The majority of us bodybuilders have had those days in which we just feel like packing in extra snacks and fulfilling our sweet tooth. This so called sweet tooth doesn’t necessarily mean donuts either, it also applies to greasy burgers, ice cream, sodas with high sugar content, and french fries which we all love dearly.

What happens is that those greasy junk foods give you a feeling of being bigger and actually being pumped, within a couple hours of consumption. Which as we know it as a bodybuilder stand point, isn’t entirely a bad thing. But when it comes down to it, too much of a bad thing can lead to bad things. On the other hand, it’s ok to give in the towel for a day or so. That said, it’s healthy for your own sanity to have a cheat day about once every 2 weeks.

Back to the subject about getting pumped and feeling huge; Consuming junk food like burgers and such can actually cause a rise in anabolic hormones that include growth hormone, insulin, and also testosterone. All of which aid the process of muscle growth. During your next cheat day, continue to stay on track by eating your planned six meals, but don’t be afraid to add in a burger with fries and maybe ice cream for lunch. One thing I would suggest is keep majority of your meals throughout the day mostly clean to avoid getting unwanted fat on your belly.

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Beginning a new running program can prove to be a new endeavor for some, and for those of you that are new may need tips to help you get started onto the correct running path. Since you found this article, I am only assuming you are wanting to learn how to start a new running routine. And hopefully, you are an enthusiastic one at that because there are many health benefits when you get in shape by running. As with any new training program, I’ll be up front with you, this will not be an easy task. But trust me, after a while, you’ll be in top notch shape and eventually running will become habitual just as it is to sleeping. The first hurdles that you face will not be easy as mentioned, and that’s where this article comes in.

Like any other sport, running is something that requires a lot of core strength, flexibility, and balance. Just because there’s no training equipment involved does not mean it requires less skill before attempting more higher difficult running tasks. If you are a beginner and just starting out, I have to state that it’s the distance and duration you run, not how fast you run it. Because of this, it’s important to practice your form. And by running more, you get more practice. The more practice you get, the better your running form will be. You might not think it, but there’s a lot of technique and form involved in the sport of running. So if you are just starting out, you should jog at a “conversational pace” whereas if you were to run with a partner, you would be able to hold a conversation while jogging at the same time.

After you start out, you need to build up the distance and duration you at a gradual pace. This is especially important for running because believe it or not, running can bring about serious injuries if not taking seriously. I remember when I first started running, I would run a little over an hour. Now my fitness levels in generally were okay, but my connective tissues and muscles of my feet were no where near in condition to run that much. And not to mention, it took a toll on my joints as well especially my knees. So when you start out running, think baby steps not Godzilla steps. Even if you think you can run more, hold off until the next running session as building up gradually is of upmost importance when getting into running shape.

There’s nothing to be ashamed of when mixing running and walking with your workouts. I mix my cardio workouts all the time. If one day I run, then depending on how I feel I might do an incline power walk on the treadmill. Power walking is a great way to get high impact exercise while it being low impact on your joints and connective tissues. It can also help you improve your running form as you concentrate more with each step you take. Also, another benefit of power walking the day after you run is help circulate more blood into your leg muscles to help boost the recovery from running the day before. This can be considered periodizing your running workouts if you never heard of the term in weight lifting. It’s a great way to boost your endurance levels, while getting in enough recovery time for your workouts all at the same time.

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Whether if you have been working out for some time now or you’re just starting out with a bodybuilding training program, there are many things said from advertisements, friends and family, and even personal trainers from the gym that are usually incorrect and are just myths. They may sound believable, but in reality these so called myths probably won’t help you in the way they are proposed.

For adding muscle mass, here are two myths that are usually stated by sources the incorrect way:

1. You have to take supplements to gain muscle mass!

This is far from truth as you do not need any supplements to gain muscle mass. It’s the training you do in the weight room and the foods you eat in the kitchen that gives you true muscle mass. Although the advertisements of today promote supplements like they are supposed to be your main course of nutrition when in fact it’s the exact opposite. The purpose of nutritional supplements is to “supplement” your training and workouts. They are there to aid you as the last resort when getting specific key nutrients into your body. Not to totally bash supplements, some can be a waste of money while some are actually really beneficial for your training. Such as a protein supplement. Right after a workout, you need key specific nutrients to feed your body in a timely manner as catabolism occurs after you workout. Whey protein is usually my choice as it is the fastest type of protein that the body can absorb. The faster your body can absorb key nutrients right after a workout, the better.

2. Alternating between low-intensity workouts to high intensity workouts.

Your muscles will only gain in overall size when you are applying unaccustomed stress to a specific muscle group and putting high physical demands on them. Your muscles are not going to grow if you are using low intensity workouts for a long period of time. You should only use low intensity workouts for a short period of time for the muscle to recover properly, and THEN overload your muscles with high intensity training. In a sense, you have to alternate the intensity of your training in order to gain maximum muscle mass and power. Because if you’re only applying high-intensity variables to your training, you will over train your body. Over training your body happens when you train to the point where you don’t give your body enough time to recover.

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Without ever having to step foot into a gym or spend money on expensive gym equipment, you too get a excellent workout without the use of bulky workout equipment. You don’t need money for an expensive gym membership, or gas money to drive to and from the gym, and neither do you need elaborate complicated workout equipment.

You can achieve fantastic body toning, increased aerobic benefits and excellent fat burning results by using exercises that produce fat burning dramatic results. You can also do your workout routines at home without the use of workout equipment contrary to the information given by the media.

From time to time, it can be very difficult maintaining a successful workout. With all the distractions that life has, it is essential to let nothing interfere with your fitness progress to be able to real all the aesthetic and health benefits from working out on a consistent basis. There are many contributing factors that may derail you from being able to be consistent with your workouts such as the lack of money, lack of research and knowledge, and the perceived lack of time.

It’s essential to know how to efficiently complete your workouts in a least amount of time, which exercise to choose, and having the option to be able to do your workout routines at home without ever having to set foot in a gym. When you know you’re able to workout at home, the probability of staying consistent with your workout is higher than you would if you had a gym membership.

For added workout tips, never sit down during your workout sessions. You will be able to burn more calories if you remain standing rather than sitting down taking a rest. If you think about it, every bit of conscious effort helps. Also, keep your rest periods down a to a minimum if you can. If you’re doing body weight circuits, try to keep the rest period between each round (between each circuit) at one to two minutes if you can. The lower the rest time, the more intense your workout will be and the more calories you’ll be able to burn off.

As time goes on and your fitness increases, do more challenging exercises. To keep getting more great results in less time is surely one of the best ways to keep on improving your fitness levels. Be more open to newer training techniques. Even if a certain workout routine is giving you the results you need, that doesn’t mean you have to shut out other methods of working out as well. Who knows, maybe doing a different workout might give you even better results than your current one. And remember, there’s really no wrong way of working out. Just as long as you’re getting 30-45 minutes of exercise and that you stay consistent, results will continue to come.

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The speed in which you execute a certain movement refers to term tempo or rep speed. The tempo being used can determine the after effect the lift has on the muscle group. The movement can be of two things when you lift a weight. It can be mere work that tires out the muscle or it can be a means of stimulating more muscle mass. The main difference between these two movements is the rep speed. For now, we’ll concentrate our interest in the dangers of what tempo you use during your workouts.

When you are simply just working out and not training for muscle growth is when your main interest is satisfying your ego of lifting a heavy weight, or even finishing a particular number of repetitions for a given set. This type of training is dangerous as poor form while working out can cause a lot of injuries to your muscle tissue and connective joints. Poor form during exercise includes, swinging, jerking the weight around, using body momentum to get the weight up any way you can.
And last but not least, let’s get down to the training aspect of applying rep speed to your exercises. You might not think it, but it’s important to know how you apply rep speed to your exercises as it can determine whether or not you meet your goals that you are seeking out. If you want to train for power and strength, then you want to generally apply an explosive type of rep speed. Let’s take the bench press for example. When you are in position to go down with the weight, you want to go down with the weight in a controlled and slow manner. And then once you touch your chest, push the weight back up in a explosive manner.

To be more specific, we can use a time ratio for your workouts. For the example I have just set, you can use the ratio 3:0:1. The first number 3 represents the number of seconds it takes for you to go down. The number 0 represents the number of seconds when you touch your chest. And the last number represents the number of seconds it takes for you to push the weight back up. As you can see, applying the right tempo for your exercises is very important when going about achieving your goals.

So let’s say you want to apply a ratio that promotes size while bench pressing. You can use the ratio 2:0:2, or even 2:0:3. The concept of it is the slower you go while repping out, the more muscle fibers you’ll contract which will result in more damage to the fast twitch muscle fibers. At the same time, you have to pay attention to how much weight you’re using. That general way of thinking or saying does not always result in muscle mass, as you still need to apply a certain stimulus to your muscle when trying to gain muscle mass. As training for power also results in muscle size. Finding the fine line of gaining muscle size and strength is not something you can figure out on the first workout. It will take a lot of trial and error as you find out soon within your training.

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