Learn How To Build Muscle - Bodybuilding Tips

Bodybuilding Tips - What are the Best Ways to Build Muscle?

Muscle growth, otherwise known as hypertrophy, is a highly discussed topic. Many of us work out to change the way our bodies look, but many people struggle with finding the right formula to build muscle fast. Building muscle fast takes the right weight lifting program coupled with the right cardio program, the right diet, and ample rest to achieve top notch results. Without the right combination, it can take much longer to see the changes you want. Before we get into the best exercises for muscle growth, let's talk a little bit about what actually happens as your muscle are growing.

What is Hypertrophy?

"Muscle hypertrophy is an increase in muscle fiber size, observed as a muscle achieves a larger diameter or cross-sectional area" (Kravitz). In other words, new muscle fibers are not created, rather the contractile proteins in muscle grow in size. Muscle growth can also occur with an increase in fluid interspersed in the muscle. This is known as sarcoplasmic hypertrophy. There is a lot more to bodybuilding and the science of muscle growth than this, but this is a simple explanation of what's happening to the muscles on a cellular level. Now that you have a basic understanding of hypertrophy, let's move on the top 3 bodybuilding tips!

My Top 3 Bodybuilding Tips:

1. Muscle growth, or hypertrophy, relies on three factors - mechanical tension, muscle damage, and metabolic stress. Mechanical tension is the intensity of the exercise. Muscle damage leads to soreness of the muscles, which leads to repair by satellite cells, which leads to hypertrophy (Kravitz). Metabolic stress (that nasty burn in the muscle) triggers hormonal influences which lead to muscle growth. To tie this in to bodybuilding tips, your workout should consist of exercises that yield these three factors. While each person's body is different, to optimize muscle growth, you need to find exercises that trigger all three of these events.

2. Maximal growth occurs between 80%-95% of 1RM. If you want to build muscle quickly, get rid of the 5 pound dumbbells and start lifting heavy. While drop sets or burnouts can be an effective part of your overall routine, you have to incorporate heavy lifts to stimulate muscle growth (mechanical tension).

3. Get enough rest and fuel. This is technically two tips, but I'll give you a bonus bodybuilding tip! Rest is seriously underestimated in the fitness world. By rest, I don't mean time between sets (although that is an important aspect of weight lifting). Muscle growth occurs outside the gym. Every time we exercise all we're doing is tearing our body down. If you don't get adequate (7-8 hours) sleep, you will stop seeing results. Hypertrophy can't happen if your body doesn't have time to repair. The same goes for days in between lifts. You should never work the same muscle groups two days in a row. If you want to exercise every day, set up a split program. For example, work the chest, triceps and abs on day 1, back, biceps and legs on day 2 and rest on day 3. Nutrient timing is also crucial to maximizing muscle growth. If you get in a badass workout and then wait 4 hours to replenish your body, you're missing out on critical growth times. It is absolutely imperative that you consume carbs and protein within the 45 minutes after your workout to see the best results. Muscle growth is a common goal for many people who exercise, however, few actually achieve the results they really want. As a trainer, I hear every day about how peoples' bodies have always been a certain way, or they just don't have the right metabolism to get good muscle definition, or a plethora of other excuses. While some of these may factor in to how easy or difficult it is to change their bodies, it's usually a lack of effort or know-how that leads them to failure. With the right workout routine in place, a proper diet, and ample rest, just about everyone can achieve the body they want with a little hard work and dedication.

So What is the Best Bodybuilding Workout?

The best bodybuilding tips I can give are great bodybuilding exercises. The best bodybuilding workouts utilize multi-joint exercises. Multi-joint exercises stimulate hormonal changes that increase muscle growth more than single joint exercises. For some examples, check out my article about the best full body exercises. Another good bodybuilding tip for your exercise program is to incorporate a lot of your larger muscle groups. If you really want to put on a lot of muscle quickly, target some of the biggest muscles like the chest, triceps, and lats. For example, the bicep is a much smaller muscle compared to the tricep, so if you want your arms to look bigger, be sure to hit your triceps!


For more AWESOME tips about nutrition, fast weight loss and how to maximize your workouts, check out my blog at http://www.yorkpersonaltraining.com!

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/expert/Ryan_M_York/1895880

Bodybuilding Food List - Top 11 Foods for Muscle Building

You most likely know that nutrition is a crucial factor in muscle growth and that is why having a bodybuilding food list can help you tremendously in your muscle building journey.

We will in this article look at what foods to include in your bodybuilding shopping list and it will be a mixture of proteins, carbohydrates and healthy fat.

Ready, Set, Go...

Bodybuilding Food List #1 - Quinoa
If you have not heard about this one before, well now you have. This is a great source of natural protein and also contains a lot of important fibers.

Bodybuilding Food List #2 - Cottage Cheese
Bodybuilders love it and you will too. It is rich in proteins and it taste amazing when mixed with fresh fruit.

Bodybuilding Food List #3 - Peanut Butter
Peanut butter is not only rich in proteins, but also in the healthy fat we want in our diet.

Bodybuilding Food List #4 - Brown Rice
It's a great source of complex carbohydrates that your body can work with over a longer period of time.

Bodybuilding Food List #5 - Yoghurt
Yoghurt is not only a great source of protein, but also of the good bacteria's that are great for your digestive system.

Bodybuilding Food List #6 - Nuts
All kind of nuts are great for protein and healthy fat. However, almonds, cashew nuts and walnuts are preferred.

Bodybuilding Food List #7 - Whole Grains
Whole Grains is another great source of complex carbohydrates and is great if you want to avoid storing excessive fat on your body.

Bodybuilding Food List #8 - Fruits and Vegetables
You have probably heard it tons of times, but fruits and vegetables have so many health benefits that you can write several books about the subject. They contain essential vitamins and minerals and fruits are a great source of simple carbohydrates that are good before and after your workouts.

The Meat

#9 - Fish
Fish is essential because of all the health benefits and all the minerals and vitamins it contains. But it also contains a large amount of protein and omega 3 fatty acids that are great for muscle growth.

#10 - Chicken
Another Great source of protein, but at the same time being very low in calories. Loved by a lot of people when cutting.

#11 - Red Meat
Red meat is a great muscle builder because it is very rich in proteins and other essential minerals, such as iron. It is also high in saturated fat and should be kept on a minimum.

It's Simple
Some people might get frightened when looking at the list from above, but once you get used to it you will be surprised by how simple it really is. We only need to make it a habit like everything else in life and once you do that it will become a fun experience choosing from the list.

Include the above foods in your diet and you will soon transform your body.


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Bodybuilding Vs Body-Weight Training - Which is Best For Fat Loss?

When most individuals decide they want to lose weight and get into shape, they immediately turn to bodybuilding. Bodybuilding has transformed into something just a handful ofdie hard fanatics used to do a few decades ago to being a common word to describe almost anyone who lifts weights or looks like they workout.

In fact, people call me a bodybuilder all the time, but I hate being called one. I don't even lift weights! But I do look like I lift weights. The only thing I lift is my own bodyweight. That's right, bodyweight training is the only form of training that I perform.

This article is going to help you decide which training method is right for you: bodybuilding or bodyweight training.

Steady State Cardio vs. Bodyweight Cardio

Bodybuilders typically perform hours of steady state cardio to lose fat. Bodyweight cardio refers to high intensity workouts organized as circuits or intervals which "feel" like cardio. Both methods burn fat, but steady state cardio is extremely time consuming and boring for the average person.

Bodyweight cardio on the other hand takes no more than 30 minutes and is extremely fun and challenging. In addition, steady state cardio does nothing for your metabolic rate. Your metabolic rate is a measure of how fast you burn calories, and is a crucial component to youroverall fat loss plan.

High intensity bodyweight training boosts your metabolic rate so that you need less training sessions in order to reach your fat loss goals. Overall, bodyweight cardio helps you lose fat with a shorter time commitment, and is ten times more fun than steady state cardio.

Isolation Movements vs. Compound Movements

Isolation movements are exercises that train just one muscle group at a time. Compound movements are exercises that train more than one muscle group at a time. Bodybuilding workouts usually have one compound movement, but then have 5-6 additional isolation movements.

When it comes to fat loss, compound movements outperform isolation movements. When you engage a lot of muscle at once, you release two hormones: human growth hormone and testosterone. Both of these hormones have been linked to increased fat loss.

And guess what? It's almost impossible to isolate a muscle group with bodyweight training. Hence, every single bodyweight exercise is a compound movement. So you're doing more exercises thatfocus on engaging a lot of muscle at once. Which means more hormone release and more fat loss.

Slow vs. Fast Training

Most bodybuilders lift weights at a very slow and steady pace. Bodyweight training can also be performed at a very slow pace. In fact, a very effective way to get stronger and bigger with bodyweight exercises is something known as isometric training.

Isometric training is where you pause at a particular point of the exercise. For example, for a pushup, you might pause at the top, the middle, and the bottom (one inch off the floor) position. This will increase stress on the muscle, making it bigger and stronger.

Both rep speeds are vital, but for different goals. For fat loss you should train as fast and explosively as possible. This is because fat loss workouts should be heart-pumping, not just muscle-pumping. If your heart rate isn't going crazy, you're not burning fat.

In conclusion...

I personally feel that bodyweight training is far superior for fat loss and overall health for the average person than bodybuilding methods. Bodyweight workouts are more convenient and save you time and money. In addition, they also follow some very basic fat burning principles that bodybuilding seems to ignore.


You know what, speaking of bodyweight exercises there's a great 3-phase fat loss system you need to check out called the Bodyweight Blueprint for Fat Loss. You can find out more information about this incredible bodyweight fat loss program on my site, WorkoutWithoutWeights.Net [http://www.workoutwithoutweights.net/] You have permission to publish this article in your web sites, ezines or electronic publication, as long as the piece is used in its entirety including the resource box, all hyperlinks (HTML clickable) and references and copyright info

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/expert/Parth_Shah/266220