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Muscle Density And Fat Burning

Our focus here is quality lean dense muscle. I have talked alot about total body exercises and workouts with weight training and kettlebells (the 2 best ways of lean muscle building and fat burning) and different exercises to use. Today Craig Ballantyne is going to show us 3 exercises that can help put the finishing touches to your physique.

One of the training methods I haven’t touched on much here (but will be) is interval training. Interval training is typically done after your weight training workouts or on your off day’s. Now when most people think of doing intervals they think sprints.

I’m not real big on running, just to let you know. There are alternatives to sprinting that in my opinion are more effective and have less injury risk.

As an example higher rep kettlebell swings and snatches are made for total body fat loss and conditioning. Kettlebell combination exercises are great total body exercises. And as far as bodyweight exercises go you can’t beat Burpees.

3 Ways To Do Interval Training At Home

Today, I’m going to show you 3 ways that you can do interval training at home with no equipment. So, forget about the fancy treadmill and elliptical machines, all you’ll need for this workout is a dumbbell or kettlebell for two of the exercises along with your bodyweight.

The first exercise I’m going to show you are Dumbbell or Kettlebell Swings. So, what you will do is perform a series of swings for 30 seconds, and then rest 30-60 seconds, or however long you need, and then repeat that 6 times. A swing is similar to the squat motion, but it involves a lot of power from your hips and not a lot from your arms.

So, holding the dumbbell with both hands against your body in front, place your feet a little bit wider than hip width apart, push your hips back, and then swing up. You should be using a lot of hip power to perform this movement.

To See The Video And Read The Rest Of The Article Please Go To Lean Muscle Gains

Maximize Your Muscle Building

Maximize Your Efficiency: Three "Tweaks" That Will Revolutionize Your Workout

By Charles Staley, B.Sc, MSS
Director, Staley Training Systems
http://www.staleytraining.com

Here I present three methods which, when used consistently, will help you spend less time in the gym while getting better results at the same time.

Only applied knowledge is power, so don’t just read, but apply!

Front Loading

Efficient people instinctively try to get the majority of their work done early in the day (this also applies to week or month). The rationale is simple: you have more energy early in the day than you do later on.

Therefore, when I create training programs for my clients, I rarely indicate a standard amount of rest between each set. Instead, I’ll indicate a time-frame for all sets to be completed in (for example, 8 sets of 3 repetitions to be performed in 15 minutes - you might recognize Escalating Density Training (http://www.staleytrainingprograms.com) parameters in this example!).

In this way, my client will instinctively attempt to get a “head start” by taking shorter rests between the initial sets, which will permit longer rest intervals for later sets.

Since fatigue accumulates over the duration of a workout, front loading is far more efficient than using standard rest intervals between sets, which is how 99% of all people organize their workouts. Interested in joining the one-percent club? Apply this concept to your workouts starting today— the rewards will be significant and immediate.


Use Antagonistic Pairings

Every muscle in your body has a “partner” (called the antagonist) which is capable of opposing it’s contractile forces. For example, when you perform a biceps curl, the biceps muscle would be termed the “agonist” and the tricep would be the “antagonist.” (the easy way to remember these terms is to think that the agonist is the one that is in agony because it’s performing the work).

As you curl the weight, the motor cortex of your brain signals the triceps to relax in order to allow the biceps to contract. This phenomenon is called Sherrington’s Law of Reciprocal Inhibition. Here’s how we can take advantage of this phenomenon in a very practical way:

You first perform a set of barbell curls, and then rest perhaps 1-2 minutes. For set two, you perform a set of lying dumbbell triceps extensions. As you do so, the biceps muscles are “inhibited.”

The triceps contraction actually forces the biceps to de-activate, which simply means they will recover faster as a result of having performed the set of triceps extensions. You then rest, go back to the curls, and back and forth until all sets for both exercises are completed.

There are three additional benefits to the use of antagonistic pairings:

If you perform (for example) 5 sets of biceps curls one after the other using two minutes of rest between each set, you obviously get two minutes of rest between each set. However, if you perform a set of curls, then rest two minutes, then perform a set of triceps extensions, rest two minutes, etc., you now achieve more than four minutes of rest between two sets of the same exercise, even though the total workout duration remains the same.


Training muscles in antagonistic pairs ensures equal (or at least similar) strength development around both sides of the joint. This is very important for overall size and strength gains, because if the strength ratio between agonist and antagonist is significantly disparate, the brain will reduce your strength levels in an effort to protect your joints.


In the preceding example, as you perform your biceps curls, you are keeping the involved joint warm for your next set of triceps extensions. Over time, this can be very meaningful in terms of joint integrity and health.
Here are a few examples of muscle pairings which correspond to the principles
I’ve just discussed:

Lats & Pecs

Biceps & Triceps

Quads & Hamstrings

Abdominals and Low Back Musculature

Lats & Triceps (biceps are usually heavily involved during most lat exercises)

Pecs & Biceps (triceps are usually heavily involved during most pec exercises)

Use Submaximal Accelerative Efforts

If your best bench press for one rep is 300 pounds, then obviously the most amount of tension you can place on the targeted muscles will be just slightly more than 300 pounds.

However, Soviet force-plate research has shown that a load corresponding to 65% of your maximum capability (195 pounds in this example) can also result in 300 pounds worth of tension, provided that the weight is maximally accelerated. You might argue that there is no advantage either way, since both methods produce approximately the same amount of force.

However, there are distinct advantages to using “submaximal accelerative efforts” as opposed to the maximal weights method:

Using the above example, if you use 300 pounds, you can only perform one rep, and then you’re done. If you use 195 pounds for sets of three using maximum acceleration, you can perform multiple sets— usually between 8 and 12 sets can be performed before there is a significant decline in lifting speed. This allows far more total volume within a session.


When using submaximal accelerative efforts as described above, you’ll always have several reps in reserve on any given set, which means you can dramatically reduce the need for a spotter (although using a competent spotter is still a good idea when using unfamiliar exercises).


Our bodies are essentially hard-wired to accelerate whenever performing difficult motor tasks such as running, lifting, or jumping. In fact, people have to be taught to move slowly, since it is far more efficient (and instinctive) to take advantage of momentum when performing motor tasks such as lifting heavy weights.
If these ideas seem unusual to you, let me stress that the most successful people in life are open-minded.

Have you ever adopted a new habit that ended up having a significant positive impact on your life? The three concepts I’ve presented here have had that effect on my own training, and on the results I’ve achieved for my clients. I’m confident they’ll produce similar results for you as well.


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About The Author

Charles Staley...world-class strength/performance coach...his colleagues call him an iconoclast, a visionary, a rule-breaker. His clients call him “The Secret Weapon” for his ability to see what other coaches miss. Charles calls himself a “geek” who struggled in Phys Ed throughout school. Whatever you call him, Charles’ methods are ahead of their time and quickly produce serious results.

Click here to visit Charles' site and grab your 5 FREE videos that will show you how to literally FORCE your body to build muscle, lose fat and gain strength with "Escalating Density Training," Charles' revolutionary, time-saving approach to lifting that focuses on performance NOT pain.

http://www.staleytrainingprograms.com

Building Muscle Sets Reps And Intensity

A common weight training mistake (and this goes for whether your training for maximum muscle building or fat loss) I've seen over and over again with so many people over the years and to advanced weight trainers it should be obvious, but for most beginner/intermediate people, I've noticed that they make this mistake in the gym MOST of the time...

It is your sets and reps and using your highest level of intensity..

Let me explain...

One of the main reasons for lack of progress in most workouts is that most people are not performing their reps and sets to challenge their body enough. I'm not referring to rest periods between sets either (although that is definitely part of the equation).

For example, many people see a routine in a magazine or online and let's say the workout calls for 4 sets of 6 reps of a given exercise... and they just choose a random weight (or a weight that they "think" they are comfortable with) and do 4 sets of 6 reps.

But THAT'S where the major mistake comes in, because they didn't even train remotely close to muscular failure. In reality, they could have completed 4 sets of 12 reps or more with the weight they chose to do for 4 sets of 6 reps... and then they wonder why they're not seeing results!

The answer is simple... they're not seeing results because they didn't challenge the body enough and therefore, the body has no reason to need to improve.

The right way to do it is... If the routine calls for 4 sets of 6 reps, then you should barely be able to complete the sixth rep. Form should still stay good, but it should be a challenge to complete that 6th rep, and a 7th rep would be pretty much impossible.

Now THAT'S how you train to challenge your body and force it to adapt to the stress. And that means you get results and your body CHANGES for the better over time.

Now it's a little more complicated than that, because there are dozens of other factors that come into play that determine whether you will effectively make progressions in the gym, based on sets, reps, intensity level, rest and recovery, nutrition, etc.

And once you get into advanced training, you will literally be exhausted with your chest heaving for breaths if you hit the rep range on some exercises with the right weight and intensity from just 1 SET.
For example, if I'm using a heavy enough weight, even as little as 4 reps of heavy deadlifts can leave my entire body exhausted and I'll be gasping for air for 30-40 seconds after that set (and I'm in pretty damn good shape too)... and that was just from 4 REPS!

But that is a great example of how hard I challenged my body to do those 4 reps and stay in good form... because I chose a weight that was extremely hard for me to complete 4 reps.

Sounds crazy, because most people only think of "cardio" as something that can make you gasp for air and have your heart beating out of your chest... but training with weights at a high enough intensity and challenging weight using the right exercises is actually creating MORE of a reason for your body to respond and change.

Give me a marathoner and have them do a super high intensity set of clean & presses, or heavy 1-arm snatches (or even 20-rep barbell squats) and that marathoner will be on the floor gasping for air if they worked hard enough on the weight training sets.

If you think this is one of the mistakes you've been making in the gym, jack up that intensity and use heavier weights that actually CHALLENGE YOUR BODY, and you just may start to see some more dramatic results with your body!

How To Build A Ripped, Rock-Solid Chest

Everyone wants a huge chest, plain and simple.

It is all too common to see inexperienced lifters slaving away
on endless sets of bench presses and cable crossovers in search
of full, thick pecs. The reality is that there is nothing
complicated about building an impressive chest.

The bottom line for huge chest gains is consistency, effort and
steady progression in weight and repetitions.

To stimulate the chest using weights you will be using one of
two motions: a press or a flye. If you want the greatest bang for
your buck from your chest workouts, the true gains lie in your
pressing movements.

Here are the most effective lifts for packing muscle onto the
chest:


1) Flat/Incline/Decline Barbell Bench Press

A standard barbell press is the meat and potatoes of any
effective chest routine. This basic compound movement will allow
you to handle the most weight through the given range of motion.

The incline press will shift more of the stress to the upper
region of the chest while the decline does the opposite,
targeting the lower/outer region. The flat bench press works the
upper and lower regions equally. I highly recommend a standard
barbell press as a basic component of your chest routine.


2) Flat/Incline/Decline Dumbbell Press

Dumbbell presses are another basic and highly effective movement
for stimulating chest development. The main advantage that they
have over the barbell is that they allow you to move through a
more natural range of motion, helping to prevent shoulder
injuries.

They also prevent strength imbalances from occurring since one
arm can't cheat for the other.


3) Wide-Grip Dips

An amazing movement for the chest that is often overlooked. Make
sure to use a wider grip and lean forward to shift the stress
from the triceps onto the pectorals.

If pressing your own body weight is not sufficient then you can
always add resistance using a weight belt.


**Sample Chest Routines**

Chest Routine# 1

Flat Barbell Bench Press: 2 sets of 5 to 7 reps
Incline Dumbbell Press: 2 sets of 5 to 7 reps
Wide-Grip Dips: 2 sets of 5 to 7 reps

Chest Routine# 2

Incline Barbell Bench Press: 2 sets of 5 to 7 reps
Wide-Grip Dips: 2 sets of 5 to 7 reps
Flat Dumbbell Press: 2 sets of 5 to 7 reps

All sets should stay within the 5-7 rep range and should be
taken to concentric muscular failure. Write down the details of
each workout you perform and focus on progressing in either
weight or reps from week to week.

If you want full, thick pecs, that’s all there is to it!

Weight Training Workouts:Undergroud Chest Training Secrets

An Insane Exercise That Builds A MASSIVE Chest!

By The Muscle Nerd, Jeff Anderson

In This Chest Training Article:

Why breaking all the rules when it comes to training your chest can lead to greater muscle growth
A "dangerous" exercise for defeating your underdeveloped UPPER CHEST...and how to do it SAFELY!


I hesitate to even write this article for 3 reasons…

One, because it's one of my SECRET weapons for building a massive chest;

Two, I've historically saved it for the EXCLUSIVE privilege of my clients in the Optimum Anabolics Program ( www.optimumanabolics.com); and

Three, because any knucklehead who doesn't follow my instructions to the letter could SERIOUSLY injure himself!

With that said, I'm going to throw caution to the wind and let you in on one of the most advanced chest building exercises you'll ever use.

But I MUST warn you…

It breaks one of the most important safety rules of working out (although I'll show you a safe way around this later on)!

Well, here goes…

My guess is that you're currently busting your ass on the flat and incline bench presses, pressing the bar up in the air from mid-chest level, in an attempt to really pack on some mass to your pecs.

But have you ever heard of pressing to the NECK ?

OUCH ! Just thinking of that bar crashing down on my Adam's apple makes me want to dial 9-1-1 .

But first let's discuss the benefits of this popular exercise from the master of muscle, Vince Gironda, and then I'll tell you how to avoid having to dust off your will.

Your pectoralis major actually is made up of four separate divisions which require different movements to effectively train them.

While the regular bench press can target the mid-chest area pretty well, it falls short of expectation in developing the upper and interior chest regions.

Failure to properly train these areas can mean a poorly developed chest due to uneven growth.

On the other hand, performing a flat bench pressing movement to the NECK area actually forces your UPPER and INTERIOR , as well as EXTERIOR regions of your chest to pull together like never before in a team effort to REALLY pack on the mass!

Here's how to do it SAFELY …

ALWAYS use either a Smith Machine with a SPOTTER . IMPORTANT: NEVER, NEVER, NEVER ATTEMPT TO USE A REGULAR STRAIGHT BAR, EVEN WITH A SPOTTER AND WHEN YOU USE THE SMITH MACHINE, ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS USE A SPOTTER!!!

A spotter should be someone you KNOW understands how to “spot” someone, preferably someone you've worked out with before.

If you don't have a spotter, use a set of DUMBBELLS to be safe.

Keep the amount of weight much LOWER than usual until you learn how to perform the movement properly.

On a FLAT bench (the exercise is actually LESS effective using an incline bench), with a MEDIUM grip, and starting from the “up” position, SLOWLY lower the bar (or dumbbells) to neck level, keeping your elbows pointing out AWAY from the body.

Focusing on contracting your chest muscles, raise the bar/dumbbells as quickly as safely possible back to the start position.

Perform 3 sets of 8-15 reps.

By REALLY hitting these hard to reach areas and ALSO calling upon the larger areas of your chest to perform this movement, you can stimulate MANY more muscle fibers resulting in explosive growth for the entire chest region.

Give it a try, be safe, and oh yeah, one more warning…

This one's gonna make you hurt the next day!

Underground Chest Training Secrets

Build Lean Muscle And Burn Bodyfat

Training With Weights vs "Weight Training"



Just a word of warning:

I will be using the term "bodybuilder" or "bodybuilding" to refer to anyone who wants to build lean muscle and burn bodyfat in this article.

That means you.

Yep... you are a "bodybuilder." That does not mean you want to look like a monster on stage and pose in front of thousands of people wearing nothing but your undies.

That means you want more lean muscle and less bodyfat -- that's it.

With that in mind, here's something you have to know:

Bodybuilders do not "lift weights" -- we "train" with weights.

We use weights as a tool like a sculptor uses a hammer and chisel.

The object of the game is not to lift some heavy weight from Point A to Point B and back. That's weight lifting. "Bodybuilding" is about making the muscle you want to change do all the work.

Here's two ways to do it:

1. Lower the weight and focus: Most people are just concerned with the lift itself. "Get this weight off of me!" seems to be the unconscious mantra. This will not get the job done. In fact you may end up looking bulky rather than sleek... or just not change at all. Instead, lower the weight slightly, slow the pace down (especially on the descent of the movement) and picture the muscle in your mind doing ALL of the work. Literally put your mind in the muscle. You will be amazed at how different the same exercise feels with this degree of concentration,.

2. Contract, hold, release: At the top of any movement, contract the muscle hard. Hold that contraction for a second or two, then release it and lower the weight slowly. This will not only cause faster muscle growth (that is a good thing) but also demand that you use less weight to get the job done. This means your joints -- shoulders, knees, elbows -- will last a lifetime. At 45 my joints are in perfect health. Protect yours at all costs.

Just remember: You are not just lifting weights when you train for muscle shape and "tone" -- you are a sculptor. Treat your tools and your body with that degree of care.

I cover many more tips on how to build lean muscle and burn bodyfat faster in my book "7 Minute Muscle".

Read more here:

7 minute muscle <--- more muscle in far less time