HOW TO BUILD MUSCLE

Most people think that to build muscle, a person has to only lift weights...In fact, nutrition, eight hours of sleep a night, and many other metabolic factors come into play in order to build a rock hard body, with chiseled definition. Long periods of aerobics may get one heart healthy and lean, but they also burn up muscle.

I got lean with brutal aerobic exercise, ninety-minutes, every other day,and on alternate days I pumped iron for 90 minutes...but I also was burning up muscle. I no longer use aerobics, because I superset my weight lifting routine, to keep my heart rate in a zone between 125 to 135 bpm to burn fat. I keep moving in the gym from one exercise to the next. This takes some planning, but is well worth it. Never rest more than 30 seconds between sets. This keeps your body burning at a level that burns fat and build muscle. When lifting really heavy, you might have to wait for longer periods. Fool the body into getting bigger by changing exercises or adding new ones to your program every 6 to 8 weeks.

It is also true in order to build hard, lean muscle, a man has to lift heavy...We walk a fine line between injury and "bigness". Clean diet with no alcohol, sugar, fritos, chips, pizza, donuts, ice cream, and all the other food I used to love is paramount in fitness. Clean whey protein in the amount of 40 to 60 gms. of protein is taken pre-exercise, and post for recovery. Mainstays in my diet are egg whites, tuna, cottage cheese, lean read meat, and fruits and vegetables. I also drink 160 ounces of water every day. Generally if I am crabby, have trouble sleeping at night because of soreness, or I don't look forward to my workouts, I am overtraining. I change things up, and listen to my body, to avoid this staleness. If I keep pressing on or trying to increase my weight or intensity, injury usually is the result.

Supplements which I take include, glutatmine, pharmaceutical grade, liquid arginine, branched aminos, herbal fat burners, vitamins, and fish oil. Make sure you read about the side effects of supplements. I do not recommend thermogenics. They speed up the heart, and can to be damaging to your cardio health.

Feed your body every 2 hours...Most bodybuilders eat six times a day. We are never hungry, unless we are preparing for a competition. I will talk about hypertrophy and periodization in some future blogs.

Great eating and great training to you all! Enjoy this lovely weekend!