Bodybuilding is very popular among both the sexes across the world and is very famous in the United States. The concept of Bodybuilding was mainly popularized due to Arnold Schwarzenegger in the 70's. First off, what does Bodybuilding mean? It consists of a series of training sessions and of following a proper diet. The training sessions emphasizes on toning the body muscles and increasing the mass of the muscles. Read on about the 5 Core Bodybuilding Concepts that get definitely help you gain or maintain a totally shredded physique!
The Overload Principle
This bodybuilding concept is the foundation of muscle growth and outlines the stimulus needed to ignite bodybuilding gains. Luckily there is nothing complex about it. Using the principle the goal is to overload the muscle with more stress than it has become accustomed to handling.
By doing so it triggers the muscle building process in the body. Over time, as you increase the weight that you are lifting during your weight lifting program, the muscles will continue to grow so it is important that you focus on intensity and increasing the weight (even if only by a small amount) each workout until you experience the size gains you’re after.
Bodybuilding programs will require a different approach to nutrition in that the body will need higher levels of protein and other nutrients to fully support the muscle building process. It is recommended by many that 1.5 to 2 grams of protein be consumed per pound of bodyweight on a daily basis. This can be quite demanding if you weigh even 150 lbs. To accomplish this as well as intake the other key nutrients that facilitate muscle building, supplementation may be necessary to achieve results in the quickest manner possible.
Bodybuilding supplements are widely available both online and off. Supplements are designed to deliver the right nutrients in the right amounts specifically for bodybuilders. Protein shakes, protein bars, creatine, amino acids and many others can help contribute to muscle gains. This brief overview will not be sufficient to cover the topic of bodybuilding supplements (there have been many entire books dedicated to the subject) but I encourage you to investigate further through the popular bodybuilding magazines and communities online. One note: these products are meant to supplement a regular meal plan and not replace it (except in the case of some meal replacement shakes and supplements). A healthy diet should be maintained while engaged in bodybuilding.
Proper Weight Lifting Form
Because heavy weight lifting poses risks of injury to muscles, joints and bones, it is crucial that you observe proper form when undergoing a muscle building routine. Being careful not to arch your back excessively and controlling the weight at all time can help prevent these things from occurring. A personal trainer or workout partner can be a great asset in making sure that you are using strict form while lifting heavy weights.
The Role of Rest
A bodybuilding workout in the gym or otherwise is simply a stimulus. This is an important point to remember. Muscle does not grow in the gym; it grows in the time following your workouts – especially at night during sleep. Some believe that building muscle with bodybuilding is as much as 70% nutrition and rest. That is why it is essential that you implement a solid nutritional foundation and sleep regularly for at least 8 hours.
Just about everyone who walks the face of the earth has heard of the legendary Arnold Schwarzenegger. The man is an inspiration to millions of men around the world, both in success and fitness. Even though times have changed — today’s bodybuilders are far bigger than in Arnold’s time — we can still learn a lot from the man that brought bodybuilding to the masses. Because so many guys want to know how Ah-nuld did it, I’ve decided to recap his bodybuilding tips, principles and routines to help any aspiring or veteran bodybuilder learn from the best.
“The secret is to make your mind work for you — not against you.” - Arnold’s bodybuilding philosophy
Arnold’s approach to bodybuilding was more mental than physical. For him, it was (and still is) all or nothing. While competing, he didn’t go through the motions; he worked out to be larger than life.
On Working Out Thinking there is a recipe to gaining mass was something Arnold Schwarzenegger frowned upon. He favored execution and the moment over strict routines.
He would mix things up — sometimes he’d even work out twice a day. He did a lot of forced reps and pyramids by adding weight to each set. He preferred doing 6 to 10 reps per set and sometimes (to break though plateaus) did 20 sets per body part.
For Beginners Arnold always reminds beginners that they have to start somewhere and that it’s better to start slowly rather than quit quickly. According to him, it is preferable to spend more time at the gym doing your sets and reps properly rather than rush through your routine, see no results and ultimately give up.
He warns that novice bodybuilders should not neglect any body parts and advises that they should always face obstacles instead of shy away from them. When Arnold came to America, he had a huge upper body but twiggy legs and calves, and always wore long pants to hide this. To combat this weakness, he purposely started wearing shorts to expose what he was least proud of.
It worked The humiliation forced him to develop some of the biggest calves in the industry (some believe he has calf implants, but that’s best left for another article). Too many men, according to him, cover up their weaknesses. By facing your flaws, you will gain the drive to conquer them.
He also warns against using exercises just because others do them. He believes that “in bodybuilding, you’re essentially conducting a research experiment on yourself,” so one shouldn’t use an exercise because it is popular.
Arnold’s Attitude When Arnold used to work out for competition, he would completely zone out and concentrate on the muscle and set at hand. This philosophy is at the core of his approach to life in general (and judging by his success, it must have worked). In a documentary, he explained that when he exercises his biceps, for example, he imagines them growing and growing, until they fill up the entire gym.
On Bulking Up Today Arnold admits that in the past, bodybuilders had the wrong idea when they bulked up to gain mass (they didn’t know as much about dieting as we do now and didn’t have the supplements available today).
Bulking up is the process of consuming as many calories as possible to gain as much weight as possible. This causes muscular gain, but also makes one gain fat. He now confesses that eating a proper diet all year round is a better approach to health and fitness.
In fact, eating is at the core of his bodybuilding principles. Many come to him asking what the best way to gain weight is. His reply is usually proper nutrition along with intensive training. Bulking up is a sure way of gaining mass (and it shows when you compare him to today’s professionals like Flex Wheeler), but by simply keeping fat content low and recording what you consume in a food log, one can gain, according to him, 12 pounds of pure muscles mass each year until they reach their body-size limit.
Eating & Resting For those who have a hard time gaining weight, he advises that they should:
Eat 5-6 smaller meals a day
Eat carbs half an hour after exercising
Rest at least 3 days a week
Sleep 8 or more hours a day
Eat 30 to 50 grams of protein with each meal every 3 hours
Not avoid unsaturated fats because they raise hormone levels
Eat between 60 and 100 grams of carbs per day
Eat no more than 3 eggs a day
Substitute beef and pork with chicken and fish
Avoid sugar — it contains empty calories; eat fruits and vegetables for carbs instead
Use supplements and protein shakes to get the required daily amount of protein
The following is a sample exercise routine he frequently used, as featured in Muscle Mag — October 1991: Mon, Wed, Fri
When I first started training I asked a few of the biggest bodybuilders in my gym how to build a big thick inner chest and was surprised what they told me. They said to build a big inner chest is the most difficult part of the chest to build but this I already knew but what shocked me was what exercises they recommended I perform at the beginning of my chest workout on not all my chest workouts but on every second chest workout. They said if I perform the same exercises for my inner chest every time I workout I will stop growing and therefore suggested I do the regular heavy and well known bench presses and dumbbell presses one week and on the following week I should perform the best exercises to build a big thick inner chest.
The truth is it is difficult to build a big thick inner chest for most people due to the simple fact of genetics. However, even if you don’t have great genetics to build a big inner chest you can still make a significant improvement with your inner chest by choosing to perform some chest exercises at the beginning of your chest workout that you would probably only have done as a shaping movement at the end of the mass building sets like bench presses.
By performing cable crossovers as your first chest exercises not for every chest workout but on every second chest workout you will probably be shocked at just how sore your inner chest feels the next day or for the next 2 days or so. Since you are doing cable crossovers first when your strength level is at its peak you can perform the movement with much heavier weights than you could if you did crossovers as your last chest exercise for the day. The key is to perform the cable crossovers correctly by leaning forward slightly and when pushing the cables forward you need to fully straighten your arms, touch your wrists together and crunch your inner chest as you straighten your arms.
As a personal trainer I tell my bodybuilding clients to really feel each rep during the cable crossovers and always crunch the inner chest with each rep. If you can’t feel your inner chest during cable crossovers as your first movement you are simply not performing the exercise correctly and will have difficulty building a big thick inner chest. Most of my training clients are blown away by how effective doing cable crossovers as the first chest exercise in a chest workout can be and are always very sore the next day. I started doing them myself after learning about it from other bodybuilders to build a big inner chest and as my inner chest began to grow I incorporated it into the workouts of my training clients.
Another effective exercise to build a big thick inner chest is the flat or incline dumbbell fly. The dumbbell flyes should be performed very much like the cable crossovers by pushing the arms forward at the completion of each rep. Touch the dumbbells together, flex and hold the chest in a flexed position for a second or two while the arms are straight to really force the blood into the inner chest. You could do this exercise directly after the cable crossovers or alternate by doing them before cable crossovers when you are training your inner chest first. After doing your heavy cables and incline or flat dumbbell flyes move onto your regular bench press, dumbbell press or chest machine exercises for general mass building.
With typical Hewitt determination, tennis star Lleyton Hewitt's younger sister Jaslyn is flexing her muscles in her own right. The 24-year-old entered her first bodybuilding competition, just six months after taking up the sport. The contest was the INBA South Australian Natural Physique Titles, where she placed a close second in her class.
A 72-Year-Old California Bodybuilder who still works out six days every week and has a better body than most 25-year-olds. Way to go!
Jim Morris has been bodybuilding for about 50 years and shows no signs of slowing down. If we had a bodybuilder of the month award, we’d give it to ol’ Jim here:
Hey everyone, it's Dane Fletcher. I've finally returned from my extended holiday vacation. I been to hundreds of different gyms and seen a lot of different types of bodybuilders. Personally, I’ve been strength training for 10+ years, and I thought: let’s give the people of Zen Habits my method for building the exercise habit.
You’ve probably tried it several times. You’re fed up with your skinny look or overweight body. You decide to finally do something about it. So you take a gym membership. Some friends decide to join you. After a few weeks however, your friends don’t show up anymore. Then you end up alone. And eventually you quit.
Yeah I know, this happens all the time. I’ve seen it over and over again. I know what you’re thinking. How come some people can stick with it and others not? What is their secret?
I’ll first tell you what it is not: it’s not discipline, it’s not willpower. Discipline and willpower only work in the short-term.
What works in the long-term is making exercise a habit. That’s their secret. And that’s what this post is about — 7 ways to build the exercise habit.
1. Set your Goal. What do you want to achieve?
*Bigger muscles? *Less fat? *More strength? * More speed?
Exercising can be used for several means. Before you take a gym membership, start by setting a definite goal. What is it that you want?
Don’t try to achieve more than 1 thing at a time. Start with one goal. Once you have attained it, you can work towards a second goal.
2. Set a Deadline. Set a date by which you will reach your goal. Write your goal and deadline on a piece of paper and put it somewhere you can see it multiple times a day.
A good place would be on your nightstand. Look at it on waking up and before going to bed. This will act as a constant reminder of your goal.
3. Make a Plan. Once you have set your goal, you must back it up with a plan.
*Which exercises will you perform? *How many sets and reps will you do? * How many times a week will you go the gym?
Your time is precious. Any minute in the gym must bring you closer towards the achievement of your goal. So choose a solid training program. If you’re a total beginner to strength training, read Starting Strength. It’s the best place to start.
4. Exercise First Thing in the Morning. When you’ve just had a tough day at work, it can be hard to train for another hour at the gym. A solution is to exercise first thing in the morning:
*Wake up early * Eat breakfast *Prepare the stuff you need for work *Go to the gym
One hour later, you’re another step closer towards the achievement of your goal. And you have your whole day to do whatever you need to do.
5. Stick to your Plan. This is something I experienced on numerous occasions. The days you don’t feel like exercising, are often your best days. Maybe it’s the mind-body connection: the body says no, but the mind says go. Thus the body eventually says go too. I don’t know.
Whatever it is, when it’s the day to train, it’s the day to train. Make no excuses, go the gym. If you don’t feel 100% healthy, still go the gym, but train at a lower intensity. The fact that you’ve been there, is more important than the quality of your training. And as I wrote above, sometimes it can turn out into one of your most productive workouts.
The more you exercise, the more you build the habit. Stick to your plan.
6. Train With Someone Who Has The Exercise Habit. If you’re training partner quits, you’ll probably end up quitting too. But if your training partner hangs on, you’ll take it as a challenge.
Next time you go the gym, look around you. Look at the people who exercise. Find someone who is serious with his training. Take the initiative: ask him if you can train with him. If you choose the right person, he’ll accept your request. Most people know that getting into exercising is not easy, they know because they’ve been there.
A good training partner will motivate you & help you achieve your goal. If not, keep on looking.
7. Be confident. You can achieve whatever you want, if you believe that you can do it. Having a clear goal and a plan will already arm you with self-confidence.
Know that it will take 30 days to build the exercise habit. During the first 30 days you’ll need to push yourself to the gym. After 30 days it will become easier: the habits starts to take over, pushing you the gym.
Write this next to your goal and deadline: “If they can do it, I can do it”
Before we discuss it let's look at the word diet. Most bodybuilders do not look forward to it but it is not exactly what you think. The word diet is defined as "food and drink regularly provided or consumed".
So don't be worried when you hear the word diet mentioned because you are on a diet everyday. So in a sense what you had at your last meal is part of your current diet. The following body builder diet will involve foods and eating habits that have been established for you to get the best results.
There will always be a bit of controversy surrounding the matter of what it is that makes up a great body building workout routine. This type of controversy is essentially rooted in the particular personal preferences of the person working out, as some people have very strong opinions on what works and what does not, and different exercises will product different results depending on who is completing them. A good example of this is regarding that of carbohydrate restriction.
Some feel that cutting carbs will allow you to drop weight while others feel that cutting carbs completely is not necessary at all. In this case, both are in fact correct because weight loss is actually based on calorie restriction so one can cut calories by reducing that of carbs, fat or protein, or a combination of these. There truly are both good and bad carbs, and therefore the issue is on how you decide which are good and which aren’t.
For example, bad carbs would consist of such things as white bread, potatoes, white cereals, soft drinks, ice cream, instant white rice, and ‘fat-free’ foods. Basically anything white has been processed, and therefore they contain fewer nutrients and more carbohydrates. Some of the available food items that contain good carbs are: whole grain bread, legumes, brown rice, sweet potatoes, pasta, apples, pears, grapefruit, lettuce, broccoli, spinach, and celery.
Body Building Routine Ideas
There is various body building routine ideas you can choose from, and with the incredulous amount of body building routine ideas and programs out there, it can often be an arduous and frustrating task trying to decide which one is best for you. An important thing to remember in any body building routine is that you should never overwork yourself, and so if it is necessary for you to split up your workouts through the week, then you should do so.
A body building routine can help you to increase the strength of your muscles, and maintain the integrity of your bones, as well as improve your balance, coordination, and mobility. As well, body building can even help to reduce and relieve the signs and symptoms of many chronic diseases. There are thus many advantages to body building, and just remember to consult with a physician before beginning any type of body building workout, or exercise of any sort for that matter.
Casey won the Mister America contest in the most spectacular fashion in the history of such contests in addition to the Mister America title, he won the Most muscular Man in America title and the subdivisions for Best Arms, Best Back, Best Chest and Best Legs. And at 19 years old he is the youngest Mister America winner up to this point in time.
Casey trained with Arnold Schwarzenegger, Frank Zane, and Arthur Jones. Casey plans to build a certification school for trainers. This will be a complete training facility that will train trainers in a state-of-the-art facility that is medically supervised. Potential trainers will come from all over the southeast to learn to be fitness instructors.
Told he was too narrow-shouldered – a condition then considered insurmountable – he persevered and packed on prodigious mounds of delt muscle which, coupled with the greatest arms in bodybuilding, enabled him to present front double-biceps shots that worked up a crowd like no other.
Casey stresses the importance of a fitness routine... he helps clients with motivation, nutrition, and technique. He has helped people that are obese, in rehabilitation, or injured. He has worked with professional athletes and movie stars.
Bodybuilding Training - 4 Days Per Week Workout Routine
As a bodybuilder there is nothing to say you should train a certain amount of times per week to achieve the maximum amount of muscle growth since that all depends on the individual and what works for one person might not work for someone else. The following 4 days per week bodybuilding training routine is one of a number of successful training routines I use to both maintain and add more muscle mass.
Building muscle comes down to intensity and you should ideally train your body with maximum intensity every time you workout. Intensity is not about how heavy the weight is, it is about how hard you push yourself and usually means having very short breaks in between sets. With a 4 days per week bodybuilding training program you are able to train every muscle group once per week with maximum intensity and still allow another 3 days per week entirely devoted to resting the body. It is only while the body is resting that any growth can take place after having stimulated your muscles in the gym.
I would ideally train this 4 day routine on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays with Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday as rest days.
Monday
Chest
Flat dumbbell flyes 3 sets x 10 reps
Incline bench press 3 sets x 10 reps
Decline dumbbell press 3 sets x 10 reps
Seated flye machine 3 sets x 10 reps
Biceps
Standing 21’s x 3 sets
Dumbbell preacher curls 3 sets x 10 reps
Hammer curls 3 sets x 10 reps
Tuesday
Quadriceps and Hamstrings
Squats 3 sets x 10 reps
Leg press 3 sets x 15 reps
Leg extensions 3 sets x 10 reps
Walking lunges 3 sets x 10 reps
Stiff leg deadlifts 3 sets x 10 reps
Lying leg curls 3 sets x 10 reps
Wednesday
Day Off
Thursday
Shoulders
Smith machine press in front 3 sets x 10 reps
Dumbbell side lateral raises 3 sets x 10 reps
Dumbbell front raises 3 sets x 10 reps
Triceps
Close grip bench presses 3 sets x 10 reps
Lying triceps extensions 3 sets x 10 reps
Triceps dips in between two flat benches 3 sets x 10 reps
Friday
Back
Bent over barbell rows 3 sets x 10 reps
One arm dumbbell rows 3 sets x 10 reps
Long pulley rows 3 sets x 10 reps
Wide grip lat pulldowns 3 sets x 10 reps
Close underhand grip lat pulldowns 3 sets x 10 reps
Rear delts
Seated bent over dumbbell side laterals 3 sets x 10 reps
Rear delt machine 3 sets x 10 reps
Traps
Standing barbell shrugs 3 sets x 10 reps
Saturday and Sunday
Off
This 4 days per week bodybuilding training routine is my current training schedule. I sometimes incorporate triple drop sets for some exercises mentioned in this program when I feel like I need to push the intensity level up a notch. I always train every set to failure although I often mix up the order of the exercises so I keep shocking my muscles each week, that way they don’t get used to the same routine and always keep growing. Sometimes it is also wise to increase the reps to 15 reps per set to change the tempo from the usual 10 reps per set. This is the basic 4 day workout plan, but remember to change reps and exercises each week to trick the muscles into new levels of growth. IceRocket Tags:steroids, steroid, anabolic, anabolics, anabolic steroids, bodybuilding, supplements, creatine, protein, getanabolics.com, getanabolics, dane fletcher Technorati Tags:steroids, steroid, anabolic, anabolics, anablic steroids, bodybuilding, supplements, creatine, protein, getanabolics.com, getanabolics, dane fletcher
Juliana Malacarne, while having one of the coolest names out there, also possesses one of the best physiques on this planet. Her abs are total and complete perfection...and the rest obviously not too shabby either! Check out this quck video of Juliana flexing her amazing abs!
One of the most common questions among bodybuilders and fitness enthusiasts is how often should you train abdominals? The answer depends on what type of abdominal development you wish to attain. In this article we will look at how often you should train the abdominals if you want well developed and chiseled abdominals like a competitive bodybuilder and also look at how often you should train your abs if you simply want a defined six pack like a fitness athlete.
Less is more when it comes to building big and deeply chiseled bodybuilder style abdominal development. When considering how often should you train abdominals for maximum growth and size it is important to train the abs just like you would any other muscle group. I recommend training each muscle group hard and to complete failure once per week although since the abdominals get so much work holding the body upright all day long, they do need quite a bit if stimulation to grow. For this reason I recommend training the abdominals twice per week.
In the first abdominal training session for bodybuilder abdominal development concentrate on 3 sets of 2 different exercises for the upper abdominals and use high reps around 20-30 reps per set. In the second ab training session of the week do another 3 sets of 2 different exercises, that’s 6 sets on each training day, but this time target the lower abdominals. 2 abdominal training sessions is enough each week to stimulate immense growth in the abs but also allows for enough recovery time each week as well since the abdominals need to recover like any other body part. As your abs get stronger, to continue to build thickness in the abs you need to use extra weight like holding a barbell plate when performing the exercise. Like any other body part, as the muscle gets bigger and stronger, you will need to increase the resistance by progressively going heavier.
The answer to how often should you train abdominals if you want a lean six pack without the bulk of a bodybuilder’s abs is just 3 sets of 25 reps at the end of each of your workouts. Although do not train the abs any more than 4 times per week. For a six pack without bulk you need to hit them frequently but without the use of extra weight, your own bodyweight is enough when performing any of the basic movements like crunches, leg raises and so on.
One of my favorite female bodybuilders, Denise Rutkowsky, watch the winning routine in the heavyweight class of the 1993 NPC USA Bodybuilding Championships.
If your goal is to lose fat fast you need to concentrate on just two things, eating right and getting enough exercise. Unfortunately the media, women’s gossip magazines and so on make the idea of how to lose fat fast a much bigger deal than it really is. As long as you keep listening to the media and telling yourself that you can’t lose fat and you certainly can’t lose fat fast than that is what you will get. Start using some positive autosuggestion or positive affirmations instead of telling yourself you can’t lose fat and the moment those positive affirmations filter into your subconscious mind you might be surprised when you start to lose fat fast.
While telling yourself at regular times throughout the day that you can lose fat fast, the first thing you can do is have a long hard look at your regular diet. When considering how to lose fat fast you need to cut back firstly on any of the foods you eat containing sugar. If you eat a lot of sweets, chocolate, ice cream or drink sugary carbonated drinks you will never lose fat fast and probably never lose fat at all. Don’t get down on yourself either and start saying things like “I can’t do it” or “It’s just too hard”. Comments like these will never help you to lose fat fast and will never help you with any of your other endeavors in life.
You don’t need to do everything at once just start by cutting back on the sweets at first and then once you have successfully done that than cut back on the complex carbohydrates like bread and potatoes especially and only eat moderate amounts of other complex carbs like rice, pasta and cereals. If you can do this you are well on your to understanding how to way to lose fat fast. Just remember it’s only one step at a time if you want to lose fat fast. If you try and do everything at once you won’t lose fat fast you will probably get overwhelmed by it all and quit and than you won’t lose fat at all.
After you have successfully cut back on the sweets and complex carbohydrates it’s time for phase 3 to lose fat fast and that is to cut back on your fat intake. Cut back on foods that contain a lot of oil, stop using butter and margarine all together, you simply do not need butter and margarine in your diet at all. Watch the amount of fat in the meats you eat, try to only buy the lean cuts of meat and chicken without skin. If you eat out avoid the fatty foods and only eat junk foods or fast foods as a special treat if you have been sticking to your lose fat fast diet with consistency.
Ok, now you have got your diet under control it’s time to incorporate some exercise to really help you lose fat fast. How to lose fat fast comes down mainly to your diet I believe but exercising will allow you to speed up the process and how much you speed it up is completely up to you and basically depends on how much time you devote to exercising.
The most effective way regarding how to lose fat fast when it comes to exercising is simply walking. Yes walking is the best exercise for losing fat fast. Let me explain why. When you walk it is a generally low intensity exercise for the body so your body only needs a simple source of fuel and the fuel source it will use is fat. If you run it is a much more high intensity exercise and requires a more potent source of fuel than fat can provide so it first uses the available food in your system as energy and than when that runs out it uses amino rich muscle tissue. So in a nut shell if you want to know how to lose fat fast you are better off walking instead of running.
The best time to exercise is in the morning before you eat and at this time your body will use more fat for energy than at any other time in the day. So to lose fat fast it comes down to a simple step by step procedure like I just mentioned. First cut back on the sweets, then cut back on the complex carbs, then lower your total fat intake and lastly you need to exercise as often as you have time. The more you exercise the better you will feel and this will accelerate your quest to lose fat fast and when you do you can reward yourself with a special treat of what ever food you like. If you can get on the track to lose fat fast you need to reward yourself every now and then because you deserve it. IceRocket Tags:steroids, steroid, anabolic, anabolics, anabolic steroids, bodybuilding, supplements, creatine, protein, getanabolics.com, getanabolics, dane fletcher Technorati Tags:steroids, steroid, anabolic, anabolics, anablic steroids, bodybuilding, supplements, creatine, protein, getanabolics.com, getanabolics, dane fletcher
