How to Gain Muscles & Weight

Want to Live Longer? Put on (Muscle) Weight

2009-06-23T16:11:00.035+08:00

A new Japanese study found that slightly chubby people live up to seven years longer than their skinny counterparts

Need more motivation to hit the gym and shed that beanpole bod? Now you can add longevity to your list.

A recent study done by Tohoku University revealed that people who are a little overweight at age 40 live six to seven years longer than very thin people.

While the media has been constantly reminding us about the risk of overweight and obesity, here is one refreshing news that warns us that being too skinny can be even more dangerous.

The large-scale study involving some 50,000 residents of Miyagi Prefecture age 40 or more shows that thin people have the shortest life expectancy, with an average lifespan that was shorter by about five years than that of obese people.

The main reasons for the shorter lifespans of skinny people were believed to include their increased risk to diseases such as pneumonia and the fragility of their blood vessels.

In this 12-year study, researchers looked at the past physiques of the participants and analyzed the ages they lived to from the age of 40 and grouped them according to their body mass index (BMI).

In case you take this as a cue for binge eating, the researchers do not recommend that people eat as much as they want.

"People won't extend their lives by straining to put weight on", said Associate Professor Shinichi Kuriyama, leader of the study.

The safest and best way to gain weight is still to pack on some lean muscles and keep your fat percentage low. Not only will the extra muscles help you to burn off excess fat, they will also make you look good, with or without clothes.

In case you are not aware, muscular people with low lard level tend to have falsely high BMI readings which put them under the overweight or obese category. Because BMI is purely numerical and thus can't tell the difference between the weight of muscles and the weight of fat. For all we know, there might just be some muscular subjects who have been wrongly classified as obese or overweight in the Japanese study.

7 Powerful Ways to Become a Muscle Building Machine

2009-05-19T17:42:00.026+08:00

Not seeing anymore gain in your weight training? Then it's time to revamp your normal routine with this 7 powerful methods

In order to build muscles and increase overall lean body mass, you must supply your body with the right conditions to grow. And resistance training is one of the good ways to stimulate your body for muscle growth.

But as those who have been training regularly would know, our body adapts quickly to training routine and muscle mass gain will diminish equally fast if you do the same set of exercises or use the same amount of loads day in day out.

So it is important to introduce varieties into your training so that your body does not get used to the demands placed on it and thus, preventing it from kicking into maintenance mode.

Here are some ways you can use to spice up your training and keep your body in muscle-building mode. The key to success here is not to pick and choose only those that you like from the list below, but to use all the methods--one at a time. When you've exhausted the list, mix them all up in different combinations to keep your muscles guessing.

Use Higher Loads. Increase the amount of weight, however small it may be, you can lift in every bodybuilding session without sacrificing good form and proper technique.

Drop Reps to Up Loads. There will come a point when you find that you can't add more weight to a particular exercise. But, don't be fooled. There is actually an easy way to get around that. Go ahead and increase the loads, but instead of lifting it for the usual number of repetitions (reps), try decreasing the reps while keeping the overall work done slightly higher. Say you can usually complete a 10-kilo dumbbell biceps curl in 12 reps. Now if you increase the weight to 12.5 kg, but decrease the number of reps to 10, you would have effectively increase your overall work done from 120 J to 125 J--a small but definite improvement.

Be Creative. Don't restrict yourself to the machines and weights you can find in the gym for your training. Replace some of your machine or free weight exercises with body weight exercises periodically. Experiment with other equipment like kettlebell, exercise band, or even a towel to perform traditional weight training exercises.

Play with Time. Kick your muscles out of their comfort zone by changing the speed you lift weights. If you are usually a hare when it comes to completing a rep, then go slower, and vice versa. For instance, you can slow down the negative portion (that is the lowering phase) of an exercise by counting to 4 seconds to complete the move. The weight will feel heavier when you go slow and that's a good sign, because your muscles will feel the same too.

Sets aren't Cast in Stone. Have you been performing all exercises in sets of 3 religiously? Then it's time to vary the number. But bear in mind that when you change the number of sets, you will need to adjust the number of reps or the amount of weights you lift accordingly.

Don't be a Bore. There are many ways to work a muscle group. So there is no reason why you should keep doing the same old exercises. Even a seemingly done-to-death exercise can be rejuvenated. For example, a conventional bench press can be performed in many ways: with dumbbell or barbell, on an incline, decline or flat bench, and the angle of incline or decline can be further tweaked to give subtle emphasis to different parts of the pectorals.

Super-charge Your Training. Instead of performing your weight training exercises sequentially one after another, do two different exercises back-to-back with no rest in between. This is commonly known as supersetting. Not only will this increase the intensity of your training, it will also increase your productivity in the gym and shorten your training time. There are many ways to introduce supersets into your training routine. Have fun experimenting!

Are You Well Stocked for Massive Muscle Gain?

2009-05-16T09:21:00.050+08:00

Every muscle building goal requires dedicated clean eating. And clean eating starts from the innocent-looking refrigerator. Makeover your freezer and start gaining pounds of lean muscles today

This is the third year in a row you have been trying to gain lean mass and reduce body fat so that those hard earned muscles can rear their head above the layers of fat piled on top of them.

But it's still not working.

Before you throw up your hands in exasperation, stop and do this one simple exercise. Go look into your fridge and take stock of what's inside.

Do you find shelves choked full of of fresh fruits, nuts, seeds, vegetables and lean cuts of chicken and red meat? Or do you find bags of potato chips, cakes, candies, chocolates and other junk food?

Get where this is going? If you are not stocking your refrigerator with proper food, then you are most likely not going to put on the right kind of weight, if at all.

From now on, give your cold box a makeover. Throw out or give away those junk food and sweetened drinks that have been occupying the fruit drawer and freezer, and stockpile your cold box with the following foods:

Put bottles of plain water, preferably clean filtered water, on the top shelf so that you can grab one anytime.

Stash big bags of frozen berries in your fridge for quick smoothies and salads. Take your pick: strawberries, blueberries or raspberries, as long as they're not sugar-coated.

Get unsweetened, unsalted mixed nuts and seeds and keep them in airtight see-through containers to satisfy in-between meal cravings.

Fill the fruit drawer with real fruits.

Cut up raw or cooked vegetables and save them in ziplock bags for healthy snacks.

Buy one-week worth of chicken or turkey breast meats and marinated them for a quick, protein-rich home cooked meal.

Beat your sugar craving and boost your protein intake with unsweetened peanut butter and raw honey.

Get a dozen of low-cholesterol eggs and use three of them every alternate morning for a muscle-building and brain-enhancing breakfast.

Complete your breakfast with reserves of unsweetened and fat-free milk, yogurt and cottage cheese. Yogurt and cottage cheese topped with nuts, fruits or honey also make excellent late night snacks.

Muscle Building Snacks to Beat Night Hunger Pangs

2009-05-11T15:17:00.026+08:00

It's close to bedtime and you are famished. Should you head straight to the fridge and grab whatever you can find? No, of course not! Check out these foods that satisfy your hunger, build muscles and don't add an inch to your waist

If you are a typical hardgainer, your metabolism usually works so well that by 10pm you would have digested most of the food that you've eaten at 6pm.

So should you ignore your hunger and go straight to bed (hopefully by 11 pm so that you get 7 to 8 hours of sleep), or should you eat and risk accumulating fat over the night?

You probably think this is a no-brainer since this is a website about gaining weight. But, let me emphasize again. We -- that's you and I -- want to gain lean muscle weight, not weight loaded with fat!

At night, our body slows down as it gets ready for sleep. Loading it with loads of calories right before bed will only tell your body to store the excess, unused calories as fat. So you need to be even more selective about the type of food that you eat close to bedtime than that during the day.

Here's a list of foods you can safely chew on without any negative consequences. Go easy on the portion. The suggested serving size is only a guide. You should stop eating as soon as you don't feel hungry.

The timing is important too. Aim to consume your night snack at least two hours before you sleep so that there's ample time for the body to break down the food and not disturb your sleep during the night.

Two handfuls of unsalted and unsweetened nuts. Flush down with a glass of water.

One apple and a handful of blueberries.

One cup of cocoa made with skim milk.

One baked or steamed sweet potato (with skin), drizzle with extra virgin olive oil.

One cup of low-fat unsweetened yogurt topped with slices of ripe banana.

A small bowl of unsweetened oatmeal with warm low-fat milk and a handful of raisins.

Two slices of wholegrain bread spread with unsweetened peanut butter.

One slice of wholemeal toast with two scrambled eggs.

Any muscle building smoothie. If the portion is too large, reduce the ingredients accordingly.

A slice of steamed salmon, anyone?

Blend Your Way to Healthy Weight Gain

2009-04-12T18:27:00.021+08:00

Boost your weight and muscle gain plan with great-tasting and easy-to-prepare smoothies

Smoothie can be a great time saver and yet pack a punch for busy people. If you want to gain weight and muscles, a smoothie can be a quick meal that will last you for 2 to 3 hours, allowing you to eat more meals in a day and increase your daily caloric intake.

Here are the recipes of some great-tasting smoothies to give you the extra calories for healthy weight gain:

1. Banana Peanut Butter Smoothie
1 ripe bananas peeled
3 tbsp unsweetened peanut butter
1/2 cup low-free chocolate frozen yogurt
1 cup low-fat milk
Add honey to taste

2. Tropical Fruits Paradise Smoothie
1 ripe banana peeled
1 ripe mango sliced
1 cup frozen pineapples
4 fresh dates (if you use dried dates, soak them in water for 1 hour first)
1 cup soy milk or low-fat milk

3. Berry Berry Smoothie
1/2 cup frozen blueberries
1/2 cup frozen strawberries
3/4 cup unsweetened pineapple juice
1 cup soy milk or low-fat milk
Add honey to taste

4. Nuts & Seeds Smoothie
1 ripe banana peeled
8 almonds
1/2 cup sunflower seeds
1 cup soy milk or low-fat milk
Add honey to taste

5. Mix-n-Match Smoothie
1 ripe banana peeled
1 ripe mango sliced
1/2 cup frozen blueberries
1/2 cup unsweetened pineapple juice
1/2 cup of low-fat vanilla frozen yogurt
Add honey to taste

Is Anxiety Sabotaging Your Weight Gain Plan?

2009-03-20T16:42:00.004+08:00

Overlooked by many, undue worries are affecting the health of many people. Read on to find out how your worries might be messing up your weight and muscle gain goals

Do you often worry yourself sick? Do you panic whenever things don't go your way? Do you know that your constant anxiety could be undermining your weight and muscle gain plan?

Anxiety isn't just any emotion. It triggers powerful reactions within the body called the fight or flight response. This primal inborn response to stress prepares and protects us from perceived harm, whether real or imaginary, by stopping or slowing down digestion, constricting blood vessels, increasing blood flow and sweat, accelerating heart beat and sending a rush of adrenaline and other stress hormones through our body.

If we are still living in the Stone Age, the fight or flight response will save us from saber tooth tigers by priming us for an expected confrontation, or to run for our lives. However, in modern times, either response is no longer appropriate in most circumstances.

In fact, if the fight or flight response is constantly activated, it may even result in chronic suppression of the immune and digestive system, leaving you weak, exhausted, fearful and chronically thin.

To gain weight, absorption of nutrients from food is crucial. It is not enough just to stuff our face with food and supplements to pack on extra pounds and muscles. If your body isn't capable of breaking down and and absorbing all the stuff you put into your stomach, then you are just not going to see any results.

So the next time you feel your anxiety rising up, try the following tips to calm yourself down before it ruins your digestive system:

Control your breathing. If you are breathing too quickly, slow down and breathe deeply, but be careful not to go into hyperventilation mode.

Count slowly from 1 to 10. Count 1 after one complete in and out breath, and so on.

Write down your worries. Don't let your thoughts run wild in your mind. Putting them down on paper will help you to see things clearly and also put them in their right perspective.

Meditate regularly. Meditation is a way to familiarize yourself with the workings of your own mind. With meditation, you will realize that most of your thoughts are, err, just thoughts. They are often not real and are either replays of past events or useless worries about the future.

Talk to someone. Don't keep your feelings bottled up. Talk over your worries with someone you can trust. If you prefer to remain anonymous, call free helplines manned by trained volunteers.

Focus on what you can do. It is not helpful to spend time worrying. Worrying is not going to help you to get anything done. Just focus on the one thing that you can do now, and then go do it.

If you find your feelings of anxiety becoming frequent and intense, do not hesitate to seek professional help to deal with your anxiety issue. Have confident that your anxieties can be overcome. Good luck and all the best!

Tips on How to Build Muscles and Gain Lean Weight

2009-03-11T13:24:00.074+08:00

If you want to gain some serious muscles and weight, check out today's tips and start using them in your daily life

When you are trying to increase muscles and weight, it is important to have the right training and diet concepts and attitude. Now, make yourself comfortable, read the 6 tips below, and save yourself some costly mistakes.

Eat Frequent Small Meals

As thin people tend to feel full easily, break up your daily 3 square meals into 5, preferably 6 small meals a day. The idea is to get you to munch on food every 2 to 3 hours throughout the day. Your daily food schedule will therefore look something like this:

8:00 am Breakfast

10:00 am Tea break

12:30 pm Lunch

3:00 pm Tea Break

6:00 pm Dinner

8:30 pm Light supper

This way of eating will not only supply your body with a continuous supply of calories and essential nutrients for muscle building, it will also be less taxing for your stomach than taking 3 large meals.

Bonus Tip: Not every meal has to be solid foods. You can also take self-concocted or off-the-shelf smoothies, protein shakes, or meal-replacement drinks. If you do buy off-the-shelf supplements, make sure you choose the quality products that aren't fill with sugars and useless fillers. Whenever possible, choose whole foods over supplements.

Choose Nutritious and Calorie-Dense Food

The rationale is simple. Since you can't eat a lot in one sitting, make sure that the small amount that you do put in your mouth counts a lot. To do that, you need not just nutritious foods, but also foods that are relatively high in calories.

These include avocados, lean chicken breasts, salmons, nuts, dried fruits like raisins, concentrated fruit juices, sweet potatoes, potatoes and brown rice.

But, this doesn't mean that you don't eat green fibrous vegetables just because they are lower in calories. You still need them for their fibers and their crucial supply of antioxidants, vitamins and minerals. And you should include them in every meal. However, make the calorie-dense foods your centerpieces in your meals instead.

Beware of high calorie but nutritiously empty foods. Most highly processed and convenience foods like pastries, cookies, snacks, desserts and fast foods, are either full of fat, sugars or both. They will make you gain weight all right, but only in the form of body fat that accumulates around your waist, thigh and backside. Such weight gain has been shown in many studies to increase your risk of chronic diseases (think diabetes and stroke) and cancers. This is not what the type of weight we want to gain here. So, limit them, or better, avoid them as much as you can.

Bonus Tip: Fill up your plate with quality calorie-dense foods first, then supplement with other nutritious foods with lower calorie density like greens.

Wake Up Your Muscles

Without any stimulus, your muscles will not grow no matter how much quality foods you chow down. Simple as that.

So you must provide the reason for your muscles to use the foods you eat to grow bigger and stronger. By weight training of course!

Assuming you are a beginner and is weight training correctly, you're likely to see some results in the first couple of months. You'll gain some muscles and weight, and your appetite may even increase. But, beyond that, your gain will start to slow and even plateau. Why is this so?

The reason being your muscles smarten up pretty quickly. Over time, they get used to the same stresses that you have placed on them and become lazy. In order to 'wake them up', you'll need to put them under greater stresses, or loads, which they are not accustomed to. This is known as the overloading principle.

There are many ways to do that, including changing the exercises you perform, increasing the weights you carry, or mixing up the number of repetitions or sets you perform. The point is to keep your muscles always on their toes, so that they don't 'fall asleep'.

Without question, regardless of how you creatively tax your muscles, you must always do it safely without causing any injuries to yourself.

Bonus Tip: Switch your weight training routines every 4 weeks to keep your muscles guessing and to prevent yourself from getting bored.

Incorporate Compound Exercises into Your Routine

Compound exercises, like Squats, Bench Presses, Deadlifts, Shoulder Presses, Chin Ups and Dips, are those that involve several groups of muscles. They usually involve the large muscles and hence, are effective if you wish to see some serious muscle and weight gain.

But, the good news is, they are also effective in building the smaller muscle groups, so that you don't have to devote a lot of time doing isolated exercises like Biceps Curls and Leg Raises.

Bonus Tip: Always perform the compound exercises first as they are more demanding.

Give Your Muscles the Rest They Deserve

Isn't this contradicting the point about working the muscles hard so that they will grow? No, not at all. The important thing to understand and fully digest into your system is that, muscles don't grow in the gym. They don't grow when you are working out. Yes, they seem to swell and appear bigger, but that's because of the blood getting locked inside the muscle tissues. After your workout, they deflate like balloons.

Muscles only grow when you are sleeping. Deep sleep to be exact. That's when your body carries out the all-important functions of recovering, healing and building, besides dreaming.

When you are pumping iron in the gym, you are essentially tearing your muscle tissues apart by brute force, telling your body that the existing muscles are not strong enough to do the job. This forces your body to build new muscles to meet the new demand. And this repair and build process is carried out when you are resting.

How much is enough? It varies. Some survive well on 6 hours, while some need at least 8 hours a day in order to feel afresh. The best way to determine how long a rest you need is to ask your own body. Experiment by waking up on your own without using an alarm clock (have a contingency plan in case you overslept!). Let your natural circadian cycle wakes you up. Keep track of the number of hours you sleep each day for about 2 weeks and you'll see a pattern emerging.

Related to this point about giving your muscles enough rest, you should allow 2 or more days for your muscles to recover fully before starting the next training. The reasons are explained in my earlier post Have you bought into these weight room myths? Part 2, point 1, so I shan't repeat here.

Bonus Tip: Give your muscles a light touch. Those that still feel sore are not ready for the gym. Either train other parts that have recovered, which may be tough if you do predominantly compound movements, or rest for another day or two.

Train Till You Drop

This point has also been highlighted in point 3 of my earlier post Have you bought into these weight room myths? Part 1.

Basically, this point means training to muscle failure. What do I mean by that, you ask? Muscle failure is the point when you can no longer complete a single repetition. That is the time when you are sending a clear-cut signal to your body: these muscle can't cut it. All the repetitions before this one last crucial rep are merely warming up and preparing you to reach this stage. Needless to say, if you don't reach this point, your muscles have no reasons to grow and you are just wasting your time.

Bonus Tip: Don't be obsessed with the number of repetitions or sets you perform. Concentrate on reaching the point of no return -- muscle failure, that is!

Have You Bought into These Weight Room Myths? Part 2

2009-03-05T09:11:00.002+08:00

In this continuation of Have You Bought into These Weight Room Myths? -- Part 1, we will expose more myths that might be stopping you from gaining the muscles and weight you deserve.

In my last post on weight room myths, I debunked myths related to unrealistic expectation, protein supplements and the "8-12 reps" mantra.

Today, I'll finish off with the next four popular weight training myths.

The more you train, the more muscles you gain.
Many people thought that since weight training promotes muscle growth, then lengthening their training session or increasing their training frequency will help them to build even more muscles. Simple as that, right? But no, it just doesn’t add up this way.

In order for a muscle to grow, you need to let it rest and recover after you have thoroughly exhausted it. If training is resumed before recovery is completed, you could lose the very things you are trying so hard to gain, that is muscular strength and size.

Depending on how hard you have trained, you should allow 2 or more days for your muscles to recover fully before starting the next training. The general rule of thumb is: The greater the intensity of your training, the shorter you should train and the longer you should rest.

The sure-proof way to find out how long your rest days should be is by paying attention to your body. If your muscles feel sore to the touch, then your body is telling you that it isn’t ready for the next workout. Heed its advice, give it what it needs and your body will reward you with more energy for the next session and ultimately, grow more muscles for you.

Do cardio to burn more calories.
Although cardiovascular exercises can help you to burn calories, a much more efficient method would be to build more muscles to shed your body fat.

As the body requires more energy to sustain muscles, any extra muscles you grow will help you to burn more calories 24/7, even when you are asleep! Compare that with burning calories only when you are on the treadmill.

Stretching before working out prevents injuries.
I was once a firm believer of the stretching theory. Even now if I am not careful, I will find myself unconsciously stretching my limbs when I step into the gym. Because since young, my cohort, and many previous ones before me, had been consistently reminded by teachers in schools, and later trainers in the army, to stretch before commencing any exercise. We were warned of the possible health consequences if we dare to jump straight into the intended physical activity without first giving our muscles the ‘loosening’ they need.

But studies have shown that what is needed most before any exercise is not stretching. In fact, stretching a ‘cold’ muscle does little to increase your range of motion and may even destabilize it, increasing your risk of injuries rather than reducing them. What you need instead, is a good warm-up.

You can get your blood pumping to your muscles by performing body weight exercises such as squats, push-ups, reverse lunges, jumping jacks and stationary jog. Alternatively, you can also spend between five to ten minutes on an elliptical trainer or a rowing machine at a comfortable pace to warm you up.

After you have finished your workout, do a thorough stretching of all the muscles you have just worked on, so as to maintain or increase their flexibility.

Weight training does not build cardiovascular fitness.
Contrary to popular belief, a well-designed and properly performed high-intensity weight training can help you to build not only muscular strength, but cardiovascular fitness as well.

Take the example of circuit training. Because circuit program exercises quickly alternate between various stations with very little rest, your heart rate remains elevated and sustained above a resting level throughout the workout. This increases both strength and cardiovascular conditioning, and reduces the need for a separate cardiovascular exercise in the workout.

What's more, weight training has some added advantages over certain cardiovascular exercises. Not only does it help you to build strength and muscles that burn fats 24/7, it is also less damaging to your joints.

Back to Have You Bought into These Weight Room Myths -- Part 1

Have You Bought into These Weight Room Myths? Part 1

2009-03-03T09:09:00.001+08:00

Demystifying common myths in the gym that might hamper your weight training progress

When I first picked up weight training about seven years ago, like most people, I just copy what the other guys were doing and started hitting the machines and free weights. For fear of looking stupid, I didn’t question why the guys were lifting the way they did. Instead, I started reading glossy magazines with big guys on the covers and thought I knew everything I need to know about weight training.

Needless to say, l got almost no results in the first two years and the little muscles I gained quickly evaporated due to my intermittent, half-hearted appearances in the gym. It was only when I knew a friend who is a committed gym-goer that I started to put in serious efforts in weight training. I started to read books that I can get hold of from the libraries and even attended courses, eventually receiving my fitness instructor certification in 2006.

Even then, I found that conflicting theories and concepts abound in the gym as well as in books. Some people advocate daily training, while some swear by their 3-times-a-week routine. Some books recommend eight to twelve repetitions per set, while some suggest eight or less. The best way to walk out of this contradictory web of information, I thought, is to find out myself.

Listed below are my opinions in response to some common misconceptions pervaded either by the media or by clueless instructors and trainees. Use what makes sense to you, feel free to question those that don't and test them out for yourself.

You can be as big as you want.
While it is commonly accepted that one’s height remains more or less constant after a certain age, the same understanding does not seem to apply to physique, at least to many gym-goers. Some people have the notion that they can grow as big as they want, as long as they train hard and long enough.

But sad to say, like any sport, how well you perform in bodybuilding is dependent on your genetic make-up. A genetically gifted person who is predisposed to developing bigger and stronger muscles can get away with a less intense program and yet produce good results, while an average person with a smaller built or less muscle fibers can work twice as hard but yet can never hope to become as big as his gifted counterpart.

It is a harsh fact to swallow. But realizing this early will save you from a lot of unnecessary frustrations and disappointments, and even save you time and money.

Does that mean you should give up your dream of becoming fitter, stronger and more muscular? Of course not! I am not a large guy by any standard, in fact I am considered as a ectomorph, but that doesn't stop me from enjoying a good workout. Instead of trying to become an Arnold Schwarzenegger clone, focus on realizing your unique physical potential. You can look as hunky and attractive in your own right without a 25" biceps or a 50" pectorals. Compete against yourself and aim to do better than you last did.

More protein = more muscles.
Many people have the mistaken notion that by taking protein supplements alone, they can grow muscles without any workout.

But, the fact is you will only grow muscles with proper training, rest and a good diet, supplemented with appropriate amount of proteins if necessary.

How much protein is appropriate? Aim for 1 gram of protein per kilogram of your body weight per day. If you weight 70 kilograms, then you'll need about 70 grams of protein a day. If your diet already contained good sources of protein like lean chicken meat, beans, milk, eggs and soya-based products, then you may not need additional protein supplement.

But, as most people eat out most of the time instead of preparing their own meals at home, your intake of quality protein may be hampered or irregular. If you suspect that your protein intake may be inadequate, then try adding small amount of protein into your diet. Don't start off with the standard amount recommended on the tub or bottle right away. Start small and check your progress.

You don't want to end up having too much protein in your body and end up gaining fat instead of muscles. Unlike glucose and fat, our body cannot store excess protein for later use. Excess protein ingested is excreted, converted to glucose or stored as fat.

In the long run, copious amount of protein may even mess up your health by putting you at higher risk of osteoporosis, kidney damage, atherosclerosis and certain types of cancers.

Do eight to twelve repetitions per set for every exercise.
Eight to twelve repetitions per set is a useful general guideline for weight training, especially to beginners. But, it can also sabotage you if you follow it blindly without paying attention to the condition of your body. Stopping after a predetermined number of repetitions, and artificially lowering the weights so that you can complete a prescribed number of repetitions and sets are the two side effects of following this guideline to the letter.

First, let’s understand how muscles grow. For a muscle to grow, you must subject it to stresses which it is incapable of handling, so that the muscle fibers has no choice but to become stronger and bigger (assuming proper diet and adequate rest are given). By not working your muscles to failure, as happened in the two cases above, your muscles will have no reason to grow at all.

What does it mean by working to muscle failure? It is the point where you can no longer complete a full repetition. In this last excruciating repetition, you are sending a clear-cut signal to your muscle: Grow stronger and bigger, or die!

Starting now, if growing muscles is your goal, don’t be too fixated on completing a prescribed number of repetitions or sets. Instead, focus on pushing your muscles to total fatigue.

Continue to Have You Bought into These Weight Room Myths -- Part 2

Understanding What is Underweight

2009-03-01T21:56:00.000+08:00

Exploring the risks and causes of underweight

If your body is naturally slim, tall and thin with low body fat, then you are considered as an ectomorph. Ectomorphs are the envies of endomorphs who are the direct opposite -- they put on weight easily, have wide waist and higher body fat content.

However, that doesn't mean that every ectomorph is happy with his or her body shape. The hard gainers, as what they have been called, have weight gaining problem which is not well-recognized in our society.

Unknown to many, severe underweight also carries an array of health risks, ranging from anemia caused by the lack of iron, loss of bone mass that can lead to osteoporosis, loss of periods in women, nutrient deficiency, heart irregularities, and even depression and panic attack. Not forgetting the significant impact poor self-image has on one's quality of life.

In this post, let us look at the possible causes of underweight.

Existing medical condition.
Loss of weight can be an onset of a medical condition. It could also be the result of a prolonged illness that you are not aware of. If you belong to the latter category, you may also suffer from poor digestive system and suffer from symptoms such as poor appetite, consistent defecation of loose stool, frequent diarrhea or stomach upset. You should ask for medical advice if you have these symptoms. If you register a sudden unexplained weight loss, you should also seek medical attention quickly.

Genetic reasons.
Your weight is also determined by the genes you inherit form your parents as well as your body type. Perhaps, you simply cannot consume enough food to keep up with your bodily processes. No matter what's the genetic reason, the fact is, if your body type is ectomorphic, it is highly unlikely for you to become Arnold number 2, no matter how much weight you carry or food you gorge on.

But, that doesn't mean that you cannot pack on the muscles. Ectomorphs can still gain decent muscles, contrary to what most people think, if they follow the right exercise plan and eat properly. And the good news is ectomorphs has nature on its side -- as they do not gain fat as easily as endomorphs and comparatively, they can also shed fat much more quickly due to their higher metabolism rate. So, being an ectomorph is not so bad after all. You are a natural, lean and mean fat burning machine!

Psychological problem.
If you are suffering from depression, stress or other psychological issues like anorexia, your appetite will be curbed and as a result, you will feel lethargic and listless. As your weight plummet due to inadequate food intake, you will become even more tired as your body has insufficient fuel to sustain your daily activities. This whole thing soon becomes a self-perpetuating vicious cycle. If you think you belong to this group, do yourself a favor by seeing a doctor today. If you don't get yourself out of this cycle that will only lead to self-destruction, nobody will.

Age.
Generally, as we age, our body's ability to absorb nutrients from the food we eat decreases gradually. In addition, the amount of food we eat also decreases with age due to poorer appetite and a decrease in the amount of activities in daily life. In the long-term, this can also lead to weight loss.

Privacy

2009-02-02T14:41:00.001+08:00

We take your privacy seriously

This Privacy Statement outlines the ways information are collected and disseminated on this site. By accessing or using this website, you accept, without limitation or qualification, the terms of this Privacy Statement.

How Information is Collected & Used

Generally, you can visit this website without revealing any personal information. However, for certain services, you may be required to register for an account, or complete and submit online form with personally identifiable information such as your name, email address and contact information. The information you provide is used only for the delivery of the online service(s) you have registered.

Use of Cookies

This site contains advertisements which may use technology such as cookies to compile information about where you, or others who are using your computer, saw the advertisements and determine which advertisements are clicked. This information allows advertisers to deliver targeted advertisements that they believe will be of most interest to you. The owner of this site does not have access to or control of the cookies that may be placed by third party advertisers.

You can chose to disable or selectively turn off our cookies or third-party cookies in your browser settings. However, this can affect how you are able to interact with our site as well as other websites. This could include the inability to login to services, and failure to view certain web pages.

One of our main advertisers, Google, also offers users to opt-out of this practice. If you would like to do so, please visit Google ad and content network privacy policy to learn more.

Site-wide Statistics

This site captures non-personal information, such as your IP address and the type of internet browser you are using, to analyze usage trends and statistics on an aggregated basis. The information logged does not contain any personally identifiable information.

Links to External Sites

This site contains links to other websites or resources over which the owner has no control. This website and its owner are not responsible for the privacy practices or the content of such websites or resources.

Order Forms

This site may provide order forms for you to buy products. When you place an order, this site collects contact information, such as your email address, and financial information (e.g. your credit card number). Contact information from the order forms is used only to get in touch with you when necessary. This includes sending you the product(s) you ordered and contacting you if there’s a problem with your order. Financial information that is collected is used to bill you for the order.

This website and its owner are not responsible for order forms belonging to other external sites, even though you may navigate to these external sites from the links on this site.

Newsletter

This site may offer free newsletter which requires interested visitors to provide a name and an email address to subscribe. The email address you provide is used only to send you the free newsletter, and you can unsubscribe any time by clicking a link in any issue of the newsletter.

Public Discussions

This site may make comment discussions, forums, chat rooms, message boards, and/or newsgroups available to registered users and/or visitors.

Please do not disclose any personally identifiable information in these publicly accessible areas of our website. Please be considerate and respectful of others while using any chat rooms, forums or message boards to share your opinion.

Security

This site has security measures in place to protect the loss, misuse, and alteration of the information under its control. This site provides a secure server for all credit card orders, securely encrypting all personal data with industry-standard methods. This site does not store credit card numbers for processed orders.

Privacy Statement Updates

Due to the Internet's rapidly evolving nature, this Privacy Statement may be updated from time to time. If so, the latest Privacy Statement will be posted on this page. You are encouraged to review this Privacy Statement regularly for any changes. Your continued use of this site will be subject to the then-current Privacy Statement.

If you have any questions about this privacy statement, please feel free to contact us.

About

2009-02-02T10:17:00.004+08:00

So, you want to gain solid muscles & weight?

Are you sick of being skinny and is determined to gain muscles? Then, this blog is for you. You will find tips and articles on how you can pack on lean muscles and gain quality weight, not fat.

But make no mistake. This is not the place where you are told to pop some supplements, veg out in front of the TV and expect to see results. Yes, supplements do help, but they will only help if you help yourself. That means, you got to work for the muscles.

Intimidated already? Don't fear. It's not as hard as you think. Read on and find out why.

Enjoy and have fun working out!

Contact

2009-02-02T10:15:00.001+08:00