Tag Archive for: #wonderfullyfit

How To Design A Good Workout Routine To Build Muscle Mass

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A good workout routine should be no more than an hour in length, because after an hour, the “fight or flight” hormone cortisol is released by the body and it inhibits muscle growth.

When designing your own routines, first decide what your goals are. Your goals should be specific, not vague generic goals like “I want to get bigger”, or “I want to add muscle”.

workout routine

The more specific the goal, the more likely you are to hold yourself accountable, and therefore the more likely you are to succeed.

Examples could be to gain a certain amount of muscular bodyweight within a certain time frame, or to increase a major lift to a new personal best in a set time frame. The goal should always be set against a time frame, as this will help you keep on track.

Lets say you decide to gain 10 lbs. of muscle in three months as an example.

Having decided on the goal, the next step is to decide what is a good workout routine that will enable you to achieve your objective.

The priority is building muscle, so you’ll want to use the exercises that build the most amount of muscle, which invariably means the major compound exercises like the squat and the dead lift.

I’d bet money that if you asked any major competitive bodybuilder what was the cornerstone of a good workout routine, they’d say the dead lift or the squat.

If you’re able to train both movements hard and progressively and still recover well then terrific, but most of us may find that having both movements in a single routine is too much hard work.

Both exercises can be built up to the stage where you’re moving twice and even three times your own bodyweight. This is desirable because lifting big is a vital part of a good workout routine, but know that it can be very demanding work.

My suggestion is to find out which of those two exercises suit you best, and then work as hard as possible on the chosen movement.

Uppermost in your thinking should be safety – especially if you train at home, you must be sure that you can arrange an excellent safety set up, and this may influence your choice. For example, the squat exercise will require a power rack, or at the very least a pair of squat stands, so that you can dump the bar in safety if you fail on a rep.

The dead lift does not need a power rack, so in this circumstance it may be a wiser choice. If you can do each movement in complete safety it is simply a matter of which one suits your body structure the best.

Having a major mass building lower body exercise is an integral part of a good bodybuilding routine, because your legs and back form a very large part of your overall body muscle mass, and the fastest way to build your body up is to focus on the large leg and back musculature.

Now let’s look at the upper body. This is of vital importance, but even more important is to always pay your dues on leg training, as this will make your body grow all over.

For upper body, a mix of pulling and pushing movements should be used in order to get stronger in pushing and pulling strength.

  • For pushing movements choose from bench press, overhead press and chin up.
  • For pulling movements choose from chin up, one arm dumbbell row, and the shrug.

Because the upper body exercises don’t recruit as much muscle as the lower body exercises, you can afford to have more of them in your bodybuilding routine, but make sure that your workouts don’t drag on for too long as mentioned at the beginning of the article.

You will need one or two smaller exercises like the calf raise and an abs exercise, but don’t add too many small exercises or it will hamper overall progress.

Two short but demanding workouts a week based on major compound lifts, good food and plenty of rest and sleep is the secret to big, fast gains in muscle.

Choosing a Diet Plan

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We have all failed before with a restrictive diet plan. These are the diet plans that focus on a single food, periods of fasting, high carb, low carb. Some of these plans can also be downright dangerous as they can also lead to damage of our internal organs.

We are creatures that need to eat several times a day. So how can we be happy with a diet plan that constantly leaves us hungry? Moreover, if we do not enjoy the diet plan we are on how are we ever going to succeed?

diet plan

Here are 10 top tips for choosing a successful diet plan:

1. Don’t get involved with any kind of extreme or fad dieting. Unless you are taking medical advice, it can be unhealthy or dangerous to remove certain food groups from our diet. A balanced diet provides us with all the vitamins and minerals we need to keep us healthy. Fad diets do not work in the long term.

2. Choose a diet that offers many food choices. We don’t need to restrict the kinds of food we normally eat. A diet plan that says you can eat certain foods in week 1, and then add another set of foods in week 2. However, if you gain weight you should go back to week 1. There’s very little chance we would ever make it to week 3.

3. We don’t have to Exercise with a diet plan to lose weight. Obviously we shouldn’t rule out exercise totally, everyone needs a certain amount of exercise to remain healthy apart from making us feel good. Exercise is necessary used to tone our bodies, not as a rigid part of our diet plan.

4. If someone sells a diet plan where you have to return week after week for more information, then they are simply making extra money from it. All the information we need should be there when we start the diet plan. If they have us paying week after week do they really want us to lose weight?

5. If the diet plan chosen gives you a target weight loss of 1 or 2 pounds a week. We should experience minimal or no hunger pangs. The diet should help us plan our meals and snacks correctly.

6. There is no such thing as a perfect diet plan simply because we are all different. A good diet plan should allow for those inevitable moments of weakness.

7. When we first start on a diet plan, we may initially lose 3, 4 maybe even 5 pounds a week. After the first week or two, we should aim to lose a steady 2 pounds a week. Any more than this could be unhealthy.

8. Being happy with a diet plan is necessary. If we struggle with our diet, it can become torturous. If we are not enjoying the food, we will become miserable and make the people close to us miserable. It is a long-term process to both lose the weight and keep it off. This means that we have to enjoy the foods allowed with the plan. If we don’t enjoy it we will fail.

9. Being happy with our diet plan also includes holiday eating. If it does not take into account our holidays, then the diet will be moved to the back of our minds. This alone can cause our diet to fail. Therefore, we need to enjoy the diet and the holidays.

10. Ultimately, whichever plan is selected, we should be in control, the diet should not control us. By this, I mean that your diet should meet our needs and requirements. Strict rules will only increase our chances of failure. Everyone has different needs and requirements. Therefore, you have to be able to customize a diet plan to meet ours. Then there is a good chance to succeed.

I Just Started Working Out, Why Am I Gaining Weight?

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So you’ve just signed up for a membership at your local gym, or you just began working with a trainer, but after the first two weeks you get on the scale and realize that you’re a pound or two heavier. What’s going on? Well first of all, if you have a trainer I’m sure he or she has told you to stay off the scale.

Time and time again as fitness professionals we find ourselves locked in battle with the treacherous scale as people obsess over weight instead of the stuff that really matters i.e., body fat, girth measurements and how your clothes fit.

weight

So first things first, throw that scale out the window. Whether you gain weight or not has a significant amount to do with many factors, including body type and nutrition.

At Wonderfully Fit, we begin an assessment with a basic test, which is used to measure body fat versus lean mass, resting metabolism (# of calories needed to sustain your current muscle mass without moving) and average metabolic rate (# of calories that should be consumed by your body on average during an active day. When you begin to lift weights, your body which is now stimulated by heavier loads establishes new links between your brain and muscle. Your body begins to recruit more muscle and this increases its demands for energy.

It is this increase in demand that makes you feel hungrier than normal and it represents a change in your metabolism. This is a very critical time for you as you must now make better choices on what to consume and when to consume it, in order to meet the demands of increased muscle activity. The problem that many personal trainers find is that their clients will begin to use this newly revved up metabolism as a sort of credit card which affords them the luxury of eating junk food.

This is however counterproductive to your goals of fat and weight loss and most people will experience weight gain if this is not monitored carefully. This is a time where you have a chance to combine your training with lower calorie, high nutritional value foods and get the most out of your metabolism. At Wonderfully Fit, we encourage our clients to eat often, but to make sure that you’re eating quality foods.

Not only is nutrition a key reason for why you may be gaining weight, but consider this; Muscle is about 70% water and when you work out more; your body’s response places a higher demand for consumption of more water. Also in response to weight training your body needs to prepare itself for heavier loads. One of the ways it does this is to increase surface area by hydrating the muscle fibers in order to increase surface area and provide higher power outputs.

Your lean mass includes muscle, bone and organs. Weight bearing activity stimulates muscle growth and stimulates an increase in bone density. These two things can easily cause significant weight gain within the first couple of months. This is where it is important to have a look at girth measurements and body fat. Muscle is heavier and denser than fat and as more muscle is stimulated, the body’s ability to burn fat increases, which sometimes results in a loss of inches with an overall gain of weight.

Similar to the old saying, “Guns don’t kill people, people kill people”. Exercise doesn’t make you fat, the choices a person makes, makes that person fat.

At Wonderfully Fit, we believe it’s about changing your lifestyle and by”lifestyle” we mean changing the way your body moves, looks and feels; changing the fuel that you run on and giving you the confidence to take on any challenge.

The take home messages are clear. Throw out the scale and focus on getting stronger and increasing your metabolism by moving more and eating right. The rest will fall into place over time. Rome was not built in a day and your body took years to get this far; sometimes 10, 20 or 30+. The process of reprogramming your body is not an overnight miracle, but a life-long commitment to change.

From an excerpt of Maya Angelou, “If you don’t like something, change it. If you can’t change it, change your attitude”. Realize that your trainer or fitness coach is there to assist you in reaching your goals, as well as support you along your journey to change. We give you the tools to succeed, but it just may be that your attitude towards food, nutrition and exercise are the only thing holding you back from a better you.

Mass Building Routines To Build Muscle

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You might just be an individual that dedicates yourself to succeeding with your goals. You may also be an individual that commits yourself in the gym in the hopes of packing on some pounds. All the same, if you aren’t getting the results that you believe you should be getting, then you may have to start looking at what you are doing in a little more detail.

You need to look inside for some answers, if you want to figure out what is holding you back. Number one, is the quantity of food you eat sufficient for muscle gains? Secondly, are your workout routines designed for your body type? Number three, do you want to stay as lean as possible while trying to gain muscle?

muscle

These questions are important and is what this article is all about. To help create a pathway to your goals we will now look at these questions a little closer. Cool, let’s do this…

Eating is Something You Must Learn to Love

This may sound funny or maybe even conflicting, if you are looking for how to gain mass the healthy way. Keep this in mind, that if your metabolism is fast and you think you are eating enough food, yet your weight has not changed at all, then I think you may need to increase it some more my friend lol. I know it sounds crazy, yet there are some tricks and tips to make it easier for you. You must learn to take a smarter approach and find some quality foods with higher calories. Things like olive oil, nuts, and other good oils contain massive of amounts of calories and they also offer other muscle building properties.

I believe that this part is one of the hardest things to accomplish, if you are a skinny guy with a high metabolism. It takes time to prepare all these foods, time to eat the foods and money to buy the foods. Heck, if this was the easiest thing to accomplish, then everyone would be walking around like superheros wouldn’t they?

Working Out for Your Body Type

You will never find one workout that is totally better than all the rest. This should be something you fully understand. Still, every workout routine will have a different impact on each person that uses it. Mostly this is dealing with the differences in each person’s body style and also the weaknesses that are related to them. Well if you are looking for workout routines that build muscle then you have to make sure to choose one made for your particular body-type. It makes little difference if you are an ectomorph, endomorph or mesomorph; there are specific ways of working out for each body style that will give you the most bang for the buck.

For instance, if you are a skinny ectomorph trying to build some muscle, then working out the way the pro bodybuilders do will probably hurt you more than help you. That will just end up leaving you frustrated by your lack of gains and probably worse, wounded.

So if you are scrawny, choose power exercises in your routines like back squats and deadlifts. Make sure you keep your workout time down and not too many days a week. Make sure what you do is what is best for you and your body type.

Do I Care About Putting on a Little Fat?

I know you want to gain muscle, yet are you hesitant to put on some extra fat too? Make sure to ask yourself this because this could determine the results that you get. It is possible to burn fat and build muscle, nonetheless, it is not the simplest thing to do and you won’t be able to build quite as much mass either. In order to make sure you are sending enough rebuilding nutrients to your muscles, it is only natural to gain a little fat with the process. Muscle is not the easiest thing to create, so if you are worrying about gaining fat, then this might be affecting your mass gains.

Do not take it the wrong way, adding tons of fat is not on the agenda. Gaining a little bit is okay as long as you are gaining way more muscle than you are fat. It is always possible to burn the fat later after you gained the quality muscle. So if your goal is to build as much muscle mass as possible, you should really not worry too much about gaining a little fat with it. If the amount of fat starts rising too fast then simply cut your calories a little bit until you get it back to the right level.

I hope this article has helped make a couple areas more clear. You may have overlooked a few of these points, but now you know and now all that is left is to succeed.

Why is it Problematic to Maintain a Diet Plan?

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We all dream of losing pounds fast. Of finding a way to get in shape for a holiday, wedding or party in a couple of weeks. However, such a mind-set can often lead your diet plan to impossible to reach before it has even had the opportunity to bring outputs…

Why do diet plans fail? There are dozens of factors why your weight slimming approach may fail, but the most noticeable factors include:

Imbalanced Eating Methods

Fad diet plans (often recognized as ‘celebrity diets’) are renowned for cutting out whole food groups in an attempt to aid you shed unwanted lbs. Anyway, such crash diets are hard to keep to for months at a time. Not only are they unhealthy, but they are impossible to enjoy. After all, could you enjoy consuming just cabbage or proteins, day in day out for months on end? No.

Hunger Cravings

We have all got certain meals meals we can’t resist. Chocolate… cakes… biscuits…burgers… Now whilst treating yourself to the odd naughty food is not a crime. Turn this monthly indulgence into daily treat and you will soon recognize that you have given in to extra temptations as well which will cause weight gain, not fat loss.

Missing Meals Sessions

It may sound logical when you are shifting excess lbs to miss a meal as you are essentially taking less calories; however without a regular ingestion of calories into your body, your metabolic rate will quickly start to slow down as it thinks you are starving.

And this can make getting in shape incredibly difficult as your metabolism rate will be too slow to cope with fat burning.

What should We do?

If any of the above sounds like you, don’t let this dishearten your attempts to lose extra pounds. To experience healthy, lasting weight loss all you need to do is alter your beliefs and acknowledge that your dieting goals won’t be fast.

A regular pounds dropping of 4-8 lbs a month is suggested by many top experts as these are easier to maintain.

But what else could you do?

  • Eat a balanced diet – you don’t have to eliminate your favorite snacks completely to experience successful slimming. The trick is to ingest a healthy meal plan of all the major nutrition groups and reduce the number of naughty foods you consume.

Now we are not suggesting that you go cold turkey from your favorite meals altogether – all this will produce is temptation. Anyway, by steadily cutting how often you have them, on a week by week basis, you can naturally remove them from your diet plan and stop cravings.

  • Exercise regularly – eating well and working out regularly go together when it comes to dieting. By incorporating a workout regime of aerobics and strength training 3 times a week for 30 minutes, you can enhance your metabolism levels and ultimately your fat burn.
  • Create small milestones – instead of focusing on a complete fat reduction of 10-20 lbs, set yourself little weekly goals of 2 lbs and try to get just those. This helps to decrease the pressure to shift weight and quickly you will discover that you are near your overall target.
  • Apply safe diet pills – if you are struggling to get rid of those extra lbs and reignite your diet plan, the assistance of a proven weight loss supplement like natural Proactol diet pills can help. Scientifically tested and proven through 6 medical trials to bind up to 28 percent of dietary fat, reduce appetite, improve cholesterol and increase energy levels, Proactol diet pills can assist you to beat your food cravings and naturally cut your meal sizes to make dieting easy, safe and care-free. Proactol diet pills have been also confirmed to be 100% organic and cause zero known side effects.

My 3 Best Motivation Tips To Get You Started Working Out (Again)

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The reason I hear most often for people not working out is lack of motivation. Yes, there are hundreds of ways to get and stay motivated from your doctor telling you that you have high blood pressure to that upcoming Florida vacation or class reunion.

Today I’m going to give you my 3 best motivation tips. If you actually put these tips to work you’ll surprise yourself how quickly you become motivated to workout.

Working Out

Tip#1: Go shopping for new clothes

I know you’re probably saying to yourself, “What? I hate the way I look and shopping for clothes is only going to remind me of it. How is that going to motivate me?” Well, being reminded of it is reason in itself, but I meant to go shopping for new workout clothes. Buy just ONE really nice fitness outfit that you’ll look forward to wearing and ONLY wear it to your work outs. Then set a short-term goal like “If I don’t miss a workout this week I’ll go buy another outfit on the weekend.”

Tip#2: Get yourself fired-up… every day

You can’t hit a target you can’t see. Visualization is used by the top performers in every field. It doesn’t have to be complicated, it doesn’t have to take long and WOW does it get you revved up to take action! It only takes a minute or two a day. That’s it. In fact the more you do it, the less time it takes. Here’s what to do:

Take minute and in your mind’s eye see yourself with your best body (not somebody else’s, yours). See yourself looking in the mirror wearing your favorite dress or jeans. Make it vivid – see the colors, hear the usual noises in your house. Let that feeling of confidence and excitement flow through you – don’t hold anything back – just let yourself feel.

Don’t believe me? Think it’s a bunch of “new age” hooey? All I have to say is – Try it (nobody has to know). Set your smartphone timer to 2 minutes. (It’s best to use an audible timer so you don’t keep breaking your concentration by looking at the time). Close your eyes and try the visualization technique I just described and stay focused until the timer goes off. If your mind wanders start again. It gets easier with practice.

Tip# 3: Tell the world your plans

Here’s your chance to use Facebook, LinkedIn and all the people on your e-mail list for something more than sharing pictures of your cat or forwarding bad jokes. Tell everyone you know that you’ve started on this fitness lifestyle that includes working out every day and eating better. Post pictures and results (even bad ones). Funny, it’s the bad ones that motivate me even more. Then invite everyone to check in on you. Peer pressure works, use it to your advantage. Plus your good friends will help you by not tempting you with bad food and bad habits.

Bonus Tip: Stop the scale “routine”

The surest way to kill your motivation is to continually step on the scale. If getting on the scale is part of your daily routine – stop it now! Your weight fluctuates for a thousand different reasons every day. It’s very unlikely you’ll lose weight in a perfectly straight downward line. But this doesn’t mean you should give up. Every single person I’ve met that has exercised and eaten properly and consistently has lost the weight – every single one. AND every one has had struggles and plateaus and just plain “bad days”. But that’s okay. If it were easy, everyone would be thin.

Using Your Own Home Workout Routines To Build Muscle Safely And Fast

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With a bit of knowledge, it’s possible to add a lot of muscle to your body by designing your own Home Workout Routines. The other good news is that you don’t need to spend a ton of money on expensive equipment if you know what you’re doing.

A terrific benefit of knowing how to design your own home workout routines is that you have absolute control over when you train. No need to wait for someone else to finish what they’re doing at the bench press unit for example.

muscle

You can also design routines that are will work for you – you will always be your own best trainer with a little knowledge.

The first thing you need to know is which exercises to perform. Get that worked out, and then purchase the equipment needed to do those movements.

If you have a barbell and some plates, you can do dead lifts. This is perhaps the most effective muscle builder there is – they work your entire body from tip to toe.

I strongly recommend that you invest in a trap bar – this makes the dead lift even more effective, because it takes some of the strain off your lower back, which means it’s easier to really work the big leg muscles before your back gets tired.

If you have the funds to spare, a power rack is an excellent investment. They’re not cheap, but a good one will last a lifetime, and it will repay itself many times over.

If you can’t afford a power rack then a set of old fashioned squat stands is a reasonable substitute. You may even find some second hand equipment, which is fine as long as it’s solid and stable.

With the power rack (or aforementioned squat stands) you can now safely perform the barbell squat, the only exercise that comes close to the dead lift as a muscle builder.

I’d bet that if you asked any of the top bodybuilders in the world how they built their muscle mass, they would all have used heavy squats or dead lifts to build their bodies.

Also with the power rack, you can do the military press, a terrific upper body exercise that some rate superior to the bench press. Some power racks also have a chinning and dipping attachment, and these are two terrific upper body mass building exercises.

Next, I’d invest in a decent bench. With the bench you can now do the bench press, without doubt the most popular exercise in the world. The bench press can add slabs of upper body muscle. Some adjustable benches are solid enough when flat, but they can be a bit rickety when in the elevated position, so beware!

Do the bench press inside your power rack, and then you can train it really hard and in complete safety.

You can see that it’s possible to design some really effective home workout routines without having to shell out loads of cash on expensive equipment. You actually don’t need to do a lot of different exercises to build muscle – far more important is to get good at a small selection of compound exercises, and then add weight to the bar on a regular basis whilst using impeccable exercise form.

A well designed home workout routine, decent diet and plenty of rest and sleep is the secret to transforming your body and fast.

Good luck!

Understanding how to design and plan home workout routines that will work for your body is perhaps the most important part of bodybuilding.

How to Choose the Best Diet Plan for You

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Yes, we know that the holidays are just lurking and will turn up pretty soon. It would not be long before we get invitations for dinners and cocktails. Other than thinking about what to wear for that swanky soiree, we know what else most of you are worried about the most: D-I-E-T. The holidays, it seems, is the best time to test your willpower when it comes to your diet regimen.

However, diet experts believe that for successful diet plans, it should be realistically attainable for every individual. There are plenty of different diet programs to choose from, and you can get easily overwhelmed with the many choices you have. Although there are diet plans that promises weight loss hunger-free, workout-free and with quick results, these things should not cloud your judgment in selecting the one that will work best for you. There are a number of factors that can influence the possibility of a successful weight loss plan:

diet

Failed diet programs in the past

Have you tried a diet in the past that failed? Why did you think it failed? What is it about the diet that made you lose your motivation? Was it because of restrictive food choices? Or perhaps the diet gave you constant hunger pangs? Determining the reasons of past diet failures will help you understand your dieting strengths and weaknesses, and will help you make a better, more effective diet program.

Consider your budget

People often think that when one is on a diet, they are actually saving money because they spend less for food. While this premise might have a hint of truth about it, certain diet plans will in fact cause one to spend extra for meals that are specially prepared to follow a diet program. Others will even require a special diet supplement, and then some will call for regular support meetings. Do you think your budget fits the cost of a diet program?

Your Schedules

Do you have the time to shop and prepare foods that the diet plan asks you to follow? If not, then you know it’s not going to work for you.

Know the diet program developer

Is the diet plan developed by a qualified person? Is the diet based on scientific research? Again, if the answer is doubtful, you know it’s probably not going to work for you and for everybody else.

Get your support system

Getting support from other groups on diet will help you improve your focus and determination to succeed with a diet plan.

These are the basic factors that you have to consider before starting out any diet regimen. Do not forget to visit your doctor for advice regarding any diet that you would want to try, especially if you are suffering from such conditions as heart ailments or diabetes. A wrong choice of diet program might do you more bad than good so always check with your doctor first. Your doctor can also help you to set your goals when it comes to weight-loss plans.

How Do I Work Out My Back?

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The back is one of those areas a lot of us tend to forget about. Why? I’m not really sure, but looking back at when I first started working out, I suppose it was because I couldn’t really SEE it, so I wasn’t aware of how its shape really paled in comparison with the parts that “people see”.

As I get older and building muscle is less about appearance and more about personal goals and health, I’m acutely aware of how important a strong back can be, especially in terms of supporting ourselves during other exercises.

back

Enough of that, let’s get to it!

For this particular exercise, let’s focus on the lower lats, a major part of the back that people “see”.

We’re going to do pull-ups again, but this time the setup is a little different.

Take an OVERhand grip on the bar (assuming you have one!). Keep your knees bent and try to keep them in front of you (This prevents your back from arching as well as making sure you’re isolating those lats).

Before you even mess with what your arms are doing, pull with your shoulders. Then bring yourself up until your chin is slightly above the bar (or handles, whatever you’re using). When you get to the top, make sure your shoulders are pressed down, and pull your elbows in toward your sides simultaneously.

Pretty self-explanatory lift, really. The only pointer I can think of is to keep a wide grip; it will help build your upper lats, as well as rhomboids.

Workout Routines to Build Up Those Muscles

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Following a strict muscle building workout routine is critical for anyone determined to build muscle and gain weight. Going into a gym and lifting random weights until you exhaust yourself is not enough.

To achieve your primary objective, that is, to build up your muscle mass, a weight lifting and bodybuilding program must be employed. You definitely have to follow and maintain a muscle building workout routine.

workout routine

Three things contribute to building muscles: workout, diet and rest. Here, I will focus on the workout factor. However, you must bear in mind that all these three factors are equally vital to optimal strength gain and muscular growth. Neglecting one factor would mean failure to maximize your muscle and body building capabilities. A well-designed muscle building workout routine program coupled with a solid diet wit the right amount of calories, combined with plenty of rest and sleep is extremely powerful.

All your efforts spent in the gym by working out will all go to waste if your body will not be supplied with the necessary nutrients and raw materials it needs to build up your muscles. At the same time, if you would not get an adequate amount of rest the body needs in order to recover and repair muscles, the whole weight training will be useless. Common mistake of those who are just beginning their muscle building is to focus so much on weight training but neglect the importance of a proper diet and plenty of sleep.

Going back to the weight training exercises, any aspiring bodybuilder must know that his or her focus must be on compound exercises because these exercises stimulate most of your muscles in the least amount of time. If done correctly and with challenging intensity, you would definitely be on your way to building up those muscles.

The most basic yet the most effective compound exercises for weightlifting are squats and bench presses. Squats develop your leg muscles while the bench press is for the upper body muscles. Some other of the most effective exercises include bicep curls and bench dips for the arm muscles, crunches for the abs, pull ups for the back, calf raises for the leg muscles, and military press for the shoulder muscles. The great thing about these exercises is that you need not all those fancy equipment and complicated gadgets to be able to perform them. Aside from barbells, a spacious room is the only requirement.

Generally, if your primary goal is to obtain optimal strength, 1 to 6 repetitions per set of exercises are recommended. For bodybuilding and muscle mass gain purposes, 7 to 12 repetitions are recommended. For an increase in endurance, a minimum of 13 repetitions is recommended. Notice that the more difficult the objective is, the lesser the number of repetitions recommended. This is because in any exercise training, you go for intensity rather than duration. These figures are just general, though.

A periodization technique can be helpful in keeping your muscles growing. Periodization means a shift from heavy routines to light routines consistently. As this would provide a change-of-pace, your body will work more as it tries to adapt to changing physical activity. As a result, more muscle.

Furthermore, certain muscle groups would respond differently to the number of repetitions being done. For example, abdominal muscles respond best to a high number of repetitions. Therefore, changing your range of repetitions on a regular basis will prove to be effective in building up more muscle.