Build Muscle Mass - The Easiest Scientifically Proven Way - Static Contraction Training

Did you know that most of what you learn about building muscle mass is based on tradition, hearsay and pseudo-science? There is very little evidence for many theories of what makes muscles grow larger than their natural size.

However two scientists Peter Sisco and John R. Little came up with their own theory of muscle building (nothing new there) but instead of training a few people who could afford it, and building a portfolio of exceptional clients, they did something unthinkable... they actually did scientific tests of their theory called Static Contraction Training.

Before I tell you about the scientific tests they did let me tell you about the two hypothesis they are testing.

Hypothesis #1
They believe that what causes maximum muscle growth is not how much work you do. It's now how much you lift. And it's not how many reps you do. Although these things do lead to muscle gain.

What causes maximum muscle gain is to have the muscle lift a weight so heavy that the muscle fails. If the muscle fails, it responds by getting bigger and stronger so the same load will not cause failure next time.

And if this is the case, you might think "then I'll just do enough reps to cause my muscle to fail." And you'd be right except for one word "reps." They believe that you only need to do one "rep" with a large enough weight to cause your muscle to fail within 10 seconds. If you do this, you will be stronger by the next workout but only if you follow the next principle.

Hypothesis #2:
They also believe based on their research that for muscles to grow the entire body needs enough rest to deal with the stresses you've placed on it. If the body has not recovered from these stresses there will not be any gain by the next workout until the person has received enough rest.

When they increased the rest period between workouts for body builders that had reached plateau's lasting several years they were able to achieve new gains in muscle growth by using just this one idea.

Research Study
As I said earlier Peter Sisco and John Little did more than just give an interesting theory of muscle building they actually tested it. They got together a group of experienced body builders who were at or near the peak of fitness. These were people for whom it would normally be very difficult to make any more gains. They each did Static Contraction Training for 10 weeks straight and their strength on 17 different exercises increased by 51.3 percent. Amazing gains.

To find out more just Google "static contraction training" or look up "static contraction training" in Amazon to get their book on the topic. You won't be disappointed.


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Five Steps to Building Muscle After 50

Do you think you're too old to start building muscle after 50? Many people, after they reach the age of 50 think that it's too late, or that their bodies couldn't take the stress of exercise. That's a lot of hooey. Fifty year old people build muscle just like those of any age, younger or older. Muscle growth requires only two things: anabolic stimulus through exercising at the gym or at home, and eating nutritious foods.

Of course, as you age, your body does undergo changes that might make it more difficult to build muscle, reduction of testosterone and growth hormones are a good example. Injury is more easily incurred as you age as well. But despite these challenging differences which can be overcome, you can easily build muscle after 50, prevent bone loss, and minimize the chances of cardiovascular problems by following the five steps discussed below.

Muscle Building Step 1

Maximize the effectiveness of your workout times by utilizing high-intensity training (HIT) techniques. HIT is brief but intense, and allows adequate time for the muscles to recover. If you are trying to build muscle after 50, and are one who has not trained for years, start slowly. Perform only one or two sets during each workout when you first start out. Slowly and progressively increase the intensity as you become stronger to challenge your body and build muscle.

Muscle Building Step 2

Before you begin a workout routine, perform warm up exercises to increase blood flow to the muscles. Work your way up to the increased weights slowly, to prevent injuries. These slow warm up exercises are often referred to an occlusion warm ups because they significantly increase the flow of blood to the muscles, ensuring that the muscles get the nutrients and oxygen that they need in order to repair and grow.

Muscle Building Step 3

When building muscles after 50, limit your weight-training workouts to no more than one hour per session. This is the point where cortisol, the stress hormone, peaks out. Cortisol, which occurs naturally, is responsible for muscle breakdown. To continue exercising longer than an hour will defeat the purpose of your exercising. You wish to build muscle, not break it down. If you're over 50, you're already losing muscle mass, so don't overdo your exercise to make the problem worse.

Muscle Building Step 4

Schedule your eating to correspond with the times that you perform your workouts. As you get older, your metabolism slows and more of what you eat gets stored as fat. If you time your eating to correspond more closely with your exercising, what you eat will more quickly get utilized by your body for repairing the muscle tissue damaged during exercise. Training experts recommend about 50 grams of whey protein, 100 grams of carbohydrates, and about 30 grams of healthy fats. The healthy fats are good for the heart and can help your body to lower cholesterol.

Muscle Building Step 5

If you're working at building muscle after 50, use supplements wisely, by adding the more important ones to your diet. One quite effective natural supplement is creatine monohydrate. If you take about 5 grams a day, you can maximize muscle performance and will recover from your workouts quickly. Consider also Secretagogue, a growth hormone. Secretagogue is a blend of essential amino acids that cause a growth hormone to be released by your pituitary gland. This can be of great benefit to older bodybuilders whose natural growth hormone production is declining. Some of the most popular growth hormones are Powerful, from USP Labs, NuSoma, from Olympian Labs, and the previously mentioned Secretagogue, from MHP.


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Build Muscle Mass And Raw Power Like A Gorilla

Ever see a gorilla? They're huge. A gorilla's upper-body strength is so great, he could literally tear your head off with his bare hands.

But gorillas don't go to the gym and work out, right? So you're probably asking yourself what this has to do with building muscle mass. Maybe you think just because they are the strongest primate, that doesn't mean you can learn anything from them.

Here's the thing...

If you want to look strong as well as be strong, it pays to work out like a gorilla. Because they get huge just by going about their daily business. They must be doing something right.

They are doing something right, and I'll tell you what it is.

Gorillas spend all day either walking around on their hands and feet, or climbing. In fact, they split their time equally between the ground and the trees. And this is the secret to their muscle building success.

When they are gorilla-walking on the ground, they support a lot of their weight with the arms. This is a pushing movement similar to push-ups and dips. Doing this all day long really builds the muscle mass in the chest, shoulders, and the back of the arms.

Now, you've never seen a gorilla doing a bench press. All they do is push their weight around as they walk through the jungle. But it works; they build muscle mass that would put a strongman to shame.

The secret is high repetitions, just like if you were to do easy sets of push-ups all throughout the day. No need to do a huge set until you are so fatigued you can't more your arms. If you do smaller sets all day long, you won't get overly tired, but your muscles will grow.

But wait, they do more than just walk around. Gorillas climb up into the canopy too. And this climbing is the other secret that explains why their muscles are large and powerful.

Climbing works the back and the biceps. But just because you don't live in the jungle doesn't mean you can't use this style of exercise to build your own lats and biceps until they're much larger and more powerful than they are now.

Pull-ups simulate the climbing motion, and since there are so many different variations you can do, you'll hit your back and biceps from different angles so they never develop any weak spots.

And there you have it. It's this combination of pushing and pulling exercises for the upper body that will make you more powerful and capable that anyone who wastes his time with biceps curls or other non-functional exercises. Gorillas make it work, and so can you.

All you need is a minute to drop and do a set of push-ups, and a place to bang out a quick set of pull-ups. No need to go all crazy and work until your arms fall off. If you do quick, easy sets all throughout the day, you'll work up to the point where you have unbelievable work capacity and serious, bone-crunching power, just like our jungle-dwelling cousins.


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Lose Fat Gain Muscle - Know The Secret Approach To Achieve It

In the present day, there are tons of lose fat gain muscle programs that boast of being the best. By reading trade magazines or by exploring the net, you may find amazing before and after pics of girls and boys after using a particular fat lost program. It isn't a surprise anymore because we are living on high-tech world - age of computers.. But in my point, the effectiveness of these programs relies on how you deal on it. For you to achieve your ultimate goal, you have to take these programs as part of your daily lifestyle. This article is not a 7 or 8-week program. Instead, it's a list of things you need to have in order to achieve great results. And when you hit the correct button, this simple guide can help you reach your main goal which is to burn fats and gain muscles together. The more hard work you give, the more results you will observe.

Build Muscles, Not fats

You may ask if fastest way to build muscle really exists nowadays. Guest what? Many experts say yes. In fact, the quickest way to boost your muscles is to get stronger. The stronger you are, the stronger you'll look. You can attain such thing by learning the physical exercise technique. Doing some squats, overhead press and barbell exercises is good for the body since it builds up muscles and reduces fats.

Nutrition required

Next to exercise is diet. As far as science is concern, the food we eat has a huge effect to our body. So, in order to build muscle and get stronger, your body has to absorb the proper nutrition. Protein-rich foods are very important for the body as this nutrient is consist of amino acids to keep the whole system functioning well. In line with these foods, you should also consume veggies and fruits that are unquestionably abundant in health supplements. But of course, make sure you consume 12 glasses of water every day. Almost 75 % of our body is made up of water. It is required to maintain your endurance primarily after doing the intensive workouts.

Always choose goods that are natural in state. When possible avoid foods that may contain artificial substances.. Artificial preservatives are unhealthy for the body and may possibly result in cholesterol imbalance and other ailments. Stop drinking soda and reduce the consumption of junk foods. All these are just a few things you have to learn and apply to yourself. But avoid underestimating as these things can give you long- term results.

Just in case you have no idea how to start, feel free to search for an effective lose fat gain muscle program by typing the phrase by itself on your favorite search engine like Google. However, you need to keep in mind not all fat lost programs on the Internet are set up equally. Sure you'll find genuine sites for genuine products however there are programs regarded as a total waste.


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Cardio Burning Fat - What is the Best Way to Exercise?

It is universally accepted that cardio workouts do burn fat. The question is what is the best cardio burning fat exercise? It is true that fat burns during high intensity and low intensity exercise, but which one is best?

Carbohydrates
When there is a excess of carbohydrates in the blood, the body will store them as glycogen in the liver and muscles. There is only limited storage capacity in these organs so any surplus of carbohydrates is then converted to fat and stored in the 25 billion or more fat cells in the body.

Fat
When one eats fat, it either is stored in the fat cells or is converted into cholesterol. The body makes enough cholesterol for its own daily needs, so any extra cholesterol is not a good thing as it might encourage heart disease.

Protein
Protein digestion causes the body to work real hard to derive the food benefits. Eating complex carbohydrates and protein - for example stone-crushed, whole-wheat bread and soymilk - will keep the body busy in the digestion process for a long time. And this has the effects of keeping one not hungry for a considerable bit of time and provides a lot of very healthy nutrients.

Glycogen
Glycogen provides energy reserves for short, high-intensity bursts of energy. When glycogen is burned during high intensity workouts it is assumed that little fat is burned. In actuality the body burns many calories during high intensity workouts. Calories for the most part, come from glycogen, but at the same time, calories do come from stored fat also.

After Burn
High intensity workouts also speed up metabolism and this heightened metabolism burns body fat even when the body is at rest. Weightlifters call this 'after burn'. Low intensity workouts don't have this effect. Note that: some authors even claim that the body will burn more fat after high intensity workouts than it will during low intensity workouts.

Interval Training
Interval training is a good form of cardio workout. These are very intense exercises for relatively short periods. For example, walk for 5 minutes, jog for 5 minutes followed by brisk walking, and then sprint (interval). This form of cardio workout gives the best of both low intensity and high intensity(interval) workouts.

Fat Burning Exercise Program
If you want to increase your heart rate this is the best way to do it. Exercises that are able to maintain and increase heart rates for a period of at least 20 minutes are considered aerobic or cardiovascular exercises. These are good fat burners.

Examples of these are:

Walking. Walking is the simplest of the aerobic exercises. It is a perfect prerequisite to fat burning and although minimal it is a good starting point for more energetic workouts.

Running or jogging is perhaps the best aerobics/cardio workout for fat burning.

Cycling like running is a good fat burning exercise.

Treadmills, stationary bikes, elliptical machines and the like are on a par with running and cycling.

However exercise is only beneficial if it is consistent: 3-4 times a week minimum is most effective for increasing heart rate and for burning fat.

Note: Always check with your doctor first before starting a new exercise program.

Cardio Fat Burning Exercise
While running and cycling provide good fat burning results there are other exercises that provide superior fat burning results.

Skipping rope is effective for fat burning as it provides a complete workout for all over body fat.

Swimming is another cardio exercise that provides very effective results. Swimming entails the use of strong movements which provides a high intensity workout. Fat will melt away and weight will follow. It also provides the benefits of no impact on the joints.

Using dumbbells or weight lifting equipment. This form of exercise is high intensity which will burn fat rapidly. However it must be done on a consistent basis.

Lifestyle
Cardio workouts are the cornerstone to losing weight and burning fat, yet running or walking is often not enough because we might continue eating too much of the wrong foods. While diets are designed to lower calorie intake we still need to deplete our stores of fat. This is why we need cardio exercises. Each workout session may take as much as 600 calories from fat cells.

To achieve the optimal impact on burning fat, we need to eat the right foods. If one eats fatty, sugary foods the results of the workouts will be minimized and one may even gain weight. Switching to a diet of fresh fruits, vegetables, complex carbohydrates, and lean, small pieces of meat or fish will produce the maximum benefit for fat burning. Also as one gets in better shape, the minerals and other nutrients in fresh produce will help replenish the supply lost in exercising.


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The Best Cardio Workouts Delivered by the Cardio Cruiser

What are the best cardio workouts to take part in? This can be a somewhat difficult question to answer because different people will all require different workout strategies. Newbies would find the best workout is one that employs a slow and steady pace with those with a bit more experience will want something that is far greater in intensity level.

Yet, regardless of how much intensity you wish to put into your exercise session, you will want to use the best exercise equipment to meet your needs. In particular, those interested in performing the best cardio workouts should look closer at the Body by Jake Cardio Cruiser. This truly is one of the very best cardio devices on the market and one that will assuredly deliver on much desired fat burning and muscle building results.

At one time, the morning exercise television show BODY BY JAKE was among the more popular programs on fitness. And why would it not be? Jake really knew (and knows) his stuff. And speaking of "stuff" by Jake, Body by Jake has expanded into the world of exercise equipment offering all manner of home workout equipment that is known for delivering solid and reliable results. You do not need to head out to the gym to get in shape when you have access to reliable and effective workout systems which can effectively be set up in the home.

One such device would be The Body by Jake Cardio Cruiser which certainly helps deliver a total body workout designed to give you the perfect pathway to getting into amazing shape in your own home and with relative ease.

Seriously, The Body by Jake Cardio Cruiser is just as good as the many different cardio and fitness devices found in a commercial gym. Working out on it regularly will lead to burning fat and developing lean and ripped muscles.

The concept of the cardio cruiser is relatively simple: you sit in a chair and perform movements that engage all the muscles of the body. You will increase your heart rate doing so as this chair is designed for cardio work and you will also have resistance placed on the muscles with the intention of toning and building the muscles.

What truly does make this a device designed to deliver on expectations of the best cardio workouts is that it combines so many other popular exercise devices into one package. In particular, the Cardio Cruise is a mix of a recumbent bike, a stair master, and an elliptical trainer. As such, the ability to get a complete and total body workout becomes much easier and, best of all, it can be attained in a short period of time depending upon your actual approach to your workout sessions.

Some may wonder what it is specifically about this device that allows you to burn fat in such an efficient manner. Basically, this is an effective piece of workout equipment known for hitting all the proverbial bases for maximizing fat burning efficiency. What are these needed components for the best cardio workouts?

They include:

• The ability to raise your heart rate so that you are efficiently burning fat calories and carbohydrates

• Your metabolism will be increased for an extended period of time after you have stopped the cardio workout

• The various muscles in your body will be engaged via the workout leading to the muscles becoming effectively and clearly toned and defined

• Overall cardiovascular conditioning will be improved

• The workout can deliver results regardless of the intensity level performed and the workout should also be able to incorporate enough variances that it never becomes stale. Stale workouts don't deliver results!

The effectiveness of the Cardio Cruiser is such that it can hit all of these components associated with the best cardio workouts. Better yet, it can do so in a manner than even those new to cardio workouts can take advantage of what the cruiser has to offer by working out at their own pace.

One reason why the Cardio Cruiser is so effective is that it maintains the ability to engage a full body range of motion with the performance of the exercises. In order to speed up your metabolism, you need to build lean muscle mass. The Cardio Cruiser opens the doors for making this possible which is why it is such an excellent and sought after device to work with.

Additionally, this is a workout device designed to accommodate all manner of different bodyweights and frames. This is achieved through the seven seat adjustment positions intended to accommodate those of different heights and weights.

Of course, intensity levels can be matched to one's current fitness and conditioning. There are five different resistance settings integrated into the control panel of the Cardio Cruiser. This means no matter what your current conditioning is, you can adjust the intensity level of the device to match it. The best cardio workouts are frequently those that properly hit your intensity levels in order to challenge you. The Cardio Cruiser does offer the ability to modify and tweak your workout intensity for your own individual needs and conditioning. Consider that a huge benefit.

What if you are not completely familiar with the type of workout you want to perform? Both DVD and print manuals are included with your purchase. This is done to ensure you have roadmaps in which to perform the requisite exercises for their maximum efficiency. And, of course, these roadmaps help you workout within your current level of fitness. You won't be "worked to the bone" in any way.

Ultimately, in order to engage in the best cardio workouts, you will definitely need to have the right attitude, intensity, and equipment. The first two components are up to you and the third one is available via Body by Jake and it comes in the form of the Cardio Cruiser. Yes, there are other excellent workout devices on the market - there's no denying that fact. But, can they combine all the many facets that the Cardio Cruiser is able to combine? Not really!

Seriously, if you are interested in engaging in the best of the best cardio workouts for your needs, you will want to look towards using the Cardio Cruiser. It remains one of the very best items on the market and certainly one that can help you get in amazing shape in a relatively short period of time.

And the end result could be a much healthier and fitter body which can aid in improving your physical performance in all areas of life.


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Building Muscle Tips - What Is the Best Cardio Exercise For Your Workout?

When you are putting together a workout program that has the purpose of building muscle you will also need to include some sort of cardio exercise within that program. Of course a lot of people think of endless hours of jogging on a track as a way of cardio exercise but it doesn't have to be that way. A lot of people think that you have to work extremely hard on a stairmaster, elliptical or treadmill in order to get the right cardio exercise. But that doesn't have to be the case - it's not so much working hard but working smart. Smart cardio can also be called fasted steady state cardio.

Fasted steady state cardio is a low intensity type of cardio and it will consist of briskly walking and usually done on an empty stomach. They can last from 30 minutes to an hour and usually done in the morning. This can be done on a treadmill, the track or somewhere else outside.

The reason why it is best to do this in the morning is because this is when our body's insulin levels are lower and this is what tries to protect the fat in our bodies and if you do this in the morning it is far easier to combat the fat without the interference of the insulin.

Even though there is a lot of talk about high intensity vs low intensity and the burning of calories, remember that this is just part of your overall training program and you should worry more about high intensity when you are lifting weights. Besides you can lose more fat at the lower intensity levels than you would with higher intensity which may burn off more calories, it's the fat that you want to be dealing with when it comes to the cardio exercise.

Another thing is that the low intensity is far gentler on your joints. When you do high intensity such as jogging your joints are being abused immensely by the force of the jogging and hitting the ground that you are running on. If you are also starting your workout because you are overweight, the low intensity is far better because if you do high intensity you are also adding the extra weight to the joints and this will add additional strain on your joints and could cause a lot of damage. The low intensity is not only good for the joints but the heart will benefit as well.

Like anything new, make sure that you check with your doctor to make sure that you are healthy enough to take on both your weight lifting and your cardio exercises. You may have to start with the low intensity cardio and then move onto the weights after you are in a little better shape.


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Best Exercises For Weight Loss - Cardio Workouts For Weight Loss

There are so many exercises that are being performed to lose weight, and it cannot be done without eating the necessary foods that will help you achieve your main goals. That aside, I want to discuss the best exercises for weight loss which are cardio workouts, which has been of great help to many people.

There are different forms of cardio workouts, and they will be detailed out shortly, but you should understand that they cannot be achieved without doing them regularly. These exercises help in the building of strength and stamina, and most importantly, in the loss of weight. They are the best form of exercise that has ever been performed.

The Best Cardio Workouts

These best workouts help in the burning of calories and also in the strengthening of the bones. It also helps in the increasing of the chemical changes that take place in the body system. It has so many advantages, and one of them is it increases the heart beat rate, and also the strengthening of the muscles in the circulatory system. Examples of these workouts are listed below for your benefit, and I urge you to read carefully so that you will not miss anything.

Cycling

This can be done anywhere and at any time. In the gym, a stationary bike can be used, and it helps in the building of the muscles in the leg, and also more fat can be burnt easily in the form of sweat. If you do not like going to the gym, you can ride your bike around, and note that it helps in the loss of weight. You can perform this exercise for as long as possible, depending on your own strength and ability.

Jogging

This is one of the simplest forms of cardio exercise. It can be performed indoors and outdoors. It helps in the burning of fat, improving of stamina and strength. If you cannot jog fast, try doing it slowly to free the muscles around the knee, then the rest is child's play.

Swimming

This exercise has to do with the flexing of muscles in every part of the body, and it also involves the rapid beating of the heart. It is advised that you can swim for about 30-40 minutes daily to obtain good full body workout, and lose more belly fat.

Kickboxing

This is not really practiced by everyone, but it is also a very good form of exercise. It involves the breaking of sweat and also the loss of calories.

There are other simple exercises such as running, walking, and climbing of stairs. Others can be performed in the gym, and they can be very helpful if you obey instructions. All these are best exercise for weight loss, and the more you practice them, the better your chances of fulfilling them.


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Want Fast Muscle Growth? - 3 Simple Tips For Huge Muscle Gains

With all the information out there about how to gain muscle is no wonder why so many people get confused and frustrated, there is simply too much information overload around. But there are a couple of basic things you can start applying right now and see more muscle gains than you ever thought possible. So, let's get to it!

Grow By Eating! - Contrary to popular belief, the way to big muscle growth is not weight lifting, it's eating! You have to provide your body with the fuel it needs to grow, and eating a lot of protein (around two grams per bodyweight pound) and complex carbohydrates is fundamental because you will be giving your body a calorie and energy surplus which is imperative to see any muscle growth. So remember to eat well and soon you'll see those muscle gains you wanted.

You Must Get Stronger - If you ever hear someone say that gaining strength isn't important in muscle growth, run the other way! Start to get stronger with exercises that target big muscle groups like, bench pressing, squatting and deadlifts. When you start to get stronger your muscles will get bigger too, so focus on building strength and watch out as you start packing those pounds of solid muscle fast.

Supplementing - I recommend you get whole nutritious foods whenever possible, but I know in this busy day and age eating 5-6 proper meals can be difficult. If you find you don't have the time, go ahead and substitute 1-2 (no more than that!) meals with a quality whey protein or meal replacement supplement. But if you can, always try to go for "real" foods and only use the supplements if you're short on time.

Following these 3 principles you can start packing pounds of solid muscle mass in no time flat. Just remember to work hard and believe in yourself, be accountable for your success and it will eventually come. So get out there and start making these strategies work for you!

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Get Big Biceps - 5 Simple Ways to Get Big Biceps

There is no other muscle in the entire body that causes men worldwide to spend hours in the gym trying to get bigger. And who can blame them? There is nothing better than a nice set of bulging biceps. However if "The Guns" are one of mans prized possessions and also one that we spend so much time on, then how come most men have very little to show for it?

The reason is obvious. Most of the training methods and tips out there are actually making it harder for you to get big biceps. Let's take a look at some of the common misconceptions with getting big biceps and how you can avoid them so that you get the kind of "guns" you are after.

1. Sometimes less is more. A lot of people believe that the more reps and sets you perform then the bigger the muscle will get. However this is not always true. Your goal for each workout is to simply improve on your last workout. By overtraining a muscle and not letting it heal properly you are actually weakening it.

2. Focusing on pumping up your muscles whilst in the gym instead of focusing on what they look like outside the gym. If you train your biceps intensely in the gym and focus on nothing else, then they will achieve a bit of a "pump" effect. However what most people don't realize is that this pump will quickly deflate and you will not have actually achieved any muscle growth. This is a sure fire way to NOT get big biceps.

3. Focus on increasing overall strength. If you focus primarily on your big muscle groups such as your chest, back, shoulders etc with exercises such as pull ups, chin ups etc, and then your biceps will also grow also. Further by building the strength in your shoulders, chest etc you will be able to do more reps, have better technique and train harder- thus resulting in dramatic overall muscle growth. Especially in your biceps.

4. Build big biceps with strong foundations. Barbell curls and dumbbell curls. According to the experts these 2 basic exercises have created more big "guns" than any other exercise and they are a good platform to build a programme around. Increase your reps and the weights from week to week and you will notice your strength and therefore your biceps improve.

5. Isolate and strain the muscle. A lot of weight lifters use very bad technique and actually use every part of their body to lift the weights instead of only the muscle that they are trying to improve. Make sure that you are only using the muscle you are training to train to perform each exercise.

Okay, so now you know how to get big biceps in 5 simple steps. Remember this advice and you will get the big biceps that you want and deserve.


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Lean Muscle Exercise - 3 Exercises to Get That Tight, Ripped Chest

A big, firm chest has typically been seen as a sign of power and responsibility in men. It increases prominence and turns heads in a room. You might be skinny and have flat pectorals but if you take some time to do these exercises, you will find that they will grow. All you need are a couple of dumbbells and a barbell.

1. Push up

The humble push is a lean muscle exercise you may not have suspected will help you build lean muscle, but it's a fantastic way to condition a weak chest that hasn't had much exercise done to it in the past. You may think that push up is mainly focused on your arms. It is, but you can't lift your own bodyweight if you have a weak core. Push ups will strengthen your core (chest) and your arms.

There are a couple ways to do it. Men have to do it the traditional way: back perfectly straight, toes pointing towards the ground and arms bending to 90 degrees when you go down. Women should do everything the same, except they should cross their legs at their knees instead.

2. Dumbbell Flys

This is a simple exercise that can help men "wake up" muscle fibers in their chest, giving the sense of a more defined pectoral region without having your pectorals increasing much in size at all. The key is in the fly when you go backwards. Lie down on the floor, with a dumbbell in each hand. Make sure you can lift them comfortably, but make sure they're not too light.

Simply lift your arms, and make the dumbbells meet in the middle, above your chest. Lower it back towards to ground slowly. To expose more of your pectoral muscle under your arms, do this exercise while lying down a bench instead. It's vital that the weights are not too heavy, otherwise you will find you might strain your pectoral muscles.

3. Barbell lifts

Again, this exercise is commonly attributed to strengthening your arms, but if done properly, will give your body balance by strengthening your core. Barbell lifts are often done incorrectly by men who bend forwards while doing this lean muscle exercise. This may be cause they're just lazy and don't want to stand straight, or it could be because of a weak core (chest) that forces them to bend forward to be able to lift the weight.

Start off doing this exercise with more manageable weights if you find you bend forward while doing it. Hold the barbell at shoulder width in front of you and keep your back straight. Stick your chest out and, without heaving, lift the dumbbell. Stabilize your upper arms, since this is the part that you're mainly focusing on. Your pectoral muscles will strengthen as a result to better balance out your posture when you're doing this exercise.

By doing the push up, barbell lift and dumbbell fly you can get lean muscle in your chest. These lean muscle exercises will strengthen and wake up a dormant chest. You'll be filling out bigger shirts soon and it's a good way to start off learning how to lift weights as well.


Cheng is the owner of http://howtogetleanmuscle.blogspot.com. It's geared towards helping regular men with no experience in lifting weights learn how to get lean muscle.

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Muscle Building Tips - Two Simple Exercises - Dips & Chins - Quick Results

Here are a few muscle building tips that will help you achieve fast results to your upper body mass. The key exercises to achieve these quick results is dips and chins. Don't disregard the value of these two exercises, as basic as they may seem, give them a go, you won't regret it. Sometimes you will get faster results by just focusing on a couple of basic exercises rather than a halve dozen mediocre exercises for the same body parts.

DIPS & CHINS

Dips and Chins are a classic example of two simple exercises that can give you exceptional results in a relatively short period (3 months). The quick results come about because of your focused efforts and attention on exercise form and building up the number of reps and sets you do in a training session.

Do these two exercises as your main upper body work-out for at least 3 months. It will take you this long, if you are a beginner to build up to 5 sets of 20 reps on the dips and 5 sets of 12 reps on the chin ups (wide grip).

For those more experienced try and achieve these same reps and sets with a 15-20 kilo weight strapped around your waist. You will end up doing hundreds even thousands of these dips and chins over a 3month period. 70% of your total will be dips and about 30% chin-ups. So for every hundred dips, thirty of those will be chin ups.

8 Muscle Building Tips on performing Dips & Chins when starting out:

1. Position yourself between the parallel bars, just suspend your weight on the bars at the bottom of the movement for a few seconds to give the muscles in the chest area a feel for your own body weight.

2. Feel the stretch and the pull under the arm pit area as well, if this is the first time for you, you will really feel it here. You will definitely feel sore in these areas the next day if you do at least 50 reps on your first day.

3. OK now try and do 3-5 reps straight up and down with a slight lean forward, eyes looking straight ahead, legs straight or slightly bent at the knees and as you push yourself up between the bars lock your elbows at the top of the movement using very strict form feel the tricep.

4. Again slowly allowing your elbows to bend, come down slowly as far as you can, all your weight is being supported by your arms at this point until you reach the bottom of the movement.

5. Your body weight is now supported by your arms and shoulders, feel the stretch in the shoulders and chest area, then push back up from this point engaging the chest muscles, arms and shoulders once more until the elbows are once again locked at the top of the movement. Repeat...

6. You may only do 2 or 3 at first. No problem, you start building your reps from here.

7. As for the chins ups, grip the overhead bar with a wide grip, suspend your body weight on the bar for a few seconds and feel the stretch in the arms, in the lats and back areas.

8. Stand up grip the bar again wide grip palms facing away from you, thumb over the bar or under your preference, and proceed to pull yourself up as far as you can until your chin touches the bar, keep your back straight, with a slight arch, hold for a second and then let yourself down slowly until your elbows lock straight at the bottom of the movement. Try not to swing in the movement or pull the legs up in front of you to assist yourself to get up. Repeat...


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Gaining Muscle Made Simple With Weight Training

Have you received comments about your physical appearance? Are there people telling you that you need to get into shape, and that maybe you should lift weights? Maybe you have come this far and are actually looking for the best weight training programs that are available to gain weight fast? Perhaps you have been training for some time but are struggling to put on lean muscle mass as quickly as you would like?

The fitness industry is one which strives on giving people half-success. That is to say, it gets them hooked by providing quick results, but nothing that ever lasts, which gets people coming back time and time again for more, putting endless money down in an attempt to get the body that they desire. The secret to gaining muscle, though, is simple. If the basic fundamentals are not properly done, not amount of weight gain supplements, unique weight lifting workouts or crazy exercises will give you what you want.

The 80/20 rule suggests that you will gain 80% of your success from 20% of your efforts, and this is very true with weight lifting. You need to be performing the big lifts such as dead lift and the squat, as well as the bench press and the barbell row, as these are the exercises which give the most return on the energy spent. Other exercises such as shoulder raises and shrugs are good, too, but are not part of the 20% that supercharge your body, and should be done only as a addition. Please make sure that you consult the advice from a professional, and get them to show you the correct way to do these lifts in the gym, to avoid any kind of injury which will hijack and derail you from achieving your goals. If, for whatever reason, you want to make your own gym, you can purchase weights for sale quite easily.

The second biggest factor to successful muscle gain is ensuring that you eat enough calories per day to support the growth of your cells. For example, eating a mere five hundred calories over your daily basal metabolic rate will cause you to gain a pound a week. If you are weight training hard, and are eating enough protein to build muscle, you can expect a significant amount of that weight gained to be muscle mass.

It is also important to know that your own unique genetics play a huge part in how much muscle mass you can gain. Chances are if you are reading this article, you probably don't have the best muscle gaining genetics, so it will be incredibly hard for you to get the muscle mass required to becoming a professional bodybuilder. However, do not let this deter you from your goals. With correct weight training and a good diet, you can overhaul your body to become lean and muscular.


When Kim Hanna isn't at his gym training, he's busy making awesome web pages on unique products such as weights for sale [http://weightsforsale.net] and olympic weight bench [http://weightsforsale.net/olympic-weight-bench/].

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Affordable Protein Powder And How To Get The Best

When looking for the best cheap protein powder, you have to look out for the quality of ingredients. You might think it's hard finding a great protein mix but it's not. A reliable company such as Sun Warrior is recognized for their excellent protein and is respected by thousands of people each month. Around 2.5 pounds of protein drink from these suppliers cost about $40.

Using 1 scoop of protein powder following a workout, five days a week, may last about 1 or 2 months. Aim to buy a supplement with the fewest number of ingredients. Better powders do not generally consist of additional ingredients. Extra, less critical ingredients are known as "filler".

Almost all powders need to include some kind of filler (to some degree) but protein with extra sugar added need to be avoided. Sugar is needed for better protein absorption immediately after an exercise routine however try to limit the amount of sugar in your product. Creatine, arginine, and glutamine tend to be present in protein supplements as well.

All of these 3 ingredients are created naturally in our bodies. Creatine monohydrate, however, has been known to cause intense bloating, abdominal pain, and retain water in muscles.

These filler products aren't crucial or needed. These supplements may help and support new muscle development and repair, and though this can be accurate, protein powder using the smallest amount of filler should be purchased.

Any supplements not utilized by your body will turn into waste. Consider the quality of protein supplements. Protein-in-bulk organizations aim to find the best ingredients.

The best supplements will repair the body quicker. Most of these products also support newer muscle development and more sustained strength. Protein powders used for post workout protein shakes that includes caffeine needs to be avoided.

You will find quality pre-workout drinks that work well with out caffeine. These products ought to be properly used since high levels of caffeine has been known to induce addictions.

A lot of work goes into creating quality protein supplements. Superfoods have been put into protein powders to help with energy and stamina.

Maca has been in existence quite a while, offering energy and strength. Maca can also be used as a caffeine alternative. Maca is one kind of the super foods utilized in cheap protein powder today.

Just like maca, there are other great super foods that will help benefit your overall health. If you're serious about your health, you will do your research to find which products are best for your body type.


Find out more about other sorts of super foods and which protein powders to buy by clicking here. Only MJFitness.com gives you high quality information regarding which cheap protein powder to buy, when to use supplements, how to use them to maximize gains in and out of the gym, and much more!

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Get Rid of Man Boobs! Home Workout Solution

First off, I don't want to mislead you. There is no 'secret' exercise that will magically make your man boobs go away. HOWEVER, let's take a look at a few strategies that we can employ that have a good chance of helping you to get rid of man boobs:


Increase testosterone with strength workouts focusing on lifting HEAVY for low repetitions
Increase your body's levels of fat-burning human growth hormone (HGH) by doing several High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) workouts per week
Eating less (combined with training more) to create a calorie deficit - and gradual fat loss, week after week.



The Importance of Testosterone

Although general opinion suggests that you cannot 'spot reduce' fat, actual experience shows that hormone levels play a large role in where we accumulate fat.

Just look at the differences between men and women. Women's higher estrogen levels make them accumulate fat in their breasts, hips, and butt. Men, on the other hand, tend to gain fat in the stomach.

More specifically, body builders who abuse steroids (basically overloading their bodies with synthetic testosterone) eventually cause the body to produce excess amounts of the female hormone estrogen. This leads to fat accumulation in the breasts, also called man boobs or gynecomastia.

So, since injecting testosterone obviously isn't the way to go, we need to maximize our testosterone levels, NATURALLY.

Lifting heavy weights in the 4-8 repetition range can help the body release greater amounts of testosterone.

Increasing Testosterone With Heavy, Compound Lifts

As far as testosterone release is concerned, nothing beats movements like the squat and deadlift. Your body is forced to move A LOT of weight, and muscle groups are maximally activated from head to toe.

So, ideally, you would want to buy an Olympic weight set, get a couple sessions of coaching on proper form (crossfit trainers are great for this sort of advice), and do 2-3 general strength workouts per week consisting of the following sorts of movements:


Deadlift or Squat
Horizontal Pushing Motion (Dumbbell Bench Press, Dumbbell Incline Press, etc.) or Vertical Pressing Motion (Dumbbell Overhead Press, Military Press)
Horizontal Pulling Motion (Dumbbell Rows, Weighted Body Rows) / Vertical Pulling Motion (Weighted Pullups)
[To keep your body balanced, perform horizontal pushing motions on the same days as horizontal pulling motions, vertical press on the same day as vertical pulls]



OK, But What If I'm On A Budget?

Coaching - Proper form is essential to preventing injury, but you can learn most of what you need to know by checking out YouTube - there are several EXCELLENT deadlift form videos there, for example.

Equipment - It is pretty hard to beat an Olympic weight set. Even if that's all you have, you can at least do deadlifts, which many agree are the ULTIMATE strength movement - especially for hormone activation. Check out Craigslist for deals, these sets can often go for around $100.

If that doesn't work for you, experiment with sandbag training. Get an old army surplus duffel bag, buy a few bags of pea gravel and throw them into the dufffel, and practice lifting that. You can do A LOT with this simple piece of equipment, and it shouldn't cost you more than $15 or so.

As for the pushing and pulling motions, here are a few excellent options - remember you can add weight as you gain strength by throwing some pea gravel into your backpack.


Horizontal Pressing Motions - (Decline Pushup - place your feet around 2 feet off the ground. For more difficulty, try it on a DIY suspension trainer (do a Google search for several excellent tutorials).
Vertical Pressing Motions - Handstand pushups (once you have developed pushup strength), sandbag overhead press, jackknife pushups (check YouTube for details)
Horizontal Pulling Motions - Body row on DIY suspension trainer (elevate feet for more difficulty)
Vertical Pulling Motions - Pullup (no pullup bar? throw a rolled up towel over a beam), weighted Pullups (tie some weight through your belt)



How to Get Rid of Man Boobs - HIIT Training to Boost HGH and Burn Fat

HIIT consists of doing short, intense intervals of exercise followed by short rests. One option is one minute exercise, one minute rest, repeated several times.

Here are a few suggestions:


Fat Burning HIIT Jumprope Workout - After a few minutes of warming up, alternate one minute of high knees sprinting with one minute of slower, double leg hops. Continue for 10-15 minutes.
Burpees Intervals- Burpees (do a YouTube search for instructions) are a PHENOMENAL total body conditioner. Alternate 60 seconds of burpees with 60 seconds of easy jumping jacks, for a total of 10-15 minutes.
Sprint Intervals - Alternate 60 seconds of intense running with 60 seconds of easier walking, for a total of 10-15 minutes.



Again, these are just a few ideas. Feel free to increase or reduce work and rest periods as you see fit.

Doing a few workouts like this every week will boost fat-burning HGH. Follow each workout with a brisk 20 minute walk to take advantage of your body's fat burning state.

Eat Less

There are many approaches to dieting for fat loss, and some work well for certain people and not for others. For starters, I would like to suggest a simple idea:

Eat until you are no longer hungry, NOT until you are full!

Eating a little less, while upping your activity with the workouts we just covered, will help you to gain muscle while gradually losing body fat, INCLUDING that excess male breast tissue.

Summary

So, here are three ways to attack your goal and get rid of man boobs:


Boost testosterone and muscle mass with heavy strength training
Increase levels of fat-burning HGH with HIIT interval training
Eat less to create a calorie deficit



Now all that's left is for you to get busy!


If you found this article interesting and for more info on fat loss workouts and homemade workout equipment, check out my blog at http://homeworkoutblog.com/

See how I have successfully lost 30 pounds of fat, built strength and muscle, and overcome chronic injuries all at home.

Take care and good luck!

-Ian

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