do so under complete control, then the weight is too heavy.
3) Eating too much protein. Everyone knows protein is good for you and helps you build muscle, but it’s possible to consume too much. An average person’s protein intake is about a gram or less of per kilo of body weight a day. A muscle building athlete consumes more, at about 1.7 grams of protein per kilo of bodyweight. Consuming more than this could lead to osteoporosis and irreversible kidney damage. You could even damage your heart over time, due to protein byproducts released by your body.
4) Taking stimulants. Stimulants might not be prohibited, but they often come with numerous dangerous side effects, and it would be wise to exercise caution when taking them – or better yet, not using them at all. Stimulants such as ephedrine have been known to cause heart palpitations, heart attacks and strokes. For a less dangerous pick-me-up, try a caffeine pill instead. If you have any concerns at all about what you’re taking, be sure to get a doctor’s opinion first.
5) Training on an empty stomach. While some people seem to believe that training on an empty stomach helps them burn more fat, the truth of the matter is that your energy comes from carbohydrates. This means that if you haven’t eaten, you’ll have less energy and won’t have much of a chance at getting a good workout. You won’t be able to lift as much and you’ll probably be jittery, shaking and dizzy after your workout because of a low blood sugar level. It’s a good idea to have a mean before your workout, particularly foods like vegetables, fruit and rice.
6) Failing to stretch or warm up properly. In order to prevent debilitating injuries such as ligament strains and muscle tears, it’s extremely important that you prepare your body for exercise. This also has the effect of improving your performance, range of motion, and posture. Spending about 10 minutes warming up is a wise and effective use of your time.
7) Not keeping a training log. A training log is an essential part of building muscle; you need it to measure your progress and keep track of your personal best lifts. A training log doesn’t take much time and is very motivating at keeping you on track. Making use of one is a good idea.
By keeping the above pointers in mind, as well as a healthy dose of common sense, you should be able to enjoy a safe and productive workout. The important thing is to relax, be safe, and enjoy a great workout.
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An Olympic Weight Set For Regular Weight Training
If you want to weight train in the comfort of your own home, like an expert, you should consider an Olympic weight set including an Olympic weight bench. These weight sets can help you push your lifting to the next level. Or if you are just buying your first pieces of equipment for your home gym and you know you are committed to working out daily you want to get something that will last; this is your best bet.
An Olympic weight set will get you through the beginning stages of your weight training and it will still work great as you start progressing. Having a solid weight bench and weight set to start with means you won’t need to get a new one as you start moving to the next levels. Depending on your goals and your workout routines you may need to add weights eventually, but you can still keep this core Olympic weight set as your base. Read more
Body Building Tips, Easy Ways To Help You Build Muscle Faster
Utilizing the right bodybuilding lessons is one of the major contributors so you can build muscle fast. Add in a drug free training and you have yourself the right approach. Getting lessons from a trainer on steroids isn’t really going to do you any good.
There are various ways to build muscle faster, but today we want to cover only one. It all starts with working out as hard as you can.
If you’re having issues with building muscle, then we recommend asking yourself a few questions. Do you get to the end of your set and wonder if it’s feasible to finish the last two? Do others encourage you when you’ve finished half your set? Do you hit a wall and start to doubt your abilities?
One of the biggest reasons individuals have a hard time building muscle is they aren’t focused enough. Take a few moments and look around. Do you see everyone else’s training intensity? Most of them are worried more about what looks good and who’s looking buff.
What it comes down to is they aren’t focuses and don’t have the right frame of mind. However, they are usually the ones who complain about not getting more results. Too bad no one tells them they aren’t pushing themselves to their limits. The easiest way to build muscle fast is to follow these tips:
1) Begin every set as if it’s your last set for the workout.
2) treat every single training rep as if your life depended on it.
3) Always time your rest periods between sets, with a stopwatch.
4) Try and wear a top so you don’t keep checking yourself out in the mirror, Do that when you’re not training.
5) Work out with body builders who are prepared to train you hard!!
Do these make sense? We hope so, and you should focus on each one if you plan to build muscle fast. One of our favorite quotes is; “You get what you focus on.”
What it comes down to is you have to give your muscles a reason to grow. If you try to train at the same intensity as your last workout, your results will either be minimal, or nothing at all.
The next two forms we introduce will give you the opportunity to learn how to build muscle fast. So make sure you read carefully.
Heavy Weight- Building muscle means lifting heavier weights. You also have to focus on getting as strong as possible. We recommend using one compound exercise per major muscle, and make it a goal to have a 5% change in muscle gain each week. This will give you the best possible options out there.
Speed- If you can push your body to do as many sets as quick as possible you’re in for a ride. Your body will be under hard work, which means the quick growth of muscle will take place. However, you need to arrive at the best balance of effort and time.
The best way to build muscle fast is to keep to a strict training regimen. If you come across a recommended muscle building program, utilize it. Even these will offer one-on-one trainer systems.
If you can complete your chosen program, including all the lessons to your guide, you will be able to build muscle fast. We have several website reviews of the best bodybuilding programs available. Plus an inside look at how to build muscle fast.
Sick and tired of being weak and flimsy? Let us take you by the hand with the best bodybuilding tips to gain on pound after pound of ripped, firm muscle weight in the shortest period of time possible. Visit us to read more Muscle Building Articles
How To Break Bodybuilding Plateaus
Here are some tips to help you should you find yourself in the awful situation of no progress in your bodybuilding efforts. At all costs you should avoid over-training which is believed to be one of the most common causes of hitting a plateau. Frequent colds or illness, aching muscles and joints, low energy and motivation and sleeplessness are indicators of over-training. Should you find yourself experiencing these ailments then it means you are over-training and your body is letting you know that it needs a break. By taking a couple of days off your body will be allowed to completely rejuvenate itself before easing back into training.
For each muscle group endeavor to perform exercises which vary. For example, you can use shoulder presses with a straight bar in a set then change to dumbbell shoulder presses in another set. Although this might seem to be a simple change, a different stress will be placed on the shoulder muscles which will help to break through a plateau in shoulder development. The aim is to vary the exercise so that a novel stress is placed on the targeted muscle group. This will help you by making the muscles grow as well as keeping you interested in the workouts. Read more
The Benefits Of Using Slow Lifting Techniques For Muscle Growth
This includes doing the reps in a very slow fashion; push the weight up in 10 seconds then pause a little while the slowly down the weight in 5 seconds. This concept is used to add extra pressure on the muscle fiber resulting in increasein strength and size. It has also been credited as one of the safest lifting technique. This technique requires one to have full focus and alot of intensity. Many bodybuilders have coined in that this technique has no inflammation effects on the joints.
Slower reps are performed with the point of achieving various goals. These reps find their way in the following roles:
To display strength as opposed to building strength
There is general confusion between displaying strength and building the same. For a weightlifter lifting a heavy weight may be described as displaying strength. This display is often compared to a display of power a person has although power is described as work done per unit time, it is thought one has more power if lift a weight in very little time. However, the question lingers if this quick lifting is the best way to build strength.
For a weight lifter who lifts a weight off the floor then pauses at the shoulder level then jerks the weight up into the air; this is definately using more technique and a great amount of momentum to get the weight lifted over the head. The use of technique and momentum is good for entertainment since this is an actual display of shher strength. Thistechnique needs one to fully understand his or her neuromascular tendancies to make the lifting more efficient and easier.
The slower motions reduce the momentum of lifting considerably. This has the effect of using the muscles only to lift and no external forces. In this process the muscles experience higher levels of stimuli and tension.
The intensity aspect
Many exercise literatures point to intensity as having a major role in strength gained and even the muscle mass. Training with high number of the set and reps produces significant results only when high intensity is involved. If even the state of muscle fatigue is reached without the adequate intensity, the result may still not be forthcoming.
The muscle fibers response
The outcome of various training techniques is largely dependent on the mechanism defined by the size principle. The principle goes ahead to say that the (smaller) short muscles are synchronized before the (larger) long twitch muscles. This statement simply put, says the muscle fibers tend to be synchronized starting from the smallest to the biggest fiber. According to this principle, while the short muscles are getting fatigued, the longer muscles are just getting started and finally the whole collection of muscle fiber is fully activated. Even in fatigue the fibers are still active but they produced little forces progressively until the training stops.
With slow movements and slightly heavy load, one can attain the muscle fatigue state with say 5 reps.The intensity involved in such an exercise serves to activate the long fibers into action. Thereby the notion of fast movements in order to activate the long fibers may be laid to rest.
One may not be able to gauge the intensity of the exercise since no method has been invented yet. One may use a stop watch to check the onset of fatigue and compare it to other sessions to determine whether the intensity is increased or not.
Dane Fletcher is the world’s most prolific bodybuilding and fitness expert and is currently the executive editor for BodybuildingToday.com. If you are looking for more bodybuilding tips or information on weight training, or supplementation, please visit www.BodybuildingToday.com, the bodybuilding and fitness authority site with hundreds of articles available FREE to help you meet your goals.
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