3। Slowly bend forward at the hips keeping your back flat.
2. Lower the weight until your arms are straight. Repeat the movement without letting the bar rest on the bench.
3. Keep the movement fluent, slow, and controlled.
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Ever wonder why some people just keep growing and growing? No matter what these people do, they just seem to build more and more muscle. Ingesting the proper amounts of nutrients that is optimal for your body type will get you on the road to building power and size, quickly.
This is an essential component to building muscle and must be in place if you ever want to build a muscular body. It doesn’t matter if you are gaining lean body mass or losing body fat, you have to know exactly what your putting into your mouth.
To find your optimal nutrient intake you must first find your base caloric intake. From there, slowly increase the amount of quality calories your ingest per day until you start gaining at your desired pace. This is one of the true keys to building muscle.
Believe once you start feeding your body the right amount of calories, protein, carbohydrates, and fat, you’ll grow like wildfire!
Here’s a quick way to do it.
First, take your body weight and multiply that by 17. If you weight 176 pounds, multiply that by 17 and you’ll get roughly 3,000 calories. This is your base caloric intake per day.
Secondly, you will break down your base caloric intake into optimal amounts of macronutrients you will need to start growing. Macronutrients are protein, carbohydrates, and fat. You will need to determine how much protein, carbohydrates, and fat you need to start.
.Determine The Amount Of Protein You Need To Achieve Your Goals.
A weight lifting diet will contain 20% to 30% protein. 25% of your weight lifting diet be made up of protein. Remember that one gram of protein is equal to 4 calories.
To find out how much protein you need in your weight lifting diet, simply take your desired caloric intake that you figured out above and multiply that number by your desired protein percentage (25%).
Use that number and divide it by 4 which will give you your new daily protein requirement in grams.
For example, if you need 3,000 calories to gain an extra pound of body weight per week, you will need the following protein requirements:
3,000 x .25 = 750 / 4 = 188 grams of protein per day.
If you are eating 6 times a day (which you should be doing), you will need 188 / 6 = 31 grams of protein per meal
.Determine The Amount Of Carbohydrates You Need To Achieve Your Goals.
A weight lifting diet will contain 55% to 65% carbohydrates. 55% of your weight lifting diet be made up of carbohydrates. Remember that one gram of carbohydrate is equal to 4 calories.
To find out how much carbohydrates you need in your weight lifting diet, simply take your desired caloric intake (as above) and multiply that number by your desired carbohydrate percentage (55%).
Use that number and divide it by 4 which will give you your new daily carbohydrate requirements in grams.
For example, if you need 3,000 calories to gain an extra pound of body weight per week, you will need the following carbohydrate requirements:
3,000 x .55 = 1,650 / 4 = 413 grams of carbohydrates per day
If you are eating 6 times a day, you will need 413 / 6 = 69 grams of carbohydrates per meal
.Determine The Amount Of Fat You Need To Achieve Your Goals.
A weight lifting diet will contain 15% to 25% of fat. 20% of your weight lifting diet be made up of fat. Remember that one gram of fat is equal to 9 calories.
To find out how much fat you need in your weight lifting diet, simply take your desired caloric intake that you figured out above and multiply that number by your desired fat percentage (20%).
Use that number and divide it by 9 which will give you your new daily fat requirement in grams.
For example, if you need 3,000 calories to gain an extra pound of body weight per week, you will need the following fat requirements:
3,000 x .20 = 600 / 9 = 67 grams of fat per day.
If you are eating 6 times a day, you will need 67 / 6 = 11 grams of fat per meal
Once you figure out your base caloric intake, you simply determine your meal plan. Break your meals down into breakfast, mid morning, lunch, mid afternoon, post workout and dinner.
Once you find your base caloric intake, simply increase the amount of calories you consume by 300 to 500 calories per day until you start gaining at your desired pace.
For example, let’s say you start out consuming 3,000 calories per day. In order to start gaining 1 pound per week, you need to add in an additional 500 calories or 3,500 calories per day to start gaining a pound per week.
Are you training like crazy with little or no results? Want to get stronger? Want more muscle?
If you're really serious about your training program and want to improve your current routine, you can achieve more strength and muscle mass by simply adjusting your daily workout schedule.
Not talking about a drastic change but a couple of minor adjustments that can literally change your body overnight. Well, not exactly overnight but a lot sooner than what your doing now.
These adjustments allow your body to recover a lot sooner and get the right nutrients to your lean tissues at the optimal times for maximum results. That's right, these adjustments will allow you to get the most out of your training session that will help to drastically improve your current training regiment.
On workout days, consume a protein drink consisting of 30 to 40 grams of protein with some complex carbs one and half hour before my workout.
- Immediately after workout, consume another protein drink consisting of 40 grams of protein and 75 grams of fast acting carbs.
- 1 hour after workout, consume a post workout meal consisting of high quality protein and carbs.
By consuming a protein and carb drink immediately after training you basically kick start the recovery process. When carbohydrates is taken with protein, there's a blast of insulin. Insulin kicks the body's glycogen making machine into high gear.
Glycogen is considered the principal storage form of glucose and is found mainly in liver and muscle. Glucose supplies the bodies active tissues with energy.
Therefore, insulin will speed up the movement of glucose and amino acids into cells which is what you definitely want and secondly, it activates a special enzyme which is essential for glycogen synthesis.
This is how it works. Once you start to workout, your growth horomone, testosterone, and cortisol levels begin to rise. TO keep it simple, cortisol is a hormone that is secreted during intense physical stress.
It's job is to maintain a tight control regulation of blood pressure and cardiovascular function as well as regulation of the body's use of proteins, carbohydrates, and fats. It puts your body in a catabolic state. This means, no muscle growth.
The longer you stay in the gym, the higher the cortisol levels, so this is why it's so important to try and keep your training sessions under 60 minutes. The longer you stay, the worse it gets.
As you progress with your workout, your growth hormone and testosterone levels will eventually hit a peak while your cortisol levels continue to rise. You don't want this, you want to stop the rise in cortisol levels and get your growth hormone and testosterone levels back up.
Once you stop your workout, your body is pretty much in a catabolic state. That means, your cortisol levels are rising and your growth hormone and testosterone levels are declining. You need to get your body into an anabolic (growth) state as soons as possible.
To do this, you need to immediately get something into your system as soon as possible once your training session is over. This will halt the rise in cortisol and stop the fall in growth hormone and testosterone levels. About an hour after your training session, you need to consume a muscle building meal consisting of quality protein and carbs. This will put your body into an anabolic state.
This next tip is very important so read carefully. If you don't consume some quality protein and carbs immediately after training and consume a post workout meal, your body will stay in a catabolic state for another 10 to 15 hours which means your body is not growing. It will remain in a catabolic state. You don't want this.
Ingesting protein and carbs right after a hard workout will be your window of opportunity and the most optimal time to ingest protein and carbs. I cannot stress the importance of ingesting protein and carbs upon completion of your workouts.
This is your golden opportunity for building muscle, this will help you put you on the road to building hard, strong muscles. You see, after you have had a gruelling workout, your body is in a state of havoc. The body is starting the repair and growth process of muscle tissue.
You can greatly enhance this recovery process by consuming protein and carbs after your workout.
If you want to build muscle, always consume a power drink that is rich in protein and carbohydrates after your workout and include it in your diet.
Here's a sample drink:
1 ½ cup strawberries1 cup low fat strawberry yogurt1 to 2 scoops(2oz-4oz) vanilla proteinpowder- 22 to 35 grams of whey protein1 tbsp honey1 ½ cup low fat or 1% milk1 cup orange juice5 grams creatine monohydrate (optional)
Blend all ingredients in a blender until smooth.
There you have it.
Adjust your trainig routine to:
1- Consume a protein and carb drink one and a half hour prior to working out;
2- Consume a protein and carb drink immediately after working out;
3- Consume a muscle building meal one hour after your workout.
These simple adjustments can mean the difference between growing alot and not growing at all.