Top 5 Bodybuilding Workout Tips for arms

1. Incorporate multi-jointed exercises into your bodybuilding routine.


When training your chest, shoulders, and back make sure you utilize multi-joint exercises. What this does is work,as the secondary movers, the arms. The arms mean simply the biceps, and triceps.


A good example of multi-jointed exercises are the bench press, shoulder press, row, pull down, and good old fashion pushup. More than one muscle group is being worked when you perform multi-joint exercises.


2. Increase your intensity.


In order to stimulate arm muscle growth resulting from your bodybuilding workout program you must increase your intensity of exercise.

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You must enter the gym with a mindset of forcing the muscles to adapt, and grow. To do so you need to increase the weight lifting weight, reps, or simply decrease the rest between bodybuilding sets. Always make your bodybuilding workout progressive in nature. Keep attempting to beat the reps, and weight you logged in the previous arm workout.


3. Do not overtrain. Limit your sets




It is important to avoid overtraining your arms. Many bodybuilders do too much arm work in their particular bodybuilding workout. This, in turn, leads to over training.


By doing too many sets of arms you are cutting into your recovery abilities, and will surely decrease your chance of results. Optimal rest is mandatory for maximum muscle stimulation. Please understand this.


4. Hit the triceps hard.


The triceps comprise a majority of your arms muscle size. Make sure you incorporate close grip bench presses, dips, and triceps push downs to ultimately increase your triceps muscle size, and tone.


Strive to increase your intensity every time your step into the gym. After all, it is the quality of exercise, not the quantity. Make the most of your limited weight training sets performed by the arms.


5. Precise rest between workouts is mandatory for growth.




This number one mistake most bodybuilders make. They simply follow the more is better approach. Little do they know, more is a detriment to your bodybuilding workout results.


Each additional arm set performed cuts into the recovery ability of the muscle. Remember, the biceps, and triceps grow while at rest, not during the workout.


I always recommend 6-10+ days between arm workouts. As far as the number of sets, 2 sets of 2-3 exercises for the arms is optimal for growth. In other words, if you spend more than 10 minutes on your arms, you are overtraining. Beginning a weight training workout prior to full recovery will short circuit your muscle building results.

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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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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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7 Muscle Mass Building Tips

7 Muscle Mass Building Tips

One of the most common questions I get asked is “how do I gain and retain muscle mass?”. Guys are always looking for mass gain secrets and this is one of the reasons I’ve decided to release the Super Smash’r Fitness Strength Training Program to the public. In this program you’ll find all my very best workouts and principles in an easy to use step-by-step program.

Some of the principles and ideas you may want to consider when building muscle include:

1. Chase the pump. There has been a lot of debate recently about the need to get the pump during a workout. The pump is when the capillary beds in the muscle start fully working making the muscle more efficient at using growth promoting nutrients. This ultimately leads to bigger stronger muscles.

2. Extra heavy for extra growth. There is no way around it, if you want size you need to lift heavy weights. While this seems obvious, you can only do this by training with a partner and pushing yourself beyond your comfort zone.

3. Training partner. Train with a buddy that is on the same program or has the same fitness goals. You’ll keep each other motivated and push each other to your limits.

4. Sleep. Your body repairs itself during sleep and produces important testosterone during the sleep cycle. Listen to your body but I recommend a minimum of 8 hours of effective sleep a night.

5. Increase natural testosterone production. In my Fitness Strength Training Program I give a detailed description of why testosterone is important and the best ways to fire up your own natural sources. Compound or primary exercises increase natural testosterone production.

6. Build the center of your power. The core area of your body (abs, oblique’s and lower back) is the most important part of your body. Train these areas smart and hard for maximum power transfer to other parts of your body.

7. Train using all 4 types of resistance training methods. Learn and use all tricks available to stimulate your muscles and avoid getting stale. To many programs focus on 8 – 12 reps. Move beyond the basics for advanced gains.

For all my tips and explosive growth secrets, visit Fitness Strength Training today to download your copy of this amazing program.

“To be successful, you must decide exactly what you want to accomplish, the n resolve to pay the price to get it.”

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Mass Building Tips

Mass Building Tips

Bodybuilding without muscle mass is like a cyclist without a bicycle. Without muscle mass it does not matter that your definition level is high, that the shape of the muscle is good or that the body is symmetric. To put it simple, in order to build muscle mass you will need a good diet, a good training routine and supplements. While talking about supplements would take too long, let us think about the other aspects and give you some mass building tips that you might not have been aware of.

Negative Emphasis

Muscle grows when muscle contracts. in most cases you put a bigger emphasis on the concentric part of the lift. The negative part is sometimes neglected and this is not a great idea. In order to build muscle mass you will want to emphasize the negative part of the movement.

Fish

Fish is great in your bodybuilding nutrition. For instance omega-3 fatty acids (present in some fish like salmon) will have a direct impact on your muscles, making them a lot more sensitive when talking about insulin. This basically means that glycogen storage is fueled and glutamine stores will be preserved.

Sodium Intake

In order to build muscle mass faster you should increase your sodium intake. This is because it is a very important mineral that is required by your body when bodybuilding. A lot of bodybuilders will combat this advice due to sodium being able to cause water retentions. On the other hand, you need to understand that sodium will enhance your body's storage of carbohydrates and the absorption of amino acids. To make it even better, the muscle will also respond better to insulin.

No Aerobics

If you want to build muscle mass faster and this is your priority, you have to stop doing aerobics. This is because aerobics will have a negative on strength gaining while also interfering with recovery when you burn up glycogen. Stop aerobics and you will notice that you gain muscle mass faster.

Extra Calories for 3 Days

If you are on a diet based on low calories you will be faced with negative nitrogen. The truth is that you will need fats, protein and carbohydrates in order to build muscle mass and have a faster recovery. Once in a while take in 50% more calories. The result will be an increase in muscle mass build rate with minimum body fat gain. Do not do this more than three days as the benefits you gain will be lost.

Rest

Rest is highly important in bodybuilding. We see a lot of bodybuilders that simply can not grow due to the fact that they do not rest enough. If you are constantly training your body always has to recover. Take 2 days off from the gym and you will have a restoration of glycogen combined with an increased anabolism.

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