Increase Repetition and Lower Set to Achieved More Muscle Mass

One of the biggest disappointments shared by many people, regardless of age, who take up the science of bodybuilding is that they never seem to profit quick enough.

Almost everybody who has ever attended a Mr. Olympia contest wants to seeimmediatelylike the competitors seen on stage. To this end some people even copy the champions precontest training routines in a misguided effort to somehow hasten this transformational process. After all, it worked for the champions, right? Wrong! Ive stated this before, but it bears repeating: the champions are the thoroughbreds of our species; its in their genesor, more specifically, its in their muscle belliesto be immense musclemen. Their physiques are inordinate due to their being genetically predisposed to carry a large musculature on their frames, and not because of any magic to be found within their training routines (e.g., triple split; push/pull; intensity or insanityI love that one!; up and down the rack; twenty sets per body part) or their secret dietary methods. Its time we, as a group, woke up to the fact that its not in the genetic cards for all of us to be massively muscled. Nor can we alter our reality by simply aping the training routine of a definite champion. In fact, the champions training routine, particularly his precontest routine, would have about as much bearing on our attaining his musclesize as would our wearing the same shoes

as he does.

Remember this point: the first rule of success in bodybuilding is to work within our genetic framework. Without this principle, most of the other rules have no application. Moreover, given the level of drugs that most of the champion bodybuilders take, probably very few of the rules that govern human physiology have much bearing on them. The drugs alter human physiology into something foreign to our species. Once these drugs enter the equation, and by drugs I specifi cally refer to steroids here, the act of emulating the training methods of the bodybuilder you see upon stage becomes pointless. The muscles of steroid users no longer make the similar amount of waste by-products, nor do they fatigue at the same rate; drugs have altered both processes beyond the confi nes of easy human physiology. Suffi ce it to say that unless you currently are upon steroids,

or are resolved to use them regardless of the potential consequences, youll experience tiny, if any, gains in muscle mass by training like the champions. Natural muscular gains arrive when you train intelligently, which means observing and understanding the economics of growth and recovery.

DECEPTIVE CLAIMS

Bodybuilding, like most other human  endeavors, has had and continues to have its share of bizarre and wonderful claims, generally made by people who are all bit as wonderful as the claims they advance. As you are now entering your third month, its important that you be informed of just what deception awaits you upon your journey to physical perfection at this point in your training. Armed with this knowledge in advance, you will be better able to recognize and avoid quick-talkers who would have you believe and hold baseless and potentially harmful training, nutritional, and, most important, cognitive practices.

The most common error that youll encounter is the visualization or cognitive mind over matter arguments, replete with similes that involve biceps like mountains, backs like manta rays, or thesame nonsense. These are, in effect, mind-over-genetics arguments, or what the tardy philosophernovelist Ayn Rand would have called the I Wish versus It Is polemic. This premise, in essence, instructs you to ignore the fact that you are only fi ve foot two and have brown eyes, because, by God, if you really desire to be six foot six and have eyes of blue, then all you have to do is believe that its possible and it will happen!

The proponents of such irrational gibberish have their own nomenclature that features constructs such as mental imagery and, of course, visualization and its rampant throughout bodybuilding. Statements such as Believe and Achieve adorn the back of many a personally inscribed weight belt. This is chicanery straight out of The Flim-Flam Man. It wont put another inch upon your arms, no matter how Cartesianly sure and clear your mystical mental processes and thoughts about the size of your muscles may be. I mean, go aheadenvision your biceps the size of Mount Everest. Give me a call when they accomplish 29,028 feet above sea level. Its exactly the same logic as if I were to allegation that I could leap over an apartment complex; youd be justifi ed in thinking me deluded, regardless of how fi rmly I held to the vividness of the fantasy.

Likewise, if a bodybuilder of international repute should say you that he has peaks upon his biceps because he envisioned them as miniature mountains, and not because genetics put an egg upon his biceps the day his DNA took hold, you should be equally suspect about his cognitive faculties. Nevertheless, such claims are made almost daily regarding the mystical import of the mind in training. Sure, the mind is important; without it you couldnt even tie your shoes, let alone engage in barbell training, but its not approximately as omnipotent as some authorities would have you believe. The mind is important in keeping you motivated to profit into the gym and train intensely enough to stimulate your muscles to grow. As I conceded earlier, this training routine is not an easy one to adopt for the long term. In fact, its downright uncomfortableso much so that anyone who feels the inclination to engage in visualization or cognitive gymnastics involving mountain-peak biceps, manta-ray lats, or fl uffy clouds really isnt training. The person is simply going through the motions and relaxing, because relaxation, or sleep, is the time we are best able to engage in such fl ights of fancy. (We just refer to them as dreams.) And if such people also exhibit impressive physiques, its only further testimony to the supreme role that genetics played in their physical developmentas opposed to their mystical thought processes and inefficient training methods.

TRAINING

If genetics, then, is the be-every and stop-every of bodybuilding, and youre not the spitting image of Conan the Barbarian at the moment, should you just throw in the towel and write it off to a bad deal of the genetic cards? By no  means! The fact that you dont have the muscle bellies of an Arnold Schwarzenegger or Mike Mentzer doesnt mean that you dont have the genetics of an equally impressive you when developed to the uppermost limits of your potential. After every, Steve Reeves, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Mike Mentzer, Lou Ferrigno, Bruce Lee, Mike Tyson, and Lee Labrada didnt have identical genetics, and yet every went upon to fabricate very fabulous (and very muscular) physiques. If you train properly, you can realize your own unique physiological potential, which may even supersede any of the competitors upon the Mr. Olympia stage today! What, then, is proper training? Simply put, proper training involves stimulating muscle growth and then allowing your body sufficient time to realize that growth once its been stimulated. To achieve this, your workouts must be intense, and since intensity and duration exist in inverse proportion to one another, your workouts must also be brief. The more intense the workouts, the greater the muscle stimulation, and the briefer the workouts must be. One other factor that enters into this workout equation is recovery. This falls into the off time you have in between your workouts. My staff and I have conducted a series of tests and studies regarding this phenomenon at our Nautilus North fitness middle and have concluded that once you get stronger, it will take you approximately three days to recover the energy you expended during your workout. It will then take you another three to four days to over compensate, or grow bigger. In other words, as you grow stronger, you will require a full seven days off between workouts to permit the muscle you stimulated in your workout to grow. While you are yet a beginner, you must have at least two days of rest between high-intensity training sessions, and more if youre exceptionally strong. With any less than this amount, youll not progress at every, and you may even begin to regress. So, first train difficult to stimulate growth, which means that your workouts must be of brief duration (no more than thirty to forty-fi ve minutes per workout), and rest afterward for a minimum of forty-eight hours. If these precepts are followed, you will grow progressively larger muscles with every visit to the gym.

THE ROUTINE 

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Body Building Training Principles

The big majority of people who take up exercising with weights desire to increase their gift degree of muscle size. Unfortunately, enthusiasm can be the bodybuilders worst enemy. Caught up in the throes of weight training, the aspiring trainee trains all day, performs as many sets as can be tolerated, and then wonders why progress, if it comes at all, does so at an unbelievably slow pace. While muscle growth is a slow process at the best of times, it doesnt have to be excessively slow, providing that you train properly. In fact, if you train exactly as Ive outlined in this book, youll be amazed at the transformation in your physique in just a matter of weeks. The reason is that weight training is powerful medicine that forces your body into a virtually instant

response. The harder you train, the faster your body overcompensates in the form of additional muscle mass, but also, the harder you train, the more rest and recuperation your body requires to bring about the physiological renovations in your physique. Therefore, your initial program will be based on a three-day-per-week training schedule, which also happens to be among the summit result-producing methods of bodybuilding. The legendary Steve Reeves utilized this method exclusively in building his amazing

physique. Mike Mentzer, perhaps the greatest and most massively developed bodybuilder of all time, utilized a three-daya- week routine right up until the day he won the 1976 Mr. America title. In short, the three-day-per-week system works extremely well for beginners and is responsible for putting more muscle on more beginners than any other system of training in the world. Again, once you hit the intermediate stage, you will have to back off on the frequency a bit in order to permit your body ample time to fabricate the gains that your workouts have stimulated. Here are a few easy rules to follow that will help ensure your success.

1. Do not train more than three days a week.

2. Concentrate upon each exercise you do; try to build a mind-to-muscle link, whereby you are keenly aware of your muscles contracting against the resistance. Dont just begin a set with the idea of simply getting the weight to the summit using any means possible.

3. Dont cheat upon an exercise. Dont utilize body swing or momentum to complete a contraction, no matter

how difficult the exercise may become. Cheating increases momentum, which, in turn, diminishes muscular involvement in the exercise and, hence, reduces the exercises productivity. Your goal is to involve as many muscle fibers as possible.

4. Your training days will be Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Try not to engage in all too strenuous on

your off days, as this would cut into your recovery ability, which should be utilized only to overcome the exhaustive effects of the weight-training workout. Performing other activities retards progress. If you miss a training day, dont panic and dont perform two workouts back-to-back thinking you can create up for it. Let it gothe extra recovery wont hurt your progress in the least and might actually help it along.

5. Perform each movement slowly and under control to ensure that the muscle group you are training is doing every of the required work and that momentum is not involved. Remember this rule of thumb regarding velocity: Lift the weight in two seconds, maintain it at the summit for another two seconds, and then lower it in four seconds back to the starting position.

Similarly  if you lift the same weight for the same reps on the same exercise as you did the previous week, why should your body increase its muscle mass? Obviously, it shouldn't...

Most of All Training, Nutrition and Rest and Recovery are more important than your training itself.

References

John Little (Beginning Body Building)

http://bodybuilding.com/

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The Formula for Bodybuilding Success

No matter what your goals are, the formula for success will guarantee that you get the results you want. The only thing that differs is the way in which each individual has to implement it. This is due to the fact that each individual has different goals. For example, most women like to tone up their waist, legs, and their arms while most men are interested in getting large amounts of muscle size everywhere. 

The formula is the following: S=Dx (T+N+R)

Where:

S is the success that you achieve in your program.

D is the determination that you have to achieve success.

T is the bodybuilding training that you'll use.

N is your nutritional program designed for either lean muscle gains or fat loss.

And R stands for rest & recovery. 

How to Apply the Formula

Each component in the formula above can only have two values. A value of 1 is given to a component if it is followed completely. A value of 0 is given to any component that is not followed or followed halfway. Therefore, if every single component is followed, you get a maximum value of 3. In this case the person will get the fastest results possible from their program. If the person stops following one of the components inside of the parenthesis then you get a lesser value and not optimal results. However note that if you don't have any determination you get a value of 0 and then your whole program fails as you won't get any results. The reason for this is because determination is by far the most important factor in determining the amount of success you will achieve in your bodybuilding program and we will later see why. 

After examining the formula above, now it is easy to see why just purchasing a sophisticated gadget or a couple of "magic pills" at the health food store are not going to cut it. In order to achieve permanent weight loss all of the factors described above have to be present and in perfect harmony. Follow one, but not the other one, and your success will be negatively affected. Now that you have an idea of what it will take to get the body of your dreams, let's go into each of the individual components of the formula for success. 

Determination

This is the most important ingredient by far. If you are not determined enough to make the sacrifices necessary to get in shape, then it's not going to happen. Most people usually think that I have all the time in the world to workout (by the way, most people's excuse for not being in shape is lack of time). When I tell them that I am married, I have a child, and work full time in addition to my business they wouldn't believe it. I can certainly understand that we live in a very busy age. However, please don't tell me that you don't have at least 30 minutes 3 times a week that you can spare on taking care of yourself; that is simply unbelievable. The people with the time excuse (which is around 90% of the population) are just an example of people that want something, but just don't have the determination to make it happen. So remember: Be determined and stick to your goal! 

Training

There are two types of training:

A. Anaerobic work (i.e. weight training.) is the #1 way to re-sculpt your body. (No ladies, weight training won't make you muscle bound.) Why? Weight training is far superior to any other type of exercise because it increases your metabolism (which in turn helps you burn fat.) and gives shape to your body. 

B. Aerobic work (i.e. walking) in your Fat Burning Zone (which is (220 - Age) * .75 = Fat Burning Heart Rate) is a good way to accelerate the fat burning process, as long as it is not overdone, and as long as it is only used in addition to a good weight training program. Aerobics should never be used as a substitute for weight training. 

Nutrition

Nutrition and training go hand in hand. Have you ever heard of people that say that as long as you workout you can eat anything you want because the workout will burn it off? Well that is wrong! While it is true that if you made the correct food choice you can eat it much more that you thought you could, you cannot go every day to McDonalds and get a Big Mac with some fries. 

Therefore, remember this, if you follow the wrong diet, or follow no diet at all, then rest assured that your training efforts will be sabotaged and you will get no results at all. 

Rest and Recovery

You need 7 - 9 hours of sleep each night in order for your body to run efficiently. Deprive your body of sleep and you'll have lousy fat loss. As a bonus, you also get muscle loss, which in turn lowers your metabolism. You also get deprived hormonal production, which makes it difficult to build muscle. Finally there is research that points to the fact that sleep depravation may be linked to the following: 

1) Heart Disease 

2) Depression 

3) Bad Temper 

4) Lack of Concentration and Lethargy. 

Therefore, make sure that you get your ZZZ's or else you will be forced to live in a body that will not be operating at peak efficiency. 

Supplements 

If you want to make your program as efficient as possible, then you need some supplements. Why? Because nowadays, foods are so processed that it is impossible to get all the vitamin and minerals that your body needs in order to run at maximum efficiency. Even though supplements are not a component of the formula above, they are a subcomponent of the nutrition one. They make the nutrition component as efficient as possible. 

Conclusion

So there you have it. In order to achieve bodybuilding success, you need to take into account all of the variables of the formula described above. No "magic potion", or even steroids, will provide you with any gains if training, nutrition and rest are not maximized. So that takes us back to the fact that in order to ensure bodybuilding gains, you need to have an uncanny determination that will allow you to do what you need to do day in and day out. In this game, determination and consistency are the true keys to achieving bodybuilding gains.

References:

http://bodybuildingabout.com/
http://bodybuilding.com/
Beggining body building

About the Author

Hugo A. Rivera is an internationally-known best-selling fitness author of over 10 books on bodybuilding, weight loss and fitness.

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The Top 10 Muscle Building Facts You'll Need To Know

1. Building muscle has a lot to do with genetics.

If your parents are naturally thin or have a little body frame then maybe you will have the thesame traits. This doesnt mean you have no chance of building a strong muscular body. It just means you are going to have to work hard.

2. Your metabolism has an effect on your size.

If you have difficulty gaining weight whether its fat or muscle, then you most likely have a quick metabolism. Your body is burning calories faster than you can consume them.

3. There is no universal weight training program that is going to profit massive results for all individual person.

The best way to locate a program that works for you is to find someone who had the same type of body as you before and start walking their walk. There are certainly standard exercises that will construct muscle but there is more to building muscle than weight lifting.

4. More training doesnt mean more muscle.

This is one of the most hard concepts for many to grasp. The purpose of weight training is to stimulate muscle growth thats all. Once that has been done, your muscles need to repair and new muscle needs to be built which only happens when you are resting.

5. Isolation exercises arent going to acquire you immense quick.

The best exercises to put on the most amount of overall size are multi-muscle exercises. These are exercises that require more than one muscle or muscle group to profit the job done. These lifts put the most amount of stress on your body. This is the stress that will shock your nervous system into releasing the greatest amount of muscle building hormones.

6. Free weights construct muscle quicker.

Free weights are preferred over machines because they make your body work harder. They require greater concentration and permit the stimulation of supporting muscles. Machines are great for beginners to help with form and basic control, but limit the effectiveness of the exercise.

7. No Pain, No Gain.

Lifting the same weights over and over isnt going to profit you big. In fact it will do the exact opposite.

To construct muscle you need to go heavy. This stimulates Type IIB muscle fibers which cause the most amount of muscle gain. Lifting heavy is when your body fails after 4-8 reps.

8. Long training sessions are a NO-GO

The idea is to stimulate muscle, not hit it from every angle possible. This is only a concern for developed body builders looking to tone muscle. Long training sessions cause catabolic hormone levels to rise dramatically. Catabolic hormones are responsible for breaking down muscle tissue resulting in MUSCLE LOSS. Your weight training sessions should go for no longer than 60-75 minutes maximum.

9. You dont need aerobic activity to lose fat.

The time spent running or swimming is muscle building and recovery time lost. Building muscle is the fastest way to lose fat. Aerobic activities will help you lose fat but not so if you are upon a high calorie mass diet for building muscle.

10. 3 square meals a day isnt going to help you fabricate muscle.

Eating is an important part of muscle building. You need to eat more often and eat more protein. You should be eating roughly every 2.5 hours which is about 6 meals per day. Spreading your meals throughout the day will improve muscle assimilation, and create definite that your body always has the calories it needs for muscle building and repair.

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How To Gain Weight And Increase Muscle Mass

If you desire to increase muscle mass and profit weight, recall that in order to effectively bulk up, you will need to be persistent in your efforts. Increasing your caloric intake is an important part of gaining weight and building new muscle tissue. When you feed your body more food than it can burn, you profit weight. Weight training is also an important part of gaining weight and increasing your muscle mass. Weight training stimulates the muscles and promotes growth. The combination of weight training and proper diet is the best, most effective way to gain weight and increase muscle mass.

Failure to eat properly while weight training could result in loss of muscle tissue. Make determined you gain plenty of protein, fats, and carbs and in large enough quantities to permit your body to gain weight. Supplements can play a role in building body mass if taken while adjusting your diet and training with weights. Meal replacement bars, powders, and protein drinks can be an excellent way to increase your daily caloric intake. In order to increase muscle mass, you must give your body approximately 500 more calories per day than the number of calories your body uses.

Exercise and diet are the most important things to consider when attempting to get weight and increase muscle mass. Weight training and the adequate food intake will depart your body with no choice but to get weight and add mass. Make definite to get enough rest between workouts to give your body time to recuperate and construct new muscle tissue.

If you want to get the maximum benefit from your mass building routine, you must avoid the most common reasons that cause people to fail at building muscle and gaining weight. A quality mass building routine combined with proper nutrition and plenty of rest can fabricate results that you never dreamed possible. Consistency, cunning eating habits, the proper weight lifting techniques, and lots of rest are the common elements shared by all successful body builder.

Building muscle is a slow process and it could possibly take several months before you see noticeable results. If you are positive and consistent in your muscle mass building routine and your eating habits, you efforts will pay off in time. Nutrition is also crucial in building muscle mass. The right amounts of protein, carbohydrates, and fats must be included in your diet in order to give your body the fuel it needs to add muscle tissue. The trick to building muscle is to locate the combination of foods that permit you to add new muscle mass. Trial and mistake combined with sound dietary guidelines will allow you to locate just the right nutritional scheme for you.

The proper weight lifting techniques are a very important part of a muscle mass building routine. If you dont work your muscles, they wont grow. You will need to find the right amount of weight and the right weight lifting exercises for your body. Determination, trial and error, and a consistent effort will eventually give you the results you want. The most important thing is to stay focused and realize your reward is waiting for you down the line.

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