Strawberries - Delicious and Healthy

I love all kinds of berries, but I think strawberries are my favorite. They're low in calories, rich in flavor and they're very good for you because they've got lots of vitamin C, the B vitamin folate, fiber plus healthy phytochemicals. They're great nutrition makes them a great choice for adding fruits to you diet. That's important because most people don't eat enough fruits and vegetables. I like to add strawberries to yogurt and they're a staple in all my smoothies.

Strawberries are sweet and delicious so even picky eaters enjoy them. But did you know that strawberries work well in savory dishes as well? Try this Spinach Salad with Strawberries our About.com Guide to Southern Food, Diana Rattray. It's quite a delicious dish.

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Vigorous Exercise 3 Times Weekly Reduces Men's Heart Attack Risk By 22%

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Main Category: Sports Medicine / Fitness
Also Included In: Heart Disease;  Men's health
Article Date: 06 Oct 2011 - 0:00 PDT window.fbAsyncInit = function() { FB.init({ appId: 'aa16a4bf93f23f07eb33109d5f1134d3', status: true, cookie: true, xfbml: true, channelUrl: 'http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/scripts/facebooklike.html'}); }; (function() { var e = document.createElement('script'); e.async = true; e.src = document.location.protocol + '//connect.facebook.net/en_US/all.js'; document.getElementById('fb-root').appendChild(e); }()); email to a friend   printer friendly   opinions  

Men who do vigorous exercise three times a week were found to have a significantly lower risk of having a heart attack, compared to those of the same age who did not, researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health wrote in the American College of Sports Medicine. The authors added that other important markers included hemoglobin A1c, apolipoprotein B and vitamin D.

Lead author, Andrea Chomistek, Sc.D. and team gathered data on activity levels and biomarkers from adult males from the Health Professional Follow-Up Study (HPFS). Included in the data were insulin sensitivity, cholesterol levels and markers of inflammation. The participants were asked to complete a questionnaire twice a year, in which they wrote about how long they spent each week on leisure-time physical activity.

Andrea Chomistek said:

"We studied vigorous exercise because of its stronger association with coronary heart disease. While we discovered that vigorous-intensity exercise decreases a man's risk of heart attack, we also were able to partially determine why. The benefits of exercise on a man's levels of HDL-C, or 'good' cholesterol, account for approximately 38 percent of that decrease. Other important markers included vitamin D, apolipoprotein B and hemoglobin A1c."

Blood samples were collected from 18,225 adult males, of which 454 had suffered a non-fatal heart attack or had died form coronary heart disease between 1994 and 2004, the period of the study. 412 of those with coronary heart disease were compared to 827 controls and matched for smoking status, age and date of blood donation.

Chomistek said:

"As expected, traditional cardiovascular disease risk factors were more common among cases than controls. Men who suffered a nonfatal heart attack or died from coronary heart disease had less 'good' cholesterol, more 'bad' cholesterol and were more likely to have high blood pressure, high cholesterol and diabetes."

Even though they had identified some biomarkers that could explain the link between physical activity and a lower chance of developing coronary heart disease, the authors stressed that further research on other mechanisms by which physical activity impacts on cardiovascular risk are needed.

Heart disease causes more premature adult male deaths in the USA than any other illness or condition, according to the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention). From 70% to 89% of all sudden cardiac events occur in males. Almost half of all men who suffer a heart attack before they are 65 years old do not live more than eight years.

In an Abstract in the journal, the authors wrote:

"Participating in 3 h•wk-1 of vigorous-intensity activity is associated with a 22% lower risk of MI among men. This inverse association can be partially explained by the beneficial effects of physical activity on HDL-C, vitamin D, apolipoprotein B, and hemoglobin A1c. Although the inverse association attributable to these biomarkers is substantial, future research should explore benefits of exercise beyond these biomarkers of risk."

Hemoglobin A1C is monitored to assess the long-term control of diabetes mellitus.

Apolipoprotein B, also known as APOB or ApoB is the main apolipoprotein of LDL (low-density lipoproteins or "bad cholesterol").

HDL-C, also known as high-density lipoprotein is what is often termed the good cholesterol. Higher HDL-C levels are generally associated with a lower risk of coronary artery disease.

Written by Christian Nordqvist
Copyright: Medical News Today
Not to be reproduced without permission of Medical News Today

Visit our sports medicine / fitness section for the latest news on this subject. ”Vigorous Physical Activity, Mediating Biomarkers, and Risk of Myocardial Infarction”
Andrea Chomistek, Stephanie Chiuve, Majken Jensen, Nancy Cook, Eric Rimm Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise October 2011. doi: 10.1249/MSS.0b013e31821b4d0a Please use one of the following formats to cite this article in your essay, paper or report:

MLA

Christian Nordqvist. "Vigorous Exercise 3 Times Weekly Reduces Men's Heart Attack Risk By 22%." Medical News Today. MediLexicon, Intl., 6 Oct. 2011. Web.
9 Oct. 2011. APA

Please note: If no author information is provided, the source is cited instead.

posted by Milind on 7 Oct 2011 at 10:28 am

Appreciating the arena of the sports-medicine, I feel the experts in this field can surely come out with prescription of particular sports activities as the medicine for particular illnesses. This, I think, would benefit the interested people more than the traditional ones, because of their immense effectiveness, its beauty being that there are no adverse side effects; the side effects are there, but they are only beneficial!

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Skinny? Gain Weight, Mass & Muscle Easily

If you are skinny and find you cannot put much fat on then you will also find that you cannot put on much extra muscle mass too and for the same reasons you are skinny. Gain weight and putting on muscle is not an impossible dream however if you understand the reasons your body seems to be fighting against muscle growth.

Firstly your body does not fight against muscle growth really, it also does not fight against gaining fat it is just that there is very little energy and nutrients to do that because of your very high metabolism. You see gaining weight is hard because when you eat your body converts that food into different energy to do different things in your body. You need this energy to keep warm, power your body immediately and keep your brain working well. With a high metabolism it does these things well enough but it burns through this energy so quickly that the second phase of metabolism is left with very little energy and this is what is used to store in fat cells and to repair and grow muscles.

So are there fast ways to gain weight for skinny people taking this into account? The answer is yes! It does however require a large change in how you approach the task compared to other people with a more moderate or slow metabolism who can gain fat and muscle a lot easier. IT comes down to three primary facets of your weight gain regime to build muscle mass.

Diet
Exercise
Rest

To find out how all these tie together and how you must drastically change from what the typical bodybuilding magazines say click below to find out the step by step formula for weight gain for skinny folk.

http://Skinny-Muscles.1001-Solutions.info

Sweet Potatoes

Did you know that yams and sweet potatoes are a great source of vitamin A and beta carotene? Sweet potatoes are also a good source of fiber. They have a naturally sweet flavor that doesn't need much extra seasoning, although they're often glazed or served in sweet potato pie.

Today I wrote an article about sweet potatoes, how to choose them, how to cook them and I included some links to healthy and delicious recipes that feature sweet potatoes:

Super Sweet Potatoes

What's your favorite way to serve sweet potatoes? I like mine baked and then served with a little bit of real maple syrup with a few pecans sprinkled on top.

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Weight Gain Benefits Of Creatine

Home  »  Weight Gain Supplements  »  Weight Gain Benefits Of Creatine By Ryan Steele   |  Comments

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Perhaps of all the supplements you have ever heard about before, Creatine is the most talked about and one of the most highly used. The reason why? Because it flat-out works, and it helps with weight gain.

It is a tough thing to be able to get to the point to say a weight gain or muscle-building supplement actually works but considering the multitude of research that has been performed on the substance, creatine seems to have come up smelling like roses. The fact is, creating occurs naturally in the body and is part of a process that helps you build muscle. Supplementing with it just helps increase that process. Here's how it works:

First of all, creating is a bi-product of a naturally occurring amino acid. Your body's normal processes actually produce the reaction that forms creatine and it is stored in your muscles. In addition, creatine is also found in red meat and certain types of fish. Now, when you do something explosive, say sprinting or lifting weights, your body needs energy. Enter ATP.

Adenosine Tri-Phosphate, or ATP is what your body uses for fuel for explosive movements. It releases the energy by breaking apart and forming Adenosine Di-Phosphate or ADP. Once the ATP is depleted, your muscles become fatigued and cannot work out any longer... you know, that feeling of fullness, where your muscles start to fail. So... you need an additional source of ATP to keep the energy flowing and keep your muscles working out longer...enter creatine.

Creatine is stored in your body as creatine phosphate... I think you see where I am going here. ADP borrows a creatine phosphate to create ATP and VOILA! Instant energy! This process happens MUCH more quickly than if your body were to rely on the process of carbs and sugars breaking down to eventually create the energy needed, so supplementing with creatine can speed up the process and allow you to workout longer and harder, therefore allowing you to build more muscle, and allowing you to gain more weight.

PHEW! Ok, enough with the science lesson. Here's something to keep in mind. Creatine is NOT a steroid. It will not make you huge just because you started drinking a few creatine drinks per day. It will also not help you gain muscle just by taking it alone... you have to workout! All creatine does is to help you workout longer and harder. It is the workouts themselves that provide the real results. Some people think that creatine is a cure-all for all things exercise related, but this simply isn't the case.

For instance, evidence shows that there may be little if any benefit of taking creating for endurance sports such as long distance running as the processes in the body needed to create energy for these activities are totally different.

The bottom line is, if you are looking for weight gain creatine is a great supplement to take. Just follow the directions and put in the necessary work required by dieting and training correctly and you'll be filling the sleeves of your t-shirt in no time!

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Tips on How to Build Muscle Bulk

A lot of guys want to get big muscles but they don't know how to build muscle bulk.   Well, here is some good news. Building muscle bulk is not difficult and you don't have to spend long hours in the gym doing it. To get some big muscle gains, follow these tips on how to build muscle bulk.

1)   Work your body hard but don't over train. You can build large muscle by completing full body workouts 3 times a week while only spending 1 1/2 to 2 hours in the gym each session at the most. Because of the pressure put on the body from the training, be sure and give yourself a full day's rest, maybe even 2 in order to give the muscle fiber a chance to repair itself.

2) Work to failure during each workout session. This will break your muscle fiber down. Once it repairs itself it gets grows and get stronger for the next workout. Be sure to have a spotter though. Lifting heavy weights to failure can be dangerous if no one is around to assist you.

3) Use proper form, use proper form, use proper form. Yes, I said that three times on purpose and I did so because it is that important. This is the number one tip of all tips on how to build muscle bulk that you want to apply. Two things happen when you don't use proper form. One is that you cheat the targeted muscle out of getting the full work that the exercise you are performing is supposed to make it do. The second and even more important aspect is that improper form runs a high risk of injury and getting injured is never a good thing. (Well, that is unless the back strain, torn muscle, or broken bone will get you the attention of the hot girls in the gym that you've been trying to impress.) Okay, that part was just a joke but seriously, I wouldn't want to see you get hurt and using proper technique is a big step in avoiding that from happening.

The information above offers some of the most important tips on how to build muscle bulk. Follow it and you can play the lead role in the next Incredible Hulk movie. But of course your version could be called Incredible Hunk.

Author: Jo Chris, is working toward a degree in exercise science and have helped many people lead healthier lives. Publisher of http://www.squidoo.com/buildmusclebulk. If you want to build muscle bulk, learn more by clicking here. Plus, you can get 10 free exercise video lessons.

What's Your Favorite Diet, Cooking or Nutrition App?

Apps, or applications, are little programs on your iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch or Android phone. There's apps for just about everything thing you can think of doing, including apps for health and fitness.

How do you make your favorite electronic device work for your health? Do you have a favorite app for tracking calories or finding healthy recipes? Let us know all about it by submitting a review: What's Your Favorite Diet, Cooking or Nutrition App?

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Weight Gain Diets For Skinny Guys

Home  »  Weight Gain Diet By Jeff Masterson   |  Comments

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If you're a naturally skinny guy or a hardgainer, then having the proper weight gain diet is one of the most important aspects of your quest to build lean muscle mass and gain healthy weight. In fact, your diet is even more important than your weight-training program, believe it or not.

Many people make the mistake of thinking they can simply eat a lot of garbage food like hot dogs, cake, or pizza, and that will help them gain weight. Sure... If you just want to get fat.

I'm here to give you some solid weight gain diet rules to follow if you want to build solid muscle weight fast.

The most important factors we'll cover are:

We'll start off with the most obvious rule for weight gain, which you've probably heard before...
This is where some people get confused. They know they're supposed to be eating more calories, and they may even be trying to eat more calories, but still can't seem to gain weight no matter what they do.

The problem here is they don't know what kind of food they should be eating. Don't worry; we'll cover this in more detail later.

I just want you to understand the basic principal that in order to successfully gain weight you need to eat more food on a consistent daily basis than your body needs to fuel itself.

But... There is also a line you can cross where you could actually be eating too many calories to the point where you are gaining more fat than muscle mass. We'll discuss how to avoid this by fine-tuning your caloric intake, and measuring your results. This brings us to the next question...

There are many different calculations you can use to determine the right amount of calories to consume to start gaining mass. Here are some of the calculations I recommend you start with:

If you are super-skinny with hardly any body fat, use this formula:

20 x (Bodyweight in pounds) = Daily Caloric Intake

If you are a skinny guy but you have a little bit of a gut from too much beer or junk food, use this formula:

18 x (Bodyweight in pounds) = Daily Caloric Intake

Pretty simple, right?

Realize that these calculations are only meant to give you a starting point for how many daily calories you should be consuming. The fact is, everyone's body is different. Everyone has a slightly different metabolism and you may require more or less calories to gain weight.

Now that you have your starting daily caloric intake figured out, start off by consuming that amount of calories every day for the next week. Monitor your results by weighing yourself before you start, and 1 week later.

It's important to weigh yourself first thing in the morning on an empty stomach. This will tell you your true weight. You'll also want to weigh yourself in your underwear as opposed to weighing yourself with an extra 5 pounds of clothes on. Don't fool yourself here; you want to get your actual bodyweight.

If, after a week you are gaining weight, then great – you don't need to change a thing. If not, then simply add 400 calories to your daily caloric intake and weigh yourself next week. Continue this pattern until you see results. It's really about trial and error here. But once you find that sweet spot that has you gaining weight and muscle, then you'll know exactly how much food you need to eat.

(Please remember that your weight gain diet should be in addition to a solid weight training program if you want to see muscle gains.)

We already talked briefly about the fact that you shouldn't just stuff your face with junk food unless you want to get fat. So what kind of food should you be eating if you want to bulk up?

There are 3 specific types of categories (macronutrients) that your food will come from: Protein, carbohydrates, and fat. You need each of these to gain weight. In this section, I'll give you specific examples of food you should be eating.

Your body needs protein in order to build and keep muscle mass. For an average person, the Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA) of protein intake is 0.36 grams per pound of bodyweight. So a 130 lb. person would need to consume about 47 grams of protein per day. This is about the equivalent of a 6 oz. chicken breast.

But if you want to gain weight and build muscle you'll need to consume between 1.5g. and 2g. of protein per lb. of bodyweight.

Why so much protein? If your goal is to gain weight, you'll be lifting heavy weights in the gym, which increases your body's demand for amino acids (which is what protein is made up of.) Your body will break down existing muscle tissue if it does not get enough protein from your diet. Needless to say, without enough protein in your diet you can't gain weight.

Here are some good protein sources that you should be eating: PoultryLean Red MeatEggsFish/SeafoodCottage CheeseWhey Protein
Every weight gain diet needs to have plenty of unrefined carbs. Carbohydrates are converted into glucose and glycogen in the body, which supplies your body with energy – which is essential for both heavy weight training, and just to keep your body fueled throughout a normal day.

Here are some good carbohydrate sources you should be eating to gain weight: Brown RiceOatmealPotatoesWhole Grain BreadsFruitBeans
Some people have a misconception that all fat is bad and just makes us... well... fat. This couldn't be further from the truth. Including fat in your weight gain diet is essensial for many reasons we'll talk about right now.

Fat is divided into different categories. The bad ones you should limit your intake of are saturated fats and trans fats.

Today we'll just talk about the good kind of fat: Unsaturated fat... Which is what you need in order to gain weight.

Unsaturated fats are often labeled as "essensial fatty acids." They can benefit you in many ways including an increase in testosterone.

Here are some good fat sources that you should be eating: Flax Seed OilFish OilOlive OilFish (like salmon)NutsAvocados
Most average Americans eat "3 square meals a day." Well guess what? Most Americans have average or below average physiques.

In order to build muscle and gain weight you need to be eating 5 – 6 small meals throughout your day. But don't get the wrong idea... These don't need to be large full course meals. The point is to consistently feed your body with the nutrients it needs to build and maintain muscle weight.

Eating only 3 meals a day allows your body to go into a catabolic state, which means you WON'T be able to grow new muscle weight and your body will break down muscle for energy. Essentially your body is starving for a few hours in between each meal.

Eating 6 meals a day keeps your body in an anabolic state that promotes muscle gains and limits fat storage.

In this video I'll reveal a time-saving tactic that will make your weight gain diet much easier to manage, which will increase your chances of actually sticking to your diet.

Now you've got a solid outline to follow for your weight gain diet. If you follow the rules I've outlined and stay consistent with your diet you WILL start putting on mass.

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Using Muscles Workout Routines to Gain Faster Muscle Mass

If you're avoiding the gym on purpose because you feel intimidated and out of place among those people who have really huge muscles, don't be! Truth is, gym have all the right equipments needed for you to gain those muscles, without really needing to invest in any of them personally for your own home.

Chances are, those who make you feel really uncomfortable were probably just like you once, at some point of their life. Instead you should consider making friends with them to learn some of their muscle building techniques! After all, they'll know a thing or two about building muscles since there are obvious results now.

Many of them will have different views and tips on the easiest way to get bigger. However, bear in mind that you should not just follow everything you hear from them, after all, everyone have a different disposition, your genes and body type should be taken into consideration for the most effective muscle workout routine to gain muscles.

In this article I'm going to share with you some of my tips that I often tell others. Like I've said before, do not just follow blindly. Try to incorporate some of these tips inside your muscle workout routines to have the maximum effect when performing muscle gaining exercises and the body that you've always wanted.

Free weights are an incredible exercise routine that you should not do without in your workout routine. While strength machines have their advantages, they're fixed and they will always work the same muscle group if you perform the same exercise at the same machine. The point here is not to make you choose free weights over machine, instead you should view this as a how to incorporate free weights into your muscles workout routines. The advantage of free weights exercises is that it allows you to reach and strengthen more muscles group than a machine can possibly do.

One of the worst advices you can hear is to exercise the same muscle group everyday, not only it does not help your muscle to grow; you'll end up being a lot more injured and lose a lot more mass tissues than if you just left them alone.

Muscle tearing is part of your muscle gaining process, it happens when you exercise a muscle group. However, can you imagine the consequences if you just tear them down everyday without ever giving them a chance to recover? Mass muscles tissues loss is to be expected, therefore the best way to do so is not to work the same group everyday, instead allow a 2-3 days rest period while you start on your other groups. Allow your body a chance to take over and repair while you sleep and rest.

One simple way to do so is to exercise your whole body instead of just focusing at one specific area. From your chest to your shoulders, biceps to abs, your back to your legs, there are plenty of room to improve and to work on! Also, who says working out is boring and repetitive? You can make a difference and make it fun for yourself! Find different exercise methods for each different area of your body and try them out, rotating them between sets and see how your muscles feel performing different method of exercise.

Lastly, do not compromise your form for speed or simply for completion. Truth is your workout session will be the most productive when you work each rep in a controlled, smooth motion that contracts the muscles group the exercises are meant to. Not only it speeds up your muscle building process, it keeps you away from harm's way as well!

Getting a proven muscles workout routines [http://www.bestwaytogainmuscle.org] can help saves you the trial and error needed in finding the best way to build muscles. Understanding how your own body works and develop a highly customized workout plan can be difficult without knowing some body building basics! Therefore, get the essential muscles building information here [http://www.bestwaytogainmuscle.org]!

Tomatoes - A Superfood

Tomatoes are the kind of superfood I really like. They're easy to find, easy to prepare and cooking or processing them doesn't reduce the health benefit you may get from eating them. Now, I don't consider a blob of ketchup to be a vegetable and I realize you can find tomato sauce buried in some unhealthy places, like under layers of cheese and sausage on a pizza, but it's always nice when a superfood is something simple. Tomatoes are proof that superfoods don't have to be exotic or difficult to find.

Today I wrote about the health benefits of tomatoes, and now I think I'm craving a tomato, basil and mozzarella cheese salad. Read: Health Benefits of Tomatoes

Do you like tomatoes? What's your favorite kind of tomato and how do like to eat them?

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Weight Gain Network Construction Begins

Do you want to know how to gain weight fast? You're in the right place. Are you a skinny guy who wants to learn how to pack on serious muslce mass quickly? Keep reading...

If you have trouble gaining weight and building muscle and you can't seem to gain a pound no matter how much food you eat... how long you train in the gym and lift weights... Or what kind of supplements you take... Then this site is for YOU!

This site is for... Hardgainers who struggle to put on even a pound of muscleEctomorphs who weren't born with muscle-friendly genesSkinny guys who want to gain muscle as fast as possibleI've gathered weight training and dieting knowledge from various sources like books, websites, weight gain programs, etc, and I managed to gain over 63 pounds! I took what I've learned and put my experience into this site so you don't have to go through all the trial and error I did.

This website is a free guide dedicated to anyone who wants to add muscle and size to their skinny frame. Lets face it... It SUCKS being a skinny guy. Well, after you absorb the information on this website you won't be confused anymore. You'll know EXACTLY what you need to do to gain weight fast.

The first thing you should do is grab the FREE report called, "Top 7 Hardgainer Mistakes" on the right-hand side of this page. I've managed to gain 38 pounds of muscle in just 19 weeks by avoiding these MAJOR pitfalls that most guys fall into on their quest to bulk up. This is the perfect way to INSTANTLY jump-start your gains.

I'll see you in the 200 pound club.

In this video Jeff Masterson gives you four simple but POWERFUL techniques for how to gain weight fast. (And it's probably not what you think.) ...In fact this advice flies in the face of many so-called "muscle-building gurus."

If you're a skinny guy who can't seem to gain weight no matter how many hours you spend in the gym, and how much food you eat... And you're TIRED of wasting your money on bogus supplements and you want a straightforward solution to gain weight fast... Then listen close. Because I'm going to show you a weight gain program that will pack on more muscle this month than most guys gain in a year.
Click Here To Read More...
Glutamine Side Effects – Is Glutamine Really A Safe Supplement?
If you’re trying to gain muscle mass and you want to build your arsenal of effective muscle-building supplements to help enhance your progress… ... Read more »

Post-Workout Meal For Building Muscle Mass
If the first step in packing on muscle mass is having a solid muscle building workout plan, the second step is putting together a smart post-workout ... Read more »

How Long Does It Take To Build Muscle?
If you're looking to pack on muscle mass, one thing that you may start to question after a while is how long does it take to build muscle? What's the ... Read more »

How To Gain Weight Fast For Hardgainers
Jeff Masterson takes us inside his home to talk about the 3 main components of how to gain weight and build muscle. This video is especially important if you are a skinny guy or hardgainer trying to figure out how to gain weight. Play Video »

“I Want To Gain Weight!” Here’s What You Need To Know…
I get a lot of emails from people telling me, “I want to gain weight! What the heck do I have to do to gain weight…?” Well it comes ... Read more »

Ways To Gain Weight & Build Muscle For Skinny Guys
If you’re a skinny guy you might be looking for different ways to gain weight. I want to let you know that there’s only one real way to ... Read more »

The Best Weight Gain Supplements
Just posted this new video about weight gain supplements. There’s a lot of great info packed into this video so please use it! In the video I ... Read more »

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3 Secret Building Muscle Tips - How to Get in Shape and Build Muscle Fast

Because of the passive lifestyles we lead, more people are constantly starting a new workout routine in order to get in shape and build muscle. However, not everybody knows exactly what they are doing, and they could be missing out on important information that could really help them get in shape easily and really build muscle fast. In this article, I'm going to share with you some tips on how to really kick-start your exercise routine to help you get in shape. These are tips that many people have never known before, but can be very effective in helping you with working out and building muscle more easily and efficiently.

1. Exercise Your Mind Before Your Body

One of the most effective ways to prepare your body and really build muscle fast is to use a technique known as 'visualization'. All you need to do is to sit down before you actually do the physical exercise, close your eyes, and imagine yourself working out. The more detail, the better. Not only will this lead to better performance when during your exercise and weightlifting routine, but your muscles will also benefit. While you're visualizing, your muscles will also be contracting, and you can actually start working out your muscles and getting in shape before you even lift a finger! If you get nothing from this article, at least remember this highly effective building muscle tip.

2. Do the Weightlifting First

If you're combining an aerobics and strength training program, make sure that you're hitting the weights before you start your jog. Doing it in this order can help you burn 30-40% more fat calories than if you started running before lifting weights. You will be maximizing your workout by ensuring that you burn more fat, and you will really be able to get in shape and build muscle fast.

3. Shorter is Actually Better!

Rather than having one long workout session, splitting it up into two shorter sessions can really help you burn more calories. When you work out, you stimulate the body to increase its metabolism and burn many more calories than usual. When you're done exercising, your body experiences the 'afterburn effect'. Your body will continue to burn calories at an enhanced rate, many hours after you've already stopped exercising. If you split your muscle building workouts into two sessions, for example 30 minutes in the morning and 30 minutes in the evening instead of a 1 hour long workout, you will be able to burn twice as many calories using the "afterburn effect". It's as close to natural, healthy, automatic fat loss as you can get!

If you keep these simple but highly effective secrets in mind while you plan your exercises, you will be able to get in shape and build muscle two or three times as fast as the poor saps who hit the gym every day and see slow or few results. Many more tips on exercising, getting in shape, and building muscle can be found on my website.

Max Cipher is an internet author and the owner of WeightLossProductsReports.com [http://WeightLossProductsReports.com/] If you're serious about weight loss and body building, you will want to make sure you're on the right program. But which program is right for you? Find out the truth behind weight loss and body building programs at WeightLossProductsReports.com [http://WeightLossProductsReports.com/]

Weight Gain Plan For Building Muscle

Home  »  Weight Gain Programs  »  Weight Gain Plan For Building Muscle By Jeff Masterson   |  Comments

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Designing a weight gain plan to build muscle is easy when you've got all the pieces to the puzzle. The problem is, most people don't know what all those pieces are. So today we'll talk about how to put together a solid weight gain plan that will have you gaining about 2 pounds a week or more.

If 2 pounds a week doesn't sound like a lot to you, consider this: Your body can only naturally manufacture 2 pounds of muscle per week without using steroids. So if you're gaining more than 2 pounds a week, chances are the rest of that body weight is fat.

And we're trying put a weight gain plan together that allows us to gain healthy weight right? And that means building lean muscle, not adding fat. The truth is, with any weight gain program you will gain some additional body fat. But the goal is to make sure you're always gaining more muscle than fat.

So lets get into the different parts of your weight gain plan...

It's important to figure this out first so you have a goal to shoot for and you can set milestones. Say weigh 130 pounds right now and your ideal bodyweight would be 170 pounds. Well then you'll want to gain a total of 40 pounds.

That sounds like a lot of weight to gain but you can do it in a matter of months. If you follow your weight gain plan and you start gaining 2 pounds a week like we talked about, you'll be at 170 lbs. in just 5 months.

Imagine 5 months down the road... Being 40 pounds heavier than you are now. What would you look like more muscular... Not feeling so skinny... Filling out your t-shirts... 5 months isn't that far away. So get to work!

The second thing you'll need to include in your weight gain plan is a diet to follow. You probably already figured you'll be eating more calories to gain weight. But how many calories? What should you eat to gain weight? I'm sure you're asking yourself these questions.

Well, to figure out how many calories to eat to gain weight, simply multiply your current bodyweight by 20. This will give you the number of calories you need to eat on a daily basis in order to gain weight and build muscle. So the formula would look like this:

(Bodyweight x 20) = # Daily Calories

Pretty simple right? Now remember this is just a starting point. You may need more calories and you may need less. That is where tracking comes in. But we'll get to that later. Just know that this is your starting point.

Now that you know how many calories you need to eat to gain healthy weight and muscle, you need to know what food to eat to gain weight.

You'll want to eat a certain ratio of carbs protein and fats. This is called a macronutrient ratio, but that's just a technical term. Generally, a good macronutrient ratio to gain weight and muscle is 30% protein, 40% carbs, and 30% fat.

So 30% of your calories would come from protein, 40% from carbohydrates, and 30% from fat. Lets talk about the specific food you'll want to eat. I'll list out some of the best food to gain weight...

Sources of carbohydrates to gain weight: RicePotatoesBananasWhole wheat pastaWhole wheat breadBeansOatmealSources of protein to gain weight: Lean beefChickenTurkeyCottage cheeseEggsWhey proteinFishSources of fat to gain weight: Flax seed oilAvocadosWalnutsPeanutsSalmonSoybeansNow that you have a list of foods to gain weight you can put together a solid weight gain diet.

One other important point about a muscle building diet is you'll want to increase your meal frequency. You'll want to eat 6 small meals a day instead of the regular 3 meals a day.

Eating 3 meals is okay if you're an average person who isn't trying to gain weight. But if you want your weight gain plan to work you need to eat MORE and eat MORE OFTEN.

This will ensure that your body always has enough nutrients to build new muscle tissue and make sure your body isn't breaking down your precious muscle tissue to use for energy.

When you don't eat often enough your body can break down muscle tissue for energy. Imagine a school of piranhas eating away at your muscles every time your stomach growls. This is basically what's happening. Your body is feeding off itself. This is NOT productive to adding new muscle and gaining weight.

Your weight gain plan should include working out 3 days a week. Why 3 days a week? Because that's all you need to put on new muscle mass. Any more and it's overkill for you. You're not a pro bodybuilder on steroids so training more than this is actually counter productive.

This is a mistake most newbies make when going to the gym. They do 2 hour weight lifting marathons 5 days a week and wonder why they're not growing.

Your body grows while you rest... NOT when you're in the gym lifting weights. Lifting weights actually causes micro-tears in your muscle tissue which makes your muscles grow back larger and stronger when you rest. So taking days off to rest between workouts is essential.

keeping your workouts under 60 minutes is another important factor. After heavy intense exercise for 45 - 60 minutes your body releases cortisol which is a catabolic hormone that breaks down muscle tissue.

Your goal in the gym is to get in, lift heavy weights, and get out quick so you can have your post-workout meal and get nutrients in your body to repair your muscles and recover from your workout.

Your weight gain plan should require you to lift heavy weights in the gym. You should be using a weight that makes your muscles fail in 8 - 12 reps. So if you can take two 35 pound dumbbells and crank out 20 reps, the weight is too light and you need to bump it up to 50 lb. dumbbells and see how many reps you can do with that.

The best weight lifting exercises to gain weight are compound exercises. Things like... Bench press
Pull-ups
Military press
Barbell squats
Barbell dead-lifts
DipsAnd don't think you need to perform 10 heavy sets of each. For the most part, 3-4 sets is plenty for each exercise.

Of course you won't perform each exercise on each workout session. If you do full body workouts you'll always be sore for your next workout and that will throw off your weight gain plan because you won't be able to train 3 days a week that way.

Sometimes you could be sore for up to 3-4 days after your workout when you're lifting heavy weights like this. So you'll want to split up your weight training routine into different body parts.

For instance your weight lifting split might look like this: Monday: Chest, triceps, shoulders
Wednesday: Legs
Friday: Arms, back, bicepsWhen you split up your workouts like this you can be sure you aren't training the same muscle group more than once per week. This allows your muscles to repair and grow for your next workout.
The last part of your weight gain plan is tracking your progress. You need to track a few things on a weekly basis to make sure you're getting the results you're looking for. This way you can tweak things if you need to.

The 3 things you need to track are: Body fat: You can track your body fat from week to week using a set of calipers you can pick up for 5 bucks on Amazon.com. All you do is use it to pinch your fat and take down measurements. You can follow a formula like the Jackson/Pollock 3 point method to calculate your body fat percentage. This way you can make sure you're not gaining more fat than muscle.
Body weight: Of course this is what you're probably most concerned about. This means simply stepping on a scale once a week and checking your weight. Weigh yourself first thing in the morning on an empty stomach to get your true weight. Don't fool yourself by weighing yourself at 5:30 at night after you've had a big dinner. Your weight could fluctuate by 5 o 8 pounds during the day and you'll never get an accurate reading that way. Weigh yourself only once a week. Again your weight could fluctuate from day-to-day so you'll want to make sure you don't overanalyze everything by being too obsessive about this.
Pictures: Take before and after pictures so you can really see your results down the road. It may be hard to tell from day to day how effective your weight gain plan is but once you compare those pictures after just a month you'll see a difference.This mini-guide should give you a good jump-start to putting together a good weight gain plan that has you packing on the pounds. Remember not to leave out any of the steps mentioned. You need each piece of the puzzle to gain weight and build muscle as fast as possible.

If you're serious about gaining weight and building muscle and you want to do it in the fastest way possible, you should consider checking out the Weight Gain Blueprint program here: www.WeightGainBlueprint.com.

It reveals the exact methods I used to pack on 38 pounds of muscle in just 19 weeks. You can have a look at it here.

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