Are free weights such as dumbbells and barbells are more superior to weightlifting machines for building bigger muscles? Well, both free weights and weightlifting machines have its own pros and cons.
•Advantages of weightlifting machines
a) Excellent for beginners because it is not so intimidating and the range of motion is fixed, so a bodybuilding novice need not wonder whether he is lifting correctly to target a muscle group.
b) Easy to use as machines usually have instructions on them.
c) Safer – It won’t drop on you in a middle of a lift.
d) Isolate your muscles so that you can rest your injured body part and yet able to workout other muscle part.
•Disadvantages of Weightlifting Machines
a) Increase injury risks since the range of motion is fixed and repeated workout will place tremendous stress on the same joints, tendons and muscles because you are lifting on a fixed pathway.
b) Because of its isolation of muscles, your workout hit only the targeted muscles with little involvement of supporting or synergistic thus your muscle gains will be slower and less balanced.
c) Since weight lifting machines have fixed configuration, your workout does not factor in your body frame and structure. Whether you have a big or small built, narrow or wide shoulders, you will be using the same pathway range of motion and width of grip. This will raise your chances of being injured as well as poorer muscle development.
•Advantages of free weights
a) More stabilizing muscles synergistic muscles are involved. So you are actually exercising more muscles and therefore will develop more muscle growth and strength.
b) Improve your balance and muscle coordination since you need to balance the weights during your lift and this call on many muscles to do so. So your muscle coordination and sense of balance will naturally improve.
c) Convenient and inexpensive since you need not join a gym and free weights are much less expensive than machines.
•Disadvantages of free weights
a) Increase injury risks if lifting with wrong form and technique.
b) Time consuming because you need to bring the weights from one area to another or physically taking time to adjust, add or decrease weights.
So which is better for building bigger and well balanced muscles? Yup, free weight takes the cake over weight lifting machines for building muscles faster and bigger. However, since both weightlifting machines and free weights have its own advantages and disadvantages, you can then weigh the pros and cons to use machines or free weights for your workouts or even a combination of both to suit your personal requirements.
Free Weights Or Weightlifting Machines To Build Bigger Muscles?
How To Build Muscles With Body Building Diets
Are you trying to get buff this summer? Okay, first of all, let me inform you that this can indeed be a process.
Don't expect to hit the gym a few times and see some significant results. For some odd reason this always bothers me. People go to the gym for a mere week and expect to be ripped like Van Dam. That's just nonsense. However, with the right weight training program and the correct body building diets, you can see a great difference in a couple of months. You see, it's all about how hard you train and how well you eat. If you are one of those folks who consume fast food twice a day, you'd better get ready to make some drastic changes. This will sadly get you nowhere. In order to get stacked you'll need to start one of the many recommended body building diets. I'm talking about a lot of protein, vitamins and minerals, but hardly any fat, sugar, and salt. Remember, you truly are what you eat. Just take a gander at the American population.
Are you currently searching for decent body building diets? These are easy to come by in this super age of technology and cyberspace. I too was looking to gain muscle a few months back. Although I'm not looking to acquire a body builder physique by any means, I do prefer some decent muscle mass. My first thought when it came to body building diets and weight training regimes was to hop online. I knew that the World-Wide-Web would have much to offer. After about an hour of surfing and reading, I had come to the conclusion that Whey protein is the bomb right now. We're talking it's all the rage in the body building circuits. Therefore I decided to weigh the options at hand. Because when it comes to contemporary whey protein, there are many products to choose from. In the end I purchased a whey protein mix from Wal-Mart. Go figure! Anyway, this nuance to the modern-day body building diets is basically an all-natural source of high quality protein. You can get a whopping 26 grams of it with one 8 ounce glass of milk. That's a hefty dose of the muscle building stuff if you ask me. Do this three times a day in addition to your weight training and you should surely see results soon. Now, when it comes to body building diets, you can't disregard you regular three meals. Make sure you consume healthy meals containing all of your daily vitamins. The collaboration of health food and whey protein is a sure win. It's time to get pumped.
Know Your Muscles - The Chest And Upper Back
Becoming familiar with the muscles that make up your body has more benefits than simply allowing you to talk shop with your training partners. The more familiar you are with the muscles you're working, the better you'll be able to judge what's needed to make improvements. In this article we'll get to know the muscles that make up the chest and upper back.
Although they are two distinct areas, the chest and the upper back will be considered together because achieving a muscular balance between them is crucial, particularly in relation to maintaining good posture. Creating an imbalance between the two is likely to result in injury.
The main muscles found in the chest and uper back are as follows:
1. Pectoralis major - these are the large chest muscles found to either side of the breastbone. Its main job is to bring the upper arm inwards across the body, a movement that is known as horizontal adduction.
2. Latissimus dorsi - this is the largest back muscle that runs from the lower back to the upper arm bone. It pulls the upper arm towards the body and acts as an internal rotator of the upper arm.
3. Trapezius - this muscle runs from the mid spine to the shoulder and then to the neck. Its main role is to faciltiate movement of the shoulder blades.
Use Superset To Build Big Muscles
If you have been lifting weights for sometime or have been reading bodybuilding magazines and journals, you would have probably heard of super setting. However, how often have you seen people super setting when weight lifting? If you did, did you notice those guys who were super setting were almost invariably the bigger boys. If you want to be big, then why didn’t you superset like them since you have seen that super setting can help you build big muscles?
What is weight lifting superset? A superset is when you perform two exercises back to back with no rest in between the exercises. There are a few variations of superset such as, antagonistic muscle superset, pre-exhaustion superset and post exhaustion superset…..etc. We will discuss just these 3 of the more popular supersets in this article.
• Antagonistic Muscles Superset
An antagonistic super set is when you exercise opposite muscle group. Although they are opposite muscles, they actually support each muscle during your movements. For example, when you do dumb bell curls for your biceps, when you lower the dumb bells, your triceps are called into action as well. Similarly for the negative movement of a bench press, your back is working too like when you are doing the bent over row.
So for example of an antagonistic superset on your, say chest and back day, do a bench press routine then follow up with a bent over row or vice versa. That will be one superset. Rest for 2-3 minutes and then proceed with the second set and so on. This will work the muscles involved more deeply than mere straight sets.
• Pre-exhaustion Superset
In a pre-exhaustion superset, you work on the same muscle group with an isolation exercise and then follow up with a compound exercise without rest in between sets. For example, still on your chest and back day, you work out with dumb bell flyes (chest isolation exercise) then immediately thereafter with a bench press (chest compound exercise).
By performing with an isolation exercise first (flyes), you pre-exhuast the targeted muscles you are working on, which in this instance are your pectorals (pecs) and then hit your pecs hard again with a compound movement (bench press) that allows other muscles that are still fresh such as your deltoids and triceps to assist your pecs in the exercise.
• Post – Exhaustion Superset
Another version of super setting is the post-exhaustion method. It is the exact reverse of the pre-exhaustion. In other words, lift compound exercise first and then follow up with an isolation exercise for the same muscle group. It will allow you to lift heavier weight for the compound exercise because your targeted muscle group is not pre-exhausted yet.
Vary each of these various forms of superset every 2 – 3 months and watch your muscles explode with big massive muscle growth.
Big Strong Chest Muscles Command Respect And Confidence
So you want to build big and powerful chest muscles? Huge big pectoral muscles (pecs) or chest muscles that command respect and adoration? You can be the proud owner of a big and powerful chest.
Many people actually think that there are 2 separate chest muscles, well there aren't. The chest muscle or pecs that you see on each side of your chest is a fan shaped one continuous muscle although they may be called by different names such as pectoralis major, minor and clavicle head to differentiate the different parts of the same muscle.
All chest exercises work your chest muscle but from different angles which places different stress on your chest. You need to use a variety of chest muscle exercises to hit your pecs at various angles to stimulate massive muscle growth. Each different angle you use with any chest muscle exercises will reach into various different fibers in your chest muscles for effective stimulation of different areas of your pecs so that your entire chest will grow muscles fast and symmetrically giving you that broad and powerful chest that threatens to rip through your t-shirt.
For best results building your chest muscles, use free weights, especially dumb bells instead of machines. Chest muscle workout that use any chest machines should be avoided as it has many disadvantages like it will not only produce the desired results may also cause injuries because of its narrow range of movements. Your chest muscles will also not grow fast because machine exercises lack the involvement of synergistic muscles or surpporting muscles. As with any weightlifting workout, proper lifting form and techniques are of paramount importance.
Many people typically use only 1 or 2 types of chest exercises and almost invariably, it's the flat bench press and flys. Well, to build a powerfully big and well chiseled chest muscles, that is a fatal mistake as you do not adequately hit the pecs from all angles so as to stimulate muscle growth in your entire chest muscle. All chest muscle exercises will not only work your chest but also your delts, biceps and triceps to a lesser extent. So you need to focus, visualize and to concentrate the force on the chest. Mind and your chest muscle connection is vital here so as to make your chest work harder instead of using your triceps, delts or biceps to power your chest workout. Also work on the full range of motion and squeeze your chest muscles hard at every top of each movement. Always lower your weight slowly and deliberately fighting gravity to provide more resistance to your chest muscles and therefore elicit more muscle fibers for more muscle growth.
A word of caution though. You will need a spotter or a personal trainer for safety reasons because you must lift heavy for excellent muscle gain especially so for chest muscle development. Your spotter or personal trainer will also be able to correct your mistakes and help you with forced reps to reach into the deep tissues to elicit maximum muscle fiber stimulation.
Want To Build Big Muscles? Here Is How To Gain Muscles Fast.
Want to build Big Huge Muscles? Then you must Squat! The Squat will build big muscles on your entire body frame.
There are 3 types of people in this world.
First, there are those that make things happen. They calculated and know very sure what they want, then they take action and get it no matter what happens. They single mindedly pursue their ambition and they will ultimately succeed. In bodybuilding, they want to grow big and strong with big huge muscles. They SQUAT and squat and squat again. Have you ever seen anyone who is big, have huge muscles and have a well proportioned body like a Greek god who does not squat? Never.
Then there are those who watch things happen. They will savor the world around them. Then say, we will see what happens next. If it works, well we will decide if we are gonna do it.
These are the majority of the average Joes. They want to grow big muscles and be strong and muscular but are reluctant to make the effort to include the squat in their workout routine. Even if they do, they will do it haphazardly and will give up before they achieve their objectives. Then the excuses will flow. "Squats are too hard on my knees" or "Doing squat will stunt your growth" or "Squats are for my back" or "I just want a well toned body." Excuses from sour grapes. That is why average joes just remain well... average. We will debunk those excuses later in this article.
Finally there are those that are always saying "Omigosh! What happened?" Needless to say, these people are the ones oblivious to what is happening around them. They will walk leisurely on a treadmill reading a book at the same time when others are raising their heart rates to improve endurance and burn fats.
They are the ones doing dumbbell curls after dumbbell curls when others are doing bench presses, dead lifts and squats. They are the ones who ask the champions why the champs are growing biiger muscles and getting fitter all the time whereas they are at the gym longer, more regular and yet not achieving any result. They will take note of the advises and the next time you see them, they are back to what they were doing. Reading that confounded book on the treadmill. They actually expect changes to take place by doing the same things. How is that possible? Then they will say, "Ah... but you are just lucky to have good genes!" What nonsense!
To build muscles fast and big, you must SQUAT! The squat is often touted as the king of exercise and is grouped together with the dead lift and bench press, collectively called the Big Three for power and muscle mass building.
If you want to build big muscles and enjoy a symmetrical physique, you must squat. Period.
In most gym, the squat rack is there collecting dust. Why? Because most people think that their legs will be hidden by their pants. Why bother? How dead wrong they are. Wait till you see them in their shorts or swim wear. You will see Spiderman ..er ..I mean spider legs.
Another reason why people avoid squatting exercises is because the squat work on many major muscles and is grueling work. When you perform squats correctly, you will huff and pant, wheeze, head spinning woozily, see stars, sweat profusely and your entire body will be screaming for you to stop.
Of course the exercise is brutal! You are working out about 75% of your entire muscular structure including your shoulders, traps, back, gluteus, hams, calf, abs and many other synergistic muscles in a single exercise, isn't that supposed taxed your strength, endurance and your cardio health? Isn't that the best exercise? Isn't that why the results from squats will be astounding?
As an added bonus to building big muscles , you will be burning fats like crazy since the squat, given the intensity placed on your body, your metabolism zooms straight up! If your body fat ratio is high, it will help you lose body fat.
And because of the degree of difficulty, squats also force your body to release higher amounts of growth hormone , resulting in new muscle growth in all areas of your body. In addition, squats will cause a spillover effect, enabling you to gain strength in all of your other lifts. Awesome! It just befuddles me why, with all these benefits, people are avoiding squats like a bubonic plague. As for the hard gainers, squat will pack on pounds after pounds of muscle on your entire body! So hard gainers, you must squat to grow big!
If you squat with the correct form, heavy weight and sheer intensity, you will see good results in just weeks. Not just your lower body. Your entire frame will take on a different form. A total body transformation. Guaranteed!
You must know that since squats are performed with heavy weight, so correct form and techniques are critical and cannot be compromised. Anything less, you may sustain serious injury. However, when you adhere to the proper technique, you will be very safe and will enjoy all the benefits that come with the squat. Don't cheat yourself and substitute squats with leg presses. They are of a different class!
Debunking Excuses!
It's bad for the knees - In fact, it's on the contrary. Just like the muscle tissue in your body strengthens when exposed to stress, the tendons, ligaments and other connective tissues in your body will also thicken in response to weightlifting. That means, it actually improve knee health when you squat. It also strengthens all the muscles around your knee and thus providing your knees with support when the muscles are strong and less stress is placed on the knees on your day to day activities. I know. I used to suffer from knee pain until I started squatting and now, my knees are in perfect health that I can even play competitive soccer. Knee problems only occur when you squat improperly like resting at the bottom of the movement or letting your knee protrude over your toes.
It's bad for my back - For the same reasons about strengthening your tissues, squats also exercises your lower back. When done in correct form, it actually builds strong muscles on your lower back and not only correcting you from bad posture that results in a bad back, it may even give you a healthy strong back. Again, it will only hurt your back if done in poor form like bending forward or doing it with a rounded back instead of arching it during the movement.
It will give you high blood pressure and bad for the heart -
Sure, your blood pressure will rise as your heart will beat faster from the exercise. That is only temporary and not dangerous unless you already have those problems in the first place. Other than that you are actually exercising your heart and cardio vascular system to strengthen it. How can that be dangerous? Don't most exercises elevate heart rate and increase blood flow? Then they should ban the treadmills and close all swimming pools! Do you buy that nonsense?
So, now that you know that squat is the king of bodybuilding exercises, are you the type that makes things happen or are still contend to be wondering what the heck happened?
Build Big Muscles Fast. Gain Muscle Mass Guide
So you want to build big muscles? Simple isn't it? Just join a gym and hit those weights regularly and viola, in a couple of months, you will gain so much muscle mass that you are ready to take on any bodybuilding contest. Is it really that simple to build big muscles? Well, to gain muscle mass, there is much more than just hitting the gym regularly. Here are some muscle mass gaining tips :-
a) Eat and Eat - To build muscles, you must eat. Your calorie consumption must be more than your calorie expenditure. If you expand all the calories you have eaten, then where are the calories to build muscles?
2) Protein - Make sure that you eat enough protein. You should eat at least one gram of protein per pound of your body weight everyday if you want to gain muscle mass fast. If you don't get enough protein, your muscles won't grow big.
3) Supplement - If you cannot have adequate protein from your normal meals, supplement with protein shakes. If you want more strength so that you can lift heavier weights to grow bigger muscles, take Creatine supplement.
4) Weight Training - You must lift with heavy weights and to add on more weight consistently to progressively build your muscles. But it is very important not to sacrifice correct lifting techniques and form for the sake of lifting heavier.
5) Lift Free Weights - Use free weights like dumbells and barbells to recruit more muscle fibers so that more muscle fibers can be worked on.
6) Compound Exercises - Work with compound exercises like bench presses, squats, barbell rows, chin ups and dead lifts to build big muscle mass. If you concentrate on working your puny muscles like your biceps, then you will only have puny muscle growth.
7) Get Enough Rest - Have rest days in between your workout days and do not work the same muscle group more than twice a week. Your muscles need to recover from your workouts in order to grow big.
8) Get Enough Sleep - Sleep at least 8 hours a day. More even better. Your muscles grow when you sleep.
If you practise the above 8 steps consistently, your muscles will grow fast and big. Of course there are many more things you can do to achieve a competitive bodybuilder's physique of which I cannot cover in just an article here. So do research for more knowledge.
7 Reasons Why Your Muscles Stop Growing. How To Get Muscle To Grow Again
Have ever wondered why your muscles stopped growing after a few months of training even though you are training very hard? Here are 7 reasons why your muscles stopped growing and how to get your muscle to grow again.
• You are training too hard – Every time when you train your muscles intensely, you are actually breaking down your muscles. So your muscles need to recover from the damages you inflicted on them. So train each muscle group only once or at most twice a week.
• You are training too long – Keep your workout intense but do not workout more than an hour each time. After 45 minutes of intensive training, your cortisol level will increase. This hormone is known to destroy muscle cells.
• You are sleeping too little – You need to sleep more for good muscle growth. Your muscles grow when you sleep. So sleep more than 8 hours a day and watch those muscles growing fast.
• You are abusing alcohol – Alcohol is known to break down muscle mass plus many other body destruction ability.
• You do not change your workout routine – You must change your workout routine every 6-8 weeks. Your muscles adapt to your routine and stops growing.
• You do not progressively overload your muscles – You must try to increase your reps or weight every time you next train a particular muscle group. Otherwise, there is no reason for your muscles to grow.
• You do not eat sufficient protein – If you want to build bigger muscles, you must eat more protein. Protein is the building block for your muscles. It is recommended that you need 1 gram of protein per pound of your body weight equivalent. If not enough protein is consumed with your normal diet, do supplement with protein shakes.
There you are, the 7 reasons why your muscles stopped growing even though you are training hard. There are many more methods on how to grow your muscles bigger but these 7 reasons and how to overcome them will be sufficient for an average bodybuilding beginner.
2 Simple Steps To Ripped Summertime Muscles
Summer is on the horizon, and the time has come to kick back and relax under the sun. It’s time for beach days, barbecues and pool parties, and for any serious weightlifter these activities also mean one thing: it’s time for the shirts to come off and to showcase that rock-solid physique they’ve been working on all year. No one wants to be walking around with a soft, smooth and flabby body, and for the next month or two, all of those serious lifters will be shifting into “get ripped” mode.
How do they usually go about this?
They lighten up the weights and perform higher reps.
This has always been a widely accepted method of “cutting down” and if you ask most trainers in the gym they’ll tell you that “heavy weights bulk up the muscle and lighter weights define the muscle”.
Do you want to know the reality behind the “light weight and high reps” method of obtaining a ripped and defined physique?
It is completely, totally and utterly DEAD WRONG.
It couldn’t be farther from the truth. In fact, there is no logical basis for this way of training whatsoever, and whoever dreamt up this downright ridiculous way of thinking has caused the vast majority of lifters to waste their time and impede their progress in the gym.
Let me clear this up once and for all: you CANNOT spot reduce. In other words, it is physically impossible to target fat loss from a specific area on your body. Performing bench presses with light resistance and high repetitions will not magically burn fat off of your chest or cause it to appear harder and more defined.
Every single time you wrap your hands around a barbell, dumbbell or cable, your goal is to stimulate as much muscle growth as you possibly can. There are no special, secret weightlifting exercises that will “define” your muscles or cause them to become more “ripped”.
Training with weights builds muscle mass, end of story.
So how exactly do you “define” a muscle?
The only way to “define” a muscle is by lowering your body fat level in order to make your muscles more visible. Body fat reduction can be achieved in two ways:
1) Modify your diet.
You should lower your overall caloric intake to around 15x your bodyweight and focus on consuming smaller meals more frequently throughout the day. This will keep your metabolism naturally raised at all times and will keep your body in a constant fat burning state. Limit your intake of saturated fats and simple sugars, and focus instead on consuming lean sources of protein and low glycemic carbohydrates. It is also very important to keep your water intake high at a level of around 0.6 ounces per pound of bodyweight.
2) Perform proper cardio workouts.
Let go of the traditional method of moderate intensity cardio in 30-45 minute durations. If you want to maximize your body’s fat burning capacity and also minimize the muscle loss that inevitably accompanies a fat burning cycle, focus on shorter cardio workouts performed at a high level of intensity. These types of workouts will shoot your resting metabolism through the roof and will allow you to burn maximum amounts of fat even when you are at rest. I recommend 3-5 high intensity cardio sessions per week, spaced at least 8 hours away from your weight workouts.
That’s all there is to it, folks. Take the notion of “light weight and higher reps” and throw it right out the window, down the street and around the corner. Following this misguided method will only cause you to lose muscle mass and strength, and will not assist you in burning fat or defining your physique.
All you need to do to mold those rock-solid muscles for the summer time is this:
1) Train with heavy weights and low repetitions to build maximum muscle mass.
2) Modify your diet and implement cardio workouts to eliminate body fat and create visibly harder and more defined muscles.
End of story.
I’ll see you at the beach!
