Bigger Biceps for Beginners

Bodybuilding - Bigger Biceps for Beginners

To increase your arm size in the shortest time possible it is important that you stick to the basics. By basics, I mean the lifts that will give you the most return on your investment.

The first basic lift that you will need to focus on is the standing barbell curl. This can be preformed with either an easy-curl bar or a straight bar. While the easy-curl bar has angled grips to emphasize bicep peak, either bar is fine.

Standing with your feet shoulder width apart, grab the bar with a grip that is slightly less than shoulder width. Begin with a weight that you can comfortably move for 12-15 repetitions. Start with the weight lowered nearly to your legs but do not let your arms hang straight down. To fully lock out the arms will create too much stress on your joints.

Now, with a steady and controlled motion, bring the weight up until your biceps are in a fully contracted position. Do not swing the weight or arch your back. While swinging the weight is a form of cheating that will allow you to lift heavier weights, it will only increase the size of your ego, not your arms. Therefore, use proper form at all times.

Now, lower the weight in a controlled motion until your arms are nearly down to your hips but not fully locked out. Repeat this movement for the required 12-15 repetitions. If this is too difficult to do, reduce the amount of weight so that you can complete the entire number of reps. If it is too easy, don't cheat yourself, increase the weight. While this is a warm up set, the last few reps should still be challenging.

After you have completed this set, rack the weight and get a drink of water. Actually, you should have a bottle of water with you. You need to take about a minute to a minute and a half to rest before beginning your next set. This allows time for your muscles to replenish their glycogen reserves in order to have energy for the next set. Use this time to load more weights on the bar.

For this next set, you want an amount of weight that you can perform for 8-12 repetitions. Once again, form is critical. You will build muscle faster and have fewer injuries while using proper form. This is true for any exercise. Get to know your limits. For this set you will use a closer grip on the bar with your hands approximately 6 inches apart.

As above, adjust the amount of weight as necessary to make this a truly challenging set. After you have completed your 8-12 reps, rack the weight, take a sip of water if desired and begin to set the bar up for your third set.

This next set will be heavier than the last using an amount of weight that you can lift for only 5-8 repetitions. For this set, you will return to the shoulder width grip. Are you serious about getting massive arms? Then be sure that you are reaching positive failure before you rack the weight. Positive failure means that you simply cannot perform another repetition of the exercise with good form without assistance.

You have to work for this. The important thing is that when you do this correctly, you will be making gains while others around you are simply going through the motions. Now, after you have completed the third set, rack the weight and reduce the amount of weight on the bar by approximately 40%.

On this last set, return to the close grip with your hands about 6" apart. With this new, lighter weight, perform one last set to absolute failure. Move the weight somewhat faster than before while deliberately flexing the bicep as much as possible during every rep.

The number of repetitions preformed here is not as important as reaching absolute positive failure. When you are done, rack the weight. By now you should have a serious burn starting in you biceps. Your vascularity should be somewhat enhanced and your muscles should be full and pumped.

Add Weights to All Your Lifts Immediately

Bodybuilding - Add Weights to All Your Lifts Immediately

Most people spend way too much time and energy warming up to the point that when it is time to perform their heavy, muscle-building sets, they are too wiped out from their warm-ups. This has defeated the purpose of weight training. Lighter weights lifted, less muscle stimulation. This means less muscle growth as a result.

The single biggest mistake I see people do time and time again is that they warm up with too many sets and too many reps before attempting their heavy, results-producing sets.

If the only way a muscle will grow is through increased overload (weight) why expend so much needed energy on warm-up sets? We need to save it for the productive sets, the last one or two of the set where the weight being used is the most you can handle for four to six repetitions. Here is where true muscle stimulation occurs.

Warming-up correctly means you should acclimate your muscles to be able to handle additionally heavier weights while progressing through your sets. This means doing just enough reps on a warm-up set without tiring yourself to the point where you have no juice left to finish your heavier sets. You are allowing the muscle group being trained to acclimate to a heavier resistance and more overload without unduly fatiguing.

Learn to get rid of wasted reps and wasted sets in the gym. We are striving for efficiency. This doesn't mean you are working any less; you are just working smarter at working harder. Do not waste precious energy on repetitions that will prematurely fatigue the muscle, not make it stronger. When performing a workout for a certain muscle group, like chest, most people do more than one exercise. For example, for a chest routine, you start with flat bench press, and then proceed to incline dumbbell press, and finish with dips.

On your second exercise of the same muscle group (chest), do not start at a very light weight again and re-warm up a muscle that is already warmed up. For example, if you start with the flat bench press and then move onto the incline, do not start light again on your incline. Your muscles are already warmed up from the flat bench. Just perform a set or two of acclimation sets (six to eight reps) and then immediately get into the heavy sets. So as your workout progresses, you will become more efficient by shaving needless reps off.

Stop doing too many reps and sets before getting to the heavy ones. Involve acclimation sets on all of your exercises to get your muscles, ligaments, tendons, and joints ready for the progressive overload that's about to come.

Think quality of sets over quantity of sets. Its not the number of reps and sets that count, it is how you perform them.

Four Diet Myths

Bodybuilding - 4 Diet Myths

Myth 1: Certain Food Groups Should Be Eliminated - Many fad diets emphasize the elimination of certain food groups or eating primarily only one or two food groups. Your body needs a balanced diet that supplies you with the diverse nutrients that will keep you healthy.

Your body needs water, vitamins, protein, fat, minerals, energy (carbohydrates), fiber, and oxygen. Eating a diet rich in fruits, veggies, grains, nuts, and seeds will help you rebuild your immune system, which will in turn help you to stay healthy.

Myth 2: You Have To Eat Meat To Get Enough Protein - Your body needs 30 grams of protein each meal. Meat and dairy products are very high in sodium and fat. Fruits and vegetables have at least one gram of protein in them.

Myth 3: Eliminate Fat From Your Diet - Your body needs 50 grams of fat each day. You don't want to eliminate fat completely from your diet because it helps your joints and muscles work smoothly.

Raw nuts, olive oil, and avocados are a rich source of nutritious and healthy fats. Look closely at the foods you buy and stay away from hydrogenated fats.

Myth 4: You Have To Go Hungry To Lose Weight - The average woman should never eat less than 1,200 calories/day and the average man should never eat less than 1,800 calories per day.

If you feed your body natural foods, then you'll have no need to go hungry. You can pretty much eat all the fresh fruits and vegetables you want, and it will not adversely affect your weight.

In order to maximize the nutritional value of your foods eat them in as natural a state as possible. Avoid chemicals, especially those found in water. Fluoride, for example, is a poison.

By getting back to nature and the foods your body was designed to run on, you can stay fit, maintain an optimal weight and build up your immune system so that you live a longer, more energetic life.

7 Reasons You Might Not Be Losing Weight

Bodybuilding - 7 Reasons You Might Not Be Losing Weight

1. You Starve Yourself Only To Compensate Later - Some people often think that by having a light breakfast and lunch they will be doing themselves a favor since their total daily calorie intake will be lower.

If anything you should reverse the meals so that breakfast is your biggest meal of the day since you will have lots of time throughout the day to utilize the energy you consume at this meal. If you must have a late night snack, simply calculate that into your day so you have planned for it. Obviously it likely cannot contain 500 calories but in most diets there is definitely room for 100-200 calories before bed.

2. You Don't Have A Set Place To Eat - It's that easy for the weight to add up if you are not careful. So choose one place in your house to eat and eat there and only there (this will likely be the table). Doing so will force you to pay more attention to what you are eating and prevent you from eating for reasons other than hunger.

3. You Aren't Getting Enough Protein - Protein is essential for proper functioning. What some people forget to realize though is that eating slightly higher protein diets can actually aid in weight loss. The reason behind this is because the body uses energy whenever it digests food.

Protein happens to require the most energy for the digestion process so your total net calories will be lower. Because of this, assuming you are eating the same amount of food, when you eat more protein over carbohydrates and fat, your body will actually be taking in fewer calories.

4. You Are Afraid Of Fat - You must get fat into your diet, not only to maintain healthy skin, hair and body functioning but also because it keeps you feeling fuller for a longer period of time. Staying full means less eating later on, less calories consumed and more weight loss for you! All because you decided fat really wasn't all that evil.

5. You Can't Remember What You've Eaten - Similar to the concept about not having a designated place where you are going to eat, forgetting what you have eaten earlier that day can also lead to weight gain. Furthermore, often people do not "remember" any of the beverage calories they have consumed and in this day and age, beverages can add up.

6. You Don't Have A Set Eating Schedule - Generally speaking, most people are going to do better on a diet when they have a set schedule that they eat around. This means planning out what times of the day you are going to eat and hopefully even going as far as planning out the exact foods. If you can do that and are also able to track how many calories are in the food you are consuming, dieting is an easy game.

7. You Associate Eating With Other Activities - Breaking this connection is a very hard process once the habit is made. For some people it won't be the TV but might be surfing the Internet or reading a book. Whatever you love to do, if you associate food with this hobby, you are in for trouble. This is yet another reason why it is good to have one designated area for eating (preferably NOT your couch) and stick to it.

Differences between Male and Female

Bodybuilding - What Are the Differences between Male and Female ?

The differences between male and female bodybuilding is evident at all levels of participation. It is important to make this distinction, as bodybuilding is enjoyed at all levels and encompasses the recreational, amateur and professional/competitive level bodybuilder. Certainly there are far more recreational bodybuilders than professional.

At the competitive level, females are at a disadvantage in a direct comparison physiologically for the purposes of bodybuilding as it currently judges its competitors. Bodybuilding at the competitive level is judged by primarily by the competitors mass, definition, proportion, symmetry, stage presence and posing routine among other things.

Females can compete through the same hard work to obtain all of the ingredients that a great bodybuilder is judged by except in the area of muscle mass. Testosterone levels and fat metabolism mechanism are the major difference in the physique differences.

Women do not have nearly the same amount of testosterone as males and this translates into the finished product that one sees onstage with far less mass. All things being equal, a female will have significantly less muscle mass than the male. Furthermore, the manner in which the female body metabolizes differs from the manner in which males do.

Females generally have higher fat percentages than males, and they store it in different areas of the body, (hips and thighs, rather then the abdomen as males do). The body can more easily metabolize fat in the abdomen area then it can the thigh and hips.

A further difference is that in many female bodybuilding competitions there are contests with titles that include words such as "fitness" in them. These contests seem to cater to the more accepted stereotype of the beauty and agility of the female body, rather than the muscular. These contests do not exist for male competitors.

Other differences include a lower number of participants at all levels, though this is particularly true at the competitive level. Part of this has to do with the difference in available money for male bodybuilders versus their female counterparts. This extends to bodybuilding magazines and endorsements (how often have you seen a female bodybuilding on the cover of a mainstream bodybuilding magazine?).

At the recreational level, in general, males engage in higher levels of bodybuilding supplement purchases, magazine purchases and bodybuilding equipment. Since the business is geared to males, it pays more to be a successful male bodybuilder, and in turn, males gravitate to the sport more than females.

Deadlift

Bodybuilding - Deadlift

If I could only choose one exercise to train, it would be the deadlift. The deadlift works just about every muscle in the body and will make you stronger and more solid than any other exercise. Executed properly it is completely safe and will ramp the strength in your lower back and legs tremendously. Here is how it is done.

Place a barbell in front of your feet and stand up straight right behind it. Bend over to pick up the bar and as you do, make sure to push your butt out as far as you can as if you are attempting to sit in a chair behind you. Bend your knees slightly and keep your eyes forward at all times. Make sure that your knees track in the same place as your feet. In other words, if your feet are turned out, make sure that you knees go in the same direction rather than letting them buckle inward.

Start the exercise from the bottom up. In other words, start the deadlift, by picking the weight off of the floor. Breathe in right before you pick up the barbell and hold your breath until you stand up completely on each rep. Make sure that you lock out on the top of each rep.

Some Tips To Maximize The Deadlift -

- Crush the barbell as hard as you can on each rep.

- Flex your triceps to ensure that your arms are locked out. Do not shrug the barbell, let the barbell pull your shoulders down.

- Keep the barbell as close to your body as possible on each rep.

- Stand up until your knees are locked out on each rep, but do not lean back at the top of each rep.

Bench Press

Bodybuilding - Bench Press

Lie on down on a bench and place your feet firmly on the floor to each side. Do not place your feet on the bench or have them in the air. Move up the bench until the barbell is at eye level. Make sure that you have a spotter whenever you bench press. Have your spotter give you a lift off to get the barbell off of the bench rack.

Lower the barbell to your sternum, pause for a second and press the barbell back to the starting position. Try to press in a straight line rather than an arc. Breathe in as you lower the barbell to your sternum and hold your breath as you press the barbell back to the starting position.

Holding your breath will allow you to get tighter and lift more weight. However, make sure to clear this breathing pattern with your doctor if you have high blood pressure or any heart problems. Holding your breath while training will cause a temporary increase in your blood pressure, so make sure to err on the side of caution.

Some More Tips For A Better Bench Press -

- Crush the barbell as hard as you can on each rep. Imagine that you are trying to rip the bar apart laterally.

- When you press the barbell away from you, imagine that you are trying to push yourself through the floor.

- Flex your legs, butt and stomach while bench-pressing for maximum stability.