What Mindset is Required to Gain Muscle?

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You may already be deeply involved in trying to gain muscle and get a healthier and more attractive body, but are you really taking your workout to its fullest potential?

Sometimes it is not all about the workout you are undergoing, but the state of mind that you maintain to attain the highest goal that you set for yourself. Here are some factors that will affect your body building activities and how you approach them with, not just your body, but with your soul.

Maintain Positive Thinking

Many people who are working towards succeeding in their goal to gain muscle often underestimate the power of positive thinking. Positive thinking is highly effective in setting the mood of the body to achieving greater things. Not only will your mind be rested from all worry about negative things happening in your life, with positive thinking and knowing that you will succeed, you will have a healthier outlook on the things that surround you. In turn, this will make you a much better person to deal with as well as make you feel good about the small achievements that you will make towards your larger success objective.

Develop The Mind Muscle Connections

Little do you know, but when trying to gain muscle, there is a mind-muscle connection that you should achieve and maintain to help you continue to reach success in all small endeavors that you do to get to your greater, final goal. Not being able to realize the full potential of your body is such a waste when it comes to body development.

Make that mind and muscle connection by taking the time to meditate and reflect on what you really want to do and how you want your body to respond. In other words, listen to your body and what it tells you so that you can respond to its needs quickly and effectively.

Apply Progressive Overload

Progressive overload is a concept that was developed in World War II to help soldiers rehabilitate and recuperate after sustaining injuries. This concept simply lays out a plan of development to gain muscle and mass through a program of exercise and therapy that increases stress at different levels, slowly as the body is able to handle.

This means a gradual change and increase in stress in an exercise regimen to get to the ultimate hard muscles that you expect to have at the end of the program. Progressive overload also teaches patience and discipline in a person to follow an effective bodybuilding program.

Have a Fierce Will Power

Will power has more to do with what is inside of you than what your body can do. Will power can overcome barriers. As they say if there is a will there is a way, and nothing is ever started unless there is a will to initiate it.

The secret to good bodybuilding is being able to maintain that will to get to your final goal. Always revisit your original objectives so you never lose track of what you are aiming for. Many times, bodybuilding is best achieved in positive, motivated, and well-rounded individuals who can balance the importance of body and mind in achieving goals. This is why it is important to nurture your soul alongside your body, and build that connection, to be able to achieve your goals to gain muscle.

For more information on how to Gain Muscle be sure to visit my Gain Muscle blog.

This resource will provide you with great information on what it takes to Gain Muscle Fast

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The Three Main Components of Muscle Building

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OK, you've made the excellent decision to get in shape by taking up recreational bodybuilding, so what happens next? You need to plan out what you're going to do, to get the absolute best results from your efforts, which means planning out an intelligent routine.

Essentially, bodybuilding can be broken down into three main areas;

1. Programme design - the exercises you do and when you do them
2. Nutrition - you want to eat the right foods in the right quantities to make muscle gains
3. Recovery - you need to have enough rest so the body can recover and build muscle

These three areas are all of vital importance - if one of these pieces of the puzzle is missing, then you won't achieve the results your hard work deserves.

Let me quickly qualify the last remark. Bodybuilding can be hard work, especially when you're lifting heavy weights - but it doesn't have to be a lot of hard work. The really good news here is that muscles grow when they're at rest.

This means that you don't want to be working out more than three times a week - absolute maximum. The plan is that you work hard enough on the right exercises, then get out of the gym and rest.

This is just one reason why bodybuilding is a terrific hobby - unless you're competition standard, which 95% plus of us won't be, you shouldn't become a slave in the gym - it will not help you gain more muscle - in fact it will hinder your progress!

Let bodybuilding become a part of your life - it comes with all sorts of rewards and health benefits - but it should only be a part of your life.

Doing the right movements only three or even better two times a week can really transform your body in a few months, or even faster. That means that you have four or five days when you're not training. If you have normal genetics, ie you're in the 97% majority of us, then you won't be able to make muscle gains if you workout more than three times a week, If you're working hard when you do train.

The reason I'm putting so much emphasis on training frequency is because I believe it to be one of the main reasons why so few people make decent muscle building gains - in gyms all over the world people are training too often on the wrong exercises, and not working hard enough at the same time.

Too many workouts on the wrong movements equals zero results apart from frustration. Don't fall into this trap!

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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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.

If you would like to learn more about muscle building programs just Click HERE.

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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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