Etebooks offers strategic ideas for building muscles #supplements to help build muscles

 Etebooks Offers Your Weight in Muscle

You probably have heard that muscle weighs more than fat.  Many people notice a small weight gain when they begin lifting weights consistently.  As a general rule, if you lift weights 2 to 3 times a week, you can gain 1 pound of muscle per month for about 6 months.  After that, the rate of increase slows down as you start to reach your genetic potential.  For the same reason, you will make a lot of progress on weight progression at the beginning, but the longer you lift; your progression will lessen because you are reaching your genetic potential.   

Dont be alarmed at the extra pounds of weight from weight training because it is well worth the effort.  For every 3 pounds of muscle you build, research shows you increase your resting metabolic rate by about 7 percent.  For example, if your body burns 1,200 calories per day (not counting exercise or any other movement), you would burn an extra 84 calories per day with those 3 extra pounds of muscle.  

Many women have a difficult time outgrowing 2-3 pound dumbbell weights, because they are afraid that if they increase the weight they will bulk up.  If you are happy with the strength and appearance of your muscles, you can do a maintenance program with 5 pound weights.  However, if you want more strength, you could progress to 8 or 10 pound weights and still not bulk up.  Using heavier weights can increase muscle size, but its highly unlikely that youll get bulky. Women dont naturally have enough of the hormone, testosterone, required to build huge muscles, and even if you could bulk up, youd have to use significantly heavier weights.  

Another option to tone muscle is to increase your repetitions instead of increasing weight.  A high-repetition/light-weight program will develop muscle tone and increase strength and endurance without significantly increasing muscle size. 

I like to tell my clients to not just go through the motion when lifting weights.  I use the word squeeze a lot to describe the contraction of the muscle you should be focusing on.  Think about the muscle you are working and squeeze or contract it as you are lifting.  You will get a lot more benefit for your efforts if you squeeze the muscle on the lift rather than just raising and lowering the weight without focusing on the muscle. 

Your Weight in Muscle

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Etebooks Offers Why You Should NOT Try to Isolate Muscle Groups When Weight Training

Working as a fitness professional, there is one type of question I get all the time that shows that many people are missing the big picture regarding the benefits of strength training. This popular question usually goes something like this:

“What exercise can I do to isolate my _______ (insert your muscle of choice  abs, quads, biceps, triceps, etc)?”

It doesn’t matter which muscle someone is asking about, they always seem to be asking how to ‘isolate’ it. My first response to this question is always  Why in the world would you want to isolate it?

The first thing I try to teach my clients is that the body does not work well in muscle isolation. Rather, it works better in movements along a kinetic chain; that is, large portions of the body assist other portions of the body in completing a complex movement. In fact, there really is no such thing as true muscle isolation. There is almost always a nearby muscle group that will assist in some way with whatever movement you are doing. However, this article compares attempting to ‘isolate’ body parts via single-joint exercises to the much more effective strategy of performing multi-joint complex movements.

When you attempt to ‘isolate’ muscles by performing single-joint exercises, you are actually creating a body that is non-functional and will be more prone to injury. Essentially, you are creating a body that is a compilation of body parts, instead of a powerful, functional unit that works together.

Now if you really want to end up hobbling around in a body bandaged up with joint problems, tendonitis, and excess body fat, then by all means, continue trying to ‘isolate’ body parts. On the other hand, if you would rather have a lean, muscular, injury-free, functional body that works as a complete powerful unit to perform complex movements (in athletics or even everyday tasks), then you need to shift your focus away from muscle isolation. Believe me, focusing on how well your body functions will give you the side effect of a body that looks even better than it would have if you focused on muscle isolation. For example, take a look at the physiques of any NFL running backs, wide receivers, or even world class sprinters. Trust me when I say that these guys pretty much NEVER train for muscle isolation (their strength coaches wouldnt be crazy enough to let them), yet they are absolutely ripped to shreds! Just look at guys like Maurice Green or Terrell Owens and tell me who wouldnt want a physique like those guys.

Another benefit to moving away from the ‘muscle isolation’ mindset to a more ‘complex movement’ mindset is that you will find it much easier to lose body fat. The reason is that by focusing more on multi-joint complex movements as opposed to single-joint muscle isolation, you not only burn a lot more calories during each workout, but you also increase your metabolic rate, and stimulate production of more fat burning and muscle building hormones like growth hormone and testosterone.

Let’s look at an example. The machine leg extension is a single joint exercise that works mainly the quadriceps, can potentially cause knee joint instability in the long run, and doesnt even burn that many calories. On the other hand, exercises like squats, lunges, step-ups, and deadlifts are all multi-joint complex movements that work hundreds of muscles in the body (including the quadriceps) as a functional unit, create more stable and strong joints in the long run (when done properly), and also burn massive quantities of calories compared to the single-joint exercises

Why You Should NOT Try to Isolate Muscle Groups When Weight Training

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