Brunos Fitness

Archive for June, 2009

Through time, a vast number of bodybuilding statements have come and gone. Some of them are true, while others are far from it. Unfortunately, all it takes is one well-muscled guy to start spreading the word to bodybuilder beginners before it becomes “the new way.”

Below are some common myths and truths that seem to have passed the test of time. If you haven’t heard of them before, it’s time to take note so that you can integrate the positive ones into your workout and avoid letting the negative myths hurt you.
Always work a muscle to failure
This is a sneaky myth because most people know that in order to see results from a workout, you have to apply an overloading stimulus to the muscle cell. An overloading stimulus is defined as something that pushes the muscle’s boundary, creating microtears so that the muscle is forced to grow back bigger and stronger once rest is given. In other words, working the muscle to failure.

The problem with this is that while you do need to push a muscle to failure to see results, you don’t need to do it during every session. If you start giving 110% every time you’re in the gym, you’ll more than likely suffer from overtraining syndrome within a few weeks and you’ll be sidelined for quite some time. Then you’ll have plenty of time to recover because you could be out for weeks or months if the condition is severe enough.

The key is to develop a program that allows you to work a muscle to failure, but also incorporates a couple sessions per week that are done short of failure. Don’t forget to include a few days of complete rest.

Furthermore, if you’re on a low-carbohydrate diet, you may not want to work a muscle to complete failure as you risk depleting it of all its muscle glycogen stores. Unless you have planned large “carbups” after each workout, over time your body will become fully drained and you’ll no longer be able to perform your workouts.

Bodybuilding judgment: False
More weight means bigger muslces
Some guys focus solely on pushing the weight in their sessions. This is because they think there is a strict correlation between the amount of weight lifted and an increase in muscular size… and for many guys, the size of muscles like the biceps and pectorals is the point of bodybuilding.

This is not always the case. The fact of the matter is that regardless of what you do in the gym, you can’t build more muscle tissue out of nothing. If you aren’t eating more than enough of the nutrients that your body needs to maintain itself and to build the new muscle tissue, you aren’t going to get bigger — no matter how heavy the weights you lift are. It’s that simple.

Now, contrary to the point above, others think that if size is their goal, then life should become a 24-hour buffet. They eat everything and anything in sight, in the hopes that it will help spark new muscle growth.

What these individuals need to realize is that, yes, they do require more calories, however, the body can only assimilate so many of those extra calories into lean muscle tissue. After that, the remainder will go toward fat mass. Your P-ratio is what determines the amount of surplus calories going to fat and the amount going toward lean muscle mass. Your P-ratio is partly influenced by genetic make-up — which is something you can’t change — but the changeable factors that affect are your workout program, your nutritional intake and the timing of your meals.

So if size is your goal, you need to make sure that you are eating enough to get growth in the first place, but not so much that with the additional muscle mass, you get a great deal of fat mass as well.

Bodybuilding judgment: False
Time off from the gym means instant fat gains
Another common notion among the really hardcore lifters is the fear that if they miss an entire week (or sometimes even less), all their strength will go down the drain.

First off, realize that the body has something known as muscle memory. So, if you are planning a long layoff (two or more months), you can relax in knowing that it will be easier to bring your strength back up than it was before. This is because your muscles will “remember” how to get there.

For shorter layoffs, often you don’t lose strength, you gain it. The reason is because far too many individuals are on the verge of slight overtraining already. They are not letting their bodies fully recuperate between sessions and, therefore, are not seeing the strength gains that they could have. When they take a week off, their bodies fully recover and upon returning to the gym, they find that their strength shoots way up.

Furthermore, these shorter breaks are often just what is needed to really jump start your motivational levels.

Bodybuilding judgment: False
Gym sessions should never exceed one hour
This is one statement that is very true. Less is definitely more when it comes to bodybuilding. If your sessions are lasting over an hour, you are either doing way too many exercises and need to curtail it to include more compound lifts and less isolated movements or you are just taking extended rest intervals.

You want to get in the gym, do an intense workout and get out.

Working out past an hour could have you seeing rapidly declining blood sugar levels along with a decrease in testosterone output. Your cortisol release will also start to go up, which is a catabolic hormone that will promote muscle breakdown and fat storage.

If you can’t seem to get your workouts under an hour, then it’s likely time to have a look at a specific exercise selection or your workout split of choice. If you are trying to do a full-body plan three times per week for example, it may be better to look at doing a four-day, push-pull type of split instead.

Bodybuilding judgment: True
Workout through pain
This is one of those myths that require you to consider the situation. If it’s a small amount of muscular soreness from a previous workout session, then more than likely you are fine to do your workout the next day.

However, if the pain is more deep-tissue related and feels as though it could be a torn muscle or ligament, then you may want to hold off and either give it a few more days to rest or see a doctor. You never want to risk pulling a tendon — they can take a long time to heal, particularly if you keep aggravating it with more exercise.

You need to judge your own body and learn what type of pain will still give you a green light to go ahead with your workouts and what type of pain means you need to stop. Don’t let determination to keep progressing cause you to push through pain you know you shouldn’t. At times, when motivational level is high, it’s really hard to take the day off and allow for more rest, but consider the long-term consequences of your actions and hopefully that will enable you to make the right decision.

Bodybuilding judgment: False (kind of)
Myth 1: You can get a six-pack if you do a thousand crunches a day
The one thing every guy wants from his workout is a nice defined six-pack. Guys will do crunch upon crunch in their quest for perfect abs, but the reality is that if they have a layer of fat covering their muscles, definition will never come.

Their time would be much better spent doing some quality cardio sessions and making sure they are eating well, which would help them lose body fat — the key to unveiling remarkable abs.

Myth 2: Each workout should be devoted to one specific muscle group
Are you devoting an entire day of your workout program to biceps and triceps? Do you have a separate day for hamstrings and quads? What some guys don’t realize is that compound lifts work many muscles indirectly.

Take the bench press: If you perform this exercise on your “chest day,” you will also stimulate your triceps fairly heavily. This means that by carefully choosing your exercises, you can incorporate more muscle groups into every workout, which will provide better results in less time.

Keep in mind that you don’t always have to do very specific exercises to target certain smaller muscles; by simply working them indirectly, you will see improvements in your strength and size.

Myth 3: Stretching is not really necessary
The component that is most often left out of a fitness program is stretching. If you are like most men, you probably think that right after you are finished your last set, you should head for the showers. However, you should really finish off with some stretching, as it will increase the range of motion in your muscles and joints, which will thus allow you to perform your weightlifting exercises over a greater range of motion, as well as target more muscle fibers throughout the lift. Stretching also helps you to become more limber and allows you to better maneuver around opponents when you are out playing football or basketball with the guys.

Finally, when you finish off your workout with some stretching, you reduce the severity of DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness), which you will most likely greatly appreciate the next morning.

Myth 4: Taking supplements will make you look monstrous in no time
We are constantly bombarded with ads for a wide variety of supplements. Some promise you a tight, ripped middle, while others ensure that you can pack on pounds of new muscle over the course of just a few weeks. There may be some benefits to a few of these supplements, but more often than not, your results won’t be much better than those you would get from a good training program combined with a well-planned out diet.

These are truly the two factors that lead to the greatest gains, so you should focus most of your energy on them rather than on finding the latest magic pill. Also, some supplements can have very harmful side effects (such as infertility, increased heart rate and nervous system problems) that should not be taken lightly. You are far better off achieving your results naturally; remember that your long-term health is not something you should risk.

Myth 5: Food eaten after 8 p.m. will turn into body fat
Do you think your metabolism knows what time it is? While your body does run according to a circadian rhythm, your metabolism does not shut down at night. You still need to provide your body with fuel to repair and rebuild while you sleep, and to prevent it from going into a catabolic state brought on by a long period of fasting. This is especially important if you work out later in the day.

After a workout, your body is crying for a good source of carbohydrates, so don’t skimp because you think eating at this time will make you gain fat.

It is important to make sure you are eating healthy foods later in the day — such as lean meat, healthy fats, plenty of vegetables, and even some complex carbohydrates if you are really active later in the day — to reduce your risk of adding unwanted body fat, but there is no need to avoid eating altogether.
demystifying fitness.

Take a good look at your current fitness and diet program, and ensure that you aren’t making any of these errors. They are easy mistakes to make, but as more and more people realize that they are not the way to see optimal results, they will slowly begin to die out.

One of the most frequently stated goals of men in the gym is to “get ripped abs.” The ab muscles are what really identify someone who is serious about their fitness and diet plan, because without determination and a fair amount of effort, getting ripped abs is a goal that will never be reached.

While everyone has developed ab muscles to some extent, it’s getting them to show that becomes the biggest issue for most. This is due to the fact that most of us tend to store our body fat, at least partially, in the abdominal region. This is also one of the most stubborn places to lose fat from.

That said, if you know the principles for how to get ripped abs, you can make this goal a reality.
Genetic factor
The first thing you must realize is that every guy has his own uniquely shaped abs. Randomly selecting a picture out of some men’s magazine or billboard and saying that’s what you want your abs to be like could be slightly self-defeating, because even if you did get to low enough body fat levels, your abs may not be genetically shaped in a similar way; therefore, the appearance of your abs will still be different.

Recognizing that this factor is out of your control and not getting hung up on it is one step forward on your quest to get ripped abs. If you are unable to do this, you’ll only become more frustrated as time progresses, which is a serious motivational killer.

Rest assured, though, that if you can get your body fat levels low enough and perform correct, targeted exercises for this muscle group, your midsection will garner second glances.

Next comes the diet aspect of the equation. Ever heard the saying, “Abs are made in the kitchen”? Nothing could speak the truth more. As stated, everyone has some ab muscles, but most have a layer of body fat hiding them. Removing this layer is going to be about 90% dietary effort and 10% exercise effort when it comes right down to it. If you aren’t ready to take control over the foods you are putting in your mouth, getting ripped abs should not be a goal for you.

While the old notion used to be that you should eat a diet as low in fat as possible in order to remove body fat, this has changed in modern times. Now, diets that are higher in protein, moderate in fat and low or moderate in carbs are making headway, as this helps to control insulin levels better, and insulin happens to be the prime hormone that stores body fat (in a hypercaloric balance).

That’s not to say you can’t get lean on a higher-carbohydrate diet; you most certainly can — and some guys do — but for the vast majority, hunger levels are much more manageable on a low to moderate carb approach, which correspondingly makes eating fewer calories easier.

At the end of the day, it’s really going to come down to your total calorie intake, with less importance placed on how you get there — assuming sufficient protein is present, of course.

Finally, you have the actual ab routine. The regular performance of these exercises will play a large role in shaping the way your abs look once the fat is removed and they are visible.

Furthermore, since your ab muscles form the core of your body and are recruited for all other lifting exercises, it only makes sense that you’d want to dedicate some time to strengthening them.

When selecting ab exercises, think of anything that will decrease your stability — this effectively causes the abs to work harder as they are recruited. Exercise balls are the perfect tool for this, and there are a variety of movements you can do with them.

Examples of such exercises include basic front and side crunches, ball kick-outs (lying on the floor with feet on either side of the ball and palms on the floor, squeeze the ball with your legs and move from a crunched to a straightened position), and lying leg raises with the ball between your legs.

If you are looking to actually increase the size of your ab muscles, weighted ab work will be your best bet. Since muscle tissue will only grow significantly when an overloading weight is placed upon it, you must treat your ab muscles like you would any other muscle in the body. You wouldn’t get as developed doing push-up after push-up as you would with heavy bench pressing, so the same principle applies here.

Terrific options here include decline weighted sit-ups, weight abdominal twists (moving from side to side), and hanging leg raises with weight strapped onto your ankles.

Finally, the last types of ab exercises to include in your program are ones that have you contracting the ab muscles and holding this contraction for an extended duration of time. The benefit to this is that it will help the abs learn how to remain contracted, which will help when it comes to keeping them slightly flexed, allowing the muscularity to show even more.

As you’ve likely done before, if you stand in the mirror and flex your abs they look better, right? Well, the more isometric contractions you do, the more habitual this type of positioning will become, and you’ll likely start to keep them contracted to a slight degree all the time without really noticing it.

This could include performing the plank exercise and variations of that or simply tensing your abs, holding for 10 seconds and releasing. Repeat this tense/hold combo 5 to 10 times a couple of times a day and you should notice a difference in a few weeks.
abdominal greatness

If you are trying to get ripped abs, be sure to keep these major factors in mind. Most importantly, do not overlook the importance of your diet. Far too many guys think that they can just be sure to do enough ab work and cardio to make up for a less-than-stellar diet, but this kind of thinking almost always leads to less-than-stellar results.

Can stress really affect your workouts? Many people are not aware of the far-reaching effects of tension and stress on your workouts. Stress has been known to affect human health in the worst possible ways. Now most people believe that regular workouts help reduce the stress level. In some ways this is correct. It is absolutely true that exercising regularly helps you to reduce stress and depression. It is a known fact that those who are suffering from extreme stress level and depression most likely do not lead a healthy lifestyle. Chances are high that they also do not exercise to keep a healthy body. Therefore, it would seem to be a wise decision to advise them to start exercising in order to feel good about themselves.

Now that we are clear on this factor, let’s discuss this concept from an opposite angle and perspective. For example, you are doing regular workouts on daily basis, but suddenly out of the blue, you begin to start experiencing unwanted problems in your personal life. This will definitely affect your will power and make you disoriented in your workouts. Without a clear mind, you will not benefit a lot from your workouts. Sure, your health will not come to a standstill but the stress will affect your ability to focus. Your workouts will be less productive in terms of the results.

How stress can impede your workout progress:

Research has shown that stress does affect athletes who workout regularly. It was noticed that because of stress, an athlete performed under par compared to his normal workout performance. Stress can also decrease your will power to reach your best goals in most situations. In other words, stress can be overpowering to even those who are living a healthy lifestyle. So how do you fight back against the effects of stress on your workout? Well the answer is simple- Workout to outwork stress!

Before your routine workout, you can warm up your mind with the realization that stress has entered your mind. Try to gain focus by thinking positive right before you start your workout. This will help you to completely indulge yourself in the present moment. What that means is to put your problems aside and focus with a positive approach on your workout regime. Eventually you will get back to your personal best workouts and be able to deal with stress outside of your workout time. So the next time you hear about stress effecting workouts, don’t be in for a surprise! Every coin has two sides and just like that, workouts can also be hampered by stress. So don’t let stress control you take control of stress and do not let it impede your work out progress.

Why compounds will help you build big biceps.

If you goal is building muscle mass (which it must be to build big biceps) compound exercises should make up the core of your weekly routine. We’re not saying stop doing isolation exercises, but use them to compliment your big bicep compound exercises.

Compound exercises allow you to lift heavier weights and work more muscle groups at the same time than isolation exercises. This saves you precious time in the gym while stimulating the maximum amount of muscle fibers. In addition, compound exercises, due to the increased amount of muscle used for the movements, are better at sending your endocrine system a “distress call” to pump out more anabolic hormones such as testosterone and growth hormone.

Having a good mix of compound and isolation.

If you want to build maximum muscle mass and big bicep size, you need a good combination of both compound and isolation exercises. Pretty much all big bicep compound exercises incorporate your back muscles. So it makes sense to work your biceps on the same day that you work your back. This will make it easy to incorporate compounds into your bicep workout because most back exercises are actually bicep compounds.

* Re-focus and commit yourself again. Often we think that, because we already were on a program, we can just pick it back up, no problem. But in reality, we need to condition ourselves for a new habit (although it should be easier this time since we’ve done it before), so we need to start (almost) at the beginning. That mean starting with making a commitment. Write down your goal and tell people about it, put it on your blog, post it up at your home and workplace. If you can’t take this step, it’s likely that you will falter.

A NEW BEGINING IN LIFE, Benefits of hiring an online Personal Trainer

So, what are the benefits of hiring an online personal trainer? Let?s discuss the many advantages of obtaining your own trainer to help you to get to your goals!

Have you struggled to get off the lounge when you get home from work? Well, an online personal trainer can lift your motivational levels higher than ever before!

But how is this accomplished? Well, an online coach can give you direction by being in communication with you multiple times per week. This is a big contrast to your standard personal trainer which is appointment based!

The high level of communication also means that you stay accountable. You are required to report back to your online PT on a regular basis to make sure that you stay on track.

The online nature of the online PT means that they can teach you more easily with tools and resources available instantly over the internet. This means that you can learn about food, fitness and health with the click of a button, whilst not eating into your one hour appointment.

Because you don?t book appointments with your online PT, this means that it?s far more cost effective than your conventional trainer. Whilst previously it could have set you back hundreds of dollars each week to see your trainer daily, you can now have that same level of support for a fraction of the price!

What about the exercise technique I hear you ask? Well, an online personal trainer can give you step-by-step instructions on how to perform a particular exercise. The beauty about the internet is that you can also use video and photo’s to demonstrate these motions. The advantage of this relative to the conventional PT is that you don’t forget all the exercises once they leave the building!

And you know what?s best? RESULTS! Just from my professional observations, it seems that online personal training really provides you with major results. It is far too easy to skip workouts, eat junk food or make excuses with a personal trainer that you see weekly. But with the online PT, it?s a completely different ball game!

You really need to ask yourself, ?How am I going to achieve my health and fitness goals??. If that means hiring an online personal trainer ? then go for it! Don?t waste time and money on trying quick-fixes ? put yourself as a priority and make things happen.

When dealing with people who put you down, remember:

1. Don’t retaliate with your own put downs.

2. The comments will tell you a lot about the person who’s making the comments. It’s their anger and frustration and they should deal with it, not you.

3. Can you discover a gift within the comments? You might learn something valuable about yourself that needs to be healed or you might learn how you really feel about yourself.

4. Are you reading something into the comments that aren’t really there because you’re expecting them or because you have certain beliefs?

5. Be aware of the subtle messages (like advertising) that you hear every day which try to destroy your sense of value and self worth.

Put downs are never pleasant to deal with but if you can use them to your advantage, then that’s the best solution of all.

Annoying people at the gym, some people are so friggin’ annoying! My workout time is my time, and my time alone. I don’t want to talk to anyone and I don’t like being interrupted while I’m killing my body.

For most people going to the gym isn’t about getting results, it’s about socializing. Plus, I have always felt like a caged animal at a zoo during my workouts with people rudely gawking at me while I’m getting after it. Sure, my workouts utilize a host of unique and advanced exercises and they are often disturbingly intense, but it’s just a pain in the arse to have people looking at you like you are crazy. To me it’s crazy that I get better results in brief 20-minute sessions than the typical gym rat who wastes 2 hours a day getting nothing accomplished.

The Sheep Mentality…. examples range from various things….like drink and take drugs to be cool, or what other people wear…..label clothing, Ed Hardy, affliction shirts, Armani shirts…..etc, but it is basically how you want to be just like other people.

Seeing the Sheep Mentality at the gym is even worse. I truly believe the example that most people set will make you worse. Everybody is doing the same thing.

Most men and women are just sheep- slaves to all of the misinformation provided in the form of sensational fitness magazines and infomercials. People just go to the gym and do whatever everybody else is doing.

Most women are cardio queens spending hours at a time on ellipticals, bikes, and treadmills- sadly getting nowhere fast. Ladies you need to start doing some resistance training and cut those cardio sessions down to 20 minutes of intense interval training to burn that stubborn hip, thigh, and belly fat.

And then there are also those meathead guys who only work their mirror muscles (abs, chest, biceps) while taking extraordinary long rest periods between sets of upper body isolation exercises. These oversized morons often bench in excess of 300 lbs but probably couldn’t perform 10 perfect, full range of motion push-ups with their body weight if their life depended on it.

When in doubt, DON’T do what everybody else in the gym is doing because it’s not working!

In the large majority of the lower back pain cases, the pain is the result of a strained muscle, poor posture or improper lifting. In most of these situations, there are plenty of options in home remedies that can ease the pain and get you back on your feet, enjoying your daily activities. If your lower back pain is caused by an injury of some sort, it is best to apply ice to the affected area every few hours for the first day or two. You can then replace the ice with a heating pad every few hours until the pain subsides. You can also take an over the counter pain medication like acetaminophen or ibuprofen to relieve the discomfort. Ibuprofen has anti-inflammatory properties, making it a good choice in pain relievers for lower back pain.

Rest can also help to relieve lower back pain, as long as it is only done for a day or two. Most medical experts will agree that the quickest way to heal a back is by getting back in action as quickly as possible. Continue to take over the counter pain medicine as needed to allow you to resume your daily activities. Walking is a good exercise to get your back in shape without putting undue strain on it.