Building Muscles

Bodybuilding Muscle| How to train and build a big chest| Flat bench press

How to get the most from your bench press

I have had a really busy day to day so I decided rather than do variation training I was going to keep it all very simple.

I did 6 sets of 12 reps medium to heavy weights.

This might not seem like much but when you are fully focused on each rep I can tell you I really battled to finish the last 2 sets properly. I got a very good burn so I know I have done a good job today.

Bodybuilding Muscles| How to train and build a great looking body| Aerobics

I did my 20 minutes of aerobics on my stationary bike. I am very lucky that I have a proper gym bike that has 12 built-in programs. I was also quite pleased that I was able to do program 8 which was quite hard. I certainly built up a good deal of sweat. The key to burning fat when you are doing aerobics is to keep your mental focus on your body burning the fat while you are training. You will get much better results than if you just do the exercise with your mind in neutral. 

Food - Day 5

Day 5

7:00   coffee
7:35   coffee
10:10  large glass of water
10:15  oats porridge with protein
12:30  protein drink with some cottage cheese   
15:30  cottage cheese and some salad 
18:00  pork chops and chips  
21:00  cheese

Today was a better day. I did not eat too much so I am really pleased with how it turned out. I still need to have much more water and far less coke zero. That will happen.

Bodybuilding Muscles| How to train and build massive calves| Calf raises

How to get the most from your calf training and building

Genetics plays a massive part with calves. They are a very hard muscle to build and you have to work really hard on them with patience. I am very lucky as my whole family have great calves.

As I said in the squats training post I have not trained legs like I should so my calves are not used to a heavy workout. It is important then to ease them into the training or I will overdo it and be in pain for days.

I did a simple 5 sets of 12 reps slow light standing calf raises.

The secret to getting the most from this exercise is to flex as hard as you can when you are as high as you can go on your toes. (The raised part of the calf raise). When you lower yourself come down slowly and go as low as you can so you really stretch the calf muscle.  Even though the weight was really light the workout was fantastic.

Bodybuilding Muscles| How to train and build impressive hamstrings| Good mornings

How to train hamstrings for the best results

There are a lot of ways to train hamstrings. You can do dead lifts, leg curls, lunges, Bulgarian split squats or good mornings. They all work and work well. It really is what you believe is the best for you.

Like I have said in a few of the latest posts I have neglected training legs so I decided to do what I consider the easiest exercise, good mornings. I do think the very best for me is a combination of deadlifts and Bulgarian split squats but they really take it out of you. I will progress to doing these in the next few weeks but for today I did my good mornings.

5 sets of 12 reps very light weights. (Done slowly)

I focused on the hamstring lifting and lowering my upper body. If you can imagine your hips are the pivot point and the hamstrings do all the lifting. Even with light weights you will get a fantastic workout if you keep perfect form and focus.

I know I am going to be stiff tomorrow because I can feel it was a brilliant workout.

Bodybuilding Muscle| How to train and build big Legs| Squats

How to build big quads (thighs) safely

I am very fortunate genetically that I have reasonable thighs and good calves. I also seldom train them. Sometimes I train them once a week and other times only once in 2 weeks. That is not good. Legs are really important to train. They are the biggest muscles in the human body. They definitely take a lot out of you when you train them and that is the reason why so many people avoid training them. The people who have overcome this mental block and train them properly get far better growth in all areas of their training.

I will overcome this mental block and made my start today. I would advise anyone who is starting out to take it easy. Even though I am well conditioned in my upper body my legs are like someone who has hardly trained. This is my beginners training I did today.

Squats
1 set very light weights with 12 reps.
4 sets light weight 10 reps.

Even though the weight was light I got an amazing workout. Doing them slow and with perfect form helps to make a good session a fantastic one. I know I will be very stiff tomorrow because the muscles are just not used to working out properly.

I proved to myself again today that it is not all about how heavy you lift but how well you do the exercise. I flexed as often as I could and the burn was great.

Food - Day 4

Day 4
7:30   coffee
8:45   coffee
11:30  protein drink with banana
13:30  oats porridge with protein
15:00   coke zero
17:00  lamb chops, roast vege and a baked potato
19:00  Nuts and raisins, coke zero
21:00  a cup of raisins

I am a coke zero addict as you can see. I am not a lover of water and did not have any yesterday which is not good. Water is by far the best way to hydrate and is the healthiest. I think you have to develop a liking for water. There have been times that I actually loved drinking water so I will work toward that again over the 120 days.

Bodybuilding Muscle| How to train and build massive shoulders| Shoulder press

How to build big shoulders doing a normal shoulder press

I know I have a way to go to get what I really want with my shoulders. They are not bad for my age and are considered quite well according to the comments I get on my YouTube channel “Train with Baz”.

Doing a shoulder press is about the best way to get the quickest results. It is a compound exercise which means more than one muscle works when you do them. All compound exercises are responsible for releasing growth hormones and that is why they are so good for you.

I was very light with the 15 reps as the shoulder muscles are not that big and can get tired quite quickly. I like to do shrugs as a superset when I do shoulders. Shrugs are for the back and not actually for shoulders. The muscles are so close to each other that I find super setting my shoulder press with shrugs works really well.

I then added 5kgs and did the 12 reps nice and slow, then straight on to 15 reps of shrugs.

I added another 5kgs and did the 8 reps with the 15 shrugs.

I added another 5kgs and managed 3 reps.

I did my superset of shrugs doing another 15 reps.

I then did the 8 and 12 reps with their respective weights and supersets of shrugs.

The training was fantastic and my shoulders felt like they were not mine. Awesome.

Bodybuilding Muscle| How to train and build wide V shaped back| Lat pull downs

How to get that V shape back

Having a narrow waist with fair sized shoulders gives you a V shape. That is what most people want from their training. I did lat pull-downs which in my opinion are the best for me with the kind of equipment I have. I do not have anything to keep me on the bench when I do the pull downs so I am in a way limited as to how heavy I can go. As soon as I try to pull down more than I weigh then obviously I will just lift off the bench. I have learned that it is not so much about how much weight you lift but much more about how well you lift it. 

 I did 15 reps light and got the muscles working.

I then put on 10kgs extra and did 12 reps but focused on each rep trying to make the lats stick out like wings.

I added another 10kgs and did 8 reps. I did these ultra slow for me and really focused on the lat doing everything. I almost could not finish the 8 reps. It was amazing.

I added another 10kgs and managed 5 reps. My lats felt like toast.

I went back and did the same again for the 8 reps.

I finished the 12 reps with a super set of only 10 reps of the narrow grip pull downs. There was no way I could do 12 final reps and keep form. It was a brilliant training session.

Bodybuilding Muscles| How to train and build killer abs|Abs training and Burning fat

How to get a 6 pack the proper way

I am so determined to get my 6 pack over the next 120 days. There is so much rubbish put out on the internet about getting a 6 pack - silly claims like "get a 6 pack in 10 days" or "get your 6 pack in 2 weeks". It is all about making money from people who think they can get results with limited effort and in a very short space of time.

If you lose body fat you will have a 6 pack. It takes time to lose body fat. If you go on a starvation diet to get quick results you will do yourself a lot of harm. You actually have to eat yourself thin and so some intense aerobics. It is best to eat 6 small meals a day.  There are no shortcuts. You also have to do some serious abs workouts. 2x a week should be enough.

This is what I did today.

 

5 sets of good old fashioned sit-ups with supersets of crunches. Each set was 12 reps of the sit-ups and 12 reps of the crunches.  I lowered the back of the bench so it was in the decline position to make the sit-ups a little more challenging. I made sure I did them fairly slow and flexed as much as possible on the crunches when I was in the raised position. Flexing means that you contact the muscle. This caused and incredible burn. With this kind of training I just have to get killer abs.