Build Muscles And Smash Plateau For Beginners

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Article Title: Build Muscles And Smash Plateau For Beginners

Author: Chew

Word Count: 1746

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Five times a week, two hours each visit. You've been more

faithful to your gym schedule than you've ever been to any

girlfriend you've had. And for a while it paid off: those

muscles started rippling and the girls started paying

attention.

But then, like a bad dream you wake up from, your muscles

suddenly wasn't growing like what it used to do. Your muscles

stop responding to your heavy workout no matter how intensely

you've been training. So you said to yourself, now I will train

harder. So now you put in three hours a session and but even as

you upped your gym dosage, horrors of horrors, your muscles are

actually shrinking.

Ahhhhh, the Gym Plateau. It afflicts all of us and few of us

ever gotten out of it. In fact, most people don't even know

that they have hit the dreaded plateau and thought that their

muscles can only grow so much due to inherent genetic factors.

Not to worry though, if you read the following fitness tips,

and follow these tips to the latter, I can assure you that your

muscles will start growing again and grow bigger they will.

Here are your free fitness tips.

Fitness Tip #1

Take A Break

This tip is easy to comply for most of us but very difficult

for some gym rats. Simply take a break from your workout. Do

not step into the gym or do any workout for 2 weeks. Its time

to let your body recover from the punishments you are dishing

out to your muscles. Some bodybuilders may find this difficult

to do because working out is addictive. You produce endorphin

when you workout and endorphin is also known as happy hormone.

The same hormone you produce when having sex.

Professional bodybuilders take a break after every 4-5 months

of hard training and when they are back in the gym, they shock

their well rested but complacent muscles back into massive

muscle gain.

Fitness Tip #2

Are you training too often?

If your exercises are intense enough, you need only to train

each muscle group once or twice a week. Your training schedule

shouldn't repeat muscle groups in the same week. Every time you

train, you do your muscles damage. Muscles need time to repair

and it does so in the after your training when you are resting.

This means that if you lift weights on consecutive days, there

isn't sufficient time for the body to recover. Try to have one

day rest between each weight lifting day.

If your routine requires intensive weight training, remember

not to prolong your gym time longer than an hour. This is

because your cortisol, a muscle eating hormone level will be

elevated and thus will be counter productive to your efforts.

It eats your muscles.

Most of all, you must sleep! Eight hours or even better, go for

ten hours. Muscles do not grow in the gym; they grow when you

sleep. When you sleep, you are secreting growth hormones for

many bodily functions and one of those functions is to build

muscles. That is why they called it beauty sleep!

Fitness Tip #3

Are you using the correct weight lifting techniques?

If your technique or form is incorrect, not only is your

training retarded, you are also inviting injury. Don't laugh.

But when you exercise you must think and focus, instead of

mindlessly repeating the motions, do take note of how you

perform each exercise and rep. Do so with deliberation and at

the beginning and end of every lift, pause and squeeze the

muscles you are exercising. Mind and muscle must connect! Never

never use momentum of the swing to lift the weights and let

gravity pull the weight down. That is why you must lift slowly

and lower slowly feeling the tension in your muscles and

resisting the load all the time.

In order for muscles to want to grow, you have to stress them

to the maximum, and then further. Do enough repetitions until

you feel you cannot go any further using good form. You must

then either increase the weight or the number of repetitions at

the next session. This is called progressive overload, and

progressive overload is what forces your muscles to grow. As a

general guide, if you can lift more than 12 reps the weight is

probably too light and it is too heavy if your muscles fail you

in less than 5 reps. You may wish to consult your physical

fitness trainer on the correct form and technique for each

exercise.

Fitness Tip #4

Are you using free weights?

Most machines do not involve as much of the synergistic muscles

(supporting muscles) as free weights do. And, therefore, do not

build as much muscle mass. Synergistic muscles are the smaller

muscles that aid the main muscles in balance and strength in

each lift. Machines has its uses, but for beginners and for

smashing plateaus, use free weights.

Fitness Tip#5

Workout with compound exercises

Compound exercises are exercises that involve 2 or more joint

movements and thereby employing bigger muscles and more

synergistic muscles . Bench presses, dead lifts, squats, and

barbell curls amongst others are fantastic compound exercises .

For example, when you squat , all the muscles in your lower body

get a workout and that alone is about 60 percent of your overall

musculature . Squat also works your back and abs too. Using more

muscles at one go means that you get a better overall workout.

To add icing to the cake, because of the massive utilization of

your muscles , you will pant, huff and sweat more. That means

your routine also has a cardio effect and you will burn

calories even hours after you stepped out of the gym .

Fitness Tip#6

Are you working out your legs?

Your body is programmed to grow proportionately with only

slight variations. If you do not train your legs, your upper

body mass will stop growing before it becomes large. Surely,

you've heard of chicken legs! Just because leg training can be

brutal, it doesn't give you reason to hide your legs in your

pants. To get that super hero X-frame, pepper your routine with

squats . A word of caution though: compound exercises such as

dead lifts, squats, and bench presses must be done in excellent

form and a spotter is highly recommended. This is where your

physical fitness trainer will come in handy as your spotter. If

not, injuries are bound to happen and that may put you

permanently out of the gym.

Fitness Tip#7

What are you eating?

Muscle building requires protein - the more, the better. Meat,

especially red meats and fish, are the best source. It is in

your food that your body will draw nutrients from, for strength

and necessary fats for joint and organ protection.

To have massive muscle gain and help in muscle preservation ,

you need about 2-3 grams of good protein per kilogram of your

body weight . If you want to get serious about muscles , you

may need to supplement them with protein shakes . Eating a meal

and having a protein shake immediately after your workout also

maximizes the window for rapid absorption of nutrients. This is

important as you need to feed the muscles now that you have

damaged them. You should also 6 small meals a day so your

muscles are constantly fed throughout the day. This will help

rev up your metabolism to burn fat too. This will tremendously

help you in your build muscle lose weight program. Remember to

take your protein shake half an hour before you workout too.

Fitness Tip#8

How about Carbs?

Glycogen is the main energy source for any muscle-building

exercise. The body stores whatever carbohydrates you eat as

glycogen and muscles use it to give you energy during your

workout. After an intense workout, do consume carbohydrates

immediately to replace the used glycogen. You can even indulge

in high glycemic carbs such as ice creams and white bread as

these will turn into insulin and shuttles nutrients such as

protein to your muscle cells quickly.

Fitness Tip #9

And Fats?

Yes, your body do need do need fats . But try to avoid

saturated fats such as animal fats or worse, trans fats which

are artificial fats found in pastries, confectionaries and

preserved food. Consume healthy unsaturated fats such as olive

oil, canola oil, fish oils, flax seed oil.

Fitness Tip#10

Water Water is essential.

Water is essential. It is the most underrated macronutrient.

You need at least eight glasses of water every day but when you

exercise , you lose even more water because of the sweating. So

drink before, during and after your workout. Weigh yourself

before and after the workout, and compensate for the loss by

drinking at least 16 ounces of fluid for every pound or half a

kg lost.

Fitness Tip#11

Creatine

While meats are the best source for creatine, which is a

nutrient that helps speed up muscle gain and power you up

during workouts, those who do not get enough from their regular

diet must be supplemented. Creatine puts volume into your muscle

cells and gives you that muscle pump thus your muscles feels

tighter, look bigger and overall illusion of superb muscularity

.. It also helps to prevent muscle breakdown.

Fitness Tip#12

Glutamine

When supplemented, it may help bodybuilders reduce the amount

of muscle wasting away or used up as energy. It also helps in

muscle recovery.

Fitness Tip #13

Do you change your routine?

The human body is fantastic at adaptation. So whatever routine

you are on, your body will get used to it. So do change your

routine every 6-8 weeks. For example, instead of working out

your chest muscles at the start of your workout, work your back

muscles instead. You can reverse your whole routine or change

the variations of your exercises or add new ones and take away

some old ones. By changing your routines, you not only shock

your muscles to new growth, it will also prevent boredom by

doing the same thing all the time.

About The Author: Chew is an American Muscle and Fitness

Institute Singapore based personal trainer. He trains models,

pageant winners, actors and other celebrities to look great in

their glamorous professions.Presently, he is running a local

fitness school at http://www.sgfitnessonline.com and written an

ebook " Burn Fat Build Muscles Fast " at http://www.sgfitness.com

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