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The 2 Main Body Building Programs Explained

August 4th, 2008    Subscribe To Our Feed

Body building is a sport a lot of people are not entirely familiar with mainly because they generally only hear about the results of contests and generally not about the actual training that is involved in such preparation for the contests. In addition, most people work out in gyms to keep in shape and generally follow the same workout all year round.

When you are training for a body building competition, there will be a need for two separate body building programs in order to achieve the ability to enter a contest. These two phases will be clearly examined and explained herein. The body building programs are the off-season phase, the pre-contest phase and the contest phase.

Off Season Phases

The off season phase involves body building programs that focus on mass building. That is to say, during this phase the goal is to get as huge as humanly possible and not worry so much about definition. Now, this weight gain must be primarily muscle since packing on excess fat will not do anyone any good. It will simply make the pre-contest cycle significantly more difficult and that is a self-defeating venture.

So, instead you need to watch diet closely and to perform a significant volume of mass building exercises. That means the primary exercises to be done during this phase will involve serious compound exercises such as military presses, bench presses, etc. This cycle typically runs several months and requires much consistency in order to effectively be undertaken.

Pre-Contest Phases

The pre-contest phase is commonly refers to the 6 to 8 weeks that precede a competition and involve a "shredding" process where the goal to be achieved is definition of the muscles. This involves a significant amount of isolation exercises which target single body parts as well as a great deal of cardio…repeat…a great deal of cardio.

Of course, the other area of consideration that is critical during this phase is diet. When people think of body building programs they often think of exercises as opposed to the quality diet that is the epicenter of all body building programs. No matter how hard a person works out or how much time they put in exercise, all work will be completely thrown out the window if a poor and sloppy diet is employed.

As such, it is critical not to eat poor quality foods or to eat any type of food at levels of excess that could prove self defeating.

Pump Up Your Muscles With Amino Acid Body Building

July 30th, 2008    Subscribe To Our Feed

How do some of those athletes and body builders look so sculpted with defined musculature? Well, there are many factors at play to create a well-toned body and amino acid body building is one practice that seriously pumped up athletes rely on. Amino acids are oftentimes called the building blocks of the human body in layman’s terms however they are really the molecular building blocks that create protein.

Protein is one of the most essential components that create tough healthy muscles which is the reason why a lot of athletes in strength training will indulge in amino acid body building, commonly in the form of supplements and pushing weights. Protein also fuels the health of your hair, nails, ligaments, tendons, central nervous system and even how your muscles retain water for maximum elasticity and strength.

Reasons For Supplements

A lot of body builders have determined that without sufficient amino acids in their system, the body tends to feed on its own muscles when faced with the crisis of not enough energy. This has led to the interest of amino acid body building to make sure that the body has enough of fuel to build muscle instead of cannibalizing on it.

Serious body builders will take amino acid supplements either in a protein shake or pill form right after hard muscle exercises. This moment in time represents a unique opportunity to introduce amino acid into the body while the muscles still have optimal blood flow and is most amenable to nutrients. This timing takes a knowledgeable athlete to understand why amino acid body building can be very important.

Popular Supplements

Glutamine is among the most popular in amino acid body building since it is plentiful in the muscles and is known for promoting muscle growth. Arginine is another amino acid that is beneficial to your amino acid body building practices. This specific amino acid kicks off the growth hormone in your body and helps regulate the metabolism of the muscles, building bulk. Fat diminishes while your connective tissue, cartilage and bone strengthens under amino acid body building practices.

Supplements are important because these days people are slacking on their diets and not consuming enough proteins, which means not enough amino acids. Without these helpful body building blocks, you would eventually become weaker and lose muscle tone. Hence, stick with amino acid body building and you will see that your muscles will not only get the workout they need but that they are also growing larger, creating the telltale body builder sign of a sculpted muscles.

The Truth About Body Building Muscle Supplements

July 25th, 2008    Subscribe To Our Feed

If you go to any health or nutrition shop you will see that there is a large number of body building muscle supplement products on store shelves. The sheer volume of products is overwhelming and their popularity is quite strong. While a lot of people are familiar with the fact that these products exist, they might not be aware of how these body building muscle supplement products work.

Unfortunately, because these products are in such fierce competition with one another, they have a tendency to employ a ton of over the top advertisement campaigns so as to stand out in the marketplace. Unfortunately, several of these ad campaigns leave the false impression that there is a miracle out there that will maximize one’s ability to grow muscle.

What Is A Body Building Muscle Supplement?

First, what must clearly be understood about these supplements is that no body building muscle supplement is a miracle product. There’s no product that will magically burn fat and enhance muscle growth while eliminating that pesky need for working out.

Of course, there are a number of products with wild over the top ad campaigns that make these grandiose claims, but these products are less than honest and even less successful in terms of actually delivering what they promise.

The products out there which fall into the body building muscle supplement category are essentially one of two things known as mass gainers and whey protein supplements.

A mass gainer is a drink that provides a massive amount of calories in liquid shake form so as to help someone who is having difficulty gaining weight the ability to gain weight without packing on fat.

What whey protein does is that it provides the body with quality protein so as to aid in the repair and growth of muscle after a solid exercise program. While this description of these products might make them sound mundane, it is also an accurate assessment.

Again, there is no body building muscle supplement that can provide any miracles so avoid looking for them. Rather, keep your feet grounded to the earth and look for those products that provide honest and sensible result.

These products are not necessarily expensive and are generally quite effective. Sure, some brands are a little better than others and then there will also be issues of personal taste involved in the selection that you make. But ultimately if you stick to legitimate products you will achieve the results that you desire.

Understanding Body Building Diet Basics

July 20th, 2008    Subscribe To Our Feed

Legendary body building mogul Joe Weider once told that the true secret to body building success is found in the proper body building diet. What he meant was that people who overeat and pack their body with fat, ultimately harm all the benefits of body building since the lean, ripped look becomes impossible to attain. Therefore, if you eat the proper body building diet of low fat, high protein and decent carbs you will do okay.

Now, while a body building diet will consume more calories than a common diet, there are certain considerations that also must be understood as well.

Basic Metabolism and Basic Myths

While it is true that a ton of calories eaten will be burned while working out, there will also be a metabolic calorie burning effect that will occur as well, however please keep in mind that it is wrong to over do it! The larger the mass of a person is, the more the person will want to eat.

This is not a bizarre side effect it is just a logical reaction that the body will have to preserving a significant volume of muscle mass. Keep in mind that muscle is significantly more dense than fat and this means that muscle will need more calories to preserve its size.

This is why muscle bound people don’t pack on fat when they increase their calorie intake – the muscles burn the calories by "eating" the excess calories and this is something that is often misunderstood by people as a green light to eat whatever it is they want and in massive quantities.

This is a huge fallacy of the body building diet. That is, you will increase your calorie intake…slightly…but if you increase it ridiculously then you will start to pack on a lot of fat on top of whatever muscle that you have. The resultant physique will make you look like someone who enjoys working out, but enjoys overeating more. That is hardly the type of physique to aspire!

As you can see, there is a great deal of common sense involved with the body building diet. Basically, whether you eat quality food, you can get away with eating a lot provided you have solid muscle mass.

However, once you slip into the fallacy of eating whatever you want and in significant amounts that far exceed what you need, you will find yourself undermining your own goals. Now who would want that?

The Greatest Quad Builder… That Almost No One Wants To Do

July 15th, 2008    Subscribe To Our Feed

By Tom Venuto, NSCA-CPT, CSCS
www.BurnTheFat.com

It’s axiomatic that the exercises which give you the best results are always the hardest ones to do. If you want a huge back… you row and deadlift. If you want huge legs, you squat… OR… you do THIS leg exercise – that almost no one wants to do because its one of the hardest of them all.

Which one am I talking about? FRONT SQUATS!

In my opinion, front squats are one of the absolute best quad builders. Back squats are a tremendous mass builder as well, but front squats introduce an additional level of challenge because they require flexibility, technique, and core strength because the bar must be held and balanced on the front of the shoulders. As such, the front squat does everything the back squat does and more.

One great advantage of the front squat, especially for someone like me, having previously suffered a low back injury (herniated L4), is that the torso can be held in a more upright (vertical position). Since there is less forward trunk inclination, this removes some of the stress and shear forces from the lower back. At the same time, this upright position is closer to a bodybuilding squat and throws much more emphasis on the quads and less on the hips. It is truly a superb bodybuilding exercise.

There are two styles of front squatting, the Olympic lifting style and the crossed arm style. I find that most athletes, and of course Olympic lifters, use the former, while most bodybuilders seem to prefer the latter. The barbell should generally be your weapon of choice, but for bodybuilders, front squats on the smith machine are an outstanding alternative. The Smith machine front squat takes some of the balance issues out of the picture, which allows the physique athlete to really focus on working the muscle rather than worrying about balance and stabilization. Be sure to rotate between both versions, however– barbell and smith machine – because long term overuse or dependency on machines may lead to stabilizer weakness or muscle imbalances and variety is never a bad idea in the physique game. Incidentally, the barbell front squat is an outstanding “core” exercise.

A third version of the front squat worth considering is the dumbbell front squat (especially the sumo or wide stance version). These can be performed holding a single dumbbell with both hands on the front of the shoulders, cupped between both hands (goblet squat) or with two dumbbells, one in each hand, resting on top of each shoulder. The limiting factor on these front squat variations is often the poundage, as holding heavy dumbbells can become unwieldy. This can be partially overcome by performing the dumbbell front squat last in a leg workout or second in a superset, or by manipulating tempo and range of motion so the exercise is made more difficult. The dumbbell variations are also a great choice for women who usually don’t require as much weight as men for stimulation.

I find that the front squat is particularly effective at developing the tear drop shaped vastus medialis portion of the (“lower”) quads, and you can emphasize this effect even more by elevating your heels on a board or a wedge. Elevating your heels is considered controversial and some say that this is damaging to the knees. I’m not convinced that this is the case with a slight elevation and very strict form and controlled tempo, although I would not recommend this method to anyone with existing knee problems. There is certainly a risk to benefit ratio of every technique variation, and you have to decide if the added potential benefit is worth the potential risk, depending on your particular situation (consult the appropriate medical or training professional if you’re not sure)

You can also emphasize the medialis and increase overall effectiveness by working FULL squats (breaking parallel) and only coming up three quarters (no locking out). Have you ever seen Mr. Olympia Ronnie Coleman’s workout videos? I realize that Mr Olympia’s bodybuilding video tapes are not “workout instruction” nor do they really have anything to do with us mere mortals, but I pay attention to everything in the world of bodybuilding, and I did find it very interesting to watch Ronnie front squatting 500+ pounds. I also found it interesting that he went rock bottom and he did ¾ reps without releasing tension for even a single rep. Although he certainly has some advantages over other bodybuilders, everything is relative and he has some ridiculous quads, even compared to other IFBB pros. Indeed, continuous tension ¾ reps are a tremendous technique to employ with the front squat exercise, regardless of whether you’re a novice or a pro. Be prepared to leave your ego at home, however.

In addition to the ¾ reps, try manipulating your tempo. It will limit your poundage even further, but what you sacrifice in strength you will make up in hypertrophy.  Whereas a regular rep might be 2011 or 3011 tempo, or even a full-out explosive concentric with a controlled eccentric, bodybuilders may want to try utilizing a tempo of 3020, or (even harder) 4030. With sets of 10 -12 reps, this will give you a minimum of 50-70 seconds of continuous time under tension. The lactic acid burn around the 10-12thth rep has to be felt to be “appreciated.” The only thing more difficult than continuous tension/non-lockout ¾ reps are continuous tension, non-lockout reps with a slow tempo. Truly a quad killer!

Note: 4-point tempo prescriptions are as follows:

3020 tempo =
3 = negative/eccentric action
0 = pause in stretch/bottom position
2 = positive/concentric action
0 = pause in contracted/top position

So if front squats are so good, why don’t more people do them? Simple – because they’re damn hard. Here is what I usually see happen: Someone will start front squatting (or try to), and they inevitably put on way too much weight. Their form is horrible, it feels totally uncomfortable and unbalanced, so our novice front squatter quits and writes off front squats for good after only one try, and heads back over to the leg press machine.

I usually advise them to unload the bar and master the form first with very light weights, but invariably, ego gets in the way, and 315-405 squatters and 1000+ pound leg pressers don’t want to be seen with a single “wheel” (45 pound plate) on each side of an Olympic bar while they patiently master the technique for a new exercise. Alas, they never learn to front squat, they go back to what is easy and familiar and they never gain all the benefits of this awesome exercise.

 

Tom Venuto, NSCA-CPT, CSCS
Lifetime Natural Bodybuilder
www.BurnTheFat.com

About the Author:

Tom Venuto is an NSCA-certified personal trainer, NSCA- certified strength and conditioning specialist, a lifetime natural bodybuilder and author of the #1 best-selling e-book "Burn the Fat, Feed The Muscle" (BFFM). You can visit Tom on the web at:
www.burnthefat.com

 

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