9 Things Guys Do That Can Give Them Man Boobs

It doesn’t matter how much you can bench press—you could be growing woman-worthy breasts.

A shrinking scrotum isn’t steroids’ only threat to your manhood. So are “bitch tits,” a name reserved for the breasts men grow after

taking anabolic steroids to bulk up. This phenomenon is caused when the body converts the ridiculous amounts of testosterone in steroids into estrogen, says plastic surgeon Elliot W. Jacobs, MD, who specializes in gynecomastia surgery in New York City. About half of his gynecomastia patients are bodybuilders, many of whom either have B and C cup-sized breasts as well as puffy nipples, he says.

http://www.muscleandfitness.com/workouts/workout-tips/9-things-guys-do-can-give-them-man-boobs/slide/2

11:43 AM | 0 comments | Read More

View 12 Ways to Build Muscle Faster fOR FRee

Follow these key training tips to accelerate your muscle gains.

12 Ways to Build Muscle Faster

1. Use Proper Form
Bad form equals bad results. Having good form, feeling your muscles contracting against the weight will develop quality muscle. You will have better workouts and will experience more muscle development going for the feel, as opposed to letting your ego take over.

2. Keep It Simple
Don’t let your training become too fancy and overly complicated. Some of the greatest physiques are guys who trained in the 40’s and 50's. Those guys trained naturally and their routines were simple. 3x per week, full body routine each workout. They also used simple rep schemes, 5 sets of 5 reps, or 5 sets of 10 reps. A simple routine focusing on getting better every workout will go a long way. There is no reason to get fancy, when doing the basics will get the job done.

3. Be Patient
You need a lot of patience to build a great physique. Unfortunately muscle does not grow overnight. In a perfect scenario with optimal conditions your body can make 10g of muscle a day. Gaining 40 lbs of muscle in 30 days won’t happen. Get that idea out of your mind, it does not exist.

4. Be Consistent
Consistency is probably the most important item on this list. You have to be consistent when trying to build muscle or burn fat. Every program works to some degree but sticking to a program is what separates the average from the great. People get results in spite of what they do. Those people are the ones who consistently grind in the gym and who consistently train hard no matter what life throws at them.

5. Focus on Progressive Overload
Progressive overload is the most important aspect of muscle building. If you’re not training with progression you’re not working out, period! Muscle only responds to load and training volume. If you’re doing more work with more load your muscle will have no choice but to adapt and grow bigger and stronger. If your focusing on “confusing the muscles” or you’re not committed to your training program your results will be slim to none in the long term.

6. Keep a Workout Journal
How do you know what works for you and what doesn’t? I like to compare our individual bodies to science experiments. We are our own test subjects; you should always be monitoring, tracking and tweaking your program slightly to adjust to the changes you are seeing. Failure to do this will result in plateauing.

Without keeping a workout journal how else would you know if what you are currently doing is working? The more detailed your workout journal is the better and faster you will get permanent results.  

7. Plan Ahead
Success is a planned event. Getting a better physique is not going to happen on accident. If you want results in the gym you have to plan for them. Plan ahead for each day. Prepare your meals beforehand so you have access to your food and you’re not running through the drive-thru because you’re starving. If you’re not getting results, you didn’t plan accordingly. Did you get your cardio done for the week? No, why? You didn’t plan ahead. You missed a meal and had to eat Wendy’s, you didn’t plan ahead. Have the no excuse attitude and get it done.

8. Focus on Compound Movements
Isolation movements are great and definitely have their place in training but you should always be striving toward progressing in the basic compound movements. Compound movements are movements that incorporate multiple muscles at once such as squats, deadlifts, rows, and bench press. With compound moves, you will be hitting multiple muscles at once which in turn will release more muscle building/ fat burning hormones in your body. You will have a systematic response and you will be placing a greater demand on your body for more muscle.

You should always perform your compound movements first in your routine. Once you start getting tired out then you should switch over to more isolation movements to help further hit the muscles.

9. Lift Heavy
Being strong doesn’t have anything to do with size. Some of the best powerlifters are females who weigh 130lbs. Your diet will control how much mass you build, but the more strength you have the better. The more muscle you have on your frame, the leaner and more ripped you will be. Heavy lifting will help build strong rock hard muscle. Don’t get caught up doing light weight for high reps in an attempt to lose more body fat. That does not work. Stay true to your heavy compound movements.

10. Eat Smart
80% of what we see in the mirror is based off our eating habits. If you’re eating like a little pig chances are you will look like one. Proper nutrition goes a long way to help aid in recover and the rebuilding of muscles. Proper post workout meals along with balanced macronutrients will result in an overall healthy and strong body.

11. There's No Magic Pill
Don’t be that person that jumps from routine to routine in hopes of getting a better body overnight. There are no magical potions, secret routines or crazy diets. People that waste time looking for the next best thing are doing just that, wasting their time. Instead of putting in so much effort searching for the easy way out why don’t you enjoy the process you’re on. I truly love training and I enjoy training every week. I actually enjoy the process. If you don’t make an effort to stay on your routine and eat a healthy balanced diet your body will rot away. Don’t ignore the basics, embrace them.

12. Take Action
Stop procrastinating and start taking action. Do not dilly-dally during your workout. Be as productive as possible in the gym and even in life. You never want to be wasting time. You only have one life to live and you have to be as productive as possible during every hour of everyday. The more focused you are during your workouts the more you will get out of them.

:
http://www.muscleandfitness.com/news-and-features/galleries/training/12-ways-build-muscle-faster

7:42 AM | 0 comments | Read More

Cluster Set Training for Strength and Size

Use this proven, big-weight method to max out your total poundages on your very next session, no matter your goal.

barbell shoulder press

Whether you are a bodybuilder getting ready for the stage, an athlete looking to increase force production, or a bouncer at the local “kick and stab” looking to get that edge you need to protect the door; break out the stopwatch and give cluster sets a try.

Cluster sets are sets with built-in, intraset rest periods allowing for more weight, reps, and total tonnage lifted. For example, instead of doing 4 sets of 6 repetitions, you would perform 4 sets of 2+2+2 repetitions with 30 second intraset rest. This would be written as:

4 x (2+2+2) 30 sec. intraset

Simply put, it allows you to lift more weight for more reps, which leads to more potential muscle growth and strength gains. This is, after all, the reason that we sweat and toil and bleed day after day in the gym.

One of the beauties of using cluster set training is that it creates an almost infinite number of variations you can use to achieve your specific training goals. You can manipulate sets, reps, intraset 
rest, and inter-set rest depending on your desired outcome.

Now, you may be saying to yourself, “this sounds a lot like rest-pause training,” and it is similar; but there are some differences. Both methods take advantage of your body’s explosive energy stores and their ability to replenish quickly but in the rest-pause method of training you have a set load and that load (or more precisely, the fatigue it induces) dictates the volume. In cluster set training you have a set volume and load that are pre-determined. Also, while in rest-pause training fatigue is a big goal, during cluster sets this is not the focus.

Cluster set training presents a technique to decrease some of the metabolic fatigue that is formed during the use of traditional, “no rest” sets.

According to Dr. Greg Haff, a leading sports scientist, “The introduction of a short rest interval between individual or a series of repetitions appears to result in a partial replenishment of PCr (phosphocreatine) during the intraset rest interval which is reflected in a performance enhancement.”

Cluster sets should be used for your core lifts for the day. For example, on upper body day, use cluster sets for the bench press, incline bench and military press. But once you get to your auxiliary work (i.e. tricep extensions, front raises, side raises, etc.), go back to using normal sets and reps.

Cluster set training can benefit bodybuilders, strength athletes, Olympic lifters, or anybody looking to solidify their position atop the gym food chain.

:



http://www.muscleandfitness.com/workouts/workout-tips/cluster-set-training-strength-and-size

3:53 PM | 0 comments | Read More