Majority of “gym rats” and gym bunnies go through the motions merely for external motivation. That is, their only desire to train stems from the gym bunnies giving them lusty glances, their “personal trainer” telling them how awesome they’re looking, and trying to impress a few ladies at “the clubs” on Friday nights with their sculpted arms and fake tans. Hardcore lifters, however, are a separate breed. In order for them to continue to train year in and year out, they must utilize internal motivation. In other words, not to lift weights merely for the pleasure of others, but to do so because of the benefits it gives them in terms of increased strength, improved health, mental and physical toughness, and an overall sense of accomplishment.

Back extensions are done using a Roman chair while lying face down. This is an assistance exercise for leg day, whether you did power cleans, snatches, squats or deadlifts. It’s a great finisher as well that works the glutes and stretches and strengthens the lower back and the spinal erectors. Before doing your reps, make sure your feet and hips are supported and secured. Additional resistance can also be used by holding a weight across your chest or behind your head.

The value of the heavy squat has been proven beyond doubt, even by those on whom all else have failed, to be the most fool-proof bodybuilding and strength building program yet discovered. It incorporates all the basic principle necessary for the promotion of growth of the muscles, strengthening the internal organs and in some cases growth even of the bones. This is largely due to the fact that the squat most efficiently works the large muscle masses of the body. It involves the great muscle masses of the thighs, hips and back, and even the chest, it increases the activity of all the other organs of the body, and it improves metabolism.

The one hand swing is one of the best exercises for the back, and it is a famous lift back in the day where it is part of every important challenge contest in Europe. It gives a far greater range of motion than does either the two hand snatch or one hand snatch by permitting the weight to pass between the legs, thus extending the back to a far greater degree.

There are no legitimate “quick fixes” in weight training. For me, steroids were, are, and will always be out. It takes a long time to build genuine, drug free strength, and supplements will not do the job that food will as far as really building your body. To really succeed and make the most out of any weight training program, you need to focus on hard, heavy, and consistent training, plenty of rest, and lots of healthy and good food. Sure you need a program that best suits your needs, but if you work on the big lifts instead of just looking for the pump this will take care of itself and in time you’ll learn where you’re good at and what weak points you need to focus on.

To improve your bench press, you’ll need to press and press, and press some more. It has been proven time and time again that hard work can overcome what once seemed an impossible situation. You don’t need to have the temperament of a presser and neither do you need to be built like a presser. If hard work on the press could improve the press of many others, then hard work must be the answer. Focus on your weak points, address them, and improve the aspects of the lift that are troublesome for you. If you have problems locking out, train your triceps and floor presses harder. If your sticking point is off the chest, strengthen your lats and shoulders more.

A coach does what he does best, not always what the athlete or client wants, and it’s up to the athlete to either follow his advice or don’t be on the team. In short, the coach tells the athlete to either get with the program or quit. A personal trainer or most of them on the other hand, in my opinion, will do anything to get paid. They don’t really have a training philosophy, and while I have nothing personal against them truth is they will do whatever the clients want in order to get their money.

The trap bar deadlift is an excellent variation of the straight bar deadlift that develops the key areas of the thighs, hips, glutes, and lower back. This is one of the reasons why the squat and the deadlift need to be the cornerstone of any serious strength trainee’s program. The trap bar brings the resistance in closer to one’s center of gravity, with the resistance no longer being on top and to the rear as in the squat, but rather in one’s hands at the sides. This allows an individual to deadlift with a more upright back, which diminishes the potential for injury. It shifts meaningful stress to the legs, and this results to your legs and back getting pounded hard from an unfamiliar angle.

Without a doubt, wrestlers, football players, and martial artists and combat athletes depend upon a strong neck. Injury to this area can leave you helpless for a long time. Strengthening this area will make it harder for someone to pin you or choke you out. One of the best weight training exercises you can do to build a strong neck is the Hise Shrug. To do this, get in a power rack like you’re going to do squats. Rest the loaded bar on your traps, and as you inhale, raise your traps as high as possible as if you’re trying to reach your ears with them. On exhale lower your traps. Work with the heaviest weight you can handle for 8-10 reps.

If safety is your number one concern, you shouldn’t be involved in combat. You’re either a combat athlete or you’re not. Strength training is not easy, and neither is combat. The tougher you are on yourself during training, the easier combat will be for you. The reality of combat and martial arts is that you don’t fight sitting in a chair or lying in a bed. In combat, all muscles must move quickly in unison, and much of the force comes through the core or the midsection, which includes the lower back. All this represents an element of danger, so you might as well prepare for it in the gym.

Strength training and cardio work can be combined by running hill sprints, farmer’s walk, running or walking the same hill with dumbbells, or running or walking the same hill with someone on your back. The point is you need to add some sort of resistance to your cardio training. Bear hugging or carrying a sandbag over a predetermined distance or uphill is also an option, as well as pulling or pushing weighted sleds. Any one of these exercises greatly improves overall health, conditioning and general physical preparedness (GPP).

At first glance this question looks like a tough one because there are so many types of combat and martial arts disciplines. Most combat and fighting styles likely require explosive speed, strength, and endurance. Do exercises that work the major muscles while forcing you to keep your balance. Squats, deadlifts, overhead presses, snatches, and power cleans will not only make you stronger in the legs and upper body, but your midsection (hips, waist, and lower back) will become powerful as well.

If you desire strength, you must be prepared to sweat and struggle with really heavy weights. You cannot get strong with a pair of ten-pound dumbbells. When exercising for strength, cut down the repetitions. Three to five reps are sufficient in almost any movement. Anytime you go over five reps you are using too light a weight to force the muscle to their limit. Although you have to train hard and heavy, make sure you don’t over-exercise or else you might risk overtraining. Rest is very important between training sessions, and for heavy sets longer rest intervals are necessary so you can go all out on every set.

For abbreviated training to work, it should be nothing more or less than total body training two or three times per week, with an emphasis on exercises that train the total body as a unit. You train hard and heavy, going as heavy as possible each day you train. You do a limited number of sets not just because you’re pressed for time but more so because you emphasize quality over quantity.

Diet and nutrition of strength athletes should consist of plenty of good, wholesome food. There are plenty of nutritious muscle-building foods so don’t eat something or limit yourself to tuna and cottage cheese simply because someone else says it’s good for you. Eat lots of protein foods from eggs, beef, chicken, turkey, fish, and dairy products. Hit the complex cars pretty heavy as well, and eat a lot of whole grain bread, pasta, potatoes, and rice. Eat plenty of fruits and vegetables as well, drink lots of water, and if possible, plenty of milk.

Abbreviated training is for those people who love training with barbells and dumbbells but simply do not have the time. It is not used to breed laziness, and it doesn’t work for isolation movements; only big and basic movements must be used. Abbreviated training allows no excuses for missing training, allow you to concentrate fully on a particular lift because you won’t be doing a lot of other movements, and it makes it possible to train the whole body in a short amount of time so long as you use compound and multi-joint exercises. Abbreviated training is not only a time and energy-saving way of training, but it is also a way to trigger big gains so long as you use one exercise or movement that worked the entire body and training it hard.

In today’s busy lifestyles, it’s really hard to squeeze in some quality training time especially if you have a wife, a young child, and a job that keeps you reasonably busy. Abbreviated training is taking one or two movements from an originally planned longer routine and working them hard. What matters here is not the volume of exercise done, but the sheer effort and consistency of your training which will make you stronger. Take leg day for example. If you don’t have an entire hour to train, all you need to do is perform squats using progressively heavier singles and you will still continue to get stronger even if it’s just a brief session. Don’t miss training sessions, and do this using a heavy and basic movement.

When you practice the one hand snatch, do so in an area that offers plenty of free, uncluttered floor space, a high ceiling, and a surface that allows you to drop the bar if necessary. The best place to train the lift is probably your back yard or any similar piece of level ground with hard-packed dirt or short grass. Also, since the plates and the bar will hit the ground hard and often, don’t use your best Olympic bar and buy cheap or used exercise plates instead.

A lot of people advocate the use of hard training for only once a week or in some cases even once a month, but the greatest strength gains have come as a result of two things: training the same body part three times a week and pushing for a new maximum each time you train. Train hard and train heavy for three times a week, use low reps, heavy weights, and high-intensity on all the big movements, and in time you’ll be bigger and stronger than anyone who trains hard once a week. Don’t be a weekend warrior, where you take it easy all week and then go out and train hard on the weekend. You’ll just get injured training this way.

When performed with one hand rather than with two hands, the snatch calls upon the general bodily strength to the same degree as when using two hands, but in addition it requires greater agility, control, grace, and balance. One arm overhead lifts of any kind bring into play and develop the muscles of the side waist (external or oblique abdominals) to a far greater extent than do lifts made with both arms acting together, since the latter doesn’t require any side bending at the waist as the weight is raise overhead.

Straps of any sort are strictly prohibited in one hand snatching for safety reasons. If you miss the lift, you need to be able to drop the weight to the floor. If you use straps and the weight goes overhead and behind you, as it might if you are out of position, you will either drop the bar on your head or end up with a shoulder injury.

For starters, the one hand snatch is a terrific grip exercise. Because this movement is so demanding and you need to be able to have a good grip on the bar from start to finish, it strengthens the grip and develops the forearms hard even without specialized grip training. Most importantly, it teaches your entire body to work as a unit, and because of this you won’t have any muscle imbalance and you will have a body developed from head to heel. Although the movement looks awkward because you won’t see a lot of people doing it, it will make you sore just about anywhere from your hips, thighs, arms, lower back, sides, abs, and lats. From these results alone you’ll know this exercise can develop total boy power and make anyone powerful and thickly muscled.

The one hand snatch is one of the classic lifts, a movement practiced extensively by virtually all of the old time strongmen, and an exercise that did as much as anything else to develop the ferocious lion-like power of men like Saxon, Rigoulet, and Apollon. It was as common in the old days as the bench press or lat machine is in today’s world. To lift a maximum weight in the one hand snatch, just like the lifts used in weightlifting competition, it requires a combination of strength and blinding speed from start to finish.

The basis of true power lies particularly in the strength of the tendons and the ligaments. Many people believe that muscular size is all that matters in considering the strength of the man, that if he is huge and muscular he must be correspondingly strong. This is not necessarily true, for the determining factor is just how the muscles have been developed. Big muscles from high reps result to inflated tissue, which is never as strong as real muscle made with heavy methods. If heavy training with compound movements is not used to build muscles, the tendons or the attachments of these muscles to the bone would not be strong enough to handle heavy loads. The men who use “pumping” or faulty training methods do not have balanced strength or development and fail when their muscles are put to the test.

You can train properly even without mirrors, you’ll do just fine without it. If you can stand in front of a mirror and watch yourself during training, it only means the weight you are using is too light because not much concentration is required. But in lifting heavy barbell and dumbbells overhead for example, where intense concentration is required, it is dangerous for the lifter to take his attention away from the weight for a fraction of a second. The gaze of the eyes must always follow the dumbbells because a split second distraction like looking in the mirror can break a lifter’s focus and he would immediately lose his balance and probably injure himself.

First of all, this exercise is done with very heavy dumbbells, the heaviest you can handle. Even for the bigger and stronger guys, it’s not easy to clean and press a pair of 100 lb. bells. Also, your abs go into shock the first time you do this as they are required to keep your torso as upright as possible. The upper back has to do a massive stabilization effort on this one in order to hold the two massive weights at lockout.

To a grappler or any martial artist, great fighting condition means that he has a lot of explosive strength and muscular endurance. He must be more than quick and strong. He must have the ability to use his quickness and strength over and over without fatigue. To develop this speed, power, and endurance, he needs to focus on exercises that not only build strength but conditioning as well. Such exercises include uphill wind sprints and farmer’s walk.

Failure is easy. Success is the difficult thing. In strength training, success is always possible for anyone who is willing to pay the price: brutally hard work over a period of years on basic, heavy exercises, always trying to add more weight to the bar, and always trying to surpass your previous performances. Strength training has a mental aspect, and those who fail choose to fail. To succeed, you need to deliberately cultivate a mental attitude that will not even acknowledge the possibility of failure. The power to succeed lies in between your ears, in the power of the mind, not in secret training programs or supplements.

Barrel lifting builds rugged overall body strength in a way that not even barbells and dumbbells can match. It hits the grip incredibly hard, and because of this barrel lifting alone can help you build a ferocious grip. It was truly one of the secret weapons in the arsenals of the strongmen of old, and one of the very best training methods for those who hope to follow in their footsteps. Not to mention, barrel lifting is downright fun and it’s a great addition to a strength training program for variety and to ease boredom.

The clean and press is a terrific exercise. Done properly it will work every single muscle in the body, and work it brutally hard. It demands for coordinated lifting, and this means you can’t just muscle your way through it with bad form. It directly hits the shoulders, the arms, the legs, and the back. Together with the squat, the clean and press is one of the finest all around strength and muscle routines you can do.

Looking for new challenges is one of the most important secrets in strength training. Your body only grows in response to new and even more demanding challenges. Aside from adding weight to the bar, you need to go beyond basic barbell and dumbbell movements and look for training methods that build strength and conditioning simultaneously. Rugged finishing movements such as hill sprints, farmer’s walk, and similar activities that require hard sustained effort for 20 to 30 minutes at a time add more variety to your program while providing strength and conditioning benefits.

The farmer’s walk is one of the best grip strength and conditioning exercise that force other muscles in your body to play along as you execute the movement. In short, it will give you a tremendous total body workout. To do it, take the heaviest pair of dumbbells you can handle without the use of lifting straps. Pick those dumbbells up and begin walking around the block or weight room with them. Set a specific goal for how far you intend to carry them. Then, as your shoulders, arms, and entire body tire, stop and rest for a minute. Pick them up again and continue walking. Set the dumbbells down as often as you must, but finish your course. By the time you’re done, you will be a heap of sweat, you’ll be gasping for air, and your grip will be completely exhausted.

One of the biggest lies in the field of strength training is the myth that you need mirrors to help you use good form. Mirrors only tell you what you look like. You should not concern yourself with this when you train. Mirrors destroy concentration and focus, and they have nothing to do with good form. To be able to lift heavy weights, you should be totally focused on attacking the barbell and moving that iron. This proper mental state of aggression cannot be attained while gazing into a mirror.

No one has a monopoly of weight training advice, and no single training program can ever be considered the “best” or “ultimate” training schedule. The one thing in common with good strength training programs is that they all use heavy weights and low reps in the big lifts such as squats, presses, and deadlifts, and they’re all simple and back to the basics with focus on form and technique. If you work hard at it, it can make you very big, very strong, and very powerful.

Standing presses require you to work hard to balance and stabilize both the bar and the muscles performing the lift. Your entire body must work as an integrated unit when you do standing barbell presses. In contrast, a seated back supported press requires virtually no involvement of the stabilizers, and it can cause back injuries rather than preventing them because you are not teaching the body to work as a unit. You work far, far more than just the shoulders and the triceps when you do standing presses: you work the all important core and stabilizer muscles throughout the torso, waist, and hips.

A solid approach to strength training emphasizes hard work on the big exercises: squats, deadlifts, cleans, overhead presses, bench presses, and barbell bent-over rowing. Training is two or three times per week, using basic set/rep combinations such as 3x6, 4x6, 5x5, or 5/4/3/2/1 systems. Always try to add weight to the bar, and stay focused on your goals of developing big muscles, super strength, superb overall physical condition, mental toughness, and excellent health.

Floor press is a “bench press” performed while lying on the floor. Start with the bar behind the head and pull it over (with bent arms) to get it to the chest. You should use large plates on this one, so that if you get stuck you can just wiggle out from beneath the bar. This works and strengthens the lockout power in the bench press.

The most important thing is to enjoy your training. If you don’t have fun when you train, you are not going to stay with it. That’s why you need to personalize your training programs. Of course you still need to do the basic power movements such as squats, deadlifts, presses, bent over rowing etc. but take the time to find a way of doing them that gives you the most satisfaction. It also helps to make your training sessions a challenge. Compete with yourself or with others, or set poundage goals, and for sure every workout becomes a challenge.

On your two off days per week from strength training, your cardio work should include rope skipping, jogging, wind sprints, cycling, and swimming, basically whatever you enjoy. Don’t overdo things, but get in a medium intensity cardio session. It should last twenty to thirty minutes and leave you sweating hard and breathing hard, but not in a state of total exhaustion. This should be fun, not torture, so don’t overdo it. If you haven’t done any cardio work for awhile, start slow and easy.

Bench presses are one of the very best upper body exercises you can do and they have an uncanny effect of triggering gains throughout the entire upper body. Since bench presses could also be referred to as the “upper body squat” and you could train using really heavy weights, it would be best to do your benches in the power rack. It’s too dangerous to do heavy benches alone outside of a rack. Choking to death with a heavy bar on top of your windpipe is not a pretty way to die. If you don’t have a spotter or there’s no power rack, do heavy dumbbell benches instead.

Jump ropes are an excellent way to warm up and cool down in every training session. Rope skipping is a terrific conditioner, and easy to do all year round, no matter what the weather is like. Plus, it requires a minimum of space and equipment, unlike treadmills and elliptical machines. This lets you spend your hard earned money on things that really count, like more barbell plates for example.

For your strength training program, you’ll need a barbell, a power rack, a flat bench, a set of adjustable dumbbells, and lots of plates. For the cardio program, you’ll need a high quality jump rope, the kind boxers use, and a good pair of running shoes. Before and after each strength training session, do some medium fast rope skipping.

It would look just like any other strength training program. As for frequency, train five times per week: three weight training sessions and two cardio sessions. You’re also going to do a little cardio work at the end of each strength training session. There’s no sense being as strong as a horse but not being able to walk up a flight of stairs without getting winded.

To reach your maximum potential for size and strength, you need to devote tons of sweat and effort to heavy squats. While it may seem that there’s only a small difference between parallel and full squats in terms of range of motion, the full squat or ass-to-the-grass squat is a much tougher movement, and it provides better exercise for the hips and thighs.

The press behind neck is a superb shoulder and triceps exercise, and also works the upper back quite hard. Start with a light weight on the first set and gradually add weight on each ensuing set. Do these from squat stands if you have them; otherwise do a clean and press on the first rep, lower the bar behind the neck, and do the rest of the reps from behind the neck.

The dumbbell clean and press hits the entire back and shoulders hard, and it’s a good overall conditioner as well. Clean the bells to the shoulders, then press them overhead—lower the bells almost all the way back down to the floor, then clean them again, press them and repeat. You do one clean and one press to constitute one rep. Do four sets of 3-5 reps per set, adding ten pounds to each dumbbell on every succeeding set. Rest for a couple of minutes in between sets so that you can give your all to each set that you do.

Yes you can, as long as your program is built around good, old-fashioned basic strength and power movements that require only a minimum of equipment. The most important thing if you want to become stronger by training at home is to keep your motivation high. Unlike in good commercial gyms, you can’t feed off of the energy of others; you have to be self-sufficient and do it on your own. A dose of high powered motivation is the best supplements ever devised so in planning your schedules and in performing your workouts, do everything possible to fuel your enthusiasm. You can become stronger even if you train alone by making a conscious effort to stay focused, committed, motivated, and devoted to your training.

The very popular “bench press” lift as we know it today originated during World War II (WWII). Prior to that, the closest lift resembling the bench press was called the “supine press.” This was performed like a bench press, but the major difference is it was done while lying on the floor. The only disadvantage was that the elbows did not go lower than parallel. This movement, the supine press, is still used by strength athletes to strengthen their lockout power in bench press, and this is now more popularly known as the floor press.

There is a reason why most if not all barbells are painted black. When weightlifting pioneer Alan Calvert began manufacturing barbells in 1902, colored paint was very expensive and took longer to dry. Jap black was inexpensive and fast drying. So, to keep his prices affordable to rural farm boys, Calvert painted all is equipment black, and the rest as they say, is history.

Include movements in your routine that require you to pull heavy weights from the floor or from rack pins. Just as squats are the foundation of overall body power, the simple action of squeezing and holding tough onto a heavy barbell is the basis for the development of great gripping power. Every major barbell move such as barbell rows, presses, deadlifts, and cleans is good for the grip because you have to wrap your hands around the bar and control it. As the poundage on your bar increases in your pulling and pressing moves, so does your grip strength.

Although singles develop strength and power unlike any other, a lot of people don’t do it because they are afraid of heavy weights, especially on movements in which you have to stand on your feet. A man who can do a standing press with 250 pounds for a solid single is stronger and has thicker deltoids and triceps than a man who presses 150 pounds for 10 reps. A man who can squat 450x1 with no other equipment but a belt, is stronger and has thicker hips, thighs, and lower back than a man who squats 225x10.

Unlike some training methods, singles may be done with as much rest as you desire between sets and still be effective. Singles are hard, strength building work, and because of this you need a little more rest than usual before the top single to concentrate in giving your all to this set. Don’t obsess about the amount of time you take between singles. A strength athlete is not after a pump or sculpting, and he is not training to be a pretty boy. Take your time, be tough, put some serious iron on the bar, and train.

Contrary to what armchair gurus say, singles are not only a means of testing strength. It’s not dangerous or harmful to the joints either. The single rep set embodies all of the requirements for successful strength training, and it gives immediate feedback on your attitude and training focus. Single rep sets force you to take responsibility or your own training intensity, allows the use of heavy weights, and requires guts. Training with very heavy singles is hard work and as such it requires a lot of mental toughness as well. Since it’s all or nothing, you will have a lot of missed lifts in the course of doing heavy singles. You can’t just go through the motions of your program with heavy singles: you need to be aggressive and attack heavy weights workout after workout.

Some people argue that steroid use is a matter of choice and individual freedom. But for me personally, I believe steroids have all but ruined weight training. In simple, direct, and unmistakable terms, steroids are bad, they are harmful, they are dangerous, they are a form of cheating, and they are contrary to everything that is good is sports. Anyone who uses steroids is taking the easy way out, period. No exceptions, no special circumstances. Nothing beats building muscles the old fashioned way, by earning it through hard work and dedication.

The whole business of weight training is an exercise in self improvement, and self improvement is the most difficult thing on the face of the earth—which is why so few people even give it a try. It doesn’t come easy, and it takes enormous effort to get bigger and stronger. It doesn’t happen by accident, and you have to be tough mentally and physically, resolute, courageous, hard-nosed, and determined. You must consciously and rigorously cultivate these characteristics and make them an integral part of your being. Then take them to the gym and use them to train harder and harder in every session. In time the results will follow.

It is essential for every beginner to start off right. Before choosing a program or adding weights, reps, and sets, the first thing a beginner should always focus on is doing the exercises in good form and proper technique. Once the technique is on point, then the poundages will start to go up as well, that’s a guarantee. Not only that, injuries and unnecessary training setbacks are avoided this way because you only hit the intended muscles you want to train, and because of this you can train longer and on a more sustainable basis.

The secret of weight training is progression. It is not what you do but how you do it that counts. Whether you use single sets, multiple sets, machines, free weights, Olympic lifts, you can get stronger as long as there is progressive hard work. Add weight to the bar whenever possible. In fact, add weight to the bar even if it seems impossible to do so. Small poundage increases work for most men. Over time, the small increases add up to big gains.

If you need to lose weight, do some cardio work. Guys 35 and older should do cardio work regardless of whether they are trying to gain or lose weight. Keep the cardio stuff simple, and don’t do so much of it that it makes heavy training impossible. Do it two or three times per week, 20 to 30 minutes per session. Jogging, cycling, and rope skipping are good choices. Also, don’t forget to eat plenty of good, solid food, as well as a multi-vitamin/mineral tablet.

The use of dumbbells for building great power in the arms and shoulders is unsurpassed. In dumbbell exercise, the arms are entirely their own, and you have a greater range of motion. In dumbbell presses, they work separately as do the muscles of the shoulders and back. With dumbbells, each group of muscles on each side of the body work independently. In lifting a barbell, they work in concert, and that’s why you can lift much heavier weights with barbells than with dumbbells.

This exercise may look goofy for some, but done correctly with some heavy weights unlike in health clubs and magazines, and you have an excellent leg strength builder. It is a good basic exercise that is quite simple in structure but quite profound in results produced. It will hit areas of your hip extensor which cannot be done by any other exercise. Contrary to popular belief unilateral exercise does not isolate muscle activity, as the dumbbell walking lunge actually increases muscular recruitment and activity. Athletes of all heights can use it because limb length and body structure has very little effect on the performance of the exercise.

Aside from the upper and middle back, barbell rows also build the arms and challenge the grip. Even if you don’t do any direct bicep work for months, if you use heavy barbell rows in your training you will not lose any arm size or strength. This is because although barbell rows are not a direct bicep move, it builds the biceps because you are pulling a much heavier weight than you could ever curl. As for the grip, it is strengthened and developed with the barbell row especially when you execute the movement without straps and wrist wraps.

Yes absolutely. Since you can use really heavy weights on barbell rows and you can max out on this exercise just like in squats and deadlifts, you can train barbell rows for single rep sets. Make sure you do two warmup sets first, then 5-6 singles with a working weight. In between pulls you can rest for about a minute. Don’t look for the pump or anything that is worthless for strength building. While this may be a departure from the normal set and rep thinking, you’ll find that it is very effective in building back strength and thickness.

In magazines you’ll see lean models doing rows with legs straight, upper body set perfectly parallel to the floor, and the bar pulled to their chests. This is how NOT to do it. If you do barbell rows using this form with some decent weight on the bar, you’ll be injured before you even get to your next set. Barbell rows must be done with the upper body just above parallel, the bar pulled just above the navel, and a slight bend at the knees to distribute the weight of the barbell much better and also to avoid too much strain on the lower back. A little body English is also acceptable as the weight increases.

The barbell row is one of the core movements in any serious strength training program because it is one of the three best upper body movements in existence. Lat pull downs, seated cable rows, and other machines can’t even come close to the strength building advantages that a barbell row has. With barbell rows, you can use very heavy weights because you use the whole body to execute the movement. It hits the upper and middle back hard, and produces not only power but serious thickness in the waist, hips, sides, and the entire back.

You can get overtrained whether it’s high or low reps, light or heavy weights, if you don’t have a healthy and balanced diet and if you do not get enough sleep and rest in between your training sessions. In strength training, you need to use heavy weights. That means you do low reps or fewer repetitions. When you do low reps, you can do more sets without overtraining. Five sets of three reps in any compound exercise will build plenty of strength and power for almost anyone who tries it, and it will not cause the lifter to overtrain.

One of the best ways to train your neck is by using a headstrap. One such headstrap is sold by IronMind Enterprises. Train your neck hard and use heavy weights by doing three sets of five to 25 reps in the backward extension, where the weights are hanging in front of the body.

If you hit power pulls hard then that alone can constitute your entire back program. Power pulls are done from the floor to chest height using explosive movements, a clean width grip, and coordinated power. While most guys think lats when one mentions back training, where strength is the goal, this is totally wrong. In the back of a strength athlete, the most important muscles are the spinal erectors and the traps. When you train your lower back and your traps, the lats also get hit and extra lat work is almost unnecessary.

A thick and strong neck is critical to total body strength. Strongmen always had the thickest necks and this has been a symbol of power and an impressive attribute for a long time. In the same way, people who do not train hard are labeled pencil necks. The neck is the most neglected muscle and this is why it’s one of the most commonly injured muscles. Far too many men completely ignore neck training because they think this is only important if you wrestle or engage in contact and fighting sports. This is not true and don’t let this happen to you. Train your neck hard and heavy. Keep in mind that one of the goals of serious strength training is balanced development, and you can’t be balanced if you fail to train your neck.

The sandbag carry is a tremendous strength builder because you bear hug the thing and carry it as far as possible. Above all, it is a superb conditioner, and an excellent way to improve your GPP or general physical preparedness. This develops functional strength, or strength that you will use in real life and daily activities, and few things in life are more functional than lifting and carrying a heavy object. It’s a basic movement pattern for the human body, one that is not addressed by conventional training methods. This is usually performed as the last exercise, and it’s aptly named as a “finisher” because by the time you’re done with this, you will be finished literally and you may have to lie on the ground for awhile before you can move again.

To transform your body, you need to use something like 200 pounds or more over your bodyweight in the squat. Lighter poundage just won’t cut it. The reason why plenty of guys decide weight training doesn’t really work and only genetic freaks or those on roids can build strength and muscles is because they do not squat with enough weight. Weight training works, but it only works if you work. Hard training is the key to muscle building success, and using 150 pounds in the squat doesn’t amount to hard training. Even if it feels heavy or it makes you sweat, since it is not heavy enough to transform you, you won’t get real results. It won’t happen overnight, and that is why you’ll have to work hard for years. Plan on working up to weights in the 300 to 400 pound range, you can’t go wrong with it.

Aside from mastering the form and technique, to get good at squatting you need to become fanatical about the squat. Learn to love the exercise. Get psyched when you squat. Attack the bar and make it mean something when you squat. The squat is the single best exercise there is, and it will do for you more than any other movement. Always try to add weight to the bar, and make it your favorite exercise. Learn to love the squat, and in time you’ll get very good at squatting.

Many so-called experts promote intensity cycling to avoid overtraining, burnout, staleness, or injuries. While some may need to train in a conservative fashion as a matter of necessity, most guys do not. Weight training is not done daily or for long periods of time anyway. Even the most demanding programs only require two to three hard workouts per week for an hour each. Intensity cycling is really not necessary if you are getting enough sleep, your nutrition is good, and your program is well-spaced to allow your body to recover in between sessions.

You can add some extra arm work if you want as “finishers”; that is, if you still have energy after a grueling training involving the big lifts. Just make sure you don’t overdo it like most guys who spend too much time training the arms when what they should be doing is training the hips, legs, back, lower back, and shoulders. Only do those exercises you want when you’re done with the movements that you SHOULD do. If you want to gain 20-40 pounds of muscle, arm work is not the way to get there. To gain muscle you have to increase your overall body power with squats, pulls, and presses. Besides, the arms already get a lot of incidental training from heavy pulling movements (which hits the biceps hard) as well as overhead lifting and bench presses (hits the triceps), so there’s really no need to isolate them if your training program is built on compound exercises.

Train two to four days per week. Forget about training cycles, periodization, light days or easy sessions. Bust your butt every time you train. You’re never going to progress or get anywhere in the iron game unless you’re willing to train hard on a regular and consistent basis. Focus on the big movements, not on kindergarten exercises done on machines, and eat big as well. Sure you won’t be able to exceed your all time best every time you train, but just train hard and give it everything you have on every given day and you’ll do fine.

The best programs for gaining strength, power, and muscle involve the basic and heavy duty exercises: squats, overhead presses with barbells or dumbbells, power cleans, pulls, snatches, push presses and jerks, deadlifts, shrugs, barbell bent over rows, and barbell or dumbbell bench presses. These are the big movements, and this is where you can really pile on the plates so you can force the body to grow stronger and become more muscular.

Muscles developed from years of heavy training are rock hard and power packed muscles. On average, a pound of solid muscle can be gained weekly from an intensive training program whereas in a high rep program this could take a month. This means heavy lifting can bring in 12 pounds of muscle in three months, and those are just average gains. In a high rep program, you’d be lucky to have the same gains after a year of training. Moreover, muscles built from heavy and basic movements not only looked strong, but were really strong. Not only do they add 30 pounds to their bodyweight but as they get heavier their strength grows on all of the basic lifts as well. Heavy lifting builds real muscles, not just pumped up, useless, and inflated tissue. All it takes is the right kind of program, and dedication and consistency as well. Testicular fortitude won’t hurt either.

Spot reduction is a myth, for the lack of a better term. There is no such thing as spot reduction, so words like body sculpting etc are B.S. words used mainly by gyms to play on the insecurities of women and men who are afraid of getting “too big” (like it happens by accident). If you need to reduce body fat, forget about doing high reps. This may improve your muscular endurance, but it has nothing to do with definition whatsoever. To get cut, you need to lose overall body fat, and to do this you’ll have to do a lot more cardiovascular exercise while reducing your calorie intake and fat grams per day.

The purpose of lifting weights is to build and strengthen muscle, bones, ligaments, and tendons. In other words, strength training builds strength. It may not sound like much of a revelation, but truth is the only purpose of training with weights is to build muscle and strength. If you’re not fat or overweight, then don’t be obsessed with bodyfat. Be obsessed with good health and getting stronger.

You can tell right off the bat if someone has no clue about strength training if the dominant topic of their conversation is about getting cut or ripped and not about getting stronger. They know exactly what their body fat percentage is, but never mention how much they can lift or their training poundages. Sadly, the majority of the personal trainers are guilty of this as well. Just because you have low body fat it doesn’t mean you are serious about strength training. A single digit bodyfat doesn’t make a person a hardcore lifter. Being cut simply means to reduce the fat that surrounds the muscle to better enable it to be seen. This has nothing to do with strength training.

It is possible to have a thick upper back but underdeveloped lower back and this can come from doing too many seated or lying exercises and not enough standing exercises. A lot of people easily get hooked to exercises that permitted them to sit down or lie down while they “trained”, and the reason is simple: it is so much easier to do bench presses than to do standing presses , and jerks, pull downs are always preferred over barbell bent over rowing and deadlifts, and squats have been replaced by leg extensions, curls, and presses. To have lower back thickness, there’s no substitute for standing power movements.

To get strong, you need to lift weights that are challenging for you to lift. The exact number of reps is not the most important variable here. To get stronger you must lift weights that are heavier than what you have lifted before. One of the ways of providing this poundage overload is by implementing progressive poundages into a training program. Instead of having a fixed amount of weight on your mind well before going to the gym, let the repetitions to be performed dictate the weight. Eat big as well, and make sure you get enough rest in between training sessions so as to not risk overtraining. If you want to be stronger, train to get stronger, and don’t be distracted by anything else. Strength training is all about settling in for a long steady haul of hard work on basic exercises.

Discern your sources of motivation. Instead of reading muscle magazines, which are no longer sources of inspiration because it’s full of hype, misinformation, and glorification of steroid users, use the internet and read books and eBooks by accomplished authors and strength coaches who are strength athletes themselves. Better yet, have correspondence with guys who are pushing themselves drug free with the basic lifts such as squats, presses, and deadlifts.

I think it is a sign of manhood to be able to train by yourself. Of course training with a gym partner can help you stay motivated and you can also feed off the energy of another person, not to mention they can spot you with heavy weights. However, if you are serious in training, you need to have the guts and the desire to train alone otherwise you’d be too dependent on your training partner. If can train alone and your training partner doesn’t show up or misses his lifts and reps, you don’t have to bag training for the day and you can continue to get bigger and stronger.

To develop the environment needed for success in serious strength, the first step is to get out of commercial gyms and set up your own home gym. Don’t rely on commercial gyms for your training quarters, and instead be self sufficient so you won’t have your training at the mercy of the opening and closing times of a gym owner. Put up pictures on the wall not of bodybuilders who use steroids, but drug free strength athletes who dedicated their entire lives in the pursuit of strength and power. To avoid any distraction, don’t put up mirrors, don’t lay down carpets on the floor, and no juice bar. To get the type of environment you need to train effectively, stick to the basics so you can get in, train hard, and get out as quick and as efficient as possible.

Dedication to training and nutrition doesn’t come cheap, and for most of us this requires extraordinary effort. If you are trying to gain weight in the form of muscle, aside from training hard using the compound lifts, eat big meals packed with all the necessary nutrients. In between them, eat 2 cans of tuna in water. If you get sick of tuna, alternatively you can use chicken or turkey or drink a half gallon of skim milk per day. If you are in dire need to gain a lot of weight, do both: eat 2 cans of tuna in between meals AND drink a half gallon of skim milk per day. With this diet you’ll be getting enough protein and you can continue to gain weight even without supplements.

Whatever you do, do not replace your first meal of the day with supplements. If you do, you’ll simply end up with expensive urine and an empty wallet. Since we already waste around 12 hours per day between dinner and breakfast of our potential daily nutrition, as soon as you wake up you need to eat big. Cereals are an option but if you want the real breakfast of champions, you’d go for chicken, vegetables, salads, potatoes etc instead. Sandwiches can be eaten as snacks in-between meals, but not to replace full meals.

The first question you need to ask yourself is what did you have for breakfast today. Most people who can’t gain weight supposedly “no matter how hard they try” either have a bird breakfast or no breakfast at all. If you are trying to gain muscular weight, aside from training hard doing the big basic lifts, you must eat a big breakfast everyday, no ifs and buts, no excuses. If you don’t you’re doomed to fail. No amount of supplements, pills, and powders, can make up for proper nutrition.

Ground based strength training is all about standing on your feet when you train. Instead of doing exercises and programs that resemble rehabilitative weight training for someone who just had low back or abdominal surgery, stand on your feet for almost all of your training to gain mass and strength in no time. Do heavy exercises that require you to stand, such as squats, deadlifts, bentover rows, and standing presses so you too can be enormously powerful like the strongmen of old. They may be old-fashioned, but they’re not dangerous. Sure seated and lying exercises might be easier, but they cannot compare to the strength and mass gains that can be derived from training done while standing on your feet.

Consistency is one of the most important elements of a successful training program. Most guys fail not because they lack the inherent potential for larger and stronger muscles, but rather because they do not train consistently. You can train hard everytime you get into a gym, but if you’re an on and off type of trainer, you’re always back to square one and you’ll have to start over. The same is true for those who train consistently but try a ton of different things and changes his exercises around before they start to derive any sort of benefit from any particular movement. To make the most out of any training program, you need to be patient and you can’t change your schedules around at the drop of a hat. If you are not gaining, check your consistency. A lot of cases of poor gains are the direct result of failing to train consistently. Stay with your training, in good times and in bad, don’t make excuses, and don’t let circumstances squelch your resolve.

In essence, steroids are synthetic male hormones. As male hormones, what steroids do then is they make you a man. If you take steroids, you’re admitting to yourself deep down that you need help because you don’t have enough of what it takes to be a man. That’s why steroid use is always shrouded in secrecy and denial. It’s hard enough to admit that sort of thing to yourself, and that’s why it’s almost impossible to admit it to anyone else.

Unlike commercial gyms, hardcore gyms don’t have screaming banners and most if not all of them are relatively unknown. Hardcore gyms are low tech and only have the basics – olympic bars, lots of plates, a power rack, and a flat bench, that’s it. Commercial gyms on the other hand have all the latest cardio and aerobic equipment, as well as every gadget and new machine known to man. Most hardcore lifters avoid training in commercial gyms because commercial gyms don’t have chalk, doesn’t allow any noise when you train, and they have pencil neck trainers who get upset when you work too hard. Good hardcore gyms make you feel like training hard. Although it doesn’t have carpet, juice bars, and all the other amenities offered in commercial gyms, the one thing hardcore gyms have is freedom, brotherhood, and camaraderie. For the serious strength training athlete, this gym atmosphere is everything.

A good fitness trainer is a knowledgeable strength coach, and is a man loaded with practical and effective training advice. By practical experience, this means he needs to practice what he preaches and he needs to exhibit fitness as well. If he is a strength coach, he has to be strong as well otherwise he would be doing a disservice to all the other strength coaches. For a personal trainer to be considered a cut above the rest, his credentials must go beyond the qualifications and the documents he has to his name. He may have all the certifications known to man, but if he cannot motivate, educate, and push another person to become better physically then that makes him no different from the other garden variety trainers out there.

Train like a man, lift heavy weights, and eat big. Have a higher pain threshold and don’t give up way too soon and way too easy. Focus on compound and heavy movements, not so much on quantity but on quality and intensity instead. Find your own best training pattern in terms of rest between sessions and grouping of movements. If possible, train more frequently as it fits your lifestyle, temperament, etc. Make sure you train heavy using basic barbell and dumbbell exercises, and include partial moves as well to help you get past your weak areas and sticking points.

Partials are one of the few honest exercises. With heavy partials, you can’t cheat and lie about how much weight you can handle. There really is no in-between, because in this exercise, you either lift the bar or you don’t. Since you start each rep from a dead stop, you can’t cheat. Because of that you either complete the lift by driving the bar as hard as possible or the bar won’t even budge from the pins.

Too long actually, for as long as anyone can remember. As early as the 1920s, pioneers of weight training have been writing and singing praises about the benefits of super heavy partials, and this wet on from the 40s, 50s, and the 60s. This is also one of the reasons why heavy partials have fallen into disfavor: because they’re too old fashioned. Since they’ve been around too long, no one can lay claim to it or patent it or sell it as new and improved. For these reasons, heavy partials tend to be ignored most of the time by fitness gurus because they can’t market it as a new system or anything to that effect.

No. Heavy partials require a reasonable amount of floor space for both the lifter and the spotter/s. With partials, you really can’t train in a sardine can unlike with machines were members can lie and sit right next to each other without the risk of getting hit by a moving bar or falling plate. This is also one of the main reasons why gym owners downplay heavy partials so they can make the most out of their floor space. After all, the amount of space required by one person doing heavy deadlifts or rack pulls can accommodate four members using machines or isolation exercises.

For one, partials kill conversation, and partials and chitchat simply don’t mix. Partials are serious business, and since most fitness enthusiasts are babblers, they go for exercises that don’t require focus and intensity. Also, since partials use heavy weights and man-sized poundages, it doesn’t appeal to guys who train in slow motion to feel the” pump.”

Gym goers in general don’t go for heavy partials because they’d rather sit, kneel, or lie instead of holding onto a barbell. They think this is too demanding, too much work, and too difficult. Contrary to what modern “experts” have been preaching, gripping a barbell is NOT dangerous. In doing heavy partials, you have to hold onto the bar and you cannot have your hands open and fingers loose. A strong grip is needed and developed on the pulling movements. As long as you grab the bar and squeeze as hard as you can, in time you’ll get stronger. Fight to hold onto a heavy bar. If it gets too heavy and you can’t hold onto the bar you won’t be able to pull it anyway, and you can just drop the weight, so there’s really no risk on your part.

A lot of people do not like training their backs for the simple reason that they can’t really admire it when they look at themselves in the mirror. Because of this, the other muscles in front of the upper body gets most of the training, and this of course includes the pecs, the bis, and the tris. But since you can’t be weak anyway, and to prevent any muscle imbalance, you need to train your back even if you can’t see it in the mirror. Heavy partials are one of the best possible ways to train the back because these were developed largely through the help of Olympic lifters, athletes who have the strongest backs in the world.

Put simply, you have to attack partials! In doing heavy partials, for it to be able to build size and strength, you can’t use light weights and “feel” the exercise as you go all the way up and all the way down. Slow motion training doesn’t work when you do heavy partials. The only way to execute heavy partials is by having focused aggression and coordinated power. The slow and by “feel” approach may work with isolation exercises an machine movements, but with heavy partials you have no choice but to drive the bar as hard and as violently as possible to get it off the pins and lock it out to the finished position.

This is because the typical exercise enthusiasts nowadays do not want to stand on their feet in the rack and the answer is simple: they don’t want to work too much because it’s so muc easier to sit down or lie down. What happens in a lot of gyms right now is 90% of workouts are either done sitting or lying on your back. If you want proof of this, just look at how gym goers train their legs: seated leg extensions, leg curls while lying on their stomachs, seated calf raises, leg presses, and the list goes on. Compare that to strength training 40-50 years ago: power cleans, standing presses, squats, bentover rows, deadlifts, and other exercises where you stood on your feet.

Heavy partials require effort, lots of it, and it’s one of the few things you could do in a gym that will make you sweat, gasp for air, and make you sore afterwards. Heavy partials are hard work, and you can’t fake or sleepwalk your way through a set of heavy partials. You can’t go through the motions and expect to complete your set by talking the bar into lifting itself. Since heavy partials are not a soft and gentle movement, you have to attack the bar, be aggressive, and get physical.

Old school focuses on training hard and heavy, and most lifters back in the day train for nothing else but strength and power by doing exercises such as power cleans, squats, deadlifts, overhead presses, high pulls, and bent over rowing. 90’s style weight training on the other hand doesn’t use much of the power rack and free weights because instead of strength and power, the main focus of lifters nowadays are just toning, sculpting, and shaping, basically just to look good. Most guys in gyms anywhere around the world are now lining up for pec decs, cable crossovers, Nautilus machines, treadmills, etc.

Heavy partials are a good power and mass building system, and this refers to heavy partial movements done in the power rack. Movements that would make a man out of anyone such as bench press lockouts, quarter squats, standing press lockouts, deadlifts from the knees or from mid thigh, any sort of rack pull from any height, and bottom position to mid position squats or presses.

This is very difficult to achieve especially if you are already an experienced or advanced lifter. This is because when you lose fat you tend to lose a little muscle as well. The same is true when gaining muscle: as you get stronger and your muscles develop you gain some fat along the way. Novice lifters or beginners in weight training can gain muscle and lose fat at the same time, but for the most part this isn’t possible. The only reason why most bodybuilders can do both at the same time is because of steroids. Since it is very difficult to accomplish both simultaneously, be realistic: pick one goal, either fat loss or muscle gain, and single-mindedly work towards it first.

Yes you could, and if you want proof of that all you need to do is watch an episode of The Biggest Loser and from that alone you could see weight losses faster than 2 pounds per week are possible. Sure most of the participants in that program weigh more than 300 pounds, but still 2 pounds is not the maximum amount a person can safely lose in a week. This figure is just a guide or a good benchmark, based on average results, for setting weekly goals. If you start out heavy, for sure you’ll lose much more than 2 pounds per week, and it can be water, fat, or even muscle. Regardless of composition, the bottomline is the 2 pounds/week rule is not set in stone and won’t apply to everyone especially if you work really hard on your training and diet.

Losing more than 2 pounds a week is not ordinary, and because of this, it requires extraordinary effort as well. To lose weight, you need to have a calorie deficit, meaning you need to burn more than what you consume. In losing more than 2 pounds per week, you’ll need a bigger calorie deficit, and this is done by a particularly strict diet and a more intense and rigorous training program designed to burn more calories. If your normal food intake is 2500 calories, to lose 3 pounds of fat just by dieting, you need to take out 1500 calories from your daily diet and consume a measly 1000 calories/day instead. This however is not sustainable because not only is it hard, it could be unhealthy as well. Alternatively, if you want to lose more than 2 pounds per week through training, you’ll need to train for hours and hours a day, just like in The Biggest Loser. Because they train for several hours a day, with the amount and intensity of exercise that would not have been otherwise possible in the real world, they create a huge calorie deficit that results to dramatic weight loss.

Fast fat loss requires low calories, high intensity exercise, and a high tolerance for hunger to achieve a bigger calorie deficit. You can’t really choose between diet and exercise. If you want faster results, you need to step up both your training and diet. It doesn’t matter how hard you train; if your diet is junk or if it doesn’t help maximize fat loss by containing high protein and less carb, then you’re just setting yourself up for failure. For long term weight control, lose weight slowly and stick to a well-balanced nutrition plan that contains protein, healthy fats, and natural carbs. For fast fat loss, you have to burn more by doing intense weights and frequent cardio, and eat less with a stricter low carb diet while keeping the nutrient density of your low calorie diet as high as possible.

Eliminating arm fat and flab cannot be done simply by blasting away rep after rep of biceps curls and triceps pressdowns. To lose fat in these areas, you’ll have to lower your overall bodyfat. What this means is you need to have a calorie deficit by burning more than what you consume. Spot reduction is a myth, and this means training or isolating a particular muscle won’t result to local fat loss in that area. To get rid of upper arm fat, incorporate arm exercises with a fat loss diet and an entire body workout program and for sure not only will you tone your muscles, you’ll also burn off extra fat to become slimmer and fitter.

Getting rid of excess fat is necessary if you want to reduce your health risks such as obesity and cardiovascular diseases. To effectively lose weight and burn fat, you’ll have to restrict your calorie intake, eat more meals (more in terms of frequency but in small portions), increase physical activity, engage in high intensity cardio training, and stay on track with a proven strength training and weight loss program.

With obesity becoming so common place now around the world, vegetarian diets have received growing interest and popularity to address this concern. Vegetarian or plant-based diets reduce risks of hypertension, help prevent childhood obesity, lower risks of Alzheimer’s disease, help manage type 2 diabetes, and reduce oxidative stress (as an antioxidant). Vegetarian meals can also improve your mood, manage weight control, and lower body mass index (BMI).

A lot of people may know what vegetarian means, but most do not there is more than just one type of vegetarian diet. Some of the most popular vegetarian diets include vegan, lacto-ovo vegetarian, pesco vegetarian, and semi-vegetarian. Vegan diet is by far the strictest of all vegetarian diets in the sense that it doesn’t consume animal products of any kind, not for food, clothing or any other purpose. Lacto-ovo vegetarian doesn’t consume animal meat of any kind including shellfish, but they do consume dairy and egg products. Pesco vegetarian is similar to lacto-ovo vegetarian in most aspects, the only difference in pesco is that it allows the consumption of seafood. Semi-vegetarian is perhaps the most lenient, because it still allows the consumption of meat diets in small amounts, with the exception of red meat.

Vegetarian diets can supply all the nutrients needed to support athletic performance. This is because while red meat may not be an available protein source for most vegetarian diets, others allow the consumption of fish, egg, and dairy products which are excellent protein sources as well. As long as your vegetarian diet is well planned, appropriately supplemented, and protein intakes are adequately supplied, there’s no reason to be at a disadvantage with a meat eater. The only advantage of a meat eater anyway is in having higher creatine concentrations in the blood derived mainly from meat and fish, something that is easily countered with creatine supplementation on the part of the vegetarian.

Motivation is what drives a person towards a specific goal, and it will always have a huge impact on your training and your results. In essence motivation is the key to success because without it you won’t train hard, eat right, or discipline yourself. What your mind can perceive, the body can achieve by having motivation. It is that spark inside all of us that pushes us to train beyond our limits, to go on even when our body is already screaming in agony. With the right motivation, you can break plateaus and records you’ve never surpassed before because you know exactly what you’re aiming for, and this inspires you to push on when times get tough and gives you laser light focus to see nothing else but the task at hand. A motivated person is hungry and because of that he is willing to pay his dues in the gym regardless of the weather and other variables. Even if it means he has to sacrifice other things in his social life, for the motivated person the trade off will always be worth it because he knows every time he trains it brings him one step closer to his goals.

All of us train for different reasons: some train to get ripped, others to get stronger, while others still train to simply look good in the mirror so they could impress someone. Regardless of what your reason may be, the important thing is you know why you’re training, and that’s the first step to motivating yourself to train. We all need a reason, and once you have it, make sure you don’t forget it. Next, set a goal, both long-term and short-term. Write them down in a training log so you can track your progress and motivate yourself further. Last but not the least, let others inspire you. It can be the best athlete in your sport, or the hardest working guy in your gym. Mimic their work ethic and discipline so that one day you may be at their level, and let them be your reminder and living proof that hard work and perseverance pays off.

To develop a big and broad back, aside from rows you also need to do wide grip chin-ups. The problem with chin ups is that it is hard. By changing your hand placement to the wide grip overhand, this is where chin-ups become the most difficult. As with anything else, to become better at wide grip chin-ups, you have to keep doing it. At first you may not be able to do much, but as long as you bust out as many as you can with proper form and tempo, you will be able to progressively increase your repetitions. Do wide grip chin ups first to failure, and once you’re exhausted with wide grip chins, rest for around 10 seconds then switch to medium grip, and so on until you’ve exhausted the grip where you’re strongest, the underhand close grip chins. Take note of your reps, and aim to match or beat that the next time around. You do the last 2 just to exhaust your back; your focus should still remain set on increasing your wide grip chins.

Tendonitis refers to the inflammation of the tendon, the structure that attaches the muscle to the bone. The recovery time for a typical tendonitis with new onset is 2-4 weeks, and for longer standing tendonitis it is 4-6 weeks. The good thing with tendonitis is it can be easily treated with just anti-inflammatories, rest, and ice and the recovery rate is 99%. Tendonosis on the other hand is the degeneration of the collagen fibers, and it is a more difficult problem to heal. It only has an 80% chance of resolving, and the best protocol for Tendonosis is relative rest, ice, friction massage, and exercise. If you think you have tendonitis or Tendonosis, start icing the area right away. If it persists even after a couple of weeks, consult a doctor and take time off from working out.

Creatine Monohydrate powder is a synthesized form of the metabolite Creatine that is naturally produced by the human body. As such Creatine monohydrate is the synthetic form of creatine. It is found in the muscle tissue and present in the heart and brain as well. Creatine is a natural derivative of the amino acids arginine, methionine and glycine and is synthesized in the liver, kidneys and pancreas. Although creatine is manufactured primarily by the liver, the body can also acquire creatine through food. The best food sources are fish and red meat. Wild game is considered to be the richest source of creatine. To make the most out of creatine, it must be combined with glucose to help it get absorbed more completely through the gut.

With creatine use, muscle endurance is improved, enabling users to continue with their intense and grueling training for longer periods of times. Bodybuilders and weight trainers take creatine because it has been proven effective to increase and produce faster gains in muscle mass and strength. This increase in muscle mass leads to weight gain, which is a result of creatine drawing water into the muscle cell. Depending on your goals it can either be viewed as a side effect or a benefit, but for most people who are weight training and for hard gainers, this is enough reason to use creatine.

Any analog of creatine in general is taken at 5 grams per day, but there are two ways of taking creatine monohydrate. The first one involves a loading phase, where creatine is taken in larger amounts, around 20-30 grams/day, during the first four days, and then after the loading period the dose is returned back to 5 grams/day. The other method skips the loading phase altogether and gradually progresses from 5-15 grams per day.

Creatine increases water retention, and for this reason it is believed creatine use can cause dehydration and consequently cramping. To avoid the possibility of dehydration, make sure you consume more than enough water and electrolytes while training on creatine. Check the label on the creatine supplement you’re taking and stay within the prescribed doses.

Beta-alanine is a naturally occurring beta amino acid, and its supplementation has been shown to increase the concentration of carnosine in muscles, decrease fatigue in athletes and increase total muscular work done. Beta alanine enhances the effects seen with creatine monohydrate supplementation because of its ability to increase carnosine concentration and increase the ability of the anaerobic energy system.

Side effects and symptoms caused by Beta Alanine only occur when the product is consumed in amounts higher than the recommended dose, involving uncomfortable and sometimes painful feelings of Paraesthesia (tingling sensation). In some extreme cases, overuse may also include gastric upset, dizziness, and/or vomiting. If you experience any problems, as a result of overuse of this product, should reduce your dose or stop taking this product altogether and consult your physician.

While some supplements work, a lot of other products out in the market are a total waste of money. For your safety, avoid any stimulant-based fat burner at all cost. Examples of stimulants include Ma Huang, Guarana, White willow bark, Synephrine, Ephedra, and Yohimbine (or Yohimbe). Also, avoid any soy-based protein powder as it impairs thyroid function, most, natural testosterone boosters, fad supplements, and any supplement making outrageous claims. Nothing beats hard work and dedication to training and diet.

Unfortunately, this is not possible. Muscle loss can be minimized, but cannot be completely eliminated especially when dieting and the goal is fat loss. The reality is for every 3 pounds of fat burned or lost, it takes a pound of muscle with it. This is why you can’t gain muscle and lose fat at the same time. You can achieve both goals one at a time, but to do it simultaneously you either have to be a genetic freak, or a steroid-aided athlete. Even with roids, you still lose muscle with fat, the only difference is that the ratio is taken up to 1 pound of muscle for every 8 pounds of fat.

If you are in excellent condition and shape, for sure you will get comments such as “you must live in the gym.” But the truth is, you don’t have to be in the gym all the time to get in shape. In fact, less is more because while your body needs to train with weights and cardio, it also needs to rest and recover so it can be stronger the next time you train. It is during rest that you really build and strengthen your muscles; training is just the stimulus. Besides, if you train too long and too frequently, instead of getting stronger you’ll risk suffering from overtraining, and you’ll be doing far more harm than good.

Gaining strength without getting considerably larger because of lean muscle mass is possible for beginners and for those who are just recovering and coming back from long lay-offs. Those who have been lifting for sometime can also see strength gains by fine tuning and making changes to their form and technique. At some point though, you will hit a plateau and when that time comes the only way to continue your strength gains is by eating more and that means an increase in mass. Weight moves weight after all, so to move more weight you will also have to gain weight. Be careful not to binge on unhealthy food though; becoming stronger is not an excuse to eat everything on sight. Stick to your meal plan so the weight you gain is muscle and not fat.

An exercise bike is an excellent and low-impact way to lose calories, and the best thing about it is its ease of use and convenience. To burn unwanted weight and fat on the exercise bike, all you need to watch out for is your heart rate. For an optimal fat-burning session, you need to be in your training zone, which is at least 65 percent of your maximum heart rate. To get your maximum heart rate, just subtract your age from 220. Multiply the resulting difference to 0.65, and you have your target heart rate in beats per minute, or your training zone. Stay in this zone for 20-30 minutes a day and for sure you’ll be on your way to improved metabolism, fitness, and weight loss.

It’s not possible to gain and build muscle without seeing an increase in your lifts. The only way to gain muscle mass is by lifting weights, and since strength is directly proportional to muscle mass, as you get stronger you get larger as well. This doesn’t automatically mean however that the bigger guy is always the stronger guy; strength also has to be taken in context just like when comparing bodybuilders to powerlifters. Powerlifters may appear smaller and less muscular than bodybuilders (even if more often than not they both use steroids), but Powerlifters can move much more weight than the strongest bodybuilders because that’s what they train for, to lift the most amount of weight in a single repetition in squats, bench press, and deadlifts. Bodybuilders on the other hand focus on symmetry, size, and muscularity, and because of this they are better at lifting weights using high repetitions, reps that no powerlifter in his right mind would try to attempt. Either way the point is they both gain huge amounts of muscle mass and in the process they both get much stronger than before.

HRT or hormone replacement therapy has been used by older women to maintain a healthy body composition, but lately its safety has been questioned because of incidences of breast cancer and heart disease stemming from its use. The American College of Sports Medicine published an article in which researchers were seeking an alternative solution to taking HRT to maintain a healthy body composition. At the end of one year, researchers discovered that the group of women who exercised and did not take HRT did better than the nonexercise HRT group and did as well or a little better than the group that exercised and took HRT. They concluded that resistance exercise was just as effective for menopausal women in keeping off body fat as taking HRT.

A recent study conducted by the Harvard School of Public Health of over 31,000 men between the ages of fifty-three and ninety showed that exercise delayed the onset of erectile dysfunction with age and improved sexual performance in those who already suffered from this problem. It is important to note that researchers stress high-intensity exercise in combating ED, and this means three hours per week of high-intensity cardiovascular exercise such as running, playing tennis, etc.

Most people believe that a significant loss of muscle mass (sarcopenia) is inevitable with age, leading to decreased strength, mobility, and flexibility. This doesn’t always have to be the case. According to an article published by the Journal of the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons, most age-related changes in muscle can be reversed through an appropriate exercise program incorporating both aerobic and resistance/strength training.

A recent study published by the Journal of the American Medical Association reported that even modest levels of physical activity, coupled with a reduced caloric intake to help lose body fat, decreased a woman’s chances of having breast cancer. This was one of the largest studies of its kind involving 74,000 women between fifty and seventy-nine years old. An important point was that this exercise did not have to be intense: “While longer duration of physical activity provides the greatest protective benefit, such activity need not be strenuous.”

Aging in adults is associated with a marked decline in the flexibility of the huge arteries that help your heart to circulate blood. The more sedentary the individual, the greater the stiffness of these arteries and the less efficient cardiac circulation becomes. Even healthy adults can suffer from this condition. Studies have shown, however, that regular exercise appears to minimize age-related changes in the elastin and collagen that make up the artery walls, enabling them to retain their flexibility.

Since blood pressure increases steadily with age, getting it under control and keeping it under control is crucial. A number of studies have shown that the mortality from heart attacks, strokes, and other vascular diseases increases progressively as blood pressure levels rise. When coupled with fat loss from an appropriate food program, regular and appropriate exercise is one of the lifestyle changes that have been shown to decrease hypertension significantly.

The goal of any good weight-loss program should be to lose fat, not lean muscle tissue. While most people connect weight loss with going on a calorically restrictive diet, few realize that exercise is a powerful tool for taking off the weight. A recent article in the Journal of Nutritional Biochemistry reported that while dieting did take off the pounds, exercising was more effective at reducing pounds of body fat: “Although total fat decreased in both weight loss groups (exercise vs. diet), the average reduction was greater in the exercise-induced weight loss group than in the diet-induced weight loss group.” Exercise also preserved and even increased lean muscle tissue, whereas dieting alone tended to reduce lean muscle to a certain degree.

The latest research shows that getting enough omega-3 in the diet, at least 5 g per day, helps decrease body fat and increase lean muscle. Aside from this, it can also significantly reduce the risk of coronary heart disease. Take omega 3 in the form of fish oil capsules, flaxseed oil, and/or as ground flaxseed sprinkled on cereal or a salad.

Some studies have shown that this supplement promotes fat loss, preserves and even increases lean muscle, increases bone density, and increases immune function. For these reasons, it has been marketed to bodybuilders as a safe alternative to steroids. While the jury is still out on whether this supplement will live up to its initial claims in further clinical trials, it's still worth mentioning here.

Alpha-lipoic acid is a powerful antioxidant that is both water and fat soluble. This supplement has been shown to be highly effective in reducing free radicals in the body. Most important, at appropriate doses it has been found to have a significant effect on increasing insulin sensitivity in people suffering from type 2 diabetes.

Acetyl-L-carnitine is best used together with coenzyme Q10 because their synergistic effects enhance mitochondrial function. Most people who have become too fat and obese are not only insulin resistant and glucose intolerant but have impaired mitochondrial function as well. In essence, the mitochondria in their cells—the little fat-burning furnaces—are no longer able to work efficiently. For women taking 500 mg ALCAR and men 1,000 mg, along with their coenzyme Q10, studies have shown that a steady increase in metabolic efficiency and exercise endurance, as well as an increase in fat loss can result from this supplementation. Take this supplement before aerobic exercise or interval training.

Besides being a powerful antioxidant, coenzyme Q10 improves metabolic efficiency and endurance when taken before an exercise session, helps to decrease insulin resistance, and doubles your body’s ability to eliminate metabolic toxins. The suggested daily does is 50 mg for women and 100 mg for men, which should be taken before cardiovascular exercise or interval training. Taking this supplement with a snack containing fat (like a small handful of nuts or a tablespoon of peanut butter) will help your body to absorb it.

This supplement helps to burn fat because it increases the body’s sensitivity to glucose. The best results from this supplement can be seen after six weeks at 200 mcg (microgram) twice daily with a meal. Any good multivitamin should include 200 mcg chromium picolinate, so please read your vitamin/mineral label before you take an additional dose. Keep in mind though that since chromium picolinate significantly improves glucose sensitivity in diabetics, if you have diabetes or are hypoglycemic, speak with your doctor before taking this supplement. This is especially crucial if you are taking insulin, because chromium picolinate could change your body’s insulin requirements.

Taking magnesium will greatly enhance the effects of calcium. Magnesium is an essential partner in many enzymatic reactions that govern neuromuscular function and the maintenance of cardiovascular tone. Recent studies are beginning to find a correlation between magnesium and fat loss. People who are obese have very low levels of magnesium as compared to those with a normal body weight. If you have type 2 diabetes, taking magnesium helps to decrease insulin resistance. Magnesium has the ability to increase calcium’s effectiveness in lowering blood pressure and serum cholesterol levels. Taking 450 mg of either magnesium glycinate or aspartate (not in combination with calcium but as a separate supplement) before bedtime is the recommended dose. If you have a kidney disorder, you may need to check with your doctor before supplementing with magnesium.

Most people think of calcium as something you should take to minimize bone loss with the onset of andropause or menopause, and indeed this is true. But calcium also has many other health benefits, including the ability to aid in fat reduction. An article in the Journal of Nutritional Biochemistry, which evaluated five clinical studies involving 780 women in their thirties, fifties, and eighties, showed that taking 1,000 mg calcium daily was associated with as much as an 8 kg (17.6 pounds) loss in body weight over four years. Calcium also lowers serum cholesterol. Just make sure you get enough vitamin D though, around 400-600 mg daily, as calcium needs vitamin D to be absorbed.

When most people think about how fat or thin they are, they think about how much they weigh in pounds. While your weight on the scale is certainly important and will give you some information about your general health, it is even more important for you to determine your body composition—that is, how many pounds of fat you carry in relationship to how many pounds of lean muscle. If your body fat is 11% and below, you are athletic and in excellent shape. 15-17% is fair, 17-22% is fat, and 22% and above means you’re obese. Since the amount of body fat is directly related to diet and exercise, it is never too late to change your body composition through a good nutritional and exercise program.

North Americans spend a total of $30 billion on commercial weight loss programs and $6 billion on weight-loss products per year. At any given time, 25 percent of all men and 40 percent of all women are on some kind of diet. While it’s true that almost any weight-loss regimen will cause you to lose pounds in the short run, the real issue is if you will be able to keep them off in the long run. Unfortunately, most diets fail the test of time. We are still an overweight and obese society because we have many misconceptions about the metabolic processes that cause people to gain and lose body fat.

Metabolism is the sum total of all the chemical and physiological changes that take place within the body. This includes the transformation of food into energy, the growth and repair of muscle and bone tissue, and the creation of enzymes and hormones. The basal metabolic rate (BMR) accounts for about 70 percent of daily energy expenditure. The amount of energy required to digest and utilize food makes up 5 to 10 percent of daily energy output, and the energy expended in physical activity uses an additional 20 to 30 percent.

Absolutely. Lifting weights prevent muscle loss, strengthens bones, and result to addition of new muscle, and this means you will be able to burn more calories even at rest. Increased muscle mass will inevitably result to an improved metabolic rate, making your body a fat furnace. You can’t rely on this alone though; to have a sustainable and lasting fat loss, weights must be done together with cardio and proper diet.

To gain weight, you need to eat all three macronoutrients namely protein, carbohydrate, and fat. These are what you need to eat on a daily basis, not just when you workout, so you can gain weight and meet all the energy requirements for your activities. Make sure you eat lean meats for protein, as well as milk, eggs, red meat, chicken, and beans. For your carbohydrates, choose complex carbs over simple carbs by consuming fruits and vegetables, as well as rice, pasta, baked potatoes, oats and breads. For your fats, choose vegetable fats over animal or saturated fats.

Not necessarily. It is a sign that you did something new, something your body is not used to experiencing, but DOMS is not the best indicator of a good workout. It feels good to be sore as long as the soreness doesn’t include an acute, sharp pain which could be injury. DOMS occur when you do an exercise for the first couple of times, but as it becomes more routine and familiar DOMS will also fade. If you want a dead ringer sign of a good workout, check if the numbers in your training log are going up. That eliminates all the need for guesswork and going by feel.

To handle DOMS, first you need to understand what is happening here. During DOMS your muscles are sore and in an impaired state, so you cannot pressure them like you normally would or else you may delay recovery. With DOMS you have to accept that your training session now becomes a delicate balance of exertion and recovery. Stay hydrated, stretch, work your way up then cool down. Since you can’t really speed up your recovery from soreness, what you can do instead is to mitigate it by using ice, warm baths, or anything to make you feel better temporarily.

DOMS or delayed onset of muscular soreness is the term used to describe the result of microtrauma or microscopic tears to muscle fibers that happen after you exert more than usual whether it’s lifting, running, rowing, etc. As the muscle rehabilitates itself, you feel soreness in your muscles and this peaks 24-48 hours after the training session, thus the name DOMS. This is not lactic acid as many believe; DOMS is the muscle damage and microtrauma you need to force your muscle to adapt which eventually leads to muscle growth.

Creatine is certainly one of the most effective and popular supplements for athletes, but it cannot measure up or come even close to steroids because it is not nearly as effective. This is because steroids flood the system with synthetic hormones such as testosterone and this result to rapid strength and muscle gains, while creatine only increases the availability of ATP or cellular energy for the muscles. Unlike steroids, creatine won’t push you past your natural genetic limitations, and neither is it a miracle drug that promises instant strength and athletic prowess. Use it as you see fit, but don’t believe all the hype.

Not every exercise in a workout needs to have the same number of sets performed. The number of sets used in a workout is directly related to the training goals of the bodypart or muscle being trained. The number of sets are an integral part in determining volume in strength training. To achieve the optimal adaptations, especially in athletes, 3-6 sets are used for an exercise. It has been suggested that multiple set systems work best for development of strength, power, size and local muscular endurance, and the gains made will be at a faster rate than gains achieved through single set systems.

The amount of resistance used for a particular exercise is the most important variable in strength training. It is the major stimulus related to changes observed in measures of strength, power and local muscular endurance. When designing a resistance training program, a resistance for each exercise must be chosen. The basic test consists of determining the number of repetitions a person can perform to exhaustion in lifting a certain mass. The mass (kg or lb) is then described in terms of a ‘repetition maximum’ or RM. If a person lifts 72kg 10 times before exhaustion, 72 kg is identified as the person’s 10 RM for the particular body movement. If the largest mass this person can lift without repetition is 98 kg, this mass is identified as the 1 RM.

Flexibility training is primarily made up of static and dynamic stretching. In addition to a warm-up routine at the beginning and end of every training session and game, stretching can be performed as a special training task, theoretically to help prevent injury and facilitate recovery during the season. Pilates and various types of yoga are some examples.

Strains are acute injuries which are noticed at the time of injury; soreness, swelling and stiffness resulting from inflammation are generally present. Depending on the severity of the strain, a day of rest may suffice or, in the case of severe strains, several weeks of recovery may be required prior to resumption of maximum effort lifts. Immediate use of ice to the strain, in a zip-lock plastic food bag applied for 10-15 min may be effective in limiting the extent of the injury. Ice may be applied for pain and inflammation management several times a day if required. The early use of an anti-inflammatory medication (e.g. aspirin, ibuprofen or naproxen), may also help with mild discomfort.

Strains of tendons and muscles happen if the athlete is extending beyond his or her limit in the weight room. Commonly strained muscles or tendons include bicipital (biceps), triceps, flexor muscles of the wrist, rotator cuff (four muscles and associated tendons of the shoulder), neck, rhomboid major and minor (upper back muscles which stabilize the scapula), low back, hamstrings, patella (quadriceps) and calf.

Although contusions (bruises) are possible if weights are dropped on muscle, tendon or bone, the most common acute weight room injuries are sprains and strains. By definition, sprains affect ligaments, while tendons and muscles sustain strains. If the strain is significant enough and/or repetitive then tendonitis or myositis (inflammation of tendon or muscle, respectively) may develop.

The American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) has a conservative recommendation that if you are over the age of 35, and starting a rigorous exercise program, you should receive a medical examination and clearance first. In general though, for a typical individual of any age or sex who has no identified heart disease, severe blood pressure, Type 1 diabetes, or physical disabilities and obvious health problems which limit normal range of motion for anticipated strength exercises, a medical examination is not essential.

One of the most enduring myths of strength training is the danger of squats or deep knee bends on the integrity of the knee. There is no convincing evidence that squats are injurious to the knee. One suspects that this impression derives from power athletes who, by the nature of competition, are performing at the physical limits of their tissue, and injure themselves performing 1-RM (rep maximum) squats. The available studies show no relationship between squats and knee susceptibility to injury. The key is proper exercise technique.

Gloves are available that are specially designed for resistance training. These gloves do not cover the fingers, but only the palms of the hands. They offer some protection for the palms from the knurling on many barbells, dumbbells and handles of resistance training equipment. The protection that gloves offer may help prevent the formation of blisters or the ripping of calluses on the hands. However, they are not absolutely necessary for the safe performance of resistance training.

Wearing a tightly cinched belt during activity causes a higher blood pressure than if the activity were performed without a belt. This makes the pumping of blood by the heart more difficult and may cause undue cardiovascular stress. Wearing a belt during resistance exercises where the lower back is not heavily involved is not recommended but can be permitted during lifts involving the lower back. However, it should not be used to alleviate technique problems in an exercise because of weak lower back and abdominal muscles. Assistance exercises to strengthen the abdominal and lower back muscles should be a part of all training programs. This helps eliminate chronic weakness of these areas which can lead to poor exercise technique. In addition, strong abdominals and lower back can help in injury prevention to the lower back during all physical activity.

A weight training belt is designed to help support the lower back. Use of a belt is not necessary when performing resistance training exercises; it is merely an aid to counteract a lack of strong abdominal and lower back musculature. Weight training belts do help support the lower spine but not from the back as is commonly thought. The belt gives the abdominal muscles an object to push against, allowing the buildup of pressure in the abdomen which pushes against the lower spine from the front. In fact, the wide part of the belt would be best served by being in front of the abdominals. Many weightlifters do not use a belt as they want to develop the strength of the core alone. Belts should never be tightened except for heavy lifts during a training session (e.g. 3 RM and lower).

Weight training shoes are mainly designed to give good arch support, a tight fit so the foot does not slide around inside the shoe and a non-slip surface on the sole to prevent slipping while lifting. Weight training shoes offer little or no shock absorbance in the sole of the shoes, thus any force or power developed by extending the leg or hip is not used to compress the sole of the shoe and is available to lift the weight in such exercises as the squat or clean. A shoe with a non-slip surface on the sole and good arch support should be worn during resistance training but it does not have to be a shoe specifically designed for powerlifting or Olympic type weightlifting.

This term refers to training that develops overall fitness and general physical preparedness. This is often thought of as the general preparatory training needed to develop basic fitness. The concept also deals with the idea that many people are so unfit that they have to train to get in shape so that they can then really start to train to make progress toward their goals. General strength training refers to weight training that develops all the major muscle groups of the body and overall strength capabilities. A general strength training program would include at least one exercise for all the major muscle groups of the body.

This term is normally used to describe one entire training year (e.g. 1 January to 1 January of the next year) and is important for the personal trainer to have a yearly plan for use with each client. Macrocycle is also sometimes used to describe a length of time longer than 1 year: it is sometimes used to describe the length of time between major competitions, such as the summer Olympics when it would refer to a 4-year period.

Sport-specific training includes activities related to the specific sport the individual is preparing for. Thus, the type of training is related to the time spent on sport-specific training drill and activities related to the sport. Competition-specific training pertains to simulating a competition setting situation (e.g. tennis, basketball etc). Competition-specific training would be included predominately during the late pre-season, in-season or competition training phases.

The BMI is calculated by dividing the person’s weight in kilograms by their height in meters squared (kg/m2). The BMI is used as a clinical tool to determine if an individual has a healthy weight for their height, or if they are under or overweight. Typically a BMI of 30-39.9 kg/m2 means the person is obese, and 18.5-24.9 kg/m2 is normal.

One of the more serious effects of stress is that it redirects metabolic energy away from the immune system. A tremendous amount of energy is necessary to operate the complex cells, hormones, and organs that make up this system. Fifteen minutes of danger and a return to normal isn’t going to compromise your immune system, but living with constant stress will surely slow you down metabolically, making you more susceptible to stroke, hypertension, type 2 diabetes, cancer, lung ailments, accidents, cirrhosis of the liver, and suicide.

Whether physical or emotional, stress has many negative effects on the body. One of them is the accumulation of a hormone called cortisol. When faced with a stressful situation, the body produces an adrenaline rush that releases fat and glucose as an energy source to help deal with the stressor. Once the crisis subsides, cortisol becomes active and stimulates the appetite so that we can replenish our fat stores. Since most of us don’t reach for an apple or a chicken breast when we feel hungry, the release of cortisol usually leads to grabbing a quick carbohydrate snack such as a slice of pizza, a donut, a candy bar, or some type of high-carbohydrate fast food. Unfortunately, living with a high level of daily stress causes the body to produce a consistently high level of cortisol, leading to a vicious cycle of stress, frequent overeating, and fat gain.

Some of the psychological effects and benefits of exercise include helping release pent-up feelings, improving mood, giving people a coping strategy for control of pain, increasing levels of independence and feelings of self-sufficiency, increasing self-esteem, and improving social interaction. Exercise can literally save your sanity during the most difficult times in your life because it can really help combat stress and depression.

Most people have heard that exercise helps protect against bone loss, especially as men and women reach menopause or andropause. But many do not know that the type of exercise determines the level of bone health. In order to not only maintain bone density but to build it, you need to do weight-bearing exercises that “overload” the bone, giving it something to lift or push against that forces it to work at a higher level than it experiences in your day-to-day activities. Doing heavy compound movements such as squats, bench presses, and deadlifts can all help strengthen your bones and protect it from osteoporosis.

Orange and yellow fruits and vegetables are rich in antioxidants such as vitamin C. Such fruits and vegetables also possess carotenoids and bioflavonoids, phytochemicals that promote health. Eating these kinds of foods will contribute to your having a healthy heart, healthy vision, strong immune function, and lowered risk of some types of cancers.

Eating fish daily significantly lowers insulin levels, improves glucose production, reduces triglyceride production, and improves the level of HDL (good) cholesterol. Consequently this reduces your risk of cardiovascular disease. If you are concerned about the dangers of mercury in fish, avoid eating swordfish, tilefish, and king mackerel more than once a week, since these larger oceangoing fish have accumulated larger concentrations of mercury in their bodies. Another tip that can help lessen your risk of mercury exposure is to eat several tropical fruits every week. Mangoes, bananas, pineapples, and papayas may help to reduce the amount of mercury that your body absorbs.

When choosing protein sources, always choose lean meats and low-fat dairy. First-choice protein sources include skim milk; fat-free cheese and cottage cheese; yogurt made from skim milk; 95 percent lean ground beef, turkey, or encased meats (sausage, bologna, etc.); skinless chicken breasts; white-meat tuna in water; egg whites; and nonfried fish and seafood.

Protein is a stabilizing food that assists in insulin management, the building of lean muscle, and immune function. For men, ingesting adequate amounts of protein daily helps stop the decrease in testosterone levels that they experience as they age. Getting adequate protein also helps avoid or slow bone loss in women, especially after menopause.

A daily intake of 30 percent lean protein should be enough. The 30 percent protein is with respect to your total calorie intake on a daily basis. Because protein is not stored, three balanced meals and two or three snacks per day that include protein are required to suppress hunger and burn body fat during physical exercise.

The three food groups—proteins, carbohydrates, and fats—function in synergy to maintain physical health. You cannot avoid consuming any one of these kinds of nutrients and expect to be slim, metabolically efficient, and balanced. The latest research shows that 30 percent lean protein, 40 percent low glycemic carbohydrates, and 30 percent acceptable or unsaturated fats work best for metabolic efficiency.

According to a study, having a BMI over 25 may cause your life span to decrease significantly. If your BMI exceeds 30, your life expectancy decreases even more. For those who have a BMI above 35, health care costs are likely to be more than twice those of individuals with a BMI between 20 and 25. Treatment of diabetes, hypertension, and cardiovascular disease account for much of this spending.

Women must especially watch this ratio during and following menopause when hormonal fluctuations, poor nutrition, and lack of activity can result in abdominal weight gain. The National Cancer Institute has shown that a woman with a lower than normal waist-to-hip ratio is eight times more likely to get cervical cancer than a woman with a normal ratio. Keep in mind that this measurement does not tell you anything about your total body weight or body composition. It just gives you an indication of where your excess fat is located and therefore your health risk relative to fat deposition.

The value of the waist-to-hip ratio is that it helps to give you a more accurate idea of where you carry your fat. When fat is stored around and above the waist, it results in a higher risk for diabetes, heart disease, and some types of cancers. The person with upper body fat distribution (the apple shape) loses fat more quickly than the person with lower body fat distribution (the pear shape), but a smaller amount of fat stored above the waist is more dangerous than a larger amount of fat stored below the waist.

In both men and women, one of the most important and accurate indicators of obesity, the potential for cardiac disease, and other health risks is the circumference of the waist. This is because an increased measurement in the waist always indicates an increase in abdominal fat (and the ratio of body fat–to–lean muscle in general). A waistline greater than 35 inches in a woman and 40 inches in a man increases the risk for developing higher cholesterol levels, which lead to coronary disease, and type 2 diabetes. Of course, a waist measurement of 35 inches in women or 40 inches in men is not always an absolute indicator of health risks. You should take into consideration factors such as height, body type, and bone structure.

Men and women past age fifty have always been expected to be out of shape and carrying a larger amount of body fat. Truth is, people in their fifties, sixties, or even seventies do not have less of a capacity to lose body fat and build lean muscle than younger people. An article in the Canadian Journal of Applied Physiology reports that studies on sarcopenia (loss of lean muscle mass with aging) clearly show that older muscle tissue has the same, if not an even greater capacity, to respond to a vigorous bout of resistance exercise than younger muscle does. Age is not the issue; metabolic fitness is the issue—that is, how efficiently your metabolism burns fat, which is based on how much lean muscle you have, what and how often you eat, how much and at what intensity you exercise, and how balanced your body’s hormonal systems are, especially those hormones that regulate the burning of nutrients as fuel or cause their storage as fat.

You do not necessarily have to get your body fat tested to know that your body composition is improving. If you have been exercising and eating properly and your clothes begin to feel looser, if you find yourself taking in your belt a notch or two, or if you observe increased strength and muscularity, you will know that you are losing fat and gaining lean muscle.

This genetic predisposition to develop abdominal fat does not spell doom. The bottom line is that you have a greater propensity to develop an unhealthy amount of abdominal fat if and only if you lead an unhealthy lifestyle. You won't get beer guts from eating nutritious foods and exercising regularly. And you have just as much chance of losing fat and increasing their lean muscle mass as men without the beer belly gene. In your case, if you wanted to keep the fat off, you would just have to be a bit more vigilant in your lifestyle.

A lot of people make the excuse that they carry abdominal fat because of their DNA. Every man in their family has a huge gut and therefore they themselves are doomed to this “genetic” condition of being fat and overweight. This is not the case in most instances though. While genetics play a role, the real reason some individuals become fat is because more often than not they grow up in—and continue to live in—an environment where their family, friends, and loved ones all have poor eating and exercising habits. They are obese because of their lifestyle and unhealthy nutrition habits, not because of some mysterious fat gene.

There is a direct correlation between erectile dysfunction and abdominal fat. A 2000 study funded by the National Cancer Institute found that men with a waistline measurement of 42 inches or more were twice as likely to suffer from erectile dysfunction than men with a waistline measuring 32 inches. Men who were inactive were also more prone to this problem than men who exercised at least thirty minutes a day.

Most men think there’s nothing they can do about their rising body fat–to–lean muscle ratio because it is something that comes along as they age and experience the hormonal changes associated with andropause. But instead of settling for a higher fat percentage as they reach midlife and their later years, men can do something about it. The amount of body fat is directly related to diet and exercise. It is never too late to change your body composition through a good nutritional and exercise program.

Most men think there’s nothing they can do about their rising body fat–to–lean muscle ratio because it is something that comes along as they age and experience the hormonal changes associated with andropause. But instead of settling for a higher fat percentage as they reach midlife and their later years, men can do something about it. The amount of body fat is directly related to diet and exercise. It is never too late to change your body composition through a good nutritional and exercise program.

When most people think about how fat or thin they are, they think about how many scale pounds they weigh. While your weight on the scale is certainly important and will give you some information about your general health, it is even more important for you to determine your body composition—that is, how many pounds of fat you carry in relationship to how many pounds of lean muscle.

The female hormone estrogen may have a positive effect on fat mobilization because it inhibits the fat-storing action of lipoprotein lipase (LPL), enhances the production of the fat-mobilizing hormone epinephrine, and stimulates the production of human growth hormone (HGH), which inhibits the storage of excess glucose by the body’s tissues and increases the mobilization of free fatty acids from adipose tissue.

The two main types of cell receptors are called alpha receptors, which inhibit the breakdown of triglycerides (a.k.a. the storing of fat), and beta receptors, which stimulate the burning of fat. Research has shown that both men and women have more beta receptors in the abdominal area, meaning that fat is easier to lose in that part of the body. But women have more alpha receptors in the hip and thigh areas than men, which explain why they tend to store more fat in those areas and why it is harder for them to lose fat.

Obese and overweight women often exhibit one or more of a whole cluster of symptoms that doctors call Metabolic Syndrome X. These include a waistline 35 inches and above, triglycerides exceeding 150 mg/dl, HDL (good cholesterol) lower than 50 mg/dl, a fasting glucose more than 110 mg/dl, and blood pressure over 135/85 mm/Hg. Anyone who has three or more of these symptoms is diagnosed with metabolic syndrome X.

No, because there’s really no need for gloves. The world’s strongest and most powerful men and women didn’t get to where they are by lifting with gloves. This is because gloves kill grip strength, it will mess with your technique, and you’ll get callus on your hand anyway whether you wear gloves or not. Gloves in a way thicken and obstruct the bar, and because it’s typically made of spongy material, it makes the grip less solid and stable. If the bar becomes too slippery from sweat, use chalk. If you need help with your grip strength for your last sets of heavy deadlifts and rows, use lifting straps instead.

When you don’t feel motivated to lift weights, the best thing you can do is drag yourself to the gym. Once there you’ll see everyone else moving a step closer to their goal with every rep and every set they complete while you watch in awe. After watching them grind every last rep, for sure you’ll be joining them soon enough. The point here is don’t wait until you get motivated before you start moving weights; instead of sitting around sulking how bad your day was, do something to get you started and get you in the mood. This shoe slogan says it best: just do it!

Plateaus are part of this game – and the deadlift is no exception. If you’ve never hit a plateau in any lift it only means you’re not working hard enough. Breaking through any deadlift plateau can be done if you deadlift more so you can master the deadlift technique. While it is still debatable as to which exercise between squats or deadlifts is more technical, you can’t be weak in technique anyway since you won’t be able to muscle up either one. It also helps to strengthen your grip, warm-up properly, eat and sleep more, pull faster, stretch your hips, and wear a belt. Keep it simple. If you keep hitting the same wall, deload, then reevaluate your program and focus on technique and speed.

Warm-ups in weight training are crucial so you don’t hurt yourself. Aside from that, the proper warm-up weight can help ensure you make the most of your training by being able to complete all the reps on your work sets. Before any squatting or pressing movement, do 5 reps for 2 sets with the 20kg or 45lb Olympic bar. Don’t use too big or too small increments and don’t overanalyze this either; around 25-45 pounds per set should be a good start. Most importantly, do your warm ups with the same focus, form, and speed you’d apply to your work sets so you can practice your technique.

Do whatever works for you. Squats are hard to do because it requires complete focus and concentration in every rep. It can be especially hard if you have knee arthritis, so if neoprene knee supports can improve your concentration by eliminating the discomfort, by all means use them. Competitors in the World’s Strongest Man (WSM) use knee supports all the time, and you won’t see anyone there with weak knees. If knee supports are good enough for strongman competitors, then they should be good enough for just about everyone else.

If the empty bar is your work weight, there really is no need to warm up, so go right ahead and do your work sets with the bar. If however you feel your joints and muscles need to be better prepared, instead of using the same bar weight for your warm ups and work sets, do some bodyweight exercises first. In squats for example, before using the empty bar you can do some bodyweight squats with hands behind your head.

To lose your man boobs, you have no choice but to lower your overall body fat. Spot reduction, or losing fat locally, is just a myth. Even if you do a ton of chest exercises, it won’t eliminate your man boobs just like sit-ups won’t eliminate your belly fat. To lose your man boobs, you need to follow the basic rules of fat loss: you shouldn’t eat more than what you can burn, and you’ll need to do both cardio and weight training. By eating healthier, getting stronger, and fixing your posture you will soon have a firm and muscular chest.

Unprocessed red meat does not and will not cancer. No studies or clinical trials have proven conclusively that a single food, in this case red meat, can cause cancer. Keep in mind this is for unprocessed red meat. Processed red meat, which includes hotdogs and other junk food, can eventually cause colon cancer because of the nitrates, preservatives, coloring, and flavoring it contains. Keep eating red meat, but make sure it’s unprocessed.

If it is absolutely impossible to have someone spot you on your heavy bench day, then don’t go all out using free weights because you’re just asking for trouble if you do. The best option here is to use a power rack. It can be setup in such a way that you won’t hit the safety pins on your way down, but it will be right around your chest level, and it can catch the bar when you reach failure so you don’t get stuck with a bar on your chest. If you don’t have access to a power rack, another option would be to do your bench training on a Smith machine. Sure it’s not ideal, but it’s safer and it’s better than nothing.

Pull ups or chins is an excellent way to build and strengthen the upper back. However, just like any other effective exercise, it is not easy to do. To improve your chin ups, work on multiple sets of low reps, even sets of singles. Instead of aiming for 10-12 reps straight per set, which is only possible if you’re a gymnast, go for 2 reps of 6 sets or any other combination you may have. Another option is to set a rep goal such as 50 reps regardless of the number of sets necessary to reach your target. This ensures you get the technique right with repetition, and also since you are able to exhaust your lats this will stimulate them to become bigger and stronger. Use negatives as well. If you can’t pull yourself all the way up, make it harder for your lats on the way down.

Protein supplements have its place when it is not possible for you to cook or prepare nutritious meals, but other than that you can’t completely replace real food with supplements. To develop muscle, sure you’ll need both, but if you have to choose you can’t go wrong with real food because they are a source of complete protein. Protein supplements are advantageous not in terms of absorption rate or quality but because of convenience. The protein supplement industry is a multi-billion dollar industry because a lot of people don’t have the time to buy, cook, prepare, and eat protein foods often and would rather drink a protein shake instead. Don’t believe too much of the hype though, and as much as possible keep your focus on real food.

A lot of people, from beginners to seasoned vets, are intimidated and scared of squats for various reasons. This fear can come from the possibility of pain, injury, or missing a PR (personal record). To overcome any hesitation or fear you have, squat inside the power rack. This gives you a feeling of safety and boosts your confidence under the bar because in a power rack you no longer have to worry about getting crushed by the weight. Doing walk outs can also help because it strengthens your joints and ligaments and you get to feel a weight much heavier than what you can actually lift. Visualizing yourself completing a lift can also help you become more comfortable because once you’ve thought about it a lot of times, your mind wouldn’t know what is real or imagined and that breaks any psychological barriers that you may have.

This happens because instead of the barbell going straight up, in goes in front of you instead. More often than not this is an indication of poor posture and limited shoulder flexibility. Upper back rounding, also known as Kyphosis, is common for people who work behind a computer or for anyooneregularly sit around for long periods of time. To get the proper form in your overhead press, improve your posture by stretching your back, your lats, and your shoulders regularly. As much as possible get a foam roller and work your upper back, and stretch your hip flexors too.

In squats it is crucial to maintain proper form not just to achieve rapid results but also to prevent pain and injury. For beginners, free squats or body weight squats can teach proper depth and alignment. When free squats have become too easy for you that’s when you switch to bar squats. As soon as you get the bar out of the rack, stand with your feet wider than shoulder width, point your toes out slightly, and keep your head and chest up and your back arched. As you lower your body, bend your knees and look straight ahead the whole time and never look down. Extend your hips back, feel the stretch on your hamstrings, and flare your knees out until your thighs become parallel to the ground. As you go back up, don’t relax, keep your muscles tight the entire time, drive your hips up, and squeeze your glutes. Don’t forget to warm up and stretch before your work sets.

Squat is the king of all exercises because it works the largest muscles in the body and no other exercise packs as much punch. When done incorrectly however it can be just as damaging. Common problems to watch out for include leaning forward too much, knees drawn inward, rolling onto the balls of your feet, knees too far forward, and rounded back. If you are not sure if you are doing each rep correctly, ask your training partner to check your form, or better yet, ask him take a video of your squatting technique. Heavy or not, the squat is a complex exercise that demands complete and total focus every single time. If you are guilty of any of the common problems listed above, be more mindful of your form to prevent any knee, back, or leg pain.

Back in the day trainers believed that basketball players shouldn’t lift weights. They said it would slow them down and they’d lose their shooter’s touch because of this. They even coined a term for it - muscle bound. Yet today look who the best players in the NBA are – it’s the biggest and the strongest guys in the league. This only means heavy squatting and deadlifting can only make you faster and not the other way around. While lifting weights can slow you down if that is all you focus on, if used within the proper context of a well-thought periodization program it can make you faster and more explosive. After all, strength is the foundation from which you build speed and power.

Yes and no. Yes if you do too much cardio without eating enough to support muscle building, and no if kick up your food intake a notch while keeping your cardio intensity and frequency on check. Doing intense and frequent cardio can be counterproductive to gaining lean mass, so make sure you don’t overdo it. Timing is also important. As much as possible, keep cardio off your lifting days. If you can’t do it on any other day, do your cardio only after you finish your workout. Your body may be already depleted, but the good thing is at this point your body has no other choice but to use its fat deposits for fuel.

While this is a good question, running around with an Olympic bar across your back is not really the point of squats. You do squats so you can become stronger overall, for overall body power, and not just for the legs or hamstrings or lower back. Sure basketball players, football players and strength athletes all benefit from squatting for their respective disciplines, but aside from seasoned athletes ordinary folks can benefit from squatting as well by becoming stronger in their daily activities. Everytime you get up and down off the couch or get up out of a chair, you are using the same muscles that you use when you squat, so it only makes sense to train them. By training with squats, you are building a stronger and more solid foundation. Just make sure you exercise with proper form and technique to make the most out of it.

If proper technique is used, squats are not harmful for the knees. In fact, it even strengthens the muscles and connective tissues around the knee thus improving its stability. Any exercise done incorrectly can be harmful, and this applies to even the easiest and most basic of movements. The only reason squats have gained this notoriety is because squats are hard and painful, and this exercise can be brutal on the entire body. Since it hits so many muscles with every rep, from the quads, the posterior chain, the hamstrings, glutes, as well as the abs, lower back, and upper back for stability and support, it can be brutal not just on the musculoskeletal system but also on the central nervous system. Myths such as this are more often than not used as a convenient excuse of those who are either afraid or don’t know how to do squats.

Nothing beats free weights at increasing testosterone, improving posture, increasing flexibility and bone density, and strengthening joints. Compared to machines, lifting weights are also better at building more muscle because you get stronger by lifting the weight on the bar and also by balancing the weight. Weight lifting is also crucial for fat loss. As you become stronger, you’ll have more muscles, which in turn burn calories and significantly reduces your fat deposits. In a nutshell, weight lifting builds muscle, increases strength, burns fat, and improves overall health.

If you want to train for serious strength at home, you don’t need any of the fancy gym equipment you see in commercials. One of the best things about free weights is you can do a lot with just 1 barbell. For your home gym all you need is an Olympic bar, dumbbells, plates, squat rack, and a bench, that’s it. It is pretty basic, but when you have a good strength and conditioning program that’s all the equipment you’ll ever need. When you become stronger, that’s the only time to get more plates.

If you have to choose one exercise to build strength and muscle, you can’t go wrong with squats. Squats have been called the king of all exercises because it activates the largest muscles groups in the entire body, not just the legs, with every single repetition. Deadlift is also very effective because just like squats it recruits a lot of muscles into action, particularly the leg and back muscles. For the upper body, nothing beats bench and overhead presses, barbell rows, and power cleans.

Any activity that use weights to develop the body either for strength, endurance, power, or symmetry is collectively known as weight lifting or weight training. Several forms include the Olympic sport of Weightlifting, Powerlifting, and Bodybuilding. In Weightlifting, you need to do 2 events, the Snatch and the Clean and Jerk. Whoever lifts more weight in the same weight class wins. The same is true for Powerlifting. While it’s not part of the Olympic Games, it is also a world-renowned strength sport in which competitors try to outlift each other in Squats, Bench Press, and Deadlifts. In bodybuilding, strength isn’t the primary goal. Whoever has the best muscularity, symmetry, and overall physique in the judges’ scorecard wins.

Barbells are very versatile because with just an Olympic bar and a few plates you can really do a lot of work for your entire body, unlike in expensive machines where you can only train a single muscle group. Lifting weights is also safer as long as you execute the exercise properly because of the range of motion it gives you, as opposed to machines where you are forced into a fixed and unnatural movement pattern.

With treadmills you no longer have an excuse to be out of shape. Treadmills come in all shapes and sizes, and no matter what your present health condition is, this exercise equipment can be used whatever the time or the weather is. With this low-impact exercise, you can run or walk at your own pace and reduce body fat, lower the risk of heart disease, and increase energy levels without hurting your knees . As you get stronger you can easily vary your workout by incorporating interval training every now and then to further improve your cardiovascular health and muscle tone.

Elliptical Cross Trainers provide a low-impact exercise for the upper and lower body workout in a short time. Owing to its design, elliptical cross trainers put little stress on your joints while still being able to give you an intense whole body workout. This makes it ideal not just for athletes but for regular people as well. For those who find running, cycling, and swimming too strenuous for their current fitness levels, the elliptical cross trainer is perfect as a weight bearing exercise to burn calories, strengthen bones, increase lung capacity, and improve cardiovascular health minus the pounding on the joints.

One of the best things about stationary bikes is the ease of use, making it one of the most preferred types of exercise for many years. Its simplicity and low risk of injury makes biking indoors ideal for many people of all shapes and sizes. Anyone, from the overweight to those recovering from injury, can burn calories and build their stamina from a stationary bike in the safety and convenience of their own homes. Just as cycling builds leg strength and cardiovascular endurance, so does the stationary exercise bike. In general aerobic exercise such as cycling helps relieve stress by releasing endorphins and builds overall strength and endurance by strengthening the lungs, the heart, and the muscles and bones. The only difference is that with the exercise bike, you can get your workout in without feeling sore afterwards from the pounding on your joints. Done consistently, this simple exercise equipment can help tone your muscles, burn calories, and preserve cardiovascular wellness.

Ab strength machines hit the stabilizer or core muscles in ways and angles not possible with other movements. In squats for example, although this multi joint movement engages the core, it doesn’t work the abs to exhaustion. With ab machines the core muscles are specifically targeted and isolated and weak points are revealed. With this information, suitable angles are chosen to address the weakness and then incorporated into the training routine for improved overall performance. A strong core translates to improved strength and conditioning and also makes the body less susceptible to injuries cause by muscle imbalance such as lower back pain.

Cable pulley machines have been well received in many weight rooms and gyms because movements done on cables added a new stimulus to shock the muscles into further development and growth. With cables there is continuous tension on the muscles the entire time the weight is off the plate stack. Done in a controlled manner, this means every rep is harder because the time under tension is greater. This is particularly beneficial for those hard to reach muscle groups which are not completely exhausted by explosive movements.

Squatting is the king of exercises for many reasons, but the only way to do it is in a power rack because no matter how many plates are loaded on your back, you can easily find the pins on the power rack to safely and securely return the bar to its starting position. Almost all of the best strength building movements can be done safely in power racks and smith machines. No other equipment comes close when it comes to the versatility of power racks and smith machines as both can be used for pull ups, dips, deadlifts, bent barbell rows, overhead presses, bench presses, and many other isolation and multi joint exercises.

Weight benches are indispensable in any commercial or home gym setup because of the sheer number of exercise routines that can be done on them. It provides support in movements that cannot be supported by a Swiss ball such as heavy dumbbell presses and weighted crunches. With simple adjustments typical on most weight benches, it can also help target different angles of the muscle that are hard to reach. It can also be used in cardio routines such as step ups to improve overall conditioning.

There has always been a debate for as long as anyone can remember as to which is better: free weights or machines. If you have the time, use both. But if you are serious in your strength and conditioning training and you don’t have enough time, it would be best to use free weights because free weight exercises are more effective in yielding overall strength and power. With free weights isolation as well as multi-joint movements such as squats and deadlifts are much more effective because aside from your prime movers (quads, hamstrings), all your core muscles engage so you can complete the movement. Free weights also allow for a greater range of motion, which means more variety and ways to work your muscles into growth and development.

Multi Gyms are must haves in any home or garage gym because it is pretty much a one-stop shop for resistance training. This is especially beneficial for those who do not have the luxury of time to spend in a commercial gym. With a multi gym setup, you can strengthen all you major muscle groups in a short time for a stronger and sculpted physique.

Anabolic steroids are addictive because for most people who use it they’d rather continue using in spite of health problems rather than experience the excruciating withdrawal processes and symptoms. For most steroid users, once they started using it, there’s no going back. Withdrawal from steroids is extremely difficult and can result into depression and suicidal tendencies especially if you’ve been on it for a long time. Other withdrawal symptoms include mood swings, fatigue, restlessness, insomnia, and decreased libido. Because of these symptoms, the desire to take more steroids dramatically increases, and that’s what makes it addictive.

Taking steroids for long periods of time and in large doses can increase irritability and aggression. This is what is known as roid rage. Acts of aggression such as fighting, violence, or any use of force to obtain something are some of the things resulting from this behavior. Anabolic steroids also result to distractibility, mood swings, euphoria, and confusion, as indicated in case reports and small studies.

Side effects of steroids range from the cosmetic to the life threatening, some of which are reversible while others remain for life. Some cosmetic side effects include excessive acne on the face and the body, oily hair and skin, cysts, gynemocastia (man boobs), baldness, and testicular atrophy. Serious health threats include premature deaths from heart attacks, liver cancer, tumors, and infections. Steroids and other synthetic compounds can really mess up your internal organs and your different systems such as your cardiovascular, hormonal, and musculoskeletal systems, so before you choose this path put serious thought and planning into it.

Aside from approved medical uses, people use steroids to perform better than their rivals, and to be the bigger, faster, stronger, more dominant man. In short, to win. Others may use it to look better or to gain lean muscle mass faster, but for the most part, steroids are used to go beyond their genetic potential and to be the best of the best in their respective disciplines. In bodybuilders for example, since it is almost virtually impossible to gain huge amounts of muscle while reducing body fat, steroids and synthetic hormones are used so they can train as hard as possible and as frequent as possible without having to rest and diet as much.

Although no well- controlled and documented studies have ascertained that steroid use improve overall athletic performance, athletes, coaches, and trainers the world over have reported significant improvements in muscle mass, endurance, and strength from steroid use. For this reason, the International Olympic Committee has put out an extensive list of banned compounds and related substances. In acknowledgement of this as well, many sports federations and committees have followed suit by conducting extensive drug testing procedures before and after their sports events.

Anabolic steroids can either be injected intramuscularly, orally, or topically in forms of gels and creams. Stacking is one of the most commonly used techniques in taking steroids because by taking two or more compounds that have synergistic effects, you get greater effects in muscle size and strength than you would if you took each substance individually. Pyramiding is also another common technique done in a 6-12 week cycle. The user starts with low doses, and then once he’s taken the most his body can take, the doses are gradually reduced to zero. Those who abuse steroids for mass and strength gains go way above what is medically recommended, and that is exactly the reason why the use and abuse of anabolic steroids carry many health hazards.

The superficial fascia, just below the skin, ties the bones, muscles, blood vessels, and nerves in the body. Collectively this is known as the myofascia system. For a variety of reasons which include trauma from training, failure to stretch, or inactivity, the fascia and the muscle below it become fused together in what is called as adhesion, and this results to limited muscle movement and flexibility. By using a foam roller in a technique known as myofascial release, the application of gentle and rhythmic pressure on soft tissues as well as traction to the fascia, the fascia softens and lengthens at the same time, breaking down scar tissue or any adhesion between muscles, bones, and skin. In a nutshell, foam rollers provide a form of massage therapy to treat soft tissue injuries, relieve soreness, and improve mobility and flexibility.

Foam rollers are 36 inches long of cylindrical foam used before and after workouts to help relax muscles and relieve soreness. It stretches muscles and tendons, and breaks down scar tissue and soft tissue adhesions. Since it is not sustainable and affordable to have a massage therapist on call everytime you go to the gym, foam rollers in essence are the poor man’s massage therapist because with it you can have unlimited self-massage for under twenty dollars.

Anabolic steroids are synthetic male hormones that promote the growth of skeletal muscle. Although it has been reported that athletes are the ones who usually use anabolic steroids to gain an edge over the competition, it has also been used by regular folks both boys and girls to build muscle and to look better. Anabolic steroids were developed around the 1930s to treat hypogonadism, the testes’ inability to produce enough testosterone for important body processes. It has moved a long way since and it is now part of many approved medical uses.

Aside from doing warm-up, cool downs, and stretching exercises, it would also be best if you can foam roll your legs regularly to relieve and ease soreness faster. Foam rollers can be used both before and after a workout to massage tight muscles and improve flexibility. Just make sure you can differentiate between soreness and injury. Skipping workouts won’t help much. Don’t worry you can still train your legs even if they’re sore because soon after your warm-up, you would no longer feel the soreness. By training your legs or staying active even if you’re legs are still sore but not injured, you’ll be on your way to recovery much faster because training flushes blood into your muscles.

On your lifting days, finish your weight training program first before doing cardio. This is to make sure that you start fresh and your muscles have all the glycogen they need so as to not limit the amount of weight you can use on each exercise. Doing cardio after weights is good for fat loss as well since by the time you do your cardio, you’ve already used up all your glycogen stores, and your body would have no other choice but to use your fats for fuel. Make sure you have a healthy and balanced diet, as no amount of cardio would be effective with a junk diet.

Poor posture from sedentary lifestyle and sitting behind a desk for long hours are responsible for this lower back pain. It’s not really because your lower back is weak, but rather it is because your lower back is overworked and compensates from the poor posture. To resolve this, first of all get an adjustable, ergonomic chair with proper low back support. Also, since your shoulders are slouched forward, stretch your chest to put your shoulders back. Lastly, stretch your hip flexors to realign your pelvis so you can ease your low back pain.

Absolutely. If you just want to go through the motions and “tone” your body, training partners may not be much of a necessity. But if you want to reach and compete at the highest level, training partners can make all the difference. If you want to be the best, you have to train with the best. You have to be surrounded by like-minded people, people who want to compete at the national, state, or even world level. Iron sharpens iron, so they say. With good training partners, even if you are not motivated you can feed off their energy to get you back on track. They are accountable to you, and you to them. That mindset alone makes you more competitive because you know you don’t want to let them down. A good spotter is not only a reliable spotter, but a good coach as well. Through their verbal cues and motivation you’ll be able to surpass all the goals you’ve set for yourself and more.

Absolutely. If you just want to go through the motions and “tone” your body, training partners may not be much of a necessity. But if you want to reach and compete at the highest level, training partners can make all the difference. If you want to be the best, you have to train with the best. You have to be surrounded by like-minded people, people who want to compete at the national, state, or even world level. Iron sharpens iron, so they say. With good training partners, even if you are not motivated you can feed off their energy to get you back on track. They are accountable to you, and you to them. That mindset alone makes you more competitive because you know you don’t want to let them down. A good spotter is not only a reliable spotter, but a good coach as well. Through their verbal cues and motivation you’ll be able to surpass all the goals you’ve set for yourself and more.

To get the most out of squats, it has to be done in its full range of motion, or also known as full squats. A lot of times lifters in the gym put a bar on their back with a lot of plates and after barely bending their knees they “squat” the weight back up. This is not squats; it can’t even be considered partial squats since this is just knee flexion, and this is worthless, even for the knees. For a squat to be considered a full squat, you should descend low enough so that your thighs are at least parallel to the floor and your hip joint should be lower than your knee joint in the bottom position.

With deadlift, no matter how strong your back and leg muscles are, if you can’t get a good grip on the bar it will stay on the floor. Unlike in squats and bench press where you feel the weight as soon as it is handed to you, in deadlifts you have no idea how heavy the weight really is until it starts moving from the floor. Because of this, building massive grip strength for deadlifts is crucial. To improve your gripping power, grip the bar correctly and use white knuckling. This means gripping the bar as hard as you can every chance you get on any exercise, not just in deadlifts, until your knuckles turn white. Use chalk liberally as well to prevent callus formation and to keep your hands dry. Use the mixed grip, do static holds, stop using straps, and pulling overhand often all significantly contribute to boosting your grip strength as well.

Aside from fighting dehydration, water is crucial for all bodily processes such as detoxification and for energy production. The general guideline and healthy recommendation is to drink at least two liters a day. Our bodies after all are 75% water. This guideline may vary depending on variables such as size, weather, and level of activity of the person. The bigger you are, the more you should drink. Also, the weather plays a huge factor as to the amount of water that should be consumed. On hot days, drink more. Obviously if you sweat a lot from exercise and an active lifestyle you’re bound to lose a lot of water, so you have to drink more as well to replenish what you’ve lost.

A high quality leather lifting belt is only necessary if you are already lifting weights which are at least 70% of your 1 rep maximum (1RM) in movements such as squats, deadlifts, and overhead presses. If you use a lifting belt with weights that are too easy for you, you are cheating yourself and you are not allowing your core and stabilizer muscles to grow and develop. This is because instead of activating your core and allowing your muscles to move freely to balance the weight, the belt takes the load instead. Use lifting belts sparingly, only when there are excessive demands and loads on your lower spine.

Multivitamins are very important especially those nutrients that cannot be synthesized by the body. High quality whey and casein protein supplements also have their place when eating and preparing solid food is not possible or convenient. Supplements are not exactly a waste of money, in fact they are a good investment for better health that can go a long way, but they’re main function is to complement your diet and can never replace whole foods.

First thing you need to do is to determine if the pain is coming from soreness (DOMS or delayed onset of muscular soreness) or if it’s coming from an injury. Since shoulders are involved in a lot of movements, its overuse in time commonly results to pain and injury. It it’s DOMS, train around it but if it’s an injury, undergo shoulder rehab and take time off from training. Before doing bench presses, warm up your shoulders using light weight and high reps to get the blood to the muscles and make it warm for easy movement. If pain persists even after warming up your shoulders extensively, change the grip on the bar, or use dumbbells instead. By changing the position of the resisting weight you change the groove and impact on the shoulders in such a way that you can work around the pain.

Three to four times a week of stomach crunches and leg raises for at least 10 minute per session can help tone and build the strength of your midsection. Doing intense cardio for 15-20 minutes within your optimal training zone or around 85% of your max heart rate also helps a lot too. Last but not the least, eat a high protein, low fat diet, and make sure you eat smaller portions every couple of hours. Eat a lot of fruits and vegetables, drink large doses of water, and go for whole food products and complex carbs instead of processed foods.

If you’re fit, as part of your warm up you can do about 10 minutes of aerobics before weights without getting tired. For most of us though, to conserve energy for the most important and taxing lifts of the day, it is generally recommended to do cardio and aerobics only after you complete your resistance training. This is because when you are still fresh, you still have a lot of glycogen stores in your muscles and your liver, and it would be best to allocate most of it for resistance training. If you do cardio early on there’s a huge chance you’ll deplete your glycogen stores and you won’t be able to complete all your reps and sets scheduled because of this. Also, if you reserve your cardio at the end of your workout, you’ll be able to burn more calories while burning fat. By the time you finish your weight bearing workouts, the only energy source you’ll have left would be your fat deposits so your body would have no other choice but to burn it.

For weight training rookies, three to four days a week for 60-90 minutes per session should be enough to get your body accustomed to this new stimulus. During this time as much as possible try to get around 15-20 minutes of cardio, 10 minutes of work for your core, and at least 45 minutes for your lifting. Pick one exercise per muscle group, and stick to the basic movements such as squats, deadlifts, rows, and bench and overhead presses. Do 3-4 sets for 6-10 reps per set focusing on good form and technique. After 6 weeks, depending on your progress, you can alter this guide to better suit you either by increasing the number of reps and sets or changing the exercise used for each bodypart.

Your cardio should be done at the optimal training zone for your age, which is typically 60-85% of your maximum heart rate. This is done by first determining your max heart rate, which is your age subtracted from 220, in this case 190. The result is then multiplied to 0.6-0.85, and this will give you your target heart rate for cardio or optimal training zone to lose fat. For a 30 year old, this is 114-162 beats per minute. If you train regularly for at least 12 minutes in this training zone, you will surely lose fat efficiently without guessing if you’re doing it at the right intensity.

If you can’t do cardio because of health conditions or because it can be counterproductive for the sport you’re in, just do more of what you can. For example, since sprinters never do any distance training ever, this makes it harder for them to lose weight. What they can do however is lift heavy weights to make them more explosive and do more sprints to train their form. By doing more of both, they can skip the entire endurance training altogether and still remain shredded.

If you do it correctly, you can lose fat without compromising what you’ve worked so hard for in resistance training. A lot of times people lose muscle when they try to lose fat because tey’re not careful, but this doesn’t always have to be the case. As long as you eat well and you spread out your calories evenly throughout the day, you will be able to maintain your muscles. This is because eating smaller portions 6-7 times a day keeps your metabolism on high gear and helps in weight loss while providing the much needed sustenance for your muscles.

No amount of ab work can force your abs to show if it remains covered by a thick layer of fat. To be able to flaunt your abs, you’ll have to lose the spare tire first by lowering your bodyfat, there’s just no getting around it. Abs get stronger through abdominal exercise, but to be able to show them off you’ll have to pay your dues in the kitchen as well. No amount of cardio and ab isolation exercise would give you that much coveted six pack if your diet is junk. Eat a healthy and balanced diet, do some serious strength training, and step up your cardio so you can showcase a strong midsection, instead of just using it as a centerpiece of fat storage.

No single style of training is effective for the masses. We all respond differently to the stimulus our bodies are subjected to, so there can’t be one training style that will work for most at all times. To find out what works for you or to check if a training regimen can give you the results you want, there is no other way but to try it. See what works for you as an individual based on your goals, fitness level, and abilities. Keep it simple and basic at first, and as you learn more about your body and your strengths and weaknesses, that’s when you fine tune your program to best suit your individual needs. Keep in mind no program is set in stone and you can always the sets and reps to suit you.

Deload is important to avoid overtraining and potential injuries because during this time you allow your body to fully recover before going back to your regular training intensity. Since you can’t always train at high intensity levels every single time and your body can only take so much before training becomes counterproductive, take it easy every 4th week of your training. Use less frequency, intensity, duration, and volume than usual so when you come back off from your deload, you’ll shatter your old records and be stronger than ever before.

Go in, train hard, go out. Don’t mimic the program and routines used by more advanced guys, and don’t train their way straight off. You may not end up injured, but for sure you will feel disappointed with yourself for not being able to keep up with the other guys. Pay your dues in the gym first, progress gradually, master the form of every important exercise, find your strengths and weaknesses, and build up your work capacity through experience. Keep your routine basic and simple, and focus on your form and on getting stronger. Since you are still a beginner in the iron game, it is always best to focus on the core lifts to so you can develop a strong foundation to build upon early on. No other exercise packs as much punch as multi joint movements which include squats, bench press, deadlifts, rows, dips, chins, and overhead pressing.

Since both machines perfectly simulate running and cycling, they are both very effective at raising your heart rate to your training zone which is optimal for burning fat. Picking one over the other is just a matter of preference, but for me personally I would pick the treadmill because here you are moving your whole body the entire time unlike in cycling where only your legs are active. The stationary bike’s selling point though is its ease of use and simplicity. If you have back maladies or you are still recovering from an injury, the stationary bike is a good way to stay healthy or get back on track. The great thing about both treadmills and stationary bikes is that they are both low impact exercises. Since these equipment make it easy on your joints, you can sustain a regular exercise regimen that can help build stamina, tone muscles, burn calories, and enhance overall health.

You really can’t do both at the same time unless you’re using performance enhancing drugs, so to make the most out of your training separate your goals and prioritize which one you want to accomplish first. If you are overweight, focus on fat loss and once you’ve reached your target weight, do some serious strength training to build your muscles. Don’t starve yourself or else your body will go into starvation mode and store more fat. Do your cardio either after lifting weights or first thing in the morning before even eating anything to trigger your body to use your fat deposits as fuel. Clean up your diet as well, and eat complex carbs and lots of fruits and vegetables. Avoid processed foods and eat whole foods instead, and drink lots of water.

This is the dilemma all bodybuilders face: they need to gain muscle and for this they have to eat, but the tricky part is getting the right balance of food in terms of quality and quantity. It’s calorie surplus versus calorie deficit, surplus to gain weight, and deficit to trim down! To gain lean mass you have to eat smaller portions but instead of the usual three full meals a day it would be best to split it into 5-6 smaller meals to keep your metabolism on its toes. An example of a good meal plan consists of 55% carbohydrates, 15 to 20% protein and 20 to 25% fats. Step up your cardio as well and lift weights to build muscles that will make your body a fat furnace. Realistically though, since it’s difficult to manage both goals of muscle building and fat loss at once, separate your goals and take it one at a time.

If you can’t have a coach breathing down your neck every second of your workout session, then you need pedometers and heart rate monitors. 10,000 steps a day is a good starting point but there is no way you’d be able to keep track of that especially when you’re already out of breath. Our heart rate monitors and pedometers can be neatly clipped to your waist or anywhere that’s comfortable so it won’t be a distraction and you can stay in your training zone. With these tools you can know where you are in terms of your goal and you’ll always have an optimum workout that is both safe and productive.

Gloves and straps give your hands better mileage because both help provide a better grip on the bar. By getting a nice cushion on your hands, you can get more out of your training because grip won’t hold back your lifts. You’d also be able to lift longer with better concentration and with more sets because there is less pain and calluses. For standing movements such as squats and deadlifts belts are indispensable for lower back support and to prevent severe injury.

Balance equipment such as balance beams, boards, pads, and blocks strengthens the core and is an excellent and fun way to challenge your balance and coordination. While using these tools during exercise, what happens is you subject your body to imbalance and this stimulus forces you to react quickly to regain equilibrium by making physical adjustments. Beginners as well as seasoned athletes can all benefit from training with balance equipment to improve hand-eye coordination, strength, reaction time, and sense of balance and equilibrium.

Elastic workout bands and resistance bands work pretty much the same as free weights, the only difference is that it is more versatile, it can be used virtually anywhere, and it allows one to achieve a greater range of motion. It can be used on its own or together with free weights for strength and flexibility training, and anyone can use it, from elite athletes to pregnant women. Since workout bands provide an external load, benefits of band resistance exercise include increased muscle strength, improved posture, increased metabolism, and reduction in body fat.

Swiss balls, also known as exercise balls and stability balls, play a major role in training the core muscles namely your abs and your lower back. The main reason for their widespread popularity is the element of play it gives you while you are exercising and the variety and fun it adds to training sessions, while giving your stabilizer muscles a good workout “off” the floor. Numerous variations of abdominal exercises such as reverse crunches and Russian twists are also made possible by Swiss balls. While stability balls work best for abdominal training as it allows for a full range of motion without straining the lower back, you can also prop your feet up on it to engage the core during pressing exercises such as push ups and dips.

Workout mats are a must-have accessory when doing floor exercises such as pilates and yoga so you can execute the movements properly without hurting your knees, elbows, and tailbone. Our workout mats while they come in different thickness and sizes are all firm enough to provide a stable surface so you can stand on them without worrying about your balance. For additional support especially for those with sensitive hips and tailbones it can be rolled up for additional padding.

Stair climbers and steppers are excellent pieces of gym equipment to burn calories, tone your legs, and improve your cardiovascular health. Fitness steppers are portable and won’t take too much space so this is something that can be done almost anywhere. It also provides a low-impact workout which not only tones your calves but your glutes and hamstrings as well. With a stepper you’re guaranteed to have a good aerobic workout that strengthens the lower body, burns calories, and eliminates excess body fat.

Rowers have always been known as athletes who are in peak physical condition, and for good reason: rowing builds stamina, improves cardiovascular function, and strengthens and develops muscles without putting too much strain on joints. With rowing machines you’ll get the same benefits from outdoor rowing at the convenience of your own home and you can vary the resistance depending on your strength and fitness level. With each stroke you are able to deliver a good workout to all the major muscles such as the legs, hips, back and arms, while building stamina and engaging the core the entire time.

Ideally, protein powders should be consumed before and after your weight training workout. You take it before your training so that you have essential amino acids in your system that will help enhance muscle protein synthesis to build and develop muscle. Post workout protein supplements will cause another increase in muscle protein synthesis, this time to repair muscles, which ultimately translates to better and faster gains in lean mass. Keep in mind though that protein powders and meal replacement powders are just like food and there’s nothing special in them that you can’t get from natural and whole food products. Use supplements only when it is not possible or convenient to prepare and eat a full meal.

For the general population, the order in which you do your exercise for general fitness doesn’t really matter, you’ll gain the benefits of both just the same. For strength athletes though, since they are training to become stronger at lifting weights in different events, weight training should be a priority and it should be done first before anything else such as cardio. This is to ensure you can go all out in attacking the weights. By being able to give your most intense effort to your weights workout, you can get the most out of your strength training.

Too much cardio is detrimental to a powerlifter’s goal because you don’t just lose fat and water during cardio, most likely you’ll lose muscle as well especially if it is too long, too frequent, or too intense. This is why most powerlifters look huge but not defined like bodybuilders. This doesn’t mean however that powerlifters should skip cardio altogether, they just have to do it differently in ways that will give them the benefits of cardiovascular exercise without limiting their potential as a powerlifter. Typical cardio work for powerlifters include dragging a weighted sled, and any explosive or plyometric types of movements such as hill sprints and box jumps.

Regular cardio work is very important for bodybuilders to help them shed fat so they can more effectively show off the muscles, symmetry, and definition that they have worked so hard for. While some shed fat and burn enough calories from intense weight training alone, those with slower metabolisms have to work extra hard by biking, skiing, rowing, or running for 10 minutes or longer.

Absolutely. No other exercise or training strategy is better at improving the strength and thickness of bones regardless of age, sex, or training background. Bone density and strength is directly correlated with intensity and the weights you use so if you train with more intensity and heavier weights, your bones will become much thicker and stronger than those who train with lower intensity and lower weights.

Weight lifting or resistance training is beneficial because it builds and strengthens muscles, and muscles are responsible for all our movements and it is something we all lose as we age. Aside from preventing or delaying muscle wasting, weight lifting also increases bone density, and this means lesser chances of getting bone fractures. Strength training with weights also greatly contribute to the control of body fat because as your muscles develop and become bigger and stronger, your body becomes a fat furnace, you metabolism improves, and you burn more calories easily. Before embarking on a weight training program though, consult a physician to ensure you don’t have high blood pressure, diabetes, heart pains or any heart or circulatory condition that can be aggravated by the demands of weight training.

No, you can’t change it. Everyone has their own individual genetic shape. Some have short muscles with high peaks while there are those who have long and flat muscle bellies. Biceps have. The main function of biceps, with its 2 heads parallel to each other running from the shoulder to the elbow, is to supinate and flex the forearm. Since it works as one you really can’t choose to train a specific area over the other.

In doing shrugs you don’t have to roll your shoulders at the top of the movement. All you need to do is grip the bar and with arms locked shrug the weight in a straight up and down motion. Look straight ahead with your head in an upright position. If the weights get too heavy, use lifting straps to secure your grip, and bend your knees a bit to lessen the strain on your lower back. Both dumbbells and barbells can be used. To make it more challenging, instead of rolling your shoulders which doesn’t work your traps any better, you can hold the resistance at the top for about 2-3 seconds before lowering the weight to its starting position.

Most of us are unaware that we all have a six pack of abs. The real problem however is that our six pack is covered by a layer of thick adipose tissue. To show off your six pack, or also known as rectus abdominis, you’ll need to do more than just crunches. You have to drop your overall bodyfat, and this means doing lots of cardio, strength training and eating a healthy and complete diet.

The abs should be treated just like any other muscle group. You wouldn’t do squats or bench presses everyday to get stronger on those lifts right? If you do, you’ll soon suffer from overtraining even before you gain strength and muscle. With abs, the same is true, and it would be best to train them 2-3 times a week with at least a day in between training days. You don’t need to perform hundreds of crunches and leg raises either. If you can do more than 15-20 reps, then you’re just wasting your time. Anywhere from 10-15 should be enough to strengthen your abs. If an exercise becomes too easy, change the angle or add some resistance. Add variety as well. There are lots of exercises available that can challenge every part of your abs, from crunches, hanging leg raises, bicycles, and planks.

Just like the squat, the deadlift is also one of the most effective power and mass builders. Many are intimidated with deadlifts because of the common notion that it will injure your back when done incorrectly. While there is truth to this since this is a brutal exercise, it doesn’t always have to be the case if you learn the proper form first. You can use either a sumo or a conventional (wider than shoulder width) stance. Once your stance is set, lower your hips, keep an arch on your lower back, chest out, look straight, and then grip the bar either with overhand or mixed (underhand-overhand grip) hand placement. As you lift the bar off the ground, contract your abs as hard as possible and never round your back. Lock your knees as soon as your hip joint straightens, and then reverse in the same manner you came up. This is a big movement, and a total body exercise, so your form should always be on point.

Squatting has been called the king of exercises because it is one of the most effective and productive exercises out there. However, it is also one of the most difficult to master as well. Do it in a power rack, and as soon as you step up to the bar, pull back your head, raise your chest, and have a slight arch in your lower back. Look straight ahead, set your stance to shoulder width or wider, and turn your feet out at around 45 degrees. Before you descend, take a deep breath, feel your abs contract, and feel the stretch on the hamstrings as if you’re sitting back and not going straight down. From the bottom position, do not bounce but reverse your direction immediately and in a controlled manner, drive your legs, and pull your back up as hard as possible. Keep your knees out, never allow the arch on your back to collapse by keeping your chest out, and don’t look down the entire time to maintain your balance.

Don’t worry about getting too large because truth of the matter is, getting big is extremely difficult. If you are a guy, even in you train hard for at least two years you won’t see dramatic results right away. For 99.9% of women this is especially harder, unless of course you’re a genetic freak or you’re using steroids. As soon as you reach your goal of becoming toned, to make sure you maintain your current size and shape what you can do is to stop increasing the amount of weight used but make sure the most number of reps you can do is 12. If the weight is too light and you can do way more than just 12 reps it is a complete waste of time because high reps in this range won’t lead to toning or hypertrophy.

A hardgainer is someone who is not genetically predisposed to build and develop muscle quickly. One might think that being a hardgainer is an anomaly, but truth is the reason why you don’t see mass monsters regularly on your daily commute is because 60-95% of the population are hardgainers. While it may be more difficult for hardgainers to develop lean mass than those who are genetically gifted, it doesn’t mean they cannot progress. If you are a hardgainer you need to eat big, use supplements if possible, and focus on compound movements like squats and deadlifts.

This is a training method commonly used by strength athletes and powerlifters. Periodization is a way to shock your muscles into growth by increasing the weight over a series of weeks while lowering the number of reps per set. Sometimes this is also referred to as progressive overload, and the main idea is during the first few weeks the muscles are trained using high volume or high rep movements for hypertrophy. Later on this is followed by high intensity training for strength and power as you peak for a competition.

HIT is short for high intensity training, a method that uses only a single set per exercise done to complete failure. Warm ups are not done here since this type of training believes you already get incidental warm up from doing the first few reps of your set before you reach your limit. Since a typical HIT workout minimizes the sets per exercise, in an hour a person may be able to squeeze in 15-20 distinct single set exercises done at very high intensity. This makes HIT not only great for beginners (since they can train their entire body using single sets), but also great for busy people because it is a very time efficient way to build and develop muscles.

The best exercises are multi joint or compound exercises done using free weights. For the lower body, abs, and spine, nothing beats squats and deadlifts in building overall body power. For the upper body, bench and overhead presses, dips, and rows are all you need to build a strong and muscular chest, back, shoulder, and arms.

If you have the time and your schedule permits, train your entire body three times a week. Make sure there’s a rest day in between training days to give your body enough time to recover and get stronger for the next session. Also, don’t train the same muscle group on consecutive training days, or you might risk overtraining. If you feel sore from your last workout and on your next training you will be hitting a different muscle group, don’t be concerned. As long as you’re not injured and you eat a healthy and balanced diet, you don’t have to skip training altogether if you’ll be working on a different muscle group anyway. It may even help relieve the soreness of the affected area during warm ups because training flushes blood into your muscles.

The key components to building mass are time under tension (reps) and the load placed on the muscle (weight). For warm-ups, use a weight light enough so you can finish 12 reps with ease. If you’re a beginner, on your work sets, don’t go below 5 but don’t go over 12 reps. For those seriously training for strength and overall body power, mostly singles and triples are used and reps don’t go beyond 5 on the main lifts. For toning and fat loss benefits, they go well above 12 reps but very light weights are used. The reps per exercise will really depend on your goals and what you’re trying to accomplish.

People new to lifting weights can do a single all out set to failure for every muscle group. This is to teach the body to adapt to lifting weights by learning as many movements as possible. Another option is to do 2-4 sets to failure for each exercise. Either way, make sure you perform a couple of light-weight warm up sets before doing your work sets and cool down properly once your done with your training for the day.

If you just started lifting, pick only one exercise per muscle group so you can train as much as possible and make the most efficient use of time. While you are still learning the ropes of lifting keep in mind that less is more in terms of picking exercises per muscle group. You’ll get more bang out of your buck in doing squats rather than doing set after set of leg curs and leg extensions. Depending on your goals, fitness levels, and abilities, determine what works for you and do everything in moderation at first while you’re still in this stage to prevent overtraining.

Beginners should train the entire body in one workout for the simple reason that you can’t possibly overtrain yet. Since lifting rookies are still learning the proper form for each exercise, the weights, reps, sets, and intensity used are very light to cause overtraining. For more advanced athletes though, it wouldn’t be possible to train all the muscle groups in a single session because of the intensity level they use to further stimulate growth and development. For this reason, more experienced lifters will train different muscle groups on different days as a matter of necessity.

For beginners who want to get big, you’ll need to stick to the basics: lift heavy weights using good form, eat big, and give your body enough time to recover from exercise. To avoid overtraining, use short and intense workouts instead of training for hours using moderate intensity. Since your testosterone and growth hormone levels drop after the first hour of training, to make the most out of your workouts do the most effective exercises in 60 minutes or less. Focus on the core lifts so your strength base can have a solid foundation where you will build upon. The most effective muscle building exercises are squats, bench press, deadlifts, rows, dips, chins, and overhead pressing.

Breaking down your meals into smaller portions and eating after very couple of hours is a good strategy to train your body that it has sufficient food supply. By eating small, healthy meals instead of large portions, your metabolic rate kicks into high gear because the body realizes you are not anywhere near starvation mode, a condition in which your body stores as much fat as possible because of extreme dieting. To ensure your meals are complete, it should have around 30-40% animal protein, 30-40% carbohydrate, and 10-20% fat. If you have to eat before training, make sure you consume it at least 30-60 minutes prior to your workout.