Exercise Guide

Are you ready for a Fun Set? You may be asking yourself what set could fun? Let me describe the situation by using typical bicep routine.

Let’s suppose when I go the gym today to blast my biceps, I start off with standing barbell curls. I work four sets with 8 to 10 reps. My partner is no way letting me off easy, so he loads the bar to make every set heavy. On the last set, I know 4 reps is going to be tough, the 5th will be almost impossible and 6 through 8 will be done only with his help. My “bi’s” are beginning to fry and I have just gotten started.

Next we move to seated alternating dumbbell curls. The movement is more concentrated because you only have to focus on one arm at time. Again, my partner sees an opportunity to torture me a bit more. He forces me through the last reps of every set. Remember I said fried before; well now we are really pumping in the blood. The head of the bicep is getting down right full from this workout. I feel the growth coming on!

Now I move to another bi blasting exercise, the seated curl machine. This machine isolates the bicep movement and eliminates any possibility of cheating. Again, I do 4 sets of 8-10 reps.

So what the heck is FUN SET? None of the above sounded like fun…right? Hold on I’m getting there. I just had to set the stage for defining the Fun Set.

The Fun Set is a set that you do in addition to your normal routine. However, with the Fun Set you choose any weight and number of reps you want to do. In my mind, if you have just pounded out the hard and heavy sets, the Fun Set should be light weight and done with higher reps. Often I will stay with the last exercise in my arm routine and just lighten up and rep out. In this case the curl machine does the trick for my Fun Set.

My biceps will flush with blood for the best feeling pump on the planet. Try it; you’ll know what I mean. Heck I might even do 2 Fun sets if the feeling is there. You’ll know when to stop. Do too many and the Fun Sets will become counter productive.

You can do a Fun Set with any muscle group! Some suggested funs for other body part are:

* Triceps- do bent over tricep kick backs with a light weight dumbbells

* Pecs- do light weight cable flies or flat bench dumbbell flies

* Back- do wide grip cable pull downs

* Legs- do high rep squeezing leg extensions

* Calves- do calf extensions on box or other elevated surface with just your body weight

The key to a Fun Set is to add it periodically to your regular routine. Keep it spontaneous. Also, keep it light and increase the reps. You will have a blast.

This technique was introduced to me by a very good friend (Tom Hahn) in Louisville, KY. My thanks to him. There is nothing like a FUN SET!

Scott Jameson is a bodybuilder and trainer for over 30 years. He has a passion for bodybuilding and helping other achieve this success. He regularly applies the techniques in this article. See more of his articles at http://www.bodybuildingprogramzone.com

If you want to more information on a Bodybuilding Program - Check out the Zone, the site with a passion for you to succeed.

This article may reproduced on your website provided you acknowledge Scott Jameson as the author and must show link to http://www.bodybuildingprogramzone.com

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I used to be a skinny guy, standing 5ft 8, weighing below 60kg. Sometime towards the end of 2004 I met up with an ex-classmate i havent seen since we left school. Upon seeing me, she said “guys do not look attractive being skinny”.

Coming from a lengthy attractive girl, her words troubled me a great deal so I started weight training. Today, my bodyweight is up by 15kg (that’s 33lbs!)

This entry was submitted by HumSupKiat in response to my earlier post What was your turning point?.

Impressive. Don’t you think that it’s absolutely amazing how people’s comments can make us go to great lengths to accomplish something? Even more interesting when it comes from someone from the opposite sex.

Always make it a point to give positive comments (or negative comments if you’re close enough with that person) on someone’s physique and always be tactful about it. You may not want to do it to a total stranger and risk getting hit in the face.

To summarise:

If not for the troubling words from his friend, HumSupKiat would never be where he was today. That’s what I call… a turning point. When you get there.. you’ll know, and you’ll never look back.

Josh Stone, also known as DM, is the author behind the site http://www.dailymuscle.com which offers the author’s personal views on real-life fitness, bodybuilding, sports nutrition, cardio, fat loss, training information, and on all things that surrounds fitness.

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Anabolic steroid use appears to be on the rise. With the great increase in modern recombinant DNA technology, steroids such as growth hormone, growth factors and testosterone-based analogs have become increasingly more available and affordable. Despite their renewed popularity however, anabolic steroids are illegal and have negative effects on health, reproductive status and even personality. In response, this article aims to provide some basic information on anabolic steroids and how to boost the body’s own production levels naturally, using exercise.

What is an anabolic hormone?

The definition of anabolic is “to build up”- therefore anabolic steroids are hormones that cause increases body and muscle size. Actually, not all “anabolic steroids” are steroids but they are all hormones. An example of an anabolic steroid hormone is testosterone and its analogs. An example of an anabolic polypeptide/non-steroid hormone is growth hormone. Basically, hormones are chemical messengers released from certain tissues into the blood in response to a stimulus. Their role is essentially to help the human body adapt and remain in a state of balance or “homeostasis”. While the body is quite efficient at regulating its anabolic state on its own - the temptation exists to use large quantities of anabolic hormones to magnify the results. As recently as 15-20 years ago, growth hormone had to be extracted form the pituitary glands of cadavers. Now however, modern science is able to manipulate the DNA of bacteria to produce large quantities of the hormone. Steroid use has always been rife in bodybuilding arena, but with peer pressure and ever-increasing expectations of sport performance, anabolic steroid use has become commonplace in sports too - even among high school age athletes.

How do I boost my levels of testosterone and growth hormone?

It is possible to increase anabolic hormone production naturally however - the simplest method of doing this is by regulating the intensity of the weightlifting session. This is achieved by manipulating volume (sets and reps), load (%1RM*) and rest periods. Evidence indicates that exercises that recruit large muscle groups (legs and back) in exercises such as squats and deadlifts and that are performed with high intensity and moderate volume boost serum testosterone concentrations. Therefore the exerciser should use heavy loads (85-95% 1 RM) and multiple sets/exercises separated by short rest periods (30 -60s). Testosterone, the male sex hormone is responsible for the increased muscle mass and strength observed in men. This steroid hormone operates both on a gene level to increase muscle protein production (increased gene transcription). It is also suspected to work on the central nervous system, allowing greater muscle activation by motor neurons, resulting in greater force production. (It is unlikely that herbal testosterone “precursors” such as tribulus terestris have a large impact on production - the exerciser should save his time and money and devote more effort into sensible eating and exercising according to these guidelines.)

Human growth hormone (HGH) is a polypeptide (non steroid) hormone released form the pituitary gland at the base of the brain, and its release similar to testosterone, is dependent on the level of “stress” experienced by the body. Its main functions are to increase the transport of amino acids over cell membranes and to increase the synthesis of muscle protein, connective tissue (e.g. collagen) bone and cartilage thus directly causing “growth”. It also is responsible for increasing the level of glucose and fatty acids in the blood, and therefore has a direct body-fat reducing quality. Studies involving the release of growth hormone during exercise indicate that a typical bodybuilding program of multiple sets (higher volumes) of moderate intensity (e.g. 10RM) separated by short (1 min.) rest periods produce the largest increases. Many of the actions of growth hormone are actually mediated by another hormone called IGF-1 (insulin-like growth factor-1) released by the liver and other organs in response to HGH. The release of this powerful stimulator of muscle growth has been shown to increase in response to the consumption of a carbohydrate and protein supplement before and immediately after a weightlifting workout.

In conclusion, it is hoped that this article has demonstrated that there are alternatives to using illegal and health threatening anabolic steroids. The human body is a marvel at adapting to stresses such as exercise and weightlifting without the need for external hormone administration. This article has highlighted that is in fact possible to manipulate the body’s own natural production of the same substances simply by regulating the intensity of the weightlifting session.

*1RM = the maximum amount of weight that can be lifted with good form for a single repetition.

David Petersen is a Personal Trainer/Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist and the owner and founder of B.O.S.S. Fitness Inc. based in Oldsmar, Florida. More articles and information can be found at http://www.bossfitness.com

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