The Full Body Workout Routine Is Gaining Popularity

July 14, 2011 by Joe Maldonado  
Filed under Fitness

It used to be that the full body workout routine was quite a bit less popular than doing the split routines in the gym. However, it seems as though lately the split routines have become outdated and the full body sessions are heading to the forefront. Fitness enthusiast no longer believe that it is effective to regularly do split routines unless you are severely lacking in a certain muscle group. Now it’s more about building your muscles evenly to achieve balance and symmetry.

Additionally, most people love the limited time spent in the gym. With this type of a workout routine, the ideal schedule only consists of 2-3 days in the gym with the sessions lasting less than an hour. You only go a few days a week because you have to allow for sufficient recovery time in between every workout. This is because without the recovery time your muscles won’t get as big as they could if you let them recover all the way.

Plus, you have to keep your workouts to less than an hour because if you work out too long you will get an abundance of cortisol in your body, and this is not an ideal situation. This causes the opposite effect of what you desire, because your muscles may actually become smaller rather than grow larger. The best possible scenario would be that they would remain the same size. A vast majority of people in today’s fast paced society have jam packed lives with limited time slots in which they can fit in their workouts. For this reason, a full body workout routine becomes the ideal solution for most of the general population when it comes to anyone who has an interest in achieving a higher level of fitness.

It is essential to take the time beforehand to properly plan your workout sessions. In the case of weight lifting for your entire body, heavy lifting becomes important. First, it will be necessary for you to determine the heaviest amount of weight that you are able to lift for five reps. The weight that you should be lifting during your training sessions should be between 65-90 percent of that amount.

Besides going heavier with our weight, it is important for you to limit your exercises to just one for every muscle group. Also remember that with each new workout session, change which muscle group you begin with. We tend to give the most to the muscle group that we exercise first. When you vary it every time, you will be giving your different muscle groups a turn to get your strongest effort.

If you are able to, try to use free weights or dumbbells instead of machines. Machines are okay if you have to use them, it’s just that all they do is isolate the muscle. When you use free weights you will be using your balance and stabilizing every single movement. Obviously, the advantages are numerous as to why you would choose to use a full body workout routine, and anyone can improve their level of fitness this way with the right amount of dedication and consistency.

Yes! There is a big possibility you’re going to love Jason Statham way of getting lean and cut. Getting a Full Body Workout Routine is something the majority of us, no matter the age, should do on a weekly basis!

Bodybuilding

July 25, 2008 by admin  
Filed under Body Building, Fitness, Sport

My Four “No Fail” Principles For Quick and Easy Weight Gain

By Nick Nilsson

1. Train heavy and to muscular failure

In order to gain muscle mass, you need to give your muscles a REASON to grow. Training with heavy weights (relatively speaking, of course – what’s heavy for one person may be light for another) to muscular failure is the stimulus that starts the process.

And by muscular failure, I mean the point where you physically can’t perform another rep WITH GOOD FORM – reps done with terrible form don’t count!

The best rep range to train for muscle growth, in my experience, is between 6 to 10 repetitions per set. Training in the range below that (1 to 5 reps) will primarily lead to strength gains rather than muscle gains.

Training in the higher rep ranges (for the most part, unless you’re using specialized high-rep techniques) will primarily work on muscular endurance with minimal effects on muscle mass.

Training to muscular failure is VERY important for muscle gain.

Muscles will not grow unless they are pushed beyond what they’re used to. Doing your sets only up to a certain number of reps and stopping on that number regardless of whether the muscle has been worked or not is a very common mistake made by both men and women alike. Counting reps and stopping on an arbitrary number will NOT work the muscles fully and will hamper weight gain.

So to train for optimum muscle gain, select a weight that will cause you to reach muscular failure in the 6 to 10 rep range.

2. Utilize basic exercises for most of your training

Dumbell tricep kick-backs will NOT help you gain weight. The Pec Deck will NOT help you gain weight. Leg extensions will NOT help you gain weight.

These exercises are not bad exercises; they’re just NOT the exercises that are going to give you the results you want. In fact, doing exercises like these at the expense of the basic exercises can actually detract from weight gain, especially if you have a hard time gaining weight. They will use up your valuable time and energy!

Basic exercises are the exercises that use the most muscle mass. They are the HARDEST exercises…the ones you either love or hate. This “make or break” challenge is what makes them the most productive for building muscle.

Basic exercises include squats, deadlifts, bench press, shoulder press, barbell curls, barbell bent-over rows, dips, chin-ups, lunges, and calf raises. This is not a comprehensive list but it will give you an idea of what a basic exercise is. Essentially, a basic exercise is an exercise that you can use a lot of weight on and that requires the most effort.

Use these basic exercises consistently for the majority of your sets and you WILL gain muscle.

3. Eat good quality nutrition in sufficient quantities.

Now that you’ve stimulated your muscles with hard, heavy training, it’s time to feed them. Gaining weight, a.k.a. building muscle, requires a caloric intake in excess of what it takes to maintain your current bodyweight.

Basically, you need to eat more.

The amount of calories you require to gain weight will vary greatly depending on several factors, primarily your current amount of muscle mass, your daily activity level and your metabolic rate.

The more muscle you already have and the more active you are, the more calories you’re going to need to eat in order to gain weight. If you are already thin, you probably have a fast metabolism (i.e. you lose weight quickly and gain it slowly), and you’re going to need to eat even MORE.

In order to keep your muscles supplied with nutrients, you’re going to need to eat frequently throughout the day. It’s best if you can manage to eat 5 or 6 meals over the course of the day. Naturally, these meals will be smaller than your regular meals if you currently eat 3 per day.

The idea is to keep feeding your muscles so that they always have nutrients available to grow. If you go without food for long periods of time, your body will turn on its own resources (e.g. your muscles) to provide needed nutrients for repair and recovery.

And whatever you do, if you want to gain weight, DO NOT skip breakfast! If you do, it will kill your metabolism for the rest of the day.

Besides sufficient caloric intake, protein is also critical for muscle gain. Protein is the structural nutrient that your muscles are made of. You must feed your body protein in order to help your muscles rebuild.

Good protein sources include fish, poultry, dairy, meats, soy, legumes (beans), eggs, and whey. A typical recommended protein intake for a person looking to gain muscle would be around 0.8 to 1.0 grams of protein per pound of bodyweight. For example, as a 136-pound person, this would have you eating 109 to 136 grams of protein per day.

Supplements can also be extremely useful for weight gain. Whey protein, creatine monohydrate, and the amino acid glutamine are among the most effective supplements.

And I’ll tell you right now, there’s no need to get crazy with your supplement purchases… manufacturers will often prey upon your strong desire to gain mass and try and sell you a TON of supplements you really don’t need.

Keep it simple and get your training and eating in order. THAT is what builds an impressive body – not a boatload of bizarre supplements.
So to sum it up: eat a lot, eat frequently and eat plenty of protein.

4. Get enough rest

Your muscles don’t grow while you’re training. Your muscles actually grow AFTER your training session is done. One of the best things you can do to help you reach your goal of gaining weight is to learn to relax. This is especially important both after a workout and at night.

Immediately following a workout, your body is in an emergency situation. You’ve just put a lot of stress on your body and your body needs time to recover from it.

If you immediately have to rush off to do errands or some other stressful chore, you’re not going to get optimal recovery and that means you’re not going to get optimal muscle growth. If you can manage it, try to schedule your workouts for when you have a little time to relax after. Heck, take a nap about an hour or so later if you can!

Getting some good, solid sleep at night is also very important. A large part of your growth process occurs at night. If you don’t get enough sleep or your sleep is restless, your body will not be able to take full advantage of the growth you’ve stimulated with your training.


Conclusion:

If you want to gain mass, you HAVE to do the basic things right…train hard with heavy, basic exercises, eat well and get plenty of rest. As I mentioned above, this ain’t rocket science, yet you’d be surprised at how many people miss more than one of these items!

Don’t stop yourself before you even get started – make sure you’re got these four “no fail” principles down pat!

Check out more articles related to these mass-building principles:

My Practical “Lazy Cook” Recipes For Building Muscle! So Easy Even a Caveman Can Make Them…

Training on the Edge – Learn How Overtraining on Purpose Can Get You Maximum Results FAST!

Rest-Pause Training
Eight Mistakes I’ve Made In My Training and How You Can Avoid Them

Fitness Exercise.

June 28, 2008 by admin  
Filed under Body Building, Exercise, Sport

Abdominal Exercises – How to Avoid Mistakes

Abdominal exercises are, in fact, done in order to rectify a series of past mistakes and ignorance.  These mistakes are lead to huge bulk on one’s abdomens.  It is critical to know how one can identify and avoid repeating the abdominal mistake in their exercise or training.  Inaccurate abs training can result in back pain and no results for one’s efforts at all. While the first concern becomes a cause of more worries, the latter will carry forward whatever worries once had at the start.

Abdominal Exercises Mistake #1 Having crunches on inclined benches are not recommended if one is starting off after forty years of age.  It may lead to faster abdominal fat burning but this could also lead to severe back pains. Since crunches are really effective on abdomen, it would be adequate to do it on thick rugs on flat surfaces or floor. One needs to avoid doing the crunches on couch or sofa. Couches and beds are softer than necessary.  It will not be able to support for your back completely.

Abdominal Exercises Mistake #2 Many people believe overdoing their exercises is working and effective by straining their whole bodies with workouts for abdomen. It is enough to clasp one’s hands behind the head and pull oneself up by their abdominal muscles. Having the hands stretched fully before the start is unnecessary as one will be drawing some force from hands which relieve the stomach muscles of their workouts to that extent. This simple gesture or exercise would make people wonder on the benefits or how it has flattened one’s stomach.  Improving the core muscles is the key and it will eventually see physical results if done regularly. 

Abdominal Exercises Mistake #3 Wrong judgment on the quantum of workouts of what the body can take or needs leads to undesirable and surprising results. One should need to work with a trainer in order to adjust the right amount of exercise needed for an individual. There are two noteworthy points here.

  1. Overworking may over strain the vertebral column.  Back muscles may not only cause spasms but also dictates the abdominal muscles to temporarily stop the exercise routine. 
  2. Under working may to nowhere as the soft belly tissues are not sufficiently stretched or compressed.

Abdominal Exercises Mistake #4 Rest pauses in between sets of crunches are essential. Many people are working out with insufficient or no pauses over enthusiastically but giving up later or learning the lesson in the end. However, take care to see that one’s rest pauses are not long enough to let the muscles reconcile or cool down completely, because in both these cases one will be losing out on the momentum that one has generated.

Abdominal exercises are the easiest of all physical training routines but for results to come one’s way, one needs to know precise steps.  Before improving and correcting the abdominal exercise, below are some guidelines to follow:
Perform several abdominal exercises 3-5 times a week. One should start with exercises and repetitions that are comfortable for one’s fitness level and as one improves, increase the number of repetitions. These exercises may vary from the side bends, Medicine Ball Sit Ups, and the cable crunch.  It is suggested to simply select those that work well for the person and vary the routine over the months.