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chest workout tips

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15 Tips to start the daily exercise.

It’s okay, you can finally admit it. It’s been two months since you’ve seen the inside of the gym. Getting sick, family crisis, overtime at work and school papers that needed to get finished all kept you for exercising. Now, the question is: how do you start again?
Once you have an exercise habit, it becomes automatic. You just go to the gym, there is no force involved. But after a month, two months or possibly a year off, it can be hard to get started again. Here are some tips to climb back on that treadmill after you’ve fallen off.

1. Don’t Break the Habit – The easiest way to keep things going is simply not to stop. Avoid long breaks in exercising or rebuilding the habit will take some effort. This may be advice a little too late for some people. But if you have an exercise habit going, don’t drop it at the first sign of trouble.
2. Reward Showing Up – Woody Allen once said that, “Half of life is showing up.” I’d argue that 90% of making a habit is just making the effort to get there. You can worry about your weight, amount of laps you run or the amount you can bench press later.
3. Commit for Thirty Days – Make a commitment to go every day (even just for 20 minutes) for one month. This will solidify the exercise habit. By making a commitment you also take pressure off yourself in the first weeks back of deciding whether to go.
4. Make it Fun – If you don’t enjoy yourself at the gym, it is going to be hard to keep it a habit. There are thousands of ways you can move your body and exercise, so don’t give up if you’ve decided lifting weights or doing crunches isn’t for you. Many large fitness centers will offer a range of programs that can suit your tastes.
5. Schedule During Quiet Hours – Don’t put exercise time in a place where it will easily be pushed aside by something more important. Right after work or first thing in the morning are often good places to put it. Lunch-hour workouts might be too easy to skip if work demands start mounting.
6. Get a Buddy- Grab a friend to join you. Having a social aspect to exercising can boost your commitment to the exercise habit.
7. X Your Calendar – One person I know has the habit of drawing a red “X” through any day on the calendar he goes to the gym. The benefit of this is it quickly shows how long it has been since you’ve gone to the gym. Keeping a steady amount of X’s on your calendar is an easy way to motivate yourself.
8. Enjoyment Before Effort - After you finish any work out, ask yourself what parts you enjoyed and what parts you did not. As a rule, the enjoyable aspects of your workout will get done and the rest will be avoided. By focusing on how you can make workouts more enjoyable, you can make sure you want to keep going to the gym.
9. Create a Ritual - Your workout routine should become so ingrained that it becomes a ritual. This means that the time of day, place or cue automatically starts you towards grabbing your bag and heading out. If your workout times are completely random, it will be harder to benefit from the momentum of a ritual.
10. Stress Relief - What do you do when your stressed? Chances are it isn’t running. But exercise can be a great way to relieve stress, releasing endorphin which will improve your mood. The next time you feel stressed or tired, try doing an exercise you enjoy. When stress relief is linked to exercise, it is easy to regain the habit even after a leave of absence.
11. Measure Fitness - Weight isn’t always the best number to track. Increase in muscle can offset decreases in fat so the scale doesn’t change even if your body is. But fitness improvements are a great way to stay motivated. Recording simple numbers such as the number of push-ups, sit-ups or speed you can run can help you see that the exercise is making you stronger and faster.
12. Habits First, Equipment Later – Fancy equipment doesn’t create a habit for exercise. Despite this, some people still believe that buying a thousand dollar machine will make up for their inactivity. It won’t. Start building the exercise habit first, only afterwards should you worry about having a personal gym.
13. Isolate Your Weakness - If falling off the exercise wagon is a common occurrence for you, find out why. Do you not enjoy exercising? Is it a lack of time? Is it feeling self-conscious at the gym? Is it a lack of fitness know-how? As soon as you can isolate your weakness, you can make steps to improve the situation.
14. Start Small - Trying to run fifteen miles your first workout isn’t a good way to build a habit. Work below your capacity for the first few weeks to build the habit. Otherwise you might scare yourself off after a brutal workout.
15. Go for Yourself, Not to Impress – Going to the gym with the only goal of looking great is like starting a business with only the goal to make money. The effort can’t justify the results. But if you go to the gym to push yourself, gain energy and have a good time, then you can keep going even when results are slow.

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If You Want To Stay Injury-Free then Five Exercises You MUST Avoid

All exercises are not created equal. Some exercises are good, some exercises are great, and some exercises are an injury just waiting to happen. Knowing which exercises to avoid can save you many months if not years of pain and frustration.

1. Upright Rows

The Upright Row exercise is done to develop the shoulders and traps. Holding a barbell or dumbells in front of your with a close, overhand grip, you pull the weight up to your chest, keeping it close to your body, leading with your elbows.
The Upright Row is one of the most harmful exercises you can expose your shoulders to. The problem with the exercise lies in the position your arms must be in in order to perform the movement. This position is called "internal rotation." To demonstrate internal rotation, hold your arms straight out to the sides with your palms down. Now rotate your hands forward as if you were pouring out a glass of water in each. To do the upright row, the arms are bent at the elbow then internally rotated.
Internal rotation itself is not necessarily bad for your shoulders. The problem comes when you raise the arms up and add resistance in that position. Every time you raise the weight, a small tendon in your shoulder gets pinched (known as impingement) by the bones in the shoulder. This may not hurt immediately; it may not even hurt for a long, long time. The problem is the tendon will gradually become worn down and damaged. You may not even know you have a problem until one day the tendon snaps!
Instead of upright rows, stick to exercises such as dumbell presses, military presses and various raises. They are far safer for the shoulders.

2. Behind-The-Neck Pulldowns

This exercise is done to work the muscles of the back. While the exercise itself is actually effective for working the back, the problem with the exercise lies in what it can do to your shoulders.
In the previous exercise, I talked about internal rotation of the shoulders. The problem with the behind-the-neck pulldown lies in "external rotation." Going back to the arms out to the side example, instead of pouring water forward, rotate your arms backward so that your palms are facing up. It's basically the opposite movement to internal rotation.
To do the behind-the-neck pulldown as normally instructed, you must externally rotate your shoulders as much as possible. This is a very delicate position for your shoulders. The supporting muscles of the shoulders (known as the rotator cuff) are not in a good position to stabilize the joint and injury to those supporting muscles can result, which can lead to further injury in the connective tissue of the joint.
On top of that, since most people do not have enough shoulder flexibility to get a straight line of pull behind the neck, they must bend their neck forward to even do the movement. This can result in neck strain on top of shoulder strain.
This information also applies to the behind-the-neck pull-up exercise. The mechanics of the movement are exactly the same, the only difference being you're pulling yourself up instead of pulling the weight down.
Stick to exercises that are in front of the body, such as front pulldowns, close-grip pulldowns and pull-ups to the front.

3. Behind-The-Neck Shoulder Presses

The Behind-The-Neck Press gives us the same shoulder issues associated with the Behind-The-Neck Pulldown. To do the movement, you must maximally externally rotate the shoulders. Again, this places the shoulders in a very vulnerable position, which can easily result in strain in the Rotator Cuff muscles.
Also, as with the pulldowns, most people simply don't have the necessary shoulder flexibility to get a straight line on the movement - they must tilt their head forward to get the bar behind it, adding greatly to the possibility of injury.
Stick to the military press and the dumbell press for your shoulder pressing movements.

4. Stiff-Legged Deadlifts On A Bench

The Stiff-Legged Deadlift, properly done, is actually a very good movement for the hamstrings, glutes and lower back. The problem comes when, in an attempt to increase the stretch on the hamstrings, the exercise is done standing on a block or bench.
To get the most stretch on the hamstrings and to protect the lower back from injury, an arch should be maintained in the lower back during the movement. It's extremely difficult to maintain an arch in the lower back when you are stretching down as far as you can towards the floor with a barbell pulling you down.
Without the arch, as a natural result, the spine will flex and the supporting muscles of the spine will relax. This places much of the tension of the exercise directly on the connective tissue and bones of the spinal column rather than the supporting muscles, which are stabilizing the spine. In an effort to get more stretch on the hamstrings, you instead compromise the support structures of your lower back.

5. The Sit-Up

If you enjoy having a pain-free lower back, the regular floor sit-up is a good exercise to avoid. When you do a sit-up, the mechanics of the movement and position of your body throw much of the torque of the movement onto your lower back. Your hip flexors pull directly on your spine in order to raise your torso off the floor when you do the exercise, leading to strain in the lower back area.
To top it off, the abdominal muscles (the real target of the exercise) are only worked isometrically. This means they don't actually contract and move, they just work to hold the torso steady while the hip flexors do the pulling. This is not a very effective abdominal exercise.
You will be far better off performing direct abdominal-training movements such as crunches, ball crunches, cable crunches, etc. These exercises directly target the abs without throwing excessive tension on the lower back.
An excellent exercise for the abdominals that is similar in look to the regular sit-up but focuses on the abs is the Abdominal Sit-Up.
The exercises you do have a profound effect on your training and your health. Be sure to choose exercises that will help you move forward towards your goals and not set you back through injury.

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Eight Mistakes you've Made In your Training and How You Can Avoid Them

It is very important to learn from your mistakes but why even make the mistakes yourself if you can learn from mine?
I've been training for more than 13 years and I've made mistakes. I want to help you avoid making those same mistakes in your training. It could save you years of frustration!

1. Training Too Long

When I first started training, I wanted to get the fastest results possible so I figured more would be better. My wake-up call came when one day I did a 2 1/2 hour session and then lost a considerable amount of strength in my next session.
Lesson: keep your training sessions from approximately 45 minutes to 1 hour MAX! Any longer and you are either just breaking your body down or not working hard enough to get results.

2. Not Eating Enough Protein

After training for about a year and gaining a whole lot of weight (not all of it muscle!), I went on a very low-fat diet. The problem with this was I hardly ate any protein because meat had fat in it! I couldn't figure out what the problem was until one day, when I had had enough of low-fat eating, I cooked up four chicken breasts (with skin) and ate them all in one sitting. My strength jumped up immediately!
Lesson: protein is critical for muscle-building (and dieting). Don't get enough and you will compromise your results.

3. Not Enough Cardiovascular Training

When I first began training, I went from a 145-pound cross-country runner to a 217-pound weight lifter in 8 months. During that entire time I didn't do any cardio training. Not only was a lot of that weight gain fat, I felt really unhealthy and unbalanced.
Lesson: even if you're trying to gain weight, keep at least some cardio training in your program, even if it's just walking a couple of times per week. Your heart (and muscles) will thank you for it.

4. Too Much Cardiovascular Training

After the previous extreme, there was a time when I was trying to lose fat and went to the other extreme: too much cardio. I remember one session where I did 20 minutes at the highest setting on the Stair Master, then skipped rope for 10 minutes, then did the stationary bike for 20 minutes, then the Stair Master for another 20 on high, then 10 more minutes of skipping.
I was in great cardio shape but my strength and muscle mass plummeted and, to be honest, I could have achieved better fat-loss results with 15 minutes of high-intensity interval training.
Lesson: too much cardio can be counterproductive. Certainly, it will burn a lot of calories but your muscles will burn more during the day just sitting there. Short, intense sessions will spare your muscle mass and boost your metabolism more effectively.

5. Using a Weightlifting Belt

When I started training, I used a weightlifting belt for every exercise. I would basically keep the belt on for my entire workout. It was a big mistake and here's why:
A belt is very effective for stabilizing the abdominal core area. However, it is so effective that your core muscles aren't challenged and don't develop effectively. This can leave them weak and your core unstable, fostering a reliance on the belt.
A belt should really only be used for near-maximal lifting with very heavy weights. If you need a belt to do bench presses or barbell curls, you should re-examine your form and honestly evaluate your core strength. You may be setting yourself up for a back injury.
Here is another thing to think about: a belt works to stabilize your core by making your abs push outwards against it. Do you really want to be training your abs to push out and stay there? It's like training to make your gut stick out.
Lesson: ease yourself off the belt if you currently use one. You will need to slowly work back up to your current weights to ensure you don't hurt yourself. When you go to do a lift, suck in your gut and tighten your abs. You will develop far better core strength and stability, not to mention tighter, flatter abs.

6. Lifting Too Heavy

My goal has always been to develop muscle mass and strength. There have been times when I used a weight that either caused me to compromise my form or didn't allow me to get enough reps to build mass.
The rep range between 6 to 12 reps per set is most effective for building muscle mass. If you consistently use weights that only allow you to get 5 or fewer reps per set, you will build strength and some muscle but most likely not nearly as much as you are capable of.
Lesson: if you want strength, do 1 to 5 reps per set. If you want muscle, do 6 to 12 reps per set. Always push yourself to use more weight but not so much that you compromise your form or results.

7. Working Too Hard

I can clearly remember one dieting cycle I did where I was so enthusiastic to lose fat that I severely overtrained myself within the first two weeks. In my enthusiasm, I buried my recovery ability with extreme training volume and intensity. Coupled with a reduced-calorie diet, this overly-hard work spelled disaster.
Lesson: train hard but don't overwhelm yourself. Your body needs time and nutrients to recover and rebuild. This is especially important when dieting for fat loss.

8. Not Eating Enough

This is a mistake I've made many times before and am sure I will make again. It applies not only to muscle-building but to fat loss as well. Not eating enough can really limit your results. But, as we all know, life gets busy and it's hard to eat and prepare frequent, healthy meals.
Lesson: Do your best with the time and food you've got and be aware that the more regularly and frequently you can eat, the better. If you want to gain a lot of muscle, you are going to have to eat even when you don't feel like you necessarily need to or even want to.

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Best triceps exercises part 1

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Best bicep exercises part 1

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Best bicep exercises part2

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Best bicep exercises part 3

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Workout Program

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Monday: Chest / Back

1	Cable Lat Pulldowns (alternate sets below) Behind neck wide grip Narrow grip to chest	2 x 10 2 x 10
2	Bent over Barbell Rows	3 x 10
3	Seated Row Machine	3 x 10
4	Dummbell Pullover (superset with) Dembbell Flys Pullover Flys	3 x 10 3 x 10
5	Bench Press	3 x 10
6	Pec Deck Chest Machine	3 x 10

Tuesday

Aerobics for 45 minutes

Wednesday: Legs / Abs

1	Squats	3 x 10
2	Barbells Step Ups (alt legs)	3 x 10
3	Leg Extension Machine	3 x 10
4	Leg Curl Machine	3 x 10
5	Stiff Legged Deadlift	3 x 10
6	Hanging Knee-ups	3 x 10
7	Crunch / hip-ups	3 x 10
8	Negative Lying Knee-ups Buddy Exercise Resist Partner Pushing Knees Down	3 x 10
9	Bar Behind Neck Trunk Twists Seated Standing	3 x 50 3 x 50

Thursday

Aerobics for 45 minutes

Friday: Shoulders / Arms

1	Seated Dumbbell Overhead Press (Alternate Sets Below) Palms Forward Palms Reverse (twisting)	2 x 10 2 x 10
2	Barbell Shurgs	3 x 10
3	Dumbbells Deltoid Flys (Superset Sets Below Lateral (arms to side Front (one arm at a time)	3 x 10 3 x 10
4	Lying Triceps Curlbar Extension	3 x 10
5	Standing Cable Triceps Extension	3 x 10
6	Seated One Arm Scott Curls	3 x 10
7	Seated Curl Machine	3 x 10

Saturday

Aerobics for 45 minutes

Sunday

Aerobics for 45 minutes

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Fifty & Fit Nutrition Plan

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Morning

8 oz of water, 1000 mg HCA, 400 mcg Chromium Picolinate, 200 mg L-Carnitine, 30 mg COQ10, 50 mg DHEA, 250 mg Ginkgo Bilboa.

Ride stationary bycycle for 45 minutes or one hour of weight training approx.

Food	Amount	Cal	Fat	Carbs	Protein
Grapefruit juice	8oz	70	0	17	0
Water	8oz

Breakfast

Food	Amount	Cal	Fat	Carbs	Protein
Oatmeal w/skim milk &	1 cup	140	2	24	9
Raspberries	1/2 cups	40	0	8	0
Egg Whites (scrambled) w/one yolk	4	129	5	2	18
Whole Wheat Toast (Dry)	2	140	2	24	6
with Honey	1 tbsp	60	0	16	0
Coffee	cup	4	0	0	0

Also: 8oz water, 2 multivitamins, 500 mg vitamin C, 400 IU Vitamin E, 1000 mg flaxseed oil, 200 mg grapeseed extract.

Mid Morning Snack

Food	Amount	Cal	Fat	Carbs	Protein
Apple	1	81	.5	21	0
Brown Rice	1/2 cup	110	0	23	2
Albacore Tuna	3 1/2 oz can	85	2	0	21
water	8 oz

Lunch

Food	Amount	Cal	Fat	Carbs	Protein
grilled chicken 1/2 breast (Skinless)	4 oz	196	5	0	36
sandwich on whole wheat		130	2	22	5
w/lettuce and tomato		20	0	5	0
pasta salad vinagrette	1/2 cup	140	4	4	5
water	8oz

Mid Afternoon Snack

Food	Amount	Cal	Fat	Carbs	Protein
Bran Muffin	1	140	3	29	4
Non Fat Yogurt w/fruit	8oz	190	1	35	12

Also: 8oz water, 400 mcg chromium, 1000 mg HCA and 200 mg of L-Carnitine

Early Evening Snack

Food	Amount	Cal	Fat	Carbs	Protein
Apple Slice with carrots & celery sticks	4 oz	105	.5	27	1
water	16 oz

Dinner

Food	Amount	Cal	Fat	Carbs	Protein
Swordfish (Broiled)	5 oz	220	6	0	30
Brown RIce	1/2 cups	110	0	23	2
Broccoli	6oz	55	0	9	5
Red Wine (Cabernet, etc)	8oz	160	0	9	0
Whole wheat roll	1	130	2	22	5

Before Bed

8 oz of water, 1 multivitamiin pill, 500 mg vitamin C, 400 IU Vitamin E, 1000 mg CLA, 200 mg grapeseed extract, 1 mg melatonin, 50 mg DHEA, 30 mg CoQl0, 400 mg saw palmatto, 500 mg calcium, 100 mg magnesium.

Totals

Calories	Fat Grams	Carb Grams	Protein Grams
2453	35	340	60

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Top ten mass building tips
Muscle mass is the straw that stirs the drink in the sport of bodybuilding. Talk all you want about symmetry, shape and definition, but in the final analysis, muscle mass is the defining element of a physique. The mass building equation has three components: a correct diet strategy, hardcore training and high tech supplementation. It;s not rocket science, but there are tricks to it, nonetheless.

To save you time and trouble, I've complied 10 tips to jump start anabolism and create a positive nitrogen balance - to pack on muscle mass, you need to take in more nitrogen via protein and training than you excrete through the natural metabolic process.

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1. Emphasize the Negative

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Muscle growth is the logical byproduct of muscle contraction. Much emphasis is placed on the concentric phase of a lift where the muscle shortens as it contracts. But the stretching of the muscle during the eccentric, or negative, phase where the muscle lengthens while maintaining tension can directly cause muscle hypertrophy, too. Emphasizing the negative is an easy technique to overload muscles and promote radical gains in mass.

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2. Eat Fish

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Fish containing higher amounts of fat - salmon, for instance - provide us with the ever popular omega-3 fatty acids. Why is this important? The omega-3s make the muscle more sensitive to insulin; hence, they fuel glycogen storage and amino acid entry into muscles while also preserving glutamine stores.

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3. Increase Sodium Intake

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I'm not kidding. Sodium is an essential mineral that is an absolute must for muscle growth. Sodium has a bad rap because it can cause water retention - anathema to contest ready bodybuilders. On the plus side, sodium enhances carbohydrate storage and amino acid absorption while also improving the muscle's responsiveness to insulin.

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4. Stop All Aerobics

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Aerobic exercise has a detrimental effect on mass building. Aerobics interfere with strength gains and recovery while burning up valuable glycogen and branched chain amino acids (BCAA). Adding mass is the best way to upgrade your resting metabolic rate (RMR); is the RMR is elevated, more calories are burned and it is easier to stay lean.

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5. Lift Explosively

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The amount of force a muscle generates is proportional to the amount of muscle growth you'll be able to create. Force is defined as mass (the weight you use) multiplied by acceleration (the speed at which you push a weight against resistance). To generate more force, then, progressively increase your poundages while lifting explosively - in this context, you actually increase speed during the second half of the rep.

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6. Dramatically increase your calories for three days

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You will never achieve a positive nitrogen balance with a low calorie diet. It takes raw materials - carbs, protein and fats - to build new muscle mass and support recovery. Increasing your calories by 50% (from 3,0000 to 4,500 per day, for instance) for three days can spur growth while adding little if any bodyfat. The key is to limit the increased calories to a designated three day period; you'll be able to stimulate growth by improving muscle sensitivity to insulin and by providing more carbs for glycogen storage. If you are in a overtrained state - and if you're not gaining any new muscle mass, this is probably the case - the additional calories will promote anabolism before fat storage is able to kick in. That's why you want to limit the 50% increase to a three day period. After that time, return to your typical intake of daily calories; you'll have stimulated new growth without adding unwanted fat.

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7. Rest

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Many bodybuilders are unable to pack on mass because they are always training and, therefore, always recovering from those grueling workouts. Taking a couple of days off can restore glycogen, increase anabolism and allow hormonal indexes such as testosterone and cortisol to return to optimal levels.

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8. Eat in the Middle of the Night

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Anabolism depends on an excess of calories. As you are well aware, bodybuilders eat four to six times per day to increase the absorption of nutrients and to provide a steady influx of carbs, protein and fat. Expanding on the four to six meals per day plan is to include a protein drink in the middle of the night that can encourage additional growth. Glutamine EFX, providing 30 grams of protein and carbs along with the 'big three' (see tip #10), is a good option for this late at night infusion of nutrients.

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9. Increase Strength Through Powerlifting

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Your muscles respond to training in three ways. When you train with high reps (more than 15), there is an increase in endurance with no substantive improvement in size or strength. The six to twelve rep range - the range that all big bodybuilders rely on - promotes an increase in both size and strength. Powerlifters generally stay with low reps, two to four per set, which supplements strength with slight variances in size. However, if you set aside one week of training to pile on the weights with low reps the subsequent improvement in strength will make you stronger when you return to the six to twelve rep routine. Here's the formula: More strength equals more tension on the muscle equals more growth.

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10. Supplement with the Big Three:
Glutamine, Creatine and BCAA

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Glutamine is known as the immunity amino. If you are overly stressed from dieting or training, the immune system kicks in, releasing glutamine into the bloodstream. Having low levels of glutamine will inhibit muscle growth - that's why supplementing with glutamine is important.

Creatine is associate with added power and the ability to produce more adenosine triphosphate (ATP) - the chemical fuel source for training and growth. Supplementing with creatine allows bodybuilders to raise creatine levels in the muscle - therefore enhancing strength and ATP - without the unwanted fat that you'd be saddled with by getting all your creatine exclusively from food.

Branched chain amino acids act as a handy fuel source when glycogen stores are low. Adding BCAA to your nutritional program will increase your nitrogen balance while preventing the dreaded catabolic state that derives from overtraining or overdieting.

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Top ten bite sized building tips
Every month for the past few years, I've endeavored to give you practical information about bodybuilding nutrition. Now, in response to popular demand - based on the letter's I've been getting and questions I've been fielding at seminars and clinics - I'm going to switch gears. I've decided to focus exclusively on mass building tips to help you pursue the Holy Grail of bodybuilding: packing on maximum size in a minimum amount of time.

1. Bump Up Your Protein
   Most bodybuilding experts advocate consuming at least one gram (g) of protein per pound of bodyweight daily. To accelerate the muscle building process, I'm advising that you increse your daily protein intake to one and a half to two grams per pound of bodyweight. Increasing protein intake helps to enhance protein synthesis while preventing protein breakdown. The net effect is anabolism (gaining quality muscle size) rather than catabolism (getting smaller due to losing muscle mass).

2. Jack Up The Carbs
   Ingesting three grams of carbs per pound of bodyweight daily will provide your body with plenty of calories for energy, ensuring that your protein derived calories will be left to support muscle growth and repair. Another cheery result of increasing carbs is taht the body won't tear down muscle tissue for energy during training.

3. Eat The Right Fats
   All fats are not created equal. the omega-3 fatty acids in salmon and swordfish help to prevent muscle inflammation, improve glycogen formation and enhance protein synthesis. Eat salmon or swordfish three time per week or take five to seven grams of fish oils daily

4. Increase Rest Intervals During Training
   Taking time to rest between sets allows for immediate recovery within the muscle. That will enable you to train with heavier weights. It's amazingly simple. Heavy poundages (plus good form) equal more mass. My recommendation is to rest for no less than two minutes, but no more than three minutes, after each set.

5. Eat Six Meals A Day
   I know it is a pain in the neck to eat so aften, but gaining mass on four meals a day is simply not going to work for most people; only the genetically blessed mass monsters can gain substantive size on a four a day meal plan. Schedule each of your six bodybuilding friendly meals every two to three hours. This installment plan allows you to increase the absorption and assimilation of your precious nutrients.

6. Don't Snub Sugar
   Fast digesting carbs - a.k.a. simple sugars - get a bum rap. Including simple sugars in the posttraining meal helps to suppress the production of cortisol - a muscle wasting hormone - and promote the release of insulin. Shoot for 80-130g of carbs immediately after training, with at least half coming from fast burning carbs such as fruit juice, bagels, fat free ice cream or white flour based bread products.

7. Use An Anabolic Cocktail
   My cocktail of choice is glutamine with a creatine chaser. Two grams of glutamine in the meal immediately following your training can increase growth hormone levels; 10 grams of creatine can drag water into the muscles to turn on protein synthesis.

8. Experiment With Low Reps and Heavy Weight
   Include low reps - two or three per set - and heavy weights in your program, especially with compound exercises like squats, bench presses and deadlifts. These heavy multijoint movements are a prerequisite for building a maximum amount of muscle.

9. Design An Insulin Boosting Stack
   Let's get creative and devise a three supplement stack of goodies that will release insulin when ingested with your high carb posttraining meal: 400 milligrams of alpha lipoic acid to promote the uptake of carbs by muscles - even without the presence of insulin; 200 micrograms of chromium to increase the muscles' sensitivity to insulin; and six grams of branched chain amino acids to provide a shot of leucine, an amino that helps to trigger the release of insulin.

10. Limit Workout Volume
    Volume in a workout context can be defined as the number of sets you perform per bodypart. Doing too many sets promotes catabolic hormones and adversely impacts recovery and recuperation. The ideal volume for building mass is six to eight sets comprising two exercises for smaller bodyparts, and 10-12 sets comprising three exercises for larger bodyparts.

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Ten tips for better bodybuilding
Body building tips are so abundant that you could fill a number of bulky manuals discussing all of them. On the other hand, the body building tips mentioned below are some of the more basic, but vital tips that looks to get left out of most body building magazines - both in print and online.

1: This is most likely the most basic of all body building tips but it's one that a lot of body building fans don't seem to get. Wear the suitable clothing. Your clothing in the gym must permit you to move generously and safely. But the major problem is the reality that so many male body builders do not cover up. Why should everyone besides in the gym have to smell your armpits at the time of their workout? At the minimum wear a T-shirt.

2: You must drink water frequently - before, during and after every exercise session. This is also right for any day of the week. It's an excellent habit to get into.

3: Make certain you use correct lifting practices on every rep of every exercise. Using inaccurate practices or lifting form can at the very least avoid you from making any optimistic progress, but you can moreover pull or tear muscles, injure tendons and ligaments, break bones and worse. Your arms, legs etc. are only intended to move in definite ways and directions so be careful what you're doing.

4: Warm up appropriately before beginning to lift weights. The initial thing you must do is to warm up utilizing a stationary bike or a treadmill for 5 - 10 minutes. Do not make the blunder of doing too much cardio at this time. 5 - 10 minutes is all that's required to get the blood flowing.

After you have done your cardio warm up then you have to warm up with weights. The technique to do this is to take about 40% of the weight you will be using on your initial exercise for your original muscle group and carry out a couple of sets of 10 - 12 reps. You will just require to warm up every muscle group once.

5: Don't weight the bar up with too much weight in an attempt to look stronger than you actually are. Using too much weight will noticeably put you at threat for an injury. Leave your self-esteem at residence and use the weight that will permit you to work in the rep range you are made-up to while using good form.

6: Without getting into uninteresting scientific particulars, the lowering, or unconventional part of an exercise is essential to your improvement. Negative reps are one of the most useful weight lifting methods to encourage muscle growth.

7: Focus and contemplate on what you're doing. If you're unfocused or worried when exercising you will get hurt. Suitable focus will also allow you to lift more weight and use good figure, all of which results in improved muscle growth and fat loss.

8: Do not go to the gym lacking a preparation. Don't stroll aimlessly from exercise to exercise in the gym.

9: Your diet is an awfully significant part of your body building success. You must alter your diet according to your outcomes. You will not have any body building achievement lacking a good diet.

10: Appropriate supplementation must be incorporated with your body building program. Though, this doesn't mean you must begin buying every supplement out there.

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Formula for your success in bodybuilding

People are confused! When it comes to getting in shape, people just don't know where to start, what to do, or who to believe. Just turn on the TV. How many infomercials do you see with the latest fad promising to give you the body of your dreams with only five minutes a day?! Give me a break!

It's always amusing and sad when clients come to me and ask what is a good pill to take to lose weight or what pill could they take to get big. My reply back usually comes in the form of a question about what kind of diet and training regimen they are following and I usually get the same reply; which is either a chuckle or a totally clueless look followed by: "Is it necessary to diet and exercise? Won't the pills take care of that?"

Beware of False Promises

Whenever a product promises results with no effort or very little of it, BEWARE. Don't lose your hard earned cash like that! Please use common sense. Both the weight loss and bodybuilding industry feed on misinformation. Granted, there are supplements that when used correctly in addition to a good training program and diet, yield great results. However, without the training and the diet no supplement (or "pill" as many people like to call them) will help you in your quest to a better body. This subject brings us to the Formula for Success.

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.

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Beginners bodybuilding

It is always a good idea for a beginner to get a physical before you embark on a bodybuilding program. While this may sound like a cliche, there is a good reason for this:

You ensure that all your systems are in working order. If for instance a test indicates that your kidney function is abnormal, this not only will impair your progress but it may also make it dangerous to consume the amount of protein needed to make gains. For bodybuilding success, one needs a healthy heart, healthy kidneys and a healthy liver. If any of these systems is not working, then not only does this represent a health hazard, but also you won't be able to make the gains that you could. So having said that, good blood work to get done to check these systems is the following:

To check cardiovascular function you need the following tests: Total cholesterol, LDL/HDL, Triglycerides, C-reactive protein, Homocysteine levels.

To check liver function you need: alkaline phosphatase, GGT, SGOT, SGPT

To check kidney function you need: creatinine, BUN, and the creatinine/BUN ratio.

For males, a PSA test is also wise to ensure adequate prostate function.

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Way to achieve goals
Without goals we are like a ship in the middle of the sea, just drifting away with no sense of direction. It just goes with the flow, so to speak, and if it ever gets anywhere it is just by mere accident. In order to achieve success in our bodybuilding program, our goal should be clearly defined and engrained in our brains. Otherwise, like the boat on the example above, if you get anywhere it will be by mere chance.

Have you ever noticed that some people go to the gym year after year and they always look the same? I have approached people like that and asked them about their goals. Nine out of ten times they don't have a clear definition of what they want. Therefore, if you don't know where your target is, how can you hope to shoot at it and get it?

As a small exercise, I would like you to take out a small piece of paper (or open up Word or your text editor in your PC) and I want you to write two things. The first thing will be your long term goals. Be specific! Write the measurements that you will have (Chest, Arms, Waist, Thighs, Calves, Forearms), your body fat percentage and your total body weight.

Please, don't limit yourself to what you think you can achieve; write down what you want (However at the same time, if you are a male bodybuilder and you want 28 inch Arms, know that such goal is unrealistic. Shoot for 20 inches instead). So did you wrote down your long term goals? If not, stop reading and do so now! If you are reading this paragraph I will assume that you wrote down your long term goals.

Now, the problem is that such goals look so far away. Well, every long trip starts with the first step, therefore, now I want you to write your short term goals. Short term goals should be analyzed every 6 to 12 weeks. Obviously, short term goals are going to be smaller than long term goals.

However, by adding smaller short term goals, you will get to your long term goals in due time. When you write down your goals, be positive and have no doubt in your mind that you can achieve them. This is crucial! So go ahead and right now write your short term goals. Do it in the following format:

Write Down Your Goals

For the next _____ (choose 6 or 12 weeks) weeks I will:

Lose ______ pounds of fat
Gain ______ pounds of muscle
Weight ______ pounds

Have Measurements of:
Chest ______
Arms ______
Thighs ______
Calves ______
Waist ______

Once you have all of those goals written down, write down what ACTIONS will you take for the next 6 or 12 weeks to get there. For instance:

Action Plan

• I will eat 6 balanced meals a day (1 every three hours)
• I will wake up to exercise and do cardio first thing in the morning three times a week.
• I will do 5 weight training sessions a week.
• I will get 8 hours of sleep (7 minimum) every day.
• I will drink 1 gallon of water a day.
• I will only have 1 cheat meal a week.

Also, if you want to, take pictures of how you currently look (be sure to also document, current measurements, bodyweight, body fat, etc...). This is a great way to stay motivated as when you look at your pictures from now, and then you look at pictures of yourself a year later, you will see a huge difference!

Now that you have written all of this down, it is time to get to your actions. If you follow your action plan religiously and you miss your goals by a bit, DON'T GET DISCOURAGED! You should have seen progress anyway (here is where pictures really pay off; get a digital camera) and this is what we are shooting for; constant progress as this is what will get us to the goals we want.

If you missed the mark due to the fact that you did not follow your action plan to the letter, don't punish yourself for it. Just set your new goals and be more determined in following your action plan so that you get there this time.

If you mess up your plan for a day, don't drop the whole thing and quit! I see this very often! If you encounter one of those days, just recover the following day by starting the plan again.

Now that you have goals, go ahead and put your plan into action so that you can go ahead and achieve them.

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For beginners

Monday: Chest, Shoulders & Traps

Chest
• Bench Press 2 X 8-10
• Incline Press 2 X 8-10
• Flat Flies 2 X 12-15
• Dips 1 X Failure

Shoulders

• Military or Dumbbell Press 2 X 8-10
• Side Lateral 2 X 8-10
• Bent Over Lateral 2 X 10-12

Traps

• Barbell Shrug 3 X 8-10

Click Here For A Printable Log Of Monday: Chest, Shoulders & Traps.

Wednesday: Legs & Biceps

Legs
• Squats 3 X 12-15
• Leg Extensions 2 X 8-10
• Lying Leg Curl 2 X 8-10

Biceps

• Barbell Curl 2 X 8-10
• Hammer curl 2 X 8-10

Click Here For A Printable Log Of Wednesday: Legs & Biceps.

Friday: Back, Shoulders & Traps

Back
• Wide Grip Pull Up 4 X Failure
• Bent Over Row 2 X 8-10
• V-Bar row 2 X 8-10

Triceps

• Triceps Pressdown 2 X 8-10
• Reverse Pressdown 2 X 8-10
• Dumbbell Kickback 1 X 12-15

Forearms

• Wrist Curls 2 X 10-12

Click Here For A Printable Log Of Friday: Back, Shoulders & Traps.

Abdominals

Work your abs at the end of two of your workouts. You can decide which ones to work them after. Here is the routine:
• Hanging Leg Raises 3 X Failure
• Rope Crunch 3 X 12-15
• Oblique Crunch 2 X 30

Click Here For A Printable Log Of Abdominals.

Tips

If Monday, Wednesday, and Friday or not good days for you to workout, you can adjust the schedule. Just make sure you have a rest day in between each workout.

Reasons for setting up the program this way:

1. You hit every muscle
2. These exercises will provide and solid foundation
3. You will receive adequate rest

I decided to put biceps with legs because biceps are usually everyone's favorite body part to work on. Legs are often the hardest and most grueling to work. Therefore, my putting the two together, you will look forward to leg day instead of dreading it.

Notice for each exercise there is a certain rep range. For example, bench press has a rep range of 8 to 10 reps. This means you should choose a weight that you can handle for at least 8 reps, but no more than 10. Once you are able to perform the higher rep requirement, up the weight.

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For intermediate bodybuilders

Six Week Program

Week One:
• 1 Circuit
• 3 Times Per Week
• 30 Minutes Cardio

Week Two:

• 2 Circuits
• 3 Times Per Week
• 20 Minutes Cardio

Week Three:

• 3 Circuits
• 3 Times Per Week
• 20 Minutes Cardio

Week Four:

• 3 Circuits
• 3 Times Per Week
• 20 Minutes Cardio

Week Five:

• 4 Circuits
• 3 Times Per Week
• No Cardio

Week Six:

• 4 Circuits
• 3 Times Per Week
• No Cardio

Once the novice lifter has completed the previous training programs, the lifter should be able to employ more advance and esoteric workouts. However, if you feel you need more time on the Intermediate workout, do so. In addition, if the workouts are easier than noted above, feel free to move on to the next level of weight training.

Click Image To Enlarge.
The Lifter Should Be Able To Employ
More Advance & Esoteric Workouts.

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For teens

What Workout Plan Worked Best For You?

I will provide a sample workout but without an exact set and rep range because that always varies for me. I train mostly on instinct and feel. Set ranges from 4-5 on most exercises. Rep ranges are lower on powerlifts such as bench, squat, and deadlifts.

Sample Training Week:

Monday - Chest


Incline Bench
Flat Bench
Decline Bench
Dumbbell pullovers
Fly machine
Cable crossovers

Tuesday - Legs


Squats
Leg press
Leg curl
Leg extension
Single leg extension
Single leg curl
Stiff-legged deadlifts

Wednesday - Rest

Thursday - Back
Lat pulldown
Barbell rows
1 arm dumbbell rows
Pullups

*Deadlifts done every other week

Friday - Shoulders


Behind the neck press
Side lateral raises
Front raises
Rear delt machine
1 arm lateral raises using cables

Saturday - Bicep/Tricep


Biceps:
Dumbbell curls
Preacher curls
Cable curls

Triceps:
Skull crushers
Triceps Pushdown
Weighted dips


Sunday - Rest

*Calves are done every other day starting from Monday

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Trap Exercises
What are traps? They are the muscles at the side of your neck sitting on the top of the shoulders. When you get them really developed, they look like a upside down bunch of bananas. This muscle responds well to training for many people so you have to be careful. Get your traps too big and your shoulders slope down from your ears making you look like a giant pencil.
Dumbbell Shrugs for Traps Dumbbell shrugs are my favorite trap exercise. I know this is a really simple exercise and it seems silly to make a video showing how to do it but I have gotten many requests for it. This is an easy exercise to do at home, all you need is a set of used dumbbells.

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