Steps to Blast your way towards Gains!
Steps to Blast your way towards Muscle Gain
By: Christian Bonanno
Step # 1: Limited Amount of Energy
It is highly recommended that you train using high intensity for a period of approximately 20 - 30 minutes. This is so because scientists have discovered that the energy the blood contains as sugars starts to deplete after about 20 minutes. One has to be tricky enough to cheat the body by using this fact. Do as much intensive training as possible during a 30 minute period. The exercises should be repeated until failure to maximise muscle growth.
Step # 2: Training Frequency
Everybody needs to rest, especially when one needs to bulk up. Whilst you’re sleeping, the body gets energy and heals itself from the training. Lack of rest may result in one losing muscle tissue instead of gaining it. Sleep at least 8 hours a day.
Step # 3: Food Intake
If you are skinny and would like to bulk up, one of the most important things one must not forget to do is eating. When one starts to train, the body will need more carbohydrates, protein and fat. The foods chosen must be high quality food which bulk you up (meat, beans, egg whites, rice…) not food which only get you fat (sweets, food high in sugar).
I am going to give you a simple example, excerpted from one of Vince DelMonte’s newsletters. If you only have a budget of $100,000 you cannot build a house worth $150,000. The same applies to the amount of food one has to eat. One can’t gain muscle weight by eating low quality food.
Step # 4: Amount of cardio
People, sometimes argue about the fact that cardio is only needed when one needs to get slim. This, however, is a very common mistake. Cardio is important even when you are bulking up. The amount of cardio needs to be looked after.
The advantages of cardio are various:
i) Cardio makes your heart stronger. Your heart is vital to be strong if you are going to have a big, muscular body.
ii) Cardio increases your lung capacity, thus your training sessions will start to get easier for you.
iii) Cardio decreases your amount of stress.
iv) Cardio improves blood circulation throughout one’s body.
v) Cardio increases bone density.
vi) Cardio increases you metabolism.
If you are trying to bulk up, I recommend you to do 20 minutes of cardio three times a week. This won’t burn too much calories and you will still benefit from the above advantages.
Step # 5: Heavy Weights - High Repetitions
When one trains using light weights, the body itself thinks that it doesn’t need to build any extra muscle because the weight used to train is already light for the muscle. Thus when using light weights, the body will start to burn body fat instead of build muscle.
In order to build muscle, one has to use heavy weights and the repetitions should be set high (about 6 – 12 repetitions each set).
You must keep in mind that throughout every session, your body must get approximately 5% better than the previous session. This might obviously involve in you doing any of the following:
i) Lifting heavier weights
ii) Doing more repetitions
iii) Doing more sets
iv) Doing your workout in less time than the previous session
Step # 6: Water is the driver of Nature – Leonardo da Vinci
As Leonardo da Vinci said, water is the driver of nature. Water also needs to drive your body, which is itself part of nature. After every workout, sweat comes out, which means that water is leaving your own body. This water must then be replaced by other water. I recommend you to try and drink 3 – 4 litres of water daily, especially whilst you are training and on hot days.
Step # 7: Intensity Cycling
It is important that you take a week off from training every 8 – 12 weeks, or at least train for a week at a very low intensity rate. This technique is vital if you want to prevent yourself from overtraining.
Step # 8: Setting Goals and being Patient
Do you want to look like a bodybuilder from the Golden Era of Bodybuilding? Do you want to start looking like Greek gods? Set your goal to one specific bodybuilder (for example Charles Atlas). When you have set your goals, be patient and train consistently. If you feel exhausted or don’t feel in the mood of training, ask yourself the following question: “If my goal bodybuilder were me, would he have missed the training session?”. You will obviously answer “no”, and get on with the training. You must also be patient all the time. There was never a bodybuilder who woke up as a skinny or as a fat guy, and by the time he was going to bed he was looking just like a bodybuilder would.
The above tips are there to guide you on your way to become a professional bodybuilder. The myths below include the ideas which many people have about bodybuilding and which were the downfalls for those people who in the past tried to become athletes but because they were influenced by other people, turned out to grow up into too thin or too fat people.
Bodybuilding Myths
Myth # 1: Feel the burning effect in your muscles if you want to build muscle
This is absolutely NOT TRUE. When you feel a burning sensation in the muscles, it doesn’t mean that you are building more muscle. The burning sensation is simply felt when lactic acid is released in the muscle tissue whilst exercising.
Myth # 2: Pumping up to increase more muscle
It is true that when you feel good when you make a good post-workout pump. However, it is not true that the more pumped a workout is, the more effective the workout is.
Myth # 3: The more you work out, the more you will grow
Some people think that the more they train, the more muscle they will gain fast. This myth, is the downfall of most people who tried to become professionals in a very few time. Training more than normal, leads for the body to get over trained. When a body part is worked out properly, the muscle is said to take 5 – 10 days to heal completely.
Myth # 4: Considerable amount of sit-ups will result in you getting a fat-free tummy.
When you need to decrease belly fat, you will not remove the fat by doing sit-ups and crunches. By doing these exercises, you will be strengthening your belly muscles (which is still important, in other aspects) not burning fat.
Fat, first starts to get burned from the latest food intake. Example, your body will first burn your last few meals. Secondly, your body starts to burn the fat which has been in your body for the least time, and finally the body will start to burn your fat which has been in your body most. Normally, your belly is the first which starts to get fat, therefore you have to get rid of the other body fat before. To do this, you have to do cardio training sessions like cycling, fast walking, running, and rope skipping.
Myth # 5: Having large muscles, will make your muscles tighter and decrease your flexibility.
This lie has been going on since the 1930s. The “muscle-bound lie” was invented by companies which were selling isometric exercise programs. These companies’ goal was to convince people not to do any exercises which concern barbells. This lie was invented simply because it wasn’t practical to send barbells by mail.
Myth # 6: If the pros do it, so should I
You can’t compare your body with that of a professional bodybuilder. If you are training drug-free, your body can’t heal itself as fast as the bodybuilders’. Another concept is that their body is supported with more muscle to lift the heavy weights than the amount of muscle that you have.
Myth # 7: The best way to build muscles is to keep them guessing
This bodybuilding philosophy comes from people who don’t know the muscle growth process. Muscles do not respond with growth just by performing another type of exercise. Muscles only understand the concept of pushing, pulling, extending, and contracting. They will not start to grow larger if instead of lifting iron weights you start to lift bags of sand, if they obviously weigh the same.
Myth # 8: You have to train more than three times a week using weights if you want to gain muscle
It is true that most steroid-assisted bodybuilders train daily using weights; however we people who don’t take any steroids aren’t doing anything wrong if we train three times a week using weights. You will still gain loads of muscle if you work until failure on each set and each repetition in your routine. Remember that you should think quality not quantity. The only problem one might find is keeping fat-free on this training routine. Therefore, one had to keep himself stricter as to what food he should eat.
Myth # 9: Weightlifting equipment should be used in order to stimulate the most muscle gain
Scientific research has shown that most of today’s exercise machines lack the proper eccentric component of an exercise that’s necessary to stimulate muscle tissue to grow. For reference, you may read the article “Research Confirms that Bodybuilders Should Pay Heavy Attention to Negative Rips” written by Bill Phillips on page 18 of the February/March issue of MM2K. To date, the most effective means of resistance exercises ever invented are those using free weights like dumbbells and barbells. These exercises include the dead lift, the shoulder press, the bench press, and the squat.
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