Keeping Fit is A Daily Battle

Muscle mass is considered significantly for the bodybuilders.

Muscle mass can be developed by following a perfect combination of balanced diet, workout and supplements. Read further to gain knowledge about the correct strategy for augmenting muscles.

Contract the Muscles – Muscle growth is directly proportional to the degree of contraction of muscles. Perform the negative technique to put excess burden on muscles and gain muscle mass.

Fish for Food – Fish is rich in omega-3 fatty acids which increases the sensitivity of the muscles towards insulin. Insulin sensitive muscles have increased capacity to store glycogen and facilitate easy entry of amino acids in the muscles.

Enhanced Intake of Sodium – Sodium increases the storage of carbohydrate in the muscles and the amino acids are also absorbed at an increased rate in the muscles due to the presence of the optimum amount of sodium in the body.

Increase the Weights – Muscle growth is proportional to the amount of force muscles endures. Increase the weights lifted to build the muscle mass fast.

Balanced Diet – Low calorie does not support in the muscle mass building process. Carbohydrates, fats and proteins are required in excess quantity to build muscle mass.

Take a Break – Continuous training puts lots of stress on the muscles. Ample rest is also required to allow muscles to recover from the strain of workout. Ample rest augments the process of anabolism and restores the glycogen.

Protein Intake in Night – Bodybuilders diet includes four to six meals in a day. Supplement the diet with the protein shake in the night to enhance the absorption of the nutrients in the body.

Powerlift – Go for six to twelve rep range as it increases, both the strength and size of the muscles.

Combination of Three – Glutamine plays an important role in muscle building. Low level of glutamine inhibits the muscle growth. Creatine is essential to produce ATP, the energy molecule. Creatine releases energy in the muscles. Branched Chain Amino Acids provides the body with nitrogen required to build muscles.

Got a question from a reader:

Ok, im 14 and can not find anything that sounds convincing or is true on building ab muscle.

I want to get a 6pack (not to big, just a nice mild look on the skin cerface).

I heard that a good diet helps..

can somebody please share any diets that i should take out which would help me to get a 6pack?

also, what exercise is best?

i have been working on crunches etc… and i have burned away some belly fat which is now making my belly flat, so im hoping that anybody has a good diet and exercise tips etc which they know works?

thanks.

ps/ i was thinking of just eating a small potion of pasta at 12(noon) and again at 5pm each day. and drinking 3pints of water from waking up to noon, and another 8pints between 12 and 5. is this good?

thanks.!

Answer from female author:

Is that diet you mentioned ALL you are thinking of eating?! If so, you are not eating enough!!!! You need to eat way more than that to build muscle and to be healthy – at your age if you starve yourself like that then you will end up damaging your bones, heart and probably stunt your growth so you will never grow to your full height. I know you think eating pasta is not starving yourself but because you are a male and aged 14, that diet would mean your body would go into starvation mode and you would do some serious damage to your body.

First of all you need to eat 3 times a day, eating earlier in the day is more important than eating at night because you burn more calories during the day than you do at night. So make time for breakfast every day! If you want to build muscle then you must eat more protein – carbs will not do much for you apart from give you short bursts of energy.

Men are very lucky in that they can eat pretty much whatever they want and as long as you exercise, you will not put on weight and just get great muscle tone. This is because your body does not have as many fat cells as women so it is actually harder for you to gain fat. I reccomend you go on the men’s health website or start buying that magazine, it has lots of great diet and exercise advice.

I have spent a lot of time reading up on diet and exercise and I think I know my stuff so here are my tips for you:

1. Eat More! You need to be eating 2500 calories a day to maintain your current weight, and if you are building muscle then muscle burns more calories therefore you need to ensure you are eating enough. If you are not giving your body the calories it needs then it will eat into your muscle first, therefore on that diet you outlined you will never gain any muscle and the 6 pack will never happen.

2. Eat more protein! That diet you mentioned only included carbs, you have to be eating a balanced diet to gain muscle and protein is very important in building muscle. Muscle is made out of protein fibres, therefore the more protein you eat the more chance you have of getting a 6-pack! Foods high in protein – Eggs, meat (chicken and fish is best seen as it is a lean meat and has little fat in it)and most diary products (milk, cheese etc), nuts and seeds.

3. Cut out White Carbs! So no white pasta, white bread or white rice. These foods have no nutritional benefit because they are processed, and they will leave you feeling and looking bloated (bye bye 6 pack!). Instead only eat the brown versions – so wholewheat pasta, brown bread and brown rice. These are brown because they have all the vitamins and nutrients left in them, and they are slow release carbs – this means they will release energy slowly giving you more energy throughout the day!

I think if you follow those 3 rules for your diet then you will get the results you want – you dont need to be too strict on what you eat at your age because you need all the energy to grow! And that water consumption you mention in your question, that seems too excessive. You can actually die from drinking too much water, it drowns your body from within! So just drink when you are thirsty, there is no need to go mad with the water! Most of your recommended intake of water should actually be coming from your food, as a lot of foods are 50-90% water. So make sure you eat lots of fruit and veg because these have a high water content and they have lots of vitamins and minerals that you need.

So an ideal diet for you would be this:

Breakfast:

Poached/boiled eggs with brown toast

Or cereal and brown toast if you dont have time for eggs

Lunch:

Anything you like! Make sure it includes carbs for energy, so wholewheat pasta is good, jacket potatoes, sandwiches with brown bread, soup etc

Dinner:

Chicken or fish with vegetables

Or any meat you like with veg

Snacks:

Nuts, fruit

Drinks:

Low sugar cordial, water, fruit juice

Exercise wise – sit-ups, crunches, press-ups…those sorts of things are all you can do to get a 6 pack. You just have to do high repitions of them, so maybe try doing 4 sets of 50 (with about a minutes break in between each set). You should try getting a little cardio in your exercise routine too, as this will help give you definition around your abs. Swimming is brilliant for all over muscle tone as it uses every muscle in the body – but remember that swimming uses lots of calories so again you will have to eat more! Or maybe try jogging once or twice a week, this is another great exercise that will help you tone up.

The main thing for you to achieve what you want is to eat more and stop worrying so much about gaining this 6 pack! I understand all men want the perfect 6-pack abs but often some men just cannot achieve this as their bodies were not made to have 6-packs. Some guys can only achieve a flat stomach with a bit of tone and definition. And most girls dont really like 6-packs anyway, it is a sign that the guy is obsessed with his body and spends way too much time working out! So definition is always better than a 6-pack. I would always go for a guy with a flat stomach over a 6-pack, I think 6 packs look unnatural and ugly!

Just enjoy being a teenager, start eating more of what you want and just be healthy, dont let yourself become obsessed with diet and exercise. You need to find a healthy balance between the two – take my boyfriend for example. He works out 3 times a week with weights and goes running a couple of times a week. He has an amazing body but no 6-pack! But he has such great muscle definition and he is really toned, and he gets so much attention from the girls! But guess what – he eats like a pig and drinks beer all the time! He loves pizza, and eating all sorts of food that you wouldnt normally associate with a healthy body. But the way he sees it is that he can eat what he wants as long as he works out and doesnt eat rubbish all the time.

I hope this helps and good luck!

Creatine monohydrate can help you build muscle, make you stronger, and get you leaner.

A number of studies have proven that when creatine supplements are used, together with exercise, significant gains can be made in muscle, strength and endurance. It has also been shown to improve muscle strength and decrease recovery time following a work out.

Creatine monohydrate works best for activities that require rapid or intense effort. Activities such as weight lifting to build muscle and sprinting are examples of this type of activity. If you’re a marathon runner, you may not see the same type of results.

About 93% of all the creatine in your body is stored in the muscles. The reason it is stored in your muscles is that it plays a key role in providing your body with a boost of energy needed to perform work.

The normal energy cycle of the muscle requires a substance called Adenosine Triphosphate or ATP to fuel it. The muscle usually has enough ATP on board to fuel a burst of work lasting about 6 seconds.

Creatine restores the ATP to a state where it can act as fuel for the muscle and continue the burst of activity for about another 6-12 seconds. This is how it helps to build muscle.

A good analogy is to think of the muscle as if it were a high performance engine. ATP is the gas for your engine and creatine is an octane booster that allows you to get better performance from your engine.

The most common effects of creatine include bigger muscles and increased production of muscle tissue.

This translates into more repetitions, more weight lifted and/or the ability to sprint faster. More work equals more muscle and more muscle equals increased strength and endurance.

In addition to helping to build muscle, creatine has been shown to decrease muscle soreness and recovery time needed between work outs. Obviously, being sore can be a negative factor when it comes to working out.

Activities such as jogging or running may not benefit as much from creatine supplementation as weight lifting. The muscles work slower for these activities and seem to be able to restore ATP at a rate that meets the need.

Creatine occurs naturally and can be produced by the body. It is found in beef, pork, salmon, cod, herring and tuna.

But it’s impractical to eat the amount of food needed to achieve the amount of creatine supplementation you desire. Creatine supplementation also allows you to know the exact amount of creatine you are getting.

The normal dose for creatine is between 5 and 10 grams per day. For the fastest results you can “load” the muscles by taking between 15-20 grams of creatine for approximately 5 days.

Once you’ve loaded the muscles, you can maintain the creatine level by taking the normal creatine dose approximately 30-60 minutes before a work out.

Because it is excreted through the kidneys, and due to the increased risk of dehydration, creatine supplements are not recommended for people with kidney disease.

When you first start taking creatine supplements you may notice an immediate gain of weight of between 2 to 5 pounds.

Creatine causes your muscles to store more water which seems to assist in building more muscle. This is a side effect that causes many people to think that creatine is similar to anabolic steroids. Creatine is an amino acid and does not build muscle in the body the same way that steroids do.

The results of creatine supplements vary from minor to significant depending on the person using them. A number of factors come into play that affects the outcome.

Age, sex, work out intensity and frequency as well as how much creatine store you start with all play a part in the results you will achieve.

If you suffer from any chronic illness or are on prescription medications for your heart, blood pressure or other medical conditions you should always consult your medical provider before taking creatine.

If you’re looking to build muscle using only safe, effective ways, creatine may be the supplement to help you do it.

The amount of muscle you can achieve is regulated by testosterone, also known as the Holy Grail of muscle growth. Quite simply, testosterone is the most important muscle-building hormone in your body and is one of the limiting factors that determines how much muscle you can ultimately build. Here is just a small handful of the many amazing benefits that increased testosterone levels will provide you with: Increased muscle size and strength, decreased body fat levels, increased sex drive and sexual endurance, improved mood and decreased levels of “bad” cholesterol.

Sounds great, doesn’t it? Well it is, and in this article I’m going to outline 10 simple steps to naturally elevate your testosterone levels and achieve all of these incredible benefits. While these steps will not result in “steroid-like” muscle gains, they will definitely contribute to your overall bottomline results.

1) Utilize combination exercises as the foundation of your fitness routine. I’m talking about the basic, bread-and-butter lifts such as squats, deadlifts, bench presses, rows, chin-ups, dips, lunges and military presses. Going to the gym and following the training that places your muscles under the largest quantity of pressure will compel your body to add to testosterone production.

2) Always put forth maximum exertion and intensity when preparing. You must be willing to really push your body to its physical limits if you hope to build muscle. The more stress you put on your muscles in the gym, the more testosterone your body will create.

3) Exercise your leg muscles just as hard as your exercise your upper body. You may already know that growth in the chest, back, and arms will be stimulated by intense training of the legs. The increased testosterone produced through leg training exercises is one of the reasons for this.

4) Increase your EFA consumption. Necessary fatty acids that come from origins such as peanuts, avocadoes, healthy oils such as omega 3 fish oil and flax seed. To boost testosterone levels naturally, nothing beats olive or canola oil.

5) Minimize your consumption of soy. There is a direct negative effect on testosterone levels when the estrogen levels in the body increase, which can be caused by soy protein.

6) Limit your consumption of alcohol. Alcohol has been shown to have quite a dramatic effect on testosterone levels, so try to limit your “binge drinking” nights and keep your alcohol consumption in moderation.

7) Up your dietary consumption of cruciferous vegetables. Broccoli, cauliflower, radishes, turnips, cabbage and brussel sprouts have all been shown to dramatically reduce estrogen levels, thereby raising testosterone.

Reduce your everyday stresses. When you have too much stress, your body releases the catabolic hormone “cortisol” and this makes your testosterone levels drop dramatically.

9) Have more sex. Becoming sexually aroused increases oxytocin in the sytem which increases the production of endorphins and raises levels of testosterone.

10) Make certain that you get enough sleep each night. Insufficient sleep may result in a reduction of your testosterone levels due to the production of cortisol.

To boost your muscle size and gain strength, implement these techniques regularly for a noticeable difference.

Doctors advice to have your testosterone levels checked if you have reduced levels of sexual desire or libido. You can replenish your depleting testosterone with injections, gels, pills or patches but these medical treatments and synthetic driugs do not come without adverse side effects which include acne, high cholesterol, shrunken testicles and liver damage.

The best alternative is to have an natural or herbal pill that does not have side effects and acts as an HGH releaser which helps your body to increase it’s own production of growth hormone. An increase in growth hormone not only raises testosterone production but also helps your body to reverse age effects significantly.

Men with borderline testosterone scores, can raise their levels through exercise and weight loss before going on testosterone therapy. And it might pay to start young. Since your testosterone declines at a steady rate, it’s conceivable that raising your hormone levels naturally in your 20s and 30s could help you maintain higher levels later on. Either way, the reward can be a stronger physique and better bedroom sessions than you’d otherwise deserve.

Below are 13 tips designed to get your juice up — safely.

Get Rid of the Flopping Belly

Excess body fat is likely to elevate your estrogen levels which affects testosterone negatively. Though 2 or 3 extra pounds do not matter and will not cause any change in hormone levels, the hormonal shift takes place if you are 30% over your ideal body weight. Unfortunately due to improper eating habits and lack of physical activity, this is fairly common now.

But Lose Only One Pound a Week

When you want to lose weight quickly, you probably starve yourself. One of the many reasons this stops working in your 30s, when your natural testosterone levels start dropping, is pretty simple: Cutting your calorie intake by more than 15 percent makes your brain think you’re starving, so it shuts down testosterone production to wait out the famine since it is functioned in a way that there’s no need to reproduce if you’re starving. Ironically, this dive in circulating testosterone stops you from burning body fat efficiently, so you’re actually thwarting your hard efforts to melt that tire off your gut.

Skip the Atkins Fad

Research suggests that eating a high-protein, low-carbohydrate diet can cramp your testosterone levels. High amounts of dietary protein in your blood can eventually lower the amount of testosterone produced in your testes as observed in a study of 12 healthy, athletic men.

Your protein intake should be about 16 percent of your daily calories. So, if you’re the average 170-pound man who eats 2,900 calories a day, you should eat about 140 grams of protein daily, which is about the amount in two chicken breasts and a 6-ounce can of tuna.

Have Morning Sex

German scientists found that simply having an erection causes your circulating testosterone to rise significantly — and having one in the morning can goose your natural post-dawn testosterone surge. It’s a sure bet you’ll burn a little fat, too.

Stick With Tough Exercises

To beef up your testosterone levels, the bulk of your workout should involve “compound” weight-lifting exercises that train several large muscle groups, and not just one or two smaller muscles. For example, studies have shown that doing squats, bench presses or back rows increases testosterone more than doing biceps curls or triceps pushdowns, even though the effort may seem the same. This is why doing squats could help you build bigger biceps.

Make Nuts Your Midnight Snack

Nuts are good for your nuts. Research has found that men who ate diets rich in monounsaturated fat — the kind found in peanuts — had the highest testosterone levels.It’s not known why this occurs, but some scientists believe that monounsaturated fats have a direct effect on the testes. Nuts, olive oil, canola oil and peanut butter are good sources of monounsaturated fat.

Squeeze Out Five Repetitions per Set

Throwing around 5-pound dumbbells won’t help you effect a rise in testosterone. Start off by using a heavy weight that you can lift only five times. That weight is about 85 percent of your one-repetition maximum. A Finnish study found that this workload produced the greatest boosts in testosterone.

Do Three Sets of Each Weight-Lifting Movement

Researchers at Penn State determined that this fosters greater increases in testosterone than just one or two sets. Rest a full minute between sets, so you can regain enough strength to continue lifting at least 70 percent of your one-rep maximum during the second and third sets.

Rest Harder Than You Work Out

If you overtrain — meaning you don’t allow your body to recuperate adequately between training sessions — your circulating testosterone levels can plunge by as much as 40 percent, according to a study at the University of North Carolina. The symptoms of overtraining are hard to miss: irritability, insomnia, muscle shrinkage, joining the Reform Party. To avoid overtraining, make sure you sleep a full eight hours at night, and never stress the same muscles with weight-lifting movements two days in a row.

Drive Home Sober

To maintain a healthy testosterone count — and titanium erections — cut yourself off after three drinks. Binge drinking will kill your testosterone levels. Alcohol affects the endocrine system, causing your testes to stop producing the male hormone. That’s one reason drinking often causes you to go limp at the moment of truth.

Have a Sandwich at 3 p.m.

As any sensible woman knows, the way to put hair on a man’s chest is to fill his stomach. Your body needs a ready supply of calories to make testosterone, so regularly skipping meals or going for long stretches without eating can cause your levels of the hormone to plummet. Then again, that’s probably the warden’s plan.

Buy the Fried Tortilla Chips

If you want to raise your testosterone score, eat a diet that includes about 30 percent fat, and not much less. Your body needs dietary fat to produce testosterone, so eating like a vegetarian aerobics instructor will cause your testosterone levels to sink drastically. This is bad, unless you actually are a vegetarian aerobics instructor.

Stop Surfing for Porn at 2 a.m.

Sleeping less than seven to eight hours a night can screw up your circadian rhythm. That’s why it’s no wonder your testosterone levels are higher in the morning after a good night’s sleep. So if your work or social schedule keeps you stooped in perpetual jet lag, don’t be surprised if you stop craving sex. At least that’ll make it easier to stay out of bed.

Let me go out on a short limb here and say: dieting works . . . at least in the near term. But you can increase the effectiveness of most diets and improve your long-term chance of success by mastering several simple diet changes.

Over the past years, I’ve compiled a long list of simple lifestyle changes that combine to build a practical, long-term approach to dieting. Add a few of these changes to your current routine individually until they become habit. In a short while, you’ll notice better, more lasting results if you are able to absorb these changes. Plus, they’ll help kick-start any fast weight lose diet.

Ice cold water: drink an ice-cold glass of water (16 ounces) when you first wake up and prior to every meal. Your body will be forced to raise the water to its temperature, burning a few extra calories in the process. Additionally, it will make you feel fuller when you eat and help keep you properly hydrated.

Add negative calorie foods: there are a handful of foods out there that consume more energy when burned than are contained within the foods themselves; i.e. they have a net negative caloric impact. Try adding asparagus, broccoli, blueberries, beets, radishes, cucumbers, strawberries, tomatoes, and similar foods.

Two-hour rule: don’t eat for at least two hours before bedtime, and ideally, in the final three hours that you are awake, consume only fresh vegetables or salad. This is actually easier than it sounds. If you eat dinner at 7:00 PM and go to bed at 11:00 PM, add a small garden salad as an evening snack around 9:00 PM. This will keep you from snacking late at night when the food will have little chance of being metabolized.

Switch to anaerobic exercise: exercise burns calories — you know this. But effective exercise can burn calories for up to 24 hours after it’s performed and spare your muscle mass at the same time. The secret is interval training. Drop your long cardio workouts in favor of short interval sessions.

Eat brown foods: try to stay away from processed foods or foods that increase your blood sugar. Whole wheat bread, sweet potatoes, brown rice are good substitutes for white bread, potatoes, and white rice.

3:1 deficit-to-normal ratio: after three days at a caloric deficit, add a normal day. If you’re dieting at a 30 percent deficit for 3 days (e.g. 2400 calorie diet dropping to 1650 calories), make the fourth day a 10 percent deficit. That is, in this example, give yourself an extra 510 calories on every fourth day. This will keep your body guessing.

Remember, for maximum effectiveness, add these habits into your current fast weight loss plan. When you stop dieting, retain these habits for the long-term to help you keep off the weight it took so long to lose. It’s always easier to maintain than to lose!

Three steps to sleeping soundly — with great tips on how to wake early!

It is outlined on the article 3 tips to conquer insomnia – exercise, wake up early, and just go to bed. These are simple and practical tips, but it works! I used to exercise in the evenings, after that my body aches on the muscles that I have exercised. I just lie on the bed, and before I know it, I am sound asleep. Note that before I had insomnia too, eventhough I’m already in bed, I just could not sleep. As an alternative, you may opt to wake up early and exercise early in the morning, having the same effect of being tired in the evening to have a good night sleep.

Add to the benefit of exercise is it’s relaxing effect on our mind. I have covered before in my previous article that exercise makes us feel good. After a workout session, I usually experience a sense of well-being – because I feel good about myself. Eventhough I don’t have the trimmest body in the world – in fact, I’m far from that – I felt good since I know I have exercised for that day and won that ‘battle’ to keep fit. That ‘accomplishment’ gave me a sense of satisfaction – in turn gave me more reason to rest, relax, and sleep better.

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