by Vince Delmonte

So you think you have heard everything there is to know about muscle building? If you have read everything, tried everything and heard everything about muscle building but still resemble the silhouette of a Calvin Klein model instead of a buff fitness model than I promise these next three ‘little-known’ free muscle building tips will accelerate your muscle gains immediately!
4. Never Train More Than 2 Days Consecutively

But the bodybuilding magazines say to split up my program into 5 separate days… Yes, I am more than familiar. I call these 5 day splits ‘drug programs.’ They treat your body simply as a ‘muscular system’ and neglect the other systems such as your central nervous system, hormonal system and immune system. Each of these systems have a unique part in muscle growth. Not to mention that these ‘drug programs’ only work if coupled with a few thousand dollars a month on drugs.

Just because you trained your chest on Monday does not mean your immune system, or hormonal system or central nervous system has FULLY recovered. What happens when you return to the gym NOT FULLY recovered? Will you be able to lift more weight?

If you are not able to lift more weight than guess what happens to your level of fitness? It certainly will not go up because you will be depleting your energy reserves further into a deep, dark hole called ‘over-training.’ If you can not lift more weight or ‘out-do’ yourself from your previous workout than how do you expect to create any NEW muscle? It is literally impossible. Taking a full rest day every two days will minimize the chance of over training and ensure your energy reserves are replenished. (more…)

By Vince DelMonte 
So you think you know everything about building muscle? If you have read everything, tried everything and heard everything about muscle building but still resemble the silouette of a Calvin Klien model instead of a buff fitness model than I promise these three ‘little-known’ muscle building tips will accelerate your muscle gains immediately!

1. Body Weight Training

This was once a popular muscle building technique but is very commonly ignored. Why? Perhaps because most body weight training is simply hard and can put a dent in your precious ego! As far as I am concerned, if you can not work with your own body weight than you have no freaken business using external loading such as barbells and dumbbells.

It’s incredible how many attempt to use heavy weights with a microscopic range of motion but can’t do a set of push ups, a squat to the floor or even one chin up. Don’t get me wrong, there is definitely a place for external loading with heavy weights but not until you have the ability to master the following bench marks:

Males should aim for 1 set of 80 push ups, 1 set of 20 chin ups, 1 set of 20 1-leg squats, 1 set of 40 dips and 1 set of 20 pull ups.

Females should aim for 1 set of 40 push ups, 1 set of 5-10 chin ups, 1 set of 10 1-leg squats, 1 set of 10-15 dips and 1 set of 3-5 pull ups.

These standards will ensure a solid foundation of general fitness and muscular endurance and lead to building muscle mass more easily in the following stages of your weight training program.

2. Flip Your Program Upside Down Every 3 Weeks

This is an extremely powerful tip to building muscle mass, not to mention one of the easiest tricks to ensure your body side-steps plateaus forever. Consider that you have been training your chest shoulders and triceps every Monday. In you next phase, three weeks later, you should do the complete opposite. You will train your triceps, shoulders than chest on Friday. This will prevent plateaus because each muscle group will have an opportunity to train completely fresh.

Let’s say you are training your back, biceps, forearms and abs on Friday. Than you will train your abs, forearms, biceps, and back on Monday (in the opposite sequence). You will literally switch everything upside down. Again, this will ensure that these muscles receive an opportunity to train first in the week when your body is the most fresh. (more…)

Here is a great shoulder workout routine for building bigger shoulders and for breaking through that growth plateau. Give it a try and feel the pump in those shoulder muscles. This shoulder workout routine utilises a combination of three different exercises, which are performed in quick succession to really blitz those shoulder muscles.

The first exercise is the seated military press followed by dumbbell lateral raises and front disk raises. Right lets take a look at the actual build bigger shoulders routine.

Start with the seated military press, you can use a Smith machine or a set of squat racks to support your barbell. Use a moderately weighted barbell one in which you perform 10 –12 reps. Use a shoulder width grip on the barbell. Press the barbell clear of the racks and above your head but don’t fully lockout your arms at the top, doing so will only take the pressure off the shoulders. Slowly lower the barbell to just below the chin level and then press back to the starting position. Perform 10 – 12 controlled reps (more…)

By Tom Venuto, NSCA-CPT, CSCS
http://www.musclebuildinglive.com/burnthefat

Media reports say that most people gain between 5 and 10 pounds of body fat in the six weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas. According to research from the New England Journal of Medicine, the average amount is much more modest - just over a pound. However, even modest holiday weight gain may be cause for concern:

A study by the National Institutes of Health found that this seasonal weight gain - even just a pound - is usually not lost after the holidays; it simply adds to the “weight creep” that sneaks up on us as we get older.
Whether the weight gain is a pound or ten pounds, did you ever ask yourself why does holiday weight gain happen at all?

Here are some common answers I’ve heard:

“I’m too busy over the holidays to work out as often as usual.”

“I’m more stressed over the holidays, and the food is there, so I eat more.”

“I have at least three parties to attend and then there’s Christmas and New Year’s, so it’s impossible to stay on a diet.”

“No one can tell me not to enjoy myself over the holidays, so I’m just going to eat whatever I want.”

These answers all have a few things in common. (more…)

Can You Build Muscle and Burn Fat at the Same Time?
– By Jon Benson, Author of “7 Minute Muscle”?

     Many fitness pros just plain don’t believe that you build muscle and burn fat at the same time. Every time I read an article by some doctor or expert claiming it’s biologically impossible to build muscle on a hypocaloric diet (a diet low in calories) I just laugh.??  I do more than make claims - I have proved this to be true many times. I’ve had my body fat hydrostatically measured during several peaks. In all but one I showed an increase of muscle mass and a decrease of body fat during a 12-16 week period. The one time I didn’t show an increase in muscle mass when was I was training the most in the gym. That may not make sense right now, but it will in a moment.

(Read the full article here:  http://www.7minutemuscle.com/aff/fitness/?page=gain-muscle-burn-fat

Take a look at our muscle building growth recipes. If you think putting yourself on a muscle building diet has to be a painful process well think again?  Or muscle building growth recipes are delicious and we all know that whether your goal is fat loss or muscle building, getting proper nutrition is at least 80% of the game.

The good news is that your tastebuds don’t have to suffer if you don’t want them to. There are plenty of ways to get in your proper nutrition while keeping things interesting. If you think gaining muscle means suffering through can of tuna after can of tuna or pounding back a protein shake as fast as humanly possible, you need to think again.

Give one of these muscle building growth recipes a try and you’ll be surprised just how easy it is to eat right, achieve your goals and actually ENJOY your food at the same time. (more…)