Tips On How To Go About Muscle Body Building

It is important to learn of as many tips as is possible with regard to muscle body building that will help you build up your muscles and keep your body in good shape. To begin with, it is important that you learn to do the right warm up exercises prior to beginning your workout that will enable you to have more exercise outputs and it will also add to your efficiency while also safeguarding you against injuries such as strained muscles or even pulled muscles that are common occurrences.

Need To Recuperate

Another important tip with regard to muscle body building is the need to recuperate properly, which many a bodybuilder often overlooks and which can also result in poor development of the muscles. What you really need to do is to muscle-up and then get adequate rest which will help your muscles to grow, and even getting the right amount of sleep helps in this regard.

While performing muscle body building, you should also not try and train your abs in order to shed weight, which is an activity known as spot reduction and which is almost impossible to achieve, though there does no doubt the fact that you can burn fat by training hard. Still, fat is later reclaimed from other parts of your body prior to it being reclaimed from a particular area on your body which means that training will lead to the burning up of fat from other parts of the body before a particular area of fat is burnt.

You may also consider jogging as well as running to be worthwhile exercises for losing body fat though there is no way by which you can turn fat into muscle, and all you can hope to achieve is to change the body’s composition and at the same time keep your body weight constant.

In addition, to have a realistic chance of gaining from muscle body building, you must also consume at least 2 grams of protein for each pound of weight on your body, which will result in gains in muscles. Furthermore, you should also expect that muscle body building will cause soreness in the muscles, especially on the day following your training and so you will need to rest till the soreness has vanished before returning to your muscle body building.

And, you can also gain more from your muscle body building by keeping a log of your workouts and also remember never to over train for it is really not necessary to workout for long hours since that won’t benefit you all that much and may even do some damage in the process.

Bodybuilding Routines Work Differently For Each Individual

Depending on who designs them, bodybuilding routines can vary to an extent that spans quite a few routines or many, though you can expect that the best routines are those that provide the required results in the shortest possible period of time. Thus, most people would rather choose bodybuilding routines that will maximize the benefits accrued while causing them to perform as little work as is possible, which has given rise to a greater demand for the best in bodybuilding routines.


Copying Is Not The Answer


For budding bodybuilders, it may come as a small surprise to learn that achieving the type of body Arnold Schwarzenegger has is not all about reading up Pumping Iron and copying the moves that Arnie made in his prime. Thus, those who feel that copying bodybuilding routines such as those used by a Mr. Universe or a Mr. Olympias may end up a bit disappointed when their bodies do not become the sculpted masterpieces that Arnold achieved or those of other Mr. Universes.


There is nothing wrong with copying these bodybuilding routines except that you cannot hope to achieve exalted levels in as short a space of time since these routines will not provide you with those kinds of results in less time than is absolutely necessary. And, what works for one person need not work with another person and no bodybuilding routines will provide the same results for everyone, and it does mean using different weights and different exercises as well as different amounts of reps after which you can then expect to have the sculpted body that you so much wanted. Thus, you should be prepared to go through trial and error phases and success and failure will also rise and fall as you try and modify your bodybuilding routines to suit your needs the best.


Another important consideration for you to carefully take into account is the need for change, since even if particular bodybuilding routines are working well for you, they still requires modifying the routines through the addition or elimination of certain exercises which will then help chisel your body the way that you want. In addition, bodybuilding routines can be enhanced further by taking the proper nutrition that will aid your routines.


It is also necessary to realize that bodybuilding routines should not be performed longer than is absolutely necessary, which in most instances would be no longer than seventy-five minutes in a single session and that the maximum sessions you should perform your routines per week should not exceed five. Beyond that, your body may actually wilt under the strain and in any case by overdoing the routines, you will need a longer recuperation period.

About Some Very Common Body Building Techniques

Engaging in weight training requires performance of a number of steps and which also involve learning the correct body building techniques which will help in attaining a better form and which will thus lead to performing harder exercises rather than easier ones. Thus, to improve your physique you will have a number of different body building techniques to choose from including negatives, pyramids and drop sets, giant steps as well as twenty-ones, partial reps and even forced reps.

Choose According To Your Requirements

Obviously, you need to choose the body building technique that best suits your needs and you may even need to consider using constant tension without actually attaining a locking point which is a body building technique that is very effective in many an exercise. In addition, it is also important to make full contraction along with full range of stretch exercises that will require you to perform each rep of each exercise at the fullest range of motion.

You may also want to use body building technique known as giant step in which you will need to work on single muscle groups which means performing three different exercises while laying emphasis on a particular muscle and though it may be used on each muscle in the body, when exercising the back you will need to be more selective and careful.

Another one of the many body building techniques that you may want to use is drop sets that are ideal for rounding off your workout on certain muscles and which will cause you to feel pumped up especially in your muscles and which will also drain off all of your remaining energy from your muscles.

In the same vein, you can choose to do twenty-ones that is another bodybuilding technique in which each and every area of your muscle is worked rather than any one range, and you should also think constantly about maintaining tension at the time when you increase tension on your muscle while performing your reps.

There are also super sets that are another of the many body building techniques you would want to use which will exercise certain range of muscles and which will totally exhaust your muscle fibers and which will also work on two separate muscle groups. Perhaps the simplest technique that you can use is to slow down your reps and repeating them in a slow manner makes the reps more effective since it improves the form and will also provide a fillip to development of muscles.

Prepare Mind And Body Well Before Body building Competitions

Bodybuilding is an activity that people enter into for a number of different reasons and among the reasons why you may want to build your body is the need to train in order to achieve better health and to also appear fit and also trim. However, there are also those that want to excel in bodybuilding and would thus like to enter into bodybuilding competitions in order to win a title and become the best in their field of activity.

Self Discipline

Thus, bodybuilding can be used to both live healthy and stay in good shape while at the same time also wins at bodybuilding competitions, and thus are able to live a good life as well.

However, participating in bodybuilding competitions is not a simple task and requires a great
deal of self discipline, and it requires being emotionally as well as physically stable, and keeping a close control over your diet and also remaining stable all the time.

Entering bodybuilding competitions also means preparing hard for it, which in turn requires a great deal of self belief and being totally in control with regard to what you eat and also maintain control over all of your other activities. It also requires conditioning your own mind so that you are well prepared for what lies ahead of you (both the good and the bad), and thus must be in peak physical and also emotional condition at all times.

For those who are nervous ahead of bodybuilding competitions, it requires training to stay calm and cool in the face of all odds and you should be careful that other competitors are never allowed to even sniff that you are nervous about the competition, which will egg them on to taunt you and even beat you.

You should learn also to exercise your mind over body since it is the mind that will control your actions and the body only follows through instinct, and because the body is sure to respond to what you think inside of your mind, it is thus very important to pay close attention to your own thoughts so that they follow a desired path and lead you in the direction of the winning podium.

It is only the contestant that can remain confident about his body shape when he is on the stage that is going to get ahead in bodybuilding competitions, while those with doubts and lack of mental strength will most certainly lag behind. It is thus in your best interests to keep a healthy training regime and to keep your mind healthy as well.

About Senior Body building

Senior bodybuilding is an activity that can prove to be very beneficial because it helps to create a healthier senior person and it improves the condition of the heart, and can even can prove to be a good means of prolonging life, and there is another advantage to senior bodybuilding and that is that it helps to make an elderly person look as much as ten years younger and thus contributes to feelings of well being as well as improves the confidence levels also.

Learn About The Best Means

There is also enough evidence to suggest that senior bodybuilding contributes to improved health, though it is still necessary to learn about the best means that will help form more muscle mass even though there is nothing novel in such means which everyone can try with good results as well.

There is nothing to suggest that senior bodybuilding is in any way different to what other people do though obviously there is a greater need to perform the bodybuilding exercises slower, and if suffering from health problems, should need to consult a doctor first. For senior bodybuilding, it is still necessary to get professional advice first before proceeding any further, and in any case, it is always better to put safety ahead in everything that you do.

Once you are sure that you want to indulge in senior bodybuilding, it would mean lifting the right amount of weight that will cause your muscles to fail which would in turn require you to use more intensity which may even cause your muscles to tear or break down. However, once your muscles heal, you will find them to have built up more muscle mass which would improve even further with the proper diet that includes taking of high amount of protein. That in turn means eating a gram of protein for each pound of your body weight on a daily basis and though this is quite some amount of protein, you can still achieve your goal by taking protein supplements and in addition, also eat vegetables that help in the healing of muscles and so does eating of fruits.

Thus, despite the fact that there is no best method for senior bodybuilding, there is nevertheless need to lift the weights in an appropriate manner and in this regard you must always remember to wear a weight belt which will prevent hypertension and you should also lift weights when there is a spotter present who can help prevent you from hurting you.

Health and Fitness Body Building Tips for Women

Just a decade or two ago, it was not fashionable for women to be in the weight room confines of a gym. Rather, women were relegated to walking, jazzercise, aerobics and other similar type of pursuits to lose weight. However, these days, many women think nothing of pumping iron with the men to achieve overall health and fitness body building benefits.

Why is weight training so important to women in the pursuit of health and fitness body building? The reason why it is so important is because it jumpstarts their metabolism and therefore provides a more efficient and effective way to burn calories. As muscles start to gain mass from the weight training, more calories are being burned off in order to fuel this muscle transformation.

It’s All about Balance

When it comes to health and fitness body building for women, weight training does not leave much room for fat to stick around and that is a great thing. Women will actually lose some fat if they decide to tweak their diet a bit and lower calorie intake. Doing so allows the new burgeoning muscle to eat up the calories you consume as well as take care of some of the calories held in reserve in body fat.

There is a balance that must be determined in the diet to avoid the body from retaliating by shrinking muscle and storing more fat than before to compensate. In addition, while training with weights is not considered an aerobic activity, studies have shown that it will still elevate the heart rate just as like cardiovascular exercise which is important in the burning of fat.

No Fear about Bulking Up

In health and fitness body building for women, there should be no hesitation about starting a work out plan. Weight training does not ad bulky mass to a woman’s body unless they pump steroids into their blood stream. Rather weight training for women creates a solid, fibrous muscle with less fat content which actually serves to provide a smaller, svelter appearance.
Women are genetically predisposed toward less muscle mass when compared to men and as a result will have lovelier feminine curves with weigh training. Many experts warn women who embark on a health and fitness body building regiment to not hop on the scale for a while.

The reason is because muscle actually weighs more than fat does which can be a bit disconcerting at first. However, with less fat on their frame, women will discover that they could weigh the same before the weight training but wear a few sizes smaller. Less fat and more muscles is what matters in terms of health and fitness body building for women.

Your Guide to the Essentials of Body Building Home Gym Equipment

You don’t necessarily have to shell out the big bucks to join a sweaty gym half way across town in order to be a body builder. You can create your own workout nirvana with body building home gym equipment. This means you can end up saving on membership dues over time and you don’t have to put up with anyone else’s egos. Another upside is that you can listen to your choice of adrenaline pumping music and you can wear what clothing you want as well.

So do you know what body building home gym equipment you should invest in to create a cut body? There are a few essentials that you should not do without plus a few “it would be nice to have” pieces of equipment as well.

Dumbbells and Barbells

The most versatile of all your body building home gym equipment has got to be adjustable dumbbells. You can perform a vast array of muscle pumping exercises with them and they create a more cut physique. This is because it takes more effort to stabilize the dumbbells which in turn kick starts those muscle cells to create more mass.

Barbells, specifically the Olympic variety, are the second most important piece of body building home gym equipment you can invest in. These will allow you to add on or take away weights during your training and are also the best way to add muscle bulk more quickly.

Weight Benches

A weight bench, specifically an adjustable one with a leg curl and extension attachment is optimal for your body building home gym equipment. This versatile weight bench allows you to work your muscles in different ways besides what the dumbbells and barbells can do. If you add the optional bar pull down attachment, you can virtually perform every weight exercise possible.

Chin Up and Be a Dip

Both a dip station as well as a chin up bar with a squat rack can add another dimension to your workout. This body building home gym equipment will take you far past the dumbbell performance and challenge you physically just as a dip station where you work against your own body weight.

Protection Items

While not an actual piece of body building home gym equipment, protection items such as weight belts and gloves are essential for your safety when pumping iron. The gloves will help keep those sweaty hands for hindering your grip on those weights. The weight belt will help stabilize your back and abdominal muscles to avoid injury.

There are a number of other things you can invest in when it comes to your body building home gym equipment. A calf raising machine, cable and pulley weight system, easy bars and even an exercise ball can all add an additional element to your workout routines.

Banishing Misconceptions about Vegetarian Body Building

Who says that you need to eat meat in order to succeed in body building? Vegetarians are not the stereotypical thin and gaunt images that you see portrayed in some public arenas. Rather with complete understanding about nutrition, you can create a diet chock full of healthy essentials that could help support your vegetarian body building. There are many misconceptions about vegetarians which is the reason why many people don’t associate them with body building.

Proteins Can Be a Problem

Many people believe that without eating the flesh of an animal, you will not be able to get enough protein and other essential nutrients. That is simply not true when it comes to vegetarian body building as you can easily get proteins from other food sources. Soy products, beans, various grains, eggs and dairy product provide plenty of muscle building proteins.
Of course, many vegetarian body building athletes are drink supplemental shakes with whey protein as well as other important vitamins and minerals like zinc, vitamin B12, iron and more. While meat can provide those items, it doesn’t provide enough for the minimum daily allowances for body builders. The same applies with other foods that contain those essential vitamins and minerals. Supplements are important to get enough of the essentials that are lacking in any diet, vegetarian or not.

Cannot Build Strength or Muscle Mass

Vegetarians actually have a better chance of increasing their strength and size while on their meat-free diet. Vegetarian body building means exactly that – building muscle mass and strength based on a diet filled with fruits, vegetables and whole grains. Eating meats can actually slow down your metabolism because it takes so much energy to digest it whereas with a vegetarian diet, your body actually speeds up its digestion.

Vegetarian body building means being creative with meals to ensure that you have plenty of vitamins and minerals represented in the foods you eat. Many body builders who abstain from meat have consulted with nutritionists to ensure that their diet as well as supplements provides what is needed to maintain and grow muscle mass.

Vegetarianism Not Healthy

Vegetarianism is actually quite healthy as seen by the much lower cholesterol and blood sugar counts that many vegetarian body building athletes can attest to! Many meats, even the lean ones have the presence of “bad” cholesterol or LDL which can raise cholesterol and therefore, blood pressure. In addition, trans fats and saturated fats are almost a thing of the past when dropping meat from the menu. All the foods that vegetarians eat along with some supplemental items can more than provide all of the vitamins and minerals that your body needs to succeed at vegetarian body building.

Discover Carbohydrate Importance in Body Building

Perhaps one of the most important keys to body building success is nutrition because it provides the fuel you need not only to survive but also to build muscle and provide energy. For body builders, eating small frequent meals throughout the day will increase metabolism and prevent your body from feeding on muscle mass to maintain energy. You have the carbohydrate importance in body building as well to balance within a diet.

Role of Carbs

Carbohydrate importance in body building is significant as carbs are one of the most significant nutrients your body needs for energy. In fact, carbohydrates are your body’s primary source of fuel because it kick starts your pancreas to produce insulin, a hormone that plays a huge role in how proteins and fats are stored.

Insulin’s role in carbohydrate importance in body building is this: This hormone latches onto the carbs and will store them as fat or within the muscle. Plus, the insulin snatches the amino acids that make up protein and uses it for the rejuvenation and repair of muscle cells. It is important to eat the right amount of carbohydrates so that the body uses it as fuel rather than produce too much insulin and end up storing it as fat.

Types of Carbs

When talking about carbohydrate importance in body building, it should be noted that there are two types of carbs – simple and complex. The simple carbohydrates are those that give you an immediate energy release whereas the complex carbohydrates slowly release energy over a period of time.

The complex variety should be consumed throughout the day during your frequent mini-meals to keep you energized. The simple carbohydrates should only be consumed immediately after a workout when your energy stores are depleted and you need an immediate pick-me-up. As you can see, carbohydrate importance in body building can be a bit involved and requires in-depth knowledge of nutrition as well as what foods will provide the best energy bang at the appropriate times.

To give you an idea of the different foods out there that are considered simple carbs, here are a few suggestions: apples, bananas, grapes, pears and pineapple. Complex carbohydrates are many and can be split into two categories – fiber and starch. Some examples of these types of carbs include oatmeal, potatoes, rice, corn, broccoli, lettuce, mushrooms, spinach and peppers.

To accurately interpret carbohydrate importance in body building and strike a healthy balance in your daily diet, it is important to assess your training needs first so then your diet can be arranged to accommodate those needs. The frequency, intensity and duration of your workouts as well as your overall performance body mass goals all play a part in determining the overall carbohydrate importance in body building.

About Amino Acid Body Building

How do some of those athletes and body builders look so sculpted with defined musculature? Well, there are a lot of factors at play to create a well-toned body and amino acid body building is one practice that seriously pumped up athletes rely on. Amino acids are often called the building blocks of the human body in layman’s terms but they are really the molecular building blocks that create protein.

Protein is one of the most essential components that create strong healthy muscles which is the reason why many athletes in strength training will indulge in amino acid body building, usually in the form of supplements and pushing weights. Protein also fuels the health of your hair, nails, ligaments, tendons, central nervous system and even how your muscles retain water for maximum elasticity and strength.

Reasons for Supplements

Many body builders have discovered that without enough amino acids in their system, the body tends to feed on its own muscles when faced with the crisis of not enough energy. This has led to the interest of amino acid body building to ensure that the body has plenty of fuel to build muscle rather than cannibalizing on it.

Serious body builders will take amino acid supplements either in a protein shake or pill form immediately after hard muscle exercises. This moment in time represents a unique opportunity to introduce amino acid into the body while the muscles still have optimal blood flow and is most amenable to nutrients. This timing takes a knowledgeable athlete to understand why amino acid body building can be very important.

Popular Supplements

Glutamine is one of the most popular in amino acid body building because it is plentiful in the muscles and is known for promoting muscle growth. Arginine is another amino acid that is beneficial to your amino acid body building practices. This particular amino acid kicks off the growth hormone in your body and helps regulate the metabolism of the muscles, building bulk. Fat decreases while your connective tissue, cartilage and bone strengthens under amino acid body building practices.

Supplements are important as these days people are slacking on their diets and not getting enough proteins, which means not enough amino acids. Without these helpful body building blocks, you would eventually become weaker and lose muscle tone. Therefore, stick with amino acid body building and you will discover that your muscles will not only get the workout they need but that they are also growing larger, creating the telltale body builder sign of a sculpted muscles.

The Two Spheres Of Body Building Exercises

When it comes to body building, many people erroneously assume that all one needs to do is haphazardly do any type of exercises without any rhyme, reason or logic. This is not a wise move because there are very specific purposes for body building exercises designed to provide two goals of either increased mass or increased definition. By understanding that there are differences between mass building exercises and those exercises that are designed for more definition the ability to arrive at one’s goals will be greater facilitated. After all, if you are exercising then you have a certain set of goals in mind and you will want the proper exercises that will be required to reach those goals.

Mass

The most common body building exercises people perform are compound exercises. When you are performing compound body building exercises you are primarily working on mass. That is, compound exercises mean that more than one body part is used to lift the weight. Bench presses, while generally considered chest exercises, also provide secondary stress to the biceps, triceps and shoulders. So, these other muscles grow as well as the chest although not to the same degree. Other common body building exercises that perform compound exercises include squats and military presses. Now, these exercises are not necessarily designed to make the person’s muscle mass huge (although they certainly can be used for this purpose) these exercises can be used in a lesser capacity so as not to massively pack on muscle.

Definition

The second type of body building exercises that are employed are those exercises that are isolation exercises. These exercises do not involve more than one muscle group and are designed to specially develop the muscles of a particular area. These exercises can be employed with high repetitions to burn fat and usually follow a cycle of mass building so as to create the definition that mass requires for aesthetic looks. Please note, contrary to popular belief these exercises cannot spot reduce fat in a particular area. Yes, fat will be burned, but it will be burned evenly throughout the body as opposed to any specific or particular area.

Of course, there are other areas that need to be taken into consideration as well such as diet, cardio etc, but the areas of mass building and definition generally cover the basics that one would need in order to achieve a baseline level of success and to reach his or her goals.

About Body Building Muscle Supplement

If you walk through any health or nutrition shop you will notice that there is a tremendous number of body building muscle supplement products on store shelves. The sheer volume of products is overwhelming and their popularity is quite strong. While many people are familiar with the fact that these products exist, they may not be aware of how these body building muscle supplement products work.

Unfortunately, because these products are in such fierce competition with one another they have a tendency to employ a ton of over the top advertisement campaigns so as to stand out in the marketplace. Unfortunately, a number of these ad campaigns leave the false impression that there is a miracle out there that will maximize one’s ability to grow muscle.

The Truth

First, what must clearly be understood about these supplements is that no body building muscle supplement is a miracle product. There is no product that will magically burn fat and enhance muscle growth while eliminating that pesky need for working out. Sure, there are a number of products with wild over the top ad campaigns that make these grandiose promises, but these products are less than honest and even less successful in terms of actually delivering what they promise.

The products out there that fall into the body building muscle supplement category are essentially one of two things known as mass gainers and whey protein supplements. A mass gainer is a drink that provides a massive amount of calories in liquid shake form so as to help someone who is having difficulty gaining weight the ability to gain weight without packing on fat. What whey protein does is that it provides the body with quality protein so as to aid in the repair and growth of muscle after a solid exercise program. While this description of these products may make them sound mundane, it is also an accurate assessment. Again, there is no body building muscle supplement that can provide any miracles so avoid looking for them. Instead, keep your feet grounded to the earth and look for those products that provide an honest and sensible result.

These products are not necessarily expensive and are generally quite effective. Of course, some brands are a little better than others and then there will also be issues of personal taste involved in the selection that you make. But ultimately if you stick with legitimate products you will achieve the results that you desire.

The Two Main Body Building Programs Explained

Body building is a sport many people are not entirely familiar with mainly because they generally only hear about the results of contests and generally not about the actually training that is involved in such preparation for the contests. Additionally, most people work out in gyms to keep in shape and generally follow the same workout all year round. When one is training for a body building competition there will be a need for two separate body building programs in order to achieve the ability to enter a contest. These two phases will be clearly examined and explained herein. The body building programs are the off-season phase, the pre-contest phase and the contest phase.

Off Season Phases

The off season phase involves body building programs that center on mass building. That is to say, during this phase the goal is to get as huge as humanly possible and not worry so much about definition. Now, this weight gain must be primarily muscle because packing on excess fat will not do anyone any good. It will simply make the pre-contest cycle significantly more difficult and that is a self-defeating venture. So, instead one needs to watch diet closely and to perform a significant volume of mass building exercises. That means the primary exercises to be performed during this phase will involve serious compound exercises such as military presses, bench presses, etc. This cycle usually runs several months and requires much consistency in order to effectively be undertaken.

Pre-Contest Contest Phases

The pre-contest phase is usually refers to the six to eight weeks that precede a competition and involve a “shredding” process where the goal to be achieved is definition of the muscles. This involves a significant amount of isolation exercises that target single body parts as well as a great deal of cardio…repeat…a great deal of cardio. Of course, the other area of consideration that is critical during this phase is diet. Often, when people think of body building programs they often think of exercises as opposed to the quality diet that is the epicenter of all body building programs. No matter how hard a person works out or how much time they invest in exercise, all work will be completely thrown out the window if a poor and sloppy diet is employed. As such, it is critical not to eat poor quality foods or to eat any type of food at levels of excess that could prove self defeating.

About Body Building Workouts

If anything were absolutely required in order to make body building workouts successful, it would be consistency. This is an absolute and those who do not approach their workouts with this in mind simply will not find themselves very successful in their goals. Now, this does not mean that a person needs to train every single day, twice a day, for six months in a row.

If you are not specifically training for the Mr. Olympia contest then you probably will not want to go that route! However, if you are looking to get in shape, burn fat, build muscle and increase your health you will need to set aside a few days a week for your body building workouts and then you will need to make those workouts worthwhile. If your training is infrequent then results will either be minimal or they will be non-existent. If you want to succeed then you are going to need to invest the time that is required.

Four Day A Week Program

On a baseline level, if you are a beginner and you need some quality body building workouts to follow it would probably be best to dedicate four days a week for a mass building program. During this four day a week program, it would be best not to hit any body part more than once a week and make the entire week a cross training routine that hits the entire body.

Cross training here refers to mixing up exercises for body parts and does not necessarily refer to mixing cardio workouts into the routine, but if you did wish to add cardio there is nothing wrong with that at all. While this may not seem like an elaborate workout program that is because it isn’t an elaborate one! Instead, it is a very simple program that is quite helpful and effective and can greatly aid in achieving one’s goals.

Additional Notes

If you can’t make it to the gym, however, you may wish to perform bodyweight exercises like pushups, chair dips, etc. These types of body building workouts may not have the same effectiveness as training with free weights, but they are definitely better than doing nothing at all.

Additionally, if you are sore and don’t feel like training…take time off. Yes, sometimes it is best to just take a little break as opposed to forcing yourself. This way overtraining and needless injuries will be avoided. Remember, it is always best to train properly and to train smart.

About Body Building Clothes

If you are an avid gym rat then you know that you need to have some special clothes for when you work out. Jeans and a t-shirt simply don’t cut it in the gym because they are restrictive in terms of the motion you can employ as well as the fact that they are totally uncomfortable. Needless to say, the way around this would be to purchase a nice set of body building clothes that would be more appropriate for the gym and workout session.
Looking Stylish

Body building clothes are not only comfortable they are also stylish to look at. Many of the top name brands of body building clothes are very well designed and have a unique look about them. This is why many top brands commandeer a solid price and are the envy of many people who wish they could have them. Of course, there is far more to these types of clothes in addition to their looks. As previously mentioned, there is a functional need for these clothes that is critical to understand.

Why These Clothes Are Important

In addition to looking good, these body building clothes are designed to be loose enough so that a person can easily have full range of motion. (On a side note, there are also body hugging Lycra shirts that allow range of motion, but they are really not all that popular anymore) Without full range of motion, the ability to perform exercises properly becomes greatly inhibited. This is why wearing a button down flannel shirt is not exactly the type of attire you would want to wear in the gym. It just flat out doesn’t help your ability to exercise. Additionally, it is not exactly safe to attempt to lift weights with restrictive clothes either so using quality attire designed specifically for working out in the gym is a far more preferable option to explore.

Saving Money On The Expense

Now, there are body building clothes that are quite expensive and this will surely cause some budgetary concerns for those who may not have much to invest in such clothes. While expensive name brands often receive a great deal of publicity, there are also a number of inexpensive brands that are on the market that are equally effective and well within the affordability range of the average person. Also, there are a number of overstock services that can provide excellent discounts for those looking to save a little money. So, there will be a set of clothes for any budget range; you just have to look for them.

Understanding Body Building Diet Basics

Legendary body building mogul Joe Weider once said that the true secret to body building success what found in the proper body building diet. What Weider meant was that people who over eat and pack their body with fat ultimately harm all the benefits of body building because the lean, ripped look becomes impossible to attain. Hence, if you eat the proper body building diet of low fat, high protein and decent carbs you will do ok. Now, while a body building diet will consume more calories than a common diet, there are certain considerations that also must be understood as well.

Basic Metabolism and Basic Myths

While it is true that a ton of calories eaten will be burned while working out, there will also be a metabolic calorie burning effect that will occur as well, but please keep in mind that it is wrong to over do it! The larger the mass of a person is, the more the person will want to eat more and more.

This is not a bizarre side effect it is simply a logical reaction the body will have to maintaining a significant volume of muscle mass. Keep in mind, muscle is significantly more dense than fat and this means that muscle will require more calories to maintain its size. This is why muscle bound people do not pack on fat when they increase their calorie intake – the muscles burn the calories by “eating” the excess calories. Now, that is often misunderstood by people as a green light to eat whatever it is they want and in massive quantities.

This is a huge fallacy of the body building diet. That is, you will increase your calorie intake…slightly…but if you increase it ridiculously then you will start to pack on a lot of fat on top of whatever muscle that you have. The resultant physique will make you look like someone who enjoys working out, but enjoys overeating more. That is hardly the type of physique to aspire!
As one can see, there is a great deal of common sense associated with the body building diet.

Basically, if you eat quality food you can get away with eating a lot provided you have solid muscle mass. However, once you slip into the fallacy of eating whatever you want and in significant amounts that far exceed what you need, you will find yourself undermining your own goals. Now who would want that?

Regarding Natural Body Building

When it comes to the subject of amateur and professional body building, only the most naïve person would not acknowledge the prevalence of anabolic steroids in the sport. Needless to say, there is a great deal of performance enhancing drugs in competitive body building, but also there are a number of people who prescribe to natural body building which is essentially a drug free approach to the sport of body building. Sadly, many people who are proponents of natural body building do not always get the credit they deserve in regards to the contributions to the sport.

Understanding Anabolics

So what exactly are anabolic steroids? These are drugs designed to increase the body’s ability to grow muscles by increasing the body’s ability to release growth hormones, reducing the amount of rest one needs in order to grow muscle, and allowing the body to exercise for significantly longer durations than what would be possible without the use of drugs or drug agents.

Needless to say, the physiques that these drugs create are more massive and more defined than what could ever be achieved with a natural body building physique. Of course, there are a host of negatives associated with anabolic steroids as well. For example, excessive use of steroids has been associated with a number of serious medical conditions such as heart disease, kidney failure and many other problems. As such, sticking with a natural body building program is much better for overall health and safety.

For the Hobbyist…

For the hobbyist, there is really no reason to use anabolic steroids. While there are many arguments for and against the risks associated with taking drugs for a profession in body building, for someone who is simply trying to get in shape or look good the risks associated with drug taking simply makes the risks not worth it. There is an old saying that many gyms use as a mantra: “It is better to feel good than to look good.”

This is a veiled reference to all the problems that are associated with the health issues that can derive from using steroids. If you are a hobbyist, then it is best to stick with natural body building because there are no risks associated with it. In fact, this is a healthy pursuit that can greatly increase a person’s quality of life. Why would anyone want to do anything different? Again, it is best to stick to the natural route.

Important Body Building Tips

Everyone is looking for new body building tips. Usually, these new tips are designed to replace the old body building tips…or at least that is the idea. In other words, people are looking for “secrets” that will help them to develop a new breakthrough that will provide the break in the plateau that they may find themselves. There is, of course, nothing wrong with this approach, but it does ignore a simple common sense approach that can provide them with the true success that they desire. You see, the true secret to body building success lies in the fact that proper and successful body building is rooted in simplicity and not in any magic formulas.

The Best of All Tips

If there was a king of all body building tips that was the most critically important tip to follow it would be to avoid overtraining. What overtraining entails is working out too many times per work or working out for durations that are excessive. (Excessive would generally be anything longer than one hour straight) Also, it is also unwise to work out if you feel sick or are seemingly suffering from an injury so as not to aggravate the injury. Now, there are those individuals out there who may be reading this and saying…no way! If you don’t work hard, you won’t make any gains! Well, this is partially true. One of the most critical of all body building tips, however, is that not only must one work hard one must also work smart!

If a person works himself too hard in the gym, the body simple will not grow muscle. In fact, the body might reject the additional stress and start to atrophy instead. Clearly, this is not what anyone working out could ever want so it would be wise to avoid such excessive training.

Instead, simple consistency of attending the gym (3 or 4 times a week) and working out at a moderate to difficult pace would be enough to make further gains. If one is working himself to the point that injuries are common then the entire process will be self defeating. Clearly, this is the best of all body building tips.

So, if there was a moral to the story it would be that there are no magic formulas and that the body does have a limit. When pushing oneself beyond the limits of good sense, success will not be achieved…it will be eradicated.

About Body Building Supplements

Do body building supplements work? This is a common question that many people may have when they walk into any health or nutrition store and see the large volume of powders, pills and other products that flood store shelves. Now, this is a very fair question to ask, but it is unlikely that anyone in the store will say that they offer a product that does not work!

However, people need to be realistic about what they expect body building supplements to be able to offer. They are not miracle products that will pack on 50lbs of muscle nor will they magically burn off 10lbs of fat. Body building supplements have their particular values, but these values and benefits are based on realistic nutrition and science and not over the top advertisements. Well, that is not entirely accurate. Often, the advertisements and their claims act as substitutes for actual science and this is unfortunate.

The Magazine Days

In the early days prior to the great expansion of nutrition shops all across the USA, virtually all body building supplements were sold via mail order through body building magazines. These ads were generally bombastic and promised that the person who took the supplements would develop a body builder physique of massive dimensions. Now, this is a bit of a stretch! However, within the hyperbole was some truth – these supplements are helpful. However, they will not pack on a massive amount of unrealistic muscle. So what is it the body building supplements will actually do?

The Supplements

Different body building supplements do different things. In general, however they are designed for building mass and reducing fat. In terms of mass building, there are those supplements that increase testosterone production, there are creatine supplements that help the muscle retain water, there are supplements that aid in providing significant calories without excess fat and then there are those protein supplements that aid in the repair of muscle after a hard workout. The fat loss supplements either suppress appetite or they speed up heart rate to burn more calories.

While this may seem somewhat mundane it is because it is an explanation of what these products actually do without any hyperbole that attempts to sell a particular product. While this is not over the top, it is accurate and accuracy is what you want when selecting a product. Or would you prefer to take the word of a nutty over the top ad campaign instead?

Lou Ferigno: Legend of Body Building

If there ever was a true legend in the sport of body building it would be the legendary Lou Ferigno. In the 1970’s, Ferigno was a true rags to riches story as he came from humble origins to worldwide fame as a bodybuilder and then to even greater fame in his endearing portrayal of the titular green monster in the classic television program THE INCREDIBLE HULK. While some may be familiar with Lou and his work, they may not be all that familiar with his background which may prove to be quite interesting even to those who do not follow the sport.

Early Years

Lou Ferigno was born in Brooklyn New York in the 1950’s and had the handicap of being deaf. Since attitudes towards the hearing impaired were not exactly progressive during this time period, Lou became somewhat withdrawn and isolated. While in his teens he would discover a new hobby in the form of weightlifting. Lou became enamored with this new hobby to the point of obsession. He would work out everyday and watch his diet religiously. In time, he would set his sights on competing in amateur body building competitions. He entered them and did well enough that he caught the eye of body building mogul Joe Weider who brought Lou into the fold of professional body building competition. Lou did extremely well in this new profession although he alternated his time between competing and working in construction as construction paid far more than professional body building! Lou would then become featured in the classic documentary PUMPING IRON, a documentary that would bring him to the attention of a number of Hollywood producers.

The Hulk

When former James Bond villain Richard “Jaws” Kiel bombed as the Hulk during the first few days of shooting the pilot for the TV series, Ferigno got the call to play the green goliath. While few believed this series would be a hit, it turned out to be a colossal hit lasting many years on network TV and decades in syndication. Ferigno was now a bona fide worldwide star!

Ferigno no longer competes in body building these days as he is well into his retirement years. He does, however, appear at numerous competitions as a special guest and as a judge. He also signs autographs at comic conventions and meets with all his fans who have followed his career through the years. In terms of pop culture history, Lou Ferigno is a true icon and definitely one of a kind!