Consistency is they key to success not only in bodybuilding but in all spheres of life. Do you want to succeed in bodybuilding? You want to be better? It’s all about consistency, training, eating,resting then repeat it again. Without repeating success will not come. Why so many forget about this? Consistency in bodybuilding is as important as hard training,eating and resting. You need to be consistent if you want to achieve your goal. It does not matter what are the circumstances. You need to have you way and move ahead. I must admit there will be hard times but those will never stop a real commited person. Hard times are to make you stronger so look at those as an opportunities to be better. After a years when you will look back you will realise how blessed you were you passed through all this and how much it did for you, now you are bigger and stronger and not only physically but psychologicaly. Good luck and be consistent.

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For some people there is nothing more relaxing than a hot sauna after lifting weights, but some new research coming out of the University of Montana is suggesting that this may not be the best time for it.

Post-exercise is one of the best times to eat as you have set up pretty much the perfect portioning – almost all the calories you consume will go towards the muscle. For years magazine articles and advertisements have pushed this as the ‘window of opportunity’ and to some degree they are right. That said, ultimately total calorie intake will determine what happens to your body in the long-run, even if you don’t take advantage of this ‘window’.

The study itself wanted to assess the effects of heat on glycogen resynthesis. To study this, the researchers recruited nine participants for two trials – one with post-exercise recovery at room temperature (i.e. the control test) and the other in a “hot room” which is about 90F. The participants depleted glycogen reserves by cycling for an hour in each experiment. After this they were given carbohydrates immediately and then spent four hours in the recovery room, receiving some more carbohydrates at the two hour mark.

What the researchers found was that muscle glycogen repletion was pretty much identical immediately after exercise and at the two hour mark, but by four hours the glycogen in the room temperature trial was significantly higher. I have discussed in a previous article that a splash of cold water to the face can help hasten recovery from exercise, that ice baths help promote recovery, and that “The Glove” can help improve performance. This study suggests that a luke-warm or even cold shower after training may be a better choice over the sauna.

The study in question did not use a sauna, nor did it use temperatures quite as high as you’d expect in a sauna (170F and above according to wiki), but that goes to show even more so that it may be a bad idea to sweat it out after lifting weights. If 90F negatively impacts glycogen synthesis rates then 170F most certainly will.

On a similar note, a study from 1996 showed that the temperature that you train in can affect muscle glycogen, with depletion occurring at a faster rate. So while it may have looked hardcore seeing Ronnie Coleman sweating like a mad man in his 100F gym in Texas, climate-controlled air conditioning may be best for optimal performance.

Source: Naperalsky M, Ruby B, Slivka D. Environmental Temperature and Glycogen Resynthesis. Int J Sports Med. 2010 May 12.

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Everybody should listen and learn “The 7 grand Daddy Laws” when they do weight training.

This is essential knowledge, for those who want to be effective and want positive gains in the gym. But also want to stay free of injuries, overtraining, etc.

Here is a little help, a little guideline that is absolutely perfect to use, when you evaluate the way you work out. Its called “The Seven granddaddy laws” and are 7 principles you can use as a guideline in your training, or the next time you read about a program you want to try out.

The 7 Grand Daddy Laws, is 7 principles that comes in play when doing weight training or for that matter any other sports as well.

There is a ton of training philosophies and working out systems on the market today, some are for people who want to loose weight, others are for those who want to gain muscles or strength, and others again is total useless.

Im sure you allready have your own way of working out, and your own system you are following. A system put together from the inspiration you have got from magazines, the big guy in your local gym, a friend, and from sources on the internet.

The big question is, are you satisfied? do you reach your goals? and have you asked questions about your own routines? What if you could do it even better, than you do now?

1 Principle of Individual differences.
A tendency people have, when they start working out, is to copy, the “big guy” in the gym or the most fit girl on the treadmill, and expect to have the same results as they have been struggling for.

Unfortunetly that is not always whats going to happen, and after a period of time, they get more and more desperate, because of the lack of results.

Strength training, is not only a question about lifting weights, but also a learning in how to listen to your body. How to feel your body. And how to get most out of your genetic blueprint. We are all born with our differences, for some people, its very easy to build muscles, and for others very difficult. You can make a big step on the way, by listening to your own body, read some science, and not alway believe in Gym Science.

2 Overcompensation Principle
This is a very simple principle, but yet very important. Muscle fibers grow in size in response to training. An example is calluses in your hand, what happen if you use your hands a lot ? You get more calluses on your hands. the same goes for muscle fibers

3 Overload Principle
If you always have the same amount of weight and use the same amount of reps in your exercises, your improvement will stop according to your bodys adaption, and to the amount of stress you put to your body thru weight and reps.

To improve further you have to go beyond the point which your body already has adapted to.

One way is to add more and more weight for each time you work out, and thereby put more stress to your muscles and body.

This you can do, to a certain point, until your body cannot recuperative, and you will end up overtraining , or just get used to the stress.

At this point in your training, you should go to a split system, example, front and back, a 2 split. Later even a 3, 4 or 5 split. because your body will demand it to go even further. If you stay In the same training regimen, you will hit a plateau or being overtraining. other way to keep improving I will mention later in this article.

4 SAID Principle
Specific Adaptation to Imposed Demands. if you want to go for increased musclemass, you train for increased muscle mass, if you want endurance you go for indurance, or if you want to improve your cardiovascular system, you train your heart and lungs by doing cardio, not by doing heavy weights.

This principle tells you to train after what your goal is.

A general rule in weighttraining is 12-15 reps is more like indurance, 6-12 is muscle mass, and finally 1-6 is strength. Keep that in mind when you plan your work out,and remember to take principle number 1 into consideration as well.

5 Use/Disuse
Use or loose it, thats simple, if you train to a certain point, and stop training, you will by time loose all what you have been fighting for. an actually it goes faster than you think. But the good point is, that our muscles have a memory, so it does not take so much time to get back to it again.

Certain training systems as the HST systems uses this principle based on that the strength curve drops much fast than your mass curves. Which means after a break you train with less weight but you still have the same size.

6 Specificity Principle
This principle means you start out with fundamental training, basic work out, and by time you move on to more specific work out. We all have our weak muscles and spots. example you have been working out for 3 years and have develop great upper body, but your legs are behind. there for to reach your final goal, you have to specify and go more in depths with your leg training, and include some squats for example.

7 GAS Principle.
General Adaptation Syndrome

This principle states, that after a period of hard high intensity training, a period of low intensity training, or a complete rest period must occur, In order to recover your body.

This is very important in order for the muscles to heal and recover and to be fully strong and recovered for the next period of high hard intensity training.

There can be a little confusion because some tissues and cellular component, may not need any rest at all. But muscles especially when heavy weight training has occurred, need time to recovery, and you do not necessary go that heavy next time you work out.

A general misunderstanding of this principles is, if you then, only do a fullbody work out once a week. In that case your rest period is way to long, for you body to adapt to the amount of pressure you put on it.

These principles is a good guideline next time you plan your work out, keep them in mind and use them visely.

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ScienceDaily (Mar. 12, 2010) — The usual excuse of “lack of time” for not doing enough exercise is blown away by new research published in The Journal of Physiology.

The study, from scientists at Canada’s McMaster University, adds to the growing evidence for the benefits of short term high-intensity interval training (HIT) as a time-efficient but safe alternative to traditional types of moderate long term exercise. Astonishingly, it is possible to get more by doing less!

“We have shown that interval training does not have to be ‘all out’ in order to be effective,” says Professor Martin Gibala. “Doing 10 one-minute sprints on a standard stationary bike with about one minute of rest in between, three times a week, works as well in improving muscle as many hours of conventional long-term biking less strenuously.”

HIT means doing a number of short bursts of intense exercise with short recovery breaks in between. The authors have already shown with young healthy college students that this produces the same physical benefits as conventional long duration endurance training despite taking much less time (and amazingly, actually doing less exercise!) However, their previous work used a relatively extreme set-up that involved “all out” pedaling on a specialized laboratory bicycle. The new study used a standard stationary bicycle and a workload which was still above most people’s comfort zone -about 95% of maximal heart rate — but only about half of what can be achieved when people sprint at an all-out pace.

This less extreme HIT method may work well for people (the older, less fit, and slightly overweight among us) whose doctors might have worries about them exercising “all-out.” We have known for years that repeated moderate long-term exercise tunes up fuel and oxygen delivery to muscles and aids the removal of waste products. Exercise also improves the way muscles use the oxygen to burn the fuel in mitochondria, the microscopic power station of cells.

Running or cycling for hours a week widens the network of vessels supplying muscle cells and also boosts the numbers of mitochondria in them so that a person can carry out activities of daily living more effectively and without strain, and crucially with less risk of a heart attack, stroke or diabetes.

But the traditional approach to exercise is time consuming. Martin Gibala and his team have shown that the same results can be obtained in far less time with brief spurts of higher-intensity exercise.

To achieve the study’s equivalent results by endurance training you’d need to complete over 10 hours of continuous moderate bicycling exercise over a two-week period.

The “secret” to why HIT is so effective is unclear. However, the study by Gibala and co-workers also provides insight into the molecular signals that regulate muscle adaptation to interval training. It appears that HIT stimulates many of the same cellular pathways that are responsible for the beneficial effects we associate with endurance training.

The upside of doing more exercise is well-known, but a big question for most people thinking of getting fit is: “How much time out of my busy life do I need to spend to get the perks?”

Martin Gibala says “no time to exercise” is not an excuse now that HIT can be tailored for the average adult. “While still a demanding form of training,” Gibala adds, “the exercise protocol we used should be possible to do by the general public and you don’t need more than an average exercise bike.”

The McMaster team’s future research will examine whether HIT can bring health benefits to people who are overweight or who have metabolic diseases like diabetes.

As the evidence for HIT continues to grow, a new frontier in the fitness field emerges.

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High-Intensity Interval Training is Twice as Effective as Regular Exercise

(NaturalNews) Recent research is indicating that traditional approaches to exercise that involve spending hours in the gym every day may not be the best way to stay strong and healthy. Interval training, a high-intensity type of workout that was originally created for Olympic athletes, may actually be twice as effective as regular exercise, and it can be done in a fraction of the time.

Most people are familiar with workout regimens that claim to build strength and endurance in mere minutes a day. Though seemingly deceptive, there may be more truth to such claims than one would have originally thought, depending on the technique. A few minutes of strenuous exercise a couple days out of the week is actually more effective than spending an hour or two every day in the gym.

According to Jan Helgerud, an exercise expert at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, interval training is far superior to traditional exercise. She believes that everyday people should aim to do four, four-minute workout sets with three-minute recovery times in between. In order to maximize results and achieve optimal muscle response, these sets should be intense and somewhat straining to the body.

While formerly thought to be too extreme for the average person, interval training is emerging as the exercise technique of choice among many experts, thanks to recent studies showing that common people stand to benefit from it. Part of this research includes evidence that interval training can double a person’s endurance, improve their body’s use of oxygen, and increase their speed and strength.

Officials in both the U.S. and the U.K. typically advise people to engage in roughly two-and-a-half hours of moderate exercise a week in order to maintain proper weight and a healthy heart. Such recommendations, however, will do very little to improve fitness ability, strength, or endurance.

Adamson Nicholls, a 36-year-old martial arts enthusiast, explained in an interview that he was able to greatly improve his endurance by undertaking 45-minute interval training workouts once a week for six weeks. If he had been doing regular workouts, it would have taken him roughly three months to achieve the same outcome.

Stephen Bailey, a sports sciences expert at the University of Exeter, explained why better results can be achieved from interval training in a fraction of the time. “A lot of the [benefits] from exercise are due to a stress response. If you disturb your muscles, there’s an imbalance created and your body will start signaling pathways that result in adjustments,” he explained.

In other words, moderate workouts may be longer than interval workouts, but they do not push the body hard enough to elicit an effective muscle-building response. Short, high-intensity workouts actually convert existing muscle fibers into ones that absorb oxygen more efficiently and effectively, helping people to burn fat, build muscle, and improve overall strength.

Source: naturalnews.com

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How heavy basics built Charles Dixon’s quads

May 26, 2010

As you will soon see, there’s nothing fancy about Charles Dixon’s quad training. And that’s refreshing. Too many bodybuilders over-think leg day, coming up with pre-exhausting, supersetting, high-rep barrages. Not Dixon. The 5’5″ South Carolina resident beat twenty other pros when he landed in the runner-up spot in last years Europa Super Show 202, and two big reasons why were his left and right legs. He tells how he got those quads — the old fashioned way.

DIXON ON QUAD BASIC TRAINING

“I don’t mess around when it comes to leg training. For me, it’s always been the essentials: squats, leg presses, leg extensions, hack squats and barbell lunges. And I like to stay in that middle range of 8-12 reps, even if it’s leg extensions or lunges. Those aren’t toning exercises to me; they’re all building exercises. I’ll sometimes change the order of the other exercises, but I like to start with squats and end with lunges.”

CHARLES DIXON’S QUAD ROUTINE

Source: FLEXONLINE.COM

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May 12, 2010

Eduardo Correa lives in the capital of laid-back: Florianopolis, a resort island off the coast of Brazil. So we could all forgive E.C. if he chilled at the beach instead of killing it in the gym. But that’s not how he rolls.

Correa burst onto the scene last year, winning his pro debut at the 2009 IFBB Pittsburgh Pro Invitational 202 as a 27 year old. Many thought he was the best 202er in the ’09 Olympia 202 Showdown, where he placed third, and this year Correa has kept the momentum going, easily winning the 2010 IFBB Europa Show of Champions 202 in April.

We questioned Correa on back training and got his typical back routine to find out how he sculpted the thickness and width in his rear shots to come in and do serious damage in the 202 ranks.

Q: You have one of the thickest backs in the 202 division. What do you think is best for back thickness?
A: All variations of rowing exercises. I’m always alternating between grips to work specific areas of my back and at the same time increase the thickness.

Q: How important are deadlifts?
A: Basic exercises like deadlifts are really important, although we must remember that we have an aesthetic goal, and because of that the way to execute this exercise is a little different. What I do is always focus on contracting my scapula to focus more on my inner, upper back.

Q: What exercises do you do for lower back?
A: The rowing exercises are my favorites. As I said before, I’m always switching my grip, and I think that helps a lot.

Q: Do you train traps with back or shoulders?
A: I usually train traps at the end of my shoulder routine. I do shrugs with a barbell or dumbbells for 4 sets 10-12 reps.

Q: What advice would you give for young bodybuilders who want to gain back size?
A: Focus on the right execution of each movement. Keep the focus on getting a full stretch and contraction every time. Don’t worry about the amount of weight, your strength will improve with time.

Source: FLEXONLINE.COM

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Hey huge guys, its time to get some great pumping and hard look before competition or before summer and beach season. Today I will present you training routine which I use last month prior competition to get that separation, hard look and extreme pumping.

Each day you will work with supersets. That means you will be doing 2 exercises one after other immediately with no rest.

In combination with cardio and diet this routine will make you look very, very attractive.

My Training Routine is a split for 5 days per week and better to train with a partner who have high ambitions and want to achieve as much as possible. The intensity must be high so encourage one another.

After workout don’t forget to get some protein or BCAA’s.

And one more thing, adjust weights in such a way so last 2 reps will be very hard for you and are done with maximum concentration.

Ready? Let’s begin.

DAY 1

SUPERSET BACK WORKOUT

1. Cable Rear Pulldown + Cable Underhand Pulldown – 4 sets with 10 reps each.

2. Barbell Bent Over Row + Cable Seated Row – 4 sets with 10-12 reps in each set

3. Cable Close Grip PullDown + Lever Wide Grip Seated Row – 4 sets with 10-12 reps for each.

You can add here some exercises for the body parts which need more attention or you can do some abs.

DAY 2

SUPERSET BICEPS AND TRICEPS WORKOUT

1. EZ Barbell Biceps Curl + Cable Standing Biceps Curl – 4 sets with 10-12 reps in each set

2. Seated Barbell Curl + Lever Preacher Curl – 4 sets with 10-12 reps in each set

3. Biceps Hammer Dumbell Curls+ Two Arm Cable Curls 3 sets with 10-12 reps in each set

TRICEPS WORKOUT

1. Reverse Grip Cable Tricep Extension + Cable Triceps Extension – 4 sets with 12 reps for each set

2. Barbell Lying Triceps Extension + Close Grip Bench Press + Barbell Lying Triceps Extension (that is a triset) – 3 sets with 10 reps for each

3. Triceps Dips +Cable Rope Over head Triceps Extension – 4 sets 10 reps in each

*4. Dumbbell Kickbacks – 3 sets 10-12 reps

5. Calves 2-3 exercises

DAY 3

SUPERSET SHOULDERS WORKOUT

1. Barbell Behind Neck Press + Cable Lateral Raise – 4 sets 10 reps

2. Barbell Upright Row + Dumbell Lateral Raise – 3 sets 10-12 reps

3. Cable Rear Lateral Raise + Lever Seated Rear Lateral Raise – 4 sets 10 reps

4. Barbell Shrug +Dumbell Shrug – 4 sets 10 reps

5. Abs 2 exercises in superset

DAY 4

SUPERSET LEGS WORKOUT

1. Leg Extension – 4 sets with 5 drop sets for each set with 10 reps for each.
Example:
Set 1; Weight 100Kg, you just did 10 reps, immediately decrease weight and do 10 reps more, then decrease it again and do 10 reps more and 2 times more so you will have 5 drop sets in one huge set.

2. Squats or Leg Press (actually I change them each week) 4 sets with 15-20 reps.

3. Barbell Lunge – 3 sets with 15-20 reps

4. Cable Lying Leg Curl – 4 sets 12-20 reps

5. Lever Bent-Over Leg Curl – 4 sets 12-20 reps

DAY 5

SUPERSET CHEST WORKOUT

1. Barbell Bench Press+ Dumbell Incline Bench Press – 4 sets 10 reps

2. Dumbell Fly + Lever Pec Dec Fly – 4 sets 10 reps

3. Cable Standing Fly +Cable Lying Fly – 3-4 sets 10-12 reps

4. Calves 2-3 exercises

You can add abs exercises to any days of this workout or you can do some sets for abs at home too.

It’s time to get in gym and start training as summer is almost here. Good luck and feel free to ask me any questions you might have.

© MusclesProd.Com 2010. All rights reserved. You may copy and use this article only with source indication (www.musclesprod.com)

About Author: Doctor Prod is a fictional character created by MusclesProd.Com Team

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Three-time Mr. O reveals his calving secrets

Reigning Mr. Olympia Jay Cutler has had one of the most remarkable decades in the history of pro bodybuilding. The last time he finished lower than second was the 2000 Mr. O. In his 21 contests since, he’s been runner-up in eight (including five Mr. Olympias), defeated only by fellow Mr. O’s Ronnie Coleman and Dexter Jackson. Cutler won the other 13 (including three Mr. Olympia’s and three Arnold Classics). How’s that for consistency?

Despite this run, many counted him out last year only to see him take Sandow number three with his best-ever combination of size and striations. One of the hallmarks of the Cutler physique is its completeness, including an area the only two men who have beat him since 2000 lack: colossal calves. We checked in with Mr. O to get his thoughts on beefing up the lower legs.

CUTLER’S CALVING TIPS

* “It’s not about the weight. Calf training is all about the range of motion. Go all the way down and all the way up on every rep.”

* “I’ll sometimes do a little rest-pause for calves. I’ll stop when I reach failure, rest for a few seconds, and then get a few more reps. I might do this two or three times.”

* “There’s not a lot you can do for calves as far as different exercises. Stick to the basics and work that full range of motion.”

* “I’ll sometimes do calf presses if the gym has a good machine. And I’ll switch up the order of exercises.”

* “I’ve never been into high reps for calves. I think 10 to 12 is best. Sometimes I’ll go to 15 to 20, but I tend to stick to that moderate range.”

CUTLER’S CALF ROUTINE
EXERCISE SETS REPS
Standing calf raises 3 10-12
Donkey machine calf raises 3 10-12
Seated calf raises 3 10-12

Source: flexonline.com

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Question: What is the ideal range for reps?

ANSWER: “I use as much weight as I can, but my reps almost always fall in the 8 to 12 range. But I don’t stop at 12. If I can get 13 or 14, I do. Then what I do is I increase the weight for the next set, so I’ll fall in that 8 to 12 range then. That, to me, is the sweet spot for building muscle.”

Question: True or false, squats should always come near the beginning of a leg workout?

ANSWER: False. “I prefer putting squats towards the end when the quads are pre-exhausted to better recruit all the targeted muscles.”

Question: True or false, quads should precede hamstrings or calves?

ANSWER: False. “Quads are my strong points, so I’ll usually do hamstrings and calves before quads. Some people think this is going to throw off your balance in lifts like squats, but I don’t think it’s an issue.”

Question: Why does Putnam do leg extensions at both the start and finish of his quad workouts?

ANSWER: “The first two sets of 20 are just warmups to make sure my knees are ready for the squats and leg presses. The last three sets of 8-12 are working sets, and I go as heavy as I can and push myself to failure to make sure my quads are finished off.”

PETER PUTNAM’S QUAD ROUTINE
EXERCISES SETS REPS
Leg extensions 2 20
Front squats 3 8-12
Leg presses 3 8-12
Squats 3 8-12
Leg extensions 3 8-12
Source: flexonline.com

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