Health Articles for Bodybuilding

We all know that vegetables contain vitamins and minerals. We also know that our bodies need them every day. But researches have shown that almost 89% of Americans are not getting proper nutrition from food they take. It’s because in now days we like these fast foods, which are chemically modified to be bigger and tastier. But if we want to be healthy or reach our goals in fitness or bodybuilding, we cannot afford to eat these unhealthy foods. But even if we are eating normally we need to get some extra supplements.

For bodybuilders these vitamins are “extra boost’’ which helps to create extra energy, and also vitamins play high role in metabolic reactions in our bodies. But if you have an active lifestyle, vitamins from your local super-market is not the best choice.

Let’s look at the most important vitamins in our body:

• Vitamin C (also known as ascorbic acid). It’s an antioxidant vitamin that helps to protect your muscle cells from different injuries and help them to recover a lot faster. Also it helps to absorb iron. Iron is a mineral that aids the formulation of hemoglobin, which then facilitates your breathing process. If you don’t have this sufficient iron in your body, you may suffer from different breathing problems during your training. Also an interesting fact is that vitamin C releases steroid hormone in our body. And steroids are what most of the bodybuilders are so excited to get big and strong. No need to use any illegal steroids if there is very good balanced amount of vitamin C in your body. You can buy vitamin C in capsules, pills and drinks. But also it can be found in natural products – mostly citrus fruits.
• Vitamin B6 (also known as pyridoxine). This vitamin is important in metabolism for proteins and carbohydrates. While proteins and carbohydrates should only be consumed moderately, bodybuilders need more of both, but they can reduce its negative impact by increasing their intake of Vitamin B6. The best source for vitamin B6 is in food like liver, beans, vegetables and chicken.
• Vitamin B1(also known as thiamine). This is like an “energy” vitamin. And as you know energy is very important in our workouts. Vitamin B1 helps to produce energy from fat and carbohydrates in our body. It gives strength to bodybuilders muscle, so that he can carry heavier weights for a longer period of time. So more intense your workout is – more vitamin B1 you need.
• Vitamin D. This vitamin is the “sun” vitamin. It good to have a nice brown skin, but while we are resting in the beach, the Sun produces vitamin D in our body. It helps to absorb calcium in our bones, so they get a lot stronger. And that’s very important avoiding any injuries in bodybuilding. It’s hard to recover from broken bones and it’s a lot of wasted time.
• Vitamin E. This vitamin keeps our immune system strong. It serves a vital anti-oxidant factor wherein it shields the cell membranes from potential damage.

Tip #1

Get out more of your muscles as you lift. Try to lift more explosively, to increase the testosterone synthesis. Lift heavy but clean, with proper technique. Lower the weight quite slowly but then lift it up as fast as you can, this will make you stronger and build some good, lean muscle mass.

Tip #2

Try to do as little cardio as you can. This might sound stupid but this is how it works. You should change the way you train – few weeks power, few weeks endurance and so on – this is the key to great success in every sport, you need to train smart and hard. This muscle building tip is one of the most important ones!

Tip #3

Eat protein rich food (fish, red meat e.t.c.) if you want to stay tight and build lean muscle mass. If you don’t care about getting some fat too, you can eat just everything you see and you will build some muscle for sure – this is called bulking process, after whom you can burn the fat and stay tight and lean!

Tip #3

In order to build muscle, you MUST sleep a lot. In muscle building sleep is one of the most basic things, together with workouts and nutrition. If you want to build good muscle mass you need to sleep for about 8-10 hours a day.

Tip #3

Include main powerlifting movements in your workout. Squats, Bench, Deadlift – these are your gods if you are serious about muscle building. And remember that in these basic movements you will work out most of your muscle so make your workout routine smart, or you can chose one of the routines found on this page.

Stay tuned for more muscle building tips! This was just the first edition! Come back for more!

I bet you’ve already heard something about different body types, but do you know which one is yours? Why it’s so hard for you to drop weight, but the girl (or boy) next door keeps eating ice cream and stay’s so thin? That’s because you are endomorph, but she (he) ectomorph. But that’s not all - there is one more body type tht every man wants - mesomorph. The problem here is that we don’t choose our body type. And we cannot switch between them, or change them like a pair of shoes. Sad, isn’t it? In this article I will explain those 3 body types, and after reading it, I’m sure you will know which one is yours!


ECTOMORPH
Ectomorphs - small bones and muscle. These people find it hard to gain weight and muscle mass. Face - triangular with sharp features. Long fingers, toes and neck. Something like “pencil neck” or “nerd” in school, you would say. Yes, I agree, this is not the perfect body type for bodybuilding, but with hard work everything is possible. For this body type the main focus should be on training strength in order to gain weight and muscle mass. Did you know that Brad Pitt is ectomorph too? He really is. A lot of eating, right training program with three basic exercises (bench press, deadlifts and squats) and maybe some weight gainers can do the job. You will never face problems like hard-to-see abs because of that fat layer on your stomache. But you will have to work really hard to gain weight, be ready for that. The main thing is to stay focus and motivated.

MESOMORPH
Mesomorphs - have athletic body, large bones and it’s easy for them to build muscle mass. This is perfect body type for bodybuilder. And most of the world-famous Mr.Universe winners have it (Bruce Willis, Sylvester Stallone etc.). Face - cubical shape, features are clearly defined, like cheek bones and square jaw. With right training techniques the results are fantastic. Mesomorphs have to focus on training equaly every muscle group for symmetrical body. You don’t want huge arms an chest, but thin legs, because it looks very funny. For more better look - a lot of heavy lifting together with  toning exercises.

ENDOMORPHS
Endomorphs - round body with short arms and legs. It gives this illusion, that muscle mass is concentrated in abdominal area. This body type can build muscle fast like mesomorphs, but losing weight and burning fat is very hard. So even if you have some muscle, most of them will be under this so hated fat layer. Cardio training with heavy lifting is the perfect combination for this body type.

But remember that most people are combination of these three body types. It’s hard to find a total endomorph or ectomorph. So it’s very hard to create workout routine and diet that can bring results equally for all. I would say - It’s impossible. So important to know your body - how it reacts on different weights, exercises and diets.

Barbell curl is one of the top exercises for biceps. Performing this exercise you will definitely gain the following attributes to your biceps:  size, definition, strength, stamina! ALWAYS remember to ensure that your elbows remain stationary and to the sides of your body during the entire exercise. Remember that the bar must move smoothly, without jerky movements! Use proper weight to do 8-16 (depending of the program you use) reps.  This is one of the main exercises for biceps so Barbell Curls should be done first if you are a beginner in bodybuilding.

This is the right technique to do Barbell Curl:

1. Start in a standing position with your feet shoulder width apart and your knees relaxed.
2. Grab a barbell with underhand grip - shoulder width apart.
3. Stand upright and let the bar hang in front of your thighs.
4. Bend at your elbows to curl the bar to shoulder level.
5. Pause momentarily at this top position.
6. Slowly lower the bar back to the starting position.

Glutamine (also called l-Glutamine) actually is one of the amino acids in our body.  It is very important for immune and muscular systems. Glutamine plays a very big role in protein metabolism, which is important for bodybuilders. So a lot supplement companies are offering a big amount of different glutamine pills and powders for fitness enthusiasts and bodybuilders.  To see the effect of using glutamine, companies recommend to use 5-10 grams of it. But what are the best effects of using glutamine?

Read in this article

One of the main benefits of using glutamine is that it helps to prevent catabolism. When you put your body under a physical stress, it uses glutamine that is in your muscle. By supplementing your body with extra glutamine, you help your body to use this extra glutamine rather than glutamine that is stored in your muscles. This prevents the body from breaking down the muscles.

Also  glutamine is very important for your immune system.  It doesn’t sound so ‘’cool’’ as muscle building, but it is as much and even more important. Just imagine yourself sick in the gym… Not so good, huh?  Just getting sick means that your progress of training will go down and you will lose days of productive training.

So here are the main benefits of using glutamine:

• Helps to prevent catabolism
• Immune system boost
• It may boost your body’s production of growth hormones
• It helps promote a healthy intestinal tract, and, as such, may also benefit gastrointestinal disorders

So, looking on these benefits above, even non-athletes may consider that glutamine can be good supplement for them (healthy intestinal tract for example). But if you are an athlete, bodybuilder or just a fitness fan, glutamine is one of those MUST HAVE supplements!

Here comes the summer, here comes the beach, here comes the night at sea side and yes – that romantic moonlight… with a beautiful girl by your side. You met her just hours ago at the beach while building a silly sand castle. She started to talk with you not because of that silly sand castle! Not because of your haircut… not even because of your Versace swimming trunk. It was your big biceps, your ripped six pack that made her talk! This is what this article is about – shaping your tummy belly for summer, blasting your biceps! Beach is a show off and everyone wants to win the show! I will tell you how…

The Mighty Biceps, few golden tips to get them

• First thing I would like to mention (no not the curls or anything similar – forget it!) close grip chin up. I mention this first because of a reason – you can lift a lot more weight than doing curls or anything else + you can’t cheat so much. This exercise creates high level of neuromuscular activation which leads to great muscle development. This is quite uncomfortable exercise for some people, but just remember about the beach…
• Ok, next will be old and boring barbell curl. But hey, it’s not forgotten because of 1 reason – this is the greatest isolation exercise for biceps EVER.
• Dumbbell curls- this is nearly equivalent to barbell curl so you can chose one of them. But there is one “+” for this exercise – you can switch to alternate curls when you can’t lift another one rep, so you can cheat out some more reps.
• Incline dumbbell curl – ads some stretch to your biceps, this makes the blood to flow more to your biceps therefore increasing the biceps growth and recovery rate.
• Hammer curl – develops the brachialis muscle too. This muscle makes your arms look bigger and more impressive! Adds great deal of mass and thickness to the upper arm. (One of my favorite exercises ever).

Ok, I hope you understood the basics of building big biceps now. Let’s jump straight to the… to the… ABS, “The six pack”! Now I will list down some tips to help you get your six pack fairly easy. ABS guide will be more based on dieting and planning than exercising.

How to get your six-pack?

• Plan your diet! This is vital! 70% people fail here… wrong plan and you can say goodbye to your summer six pack. List down such things as where you are going, how you are going to get there, and when you are going to get there. Just take blank paper, pen and sit down, list it all on paper and think of it as your goal.
• Eat your breakfast! Breakfast is the most important meal – I mean it! If you will skip breakfast, your body will think something like this: ’’oh my god! Something bad has happened and I must stack on my energy reserve (fat) because I will have to starve!’’ and this happens every morning – stacking up… Research shows that most of the overweight people skip breakfast.
• Don’t forget about protein and the ‘’right’’ carbs. Protein will keep your sugar level stable, this will help you to abstain from snacking all the time. Protein is most important in breakfast. And carbs, your body needs carbs to function properly. Avoid simple carbs – eat plenty of fibrous carbs. You will consume less calories and lose your belly fat in no time + there are also many health benefits such as cancer and heart attack prevention.
• Drink plenty of water.
• Exercise your ABS  not only with crunches but do about 6 different exercises and switch them from time to time. You can find plenty of exercises on bodybuilding.com so start sweating!

But try not to work out your abs so hard that you can’t even move next day… do it moderate and you will kick the beach after some time!
Stick with this and you will get ABS and blasting biceps! Stick to your goals, NEVER EVER GIVE UP… NEVER!!! You have your goals – don’t cheat on them… don’t… Good luck with your training diet and everyday life!

Lately more people I know seem to be considering starting up on a cycle of juice (steroids). I like to laugh at them after telling me that. I look at them and see mostly scrawny people that work out if they get the chance, use bad form, have a bad diet, and basically dont know what they're doing. If they would do some research and put alot of effort into they're training and still were scrawny then I'd think differently (just kidding). Thats almost never the case, with the proper training everyone will gain.

Here is a list of some of the fundamentals you will need to make gains. If everyone follows most of these there is no reason to consider steroids. Steroids are the easy way out and not natural. There are many side effects you can check out here.

1) Diet: In order to get big and make gains you must eat right, and stay strict. Not too much junk food, etc. Protein is very important recommended is 1-2 grams of protein per pound of weight per day. If you want to get big your going to need at least 4-6 meals per day. I suggest 3 or 4 real food and 2 to 3 protein shakes. There is much more to a diet which I will write more about in the future.

2) Training: I suggest for beginners work two bodyparts per workout to start (ex. chest & tri's, back & bi's). For advanced, one bodypart per workout (ex. chest, back, triceps, legs) Rest the bodypart at least 48 hours before working it out again. I suggest doing each bodypart once per week, giving each muscle adequate time to heal.

3) Form: For training make sure you use good form, if not you will miss out on most of the gains you can be making. If your new, use a trainer the first few sessions you work out, just to get the idea of how to do the exercises right.

4) Cardio: If you work at a desk all day you usually dont burn too many calories. This is not good considering that to get big your eating 3000 - 5000 calories a day. Remember to do at least 30 minutes of cardio 3 - 5 days a week. By working out the muscles will get big, but if you dont do cardio you wont be able to see them. Cardio burns fat and gets you ripped.

These are the basic ingredients to successful training, follow them and you will not need steroids. If you have any other questions or comments post them on the message board.

The truth is simple as 2+2 – compound exercises build muscle better than isolation exercises. Compound exercises work multiple muscle groups at a time and it’s proven, that it provides a lot better results in strength and growth.A great example here is the almighty squat and deadlift – these exercises train a lot of muscle groups at the same time which provides to fantastic results in strength, growth and muscle mass gains. But don’t throw isolation exercises away… why? Read in this article.

Isolation exercises

Isolation exercises work only one muscle or muscle group at the time.We usually perform these exercises with weight machines at the gym. The idea here is that you go from one machine to other to work all your muscle groups. But in the past these machines were basically used for rehab centers to correct some specific muscle weaknesses and to cover from injuries.

Why should we do isolation exercises

This “isolation” thing can come real handy for you. This is great for strength training for some specific muscle. If you want to get more strength to your biceps, you isolate all the other muscle “from work” and all concentration to lift that weight goes to biceps. Also isolation exercises can give you some really good muscle pump for specific muscle. You want a big biceps for the summer season? Go for it with bicep curl isolation exercises.

Compound exercises

Compound exercises use free weights. That way you can involve more muscle groups and all these important small muscle groups in one exercise. This helps to workout your full body a lot more faster, prevents from different muscle injuries, improves coordination and balance. All these small muscle groups give a fantastic boost in overall strength training.

Conclusion

For as well as we need a balanced diet, we need a balanced training program. Most of the bodybuilders use compound exercises and finish with isolated ones.

Deadlift is one of the three most important exercises (other two are squat and bench press). Many are afraid to do the deadlift because it can hurt your back badly. Yes, that is right, but only if you perform it with wrong technique or inadequate weights. Deadlift is an easy-to-understand exercise, but even if you have mastered it, you should perform it with caution and full awareness. In this article – technique and basics.


Deadlift is the only exercise in which all muscles are working at the same time! This exercise is a  great testostosterone booster and it really helps to gain weight! Deadlift is great, but only when correctly performed. So the main muscles worked – quadriceps and lower back muscles. The beautiness of deadlift is that it not only develops the target muscles but helps to get bigger and stronger in general! This means that deadlift can even help you bench more! So deadlift folks - DEADLIFT.

At the beginning, read through the squat article because I want you to think of deadlift as a squat! Place a bar with light weight plates on the ground in front of you. Feet – shoulder width. Place your hand on the bar so that you could stand up with the weight easily – nothing should bother you. Hold your feet flat on ground, slightly band you knees, but keep your back straight in process (the most important thing in deadlift). Use reverse grip to hold the bar easier. Look forward ( or slightly up ) when lifting – this will help to keep your back straight. Do not bounce the weights on ground and lift slowly and concentrated – this is not some kind of sprint distance.. this is powerlifting! Stay sharp and concentrated and you will succeed.