Archive for March, 2008

« Older Entries

Progressive Overload for Muscle Gain

Monday, March 31st, 2008

Progressive overload is a must for anyone who wants to gain size or strength. So what do I mean by progressive overload? Progressive overload simple means continuously increasing the amount of stress you put on your muscles each time you workout over a period of time.

There are several ways you can do this. Firstly you every workout you could increase the weight on each exercise that you are doing. Add perhaps 5lbs on your previous workouts lifting weight. Secondly you could try and complete more repetitions than you did on your previous workout. Finally you could add extra sets to your workout, increasing the volume.

This progressive overload is the key to muscle gain. Every time you exercise your muscles, the stress you put on them actually damages the fibres within the muscle. These fibres then repair themselves stronger and thicker, so the next time they have to complete the task that damaged them, they will be able to do it with the damage. Now if you increase the stress they are put on each time, they will continue to repair stronger and thicker each time (providing you are giving them enough rest and feeding them enough proper nutrition!). 

That’s the basic theory behind progressive resistance, put in very simple terms anyway!

Tags: , , , ,
Posted in Muscle Building Training, Muscle building | 3 Comments »

How Many Reps Should I do?!

Friday, March 28th, 2008

There is much confusion out there about how many reps you should be aiming to complete when weight training. There are many different views on how many reps is best for strength, gaining size and for toning. In my opinion the following ranges are a good guide to work to:

3 to 5 reps – Increasing strength, but will also add size to your muscle.

6 to 12 reps – Increasing muscle mass.

12 reps plus – Endurance and toning.

If you follow these guide lines you should be heading in the right direction. 

Tags: , , ,
Posted in Fat Loss Training, General, Muscle Building Training | 1 Comment »

Don’t let the Holidays Beat You!

Wednesday, March 26th, 2008

I  added a post on Monday about the importance of giving yourself a bit freedom in your diet to enjoy yourself in the Easter Holidays. Not too go mad and start stacking up five thousand calories a day, just to have the odd bit of chocolate here and there to celebrate the holidays. Allowing yourself a few treats, so you enjoy yourself and don’t constant have to resist every thing that looks tasty!

Now while I do suggest that you treat yourself here and there, it is also important that you con’t completely forget your diet and training. For a lot of people this does happen, I know i’ve done it before! Now the important thing here is to get back on it and to do it straight away! Remind yourself of your fat loss or muscle building goals, and what results you have already achieved. It is so easy to miss a few days of training and forget about your diet, the problem is the longer it goes on the harder it is to come back! You really need to motivate yourself to get back to the gym and get back on your diet, the longer you leave it the more damage your are doing to the results you’ve achieved so far.

 So let’s beat the holiday trap, remember our goals and get back to training!

Tags: , , , , ,
Posted in General, Muscle building, fat loss | No Comments »

Happy Easter!

Monday, March 24th, 2008

Hi Everyone, hope you all had a great easter and enjoyed those eggs!

Remember that you should not completely deny yourself of the things that you like, allowing yourself a bit of freedom in your diet to celebrate events and holidays is good. Treating yourself every now and again will ease any cravings you may have, and help you to stick to your diet in the long term.

Try not to go too mad with the chocolate eggs though!

Best wishes,

Jon.

Posted in General | 1 Comment »

Shorten Your Time in the Gym – Part 2

Friday, March 21st, 2008

Still on the subject of cutting down the time you spend in the gym. If you are training for fat loss, here’s a tip to cut down the time you spend doing boring cardio.

Rather than spending fourty minutes to an hour doing cardio, why not try adding some interval training into your routine. The routine needs to be divided into different intensity levels, these are low, medium and high. A rough guide to these would be as follows;

Low intensity – This would be a very gentle jog or fast paced walk.

Medium intensity - Pace yourself at a steady jog, not to fast though.

High intensity - Fast jog or sprint.

I’ve based these around jogging, but you could use a rowing machine or exercise bike, or any similar equipment. 

So here’s how it works…

5 minutes – low intensity (warm up)

3 minutes – medium intensity

2 minutes – high intensity

3 miuntes – medium intensity

2 minutes – high intensity

3 minutes – medium intensity

2 minutes – high intensity

5 minutes – low intensity (warm down)

This is an excellent fat burning workout, it’s great for getting fit as it is quite challenging. Definately worth giving it a try if you are looking to shorten your workouts.

Tags: , , , ,
Posted in Fat Loss Training, General, Muscle Building Training | 6 Comments »

Shorten Your Time the Gym – Part 1

Wednesday, March 19th, 2008

Many of us have busy lives, some times it feels like there aren’t enough hours in the day. So how can we get back some time by shortening the time we spend in the gym, without affecting our results?! One answer is super setting. 

Super setting is basically when you complete a sets of a different exercise instead of resting. See the example below for how this works.

Benchpress – set 1

No Rest

Dumbell row- set 1

No Rest

Benchpress -set 2 

 No Rest

Dumbell Row – set 2

And so on…

So you can see in the example above that when you would usually be resting, between sets you are moving on with another exercise. It is important that you pick either opposite movements or none related muscles, so you are able to complete each exercise toyour full capability. In the example you can see a pushing movement for the chest, followed by a pulling movement for the back. You could also super set biceps and triceps, shoulders and calves, legs and abs, etc.

Following the superset technique will shorthen the time you spend in the gym, and also increase the intensity of your workout.

Look out for part 2 coming soon…

Tags: , , , , ,
Posted in Fat Loss Training, General, Muscle Building Training | 1 Comment »

How Often Should I Eat for Fat Loss?

Monday, March 17th, 2008

When people are trying to lose weight they often make the mistake of skipping meals, thinking that this will help them achieve the results they are looking for. In fact this is the worst thing that you could do. By skipping meals you may start to lose weight in the short term, but soon your body will respond to this by slowing down your metabolism, making it even harder for you to lose weight. This is known as the starvation response.

What if there is a way that you could actually speed up your metabolism, well lucky enough there is! Rather than eating two or three larger meals a day, you should actually be trying to eat five or even better six smaller meals. Aim to eat every three hours, and this will actually speed up your metabolism. So why every three hours? It takes your body on average about three hours to digest food. So by eating every three hours you are feeding your body with a steady flow of nutrition, but also giving it chance to finish digesting the previous meal. 

This method of eating six meals a day also applies to muscle building, this regular feeding of nutrition into the body (particularly protein for muscle building) is how you will achieve the best results. Also remember if you are trying to lose fat, the more muscle you have the more calories your body burns even when you are resting! 

Tags: , , , ,
Posted in Fat Loss Diet, fat loss | 3 Comments »

Gain Muscle While losing fat

Wednesday, March 12th, 2008

“Can you put on muscle while losing fat?”

This is a question that seem’s to pop up every where now days. Unfortunately the honest answer is that it is very very rare, but does occur in some cases! Not a very definitive answer I know, but let me explain…

The problem is that losing fat and gaining muscle are at opposite ends of the scale. To lose fat you must create a calorie deficit, which means you needs to be using more calories than you are taking in. To gain muscle you need to overfeed, eating more calories than you body needs to sustain it’s current weight (obviously there are other factors too but i’m not going to go into those).  There are certain instances where muscle and fat loss may occur together, for example a complete beginner or young trainer who responds well to exercise may experience a small amount of muscle growth while losing body fat. Also the are the genetic ‘freaks’, who have the ability in their genes to lose a small amount of body fat whilst putting on muscle, or gain muscle while losing. This would only be in small amounts however. It also has been known to occur in experienced trainers, who have had a break and come back to training. This is unsually put down to ‘muscle memory’. Lastly there are the drug users (steroids, etc.), but we won’t go there.

So in short for all us regular guys and girls, what it comes down to is that you need to choose what you want from your training. If you want to put on muscle and lose body fat, then target each one in turn. First train to bulk up your muscle mass, then once you are happy with the amount of muscle you are carrying, move your target to fat loss. If you try and do both you are most likely to achieve neither.

Tags: , , , , , ,
Posted in General, Muscle building, fat loss | 2 Comments »

Why do I workout…?

Monday, March 10th, 2008

It is important to know what you are trying to achieve in your workouts. If you lose sight of your goals, you will lose interest in your workouts, maybe give up all together. Are you training for fat loss, muscle building, or to just feel healthier in general? You need to know where you are heading or you will never get there!

Set yourself targets in your workouts, such as “by next months i want to be able to run at this pace for 45mins” or “in three months I want to be bench pressing 200lbs for 8reps”.  Also set targets for your body, aim for your desired body fat percentage, or aim to put on 10lbs of muscle. By setting yourself long term goals, and mini challenges within your workout, you will find your time spent in the gym or pounding the pavement a lot more enjoyable. Challenge yourself and your workouts will become a lot more rewarding.

Tags: , , , , , ,
Posted in General | 2 Comments »

The Big Three for Muscle Growth

Friday, March 7th, 2008

There are three exercises which are widely regarded as must do exercises to have in your workout when aiming to build muscle. What are these? See below…..

  • Number one on  the list is the good old bench press. The number one exercise for your chest, bar none. This compound exercise is great for putting on size on your chest. The chest is one of the most impressive areas of the body when toned and built to a good size.
  • The second on the list is the barbell squat. A very demanding exercise, both mentally and physically. Mainly targets the legs, but also strengthens all of the core (lower back and abs) . The results that can be achieved by this movement are amazing. 
  • Lastly is the deadlift. This is an exercise that is great for building a strong back. Care must be taken when performing this exercise, as the risk of injury is high if form is bad.

These are three great exercises that you should consider introducing into your workout routine, as excellent gains in muscle size and strength can be made.

The deadlift and the barbell squat can be tough on your body. If you are unable to perform any of these, perhaps due to an old injury or general discomfort. Dont worry, all is not lost. There are alternatives that can produce great results to.

Tags: , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Muscle Building Training | 3 Comments »

« Older Entries