In spite of Tank’s affinity for flashing people, he managed to win adoration of the family of one of our CP athletes to the point that they decided they wanted to get a cream puggle just like him.  Having just spent the previous six months housetraining him and trying to get him to sleep through the night, my wife and I had plenty of suggestions for these folks to avoid making the mistakes we made.  I mean, we never told him to eat paint chips, but puppies will be puppies, you know?

Anyway, that family is now all settled with their puppy, and it got me to thinking about the importance of learning from others’ mistakes is in the world of strength and conditioning programs.  If I can help out one puppy owner, I might as well help out the 60,000 unique visitors on this website each month!  With that in mind, here are five strength and conditioning mistakes I corrected that have made a big difference for me:

1. Eating like a pansy in the post-training window – If you’re an up-and-coming lifter or athlete who can benefit from increasing muscle mass (and I definitely was), the post-workout period is not a time when you can skimp on calories.  I really did not start making great progress until I was getting in over a thousand calories between my post-training shake and the meal that took place an hour later – and that was on the light side compared to what I’ve seen with some other guys.

I can’t think of many things that drive me crazier than seeing one of our athletes finish a training session – and then sit around in the office for 2-3 hours without eating anything.  I love having them hang out at the gym, but I just want them to do it with calories!

2. Not training for strength soon enough – I’m going to dumb getting bigger down as much as I can, yet still keep it mathematical.

You’ve got to do “muscular damage” and then rebuild.  If you don’t do work, you don’t get damage.

Work = Force x Distance

Unless you plan on growing for the rest of your life (or find magical ways to keep adding range of motion to exercises), the easiest way to positively impact the amount of work you do is to apply more force – or be stronger.

To that end, I’ll make a bold statement here: for the first two years of lifting, your primary goal should simply be to add weight to the bar (provided you can do so in good technique and without pain).  As long as we’re talking about compound strength exercises, you’ll be very pleased with the results.

We have novice lifters at Cressey Performance who grow like weeds in their first two years of training with us – and I can’t say that I’ve ever had someone ask me about “the pump.”  I wish I’d had someone to tell me to shut up when I asked about it when I was 18!

3. Spending too much time doing non-essentials – This one goes hand-in-hand with the previous observation.  I really had no place doing curls, triceps extensions, and other isolation exercises when I hadn’t even come close to putting up good numbers on the important strength exercises. It kept me in the gym too long and interfered with my recovery on the really important stuff.

The funny thing is that now that I have gotten a lot stronger, I really don’t have interest in doing much of the isolation stuff anymore – because I realize that the core strength exercises are the ones that really helped me progress.

4. Not being more athletic with my energy systems work – Growing up, I was an avid soccer and tennis player, and as a result of all my time on the field/court, I was reasonably quick and good with changes of direction.  When my early 20s rolled around, I took a step back from those sports to pursue strength training “full time.”  A few years later, I was invited to play in a charity basketball game against a bunch of at-the-time Patriots players like Ellis Hobbs, Reche Caldwell, Pierre Woods, and Logan Mankins (among others).  Don’t let anyone tell you that NFL guys can’t play hoops, because these guys mopped the floor with us (in my defense, I did have Kevin Larrabee on my team!).

The outcome wasn’t altogether surprising, but one thing that did open my eyes was how I just didn’t feel as athletic as I used to be in spite of the fact that I’d gotten a lot stronger as compared to my high school years.  I was putting force into the ground, but I wasn’t applying it quickly – and I wasn’t doing it in planes of motion in which I was comfortable.  Not surprisingly, most of my energy systems work at the time (which really wasn’t much) was being done on machines: ellipticals, versa-climbers, rowers, and bikes.  I committed to cutting back on mindless repetitive motion cardio right away – and since then, just about all my energy systems work has been sprinting, strongman-type medleys, change of direction work, slideboard work, and medicine ball circuits (plus just a small amount of Airdyne work).

The end result?  A 37.2-inch vertical jump – more than 12 inches better than I was back at the time, and I’m at a higher body weight and just as lean as when I was doing all that “gerbil cardio.”  More importantly, I feel a ton more athletic – and I’m more likely to do stupid things for others’ amusement around the gym.

5. Not finding a good training crew earlier – I’ve been fortunate to lift with some excellent training partners, from my days on-campus at UCONN, to South Side Gym, to the guys I lift with at Cressey Performance nowadays.  Before that, though, I was flying solo for quite some time.  Let me tell you: good training partners make a HUGE difference.  They pick you up when you’re dragging, help you select weights, provide spots/handoffs, and create an awesome social atmosphere that actually helps training progress.

“Going it alone” doesn’t just refer to having training partners with whom you can lift, though.  It also refers to having professional resources to whom you can turn – whether it’s a massage therapist when your elbows get cranky from all the gripping you do, or someone to help you out with your strength and conditioning programs.  I’m not going to lie: I did some terrible programs back in the day when I didn’t know any better.  If I’d had an unbiased party helping me out, I could have saved myself a lot of trouble.

That’s one reason why I created Show and Go: High Performance Training to Look, Feel, and Move Better.

On one hand, it takes the guesswork out of training by providing the actual strength and conditioning programs as well as an extensive video database to help with technique on all the mobility and strength exercises.  On the other hand, though, I designed it so that it would give folks a lot of wiggle room when it comes to adapting it to their unique goals and needs.  There are 4x/week, 3x/week, and 2x/week strength training programs; five different supplemental conditioning options; and a unique mobility warm-up for every month of the program.  Problems solved.

Click here to learn more about Show and Go.

What were some of your biggest strength and conditioning mistakes?  Share them in the comments section below and you might just help someone from repeating them!

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I wish I knew then what I know now.

This is one of life’s most cruel jokes.  With age comes wisdom (hopefully) and reflection.  I often think about going back and changing certain things that happened in my past and how the outcome would have been so different.

I never would have stolen that cop car…

I never would have married a stripper…

I never would have pulled out my own tooth with a pair of pliers…

You know, stuff like that.

When you’re drunk and are hopped up on GHB, you do crazy things.  Things that you want to take back; if you could just remember them.

You can’t change the past, you can just move forward, continue to educate yourself and not make the same mistakes again.

Training is the same way.  I’m sure if you look back at the stuff “you used to do” in the weight room you’d probably laugh.  And that is a good thing.  You had to start there to get to where you are now.  Progression and working to always be better is the key to success.

I’m no different.  I’ve made many mistakes in the weight room not only with my training but the programs of my athletes.  I’ve done things that worked and some things that didn’t work.  But I kept learning.  I kept going to seminars.  I kept corresponding with other coaches in the industry.  And I got better and learned a few things along the way.  Here are a few of those innovations that I know will help you reach your goals in the gym.

Flow is the New Warm-up

Gone are the days of just hitting a few arm crosses and jumping jacks before your workout.  Other staples like bodyweight squats and lunges, while very effective, aren’t really time efficient?  Also, do they hit every articulation of the lower body for a complete prep?

Imagine this flow:

bodyweight squat => lunge forward right leg => fall into glute stretch

push back to lunge on the right leg => back to bodyweight squat

Repeat on left leg

Or how about this:

inchworm => push-up => push-up plus => inchworm back – Repeat

Now you’re getting the idea.  Fast, efficient and encompassing as many movements as possible.

Stiffie or Softie?

When I say stiffie or softie, are you thinking about that Jimmy Johnson commercial for ED?  I am!  Man his hair is so cool.

We both should be thinking about some of the “tools” we use in the gym.  Some tools or implements just aren’t the best choices for certain individuals when performing certain exercises.

Let’s talk about broomsticks.  How do we use them?  Two immediate examples are broomstick dislocates and broomstick wall squats.  Both are great movements to open up the shoulders, chest and upper back as well as the wall squats drilling good squat form.  But is the broomstick really the best tool for the job?

When we are talking about individual differences, limitations and mobility, no, it is not.  I want you to think about replacing the broomstick with an elastic band.

The elastic band is perfect because it adjusts; it stretches and relaxes according to the individuals limitations.  It does NOT force the lifter or athlete into a movement pattern.  As the lifter hits a limitation the band stretches and allows the movement to continue while dynamically stretching the limitation.  Overhead wall squats with elastic bands are great too for all the same reasons.   You’ve probably abandoned dislocates because of how bad they feel with a broomstick.  Try out these new variations and you’ll feel the difference.

Learn from my mistakes and continue to evolve with your training.  This will ensure you continue to progress and bring efficiency into your workouts.  No one wants to spend hours and hours in the gym.  But when you are in the gym, you need to most bang for your buck and these new variations will help.

Innovations and versatility like this are what make my new product, Accelerated Muscular Development 2.0, a complete training system.  Unlike most programs, it doesn’t just provide 12 weeks of workouts and leave it at that.  In addition to giving you two 12 week programs, I also show you how to create your own programs moving forward – which puts you in a position to innovate for yourself and build your own programs.

Years and years of trial and error have led to the creation of the AMD 2.0 program template.  It breaks the workout down into its essential components (most programs are missing these pieces) so that each section has its own priority and its own focus.  From there, it is very simple.  In fact, once you see the template and apply it to your first workout, you will never forget it.  It is so easy.  And like I said, I have been training for many years and have done a lot of things wrong.  I really feel like AMD 2.0 is the next step because anyone can apply the template to whatever program they are on.   So as you progress and finish the AMD workouts, you can repeat them or use the template with any program you want to try.

The AMD 2.0 template incorporates soft-tissue work, dynamic warm-ups, the primary workouts, core training and finally a rehab component.  If you have purchased other programs, you’ll probably have noticed that you received the primary workouts ONLY.  Unfortunately, this isn’t the right way to train.  You must prepare your body to workout.  Coming into the gym from the car after a long day and not warming up will always have a negative impact on your ability to move, train to your potential and remain injury free over the long term.  There is a definite flow to a good workout and if you know how to do it, you can actually cut your workout time down significantly.  We are going for high impact and short duration workouts.  No one wants to spend 4-5 days a week in the gym with 2 hour workouts.  With AMD you’ll have 3 training sessions a week lasting 45min to 1hr.  Get in the gym, kill it and get out.

For more information – and a big introductory discount (this week only) with lots of bonuses – check out Accelerated Muscular Development 2.0.

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BJ has done some great stuff with Workout Muse, and they’ve got a pretty cool new iPhone application coming out soon that looks to be pretty sweet.

Enjoy!

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EC: Thanks for taking the time to jump in with us on this interview today.  Let’s talk first about where the “need” for this product came about; what made you and Alex decide to create it?

KB: Several years ago I had started using a particular style of movement work with my athletes designed to boost what I like to call “movement efficiency.” The premise was to rapidly and economically get people moving faster, quicker, and more efficiently on their feet without spending a lot of time doing so.  Each workout would start off with this movement work, which was a short ~10 minute section of the workout.

Alex was actually a client of mine back when he was just out of high school. He went through some these workouts and really seemed to benefit from them.   Well, a few years later he’s coaching people himself and is nearly out of college.  He had taken the workouts I’d given him several years before and continued doing parts of them and expounded upon them with an emphasis on really boosting his first step in basketball. I had always believed that quickness and explosiveness weren’t necessarily the same thing. A person can be “quick” without being explosive and vice versa.  Alex was a perfect example of that.  He has some videos somewhere out there of him with a basketball: I don’t know if he’ll ever be all that fast and explosive, but you’ll be hard pressed to find anyone quicker with the ball in his hand on the basketball court.

Several years after he was a client of mine, Alex is now a coach himself and has a pretty good training business going.  A little while back, he calls me and tells me how he’d been using these movement progressions with athletes and how well they’ve been working – and, in the process – comes up with the idea of putting the concept into a product based on “The Truth About Quickness.”

The first thing was to address some of the common myths surrounding quickness training and talk about the difference between quickness and explosiveness. The next was to introduce simple progressive quickness promoting exercises that don’t take a lot of time that can be incorporated into any existing program.  The foundation for that were the progressions I had started using several years prior.

EC: Let’s talk about your “evolution” as a coach.  What were you doing a decade ago that you thought was high performance training that you realize now just wasn’t cutting the mustard when it came to making people more athletic?

KB: When it comes to actual sprint, agility, and plyometric work, nowadays, I’m sort of known as a low volume guy. It’s all about quality over quantity.  However, believe it or not, I used to be one of those coaches who would run guys to death. I spent too much time focusing on sport-specific movements and not enough on foundational training and recovery.  I was one of those coaches who believed that if you wanted to get faster, you needed to do a ton of running.  If you wanted to be more agile, you needed to do a ton of agility and SAQ (speed-agility-quickness) work.  If you wanted to jump higher, you needed to do a lot of plyometrics.  The result was that my programming wasn’t near as efficient as it could be.

I guess sometime around the late 1990s, I started discovering by accident that most people could substantially improve sports specific movements without much focus on them.  I’d get these athletes that would come to me and say something like, “Hey I’m not going to play football or basketball anymore, but I still want to look good. I want you to train me to get me big, lean, and strong”.  So, I would.  Then, two months later, the guy goes out and hits a personal best vertical jump and 40 time.

I had experienced that myself in my own progress as an athlete but I always thought I was sort of an anomaly because I wasn’t doing what was considered “traditional” explosive power and speed training. But then I experienced it many, many times with other athletes.   From there things sort of evolved into a challenge of finding the right volumes of movement and strength work, discovering why certain approaches work for some athletes and not for others, and tailoring the approach to the athlete.

EC: It doesn’t sound altogether unfamiliar with the approach I took in The Ultimate Off-Season Training Manual, a program that a lot of people worried was too low in “SAQ” volume.  Without getting off topic too much, it’s my humble opinion that the “need” for more and more SAQ work was a provider-induced demand initiated by training facilities that realizes that they could get more young athletes through and make more money by running them ragged and messing around with agility ladders than they could with actually individually assessing kids, addressing imbalances, and getting them stronger.  They traded development for babysitting.

But anyway, along those same lines, what are you thinking is a better bet instead for nowadays?

KB: Establish proper movement patterns (which include optimizing recruitment/compensation patterns and optimizing coordination), then simply increase the horsepower behind the movement pattern.  You’re obviously one of the masters at establishing proper recruitment patterns and I have a ton of respect for your contributions to the field in those areas.  The recruitment aspects would include anything done with the focus of getting the body to operate more efficiently – stuff like corrective exercise, activation drills and stretches.

You then have to engage in enough sport-specific movement training (sprints, agility, jumps etc.) to optimize intra- and inter-muscular coordination in those tasks – and honestly, since those are gross movement patterns, it really doesn’t take a ton of volume.  Then, it’s just a matter of maintaining those things while progressively increasing the power of the relevant contributing muscles – which is easily done through strength training.  Put all that together into a plan that properly addresses recovery between all the elements and you can’t help but get better as an athlete.

EC: Just because this is fun, let’s talk about a few things you see in everyday programming from some strength and conditioning coaches that isn’t blatantly terrible (e.g., squatting on stability balls), but rather only marginally effective – and far from optimal?

KB:  I guess one of the biggest things is all the complex training I see.  Don’t get me wrong; I like complexes for some purposes (like fat burning and time-efficient training), but I don’t think they should make up the entire workout for athletes looking to build a foundation.  For example, yesterday I saw some people doing step-ups with a curl and press.  The step-up is good, the curl is good, and press is good but when you combine them altogether the effect is rather limited.  My motto is if you’re going  to load an exercise with the purpose of building strength in that exercise (and in the relevant muscles), then put your body in a mechanically advantageous position to do so.

EC: How do your recommendations change from a relatively inexperienced 15-18 year-old athlete versus an athlete who is older and has more experience?

KB: The goals don’t change but the focus on the elements does.  For the older athlete, I REALLY focus more on corrective exercise, stretches, and recovery.  Older guys tend to have so many recruitment impairments, flexibility issues, and pre-existing injuries that they can be a disaster waiting to happen unless those issues are addressed.  They not only tend to have more recruitment and compensation impairments than younger athletes, but their tissues also don’t tolerate these issues as well.  While a young athlete can often overcompensate for years and get away with it, older athletes will toast themselves the first trip around the bases at their first weekend softball game. With movement work, I work them into it gradually and also limit the effort.  A young kid can go out and run max sprints or max jumps no problem. But with older weekend warriors,  I like to work them in gradually as far as their rate of perceived exertion goes.

EC: This question is more for me than my readers, but I’ll ask it anyway.  Say you’ve got a 14-year-old kid who has never lifted a weight in his life – and he comes to you on his first day of training.  Do you do any sort of sprinting, agility/change of direction, or jump training with him?  Or do you stick purely with resistance training?

KB:  The movement work would be VERY limited and would be incorporated into part of his warm-up. It’s the basic concept behind The Truth About Quickness.  The movement part of the workout likely wouldn’t be more than 10 minutes – tops.  It’s enough to warm him up and give him a bit of movement stimulation, but not enough to fatigue him for the rest of the workout.  Short, sweet, and effective.

We’ll be back in a few days with a guest post from Kelly in conjunction with the launch of The Truth About Quickness.

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The good news is that there are ways to effectively tighten the butt and trim the hips and thighs, and many of the exercises can easily be done right at home. Check out these tips and you will be on your way to the sexy lower body of your dreams.

Fat Burning First

Before you can tone your hips, butt and thighs, you must burn off the excess fat that is covering that shapely body underneath. This involves fat burning – and plenty of it, so you have a leaner, meaner canvas with which to work.

To tone muscles while you are burning fat, try walking every day. You can make the most of your walking workout by practicing interval training, which consists of moderate activity interspersed with bursts of fast, intense walking. Just 30 minutes most days of the week will get you on the road to those seriously sexy hips, buttocks and thighs.

Squats

Once you’ve worked on fat burning, it’s time to concentrate on the muscles of the lower body. By tightening and toning the muscles of the hips and thighs, you will see a shapelier contour that looks quite attractive in your favorite pair of blue jeans.

To tone the entire area at once, try a variety of squats. Basic squats involve standing with your feet about shoulder-width apart, your back straight, and your arms held directly out in front of you. Slowly bend your knees and lower your upper body into a sitting position. Hold for a few seconds, and then stand up straight again. Repeat this step as many times as you can; usually 10-12 reps every other day is sufficient.

Lunges

Lunges also work the entire lower body in one movement, and they are particularly effective if you hold light weights in each hand as you complete the exercise.

Begin by standing up straight and tall, with feet shoulder-width apart. Place one foot out in front of you and bend the knee to a 45? angle. Hold the position for a few seconds, and then slowly stand back up again. Like the squats, repeat the lunges as many times as you can, with 10-12 repetitions being a good range. Switch legs and then repeat the entire sequence with the other foot in front to work both legs equally. Hold five to 10-pound weights in each hand as you perform the lunges to create even more resistance and improve your results.

Getting a tighter, sexier lower body is all about burning fat and toning muscle. When you faithfully commit to these three exercises every week, you will be on the road to the hot butt, hips and thighs you have always wanted.

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On the other hand, you may be one of those who is unable to gain, or even retain weight, due to the supersonic speed that your metabolism works at. If this is you, you will be very pleased to know that there are ways that you can gain weight too, despite every calorie you take in being burnt off at lightning speed.

Here are just a few things that you can try if you want to gain weight healthily. First up is to have a moderate meal of about 700 calories just before you go to bed. Even fast metabolisms slow down through the night, so these calories won’t be burnt off as usual, and will add bulk to your frame.

To have a good overall effect, you need to add in extra calories through the day as well. Up your intake to at least 4 meals a day and snack on protein rich items which have a very high calorific value.

We all know that cardio exercises keep us healthy in generally and are very good for our heart, so the last thing we want to do is give up our exercises. The good news is that you don’t have to, but you need to cut down. Don’t go all out until you are dripping in sweat, and you will burn too many calories. Just cut down on the length of your workout and the intensity of it, this will work well with the increased calories.

If you want to gain your weight through bulked up muscles, weight lifting is the perfect exercise for you. If you are just looking to gain weight without bulk, you want to do a low number of reps using heavier weights, as it is the reps which determine the bulk.

If after all this you find that you are still unable to gain weight, stop beating yourself up over it and accept that this is the way that God made you. As annoying as it may be, you are the envy of millions.

Access additional educational articles created by this very writer about topics such as mens denim shirt and Seven jeans for men.

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What you want to do right in the beginning (even before you go to the gym for the first time) is create some goals. It’s best to make them relatively easy to get oto and date them for a month or two in the future.

When your making these goals for the first time, it doesn’t really matter that much how you do them. Just put down something which you would like to be doing in a months time and date it.

As you get more experienced with goal setting, you can make some long term ones. The problem with these is that they are less motivational when your just starting out so begin with short term ones.

Once you’ve set these up, you’ll want to get some experience with different exercises and fitness machines. So I suggest you go to your local gym and test some out.

Now that you’ve got a good idea how all the machines work and what you need to do on each one, pick out a few that you like. If you can find between 9 and 12 different workouts that each push different parts of your body, then you’ve got the makings of a workout routine.

You should now get started with an eating plan. This is probably the most critical factor in becoming fit and healthy as your body depends of getting lots of good nutrition to get you there. So find some healthy foods which you also actually like eating and write them down.

For example, I really like eating watermelon when it’s in season. This is also packed full of vitamin C and lots of other great stuff. I have also developed a taste for some other exotic and very healthy foods like Okra.

Come over and read this is your going to buy used fitness equipment.

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For obtaining abs of steel, you don’t have to be a member of a fitness center or a gym. It can be done at home. This simply needs a strict workout and a few good habits. Your diet should be healthy and must consist of all good foods for your body. You must also eat enough of food that is full in fiber. Many fruits and vegetables provide this. In addition to this, you should restrict the amount of fatty foods you consume. The more greasy food you ingest, the harder you will need to work out to obtain your abdominal muscles of steel. This is because when you consume fat, it accumulates and builds over your abs, getting them to seem flabby and look soft even though you may work out daily.

Crash dieting is one of the enemies of you in case if you are planning to have abs of steel. It is because it is highly bad to hop meals and eat minute amounts of food. Moreover, once you break your diet you will go back to eating the natural quantity of food you generally consume. Therefore, it is better to simply cut down on what you eat and maintain a solid diet.

When exercising your abs, you must discipline them like you would train any other section of your body. You don’tneed to do large numbers of sit ups everyday to achieve abs of steel. While doing exercises for abs, make sure that you do 12 to 16 reps per round and no more than three rounds at once. This is more than enough to work the actual muscle groups and provide you abs of steel. Do not forget that you should handle your abs just like every other muscle you train. So, your abs should have its own time to rest and build as well. Hence, you should do only four abdominal sessions each week. As well as this you must vary your ab exercises. When abs develop day by day, you must attend to more difficult workouts and let the abs grow further.

By maintaining a good diet and regular exercise, you can easily obtain abs of steel. The strong abs will be built by good habits!

I delight in writing about health topics like these, but I also write on many different other topics. One of these is the topic regarding generac rv generators. If you would like more information about this topic you can get it by visiting http://rvgeneratorsforsale.com/generac-rv-generators.php

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Just like anything else, consistency is a key element in being successful, and your workout will be no exception. A full commitment is required to give yourself the best odds of success. You need to develop a consistent workout habit. A general rule-of-thumb is that it takes about two weeks to develop a habit – good or bad! If you can regularly hit the weights on an every-other-day regimen, you’ll be well on your way to establishing the consistency you’ll need to be successful.

If you can train at least 3 times per week, that should provide you with enough muscle-building stimuli to start and maintain the hypertrophic (muscle-building) process. It also gives your muscles a day in between workouts to recover. Remember, muscle growth doesn’t occur during exercise; rather, it occurs during the post-workout healing and rest process. Don’t shortchange yourself there.

Don’t let your weight lifting workouts go too long, and never let them exceed an hour. A thorough strengthening workout routine can be accomplished easily in 30 minutes or less, particularly if you only pause for less than a minute between sets, which is desirable. If you feel any sharp pains, stop your workout immediately and try to find out what the source of the discomfort is coming from. Further exercising can make a bad situation even worse, so listen to your body for warning signals.

From purely a workout perspective, muscle growth occurs when you perform a high volume of ‘work’ at a medium, increasing intensity. ‘Volume’ here means the number of reps and sets you perform, and the ‘intensity’ variable is how much weight you’ll lift. All beginning strength trainers should begin their workout regimens using a ‘high volume, medium intensity’ approach. Over time, as your muscle mass begins to build, gradually keep increasing the intensity factor a little to keep sustaining your progress.

Weight lifting and cardio exercises work at cross purposes against each other. Strength training is an anabolic process, meaning that physical and hormonal processes work together to increase protein-based muscle mass. On the other hand, cardio exercises are catabolic in nature, which means they tend to break down muscle protein in an effort to burn calories. If your primary goal is to build muscle, take it easy on the cardio. If, however, weight control is your mission, cardio comes first, only to be augmented with some light strength training.

Drinking an adequate amount of fluids may seem like a no-brainer, but it is key to your workout’s ability to help you build muscle. Increase your fluids intake before, during, and after all workouts. Remember that dehydrated muscle tissue takes longer to repair itself, slowing muscle growth. Also, waste products from the metabolic processes that are occurring during exercise are excreted and need to be flushed out of your system. Drinking plenty of fluids help get the job done.

In addition to fluids, your body needs the right kinds of fuel to assist the muscle building process, so eat before and after your workouts. Since it takes the human body about 1.5 hours to digest a meal, wait that long after eating before starting your strength training regimen. As you burn through those calories, your body gradually becomes glycogen deficient. Glycogens are basically carbohydrates, and if you don’t replace them soon after finishing your workout, muscle tissue starts breaking down searching for another energy store. The easiest approach is to drink some hi-carb fluids after your workout. Eating fruit is also a great approach.

As difficult as it is these days to maintain a balanced diet – and particularly for strength trainers – you may want to consider filling in some of those nutritional gaps with antioxidants and high quality vitamin supplements. So-called free radicals are molecules that tend to destabilize other molecules, and taking antioxidants such as Vitamins E, C, and A can prevent further damage to muscle tissue that’s just been through a hard workout. Glutamine and selenium are also very beneficial.

If you follow these basic muscle building tips, you’ll enjoy a safer and more effective workout!

Author Rocco Polagamo used to be a thin, pencil-neck dweeb until he tried to build muscle how the real strength trainers do! Read his and other articles on how anyone can build muscle fat loss with great tips from the pros!

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Thus, here is how to not spend all day in the gym to get toned arms:

1. Big muscles first: Always prioritize bigger muscles first in your workouts. The last thing you want is an exhausted smaller muscle limiting the development of a bigger muscle. And remember that the more muscle mass you activate during your workouts, the more fat loss you will achieve.

2. Don’t think isolating smaller muscles is useless: If you want the tightest arms possible, you have to directly work your arms. You will not get the most toned arms possible by doing push-ups and squats all day. You have to provide a local stimulus for change.

3. Make intensity the hallmark of your workouts: Put on some headphones and wear a baseball cap if necessary, and go all out. Without intensity results will be mediocre at best. Now keep in mind that if you are just starting out you need to take things slow.

4. Use variety to your advantage: Not only does your mind like more variety, but your body likes it too. So make sure you sprinkle your workouts with different exercises every so often so that you don’t stagnate. And stagnation is the strongest de-motivator.

5. Work all the heads in your arm: Your triceps has three heads and your biceps has two heads. Thus, a complete arm toning program should target all of these components. If you only work two heads, as most people do, you will not get the best results possible.

I know you are busy, who isn’t. And I’m sure the last you want is to spend all day in the gym trying to get the body and arms of your dreams. The good news is that you don’t have to do this. So make sure you take action on this advice sooner rather than later!

Writer Katherine Crawford, a fitness expert and former flabby arms sufferer, instructs women on how to get thin arms with ease. Unearth how to get sexy arms by visiting her blog about how to shake weight right now!

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Post tags: arm toning, Baseball Cap, beauty, Biceps, Bodybuilding, Doing Push Ups, Exercise, fat, fat loss, Fitness, flabby arms, Hallmark, health, Internal Environment, Katherine Crawford, Metabolism, Muscle Mass, Squats, Stagnate, Stagnation, Stimulus, Sufferer, Thin Arm, Toned Arms, Triceps, Two Heads, Ups, weight lifting, weight loss, Weight Loss Program, wellness, women, workout, Workouts

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