7 Tips For Mass & Power

Eat Like A Bear
The only way you're going to move up to the top of the food chain is to eat like the top dog. In other words, to gain muscle, you need to stay in a state of energy excess. Eat everything that's not bolted down. Make sure you get at least a gram or two of protein for every pound of bodyweight and at least 3-to-4 grams of carbs. Eat quality fats like those found in flaxseed oil, olive oil and natural peanut butter. And finally, cut out the off-season cardio, as this will only increase your calorie requirements.

Rely On Basic Movements
They're considered classics for a reason: they've withstood the test of time. Basic movements have cranked out more champions than you can count. You've got the bench, the squat and the deadlift. These should be a part of your arsenal. To these big three, you can add your basic barbell curls, military presses, and the like.

Be Tough As Nails When It Comes To Training
yeah, yeah, you need to train heavy to grow. That's right, but don't forget to train hard with high intensity. To make muscles explode, you got to annihilate them in the gym. You can train with poundages heavier than you can handle, but if you ignore proper form, you're going to miss the target muscles you're trying to hit. As a rule of thumb, train at 60-80% of your one rep max. Or, put on enough poundage where you can only crank out 6-10 reps per set at full intensity.

Stack More Than Just Plates
Probably the most overlooked aspect of bodybuilding is rest. Training in the gym tears down your muscles. Sleep is that time when your body rebuilds the damaged muscles. Without enough sleep, you'll never grow like you want. So make sure you stack enough Z's at night. You'll know what your body needs. As a guide, throw out your alarm clock. When you wake up on your own, you've slept enough.

Don't Overtrain
Overtraining can set you back months, even years. In terms of bodyparts, stick to training each bodypart only once a week. Like sleep, you need to make sure you give your muscles plenty of rest between each training session. In terms of sets, there's a baker's dozen and then there's a bodybuilder's dozen. For each bodypart, you should stick to twelve total sets. Again, pick a couple of basic movements, about 3-or-4 for each bodypart, and do 3-or-4 sets for each exercise. You're probably thinking this is going to be easy, but trust me, if you do the sets right, you're going to be in for a world of hurt. And if you're not, your not lifting hard enough. Finally, don't spend more than 90 minutes per training session. Anything more, and you'll run the risk of overtraining.




Rest At Home, Not In The Gym
You should never rest for more than two minutes between sets. In 90-120 seconds, you have just enough time to catch your breath and hit that next set with maximum intensity. Rest beyond two minutes, and you run the risk of losing your pump. Once you lose the pump, forget about it. Your training is shot.

Consistency & Variation
Consistency means training when you're supposed to, not making lame excuses to watch TV or head to the bar. More than any other sport, bodybuilding requires a serious level of commitment and dedication. If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen. So when it's leg day, you do legs. Period. Take your training like a man. While you need to be consistent when it comes to training, you should also consider adding to variety to your routine when it becomes stagnant.

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12 Nutrition Tips to Burn Fat

Here, we give you 12 ways to give body fat a proper send-off. A big part of it has to do with your lifting and cardio regimens - keep those up. But in this list, we step away from the gym and into your kitchen to present a practical list for cleaning up your eating habits and, as a result, your physique.

12 Nutrition Tips to Burn Fat

1. Change your lifestyle.
When you go on a "program" to lose body fat, you may set yourself up for failure. A program implies an endpoint, which is when most people return to their previous habits. If you want to lose fat and keep it off, make changes that you can live with indefinitely. Don't over-restrict calories, and find an exercise program that adequately challenges you, provides progression and offers sufficient variety so that you can maintain it for years to come.

2. Drink more water.

Water is the medium in which most cellular activities take place, including the transport and burning of fat. In addition, drinking plenty of calorie-free water makes you feel full and eat less. Drink at least 1 ounce of water per 2 pounds of bodyweight a day (that's 100 ounces for a 200-pound person). Keep a 20-ounce water bottle at your desk, fill it five times a day, and you're set.

3. Consume fewer calories than you burn.

To figure out how many calories you burn a day, calculate your Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR)—the number of calories you burn daily doing routine activities, not including formal exercise—using this formula: RMR = bodyweight (in pounds) x 13. Next, determine how many calories you burn through exercise—a half-hour of moderate-intensity aerobic exercise burns around 350 calories in the average man, and a half-hour of lifting burns around 200. Add your RMR to the calories you burn in the gym, and keep your daily calorie consumption below that total.

4. Reduce starchy carbs.

Consuming too many starchy foods, such as potatoes, rice, pasta and breads (especially at one sitting), provides your body with more than it needs for energy and glycogen stores; anything left over will be stored as fat. "You don't have to eliminate starchy carbs completely," says IFBB pro Mike Matarazzo. "But you should really cut back on them when trying to shed body fat." Limit total starch servings per day to 3-5, where a serving size is one cup of pasta, rice or sliced potatoes.

5. Eat a full, balanced breakfast.

"Your body has been starving all night long, and it needs nutrients to rebuild itself," says Matarazzo. "If you just catch something quick on the run instead of eating a full meal, it negatively impacts your workout, and everything else you do during the day." Eat sufficient protein (30-40 grams), a complex carbohydrate, like oatmeal, and a piece of fruit to start your day off right.

6. Limit sugar consumption.

Taking in simple carbs (sugars) right after weight training replenishes muscle and liver glycogen stores, but excess sugar consumed at other times will be stored as fat. Satisfy your sweet tooth occasionally, but try limiting your intake of sugar to fresh fruit. Replace sugary beverages like soft drinks and juice with water, coffee, tea or diet soda.




7. Rotate your carbs.

Nutrition expert and former bodybuilder Chris Aceto recommends eating about one gram of carbs per pound of bodyweight for 3-5 days—these being low-carb days—and doubling that for the next 1-2 days, then repeating that cycle. If you weigh 200 pounds, eat 200 grams on low-carb days and 400 grams on other days.

8. Drink coffee (black) before working out.

"Caffeine causes the body to rely more on fat for fuel during a workout, rather than glucose," Aceto says. "But the caffeine effect is lessened when you eat a high-carbohydrate meal with it." Drink 1-2 cups of black coffee within two hours of working out, and emphasize healthy fats and protein if you're drinking it with a meal or snack. Skip the cream and sugar (which add unwanted calories and fat), and avoid drinking coffee at other times of the day; doing so can desensitize you to the fat-burning effects of caffeine.

9. Avoid drastic calorie reductions.

"Any competitor who drastically cuts calories to try to get leaner for a show learns that that's not the best way to diet," says IFBB fitness competitor Laurie Vaniman. "You end up looking flat and depleted." The same holds true for noncompetitors; aim for a modest decrease in calories instead. Smaller bodybuilders shouldn't cut more than 200-300 calories per day, and larger bodybuilders shouldn't cut more than 500, says Aceto.

10. Eat 5-6 meals a day.

Dieters often decrease the number of daily meals in an attempt to reduce calories—a big no-no. "If you eat six meals a day versus three with the same total calories, you can lose more fat because more meals burn more calories [by increasing thermogenesis, the production of heat, in the body]," says Aceto. Calculate how many calories you want to consume per day (see tip 3), and spread them evenly across 5-6 meals.

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5 Tips to Get V Line Abs

A lot of people would like to have V line abs, because they are considered to be sexy. Although getting them requires a lot of commitment, you should know that there is no magic to it. In order to make these lines visible, you need a very low body fat percentage.

Take Things Seriously

One of the most important tips that you will find regarding getting V line abs is to make a commitment. The results won’t appear overnight, so you should perform your exercises several times per week. You should keep in mind that even if you have the slightest layer of fat, it will prevent the lines from being visible.

Decreasing Body Fat Percentage

In order to achieve the results that you would like to have, you should have a body fat percentage of 6%-13% in case of men. It takes a lot of dedication and hard work to get such low body fat percentage. There are some formulas that will help you calculate your body fat percentage, but the best thing you could do is to start working with a personal trainer to find out where you’re standing.

How to Lower the Body Fat Percentage

One of the best ways to lower the percentage of fat in your body is to start high intensity interval training. Since you will be alternating between high and medium intensity intervals, you will boost your metabolism and your body will burn a lot more calories than before, even after you are done working out.

Lower Ab Muscles

Another thing that you will have to do is to build lower ab muscles. This way you will be able to achieve more dramatic changes. In case you usually go to the gym to work out, or you have some equipment at home, it is best to start with hanging leg raises. For this all you have to do is to hang from a bar and crunch the abs to bring your legs up, so that they will be parallel to the floor.

Get That V-Cut Abs!

Make It Harder

Once an exercise starts to seem easy to perform, it means that your body is getting stronger and you need more elaborate exercises to challenge it. In this case you should bend your knees when you bring your legs up and add a twist as well. It’s not really about the quantity of the exercises, but about their quality. You shouldn’t see it as your goal to perform a set number of exercises, but perform the exercises slowly so that they will make the muscles work harder. The longer the ab muscles are crunched, the more toned the muscles become and the faster will the V lines become visible.

In conclusion, the three best things you could do to have V line abs is to be ambitious and to stick to your goal, decrease the body fat percentage as much as you can, and train the lower ab muscles so that they will help you reach your goals.

Video Workout

5 Tips for Bigger Biceps

 Tweak your workout for bigger arms and use our form tips to power up your biceps curls

Getting bigger arms in the gym comes as a result of your body’s response to the stress of weight training,' says personal trainer Guy Stockwell. 'If your arms muscles were sentient beings they’d think, "That was hard. I'd better do something about it so it’s not as difficult next time".’

When you perform arm resistance exercises, microscopic tears occur in your muscles. Your body responds to this micro trauma by overcompensating: the damaged tissue is repaired and more is added, making your muscles bigger and stronger so the risk of future damage is minimised.

This also means that over time you need to steadily increase the weight you lift, because your muscles quickly learn to deal with the stress to which they’re exposed.

It’s thought this damage to your muscle fibres is the reason for delayed onset muscle soreness, or DOMS, the symptoms of which include muscle soreness and stiffness in the days after a tough workout. That’s why you should leave at least 48 hours between arms sessions.

Here are five other tweaks from Stockwell that you can make to your workout for big arms gains.

Change your grip

When doing exercises with a barbell or E-Z bar, try gripping with your thumb under the bar rather than wrapped over it. This reduces the role of the forearm in the move and places greater emphasis on the biceps or triceps, forcing these muscles to work far harder for each rep.

Don’t ignore your triceps

It’s easy to concentrate on blitzing your biceps, but your triceps are actually the bigger muscles in the upper arm. Focusing on triceps exercises that isolate the muscle, such as dips, narrow-grip bench presses and lying triceps extensions, will lead to bigger gains so you fill out your T-shirts in double-quick time.

Perform big lifts

Biceps curls are all well and good, but you’ll see better results from big compound moves that involve the arms, such as reverse-grip bent-over rows and chin-ups. These exercises require multi-joint movement and allow you to lift heavier weights, flooding the body with muscle-building hormones so you get bigger and stronger.

The Key For Big Biceps:

Take your time

The golden rule is one second up and three seconds down for every rep. Three times as many muscle fibres are activated during the eccentric – or downward – phase of the exercise, so lowering the weight slowly and under control will work the biceps and triceps far harder. Taking your time also keeps the muscle under tension for longer.

Work to failure

To build muscle you need to fatigue the arms, forcing them to grow back bigger and stronger. Each set should last around eight to 12 reps, at which point you should reach failure. If you feel as if you have a few more reps in you, the weight is too light. Also make sure you ‘squeeze’ the muscles at the top of every rep to really work them.

Biceps Exercice Video...

5 KEYS TO GET A SIX PACK

5 KEYS TO GET A SIX PACK

1. Do Not Spot Train

- Spot training is something when speaking about the core just simple dose not work when trying to obtain a slender midsection. While you will have to pay special attention to your core during workouts, its not the only thing that you can train and think you will end up with a nice core, its just simply not true. An exercise routine that incorporates the whole body is the best kind of routine that will help your reach your goal of a six pack.

2. Diet

- Probably the most important aspect that people seem to overlook when trying to obtain any fitness goal is their diet. I have heard it often said that your fitness goal is 80% diet and 20% working out. This is mostly true, as the food we put in our body plays a huge role. For example, if someone ate a high carb/low protein diet obtaining that six pack is almost unreachable. A diet that is high in protein/moderate to low in carbs and fat, is the best type of diet to be on while trying to cut fat and obtain that core you have been working towards. High protein diet will help your muscles grow and recover from those grueling workouts too!

3. Create Instability

- Your core muscles need instability! You cant equate doing something with half effort to doing core exercises without creating instability. You ever see people doing crunches? Of course! Doing these you would almost have to do twice as much to get the same effect as doing some other exercises. Taking your back off the ground and making your back work, your obliques work, and your rectus abdominis working at the same time is the best way to get a great core workout!

4. Weights for Abs

- A slight contradiction to the above statement, but if you want a six pack you need to pretty much kill your abs! By saying that we mean that you need to give them some resistance to pull and push against, some exercises would be weighted crunches or cable pull downs. (Instability will create an amazing core which is most important, and weight for abs will create a more defined set of abs)

5. Excess Body Fat is the Problem

- The biggest problem that people deal with is body fat. Body fat is what covers up our abs, and for both male and female we tend to carry fat on our stomachs, and really the goal is to get rid of that, so with the above four goals, along with proper cardio this will set you up to loose body fat and uncover your abs. Proper cardio is key as we need to melt that fat away. Cardio with proper nutrition can be done 3-4 times a week for 20-30 min at a high intensity for effective results.

Workout Video: 

5 Tips for Sharp Abs

1) Don't Eat Fast-Digesting Carbohydrates

Fast carbs spike insulin, which halts fat-burning and boosts fat storage, particularly on top of your abs. Carbs to avoid are white bread, white potatoes, regular sodas, sports drinks, table sugar, etc. Instead, choose whole-wheat, rye or sourdoughbreads, oatmeal, sweet potatoes, fruits, vegetables, quinoa, legumes and brown rice. One exception here: You can eat fast-digesting carbs right after workouts when they’ll be put to work boosting muscle recovery and growth.

2) Don't Neglect Isometrics

More formally known as the Weider Iso-Tension Principle, this means flexing a bodypart, such as the abs, and holding that position (much like bodybuilders do when posing). To do this, tense each muscle for 6–10 seconds, then relax for 6–10 seconds. Repeat for 10–20 sets. This is a great way to hit your abs while sitting in your car, on your couch or at your desk.

3) Don't Forget About Your Breathing

When you perform an ab exercise such as the crunch, exhale when you reach the finish or top position. This is important because it helps you better contract your abs. Holding the position for a second or two will maximize muscle-fiber involvement.

4) Don't Stop

You typically train in specific rep ranges, such as 8–10 or 12–15 reps per set. Yet when doing bodyweight ab exercises, you can’t alter the weight to match a predetermined number of reps. Therefore, rather than doing crunches or hanging leg raises for a set number of reps, do as many reps as possible until you come close to failure.

5) Don't Forget to Weight

Many guys worry that if they do weighted ab exercises, their abs will become thick and blocky. Yet abs are muscles just like biceps, so they need definition 
and separation to stand out. Do some weighted movements in the 8–10-rep range for optimal ab development.

The Workout (Video) :

5 Keys to Bigger Back

1) Always use straps. If someone tells you you’ll weaken your grip by using straps, tell him he’s wrong. Flat out. For one, you’re training back, not grip — and that can come on another day. Never sacrifice back size for pride, grip strength or forearms (none of which are negatively affected by the use of straps.) Also, even if your goal rep range for a particular set is 10, research has shown that using straps at that weight allows for 1–2 more reps. More work, more mass.

 
2) Focus your training on multijoint (compound) moves. You want to attack your back with as much weight as possible, but if you have a choice, you want to do that you’re your muscles are freshest. They’re aren’t a lot of choices for single-joint back moves, but they don’t have much of a place in a mass-building workout anyway.
3) Maintain a strong position. With perhaps one exception (the stiff-legged deadlift) every back exercise calls for a chest up, back arched and butt out form. Putting your body in this position will make you stronger from your first rep to the last. If you collapse your torso, you not only invite injury but your muscles lose their mechanical advantage.
4) There are basically two types of back moves: rows and pull-ups/pulldowns. With rows, no matter the grip, you’re pulling the weight perpendicular into your torso; with pulldowns, you’re pulling from overhead.

5) Know your angles. There are lots of rumors out there with regards to back training, but remember this first and foremost: How and where your lats get hit depends on the position of your elbows relative to your torso. Wide-grip rowing moves requires that your elbows stay out wide from your body and therefore hit the upper lats, middle traps and rhomboids (wide-grip pulldowns work only the upper lats); reverse-grip and close-grip exercises in which your elbows are tight to your sides better target the lower lats. Choose your exercises accordingly.