Free Muscle Building & Health

When you are putting together a workout program that has the purpose of building muscle you will also need to include some sort of cardio exercise within that program. Of course a lot of people think of endless hours of jogging on a track as a way of cardio exercise but it doesn't have to be that way. A lot of people think that you have to work extremely hard on a stairmaster, elliptical or treadmill in order to get the right cardio exercise. But that doesn't have to be the case - it's not so much working hard but working smart. Smart cardio can also be called fasted steady state cardio.

Fasted steady state cardio is a low intensity type of cardio and it will consist of briskly walking and usually done on an empty stomach. They can last from 30 minutes to an hour and usually done in the morning. This can be done on a treadmill, the track or somewhere else outside.

The reason why it is best to do this in the morning is because this is when our body's insulin levels are lower and this is what tries to protect the fat in our bodies and if you do this in the morning it is far easier to combat the fat without the interference of the insulin.

Even though there is a lot of talk about high intensity vs low intensity and the burning of calories, remember that this is just part of your overall training program and you should worry more about high intensity when you are lifting weights. Besides you can lose more fat at the lower intensity levels than you would with higher intensity which may burn off more calories, it's the fat that you want to be dealing with when it comes to the cardio exercise.

Another thing is that the low intensity is far gentler on your joints. When you do high intensity such as jogging your joints are being abused immensely by the force of the jogging and hitting the ground that you are running on. If you are also starting your workout because you are overweight, the low intensity is far better because if you do high intensity you are also adding the extra weight to the joints and this will add additional strain on your joints and could cause a lot of damage. The low intensity is not only good for the joints but the heart will benefit as well.

Like anything new, make sure that you check with your doctor to make sure that you are healthy enough to take on both your weight lifting and your cardio exercises. You may have to start with the low intensity cardio and then move onto the weights after you are in a little better shape.

If you are looking to add muscle to your body it's going to take the right amount of weight gain and the right amount of hard work to get it accomplished. It doesn't mean that you have to go to a gym as long as you provide your body with the right kind of resistance that it requires to add muscle. However, you need to understand there simply is no short cuts you can take to add muscle. There is no special diet, no special pill or fancy formula that's going to work. The only way to do it is to lift weights on a regular basis.

If you lift dumb bells you will cause a dramatic effect on your muscles and their mass, so this can be a very good thing to add to your weight lifting program. No matter what kind of a body you have or how little muscle that you have at the time you start if you have a good dumb bell training program in place you are going to increase the size of your muscles.

The first thing you need to do is to make a baseline where you want to start from. Make sure to pick an amount of weight that you can lift eight to ten times. These are the dumb bells exercises that you should include in this:

• Bicep curls
• Shoulder presses
• Chest presses
• Triceps extensions.

The weight for each of these will need to vary and each one of these exercises will need their own weight baselines. So make sure that you figure this out before you go and start the program.

Once you have your baselines for all of your exercises you should lift the baselines twice a week for about two weeks. You should do each set of exercises by doing three sets of eight to 10 reps for each exercise.

After the two weeks you should gradually increase the weight for each exercise. Do the exact same thing with the new weight for another two weeks. As you increase the amount of weights, your strength is going to begin to increase as well, which means that you'll be able to lift heavier amounts each time. In order to continue to stimulate your muscles to grow, you will need to continue to increase the weight as much as your body can handle. Always doing the three sets of eight to ten reps each time for each exercise.

As you continue this type of procedure you will begin to notice a difference in your muscles and once you get to where you want to be, you can then continue to do the exercises at the highest weight you reached in order to maintain your current muscle state.

It's out of the bag and no longer a secret, the American diet consists of more than 30% fat, this is according to the American Heart Association. Teens are the ones that are the most susceptible to gain a bunch of weight because of all the easy access to all the junk food available in schools and everywhere else. Today there are also so many things that make life so much easier that a teen barely has to move off of the couch to be entertained. But if you are a teen that has decided to lose some fat and gain some muscle, here are a few things you should do to help you do just that.

The very first thing you should do is go see a doctor and get yourself a physical. Just because you are a teen does not mean you shouldn't get a physical and get the advice of a doctor before you go on any kind of diet or exercise program.

You also need to understand that you are only human and that you need to set realistic goals. Goals that you know you can reach. The last thing you want to do is set yourself up for failure. Try not to set your goal for any more than losing two pounds a week. This is the healthiest way for anyone to lose weight including teens. Anything over that is considered not very healthy for your body.

The next thing you need to do is stop eating all of that fatty food. Stop eating so much greasy pizza and hamburgers. Try and limit your fat intake to about 3 teaspoons each day. You need to also stop that late night snack eating. You know you do, and you really need to make that a big “No no” on your diet and exercise plan.

You need to include exercise in your program. That's right, turn off the Playstation and get out and do some real exercise. The best way to do this is consider joining some sort of program at a gym. This will give you some structure and a variety of different kinds of machines that you can work with. Once you find a gym you like and can afford you are going to create a consistent workout.

Consistency is important and once you have a workout that you like you need to consistently do it and since you are a teen you should do the workout at least four times a week. The length of your workout should be at least 45 minutes each session. You need to make sure that you also include some cardio in the workout as well. A treadmill is a good place to start and then you can work on moving to other things after you have gotten used to the treadmill.

A good thing to do is to talk to a personal trainer at the gym so they can help you learn how to use all of the different equipment and they should also be willing to help you figure out a routine for your workout, something that is right for your needs. This way you will have someone to rely upon in case you need help or advice during your workouts. It will also help to cut down on any possible injuries.

If you follow these suggestions by combining a good diet and exercise you may see a difference as soon as 30 days and you will discover it's not so bad to exercise, lose fat and gain muscle.

It's always very important that before you go off adding any type of new supplement to your regular diet that you do your research on whatever it is that you are considering. It doesn't matter if it claims to be the safest thing in the world, it does not mean there aren't side affects and you should be away of them. That is no different with whey protein. If you are planning to add this to your diet to help you to build more muscle, you need to know that there are side affects.

Number one thing you should know about whey protein and that it is not good for those who are lactose intolerant. If you are wanting to use this protein you will need to make sure that you get whey protein isolate and not just whey protein. This is because the isolate will contain less than 1% lactose, which is the sugar in milk. Regular whey has about 6%, which may not be too much for some but if used in large doses it could bother someone who is lactose intolerant.

Another important thing to note is that no matter what kind of protein that you are considering adding to your diet it is not good for your body to absorb an over abundance of it. If you have too much protein in your body your kidneys will not be able to hand it and there are two things that could happen if your kidneys are unable to process too much protein.

1. Too much protein and the inability for your kidneys to process it can cause your blood to become acidic. Your blood should never be above the 7.0 range on the pH scale. So, when this happens your body tries to correct this by releasing calcium into the blood so the calcium can pick up the byproducts of the protein in your blood turning the blood pH back to neutral where it should be. This all sounds fine and dandy until you realize that you now a bunch of little pieces of calcium floating around in your blood that needs to be gotten rid of. And where does that go? Right back to the kidneys and suddenly you have, you guessed it, kidney stones.

2. The other thing that can happen if you have too much whey protein is that you can go into what is called ketosis. No matter what you have heard about ketosis, know this, it is really bad on your kidneys. Your body will burn off fat to use as energy but you end up starving your body for the carbohydrates it needs. People also cause more problems when they add protein shakes to the mix and cause the body to become confused and doesn't know what to do anymore. Your body will begin to get confused about whether to take care of carbs or fats.

Just remember that it is simply very important for you to check with your doctor and do research before you add any kind of supplements to your diet. It's always better to be safe than sorry.

If you are just starting out trying to put on some muscle you may not be as experienced as others in your local gym who have been doing things in the gym for years. If you are really interested in building your pectorals, triceps, shoulder muscles and biceps you will probably want to try out the bench press machine as soon as you get there. But if you have never used one before you might want to follow these steps in order to get the most out of your workout.

You should look for a bench press machine that can be adjusted to be on an incline. You are more than likely going to want to be able to move your position often when you are trying to work with the different muscle groups during your workout.

Once you are ready, sit down on the bench comfortably and make sure that your back is up against the bench's rest. You will then need to use the weight pin in order to select the right level of the weight that you want to use for this particular workout. If you are new at this, it's really a good idea if you start off light and then work your way up to the heavier weights. It's important to remember to make sure that the pin is placed completely into the nub that is used as the positioning guide.

Now you will take the bench press bars and hold them firmly in your hands. Generally the machines will have two of these bars and they are connected to an axis that is under the machine. Some however, will have two levers that are independent and they will make sure the weight is evenly distributed to each arm.

Once you have your grip you should take in a breath just before you actually begin to press the weight. It is very important that you know how to breathe properly when you are bench pressing anything. It is vital when you are trying to do any kind of strength training or muscle building.

Next you will go ahead and press the weight forward. You should use a very steady and even type of motion to make sure that the weight is evenly distributed to maximize the effort for both of your arms. If things are out of balance it's going to do more harm than good during your workout.

You should next bring the weights to stopping just a little before your elbows are locking. If you lock your elbows while you are doing this you could cause some serious injury to them. Plus if you hold the weight for a bit before locking your elbows is going to make the exercise more effective.

Now you can lower your arms back to their neutral position but make sure that you do this slowly. All the while you should be breathing at a steady and even pace. Whatever you do, never hold your breath while you are working out with weights.

Once you have finished with that you simply repeat the same process over and over until you feel you have had enough reps. Make sure not to overdo it. No pain, no gain is a myth so it's important to remember that.

If you are trying to get into weight lifting because you want to build muscle, don't make the mistake of telling some people that you are having problems with trying to gain muscle. More than likely they are going to turn to you and tell you to eat more. Although you do need to eat a lot to be able to gain muscle, eating way too much isn't going to get it done.

A lot of people are going to try and tell you that in order to build those muscles you need to gain weight so the best way that you can do this is eat a lot no matter what it is, pizza, candy bars, steaks, hamburgers you name it, they tell you that's the way to build up that weight gain to increase your muscles. This however is a myth. If you eat everything in sight you'll gain weight alright, but not the kind that you want to gain. So you need to eat a lot of healthy foods not junk foods.

Are you doing far too many repetitions that are considered low with a lot of weight thinking this is going to help you bulk up? If you are, well you can stop right now. The low repetition with high weight as compared to the high repetition with low weight isn't going to make any difference in the size of your muscles. As long as you are simply pushing each set of repetitions to the max for yourself, you will overload the muscles and they are going to grow and get stronger.

A lot of different magazines and DVDs try to lead you to believe that if there is no pain there will be no gain. Just another myth. If you happen to keep pushing yourself as hard as some of those guys in those magazines and recordings of course you are going to get as big as them. Not. These people, at least the ones not taking illegal drugs, are genetically predisposed to being able to carry this kind of muscle weight on their body frames. You also need to realize that these people also have been lifting weights for years and years so you can't compare yourself to them, you more than likely will never get to that level. Just remember as long as you are eating enough of the right foods and working out three to five times a week, you will begin to bulk up and bulk up to the point of which is good for your own personal body frame and genetics.

Many bodybuilders will proclaim over and over again that if you don't stock up on lots of protein that you simply can't build muscle bulk. Even though protein is one of the main building blocks for muscle, eating tons of protein is going to guarantee that you are going to get more muscle because of it. Your body needs just a certain amount of protein each day and going over that is not going to change things. Since we cannot store excess protein, nor can we get rid of it, the only thing left for the excess protein to do is to turn to fat.