The Importance of Rest When Weightlifting

Rest is a crucial component to any well balanced weightlifting program. Some personal trainers will argue that it's more important than the workouts themselves!

To understand the importance of rest when weightlifting you must first understand what's happening when you're pounding out those reps in the gym! When you're working out in the gym, regardless of the muscle group or exercise, you're actually tearing your muscle fibers. The added stress from the weightlifting that is being placed on the muscle is causing the neurons to be ripped apart into what is referred to as micro tears. After any weightlifting workout, it's important to allow the body an adequate amount of time to repair this "damage" that has been done.

Your muscles do not grow from training or weightlifting. Your muscles grow from recovering from the weightlifting that you are doing! Therefore if you were to return to the gym the next day and train the same muscles again, your workout would be relatively ineffective, and could mean you are defeating the purpose of working out in the first place, because you're breaking down these muscles again before they've had a change to repair themselves.

The harder you train your body or muscle group, the more rest that they will need to recover and grow. This is why many professional body builders will not do whole body workouts, but rather focus on specific muscle groups each day.. to allow for proper recovery from each workout.

Some hardcore bodybuilders even take entire weeks off at a time every couple of months just to "shock" their bodies and break any plateaus they may have come to.

Getting restful and regular sleep cannot be overlooked when discussing the importance of rest when weightlifting. This is your body's most "anabolic" state of being. In fact one of the main purposes of sleep is for the body to heal and recover from the day's events and stress. During sleep your body produces large amounts of growth hormones which obviously can help your body burn fat, build muscle, and heal wounds. It goes without saying, that restful sleep also gives you more energy to work with the next day. More energy means more effort in the gym!

Don't think of rest as slacking off from your weightlifting routine, but rather an important part of your overall bodybuilding or body composition goals. If you're looking for the best weightlifting tips or fastest way to lose weight, you should also be looking for the best tips for getting a good night's sleep... because that's when the body is adapting to the lifestyle changes you're putting it through!

Riley Daye is part of the ProGrips Fitness Team comprised of Certified Personal Trainers, Fitness Professionals, Bodybuilding and Weightlifting Champions, health nuts and gym rats! You can visit more of the teams advice on Fitness, Nutrition, Strength Training, and Weight Loss at http://buyprogrips.com/blog/

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The Most Overlooked Secret to Weightlifting Success: Stretching

As time passes, your muscles become stiff and the flexibility of your joints is reduced. It is necessary to stretch your muscles every day before you start your weightlifting exercises. Stretching is an important exercise for people of all ages. The biggest benefits that stretching offer you is, an increases in your range of motion, and protection from injury.

Stretching comes naturally to each and every one of us. You stretch after sitting in a particular position for a long time. Stretching has lots of beneficial properties.

It improves the blood circulation and flexibility of your muscles.People who stretch regularly will have less musculoskeletal complaints.Post workout stretching ensures speedy recovery of muscles and decreases lactic acid accumulation.Stretching also has beneficial action over tendons and joints.Stretching before a workout schedule will tune your body and mind for the strenuous task ahead.It has a relaxing effect, and is a good stress buster.It improves the balance and coordination of various body parts.It is a good prophylactic measure against chronic conditions like lower back pain and joint pain.

Stretching is an exercise that can be done anywhere and at any time. People who do weight lifting need to include pre-and post workout stretching in their schedule. Compared to a normal individual it is easier for a weight lifting trainee to injure himself if he skips his daily stretching routine.
Stretch before you perform any vigorous activity or weight lifting.Stretching should be performed slowly.Each and every major muscle group should be included in your stretching routine.Stretching should be done daily for at least 15 min.Use static hold, PNF techniques like contract-relax, hold-relax to perform stretching.

It has been proved scientifically that, stretching in between weight lifting sets accelerates muscle growth and reduces the chance of sprains and injury. Stretching should be done for a group of muscles immediately after weight training them. Stretching substantially cuts down on the muscle recovery time. New researches have proved that stretching between sets appears to have beneficial effect on muscle contraction. This indirectly increases the power of that particular muscle group. Stretching also helps in lactic acid absorption, hence reducing muscle fatigue.

Below, you can see a sample stretching routine which will help you in understanding the basics of stretching.

Neck- stand straight, rotate your head in a circular motion for 12 times and then repeat it in the opposite direction.Ankles and knees-flex, extend and rotate them in both directions.Hips- rotate your hips in a circular motion in both directions.Upper body-stand straight locking your hands in front of your body, Bend forward so that your chest touches your knees.Shoulders- flex your elbows and touch your shoulders with your fingers. Now rotate your shoulders in a clockwise and anticlockwise direction.Legs- stand straight, placing your feet at shoulder width. Squat down till your thighs are parallel to the floor, hold the position for a few seconds and stand up again.Hamstrings- stand straight, placing your feet at shoulder width. Pushing your body up, stand on your toe base, hold the position for a few seconds and return back.

Stretching is an exercise routine that is inevitably included in all professional weight lifting programs. It is followed by a beginner as well as an advanced bodybuilder.

Until the next article, "Be Your Best"

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The Muscles We Hate To Train

Weight training, whether you hate it or love it, it's one of the best ways to transform the way your body looks. I happen to be on the love side of weight training, but to say I feel thrilled about training every single day would be pure perjury. I have days when I'd rather be lying in bed sleeping, days where I'd rather be lounging, days where I'd rather be biting into the sweet, hardened, click of a chocolate bar followed by the satisfying chew of nougat and caramel (If you don't do cheat days, sorry to tempt you with a candy bar description). However, certain training days get me excited each and every time I do them. For instance, I am crazy about chest and shoulder days! On the other hand, legs and abs day completely takes the wind right out of my sails. How about you? Do you have any workout days that you loathe?

Why is that some that some people dislike certain aspects of their training? Some people don't like doing cardio, others don't like bench-pressing so chest day might suck to them, or calf day is like torture for some. I don't think the answer is as complex as people might think. The reason people don't enjoy certain aspects of their training because everyone has strengths and weakness. Everyone has some aspect of training that they're better at. It's those aspects of training where people see the biggest results, and have tendency to gravitate towards.

Why do I enjoy training my chest and shoulders? Because that's where I see the biggest bang for my buck. My chest and shoulders seem to grow more readily than any muscle group in my body (back is a close second). Bench pressing becomes like a game to me every week, I am anxious to get into the gym just to see if I can top last week's personal best. With leg/abs day it's different. I walk in knowing that leg training is going to hurt, but not in a fun way. I know it's going to hurt because of a previous knee injury. As for stomach training, it really takes a lot of effort for me to do it... so my brain has this grim outlook on stomach training.

Just because you enjoy one muscle group now doesn't mean you'll enjoy it in the future. My training is always in constant flux and now that I think about it, in my teenage years, my biceps were my favorite area to work, the grew quickly and hardened quickly. Now, biceps are one of my least favorite groups for some odd reason.

How can you save these training days? Going forward, how can the muscle group you hate to train become one that you actually enjoy?

The Ol' Training Changeup

Perhaps it's not that you hate the muscle group you're training, it might be the exercises you're doing. If you hate an exercise, change it up! There are heaps of ways to train a given muscle group. Find an exercise you do like and get some results from it. You may then find that you're wanting to train that muscle group every week.

Muscle Group Timing

I have a bad habit of putting off the body parts I don't enjoy training until the end of my training split. Chest is always first because I love it, while legs and abs get the last scraps of my energy at the end of my training split. I tried moving the groups I don't like to the beginning of my split and though it takes some getting used to, it can make a big difference.

Another strategy with timing might be to break up the muscle groups you don't like. Link these training sessions to one with muscle groups you DO like, and you might see a change. It's almost like a parent offering ice cream as a reward for child to eat their broccoli. In this case the muscle group you're not fond of training is like the broccoli and the muscle group you enjoy working, the ice cream.

Time vs Intensity

If you really don't like training a body part or muscle group, don't spend all day on it, because taking too much time will make your workouts drag that much more. Instead of long, droning workouts, shorten your routine. Make the workout quicker, more intense, and more exciting!

Get Your Head Right

Prior to hurting my knee (karate) I truthfully didn't like training my legs, but once I REALLY decided that I was going to make my quads, hamstrings, and calves bigger, things changed. I wouldn't go in the gym everyday no matter what was in front of me and say "I'm gonna give it my all today...no more, no less." I started seeing results, and I was able to have three of the big weight plates on each side of the bar, and squat it with no problem, I started to feel amazing! My tune totally changed. I started looking forward to leg training days. It's incredible what you can do if you just make some mental/attitude adjustments.

My challenge to you is to overcome any stinkin' thinkin' that you have in your mind. Whatever happens next week is next week. This week I want you to take one muscle group that's giving you trouble and work it like you're a freakin' beast. YOU CAN DO IT!

Mike Pow

Mike Pow is a fitness enthusiast who has been in love with weight training exercise and fitness for over 15 years. Learn more more about the best chest workouts, the best way to build muscle, and how have better overall fitness.

If you're struggling to reach your fitness goals, be sure to get your free copy of the 7 Secrets to Your Ideal Body at http://cnbmusclebuilding.com/

Mike Pow

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The Reality of Abs

Numerous men and women strive to get those model type abdomens, but also numerous men and women even after all of those workouts and crunches fail in their attempts. It is depressing to people after all of the failed attempts and seeing no results, they go back to their old habits of doing nothing mindset since nothing seems to work. Let's face it those workouts are not easy and it takes up a lot of time, and when no results are showing we systematically go from 3 to 5 weekly workouts to once a week then twice a month down to not doing anything. It feels much easier and better to pop in your favorite DVD and just relax doesn't it. There are 100's of ways to work out now days and fitness centers are a dime a dozen. Through the years I and my wife have purchased quite a few products directed towards the abdominal muscles and these products ranged from ab machines or supplements. Guess what? None of these products did any good and ended up in the trash, under the bed, or sat in the closet collecting dust.

I mentioned in the 1st paragraph that there are literally hundreds of products on the market today and it takes some searching to get the right one. There are systems developed that will show you how to properly exercise and best of all teaches the proper foods that burn fat and how to train the mind in order to succeed and get those abs you dreamed of. Years of research has been conducted to develop a system that approaches fat loss in a totally different and unique way. I think a system that draws me to the way a system works with the mind in order to change a person's outlook on weight loss is the key. I have spent numerous hours on techniques of the mind and have learned from many of the masters and I now understand that one can use the mind to accomplish anything, and using an approach to weight loss in extraordinary.

What a system should not be: It should not be an overnight quick weight loss program, but instead a systematic approach to weight loss and great reviews over the years. A program should guide you and approach you into lifestyle changes that a person can make and to keep everyone motivated and stay positive. My suggestion is to listen to the programs that keep you dedicated. Remember, dedication is key to this and if you stay with it and keep the mind active and in a positive attitude you will succeed. Let's face it, an abs diet plan is the most sought strict diet plan for all. The coach or trainer should understand that so many people fail in what they have to go through in strict diet plans and exercise. So many diet plans fail, because they do not satisfy people, hence, they end up abandoning it. While a particular plan should not be strict, it should not include unhealthy snacks.

A system should also feature a workout system that introduces the proper way to workout, without the injuries and that annoying backache or pulled muscles. I have seen and this includes me getting injured by improperly exercising. The old no pain no gain is out the door. We need a guide to help us through the proper techniques and cardio exercises that have had great results and intensive study. All of this is important to keep the oxygen flow to the muscles and the blood stream.

Exercises should be easily followed and also focus on the metabolism which is an important part of dieting and exercise. The human metabolism varies from person to person. A program should be looked at in both food intake and the proper nutrients as well as cardio and weights. I will say it again, stay dedicated and follow a program. Those that have tried a program and succeeded, stayed focused and did exactly what was taught.

Make a life style change which incorporates the whole package to get the abs of your dreams.

I hope you will enjoy the information you are about to witness and hope that someday is purchasing this system you will see positive results and have the body you dreamed of.
http://www.absreality.com/

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Gain Weight Without Getting Fat

How many of you know that eating and putting in fat go together for most of us. We know it very well. But there are ways that you can avail of, like putting in lean mass and  not getting fat. Today I came across an article about it. I am posting it for you. Here it goes.

1. Double It Up

      If you aren't growing, the solution is simple - get in more calories. What's the easiest way to bump your calorie intake through the roof? Double up on all your servings. For example, if you're having one chicken breast for dinner, from now on, make that two.

      Toasting a slice of bread for breakfast? Double that as well. This takes all the thinking out of it for you. Whenever possible just aim to eat twice as much as you normally would to double your calorie intake. Since you have to prepare the food anyway, it's not really any extra effort to prepare twice as much.

2. Focus On Food Timing

      Next, don't let yourself be distracted during the day. You have to eat and eat frequently - once every 2-3 hours would be your best bet if you really struggle to get those calories in.

      If you find you forget to eat when it's time, get a timer and set it to go off. Or, buy a watch that has a beeper. This includes breakfast as well. You must get quality nutrients into your body within fifteen minutes of waking up if you want to go grow. Don't ever let your body turn to present body mass as fuel or you'll be digging yourself out of a hole.

3. Find Big Eating Equipment

      Another sneaky trick I have many of the guys in my program do is just purchase bigger plates. Just like many diet books will tell you to cut the size of your plate in half to consume fewer calories, for building muscle you want to do the exact opposite. Once you have that bigger plate, make sure you fill it - FULL. It will take less mental effort to clean one large plateful of food compared to two whole smaller plates of food.

4. Don't Skimp On Post-Workout Nutrition

      Next, you also must be absolutely sure you're eating good food immediately after your workout. If you let yourself suffer at this point, you're not maximizing the true potential of the effects of that workout.

      The body is in a state where it will literally suck up any calories you supply it immediately following a workout, so failing to give it a huge dose of carbs and protein shorts the recovery process.
If there is one time you want to slam back a higher calorie shake, this will be it.

      Also, if you're someone who can only train in the morning, don't think this means you can get away without eating beforehand. It doesn't. Just like everyone else you must fuel the body before the coming workout. If you cannot tolerate a full food meal, then you should instead use a liquid shake to get the calories in.

5. Find Calorie Dense Foods

      For guys who do require the very high calorie intakes to build muscle tissue, you must get your hands on the most calorie dense foods available. If you waste your time eating foods that have too much volume, it's going to be a real struggle to meet your calorie requirements, and this will hinder your ability to build muscle.

      Good, high-calorie dense foods include peanuts, peanut butter, raw oats, lean red meat, bagels, and dried fruit. The more of these you can include in your diet, the faster you'll see results. Avoid eating foods such as whole vegetables (blend them into sauces or drink V8 juice for nutrition), bowls of cooked oatmeal, popcorn, and low calorie soups. These have too much volume and will fill you up quickly.

6. Track, Track, Track

      Now, since you are going to be taking an aggressive approach to your diet and getting those calories up there, you also need to be tracking. You don't want to wind up a fatty and the best way to prevent this is by monitoring how many calories you're taking in daily. If you're pushing the limits too far, you're going to start gaining body fat.
If you see this happening, then all it takes is for you to cut back on your calorie intake by about 200 calories a day or 10% and fat gain should stop.

If you aren't tracking, you never know how many calories you're taking in daily and if you do start gaining fat, you don't know how much to cut. Most guys who start gaining body fat really reduce back on their calorie intake, which is a huge mistake because then they stop building muscle as well.

There has to be a very careful balance. Go too low and you won't gain muscle. Go too high and you'll start getting fat. Once you've found the sweet spot you'll know because you'll be getting bigger and may even appear to be leaner as well.

7. Consider Some Cardio

      Finally, you may also wish to consider adding a bit of cardio to your program. Don't make the mistake most guys make though and think you can do cardio every day and prevent fat gain whatsoever. Too much cardio training will limit muscle building as well, so it has to be done at moderate levels.

      What cardio can help to do is boost your appetite, increase your recovery rate (if kept to lower intensity levels), and get the metabolism running a little faster.
When my diet is perfect I only need a 10 minute warm up on the treadmill and 20 minute cool down after my weights to squeeze out any last drip of glycogen. I walk at around 4.0 mph and a 8.0-12.0 grade which prevents you from getting a double chin and won't put the breaks on your muscle gains. Anything more and you may be consuming too many calories.

Conclusion

Gaining weight is not an excuse to get fat and schedule daily visits to all-you-can buffets. I suggest you begin implementing one principle each week and watch your body stack on more muscle to your frame each week.

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Best Supplements For Muscle Gain - Which Ones Actually Work?

Home  »  Weight Gain Supplements  »  Best Supplements For Muscle Gain - Which Ones Actually Work? By Carl Lewis, CPT   |  Comments

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After you’ve taken the time to get your workout and diet in order, the next step in gaining muscle mass quickly is assessing which are the best supplements for muscle gain.

Before you head into your local supplement shop and pick up whatever seems to promise the best of results, there are a number of things that you need to take into account.

First, think about what your muscle building diet is like. Could you be suffering from any nutritional deficiencies? If so, that’s the first thing to take care of. Nothing will work better than all around good nutrition for building muscle!

Then once that’s in place, next you want to think about what you most struggle with and what supplement might be able to help you get around this. Low energy? There’s a supplement for that.

Poor recovery? Again, you can get the help you need. Suffering from lower testosterone levels? Supplements can help.

As long as you have a clear idea in your mind what it is you want and have realistic expectations, you will see great results from your chosen products.

Let’s give you a quick run-down of the best supplements for muscle gain to get you started.

First on our list of the best supplements for muscle gain is creatine. Creatine is one of the most commonly recognized products out there and for good reason – it works.

Those who are involved in intense weight lifting activities will notice a big difference when they add creatine into the mix. Creatine is going to provide the precursor to the high energy molecule referred to as ATP, which powers you through each and every rep that you perform.

If your natural creatine stores get depleted, your workout intensity is going to come to a halt so this is an instant way to increase how much work you can perform in every session you do.

If recovery is what you’re battling with, glutamine is the top muscle building supplement to turn to. Glutamine is a specific amino acid that’s going to play a key role in the immune response and help you recovery faster after every session in the gym.

One thing that many people overlook as they go about their muscle building program is that it’s not just the workouts that are taxing their body, but daily stressors as well. If you have a stressful job or are in a relationship that’s causing much heartache or tension, that will influence how quickly you’re able to recover from your intense workout sessions.

Even if it’s not physical stress, stress is stress and will drain your recovery reserves.

Glutamine keeps your immune system as strong as possible so you have a maximum reserve for recovery each day.

Moving along, another of the best supplements for muscle gain to help enhance your focus and drive in the gym is nitric oxide. Most people best know this supplement as the one to give you the ‘muscle pump’.

Take this product and when you walk into the gym, you’re going to feel fuller and more powerful than ever. This can serve to provide incredible motivation on its own, so that in fact could bring about better results as well.

Nitric oxide will serve to increase the dilation of blood vessels in the muscle cells, which means you’ll reduce the chances of fatigue during your set and be able to get a higher rate of nutrient delivery.

This means more intense sets in the gym and a faster recovery as well.

Most people who are involved in muscle building already realize that testosterone is one of the key hormones that’s necessary to build significant size. This is the hormone that clearly differentiates males from females and why females don’t pack on nearly the same amount of muscle as a man does.

But, not all men have high testosterone. Various factors can influence your natural testosterone levels such as age, a poor diet, stress, as well as lack of sleep or overtraining, so doing everything possible to keep your levels high is a must.

Tribulus is one of the best muscle building supplements to help out with this. By adding this to your mass building workout, you should notice a faster rate of muscle growth and also be able to train more frequently.

Along with a strong immune system, having sufficient testosterone levels will also enhance recovery ability.

Finally, last but not least, a few other of the best muscle building supplements that you should definitely consider picking up is a high quality whey protein powder as well as some fish oil. While these won’t claim to help you pack on 10 pounds overnight for instance, they are still a must-have for gaining muscle mass as quickly as possible.

If you fail to meet your protein needs, you simply will not grow. It’s as plain as that – protein is what supplies the building blocks for that new muscle tissue. Since most people don’t have time to be in the kitchen cooking up six chicken breasts a day, protein powder makes meeting your daily protein requirement much easier.

Plus, it’s specially formulated to digest very quickly in the body, so is ideal for taking immediately after a workout.

Fish oil on the other hand will offer a wealth of benefits, mostly aimed at improving your overall health, but it’s also great for increasing your insulin sensitivity.

This will play a key role in making sure the extra calories you eat are shuttled towards the muscle cells rather than stored in the body fat cells for long term energy. It’s definitely a must if you want to stay lean while you build muscle mass.

So there you have the best supplements for muscle gain that you need to know about. By choosing these rather than the overly hyped up products that are likely to just waste your money, you can feel good knowing you made an informed decision.

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5 Bodyweight Training Exercises You Must Do

When designing a strength workout, you should aim for exercises that cause a great metabolic impact. This is because These exercises cause an increase in testosterone and growth hormone levels, and as a consequence they help you to build muscle and burn fat.

Among most effective exercises for strength and conditioning we can find bodyweight exercises. These are exercises performed exclusively with your own body weight, so they need little or none equipment at all. Bodyweight exercises have been the core training of olympic gymnastic athletes, being the base of their strength and power.

Looking at their physiques, you quickly realise how effective these exercises can be when properly added to a regular training program.

5 Best bodyweight exercises:

Squat: One of the most basic human movements. It strengthens your legs and core muscles. You can performed with both legs using a fast pace for conditioning or just with one leg for strength.

Splits: Probably one of the best exercises for conditioning and to strengthen your quadriceps, splits will help you to develop explosive power, muscle endurance and cardio conditioning, specially when performed like alternating split jumps.

Push Up: great for your core, chest, shoulders and arms, push ups are unrivaled to develop muscle endurance and core strength. If regular push ups are easy to you, you can always perform clapping push ups, handstand push ups, or one arm push ups to make it more difficult.

Dips: the best exercise for your chest and triceps, dips mimic real movement of getting on the top of an object. Perform it with a low pace to develop rock solid muscles.

Pull Up: one of the most, if not the most challenging bodyweight exercises, pull ups alone are almost sufficient to develop your upper body strength. They are great for your back, shoulders and biceps, and you can even involve your abdominal muscles if performed like L pull up.

How to add this exercises to your workout

You can add this exercises to your regular strength training or you can design specific workouts for them. Here it is a simple example on how to do that:

Bodyweight Workout:

3 Rounds of:

50 Squats

20 Push Ups

10 Pull Ups

5 Dips

Perform with little or no rest between sets and fast pace for conditioning, or equivalently with longer rest periods and lower pace for strength. Perform the first round as a warm-up set, and go harder for the rest of the rounds.

David is a fitness and nutrition researcher and passionate martial arts practitioner.

Visit my website about MMA Training. Where you will find the latest tips to burn fat and build muscle based on scientifically proven training methods.

Visit also some MMA workouts to build muscle and burn fat

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