Anyone looking to build muscle fast needs to keep the three basic principles of successful bodybuilders in mind: intensity, diet, and recovery.

Intensity

Intensity is a double edged sword in that too much of a good thing is actually a bad thing. Too little intensity brought into a properly designed workout schedule will yield mediocre results at best.

A proper intensity workout should include enough sets of limited rep, high weight exercises to stimulate fast twitch muscle fibers as well as several high volume sets to facilitate the growth of slow twitch muscle fibers.

No matter how hard one tries they are unable to significantly alter the ratios of slow to fast twitch muscles they were born with, so ignoring one group in favor of another in hopes to alter ones muscle composition is futile.

Intensity means limiting rest between sets, and never missing a day in the gym unintentionally. There are times when missing a day should be planned as part of a recovery cycle, but catching the flu is not a sufficient excuse.

Diet

A proper diet is protein rich but also replete with proper fats and a moderate amount of carbohydrates. At least 1.5 grams of protein per day should be eaten in order to ensure that those seeking to build muscles fast do not enter catabolic states. To further avoid catabolism, one should eat healthy meals 5 or 6 times daily.

Recovery

Recovery is often overlooked on both a micro and macro scale. Recovery time between sets should be kept to around a minute regardless of intensity while nightly sleep periods should be in excess of 6 hours. Every six to eight weeks a bodybuilder will need to take a few days off their routine in order to allow the body proper time to recover before beginning a new cycle.

Are you a hardgainer and just can’t seem to build muscle? The free report at Hardgainer Project X reveals how to beat your genetics.

Average build? Muscle Gaining Secrets is a top choice to quickly build muscle.

Technorati Tags: bodybuilding, build muscle fast, Muscle Building, Muscle Gaining Secrets, Vince DelMonte

Do You Need A Hardgainer Workout Routine? If You Only Want To Tone Muscles And Shed a Little Of That Excess Fat, No-Nonsense Muscle Building Is One Of The Most Popular Choices.

If You Are Really A Hardgainer, Click Here To Get Your Free Report And Discover A Hardgainer Workout Routine That Will Trigger Explosive Muscle Growth.

Technorati Tags: hardgainer, Muscle Building, Vince DelMonte

Ab workouts and ab routines are one of the most looked for fitness workouts on the internet. And it’s easy to see why. Our waste lines continue to grow and hide that six pack we have.

There are several good abs programs to choose from and many that really don’t do the job at all. I have asked one of the top fitness experts, Vince DelMonte, to give us his take on all of the confusion. Here is what Vince had to say:

———————–

When trying to achieve the illusive six pack, it’s easy to get confused by all the “best ab workouts” available. You’ll likely notice that there is a multitude of ab workouts to choose from, so deciphering which ones will work the best can be tricky.

The thing to remember is that whenever you are trying to work your core, everything works, for a certain period of time. Everything from high reps, low reps, weighted work, bodyweight work, stability ball exercises, and BOSU ball exercises – it all works until your body adapts and says, “This is easy, I’m not going to change unless you give me a new reason to adapt.”

Your ab training should be progressed from stable floor work with your body weight to a unstable surface with weighted work. Progressing to movements that will reduce your base of support as much as possible are the best ab workouts because they will call into play all the muscles within the core, especially those really deep that stable floor work can not target.

Such examples of floor ab exercises that would do this would be crunches, sit ups and leg raises. Eventually you want to do these same exercises against gravity, then a load and then on unstable surface like a stability ball. Body weight exercises like “front planks” and “side planks” should be the foundation of a core program and progressed to one arm planks in the frontal and side planes and then eventually on a stability ball or BOSU ball for further recruitment.

The best ab workouts to make your abs “pop” would be a variety of weighted movements. I’m sure you’ve skinny guys with a flat stomach but no “eye popping” abs, which is because they have not developed the actual abdominal muscle, just like every other body part. Part of getting nicely chiseled abs is going to be developing the muscles underneath the fat, and weighted ab crunches with cables or on a stability ball with a heavy dumbbell will do this best.

During all your ab workouts be sure to get a full stretch during the eccentric phase of your ab exercises. Going through an entire range of motion on the way up (if doing a crunch on the floor or ball) is not necessary, however, you should be “crunching” your upper abs onto your lower abs during each rep to maximize the burn, recruitment and full development.

The one weighted exercise you will not find in my programs is weighted side bends, as this could make you look wider in the waste, distracting from creating a lean image.

One concerning question most people have is regarding lower ab workouts, typically the most troubling spot. Yes, hip flexion (emphasis more so on lower abs) is important to perform and should be done first in the workout but the reality of the matter is that you cannot specifically separate your abs into upper and lower components. Whenever you perform any type of ab movement you should automatically be focusing on working both the upper and lower portion at the same time.

Good exercise to definitely direct a little more force into the lower area would be the progression of lying leg raises, lying leg raises on a incline and eventually hanging leg raises fully vertical. Lying leg raises on a stability pull is also an extremely challenging and advanced exercise to create razor sharp abdominals.

Finally, the last thing to consider is when you are going to perform your ab workout is training frequency. Again, generally speaking, the more the better assuming your abdominals have recovered. Whether you want to perform it at the end of your workout, before your workout, during your workout or on a day of it’s own is up to you.

My ab workouts incorporate all methods depending on if you are a beginner, intermediate or advanced. Some theories of that warn you not to start with abs is because abs work as a synergistic muscle for so many of the other exercises you’ll do, if you pre-fatigue them before the start of the workout, you may not progress as much during the rest of your workout. I don’t agree with this and if you’re abs are your weakest link then they should be given first priority when you are the most fresh, the start of your workout.

Incorporating a specific ab workout is only a small part of the battle – diet, lifestyle and overall caloric expenditure through weight training and cardio are the true building blocks to creating a sexy and desired mid section.

———————————-

A little about Vince DelMonte:

Vince is the author of http://www.YourSixPackQuest.com and his top selling fitness program No Nonsense Muscle Building.

He provides chubby guys and gals with the best ab workouts to get a six pack without gimmicks, supplements or dieting.

Try him, you’ll like him – and so will your body!

Technorati Tags: Abs Exercises, Six Pack Abs, Vince DelMonte

Congratulations to Vince DelMonte on his silver medal in Toronto! One of the most popular events is the Chin bikini competition that Vince entered. He had some great fun and got the silver to boot!

Vince really epitomizes what most men – and women too – are looking for when they start weight training and muscle building. They are not after the overblown guns but a well rounded, sculpted, fit body. Just take a look at the winners – that’s Vince on the left. Don’t they have the type of physiques you’re after?

It is no surprise that he can do well in competitions, even after a 5 year lay-off, after all he teaches the stuff dreams are made of.

The following is another of his articles that shows he knows his stuff.

Adaptations To Sprint Training
By Vince DelMonte

If you are looking to improve your physical conditioning, sprint training is one of the best ways to go about doing so.

Many individuals prefer sprint training because it takes a lot less time than traditional forms of cardio that have you going for thirty to sixty minutes at a time and there are a great number of benefits that will be seen when you do this more intense form of sprint training workout.

EPOC

One of the biggest benefits you’ll get from sprinting is the EPOC effects it creates. This is known as excess post-exercise oxygen consumption and is where the body will expend a great deal of calories returning the body back to its former state after the workout.

Because sprint training is so intense, this will contribute to a large calorie burn after you have finished the workout. To even further increase the EPOC that is seen, consider doing hill sprint training. Since this is even more intense in nature, it will further challenge your body.

Metabolic Adaptations

Next, when you perform a number of sprint training workouts, the body will upregulate its ability to produce enzymes that are going to work at increasing the storage capacity of the muscle for energy substrates such as ATP.

This then has the corresponding effect of allowing you to work out harder for a longer period of time without fatigue setting in. Note though that this occurs when you are working more on the aerobic side of things, so while it is intense, you are still utilizing oxygen.

If no oxygen is present, you will only be able to last 5-20 seconds, regardless of how well conditioned you are (the better condition you are though, the harder you will be able to work during that time).

Phosphate Metabolism

The next benefit you’ll get with sprint training is its effect on phosphate metabolism. Phosphate creatine stores comprise a major component of the body’s fuel source for muscular activity, so anything you can do to increase this is going to be beneficial.

Myokinase is an enzyme that is responsible for resynthesizing the energy from phosphate creatine, and with sprint training, it will increase its concentration within the muscle tissue by up to 20%.

Glycolysis

The next adaptation that will occur after you’ve been doing sprint training for a period of time is that of glycolysis. This is the primary form of metabolism used during a 10 second all out sprint and contributes between 55 and 75% towards energy production during exercise.

Phosphofructokinase (PFK), an enzyme that catalyses the phosphorylation of the glycolytic intermediate fructose 6-phosphate), has also been shown to increase when sprint training is performed, along with the enzymes of lactate dehydrogenase and glycogen phosphorylase (other enzymes responsible for the glycolysis system).

Intramuscular Buffering Capacity

Finally, the last adaptation that’s seen with sprint training is the buffering capacity of the muscle. During glycoglysis, various byproducts are created such as lactic acid, and when these accumulate, it causes the extreme feelings of fatigue in the muscle tissues.

This then forces you to stop exercising as the fatigue sets in and often will be the end of your workout.

Overtime, sprint training will increase your ability to buffer these byproducts so that you can then workout for a longer period of time while maintaining that intensity.

So, next time you’re debating about whether to do a sprint training session or a moderate paced cardio session lasting for 40 minutes or so, opt for the sprint session.

The benefits you’ll receive are far more numerous and fat loss will be kicked up a notch as an added benefit. Keep in mind that for these type of benefits to occur, you want your sprints to last somewhere in the neighborhood of 20 seconds to 40 seconds, with a work to rest ration of about 1:2. Repeat this process a total of 6 to 8 times and begin and end with a five minute warm-up and cool-down.

Vince DelMonte is the author of No Nonsense Muscle Building: Skinny Guy Secrets To Insane Muscle Gain found at http://www.VinceDelMonteFitness.com

He specializes in teaching skinny guys how to build muscle and gain weight quickly by using the correct cardiovascular and weight lifting techniques.

Technorati Tags: Chin bikini, fitness, Muscle Building, muscle building programs, sprint training, swimsuit competitions, Vince DelMonte

This guy really has the drive and determination most of us want but just never seem to get up for it! You know Vince as the author of No Nonsense Muscle Building and a contributor to Men’s Fitness Magazine. He used to compete but hasn’t in about three years.

Well, recently he was on the edge trying to decide whether or not he wanted to get on stage again. This is a shot of him on April 16, still undecided:

Well, he started to get in shape and decided to go for it. This shows hie initial progress as of May 4:

Looks like he’s got a good start. This is an update as of May 31:

Look’s like he will be in shape! He only has a few more days until he goes on stage at the World Fitness Model Championships in Toronto, Ontario. This will be the first time in 3 years that Vince has competed and I’m sure it was not an easy decision to make. Getting up for a competition just is not in the same class as simply wanting to “look good”. He obviously knows what he is talking about when it comes to fitness. I wish him well.

I’ll post his results here, so check back mid-June! In the meantime, check out his No Nonsense Muscle Building course for the straight scoop on how he gets in shape!

Technorati Tags: Muscle Building, No Nonsense Muscle Building, Vince DelMonte