Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Jillian Michaels Diet & Workout Plan Review

Jillian Michaels is one of the most famous personal trainers in the business today.  The Biggest Loser has catapulted her to the top of the line in the fitness industry, and her workouts have received top billing.  After watching Michaels help people shed weight on television, people want to see if she can work the same magic on them.  When she came out with the Jillian Michaels Diet & Exercise Plan, we decided to review it in order to see if it lived up to the hype.

This plan does not reveal a secret to weight loss.  Weight will not quickly disappear from followers of the plan.  It works on changing the habits and behaviors of those who use it.  With a focus on food and exercise, it teaches people the foods to eat and the workouts to use in order to lose weight.

It also focuses on dealing with triggers and other things that might cause you to gain weight.  The plan works to have a comprehensive approach to weight loss.  Because of that, it is not designed for those who just want to take the weight off through diet and exercise.  People have to be willing to invest some extra time into the process.

Upon further examination, we found many people who had used this workout.  What we discovered was the plan does work, but it is not a magic potion.  It is going to take hard work and effort in order to lose weight this way.  Also, it deals with a lot of the emotional issues, so people who just want to hit the gym might get a little frustrated.

This plan can work for those who want a complete solution for weight loss, and also those who want a built in support system.  People who saw the best results were those who were looking to make real changes in their lives. You can also check out in-depth review of Jillian Michaels Weight Loss Plan to help you decide if this program is right for you.

Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Diet for a Hard Gainer

Are you a hard gainer?  If you hve been going to the gym for about three months and can't seem to put on any weight, you may be a hardgainer.

The first thing you need to look at is your diet. A hard gainer diet is a little bit different then the average bodybuilder. Don't be discouraged, it just means you have to focus a little more. you need to pay strict attention to a high calorie, muscle building diet. Most bodybuilders eat about 6 meals a day. As a hard gainer, you are going to want to consume around 8 meals a day. This may sound a little difficult, but it can be easily acomplished.

To begin with, don't try to start off eating 8 meals every single day. Work your way up to it. If you go from 4 meals a day to 8 meals in the same week you'll put on unwanted body fat. If your eating 4 meals a day try adding an additional meal every week, and in 4 weeks you will be on target.

Scatter your meals evenly throughout the day, eating about every 2-3 hours. Right after you wake up you should eat your first meal of the day. Your body has been fasting all night, and is now ready for a high protein meal. Your last meal should be just before you go to bed. Don't believe those garbage stories about not eating after 7:00pm. Space the rest of your food out between your first and last meal.

You can't miss a single meal. As a hardgainer your going to need all the calories you can fit in your stomach. Use protein shakes to supplement the meals you can't get to. Lets be honest, not everyone has enough time in the day to eat like that. Having a few of protein shakes to supplement the meals you miss is a super alternative.

Keep records of how much you eat. Because a lot of muscle builders forget to keep records of what they consume, the amount of carbohydrates and proteins they take in, or the overall fat and calorie intake they make, a lot of them don’t gain muscle at the expected rate. Any miscalculation in your calorie-intake is a risk not worth taking. So keep track of your food consumption. This is what every hard gainer should always keep in mind to ensure success in their bodybuilding diet endeavor.

To learn more about muscle building click here Hard Gainer

Monday, January 5, 2009

Build Muscle Fast Principles

Most people's first instinct when they get the idea to get into shape or want to building muscle fast is to find a local gym, sign up and spend a couple hours at the gym and hope the rest will come naturally, after all lifting weights isn't rocket science now is it.

But after a couple of weeks ask yourself do you see any noticeable gains? If you've never been to gym or it's been months or years since you last entered a gym you should see some gains however these will plateau quite quickly.

The reason for this is that you've shocked your body and it has produced a natural response to a. burn more energy (calories) to cater for the increased workload and b. testosterone to cater for the repairing of the muscles broken down during exercises.

The danger of this is that after these short lived gains you lose motivation and focus and before long you skipping gym sessions or have given up completely.

To ensure you stay focused and achieve your desired goals the Build Muscle Fast Blueprint Principles must be followed.

These Build Muscle Fast Blueprint principles are:

1. Set Goals

You need to have a clear objective. To set your objectives you will need a scale and a tape measure, note down your weight and your key measurements i.e. biceps, chest, back, waist, thighs and calves.  For each of these actuals set yourself a reasonable short term goal and a reasonable long term goal.

You will come back to these goals week after week to see how you progressing against your short term goals and your long term goals.

2. Plan

You need to know what exercises you will be performing prior to arriving at the gym. Dont make the mistake of making up your gym routine at the gym. Be prepared. Whether it’s a 3,4,5 or 6 day program you need to be clear on what exercises and therefore what body parts you will be focused on for each day of you program.

Without this you will wonder around the gym aimlessly and ultimately not achieve an effective workout.

3. Warm Up First

Most people don’t warm up properly when they start training. If you going to be training your upper body on a particular day then spending 5 minutes on a stationary bike will get the blood flowing to your legs but do nothing to prepare your upper body for its workout. Make sure you drive blood to the right body parts during your warm up.

This will help prepare them for the exercises and in that case you will be able to train harder and you will avoid unnecessary injuries.

4. Correct Breathing

Breathing is often overlooked and often not done at all during some exercises which is dangerous, by this I mean don’t hold your breath in when training, make sure you Breathe OUT when the weight is been driven up or out and Breathe IN when you bring the weight back to its starting position.

5. Variety

You want to mix your exercises up to avoid yourself from getting stale and your muscles from stagnating. If you find yourself feeling negative about bench press one week switch to dumbbell flies. Your body and muscles will thank you for the change and you will see better results.  

6. Sets and Repetitions (reps)

You want to mix the number of sets and reps you doing for the type of exercise and results you after.  Good results can be achieved by incorporate low rep sets of 4 -6 with heavy weights, middle range 8 - 12 with slightly lighter weights and high reps 15 - 30 with light weights.

7. Free Weights vs Machine Exercises

Free weights if available should be your first choice as these train more muscle groups than machines that isolate a specific muscle.  When using free weights especially with a new weight make sure you have a spotter who can help you if you need assistance lifting the weight.

8. Exercise Timing

When lifting weights the weight should always be controlled without the use of momentum and hence cheating the muscle of a good work out, you want to slow the exercise down. To achieve this use a count of 3 to 4 seconds. Count 1 second to raise the weight, 1 second to hold the weight at the top of the contraction and 2 seconds to lower the weight to the start position.

9. Stretching

Stretching the muscles been worked during and after an exercise will help the muscle recover and improve the overall muscle shape. Make sure you stretch the muscle correctly and don’t force or bounce which can cause damage to the ligaments and muscles.

10. Step things Up

After two weeks of following the same routine you will find that your body has adapted to the weight and exercise and you will need to add additional weights to continue the muscle growth process. Start by adding 10% on top of your current weight if you feel you can do more reps after your last rep of that exercise, add additional weight until you can’t.

11. Get Advice or Ask for Help

You don’t have to go it alone, ask for help from other knowledgeable gym goers, doctors, physiotherapists and personal trainers all these people can advise you on the best exercises based on your objectives.

12. Nutrition

This is most probably one of the most important principles and the one that we all tend to fail at. The reason we fail at it is because we think it’s complicated, or that we will starve ourselves or we will eat too much. If you follow the guidelines based on what you want to achieve its not that bad. There are numerous resources and programs available that will give you meal plans to assist you to build muscles fast.

The important thing here is you cannot grow muscle mass if you do not feed the muscle growth.

For more information on nutrition and exercise tips visit Build Muscle Fast Blueprint.

Sunday, January 4, 2009

Advanced Techniques for Muscle Building

If you are like most bodybuilders the straight sets you have been doing have made noticeable changes in you physique, but now you have plateaued. You have been using the same muscle building techniques that have brought you great results week after week and month after month. It's inevitable that sooner or later your body will become used to you normal training routine and refuse to grow. Your muscles have built up a tolerance to your Weight Training Programs .

What now? Its time for advanced muscle building techniques. You need change to keep your body guessing and your muscles growing.

One of the simplest and easiest ways to encourage new muscle growth is to change the time of day you work out. Your body is a marvelous machine that adapts to routines that are repetitive. Your body knows to expect that every Tuesday at 8:00am you will be at the gym doing your usual routine. A simple change in the time you exercise can very often kick start your body into new growth.

Change the order of your exercises. Do you remember the first time you started your routine? I'll bet your muscles were pretty sore the first couple of weeks. As time passes by your muscles become used to the same routine, and that soreness decreases over time. Your muscles are building up a resistance to your routine. To shock your muscles into new growth change the order of your routine. For arguments sake lets say you are always stating off with the bench press and then performing incline dumbbell benches. Change the order and see how your muscles respond.

Try changing your reps and sets. This is one of the est ways to increase the intensity of your routines. If your used to doing 3 sets of 8 reps on the squat rack experiment with adding an additional set at the end of your routine. Along with this, change up your rep ranges. In the above example in the last set on the squat rack drop the weight 20lbs and increases your reps from 8 to 15. This should make your legs burn!

Try sticking some negatives at the end of each set. This is a great way to fully exhaust a muscle group. Certain exercises like curls are great for this. Once your muscle group has reached positive failure for a set, perform a few negatives at the end for total failure. To prevent unnecessary injury, make sure you have a spotter when performing negatives.

For more information on Muscle Building click here Muscle Building Program

Saturday, January 3, 2009

Bodybuilding For Young Women and Men

Bodybuilding is the practice or the process of building an individual's muscles to its fullest extent. This process of building muscles will need an influx of exercises and supplements in order for the muscles to reach their full potential in a shorter time than it should take. The bodybuilder, people who wish to go through the process of building muscles to their fullest capacity, often go to the gym and stay their for hours on end.

Adolescents In Bodybuilding

Many people start young with bodybuilding. The reason for this may be that it is best to develop the muscles to their fullest capacity while the muscles are still young and have the capacity to grow more. Many older adults also enter bodybuilding but there is a certain extent to which older adults can build their muscles and stay healthy.

Young adults may actually be more interested in bodybuilding as opposed to older adults because there is a certain pull for young adults to make their bodies bigger. Many young adult males like to have big muscles and they enjoy the feeling of getting bigger as they exercise. Bodybuilding also attracts young females but there are not a lot of these as opposed to the males.

Adolescents are attracted to bodybuilding due to the omniscient thought that if you are bigger you will not be picked on as much in school. The problem of bullying often drives young adults to seek avenues of defense. Some of these young adults get hooked to bodybuilding and really see it as the sport as it should be seen.

Dangers Of Building The Body

The process of bodybuilding actually has no dangers as long as there is no cheating to make the body bigger in as little time as possible. The temptation of including steroids in the process of bodybuilding in order to be bigger in as shorter time is always there. Although there are governing bodies that prevent the use of steroids to build muscles faster, these are only available in games and sports events such as the Olympics etc.

For ordinary people, the choice to include steroids in their diets to supplement their bodybuilding may be necessary for many but actually not needed. It is just the need to be bigger and stronger in a short span of time that necessitates the use of illegal substances. The effects of steroids in the body can be dangerous as well as lethal which is why there is a law against using these.

Friday, January 2, 2009

How to Do Bodybuilding Workout at Home?

Lot of people like to setup a gym at home for many reaosns. One may be because you just prefer to do bodybuilding workout programs on your own, in the comfort of your own home. Maybe the gym that is close to your home does not have the good equipment that you want. Whatever your reasons for building a gym at home, it could be easier than you think to have your own gym facilities at home.

You will need quite a bit of space, dependant on the equipment you will actually need. You could use your garage if you do not have a room in your house that is suitable for a home gym. Whatever room you decide to use for your home gym, it will need adequate ventilation. Also you will need at least one wall covered in mirrors, as this allows you to see if your form while exercising is correct or not. This is important, as if your form is incorrect, it could lead to permanent injuries.

Youshould have nice gym equipment, low quality equipment will break over in short time so be careful for selecting gym equipment. You should have a lot of set of weights as well. You will need an Olympic Barbell set, adjustable dumbbells, and a also a weight bench. The bench should really be an adjustable one, and it should also include a leg extension and a leg curl attachment. Having a pulldown bar attachment will be a definite plus.

You still need other equip,ment before you start. You should have what is called as a chinup bar. Then when you have reached the more advanced stages of weight training, the dumbbells will not be enough for your needs anymore. You will need an adjustable squat rack, a dip station, and what is known as a standing calf raise machine. These types of equipment are essential in an advanced home gym.

Before you start your bodybuilding workout routine at home, You should get a good advices from muscle building ebooks or personal trainer.

Thursday, January 1, 2009

7 Minute Muscle Review - Exercising Smarter Not Longer With The 7 Minute Muscle Program

Spend hours on their physique and in the gym, who in the world can take that kind of time out of their already stuffed schedule? Definitely not my wife or myself and no one I know. It's practically unfeasible for us to manage to find any time. The candid truth is that if you have seven minutes for web surfing (like reading this) or seven minutes of listening to a couple of your favorite workout songs, so who doesn't have time? If you look at the 7 minute muscle program you will realize that you can be ripped in very little time every day.

The 7 minute muscle program by Jon Benson is about burning more fat and building more muscle in a shorter amount of time. This is not something incredibly complicated, and it is certainly not a fraud. The truth is, regardless of your objectives or ability level, from massive expert body builders to novices, at most you'll need to invest 21 minutes, if you use the pro level.

As you'll see, this can help you not to waste any time and you will (not might) find you are getting exactly what you were looking for. It seems to me as a profitable situation from all quarters. You can invest the time equal to how long it takes you to shower in order to get the physique you've dreamed of and that you owe to yourself to achieve.

Because of the intensity of the work out and you will not get bored or say it is too long again, you are going to get great results and all you have to say is I will do it, NO maybe to it. Before you can even break a sweat you are half way done. It just gets easier after that. Just say something that will make you feel better about yourself. I am of the opinion that every one of us discovers the best words to help us stay focused and achieve what we desire.

If you pop in your mp3 player, it will only take a couple of songs and you will be working harder than you ever thought possible in such a little amount of time. If you put in effort into the 7 minute muscle program, you will be rewarded with the desired outcomes.

Click on the link for an unbiased consumer based 7 Minute Muscle Review.