Busting Washboard Abs Myths

In your quest for washboard abs, you will hear a few myths that you need to ignore if you are going to finally get what you want.

The myth that you cannot exercise deep abdominal muscles unless you use a piece of equipment is untrue.  Please do not throw away any money on such useless machines, they are absolutely unnecessary.

 The myth that you will not get a six pack unless you do hundreds of crunches is also false.  All of the abdominal muscles are not worked by crunches, and those that are receive only light stimulation.

Third, while it is true that you need to cut your body fat to uncover your abdominals, starving yourself is not a good way to lose that fat.  Starvation diets really cause your body to feed on the very muscle you are trying to increase.

The last myth is that it is likely that some pill can give you a flat stomach.  Thousands of people have wasted thousands of dollars pursuing such dreams – please don’t waste yours.  If you eat right, get enough sleep, and train well you will get the body you want.

Now that these myths are busted, how do you get the midsection you want?

There are a lot of muscle building and/or fat loss programs that will help you lose your belly fat and build your abdominals.  See these reviews for Mike Geary’s program and Craig Ballantyne’s program.  There are many other programs available – if you feel you need some assistance beyond this article, find a program that is right for you.  The most important thing in any program is that it fits your lifestyle so you will do it.  For right now, let’s concentrate on the main components of a six pack ab routine.

Fat loss will not expose a six pack if the pack is not there – only a good training plan will bulk up your abs so they can be seen once the fat is gone. In the same way you exercise then rest your biceps or quads, you also have to work then rest your abdominals for them to grow.  Tax them even more after the rest period.  You have to do this in the proper sequence and frequency to get good results.                                         

Sequence

The muscles that are important to you should be trained first in your routine.  So, if you want strong abdominals, do your abdominal exercises first to get the most out of your high energy level.

Frequency

Muscles need more rest when they have been trained more intensely.  Abs will only get large with a very intense workout, so you should do high intensity workouts only a few times a week.  Two to four intense workouts a week give your ab muscles time to rest, recouperate and grow.  Be sure to work upper abdominals, lower abdominals and obliques or you will end up with only a two pack.

For more information on which body movements exercise each group of muscle, see the workout section of this article.
 

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Simple Tips to Gain Muscle

Here are some basic muscle gaining tips.

1) Diet: eat clean. To gain muscle and a minimum amount of fat, you need to eat a good lean quality protein source. About 1 – 2 grams per pound of lean body weight must be divided over 5 – 6 meals per day.

Carbohydrates: Complex fibrous carbs in the form of fresh vegetables are best for gaining lean weight. Potatoes and other starches should be eaten early in the day so they can be burned off while you’re active, preferably as a post workout meal.

Good fats need to be taken in at each meal: olive oil, flax oil, Udos essential oils or fish oils. Eating wild-caught salmon 2 or 3 times a week is a good way to get your fish oils.

Note that every meal must have protein, carbohydrates and good fats. Stay away from sugars. If you have to take them, then eat them in the form of whole fruit early in the day.

Make sure to get your nutritional calories from foods, not liquids.

Make water your main drink, and drink enough each day. Here’s a simple rule of thumb to determine your basic water needs. Divide your body weight in half and turn that figure into ounces. That is the figure you need to start with, you may need more if you are really active. Example: you weigh 100 lbs. 100 / 2 = 50 ounces of water.

From those mentioned above, a few exceptions include fruits, vegetables and protein shakes.

When made with the right ingredients, these can be very effective fast meal replacements, snacks or post workout meals. Precision nutrition has a whole section on these types of shakes with a lot of recipes and they are categorized as either anytime or post workout shakes.

You will need to determine your caloric needs to maintain your present mass, and then add about 15% – 20% more calories to that to increase your weight and gain muscle.

Muscle gaining tips for exercise:

Go for the big compound lifts to get your body to burn more calories. These would be: Clean and jerks, squats, deadlifts, squat presses, benches; flat and incline, dips and pull-ups. Bear in mind that the isolated lifts must always come after the big lifts.As far as reps go, vary it. Some days go for strength with heavier weight and lower reps. Other days go for more reps with a lighter weight. Keep the intensity high always, and you need to be flirting with failure on every working set. I like to do one warm up set and 3 – 4 working sets.

Get in get your workout done, if you’re spending more than an hour you are doing too much and/or you are not working intensely enough. Overtraining produces the same bad effects as under training. Remember that training provides the stimulus to get the muscle to recover and grow. During rest, the muscle actually recovers and grows. So get your 8 hours of sleep in and don’t overtrain.

Basically, the tips to gain muscles are:

1) Eat clean and get enough lean protein.

2) Exercise intensely enough to stimulate the muscle to grow without injuring yourself

3) Make sure to get plenty of rest to allow your muscles to get better and grow.

4) Rinse and repeat. KISS (keep it simple, stupid)

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Tips for Building Muscle

Focusing on diet, cardiovascular exercises and light weight lifting will help you if your main goal is to “get in shape” or “be more healthy”.  But if you want to really grow big muscles, then the following muscle building tips will help you in your weight room workout. 

These tips will work with any muscle building program and you can find more about building muscles here

1.  Muscle building requires well executed sets with heavy weights.  Using heavier weights trains your muscles more, so you should rest more between sets – one to three minutes.

2.  Warm up should consist of the same exercises you intend to do in your program, but with reduced weight and fewer repetitions.  Only 5 – 6 reps are required.  If you perform more than this, you will boost lactic acid or possibly get fatigued.   Warm up does not mean stretch – stretching doesn’t prevent injury.  If you have a muscle you intend to work on and it is very tight, you can stretch to loosen that muscle – but stretches are otherwise not required.

3.  Don’t scrutinize every move you make.  Go to the gym, complete the workout to the best of your ability and get stronger.  When you are done go home and don’t think about that workout any more – there is no need to stress out over what may have gone wrong at the gym.  Stress keeps you from performing to the best of your ability.

4.  Train both sides of each joint the same during the week.  So during your training week if you do two sets of biceps exercises, also do two sets of triceps exercises.  Make sure you do this for each set of muscles around a given joint.

5.  Most importantly, resolve that your goal is to build massive muscle – then do whatever it takes to meet that goal.  You can’t say “I don’t have time to workout” and achieve your goal – say instead, “I will wake up an hour earlier each morning to exercise”.  Your body changing workouts should only take 2 – 3 hours a week so once you’ve made up your mind to change your body, find the time and then just do it.

Follow these tips and read this article for specific exercise ideas or this article for some more muscle building ideas and you will be well on your way to meeting your goals

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Natural Ways To Raise Levels Of HGH

Growth Hormone has been the talk of bodybuilding and muscle building circles for a number of years now. Research has shown that having high levels of human growth hormone can be beneficial if you are trying to build muscle especially as you get older. However, the practice of using somatropin by injection is a contenious practice as there are a number of serious side effects associated with injecting human growth hormone.

We all produce growth hormone. It is most abundant when we are young as it is required for the rapid body devlopment that happens during this stage of life. HGH also plays a role in regulating our metabolism. The decline of hgh release by the pituitary gland starts shortly after puberty and accelerates into adulthood. This is why bodybuilders see HGH injections as a means to build bigger muscles, as usually their natural levels will have fallen. Natural methods of stimulating growth hormone can be just as effective and have fewer side effects.
 
The most effective is to get an early night and get into a strict sleep routine. The hgh is produced naturally by your body during the first stage of sleep. You will increase the repair and growth of tissue by making sure to get a good night of sleep. If you aren’t getting enough sleep, you’re actually inhibiting the release of HGH and thus the growth of your muscles.

Growth hormone is a natural substance that your system utilizes to stimulate greater fatloss.You have probably noticed many sites selling hgh pills that claim to raise your own levels of HGH. High levels in your body are a quickest route to burning body fat! Don’t expect to get any extra hgh release from low level cardio routines. The best way to increase HGH is performing high intensity cardio for 30-60 seconds or so, followed by a minute or two of walking or low intensity cardio. This is called High Metabolic Training.

This system of maximum metabolic program will raise the production of this powerful substance while rapidly burning calories.Try wind sprints if you want one of the most proven exercise routines. Other fabulous workout routines are step aerobics and stair climbing. You can be real hard core and jump rope on a mini-tramp.

Intense muscle developing sets of maximum weight squats are an excellent alternative. You need to be lifting at least 80% of your maximum. Ten sets of 5 reps is more beneficial than 5 sets of ten reps. Rest between sets for 30 to 45 seconds.If you want increased fat loss, rest for just 30 seconds.

An important part of natural hgh increase is a healthy diet. Supplement your diet with way protein. Maybe even try one of the many hgh supplements available in the marketplace.

Naturally increasing your hormone levels is generally a better health decision. An additional advantage is avoiding all the potential hgh side effects that have been documented with injections.

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About The Ultimate Abs

The perfectly shaped abdominals in bodybuilding magazine pictures probably reflect best the notion of ultimate abs. If flattening the abdomen is one first objective for lots of people who go to the gym, getting the six pack is often the next goal they target. The issue is that so far, there is no clear cut path towards the ultimate abs, and even professional trainers have different opinions and various approaches to muscle training. The common grounds on which they work is made up of a well-rounded routine with a variety of consistent exercises. Thus, from the standard crunches and sit ups, fitness experts have developed such variations that allow for angle moves, versatility and efficiency of training.

Planning the workout routine seems like a good method towards developing ultimate abs. Yet, confusing advice makes things harder for the beginner, because not even trainers can agree on the standard workout. Some coaches recommend four workouts while other go for five or six, with the mention that the resting period is also important. The program should also include a special warm-up and a cool down part so that the intense activity is started and completed harmoniously.

It is false to assume that the ultimate abs will grow out of a very severe training routine dedicated to the abdominal muscles. The thing is that there should be a balance in every training program. You make a big mistake if you treat your abs differently from the rest of the muscle groups. Full body training contributes to the burning down of the fat deposits and their replacement with lean muscle mass. If stair climbing, aerobics and rope jumping do not sound like good solutions for you, try dancing, climbing, cycling, swimming and other sports. Even water skiing and surfing can get you in an excellent physical shape.

As long as you commit to an intense physical activity regularly, the muscles receive the necessary effort and workout training so as to be able to get stronger and firmer. The ultimate abs therefore result from harmonious sports activities and not from chaotic or very persistent crunches and sit ups. If you only perform these two types of exercises, chances are that you’ll tone the abdominals, but you’ll never be able to see how beautifully shaped they are because of the fat layers under the skin. Hence, the approach to fitness needs to be both smart and moderate.

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