Increase Your Training Intensity – Partial Repetitions

You can only build muscle tissue if you can generate progressively stronger muscular contractions, so this calls for an emphasis on finding ways to increase exercise intensity. This should not be confused with exercise duration as maximum training intensity will actually shorten the time needed to achieve maximal muscular growth.

In an earlier article I outlined the ways in which you can intensify your training. Here we’ll focus on the role that partial repetitions have to play in intensifying the training effect.

One of the biggest dangers confronting serious bodybuilders is the tendency to overtrain. Bodybuilders at the advanced level must resist the temptation to seek improvement by simply adding more exercises or extra workouts to an already demanding schedule.

One way to maintain progress yet avoid overtraining is to make constructive use of partial repetitions. This allows the introduction of additional intensity without adding significantly to the duration of training. To get the most out of partial repetitions you should follow these simple steps:

1. Use a much heavier weight than you would for the full range version of the same exercise.

2. Perform partial reps only from the halfway stage or mid-point of the exercise.

3. Use this method primarily on lagging body parts.

4. Perform only one exercise for one set per body part.

5. Use only as a supplement to full range movement exercises, not instead of.

Richard Mitchell is the creator of the bodybuildingadvisor.com website that provides guidance and information to athletes at all levels of bodybuilding experience. Go to Bodybuilding Advice to learn more about the issues covered in this article.

Is Your Muscle Building Potential Limited By Your Genes?

It is clear that certain traits are handed down to us by our parents and unfortunately our ablility to grow muscles beyond certain limits is no exception. That doesn’t mean to say hard work and carefully planned training won’t have a positive effect on your physique – it just means that some people will inherit a greater abundance of the favored physical characteristics than others. Not everyone possesses the physical traits to become a champion, but you can work wonders with the raw material you do possess.

How responsive you will be to physical stimulation can be predicted to a certain extent by examining your somatype or natural body shape. Basically, there are three recognized body types:

1. Endomorphs – these individuals tend to be squat with a round torso, thick neck and short limbs.

2. Mesomorphs – these individuals tend to be musclar with broad shoulders, powerful chest and limbs and little body fat.

3. Ectomorphs – these individuals tend to be slim and are usually tall with little muscle and body fat.

The ideal bodybuilding physique tends more towards the mesomorph with broad shoulders, narrow hips with arms and legs of medium length. Two further inherited features have a role to play in determining muscle building potential, and these are muscle fiber density and neurological efficiency. Fiber density determines the size potential of a muscle while neurological efficiency refers to the relationship between the nervous system and muscles. This is relevant because, in all out effort genetically blessed individuals have the ability to activate up to 50% of the fibers in a given muscle compared to the average person’s 30%. This allows greater scope for stimulating growth.

The fact that there is no easy way to measure fiber density or neurological efficiency is actually a blessing because the incentive remains for all of us to train hard and strive for improvement. Only a tiny minority of people have the genetic tools to become champions but the rest of us can go a long way to fulfilling our own personal goals.

Richard Mitchell is the creator of the bodybuildingadvisor.com website that provides guidance and information to athletes at all levels of bodybuilding experience. Go to Bodybuilding Advice to learn more about the issues covered in this article.

What Causes Muscle Growth?

In order for muscles to grow, three things are required:

1. Stimulus – exercise is needed to make the muscles work, use energy and cause microscopic damage to the fibers.

2. Nutrition – after intense exercise the muscles need to replenish their stores of fuel.

3. Rest – it is during the rest or recovery phase that the muscles repair the microscopic damage and grow.

Muscle size increases due to hypertrophic adaptation and an increase in the cross section area of individual muscle fibers. Intensive exercise impacts more on the strength influencing fast twitch type II fibers, therefore the increase in muscle size is accompanied by greater strength.

This will deplete the muscle’s energy stores and cause microscopic damage to the muscle tissue. During recovery, these stores of glycogen and phosphocreatine will replenish from carbohydrates and creatine ingested as food or supplements. Amino acids supplied in the diet will trigger the protein synthesis that repairs the damaged muscle and lead to the creation of bigger muscle fibers.

To achieve continuous improvement you will need to keep reaching for higher levels of training intensity otherwise the improvement process will grind to a halt. Fortunately, this is relatively easy to plan for provided certain basic principles and rules are clearly followed. Subsequent articles in this series will examine these principles in detail.

In the meantime you can find out more about building muscle by visiting the site listed below.

Richard Mitchell is the creator of the bodybuildingadvisor.com website that provides guidance and information to athletes at all levels of bodybuilding experience. Go to Bodybuilding Advice to learn more about the issues covered in this article.

The Role Of L-Glutamine In Building Muscle

L-glutamine remains the supplement of choice for many bodybuilders. It is a free form amino acid that can be found naturally in beans, meat, fish, poultry and dairy products. It is also an important component of protein powders and is one of the twenty non-essential amino acids found in the body.

It is widespread throughout the body and plays an important role in protein metabolism. From a bodybuilder’s perspective, glutamine’s strength is its ability to reduce the amount of muscle deterioration that occurs as a result of intense physical workouts. Failure to replace the high levels of glutamine consumed during intense exercise could result in greater susceptibility to illness due to a weakening of the immune system. In addition, glutamine stolen from the muscles to maintain the immune system must be replaced to keep those muscles building.

Bodybuilders can benefit from taking 10 grams of l-glutamine each day, preferably taken post-workout to enhance its recuperative effects. As a nutrient that occurs naturally in the body glutamine is safe to take although ingesting excessive amounts could cause an upset stomach.

You can find out more about l-glutamine and other useful bodybuilding supplements by visiting the site listed below.

Richard Mitchell is the creator of the bodybuildingadvisor.com website that provides guidance and information to athletes at all levels of bodybuilding experience. Go to Glutamine Supplements to learn more about the issues covered in this article.

Clothes and Shoes and Stretching

Now that we have a trainer, our next concern is to be equipped with the proper shoes and clothes, so our training experience can be maximized. If your trying to create a great body you need to start with clothes and shoes that will make you feel good as well as look good! {The reason behind that is if you look and feel good you will tend to be in a motivated state of mind, and in this state we build consistency, this is where results come from.}

What kind of clothes and shoes do I need you may ask? You could spend a few hundred dollars for designer workout gear and that would make you feel and look better, but all you need is some clean and comfortable clothes and shoes. Most discount stores sell designer replicas at a fraction of the cost. I recommend layering your clothes and as you warm up take a piece of clothing off. Keeping warm helps protect your joints, until you fully warm up, so you don’t get hurt. Now we have the proper equipment to get started.

Next I highly recommend incorporating a consistent stretching program, which will reduce injuries and produce greater results. I do 15 to 25 minutes per day as well as stretching in between exercises. The benefit of stretching is huge; it can make or break your training progress. As I describe training techniques each month I will go over the stretching to do for each body part. So you can achieve optimum results!!!

Here are some basic stretches you can start with to enhance your training and or walking program. Trunk Twists- Standing big and tall with good posture, feet shoulder distance apart, place your hands on your hips rotate your upper torso from right to left in a nice controlled manner. Repetitions of 15 to 30 per side will be enough. Side Stretches- also standing tall with good posture, feet shoulder distance apart, your arms hanging to your side, slowly with your head up bend from one side, then the other. This focus is on stretching the outer muscles of your abs which is the oblique {commonly referred to as love handles} Toe Touches- Standing tall with feet shoulder distance apart, arms hanging to your side, slowly, bend your torso touching your fingertips as close to your toes as you can get, without bouncing. This is a great stretch for your hamstrings and your lower back. I normally recommend finishing your stretching warm up with a series of push- ups and sit-ups. All movements are to be slow and controlled at all times. While doing these stretches stand with your knees slightly bent to alleviate the pressure off your lower back.

Remember that the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.

I believe that the key of everybody’s personal journey is to develop faith in yourself, your creator and the people around you. Also condition yourself to believe that there is always a way if you’re committed.

If you fail just keep changing your approach until you succeed!!! Remember to always be good to yourself and others.

Live Passionately
Warmest regards,
James Spicer

Contact James at www.walkablock.com/james

Top Tips To Get Big by Working Out

Here are some of the best strategies on how to become bigger by lifting weight. These are the most proven and most effective.

Tip # 1 Pick up 3-4 times a week and participate in the process. Its aim is to build muscle without destroying any of them. Muscles need adequate sleep for reconstruction. Ideally, you should give each muscle group at least 72 hours rest before working on them again. Allow muscles to heal with rest and nutrition.

Tip # 2 Eat 5-7 times a day Yes, this is not a joke. To heal the muscles you need to eat frequently. Focus on the diet of balanced meals of protein, carbohydrates and lipids. The ideal number is 35% protein, 45% carbohydrate and 20% fat. Central here is to eat every three hours. This allows your body to efficiently build and keep you lean forward and put you into a fat burning mode. Make sure most of your meal consist of solid food, and you may rest in the form of meal replacement.

Tip # 3 supplements with a twist Some supplements work, but most of them do not. How can you say? Focus on food supplements with a history of success. If the supplement has not been around for at least three years, than avoid it, because it has not been proven effective. By focusing on four major, multi-vitamins, protein powder, creatine, and fish oils. They have all been shown to yield results.

Numbers of Sets & Repetitions for Muscle Growth in Weight Lifting

So first step in finding the best number of sets and reps for muscle growth in weightlifting is to assess their level of tolerance in workint. If you have not worked in a long time, then you should start with 5 sets per body part. At first, we started a game until you reach a level where you can fully recover within 72 hours. The second step is to determine what kind of goals you have weightlifting. If you focus on weight loss and burn fat, then you should focus on representatives of the height. Representatives rev up your metabolism and get your body into a fat burning state. Try to stay in the range of 12-15 rep to achieve this goal, and the use of light weights. If your goal is to obtain and major muscle boulder, then the representatives must be in the range of 6-10 repetitions. You should lift the 85% to 100% of your maximum effort.

The final step is to put them all together. Once you understand your goal, you can focus on their own and set the various regional reps. Complete focus on muscle growth to reach levels of five TV 6.8 delegates. Each progressive series, try increasing the weight of moving to 85% of the work to 100% of maximum. For weightloss, keep the lower number of different songs, and maybe 2-3 to reach the level of 12-15 reps of about 70% of maximum effort and move 85% of the maximum. You can also add your own will be shown if you choose, but keep high repetitions. Always remember that when we decide how hard to find, be sure to give your body time to recover. After 72 hours, you should be fine. If you're still hurting, then it did.

Secrets To Building Fast Muscle

To safely and effectively embark on a mass building workout regimen, you should first consider your body’s preparedness for such efforts. Without proper nutrition, your efforts will not be effective and can actually damage your muscles. Changing your workout routine is also necessary to focus on muscle mass building workouts.

As far as nutrition goes, to gain muscle quickly and effectively, you should increase your protein intake. The general ruled of thumb as far as body building goes is to ingest 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight. To support mass building efforts, you should bump that up to 1-½ grams of protein per pound of body weight. This will help enhance protein synthesis while preventing protein breakdown. What that means is, you will gain quality muscle size rather than lose muscle mass.

Another thing to increase in your diet when you want to gain muscle is carbohydrates. Your carb intake should be 3 grams per pound of body weight. This will give your body plenty of calories for energy and will leave the proteins derived from meat for muscle building. You should also include in your dietary plan eating the right fats. The omega-3 fatty acids are needed to prevent muscle inflammation and improve glycogen formation. Planning to eat salmon or swordfish 3 times per week to give your body the omega-3 it needs will help enhance protein synthesis as well. You can also choose to take a fish oil supplement of 5 to 7 grams per day for the same effect.

If your main fitness focus is mass building, you should be careful to get the right nutrients to support those efforts. From increase proteins to bumped up carbohydrates, you will find you have much more success when you follow these simple tips.

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