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Bodybuilding
Program Basics
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Training
for Competition
How
to Gain Weight and Build More Muscle! by
Anthony Ellis
For many thin guys around the world, gaining weight
without using illegal steroids has been a challenge.
For thousands of lean young men, the dream is to gain
weight, but no matter how much they eat they remain
thin. Some people are naturally thin; that means their
genetic makeup is in such a way that the body burns
more calories than others. The very basic method of
weight gain is to eat more calories than your body burns
off. By providing the body with more calories, this
balance can be altered and body mass can be increased.
Weight training is of great importance in this context,
which enables the body to absorb more nutrients from
the food by increasing the level of certain hormones
and increasing the muscle mass.
There are many incorrect beliefs and theories bout
building muscle. The type of food to be eaten is an
important factor which decides the type of weight gained,
whether it is muscle mass or mere accumulation of fat.
Some types of calories are not equal to others for gaining
muscle; because most processed junk food contains empty,
totally nutritionless calories. These foods promote
accelerated fat storage, and do not provide the body
with the correct nutrients essential for gaining muscle.
High quality protein, which the body breaks down into
amino acids, should be the centerpiece of all your meals.
Intense exercise increases demand for amino acids, which
support muscle repair and growth.
Another factor is the selection of the right type of
weight training. Resistance exercises will help with
muscle growth. Whereas aerobic exercises can result
in the reduction of weight. For maximum muscle gain,
the focus of your workouts should consist of free weight
exercises, rather than machines or bodyweight exercises.
To get a very effective workout, you must stimulate
as many muscle fibers as possible, and machines do not
do this. The main reason for this is a lack of stabilizer
and synergist muscle development. Stabilizer and synergist
muscles are supporting muscles that assist the main
muscle in performing a complex lift.
The results of weight training can vary from person
to person, and will usually depend on your consistency
and commitment to your program. You should have the
patience and motivation for building a powerful body
with a consistent diet and exercise schedule.
Exercise Guidelines for building muscle:
Weight training involves the use of equipment that
enables variable resistance. This resistance can come
in the form of free weights like barbells and dumbbells,
machines that use cables or pulleys to help you lift
the weight, and bodyweight exercises like pull-ups or
dips. The more stabilizers and synergists you work,
the more muscle fibers stimulated. The exercises that
work the large muscle groups are called compound (or
multi-joint) movements that involve the simultaneous
stimulation of many muscle groups. These compound exercises
should be the foundation of any weight training program
because they stimulate the most amount of muscle in
the least amount of time. Multi-jointed free weight
exercises like the bench press require many stabilizer
and synergistic muscle assistance to complete the lift.
Free weight exercises like the dumbbell press or squat
put a very large amount of stress on supporting muscle
groups. You will get fatigued faster and not be able
to lift as much weight as you did on the machine. But
you will gain more muscle, become stronger very quickly
and have a true gauge of your strength.
If you use machines in your program, they should be
used to work isolated areas and only after all multi-jointed
exercises have been completed. Beginners should begin
with a limited combination of machine exercises, bodyweight
exercises and multi-jointed free weight exercises. Before
increasing the weight levels, they should work on becoming
familiar with the proper form and execution of each.
The following are some proven basic exercises to encourage
muscle and strength gain unlike any other exercises.
Bench Presses - works the chest, shoulders, triceps
Overhead Presses - shoulders, triceps
Pull-ups/Barbell Rows - back, bicep
Squats - legs, lower back
Dead lifts - legs, back, shoulders
Bar Dips -shoulders, chest, arms
To build mass, you must weight train with heavy weights.
To consider a weight heavy, you should only be able
to do a maximum of 4-8 reps before your muscles temporarily
fail. A weight is considered 'light' if you can do more
than 15 reps before muscle fatigue sets in. Heavy weights
stimulate more muscle fibers than lighter weights which
result in more muscle growth. Heavy weight training
puts a huge strain on your body, so adequate rest and
recuperation after your workouts is essential.
Eating guidelines for building muscle:
A high protein diet is an inevitable part of any weight
training programme, importantly, protein derived from
animal sources. Proteins you need to be concerned with
are those found in whey, casein (cottage cheese), eggs,
beef, poultry, and fish. Soy protein, tofu and bean
curd are some alternatives. Eating the right amount
of foods consistently will force your body to grow beyond
what you may think possible. The diet also should contain
an adequate amount of carbohydrates (potatoes, sweet
potatoes, yams, oatmeal, cream of wheat, cream of rice,
rice, beans, bread, pasta, all cereals) and fat. Green
leafy vegetables and fruits also should be included.
When you train with weights, you should eat a minimum
of 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight. You also
must have protein at every meal. To enable your body
to actually assimilate and use the all the calories
you will ingest, you have to reduce your meal size and
increase your meal frequency. Splitting your calories
into smaller, more frequent portions will enable food
absorption and utilization of nutrients.
During the past 20 years there have been great developments
in the scientific understanding of the role of nutrition
in health and physical performance. Studies shown that
adequate dietary carbohydrate should be ingested (55-60%
of total energy intake) so that training intensity can
be maintained. Excess dietary saturated fat can exacerbate
coronary artery disease; however, low-fat diets result
in a reduction in circulating testosterone. So the balance
between protein, carbohydrate and fat should be maintained.
So the focus on weight gain programmes must be on two
components, lifting heavy weights, which will stimulate
the largest amount of muscle fibers. Your body responds
to this stimulus by increasing your muscle mass and
secondly eat more calories than your body is used to.
When you overload your system with plenty of protein
and fats, your body has no other choice but to gain
weight.
A Mass Gaining program is incomplete without the timely
measurements to monitor your progress. Without it, you
won't know how exactly your body is responding to your
diet and training routine. Just looking in the mirror
and guessing is not acceptable. If you want to start
getting great results, you must develop the habit of
accurately tracking your progress. This also provides
the motivation to continue with the weight gain schedule
and for the further progression. So even though you
have a very thin body type, and haven't been able to
gain weight no matter what you try, you will definitely
succeed with a well planned weight gain programme.
References:
1) http://www.fastmusclegain.com/part1eating.htm
2) http://www.fastmusclegain.com/part2weights.htm
3) http://www.fastmusclegain.com/part3muscle.htm
4) http://www.fastmusclegain.com/part4suppl.htm
5) http://www.fastmusclegain.com/part5monitor.htm
6) http://www.skinnyguy.net/tips.html
7) Lambert CP, Frank LL, Evans WJ. Macronutrient considerations
for the sport of bodybuilding. Sports Med. 2004;34(5):317-27
About the Author
Former "skinny guy" Anthony Ellis is the
author of Gaining Mass. The most widely used weight
gain program in the world. This unique program designed
to help people gain weight and build muscle, is currently
being used in over 90 countries. For more information
on how to gain weight and build muscle, check out his
website at http://www.fastmusclegain.com
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