Ok, so you want to build up muscles, you want to look like a Brad Pitt in the movie ‘Troy’ so you can get heaps of attention from the ladies on the beach or too impress your mates. You know the basics but you need something extra too push you over the edge to explosive muscle gain and build muscle up. Well, these suggestions are provided to ensure that you do just that!

1) Don’t pump iron for more than an hour. This is because when you are working out your body releases a hormone called cortisone that helps the body to recover and build up muscle. However unfortunately after 45-60 minutes the body releases a hormone that is very counter active for muscle building. So, if you continue to lift weights for more than an hour you may make zero muscle gains. The bottom line is work out intensely for 45-60 minutes then get out of the gym.

2) Double the size of your meal portions. The single biggest mistake people make when trying to build up muscle is not getting enough calories. You must consume more calories than you work off during each day to add muscle. If you do not have these extra calories you cannot build up muscle regardless how hard you train! A decent idea is to get hold of plates and dishes that are double the serving size of your normal ones. OK, this sounds odd but I guarantee that you will never again forget that you are supposed to be eating more calories to build muscle up.

3) Eat a higher amount of protein. Take on board protein immediately after you finish your workout and before you go to sleep. After your training session you may feel muscle soreness which is when you have ripped your muscle fibres so this is when protein is definitely required.Just prior to sleeping is crucial for muscle building as your body is just about to go eight hours with no food so you must get some protein at this time. You should be eating as a minimum one gram of protein per kilogram of body weight.

These are just three tips and there are plenty more but these adress threee of the most common mistakes that are made. Now go ahead put them into practice and build muscle up with this no nonsense muscle building approach!

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Spending hours in the gym to build muscle up and not making progress? Excellent news! There is a good chance that you are not making incredible gains for just one simple reason. The knowledge of this can significantly increase your ability to build muscle up. For most begiiner bodybuilders and some intermediate trainers this is a little known secret that will help them immensly.

So what is the secret? A new miracle pill or something?

No definitly not. It is a hormone know as cortisol, known about for a long time but ignored by many weight lifters.

What precisely is cortisol?

Cortisol is a hormone released by the body steadily throughout the day and is produced in response to stress such as weight lifting. Cortisol levels decrease gradually throughout the day from their highest point in the morning.

What exactly does it do?

Well, it actually improves short term memory, helps detoxify the liver and aids in regulating the blodds sugar levels. However it can raise blood pressure and decrease bone density if your cortisol levels get too high, however this would be unusual. However it will restrict muscle mass as it increases the use of muscle as energy and not fat stores. this is the reason that workouts should be under an hour long. They will actually be reducing their progress and not increasing it after this time!

Here are a few guidelines to ensure that you are not wasting your time trying to build muscle up:

1) limit your cardio workouts, too much cardio causes the body to release cortisol which as explained is not what we need.

2) Cortisol levels also increase due to caffeine intake so try to keep this to a minimum.

3) Ensure your sessions are kept below one hour. Stay focussed wear headphones if you need to avoid talking to people.

4) Chill out an take it easy as cortisol is produced in response to stres.

5) Eat small regular meals because infrequent meals make the body think it is starving and will thus try and use uneccesary muscle for energy before using fat reserves by releasing more cortisol.

6) Sleep. This is when your cortisol levels are lowest and your muscle building hormones highest so aim for 8 hours if possible.

With those no nonsense muscle building tips in mind you should be able to give your workouts a great boost now you know how to gain weight fast more efficiently.

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When building muscle up without even realising it you can put your self at serious risk of illness, injury and reduce your progress. Sure it is great that you want to workout and build muscle up but at the same time one bad injury, one forgetful moment can put you out of action for months and with possible health and financial consequences. Such traumatic incidents can easily be avoided by adhering to the following guidelines. Here we go with our build muscle up safely guidelines:

1) Always check and double check you have put the barbell collars on before you start lifting. One side can be made heavier by just a slight looseness of a collar. The heavier side will force it’s way down and the weight disc may slide even further until it drops off. If this happens the heavy side will force the light side to be thrown upwards. The barbell will then travel viciously through the air and potentially do some nasty damage to either people or equipment!

2) Use a spotter if you sre doing one rep maximums. This is someone who can help you if you can’t handle the weight. The last thing you want to happen is to get stuck underneath a barbell and have it pressing into your body, sounds stupid but I’ve seen it happen.

3) If you are sick keep away from the weights room. Seems too obvious but I frequently see bodybuilders who are obviously suffering from a high fever and cough, splutter there way through a workout. More often than not the trainer beats none of their best scores and only lands themselves in bed for a few days. By exercising when you are sick you are allowing the illness to take a greater hold of you because exercising temporarily lowers your immune system.

4) Use proper technique. Performing squats with a bent over back, swinging barbell curls and so on will not only produce little muscle growth, because they do not target the muscle properly but they will also put you at risk of serious injury. Strictly correct form must always be used.

5) Do not over do it. It is very common when motivation is high especially for those new to bodubuilding that you wish to weight train as much as you can. This motivation is good but training everyday or even every other day will probably be too much for most people unless it is a split routine. Lifting weights again when your muscle have not yet fully recovered from a previous workout will actually weaken your muscle not make them stronger.

6) Not maintaining a good diet. Emphasis will have to be placed on muscle building nutrition if you want your muscles to grow. If you do not consume enough calories then you are not going to be able to support muscle growth and will therefore be wasting your time in the gym. Consume throughout the day high quality foods.

7) Boasting to you gym partner. Disastrous results may occur when attempting to beat your friends in the gym. Trying to beat your own personal best scores is far more productive. Keep track of your progress every session with a training diary so you know what score to beat. This will be more motivating for you and reduce your risk of injury.

Adequately warm up. If you fail to do your muscle are more likely to snap and give-way. This can put you out for weeks or months. It is very simple to do, 5-10 minutes cardio, stretching exercises followed by a few warm up reps will do fine.

With those above guidelines in mind and with correct muscle building nutrition there is no reason why you should not build muscle up happily and safely where ever you train.

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