Exercise Guide

When you come up with your Body Building
Workout Routine, you generally stick with that
routine for quite some time. You’ll find that, at first,
your body building workout routine is great and you seem to be getting a lot out of it. Therefore
progress is being made.

When it comes to bodybuilding - No. I got that
wrong, when it comes to any form of fitness the
progress slows down. As you increase your muscle size, fitness level or body tone, you seem to get to
a stage where progress is minimal. And
sometimes at a standstill.

You may think to yourself…

“This is a useless body building workout routine. I
feel downhearted. Maybe it’s time to pack it in”

All I can say to you is… DON’T.

The problem is that initial gains from a starting a
workout routine are tremendous. But you can only
go so far. You can’t keep progressing at super
giant leaps, as you did at the start. So whether
you’re body building, increasing fitness aerobically
or seeking out overall body tone… don’t despair.
Keep at it.

Having said all that, there is a solution.
Yep, there sure is. And it’s pretty simple too.

You see, the body gets used to doing things. It
adapts to change. So when you initially began your
body building workout routine, you made
significant progress for two reasons:

1. You may not have been fit in the first place.
Therefore at this point, your body building workout
routine would have had a major impact at first.

2. Your body adapts to your routine. It becomes
used to the exercises that you perform. Therefore
making them less effective.

The Solution -
Change your body building workout routine.

That’s the solution. Pretty simple, huh.

See, when a new exercise is introduced to you
workout routine, your body building progress
increases. Why?

Because the body hasn’t learned to adapt to your
new exercise yet, Therefore making that new part
of your workout more effective. This results in an
increase in strength and size, or fitness and
overall body tone, depending on your goals in the
first place.

That’s all there is to it. Change the exercise.

But wait –

Don’t change the whole workout routine if it’s not
necessary. The reason is that out of the whole
regime, there may still be some exercises that you
feel produce the results you require. If this is the
case, don’t change that exercise if it’s working. The
only change, in that case, is to increase the
challenge of that exercise. Maybe increase the
weight being used.

Only change an exercise if you reckon that you’re
not making any progress on. Work a new exercise
into your body building workout routine. Check the
results and keep it there if it continues to work.

Eventually all your exercises will change, and not
just once. This will be a continuous process.
Months later, the exercise that didn’t work back
then, may work now.

Essentially, keep the initial exercises for about five
to eight weeks. At that stage if your progress is
good, keep on doing that routine. After a while, if
you haven’t already, your progress will reduce.

At that stage, change the appropriate exercises
where you feel that progress is diminishing. Keep
a constant eye on your body building workout
routine. And keep adapting and changing,
adapting and changing, regularly.

Tony Farrell makes it easier for you to achieve your muscle and fitness goals. Learn the essential 3 keys to paving the way to your goals. Get your free mini-course now. http://www.think-and-grow-muscle-and-fitness.com

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Building a strength training routine can be one of the trickiest parts of a fitness program. Ask 10 personal trainers what the best strength training routine is and you will get 10 different answers. Below are 7 must-know guidelines to use when building a strength training program. Each guideline provides the basic foundation that all strength training programs abide by. Learning the proper way to use free weights will greatly improve your strength, fitness, and health levels.

1) We cannot strength train a muscle today and tomorrow. We have to allow at least 24-36 hours of rest. Lifting on consecutive days leads to overtraining, muscle fatigue, and possible injury. All of our strength gains are made during the rest time!

2) We cannot spot reduce. This means if we want to lose weight in our stomach, doing 100 crunches a day will not make our stomach flab disappear. To reduce stomach fat, we need an overall reduction in body fat. Reducing overall body fat results from eating well, regular exercise, and proper rest.

3) We can spot tone. If we want bigger biceps, we can strength train for hypertrophy (fancy word for muscle growth). It is possible for us to focus on one specific muscle group. This is sometimes called targeted training. Studies have shown that machines isolate a muscle better than free weights.

4) Our strength training routines must be regular and consistent for results to take place. It took us years to put on the weight. We shouldn’t expect it to all fall off in three weeks. The best outcome from your fitness and strength training program should be a lifestyle change. Replace bad habits with healthy ones and reap the rewards.

5) Realize that our strength training routine must be changed every 4-6 weeks. This will prevent our body from hitting a plateau and it will keep things interesting. We can change our method, our exercise or our intensity level. Not changing our routine on a regular basis will eventually stop producing results. We will continually grow stronger as we progress with our fitness program. Be sure your body is challenged on every workout.

6) Our strength training routines must be built according to our specific goals. Specific goals may be: fat loss, hypertrophy, maintaining weight or adding bulk. Each goal will have a different method that is best suited for optimal results. Someone who is interested in losing body fat will strength train differently than someone looking to increase muscle bulk. Knowing what your specific goals are will aid in creating the best strength training program possible.

7) Our strength training routines must work all of the major muscle groups in our body 1-3 times per week. This includes our biceps, triceps, shoulders, chest, back, abs, quads, glutes, hamstrings and calves. Leaving out muscle groups will create an imbalance.

By using these 7 guidelines, anyone should be able to build a decent and effective program. The idea is to develop a safe strength training routine that provides us with major health and fitness benefits. Strength training has certainly increased in popularity over the past few years. Knowing how to build a strength training routine for our specific goals will move us one step closer to a fit body.

Copyright 2005 strength-training-woman.com

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Big arms and bodybuilding go together like Coffee and Coffee-mate, don’t you think? In fact, I think alot of us (especially men) would have first grabbed a weight or walked into a gym dreaming of massive python-like arms!

However, the problem is that many think that they will be able to build great arms by performing endless bicep curls till the cows come home. Well, sorry to burst your bubble, but doing so will not create large arms. In fact, you’ll be on your way to the point of diminishing returns in no time.

Here’s why - Your upper arm is made up of two major muscle groups the biceps and the triceps, and many lifters make the mistake of only training the biceps, failing to realise that the triceps only make up two-thirds of the upper arm mass. The triceps are a beautifully-shaped muscle when well developed. Surprised?

I’ve had friends who want bigger arms but only ask me what the best biceps exercises are. I normally end up giving them my favourite triceps exercises instead.

For good arm development, allocate a few more sets for your triceps rather than biceps. If you always start your arm training with your biceps first (almost everyone I see in the gym does this), try switching the order. Train your triceps first before you train your biceps.

Though you should always strive for a balance of all muscle groups, trust me when I say that if your biceps development are weaker but if you possess well developed triceps - your arms would still look spectacular! The same can’t be said for the reverse.

The bottomline? If you want big arms, get big triceps!

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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