by: Dennis Weis
Some time ago I had the pleasure of listening to former world bench press champion Ken Lain talk about the secrets of Gaining Maximum Bulk and Power! He talked about many bodybuilders’ failure to pack on all the muscle weight and power they desire.
I then asked him to describe his training strategies, which would land a smashing blow against the somewhat ancient, inefficient and non-effective training methods that some individuals follow. Here is what he told me.
Let me ask you a question: "Are you as a power bodybuilder completely satisfied with the size and power of your muscles?" Before answering that question think it over for a moment. I can tell you, though, that quite a few of the folks, especially the younger ones, who come into my Power Shack Gym here in Abilene, Texas, ask me, "How do I get a massive body?" or "How do I build up a bulky, powerful physique?"
These are the most common appeals for training guidance I hear on an almost day to day basis. These folks tell me practically the same story: "I have tried some of the muscle gaining routines that are published in various mainstream bodybuilding magazines, but I don’t know where to begin." "Sometimes there is so much information that it’s hard to put into practice because the workouts are too long in duration. I don’t have time to use all the exercises and the program overall makes me work too hard." |
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by: Jeff Anderson
 Clint Eastwood wouldn't have been a very intimidating Dirty Harry if all he pulled out was a little .22 caliber pistol to make his point. He knew that to really make the bad guy's knees shake and the lady's legs quiver, a .44 Magnum was the weapon of choice?!
So when it comes to bicep development, why should you settle for second rate pea-shooters when you can pack some really big guns?
Let's face it, all men want big biceps. They're the easiest muscle to show off without getting undressed, women love to wrap their arms around them when walking down the street, and they're small!
Whoa, hold up there sparky…I didn't mean YOURS were small. I simply mean that compared with other muscles of the body, like your chest, back, and legs, your biceps are a relatively small muscle.
That's good news for you and me because it means that it's much easier to target your biceps for growth than it is to take on larger, more complicated muscle groups.
So why aren't YOURS the size of softballs yet? |
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by: Tom Venuto
When is the best time of day to do your aerobic exercise? The answer is any time! The most important thing is that you just do it. Continuous cardiovascular exercise, such as walking, jogging, stairclimbing, or cycling, sustained for at least 30 minutes, will burn body fat no matter when you do it.
However, if you want to get the maximum benefits possible from every minute you invest in your workouts, then you should consider getting up early and doing cardio before you eat your first meal - even if you're not a "morning person." Early morning aerobic exercise on an empty stomach has three major advantages over exercising later in the day:
Early in the morning before you eat, your levels of muscle and liver glycogen (stored carbohydrate) are low. If you eat dinner at 7 p.m and you eat breakfast at 7 a.m., that's 12 hours without food. During this 12-hour overnight fast, your levels of glycogen slowly decline to provide glucose for various bodily functions that go on even while you sleep. As a result, you wake up in the morning with depleted glycogen and lower blood sugar - the optimum environment for burning fat instead of carbohydrate. |
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by: Nick Nilsson
 Forced reps are great but these incredible techniques will open a whole new world of results for you! Intensity techniques are among the greatest weapons in your arsenal for building a truly astonishing physique. However they are not for everybody. Beginning trainers should definitely NOT use techniques such as these.
Intensity techniques allow you to push beyond conventional failure in order to work your muscles harder, providing an irresistible stimulus for the muscles to get larger and stronger.
Try these techniques in your next workouts. You can even try using several of these techniques in one set if you really want to work yourself hard. Be careful not to overuse them, however, as they can be extremely demanding and difficult for your body to recover from.
1. Triple Drop and Rebound Sets
This is a variation of the Triple Drop Set. The Triple Drop Set is where you start with a heavy weight, do a set to failure, reduce the weight, do another set to failure, reduce the weight a third time and do a final set to failure. |
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by: Nick Nilsson
This is a story about a workout that I witnessed somebody perform about 10 years ago in a university gym in Canada. It’s a true story (just ask the ambulance driver!).
Now, if you've spent any time in a gym, you've probably seen people using exercise form that is less than perfect. What I was about watch, however, was the most atrocious exercise technique I've ever seen in all my years of training.
Let's begin...
It was about 1 in the afternoon and I was just starting into my workout when I noticed "Dave" (not his real name) lay down on the bench adjacent to the one I was on. Like me, he was doing flat barbell bench press that day.
He was fairly short, medium build, wearing a tank top to show off what he plainly thought was a magnificent physique. It wasn't, let me tell you that right now. |
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by: Tom Venuto
 When you're just starting in bodybuilding, finding ways to overload your muscles and increase intensity is easy. Frankly, everything is an overload to a beginner. As you get more advanced, it becomes more challenging to continue the upward progression.
It's more or less universally agreed that the most effective method of progressive overload is adding weight. If you're preparing for competition, you often have to look for different ways to intensify your workouts because adding weight with the stress of daily cardio, low carb dieting and sub-maintenance calories is easier said than done. Besides, pushing for personal strength records all year round without cycling intensity can lead to injuries. So how do you continue to shock your muscles and increase the intensity of your workouts without adding weight? Easy - you make the same weight feel heavier with tempo and tension manipulation.
Basic rep speed for bodybuilders
Open up any book about bodybuilding, and it will emphasize the importance of rep speed, also known as "tempo." Specifically, tempo means how quickly you lift a weight (the concentric part of the rep, also known as the "positive") and how quickly you lower the weight (the eccentric part of the rep, also known as the "negative"). |
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by: Tom Venuto
In 8 Easy Lessons... Plus My Favorite "Killer" ab routines. I have a confession to make. This might shock you. Are you ready? Don't hate me. Okay, here it is:
I don’t train my abs very much. Once a week for about 15 - 20 minutes. That's it. Seriously - no kidding. I work my abs like any other small body part, maybe even less.
Now, you're probably wondering, how can I possibly get "Killer Abs" with only one ab workout a week?
Well, if you already own my BFFM fat burning system, or even if you've simply followed my articles and newsletters closely for a while, you already know the answer
LESSON #1 - Get rid of the fat or you'll never see your abs, no matter how often you train, no matter how many reps you do or no matter what exercises you do |
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by: Tom Venuto
I started bodybuilding nearly twenty years ago, and during that time, I've had the opportunity to experiment with literally dozens, if not hundreds of high intensity training methods. These include supersets, giant sets, pre-exhaustion, negatives, partials, static holds, continuous tension, peak contraction, 5 sets of 5, 8 sets of 8 and 21's just to name a few.
If I were only allowed to pick one high intensity technique for building muscle, that technique would be drop sets. That's right - I personally believe that drop sets are the best high intensity bodybuilding technique of all time. Read on to find out why and to learn twelve ways to use drop sets for some of the most amazing muscle growth you've ever experienced.
What are drops sets and who invented them?
A drop set is the simple technique where you perform a set of any exercise to failure or just short of failure, then drop some weight and continue for more repetitions with the reduced poundage. According to Arnold's Encyclopedia of Modern Bodybuilding, the drop set method was originally "discovered" in 1947 by Henry Atkins, editor of Body Culture magazine. Atkins called it the "multi-poundage system." Since then, this muscle blasting technique has gone by many different names including breakdowns, descending sets, triple-drops, down the rack, strip sets or the stripping technique. |
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by: Tom Venuto
Wouldn’t it be great if there were a safe and natural way to build more muscle in a shorter period of time? In this day and age of exercise gimmicks and quick fix solutions, most smart bodybuilders would be skeptical if they heard such a claim.
But guess what? Such an "animal" really does exist. No, it’s not a drug. It’s not some miracle supplement, either. Nor is it a newfangled piece of workout machinery. If you’ve been training seriously for any length of time, it’s something you’re probably already familiar with but haven’t fully exploited to the maximum degree. What is this method for building more muscle in less time? Surprise, surprise; it’s called supersetting!
Even if you’ve used supersets before, you may not be familiar with all the different types of supersets or the many ways you can incorporate them into your workouts. Just in case you’re not familiar with supersets, let me start from the beginning and explain the difference between a conventional set and a superset. |
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