Posts Tagged ‘build muscle mass’
Normally bodybuilding articles talk about how to build muscle up, diet, training workouts, muscle building nutrition and so on, however whilst these are all really important there is one things slightly different I would like to introduce to you and your muscle building armoury. It is known as the reticular activating system (RAV).
The RAV works together with the visual componenet of our brain and diverts our attention to specific things that our sub conscious has programmed into it, to be important to achieve our goals. The day to day actions, sights, sounds, preferences and so on that we get daily are all because of our sub conscious thought process that is continually operating.
This has been now proven by neuroscientists and actually qualifies the approaches of positive thinking and the law of attraction. If you have never heard of the law of attraction before it is basically the asumption that ‘what you think about, you bring about’ or ‘thoughts become things’. Now previously this was considered a bit to new agey for most people however there is a growing acceptance of this approach worldwide.
Now it doesn’t matter if you take the neuro-scientists approach about it or the metaphysical approach to it because it will work either way. So by reprogramming the software of our mind like this it is then possible for us to identify an pick out more clearly the paththat we need to take to reach our goals faster. Some people will experience beneficial co-incidences that will significantly aid there progress, this is from uncommon but often gives this ‘law of attraction’ a slightly magical feel whereas in reality those things were probably there all the while anyway!
So how exactly is a bodybuilder meant to benefit from this? Well consider now your present thought patterns. Precisely what is it that you are running through your mind on a daily basis. Are they thoughts like ‘losing weight is too difficult’ or ‘I never grow muscle fast’ for if they are then that is exactly what your RAV system is choosing for you to notice and act upon on a daily basis. It is therefore your everyday sub conscious thought process that you need to alter to positive muscle building thought processes such as: ‘muscle mass come quickly and easily’ or ‘I am getting huge fast’ and so on.
How can you alter these patterns? Here are a couple of things to try:
1) Visualisation: first you need to set aside 5 minutes or so each day to do this. Very simply find a quiet spot and close your eyes and paint a realistic and crystal clear picture of precisely how you desire your physique to be. Huge guns, ripped 6 pack and so on, be as clear as possible and hold that vision with belief that you look like that already.’
2) Speak out aloud clearly and confidently simple statements like: I am extremely fit and healthy, I am huge and muscular, I am growing more and more each day and so on.
Make sure you practice these everyday. Normally it takes up to 30 days for this new way of thinking to bed in. Following that, don’t stop doing them keep going to continually reaffirm your new thought patterns.
If you don’t believe that this stuff works then I suggest that you browse through a few sportsmens autobiographies or sports studies books, I gaurantee that you will find these discussed in great depth, particularly visualisation which is a riculously effective technique that should get daily usage!
Ok with these positive thoughts and feelings in mind, go build muscle mass!
‘Why am I not getting bigger?’ is one of the most common question from bodybuilders around the world. After all you are training hard, with good muscle building nutrition in your diet, yet your gains are still minimal. Your motivation can be dramatically reduced by the sense of frustration after months of effort. So precisely what is the answer? Well, there are a few likely causes, see if any of these ring a bell with you, together they show you how to build muscle up:
1) Are you eating enough? For some hard gainers you may just as well insert the words ‘under eaters’. As this is frequently the reason for small muscle gains. The key to building muscle mass is frequent high calorie meals! Eating every two hours is a good guideline and will enable you to take on board as many calories as possible. Make sure you snack lots on food such as: dried fruit and nuts, yoghurt, cottage cheese, cereal and milk, protein bars, fresh fruit, and protein shakes, etc
2) Are you getting enough protein? To build muscle mass fast you should aim for 1.Every day you should consume per pound of body weight 5 grams of protein. Great sources of protein include: chicken, fish, turkey as well as dairy products. Eat lots of everything and do not be too concerned about eating low fat products, you need the calories remember. Sure you need quality calories but make your life easier and eat everything, remember you can go through a cutting up stage in a few months time. Taking whey protein shakes is another great way to get on board quality protein, purchase the big 5 pound tubs to get the most for your money.
3) Have your routines become unproductive? If you can dictate out loud your session off the cuff then that likely means you have been using the same workout for a decent length of time already. Lots of variety is required in order to keep your muscles growing. What about really mixing things up with aided lifts, negatives, partials, super sets and so on. You could try 10 sets of 10 reps for any major exercise like squats, simply reverse your workout order, do more supersets (get ready to be sore!) or even allow yourself a week off from working out and let your body totally recover. Make sure you use any of the endless variations that are possible.
4) Are you getting enough down time? Did you ever witness someone workout and then leave with more muscle than when they had entered? Never. Clearly then your muscle do their growing at home after you have pumped out. If you do not get enough rest than you are limiting the time available for your muscles to grow. If anything over compensate and give your body more than enough time to grow. Try dropping to working a muscle group just once a week. Also reducing the number of sets per body part, how about a maximum of 3-5 really intense sets per body part per workout. Think that is not enough, try it and watch the results!
5) Is your water intake high enough? You will limit your progress if you don’t get an adequate supply of water. Your muscles need copious amounts of water in order to grow. Always keep a water bottle to hand and make use of it.
So the initial question: “Why am I not growing faster?’ as you can see, has more than one answer. After viewing the guidelines above don’t forget them, try and make the necessary changes today. If you are not hitting just one of the above guidelines then you may possibly have found the probelm underlying your limited growth. If there are more than one of these points that your bodybuilding lifestyle does not meet then urgent change is required. Of course there are heaps of other reasons why you might not be growing but the above are the usual culprits. Now go hit the gym and gain some weight!
‘Why am I not growing?’ is one of the most common question from bodybuilders around the world. After all you are training hard, with good muscle building nutrition in your diet, yet your gains are still minimal. The sense of frustration after all of the months of effort is tremendous and can be really demotivating. So precisely what is the answer? Well, there are a few likely causes, see if any of these ring a bell with you, together they show you how to build muscle up:
1) Are you eating lots? Some hardgainers are really just undereaters. As this is a major reason for poor muscle growth. In bodybuilding the key to weight gain is eating, lots and often! Consuming food every two hours is a sensible rule of thumb which will enable you to take in the required amount of calories. Make sure you snack lots on food such as: dried fruit and nuts, yoghurt, cottage cheese, cereal and milk, protein bars, fresh fruit, and protein shakes, etc
2) Are you getting enough protein? To build muscle mass fast you should aim for 1.Every day you should consume per pound of body weight 5 grams of protein. Excellent protein sources include: chicken, fish, turkey as well as dairy products. You need the excess calories in order to grow so don’t be overly worried about purchasing the low fat type. of course you require decent quality calories but you can do a ripping stage at a later date to remove excess body fat. A further great way to take on board quality protein is to get your hands on the large tubs of whey protein.
3) Have your routines ceased to be useful? If you are able to say aloud your routine without thinking too much it could well be that you have been doing it for too long. Lots of variety is required in order to keep your muscles growing. How about varying things around using, super sets, drop sets, partials, negatives and so on. You could try 10 sets of 10 reps for any major exercise like squats, simply reverse your workout order, do more supersets (get ready to be sore!) or just give yourself a week off from training to allow your body to fully recover. Make sure you use any of the endless variations that are possible.
4) Are you getting enough down time? Did you ever witness someone workout and then leave with more muscle than when they had entered? Never. So, clearly your muscles don’t grow when your pumping iron, they grow when you are resting. If you are not resting lots then you are limiting the amount of time available for the muscle to grow. If anything you ought to be giving yourself too much time to grow rather than too little. Try decreasing your session to just one workout per muscle group per week. Also decreasing the amount of sets done for each body part, try just 3-5 intense sets per bodypart per workout. Give them a go and the results will be the validation of them!
5) Is your water consumption high enough? You will limit your progress if you don’t get an adequate supply of water. To build muscle mass copious amount of water is required. Always keep a water bottle to hand and make use of it.
So the question we began with: “Why am I not growing quicker?’ as you can see, has more than one answer. Answer with extreme honesty the above questions and if you need to make a few changes then do so. The problem for your limited growth may well be the one point above that you do not meet. If there are more than one of these points that your bodybuilding lifestyle does not meet then urgent change is required. Of course there may well be other reasons why you might aren’t growing but they are are the usual suspects. Now go hit the gym and gain some weight!
All bodybuilders want to increase their size at a faster rate. Fast gains is the name of the game , no-one likes waiting. So it is very frustrating that it takes months or years to build muscle mass. However we are able to decrease the time it takes to build muscle. So here are 10 hot tips that show you how to build muscle up fast. Here they are:
1. The Overload Principle. This actually means that you need to increase the workload you do at every single workout. On a consistent basis you need to push for improvements so that you are stimulating your muscles to grow. By placing ever increasing demands on the body we can force it to continually grow and adapt to the new demands each workout in order to build muscle fast.
2. Your rep range should be between 8 and 12 reps. This range of reps is proven to stimulate the most muscle growth for size. Doing reps in the range of 3-6 may certainly increase strength it is not the most productive for increasing size. If you are doing over 15 reps whilst your muscles will increase in stamina they will not increase in actual size as much as a different type of muscle fibre is being triggered.
3. No more than 6-9 sets should be done for any particular bodypart per session. You put yourself at a high risk of overtraining by doing more than that. This will keep your workouts more intense and stop the body releasing catabolic hormones which adversely affect muscle growth. Keep your workout nice and intense to about 45 mins ideally.
4. Eat plenty of calories to support growth. If you want to get big then you have to take on excess amounts of calories to support muscle growth. Muscle doesn’t just grow out of thin air it requires the excess calories to build it. Quality calories are needed and can be gotten from rice, breads, pasta for carbs, fish, lean white meat for protein and fresh leafy green fruit and vegetables for vitamins and minerals.
5. Increase your level of protein intake. Protein repairs and builds muscle so is definetely required. You cannot build muscle fast without enough protein. You can figure out the amount of protein you need by:
Lean Mass Body Weight in kg times 2.75 = Each day this is your protein intake target
To calculate your lean mas weight you first need to find out your body fat percentage. This can be done at many gyms or an easier method is to simply take one gram of protein for each pound of bodyweight that you have, this is also a suitable guideline.
6. Take on fat! This is a good recommendation due to the fact that it will increase the anabolic muscle building hormone that is released by the body. Some people increase this by taking steroids but a good bodybuilding diet can do this to some extent naturally and fats play a role in this.
7. Liquids. Many chemical reactions in the body require water in order to take place including muscle building ones. Therefore it is sensible to take on board more water than you would normally. This is an excellent tip often overlooked when people try to build muscles fast.
8. Take it easy on the aerobic exercise and cardio workouts. This is due to the fact that aerobic workouts release the catabolic hormone that may lead to the breakdown of muscle tissue. Also it will reduce the amount of excess calories in your body which you really want to conserve in order to build muscle when you are at rest.
9. My personal favourite is sleep. during periods of rest is the only time that your body can actually grow and sleep is clearly an essential part of that time. Make sure you take a good protein shake before you turn in. Never starve your body overnight as this is when it needs the nutrients most for muscle building. Whilst you are asleep growth hormones are secreted, your muscle get an increase in the flow of blood and you metabolism slows down. These are all perfect combinations for fast muscle growth.
10. Stay committed. Never quit trying to achieve your goals. You won’t be turning in to. Olympis overnight however by following the previous guidelines you will notice increase in muscle mass especially over a three month period. The above tips are practiced by many experienced bodybuilders and I assure you they really do show you how to build muscle up fast.
You may already be aware what a hardgainer is. If you are nor sure what it means then really it just refers to a person that has extreme difficulty increasing their weight be it fat or muscle! Often this is put down to the fact that that person has a really fast metabolism.
Metabolism or metabolic rate refers to the rate at which your body burns up the calories it has taken on whilst performing the natural reactions of the body. If your metabolic rate is very slow then it is easy to gain fat tissue as you are not using up as many calories at rest as someone who has a higher metabolic rate.
For muscle building purposes we need to create a surplus of calories but for hardgainers this is a difficult thing to do with such a high metabolic rate as it is rapidly being burnt off. So, what ways around this problem are there for hardgainers? Here is our how to build muscle up guide for hardgainers:
1) Keep the cardio workouts to a minimum. Cardio-vascular sessions whilst using up calories at the time also increase your metabolic rate so that when you are at rest you will also be burning through more calories than normal. This you do not want if you are trying to create an excess of calories.
2) Eat for two people! You need to get lots of calories on board. To do this, simply try to double the amount of food that you would normally eat at every meal. Purchase over sized bowls, which will stop you from forgetting this.
3) Take on board every day 5-7 meals. This is critical to build muscle mass. Your body is only capable of extracting out of the food a certain amount of nutrients at any given time so small frequently meals are necessary to make the most of its capacity. consuming 2-3 meals/snacks a day is said to slow down the bodies metabolic rate which is true but that does not mean it is something that you should do. Why? Because your body goes into starvation mode releasing certain chemicals that are counter productive to muscle building especially for hardgainers.
4) Use supplemements. Take advantage of the great and ever increasing amount of protein drinks and meal replacement drinks that are on the market today. These include extremely high amounts of exactly the correct ingredients you require. Great times to take them are just after training and just before bed as these are times when your body is going to need the nutrients most.
Stop performing exercises like concentration curls and stick with classic compound mass building exercises. Your workout has to include: dead lifts, pull ups, squats and bench presses. These are the best and quickest method to build muscle mass in the right places fastest.
6) Reduce the number of sets. You can stimulate growth in short 40 minute intense workouts of just 3 sets per body part and maybe as little as 10 sets per workout. More is generally worse for hardgainers! Stimulate growth then get out of the gym and save your calories for growing.
7) Consume plenty of water. it is very important for the reactions within the body so don’t skip over this one. Drink lots and often.
There we go, give those tips a bash. Do not turn around after a couple of weeks and say they don’t work, be persistent and stick with it for a couple of months and see what the results are. Simply try them out and see what happens? I hope you found our how to build muscle up tips useful.
As we are all aware a good muscle building diet is critical to build muscle up. What is also important is the timing of your meals. Around two hours prior to your workout is when I recommend you eat your meal. This should give enough time to mean that you don’t hit the gym when you are bloated or still feeling full and sluggish.
Ideally this preworkout meal should be something that you are used to and that you know won’t make you feel heavy and bloated as you want to be at your best to give your all in the gym. Make sure it contains slow burning energy such as that found in rice and oatmeal and that you consume the protein part first. You risk becoming tired if you eat your carbohydrate before your protein. This occurs as both the protein and carbohydrate cause the body to release specific chemicals that have differing affects. Protein stimulates the release of tyrosine which signals your brain to be alert and energetic as opposed to the carbohydrate which stimulates the release of tryptophan and instructs the brain to make you feel tired. Therefore always eat the protein first.
If you really want to know how to build muscles quickly then great advice is to drink a protein and carbohydrate shake about half an hour before you workout. This will give you a good boost of ebergy for your session. Ingredients might include whey protein, maltodextrin, wxymaize or dextrose. Try to take on board 25 grams of protein and 40-50 grams of carbohydrate. Doing this will increase your bodies insulin levels which is one of the bodies strongest muscle building hormones. What’s more it will also reduce the production of cortisol which has a negative affect on building muscle.
Remember that spending time in the gym when you start your session already hungry and lethargic is not likely to make it a productive session. Always try to have fruit or meal replacement powders or bars handy should you not have time for a proper pre-workout meal.
As regards caffeine why not try get your hit from a nice antioxidant loaded green tea it provides less caffeine but is also a good deal better for you in many ways. One more thing, don’t forget to keep taking on board the water all day. Ok bear those things in mind and you’ll be hitting the gym in peak mode for an awesome muscle stimulating workout which you will be able to grow from because you will have had the correct muscle building nutrition.