Building Muscles

Bodybuilding Muscles| How to train and build a massive body| Importance of water

Here is some interesting information that a lot of people do not know. The brain is 95% water, blood is 82% water, the lungs are close to 90% water. The experts say that the average person is made up of around 60-65% water. This means that water is critical for the body to function well.  Dehydration which is a shortage of water, causes a number of problems like, a reduction in endurance, decreased strength, cramping and will slow muscular response. It is known that mild dehydration is also one of the most common causes of daytime fatigue.

You can improve the following list of things if you ensure that you have enough water. A healthier skin, teeth, bones, joints, digestive system, fatigue reduction, lose weight, build muscle, increased energy, and help your entire immune system. In other words water is a MIRACLE liquid. 

2-3lts of water a day is fine. We are all different so it is better to work out what you think will work the best.

I have noticed that if I use hydration drinks when I go up the mountain I am definitely less fatigued and seem to have extra energy. Keep yourself hydrated when you train. It would be a good idea to have a bottle of water on hand when you do aerobic training and have little sips often. As you lose liquid through sweat you are replacing it with water. Think about it...you will have less chance of cramp and I think you reduce the risk of other injuries.

Bodybuilding Muscles| How to train and build a fit lean body| Breathing

I have always known the importance of proper breathing when you train, but never as much as now going up Tap O’ Noth. If you do not breathe properly when you lift weights, you will never get the full benefit of your training. Your muscles will not respond quite as well and your growth will be less.

Going up Tap O’ Noth varies from hard to extremely hard and there are no easy spots as you go up. The last few times, I have tried to go as fast as I can to see how quickly I can get up and down.  The best I have managed is 57 minutes.

Today I decided to achieve with ease. I decided to go at a fair pace but not kill myself. The key was I got into a breathing rhythm right from the start. I counted 1, 2 as I breathed in and 3, 4 as I breathed out. I had this going in my head the whole time I was going up as well as when I was coming down. It was then that I realised that the other times when I changed my breathing it was like a wave of fatigue that would hit me and I could feel my muscles get weak and tired. I then struggled for air and it made the walk very hard.  Even when I blew my nose it altered my breathing and made the walk very tough. This time I kept the rhythm going and just sniffed or wiped my nose without missing a beat. (1, 2 in 3, 4 out)

I did a time of 52.5 minutes without killing myself and I feel fantastic. I even stopped at the bottom to read the information about Tap O’ Noth. They say it is the 2nd highest fortress spot in Scotland. There were 2 fortresses built from around 1000 BC to 1000 AD. They are not sure of the exact timing. Because of the height the say it is quite an accomplishment. It is 563 Metres to the top from the car park and the say it takes about 90 minutes to get to the summit. Up and down in 52.5 minutes then is quite an achievement for me.

Body Building Muscles| How to train and build a big upper body| Push ups

My training here in Scotland is all about doing aerobics. I love going up the mountain every day and I find I am working really hard. I still want to do a bit of muscle work but that can be a problem when you have no weights. This is where I have to change my thinking because it is so easy to wait till I get back home where I have all the weights I need.

I can use my own body weight to do some exercise. I decided that push ups would be great because of the number of different muscles that work when you do them. Push ups work the chest, shoulders, triceps as well as the core. That means that almost the whole of the upper body is worked when you do push ups. The idea is to do them slowly and not race through the reps. I did 5 sets of 12, slow deliberate reps, and I can tell you they worked like a dream. I got a fantastic pump for the whole of the upper body.

If you really want to train you can. Too often we make excuses and don't do anything because we think that without proper equipment we are wasting our time.

Bodybuilding Muscles| How to train and build a lean muscular body| Day 1 mountain walk

I am really keen on burning as much fat as I can this week while I am in Scotland. I am so lucky as my son only lives about 3 miles from a mountain called Tap O’ Noth. It is not the highest mountain in the area but it gives you about an hour of intense training. I walk from the car park to the top and then semi walk/jog back down. I know there are some very fit youngsters that run up this mountain and do the whole trip in about 20 minutes. I doubt I would ever be able to do this but I certainly do try to work against the clock. I did this walk in 57 minutes. It is almost the quickest I have ever done it and I put that down to the fact that for the past few weeks I have been doing a lot of aerobics on my stationary bike at home.  I am quite excited and do believe by the end of my weeks stay I will be doing the walk in around 50 minutes.

I am hoping to almost have a visible 6 pack by the time I leave to go back home. Then it will be time to do a load more videos on YouTube. I will not be doing any weight training this week so will do some body exercises like push ups etc. I will let you know exactly what I do over my stay here. You can see from the photos that it is quite a walk and the lungs and legs have to work quite hard.

Bodybuilding Muscles| How to train and build a great body| Going on holiday

We decided to visit my son in Scotland as we have not seen my granddaughter for a while. It is a great place to unwind and to get in some really good training.  We had a wonderful journey and decided to stay overnight in Preston Lancashire. We had to pick up my mother-in-law there (she was visiting her brother). From there we travelled another 6 hours to my son who lives not far from Huntly in the Highlands.

One of the big problems of traveling is eating too much. I have no idea why I get so hungry because I sit doing almost nothing for the entire trip. It takes very little out of you actually driving. I know if you speed you have to concentrate a lot so that can be quite tiring. I don't speed as I value my life and the lives of the others in the car. This trip I was very careful with the eating and so did not overeat.

It was wonderful to arrive and see my son daughter-in-law and lovely little granddaughter.

Bodybuilding Muscles| how to train and build a huge body| the benefits of doing deadlifts

Dead lifts are wonderful because they will help you build an all-around powerful, and muscular physique. There are many great compound exercises such as squats bench press, shoulder press however deadlifting is one of the best compound exercises you can do to increase strength and muscle mass. It works just about every muscle. The mains muscles that benefit are the quadriceps, hamstrings, gluteus maximus, majority of the back muscles and even the forearms.

Along with increasing muscle and strength another great reason for deadlifting is the release of testosterone and growth hormones. Studies have shown that compound lifts like the deadlift have the following benefits

• Deadlifts helps to improve lung functionality along with heart efficiency.
• Deadlifts boost your immune system which means you can recover quicker from various illnesses.
• Deadlifts make you more powerful, leaner and gives you a lot more energy.
  Deadlifts dramatically increase your natural testosterone & growth hormone levels.
• Deadlifts increase your metabolism and help to transform fat into energy.

You do not want to overdo the exercise. I would say that 2 times a month is enough provided you give it all you have got and really focus. Doing them every time you train your legs will not help and this is definitely a time where less is more.

I think 5 or 6 sets with 8 to 10 reps are more than enough. You need to go quite heavy with the weights you lift.

Body Building Muscles| How to train and build massive arms| Big triceps

I have mentioned a few times before that the triceps make up 2/3rds of the arm size. Training them properly is really important if you want to have reasonable size arms. I love doing triceps push downs. They are a very simple exercise and you can see from the photos the start position and the push down position.

The big thing about doing this exercise is that you must have the triceps do all the work. So often people use their body weight to push the bar down and so the triceps do not really do the work. It looks impressive especially if you are using weights that are too heavy for the muscle. You will not get much growth doing it this way though. The more you can get the triceps to work the better for muscle growth.

Do the reps slowly and when you have the weight pushed down flex the triceps as hard as you can and hold it in this position for the count of 2. You will find that you don't have to train too heavy to get an amazing workout.

I like to do 5 sets of 12 reps. I can tell you that I really pushed with today’s workout and am sure it has caused some micro tears in the muscle fibres which is what is required for muscle growth.

Bodybuilding Muscles| How to train and build huge muscles| DOMS

DOMS (Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness) is often spoken about in bodybuilding circles. There are a lot of opinions on this subject. Each one is different so it will depend on where you get your information. I can tell you this...even the experts do not all agree on this subject - so you can choose whatever interpretation you want and you are probably right.

This soreness happens any time after training and is often at its worst around 24 to 72 hours after training. I know that the fitter and stronger you get the harder it is to get DOMS. I have just experienced DOMS in my triceps 24 hours after training them. I really pushed the exercise (triceps pushdowns) to the limit and am now very happy I have this pain. It is not too serious but I can certainly feel it. I also know that if I push really hard I can cause micro tears in the muscle fibres which cause pain later on. I would like to believe the pain I am suffering right now is because I have done a really focused workout and I have caused more muscle growth. If this is DOMS that is awesome and if you would like to call it something else that is fine too. I want to train to look good and if it means being a bit stiff from time to time that is what am after and I really do not care what people call it.

Bodybuilding Muscles| How to train and build a massive body| aerobic exercise

Taken from wikipedia Aerobic exercise (also known as cardio) is physical exercise of relatively low intensity that depends primarily on the aerobic energy-generating process.[1] Aerobic literally means "living in air", and refers to the use of oxygen to adequately meet energy demands during exercise via aerobic metabolism. Generally, light-to-moderate intensity activities that are sufficiently supported by aerobic metabolism can be performed for extended periods of time. The intensity should be between 60 and 85% of maximum heart rate. When practiced in this way, examples of cardiovascular/aerobic exercise are medium to long distance running/jogging, swimming, cycling, and walking, according to the first extensive research on aerobic exercise, conducted in the 1960s on over 5,000 U.S. Air Force personnel by Dr. Kenneth H. Cooper.

I like to make my aerobic training challenging so I use a stationary bike that has some built in programmes.  The programs allow for different resistance levels. You will burn more calories in less time if you vary the speed or resistance when you ride.  I prefer to use a medium level program and keep my revs per minute constant. (Normally around 110RPM) The program will add and remove the resistance for the full time that I ride. I normally try to do 30 minutes on the bike however if I eat a little too much then I will do extra on the bike to burn off the extra calories I have eaten.

Bodybuilding Muscles| How to train and build big lats| training back with bent over rows

This is an exercise that is great for adding width to your back. It is a very simple exercise that gives a brilliant workout. Its a very good replacement for people training at home who don't have lat pull down equipment. You can see from the photo that you need to have your upper body horizontal to the floor.

You hold the barbell at arm’s length and then slowly raise the bar to your waist. You can see the position in the photo.

Hold the weight here for the count of 2 and then slowly lower the weight. If you want to add a little extra to the exercise lower the weight slightly forward so the arms are not straight down. This tends to stretch the lats a little more in the exercise and gives a slightly longer movement.  Start fairly light till you are used to doing the exercise and then increase the weights. I like to do 5 sets of 12 reps twice a week.