Goals are the cornerstone by which we lay the foundation of our muscle building success.  It is important that you write down your specific goals so that you can take a look at these from time to time.  This is to remind you of what you want to achieve while you are training.  This has kept many a successful body builder on track.  Like them, you can be successful as long as you first sit down and specify what you want from your body building activities.

The first thing you have to do is to write your first vital statistics.  Make a list of your measurements, before you even start taking essential bodybuilding supplements and do any body building.  This includes your body fat percentage, you weight, the measurements of your waist, thighs, chest, upper arms, forearms, calves and neck.  Keep the list.  This will make an excellent reference point so that you will know how much you have improved over time.

Secondly, once you start bodybuilding workout program, you should also take note of your diets nutrition.  List down the food and vitamin supplements you are taking.  Aside from this, you should also list down your training schedule, the kind of exercises you do, as well as the number of repetitions and sets you make for each kind of exercise.  Also, include the total length of each workout.  While you are at it, be sure to also list down your liquid intake.  This will help you determine whether you are taking in the right amount of nutrients.  These records will stand you in good stead in the future, as this will help you understand your growth and development as a body builder.  So be sure to keep up with the records.

After listing your initial measurements and other pertinent information, the next thing you have to do is to write down very specific goals.  Note that it should be specific.  It will not help to say that you want a well-toned body or that you want to be thinner or that you want to have a six-pack.  Cut it down into specifics – list down the muscle weight you want to achieve or specify the measurements you want for your chest.  Remember, the more specific it is, the easier it is for you to aspire for.  You will not reach a goal when you really do not know exactly what it is that you want.

Of course, it would help to first discuss your body building goals with your nutrition and personal trainer to get their input.  This will help you develop a plan that will help you achieve your goals.  It will also be helpful for you to set a timeline along with your plan.  This will make your goals more tangible as you have a specific date you can look forward to.

Again, we stress that it is important to set specific goals and write down a specific action plan to reach your goals.  This is what most of the successful body builders do. Listing the other pertinent information down will also help you determine the things that work for you and what does not in your bodybuilding workout routine.

Popularity: 23% [?]

Are you a beginner bodybuilder. How can you really tell?. This article will let you know. In case you are a bodybuilding beginner this will teach you how to build you foundation to building muscle fast

Sean’s program, The Truth About Building Muscle, is a detailed plan of attack for quickly gaining the muscle mass you want. He covers the entire body in depth, from the chest and back all the way down to the calves. It is an excellent program and highly recommended.

Bodybuilding Beginners:

Build Your Foundation First!

By Sean Nalewanyj

Let me ask you…

Have you packed on at least a good 15-25 pounds of clean, muscular body weight since you began your muscle building program?

Are you moving poundages on your squat, deadlift, bench press, row (and every other major compound exercise) that all feel substantially heavy for your body?

Have you added at least a couple of inches or more to all of your major muscle groups?

Are your clothes fitting significantly tighter? Are your friends and family noticing measurable changes in your physique? Are you generally beginning to gain a reputation as a muscular guy that people aspire to look like?

If you didn’t easily answer “yes” to all of the questions I just outlined above, then worrying about the smaller details of your physique is quite simply a waste of time at this point.

As a well known muscle building author, I receive all sorts of emails every single day from aspiring natural bodybuilders around the world. They’ll ask me questions such as…

“What can I do to target my inner chest?”

“Which exercise is best to build up the lower biceps?”

“My rear delts are lagging behind my front delts. What should I do?”

If you’re still in your bodybuilding “youth” and don’t already have a considerable amount of muscle mass to show for your efforts, I would strongly suggest taking these types of questions and eliminating them from your mind until you do.

Why?

It’s because diverting your focus onto these small and trivial issues will only serve to distract you from the most important and immediate task at hand.

And what is the most important and immediate task a hand?

It is to pack as much raw muscle size and strength onto your frame as humanly possible!

That’s right; forget about the nitty-gritty details of whether your biceps match your triceps or whether your chest is on par with your back. These are issues that you can worry about later on, but until you’ve thickened up your entire body as a whole to a significant degree, it’s simply not worth worrying about.

If you’re still a beginner and have been training consistently for less than a year, then stop obsessing over the details. Instead, place all of your focus on the most basic and obvious issues at hand…

Get yourself onto a sensible, rational weight training schedule and stick to it religiously.

Write down every single workout that you perform and place every ounce of energy you can muster on adding as much weight to the bar on a consistent basis as you possibly can.

Grind out all of the biggest, most difficult compound exercises and blast through those discomfort zones with passion and intensity.

Get yourself into the kitchen and pack in at least 5 or 6 properly balanced muscle building meals every day of the week, every week of the month and every month of the year.

Drink your water, get your rest and take your supplements whenever necessary.

In other words: PAY YOUR DUES FIRST!

If you’re in this for the long haul (and you should be, as there are no temporary fixes to be had here), then get yourself on to the most efficient path possible. And the most efficient path possible is the one that focuses on the fundamentals first and the details later.

This is the mentality you need to bring to your bodybuilding program. Just as you wouldn’t attempt a complex guitar solo without learning basic chord shapes first, you also should not attempt to fine-tune and balance out your physique until you have a considerable amount of foundational muscle to work with first.

Building muscle is not rocket-science, but it is a task that requires consistent willpower and determination. And until you’ve been “in the trenches” and have earned yourself an impressive and muscular body…

Stop over-analyzing… Stop obsessing… Stop spreading out your focus onto every single minute issue that pops up…

Get into the gym and TRAIN!

Lear more about the author Sean Nalewanyj

Popularity: 1% [?]

The most powerful muscle building tools you can use. Are tracking tools which can be as simple as a pen and a paper or fancy as computer software. The bottom line is you need to know where are you exactly to be able to plan where you want to be and how to get there. I hope you enjoy this article.

Sean’s program, The Truth About Building Muscle, is a detailed plan of attack for quickly gaining the muscle mass you want. He covers the entire body in depth, from the chest and back all the way down to the calves. It is an excellent program and highly recommended.

The Most Powerful Muscle-Building

Tool Available

By Sean Nalewanyj

The muscle-building debates will never end.

The endless arguments over how an effective muscle-building program should be structured will most likely continue until the end of time. Just scour the Internet message boards, flip through any muscle magazine or talk to the sales rep at your local supplement store. No matter who you talk to or what you read, it seems that everyone is an expert these days.

If everyone is an expert, confident in their own ideas and beliefs, how can the average beginner possibly know who to listen to? He or she is instantly confronted with endless questions that seem to have no clear-cut answer.

How many days should I train per week? How many sets should I perform for each muscle group? What type of rep range should I be using? What are the most effective exercises for stimulating muscle growth? How long should my workouts last?

Believe me, there are answers to these important questions, and if you are willing to put in the time and effort you will most definitely find them. But that’s not what this article is about.

You see, amidst all of the confusion and endless debating, the majority of lifters end up losing sight of the big picture. Beyond all of the specific workout principles, such as rep range and exercise selection, remains one crucial principle, a principle that lies at the very heart of the muscle growth process.

If this principle is not given full attention, or even worse, completely ignored, building muscle becomes next to impossible.

The bottom line is that muscles grow as they adapt to stress. When you go to the gym and lift weights, you create “micro-tears” within the muscle tissue. Your body perceives this as a potential threat to its survival and reacts accordingly by increasing the size and strength of the muscle fibers in order to protect against a possible future “attack”.

Therefore, in order to continually increase the size and strength of the muscles, you must focus on progressing each week on all of your exercises by either lifting slightly more weight or performing an extra rep or two. In doing this, your body will continue to adapt and grow to the ever-increasing stress.

Building muscle is all about building strength!

So what is the most powerful muscle-building tool available?

Quite simply, it is a pen and a piece of paper!

The specifics of building muscle are important to understand and implement, but regardless of what style of training you’re currently using the ultimate deciding factor between success and failure is progression.

You can sit around all day obsessing over specific principles, but the bottom line is that if you aren’t getting stronger every week, you absolutely will not be getting any bigger.

Examine your training approach closely. If you haven’t been paying laser-like attention to the amount of weight you’ve been using, the number of reps you’ve been performing, and then striving with every ounce of your energy to improve upon those numbers each week, you are completely ignoring the very foundation of the muscle growth process.

If you want to see the best gains in muscle mass and strength that you possibly can, a pen and a piece of paper is the most important tool you could possibly have in your arsenal.

Once you’ve accepted and implemented this basic rule of building muscle, you can then move on and learn about the specific principles of how to structure an effective workout

Lear more about the author Sean Nalewanyj

Popularity: 21% [?]

Is the pump necassaryfor gaining muscle? Will more muscle makes you slower?How important is perfect form?or not? all these questions and more and the truth and the myths around them are revealed in this article. enjoy

Sean’s program, The Truth About Building Muscle, is a detailed plan of attack for quickly gaining the muscle mass you want. He covers the entire body in depth, from the chest and back all the way down to the calves. It is an excellent program and highly recommended.

4 Fatal Muscle-Building Myths Revealed

By Sean Nalewanyj

If you’re serious about making a solid commitment to a muscle-building program, you need to be very careful of who you take advice from. Bodybuilding and fitness is literally a multi-billion dollar industry with new websites popping up every single day.

Many of the so-called “experts” out there really don’t have a clue of what they’re talking about and are only motivated by pushing expensive pills, powders and “miracle programs” on you that you don’t really need.

If you don’t watch your step you may end up falling for some fatal muscle-building pitfalls that will literally destroy your gains.

In this article I’m going to expose 4 very common muscle-building myths in order to keep you on the proper path to the mind-blowing muscle and strength gains you deserve.

Myth #1: In order to build muscle, you must achieve a “pump” during your workout. The greater the pump you achieve, the more muscle you will build.

For those of you who are just starting out, a “pump” is the feeling that you get as blood becomes trapped inside the muscle tissue when you train with weights. The muscles will swell up and leave your body feeling bigger, tighter, stronger and more powerful.

While a pump does feel fantastic, it has very little, if anything to do with properly stimulating your muscles to grow.

A pump is simply the result of increased bloodflow to the muscle tissue and is certainly not indicative of a successful workout. A successful workout should only be gauged by the concept of progression. If you were able to lift more weight or perform more reps than you did in the previous week, then you did your job.

Myth #2: Building muscle will cause you to become slower and less flexible.

Contrary to what you may think, building a significant amount of lean muscle mass will actually speed you up rather than slow you down.

Muscles are responsible for every movement that your body makes, from running to jumping to throwing. The bottom line is that the stronger a muscle is, the more force it can apply.

Having stronger, more muscular legs means increased foot speed, just as having stronger and more muscular shoulders means the ability to throw farther.

Myth #3: You must always use perfect, textbook form on all exercises.

While using good form in the gym is always important, obsessing over perfect form is an entirely different matter. If you are always attempting to perform every exercise using flawless, textbook form, you will actually increase your chances of injury and simultaneously decrease the total amount of muscle stimulation you can achieve.

It’s very important that you always move naturally when you exercise. This could mean adding a very slight sway in your back when you perform bicep curls, or using a tiny bit of body momentum when executing barbell rows.

Myth #4: If you want your muscles to grow you must “feel the burn!”

This is another huge misconception in the gym. The “burning” sensation that results from intense weight training is simply the result of lactic acid (a metabolic waste product) that is secreted inside the muscle tissue as you exercise.

Increased levels of lactic acid have nothing to do with muscle growth and may actually slow down your gains rather than speed them up. You can limit lactic acid production by training in a lower rep range of 5-7, rather than the traditional range of 12 and above.

Lear more about the author Sean Nalewanyj

Popularity: 26% [?]

The best muscle building vitamin . Yes there is such a thing not all vitamins are equal when it comes to building muscle or just gaining more strength . This Article from our expert Sean Nalewanyj will highlight the main reasons to have enough of this vitamin. oh by the way it is vitamin C..

Sean’s program, The Truth About Building Muscle, is a detailed plan of attack for quickly gaining the muscle mass you want. He covers the entire body in depth, from the chest and back all the way down to the calves. It is an excellent program and highly recommended.(see our Full Muscle Gain Truth Review)

A Bodybuilder’s Most Valuable Vitamin:
Are You Getting Enough?

By Sean Nalewanyj

Everybody knows that consuming sufficient amounts of vitamins through their diet is an important way to maintain overall health and to keep the muscle building and fat burning processes functioning optimally.

If you are deficient in just a single vitamin, it can potentially have negative effects on literally thousands of different processes within your body.

While every individual vitamin plays an important role in the overall picture, there is one that definitely stands out among the rest… especially when it comes to the specific needs of a hard training bodybuilder.

I’m talking about the water-soluble Vitamin C; the one vitamin that no serious lifter should be short on.

Here are 6 ways in which sufficient Vitamin C intake will benefit you both in and out of the gym…

1) It is a powerful antioxidant.

When oxygen combines with other compounds as a result of intense exercise and natural bodily processes, it can form what are known as “free radicals”. Free radicals are metabolic waste products that attack cells, mutate cell membranes and that have also been linked with many diseases such as cancer and diabetes.

Antioxidants battle against free radicals by either preventing their formation in the first place, or by latching on and neutralizing their effects. Through its effects as an antioxidant, Vitamin C protects the body from free radical damage.

2) It suppresses cortisol production.

Cortisol is a powerful catabolic hormone that is triggered as a result of stress, both from your workouts and from everyday life. Cortisol stimulates the breakdown of muscle tissue for use as energy, increases fat storage (particularly in the abdominal area), impairs nutrient transport into the muscles and inhibits muscle recovery in between workouts.

Vitamin C appears to have a measurable impact on reducing cortisol secretion in the body.

3) It assists in the formation of steroid hormones.

One of the major limiting factors that determines how much muscle a person can build is their natural anabolic hormone levels. Vitamin C assists in the formation of these hormones.

4) It enhances the absorption of iron.

Iron is what allows oxygen to bind to hemoglobin in the blood, which is then delivered to the muscles to enhance performance. Low iron levels will decrease the amount of weight you are able to lift in the gym and how long you are able to maintain a high level of intensity during your workouts.

5) It increases the integrity of the immune system.

Those following an intense training program should always be concerned with keeping their immune system functioning at optimal levels. This will help you to prevent sickness and to maintain top levels of performance throughout the week.

6) It reduces muscle soreness.

When taken close to workouts, Vitamin C has been shown to reduce muscle soreness in the days following a training session. While this doesn’t really have any direct positive physiological implications, it can be beneficial for those who would prefer to eliminate that deep aching that is usually felt in the muscles following a hard workout.
It should be clear by now that consuming adequate amounts of Vitamin C each day is an important part of maximizing the results from your program, whether your goal is to build muscle or to burn fat.

The recommend daily allowance for Vitamin C is just 60mg, however, this is a guideline set out for average everyday individuals and not for hard training athletes. Those who are following an intense muscle building and/or fat burning program will obviously require far higher amounts.

On the flipside, there are those who recommend taking “mega doses” of Vitamin C. Although Vitamin C is water-soluble (meaning the body can simply flush out an excess through the sweat and urine), mega-dosing is not natural to our biochemistry and could possibly interrupt other important bodily functions.

All things considered, I would recommend consuming Vitamin C in supplemental form in the range of 500mg-1500mg daily, spread out over 2-3 doses.

Try taking one dose in the morning, and another with your pre-workout meal. Most multivitamins will contain a small dose of Vitamin C in the range of 50-200mg, so purchasing a separate Vitamin C supplement is usually the best way to go.

You can also bump up your daily Vitamin C intake by increasing your consumption of natural foods such as tomatoes, apples, oranges and red/green peppers.

While you probably aren’t going to notice any immediate effects to your bottom line progress as a simple result of Vitamin C supplementation, it still can and should be part of an effective overall plan that will maximize your results over the long term.

Lear more about the author Sean Nalewanyj

Popularity: 100% [?]

Multivitamins are considered to be essential bodybuilding and fat loss supplements . At least I think so . There is a debate regarding multivitamins. So I decide to present to you the opinion of one of our experts Sean Nalewanyj and his reasoning regarding multivitamins.

Sean’s program, The Truth About Building Muscle, is a detailed plan of attack for quickly gaining the muscle mass you want. He covers the entire body in depth, from the chest and back all the way down to the calves. It is an excellent program and highly recommended.

Multivitamins: A Necessary Muscle-Building Supplement Or A Waste Of Cash?

By Sean Nalewanyj

One of the most currently debated issues in the supplement industry is in relation to the consumption of multivitamins and the role that they play in enhancing overall health both in and out of the gym.

Can bodybuilders benefit by supplementing with extra vitamins and minerals? Let’s review some basic biology as well as the function of each specific vitamin in order to find the answer…

In the grand scheme of things, your body is basically one giant mass of chemical reactions. Each of these individual reactions is fueled by small proteins called enzymes, which work by lowering the amount of energy that is needed for a specific reaction to occur.

Enzymes require the use of a “co-enzyme” which alters its shape and allows it to perform its job properly. Co-enzymes are also referred to as vitamins.

So when it all comes down it, vitamins are needed to fuel the thousands of chemical reactions going on within your body at all times. Not only does this play an important role in overall metabolism and body health, but it also plays a vital part in the muscle-building process.

Here is a list of the major vitamins and the ways in which they will aid you both in and out of the gym…

Vitamin A – Is crucial to the process of protein synthesis where individual amino acids are combined to form new muscle tissue. It also helps the body to produce glycogen, the stored form of carbohydrates within the body.

Vitamin B1 – Also known as “thiamine” and is heavily involved in protein metabolism as well as the production of hemoglobin which helps to carry oxygen around the body.

Vitamin B2 - Also known as “riboflavin” and aids in the fat burning process as well as helping the body to produce energy from carbohydrates.

Vitamin B3 – Also known as “niacin” and increases vasodilation within the muscle tissue, helping you to appear fuller and more vascular.

Vitamin B6 – Also known as “pyridoxine” and is very important because of its effect on protein digestion. Muscle-building diets require larger than normal amounts of protein, and this means that your body needs a higher amount of vitamin B6 than the average Joe.

Vitamin B12 – Also known as “cobalamin”, vitamin b12 ensures that the brain and muscle tissue are communicating efficiently and this has a direct effect on muscle growth and coordination.

Biotin – Helps the body metabolize amino acids and produce energy during workouts.

Vitamin C – Heavily involved in amino acid metabolism and the formation of collagen. Collagen is found in your connective tissue and keeps your joints strong and healthy. Vitamin C also plays a role in the production of steroid hormones in the body and also enhances the absorption of iron. On top of all of this, vitamin C is a powerful antioxidant which flushes out free radicals and prevents damage to your body cells.

Vitamin D – Helps the body to absorb calcium and phosphorus more efficiently. Calcium is very important during muscle contractions and also helps to maintain strong bones and joints. Phosphorus is involved in the synthesis of ATP, the usable form of energy within the body.

Vitamin E – A very powerful antioxidant which helps to hunt out and neutralize free radicals. This will help to flush out many of the natural metabolic waste products your body produces and maintain the health of your cell membranes.

As you can clearly see above, vitamins play a very important role when it comes to building muscle and gaining strength. Hard training bodybuilders certainly require higher amounts of these vitamins than the average sedentary Joe, as these vitamins are depleted during intense sessions in the gym.

In addition, a calorie-dense diet requires a higher intake of vitamins to aid in the digestion process. In fact, being deficient in just one vitamin can literally affect thousands of small process within the body.

So, are multivitamins necessary for bodybuilders?

Absolutely!

From protein synthesis to energy metabolism to digestion to vasodilation, multivitamins should be an important part of any effective supplementation plan.

Lear more about the author Sean Nalewanyj

Popularity: 33% [?]

Training Plateau is when you reach the point that no more progress is possible (at least it feels that way)don’t just dream about building muscle when you hit the plateau . You just need to take action to continue your progress. By that I mean the right type of effort .This Article from our expert Sean Nalewanyj will highlight the fundamental reasons for reaching the plateau and how to overcome this situation and continue your muscle building journey.

Sean’s program, The Truth About Building Muscle, is a detailed plan of attack for quickly gaining the muscle mass you want. He covers the entire body in depth, from the chest and back all the way down to the calves. It is an excellent program and highly recommended.(see our Full Muscle Gain Truth Review)

If You’ve Hit A Training Plateau, Read This

By Sean Nalewanyj

We’ve all experienced it at one time or another…

Our training programs are running smoothly, and with each week that passes we’re successfully adding more weight to the bar, more pounds to the scale and more muscle size and thickness to our bodies. Then, all of a sudden and without warning, those gains come to a screeching halt and our muscle building and strength gaining progress is stopped dead in its tracks. In the bodybuilding world, this is referred to as a “plateau”. The very idea of this would send shivers up the spine of any serious trainee, as this plateau essentially means that despite our best efforts in the gym and in the kitchen, no additional progress can be made. What does a typical lifter do in response to this? They immediately begin haphazardly switching up their training routine in an effort to “shock” their muscles into new growth… They change their exercises and rep ranges… And they implement new “advanced techniques” such as forced reps, negatives and static holds in an effort to break through the plateau into new levels of growth. STOP! While exercise variety can sometimes be a reasonable option here, these plateaus exist as a result of far more fundamental reasons. They usually have nothing to do with the repeated use of the same workout. In the majority of cases, training plateaus are simply the result of overtraining. All we have to do is review some basic physiology in order to see why this is the case… When we train intensely in the gym, we are damaging our muscles. Each set that we perform digs a “hole” into the body’s recovery ability. When we leave the gym, the body then uses rest and nutrients in order to rebuild the damaged muscle and to fill up this hole.

Once the muscles have been remodeled back to their previous state, the body will then compensate by building additional muscle mass as an adaptive response to the stress.

So far, so good, right? Here’s the critical factor that you need to keep in mind… As you become stronger and add more and more weight to the bar on your exercises, the overall stress and resulting “hole” that is dug into the body’s recovery ability continually increases.

The advanced lifter who is bench pressing 300 pounds for 6 reps is placing his muscles and body under far more overall stress than the beginner who is benching 125 pounds.

What does this have to do with plateaus? Everything! If you are consistently adding more weight to the bar and pushing your body to higher and higher levels of stress each week, you MUST compensate for the increase in stress by reducing your training volume and frequency. If the stress from each individual set is constantly on the upward climb yet you are still performing the same number of sets and training days, your body will inevitably be pushed beyond its ability to properly recover in between workouts. Improper recovery means that the muscle is not given an adequate amount of time to remodel and to increase its size and strength further.

This is why your gains slow down and eventually stop; it’s because every time your body is about to compensate by increasing the size and strength of the muscles, you interrupt the process by placing them under more stress and digging a new hole into recovery.

If the hole never gets filled, you never progress forward, and you keep yourself on the plateau. How crystal clear and obvious is that? As you become more advanced, you must train less often and with fewer sets! Training intensity and volume are DIRECTLY related, and are part of a balanced equation that determines your progress. As one variable increases, the other MUST decrease. So to all of you out there who are “stuck” on this weight training plateau… Regulate your volume and frequency! Decrease the number of sets that you perform for each muscle group slightly, and consider inserting an additional rest day in between workouts. If by doing this you begin coming back to the gym stronger than you were before, you’ll know for sure that you were previously overtraining. A slight reduction in volume and frequency is usually all that is needed in order to make steady, uninterrupted progress in muscle size and strength.

Instead of panicking and reaching for the latest Muscle Mag for a new “ground breaking” routine, simply understand that the body has a finite amount of recovery ability and that as you grow stronger, you use up more of it on each individual set.

Reduce the volume slightly, consider inserting an additional rest day, and that is most likely all you’ll need to blast yourself through the plateau and into a new phase of growth.

Lear more about the author Sean Nalewanyj

Popularity: 15% [?]

This article is about one single exercise that would have the greatest impact on your muscle gain . No you guesses wrong it is not the bench press . It is the old good Deadlift . Yes the deadlift is the best exercise to develop your entire body. Sean Explains that in details just keep reading

Sean’s program, The Truth About Building Muscle, is a detailed plan of attack for quickly gaining the muscle mass you want. He covers the entire body in depth, from the chest and back all the way down to the calves. It is an excellent program and highly recommended.

The King Of All Upper Body Exercis

By Sean Nalewanyj

Okay, so you’re looking to pack on some serious muscle mass, right?

You want to build a ripped, rock-solid physique that demands respect and turns heads everywhere you go, correct?

Good.

In this article I’m going to talk to you about one single exercise that will help you to achieve that powerful body quicker than you ever thought possible.

No, it’s not a bench press or a barbell curl.

It doesn’t involve cables or chrome machines.

You won’t need a swiss ball or any other fancy gym gadgets.

All you need is a good old-fashioned barbell and a flat surface. Load the bar with as much weight as you can handle and pick it up off the ground while keeping your back straight.

Sounds simple enough, right?

I’m talking, of course, about the undisputed king of all upper body exercises: the deadlift.

If you’re looking to pile as much lean muscle mass onto your frame as humanly possibly in the shortest period of time, the deadlift is your best friend in the entire world.

That’s the good news.

The bad news is that deadlifts are without a doubt one of the most painful and discomforting exercises you will ever come across.

When performed properly, they’ll leave you lightheaded, nauseous, gasping for air and will temporarily have you wishing that you hadn’t come to the gym in the first place. But if it’s serious results that you’re after, this is the price you must pay.

The deadlift will work you from finger to neck to toe. It is a raw, basic power movement and will literally stress every single muscle in your entire body to some degree. The main areas of stimulation are the back (lower and upper) and thighs, but once you start deadlifting on a consistent basis you’ll see gains just about everywhere.

The high intensity nature of this basic lift will also force your body to secrete higher amounts of powerful anabolic substances such as testosterone and growth hormone. This causes what is known as a “spill over effect”, and will result in new, total body size and strength gains.

For example, after a few weeks of heavy deadlifting you should notice that your other lifts, such as the bench press and barbell row, will suddenly increase.

There a few different variations of the deadlift, but in this article we’ll focus on the basic, standard bent-legged version. Let’s go over the proper technique…

Position your feet about shoulder-width apart and grip the bar with your hands just outside your legs. You can either hold the bar with an overhand grip or with one palm facing in and one palm facing out. Choose whatever grip is most comfortable for you.

Start the movement in a squatted position with the bar close to your shins. With your back flat, abs tight and head looking up, lift the weight off of the ground by driving upward with your legs. Pull the weight up until you are in a standing position. Now lower the weight back down by following the same path as when you lifted it.

Rest the plates on the ground briefly, regroup, take a deep breath and pull the weight back up again. Continue the lift until your legs reach muscular failure or until your form starts to slip.

Maintaining proper form is of high importance when performing deadlifts. You should be able to handle a reasonable amount of weight here, and this increases your chance of injury. The most important thing to remember is to keep your back flat at all times and to keep the weight close to your body. Keep your abs tight as well as this will minimize the stress on your lower back.

Practice this lift with light weight in order to get the form down before you start going heavy. You may also find it useful to use lifting straps when performing deadlifts, as this will prevent your grip from giving out before the rest of your body does.

I recommend performing deadlifts once a week for 1-2 all-out sets.

How many reps should you perform for each set?

Well, deadlifts are such an incredibly effective exercise that they’ll work no matter what rep range you use. My suggestion is to stay in the range of 5-7, but some people go as high as 20. Experiment and see what works best for you.

Treat your deadlifts with respect, and be prepared for the gains of your life.

Lear more about the author Sean Nalewanyj

Popularity: 1% [?]

You know, Most people focus so much on the big “show off” muscles like chest and biceps , that they get kind of blind to the fact that there are other “problem muscles” people struggle with.One common problem is “skinny calves“.

People tend to ignore the calves probably more than any other muscle group because most of bodybuilders are simply trying to pack on mass and let’s face it… …calf presses aren’t a big “mass builder” exercise, you know?

However, working the calves is important in order to maintain “balance” in how you look when you lean out for the summer. So whether you are gearing up for the summer like me, or you’re just cursed with “skinny calves”, here’s why it’s so hard to develop them…and how to do it the right way…

Why “traditional calf training” doesn’t work

All you really need to know is that your calves are your body’s “brakes”, and are best trained in this capacity. In other words, when your calves are going through an eccentric motion such as the “down” phase of a calf press. The problem with traditional calf exercises is that the amount of weight that you can handle during this phase is much more than what your calves can handle in the “concentric” phase, when you’re lifting the weight up. This means that the most important phase of calf exercises don’t get enough heavy weight to let them stimulate muscle fiber growth effectively.

Now, here’s the Solution to skinny calves

The secret to building your calves is to lift heavy with both legs during the concentric phases (the “up” movement”). But then when you’re lowering the weight (or your body), you want to take all of the stress off of one of your legs while the other calf handles the entire weight for a slow, steady descent through the eccentric phase. Once you’ve reached the bottom of the movement (after a 4 second descent), you use both legs again to bring the weight back up to the “up” position and let the same leg handle the weight down again. Continue for 6-8 reps on one side (until failure), and then immediately work the other calf in the same fashion. Use this method for all calf exercise options and I promise you that switching to this type of training for your calves will blow away the results you get from using both legs for these exercises.

If you like to recieve tips like this and more delevered to your e-mail inbox. just sign for our Ezine here Free bodybuilding Ezine

Popularity: 29% [?]

This article is about one very common Question among bodybuilders. The issue of gaining muscle without gaining fat. Most bodybuilders go through a ( Bulking phase) where they gain significant amont of muscle and some body fat. Whether or no it is possible to do it while maintaining the body fat levels. This article may have the answer.

Sean’s program, The Truth About Building Muscle, is a detailed plan of attack for quickly gaining the muscle mass you want. He covers the entire body in depth, from the chest and back all the way down to the calves. It is an excellent program and highly recommended.

Is It Possible To Build Muscle Without Gaining Fat?

By Sean Nalewanyj

If you’re like 99% of the bodybuilding population out there, your ultimate goal is simple: an impressively muscular physique with razor-sharp definition to match.

You want to be huge, and you want to be shredded as well.

Because of the strong desire for this “ideal body”, most people eagerly dive into their programs headfirst. They don’t want the results to come slowly and gradually; they want to get from point A to point B as quickly as they possibly can and with as little work as is needed. Everyone is motivated to bulk up, but at the same time are afraid of putting on excess body fat.

Let me clear this up right here…

If you want to add a significant amount of muscle to your frame over as short a period of time as you can, you will always end up gaining some extra body fat along with it.

This is simply the nature of the entire process and if you really want to travel a significant way in the “bulking” direction, you have to be willing to accept this.

In order to gain muscle size, you must consume a surplus of calories in order to support protein synthesis. However, there is no way to divert 100% of this caloric surplus towards muscle growth. A certain amount of it will always end up as stored body fat.

If you want to make dramatic changes to your appearance over the shortest period of time, it is always best to focus on gaining size for a set period of time, followed by focusing on losing body fat for a set period of time.

Since your levels of muscle mass play such a large role in determining your basal metabolic rate, it will always be far easier to melt off body fat once you’ve built up your muscle size to a significant degree. This is why beginning with a bulking phase is almost always the most efficient route.

Based on what we’ve covered so far, the goal of a bulking phase is simple: build as much muscle size as possible while minimizing body fat gains. Your goal during a bulking phase is never to LOSE body fat; it’s only to gain as little as possible.

This can be accomplished in 3 main ways…

1) Use a precise caloric surplus.

There exists such a thing as “optimal nutrition”, but there is no such thing as “super nutrition”. A caloric surplus is required to fuel muscle growth, but haphazardly cramming more food down your throat beyond what is necessary to build muscle tissue will simply cause you to gain more fat.

The generally accepted caloric surplus for supporting muscle growth is 15-20% more calories than is needed to maintain your weight. If you are consuming a caloric amount within this range, there is no need to go any higher.

2) Pay attention to your food choices.

The vast majority of your food intake should be coming from lean, high quality proteins, natural/high fiber carbohydrates and healthy/unsaturated fats.

Rather than aimlessly chowing down on every food item in sight, make sure that you’re sticking to lean protein sources, keeping blood sugar levels stable through proper carbohydrate choices, and avoiding high amounts of saturated fats.

3) Implement cardio sessions.

There’s no need to go overboard here, but implementing 2-3 cardio sessions throughout the week is another way to cut down on fat gains during a bulking cycle. Stick to high intensity/low duration forms in the range of 10-20 minutes, as these types of sessions do not cause the same degree of muscle loss as longer duration forms do.

Once you’ve gained an amount of muscle size that you’re happy with (and this is totally up to the individual), you can then shift into a fat loss cycle and focus on stripping off body fat while maintaining muscle size.

However, just keep in mind that while bulking up, gaining some body fat is inevitable and the trick is simply to minimize it rather than totally avoid it.

Lear more about the author Sean Nalewanyj

Popularity: 8% [?]

Wide and thick back is an essential part in a great muscular Physique. Most people are misguided when it comes to building a wide back many. Some people may even neglect this body part which is a mistake. This Article from our expert Sean Nalewanyj will highlight the main keys in developing a thick wide muscular back

Sean’s program, The Truth About Building Muscle, is a detailed plan of attack for quickly gaining the muscle mass you want. He covers the entire body in depth, from the chest and back all the way down to the calves. It is an excellent program and highly recommended.(see our Full Muscle Gain Truth Review)

4 Simple Keys To Developing

A Wide, Muscular Back

By Sean Nalewanyj

It never ceases to amaze me how incredibly misguided the vast majority of the population is in the gym. Everyone is desperate for that wide, powerful and muscular physique, yet very few understand how to properly channel their efforts to get there.

For most aspiring lifters, it’s all about building a huge chest and arms. Week after week they slave away on endless sets of bench presses and barbell curls in search of the rippling muscle gains they want so badly.

Not surprisingly, those gains never appear in any significant form.

While a well developed chest and arms is clearly an important part of any complete physique, the truth is that these muscles only play a small role when compared to a much larger, much more intricate muscle group that most people severely neglect in their training programs.

I am, of course, talking about the major muscles of the back: the lats, traps, spinal erectors, rhomboids and lower back.

It’s obvious why most lifters neglect these all-too-important muscles…

1) The back is not a “showy” muscle and you can’t see it in the mirror.

2) Back training is far more stressful and taxing to the body than chest or arm training.

3) Most lifters are simply unaware of how important the development of these muscles really is.

Allow me to let you in on a little secret…

If you want to appear as wide, thick and powerful as you possibly can, nothing will allow you to achieve this goal faster than a well developed back.

In fact, 70% of your upper body muscle mass resides in this area!

Nothing can replace the upper body thickening effect of big, bulging lats and a set of wide, tall trapezius muscles.

Please, get up off that bench press and put down that EZ-curl bar for just a moment and let me share a simple, step-by-step workout that you can use to build the muscular back you so desperately need.

There are 4 major movements that you must perform to properly develop your back…

1) Deadlifts

I cannot possibly stress the importance of this lift enough. There is not a single exercise out there that can even come close to matching the effectiveness of a basic, bent-legged barbell deadlift.

The deadlift will work you from finger to neck to toe and is irreplaceable in developing strong, thick back muscles. The deadlift will stimulate growth throughout the entire back complex and should be the cornerstone of your routine.

2) A vertical pulling movement

These exercises mainly target the lat muscles and will help you to attain that wide, v-tapered look from behind. Examples of vertical pulling movements are chin-ups (overhand or underhand), lat pulldowns and v-bar pulldowns.

To get the most bang for your buck I recommend a basic overhand chin-up. This is the bread and butter of vertical pulling movements and will stimulate growth in the lats like no other exercise.

3) A horizontal pulling movement

Otherwise referred to as “rows”, horizontal pulling movements place their emphasis on the upper/middle portion of the back and also stimulate the lats. There are a ton of different rowing movements to choose from: bent over barbell rows, dumbbell rows, seated machine rows and cable rows just to name a few.

For maximum results, stick to a basic freeweight rowing movement. I usually recommend bent over barbell rows, but bent over dumbbell rows are an acceptable choice as well.

4) A shrugging movement

While not quite as important as the above mentioned lifts, a shrugging movement should still be performed at the end of the workout to target the upper traps and develop that mountainous, diamond-shaped look from behind. A basic barbell or dumbbell shrug will do the trick.

Okay, let’s put it all together…

Deadlifts – 2 sets of 5 to 7 reps

Overhand Chin-Ups – 2 sets of 5 to 7 reps

Bent Over Barbell Rows – 2 sets of 5 to 7 reps

Barbell Shrugs – 2 Sets of 10 to 12 reps

For optimal gains in back size and strength, the above routine is ideal.

It may not seem like a lot, but as long as you take every set to muscular failure and focus on quality rather than quantity, this routine provides more than enough stimulation for maximum back growth. I’ve used this same routine for many years and continue to see steady progress in both back size and strength.

Make sure to keep a written record of every workout that you perform, and focus each week on increasing either the weight that you lift or the number of reps that you perform within the given rep range.

Perform this workout once per week with full effort and I guarantee that your upper body will appear thicker, wider and more muscular than ever before.

…What about specific routines for the chest? What about the biceps, triceps and shoulders? How about the thighs, calves and abs?

For specific training information on each of these body parts make sure to visit MuscleGainTruth and find out how you can finally get the rock-solid muscle gains you deserve without spending endless hours in the gym.

Lear more about the author Sean Nalewanyj

(see our Full Muscle Gain Truth Review)

Popularity: 1% [?]

Chest, Back , Shoulders, Biceps ,Tricepses, etc …. Most of us have one or more muscle groups that we wish we can improve. This Article from our expert Sean Nalewanyj will highlight the basics for training each muscle group. Trust me when I tell you the basics will pack on muscle to your frame faster than you expect.

Sean’s program, The Truth About Building Muscle, is a detailed plan of attack for quickly gaining the muscle mass you want. He covers the entire body in depth, from the chest and back all the way down to the calves. It is an excellent program and highly recommended.(see our Full Muscle Gain Truth Review)

Quick & Easy Tips For Building

Each Major Muscle Group

By Sean Nalewanyj

With so much hyped up information and bogus “breakthrough” exercise methods popping up all the time, most lifters seem to have lost sight of the basics.

While the basics may not be as flashy and exciting as what most of the “other guys” out there promote, they’ll pack raw muscle size and strength on to your body faster than any other method you’ll come across.

In this article I am simply going to list each major muscle group on the body, along with some basic tips for building that muscle as quickly and efficiently as possible. Nothing “revolutionary” or “innovative” here… Just the bare-bones truth about building muscle fast.

Let’s get right to it…

Chest

If you want to get the most bang for your buck and develop your chest as quickly as possible, then forget about flye movements such as the pec-deck, dumbbell flyes or cable crossovers. Instead, place all of your focus on the big basic pressing exercises such as barbell presses, dumbbell presses and wide-grip dips.

If you want to include a few flye movements here and there at the end of your chest workout then that’s fine, but your primary focus should be on consistently increasing the poundage on all of your compound pressing exercises.

Back

Use bent-legged barbell deadlifts as your primary back-developing exercise. There is simply no other lift out there that will pack more raw muscle size and strength onto your back and your entire body than the basic barbell deadlift.

It is extremely challenging and uncomfortable to perform, but the rewards are well worth it. It will work you from finger to neck to toe, and if you haven’t been deadlifting up to this point, be prepared for some serious gains once you start.

Shoulders

Laterals raises are fine to include to isolate the medial head of the shoulder, but the meat and potatoes of any effective shoulder training routine is based on a compound overhead press.

Either perform a standing or seated military press with a barbell, or an overhead press using dumbbells. This should be the first exercise in your shoulder routine, with side laterals being performed at the end.

The front and rear heads of the shoulder receive plenty of stimulation during your chest and back exercises and therefore do not need to be specifically isolated.

Biceps

Cut down on your training volume and understand that the majority of your bicep growth is actually a product of hard and intense back training. Heavy chin-ups, pulldowns and rows all provide plenty of stimulation for the biceps, and direct curling movements are far less important than most people think.

Including a few sets of direct bicep work is still recommended, but going too far overboard can easily over train them and will actually slow down your bicep growth rather than speed it up.

Triceps

The same thing goes for triceps as well. Any time you perform a compound chest pressing exercise or an overhead shoulder press, your triceps will be heavily stimulated. Because of this, performing direct tricep isolation exercises should be done so cautiously and with only a small number of sets to prevent over-working them.

Abs

Since spot reduction is impossible and you cannot target fat loss from specific areas of the body, stop placing so much emphasis on the idea of achieving “6-pack abs” through the use of direct abdominal exercises.

Attaining defined and sculpted abs is mostly a product of your bottom line body fat percentage, and has very little to do with specific training techniques. Include a few sets of direct ab work for the sake of strengthening your core and building up the abdominal muscles themselves, but performing endless sets of situps and crunches is nothing more than a waste of time.

Quads

If you aren’t performing a basic barbell squat as the cornerstone of your leg training routine, you’re missing out big time!

Squats are by far the most effective lower body exercise in existence, and by a good margin. Not only do squats provide serious stimulation for the muscles of the legs, but because they force the body to secrete greater amounts of powerful anabolic hormones (such as testosterone and growth hormone) they will increase your upper body size as well.

As the saying goes, “you ain’t squat ‘till you squat!”

Hamstrings

Leg curls should be included in your hamstring training routine, but the real secret to a massive set of “leg biceps” is the stiff-legged deadlift.

You can perform SLDL’s using a barbell or dumbbells, and not only will they pack size onto your hamstrings faster than any other lift out there, but they will strengthen your lower back and add size to your upper back as well.

Calves

If you really want those stubborn calves to respond, then stop worrying so much about “feeling the burn”, and instead focus on truly training your calves to the point of muscular failure.

Rather than slapping on an arbitrary amount of weight and pumping out 20-30 reps until it starts to hurt, load up as much weight as you can possibly handle for 8-12 high quality reps. Execute each rep in a slow and deliberate manner, squeezing at the top and using a full range of motion until you cannot perform another rep despite your best efforts to do so.

Lear more about the author Sean Nalewanyj

(see our Full Muscle Gain Truth Review)

Popularity: 61% [?]

Post Workout nutrition is the most important muscle building meal . Because of its critical timing.A proper post workout meal will increase your muscle gains and improve your recovery time. This Article from our expert Sean Nalewanyj will highlight the main benefits of Post-workout nutrition and why do you need it. Plus a description of the ideal post workout meal.

Sean’s program, The Truth About Building Muscle, is a detailed plan of attack for quickly gaining the muscle mass you want. He covers the entire body in depth, from the chest and back all the way down to the calves. It is an excellent program and highly recommended.(see our Full Muscle Gain Truth Review)

Catapult Your Muscle Gains With

Proper Post-Workout Nutrition

By Sean Nalewanyj

The post-workout period is without a doubt the most critical time to take advantage of proper muscle-building nutrition.

We’ll define the post workout period as the 3 hours that immediately follows an intense workout. It is during this time when the body is most primed for nutrient absorption and the muscles will literally act like a sponge, soaking up everything you present them with.

By feeding your body with the proper nutrients from both whole foods and supplements during this all-too important time frame you will greatly increase your muscle gains and improve your recovery time.

Let’s take a quick look at what needs to be accomplished after an intense workout:

1) Muscle breakdown must be minimized and the body must be put back into an anabolic, muscle-building state.

2) Blood sugar and glycogen levels must be restored.

3) Free radicals must be neutralized.

4) The muscles must be fed with proper nutrients to facilitate recovery and growth.

This can be accomplished by consuming 2 special “post-workout meals”.

The first meal should be consumed entirely in liquid form. Your body is in a high state of stress, literally starving for nutrients, and you need to replenish this imbalance in the fastest way possible. A liquid meal will be digested quicker than any other and will allow your body to start rebuilding itself immediately.

This post-workout shake should ideally contain the following:

1) 30-40 grams of whey protein.

2) 70-80 grams of simple sugar. (Dextrose is a great sugar to use)

3) 5 grams of creatine.

4) 5-10 grams of glutamine. (Optional)

All of these ingredients should be mixed in water and consumed within half an hour of completing your workout. I would also suggest taking a high-potency multivitamin along with the shake. This simple liquid meal will go a long way in accelerating the muscle growth process and helping you to recover.

About 45 minutes to an hour after your post-workout shake, you should consume your second post-workout meal, which should come from whole foods. This meal should be rich in protein and high glycemic carbohydrates.

High glycemic carbohydrates are those that are broken down rapidly into the bloodstream. Some examples include, potatoes, white rice or rice cakes. Here are a couple of examples of what your second post-workout meal might look like:

1) 6oz steak, 1 potato, 1 glass of orange juice

2) 1 can of tuna, 100g rice cakes, 1 glass of grapefruit juice

This meal will continue to provide your starving muscles with the nutrients they require in order to synthesize new muscle tissue and restore glycogen levels.

After this second meal there is still about 2 hours or so to take advantage of as best you can. Your goal in this 3-hour window is to consume as much high quality protein and high glycemic carbohydrates as you can.

Most lifters highly underestimate the value of the post-workout period and hinder their gains as a result. One of the biggest mistakes you could possibly make would be to ignore the value of this 3-hour period and to slack off on your protein and carb intake.

Treat the post-workout period with respect and prepare for a noticeable boost in your muscle size and strength gains.

There are also 3 other highly important times throughout the day to pay special attention to the foods and supplements that you consume. Visit MuscleGainTruthto find out what they are, and how to properly approach these periods for the best possible results.

Lear more about the author Sean Nalewanyj

(see our Full Muscle Gain Truth Review)

Popularity: 37% [?]

Supplements is it a must? Do you really need them? and which ones are really usefull to help you gain more muscle and lose fat?. The supplements issue can be a big debate sometimes .This Article from our expert Sean Nalewanyj will highlight the truth about supplements . You will learn about the basic supplements that can really help you develop an impressive, muscular physique.

Sean’s program, The Truth About Building Muscle, is a detailed plan of attack for quickly gaining the muscle mass you want. He covers the entire body in depth, from the chest and back all the way down to the calves. It is an excellent program and highly recommended.

Do Bodybuilders Really Need Supplements?

By Sean Nalewanyj

To supplement or not to supplement? That is the question, and an important one at that.

“Do bodybuilders really need supplements?”

Let’s examine that question.

The first thing to look at when trying to answer the million-dollar question about supplements (with the ever-increasing revenues of the supplement industry I should more accurately call it a “billion-dollar question”) is what do we define as “need”?

The question seems to be, “do we really need supplements”? But the answer to that completely depends upon what it is that we do or do not need them for. Let’s examine a couple of different definitions.

“Do bodybuilders need supplements to become bigger and stronger?”

The answer to this question? No!

Regardless of what the million-dollar supplement companies would have you believe, supplementation is not mandatory in the pursuit of increased muscle mass and strength.

Anyone who trains hard and focuses on consuming adequate amounts of protein, carbohydrates and fats from whole foods can and will see a significant increase in muscle size and strength.

If you want to become bigger and stronger, supplements are not mandatory. Period.

So given this fact, bodybuilders shouldn’t use any supplements, right?

Wrong.

Let’s examine the second definition.

“Do bodybuilders need supplements to become as big and strong as they possibly can?”

The answer to this question? Yes!

Although supplements are not mandatory to become bigger and stronger, they ARE mandatory if your goal is to become as big and strong as you possibly can. By investing in the right products and using the proper amounts, you can definitely gain an extra edge and see superior gains than a person who has chosen not to go the supplement route.

With the endless hours of hard work and dedication that you put in at the gym and at home on your quest to achieving the physique you desire, it only seems logical that a few extra bucks should be spent each month on a few reputable products in order to maximize your gains.

The question you simply have to ask yourself is, “how much are my muscle gains worth to me?”

If an extra boost in strength at the gym is worth the price of that bottle of creatine, then it makes sense to purchase it. If improving the convenience of your eating plan is worth the price of that tub of whey protein, then it makes sense to purchase it.

“Do bodybuilders really need supplements?”

If you’re serious about achieving the most significant muscle size and strength gains that you possibly can, then I definitely would recommend a basic and straightforward supplement plan to maximize your results.

Here are the 4 most basic supplements that I would recommend:

1) Whey Protein

2) Creatine

3) High-Potency Multivitamin

4) Essential Fatty Acids

This is a great place to start and will go a long way in increasing your lean muscle mass, strength and fat burning capabilities. There are definitely a lot of worthless, ineffective supplements out there, but these 4 basic products have been shown time and time again to be both effective and worth the cost.

If you’re looking to gain an extra edge and are serious about reaching your muscle-building goals, they are definitely worth looking into.

Lear more about the author Sean Nalewanyj

Popularity: 15% [?]

How to Gain Weight at Home?is a very common question amongst beginners. For many different reasons some people like to workout at home. And when your goal is to gain some mass this means having your own home GYM. This Article from our expert Sean Nalewanyj is quick and easy guide to build your home GYM.

Sean’s program, The Truth About Building Muscle, is a detailed plan of attack for quickly gaining the muscle mass you want. He covers the entire body in depth, from the chest and back all the way down to the calves. It is an excellent program and highly recommended.

Muscle-Building Success From Home:

Can It Be Done?

By Sean Nalewanyj

I receive emails everyday from aspiring lifters all over the world, and one of the most common questions I’m asked is

Do I have to join a gym in order to build a strong, muscular body?

The answer, my friend, is no. With the right equipment and planning you can follow an equally effective bodybuilding program from the comfort of your home without ever having to set foot in a gym.

In fact, my first 2 years of bodybuilding were spent working out with basic equipment in my basement, and I saw incredible results doing this.

Maybe you can’t afford a gym membership due to your financial situation.

Maybe you lead a busy lifestyle and would prefer to save time by training at home.

Maybe you’re simply too embarrassed or uncomfortable to train in a regular gym setting at the moment.

Whatever your reason, don’t worry!

I currently workout at a gym with my training partner but have to say that my years spent lifting at home were fantastic.

I didn’t have to worry about the travel time to and from the gym. I could simply slip downstairs whenever I felt like it and all of my equipment was there waiting for me.

I could listen to whatever music I wanted to, as loud as I wanted to without having to worry about those around me.

I could grunt, yelp and scream through my sets if I was in the mood without disturbing anyone (hey, squatting to failure isn’t easy okay?) or train shirtless if I felt like it.

When the workout was over, I could sprawl out on the floor in exhaustion and know that my post workout shakes were just a few steps away, and that I wouldn’t have to hobble to my car and spend anymore time driving home.

It was great.

The only real disadvantage is that your exercise selection will decrease because you won’t have access to certain pieces of machinery such as a leg press or calf machine. You can purchase certain machines if you have the money to spend and plan on training at home over the long term, but for the majority of people this simply won’t be possible.

The good news is that planning out a proper bodybuilding routine does not require the use of any fancy equipment, and all of the machine exercises that you would regularly perform can be swapped for freeweight substitutions.

Here is the basic equipment that your home gym should contain:

1) An adjustable barbell with freeweight plates A cast iron set is probably a good idea, and you must also make sure that you purchase enough weight so that you can continually progress from week to week.

2) Adjustable dumbbells This is much more efficient and cost-effective than purchasing an entire set of dumbbells. You should be able to buy the barbell and dumbbells together in a single set.

3) A bench with incline adjustments A good sturdy bench is a must-have for performing bench presses and other seated movements. If possible you should purchase a bench that can be set on an incline and that also contains safety catches if you plan on training alone.

4) A chin-up bar These can usually be purchased for 15-20 dollars and can be placed inside of a door frame.

5) A squat rack This is usually the trickiest piece of equipment to purchase, as a full squat rack can be pricey. Squats are an irreplaceable movement and should always be a part of your workout routine, especially if you don’t have a leg press machine handy.

If you can’t afford a squat rack then you’ll have to be creative. The bottom line is that you must have some sort of apparatus that will allow you to safely unrack a loaded bar and drop the bar onto a safety catch (or the floor) if your strength gives out during the lift.

Don’t ever squat without a safe place to drop the bar! Most full squat racks will also provide a chin-up bar on top, so you can kill 2 birds with one stone if you decide to purchase one.

So there you have it; the 5 pieces of basic equipment that are needed to set up a home gym. As long as you have these basic tools in your arsenal you can perform an equally effective workout without ever having to join a traditional gym.

If you’re all set to go and need a highly effective, step-by-step workout routine to follow, visit Muscle Gain Truth . I can teach you exactly which exercises to perform and the ideal number of workout days, sets and reps you should use to get maximum results from your efforts. I can even customize a specific workout plan for you based on the equipment that is available in your home gym.

Lear more about the author Sean Nalewanyj

Popularity: 65% [?]

Strong Back is essential for any athlete. Because a stronger back means a stronger body and less pron to injery. The stronger you are the heavier you can left the more muscle building you achieve.This Article from our expert Sean Nalewanyj will explain the direct way to getting a stronger healthier back.

Sean’s program, The Truth About Building Muscle, is a detailed plan of attack for quickly gaining the muscle mass you want. He covers the entire body in depth, from the chest and back all the way down to the calves. It is an excellent program and highly recommended.(see our Full Muscle Gain Truth Review)

Instantly Increase Your Strength

On Every Back Exercise

By Sean Nalewanyj

Do you want a quick, simple and instant way to increase the amount of weight you can lift on virtually every back exercise you perform?

Sound too good to be true?

I speak the truth, my friend, and the reality is that if you aren’t utilizing this basic piece of gym equipment you’re missing out on some serious muscle size and strength gains.

What tool am I talking about?

A pair of lifting straps!

This is such a basic and highly effective piece of equipment yet so many people neglect to use them. For those of you who are unaware, these are basically a set of thick straps made of extremely strong material that are placed around your wrists and then wrapped around the barbell, dumbbell or cable attachment.

The purpose of lifting straps is to “eliminate” your grip from the equation by forming a secure connection between your wrist and the weight. If you use these straps properly you can basically hold onto the bar and perform your exercises while expending almost no energy from your forearms.

Why is this so valuable?

Picture this scenario…

You’re performing a set of deadlifts (arguably the most powerful muscle-building exercise known to man) with the goal of performing 8 reps. You psych yourself up, grip the weight and clear the bar from the ground. The set is going well, but by the time you reach rep number 5, the strain on your grip is so great that you can no longer hold onto the bar. You’re forced to stop the set because your forearms reached muscular failure.

What exactly happened here?

Well, you gave yourself an amazing forearm workout! Congratulations! Unfortunately, you severely limited the amount of muscle stimulation you could achieve on your back, shoulders, legs, and just about every other muscle in your body that the deadlift targets in the process. Not a good thing!

Lifting straps completely eliminate this problem by making sure that you reach muscular failure in the major muscle groups that you are intending to target rather than on your forearms and grip. They can be used effectively for almost every back exercise or any other lift where the grip is of concern.

The main argument against lifting straps is the idea that they are a “crutch” and will negatively affect the development of grip strength and forearm size.

Let’s get real here. What would you prefer, greater muscle mass and strength in your lats and upper back (and just about every other muscle group on your body) or greater ability to crack open a jar of pickles? Take your pick.

The positive effect that lifting straps will have on your overall muscle mass and strength gains will far outweigh any negative effect that they have on your forearms and grip. Besides, you can easily incorporate specific forearm movements into your routine to develop your grip strength and forearm size.

If you aren’t using lifting straps already, get on it. You can find them at almost any store that sells sports or fitness equipment or you can order them online. They sell for about 10 or 15 bucks and are well worth the price.

To learn how to put those lifting straps to the best use possible by implementing the most effective workout routines available, visit MuscleGainTruth

You’ll be able to instantly download my well-known “26-Week Workout Plan” and can also view a full video exercise database to learn how to maximize the effectiveness from your exercises in the gym.

Lear more about the author Sean Nalewanyj

(see our Full Muscle Gain Truth Review)

Popularity: 33% [?]