Building Lean Muscle

Free weights versus machines. This is one of the debates that have been going around amongst body builders on whether which is more effective and efficient when it comes to building muscle.

Only those experienced body builders who has been lifting weights for years know a little better.

The experience body builders will agree to one thing. Free weights are definitely better to muscle building in comparatively to machines.

Here’s why: Free weights will cause your body and muscles to build and work against resistance in a 3 dimensional environment. This means that when you work on a particular muscle group, you are working the muscles all around that area.

When it comes to machines, they normally only allow your body to build and work against resistance in either 1 or at the best 2 dimensional environment.

Not only not, working on free weights increases your strength which overall are used in your daily activities as everything you do and movement in your body requires strength from all 3 dimensions.

There are small skinny guys which load the bench press machine with 4 plates on the side but can’t even perform 2 plates on a free weight bench press. I almost guarantee that if you see someone performing a 4 plate per side on a free weight bench press, they are usually a large person.

However, they are advantages to using machines. Since machines focuses the work on muscles in a 1 or 2 dimensional environment, they can be used to be more focus on building up more muscle to a specific area. They are used by experienced body builders who know what they are doing to shape their muscles.

But overall, I strongly suggest that free weights to be used as the majority and priority exercises which are more important for beginners and intermediates whose aim is to build strength first.

Bodyweight training is one of the best ways to burn fat and build muscle. Unfortunately, most people believe (or are led to believe) they need a room full of equipment or an expensive gym membership in order to improve their physique. They completely overlook the fat burning and muscle building potential of bodyweight exercise. I hope this article opens your eyes to the possibilities of using the gym you were born with!

Heads up: at the end of the article I’m going to share with you one exercise that simultaneously builds muscle and burns fat.

It’s happened to all of us at one point or another (even me). We look in the mirror one day and we notice we are softer and fatter. While we weren’t paying attention, our muscle tone and strength has decreased, and our waist size has increased. This is when most of say, “It’s time to hit the gym”.

But hold on a minute. I agree, it is time to do something about your physique. But joining a gym does not have to be the answer. As a matter of fact, you can start burning fat and building muscle today to improve your physique.

Let me show you how bodyweight training can improve your physique in as little 15 minutes a day…

Instead of joining a gym, that you may or may not end up going to, start by adding a bodyweight training program to your daily schedule. Come on, it is easy to find 15 minutes to exercise. And 15 minutes is all you need to do to start feeling and looking better. Obviously, I’d like to see you exercise even more, but let’s keep it simple at 15 minutes for now.

So, you wake up in the morning and do 15 minutes of bodyweight calisthenics. By the way, you’ll find this more invigorating than swilling down cups of coffee. Do this every day. Yes, every day, and you will see great results.

Now, I can hear some of you saying, “I thought you were only supposed to exercise every other day, or 3 times a week!”

This is true, if you are on a high volume bodybuilding program! Bodybuilders need that extra day to recover from the huge amount of training they perform. But you are only doing 15 minutes of bodyweight exercise. This leaves you 1,440 minutes to recover between bodyweight training sessions. This is more than enough.

Now, if you do this every day for a week, you do 1 hour and 45 minutes of exercise. Do you think 1 hour and 45 minutes will start to tighten your muscles and burn off extra fat? You bet it does!

Now, for the skeptics that think bodyweight training is too “easy”, or that you can’t get a great muscle building, fat burning workout in 15 minutes, I’m going to share an exercise with you. (Remember, I promised to do this at the beginning of the article.)

This exercise is called the Burpee-Chin Up Combo.

Here is how you do it…

Stand under a chin up bar with your feet shoulders width apart and arms at your sides. Bend your knees and squat down, placing your hands on the floor in front of you. Kick your feet back so you are in the up position of the push up. Perform a push up. Jump your feet forward under your body… then explode up and grab the bar with palms facing you. Perform a chin up. Drop down and repeat.

Do this for a few minutes and your whole body will feel it, from your muscles to your heart and lungs, and you burn a lot of fat. Try to do as many as you can for a full 15 minutes, and I guarantee you’ll have a new appreciation for bodyweight exercise.

I hope this article has opened you eyes to the fantastic possibilities of bodyweight training. If you need to strengthen and tone your muscles and burn fat, start changing your physique today with your own bodyweight. Make a consistent effort every day and you’ll soon meet your goals.

The most effective bicep exercises to build muscle

If you want to build muscle in your biceps, here are the best bicep exercises for building muscle.

Standing straight-bar curls

This is, without a doubt, the best overall bicep exercise you can do to build muscle.

It is the epitome of this muscle building program we are doing, which are low reps of heavy, intense, basic compound movements. Standing straight-bar curls allow you to directly hit the biceps with a great degree of overload.

Stand with your feet about shoulder width apart. Space your hands shoulder width and grip the bar with an underhand grip.

Begin with your arms straight, biceps fully extended, and your upper body leaning slightly forward. With an explosive motion, curl the weight towards you contracting the biceps.

During the curling motion, move your upper body back to an upright position. With control, lower the weight back to its original position getting a good stretch and lean slightly forward.

To make these the most effective at muscle building they can be, you need to lower the weight twice as slowly as you raise it.

Most of the muscle fiber stimulation actually occurs on the negative, or lowering, portion of the exercise.

So don’t just let the weight drop. This will not allow you to build muscle in the biceps as well. Control it all the way down.

Also, make sure you lower the weight all the way down so that the bar is touching your legs.

Do not get into the habit of doing partial reps on curls. You need a full range of motion in order to work the bicep.

Remember, the lowering portion actually works the biceps more than the lifting, so why wouldn’t you want to increase the range of motion and go all the way down with the bar?

If for whatever reason these straight-bar curls create a lot of stress to your wrists, try using the curved curl bar. The positioning of the wrists will reduce much of the tension.

Standing alternating dumbbell curls

These will also help you build muscle in the biceps.Hold the dumbbells at your side with your palms facing each other.

Curl one dumbbell at a time rotating your palm forward as you lift the weight.

After fully contracting the bicep, lower the dumbbell under control rotating your hand back to its original position.

Repeat the same steps with the opposite arm. Alternate back and forth until you have completed your reps.

Normally I am not an advocate for many 1-arm movements for muscle building, but this one is great for creating overload to the biceps.

These should be done standing, for several reasons. First, you should be able to lift more weight if you are standing versus seated. More weight means more overload.

Also, sitting down while performing these could add unnecessary stress to the lower back you do not need. These add a different twist than do straight-bar curls.

With dumbbells, you can twist your wrist at the top of the exercise, when you contract the bicep.

This twist of the wrist on the way up allows you to more fully contract the bicep, which will help you build muscle at the peak of the bicep.

Once again, it is very important that you lower the weight twice as slowly as you raise it. Also, allow one arm to be completely done its repetition before lifting the other arm.

I see many people start to raise and curl one arm before the other one is even done. It is all right to cheat a bit on your last, heavy set of these.

Try to get as many reps with good form as you can, but the last few you can cheat a bit by swinging the weight up a bit.

Do this only after fatigue has set in with proper form. These extra cheat reps cause additional overload to the biceps.

The combination of these two bicep exercises will allow you to gain strength and build muscle in your arms more so than any other bicep exercises.

They are both included in every single bicep muscle building workout that I do.

In fact, many bicep workouts I do only include these two exercises and yet they have allowed me to add inches to my arms in a short amount of time.

If a person wants to build muscle fast and rapidly then this article is the best option for him to gather information about how build muscles in a fast and rapid manner. Different people have different reasons for building muscles. For example, some people want to build muscles for staying healthy and fit to perform well in sports while others build them for looking in front of the opposite sex. If a person wants to build muscle fast then he should first get a motivation for this because without motivation no task is possible for a person. The best way to get a motivation is to write the reason behind building muscles on a paper and stick it somewhere so that the person would be able to read it everyday. When he continuously reads the motive of muscle building everyday, then he would realize that he need to get off from his couch and go to the gym and exercise regularly.

For building muscle fast, the person need to know the reason or rather the “science” involved in building these muscles. This is not the science which is involved in rocket propulsion but the working of the biological processes of how the muscles expand themselves in our body and get heavier and bulkier in less time required. Not every person has 17 inch biceps and proper abdominals on his stomach. So, a person need to work hard and go through intense workouts daily in order to build muscle fast and in a very effective manner. Some people decide to go for supplements but most of them have their own side effects and adversely affect the body in the long run. So, intense workout is the best way for building muscles fast.

When a person goes through an intense workout, the molecules of the muscles breakdown inside his body and are split into lighter particles. This process is called micro trauma and it is invisible to us as it occurs inside our body. When the workout is over, these lighter particles again join themselves and form bigger particles during the recovery time. When these bigger particles are re formed, they become stronger and heavier then before and hence muscles are built in the person’s body. Foods like chicken, eggs, fish and beef which are rich in protein are suggested along with these workouts as a lot of energy is drained. These foods provide the body with intense amount of energy so that the body gets ready for the next workout.

Building muscle quick is easy to do. All you have to do is follow simple blueprint that allows for maximum muscle growth over a short period of time. So, what I’m going to share with you are some tips on how to build muscle quick. That way, you get the most out of your effort in the gym.

The first thing you have pay attention to when trying to build muscles quickly is your nutrition. You have to eat alot of protein and carbs in order to grow. Make sure you eat at least 1 gram of protein per pound of bodyweight and 1.5 grams of carbs per pound of bodyweight.

An example of this would be if you weigh 200 pounds, you’ll want to consume 200 grams of protein per day and at least 300 grams of carbs per day. This will help your body stay in “muscle-building” mode all day, everyday.

Some foods you should eat are red meats, salmon, eggs, cottage cheese, fruits, chicken, turkey, whole wheat breads and pastas, and brown rice.

Along with nutrition, you should train hard in order to quickly build muscle. Make sure you do mass building exercises. These exercises consists of bench press, squats, deadlifts, barbell curls, and military press. You should do about 4-5 sets of 6-8 reps.

Be sure to train at least 3 times a week. Don’t train more than 5 times a week, though. You don’t want to overtrain your muscles. If you do, you’ll actually lose muscles instead of building muscle.

Before your workouts, you should consume whey protein with complex carbs (oatmeal, apple, or banana). And after your workout, drink 40 grams of whey protein (about 2 scoops) with simple carbs (powerade, white bread with jelly, bagel, or baked potato). This is important if you want to build muscle quick.

These are some tips on how to build muscles quickly. Use these tips and watch how fast you grow.