Muscle Building Mindset

Some people thing that all you need to build bigger muscles is to get into the gym and lift certain weights for a certain period of time and you will get results. This is only part of the story. The real battle of a bodybuilder is not with his muscles but goes on inside his head. You must develop a powerful mindset to be able to build muscle mass quickly and effectively. This is part of what separates the successful muscle builders from those who get mediocre results.

Envision Your perfect body

This may sound like some new-age mumbo jumbo but it can help you acheive faster results: envision the outcome you want to achieve and you will naturally work and progress towards it. By envisioning I mean that you need to create a mental image of the body you want to have. You need to close your eyes for a few minutes each morning and each night and focus on that mental image.

Pretty soon, you will notice that this image becomes clearer and clearer. You will see how more details are added to it right up to the point where you will see the veins popping out of your bulging biceps. This is a personal image so it’s different from one person to the next. Make it your own and picture it every single day. It will be like a powerful traction beam guiding you towards it.

Have no room for failure

You need to have the right kind of attitude toward your ultimate goal. Realize that your success is just something that’s waiting to happen. It’s not something that’s in doubt. It’s a certainty. Once you “convince” yourself that your success is a sure thing, you realize that failure is not an option. This attitude will help you overcome any hurdles, hardships, and obstacles that you may encounter along the way. Nothing is going to stop you now. It may take a bit longer or a bit less but the fact that it will happen is certain.

While others may give up at the first sign of difficulty, you will know that you are simply on a journey to your chosen destination. You will not stop, falter, or fail. You will get there.

Choose the Right Competition

There will usually be one or more people in the gym who are bigger, stronger, and more ripped than you. This doesn’t give you the excuse to get down, become despaired or stop training. It is also no reason to try to achieve too much too quickly and end up hurting yourself.

You need to choose your competition carefully. The best person to compete with is you. There is really no other benchmark by which you should measure your success. You need to be able to judge yourself by the progress you make and not by any other person’s achievements.

Focused Gym Time

When you go to the gym, you need to be fully committed to make your time there useful. You can’t expect results if you use the gym to socialize, watch TV, try to hit on women, and so on. You’re there to train. That’s it. Nothing else. No excuses. No time to waste. The more focused you are when you visit the gym the faster you will get results.

In Conclusion

The results you get depend on your mindset and the way you psychologically prepare for success. Realize that your mind is what determines how efficiently, effectively, and with which personal fortitude will you address and meet your goals. Accept no option of failure and focus on your goals. You will succeed.
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This is a program from a master bodybuilder who helps you to not only get ripped, but to become more athletic as well.

Split Squat

The split squat is a great exercise for building muscles in the thighs, buttocks and the hamstrings. It’s easy to do, which is also why people  go wrong with the technique if they are not careful.

In itself, the split squat is one step ahead of the simple squat. In a simple squat, you distribute your weight between both your legs. In a split squat, all the work is done by one leg at a time.

Equipment:
Beginners might want to perfect their technique using only their body weight as resistance. But, once the technique is perfected, advanced users might want to perform this versatile thigh exercise with dumbbells or even with a barbell.

How to do the split squat exercise?

Starting Position:

• Take a big step forward so that one foot is behind the other.
• Raise the heel of the hind foot off the floor.
• The knee of the front leg must be slightly bent.
• Both feet should point straight ahead
• The back should be straight, face pointing straight ahead

In case you are using a barbell, place the weight across the top of the shoulder. Hands should be spaced far enough for stability. Use an overhand grip (palms facing outwards). Space your palms a little more than shoulder width.

Movement:
As you perform the exercise, remember that the back foot is only for support and balance. It should not bear any weight.

• Place your weight on the front foot.
• Breathe in as you lower your body towards the floor.
• Stop yourself when the knee of the foot behind you is just above floor level.
• Pause for a second at the bottom of the movement.
• Push through the heel of the front foot and raise yourself slowly back to the starting position. Breathe in as you do this.
• Repeat

Tips:
The wrong technique could rob you of the full effectiveness of the exercise. It could also lead to strain and injury.

• Hold your back and buttocks firm
• Keep the top of the body and the front leg perpendicular to the floor at all times
• Do not rock on to the back foot while standing or sitting. The movement should be straight and smooth.
• Look straight ahead
• Knees and feet should point to the same direction
• Knees should be bent at a 90-degree angle

In Conclusion

Split squats may be performed by trainees of varying strengths. Since the exercise works one leg at a time and depends on maintaining the right balance and posture, it is beneficial for those who are looking for sport specific strength and power in the legs and feet. For another variation of the squat read my article on Hack Squats.

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One of the most special workout and fitness programs I’ve had the pleasure to know is Tacfit Commando by Scott Sonnon. This program teaches you how to do intensive bodyweight workouts that special ops soldiers and combat units from around the world use to get their body ready for combat.

This is not a muscle building program but you can still use it to get an killer body with these exercises and have more functional strength in the process.

These are not your regular workouts but you may find that they provide a whole new type of stimulation that will do your muscles a world of good.

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What To Eat to Gain Weight and Muscle

Unless you want to be working your soul out in the gym and have little to show for it, you have to eat the right kind of food. Muscle building is about two things: creating muscle stimulation by working out and giving the muscles the fuel they need to actually rebuild and grow.

Whenever I think about the many people who train like crazy but don’t live up to their muscle building potential, I am always saddened. Too many people spend too much time worrying about how to do more pull ups or lift bigger weights when they should really be focused on what’s on their plate at lunch time.

In this article I want to go over what you need to eat to gain weight and muscle mass. This will be all food with no supplements. If you read my article on the pros and cons of muscle building supplements, you know that I believe that you first need to make your regular nutrition perfect before buying supplements. Make sure to read this article through and actually apply the tips I give out. Your results depend on it.

Eat Often to Eat Enough

The common advice of many muscle building experts is to eat frequently, every 3 hours or so. This has multiple reasons:

1. Eating often helps you to actually eat enough to create the calorie surplus necessary to actually gain weight.
2. Eating every 3 hours or so gives your body time to actually make use of the nutrients you fed to it on the previous meal and makes the foods more effective.
3. For metabolism purposes, it is better to feed the body often.

What you eat is of vital importance, of course, not just how often you eat it.

The 3 Major Nutrients

To maximize your muscle mass and have the right kind of energy to workout hard in the gym, you need to eat enough of the 3 major nutrients, protein, fat, and carbohydrates. I won’t go into how to divide your entire calorie intake among these 3 nutrients as this may change according to your current goals. However, I do want you to know the best sources to get these nutrients as part of a muscle building diet.

Protein:

• Eggs – I chose that picture for a reason. Eggs are the best natural source of protein. They also have many other health benefits I won’t get into in this article.
• Low fat dairy products – These also have lots of protein.
• Lean meal such as chicken breast, turkey, ostrich, and others.
• Nuts, almonds, and seeds are also rich in protein.
• Fish such as tuna and salmon are also excellent sources of protein.

Fats:

• Virgin olive oil
• Coconut oil
• Avocados
• Nuts and seeds (almonds, pistachios, peanuts, flax seeds, and so on)
• Fish (salmon, mackerel)

Carbs:

• Wild rice
• Yams
• Whole breads
• Whole pasta
• Fruit and Vegetables

As you see, there is simply no excuse to not eating right. You have a lot of variety here and you can create many diverse dishes and meals. Use your imagination. Don’t fall into the trap of eating boring food in the hope of gaining muscle. There’s no need for it.

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How to Gain Weight With a Fast Metabolism

While some people find it easy to pack on muscle tissue, others are not so lucky. If you’re trying to gain weight with a fast metabolism that’s holding you back and keeping you skinny, this is the most important article you’re likely to read. Make sure to go over the entire piece and apply the tips I give you. Get ready to build muscle mass…

Let’s talk about the problem that you’re facing: you want to gain muscle mass and for that you need to have a calorie surplus (eat more than you burn) and you need to direct those extra calories to the right place: your muscles.

The problem is that your body naturally burns a lot of calories so it’s difficult for you to get a calorie surplus in the first place. You need to take more drastic steps.

Eat More

This is a general advice to just eat more calories. I’m afraid it’s as simple as that. You need to force yourself to eat more. This may require you to eat even when you’re not feeling too hungry. Aim to increase your daily calorie intake by 700 calories. Do this for a few weeks and see if you gain weight. If not, you may need to increase it further until you find the right level for you.

Bear in mind that you do need to eat the right kind of calories for this to be effective. You want to gain the right kind of weight and not get fat. Don’t think that you can eat white bread, chocolate, cake and candy and expect to suddenly gain muscle. I’ll give some tips below on what you need to eat.

Here are some tips on how you can eat more calories:

1. Work with a timer. I’m not kidding. Set times for your meals and snacks. When the timer goes off you need to eat. I don’t care whether you’re hungry or not.
2. Eat more often. This is a simple rule but you need to follow it as it’s the easiest way to get more calories into your body. Just reduce the space between your meals. You need to aim for 6 meals each day. Not every meal needs to be huge but they all need to be filled with healthy food to help you gain weight even with a fast metabolism.
3. Make sure you have a lot of food you love at home at all times. You can’t be expected to eat a lot of food you hate so why not tempt yourself a bit with dishes you love? Again, don’t eat cake or candy, but be sure to have more food at home that you love.

Train the right way

If you’re finding it hard to gain weight with a high metabolism, make sure you’re not shooting yourself in the foot with the wrong workouts. I am specifically talking about cardio.

While I love to do cardio myself, it can be counter-productive if you’re trying to gain mass. Cardio workouts, done excessively, simply burn a lot of calories and don’t produce big muscle growth so you don’t gain weight with them. In fact, you may lose weight. Try to reduce cardio and see what happens.

What you do need to focus on are heavy weight lifting. I mean heavy. You need to stimulate your muscles to full growth potential. I want you to really push yourself in the gym. Don’t do anything crazy or risky, but make every workout count. It’s a must thing to do to gain weight.

Eat the right things

If you want to gain weight you need to give your body what it really needs and avoid the things it doesn’t need. The biggest no-no for me is alcohol as it’s empty calories and also has some negative hormonal effects that you need to avoid. I am also dead against any refined flour or sugar as it’s just calories with little or no nutritional value.

What you do need to eat are more complex carbs like wild rice, whole wheat bread, whole pasta, and so on. You also must have enough protein with eggs or whey powders being the ultimate sources: meat and fish coming after. Healthy fat is also important, don’t forget about that. It’s time to add some olive and coconut oil to your dishes, and don’t forget about those nuts, almonds, and avocado.

In Conclusion

While it may be harder to gain weight with a fast metabolism, it is certainly not impossible and it is mainly up to you. You need to follow the tips I’ve laid out for you and to analyze your progress to tweak your routine to your own needs. This is the way to really get results.

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Vince Delmonte’s Muscle Building Program. In this collection of manuals and tools, famous fitness trainer and hardgainer Vince Delmonte takes you through the process required to quickly build lean muscle tissue.

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Pros and Cons of Muscle Building Supplements

The muscle building supplement market is one of the biggest and most diverse markets you can find.

With hundreds of different supplements and many brands who compete for your attention and money, it’s no wonder that a lot of muscle builders are confused. Who wouldn’t be, you have supplements that range from protein powders and shakes, through Creatine, to a variety of other desired effects.

It’s hardly surprising that there’s a lot of information and misinformation about supplements and that a lot of people are spending money they don’t have and

In this article I want to talk about the pros and cons of using muscle building supplements. I hope that this will help you come to a more informed decision about whether or not you should be using supplements or not at this point in your muscle building “career”.

If you want to know that you’re not throwing good money away, please read this article all the way through…

The No. 1 Problem with Supplements

The main problem with supplements is that most of them are of dubious quality and effectiveness. Some supplements have more marketing behind them than actual worth. Some are sold by the

same companies that publish some of the bigger fitness magazines you know off. Needless to say, those magazines often praise the benefits of these supplements and their readers aren’t always aware that this is a case of self-praising.

Because there are so many supplements around, it can become quite difficult to find the ones that are really good. With all the marketing that surrounds us, you need to be able to sift through a ton of misinformation and falsehoods to be able to find the diamonds among the more plentiful fakes.

The claims that these muscle building supplements are sold with are often exaggerated, wishful, and sometimes even worse. It’s hard to tell what’s really true or not, and often the language leaves so much wiggle room that you can’t really know what to expect.

That’s the first big con with supplements, it’s hard to find the good ones.

The money problem

The amount of money you can spend on these supplements is practically limitless. Some of them cost hundreds of dollars a month. Trying to take more than one can become very expensive. The problem is that once you start taking these supplements you feel bad about stopping. I’m not saying that they’re addictive, but psychologically, people like to feel that they’re consistent, that they don’t stop in the middle of things. Don’t be too sure that you can take supplements for a limited time. It may not turn out that way.

So, the cost of muscle building supplements is the second con you need to know about.

Do you really need them

The main pro of using supplements is that, once you find the right ones for you, they can help you achieve better results. The question is, do you really need them? If you have money to spare then sure, go ahead and buy some. However, ask yourself this: have I done enough to gain muscles with my workouts and nutrition? Have I reached a point when I must use supplements to continue progressing?

If the answer is no then it may be the right time to invest in your knowledge or in better food. Maybe what you need is better workout equipment or a good muscle building program (I recommend the No Nonsense Muscle Building). Maybe it’s not the right time for you to spend a lot of money (and hope) on supplements.

In Conclusion

You can buy and use supplements if you like. Just make sure that you don’t neglect proper exercise and nutrition in the hopes that some magic pill will solve all your problems for you.