Sculpt Your Physique

If you are clueless at the gym and yet hungry for plain, good
'ol professional advice to help you on the road to that
sculpted physique of a Greek god, fret not! All you have to do
is to have a solid commitment, use the knowledge gleaned from
this article and you will attain the body you want pronto. But
remember to warm up and cool down, as well as stretching before
and after each session; Or even better, after each set for
better muscle recovery and prevention of injuries.

Use Free Weights instead of Machines More Often

Machines will have its uses, but for a start, concentrate on
free weights. That means work almost exclusively with barbells
and dumb bells. Free weights recruit many stabilizing muscles
for balance and control. That means you will work a lot more
muscle parts other than the intended ones. That will give rise
to little bumps, striations and definitions all over your body
instead of one huge lump of muscle on your intended muscle.
Because of the extra stimulant created, your muscles grow
faster too. Why else do you think all professional body
builders almost exclusively use free weights?

Compound Exercises Instead Of Isolation Exercises

Use as many compound exercises as possible to your workouts.
Compound exercises are exercises that involve 2 or more joint
movements. Because they utilize more joints, that means greater
muscle mass are involved. Greater muscle mass means heavier
weights. Heavier weights means greater muscle gain.

Some excellent compound exercises are the Squat, Deadlift, Chin
ups, Dips, Bench press, Barbell Press, Lunges, Bent-Over Barbell
Row...etc.

Train with Intensity

You must train intensively like a mad man for your muscle to
grow. Try to do more reps or add more weight than the previous
session or your muscles will think, "Ah... we've done that.
Nothing new, so no need to grow bigger and stronger."

Because of this, it is important that every time you train
hard, you give your body time to recover as it has suffered
strains and actually sustained many small scarring. Your
muscles grow when you rest, especially when you sleep and not
in the gym. So sleep at least 8 hours a day. Also, do not train
everyday or work the same muscle group more than once or twice a
week. If your training was vigorous enough, do no more than an
hour per session.

Try not to do cardio work on the same day as your weight
lifting work. In fact, during the muscle building phase, you
should do less cardio work as aerobic exercises burn muscles.
You can increase your cardio work when we come to the cutting
phase, to lose fats and gain rippling definition.

Correct Technique And Form

Everywhere, everyday, you will see people using wrong form and
technique when training with weights. This not only compromises
your growth, it will also make you susceptible to injuries.

Wrong form occurs usually when people try to lift weights that
are too heavy, whether out of vanity or ignorance. As a guide,
always lift with strict focus on the muscle you intend to build
for that particular exercise. Feel it contract and extend. Lift
the weights deliberately and slowly. Never ever swing your
weights up especially when doing bicep curls or the military
press. Lower the weights slowly, taking about 3 seconds instead
of letting gravity pull the weight down. You must fight gravity
to stimulate the muscles, if not, half of your effort is going
to waste. Another common mistake is when people arch their back
when they are doing their bench presses. By arching your back,
you are using your spine to press the weight up. Your back must
be pressed against the bench at all times for the exercise to be
effectively working on your chest! However you MUST arch your
back when doing squats and deadlift.

With some exceptions, as a general rule, if you can lift a
weight in good form for more than 10 reps, it is too light.
Conversely, if you can't lift it more than 5 times in good
form, it is too heavy.

To Grow Fast and Huge, You Must Perform Lower Body Exercises!

This is what most people don't realize. Your lower body makes
up 60-70% of your musculature. If you don't train them, not
only will you look spider-legged, your entire body will not
grow as quickly and as large. Don't think that you can hide
those skinny legs in your pants! Most people do not train their
legs because squats, dead lifts and lunges can be very grueling
exercises. But it is precisely because of such intensity that
you will produce more growth hormones when you sleep and
overall muscular development is stimulated.

EAT and EAT Correctly

Losing weight and building muscles cannot happen at the same
time although there are methods to do so and will be too
technical to describe here. To lose weight, you must have a
caloric deficit. To build muscles, you must have more calories,
period! So do not be afraid to eat. Have plenty of protein,
moderate complex carbs and some good oil like Omega, olive,
flaxseed, fish etc., especially immediately after a workout.
That is when your body is most nutrient hungry and will absorb
whatever you eat very quickly. The longer you delay eating
after a workout, the less effective it will be. Even better,
take quick absorption protein shakes and high glycemic carbs
during this time. The carbs will induce insulin production
almost immediately and shuttle the protein to your muscle cells
very quickly.

Eat about 2 gm of protein for each kg of your bodyweight or 1
gm per pound of your body weight. Spread your meals evenly
throughout the day about 3 hours apart. It is advisable that
you have supplementation of Creatine, Protein, Multivitamins
and L-Glutamine.

Yes, you will probably gain weight, but a lot of it will be
muscle weight because muscles are heavier than fats. You may
also gain some fats because of the extra calories consumed.
Don't worry, it is a happy problem because the more muscles you
have, the easier the fats are to shed when you come to the
cutting up phase to get those rippling definitions.

Easy isn't it? Now that you know the facts, the rest is up to
your determination.


About The Author: Chris Chew is a personal trainer and count
actors, pageant winners, models and other celebrities as his
clients. He runs a fitness training school in Singapore at
http://www.sgfitnessonline.com and has written the book "Burn
Fat Build Muscles Fast." See his books at
http://www.sgfitness.com