In Build Muscle Mass - 6 Keys to Muscle Building Success - Part I, we discussed some of the main factors
and principles that affect putting together the proper weight training
routine to give you the most muscle building bang for your buck.
Some of the things we discussed include:

Your muscle fiber type
Your bone structure
Your ability to recover from weight training workouts
How strong you are
How much sleep you get
Your nutrition program
And more

Now lets look at six muscle building keys you can use when putting together
your next weight training program.

* Make sure you warm up

This sounds pretty simple but most people I see lifting weights in the gym
completely ignore proper warm up. And then others warm up way too much,
which negatively affects their actual workout. Warm up just enough to
be able to allow your muscles to fully contract during your working sets.
Studies have shown that a properly warmed up muscle can achieve 20 percent
more muscle stimulation.

A warm up should do just that - warm the muscle and flush blood into it.
Your warm up shouldn’t have you exerting yourself or working hard. Here’s
a good example using the bench press. Let’s say you will be bench pressing
250 pounds for 3 sets of 3 reps. Your warm up could go as follows:

Bar x 20 reps
95 pounds x 12 reps
135 pounds x 6 reps
185 pounds x 3 reps
220 pounds x 2 reps

Work Sets
250 x 3
250 x 3
250 x 3

* Cycle Your Training

Now, I’m not talking about some complicated and convoluted periodization plan.
I’m talking about keeping things simple by going all out in your workouts for
four to six weeks and then having either a very low intensity week or even
staying out of the gym completely for a week before getting into another all
out phase of four to six weeks. This will help your muscle building efforts
by allowing you to recover completely and avoid overtraining.

* Use Variation In Your Training

This is more for staying fresh mentally than an absolute requirement for building
muscle. But if you get bored from your workout, you won’t work out with as much
intensity, even if just subconsciously. A good way to use variety is to incorporate
it into your phase training. Every time you start up a new four to six week training
phase, consider using a slightly different routine so you stay motivated and challenged.

We’ll discuss the next three muscle building keys in Part III.

Gregg Gillies is the founder of http://www.buildleanmuscle.com
His muscle building articles have appeared in Ironman Magazine. He has written two books
and is a regular contributor to Body Talk Magazine. Grab a copy of his free report Mass Building Tips! at http://www.massbuildingtips.com

For attaining peak performance in body building it is imperative that the bodybuilder uses the right nutritional supplements.

Supplements play a big part in male body building diet programs because our diets often do no contain the necessary vitamins and nutrients our bodies require to for increased muscle mass and fat loss at the same time.

Luckily for the bodybuilder, the nutritional supplement industry now provides more pills and more powders than ever before.

With a choice of chemical-based and natural supplements, it is always wise to place preference on the many natural body building supplements available today. Not only do they help to speed up the muscle building process, they are also more in harmony with the body than their chemical counterparts.

Natural bodybuilding supplements play a vital role because they feed the body with the nutrients required for muscle growth. These nutrients are not necessarily present, in the required quantities, in the staple diets that have reduced nutritional value due to cooking.

One must choose body building supplements wisely, because there are supplements that are very dangerous if not used properly or if used in incorrect quantities. Furthermore, the right time, with food, with water, and avoidance if you have certain medical conditions are also important considerations.

Some supplements are made to protect muscles and joints against injury, some are used when you want to put on weight, others improve your circulation, plus a host of other supplements for very specific applications and benefits. You must pay attention to each body building supplement that you plan on taking to ensure that there will not be interaction between supplements that could affect your health.

If you are unsure, then it is wise not take a body building nutritional supplement. Alternatively, ask your doctor or pharmacist about the supplement in question.

You need to finalize your diet and supplements only after a professional has evaluated your body weight and height so that the person can recommend the best combination of supplements for maximum fat loss and maximum muscle gain.

The goal of bodybuilding as a sport is to improve your health while providing you with an enviable physique that is attained through long hours of training and strict diets. The correct supplements will help maintain your health by feeding your body with vitamins and the nutrients that are missing from your daily diet.

For more href="http://www.informationattendant.com/category/bodybuilding/">information on bodybuilding visit InformationAttendant.com, where you can also find a href="http://www.informationattendant.com/">selection of information and knowledge with RSS feeds for syndication.

There are certain steps that a bodybuilder must follow when doing weight training. These techniques almost always include improved form to make the exercising harder as opposed to easier.

There are many different bodybuilding techniques can you can use to improve your physique. These include pyramids, negatives, drop sets, twenty-ones, giant steps, partial reps, and forced reps. These are all wonderful techniques to be used according to your requirements.

Using the technique of constant tension without reaching the locking point is very effective in some exercises. Full contraction plus full range stretch is important, which means the bodybuilder must perform every rep of every exercise at the full range of motion.

A bodybuilding technique that enables the bodybuilder to thoroughly work out a single muscle group is called the giant set. The giant set consists of three different exercises performed successively, focusing on a specific muscle. This can be done for every muscle but one must use it sparingly on the back.

Drop sets are a good way to round off a workout for specific muscles. They give you a pumped-up feeling in the muscles and consume the last bit of energy left in the muscles.

Twenty-ones is a technique that works every area of the muscle as opposed to a single range.

Another good technique is constantly thinking “maintain tension,” while you intentionally increase the tension on the muscles while doing the rep.

Other bodybuilding technique that you can use super sets that are good for exercising a particular range of muscles, completely exhausting the muscle fibers, and working two separate groups of muscle.

Slowing down with your reps can also help. Slow repetition is often more effective repetition, because this small change in technique can help improve form as well as boost muscular development.

You can employ any one of the many bodybuilding techniques. You need to vary your technique frequently so that your muscles do not get used to a particular exercise.

For more href="http://www.informationattendant.com/category/bodybuilding/">information on bodybuilding visit InformationAttendant.com, where you can also find a href="http://www.informationattendant.com/">selection of information and knowledge with RSS feeds for syndication.

You see, then it comes to bodybuilding, you want to get results. You want to be able to go to the gym, workout, and gain muscle mass, lose fat and get ripped. But the problem with many guys who do weight training, is that they workout at the gym 6 to 7 times a week, sometimes for over an hour each time.

And after about 6 months of doing this, they haven’t got the great body that they wanted to get!

It’s real frustrating, especially as you’re putting in the hard work.

So in this article, let’s go through how to get a bodybuilding workout that works to build muscle mass and size. A bodybuilding workout routine that’s effective includes workouts that do these things:

1. The bodybuilding program stimulates each muscle group about once every
5-7 days. This is because over stimulation will not let the group grow adequately before the next time at the gym.

2. The muscle workout program works the muscles in such a way that causes enough stimulation to get the muscle to grow. This can be with supersets or with a program that targets a muscle group (eg chest, back, shoulders, arms, legs, or abs etc) in an effective way at each workout.

3. A program that has the right sets and reps to cause both the fast acting fibres and slow acting fibres to grow. Which means bigger muscles in a shorter amount of time.

4. A workout that has changes from week to week in terms of more or less intense. This is because it will stimulate the muscles to grow more. It’s a natural bodybuilding technique that is used by the pros that many guys don’t know about.

5. A diet plan that gives enough protein, but not the same amount all the time.

This also means more stimulation for muscle growth.

There are more factors that this that are important. See the site in the resource box below for the bodybuilding workouts routines that gives results.

So there you have it.

If you workout in the right way, your body building efforts will really show, and you’ll get a great body.

If you use a program that doesn’t work, then you won’t see the great results.

So go ahead and get a great body, and choose a great bodybuilding workout routine.

Want to know which bodybuilding workouts will have you build muscle fast? Then see Lucas Ryan’s website on bodybuilding workouts and routines for the best bodybuilding programs to build muscle fast, lose fat and get ripped. Go there to get the top 3 muscle building workout plans now.

Muscle building technique is very important. Without a proper technique you are going to waste a lot of time and energy without getting the results you want. Here are some tips that will help you to build muscles fast:

1. Set achievable, realistic goals. Remember that muscle training is the process which requires a lot of time and persistence. Do not fall for advertising of different magical pills that will build you muscles in a week or in a month. Realize your potential and don’t get upset if you don’t immediately see the results. Adjust your goal so it would be realistic and achievable.

2. Slow, controlled, full-range motion is the key. Do not rush your work-out, try to do all the exercise correctly. Control your motions and concentrate on a specific muscle or muscle group you are working with. Make the full-range motions to make all of the muscle fibers work and grow.

3. Use appropriate weights. Increase your weight slowly and use the right weight for every muscle. If your muscle is shaking on the first try then the weight is too heavy for you. Change it and find the one you can work with.

4. Use mixed weights for compound exercises. There are some compound exercises that involve strong muscles and weaker muscles, so that strong muscles do not get adequate stimulation because weaker muscles are already exhausted. The technique is to work the stronger muscle first with the isolated move, then without a rest do the compound exercise. In this way already tensed strong muscle get the proper stimulation.

5. Rest between sets. Few minutes break between every set is very important, as your muscles recover a little and can work with even higher weights and get good, intense work-out. If the rest is too short, then muscles get tired before they reach their highest potential.

6. Proper rest between the trainings. Muscle building is not only about hard work but also about a proper rest. Take at least 48 hours between the work-outs of the particular muscle. Some trainers recommend having a one week rest every two months. They say that muscles are growing much better after the good rest.

Free report reveals how to “Avoid Fatal 8 Muscle-Building Mistakes”. To discover 8 crucial, powerful steps that should be applied to ANY muscle-building program visit: http://www.muscle-building-mistakes.com/

There’s a lot of people who claim to know the “latest” muscle-building strategies. I’m not talking about steroids; if you want to have a crazy temper, watch your testicles shrink and kidneys stop functioning, hey, knock yourself out! Seriously, you just need a real and safe muscle building diet. My friend is doing that now. His problem hasn’t really been the need to lose weight; what he wants is lean muscle. The question is: what is a decent muscle building diet?

When it comes to a worthy muscle building diet, you should always remember that what you put in your body is crucial. It’s tough with a Micky D’s on every corner, I know. Remember, fast food has pretty much nothing you need, unless you stay away from all the fried stuff, the bread, soda, and ice cream (anything left?). For a decent muscle building diet, you will require lots of protein, so to be fair to the lovers of all things drive-through, a burger minus the bun is OK, grilled chicken (without the skin) too. I read a simple idea by a Dr. Peter Gott, a syndicated newspaper columnist. His advice is to avoid the “white stuff”, as in flour and sugar. (He didn’t mean eggwhites or milk.) :p

Another healthy idea is to add whey protein daily. You can get it online or in healthfood stores. My friend has been having good results with it. The protein is good for muscle tissue.

One of the key elements that must go along with any muscle building diet is weight training. You want to build up your arms, legs, shoulders, pecs and abs? Great! Now you have to adopt an effective, safe regimen. What you’ll ideally want is high weights and low reps. Some guys do super-slow sets; count to ten, hold for five, count to ten again on the return. This is an efficient way to get results. Jon Petit got awesome results by changing his diet, jogging with ankle weights, and spending a lot of time in the “House of Pain” at Glenbard High in Carol Stream IL. You can do it: start your workouts and muscle building diet today. I will too, right after my nap.

Best,

K. Petit
http://www.squidoo.com/JPATT/

PATT is a non-profit, Parents And Teens Together. Check out this lens. The author lives in California and supports PATT from “the left coast”. Get more tips on staying fit at
http://www.playourplanet.com

When it comes to constructing the ultimate weight training program to build muscle, exercise selection is a very important component. You build muscle fastest with compound weight training exercises. Any bodybuilding program that focuses on machines and isolation weight training exercises is a complete waste of time.

Below are the worst weight training exercises on the planet and should be avoided at all costs if you want to build muscle fast.

1) Smith Machine Squats- Squats are the best weight training exercise you can do in order to build muscle fast. Doing them on a Smith machine however, is a huge mistake. Squatting in a Smith machine is very hard on the knees and causes the lifter to develop what is known as a pattern overload syndrome. The smith machine isolates the legs while taking the trunk out of the movement. In a normal free weight squat your lower back and abs must stabilize the weight and every muscle group must work in unison. This is how the body functions, as a unit, never in isolation. This can lead to severe imbalances and injuries.

2) Leg Extensions- Compound weight training exercises are the best muscle building exercises there are. Leg extensions are an isolation movement which do very little to build muscle. This movement also creates shearing forces on the knee and should be avoided at all costs.

3) Hack Squats- While squats are the superior muscle building exercise, this movement falls into the exact same category as the smith machine squat and should be avoided for all the same reasons.

4) Abduction/ Adduction machines- This is the one where you sit with your legs spread and strapped into the machine. You perform this weight training exercise by opening up or spreading your legs and then closing them. This is another isolation movement which will do nothing to build muscle. On top of that, you will look like a girl if you do it.

5) Abdominal Crunch Machines- The abs never work in isolation in the real world. In fact, the abs do not ever contract consciously. They contract unconsciously as a way to protect the spine. The abdominal muscles never work without the use of the hip flexors yet these isolation crunch machines are specifically designed to take the hip flexors out of the movement. For these reasons, this is a very ineffective weight training exercise for building muscle.

6) Ab Roller Devices- This apparatus is a version of the aforementioned crunch machines and is another useless piece of equipment. This device takes the neck completely out of the movement which is exactly what you don’t want to do. Contracting and or flexing the muscles of the neck during an abdominal crunch is exactly what you want to be doing and is physiologically correct. Another waste of time in the quest to build muscle fast.

7) Smith Machine Bench Press- The bench press is a great muscle building exercise but doing it in the Smith machine is not a good idea. Much like the Smith Machine Squat, this exercise will cause you to develop a pattern overload and will lead to injury. Pressing on the Smith Machine isolates the pressing muscles and completely eliminates the use of the stabilizer muscles, such as the rotator cuff. This will lead to imbalances that can transfer to serious shoulder injuries. You can’t build muscle when you are injured.

Bench Dips- This is another weight training exercise that I did for many years and now regret. I routinely did this exercise with four 45 pound plates on my lap. Little did I realize at the time that bench dips put your shoulder in a very dangerous position and can eventually lead to serious problems. While this exercise is useful in building muscle it is also dangerous. If shoulder safety is a concern I recommend that you avoid this exercise and stick with parallel bar dips for building muscle.

9) Concentration Curls- When it comes to weight training and building muscle, everybody’s favorite bodypart is biceps. Chin ups and barbell curls are the best weigth training exercises for building huge biceps. Concentration curls are not. This is a pure isolation movement which supposedly puts a “peak” on your biceps. The only problem with that is the fact that it is physiologically impossible to peak your biceps. Muscles grow evenly along the entire length of the tissue from origin to insertion. When looking at the effectiveness of an exercise one of the key determinants in the results that it may produce is the amount of weight that can be lifted. In a concentration curl it is very difficult to lift a great deal of weight and thus it renders the movement ineffective. If you want to build huge biceps, avoid concentration calls.

10) Bench Press to the Neck- This was a big favorite muscle building exercise of Larry Scott and Vince Gironda. It was supposedly a great muscle building exercise for the upper or clavicular pectoral muscles. The problem with this movement is that it will absolutely destroy the shoulders and can easily lead to a pec tear. This is one movement that you should stay very far away from in your quest to build muscle fast.

11) Old School Pec Dec-This is the supposed muscle building exercise machine which has you bend your arms ninety degrees while externally rotating. You place your arms on the pads and then proceed to bring the pads together in front of your body. This is not only dangerous for the shoulder but is absolutely useless and will not build muscle at all.

12) Knee Break Squats- As mentioned earlier, the squat is the best weight training exercise there is for building muscle. Some trainers and coaches have advocated initiating a squat by first breaking at the knees rather than the hips in an effort to put more stress on the quadriceps muscles. The problem is that this also puts unnecessary stress on the knees and severely limits the amount of weight that can be lifted. Squats should be initiated by first breaking at the hips and sitting back and down, not by breaking at the knees and pushing your knees forward as you descend.

These weight training exercises are listed in no particular order. Unfortunately there are many other weight training exercises that are performed on a routine basis by many lifters that are also useless and dangerous. Those listed above just so happen to be the worst. If a weight training exercise causes pain, you should always avoid it. If a weight training exercise is supposed to target a certain muscle group in isolation and requires you to use extremely light weights it is usually best avoided. The exception to this rule would be prehab and rehab type exercises such as external rotation exercises for the rotator cuff.

Train hard, train smart and focus on the big, basic, compound weight training exercises and you will build muscle fast.

Jason Ferruggia is a world famous fitness expert who is renowned for his ability to help people build muscle fast. He is the head training advisor for Men’s Fitness Magazine where he also has his own monthly column dedicated to muscle building. For more muscle building secrets, check out http://www.thehardgainer.com.

The human body needs a certain amount of different nutrients in order to function properly. These nutrients include vitamins, minerals and proteins. The body needs these nutrients every day in order to function correctly and to defend itself from various kinds of diseases. Sometimes a balanced diet is not sufficient enough to fulfill all of the body’s needs, especially when it needs an extra boost of energy such as in the case of bodybuilding. There are many different kinds of nutritional supplements that are available to help with bodybuilding and they are becoming increasingly popular these days. They are all useful for people who want to build strong muscles and want to improve their overall muscular physique.

Bodybuilding nutritional supplements are normally composed of a blend of some vitamins, minerals and natural energy vitalizing substances. These substances are useful to promote the growth of muscles and tissues and help keep them healthy. Fat burning pills are important supplements in this category and they help to speed up the process of the body’s metabolism in order to release energy. Bodybuilding supplements are also sometimes referred to as energy boosters or mass builders.

Creatine is also a kind of bodybuilding supplement. Normally a nutritional supplement is made by combining several different substances that work better and faster when combined than individual substances. Creatine enhancers are used to increase its effectiveness. Supplements rich in nitric oxide also work well as bodybuilding supplements. They usually come in the form of tablets and capsules, but some are also available in liquid & powder form. Creatine and Nitric Oxide are the most popular mass building bodybuilding supplements in the industry today.

When exercising there is a possibility that you can cause damage to your joints. There are certain supplements that are capable of preventing joint injury. They usually consist of chondroitine sulfate and glucosamine sulfate. Testosterone boosters, growth hormones and a blend of herbs and vitamins are also very effective bodybuilding supplements. These supplements help to raise the body’s own testosterone levels and therefore increase strength greatly.

Muscle building and energy boosting drinks are available that are very easy to consume and equally effective. Although there is no real alternative to eating a proper balanced diet, sometimes due to a lack of time we are not able to include all the natural nutrients in our everyday meals. To address this deficiency, you can take a variety of supplements.

Meal replacement supplements are normally found in the form of powdered material and more commonly known as meal replacement powder or MRP. These are rich in protein and fatty acids, so that they can provide the necessary energy boost required by the body. MRP can be mixed in water or milk before consuming. This way they are easier to take and provide the instant energy boost needed just like energy boosting drinks. MRP is mostly recommended for bodybuilders who have no prior experience and require large quantities of energy boosting substances to keep them fit and healthy. There are a lot of different meal replacement packs to choose from so be sure to narrow down your goals and then search for the best product for that purpose.

Nutrition bars, commonly known as meal bars or protein bars are also important to mention when considering bodybuilding supplements. Before using any kind of nutrition bars, don’t forget to consult a health expert because sometimes these bars contain additives that might not be harmful to some people. If you are on any other medication to treat a disease, for example if you are an insulin-dependent diabetic patient then you should always ask their doctor before consuming any type of nutritional supplements. Meal bars can be eaten just before working out, just like with any pre-workout energy drinks. These bars are perfect if your always on the go or are limited for time due to today’s high stressed way of life.

Some natural substances like probiotics are also used in bodybuilding nutritional supplements. These are healthy bacteria that are naturally found in the digestive system, these help with the proper digestion of food. Eating a prescribed amount of these supplements daily helps to speed up the digestive process. If you don’t know where to start then you can search for bodybuilding supplements on the Internet including fat burning pills and energy boosting supplements, but make sure you talk to your dietitian before you consume any of these supplements.

Christopher DiCicco is an owner of a online Nutritional Supplements Store http://www.flexhealthnutrition.com/details/shop/BN-026 and has been involved with health and nutrition for over 20 years. He has written many articles on such topics as Nutritional Supplements, Bodybuilding supplements & weightlifting supplements to name a few.
http://www.flexhealthnutrition.com/details/shop/BN-023

Almost everyone who’s ever picked up a weight is looking for that one perfect muscle building routine that is going to instantly transform them from the 98 pound weakling to a walking freak of nature. Well, I’m here to tell you that the magic muscle building routine doesn’t exist. Not as a specific set in stone weight training routine, anyway. So how can you build muscle mass as quickly as you’d like?

While I believe there are a set of principles that you need to follow, because bodybuilding is a science, it’s also those principles that make it impossible to have a perfect muscle building routine. Not because it can’t exist but because it’s always training. Some of the factors involved in creating a productive weight training routine include:

Your muscle fiber type
Your bone structure
Your ability to recover from weight training workouts
How strong you are
How much sleep you get
Your nutrition program
And more

A number of these things are always changing, a big one being your recovery ability. See, the stronger you get, the more stress your body endures, and the move time you need to recover and grow from your previous workout.

Let’s say you’ve been performing a full body weight lifting workout three days per week, 12 exercises per workout, 2 working sets per exercise. So you’ve been blasting your muscles on this routine for about 12 weeks. You’ve managed to double your strength and put on an amazing 30 pounds of muscle! Guess what? This weight lifting routine is no longer the ideal routine for you because you’ve gotten so strong.

While the typical person has the ability to increase their strength by about 300%, the body has the ability to increase its ability to recover from those workouts by about 50%. So, the stronger you get, the more rest your body needs to recover and grow. This mean, over time, even the most effective muscle building weight training program will need to be changed.

In the upcoming part II, we’ll go through each of the 6 Keys to Muscle Building Success so you can keep growing.

Gregg Gillies is the founder of http://www.buildleanmuscle.com
His muscle building articles have appeared in Ironman Magazine. He has written two books
and is a regular contributor to Body Talk Magazine. Grab a copy of his free ebook Mass Building Tips! at http://www.massbuildingtips.com

This is the first in a series to find out about Creakic. If you are a bodybuilder, strength addict or conditioning freak, this supplement may be for you. Years of research has been done and Creakic promises results that few other supplements do. This article will focus on the frequently asked questions (FAQ’s) regarding Creakic. More in-depth articles concerning Creakic will be coming in the next few days. Creakic is one of the supplements which may change your thought process on your intense training program.

1. What is CREAKIC?

Creakic is a new creatine-based supplement that neutralizes reactive oxygen species (ROS) to maximize creatine absorption by your muscles to support rapid muscle growth. What the heck does that mean to me? Ok, Creakic will help the creatine get into your muscles faster.

2. What’s in it?

Sorry for this but there is no way to put these words into English. Creakic is a molecularly engineered, multipart form of creatine, known chemically as creatine-6,8-thioctic acid-ketoisocaproic acid calcium. See I told you! Regular creatine pills, like creatine ethyl ester, can not neutralize the ROS (don’t worry definitions are coming), so you may only get so-so results.

3. What are Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS)?

These basically are the little toxins that inhibit or slow down the creatine transport process. So they stop the creatine from getting into your muscles and that limits your muscle growth. Never heard of them? Stay tuned for the next article.

4. What is the science behind it?

Creakic is the product of years of research into looking at and solving the one significant problem that other creatine pills have failed to address – reactive oxygen species (ROS). Seemingly, no other creatine pill has been created to actually look at this problem.

5. How do I know it’s the supplement for me?

Depending on your level of activity and where you want to be in your training, Creakic may be the right supplement. You need a way to get more creatine into your muscles. Bottom line, this is what it does.

6. Why is CREAKIC so revolutionary?

Before Creakic, athletes took creatine in pill or powder form, hoping it all went into the muscles. They couldn’t be sure. Research shows Creakic simply recharges your creatine receptors, which basically counters the effects of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and can lead to an impressive rush in strength and muscle gains. It helps the cells become more open to the creatine. Nothing stands in its way to the muscles.

OK, I hope a few of your questions about Creakic have been answered. This seems to not be a run of the mill creatine supplement. Many years of research and study have gone into the creation of this bodybuilding/strength supplement. As with any new supplement, there are always pros and cons as to effectiveness. However, anecdotal claims show very positive results. These will be examined in our next articles, along with reviews, more questions and more science.

Tracey has a strong interest in fitness /nutrition, and is an avid martial artist. Tracey is a researcher and writer on many health related issues. Please visit http://www.creakicreview.org to learn more.