Top 5 Causes of Injuries

Recently a couple of gym members had to restrain themselves from weight training due to the minor back injuries. Although that was a very uncommon thing to happen in Revolution Gym, not to mention that those 2 members are pretty well informed on the aspect of injury prevention, I figured I need to bring this matter up seriously to avoid it from happening again.

Here are the top 5 causes of injuries!

1) Failed To Warm-Up.

It's plain and simple however still a lot of people fail to spend 10 MINUTES out of their workout duration to perform this. Walk in to the gym, get the cardio equipment and warm up for 5 to 10 minutes until you start to sweat and that's all.

2) Failed to Stretch.

Another unpopular thing among the all-time busy gym members is stretching. Studies show that shortened muscles perform weaker, slower and have a higher incidence of injuries. However big muscles require strong, lengthened and healthy tissue. So why on earth would you skip this process? Not just stretching prevent injuries it also maintain healthy specific joint relationships, greater joint angles and accelerate recovery.

3) Training Too Often.

This is probably one of the most common misconception about weight training and muscle building. People who never gone through any workout program under the supervision of an experience trainer would have think that the more they workout the quicker the get the result. What they do not know is working out too often is actually the fastest way to over train and fall into injury. Give yourself an ample rest to make sure your body are fully recovered.

4) Inappropriate Weights.

Even though heavy weight lifting is essential in building muscle mass, however you must remember the word 'heavy' here is actually controlled by the two factors which are compromising your form and the risk of injury. As long as you can keep yourself in good form, meaning the right posture, the right muscle isolation, the right range of motion and the right support you're all set for the weights that you have chosen. Remember to wear lifting belt when necessary!

5) Failed to Take Adequate Nutrients.

Most joint problems, such as arthritis, tendinits, and bursitis, can be reduced with natural compounds that can save you from aching joints and years of pain. Some supplements which contain flax oil may help reduce inflammation in the joints while Glucosamine is essential for the prevention and treatment of cartilage degeneration.

Cheers!!!

Revolution Gym & Fitness

Basic Body Building Supplements for Athletes

I came across this article that provide a basic summary of the common supplements used by the gym goers. This is a good read for those considering taking one.

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Body building supplements are generally defined as substances taken by athletes and body builders to help them develop a more toned and more defined physique. Individuals who take body building supplements are more likely involved in weight trainings, advance and intense workouts and sports.

These substances are also used to improve sports performance in particular. In addition, they also help an athlete to recover easily from injuries. Supplements make them stronger, agile and improved over all performance. Here are some examples of body building supplements.

1.Glutamine is one of the most common amino acids found in every human muscle. Supplement manufacturers say that the natural glutamine levels are depleted every time an individual do intense workout trainings and therefore may cause some deficiencies in the body. Many body builders who take supplements glutamine can restore and replenish the depleted stores of amino acids in the muscles.

2.Casein is considered as the supplement that contains the richest glutamine content. It also has a casomorphin that helps release amino acid content for a long term period. Soy protein is recognized to be naturally complete. However it causes some side effects in the estrogenic activity of body builders and athletes.

3.Amino acids are the building blocks of protein. Your body may break the consumed protein into amino acids that go to your stomach and intestines. There are three considered branched chain of amino acids. These are valine, leucine and isoleucine.

4.Prohormones help in enhancing the hormones. They are taken by bodybuilders to enhance the natural hormone testosterone of the muscles. There are some occurrences of side effects that are not common in most instances. Until now, most prohormone supplements are not yet thoroughly studied. The health hazard effects are not fully identified especially if the supplement is used long term.

5.Creatine is considered as an organic acid that helps in supplying energy to the muscle cells for excess use of energy. Most of these supplements are taken by most body weight lifters. Scientific studies have already proven that creatine provides extra power, strength, and energy and can improve muscle mass in a short period. In addition, it also improves memory recognition and helps the brain to function actively.

6.There are also those thermogenic supplements that increase the metabolism of the body. It keeps users active, agile and strong at all times. It maintains a physically fit body because of the increased rate of your body metabolism, which helps in burning the body fats. Supplements that are popularly known as thermogenics include aspirin, ephedrine and caffeine.

7.Nitric Oxide Stimulators play a major role in providing relaxation to the smooth muscle tissue that composes the blood vessels of your tissue. They provide muscle redefinition every time you undergo intense workouts.

Extracted from http://wendellbullard.com/

Using Muscle Building Supplements The Right Way

Those of us who love to build up our muscles tend to have an unfortunate attitude of wanting to achieve too much, too soon, and our progress, and even our overall health, can suffer as a consequence. To see solid, long lasting results from your efforts, you first need to get the basics in place, and then proceed on in a steady, consistent manner.

The primary purpose of muscle building supplements is to provide the body with the correct balance of nutrients that may be lacking, thus correcting any biochemical imbalances. It’s simply a mistake to think that a supplement or combination of supplements is going to turn an incorrect diet or regime into the right one.

Still, sometimes your body can do with a little assistance, and there are some worthwhile muscle building supplements. It is, however, essential to get your exercise regime and diet in order before you even consider using any shape or form of muscle building supplement. If a diet or regime is not working for you at present, adding a supplement into the mix won’t suddenly make it work for you.

With that said, let’s look at what you should be doing to in order to maximize your muscle building sessions:

Water – Everyone has heard before about the importance of taking in lots of water, yet so many people continue to overlook this point. Make no mistake, water is more important than anything else, as if your body isn’t well hydrated, then it can’t function properly. As a further point, muscle tissue is 75% water, so, without taking in water, you’ll always struggle to build more muscle.

Protein Powder – Both cost effective and convenient, protein powders are an important part of a body building program. They boost the levels of the much needed muscle building protein in your body, and it would be difficult to achieve similar results by standard food and drinks alone.

Vitamins and Minerals – Give a conventional multivitamin or multi mineral supplement a go. You may not really need it, but it certainly can’t do any harm. Due to the fact that some individuals follow extremely limited dietary programs, comprising of repetitive food consumption, it is not uncommon to develop vitamin deficiencies.

Creatine – This is the most commonly used muscle building supplement. Why is that? Well, put simply, it works! By all means try out other supplements, but always use them as an addition to creatine, not as a replacement for it. The fact that so many fanatical muscle builders use it is evidence enough of its worth.

From
http://www.hgh-therapy-information.com/using-muscle-building-supplements-the-right-way.html

The 7 Biggest Mistakes In Muscle Building

If you want to build up muscle over time, it’s crucial for you to develop good habits. Building muscle continuously requires you to be regularly doing the right thing and taking the right steps. Unfortunately, people sometimes get into bad habits without being aware that they’re risking their health and adversely affecting their progress. To help you make the right decisions, here is a list of the 7 worst muscle building habits and how to avoid them:

1.) The worst sin in body building: Taking steroids. For so many, many reasons this is a horrible thing to do to yourself, from acne, swelling, bad breath, discoloration of the skin, dizziness and trembling, nausea, vomiting, mood swings, balding, liver damage, high blood pressure, heart palpitations, cardiovascular disease, aching joints, and even a slight loss of height! Not to mention testicular shrinkage, importance, pain while urinating, sterility, and the development of breasts. Simply put, don’t take steroids.

2) Attempting to lift weights that are too heavy. Being competitive and trying to beat your training partner might be good motivation, but it’s important to be careful. If you lift too much weight, then you’re increasing your chances of injury, which can cause you to lose form and slow your muscle building progress. If you need to use momentum to lift or lower the weight, or can’t do so under complete control, then the weight is too heavy.

3.) Eating too much protein. A normal person should take between 0.8 to 1 gram of protein per kilogram of body weight a day, and if you’re trying to build muscle, you shouldn’t go further than 1.7 grams per body weight kilogram. Eating too much protein can lead to osteoporosis and kidney damage. Not to mention a greater risk of heart disease as severe protein gain can lead to an increase in homo-cysteine which will cause heart damage.

4) Taking stimulants. Stimulants might not be prohibited, but they often come with numerous dangerous side effects, and it would be wise to exercise caution when taking them – or better yet, not using them at all. Stimulants such as ephedrine have been known to cause heart palpitations, heart attacks and strokes. For a less dangerous pick-me-up, try a caffeine pill instead. If you have any concerns at all about what you’re taking, be sure to get a doctor’s opinion first.

5) Training on an empty stomach. While some people seem to believe that training on an empty stomach helps them burn more fat, the truth of the matter is that your energy comes from carbohydrates. This means that if you haven’t eaten, you’ll have less energy and won’t have much of a chance at getting a good workout. You won’t be able to lift as much and you’ll probably be jittery, shaking and dizzy after your workout because of a low blood sugar level. It’s a good idea to have a mean before your workout, particularly foods like vegetables, fruit and rice.

6) Not warming up or stretching properly.Getting your body ready for exercise is essential in order to prevent injuries like muscle tears and ligament strains, it also improves your range of motion, performance, and posture. Only 10 minutes needs to be allocated for the warm up and this is a very wise usage of your time.

7.) Not keeping track of your training. Without a training diary, how do you keep track of your progress? How do you record your personal bests? A training diary, or log, is not only easy to do, it’s also very motivating. It’s a good idea for everyone to have one.

So, keep an eye on those seven deadly sins of muscle building, and with a good dash of common sense, you should be able to avoid all of the bad and dangerous habits and have a healthy, safe workout.

From Ricardo d Argence

How recordkeeping will help you build muscle

When it comes to building muscle as efficiently as possible, there are some often overlooked factors that you need to consider. Most of us know that we need to increase our calories and lift gradually heavier weights.

You have probably heard this many times before, yet it may not be so simple. How exactly are you supposed to know if your program is working out or not? So many people don't take the time to satisfy a basic requirement of weightlifting and just about any other goals you want to achieve. If you want to succeed, you'll need to begin to write things down, including how much you're lifting and what you're eating every single day.

This may seem difficult and even annoying at first, but it should become second nature pretty soon. Gradually you'll get to know how many calories a particular food contains or how many grams of protein or fat you're eating. When you think about it, most foods that you buy at the grocery store already have this kind of information available, so this should make your job that much easier.

Writing things down in this way is a great way to keep track of your progress, because if things don't seem to be going the way you intended you simply go back to your record. Chances are you did something wrong either with your diet or with your workouts.

There will be times when you're not even sure if you're making progress all. There are some tips to keep in mind however, such as trying to gain a pound each week. This is one example of a goal you can shoot for that can help you track your progress along the way (as long as you also measure body fat percentage).

As for weightlifting exercises, your record keeping is just as important here. Your goal should be to gradually lift more weight from week to week, and you'll easily be able to see if you've met this requirement by writing things down.

It really is necessary to write things down because you're simply not going to remember later on. Having this set of records will help you change things as necessary.

Simply put, record keeping is an essential part of a comprehensive muscle building program.

By Jon Cardozo

Can You Gain Muscle Weight Without Getting Fat?

There are two common fitness goals - to gain muscle mass and to lose body fat. Unfortunately, for the most part, the two goals are at opposite ends of the spectrum.

Building muscle mass is going to require you to take in a surplus of calories because, well, let’s face it, you can’t build muscle out of nothing (unless of course you have some chemical help going on).

Losing fat mass on the other hand is going to require you to be in a negative calorie balance because that is what will get your body burning off additional body fat as fuel for its tissues.

Striving to accomplish both goals at the same time is rarely a good approach because more than likely you will just end up spinning your wheels and getting nowhere.

Most weight lifters will have to accept some fat gain when they are looking to gain weight, however how much fat gain they need to add is question. It is this variable that we are hoping to influence.

Can you really gain weight without getting fat?

When adding muscle mass there are two approaches you can take.

Some take the approach of just eating as much food as they can possible cram into themselves. Their life suddenly becomes one long 24-hour buffet in their quest for muscle mass as they are under the thinking that the more food that goes in, the more muscle synthesis that will go on.

This thinking is heavily flawed. The body can only assimilate so much muscle tissue at once and after it has done so, any remaining calories are simply going to be stored as body fat. Plain and simple. You my friend, are no exception to the rule.

For those guys who are out there taking in five thousand or more calories per day, this is obviously going to be way more than they need and will result in a considerable amount of unwanted fat weight over a period of three to six months (how long most people will ‘bulk’ for).

The second option is to adopt a more moderate approach and only eat so many additional calories to support this muscle growth and that’s it. This will allow you to hopefully get as much lean tissue gained as possible without the accumulation of a monstrous rise in body fat.

So that leads us to the next question you’re probably wondering. How much muscle can you build? How many calories over maintenance should you be eating?

You’ve probably already heard of the guy who claims he’s added 20 pounds of muscle in the short timeframe of six weeks. While this may be a very rare occurrence among an individual who is brand new to weight lifting, has insanely good genetics and utilized an excellent training and nutritional program, the fact of the matter is that most guys are simply not going to be able to come even close to adding this much muscle tissue.

A natural trained individual can hope to achieve about half a pound to one pound of muscle per week - if he’s doing everything correctly. If he doesn’t have the greatest genetics or isn’t feeding himself optimally, this will decrease even further. So as you can see, at a measly two to four pounds of muscle growth per month, you aren’t going to be needed to eat insanely high calorie intakes.

The higher your intake is, the more you risk putting on additional body fat. As a general rule, keep it to about 250 to 500 calories above maintenance in hopes of putting on mostly muscle without too much body fat. Keep track of your current body fat levels and appearance and if you see that too much of your weight gain is coming on as fat mass, reduce your calorie intake slightly.

It is always best to go by REAL WORLD results since you are in the real world after all. You can read as much as you like as to how many calories you should be eating, but this does not mean that’s going to be the exact number that will produce results. Different people have different metabolisms that will respond to an increase in calories in various ways. So as you go about your bulk, adjust according to the results you are getting.

Remember that the more patient you are with your muscle gains and the slower you go, the more time you can spend adding muscle mass and the less time you have to spend dieting off the additional fat you gained - which as I’m sure many of you already know, is not a pleasant experience.

So next time you decide you are going to do a ‘bulking’ phase, take a slower approach. Not only are you much more likely to maintain a favourable appearance this way but your mind will thank you as well. Nothing kills confidence levels faster than seeing all muscle definition go out the window in a matter of weeks, so keep the weight gain under control so you don’t have to deal with this.

From Vince DelMonte

No Sleep Leads to No Gain for Muscle Building

By Ricardo d Argence

Hitting the gym a couple of times every week, and watching your muscles grow is not hard. Physical exercise and targeted muscle weight training are only two of the factors involved and there are several more factors.

Dont underestimate the effect that sleep has on your workout. You need to rest properly, and that's not just between workouts. Altering your sleep schedule to ensure getting a steady and sound night's sleep each night can produce drastic transformations in the outcomes you observe with bodybuilding.

Sleep is crucial for successful bodybuilding for a several reasons. The body need sleep to recover and rebuild its muscle. This is the time when the other body parts are not using energy, or interior resources that the body uses to repair itself from the effects of bodybuilding.

You must rest or your body won't be able to heal and add new muscle. You will be adversely impacting your gains by not providing enough time for your muscles to heal, recover, and continue to grow in the proper manner.

Adequate sleep is vital for keeping your mental focus sharp and your energy level high. A lack of mental focus can destroy your results while you're in the gym. You can be motivated, but if you don't have your work out planned out you will not have a successful workout.

Although you might not have the energy or be motivated enough to have a great weightlifting session. There's only so much your body can handle over the course of a day with a tiny amount of sleep. With everything else going on in your life, its working out that often takes a backseat.

Sleep is critical because it allows your body to recover and control the rhythm of your body's hormones. Hormones, that are essential for proper metabolim and muscle gain, are released during sleep. Hormones, released during sleep, are essential for proper metabolism and muscle gain. At the same time, sleep also inhibits other hormones that can lead to fat gain and other unseemly consequences.

Irregular sleeping habits are detrimental to your efforts to get in shape. Sleeping 3 hours on Monday, and 11 hours on Tuesday, is not the same thing as sleeping 7 hours on each night. That's what you should shoot for, at least 7 hours a night. Keep in mind, that no sleep will ruin your efforts at bodybuilding. - 17440

By Ricardo D Argence

10 Simple Steps To Skyrocket Your Natural Testosterone Production

If there is one substance that could be considered the “holy grail” of muscle growth, testosterone would be it.

Quite simply, testosterone is the most important muscle-building hormone in your body and is one of the limiting factors that determines how much muscle you can ultimately build.

Here is just a small handful of the many amazing benefits that increased testosterone levels will provide you with…

- Increased muscle size and strength.
- Decreased body fat levels.
- Increased sex drive and sexual endurance.
- Improved mood.
- Decreased levels of “bad” cholesterol.

Sounds pretty good, doesn’t it? Well it is, and in this article I’m going to outline 10 simple steps to naturally raise your testosterone levels and achieve all of these incredible benefits. While these steps will not result in “steroid-like” muscle gains, they will definitely contribute to your overall bottomline results…

1) Use compound exercises as the cornerstone of your workouts. I’m talking about the basic, bread-and-butter lifts such as squats, deadlifts, bench presses, rows, chin-ups, dips, lunges and military presses. These exercises will place your muscles under the greatest amount of stress in the gym and will force your body to increase testosterone production.

2) Always train with 100% effort and intensity. If you want to see real muscle gains, you must be willing to push yourself to the limit in the gym. Again, greater muscular stress in the gym translates to higher testosterone output.

3) Train your legs equally as hard as your upper body. As you may already be aware, intense leg training can actually stimulate growth in your chest, back and arms. This is due in part to the increase in testosterone that leg training induces.

4) Increase your EFA consumption. Essential Fatty Acids from sources such as peanuts, avocadoes, fish and healthy oils like flax seed, olive and canola are a great way to naturally boost testosterone levels.

5) Reduce your intake of soy. Soy protein raises the body’s levels of estrogen (the main female hormone) and this has a direct negative effect on testosterone levels.

6) Limit your consumption of alcohol. Alcohol has been shown to have quite a dramatic effect on testosterone levels, so try to limit your “binge drinking” nights and keep your alcohol consumption in moderation.

7) Increase your dietary intake of cruciferous vegetables. Broccoli, cauliflower, radishes, turnips, cabbage and brussel sprouts have all been shown to dramatically reduce estrogen levels, thereby raising testosterone.

8) Lower your daily stress levels. Being overly stressed stimulates the release of “cortisol”, a highly catabolic hormone that will cause your testosterone levels to plummet.

9) Increase your sexual activity. Sexual stimulation causes the body to increase the production of oxytocin which increases endorphin production (the “feel-good” chemical), and this also raises testosterone.

10) Make sure to get adequate sleep every night. A lack of sleep contributes to cortisol production, and this will lower your testosterone levels.

Start implementing these techniques on a consistent basis and you should experience a noticeable increase in your muscle size and strength gains.

By Sean Nalewanyj