7 Reasons to Use Bodybuilding to Get in Shape

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If you're out of shape right now, regardless of your age, bodybuilding could really help you to turn your entire life around, and fast.

I should say right up front that if you're in any doubt, get clearance from your doctor before you start any new type of vigorous exercise.

Let's assume that you're been give the go ahead from your doctor;

Here is a list of some of the many huge benefits of using muscle building to get in shape;

1/ Speed of results - if you train hard twice a week, for not much more than an hour each workout, you can make improvements in your body so fast that it will astonish you. This applies even more if you're totally new to weight training. In a few short months you could see a new reflection in the mirror looking back at you.

Bodybuilding allows you to make these changes much faster than most other forms of exercise.

2/ Increased Confidence - once that you start to see and feel the effects of building and strengthening your body, you will definitely feel a spring in your step. This is perhaps one of the biggest benefits of weight training. Best of all, you'll start to get noticed more by the opposite sex!

This applies whether your male or female, and it applies regardless of age too. This is simply down to nature - we're naturally more drawn towards healthier looking people.

3/ Greatly improved health and well being - I know this for a fact myself - before I trained with weights I used to catch every germ going - now I rarely catch anything worse than a cold every other year. Weight training makes your body more resistant to illness.

4/ Muscle Building makes it easier to lose fat - as you add muscle to your body, your metabolism will speed up, and this in turn will help you to lose fat. Carrying more muscle around will burn more calories. Two benefits for the price of one!

The other up side to this is that as you get into heavier training, your appetite will increase as well. As long as you eat quality foods and not junk, you'll be able to enjoy your food and not worry about getting fatter!

I'd advise that you'd track your body mass index from time to time (your fat percentage), and allow that to guide you.

5/ Great improvements in strength - this comes in really handy for day to day stuff, right down to undoing jars that you couldn't undo before. It's also comforting to know that you've built your strength up, which adds to the feeling of well-being that you will get from bodybuilding.

6/ Improvements in cardio fitness - the old clich

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Why You Shouldn't Take Bodybuilding Magazines Too Seriously

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A lot of people get subscriptions to bodybuilding magazines in hopes that it would help them reach their fitness or muscle building goals. While some of the fitness magazines out there are admittedly very good, a subscription doesn't necessarily make it easier to get the body you want. Here are a few reasons why.

#1 - Bodybuilding magazines need sponsors to survive.

Remember that most magazines won't survive on sales alone -- they depend on sponsorships and ad revenue. As a result, their articles may be tweaked to reflect the views of their bigger sponsors, which may not necessarily be right.

#2 - The tips you get in these magazines may not be one-size-fits-all.

Also keep in mind that there's no such thing as a fitness regimen that'll work for every single person out there. What works for you may not work for someone else. It's important to develop a fitness routine that's tailor-made for your body type and lifestyle, and that's something a magazine -- with potentially thousands of readers -- just can't do for you.

#3 - The hype about supplements is just that -- hype.

Most of the ads you'll find in a bodybuilding magazine are about bodybuilding supplements, and they all promise the same things -- fast fat burn and muscle growth. Supplements are great to have, but they're not all that necessary to a successful routine. So don't get tempted into buying something that might not work for you at all.

The best muscle building regimen covers a combination of good eating habits, regular and intense exercise, and enough rest. In other words, it's an entire lifestyle change. You can't read a bodybuilding magazine and expect it to whip you into shape on its own.

Only when you're ready to tweak your entire lifestyle will a bodybuilding magazine be of great help to your routine.

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The Five Best Exercises to Add Upper Body Muscle

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The first thing to say about adding upper body muscle is that it's a lot easier to do if you don't neglect lower body training.

I know this sounds weird, but remember that most of the some of the largest muscles in your legs and butt are among the largest muscles in your entire body, and the secret to getting bigger is to build the largest muscles in the body first.

For that reason, unless you have a genuine physical condition that stops you from either dead lifting or squatting, make sure you pay your dues with one of these exercises.

I'd also add the leg press to that - so rule number one is don't neglect lower body training.

This produces the anabolic effect that you need to build muscle. It also makes it much easier to add muscle to other parts of your body - a bit like throwing a stone into a pond - the larger the stone the more ripples it creates.

Similarly, the larger the muscle you train, the easier it becomes to get the smaller muscles to grow as well - they come along for the ride.

This is called "indirect effect."

Now to upper body mass builders;

Again, focus on compound exercises where possible. This is a more efficient way to train because you want to exercise the major muscle groups with as few movements as possible, giving you more time for recovery, and just as important, to get on with the other things in your life!

Take a look at this group of exercises. Bench press, overhead press, dip, chin, shrug.

These are the only mass builders you will ever need for training the upper body. You don't even need all of them! The first three are pushing movements and the last two are pulling movements.

I'd suggest that you pick a pushing exercise, and then follow with a pulling exercise. You'll probably find it easier to train them both hard if you follow this plan instead of following a pushing exercise with another pushing exercise, or a pulling exercise followed by another pulling exercise.

If you're just starting out with the weights then you may not be able to do the chin up - in which case you could do the pull down exercise if you have access to that equipment, or you could do negative chins until you have the strength to do a normal chin up.

All the other exercises you should be able to do.

It's vital to add small amounts of weight to the bar whenever possible. Don't be in too much of a hurry adding weight though, or your body won't have a chance to adapt to the extra stress you place on it.

Make sure that you learn the right way to do the exercises, so that:
1/ You get the maximum muscle building effect and
2/ You greatly reduce the chance of injury.

Good luck!

For more information, Ged McCabe has complied a complimentary 75 minute video report, "Bodybuilding Basics" and a 23 page report, "A proven, step by step guide to successful bodybuilding."

To download the video and the report instantly, visit: http://www.bodybuildingalert.com

Would you like to know how to design your own training programs? For a complimentary 2 hour video presentation, "The 15 things you need to know about designing your own bodybuilding routines", visit http://www.bodybuildingthatworks.com

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How to Plan Out Your Muscle Building Routines

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Some people will tell you that diet is the most important part of bodybuilding - this is nonsense. The most important part by far is program design, or in other words the exercises that you do, and when you do them.

Here's why;

You can have the worlds best diet, and you can be getting tons of rest, but if you're not stimulating muscle gains it all means nothing. Yes, diet and rest are important, but the bottom line is that if you're not stimulating muscle gains nothing will happen.

That said, the most important thing is to choose the exercises that stimulate the largest amount of muscle. This is the most efficient way to train, because you can train your major muscle groups faster, and therefore your entire body faster.

This is another area where so many people in gyms all over the world go wrong. They spend four or more days a week in the gym doing things like bicep curls, and tricep kickbacks.

Did you know that over two thirds of your muscle mass is contained in your legs and back?

In theory then, this means that if you gained 10lbs muscle, 6.6lb at least would go onto your legs and back. Therefore the most important exercises to do are the ones that affect your legs and back.

Golden rule of bodybuilding number one is to build the largest muscles in the body first - I wish someone had carved this on my forehead thirty years ago when I started hitting the weights - I reckon I'd be a lot bigger now!

A welcome side effect of doing this is that it makes it easier to build the smaller muscle groups - a bit like dropping a stone into a pond - the larger the stone, the more ripples it causes.

This is also known as "indirect effect" - but please note it doesn't work the other way around - if you build the smaller muscles first, it doesn't make it easier to build the larger muscles.

This is why you often hear that "Compound exercises are king".

For that, read dead lift, squat, chin, dip, bench press, overhead press - in that order.

Now it could well be that if you're starting out, you're not strong enough to squat with any weight on the bar, or to dead lift with any weight on the bar.

This doesn't matter - if you have to, start doing those movements with the bar only. Then very gradually add small amounts of weight to the bar each workout you do.

If you're just starting out (regardless of age - and I assume you've got doctor's clearance if it was needed.), you could do three workouts a week, with just one set of ten reps for each exercise.

The most important thing is to get started, and once you've started, to stick with it!

As you get more experience, you'll also get stronger, so you can add more weight to the bar. Then, you could look at doing say two work sets per movement, and cutting your workouts back to two a week.

The idea is to give work to the large leg muscles in the thighs, plus the back muscles - and the squat and dead lift are the absolute two best exercises to do this.

So when you plan your routines, make sure that you have plenty of compound movements in them - this is proven to be the fastest way to build your body up, regardless of your age and level of fitness now.

For more information, Ged McCabe has complied a complimentary 75 minute video report, "Bodybuilding Basics" and a 23 page report, "A proven, step by step guide to successful bodybuilding."

To download the video and the report instantly, visit; http://www.bodybuildingalert.com

Would you like to know how to design your own training programs? For a complimentary 2 hour video presentation, "The 15 things you need to know about designing your own bodybuilding routines", visit; http://www.bodybuildingthatworks.com

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How Can I Do More Chin-Ups?

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When performing a chin-up all you will need is your own bodyweight and a bar. If it's your very first time doing chin-ups it can be almost impossible to execute them correctly. If you are in the situation where your bodyweight is too heavy for you to pull yourself up, then I suggest that you start by jumping up and slowly lower your body, repeat that as many times as possible. When you've done that a few days or how ever long time it takes for you to feel comfortable and strong enough to perform proper chin-ups. Just simply start doing them. In the beginning you probably won't be able to do more than 2-3, but that's okay it's a process every one goes through.

The important thing is that you are consistent and don't just do them once every now and then. You don't even have to go to the gym to do chin-ups, you can get your very own chin-up bar that you can put in a door post. If you got one at home it makes it much easier. This is a thing that I do myself: Every time a pass through the door where I got my chin bar I do 1 set of as many reps as possible. It might sound silly but it really works. When I started I could only do about 3 reps, and now few months later I can easily do 12-15.

If you want a wider back then the wide grip chin-up is a great exercise to do. It's a lot harder then the close grip chin-ups, but you can start in the exact same way as you did with the close grip ones. Jump up and slowly lower your body.

This is what should go on in your head when doing chin-ups: When you are too tired to do one more DO two more. Because when you feel like you can't do another one, most of the time your body can actually do a few more but your mind don't. If you can overcome that then you will see results very fast.

If you want complete muscle building workout routines visit my website.
Or if you want more exercise articles visit my blog.

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Number of Reps and Sets

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One of the most important aspects of building muscle is to know the adequate amount of exercise to do. If you do too much, your muscles will atrophy rather than grow. If you do too little nothing will happen at all. So how can you tell the correct to perform?

The general rule of thumb for building muscle is to use progressive weight and lift as heavy as you can for between 5-8 reps while keeping perfect form. This means that each time you do an exercise you must either do more reps up to 8 or lift more than the previous time. Most people over train without knowing it. If you are doing 3 sets of 12 reps you are probably overtraining assuming you are lifting heavy enough. Some people judge their progress by how much of a pump they get in their muscles when working out. This really is no measure of progress however.

The best set/rep combination for building muscle is 2 sets of between 5 and 8 reps for most core exercises. This assumes that you perform about two sets of warm ups with lighter weight first. That does not seem like much, but any more and you risk overtraining. Remember muscle growth takes place outside the gym while you are at rest. The only purpose of lifting in the gym is to break down muscle tissue by challenging your muscles with heavier weight each time. This progression is what causes muscle to be added later when at rest.

There are certain exceptions to this rule. Certain exercises, particularly for the abdominal muscles, tend to require higher set/rep combinations. Crunches for example will only be effective when you get into the higher ranges of 3-5 sets of 20 or more. This is mostly because this exercise is primarily to tone the abs and not build them bigger. Weighted crunches on the other hand would follow the same 2 sets of 5-8 rule if done properly with the most amount of weight possible.

Remember that proper form and working to failure are the two keys to building muscle. You want to structure your workouts around core exercises and perform 2 sets of between 5-8 reps lifting heavy enough to take you to failure. By continually adding reps up to 8 or weight each workout, you will find your muscles getting bigger and bigger very quickly.

Want instant access to free Bodybuilding Workouts, meal plans and other tools you can download and use immediately visit: http://www.jumbomuscle.com

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How to Manage Your Bodybuilding Expectations

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Let's assume that you've decided to get your body into shape by taking up bodybuilding. You've had clearance from your doctor - so what happens next?

The first thing to decide is exactly what do you hope to gain from bodybuilding? Do you want to get to competition level? Or are you going to be a recreational bodybuilder, where you want to add some muscle to your frame, but you don't want it to take over your whole life.

Maybe you want to get to a certain bodyweight, or lose a target number of pounds of fat.

It's important to decide what you hope to gain from lifting the weights before you start, because this will help you to design your routines for the future.

Unless you're in your early twenties, you're probably not going to want to try and build a competition level body. A reality check is needed here. To be a success at competition level, you're probably going to have to be right at the top end as regards genetics - probably in the top 5% in the population.

I'd say that if you're outside the top 5% genetically (and it may be a smaller percentage than that), you should give up any idea of being a professional bodybuilder.

Please don't misinterpret this - I'm not saying give up altogether - but if you start with goals that are unrealistic, you're just setting yourself up for disappointment.

If you turn this around, it's actually very liberating. As very few of us are ever likely to get to elite competition level, the rest of this article assumes that you'll be somewhere in the recreational level of bodybuilding.

You need to understand that if you plan a sensible routine, with realistic expectations, it will be so much easier to stick to it. Most people who start and then give up bodybuilding do so because they had unrealistic expectations when they began, and when it became clear that they had no chance of achieving those expectations they gave up in frustration.

However, if they'd set more realistic targets that were achievable, maybe they would still be training now. I hope you understand this point.

I'd suggest that if you don't give up training, and it becomes a part of your life (just a part of your life, not the same as taking over your life.) then it will become one of the best decisions you ever make.

If you plan sensible routines and stick to them, you may not win any bodybuilding competitions, but you will be far, far in advance of other people your own age (and most people a few years younger too) in terms of strength, muscle and overall health.

Set realistic goals and get yourself on track to become the best that you can be!

For more information, Ged McCabe has complied a complimentary 75 minute video report, "Bodybuilding Basics" and a 23 page report, "A proven, step by step guide to successful bodybuilding."

To download the video and the report instantly, visit; http://www.bodybuildingalert.com.

Would you like to know how to design your own training programs?

For a complimentary 2 hour video presentation, "The 15 things you need to know about designing your own bodybuilding routines", visit; http://www.bodybuildingthatworks.com.

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