Building Great Body Shape

by Vince DelMonte

If you have been listening to everyone telling you how to build muscle in the gym or you are unhappy with how you look in the mirror. Don’t worry. We are here to teach you five simple steps to building muscle safely and effectively. Your frustrations with your slow progress in the gym are over. Pay attention carefully to what I’m about to share.

There is a possibility that you are not using one of these four steps to your maximum potential. You need to correct these essential steps before you can have any chance of building a great muscular and lean physique.

Be prepared to learn how to build muscle in four simple to do steps with less time. The good part is we show you how to do it without drugs or ineffective supplements.

Step #1

Your goal should be to stimulate your muscles with resistance or stress. Try committing to lifting weights at least three to four times per week. This will result in your muscles growing bigger to avoid stress from occurring again. Then you let your muscles heal through nutrition and rest. It will grow bigger and you will repeat the same process again. You want to hi your muscles once every 72 hours so you can perform 2 upper body workouts per week and 2 lower body workouts per week.

Step #2

Focus on eating at least 5-7x a day with balanced meals from carbohydrates, proteins and fats. If your goal is to build muscle than you should be eating at least 15-18 x your current body weight. Your carbohydrates should equate about 45% of your intake, your proteins should equate about 35% of your intake and your fat should be the remaining 20% of your intake. You should focus on over half of those meals being solid whole food meals and the remainder can be liquid meal replacement shakes.

Step #3

The biggest mistakes seen in the gym are people training and training with out any stretching. Stretching helps to restore normal length to the tissue and reduce the incidence of injuries. If you are training 4 hours in the week, an additional 2 hours should be dedicated to stretching. Make sure to balance the shortening of the muscle tissues that occurs with weight training or else you will become injury prone.

Step #4

Avoid all the marketing hoopla in the latest fitness and bodybuilding magazines and avoid supplements that have not been around for longer than 3 years. This is the philosophy from an Australian strength coach who recommended not trying any supplement until it has been around at least 3 years to pass the test of time. You should however not go without the following: a high quality multi-vitamin, fish oil capsules, powdered creatine and a protein powder. These products will cover your nutritional basis for healthy body composition, strength and muscle mass.

Vince DelMonte is the author of No Nonsense (http://www.buildmusclemass101.com) Muscle Building: Skinny Guy Secrets To fast Muscle Building found at (http://www.buildmusclemass101.com) http://www.buildmusclemass101.com

Popularity: 18% [?]

by Mary Stone

If you find yourself becoming more and more interested in elliptical trainers, among other types of physical training machines and routines, you might be surprised to find that you are not alone. In fact, you are just one in thousands of individuals who are starting to gain interest in exercise and physical training. This is why you should understand how to go about shopping for an elliptical machine.

To begin with, it is best that you begin shopping for an elliptical machine with a fixed budget already planned out. This helps to limit the range of elliptical trainer to those that fall within your budget, after which, you can compare the different trainers that are available within that price range, bringing you one step close to deciding on the type of trainer to get.

The next thing you should consider is your daily rate of usage. If you happen to be a heavy user of exercise machines, you will need to take this into consideration, and get an elliptical trainer that has been developed specifically for heavy usage. Even though most elliptical machines are well built and can withstand high stress, there are some that are stronger than others, and these will be the ones you will want to get if you are a heavy user.

More and more people are considering elliptical machines today, simply because they are generally very effective in cardiovascular as well as physical fitness training. What is even better is that elliptical machines do not cause any stress on your joints, which is why a growing number of individuals are considering it as a viable long-term option.

This is especially so among people who might have joint problems or might simply be concerned about the long-term effects of high impact sports, on their joints. In addition to this, more and more doctors are also recommending elliptical machines as exercise alternatives, especially for those who cannot undergo further physical duress.

By employing the use of a range of repeated motions, elliptical trainers help your body keep fit by increasing the rate of weight loss as well as metabolism, in order to keep your body in shape without it having to experience any further stress.

Also, elliptical machines often employ a full body workout, with the use of handlebars coupled with lower body workouts. This combination often proves itself to be thoroughly effective, as you are able to simultaneously train your lower body in the same way you would use a treadmill, and at the same time, work your upper body through the repeated elliptical motions that the moving handlebars provide.

Through the use of repeated motions, you are also able to train and develop isolated areas of your body, which is something you cannot do with traditional exercise machines. In order to do so, you would normally have to go to a gym. But this means that you have to leave the comfort of your home, which is something that most people do not have the time to do.

These are some of the reasons as to why elliptical trainers are fast gaining popularity, and rightly so. The effectiveness of these trainers, coupled with the minimal stress it causes on your body, makes it an ideal fitness option for almost anyone.

For an example of a honest site that explains about (http://www.buyellipticalsbynet.com) elliptical trainer, visit one of the more popular ones, which is found at www.buyellipticalsbynet.com

Popularity: 15% [?]

by Caleb Lee

Do you know what your most powerful muscles are? Do you think it’s your bulging biceps which you’ve probably wasted countless hours in the gym working on? Or do you think it’s Your herculean chest? The answer is: neither one! The truth is: You may not have spent much, if any time training your strongest muscles.

The answer is Your legs! Your quadriceps in particular are the strongest muscles you have in your whole entire body! A lot is asked of these workhorses of the human body in just about every sport (if you don’t know where they are these would be the muscles of the upper legs) and even bodybuilding.

It’s really a pretty simple matter to increase the power of these muscles to their full potential. It never fails to mystify me when someone has worked out every other part of their body, yet has underdeveloped quads. Everyone listen up, because today I’m going to help you unlock the power of these powerhouses (and if you’ve read my article about building a bigger chest and arms… then you know working your legs can actually increase the size of the other muscles in your body!).

So what’s the best way to train your legs? One word. SQUAT! Squat exercises are the most efficient way to build your quads and are easy to work into your weightlifting regimen. Now I’m going to be up front with you and I’m not going to lie and tell you that it’s totally painless - your legs have a lot of endurance and strength already (nearly three times that of your arms, you stand and walk on them well, all the time, right?) so you will have to put in some effort.

Read on for two great squat exercises to help you make the most of the strongest muscles you have. But before you do that, you should know that there are benefits to be had from squats beyond just building the quads - your abs will also benefit from these exercises (or “core” in today’s fitness parlance) and you’ll gain muscle everywhere else much easier.

Squats - place a bar at the right height for you on a squat rack - and walk under it– the bar should rest on the back of your shoulders. Get a good grip on the bar, raise it up off the rack and take one step backwards (go slowly for safety). Remember to keep your legs as far apart as your shoulder span and your back straight (a slight c-curve is ok). Then it’s a simple as bending you knees, lower yourself under control until your hips are just slightly less than 90 degrees from the floor, then slowly return to your starting position. Remember not to overdo it, but make sure you’re getting a workout for your quads here. (unless you have a good spotter it’s a good idea not to go to failure here)

Front Squats - This works much the same as regular squats, but of course with the barbell held in front and this one will build the outer sweep of your quads moreso than regular back squats. Also you probably won’t be able to go as heavy with this one.  Start with a barbell at chest height and step back after lifting from the rack.

Symmetry is important in bodybuilding and it would be a shame to neglect such an important set of muscles and these exercises can get your quads to where they need to be - built up just as much as the rest of your body. Plus, you ALWAYS want to make sure you work every part of your body because you don’t want to end up with muscle imbalances… which will eventually lead to injury (I see this all the time — especially with back injuries!)

About the Fitness expert: Caleb Lee knows a lot about (http://www.doubleyourgains.com) building muscle. His website will teach you ways to (http://www.doubleyourgains.com) build muscle fast.

Popularity: 17% [?]

by Caleb Lee

You wouldn’t believe how many questions I get each and every week about chest exercises. Everyone wants to build a bigger chest… and many trainees put in the hard work at the gym… but just aren’t seeing the results they REALLY want. So if you’re not satisified with this area of your anatomy  (and for everyone who wants to know “what’s your secret, Caleb?”) I’m going to provide a little useful, yet easily digestible and actionable information with this article. With that said, here are a few of my favorite chest exercises.

First, I’d like to share a little general information for the newbies out there (hello and welcome!). Your chest muscles consist of the Pectoralis major and minor - the familiar term “pecs” is short for this. The Pectoralis major attaches to the arms and clavicles; the minor is a thinner, roughly triangular shaped muscle which is beneath the Pectoralis major.

What I’ll do is start with the upper chest exercises and we’ll work our way down from there — sound good playa? Two exercises that have solidified their place in the “tool chest of effective upper chest exercises are Flyes and push-ups because they are very effective for building this part of your chest. Without further ado:

Inclined Dumbbell Flyes - Start by Lying flat on your back on an incline bench. Take a dumbbell for each hand (if you have a spotter, have them hand those to you). Gripping one in each hand (duh!) and with your palms facing each other… raise the dumbbells up towards each other, meeting over your head. Then you want to squeeze your pecs for a one count (really squeeze em!) while the dumbbells are at their peak. Lower the weights under control and repeat as many times as you can.

Declined Push-Ups - This is different from a regular push-up in only one regard: your feet will be elevated by resting on a low bench. As always with push-ups, keep your back as straight as possible. To get the greatest benefit, vary your hand widths. Now for the middle of your chest - there’s a lot of different exercises for the middle chest, but I’ve chosen one which provides a lot of benefit to bodybuilding newcomers and pros alike.

Dips: these are the absolute best for building the mid-chest. Using a set of dip bars (any two parallel surfaces off the ground and parallel to it will do as well), position yourself with knees bent and legs crossed at the ankle (over time you can hold a dumbbell with your ankles to add resistance). Slowly lower yourself until your chest touches the bar and then return to your starting position. Repeat as many times as you can.

Last, but by no means the least (if you want a truly impressive, chiseled chest) - the lower chest. This is a variation on EVERY bodybuilders favorite (or at least it seems like it)… the bench press… but this type of bench is going to be better for your lower chest!

Declined Barbell Bench Press - Pretty much it’s like any bench press - except you want to grip a little wider than the width of your shoulders, lower slowly and carefully. One more poitn about this one: It’s OK to touch the bar to your chest when doing a bench press in this position - but of course as with any bench press exercise, make sure you have a spotter at all times. You’re going to repeat for your prescribed rep and set scheme for this workout.

Fitness expert Caleb Lee can teach you a lot about (http://www.doubleyourgains.com) building muscle. His website will show you how to (http://www.doubleyourgains.com) build muscle fast.

Popularity: 11% [?]

by Alex Craig

There is no question that a Pilates workout is one of the most effective low-impact exercise programs in existence.

Work On Those Minor Muscle Groups

While traditional weight lifting exercises and aerobic exercises all the major muscle groups, Pilates workouts the minor muscles that support the major ones. By moving your body with a very tiny, focused reach of movement using Pilates equipment as basic as a mat, your Pilates instructor will lead you through a series of movements that will leave your muscles feeling sore and good for a day or two after.

A mat is the starting piece of equipment your Pilates studio should be furnished with. Using the mat, you can do a dozen or so awesome Pilates movements that will keep your muscles taut and shapely.

The Reformer

Joe Pilates designed the first Pilates Reformer. Pilates fans enjoy this Pilates equipment because it “reforms” or corrects, the body’s alignment. The Reformer is a reason Pilates exercisers swear by the long, lean look and feel that Pilates provides them. The Reformer combines a strength training workout that builds muscle mass, with a cardio workout, which is great for weight loss.

Pilates DVDs

One of the best ways to make sure you get a complete workout is to use a new piece of Pilates equipment — an exercise DVD.  Let a professional Pilates instructor, like Denise Austin, Ana Caban, Maggie Rhoades or Gaiam lead you through a world class workout that will leave you feeling lean and stretched tall. A DVD is a great starting point, if you are new to Pilates and don’t have any fancy Pilates equipment. DVDs range in complexity from beginning mat workouts and workouts for people that are not flexible to Reformer advanced workouts that combine Pilates and yoga to give you the added benefits of both disciplines.

Toning Ball By Stott Pilates

If Stott Pilates is your thing, get a super powered workout with a weighted toning ball. Add to the intensity of your workout and feel your core turn into a firm mass of hard muscle. The Stott Pilates Toning Ball DVD includes an amazing 88 minute video. If you can tough it through this video, you will attain maximal toning results in a minimum amount of time.

Spine Corrector Barrel

If you have room for this equipment in you household Pilates studio, you will be astounded at the way it makes you feel. People with back problems will enjoy the spine corrector barrel because it lifts out and stretches the individual vertebrae of the spine.

Now you should see that there are many different choices of Pilates Equipment for your household use. Find the right equipment for your available space and you will be on your way to a long, lean toned body.

About the author: Alex Craig can help you get fit. For more information on choosing (http://www.medsourceusa.com/listSubCategories.do?categoryID=133) Pilates Equipment, or other Pilates related ideas, please visit (http://www.MedSourceUSA.com) www.MedSourceUSA.com.

Popularity: 21% [?]