This is the total time of muscular contraction which is involved in sending messages through the nervous system to, in effect, reprogram the nervous system to send the signals necessary to make muscles bigger and stronger. If you look at the total time under tension resulting from doing three to four sets of three to four exercises for a body part, with each rep only taking a second or so, you end up with about one hundred seconds total duration.
It was common to work out six days a week, twice a day, with one of the workouts being a lot more strenuous than the other. You stimulate growth and then the actual gains take place while you rest and recuperate. If you get back into the gym before your body has had a chance to respond to the stimulation, you prevent the growth from happening. Unlike the past, many bodybuilders nowadays have learned that high volumes of training , longer and more frequent workouts do not result in bigger, harder muscles — instead the volume approach is more likely to limit your progress.
A good way to make your workouts very intense but shorter is not to do too many exercises in one session. As an example, the basic and most effective exercise for biceps is some kind of curl. But doing dumbbell curls, plus barbell curls, plus cable curls, plus preacher curls, plus machine curls, plus concentration curls is a good way to block growth in a muscle group that is relatively small and has such a simple function.
All these curls involve working the biceps almost in the same way. You develop a lot of muscular endurance like this, but not size. A few sets of curls, plus working the biceps when you do rowing exercises, is all you need. If you are one of those people, you probably already know it. But even those with the best genetics make more progress if they use the most effective and efficient training methods. But there was also a style of training, advocated by the same Mike Mentzer, that was based on the way Nautilus developer Arthur Jones claimed the body was programmed to respond to.
This was not prescribed as an occasional approach to add variety to your training, but the best way to work out all the time — all the time being as little as an hour or two a week! While some bodybuilders can make some gains some of the time using HIT training, the best gains are achieved using more conventional methods — positive reps and a traditional approach to exercises, sets and reps.
Additionally, HIT tends to put so much stress on muscles, joints and connective tissue that injury becomes much more likely. Olympia Dorian Yates knew this, but decided to sacrifice his body in the pursuit of becoming a champion. By the way, even without HIT, most highly experienced pro bodybuilders — and elite athletes in general — almost inevitably wear down their bodies and experience injuries even when their workouts are done carefully and without inducing extra stress.
You benefit from more reps for the lower body than the upper body because blood flow is better to the lower extremities, which speeds up recovery. Training only part of the body on any given day and cycling your total body workouts over a period of a week to 10 days is the typical approach, with enough rest between sets to recover and enough time for recuperation between workouts.
Bodybuilders enjoy occasional heavy lifting for bench presses, deadlifts or squats. There is nothing wrong with including some powerlifting-type training in your workouts, as they do help you get stronger. They approach their training as a sprint, not a marathon.
The result is bodybuilders who are able to achieve their genetic potential for developing maximum lean body mass and shape. Looking to tighten your midsection? Follow these tips from men's physique's best. Read article. Ever since I gripped a barbell and bench pressed it, I have been changed forever. Right now I'm 17 yrs old, lbs, 6ft. I bench 3 reps, dead lifts for 3 reps, and squat for 1 rep max. I went from in 3 yrs. Bench went up from max, 3 reps in a year. I believe I will always make gains and never get stuck on a sticking point.
As long as you train hard, eat good, sleep good and use creatine , ZMA , whey protein and change your routine every 6 weeks and train like a powerlifter, bodybuilder. Both is good.
If You do both. You will build an awesome body. If you just do one you will miss something. I believe powerlifting builds more mass and bodybuilding makes you hella ripped. I love lifting. It makes me feel great. I used to workout primarily for sports, football and basketball, and through that I learned about determination.
My high school did not allow freshman to lift for football so I didn't start till my sophomore year. I walked into the weight room and immediately saw the records. I saw the squat record, and said to myself " I think I can do that by the time I'm a senior. I worked hard for the next 2 years not really thinking about that. My junior year a kid set the record at lbs, no shitting.
I figured well I guess I got to work harder. My senior year maxes prior to football came around. I had been working out with lbs, 4 sets of 5, so I knew was a reality. I got to and my coaches weren't gonna let me go because I played both ways on my team and they didn't want me to blow out my knees. Finally I told them "please let me try, I've really worked hard.
My line coach was a real son of a bitch, so he made it so he would stand in front of you and "pace" your squat, you couldn't go back up till he did or it wouldn't count.
I went down, and came back up, with very little effort, I did it! After only 2. My name is Nelson a. As a dancer being thin has always been pushed on us, although I was never thin. I had an obesity problem and was told I will never dance professional. At 13 years old, I was told to lose weight or get out of dance. I was a huge pounds at 13 years old. Food was my anesthetic. So I turned to some dance friends for advice.
That begin my long battle with bulimia, and soon anorexia. They shared their tips on purging, exercise and avoiding food. Needless to say, although I purge once to twice a week. I could not get into, Even though I had bulimia. I was still gaining weight. At 17 and an amazing pounds, I was told to leave the dance world.
I was crushed, I went to the parish fair and they could not close the door on me. I was so upset I ran home vowing to purge everything I ate.
Bulimia kick in full gear. I became a purging anorexic, I would purge 10 to 15 times a day. The weight felled off, I was scared of bodybuilding so I would never lift weights. As for cardio, there was a time I would exercise anywhere from 7 to 10 hours a day. I quit school cause it was messing up my exercise schedule.
I was convince to go in home school. At 18 I had lost pounds and was looking great. Though I would not lift weights, I was already teaching aerobics and I would tell the girls not to lift weights At 19 I was at my worse. I was taking laxatives at a time and taking 15 to 20 diet pills a day.
I also lost another 80 pounds. Soon everyone notice I was getting very thin. Most thought I had aids or was on crack. My friends and loved ones were constantly hassling me about my weight loss.
I was so weak I could not lift a finger. My heart was so swollen, My kidneys were giving out. My liver was also failing. I was told if I don't eat I will die. When I turned 20 I had lost a total of pounds. My skin was so saggy, people gasp if they saw me. I was so thin and most said I look like death. I was pale and super weak. I had stop eating for 1 whole month. Then that's when it happened, I went to work and passed out from a heat attack. I thought that was it I finally died.
But no, I survived. After 6 months of feeding and intense therapy I began to eat and gained weight. Then at 21, I met someone who changed my life. His name is Jim Buxton, he is an exercise physiologist at the hospital. I came to him in desperation. I was gaining weight and my skin was so horrible. He convinced me that weight training was where I need to go.
So, he set me on a program. I started to get so much good vibes from it, that soon I started to promote strength training to all my girls in aerobics. Then the skin started to retract and I started to look better. Now it has been 4 months and I am planning on competing in a bodybuilding show next year. I am also getting an online journal about my life in bodybuilding, to help other obese people and other eating disorder people to see.
That bodybuilding is great and can change your life. I started to slip up again If it was not for Jim and bodybuilding I would have died. My doctors are promoting strength training to others now because of how it has saved my life.
When I first started at high school. I was skinny, small and weak. I used to get teased and stuff like that. In the 9th grade I started going the gym in school. I loved it right from the start. I started going after school. And within my first year of Bodybuilding I had bigger and more defined muscles than most guys my size. I started kickboxing not so long ago and bodybuilding has helped me a lot in the sport. In am in the 11th grade now and I notice girls staring at me, no-one teases me anymore and I feel a lot more confident about myself.
Bodybuilding has given me a reason to keep away from Drugs, Smoking and Alcohol. I also love being able to lift weights that guys a lot older than you can't and I love the way that people call you Muscles, Muscle Man, Arnie and stuff like that. I'm a monster, And I'm glad to be who I am.
Here's three tips from me to you: 1 Never give up 2 Eat well 3 Keep it Natural. I'm a mom of a 20 year old and a 4 year old. I'll be 40 years old in Sept. That was the beginning of a new lifestyle for me. I had a back injury 10 years ago that cost me my job as a deputy sheriff. I was in daily pain until I lost all that fat and gained all the muscle. Bodybuilding has allowed me to be in control of my physical self.
I have also become certified as a Fitness Trainer and now work at the gym where I started out on this wonderful journey! My whole life I had nobody, my mom and my dad was never there for me. And my step dad would always beat me and my brother and we were poor. I knew I couldn't make it in the world living with my mom and I wanted to see the world so I moved in with my dad after 8th grade when I was My dad had weights in the garage but I didn't think any thing of them 'til that winter of 9th grade yr.
I had no friends or anybody to talk to. The only thing I had to change my life and give me discipline was that iron. I lifted a little that winter, but after 9th grade yr, that whole summer all I did was lift weights. I got on the net and read anything and everything I could find on bodybuilding and powerlifting. I got bodybuilding books such as Joe Weider's book and Arnold Schwarzenegger book. I even talked to the iron. It was a war between me and that iron. I would get so pissed while lifting cause of my step dad and all the people who picked on me and beat me up while I was a kid.
But now I could have my revenge and it was through bodybuilding to get my revenge. When school started again people thought I took steroids. They would come up to me and ask me if I use them. But I always took it as a compliment. I lifted like crazy my sophomore year and I started playing football but I gave that up for bodybuilding.
My sophomore year in high school I was just experimenting with the weights. My body rapidly changed. I made up my own programs, I overtrained a lot but I wouldn't have known how to train if I never did. My junior year I played football, it got me behind in bodybuilding, but it has helped me too I weighted my junior year at 6ft.
The iron was my best friend, the only thing I had to do to keep me out of trouble and discipline. I made my self workout when I didn't want to and it has helped me with life as it is now. When I pump iron it turns me into an animal. I scream, get pissed and I always win against it. Now it's the summer and I'll be a senior and my bench press is and I weigh at 6ft at 17 yrs old. Bodybuilding has changed my whole life, given me discipline and gave me confidence and I never had to get my revenge back either.
I used all my anger and used it for bodybuilding. And now I don't get picked on or get beat up. All the muscle it gives me shines on me like armor. That's why I love bodybuilding and I'll never give it up for anything, I'll keep on doing it 'til the day I die and after that too.
I am 20 years old. Before I came to the University, I used to be very skinny and people used to call me all sorts of names. I decided to do something about it. I joined the weightlifting club Now, if I meet someone I see they are pleasantly surpised because I am really a man now, so to speak. My confidence has grown now and I feel I can do anything and can be anyone I want to be.
I have been bodybuilding for just over a year now. The reason I started bodybuilding was because I was overweight, and my self-esteem couldn't go any lower than it already was. I was lbs. So, I went on a diet, and started going to the gym. I still have pictures of when I was overweight, and now I look at them and wonder, 'Why didn't I go to the gym sooner? I lost the weight I wanted about 6 months ago.
I look in the mirror now and I love what I see, and I hear comments all the time now, like 'man, you just keep getting skinnier everytime I see you'. And now I have been going to the gym to get bigger and stronger. It is a part of me now, a way of life. I can't imagine how my life would be without bodybuilding. I took a picture a couple of days ago, and I looked at it, and I was amazed at how I looked. It seemed like I was looking at a picture in a magazine.
That satisfaction is the greatest feeling in the world. In High School I wasn't in the popular group and the only way to get Positive attention was to out do as many guys as I posslibly could. So I began in the gym! By my Senior year, it felt GREAT that I was in awesome shape, had muscle definition and that I could put the majority of the "legends of their own mind" in their place! After High School, I had back surgery due to my job.
Now the reason I'm still lifting is because I would like to say to my Dr. I love the feeling it gives me during working out and the results that keep coming after time! Now the only prob is, it's hard to find women's shirts in stores to fit me. Pride - You feel so much more confident in everything you do and have a growing hunger to do so much more. After you've hit that high intensity level in the gym over and over and over again, you have learned so much about yourself and have accomplished something you never thought would mean so much at an inner-self and personal point of view.
Be proud to have started and have kept going with building a beautiful physique! The feeling is so much greater than words can say. I'm a proud loser! Keep spreading that positive attitude and smiles, we want the hunger for bodybuilding to be contagious! I'm a 43 year old female who's been lifting for three years now. I love to watch the progress.
This is the one thing I feel like I can control. It takes a lot of self discipline. The reward is definitly worth the hard work. I look forward to the end of my work day so I can workout. It's a great stress reliever.
For the first time in my life, people come to me for assistance and advice to improve their physical appearance. Bodybuilding has heightened my self esteem and has impowered me to make decisions in my life that a few years ago I would have never challenged. I highly recomend it to everyone. It works! I love bodybuilding for a couple reasons. I have learned to love it because I know that pain means pleasure.
Whenever I feel pain I can't bear I keep going because I know it will make my muscles bigger. I love bodybuilding because: 1 After stress at work, there's nothing better than to take it out on some iron 2 After the workout, I feel and look great; the stress is gone and the evening is all mine in which to relax 3 I enjoy setting my own goals and achievements. I know that bodybuilding is not about trying to look like someone else, but to push yourself so that you look and feel at your best with the body that you want 4 I enjoy the creativity in devising my own workout programmes and diets taking tips and advice as guidelines 5 I enjoy the attention!!
It's a great site, I really think the tips and workouts are excellent, so keep up the good work. Best wishes, Alex Laidlaw. The self achievement, the way friends look up to me and joined the gym after seeing my success.
The pride of looking in the mirror and seeing a body you're proud of. When most people try to avoid looking at their body you could say I'm the opposite, I like flexing my body in the mirror!
You could say I'm a compulsive flexer : Walking round shirtless ever so proud of my body. I also love the feeling of being so pumped after a workout I can barely lift my arms. I love bodybuilding for one simple reason, the girls.
I love it in the summer when you know women are looking at you. That's something what would have never happened 2 years ago when I was a 10 stone weakling. I love bodybuilding because of the respect, confidence, self assurance, and overall motivation it brings. Research results conducted by exercise physiologists recommend a systematic approach such as the one encompassed by periodization where the bodybuilder, through a period of several weeks, lifts ever-increasing pre-set percentages of a one-rep lift.
This heavy period is also periodically staggered with a lighter training phase 'cycle'. Ultimately, the percentages increase, the maximum one-rep lifts increase, and lean body mass increases. There is nothing instinctive about it. On a microscopic level, there is virtually no difference between the muscle tissue of men and the muscle tissue of women.
Men and women have different levels of the same hormones, and that's what is responsible for the difference in the amount of muscle a man can typically put on and the amount of muscle a woman can typically gain.
There is absolutely no reason why either should train differently than the other sex, provided they have the same goals. The only difference in training might be as a result of cultural, sexual preferences.
A woman might desire to develop her glutes a little more so she looks better in a pair of jeans. Conversely, a man might want to build his lats a little more so that he fits the cultural stereotype of a virile man. The only things as effective as steroids are other steroids. Despite the proclamations of some supplement distributors, usually in giant, point type, no currently available supplement works like steroids.
However, nutrients and supplements can be extremely effective, especially if your diet is lacking in some critical component or you're genetically predisposed to accept that nutrient or supplement.
Biochemically, individuals vary enormously, and the interaction of genetics, coupled with the widely varying diets that each of us eats, makes it virtually impossible to gauge just what will work for one individual and what won't. That is why some supplements work better than others for some people, just as some people are genetically predispositioned to accept steroids more readily than others.
Food supplements do have benefits that can't be overlooked -- they're generally safe, and they won't get you arrested. But none of them build muscle as fast or as well as steroids.
The ultimate irony is that the IFBB is facing in trying to get bodybuilders into the Olympics is that while every athlete in every other sport is presumably the healthiest they've ever been so that they are able to compete athletically and break records, the bodybuilder is so weak on competition day that he or she would have trouble fending off the attacks of an enraged mouse. The weeks of constant dieting, workouts that continually tax the body almost beyond recovery, and a constant influx of potentially harmful drugs and diuretics have brought most of them to total exhaustion.
To think about the huge amounts of food some steroid-using bodybuilders eat. In all the longevity sites in the world where people routinely live to be one hundred, the only common denominator is that they all either under-eat or eat just enough to meet their daily caloric requirements. By ingesting less food, they ingest less harmful chemicals, and fewer free radicals are formed in the body.
The average professional builder probably eats at least four or five times what these aforementioned people eat. As a result, bodybuilders often suffer from high cholesterol and high blood pressure.
Plus, with all that extra mass, the heart has to work that much harder and will probably stop beating years before it was designed to. That's why professional bodybuilding is the ultimate act of vanity.
It was done strictly to fulfill some misguided notion of the superhuman ideal, and health was not even a consideration. Almost without exception, these guys and gals are not healthy, and they'll probably be among the first to tell you so.
However, weight-training and consuming a nutrient-rich diet is very healthy, as long as it is not carried to extremes. If anything, when done properly slowly and using a complete range of motion , weight training increases flexibility.
Many athletes now engage in weight training in order to improve their performance in their chosen sport -- witness Evander Hollyfield or any number of track athletes, basketball players, or gymnasts; the list goes on and on.
This lie goes all the way back to the s. Companies that were selling isometric exercise programs by mail were trying to convince people not to exercise with barbells, simply because it wasn't practical to send weights through the mail.
So they made up the 'muscle-bound' lie. This lie might have been fueled from the feeling of 'tightness' that accompanies an intense workout. If the workout was intense and a sufficient number of muscle fibers were recruited and microscopically damaged, then even the normal tonus the normal amount of contraction experienced by a relaxed muscle is more than enough to cause a feeling of pain and tightness. The tightness is compounded by the 'tugging' of the tendons on the muscles.
Stretching, however, would do much to alleviate this tightness, and stretching is a recommended part of any athletic pursuit. The only possible confirmation of this lie concerns a baseball pitcher's arm. An intense weight training program might affect a pitcher's ability to throw a fast ball, but it wouldn't be because of a lack of flexibility.
The speed a pitcher can generate seems to be determined more by a complex relationship of tendon length and strength and nervous system efficiency as opposed to muscular strength, and weight training could, possibly, upset this delicate balance. The traditional manner in which athletes carb up' for an athletic competition usually involves first depleting the body's stores of carbohydrates through exercise and diet.
This is then followed by rest and a high carbohydrate intake. However, studies have shown that this type of preparation is unnecessary. An athlete who eats a balanced, high-carbohydrate diet and is in reasonably good shape has plenty of carbohydrates in his or her system to meet the demands of short-duration exercises that don't exceed roughly one hour. Anyone that does exercises that last more than an hour, like long-distance running or cycling, may benefit from 'carbing up', but the ability of muscles to use fat as a source of energy rather than carbohydrates in endurance events may be even more important to performance at that level.
Simple sugars like sucrose don't need to be broken down by the body's enzymes to be used as energy like complex carbohydrates do. Therefore, they elicit a rapid release of insulin, the hormone that regulates blood-sugar levels. The trouble is, the sudden, rapid influx of sugar into the system causes the body to release insulin in what must be considered a haphazard method, i.
Consequently, your blood sugar often temporarily drops to a point that is actually lower than it was before you had the sugar, which might cause you to become more exhausted much earlier than it normally would. Your body is then forced to dip into its glycogen reserves in order to correct the imbalance. To ensure that you have enough energy to complete a workout, eat nutrient- rich foods with low glycemic indices those that elicit a smooth, steady stream of sugar into the bloodstream like barley, lentils or beans.
Here's a good trivia question borrowed from Dan Duchaine's Underground Steroid Handbook: if you lined up a bottle of Dianabol a popular steroid , a bottle of Lasix a diuretic used by heart patients and bodybuilders who want to 'cut up' for a competition , a bottle of Valium, a bottle of aspirin, and a bottle of Slow-K a potassium supplement , which one, upon eating a tablets, wouldn't kill you? Well, most likely the Dianabol. This isn't an endorsement of steroids; it's just an effective illustration of the stigma generally associated with all steroids: 'they'll give you brain tumors like Lyle Alzado.
Maybe, but all steroids are different. Some are more dangerous than others. Birth control pills are steroids. Testosterone patches have been used with great success to enhance the quality of life for elderly men. Some of the steroids that bodybuilders use are very mild, and the risk associated with them is virtually negligible.
Still, there are dangerous steroids, and that's all the more reason that athletes who choose to use them must be more knowledgeable about them. Of course, the physical changes that steroids bring about might cause adverse psychological effects in the user, and that fact shouldn't be ignored. This is almost too preposterous to address. Muscle can no sooner turn to fat than gold can turn into lead. Muscle is made up of individual cells--living, 'breathing' cells that undergo all kinds of complex metabolic processes.
Fat cells are simply storage packets of lipids. The possibility of one changing into another is alike to the football in your storage closet turning into your Uncle Sam. If you stop working out, if you stop applying resistance to your muscles on a consistent basis, they will simply adapt to the new condition. In other words, they'll shrink. If the degree of inactivity or immobilization is severe, the muscles will shrink faster than the surrounding skin, and a temporary condition of loose skin might be experienced, but that too would remedy itself with time.
MCTs first gained prominence for treating persons suffering from fat mal- absorption, pancreatic deficiency, or stomach or esophageal diseases. Researchers found that MCTs, because of their better solubility and motility, underwent a rapid hydrolysis by salivary, gastric, and pancreatic enzymes.
Consequently, they were able to reach the liver and provide energy much more quickly than long-chain triglycerides. There was also some evidence that MCTs reduced lipid deposition in fat stores compared with that resulting from LCTs under identical energy intake conditions. However, this is no reason to believe that ingesting these oils in excess will not result in a positive energy balance which the body stores as fat. MCTs, like regular oils, like regular fats, have nine calories per gram.
Even though they are metabolized differently, using them in excessive amounts will add inches to your waistline. One of the ironies of steroid use is that some people are genetically 'gifted' in terms of steroid receptors.
That means that they have a large number of receptor sites in the muscles with which a particular steroid can combine and exert its mass-building effects. The man or woman who won the last contest might very well have the most active steroid receptors rather than being the most dedicated, knowledgeable bodybuilder.
On the other hand, some people might possess very few receptors for a particular steroid. That's why they experience very little, if any, growth on a particular steroid. Another factor that influences receptor affinity is age.
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