Building Muscles

Welcome to www.buildingmuscles.org.uk

I realised at the beginning of 2008 (when I was 56 years old) that I had let my body get into a terrible state. This site was started to track the changes as I used bodybuilding/weighlifting to get back into shape. I gave myself 120 days, and I succeeded ! Since then I have maintained and built my body, and continue to do so.

View progress photos here.

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Body Building Muscle| How to train and build big muscles

I have always believed that the easier you make things the better the results you will get. When you want to build big muscles and have a great looking body you need to keep it simple. I stick to just basic exercises. They always seem to work best. I never worry about how I am going to improve. I always need to know why I want to improve.

Have you ever considered how much stress we cause for ourselves when all our focus is on HOW we are going to achieve things in life? We spend hours and hours trying to figure out what is the best way. It is amazing how many problems seem to come up when we are doing this. It is the first thing we are taught in traditional goal setting. We are taught to get an idea and then put together a detailed plan on how to achieve it. Sadly when you spend all your time on HOW to do something this always causes stress and worry. It is much more important to know WHY you want the end result. When you focus on the end result you will find that the road will just open up to take you there. Think about travelling at night to a destination. You cannot see the end destination in the headlights however the road just unfolds 200 meters at a time. You will find that on the road there will be times you will have to stop and you might even have to take a detour but you will get to the destination provided you keep moving forward.

Your body will work for you when you know why you want things in life.

Body Building Muscles| How to train and build big muscles| Food and The Mind

I have always had a problem with eating. I do not have a problem with the kind of food I eat but always with the quantity. I find that I can have small amounts during the day but then come the evening and I am like an automatic shovel. I just keep loading up and that is my problem. The question is how I can win with this? I am sure all the experts will have theories and thoughts on what I should be doing however none of them are in my skin and head. Only I know exactly what I am going through. I am sure all their ideas work for someone but I have learned over the years I need to find what will work for me. 

I have to change my self-image. My self-image says at night I need to eat a lot. I have to run some movies in my mind of me having a small meal and feeling totally satisfied. This is known as visualisation. I need to see the end result of eating less. It will mean that I will have a 6 pack and be a lean mean fighting machine. This kind of body is what I have always wanted. In order for this to become real for me I know I will have to put in a lot of emotion. The more emotion I put in about how good I am going to look the easier it will be to achieve.

I am also going to make sure that I have my 6 small meals a day. This worked when I was 56. I went from a 39” waist to a 33” waist eating 6 times a day.

Yesterday was the 1st day I ate the 6 meals. I spent time visualising the end result too. I still had to be tough on myself as the urge to eat was there last night but I won. I feel fantastic today and plan to do the same again.

Body Building Muscles| How to train and build big muscle| Diet

I have found that with the year I took off so I could work on my business, I did not eat as well as I should have. I have gained a fair amount of body fat because of this. I have not gained that much extra body weight which is a good thing. The task now is to get rid of the fat and lose around 7Kgs (15.4 lbs)

I have found over the years, that the minute I want to lose weight and I put myself on a diet I am hungry all the time. I want to eat more than normal. This time there is no special diet that I am going to follow. I do not want any type of stress at all.  Stress is the enemy of success. All I have decided to do is to eat healthy. I have not jumped in to do this either. I am doing it over a period of time. Each day I try to eat a little better than yesterday. I am focusing on having a little more fresh vegetable with some fruit and have cut back on red meat. I am really limiting the amount of fat in my diet. There is enough fat in the chicken and other things I eat to take care of my fat intake.

This is going to be a slow process but then I am not in a hurry. If it takes the whole year to get a 6 pack (32” waist) that is fine. It will mean it has become a way of life for me and that is what I am after. I am also taking time every day to do some visualisation. I see myself with a 6 pack and in a lean mean condition. I am also thinking thin as often as I can. If my self-image changes from the idea that I gain weight just by looking at food to I can eat almost anything and I stay slim I know I will eat better. That is why lean people eat better than fat people. Their self-image requires it.
I am on NO diet just a good eating pattern I am evolving into. 

Body Building Muscles| How to train and build huge muscles

Goals and Self Image

It is the start of a New Year. All of us will have in mind some goals we want to achieve. I would like you to think about this situation.

"A person finds their passion. They begin to practice. They find that they seem to eat, drink, and sleep the passion they have in their minds eye. They have no idea what or how this new found passion was turned on in them. It just IS".

What the person concerned does not know is that there is a lot of work going on in the back ground. This work takes place in the mind. Think about this; what is “a light bulb moment”? “A light bulb moment” is nothing more than a clear mental image that is emotionalised.

When you run pictures in your mind of your training and you charge them up with emotion they will become all consuming. This type of image is what I like to call A HIGH VOLTAGE IMAGE. You will think about this more than anything else until you have finally achieved the goal.

Any idea that is SUPER CHARGED with emotion will tend to be your reality. VISUALISE… You have to run and re-run the movie in your mind as often as you can. Put in as much emotion as you can and you will guarantee yourself the end result. The key is to see yourself TAKING THE ACTION every day and getting the kind of results you want. See yourself excited and enjoying taking the action and the results will just be a formality. The more time you spend on your visualisation the easier you will achieve the goal. If you cannot see yourself taking the action then your self-image is not in line with the goal and you will fail. Self-image and goals have to go hand in hand to work.

Bodybuilding Muscle| How to train and build a massive body| Does muscle burn calories

There is loads of conflicting information on the internet about how many calories 1 lb of muscle will burn per day. Some sites that are selling muscle building products will make claims that 1 lb of muscle will burn up to 100 calories per day. Just think about it, 10lbs of muscle means you will burn 1000 extra calories per day. I really wish this was true but unfortunately it is a load of rubbish. Muscle burns nowhere near that amount of calories. The latest information suggests that 1lb of muscle will burn around 5 calories per day. That will mean that around 10 lbs of muscle will burn an extra 60 calories per day.  Now the bad news, fat also burns calories. 1 lb of fat will burn around 2 calories per day. The difference then between 10 lbs of muscle verses 10 lbs of fat is a whole 40 calories per day. Not much to write home about.

The massive advantage of the 10 lbs of muscle verses the 10 lbs of fat is the fact that you have to do some work for the muscle and that burns loads of calories where gaining fat means you can sit on the sofa and eat donuts to gain the fat. The people who build the muscle will feel better about them and have a very much healthier life.

It makes a lot of sense to do some form of exercise so you can have a much better life.

Body Building Muscles| How to train and build big arms| How to make your veins stand out

I have been asked how to get veins to stand out. Well there are so many different theories about why veins stand out. This information that I got from Dr John Landi is probably about the most reliable I have found.

“Veins return blood back to the heart and can carry a large volume of blood. Depending on many factors including levels of hydration, genetics, outside temperature and even physical activity, the size of the veins will vary. Another important function of the veins is to help control body temperature and this too will affect vein size. Also with aging, veins enlarge as tissue volume decreases.”

I have found that my veins do not naturally stand out. However, when I reduce body fat, they stand out quite a bit more. I have also found that when I do light weights with lots of reps they tend to stand out a lot more then when I do heavy weights with only a few reps.

There is a lot of info saying that if you drink a lot of water and flush out the sodium in your system your veins will stand out more too.

I would stay away from any pill that claims to make your veins stand out. Remember that veins return blood to the heart and I would not want to take anything that might interfere with the way the natural system of how our bodies work.

Bodybuilding Muscles| How to train and build huge muscles| Time off

I have decided to tell you about taking time off from your training when it is absolutely necessary. The reason for this is so that you can stay motivated with your training. This week is a perfect example of taking time off. I trained every day  when I was in Scotland. I went up the mountain 2 times a day which was extremely tough. I pushed myself to the limit most days. I then got home and did some intense stationary bike training every day before I did my normal weight training. By the time Thursday came I felt very fatigued and had no motivation whatsoever to do any training. I could have forced myself to train but then I believe I would not have respected what my body is telling me.

The big thing is to listen to your body. There will be times that it wants to be lazy and then there are other times that it is telling you it has had enough and want to recooperate. If I felt like I did and I had genuinely not really pushed myself then I would have forced myself to train. You have to know your own body and listen to it. I have decided to take the Friday off too so it means that I will have 2 days extra rest this week. I know I need it and I also know that I will be highly motivated and wanting to train on Saturday. If you keep going when you know you have trained hard and you force yourself you will start to lose motivation and eventually give up.

Respect your body and keep yourself motivated and you will build an amazing looking body. 

Bodybuilding Muscles| How to train and build huge arms| Superset biceps

Many people ask the question what is a superset? It is simply 2 exercises done one after the other with no rest in between. If you think about the name SUPERSET it is a long set of 2 exercises which makes it a SUPER set. A lot of people have asked how it helps with bodybuilding. Well the main reason is, a superset will increase lactic acid production. This promotes the body to increase Growth Hormone (GH) levels in the body. The body responds to the reduced pH (increased acidity) in the body from the production of Lactic Acid by secreting GH. GH is a powerful fat loss and muscle building hormone.

I will give you an example of the kind of supersets I did with my last workout. On my last set of flat bench press I did dumbbell flys. I did triceps pushdowns and a superset of overhead extensions on my last set. I also did standing bicep curls and on the last set I did standing hammer curls. Most people will superset the same muscle however you can if you want superset opposing muscles like a superset of triceps overhead extensions and bicep curls. Another one is squats for quads and then a superset of dead lifts for hamstrings.

My personal opinion of doing supersets is to do them occasionally. I think if you do them every set every time you train then the muscles will tend to get used to this type of training and growth will be slow. I think if you do them now and again then a superset will shock the muscle so it will respond and growth will be quicker.

It still is up to you how you want to use them and what you think will work best for you. All I have done here is give you my thoughts on the subject of supersets. 

Bodybuilding Muscles| How to train and build a lean healthy body| caffeine and training

I hunted high and low on the internet to find out whether or not caffeine is good or bad for you. I can tell you that there is much more positive stuff than negative. None of the so-called experts can agree on whether having caffeine is good or bad. Here are some of the negative effects I managed to find. Moderate effects include:

• Headaches
• Irritability
• Increase in breast tenderness
• Restlessness • Mild insomnia
• Increased heart rate
• Increased blood sugar
• Difficulty concentrating
• Mild stomach upset

Severe effects include:

• Panic attacks
• Irregular heartbeat
• Sleep deprivation
• Continuous stomach problems
• Prolonged depression
• Sleep disorders

Here are some of the more positive effects of caffeine. In Japan researchers have shown that caffeine increases memory. Also, a newer study out of Johns Hopkins University showed that a 200mg caffeine pill helped boost memory consolidation.

• Caffeine mixed with carbs replenishes muscle glycogen concentrations faster after exercise
• Caffeine detoxes the liver and cleanses the colon when taken as a caffeine enema
• Caffeine is better than sleep when you need to be alert while driving
• Caffeine can stimulate hair growth on balding men and women
• Caffeine relieves post work-out muscle pain by up to 48%
• Caffeine helps ward off Alzheimer’s
• Caffeine can ease depression by increasing dopamine in the brain
• Caffeine increases stamina during exercise
• Caffeine protects against eyelid spasm
• Caffeine may protect against Cataracts
• Caffeine may prevent skin cancer
• A new study out of Rutgers University found that caffeine prevented skin cancer in hairless mice
• People who consume caffeine have a lower risk of suicide. Src
• Caffeine may reduce fatty liver in those with non-alcohol related fatty liver disease. This study comes out of Duke University
• Caffeine consuming men showed increased semen volume and significantly less sperm DNA fragmentation than non-caffeine consuming men. Src.

Who is right?  I have always believed that caffeine is bad and I know for me it is very addictive. I have been hooked for years and go through hell when I try to abstain from using it. I must admit that I have changed my mind on caffeine and now think, provided you have it in moderation, it could be quite good for you. I know my wife has a very small amount and she gets shaky and does not sleep well. She does very little exercise. I have a lot more but train hard and I know when I am overdosing as I start to get a nervous feeling in my stomach like something bad is going to happen even though everything is going well for me. This is one time where you have to decide for you. If you think it is good you are right. If you think it is bad you are right. I can say with confidence that you need to moderate your consumption as an excess of anything is not good for you.

Body Building Muscle| How to train and build big legs| Hitting the wall

Hitting the wall or breaking the barrier are terms bodybuilders use when they hit a plateau and they are not getting much muscle growth. Hitting the wall took on a whole new meaning for me today. I decided that today was the last day I would try to go up and down Tap O’ Noth Mountain in 50 minutes. Not only did I manage this but I did it in 47 minutes. I feel fantastic. Achieving a goal is a wonderful feeling. 

I will explain how I did this. I went to sleep last night with my final thoughts being tomorrow I will do the climb in 50 minutes and it is going to be easy. When I woke up I hydrated well with an isotonic drink and set off to the mountain base. When I got there I did a quick visualisation of going up the hardest parts with ease. I then set off. I think I started a little too quick. I had to dig deep as I was really gasping for air. My legs were going well even though it is a really tough work out. This is a great way to build big legs I can assure you. It is like climbing never ending stairs. 

¾ of the way up it happened. I hit what felt like a wall. It is the hardest part of the climb and it felt like I had run out of oxygen and my legs were like lead.  Under normal circumstances I would have stopped and got my breath. That would have meant I would have failed on the time. I had to literally flick a switch in my head to say I have all the air I need and my legs are fresh. You have no idea how hard it is to do this unless you have experienced it for yourself. This is mind power at work.

One step at a time. I pushed on and on and before I knew it I was over the hardest part. I did not have all the air I needed and my legs were not fresh but I did it. I was panting to the point of puking and my legs felt like they were on fire. If I kept focusing on how hard it was and how hard I was struggling I would never have been able to finish it. Coming down was nothing short of dangerous. I leant forward and let go. I was going at an incredible speed panting all the way down. The track is quite rocky so I had to really focus or a twisted ankle was really on the cards. Finally I was at the bottom sweating like a fountain completely out of breath however it was done in 47 minutes and a new record for me. What a winner.