Whether you want to lift more weight or get stronger, Knowing how power is developed in your body is key to getting stronger and more powerful in your sport, activity or weight training itself.

There are 5 key components to developing mega power:

1. Starting Acceleration
2. Progressive Acceleration
3. Power Output
4. Stability
5. Re-coordination

The First stage to power development is:

1. Starting Acceleration:

This is the initial burst of power in a movement, when you start from a dead stop and explode with power, the first few inches is where the starting Acceleration is developed. It will help your mind and body to learn to contract your muscles and release explosive power instantly.

For Example when doing heavier squats, or if you want to jump higher, you must practice starting acceleration.

Do this by sitting in a chair or on a box, in a position to explode back up, let your muscles relax, then spring up as fast as possible, for at least the first few inches.

After practicing without weight you can add about 35% of your max squat, and do the same thing with the weight.

NOTE: It’s a similar effect as the one-inch punch, start at a dead stop, and explode an inch with your fist, this is an example of what Bruce Lee did to help develop impressive strength, power and speed in his punch.

The Second Stage of Power Development is:

2. Progressive Acceleration:

This is where you train your body to be able to work at full power, speed and strength at various angles in a specific movement.

There are a couple ways to train for progressive acceleration, you can train for speed and strength. You should do both.

The purpose of Progressive Acceleration is to maintain or speed up as you rise in your movement (ex. squat), not decrease in speed. And you want to use full strength throughout the movement as well.

A great way to increase your progressive acceleration speed is by using a pool, for example when you are touching the bottom of the pool with you feet, squat down and spring back up off the bottom, you will notice that you are very light in the water, and you actually speed up as you rise, this teaching you mind and body to speed up the contraction of your muscles, even with little to no-resistance.

Another form of progressive acceleration performed by sprinters is running down a hill, this forces your legs to move faster than normal, and increase your contraction and limb speed.

When developing more progressive acceleration strength you can try pushing against an unmovable object with all your force, as various angles, so for a bench press you can lock out the bar right at chest level and push your hardest for at least 10 seconds, then rest a couple minutes and lock the bar at mid level and do the same, then lock the bar at peak level and finish. (Important Note: If you feel you are not pushing your hardest stop and rest.) Progressive acceleration can be added to your routine 1-2 times a week.

The third stage to power development is:

3. Power Output

This is where you will have to really keep track and record your numbers, you want to basically do as much work in as little time as possible at top speed.

For example, person A who lifts 200lbs for 4 reps in 15 seconds is about twice as powerful than person B who lifts 200lbs for 4 reps in 30 seconds. You goal is to increase weight lifted, increase speed, or decrease time. Numbers don’t lie, if you work the numbers you will be in control of your progress and improvement.

The Forth Stage of Power Development is:

4. Stability

Having strong stability muscles is important, it’s like making sure the wheels on you car are aligned correctly to make sure you can go at top speed with no problems.

Because you are performing weight lifting and resistance training, your stability muscles are going to be worked and become strong naturally, but if you feel you need to do more, then add some stability exercises to your routine, like standing on one leg or using a stability ball for balancing on while lifting.

The last stage to power development is:

5. Re-coordination:

This is at the end of your workout after the heavy training or weights. You basically want to practice the main functional movements that you may want to improve.

For example if you want to throw harder punches, then go hit the bag, or if you want to jump higher go practice your jumping technique. But only do about 5 – 10 good reps.

This will program your mind and body to remember the last movements done, so you will also subconsciously improve as well.

So that’s it!

When developing your power, you can do all 5 stages in one workout or you can spread them out over your week of training, doing one stage per workout.

If you use the power development stages you will continue to get stronger and more powerful, because remember numbers don’t lie.

Now with this information you are well ahead of most weight lifters, athletes, coaches, and even trainers, so if someone doesn’t know the stages of power development then they don’t really know power!

A large number of HGH or Human Growth Hormones are now available in the market. They are frequently used by the body builders with an intention to accelerate the process of increasing lien muscle mass in the body. They are available in capsule, spray and injection forms for the convenience of the users.

HGH has become one of the hot topics for discussion among the persons interested in bodybuilding activities. A number of people who have experimented with HGH to build muscle have responded positively to this formula. The positive response from the early users of Human Growth Hormones made it more popular and the most sought for bodybuilding supplement in the current market.

Human Growth Hormone or HGH is found to be very effective in men who try to build body muscle mass when they get older. Teenagers and youngsters involved in bodybuilding may not require these types of supplements as they do not face the problem of hormone shortage in their growing period.

The use of HGH to build muscle is still a controversial topic. Many express different opinions on this issue. So it is always better to consult a doctor before you start using a product that provides artificial hormones to increase the process of bodybuilding.

Human growth hormones are found in the body of all of us. The presence of growth hormone in the human body will be more prevalent during childhood. The presence of human growth hormone in the body is a must to support rapid tissue growth in the human body. The presence of human growth hormone in the body of a woman will start declining when she attains puberty. When compared to younger people, the presence of this hormone in the body of older people will be less. A bodybuilder in his older age may require hormone supplements to improve the muscle mass gain.

Many who wish to use human growth hormone supplements now use HGH to build muscle mass. For the convenience of the users manufactures are making it in different forms. HGH injections are found to be faster in action than capsules and sprays.

Different companies now produce different types of hormones in different brand names. Some are even producing drugs that are all natural and claiming them to be safer than chemical based hormones. Some others even suggest doing specific exercises for increasing the level of human growth hormones as a substitute to dangerous drugs.

One factor that many people overlook when they do all their research about the best type of muscle building strength training program to go on is the various types of muscle tissue and what type of training is best suited to them. While you can’t differentiate between muscle fibers from your outside appearance, on the inside of the muscle tissue body, there are three main different fibers present.

Type A Fast-Twitch Muscle Fibers

The first type of muscle fibers are known as Type A Fast Twitch and are responsible for the most forceful contractions generated, however, will fatigue the fastest.

For example, if you were to perform an all out set of 3 reps for bench press, you would predominately be using these type A muscle fibers.

They tend to have very large motor neurons and very low mitochondrial density. They also have a low oxidative capacity, meaning they will not be able to utilize oxygen very well. It is for this reason that they are not suited to endurance type of activities, because during these exercise variations, oxygen must be present in order to sustain the muscular contractions.

The major type of fuel that these muscle fibers are going to rely on is creatine phosphate and stored muscle glycogen (glucose). They will not utilize stored body fat at all due to the fact that they are only able to continually contract for between one and about 20 seconds.

Type B Fast-Twitch Muscle Fibers

The next muscle fiber is also classified as a fast twitch muscle fiber but not to the extent that type A are.

This muscle fiber type is mostly utilized in activities that are relatively short in duration, but are not at an all out pace.

For example, if you were to sprint 100 meters, you’ll be using mostly type A. If on the other hand, you are to do a running interval at about 80-90% of your max capacity for 30 seconds, this would utilize the type 2A more.

Some of the characteristics of the type B are that they still have a large motor neuron (not as large as Type A though), they are on the intermediate scale as far as being resistant to fatigue, and they have a high degree of mitochondrial density.

These muscle fiber types are also able to use oxygen to a great extent, as demonstrated by their higher resistance to fatigue and longer duration of contraction abilities.

Slow Twitch

Finally, the third type of muscle fiber that you have in your body is classified as slow-twitch.

This is the muscle fiber type you would use if you were to run a marathon or any other extended duration, medium-to-low intensity activity.

These muscle fibers have a very high ability to resist fatigue and have a large oxidative capacity.

They are also relatively slow to contract, therefore you cannot expect a great deal of force generation from these muscles, thus, will not be intended for exercises requiring a high degree of power.

They are very high in terms of mitochondrial density and have a large number of capillaries running throughout their bodies. This is to enable sufficient oxygen to get to the muscle tissues so that they can carry on the extended duration of muscular work they are intended to do.

These are also the muscle fibers that will also rely more on fat as fuel, as opposed to strictly using carbohydrates or creatine phosphate.

Training The Muscle Fiber Types

So, now that you’re familiar with the three major classes of muscle fiber types, it’s time to recognize how you would train each effectively.

Since type A are your primary force generators, if you wish to get a higher performance from them you’ll need to train using exercises that require you to max out your effort for a short period of time.

Think sprinting at full speed, 1-5 rep sets for lifting, and any type of plyometric activities.

Next, to train your type B muscles fibers, you’ll want to slightly decrease the force with which you are to contract while simultaneously increasing the time over which you contract ever so slightly.

For example, perform 30-45 intervals repeated ten times with about a minute or a minute and a half at a low to moderate pace. For your weight training activities, aim to target the 6-10 rep range to utilize the fact these muscle fibers have a higher oxidation ability.

Finally, to improve your slow twitch muscle fibers, think endurance. This type of fiber will usually require the greatest amount of time to train for improvement because you’ll want to focus on simply going ‘longer’. If you’re a runner, try and run longer. If you’re a biker, bike longer. If you’re a swimmer, swim longer – you get the point. This type of muscle has the ability to go for extended periods of time so this is exactly what you want to train it to do.

So, next time you are trying to sort out your training plan, make sure to take the various muscle fiber types into consideration.

Doing so will allow you to make the most out of your training program so you get the exact results you’re looking for.

Copyright © 2006 Richard Knight

If you’re anything like I was a short while ago, “a skinny guy trying to build muscle mass”, then I have some important tips that could help you start seeing results instantly.

There are 3 key ingredients that you MUST HAVE in order to build muscle mass and quickly at that. And here they are:

Muscle Mass Ingredient #1 – More Protein

If you want to build muscle mass quickly then this is a “must”. Just remember, the only thing that can build muscle in your body is Protein. So if you’re not consuming enough protein it’s IMPOSSIBLE to build lean muscle mass and stack on the pounds.

In order to maintain your weight, you should be consuming 1 gram of protein for each pound of body weight. So if you’re a 150 lb. guy then in order to maintain your muscle mass at that weight you need to consume 150 grams of protein each day. And if you want to build muscle mass, you’re going to have to consume “more” protein, to not only maintain the muscles you have now but to build more.

So if you want to build muscle mass quickly and safely a general rule of thumb is to consume 1 – 2 grams of protein for each pound of body weight. So if you’re a 150lb. guy you’d want to consume at least 150 grams of protein upward to 300 grams of protein a day.

Muscle Mass Ingredient #2 – More Carbs

Despite what Dr. Atkins said, for all us skinny guys “Carbs are GOOD”. We need carbs as a source of energy. But you don’t want to consume just any ‘ol carbs. You want to consume a lot of complex carbs rather than simple carbs.

In other words, you still want to stay away from the sweets and simple sugars that are found in a lot of our junk food, and you want to consume more complex carbs like those found in whole wheat bread, brown rice, sweet potatoes, whole grain cereals, yams, spinach etc.

Why complex carbs? Because unlike simple carbs (sugars) it’s virtually impossible to turn complex carbs into fat – which means more energy to burn (work out with) and less fat to deal with in the end.

If you want to build muscle mass fast, ideally you’d want to consume 2 – 3 grams of carbs for each pound of bodyweight a day.

Muscle Mass Ingredient #3 – Heavy Weight Training

You cannot build muscle mass without “Heavy weight training”. Let’s just put it this way “the more stress (heavy weight) you put on your muscles, the more it will grow”. And it’s simply because when you put extreme stress on your muscle by lifting heavy weights, your body responds (builds more muscle) so that next time it won’t be as hard or strenuous on your body to lift the same weight.

Ideally, if you want to build muscle mass – lean muscle mass to be more specific, you’d want to lift weights that allow you to do 6-8 reps and no more.

Of course there’s a whole lot more to building muscle mass, but if you follow these 3 key ingredients you’ll be on the road to building lean muscle mass quickly and a whole lot easier than you ever thought possible. Good luck and grow “Massive”.

Anytime you exercise, you do so in an effort  to  maintain good health. You’re  also aware that you need to eat, so your body can access the fuel it requires to exercise and maintain itself for the day-to-day chores of living. To make the most effective use of your exercise routine, what you consume for nutrients before and after you exercise is extremely important.
Irrespective of whether you’re intending to do a cardio routine or a resistance exercise, you ought to ensure that you  eat a  mixture of protein and carbohydrates that is balanced. What determines the ratio of carbs to protein you eat is whether or not you’re exercise is resistance or cardio and the degree of intensity that you intend to work at.

The best time for you to consume your pre exercise dinner is approximately 60 minutes prior to your starting time. If you intend to exercise at a low intensity level, you ought to keep your pre workout repast under approximately 200 calories . If you plan to activity at a high intensity level, you’ll likely require your food to be between 4,000 and 5,000 calories.

People doing a cardio workout session will want to ingest a mixture of 1/3 protein and 2/3 carbs. In doing this it will afford you increased and prolonged energy from the additional carbs with sufficient protein in order for your muscle not to begin breaking down during your exercise.

During a resistance exercise, you will want to have a combination of 1/3 carbs and 2/3 protein, as this will aid you in getting abundant energy from the carbs to execute each repetition you do and the surplus protein will assist in keeping the muscle breakdown to a minimum during your exercise.

Having something to eat after you exercise is as cirtical as the meal you eat before your exercise. Whatever exercise you choose whether cardio or resistance, energy, in the form of gloycogen, is depleted from your body.The central nervous system and the brain both depend on glycogen as their number one source of fuel, so if that glycogen is not replaced after you exercise your body will start to take apart the muscle tissue and change it into amino acids which is converted into fuel that can be used by the brain and central nervous system.

Remember, during resistance exercise muscle tissue is broken down by creating micro tears. This means that when  your workout is over, the muscles will start to go into repair mode immediately.
This is why a higher percentage of protein is important before a resistance workout, because you don’t want to have further muscle break down to replace glycogen for the brain and CNS.

When you’ve completed a cardio routine, you will have to ingest primarily carbohydrates, preferably those containing high fiber. Whole wheat pasta, oatmeal, rice and northern fruits are first-class sources of fiber. Also, try to eat 30 – 50 grams of carbs when you have finished your exercising.  It is fine to eat within 5 – 10 minutes after your cardio workout is finished.

When you have completed a resistance workout, you’ll want to take in a mix of carbs and protein. Contrary to  cardio exercises, resistance workouts will break down muscle tissue by producing micro tears.

You will need protein as this is used to build up and mend these rips so that the muscular tissue will gain in strength and size. The carbs will help put back the glycogen that the muscle lost, and will also aid the protein in getting into the muscle cells so it can be synthesized into structural protein, for the muscle itself.

You should wait up to 30 minutes after your resistance exercise, before you eat, this way you won’t carry blood away from your muscles excessively fast. The blood flowing in your muscles helps the mending process by getting rid of the metabolic waste material.

Workout intensity is important but supplement timing is even more important for your muscle strength and lean muscle mass gains. Imagine you can advance 2 times faster ? And what if this applies on getting rid of body fat at same speed? And what you would say if you add to this 10-30% higher lifts / strength gain in your best bench press, squat and dead lift?

Before you decide it is impossible allow me to show you results obtained from a clinical trial that examined the effects of supplement-timing.

What is Supplement-timing?

I know this is not the first time for you to hear about the importance of supplement timing. Steel I can be quite sure that it is the first time you face this powerful approach to this subject. In proved Natural gain muscle mass systems like I follow supplement-timing is effectively used and all weight lifters who follow it just burst out off joy in short time after they start doing things properly.

Let me tell you about what you missed until now in case you did not use supplement-timing until now. If you are using it please check the rest of this article anyway since you may be surprised . Proper and most effective supplement-timing involves taking one serving of micronized creatine with one serving of whey protein isolate in ice-cold water, just before and after training. If you are bigger, leaner or have a faster metabolism you will feel even greater benefit from increasing the dose of each serving.

A newest study featured in a recent issue of “New Scientist” reported that bodybuilders who supplemented with whey protein isolate and creatine immediately before and after every workout gained double more in lean muscle mass as a control group. An extra benefit is that this strategy also gives you better strength gains and reduced body fat % at the same time!

Why is Supplement-timing so effective?

Since this is science-based approach to optimizing the anabolic response to training it is easy to understand why this strategy ignites more powerful anabolic response from each and every workout. All serious researches on speeding up muscle building process (if they opened their results to public) all point towards the timing imoprtance. It is all about the ways and means to produce synergistic response that provided a much more powerful anabolic (growth) response to exercise. Off course this conditions in the body promote faster recovery and greater synthesis of muscle protein. However, the idea was merely a theory, until now.

Based on the unique properties of whey protein isolate and micronized creatine when this study is made, it is done with the scientific conviction that consumption of these two supplements just before and right after the intense workout would supply all the necessary components at precisely right time to amplify the anabolic effect of the workout. The results obtained from a well-controlled clinical trial with weight lifters clearly proved author to be correct!

Supplementation with whey protein isolate and micronized creatine just before and immediately after every workout during a 10 week training program produced much better strength gains in two out of three tests. Supplementation with whey protein isolate and micronized creatine also provided gain in lean (muscle) mass that was 100% greater than that achieved by the control group. That’s correct, double the gain in muscle mass!

No “magic” supplement on the market will achieve this effect. Definitely, none have evidence from well-controlled clinical research that demonstrate this effect. The carbohydrates contained in creatine produce huge anabolic effect on muscle. The research on whey isolate and its packing on muscle mass during clinical research is unmatched thanks to it’s a unique formulation that ensures an abundance of growth-stimulating amino acids and bio-active peptides are delivered directly to muscles to stimulate protein synthesis, minimize breakdown and speed recovery.

The Conclusion

Can I ask you stupid question such as “….do you want to Build 100% more lean muscle, two times faster?”. You don’t take my words as granted but try and see the results in your own mirror!

1. Follow powerful principals of gain muscle mass workouts .

2. Determine your exact nutritional requirements.*

3. Create conditions for fast, muscle gain with proper intake of calculated calories in 6 or more, frequent meals during the day.*

Simple steps of Maximizing the muscle growth response with supplement-timing are ;

Take one serving of whey isolate and creatine just before and immediately after every workout. This science-based method stimulates a much faster rate of recovery and more powerful muscle gain response that produces better gains in muscle mass and strength.
Supplement-timing is a simple, straight forward strategy that is proved in effects and results by this research. Who can say that those are not amazing results?

Do not forget it is all depended on our ability to recognize the quality. With all the outrageous, completely unfounded claims made by some companies about their products, it’s easy to forget what works the best.

Weight training involves the use of equipment that enables variable resistance. This resistance can come in the form of “free weights” like barbells and dumbells, machines that use cables or pulleys to help you lift the weight and bodyweight exercises like pull-ups or dips.

Free Weights vs. Machines vs. Bodyweight Exercises

For maximum muscle gain, the focus of your workouts should consist of free weight exercises. Not machines or bodyweight exercises. This is not to say that you should not use machines or bodyweight exercises, but they should not be the focus of your training. To get an effective, muscle blasting workout, you must stimulate the most muscle fibers as possible, and machines do not do this.

The main reason for this is a lack of stabilizer and synergist muscle development. Stabilizer and synergist muscles are supporting muscles that assist the main muscle in performing a complex lift. The more stabilizers and synergists worked, the more muscle fibers stimulated. Multi-jointed free weight exercises like the bench press, require many stabilizer and synergistic muscle assistance to complete the lift. On the other hand doing a bench press using a machine will need almost no stabilizer assistance.

Since machines are locked into a specific range of motion and help to support the weight along that path, they fail to stimulate the muscles that surround the area you are working (stabilizers). This is a mistake. If your stabilizer muscles are weak, then the major muscle group will never grow!

Free weight exercises like the dumbbell press or squat, for example, put a very large amount of stress on supporting muscle groups. That’s why you will get fatigued faster and not be able to lift as much weight as you did on the machine. But you will gain more muscle, become stronger very quickly and have a true gauge of your strength.

If you use machines in your program, they should be used to work isolated areas and only after all multi-jointed exercises have been completed.

Beginners should begin with a limited combination of machine exercises, bodyweight exercises and multi-jointed free weight exercises. Before increasing the weight levels, they should work on becoming familiar with the proper form and execution of each. Soon, bodyweight exercises will become insufficient to stimulate growth and they will need to focus on more free weight exercises.

Multi-Jointed Exercises

The exercises that work the large muscle groups are called compound (or multi-joint) movements that involve the simultaneous stimulation of many muscle groups. These compound exercises should be the foundation of any weight training program because they stimulate the most amount of muscle in the least amount of time.

Here are the basic movements:

* Bench Presses (works the chest, shoulders, tricep)

* Overhead Presses (shoulders, tricep)

* Pull-ups/Barbell Rows (back, bicep)

* Squats (legs, lower back)

* Deadlifts (legs, back, shoulders)

* Bar Dips (shoulders, chest, arms)

They will overload your entire skeletal and muscular system like no machine could ever do, giving you and effective workout in a very short period of time. If you can only do a few exercises, then do these. They have been proven to encourage muscle and strength gain unlike any other exercises.

Lift Heavy Weight

To build mass, you must weight train with heavy weights. To consider a weight heavy, you should only be able to do a maximum of 8-12 reps before your muscles temporarily fail. A weight is considered “light” if you can do more than 15 reps before muscle fatigue sets in.

Heavy weights stimulate more muscle fibers than lighter weights. It’s that simple. More muscle stimulation means more muscle growth.

Don’t Overtrain

Heavy weight training puts a huge strain on your body, so adequate rest and recuperation after your workouts is essential. If you are prone to train too often, several things happen:

You don’t give your muscles enough time to recuperate between workouts. If your muscles have not repaired themselves, you will not be at maximum strength for your next workout. Rest is essential. Other than eating, this should be your main focus.

You are setting yourself up for burnout or an injury. You must pace yourself. You want to be able to keep this up for a long time, not burnout before you reach your goals.

Contrary to popular belief, you do not grow while working out; you only grow when you are resting.

Below is an example mass workout.

Wednesday (legs, abs)

* Heavy Squats, leg extension superset

* Seated Calve Raises, 4 strips sets

* Crunches (4 sets of 20)

——-

Friday (chest, shoulder, triceps, abs)

* Flat bench press, incline dumbbell flyes superset

* Shoulder press, side raises superset

* Tricep pushdowns

* Reverse incline leg raises (3 sets of 20)

——

Sunday (back, biceps, abs)

* Wide grip pull-ups, latbar pulldown superset

* EZ bar bicep curl, incline dumbbell curls superset

* Crunches (4 sets of 20)

Nothing fancy, but effective.

If you are serious about building muscle then listen up, I’m going to share with you two critical moments crucial for fast and healthy muscle building. This article alone can save you years of wasted effort. Armed with this knowledge virtually anyone should be able to make tremendous gains and add pounds of drug free muscle to their physique.

I won’t explain things like stable isotope tracer technology, immunohistochemical muscle fiber typing or powerful microarray methods but I want you to know that although I’m not scientist myself all I’m saying here is backed up with hardcore muscle building science. There is huge the difference in results of those who use scientifically proved results and those who don’t. Science is contributing enormously to a better understanding of the factors that ultimately control the size of muscle mass growth.

Why muscles grow at all?
Stimulating muscle protein synthesis process underlines changes in the size of muscle mass. High stimulation of muscle protein synthesis is absolutely essential to gaining muscle. It does not sound like incredible, scientific revelation, isn’t it? Well, maybe it doesn’t sound so but be sure, it’s essential factor for generation of new muscle tissue and I will explain why. Without a doubt, muscle mass growth is complex subject matter. There are many, many factors that influence the muscle growth process including, but not limited to, physical activity, hormones, disease, age, genetic factors as well as the quality and quantity of nutrition.

But I’m going to show you how to utilize scientifically proved facts to your advantage. This can really save you months or even years of wasted time, particularly if you are one of those guys or gals that have to work their butt off just to add a molecule of muscle to their frame. If you really want to build muscle and transform your physique an ultra-high (24h long) stimulation of muscle protein synthesis is the name of the game you need to play. Many experts like Paul Delia explain that “muscle is protein and protein is muscle” and although that is fact there are other factors that work against your ability to build muscle.

You should keep in mind that constant synthesis and breakdown of muscle tissue is a process that never stops in our bodies. Even if you perform no physical activities at all, muscle proteins are constantly being broken down and regenerated (scientists call this process protein turnover).
As I have explained, this process never stops but it can speed up or slow down in response to various circumstances. For example, dieting (calorie restriction) slows down this process. Aging also slows down protein turnover, or the rate at which new muscle proteins are regenerated. Alternatively, after you’ve hit the gym for your expertly planed workout system, protein turnover is accelerated, enormously.

What’s happening within your muscles has an enormous impact on the entire body. You see, muscle tissue is the body’s largest reservoir of bound and unbound proteins (it constitutes 50-75% of all proteins in the human body), this means that muscle protein turnover is synonymous with whole body protein turnover. In other words, muscle is drawn upon constantly to supply the amino acids that are required for a vast array of physiological demands, every single day. Same thing like with the bank account, if you don’t make some rather substantial deposits, the balance just keeps diminishing.

Scientific keys to rapid muscle building
What we need is to increase the synthesis rate of muscle proteins so that it runs faster than they are broken down. We need complete program (nutrition and exercise program) which is design to boost up the muscle protein synthesis. Science has confirmed that lifting weights has the potential to cause a tremendous increase in muscle protein synthesis but regular training diminishes this response, therefore the most important question is what type of weight training program is most effective at providing a high stimulation of muscle protein synthesis? Good point, is it not? Off course it is, but so many people fail to use results from scientific studies and therefore often fail in their attempts. For you muscle research buffs, seminal work completed by Baar & Esser confirmed that the degree of overload placed on muscle correlates with the magnitude of stimulation of muscle protein synthesis and the subsequent increase in muscle mass.

In other words, muscle mass gains are directly proportional to the stimulation of muscle protein synthesis which, in turn is proportional to the amount of overload placed on muscle. Inanse muscle gain program is a complete answer for all man and women because it is based on hardcore muscle building science. It is not for those who wait for magic beans or mambo jambo to happen. This is quite clear formula folks: “High & proper overload = high stimulation of muscle protein synthesis = more muscle “. If your muscle building program is based on this principal than you are on good track and you do have already excellent results without steroids usage. Just stay away from any weight training program and technique which deviate from this fundamental rule.

So if you want to build muscle, there are two rules that you must understand.
The first is, the stimulation of muscle protein synthesis is the critical regulatory event that leads to muscle growth. The second is that the intensity and method of overload placed on muscle determines the magnitude of stimulation of muscle protein synthesis.

Are you sick and tired of picking up that latest body building magazine off the shelve, opening it to the latest program on the current bodybuilding star and discovering that he is using a six day split program that has you in the gym for four hours and day!!

What it won’t tell you is that the guy is a professional and probably doesn’t have to hold down a steady job, pay off a mortgage or raise a couple of kids.

The thing is you don’t have to train like an athlete to put on muscle, all you need to do is follow these action ideas below and you will start making big gains fast without spending all your time in the Gym.

Lets have a look:

1/ Back to Basics – To build muscle you must train short and with intensity, you only have a limited amount of energy per session. Tests reveal that blood sugar levels drop dramatically after 20 minutes, so exercise selection is crucial.

Compound multi-joint movements have to be used as these offer more training stimulus, are more functional and heavier loads can be lifted. Examples of compound movements include squats, bench press, dips, and chin-ups. Performing three to four exercises with high intensity during a session are what is needed.

All the main structures of the body are worked hard during this time, remembering that as you get stronger in your upper body exercises i.e. Dips, Lat Pull downs, you will also add size to your upper arms as well as your shoulders.

Working on these big compound movements has a knock-on effect throughout the whole body; there is no need for specialization techniques or isolation movements.

The thing is, the whole body is worked hard, rest and recuperation is allowed to take place and at the next exercise session we push out a few more reps than before with the same weight, then we have gotten stronger i.e. more muscle.

2/ Perform One Set Per Body Part – Having performed one set of an exercise to total failure then it should be near on impossible to generate the same force and intensity for another set.

If you are able to generate the same force and intensity for this second set then the first set was not worked hard enough.

If you give the first set 100% effort and work it to total failure (You cannot move the bar after the last rep) there is no more requirement for further stimulation.

Therefore you need to do one set per exercise, remembering to complete the training session in 20 – 30 minutes so to have the most stimulus as possible and then move on to the next exercise.

Current research shows that single set training is as beneficial as multiple set training, decreasing the chances of over training and saving energy for other lifts required during the workout.

Because you are doing one set per exercise, you will have to work it hard and to total failure.

3/ Cycle Your Strength Training – The development of muscle and strength is interrelated so the exercise session will have to be designed so that increases in strength are equal to increases in functional muscle.

Cycling intensity through changes in repetitions and poundage’s throughout your training program is an effective way to maintain progression and avoid training plateaus.

4/ Don’t Train To Long – Training itself causes the breakdown of muscle tissue. When a person trains very intensely cortisol is released into the blood stream, which causes the breakdown of muscle tissue.

The amount of cortisol released is highly dependant upon the length of training time.

Therefore to minimize this effect training should be completed in the absolute minimum time required which is no longer than 20 to 30 minutes max.

Your blood sugar levels are also dropping by this time, so do what you have to do in this time and get out of the gym, go home and grow.

5/ Don’t Cheat – Do not cheat on your reps! Every strength-training trainee runs into this problem sooner or later and it will grind your gains to a stand still. There are many ways to increase the intensity of your sets and the weights used in order to maximize results.

Cheating to increase your weights actually takes strain off your muscles and places it on your joints, which is counterproductive.

Now that you are armed with this information, you wont need to spend all of your time in the gym, by all means workout hard while you are in there but when you are finished go home and grow and enjoy life.

Given the huge array of nutritional supplements in fitness and bodybuilding, it can be very frustrating when you want to take your training and diet to the next level with supplementation. Most of these are a waste of money- There are 6 nutritional supplements available, however, that are indispensable for enhancing muscle-building and fat loss. Given the importance of a good diet, this should be the highest priority in any fitness training program. Once your diet is tuned to perfection, adding the right nutritional supplement at the right time will take a great thing and make it better.

Certain bodybuilding supplements are extremely valuable in particular situations, especially when the goal of your weight training program is to lose fat while building muscle. Our bodies have been designed to survive the harshest of conditions, readily storing body fat during times when food is plentiful and shedding it (along with muscle-tissue) when food is scarce. While this characteristic of our metabolism kept us alive through the ice-ages, it makes things really difficult for building a lean-muscular physique (that is if you are not busy running from saber-tooth tigers and fighting rival tribes!).

The right supplementation in the context of your bodybuilding or fitness workouts (pre and/or post-workout) can “trick” the body into thinking it has what it needs so that muscle-mass is preserved. What happens during intense weight training and cardiovascular exercise is that our bodies, along with burning glycogen and body fat, are also very efficient at breaking down muscle tissue. This metabolic adaptation helps to preserve energy stores at the expense of metabolically costly muscle-tissue; if you are starving the more muscle you have the quicker you will die (good for us back in the cave-man days, but bad for us now!). Our muscles are constantly being broken down and built back up from hard weight training, and if we could shift the balance just slightly away from degradation (catabolism) and toward accumulation (anabolism), this would have a huge effect on the effectiveness of our muscle training program.

My top-6 list of indispensable nutritional supplements:

1. glutamine

How Glutamine works: glutamine is known as a “conditionally essential” amino acid; it becomes “essential” during intense exercise such as weight training or cardiovascular exercise, as the need for glutamine is greatly increased. During bouts of intense activity (or stress), glutamine enters the bloodstream and travels into the liver where it is converted into glucose; this newly synthesized glucose helps to fuel the working muscles. This process is known as gluconeogenesis-the process of turning a non-carbohydrate substance (glutamine and some other amino acids) into glucose which can be used for energy. While this all sounds great for the muscles, the problem is that the primary source of glutamine during exercise is from broken down muscle tissue; the body actually breaks down muscle tissue to help fuel the working muscles by preserving their glycogen stores1. Supplying the muscles with an exogenous source of glutamine (i.e a glutamine supplement, has been shown to reduce muscle degradation during intense exercise-the body is “tricked” into not breaking down as much muscle tissue.

2. Branched chain amino acids (BCAAS)
How BCAAs work: Unlike glutamine, BCAAs, consisting of leucine, isoleucine, and valine, are essential amino acids, meaning that the body cannot synthesize them from precursors-they must be obtained from the diet. Like glutamine, there is a greater requirement for BCAAs during intense exercise such as weight training and they are derived primarily from catabolized muscle tissue. BCAAs are broken down into (among other things) alanine and glutamine (remember glutamine?) which are in-turn used to generate glucose in the liver. Supplementing with BCAAs will help to prevent their degradation in muscle tissue, limiting muscle-degradation and speeding up recovery. Leucine itself has been shown to stimulate protein synthesis, and research has shown that the BCAAs have a positive effect on recovery, can reduce fatigue, and encourage an overall anabolic state in the muscle. BCAAs seem to be especially effective in times of reduced calorie intake (i.e. while dieting down to lose that last 5lbs).

3. Protein: (whey protein isolates)
How whey protein works: This one may seem like a no-brainer; proteins are made of amino acids and as discussed above, certain aminos can greatly enhance your weight training efforts. Whey protein is a great protein source because it is very high in both BCAAs and glutamine; any whey protein will have these qualities, but after a weight training workout timing is the key. Many whey proteins are a mixture of both whey isolate and whey concentrate. Whey protein isolate is absorbed extremely fast, while whey concentrate is broken down more gradually over time. Fast-acting proteins such as whey isolate are known as “anabolic proteins”, dumping tons of amino acids into the bloodstream very quickly, promoting muscle-growth. Slower acting proteins such as whey concentrate, soy protein concentrate, or calcium casienate (milk protein) are known as “anti-catabolic proteins”; they provide a slow, steady release of amino acids into the bloodstream helping to reduce muscle-protein breakdown for fuel. After a weight training workout, we want our protein to get there fast-whey protein isolate is ideal for this purpose.

4. Creatine monohydrate:

How creatine works: Adenosine triphosphate (ATP) is the primary energy source to fuel intense muscular contractions, such as those during sprinting or weight-training. ATP contains a high-energy phosphate bond, which is broken down into ADP (adenosine monophosphate), releasing the energy necessary for muscles to contract. Every muscle cell has a store of phosphate, from which ADP is recycled back into ATP to continue fueling contractions. As this pool of phosphate gets depleted, so does our ability to make ATP; when we run out of ATP the muscle is exhausted and unable to further contract (i.e. the muscle fails such as on the last rep of a bench press). It was discovered some time ago that our muscles can actually be “loaded” with additional phosphate, which can extend our capacity to do high-intensity exercise. Phosphate is stored in the muscle as creatine phosphate, which acts to replenish cellular phosphate stores. When creatine monohydrate is ingested, it is converted to creatine phosphate and absorbed into the muscle cell, helping to replenish the phosphate pool. After an intense workout, muscle phosphate levels are drastically decreased. Supplementing with creatine post-workout replenishes creatine phosphate stores much faster, speeding recovery. Creatine also acts through unknown mechanisms to increase protein synthesis and muscle growth. For every molecule of creatine absorbed into the muscle, several molecules of water are absorbed, giving the muscles a fuller, more pumped appearance. A hydrated muscle is an anabolic muscle.

4. Essential Fatty Acids (EFAs)

How EFAs work: Without getting too much into fatty acid biochemistry, EFAs are required by the body for a countless number of processes, and are an essential element to any nutritional supplementation regimen whether for bodybuilding, athletic training, or general fitness training. The typical American diet is largely deficient in EFAs, and dieters often have less than optimal levels while on low-fat diets. There are 3 basic EFAs which are named based on their chemical structure, including omega-3, 6, and 9. Most commercial EFA supplements are a blend of the various EFAs, providing an ideal EFA profile.

5. Meal replacement powders (MRPs): Commonly known as the “protein shake”, MRPs serve not only as a convenient protein supplement, but as a substitute for regular meal.While real food is always best, the busy schedules of most people simply cannot accommodate the optimal 5-6 meals per day-MRPs are a great way to stay on the diet in spite of the most hectic of schedules. There are many brands commercially available with different nutrient profiles; choose the product that tastes good and provides the nutrient profile that fits for your particular diet plan.

6. Multivitamin/multi-mineral supplements: While in an ideal world we would get all the vitamins we need directly from the food we eat, in practice we can all benefit from a quality multivitamin. Stay away from the typical once/day tabs found at the supermarket. It is questionable whether these are absorbed well at all. Stick with those vitamin/mineral supplements derived from whole-food extracts-these are more readily absorbed. In addition, whole-food based multis may contain unknown substances which are found in food which are either essential or beneficial; science is constantly discovering new nutrients present in food-our current list is far from comprehensive.

There you have it, the only nutritional supplements you need to care about. They have been proven both anecdotally and with rigorous peer-reviewed research to enhance the muscle-building and fat-burning effects of any weight training and fitness program including.