If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. On Twitter? You can follow me at Bill on Twitter Thanks for visiting!

Getting bigger muscles is the top priority of anyone working out with weights. Lets look at how your muscles get bigger and then you can figure out what it will take for you to increase your muscle gains.

Muscle hypertrophy

Muscle hypertrophy is when your muscles cells get thicker. You muscle cells will thicken but not lengthen and it is still up in the air as to whether your muscles cell will actually split or divide to get larger. The best way to cause muscle hypertrophy is to put pressure on your muscles so that they expect to need to push more weight.

Another form of muscle building is Muscle Hyperplasia and this is the actual splitting of muscle cells. Anyone that has seen a giant bodybuilder has to wonder if we all have the same number of cells

Resistance training

Resistance training is doing weights. It is just about that simple. What you really want is to make yourself stronger by making your body more able to handle heavier and heavier weight for at least four reps. Power lifters as you have probably seen in the Olympics are not the biggest guys and that is because their goal is to lift the most weight for exactly one rep. To fool your muscles into thinking that they have to be able to lift more weight they will need to do a few reps at the higher weight. Your body will then get used to this higher weight by increading the strength of the individual muscle cells

How big should your workout be?

There are many strategies to get stronger and the idea behind all of these strategies is to be able to lift more weight for a few reps a month from now then your are doing now. You have a few options and they are these

• Number of reps per set
• Number of sets per exercise
• Number of exercises per muscle group
• Amount of rest between workouts

All of these parameters are a little too much to cover in this article so I will cover them later but for now just think about how you are structuring your workouts and frequency of workouts.

I hope that this info helps you understand how to get bigger and better at working out I hope you that if you have any questions then you can of course leave comments here as well.

Well I have to preface this post with a warning that what I am about to write about is a high fat high calories snack that anyone trying lose weight will want to always avoid.

Okay, Peanuts and raisins. This is a great snack for people that have trouble gaining weight and people that are tying to bulk up. I know that most people are not too interested in bulking up, instead they will want to lose weight. I remember back a few years working out a lot with weights and having friends that could not gain muscle trying anything to get the calories needed. Read the rest of this entry »

Over the years I have seen a lot of flimsy ideas of how to get a set of six pack abs. The most common scams are special machines that will do it and sometimes some kind of drink. I remember at one point Slim Fast seemed to be showing chubby people suddenly spawning a set of six pack abs.

Anyway I wanted to put this notion to rest that there is some magic to getting a six pack. Sure there is some genetics involved in sculpting perfect abs but the two most important factors are diet and exercise.

What? Did you think there was a shortcut?

Six Pack Abs Diet

The diet part is fairly simple; you need to drop any extra fat. You have probably heard this before but there is no such thing as spot reduction when you are losing weight. You will lose weight proportionately, generally, as you lose weight. What you may find is that you have a large stomach and if that is the case of course you will lose that fat faster than you lose the fat on your legs but that is just because that is where the fat deposits will be easiest for your body to use.
Read the rest of this entry »

I have been working out off and on since I was 15 years old and one of the problems with the whole bodybuilding industry is that it is based on vanity a lot more then it is based on fitness.

I still remember when I was 20 and smoking and going into a bar and a fellow weightlifter told me that bodybuilders don’t smoke they just drink. Well going out boozing is not a picture of fitness to me anymore but the bodybuilding industry is built on vanity just as it has been for many many years.

I found the following interesting article at Intersportswire.

Thirty-five years ago the term “body building “ was synonymous with fitness. But in 2008 these terms are mutually exclusive. If your personal trainer is a bodybuilder, you should move on. Read the rest of this entry »

Your chest workout is probably one of your favorites. As you get stronger your chest starts to fill out and your upper body begins to get a “V” shape to it which is helpful in making your midsection look tighter and your waist look thinner.

So now that you know why you want to Build huge pecs and you probably already knew this. The next question is how do you Build huge pecs?

OK there are a few things that you need to know. To build up your chest you need to have a very focused workout for your chest.

Here are those keys to build huge pecs

Lift big to get big - This means that you need to train with heavy weights to get stronger. As you get a bigger bench press you will get a bigger chest. Read the rest of this entry »

I ran across this article about strength training and getting started in strength training by Mark Winston. This is a great start to how you have no excuses not to start weightlifting and building strength is just gettting started and moving up from there. 

The most important thing for you to realize is that when I first started bodybuilding, I didn’t look anything like I do now. I can remember being teased as a child by the “skinny” kids in my neighborhood - oh yes, they all had fun calling me “chubby” and pointing out that I had to wear “husky” pants while their moms could shop for them in the “slim” section of the local clothing store.

As an adult I know that kids can be cruel when teasing one another and that they lack the maturity to understand the harmful impact of name calling. But as a child being teased, my ego was crushed and I felt very insecure about my physical appearance - especially when I was hanging around the skinny kids. Read the rest of this entry »

If you were to walk into your local health and nutrition store looking for supplements that build muscle, you’ll probably find yourself confused and amazed at just how many products there are to choose from. With so many supplements available, it can be a little on the tricky side to decide which ones will help you with your goals. There are a lot of supplements out there to help you build muscle, although some may not be ideal for your goals.

The first thing to keep in mind, is the fact that you don’t always need muscle building supplements to build muscle, although will help you speed up the process. These types of supplements can help you increase muscular development, providing you work out. They can aid you in both muscle growth and the recovery of your muscles. Among the many products available, the most popular are protein, creatine, and multi-vitamins.

Protein is a preferred supplement among bodybuilders and those who exercise. It contains many amino acids which help you to build muscle. No matter what type of diet you are or on or supplement you select, you should always pick one that contains a lot of protein. The ideal way to take protein, is 2 grams per pound of body weight. You can get protein in pill form, powder, or even bars. When you select your protein supplement, you should also make sure that the supplement contains whey, soy, and eggs. Whey protein is the ideal supplement, as it contains everything you need to start building muscle.

Fitness Tips for Life Read the rest of this entry »

I have written quite a bit over the last week about what you need as far as home fitness equipment goes but thought I would just round out this week with an overview of what you should have for equipment. So here is what I think that you should try to accumulate over the next while.

Mats - The most basic piece of fitness equipment is an exercise mat. You need an exercise mat for doing stretching as well as for doing abs and an exercise mat is always good for lying on when you are tired from a tough set or some cardio

Dumbells - Dumbells are those short bars with the weights on them. Who cares about them all matching but you want to probably have pairs of 5, 10, 15, 20 and 25 pounds and sometimes even a pair of 3 pound weights are good to carry while you are running or doing other cardio. These all come in handy for lots of your weight exercises

Barbell - This is just a big long bar. The barbell bar weighs I believe 20 pounds although ones at the gym will weight 45 pounds. Then of course you need weights to put on this bar. Remember that anytime that you are using a barbell you are lifting more weight and in the case of bench presses or even military presses you can get yourself into real trouble if you do not have a spotter. Read the rest of this entry »

Information abounds. I was looking around for some tips to offer about increasing protein in your diet when I ran across this article by David Monyer on increasing protein in your diet. As you should really be aware most people do not get enough protein in their diet and if you are doing any weight lifting (also known as resistance training) you need a little more protein in your diet anyway. Read through this and see just how much it helps you learn more about protein.

One problem that I do have though is with the myth that you need 1.5 to 2 grams of protein per pound of bodyweight per day. I could not stomach 300 or 400 grams of protein a day and think that 150 to 200 grams is the max that anyone should take in per day.

The first thing every bodybuilder needs to know is the importance of getting enough protein in your daily diet. Although plenty of protein can be consumed in the form of whole foods, bodybuilders typically use a combination of beef, foul (chicken, turkey), fish and protein supplements in powder or liquid form.

Read the rest of this entry »

I was in the midst of writing an article about losing belly fat and how spot reducing does not work for losing belly fat when this email from the creator of turbulence training came to me. It seems that he has evidence that belly fat can be reduced through weights and circuit training but not strictly fromn cardio and situps

But did you know the best way to burn belly fat is a shock to most men and women?

Even most personal trainers usually guess, “Crunches”, “Situps”, or “aerobic cardio” as the best way to lose stomach fat.  But none of those work best, or even work at all!

In fact, I often get asked, What’s the best way to burn fat and lose my belly? Do aerobics work better than interval Iraining? Does resistance training help at all? What should I eat to lose stomach fat? All of those are common questions.

But here’s the truth. Cardio is not the best way to burn fat.

In fact, I’ve met very few people who have successfully used cardio to lose stomach fat. And most of those people were young men, and anything works for them when they want to burn fat.

If you want to lose stomach fat fast, you need to increase the intensity of your workout by using both resistance training and interval training to lose stomach fat.

Read the rest of this entry »