Muscle Rumor » Bodybuilding

Target Muscles With Body Sculpting

Muscle Builder Guy — Tue, 31 May 2011 00:49:13 +0000

Body sculpting exercises are a great way to firm and shape various muscles over the body. A sculpting program focuses on manipulating and toning different muscles in the lower and upper body. Body sculpting programs are popular throughout the world since they combine cardio activity, stretching, and resistance training. These exercises can be used by any one who desires to become more fit and toned. All of these exercises are proven in fitness research to improve overall health and weight.

Stretching is an important element in almost every exercise program. Stretching exercises are best performed at the beginning and ending of each physical exercise session. Stretches helps to loosen and tone the muscles in preparation for more intensive moves.

Cardiovascular exercises increase the heart rate and promotes healthy blood flow to the muscles. Cardio also helps to challenge endurance, build resistance, and increase energy levels.

Resistance training is integral for building and toning muscles. Specific muscles are targeted with each exercise. These resistance moves can be performed with or without weights. Beginners or those with joint or back problems prefer to use no weights and just the natural resistance of their bodies. However, others prefer using elastic bands, dumb bells, medicine balls, balance foam, or stability balls to increase resistance. The addition of equipment allows people to tone and build muscles more quickly.

Body sculpting is a program which anyone at any fitness level can engage. Many gyms and community programs offer body sculpting classes by trained teachers that can help show you how to perform each exercise. However, many individuals cannot afford or attend these classes. The next best thing is to purchase body sculpting videos to guide you through the movements. A quality body sculpting dvd will properly instruct you on how to perform an effective exercise routine and improve your healthy lifestyle.

Can Nitric Oxide Supplements Help to Build Muscle?

Muscle Builder Guy — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 06:15:13 +0000

People that want to gain muscle mass and are just starting out on a weight lifting or exercise program might have heard about a mysterious substance called Nitric Oxide. For the un-initiated we have put some very quick and easy to understand facts together so the next time you are in the gym you can feel comfortable with the conversation going on around you.

So what is Nitric Oxide?

Nitric oxide supplements are sometimes referred to as NO which is found naturally in the human body. Its purpose is to pump the blood around your body so that it reaches your organs properly. It is a chemical process that dilates and relaxes blood vessels and the reason body builders are such fans of Nitric Oxide is the “pump effect” it leads to.

Nitric Oxide is responsible for blood flow and steps up your oxygen delivery and muscle velocity. It also improves and increases muscle growth as well as glucose uptake. Body Builders say they feel more powerful when they have a hit of NO which is why they take the supplements – it increases the natural occurrence of NO in the body.

The “pump effect” is the high a body builders feels when they leave the gym. It is that feeling of being “ripped” and “pumped up”. By using Nitric Oxide supplements the pumped up feeling and appearance can be sustained for longer than usual, sometimes up to a day later.

Are there any benefits to taking Nitric Oxide supplements?

There are said to be a number of benefits to users that take NO tablets or powder on a regular basis as part of a work out regime. By maintain the Nitric Oxide levels after your weight lifting session you can assume that:

You will feel that you have more muscle strength
Your endurance will have increased for performance
Lean muscle mass on your body will accumulate quicker
After work out muscle recovery will become easier and faster

Can I use Nitric Oxide if using any other supplements?

Before you use any type of supplement you must always first consult a medical practitioner or your own doctor. There are some people who combine Nitric Oxide supplements with other remedies such as weight loss meal replacement shakes. This is not something we would suggest you do though because there are then two forces pulling in different directions.

Your hunger levels will go through the roof as blood is pumping fast around your body whilst you are slowing down the amount of calories you burn every day.

Conclusion on Nitric Oxide Supplements

Yes they can help you build muscle mass, but as with any supplement make sure you consult a medical expert before use. Also do not rely on it as a long-term muscle strategy. The best routes to fitness and muscle gain will always be one hundred percent natural effort.

Tricks to Remember in Bodybuilding

Muscle Builder Guy — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 14:34:06 +0000

Bodybuilding has become popular due to the competitions that we see on television and online. Some people consider bodybuilding as an art form. Sculpting the body to what we see in competitions is not an easy task. It requires dedication, hard work, commitment, and most importantly determination.

If you are thinking of becoming a bodybuilder, even to the extent of getting ripped abs and big chest, you must first have the mental intensity for the task. It is important to visualize the goal. If you have other things in mind while doing the workout, you might as well take a break and recheck your goals.

The mind can truly create amazing things and it manifests in bodybuilding. If you put what you have in mind to work, you will notice incredible changes in your physique.

Some people think that bodybuilding is all about quantity. That the more weights you add, the better the results will be. This mentality is very wrong in bodybuilding. It is all about quality not quantity. You cannot have the muscles you want to grow by forcing more than necessary amount of weights on your body.

It is also important to know the proper bodybuilding form to be successful in this venture. This is more than just how you look when you do weights. It has more to do with avoiding injuries and working out the right places in your body. Consciously practice this form and you will increase the effectiveness of your muscle development.

Put wall charts that show the proper form. This way you can imitate it every time you are working out. You can also hire a professional coach or bodybuilding instructor. They can tell you the best form and how to properly do it. This is more ideal since you can run the risk of getting injuries if you do it all by yourself.

Always keep at most an hour of workout. Overdoing it will not do you any good. Workouts are best when you have time to rest and sleep. You should always see to it you do not go beyond an hour or you will need extra strength for that. Intense workouts are also less effective compared to the minimal ones.

Four Fat Burning Foods

Muscle Builder Guy — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 05:36:18 +0000

Are you more interested in losing weight or getting rid of your chubby belly? I think most of you reading this would opt for both but if you were hard pressed to choose just one it would probably be the latter. Body fat is that tissue that hides those well defined muscles that are lurking underneath. You can either burn body fat or store it. The goal of course would be to burn more body fat than you store and keep it off.

It’s tough to burn fat these days when you’re bombarded with billboards such as these on your way to and from work “44 ounce soda, 99 cents” or “Any size soda, one dollar.” The product that retailers want you to over consume they under price. These and other types of foods and beverages are what helps lead to obesity and excess body fat.

Today I’m going to reverse the trend and give you four items that you can pick up at any local grocery store that will help to burn more fat and achieve the body you want. These fat burning foods won’t do everything for you, but they can definitely help you along the way.

1. Coffee (Caffeine) – Our first caffeine is coffee which is consumed by more than 80% of the population, drinking on average 3-6 cups per day. Although coffee is enormously popular for its ability to increase alertness studies have also shown that it has calorie-burning properties. One cup of coffee has been show to increase the metabolic rate as much as 4% for a little over 2 hours. Overtime this small increase can lead to small drops in overall body weight.

2. Hot Pepper – Have you ever had beads of sweat congregating around your forehead after eating hot red peppers? Well, you’ve just experienced the calorie burning effect of hot peppers. This is a process called thermogenesis where the body releases calories in the form of heat. Of course, once these calories are released there is no chance of them every being stored in your body as fat.

3. Cinnamon – I love the taste of cinnamon and to learn that it has fat burning properties is a plus. Cinnamon and rich carbohydrate diets go hand in hand. Cinnamon helps reduce the blood glucose levels, which help keep your insulin in check. A spike in your insulin level increases fat storage.

4. Green Tea – The fat burning abilities of green tea is mainly because of its high caffeine content. Not only does green tea burn calories but many of the calories they burn are known to be fat calories. Having a cup of green tea extract 3-4 times a day will increase your calorie burning rate by as much as 3% or higher which will help you to burn more calories.

4 Weeks to Getting Flat Abs

Muscle Builder Guy — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 14:13:16 +0000

Do you need an effective plan to help you get flat abs? If you do, you are in luck. This is because you will find a 4 week plan here – giving you planning, exercise and diet guidelines. Let’s see how you can implement that plan:

Week 1

Planning

Write reasons down – Write down your top reasons for wanting to have flat abs – it will act as motivation for your journey.
Plan how you are going you achieve it – Set smart goals (goals that are specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and time bounded.) to help you to plan how you are going to achieve it.
Commit to goals – Promise yourself that are going to be committed to your goals.

Diet

Keep a food dairy – Keep a food dairy for the week and use it to see where you are eating wrong.
Choose a healthy diet/eating plan – Pick a healthy eating plan that enables fat burning like the truth about abs eating plan.
Go grocery shopping for the month – Go do the groceries for the month bur make sure to do it on a full stomach.

Exercise

Light cardio – Do only light cardio exercises like brisk walking, light jogging, swimming, hiking or biking for 4 days a week for about 15 to 20 minutes at a time.
Light weight training – Do only light weight training exercises for 2 days , for about 30 minutes at a time – include a lower and an upper body day.
Abs exercises – Include some crunches with your lower body day.

Week 2

Diet

Follow your healthy eating plan/diet

Exercise

Cardio – Switch over to interval training for 20 minutes at a time for 2 times a week.
Weight training – Lift heavier weights this week.
Abs exercises – Increase your abs exercises by including the following abs exercises: oblique crunches and the plank.

Week 3

Diet

Stick to your healthy eating plan/diet

Exercise

Cardio – Increase your cardio to 3 times a week, doing the same as in week 2.
Weight training – Increase your weight training days also to 3 times a week and increase the weight load.
Abs exercises – Do the same abs exercises as last week, but include one more exercise: the bicycle exercise.

Week 4

Diet

Stick to healthy eating plan/diet – Keep on following your eating plan
Have one cheat meal – Reward yourself for doing so good with one cheat meal.

Exercise

Cardio – Repeat the cardio of week 3.
Weight training – Lift heavier than last week.
Abs exercises – Do the same exercises than week 3, but include a weight to make the exercises more challenging.Follow this 4 week plan for flat abs and you will start to see flat abs in the mirror soon. And when you want to ensure that you get flat abs, check out the truth about six pack abs pdf – it has 6 workout plans and 74 meal plans to ensure you get a six pack.

What are Supersets? Adding them to an Extreme Fitness Workout?

Muscle Builder Guy — Sun, 28 Mar 2010 05:20:23 +0000

Supersets are great to add to your Extreme Fitness workouts. Some people refer to this as an extreme training technique in which you do two or three workouts or sets, one right away right after the other, with no rest in between. This extreme fitness workout could be for the same muscle group, like your arms supersets of your biceps or two muscle groups maybe your chest and shoulders, depending on your goals. Adding supersets can turn your workouts into extreme fitness workouts. You might be surprised at how many numerous choices you’ve when it comes to supersets.

Some from the basic supersets instruction techniques to add to your Extreme Fitness workout include:

One Muscle Group: This involves two workouts for that exact same body part. The advantage of this really is to hit various fibers from the muscle from various angles but without having giving the body part time to recover from the first exercise set. This forces the body part to perform to get tired and it makes it harder to perform the next set. Example: leg extensions, which target the quads, then while the quad are tired you then follow them by squats which targets leg muscles but this time the gluts, hamstrings and inner thighs which are still fresh.

Opposing Muscle Groups Supersets: You do two workouts that target opposing muscle groups; you can do supersets for the arms, the biceps then the triceps. Example: biceps curls and then triceps kickbacks. These are great for getting the best extreme workout you can in a short period of time. There is proof the body’s nervous system strengthens the second muscle when you work the muscle in this way.

Exhaustion Supersets: This involves two workouts for that exact same muscle group. For your superset you start with an exercise that works just the target muscle, such as a dumbbell fly. Then you do another exercise like the bench press so you are working the same target muscle group. So the dumbbell flies for the Pecs and then the bench uses the Pecs muscle but also gets help from the triceps and the shoulders. This again pushes the muscle to work harder and getting faster results.

Extreme Superset: This really is a true extreme fitness workout you do three more sets in a row instead of two for that muscle group using different exercises. These are used to hit a certain muscle and should not be used too often as they are very intense and shock the muscle.

Staggered Supersets: In staggering, you do a set for another muscle group between sets. For instance, during a straight set of leg presses, you could throw in a set of arm curls or pushups while you relax your leg muscles. This saves time, allowing you to perform smaller muscle groups while the bigger ones get a break.

There are lots of choices and you don’t have to do Extreme Supersets with only weights you can use any fitness exercises you are currently doing using the same concept.

Use a Batting Cage to Build Arm Muscles

Muscle Builder Guy — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 21:17:44 +0000

Baseball isn’t necessarily the most energetic of team sports. There isn’t much running save for the brief sprints between bases, there isn’t a whole lot of weight to carry around, there just isn’t a whole lot of sweating going on in general out on the baseball field. If you love the sport of baseball and want to use it as a means to get your daily dose of physical exercise in it would behoove you to take a trip down to your local batting cage.

Batting cages are great places to go and work the fundamentals of your baseball swing but they also grant you the opportunity to work arm and abdomen muscles that you normally wouldn’t be able to on a normal playing field. From the moment you throw your sports bag down and pick up the bat to start swinging to the moment you are too tired to walk you will be able to exercise in a batting cage.

A mechanical pitcher isn’t going to fatigue or get tennis elbow after a certain amount of pitches and you don’t have to give up the mound to let some other dead beat kid hit the ball. A batting cage allows you to plop down in front of the pitch and hit the ball correctly for however long you’d like and this is a great way to tone your biceps and abdominal muscles.

Baseball players are notorious for being out of shape. If you look at any historical baseball player, take Babe Ruth for example, they are usually pudgy and bloated around the hips but they have great shoulders and arms. The best batters are the ones who have great arm muscles and that’s because the more they practice batting (and maybe the more steroids they inject into their butts) the bigger their arms become. If you focus on your baseball swing at a batting cage you can really get a nice upper body workout without even having to go to the gym.

Importance of Weight Training

Muscle Builder Guy — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 17:04:16 +0000

Everyone should include some sort of weight training in their fitness routine. Building muscle is an excellent way to improve your body. Many people think that if they lift weights they will get ‘bulky’ but you do not need to worry about that. If it was that easy to build huge muscles, everyone would be 300 lbs. Also, the amount of size and weight you gain is directly related to your diet anyways, not your fitness routine. It’s important to understand all of the aspects of optimizing your fitness routine.

Beginning Weight Lifting

If you are new to weight lifting, I would suggest starting with the basic movements; the bench press, overhead press, squat, and deadlift. With just those simple exercises you can get plenty strong and build plenty of muscle. It is important to start light with new exercises so that you are using the correct form, take your time when lifting and concentrate on learning the movement. Never sacrifice form for extra weight. Other exercises can be done to target specific muscle groups, these are called isolation exercises. Be sure to keep the focus of your workout on the big compound exercises. They lifts are a lot easier to get stronger on because to involve a large amount of muscle.

Getting Real Strong

If you are serious about getting stronger, you need to get on a program designed to accomplish this. There are many strength based weight lifting routines that are usually focused around the basic movements. On these routines you are working to constantly improve the amount of weight you are lifting. This method is called linear progression is one of the fastest ways to get stronger in any of the compound lifts. Think about the change in your body if you go from squatting 135lbs to squatting 315lbs. This type of routine is perfect for building muscle, because it focuses on low volume, high intensity workouts with plenty of rest to grow.

Start Your 6-Pack with This Abs Workout Routine

Muscle Builder Guy — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 03:03:12 +0000

Feeling good about yourself and the way that you look is so important to good self confidence and self worth. If you do not like the way that you look and you are ready to do something about it, then let us go and get started. For most Americans who are looking to get in shape the area that bothers them the most is the abs. The mid section for Americans is the area of their body that they most want to change. Strong abs makes a healthier spine, a stronger back and a better beach body.

If you are ready to get started then let us talk about a good abs workout routine. The most effective abs workout to get the six packs that so many people talk about and wish for is the age old bicycle exercise. For this exercise, you lay flat on your back and with your hands place gently behind your head you bring your knees up as you bring your shoulder to your knee without pulling at your head and straining your neck. You will be straightening your left leg while bringing your right shoulder to meet it at the same time, and then you will switch sides.

To add to your abs workout routine you should try using an exercise ball for your crunches. This will help to strengthen and sculpt your rectus abdominals. To keep the routine going and add another level of exercises for your abs your need to work your obliques. Vertical leg crunches are great for you rectus abdominis and your oblique. While lying on the floor, cross your ankles and while your legs are fully extended upwards with your knees crossed. Lift your shoulders off the floor while contracting your abs and bringing your chest towards your feet. Lower your legs and repeat 12-16 times.

While working your rectus abdominis, you also need to work those unsightly love handles, your obliques. We all have them and wish them away regularly. While the bicycle is a great exercise for those flabby love handles, Standing Trunk Twists are even better. While standing with your feet about a foot apart, you twist your torso to the left and then to the right. Do this for about 12-16 reps.

A good abs workout routine will make all of the difference when you are trying to tone and get a healthy beach body for the summer months. Your abs is also the key to a healthy strong back and spine. Get that six pack that you have been dreaming of.

Getting That Flat Stomach You Want

Muscle Builder — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 03:16:02 +0000

Many people make the resolution to get those rock hard abs, but very few ever follow through. The natural instinct is to workout your stomach doing crunches and situps, but the body doesn’t work that way. TV ads will try to sell you on this or that ab product but don’t fall for their tricks because they simply won’t work. You cannot simply try to lose the fat from one area, like your stomach, and see results. The right exercises combined with the right nutrition is what it takes in order to truly burn fat in your entire body, including your stomach.

The best way to really get the body that you’re wanting with those great abs, or how to get a flat stomach, is to increase the fiber, consume low-fat dairy products as well as more vegetables in your diet, as well as varied fruits. When choosing meats, choose leaner cuts. Burning fat is easier if you are tricking your body and keeping it guessing by doing interval training and changing up your pace often. Your body just wants to keep burning fat if you’re switching up from a lower intensity then boosting to a high intensity, and repeating that style. Working out all of your muscles through weight or strength training will allow your body to burn more fat. Crunches and other great core exercises are still definitely okay, just don’t only do those, instead focus on a full body workout.

Proper nutrition + proper exercises (interval training, with weight training) will get your body burning more fat, and making it so that you can definitely get a flat stomach. I definitely believe that you will be able to achieve this, whether you want to get washboard abs quickly, or if you want to do ‘slow and steady wins the race”… either method will work as long as you are focusing on what you need to do, for every meal and every snack, and every time you want to not work out, just think about those abs and go get them!