Daily Bodybuilding Tips

From: ThaiMarathon

Are you searching for that “one” solution that blasts your plateau and sends your muscles into an explosive growth phase all over again?

The solution to your problem has been under your nose all along…

I’m not going to waste your time with “exercise variety” and “switching rep schemes”, because chances are, you already know these common techniques and use them in your workout routines anyway.

What I want to share with you is something fairly known in the weight lifting industry, but seldom used correctly and maximized to its full muscle-building potential.

The technique that can instantly force your muscles into growth is eccentric training, better known as “negatives”.

Chances are, you have already heard of negatives, but you probably don’t know how to use them for maximum muscle growth.

WHAT IS IT?

A concentric movement is your typical movement, in which the muscle fibers shorten to “lift” the weight.

Eccentric, or negative, movements are when you lower the weight, or bring it back to the starting position. It is the opposite of “lifting” a weight.

Negative movements unleash the power of the “other half” of your repetitions, the lowering phase. In an eccentric contraction, the muscle fibers lengthen to lower the weight.

Now, it is not enough to simply lower the weight slowly in your regular exercises. For maximum benefit, you must isolate and do negative movements alone!

WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS?

Here is a brief list of the benefits of eccentric (negative) training:

1) Increase in Training Weight: You can add a lot more weight when doing a negative movement. It is much easier to lower a heavier weight than it is to “lift” that same weight, which means that you can increase your training poundages instantly.

2) Neural Adaptations: After adapting to your regular concentric, or “lifting” movements, you can shock your muscles and nerves into adapting to a whole new negative movement. This causes confusion at the neuro-muscular level and forces you muscles into growth.

3) Muscle-Fiber Breakdown: Eccentric (negative) movements have been scientifically shown to cause greater muscle trauma and breakdown than regular concentric movements, resulting in greater muscle gains.

4) Type II Muscle-Fiber Activation: A study published last year concluded that maximum weight eccentric movements recruit more Type II Muscle fibers, those responsible for strength and speed.

5) Long Term Strength Gains: New research also shows that maximal eccentric movements cause neural adaptations that result in longer lasting strength gains.

THE BEST WAY TO DO ECCENTRIC (NEGATIVE) TRAINING

1) Choose a resistance level about 30% greater than what you would normally lift, and slowly lower that weight from the top position for a period of 3-5 seconds. MAKE SURE YOU HAVE A PARTNER!

2) Perform 2-3 sets for larger muscle groups such as chest, shoulders, and back. Perform only 1-2 sets for smaller muscle groups such as biceps and triceps.

3) Rest for 3-5 minutes between sets, because negative training is very intense on your muscles.

QUICK TIPS

1) It is best to dedicate one day out of the week and do a whole workout routine focused on negative movements only.

2) If you can hold, or lower a weight for longer than 5 seconds, consider increasing the weight as it may be too light. If it takes you less than 3 seconds to lower a weight, consider reducing the pounds as the weight may be too heavy.

3) Don’t overtrain! Listen to your body…Stick to less sets, and once you reach a set where it’s taking you less than 3 seconds to lower a weight, STOP!

4) If you don’t have a partner, you can train uni-laterally, using only one side of your body. This can be achieved with dumbbells, machines, and cables. Your non-active side would spot or support your active side.

CONCLUSION

As mentioned earlier, eccentric, or negative, movements have been shown to cause greater muscle-breakdown, neural adaptations, & recruitment of Type II Muscle Fibers.

This means that you can experience better muscle growth, greater strength gains, & more explosiveness.

Make sure to dedicate one day a week to do an entire workout routine focused on negative movements only.

You now have the knowledge to enter the fast-lane of muscle growth. How fast you want to go is entirely up to you…

Until next time, have an absolutely muscle-blasting workout routine!

Popularity: 2% [?]

One of the great things about weight lifting workouts is the feeling you get after your workout. And that feeling, that full sensation you have in your muscles is what you're after when you're in the gym.

A lot of guys that haven't been working out very long think the ultimate objective in the gym is to lift as much weight as humanly possible and that's just not true. If that's your objective or goal then you're a power lifter not a bodybuilder.

A bodybuilder is anyone who is interested in building muscle through the use of weight lifting workouts. Unfortunately when most people hear the word bodybuilder they immediately think of the roided up freaks in FLEX magazine.

Your goal may be to be as big as those guys in FLEX magazine or it may be to just add enough muscles to pick up more chicks whatever the case... you're a bodybuilder.

And your number one goal as a bodybuilder is to work your muscles not to swing all kinds of weight around and look like an idiot in the process.

Bodybuilding isn't for chumps and your weight lifting workouts should be painful. If you hear someone tell you they lke working out then they're obviously doing something wrong or they're just not working out hard enough.

Weight lifting workouts aren't fun. They're not supposed to be fun. The muscles you get from the workouts and the feeling of invincibility are the reason your workout and just remember that when you're in the gym the key is to work your muscles not to make your ego feel better by moving a lot of weight without concentrating all of that movement into one specific muscle.

They key to building muscle with weight lifting workouts is completely fatiguing a muscle. You can accomplish this by using strict movements in your workouts. The easiest way to do this is by using a really light weight and repping out to like 25-50 reps.

When you get to like 50 reps you should feel some type of burning sensation in your muscles and that's the feeling you're going after. That's called the burn and when you feel that burn you know that you've worked out a particular muscle group and that your weight lifting workouts are working.

Go for the burn! Once you feel comfortable with your form and you know how to properly execute an exercise then you can increase the amount of weight you are using in your weight lifting workouts.

Popularity: 3% [?]

When it comes to nutritional supplements most manufacturers would like you to believe that every product they manufacture is a must have product that is necessary for you to build muscle. Depending on where you're at in your stage of working out you've probably already figured out that supplements aren't necessary for you to grow but they can oftentimes make it easier for you to consume all the nutrients you need to be able to grow. Let's face it, it's not easy to have to eat six meals a day and include a protein source in every single meal because that's a lotta chicken breast!

All kidding aside while not absolutely necessary there are a couple of nutritional supplements that I would consider to be necessary because #1 without one of these you just won't grow lean, hard muscle and #2 without this supplement you just won't grow as fast.

Without further delay here are two nutritional supplements I absolutely think you need to be taking.

Nutritional Supplement #1 Protein

Fact. Your muscles are made of protein and water and your muscles need protein to rebuild and grow. A lot of people have a misconception that after you work out in the gym your muscle will grow because of the workout...

That's just wrong. When you work out in the gym all you do is break down the muscle tissue. Outside of the gym is where the muscle growth takes place if you feed your body enough protein to sustain growth and that usually means one gram of protein for every pound of body weight. This is why a protein nutritional supplement is so important.

If you make a fist and picture a piece of chicken breast roughly about the size of your fist you're looking at approximately 25 grams of protein in that chicken breast. If you weigh 200 pounds you would have to eat 8 pieces of chicken breast to get the protein you need daily. This is why I consider a protein nutritional supplement damn near essential if not necessary. You need protein to grow, you won't grow without it an it's almost impossible for you to "eat" all of that protein through solid meals unless you're a professional bodybuilder and that's what you do all day.

Nutritional Supplement #2 Creatine

I'll put it to you this way. Start taking creatine today (about 5-10 grams a day) and in about a week you'll gain about 5-10 pounds. A lot of guys will argue that this is all water weight and it is but all that water is being stored in your muscles making them look big and full in the process and I don't know of many guys that would consider that to be a problem.

And that's not even really where the true benefit of creatine comes in. The true purpose behind creatine is to give you increased strength and stamina in the gym which will resuls in bigger muscles. If you're just staring I would recommend taking creatine just yet. First you want to build up a tolerance to the weight completely natural while only supplementing with protein and when you hit your first plateau (stage where you stop growing) you have the creatine as your secret weapon to help you bust through your first plateau which usually puts a lot of guys into retirement.

Nutritional supplemements are every where these days it seems and with the claims become more and more fantastic it toughs to decipher what works and what doesn't. Protein and creatine supplements have been around for some time now and they are proven to be effective for just about anyone who takes them. Protein is essential for growth and creatine just turbo charges your results.

Popularity: 86% [?]