There are thousands of products, newsletters, and books out there that promise to show you the secret of how to "gain muscle fast" and they ALL want your money but I'll give you the secret for free - lift weights and eat right!  Gaining mass, is really simple but it takes a LOT of work.  Later I will tell you about how to eat right and lifting weights but first, lets talk about expectations.

There is a LOT of bad information out there and people have a very warped view of what are reasonable expectations for putting on muscle thru weightlifting.  Lets talk about teens and growth first, during the ages 16-22, teens are growing fast.  In this time they are getting taller, adding body mass, and getting stronger all as part of the normal growth process without lifting a single weight.  The reason this is important is that many times you hear anecdotes of teens who add 20lbs in one year lifting weights, well the truth is that they would have added 15lbs anyway thru the normal growth process, only the last 5lbs was actually muscle was actually added thru the weightlifting. 

So what is a reasonable expectation for how much muscle you can add in a year thru weightlifting?  Well if you lift with intensity 5 days a week for an hour a day all year long AND have proper nutrition (more on that later), you can expect to add 5lbs muscle per year if you are a hard gainer and 10lbs muscle if you are one of the gifted few.  Doesn't sound like a lot you can do this year after year and slowly those slowly 5lb gains really add up.  Picture yourself a decade later with 50lbs muscle on! 

OK, now lets discuss how to gain muscle, as I said before you need to lift weights and have proper nutrition.   Lets talk about resistance training first.  You have to lift weights to get stronger and gain muscle.  Mass follows strength, you cant get bigger without getting stronger.  Here are workout plans for beginner, intermediate or advanced bodybuilders.   Now lets talk about the dedication required.  You cant add muscle by flitting around the gym now and then.  Remember I said that you could expect to add 5lbs muscle (10 if you are lucky) if you worked really hard?  Well this is the "work really hard part" - it means 5 days a week of intense lifting.  Just being IN a gym an hour a day does nothing, chatting your buddies while standing near weights doesnt make your muscles grow - you need intense, focused workout sessions.  Check out my section on "Focus" to see what I mean by that.

Believe it or not, lifting weights is the EASY part of gaining muscle, nutrition is the hard part.   The #1 reason  bodybuilders have poor results is not because they dont work out hard enough but because their nutrition sucks.   It can take up to FIVE days for the muscles to rebuild after a workout and during that time you need a constant intake of protein.  Your body can't store protein up so just having a huge steak with dinner will not work if you want to gain muscle, you need to take your protein in 6 small, even doses spread evenly through out the day to insure your recovering muscles always have the amino acids they need to rebuild.  Nobody said bodybuilding was easy.  The first thing you need to know about nutrition are some numbers.  How many calories do you need in each meal and how many grams of protein do you need in each meal, the below chart shows this:

Eating more than this will not make your muscles grow faster, you will just get fat!!!  This is really important so I'm going to say this gain.  Eating more than what this chart shows will NOT make you stronger or give you bigger muscles, it will just make you FAT.  This is the bulking myth - you dont need to get fat to get strong.  As long as you are getting your six evenly spaced doses of protein as shown my this chart, your muscles will have the building blocks they need to grow bigger and stronger-- eating more will not help. 

Lets take a quick look at what happens if you are not careful with your diet and eat junk food.  Our 140 hypothetical BBer needs 23g protein six times a day.  Lets say that for each of his meals he eats a big mac which has 24g protein.  Each burger has 24g protein so his muscles will grow well but man-o-man look at the calories!  Remember I said that this 140lb BBer needs six 350 cal meals, well the Big Mac is 590 calories, almost 200% too much.  What this means is that our 140lb BBer would gain 3lbs fat per week or 12lbs of fat per month!  Can you say sumo wrestler!  You really need to watch what you eat!  Here are the most common nutrition mistakes made by bodybuilders:

• they get enough protein so their muscles grow but they eat too many calories so they get really fat

• they eat the proper number of calories but dont get enough protein so their muscles dont grow much

• they get enough protein and the proper number of calories but dont distribute their protein intake into 6 evenly spaced small doses so their muscles dont grow much

Dont let this happen to you!  If you are going to all the work of lifting weighs 5 days a week, make sure you give your nutrition the same effort so your muscles can grow.

If you have the time and devotion, you can gain muscle AND lose fat at the same time but its REALLY hard!  Your protein requirements remain the same but the number of calories per meal drops so its even harder to find acceptable meals.  Lets look at the numbers for those wanting to gain muscle and lose fat.  The below chart shows the nutritional requirements if you want to gain muscle and LOSE 1 lb fat per week:

To get meals with this much protein and this small number of calories, the meals need to be virtually nonfat.  Its virtually impossible to buy anything at a fast food restaurant or in TV dinner form which satisfies these requirements - you need to cook your own meals.  For some meal suggestions, please check here.

So remember that to gain muscle requires TWO things: 

1. You have to lift weights consistently, with intensity and focus. 

2. You have to eat 6 small meals each with a good dose of protein. 

What is "good cardio"?  Thats of the most frequent questions I get asked.  People are always asking if some specific machine or activity is good cardio or not.  Before we go into what IS good cardio, lets review WHY cardio is so important

• #1 lose fat! - want 6-pack abs?  Only way is to lose fat thru cardio and nutrition.
• #2 Cardio can improve your mood and significantly reduce depression.  Its been prooven by study after study, cardio can make you happier! 
• #3 Perform better at school or work!  Daily cardio reduces mental fatigue and gives you more energy. A recent study from the U of G showed that daily cardio reduces fatigue by 65%!
• #4 Tons of other health reasons -
• reduce risk of heart disease
• reduce blood pressure
• reduce risk of diabetes
• live longer - 2hrs longer for every 1hr of exercise

You've heard me say this before and I will repeat it again - cardio is much more important than lifting weights and if you only have 20min a day for fitness, you should spend the whole time doing cardio.

Its clear that there is a lot of confusion about cardio, its really quite simple.  In this video I'm going to tell you how to know what is good cardio and how to tell at a glance if a piece of cardio equipment is good or not.  Lets start with the basics.  The purpose of cardio is to elevate your heart rate and keep it target zone for at least 20 minutes.   How elevated does your heart rate need to be?  Depends on your goal, your age, and your health.  If you have medical conditions, ask your doctor what is appropriate for you.  If you are in good health, you can use these charts from the American Heart Association:

  http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=4736

So if you are wondering if a particular activity is good cardio, its simple to find out.  Do it for a minimum of 20 minutes then measure your heartrate (15sx4) and compare it to the above chart.  If your heartrate is in the target zone, then its good cardio - simple as that!   With many forms of cardio, like cycling or walking, its easy to get lazy and just lolli-gag along.  Its important that you monitor your heartrate during the cardio to make sure that you are not slacking off.  Just a note, walking has the lowest dropout rate of all forms of cardio - probably because its so enjoyable.

OK, now lets talk about cardio equipment. I get lots of questions asking if a particular kind of cardio equipment is good.   First of all, I dont recommend buying ANY equipment.  I'd much rather see you get exercise outdoors by cycling, jogging, or playing soccer, its cheaper and more enjoyable.  If you have to workout in your home, I would recommend a cheap jumprope.  Having said that, if you are determined to spend money on equipment for indoor use, here is how you can tell if a piece of equipment is good.   First of all, good cardio equipment is very expensive and typically costs over a thousand dollars  and has three main characteristics

• If the equipment elevates your heart rate into the target zone, then its good cardio - simple as that.
• adjustable speed, very impt
• sturdy = heavy, never seeen anything sturdy under 50lbs most well over a hundred
• sufficient adjustable resistance

OK, some common questions I get about cardio.  Many people seem to be looking for shortcuts to cardio.  What if I sprint, can I just do 1 mile?  NO! You must do your cardio a MINIMUM of 20min, preferably 40-60min.  What if I do interval training, can I just do 15min - NO!  You must do your cardio a MINIMUM of 20min, preferably 40-60min.  I get questions about interval training all the time so lets talk about that a moment.  Interval training is alternating bursts of speed followed by short rests, for example in running you might sprint for 60s and walk for 30s.  Studies have shown that exercising in this fashion can burn off more calories than steady cardio.  If you want to do interval training:

1. you still need to do it for a min of 20min daily
2. dont rest so long that your heartrate drops below the target heart rate zone (purple)
3. Be mindful of injuries, make sure to stretch - you are much more likely to get injured sprinting than

Wow, I'm really groggy myself.  Time for me to do cardio before I fall asleep.

Everybody wants a big chest and arms, you dont have to nag people to do bench press or bicep curls.  Many people though neglect legs thinking that they can just wear long pants their whole life long but thats a BBIIIIIIIIIG mistake. 

Finally a home workout for quads that is as good as anything a gym has to offer!  Took me awhile to come up with a safe, effective exercise people can do at home for quads with simple equipment.   Most home exercises for quads work only work for beginners but these puppies you can really load the weight on!  There are very few quad exercises I feel I can safely lift large amounts of weight and this is one of them.  I love the burn and even more I love being so incredibly sore the next days that walking is difficult and going down stairs impossible :)

So, how do you know if you have the dreaded "peg-leg disease"?  Take this simple test, measure the circumference of your chest and measure the circumference of your legs (at the largest point), take the ratio (chest/legs).  If your chest/leg ratio is:

            0 to 1.7            Congratulations, you have thighs of death!

            1.7 to 1.85       Great legs, nicely proportioned to your torso

            1.85 to 2.0       Your legs are lagging a bit but its not embarrassing

            >2.0                 You have severe chicken-leg syndrome

OK, to do these skateboard squats you need a skateboard, a stool, and a used set of dumbbells thats all.  The stool safely limits your range of motion and the dumbbells are held in each hand and provide the resistance.  Important points on form, your knee should never bend more than 90 degrees as this puts lots of strain on the knee and risks injury.  The knee should not extend past the toes, if it does, then move your feet further from the wall. 

To start, grab the dumbbells and slowly start sliding up the wall and then very slowly slide back down again. 

Couple other points.  Do these slowly 1-2s up down.  No bouncing on the stool, its just there for safety.  When you go down just touch it very lightly.  Now lets talk about foot position.  Some people say you should point your toes in, some say you should point them out, I say - use a natural stance.  We want to minimize the stress on the knee joint so stand naturally, look at your feet - that is how they should be angled.  The quads are really strong muscles so you may find that the dumbbells you are using are very heavy and you might need to use wrist straps so that you can hold them long enough - dont want to be dropping the weights.

I know I harp on this a lot, but its really important that you keep everything in balance.  You do legs AND upper body.  And when you do quads you do hamstrings too.  Big quads and tinsy hamstrings not only looks stupid but its really bad for the knee joint.  I actually had knee pain that was being caused from quads being too strong for the hamstrings and they were causing my kneecaps to track incorrectly, brining my hamstring strength into proportion solved the pain.

This video brings up a very important point, please listen to this and save hundreds of your hard earned dollars.  BELIEVE NOTHING YOU SEE!  The first and last scenes of this video are photoshopped (the ones panning down the still images).  In this case it was just to be funny and make a point, and I made sure people know its fake with the popup "photoshopped image", but most people are not so honest.   There are tens of thousands of products out there promising "Gain 20lbs muscle in 8weeks, guaranteed" and they have tons of before-after photos of "satisfied customers" prooving how great their sh*t is.  DONT FALL FOR IT!  These people have no shame, they will do anything to get your money - including altering before-after photographs.  Believe nothing you see, believe nothing you see!  Dont spend your money on fitness supplements/devices/products unless there is solid research (double blind, peer reviewed article in a reputable journal) showing that the product works AND is safe.

Its really important for the health of your shoulders and knees that all the muscles, even the small ones, are strong and in balance.  With shoulders many people just like doing the pressing exercises because you can do a lot of weight with presses but as I mentioned before its important to keep things in balance.  The reverse fly is one of those important exercises, it works the back of the shoulders, the traps, the upper back,  and can help with posture.

The right way to do this exercise is to bend over so the back is horizontal and motionless, you can lightly touch your head to a table or bench to give tactile feedback that you are remaining motionless.  From this position, we slowly raise the dumbbells up with straight arms till the dumbbells are as high as our shoulders, we hold in this position for a second, then slowly let the weight down.  When the weights are in the up position, your body should look like a "T" when viewed from above , your arms should be in a line with each other not swept back like a 747 ready for takeoff.

There are some alternative ways to do this exercise.  If you are concerned about your lower back, you can also do these laying face down on a bench with your head hanging out over the end of the bench.  The bench needs to be tall enough that your hands dont hit the ground when you do this.   If you belong to a gym a great way to do this exercise is to use pec dec machine in reverse. 

Lots of ways to do this exercise incorrectly:

arch back like a hissing cat
sag your back like a banana
going too fast
bobbing your head up and down
too heavy, can't get dumbbells up to shoulder height
go too high up risking shoulder injury
swinging weights up
using legs
arms swept back like a 747 ready for takeoff

Everybody has been asking for leg exercises, here is my current personal favorite - leg extensions. It is important to note that there is a lot of controversy about this exercise, many physical therapists strongly advise against it. I emphasize this a lot but its even more important in this exercise, JOINT PAIN IS NOT GOOD. If you get any twinges of pain in you knee, STOP immediately.

It is very important to limit the range of motion on this exercise so as not to cause injury.  We want to only move the knee 20 degrees.  Hold the leg extended straight, then allow the foot to go down 4-5" (20 degrees) then back up slowly.  If you allow the knee to bend so much that it is at a 90 degree angle then you are putting incredible stress on the knee joint and are asking for injury. 

Also of the utmost importance is to perform this exercise very, very slowly.  No bouncing or using momentum whatsoever.  Try to count "one onethousand, two one thousand" when going up, and again when going down, thats the pace you should strive for. Its very tempting to do a bouncy motion because you can do a lot more weight that way but you are just begging to get injured if you do it. 

1. dont raise the dumbbells above your shoulders
2. go slow, try for 2 seconds up and 2 seconds down
3. keep the shoulders back, try to pinch the shoulder blades together
4. dont drop your elbows, keep them at exactly the same height at all times as the dumbbells
5. dont move any other part of your body in an attempt to help the weights up.  It helps to be seated to enforce this.
   

People spend hundreds of millions of dollars buying gym memberships and fitness equipment this time of year in preparation for their new years resolutions but you dont have to.  Getting in shape doesnt require money, just knowledge and dedication and this video will put you on the road to fitness.

In this video I will show you how to achieve your new years resolution of losing weight and getting stronger with a simple 30 minute home workout.  This video assumes that you have no experience with fitness or weightlifting so dont worry, we are not going to use any intimidating equipment.  You will feel better and have more energy after your very first workout!

OK, now for our workout, there are only three exercises - crunches for abs, pushups for chest, shoulders and triceps, and pullups for lats and biceps.  And dont worry, if you cant do a single pushup or pullup I will show you how you can get started and build up your strength.  This workout is for everyone, no matter how out of shape you are.  You probably did these three exercises back in PE as a kid, but I'm going to show you how to do them correctly so you dont get injured. 

On Monday/Wednesday/Friday do 15 minutes of cardio and this 15 minute workout.  On the other four days of the week, do 30 minutes of cardio.

Here are some in-depth videos if you want more information on any of the following subjects:

   Pushups:

            http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S990kHLMVFg

   Pullups:

            http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9WvH8at_xJw

   Crunches:

            http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TKg_cdwq9l4

   Getting 6-pack abs:

            http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PF5yTLzWyBU

            http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9J5uHdUsNs

Anyone can be healthier, have more energy, sleep better, and feel better about themselves through bodybuilding. Bodybuilding doesn't have to be expensive or take a lot of time, gyms are great but home workouts can save you time and money. A cheap dumbbell set from a garage sale or walmart is all it takes to get started with your home workouts.

For more information on home workouts, please see my free website (no advertising either):

http://www.scoobysworkshop.com

Limitation of Liability: Consult with your doctor before starting any exercise program! I am not a medical professional. It is your responsibility to critically evaluate this information and with the help of your physician decide if it is appropriate for you.

For wide, flaring lats the alternating grip pullup is great!  In this variant of the pullup we put much more load on one lat than the other to shock it into growing stronger.  This pullup is a stepping stone to a one handed pullup.  To do this pullup, one palm is toward our face and the other faces away from our face.  We center our body under the palm that is facing our face so as to overload this lat.  We do as many reps as we can in this position then, without rest, swap grips and do it the other way.  This is killer, dont expect to be able to do too many of these!

Anyone can be healthier, have more energy, sleep better, and feel better about themselves through bodybuilding. Bodybuilding doesn't have to be expensive or take a lot of time, gyms are great but home workouts can save you time and money. A cheap dumbbell set from a garage sale or walmart is all it takes to get started with your home workouts.

For more information on home workouts, please see my free website (no advertising either):

http://fitness.scoobysworkshop.com

Limitation of Liability: Consult with your doctor before starting any exercise program! I am not a medical professional. It is your responsibility to critically evaluate this information and with the help of your physician decide if it is appropriate for you.

Focus is one of the most important factors in the success of a bodybuilder, as important as nutrition or genetics.  You need to be 100% focused on your workout or you are wasting your time.   Most bodybuilders I see at the gym just go thru their workouts like each set was just something to check off their todo list, their minds are everywhere except on what they are doing.  Working out like that will not let you achieve your full potential.

There are two components of focus, what you do during your set and what you do between your sets.  When you are doing your set, your mind will be on two things and two things only:

1. thinking about what muscles are working

2. trying to 'feel' the muscle (more on this later)

During the set, no doing anything else.  No talking, no looking around, no thinking about what exercise you are going to do next.  Your mind is 100% focused on the set you are doing right now.  Lets talk a little about the first item, what muscles are working.  When a joint is rotating, a muscle is working.  If two joints are rotating then two or more muscles are working.  If you are doing biceps and your shoulder is rotating as well as your elbow then you are exercising your shoulder as well as your bicep.  By constantly thinking about what joints are rotating and what muscles are working you make sure you are focused 100% on the muscle you are working out.

Now lets talk about what  you do between sets by first listing what we are not going to do.  Between sets we are not going to:

• talk

• text

• read

• walk to the water fountain

• stretch

• do abs

• daydream

• look around and check people out

Here is what we are going to do between sets:

• think about our last set.  Did we meet our rep goal?  Did we use good form?  Did it feel good?

• think about our next set.  How many reps will we do?  How will it feel?  What is our reward if we achieve the goal or the punishment should we fail?

• visualize.  Visualize how we will accomplish our goal, close your eyes and see what it will look like and how it will feel.  There are many good sports programs out there to help will visualization, check them out

• practice muscle control, this will help us to 'feel' the exercise while we are doing it.   A car with loose spark plug wires doesnt develop much power because the anemic spark cant fully ignite the gas, similarly, if your brain doesnt have a good connection to your muscles you cant contract them fully.  The idea behind these muscle control drills is to improve the connection between your brain and the muscle so you can contract precisely the muscles you want and contract them 100%.  One of the early great bodybuilders back in the late 1800's was Sandow and he had amazing muscle control.  He came up with control exercises that are still used to this day in various reincarnation, read about Sandow and his methods here.  Sandow had amazing ab control, if you want to see a modern day example of a bodybuilder with great ab control, check out youtube user sixpackbn's video.

Here is one example of how you can work on muscle control for pecs

• hold a ball out at head level with your arms fully extended, elbows slightly bent

• squeeze the ball trying to pop it.  Feel your pecs flex.

• now try and flex your pecs but only squeezing an imaginary ball

• after you have master that, try and flex one pec at a time while the other is relaxed

I am a strong advocate of using lighter weights with perfect form but be careful not to use this as an excuse to slack off. You have to be 100% focused on what you are doing when you are using perfect form and higher reps because it can be too easy to just quit when you are bored or reach some arbitrary number of reps. It can take incredible focus to keep pumping out those reps and keep the mind from wandering, especially after rep 14 or so. If you cant focus intensely while doing the higher reps then you wont get any results.