When Not To Go In For Muscle Building Drinks

Use Your Own Judgment Too

The Basic Muscle Building Drink

The Role Of Vitamins

Some Specific Vitamin Functions

Your Dietary Needs Must Be Met

Getting To A Fitter You

Keep It Simple

Work Out With A Partner

Focus On The Method

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An effective way for muscle building exercises is to alternate the speed of your repetitions. Super-slow reps increase the demands on the muscle fibers by lengthening the amount of time you spend in the exercise movement. Alternating super-slow reps with the more usual rep speed provides a wider range of stimulation that the muscle must adapt to.

In their quest for gaining muscle size, most athletes focus on the amount of weight they lift and the number of sets and repetitions they do. There is, however, another variable that needs to be taken into consideration: the speed of your repetitions.

Using Negatives When Doing Muscle Building Exercises…

Athletes usually perform their repetitions with a relatively explosive movement during the concentric phase of an exercise, which is when the muscle fibers become shorter. They then return to the starting position with a slower motion. This second part of the movement, during which the muscle fibers are lengthening, is called the eccentric phase. This technique can promote significant growth, provided that it is done correctly. The rapid contractions during the concentric phase build power and speed, while the "negatives" done during the eccentric phase place a different type of demand on the muscle as it resists the fall of the weight. However, you can't rely exclusively on this technique if you want to pack on maximum size.

When athletes reduce the speed of their repetitions, they usually increase the amount of time devoted to the eccentric phase. This can cause problems, however, because eccentric movements produce greater delayed muscle soreness than concentric movements. During a negative, fewer fibers are recruited for a particular muscular effort. This increases the tension produced per fiber, resulting in relatively greater microcellular damage to each individual fiber. A marked increase in the levels of certain muscle enzymes has also been noted in the blood after eccentric exercise, confirming that damage to the fibers has taken place. Excessive amounts of eccentric movements can even reduce the level of growth hormone produced. So, prolonged negatives are definitely not the way to slow your repetition speed.

Reducing The Speed Of Your Concentric Movements When Doing Muscle Building Exercises…

When gaining muscle size, a better alternative is to reduce the speed of your concentric movement. Instead of contracting the muscle as quickly as possible, slow the motion down. Start out by taking four seconds to lift the weight, then increase this time over several weeks until you take eight or even ten seconds to fully contract the muscle. This may seem like a minor modification, but try it sometime. Keeping the target muscle under tension for a longer period significantly increases the difficulty of the movement. At a bare minimum, the number of repetitions you do will drop. And if your new rep count is less than six, you will need to temporarily lower the weight you use. But don't despair. In time, your strength will increase enough to allow you to use your old weight again. Eventually, you will be able to add more weight. The slower rep speed also reduces momentum, which allows you to train safely at a very high intensity.

These super-slow reps are a better intensity variation than the old reliance on negatives. Dr. Richard Winett, editor of Master Trainer, calls super-slow reps "the most effective intensity builder I have ever tried." You will find that this technique helps gaining muscle size while producing less delayed muscle soreness than traditional negatives. It may seem a bit odd at first to do your repetitions in slow motion, but gaining muscle size will be the welcome result.

If you are interested in how to gain muscle mass, you cannot ignore stretching. Stretching does more than increase flexibility. A slow, non-bouncing stretch, called a static stretch, can reduce immediate muscle soreness and increase a muscle's range of motion. As the muscle performs a more complete movement, larger forces are produced and greater muscular adaptations are stimulated. Be sure you don't strain the muscle, however. Stretch for ten to fifteen seconds before each set.

Stretching is a vital part of a complete workout. Besides increasing flexibility, it can enhance agility and coordination. This is particularly important in sports such as gymnastics and karate. Stretching can reduce stress through the relaxation of the muscle and help prevent injury to the joints and tendons. Properly done, it can also increase muscular strength.

A slow, non-bouncing stretch, called a static stretch, has been shown to reduce immediate muscle soreness. Everyone is familiar with the use of a stretch to relieve a muscle cramp. Research has now shown that static stretching decreases the electrical activity within skeletal muscle, which may explain why it is so effective for soreness. Care must be taken, however, to use the correct stretching technique. When performing a stretch, don't force the muscle to tense up by straining it. The whole point of stretching is to release tension, allowing the muscle fibers to elongate.

Visualize the muscle expanding as an elastic band would. Keep on lengthening the fibers slowly and without stress. If you feel a burning sensation or if the muscles start to quiver, you have gone too far. Ease off a bit. Of course, over time your muscles will adapt to these movements and become more flexible, allowing you to stretch them further without getting a pain sensation.

Done correctly, stretching can extend your muscles' range of motion. A muscle moves through only a portion of its total range during everyday life, so there is a significant reserve capacity. In weight training, however, you want to move the resistance through the fullest range of motion the muscle is capable of. Stretching allows you to move through a greater portion of this range, so the muscle fibers are able to contract over a greater distance than they would otherwise. Greater forces are therefore produced, stimulating additional muscular adaptations.

To be most effective in producing muscle growth, the stretch should be done after your body is warmed up. Stretch the body-part for ten to fifteen seconds immediately before each set. Pre-stretching a muscle activates certain nerve impulses in the muscle spindles and primes the muscle for the "stretch reflex," which (like any reflex action) causes a reaction to the initial movement. As the muscle moves through a greater range of motion, more muscle fibers are recruited. The end result is a stronger contraction and a greater amount of generated tension, which induces more muscle growth. Because the stretching is done during the rest period between sets, it does not prolong your workout. Stretching is therefore a wise investment of your time.

By reducing the amount of time you rest between sets when you do muscle building workouts, you increase the intensity of your training program. You pack more muscle building activity into a shorter period of time and stimulate more growth. The ideal rest period varies with the particular exercise, but as a general rule you should only rest one to two minutes between sets or until your heartbeat is back to normal, whichever is longer.

Another way to boost your muscle building workouts’ intensity is to reduce the amount of time you rest between sets. A more concentrated training program places larger demands on the muscle, which responds with greater growth over time. Although a certain amount of rest is necessary between sets to permit the short-term recovery of the muscle, too much of a break can hold you back. You need to walk the fine line between letting your muscles fully recharge for another set and giving them more time off than they really need.

Using Appropriate Rest Periods In Your Muscle Building Workouts…

The appropriate rest time between sets (or exercises for the same bodypart) varies with the muscle that is being trained. Larger muscles, such as the quadriceps, require more rest time than smaller muscles like the biceps and triceps. Also, compound exercises that involve several muscles, such as the squat and powerlifting-style deadlift, require longer rest periods than isolation exercises for a single muscle. This is a function of the demands you place on your body to lift the particular weights involved. The higher the muscle building workouts’ intensity, the more oxygen debt created and the more time you need to get your muscles back to a relatively recuperated state. There is also a build-up of lactic acid in and around the muscle during your set, which is largely neutralized during the rest period. This lactic acid is the cause of the "burning" sensation that forces you to stop contracting the muscle at the end of your set. A rest period also permits partial replenishment of the muscle's ATP supply (the fuel source for initial muscle movement) and other metabolic adjustments.

"Short rest periods have been shown to produce more testosterone and growth hormone secretion than longer rest periods when other factors are constant," notes Dr. William Kraemer, who is also co-author of the reference book Designing Resistance Training Programs. "Shorter rest periods also increase the number of capillaries inside your muscle fibers and boost the muscle's buffering capacity, which increases its ability to tolerate the build-up of lactic acid. These adaptations enhance endurance and contribute to muscle growth."

Achieving Peak Intensity During Your Muscle Building Workouts…

To achieve peak intensity of your muscle building workouts, you should keep your rest periods as short as they can be while still providing time for appropriate recovery. A good rule of thumb is to rest one to two minutes between sets or until your heartbeat is back to normal, whichever is longer. (Your heart beats faster after you stop working out in order to get enough oxygen back into your system.) For most isolation exercises, a minute provides sufficient time to reduce the acidity in your muscles and to get them primed for more muscle action. Less than a minute is usually too little time for this recovery to take place. Anything much over a minute reduces your potential for peak intensity without giving you a compensating benefit in return. Compound movements require more recovery time due to their metabolic demands. One to two minutes is usually sufficient, however.

Remember that you are in the gym to grow. This is your prime directive, and you shouldn't let anything get in the way. You have undoubtedly seen athletes who spend three hours working out. You may wonder how anyone could do that many sets, but look closely the next time you see these people train. Chances are that they do a set, then rest five to ten minutes before doing another one. These prolonged muscle building workouts may be great for socializing, but they are not the best way to build muscle. The largest gains are obtained when you concentrate the greatest amount of training into the shortest period of time that is consistent with proper recovery.

Variety is the spice of life. Anything done to excess is boring, and natural bodybuilding training are no different. If your gains have stopped or even slowed down, you can get back on the right track by adding variety to your exercise program. There are many excellent ways to vary your natural bodybuilding training. Variation will unlock the power of your mind and body. This will increase the commitment to your training program.

One of the secrets to maintaining enthusiasm in weight training is variation. It would get boring to eat the same thing for dinner every night, and an exercise routine is no different. The best way to create excitement and stimulation when you try to build muscle is to constantly vary the elements of your natural bodybuilding training. This fresh approach will increase your intensity level dramatically.

If you've been using the same routine for an extended period of time, your body may have gotten used to it. "The body can't stand redundancy," notes Dr. William Kraemer. "If you do the same thing all of the time, your body's adaptation mechanisms tend to shut down. You have to continually provide the muscles with new and different stimuli to achieve muscle growth." If your strength or size gains have stopped or if you're bored with the same old workout, it's time to try something new. Variation will bring back the spark to your training and get you on the right track again.

Natural Bodybuilding Training Tip: Keep An Open Mind…

"You need to maintain an open mind," says exercise physiologist Karl List. "Don't get attached to any one training model. Try different things so you can see what works for your own body." There are many different ways to vary your natural bodybuilding training. The number or type of exercises can be changed. Some days you could do three exercises for a bodypart, and on other days two or four. This could mean raising or lowering the number of sets you do for each exercise (so the total number of sets remains constant), or you could have high-volume and low-volume days. You could also change the order of the exercises and/or the order in which you train your bodyparts. Modifying the weights and number of repetitions per set is another alternative.

You could also switch the exercises you do. These variations in your routine should spice up your training, providing a new basis for growth. New exercises often work the muscle in a slightly different manner, which can stimulate the muscle fibers in distinct ways. Another option is to alternate the type of exercises, doing only compound movements with free weights for a while and then switching to machines or isolation movements. Or you could try concentrating on pressing exercises one day and cable movements the next.

Experiment with your routine to see which variations work best for you. There is no reason to stick with a group of exercises just because you got good results. Something else may be even more effective. If not, go back to your first workout or try yet another variation. Variety is the key to unlocking the power of your mind and body, and there are so many possible variations that there is no reason to be bored with your routine. Seek out new options. Explore the possibilities. You'll grow more and have more fun to boot.