Article by Leo Babauta of zenhabits
If you’re like me, you can eat healthy much of the time, exercise a lot, and still find your fat-burning efforts at a plateau.
It seems easier to lose the first 30 pounds than the last bit of fat around your middle.
And if (more…)
Continue reading about 7 Fail-proof Ways to Rev Up Your Fat Burning and Get Lean
Which type of exercise is better? Basic or Isolation?
That all depends on what you are trying to accomplish. Are you trying to build strength or size, or are you trying to refine the musculature that you already have?
Basic exercises, also referred to as compound movements, are the exercises that work several groups of muscle together with a single movement. The best example of a basic movement is the squat.
Each time you squat down and then press your body back up, you are working muscles in your quadriceps, hamstrings, buttocks, lower back, and other back muscles. Many muscles throughout the body are also actively involved in stabilization during this lift.
Isolation exercises are the movements that stress only one muscle group at a time. An example of an isolation exercise is biceps curls. With each repetition you do, the weight is moved almost completely by your biceps muscles.
Building the Right Foundation
If you are trying to build a base of strength or muscle size, basic exercises are key to your success, and for most people out there, basic exercises should compose a majority of their workouts.
This is because basic movements will give you the best gains for the amount of effort you put in. It’s true that working more muscles with a single workout is clearly more time efficient than working each muscle separately, but there’s more to it than that. (more…)
Continue reading about Basic Vs. Isolation Exercises, Chisels or Dynamite?
I just got off the phone with Skip La Cour, 6-time national bodybuilding champion. DRUG-FREE national champion, that is.
- Skip La Cour – drug-free champion
Skip is smart, funny, motivated, hard-working – things “bodybuilders” aren’t often credited for. But to compete in that arena without steroids pretty much assures that only the most elite – both physically and mentally – survive.
I was talking to Skip for advice, and I’ll tell you about that in another post. But for now I want to tell you how I was able to get an hour of his time… This is really important for those of you looking to add mass.
Having conquered the natural bodybuilding world, Skip has turned his attention to business. One of those businesses is MassMachineNutrition. [This is NOT an affiliate link or anything. I do not make any money at all from this link.]
I saw that he was offering a free hour of consultation for everyone who orders his Maximum Mass Pack – protein powder, creatine, glutamine, multivitamin.
I did a double-take. Was he really going to give me an hour of one-on-one advice just for buying stuff I would have bought anyway? The price he was charging was a good price for the supplements so this was a no brainer.
Now, I’ve followed Skip for the past couple years and I know I’ve mentioned him before in earlier articles.
I’ve never endorsed a supplement company before. But after talking to Skip about his ethics, I know he is delivering good stuff.
But even if you like where you get your protein and creatine now, or frankly even if you don’t use any supplements at all, you really should go to http://www.massmachinenutrition.com/mmp right now and get the free hour of advice. Skip totally OVERDELIVERS in that hour and no matter where you are in your muscle journey you will not regret it. (Really, if you don’t use protein powder, etc. buy it, get the advice, and give the protein powder to your buddy.)
Plus, you get a 13-hour audio seminar for free.
It’s really unbelievable. The way I look at it is I just paid Skip a little more than I’d pay a know-nothing personal trainer at 24Hour Fitness and I got a ton of supplements free and a 13-hr course for free.
Seriously, right now you need to go to http://www.massmachinenutrition.com/mmp and get his Maximum Mass Pack and the free hour of advice.
And again, I make absolutely no money from this. I’m referring you to Skip because I know it is worth it for you. You will not be disappointed. (more…)
Join the forum discussion on this article, or comment below.
[repost from Jason]
I could hardly believe what I was reading.
I sat in absolute bewilderment as I read an article in a recent muscle magazine. It explained in detail why you should lift your hips as high as possible off the bench (called bridging) when you bench press.
Was the author seriously recommending this type of thing to people who are trying to improve their workouts? I could hardly believe that any widely distributed magazine would publish this sort of “advice”.
Of course, I don’t think that the muscle magazines are very good reading for most people out there. They focus on what the pros are doing for their workouts instead of telling the readers what will help them the most. I’ll drop by once a month or so and read them just to see what’s out there (and only because I blog about this).
But there it was, right in the magazine. The author was praising the advantages of arching your back as high as possible and shooting your hips into the air on the bench press.
His argument was that arching your back and lifting the hips gives you more power for your bench. More power lets you lift heavier weights, and lifting heavier weights means you’re building strength and muscle.
So how could that be wrong? (more…)
Continue reading about You Gotta Be Kidding Me- Bridging on the Bench Press (repost)
[repost]
Most people do not realize how powerful water is in the healing process.
No, this is not an article about spa therapy, holistic medicine, or anything like that. This is about using simple methods to build muscle and strength as well as maintaining your overall health.
Your body might be 60% water overall, but your muscles are actually 70-75% water. Each time you work these muscles as you lift weights, small tears and rips form in the fibrous muscle tissues. Your muscles grow when these small tears are repaired. Guess what happens if your muscles aren’t able to heal:
Nothing.
Nothing happens at all. That means no growth, no toning, no strength increases… nothing.
Here’s a quick breakdown of why you need water to heal and how to harness its power to help your muscles after a workout.
Got Water?
Not getting enough water has serious side effects. Even a 1 percent change in your body’s water levels can seriously impair your exercise performance. Even worse, your ability to recover goes down the toilet… and the toilet it goes down is one of those water-saving dry flush things that doesn’t quite get the job done.
Some other reasons you need extra water when you lift weights: (more…)
Continue reading about How to Harness the Healing Power of Water for Muscle Health
While the best exercise for building shoulder mass is the overhead press, you might want to incorporate side laterals into your workout to add thickness to your outer shoulders. There are, however, a couple ways to lose some of the benefit from this exercise.
Your shoulder muscles are actually composed of three separate heads that are in the front (anterior deltoids), middle (medial deltoids), and rear (posterior deltoids). Developing full looking deltoids is a good idea because your shoulders are visible from every angle, whether you’re being viewed from the front, side, or rear.
Working on your medial deltoid adds width to your shoulders which helps make your waistline look smaller in comparison. This is great for women also as it helps to shape an “hourglass figure”.
A common mistake when doing deltoid side laterals, however, is to use too much momentum to raise the weights up to shoulder level instead of letting your muscles do the work. There are a few ways this can happen. We’ll take a look at each of these problems and how to fix them. (more…)
Continue reading about Side Laterals That Actually Work Your Shoulders
Getting a good warm up before you attempt any heavy lifting is an absolute necessity. The purpose of a warm up should be pretty obvious from its name. You need to get your body warm and the blood pumping before you start lifting heavy.
Another fact that should be pretty (more…)
Doing squats is one of the best ways to increase your overall lean body mass and power. Squats involve more muscle groups than almost any other exercise, and if you’re not already doing squats, adding them to your routine can help you to add strength quickly.
Learning the correct squatting stance will go a long ways in helping you to avoid injury. Lower back and knee injuries can happen if you’re not careful to use correct technique, and having the correct stance is necessary to help prevent these injuries. If it’s done correctly, the squat can be a very safe exercise.
Taking the correct stance
One mistake that you should avoid is (more…)
