December 27, 2006

Proper Training for the Upper Back

This post starts a series describing how to design adequate routines for training the different body-parts. This first chapter provides you with the general guidelines for proper upper back training.

The upper back is a complex body-part made up of several muscles. The largest visible muscle of the upper back is the latissimus dorsi (a.k.a. lats). Lats are very important, because they determine your upper body size, width, thickness, and V-shape. Lats are worked by every pulling movement that stays in one line with them, i.e. pulling front to back or downward. Another important muscle in the upper back is the trapezius. Since it is trained differently from lats, I will cover it in a future post. Finally, under the lats and the trapezius, there are some additional muscles (teres major, teres minor, infraspinatus and rhomboids) which contribute to upper back thickness. The same exercises used to train the lats hit these muscles too.

Training the back properly can be complicated. The main problem is that you cannot see your back while you are training it, and for this reason, you cannot see how you are performing, you cannot see the results. The key is to develop a mind-muscle connection. You must visualize the exercise, slowly execute the movement, and focus on the contraction, holding it for a second and feeling the burn in your back. In addition, you must always use weights that allow you maintaining proper form with a full range of motion. This is extremely important because bending your back when lifting heavy weights is one of the prime causes of injury. So be careful, and keep a straight back (slightly arched) during all back exercises.

For proper development of the upper back, you'll need at least 3 to 4 exercises. Your exercise selection must include adequate training for the two main features of the back: thickness and width. Thickness is developed with rowing exercises, such as barbell rows, one-arm dumbbell rows, T-bar rows or seated cable rows. Width is developed with exercises that pull downward, such as chin-ups/pull-ups or lat pull-downs. Chin-ups/pull-ups (especially when using wide-grip) are crucial for building a wide back. You can vary the grip and style of lift of your chin-ups/pull-ups for targeting different zones of the back.

Both width and thickness are essential for possessing a balanced back. If are lucky and your back is already balanced, then you can design 50/50 programs (50% exercises for width, 50% exercises for thickness) using some of the exercises introduced in the previous paragraph. You can also use 66/33 programs, but periodically switching the dominant feature between width and thickness. However, if you have one feature that is better than the other, your must design 66/33 programs that focus on the feature that is lagging behind.

If you need more information for designing your upper back workout, you can read the article “All Out Back Training” by John Giljum or the article “Training the Back!” included in the I.C.E. Training Program developed by Big Cat.

December 22, 2006

Planning: the Key to be Successful in Bodybuilding

“Failing to plan is like planning to fail”. This statement, excerpted from Muscle 101 site, clearly summarizes the importance of planning for achieving success in bodybuilding. For this reason, this post introduces the planning actions you should incorporate into your training program for obtaining your desired results.

Your first step must be defining long-term goals and deadlines for accomplishing them. Write up a detailed plan of what you need to do to achieve these goals and design your program toward the realization of them. Since maintaining the right direction for achieving long-term goals can be difficult, in addition you have to define short-term goals connected to your long-term goals and focus your training to fulfill them. Use the accomplishment of both long and short-term goals to motivate yourself.

In order to check if you are achieving your goals, you have to write a training diary. This will let you evaluate your progress, identify stagnation, and look back to see what programs worked for you in the past or how many reps you did with a specific weight before. You have to write down in your diary accurate records of each workout (e.g. exercises, reps, sets, poundage, rest, tempo), detailed information about your nutrition (e.g. what you eat, number of calories, macronutrients intake) and any other information that can be relevant as for instance how much you sleep. Find a few minutes periodically to review your diary and evaluate if you’re accomplishing your goals in the established deadlines or not. If not, redesign your program as appropriate to overcome this situation.

Your training diary must include also some periodical tracking of your physical progress to determine in you are advancing toward your goals. You can use the scale as an indicator, but don’t focus only on this because it supplies partial information (e.g. you cannot distinguish if you’re gaining muscle or fat). Consider other methods such as taking before and after pictures or using a measuring tape for tracking the size of your key body-parts. In addition, you can also measure your body fat percentage by using calipers and body composition tests as explained in the article “Learn How To Measure Your Success” by Jeremy Likness.

You can find a detailed justification about the importance of planning in bodybuilding and the basic issues for planning your training in the chapter “How to Plan Your Growth” of the book “Beyond Brawn - The Insider's Encyclopedia on How to Build Muscle & Might” by Stuart McRobert, in the article “The Importance of a Training Log” by Matt Danielsson and also in the “Measuring Progress” section of Muscle 101 site.

December 18, 2006

Jump to the Next Training Level: Intermediate’s Program

As a result of the beginner’s program that you have been using during the last months, your body has adapted to training and stress and you have mastered the groove of the movements. In addition, you have surely gained some muscle mass and strength. However, you feel that lately the progress seems to be slowing down a little. Now your muscles work more efficiently, so they can handle the workload easily than they used to be. This means that they are not stimulated enough, and for this reason, they grow slower, or perhaps they even stop growing altogether. To overcome this situation, now it is the time to jump to the next level of your bodybuilding training: the intermediate level. You can find in this post the basic guidelines that you must follow for designing your intermediate’s program.

As you’ve learned to use your muscles more efficiently, you require higher intensity for further progress, and consequently you will need more time to recover. Obviously, you cannot increase the intensity and train all your body-parts in the same day. For this reason, you probably will need to split your workouts so that you can focus more on specific muscle groups and train with the proper intensity all your body-parts. The obvious answer is to split the body into 3-4 different days, and extend the rest to allow for full recovery. A split option in a 3 day split workout can be, for example, push movements on day A, pull movements on day B and legs on day C. Train 3 days a week in non-consecutive days using, for example, the following pattern: ARBRCRR and give each body-part at least a full week of rest before training it again. Use three or four exercises per body-part, combining compound and isolation exercises for maintaining proportion and symmetry.

At this level it’s time for introducing periodization in your training. Combine heavy cycles (for strength training and muscle building) with light cycles (for endurance training). During heavy cycles focus on compound exercises and stay in the low rep range for hitting more fast-twitch fibers. During light cycles increase the isolation work for hitting the muscle from different angles and stay in the high rep range for hitting more slow-twitch fibers. In any case, maintain always perfect form and feel the contraction. Periodization will help you to avoid stagnation. In this sense, remember also varying your workouts every 4-6 weeks by altering one or more factors (i.e. number of reps, sets, tempo, exercise selection, etc.).

Of course, nutrition and rest are also very important in an intermediate program. Follow the general guidelines provided with the beginner’s program. Eat several small meals throughout the day (every 2.5-3 hours) including enough protein (1 gram of protein per pound of bodyweight per day). In addition, drink plenty of water and sleep at least 8 hours per night.

Finally, keep in mind that you will probably never see the gains you got when you were a beginner. Although this may be slightly discouraging, you should mentally adjust to slower progress. With determination and consistency gains will still come, but slower than before.

These and other guidelines for developing your intermediate’s program can be found in the articles “Intermediate Training: You're not a ‘Newbie’ Anymore” and “Intermediate’s Bodybuilding Program” by Matt Danielsson and also in the article “Progression of Training” included in the I.C.E. Training Program developed by Big Cat.

December 04, 2006

Understand How Your Body Works: Metabolism

Metabolism (i.e. the process in which food is converted to provide energy and to produce and maintain cells and tissues) is a key concept for achieving a full comprehension of body physiology and being able to improve your bodybuilding program with this knowledge. This post exposes the basic issues for understating your metabolism.

Metabolism is mainly controlled by two hormones: insulin and glucagon. The most important role of these hormones is to regulate blood glucose levels, but also the fat storing/releasing process into/from the adipose tissue. Both insulin and glucagon are produced by the pancreas, but they have opposite biological functions. If one is secreted, the opposite hormone secretion is inhibited and vice versa.

All of the carbohydrates you eat are converted to glucose by the liver before being released into the bloodstream. After a meal your blood glucose level rises as carbohydrates are absorbed. In order to avoid reaching dangerous glucose levels, this rise in blood glucose triggers a release of insulin. Insulin decreases blood sugar by moving glucose into the muscle cells to be used as an energy source or to be stored as glycogen and also by storing glycogen in the liver. When the muscles cells and the liver are full or when a great amount of insulin has been released (because blood sugar levels have risen too quickly), insulin converts and stores as fat some of the glucose instead of storing it as glycogen. This occurs because insulin shuts down your fat burn capacity and activates your fat storage capacity.

Moreover, if insulin levels get too high, this causes too much glucose to be moved into cells, producing hypoglycemia (low blood sugar). This occurs, for example, when eating high GI carbohydrates. Initially your blood sugar level spikes, and then paradoxically insulin decreases it to a lower level than before. Normally, the body would compensate this by mobilizing some stored fat, but since insulin has switched off your fat burning capacity, this is not possible. Body solves this by breaking down muscle protein for energy, because it is the tissue that consumes more calories. In addition, maintaining high insulin levels over a long period of time (e.g. eating too many carbohydrates) reduces insulin sensitivity. This motivates releasing more insulin to reinforce the reduction of blood glucose level. This is very dangerous, since keeping in this state can lead to diabetes.

You can prevent muscle breakdown and increase your insulin sensitivity by limiting high GI carbohydrates from your diet (except just after your workout) and by training, because training depletes the stored glycogen in the muscle, so when glucose enters the bloodstream, you're not force-feeding the muscles, you're just feeding them something they want and need. This also justifies why it is good to eat high GI carbohydrates just after training.

Insulin is highly anabolic. It facilitates amino acid transport into muscle cells, and also blocks many catabolic processes and due to this it is one of the key factors determining your muscle growth. Hence it is advisable to create an insulin spike just after training in order to gain mass.

Glucagon is released when blood glucose levels become too low. This hormone aims to raise the glucose levels back to normal by preparing glycogen stores to be used for energy. In addition, glucagon has the effect of stimulating breakdown of body fat to be used for energy. Glucagon also shifts the metabolism from carbohydrate burning to fat burning.

You can complement the metabolism information in this post by reading the article “Blood Sugar & Insulin” by Matt Danielsson, the article “The Blood Sugar Hormones” by Derek Charlebois and the “Metabolism” section of Muscle 101 site.

November 27, 2006

Macronutrients Guide: Fat

This post concludes the macronutrients series with a commonly demonized macronutrient: fat. Although everybody knows the dangerous effects of eating excess fat, eliminating it from your diet can be also extremely harmful for your health, since fat is essential in many body functions.

Fat roles are manifold. It is an important building block for all cell membranes, it is needed for the absorption and transport of the fat soluble vitamins (A, D, E, and K), it is used for hormone production, and it increases the digestion and use of protein. In addition, fat can be also used as a long-term energy source (fat yields 9 calories per gram).

Fat can be separated in two categories: good fat (monounsaturated fats and polyunsaturated fats) and bad fat (trans fatty acids and saturated fats). Good fats are preferred in your diet because they have benefits for your health (e.g. increase the good (HDL) cholesterol and lower the bad (LDL) cholesterol). They are found in fish, nuts and vegetable oils (flaxseed oil, canola oil, safflower oil, sunflower seed oil and olive oil). Good fats include what is known as Essential Fatty Acids (EFA’s). There are two types of EFA’s: Linoleic Acid (Omega-6) and Linolenic Acid (Omega-3). The body can synthesize many of the fatty acids it needs, but it cannot synthesize EFA’s, hence they must be ingested in the diet.

Your bad fats intake should be limited because they raise bad (LDL) cholesterol and increase chances of coronary diseases. Bad fats are mainly found in processed foods and in animal sources (beef, pork, lamb, egg yolks, milk or cheese). However, these animal sources contain not only saturated fats, but also valuable nutrients for bodybuilders such as protein. For this reason, you should include them in your diet occasionally, but controlling your global fat levels.

You should keep fat intake in the range of 15-25% of your total calories. Don’t go below that to avoid health problems. Don’t go above that because excess fatty acids will be stored as adipose tissue and you are also exposed to health problems. Focus on good fats and distribute your fat intake through all your meals. Don’t combine fat with high GI carbohydrates in the same meal, because fat storage in the adipose tissue is greatly enhanced by the presence of insulin.

As usual, you can find more information on fat macronutrient in the article “The Big Picture: Are Fats Evil?” by Matt Danielsson, in the article “Fatten Up Your Total!” by Anthony Ricciuto, and in the article “Good And Bad Fats: How Do We Balance Their Intake For Optimal Health!” by David Robson.

November 20, 2006

Macronutrients Guide: Protein

This post presents the next chapter in the macronutrients series. It covers protein, which is an essential macronutrient for bodybuilding, since it is indispensable for building muscle.

Protein is made up of structural units or chains called amino acids (I’ll go deeper on different amino acids on a future post). The main role of protein is to contribute to the repair and growth of muscle tissues. In fact, proteins are needed for the body to manufacture and repair most body structures and to synthesize neurotransmitters, hormones, enzymes or antibodies. In addition, protein can also be used as an energy source for the body (via gluconeogenesis) when the supply of carbohydrates is not adequate. Protein yields 4 calories per gram.

It's extremely important to maintain always a positive nitrogen balance, because this is required for new tissue to be synthesized and in a negative nitrogen balance state, the protein needed by your body is supplied via muscle breakdown. In order to accomplish this, you have to spread your protein intake over the entire day, feeding yourself every three hours with some protein source (e.g. chicken, meat, fish, eggs, milk, etc.) combined with carbohydrates, since they facilitate the absorption of protein.

Weight training increases your daily protein requirement. As a general rule, you should have 1 gram of protein per pound of bodyweight per day. However, be careful of having too much protein, because it can be converted to fat and stored in adipose tissue. In addition, diversity on your sources of protein is important in order get a complete essential amino acid profile.

Proteins can be classified according to their Biological Value (BV), which measures how easily a protein source is assimilated and utilized by the body. The higher the number ranking, the quicker the protein is absorbed but also the faster it's rendered useless within the body. That means that taking in large doses of a high BV protein makes little or no sense. Proteins can also be classified depending on their Protein Digestibility Corrected Amino Acids Score (PDCAAS). The PDCAAS examines the essential amino acid content of the protein and compares it against the human requirement for essential amino acids. Proteins with great diversity of amino acids will have higher PDCAAS. Typically, animal products score better than vegetal on both the BV and PCDAAS scales.

Your breakfast should include a high BV protein source, since you have being without food for over 8 hours, so you are in a muscle wasting state. The same applies to the post-workout meal, because after training your body needs nutrients for rapid recovering. On the other side, before you go to bed you should consume protein that is digested slowly (low BV), to delay entering in a catabolic state.

You can find further details on protein in the article “The Protein Bible” by John Berardi and in the “Macronutrients” section of Muscle 101 site. The article “All About Protein” by Big Cat describes the properties of most popular protein sources.

November 13, 2006

Macronutrients Guide: Carbohydrates

As commented before, food provides you with three different macronutrients: carbohydrates, protein and fat. Your diet must have an adequate balance of these macronutrients. This post initiates a series describing the particularities and the importance of each macronutrient, starting with carbohydrates.

The main role of carbohydrates is to serve as the preferred source of energy for muscles, yielding 4 calories per gram. Other roles of carbohydrates include the control of blood sugar levels to prevent hypoglycemia (low blood sugar), be the primary fuel for the central nervous system, help in the recovery process and actuate as catalyst in burning fat process. In addition, carbohydrates protect protein from gluconeogenesis (i.e. from being converted to glucose to serve as an energy source) when glucose levels decrease.

Traditional carbohydrates classification distinguishes simple and complex carbohydrates. Simple carbohydrates provide you with quick energy. Complex carbohydrates are used for timed-released and sustained energy. Simple carbohydrates include monosaccharides (glucose, galactose, fructose) and disaccharides (sucrose, lactose, maltose) while complex carbohydrates include polysaccharides (glycogen, starch and fiber). Glycogen is the form used to store glucose in the liver and in the muscles cells. It is broken down for energy when training. Starch can be found in foods such as bread, grains, pasta, rice, cereal, potatoes and legumes. Fiber is found in fruits, vegetables, legumes, grains and nuts and helps to prevent several diseases and to lower bad LDL cholesterol. The two main types of fiber are insoluble and soluble.

More recently, carbohydrates have been classified depending on their Glycemic Index (GI), which measures the effect that carbohydrates have on blood sugar levels. The GI refers to how quickly carbohydrates turn to blood sugar. The higher the number ranking, the quicker the carbohydrate will turn to blood sugar and the more effect it has on the release of insulin. You can consult the GI of different foods here.

Your carbohydrates intake should be distributed throughout all your meals, but concentrated especially in your breakfast and your post-workout meal. Low GI carbohydrates should represent the majority of the carbohydrates in your diet. The exception to this rule is the post-workout meal. At this time, training has depleted your muscle glycogen stores, thus your muscles are very receptive to carbohydrates. High GI carbohydrates will spike your insulin levels, helping to rapidly refill the glycogen stores and promoting your recovery.

You can look for more information on these and other carbohydrates issues in the article “The Carbohydrate Manifesto” by Anthony Ricciuto. Further details on the different carbohydrates can be found in the “Carbohydrates” section of Gym Addiction site.

November 06, 2006

Nutritional Guidelines for Building Muscle

As I have already stated in previous posts, intense training must be combined with proper nutrition and adequate rest for achieving good results in bodybuilding. Nutrition is especially important (some people say it constitutes the 80% of bodybuilding success), since it supplies the foundations for building muscle and helps to maximize your recovery. This post provides the basic nutritional guidelines that must be respected for gaining lean body mass (i.e. building muscle).

For building mass you must eat more calories than you burn. Try adding 500 calories to your maintenance daily caloric intake. This value depends on your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR), which is the amount of calories you burn in a day just to survive, and the amount of calories you burn due to your activity level. Check these calculators (ISSA, ExRx.net) for determining your BMR and your maintenance daily caloric intake.

You must distribute your total ingestion of calories through several small meals throughout the day (every 2.5-3 hours). Eating in this way allows maintaining a positive nitrogen balance, which is the physiological state in which muscular growth is possible. Use protein supplements in the form of a meal replacement or protein shake if you need help for eating so frequently.

All your meals must have an adequate nutrients balance. A rule of thumb for this can be: 55% calories from carbohydrates, 30% from protein and 15% from fat. You must consume enough protein (1 gram of protein per pound of bodyweight per day), since it is the macronutrient used to build muscle. Look for sources of lean protein (i.e. low fat sources), such as skinless chicken, turkey, fish, skim milk, egg whites or lean meat. Consume also plenty of quality carbohydrates. Focus on starches (e.g. cereals, pasta, potatoes, rice) but also on fibrous carbohydrates (e.g. salads and vegetables), since fiber is very important in the digestion process and eliminating toxins from the body. Don’t eliminate fat from your diet. Avoid saturated fats that raise bad (LDL) cholesterol and focus on polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats (Essential Fatty Acids) found in fish and in certain oils (flaxseed, olive).

Next to that you also need your daily requirements of vitamins, minerals and water. Water is very important in many physiological processes. You should drink on average 3 or 4 liters of water per day. In addition, you should avoid alcohol, or at least control your alcohol intake. Alcohol supplies you empty calories with absolutely no nutritional value and hurts muscle growth by lowering protein synthesis by 20%. A final advice is not to substitute a balanced diet with supplements. Supplements are only effective as a complement to proper training and nutrition.

To conclude, you can go deeper in the basics of bodybuilding nutrition in the article “The Top 25 Ways to Pack on Serious Mass” by Anthony Ricciuto, in the article “Gaining Weight for the Bodybuilder” by Matt Danielsson and in the article “Anabolic Nutrition” included in the I.C.E. Training Program developed by Big Cat.

October 31, 2006

Bodybuilding Links

As you have probably noticed in my previous posts, I like to add to the text some links where you can find detailed information on the post topic. This post is intended to be a repository with links to the sites that are commonly referred in the posts, and which contain a lot of bodybuilding information that you can use as a reference when designing your training program.

October 30, 2006

Exercise Selection for a Complete Muscle Development

When designing your training program, you are faced with the decision of choosing a set of exercises for properly training each muscle group. There are a great amount of different exercises (probably several hundred), thus complicating this selection. This post presents some issues you must take into account for performing an adequate exercise selection.

Exercises can be classified depending of the type of movement performed. On one side, compound exercises involve two or more joint movements and thus stress several muscle groups. On the other side, isolation exercises involve only one joint movement at a time, stressing only one specific muscle. Compound exercises are superior to isolation in building muscle mass. However, although you can build plenty of mass using only compound exercises, isolation work is mandatory for a complete muscle development, because it allows emphasizing on every muscle striation. Your routine for a given muscle should include movements that hit that muscle in different ways and from different angles using both compound and isolation movements. That is why you should include 2-3 exercises when you work each muscle.

Some movements offer the possibility of being performed using free weights (barbell and dumbbells) or machines. Free weights provide a more complete work and are better at preventing muscle imbalances, since they involve stabilizer muscles more than machines. Therefore, the basis of your routine should be using free weights. Machines have to be minimized except of some exceptions like the cable station and the leg extension, but don't look down on machines because they can be used to introduce some variety occasionally.

Your selection should avoid dangerous exercises that can lead you to injury. There are some popular exercises (e.g. behind-the-neck pulldown or behind-the-neck shoulder press) that involve movements with wrong biomechanics, being a chance to injury yourself. In a future post, I’ll go deeper in the trouble with these exercises.

However, your exercise selection should not be immovable. The muscles grow because they accustom themselves to the stress being put onto them. If you train a muscle always in the same way, your progress will slow, and possibly even halt because your body adapts to the motion, and no longer needs to build new muscle to do that motion. The key is varying your workouts every 4-6 weeks by altering one or more factors (i.e. number of reps, sets, tempo, exercise selection, etc.).

For supporting your exercise selection process, you can find a comprehensive exercise directory in the “Exercise Instruction & Kinesiology” section of ExRx.net site. Each exercise description contains the preparation and execution instructions (demonstrated with an animated gif), the involved muscles and the exercise classification (compound/isolation, push/pull, etc.). The Bodybuilding.com site provides another complete exercise directory in its “Exercise Guides” section, including video guides for describing the exercises correct execution.

October 23, 2006

Designing a Beginner’s Program

This post is intended to provide advice to those just arrived to bodybuilding when they have to design their first weight training programs. Unlike is commonly believed, beginners need special training. It makes no sense to start with complicated programs used by people who have been training for years. Beginners must stick with simple programs with the basic exercises.

The main goal of beginner’s training, lasting approximately 3-4 months, must be adapting your body to training and stress. In this training stage, it is important that you spend the time in learning the groove of the movements, because at this stage you are building the mind-muscle connection, which, if wrong, can let you to injury in the future. Good news are that during this stage you will progress easily and your muscles will grow rapidly (perhaps the more rapidly that they ever will).

When designing your program, avoid typical beginner’s mistakes, such as focusing only on the muscles you like, e.g. chest and biceps. You have to give attention to all body-parts and focus on learning the basic exercises, such as deadlifts, squats or bench press. Start out light, use proper form, and practice until you've got the hang of each specific movement. Then, and only then, you should start adding on more weight.

Beginners can use a full body workout, training each muscle every workout. Train 3 days a week in non-consecutive days using, for example, the following pattern (W means workout and R means Rest): WRWRWRR. Beginners can also benefit from a 2 day split workout. Split options can be, for example, upper body on day A and lower body on day B or push movements on day A and pull movements on day B. Train 3 days a week in non-consecutive days using, for example, the following pattern: ARBRARR-BRARBRR. Use two, maximum three, exercises per body-part at three sets each. Pick a basic exercise for each muscle and build your workout around them. Stay initially in the 12-15 rep range without failure until you’re familiarized with training and the exercises.

Training is important, but don’t forget that adequate nutrition and rest is mandatory for achieving results. Eat several small meals throughout the day (every 2.5-3 hours) including enough protein (1 gram of protein per pound of bodyweight per day). In addition, drink plenty of water and sleep at least 8 hours per night.

These and other guidelines for developing your beginner's program can be found in the article “Laying the Right Foundation” by Matt Danielsson and also in the article “Progression of Training” included in the I.C.E. Training Program developed by Big Cat.

October 17, 2006

Workout Details: Sets, Reps, Rest, Duration and Frequency

When designing your weight training program, you are faced with questions about how many reps/sets to perform, how long to rest between sets or how long/how often to train. There is not a unique answer to these questions, but there are some basic guidelines that must be respected. This post intends to provide you with these basic guidelines in order to properly decide your workout details.

The number of reps is usually a cause of concern. As a general guide, the 1-5 rep range is more appropriated for strength training, the 6-12 rep range for hypertrophy training (i.e. muscle growth) and above 12 reps for endurance training. However, optimal training combines cycles of different rep ranges, stimulating in this way both fast-twitch and slow-twitch fibers. In any case, always perform a strict movement (mastering the weight during the whole rep and using a full range of motion) with a prolonged contraction (feeling the pump and the burn in the muscle).

The number of sets can also vary greatly. On one side, it depends on your recuperation. Doing more sets than you can recuperate from is a shortcut to overtraining. On the other side, the amount of sets should stimulate as much fiber as possible and should be enough to train the muscle consistently (using different exercises to target all muscle sections). Depending on the muscle, the number of working sets per muscle (excluding warm-up) can stay between 3 and 10. When deciding this value, don’t forget that you have to keep your workouts short (preferably less than 1 hour) because after that time cortisol secretion will inhibit GH/testosterone output, causing muscle breakdown and limiting your gains. Your goal should be intensity. Focus on each set and give always 100% (don't save yourself for the next set).

Rest between sets determines also the intensity of your workout. As a rule, take the time your muscles and your nervous system need to recover. Attempt to keep the time as short as possible. Nevertheless, take into account that the time needed for recovering when training with heavy weights and lower reps can be longer than the time needed when using light weights and higher reps. Similarly, big muscles recover slower than small muscles. Finally, take care to do some flexing and stretching between sets to keep the muscle warm and avoid injury.

Workout frequency is another important decision. A muscle grows only when recovering from intense training. Don’t train again a muscle until it is fully recovered (this can take several days). Go to the gym 3 o 4 times per week and train each muscle once a week. Going more often stresses the body, impedes recovery, and can lead to overtraining.

To conclude, I want to provide you with some links where you can find additional advice on how to decide the appropriate values for the workout details discussed in this post. Check the article “The Sets and Reps of It” included in the I.C.E. Training Program developed by Big Cat, the article “The Complete Guide to Beginning Bodybuilding” by Bill Geiger & Larry Shackelford, and finally the “Workout Details” section of Muscle 101 site.

October 08, 2006

Understand How Your Body Works: Muscle Physiology

Alike anatomy, knowledge about body physiology constitutes an important basis for developing better training programs. This post summarizes the basic concepts about muscle physiology covered by Mark Strasser in his article “Muscle Types, Strength Gains, and Energy Systems used in Various Sports”. This article focuses in two aspects of muscle physiology: muscle energy systems & muscle fibers.

Muscle Energy Systems. Energy is supplied to your muscles from the food you eat, which is broken down into usable blocks of energy called ATP (Adenosine Triphosphate). ATP is the primary source of energy for muscle contraction. The energy is derived from removing a phosphate ion from ATP, resulting in ADP (Adenosine Diphosphate). Your body makes ATP available for muscle contraction through three main energy systems:

  • Phosphocreatine system: This system comes into play mostly during very intense workloads lasting up to 20-30 seconds. It is very fast, and can supply ATP for more muscular contractions in milliseconds by combining ADP with the phosphate ion from the phosphocreatine molecule.

  • Glycolytic system: This system is the primary energy source in activities lasting between 30 seconds and 3 minutes by breaking down muscle and liver glycogen stores. The waste product is lactic acid, which leads to muscular fatigue. This system is anaerobic, as no oxygen is immediately necessary for energy production. However, from the 3rd minute of exercise this system becomes aerobic, since energy production occurs in the presence of oxygen.

  • Oxidative system: This system provides the body with energy during exercise of long duration and moderate to low intensity by breaking down the body's fat stores. It is known as the aerobic system, as oxygen is necessary for energy production.

Muscle Fibers. There are two different types of muscle fibers: slow-twitch and fast-twitch muscle fibers. Slow-twitch fibers are predominately used in endurance activities. They are not likely to grow in size as much when trained and rely mainly on the oxidative system (aerobic metabolism) to obtain energy. Fast-twitch fibers are especially activated in explosive movements. They have great potential for growing in size when trained and rely mainly on the glycolytic system (anaerobic metabolism) to obtain energy.

When training with high number of reps you activate mainly slow-twitch fibers, while with low number of reps you activate mainly fast-twitch fibers. However, sets in the 1-5 rep range don't activate as many fast-twitch fibers as sets in the 6-12 rep range. The 1-5 rep range is more appropriated for strength training without increment on size.

You can also find some additional information on muscle energy systems and muscle fibers in the “Anatomy and Physiology” section of Muscle 101 site. Moreover, Derek Charlebois provides a detailed description of the chemical reactions occurred during energy generation in his article “Bioenergetics & Energy Release”.

October 02, 2006

Mental Skills for Successful Bodybuilding

Believe or not, your mental condition plays a fundamental role for achieving your goals in bodybuilding. Results will only come if you are strongly convinced about your implication in bodybuilding and fully involved in your weight training program. This post summarizes the basic skills needed for developing an appropriate attitude for achieving success in bodybuilding.

Compromise. Evaluate if bodybuilding agrees with your goals. Bodybuilding is not about lifting heavy weights. Bodybuilding aims for a complete physical and mental development. The work that you do in the gym is as important as your work outside. Training is a key concept, but it is almost useless without proper nutrition and adequate rest. If you are not ready to assume this fact and its implications, perhaps bodybuilding is not your sport.

Motivation. Bodybuilding is hard: intense training sessions, diet, days when you are not so keen on going to the gym… You have to be fully motivated to face with that. Visualize your success. Establish long-term as well as short-term goals, and stay focused on them. Use the accomplishment of these goals to motivate yourself.

Consistency & Patience. Training only occasionally will not involve any muscle improvement. Unless you are sick, there is no excuse not to go to the gym. Don’t miss workouts, follow your schedule to the letter and do your best every single workout in order to achieve your goals. But you must have patience. Muscle will not grow out of proportion overnight. Persevere with your work and stay motivated and results will come.

Positive thinking. “I can’t” is a phrase you should ban from your vocabulary. If your mind can't visualize success, your body sure will not do the job for you.

To conclude, I want to recommend you the “Desire & Attitude” section of Muscle 101 site about the importance of staying motivated and positive attitude to achieve your goals in bodybuilding.

September 26, 2006

Anatomy & Kinesiology Lessons

Developing a successful training program is easier if you have an appropriate knowledge on the human body. It makes no sense that your main goal is to build muscle and at the same time you hardly know part of the muscles in your body. If you know how the body works, you can design compensated training programs without neglecting muscles, you can detect problems on your program easily and, especially, you can reduce the risk of injury yourself with inappropriate exercises.

Some anatomy and kinesiology lessons are the first step for acquiring this knowledge about your body. With anatomy and kinesiology, you can know all the relevant muscles and their biomechanics. A good place for finding all this information is ExRx.net (Exercise Prescription on the Net) site. ExRx is a huge site with many sections related to weight training. Sure I’m going to refer to it many times in later posts. But now we’re only interested in the “Exercise Instruction & Kinesiology” section. Here you can find:

  • A muscle directory with detailed information about all the muscles. This information includes the other names used to refer to this muscle, the different heads that compose this muscle, the movements performed by this muscle (e.g. flexion, extension, abduction, adduction, rotation, etc.) with links to the involved articulations, the attachments of this muscle with the bones, the related muscles, the location of this muscle in a graphical muscle map and optionally, some additional comments about particularities of this muscle.

  • An articulation directory with detailed information about all the articulations, including the movements performed by this articulation and with links to the involved muscles.
As you can see, anatomy and kinesiology information is extensive and thorough. Of course, it is not necessary to know every detail, but a general knowledge on which muscles compose our body and some notions on their biomechanics will enrich your training routines by considering often neglected (but important) muscles and will help you to prevent injuries.

September 20, 2006

Welcome & Motivation

Hi, my name is George and I’m an amateur bodybuilder. I’m one of those who find something fascinating in bodybuilding. Based on my own experience (I started bodybuilding 6.5 years ago), I can assure that bodybuilding can change your life. It allows a complete development of not only your physique, but also of your mind. In fact, all your way of life will be altered. I think that is why bodybuilding is likely the greatest sport.

Proper training and nutrition are key concepts to reach success in bodybuilding. Of course, I think it’s needless to say that steroids and other drugs don’t fit in my training philosophy (and should not fit in any). But what is then the “proper” way to achieve your goals in weight training? Well, it depends. Bodybuilding is not an exact science, and different people can make pretty gains using different types of training, but in the same way there are some common practices and beliefs in bodybuilding that are completely useless and even harmful.

Knowledge is the key to develop a successful training program and the web has become a great support to acquire this knowledge. However, sometimes it is awkward to find what you are looking for within this huge information and, in addition, sometimes different sites defend contradictory facts. For these reasons, “Natural Bodybuilding Principles” blog sees the light with the goal of providing you with the appropriate links where finding useful information for developing an effective weight training routine. My aim is to share with you my own training experience and my conclusions about weight training information available in the web.

I’ve decided to organize the posts in this blog in mainly 3 categories: training, nutrition and rest/recuperation, which correspond to the fundamental concepts for achieving success in bodybuilding. In fact, a good training program must consider in a proper way all these factors in order to obtain proper results.

I hope you find the “Natural Bodybuilding Principles” blog interesting and that you participate by commenting your own training experiences, thus the blog can become a bodybuilding fans meeting point.