Bodybuilding Tips.

Four Components Of Fitness	September 7th, 2010
When I first start training a client I typically introduce them to what I consider to be the four components of a good fitness program: Consistency, Effort, Nutrition, and Rest. 99% of the time, if a client is not achieving the goals that they’ve set for themselves, one or more of these components needs to be altered, tweaked, or improved in some way. 1) Consistency - By this I mean that you workout on a regular basis over an extended period of time. You need to decide how often you can workout (and for how long each session) and then stick to that schedule as much as possible. The only way to stimulate your muscles to higher levels of growth and strength is to regularly challenge them. By regularly, I mean at least 3-4 times a week over a period of months (and years). 2) Effort - This component goes hand in hand with Consistency. If you’re working out on a regular basis, you’ve got the first step down. Now, you need to make sure that you’re putting in the effort and challenging yourself while you’re exercising. A workout is called a workout because it’s “work”. Your heart rate and breathing rate should increase, your muscles should fatigue, and you should sweat. The people I see at the gym strolling on the treadmill while yammering away on their cell phones or the people in the weight room just going through the motions with a bored look on their faces, are not putting in the effort they need to in order to achieve their goals. Obviously, some workouts will be harder than others (when you’re feeling better or stronger and want to push yourself) but all of your workouts should challenge you in some way. The only way to spark growth and strength gains and force your body to adapt is to challenge your muscles and do it on a regular basis. 3) Nutrition - For me, this item includes everything you put in your mouth outside of the gym. It means eating smart, keeping your protein high and your fat intake low. It also means taking all of your supplements on a regular basis and at the appropriate times (i.e. some supplements are designed to be taken before working out, before or with meals, etc.). Be sure to do some research if you’re unsure about when to take a particular supplement. 4) Rest - This is ostensibly the simplest component as it literally involves doing nothing. However, getting the proper amount of rest is a very important part of any training program and overtraining can be very detrimental to your gains. A general rule of thumb to follow is to allow at least 24 hours of rest in between working the same (or similar) bodyparts but listening to your body is probably the best thing to do in order to determine if you need more rest. Signs of overtraining can include fatigue, delayed muscle soreness, eye twiching, and more. If you find you’re not achieving the goals you’ve set for yourself, take a look at these elements in your own training program and see if there’s anything you can improve upon. Posted in Articles .
Negative Reps	August 4th, 2010
I’m going to start off the discussion of this technique by making sure that you’re familiar with the negative and positive portion of a repetition. The positive (sometimes called the concentric) part of a rep is typically thought of as the “working” part, the portion where you are exerting more force and contracting the muscle. The negative portion is the part of the rep where you return to the original position for the exercise…in most cases, this is the easier part of the repetition. For example, when doing the bench press, pressing the bar upward is the positive portion and lowering the bar back toward your chest is the negative porton. When performing barbell curls, curling the weight upward is positive, lowering it back down is negative. And so on. Now that that’s out of the way, let’s talk about the Negative Reps technique. Like Forced Reps, Negative Reps will require you to have a training partner or spotter to help you out. Let’s take the bench press for example. To perform negative reps, you’ll load the bar up with a heavier weight than you’d normally use. Then, you’ll have your partner help you perform the postive (pressing up) portion of the exercise while you (and only you) will perform the negative (lowering back down) portion. Repeat this process for reps. What this allows you to do is handle more weight in the negative part of the rep than you normally would if you were performing conventional reps. Negative reps are great for building up ligaments and tendons quicker than normal reps and this will then enable you to lift heavier weights in the future and stimulate new growth. Give these a try and see what ya think! Posted in Articles, Tips/Techniques .
Forced Reps	August 1st, 2010
Forced Reps are another great bodybuilding technique that you can use to break out of plateaus, kick your muscles into new growth and add some extra “oompf” to your workouts. This technique requires a partner to help you out so if you don’t already train with someone, you’ll need to ask someone at your gym to lend a hand. To perform forced reps, you should rep out on an exercise as you normally would. Once you’ve reached a point where you can no longer perform another rep, your training partner should help you do one or two additional reps. Even though your partner is helping you, you’re still making your muscles work past the point of fatigue which is a great way to shock them into some new strength and size gains. It’s very important that your partner only helps you just enough for you to complete the rep…you want *your* muscles to be doing as much of the work as possible. You can utilize the Forced Reps technique with a multitude of bodybuilding exercises; some of my favorites include the bench press, barbell curls, and skull crushers. Give ‘em a try! Posted in Tips/Techniques .
Partial Reps	July 30th, 2010
Partial Reps are a great way for advanced bodybuilders to shock their muscles into new growth. If you’ve never given them a try before, try adding them into your bodybuilding workout when you want to particularly fry a certain muscle group. These are intense enough to only be used sparingly (perhaps every second or third workout for one of the sets within that bodybuilding workout); if used too frequently, you’ll end up overtraining. To utilize the partial reps technique, you should perform reps for an exercise as you normally would. However, when you are fatigued enough that you can no longer perform a full rep, you should continue with partial reps. For example, if you’re doing bicep curls, you’d rep out with the full motion of the curl. Then, when you can perform no more with the full movement, you would do half reps, quarter reps, and so on until you can’t even move the weight an inch. Needless to say, your muscles (in this case, your bi’s) will be screaming for mercy by the end of this set. Give these a try and enjoy the burn! Posted in Tips/Techniques .
Varying Your Workouts For Continued Gains	July 14th, 2010
They say variety is the spice of life. And, varying your workouts is one of the best ways to ensure that you continue to achieve gains from your bodybuilding program. Building muscle is all about adaptation: forcing your muscles to adapt to increasing and varying stresses and challenges by increasing in size and strength. One problem that many people I’ve encountered have is that they’ve never changed the original workout plan they initially received, whether they obtained it from a book, a video, online, or from a personal trainer. As a result, they end up doing the same bodybuilding workout over and over (sometimes for months and years at a time) and their gains stagnate. Once they’re no longer making gains, they lose their motivation and often end up quitting their fitness routine entirely. There are nearly an infinite number of ways to keep your workout program fresh and mix things up. One of the easiest (and simplest for beginners to understand) methods I’ve found is to take the typical training split that most people start out with and turn it on it’s head a bit. (Incidentally, a training split refers to when you work which bodyparts and which are grouped together throughout a particular training cycle–usually a week). The typical pairing of muscle groups in a workout plan is back with biceps and chest with triceps. There’s good logic behind this because each of the pairings are grouping like with like: biceps and back exercises typically involve pulling motions while chest and triceps exercises usually involve pushing motions. In addition, most back exercises utilize your biceps as an accessory muscle and most chest exercises utitlize the triceps in the same fashion. While this is certainly a logical training split, a good way to change things up is to reverse things and work back with triceps and chest and biceps. In addition to providing a welcome variation to your muscles, it also will allow you to lift heavier and work harder when it comes time to train those accessory muscles (biceps and triceps). This is because the larger muscles (back and chest) which, incidentally, are normally trained first, have not weakened those accessory muscles yet. So, once you’re through with your chest workout and are ready to blast those bi’s, they should be nearly totally fresh and ready to be blitzed. You should notice how much stronger you are in these accessory muscles almost immediately. One item of note: you should be sure to allow 24 hours of rest between training days when using this split to avoid overtraining your biceps and triceps. Performing a back/triceps, chest/biceps workout on consecutive days should be avoided as the biceps and triceps will be hit to some extent on both days. There are a ton of other ways to vary your workout and keep those gains coming. I’ll address some in future articles…for now, try mixing things up with the split I mentioned and keep training hard! Posted in Articles, Tips/Techniques, Workout Routines .
A Great Fat Burning Stack	July 13th, 2010
I thought I’d share with you guys a great stack of fat burning supplements I’ve been using with great success recently. Stacking multiple supplements together can greatly enhance their performance and thus increase your results. Here’s that fat burning stack I promised: L-Carnitine: I’ve already discussed Carnitine in this post if you want to check that out for more details. Basically, Carnitine aids in the transport of fat into the cellular mitochondria where it can be burned for fuel. Take 1000-3000mg 3-4 times per day. Forskolin: Forskolin comes from the herb coleus forskohli and causes an increase in cAMP (cyclic adenosine monophstphate) which in turn activates the enzyme lipase. This enzyme breaks down fat from fat cells and releases it into the bloodstream so it can be burned by the mitochondria. Take 20-50mg 2-3 times per day before meals. Conjugated Linoleic Acid (CLA): CLA is an interesting supplement. It’s a healthy fat and studies have shown that it not only enhances fat loss, it also increases size and strength gains. Can’t get much better than that, huh? One of the main ways CLA works is by increasing the activity of Carnitine (included in this stack) and increasing the amount of fat being transported to the mitochondria. Take 1000-3000mg 3 times a day Green Tea Extract: Green Tea Extract has so many useful benefits (controls diabetes, lowers cholesterol and risk of heart disease, prevents cancer, and many more), I’d recommend taking this one regardless of its fat burning properties. But, there’s no question that Green Teat Extract is a very effective natural fat burner due to its active component EGCG which inhibits the breakdown of norepinephrine, boosts metabolism, and increases fat release from fat cells. Take 500-1000mg 2-3 times per day before meals to increase burning of fat for body heat by as much as 200-400 calories a day. Try that stack on for size and see if you don’t get ripped. Posted in Fat Burning, Supplements/Nutrition .
Improving Your Vertical Jump	July 11th, 2010
I’ll admit it: I’m an average sized guy, well at least as far as height is concerned. I’ve bulked myself up considerably through weight training using many of the tips I’ve shared with you in this blog but I’ve always wished I was a bit taller. Unfortunately, there isn’t any magic pill that can help us add a few inches to our height. Luckily though, at least as far as sports and athletics is concerned, there *is* something we can do to overcome much of the burden of being an average sized or short guy: improve our vertical jump. Actually, even if you’re already a tall dude, improving your vertical leaping ability is something that will increase your performance in sports such as basketball, football, volleyball, and a whole host of others. For years, I’d tried to improve my vertical jump but, despite diligent adherence to what I thought was a great training regimen, I was making very little overall progress. Then I noticed this guy at the gym. This dude was stacking aerobic STEP blocks at higher and higher levels and vaulting onto them seemingly effortlessly. He’d do some reps, then add another block, and do some more, and so on and so on. Finally I approached him and asked how he’d managed to achieve such a high vertical jump. He’s the guy I have to thank for introducing me to The Jump Manual, the system he had used to achieve the incredibly vertical leaping ability I had seen him demonstrating in the gym. Normally, I’m very skeptical of things like this and this time was no exception: my first reaction was “Yeah, right”. But I took a shot, upon my new gym buddy’s recommendation, and damn am I glad I did. It turns out The Jump Manual is put out by a guy named Jacob Hiller who has trained athletes in improving their vertical jump at everything from the high school level all the way up to the NBA pros and Olympic athletes. Jacob’s system covers everything you need to know to improve your vertical jump including complete workout charts to keep track of your training, videos of exercises and stretches, a nutrition plan, and much more. He even offers up techniques you can use if you don’t have access to a gym. In addition, Jacob offers up his own personal consulting services which could include emails, online chats, and even phone calls. Once I started the system, it didn’t take me long at all to start seeing an improvement…now my buddy and I train our vertical jumps together at the gym and I’m keeping pace with him. Plus, when I’m playing some b-ball, I can actually do some dunking for a change. It’s awesome. Take a look at Jacob’s site, watch the intro video, and check out all the info he has to give you. If you want to improve your vertical jumping power (with no bullshit), grab yourself a copy of The Jump Manual today. Posted in Articles, Legs, Lower Body .
Arnold Presses	June 23rd, 2008
Named after The Oak himself, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Arnold Presses are a great delt exercise. They’re very similar to typical overhead dumbbell presses but with a slight twist (literally). First, grab two dumbbells and sit down on a low chair or flat bench. Start out with the weights at shoulder level and your palms facing in toward your body. The position is very similar to the top position when doing dumbbell curls. From there, using a smooth motion, press the weights upward in an arc over your head, rotating your wrists outward as you do so. By the time you are halfway through the movement your elbows should be pointing away from your body. The top position should find your arms overhead, weights close together or slightly touching, and your palms facing out away from your body. Next, reverse the motion, lowering the weigths back down to shoulder level and rotating your wrists in so you are once again at the starting position for the exercise. I’d recommend that you start out using slightly lighter weights than normal overhead dumbbell presses to give yourself a chance to get used the motion of the exercise. You can also perform these from a standing position if you like. This is a fantastic exercise for isolating the delts and with Arnold as your guide you can’t go wrong =) Posted in Exercises, Shoulders .
Close-grip Bench Press	June 20th, 2008
I was very partial to this exercise when I first started training. I felt that my chest was slow to develop and this exercise allowed me to give my chest a little extra boost on Arm day. Make no mistake though, these are a great way to pump up your triceps as well. Close-grip bench presses can be performed with either a barbell or on the Smith machine. You may want to try them both ways and see which is more comfortable for you or perhaps alternate between the barbell and the Smith for different workouts. Be sure to use less weight than you normally would for standard barbell bench presses…at least until you have a feel for the exercise. Start by lying faceup on a flat bench with a barbell rack (or under the Smith Machine). Grasp the barbell with your hands 6-12 inches apart. Unrack the bar and lower it slowly, keeping your elbows as close to your sides as possible throughout the movement. At the bottom of the movement, your elbows should be slightly lower than your shoulders. Next, press the bar smoothly upward, keeping it directly over your chest as you would for a normal barbell press. Repeat for reps. This exercise only takes a short while to get the hang of (I think it requires a bit more balance than the traditional barbell press), but it’s a great way to pump up your tri’s. I have used it both at the front of my workout with heavy weight and lower reps and as a finisher (usually on the Smith machine) with lighter weight and high reps to really burn out the muscle. Enjoy the pump! Posted in Exercises, Triceps .
Biotest Tribex Gold	June 19th, 2008
When it comes to building muscle mass, Testosterone is, and always will be, king. High testosterone levels will help you pack on tons of muscle and burn fat, always a good combination. In addition to some natural ways to boost your T levels, we can use supplements to help us out as well. Actually, even our testosterone boosting supps can be natural… Tribulus Terrestris is an herb that has been used in the traditional medicine of China and India for centuries. In the mid-1990s, Tribulus Terrestris became known in North America after Eastern European Olympic athletes said that taking tribulus helped their performance. Tribulus is a great way to boost your testosterone levels naturally without steroids or some of the other nasty stuff you may be tempted to try. When I’m supplementing to raise testosterone, I use Biotest Tribex Gold. I think it’s one of the best Tribulus Terrestris supplements out there. Be sure to follow the cycling instructions (given on the bottle) and get ready for some massive gains!