Do You Know How To Gain Muscle Fast?

Do You Know How To Gain Muscle Fast?
By Vince DelMonte

Could you teach me how to gain muscle fast? Could you teach me how to pack on an extra ten to fifteen pounds of muscle mass before my next vacation? Could you help me get ready for my first bodybuilding or fitness model competition? Could you help you look like someone who actually lifts weights? Could you help me build a body that turns heads and demands respect?

As a skinny guy muscle building expert, I get approached these questions daily in my office. Every single hard gainer I consult with wants to know how to gain muscle fast and how to do safely and effectively.

Hard gainers, please listen up! There is hope for you. I am happy to say that learning how to gain muscle fast is not as hard as some would make you believe but it also not as easy as you might think. But you must be prepared to train smarter and not harder. Don't get me wrong, I'm not talking about wimping out during your workouts. I am referring to the big picture of training more intelligently.

Here is some of the most popular advice I give to the hard gainer when he wishes to gain muscle fast.

1. Never Perform More Than 10 Reps.

If you are lifting weights beyond 10 reps than you are emphasizing your slow-twitch muscle fibers which have the smallest opportunity for muscle growth. You are a hard gainer and you need recruit the maximal amount of muscle fibers in every set. Always choose your weights knowing that a 11th rep is forbidden and trespassing into 'skinny land.'If you really want to gain muscle fast than get your mind into heavy lifting mode. Every single set and every single exercise. Keep the weights heavy and never more than 10 reps. Approach every workout knowing that you are going to be venturing into new territory and waging war on your skinny genetics. I recommend these workouts with a workout partner so you can eliminate any safetey issues, not slack off and push your limits every inch of the way.

2. Reduce Your Workout Time

Perform more work in less time and you have increased your work capacity. Work refers to the number of sets, reps and poundage within your workout. Who is fitter? The guy who can do 4 sets of 185 pounds bench press with 30 second rest or the guy who can do 4 sets of 185 pound bench press with 90 second rest? The one who can do the same amout of work in less time. Guess who is more muscular? The one who has a higher work capacity.

Next time you enter the gym, try to complete your current workout in less time. Take shorter rests. Move from one exercise to the next much quicker. Don't be surprised if you feel out of shape! This is one of the easiest tips you can take away to increase your muscle density and take your fitness to a new level. Be prepared to humble yourself and get out of your comfort zone.

3. Do Only One Exercise Per Muscle Group

Only one? Yes, only one, unless you want to buy into the notion that you must mutilate a muscle for over an hour to get any growth out of it. Consider this typical day in the gym. Today is your chest day. Your first exercise is bench press. You perform your first set with 185 lbs, second set with 205 lbs, third set with 225 lbs and fourth set with 245 lbs.

Assuming this is your max weight for the desired number of reps, is it not safe to say that you have used the maximal number of muscle fibers? Your goal is to simple spark your muscles into growth. Not exhaust them to death. Once they experience a unknown assalut (stimulus), your body will be forced to adapt and create new muscle to prevent future assaults! Therefore, your take home lesson is this: Once you have out performed your last workout, it is time to move onto the next exercise.





4. Do No More Than 3-5 Sets Per Muscle Group

I question a hard gainers workout intensity if they must do more than 3-5 sets per muscle group. Now if you are using anabolic steroids or have muscle friendly genes than you can safely dismiss this advice. Remember, learning how to gain muscle fast for the hard gainer requires following a new set of rules.

Consider the first 1-2 sets at 85% maximal effort. The third set at 95% maximal effort and the fourth (and sometimes fifth) set at 100% maximal effort. It is only this last all out set that contributes to the greatest muscle growth. Anything over and above this last go till you blow set simply exhausts the muscle beyond reason and delays your recovery ability to hit the muscle again. It is this last set that you should perform at least 1-2 extra reps or 5-10 extra pounds than last workout. Mission accomplished. You have sparked your muscles into growth. Time to move on.

5. Increase Your Strength 5% Every Two Weeks

One of the biggest mistakes I see hard gainers make in the gym is not track there progress. They return week-after-week to simply reherse the same workouts with the absense of progress. How do you expect to gain muscle fast if you continue to lift the same weights each workout? Your body is designed to tolerate stress. Assault it and let it get bigger. Assault it and let it get bigger. It's a simple concept.

So your take home message is to aim for a minimum of 5% strength increase every two weeks. You might progress a little quicker with larger muscle groups like back and legs versus smaller muscles like biceps and triceps. Just think, in six months from now, you will be over twice as strong as you are now! I would actually recommend writing down your strength goals for six months from now and than work backwords. If you are currently dead lifting 135 lbs, aim to be deadlifting 270 lbs over the next few months!

Conclusion
I know these five tips were not your typical Muscle and Fitness 101 advice and not your typical generic bodybuilding advice. I learned a long time ago to question everything you read and hear. Learn for yourself by doing and not by talking about it. As a skinny guy once myself, 149 lbs to be exact, I defeated my skinny genetics and learned how to gain muscle fast by not following the herd and training smarter and not harder Will you?

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About the Author:

Vince DelMonte is the author of No Nonsense Muscle Building: Skinny Guy Secrets To Insane Muscle Gain found at http://www.VinceDelMonteFitness.com

He specializes in teaching skinny guys how to build muscle and gain weight quickly without drugs,
supplements and training less than before.

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Secret Training Tip: The BEST Way I've Found To Do Incline Barbell Bench Press

Secret Training Tip:
The BEST Way I've Found To Do Incline Barbell Bench Press
By Nick Nilsson

The upper chest is a MUST to work if you want complete chest development...
and the incline barbell press is a key exercise. I'll show you my favorite
technique for getting maximum results from this exercise!

Male or female, training the upper chest is extremely important for overall balance in the upper body.
Critical, in fact! And the Incline Barbell Bench is one of the primary exercises for working the upper chest.

But if you're like me, you may have a hard time getting results from this exercise...maybe all you get are tired triceps and sore shoulders, in fact!

If so, I've got the solution for you. It's a very simple adjustment to the setup that you use for the incline barbell press and a simple adjustment in how you perform the exercise.

One of the biggest problems I've encountered with this exercise, in myself at least, is the tendency for the chest and rib cage to flatten out during the exercise, which takes the tension off the pecs and puts it on the shoulders and triceps instead.

In order for the pecs to get a good contraction, the shoulder blades need to be tight in together behind your back with the shoulders back and chest/rib cage expanded.

With each rep of the "normal" incline barbell bench press, when you're at the top of the movement (especially when you unrack the bar), the full extension of your arms very quickly causes your shoulder blades to come forward and your rib cage to flatten out, taking the emphasis off the pecs and putting it on the shoulders (at the bottom) and triceps (at the top).

So basically, just by unracking the bar, you're immediately putting your body in a poor biomechanical position to perform the exercise with emphasis on the upper chest.

Granted, in a lot of people, they will still get a decent amount of stimulation on the upper pecs, even in this situation...these are the people with more favorable anatomical levers, i.e. they'll feel it in the chest no matter how they're arms and shoulder blades line up.

But for many (me included), performing the incline barbell press in this position simply doesn't work.

So how do you fix it?
It's not hard to do! Instead of performing the incline barbell press in the bench designed for it, we'll set up in the power rack using an adjustable incline bench.

Set the bench to about 30 to 45 degrees - you can experiment with what incline feels best to you - and set it inside the rack. Now here's the part that's going to take some trial and error...set the side safety rails of the rack to where you think the BOTTOM position of the incline press will be on you.

The first time you do the exercise, set the empty bar on the rack, just over top of the bench face then slide yourself underneath the bar to gauge the position.

Because the REAL key with this exercise (for those of us with unfavorable biomechanics) is to start from the BOTTOM and do SINGLE reps, resetting your body position each and every time you are about to press the bar up.

When I started doing incline presses with this technique, I was VERY surprised at how much better it felt and how it actually WORKED the upper chest. I had pretty much given up on the exercise as completely useless for me for quite a few years!

So back to our setup...with just the empty bar on the rails (and it should be a bit forward of where you're laying on the bench...you can roll it back into position), grip the bar with a slightly narrower grip than you'd use for flat barbell bench.

The bar should be just slightly above your chest while resting on the rails at this point. We want a good range of motion but we also are going to be setting the bar down on the rails after each rep in order to reset the shoulder blades and rib cage, so we still want the bar to finish ABOVE the chest.

If the rail height isn't quite right, adjust as needed then check again with just the bar. Once you've got the height right, load up the bar with a moderate weight...something you know you can do...then get back under the bar again. The bar should be a bit forward again when you lay on the bench...roll it back into position just over your upper chest.

Now here's the next trick...grip the bar and pull your torso just slightly UP off the bench like you're doing a pull-up row. When your torso is up off the bench, pinch your shoulder blades together behind your back (just like with a row!), puff and expand your rib cage up to meet the bar, then set your torso back down on the bench.

Notice how your shoulders are back, and your chest feels thicker? THIS is the correct position to perform the incline bench press...it's also the position that you LOSE almost as soon as you pass the halfway point of the incline press!

Now, with a powerful movement (and striving to keep your shoulders down and back), press the bar off the rails and all the way up in a straight vertical line - there is no backwards arc in the incline bench like there is in the flat bench. It should be straight up and down.

Press it all the way up. You'll notice how as you come to the top, you've probably lost that shoulder position and expanded rib cage. No worries! Lower the bar slowly back down and set it on the safety rails.

Now, RESET your torso, doing exactly what you did on the first rep! Pull your torso up off the bench, get your shoulder blades back, expand your rib cage then set yourself back down on the bench. Do your second rep the same as you did your first...power it up off the rails straight up then lower under control back down to the safety rails.

As for rep range, I find this technique lends itself better to lower reps...5 to 7 reps per set...because of the time it takes to reset yourself between each rep.

At the end of the set, when the bar is back down on the rails, just roll it forward on the rails so you have enough room to slide yourself out from under the bar.

CONCLUSION:

This technique is a very effective one for ANY trainer, but especially if you're not particularly biomechanically suited to the exercise. In order to really feel it where you're supposed to, you MUST reset yourself into the best position for your body to perform the exercise...the position that is immediately broken with a conventional unracking of the bar at the top.

Here's what this setup and execution will do for you:

1. Set your body into the best biomechanical position to perform the exercise on each and every rep, ensuring you're working the actual target muscles.

2. Gives you short breaks in between each rep, which helps you stay stronger during set, which will allow you to perform more reps with a given weight.

3. Allows you to perform the exercise by yourself, with no spotter, in complete safety.

4. Builds excellent pressing strength out of the bottom because each rep starts from the bottom off a dead stop, with no elastic tension in the muscles.

Give this version a try next time you work chest! You'll notice an immediate difference in strength and tension in the pecs.
For pictures and video of this exercise in action, click the following link: betterU !










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Nick Nilsson has a degree in Physical Education and Psychology and has been innovating new training techniques for more than 18 years. Nick is the author of a number of bodybuilding books including "Muscle Explosion! 28 Days To Maximum Mass", "Metabolic Surge - Rapid Fat Loss," "The Best Exercises You've Never Heard Of," "Gluteus to the Maximus - Build a Bigger Butt NOW!" and "The Best Abdominal Exercises You've Never Heard Of", all designed to maximize the results you get for the hard work you put into your training.

Be sure to grab your FREE copy of Nick's 30-day "Dirty Little Secret Program for Building Muscle and Burning Fat FAST," available at betterU (http://tinyurl.com/ygocx3l)

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F*REE Edition of Kiefit Journal is available NOW! "Sculpt Your Body!"

Hello Fitness- Fans,

The free edition of KieFit Journal March 2010 is online.
Your free online publication about fitness, training- and workout tips.

Enjoy reading.

Heidi

P.S. Archive Of Past KieFit Journal Issues
http://www.kiefit.com/archive.html

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Learning The Muscle Fiber Types

Learning The Muscle Fiber Types
By Vince DelMonte

hoosing the best type of workout program that will stimulate the muscle fiber type that will get you the results you’re looking for is extremely important.
Unfortunately, all body building programs are not created equally when speaking in terms of muscle fiber types.

While you can’t differentiate between muscle fibers from your outside appearance, on the inside of the muscle tissue body, there are three main different fibers present.

Type A Fast-Twitch Muscle Fibers

The first type of muscle fibers are known as Type A Fast Twitch and are responsible for the most forceful contractions generated, however, will fatigue the fastest.
For example, if you were to perform an all out set of 3 reps for bench press, you would predominately be using these type A muscle fibers.

They tend to have very large motor neurons and very low mitochondrial density. They also have a low oxidative capacity, meaning they will not be able to utilize oxygen very well. It is for this reason that they are not suited to endurance type of activities, because during these exercise variations, oxygen must be present in order to sustain the muscular contractions.

The major type of fuel that these muscle fibers are going to rely on is creatine phosphate and stored muscle glycogen (glucose). They will not utilize stored body fat at all due to the fact that they are only able to continually contract for between one and about 20 seconds.

Type B Fast-Twitch Muscle Fibers

The next muscle fiber is also classified as a fast twitch muscle fiber but not to the extent that type A are.

This muscle fiber type is mostly utilized in activities that are relatively short in duration, but are not at an all out pace.
For example, if you were to sprint 100 meters, you’ll be using mostly type A. If on the other hand, you are to do a running interval at about 80-90% of your max capacity for 30 seconds, this would utilize the type 2A more.

Some of the characteristics of the type B muscle fibers are that they still have a large motor neuron (not as large as Type A though), they are on the intermediate scale as far as being resistant to fatigue, and they have a high degree of mitochondrial density.

These muscle fiber types are also able to use oxygen to a great extent, as demonstrated by their higher resistance to fatigue and longer duration of contraction abilities.

Slow Twitch
Finally, the third type of muscle fiber that you have in your body is classified as slow-twitch.

This is the muscle fiber type you would use if you were to run a marathon or any other extended duration, medium-to-low intensity activity.

These muscle fibers have a very high ability to resist fatigue and have a large oxidative capacity.

They are also relatively slow to contract, therefore you cannot expect a great deal of force generation from these muscles, and thus, will not be intended for exercises requiring a high degree of power.

They are very high in terms of mitochondrial density and have a large number of capillaries running throughout their bodies. This is to enable sufficient oxygen to get to the muscle tissues so that they can carry on the extended duration of muscular work they are intended to do.

These are also the muscle fibers that will also rely more on fat as fuel, as opposed to strictly using carbohydrates or creatine phosphate.

Training The Muscle Fiber Types

So, now that you’re familiar with the three major classes of muscle fiber types, it’s time to recognize how you would train each effectively.

Since type A are your primary force generators, if you wish to get a higher performance from them you’ll need to train using exercises that require you to max out your effort for a short period of time.

Think sprinting at full speed, 1-5 rep sets for lifting, and any type of plyometric activities.

Next, to train your type B muscles fibers you’ll want to slightly decrease the force with which you are to contract while simultaneously increasing the time over which you contract ever so slightly.
For example, perform 30-45 intervals repeated ten times with about a minute or a minute and a half at a low to moderate pace. For your weight training activities, aim to target the 6-10 rep range to utilize the fact these muscle fibers have a higher oxidation ability.

Finally, to improve your slow twitch muscle fibers, think endurance. This type of fiber will usually require the greatest amount of time to train for improvement because you’ll want to focus on simply going ‘longer’.

If you’re a runner, try and run longer. If you’re a biker, bike longer. If you’re a swimmer, swim longer – you get the point.

This type of muscle has the ability to go for extended periods of time so this is exactly what you want to train it to do.

So, next time you are trying to sort out your training plan make sure to take the various muscle fiber types into consideration.

Doing so will allow you to make the most out of your training program so you get the exact results you’re looking for.

About the Author:
Vince DelMonte is the author of No Nonsense Muscle Building: Skinny Guy Secrets To Insane Muscle Gain found at http://adjix.com/kveq

He specializes in helping you understand all the principles behind muscle fibers and gaining muscle and weight quickly without drugs, supplements and training less than before.

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Heidi

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