March 9th, 2010 | No Comments »

We’ve all heard the yells and grunts of guys in the gym. Making faces and frowning as their muscles cry out in failure.

This article will show you why training to failure is important and how to do it properly.

Pushing your muscles to the limit is the biggest reason we go to the gym.

I reached failure yesterday on the incline bench with 85 lbs dumb bells. If I didn’t have a spotter, I would’ve been in serious trouble.

I knew I was done with chest for the day, and unlike so many other trainees, I moved on to another exercise after that.

Training to muscle failure means you’ve recruited just about all of your muscle fibers and they’ve all failed. Muscles produce lactic acid when they oxidize (move). Eventually they reach a limit of saturation and can’t move anymore.

Micro-tears to most of your muscle allows for maximum growth.

If you damage 60% of your muscle, that 60% will repair itself. But if you damage 98% of your muscle, you leave room for much greater repair. When more muscle repairs itself, you’ll see greater and faster growth. The time added to this growth is minimal compared to the extra gains you will see.

Make sure your tempo and technique remain constant. Be sure the failure is from your muscles and not your joints. Have a mind-over-matter attitude and push through the pain until you can’t perform the exercise any longer.

Beware when using this strategy as you will need a spotter. This is a great technique for maximum muscle growth though.

Of course, you need to know when you’re close to failing and communicate that, and your spotter needs to be vigilant.

The cliche no pain, no gain, isn’t always correct, so until next time, train hard, and train smart.

Looking to find the best advice on how to build muscle, then visit www.fitwithmitch.com to find the best advice on muscle building for you.

Posted in Uncategorized
January 3rd, 2010 | No Comments »

You may say “Wait Mitch, I want to build muscle and gain weight. Why do I need to boost my metabolism?”

Well I’m glad you asked.

A slow metabolism will destroy muscle and store fat. Starving your body or inactivity will tell your body not to build muscle because it takes too much energy to maintain.

When you’re trying to build muscle, energy is in high demand because you’re lifting weights and doing intense cardio.

Muscles need a lot of energy to grow. The best way to increase your energy intake is to eat more. But if you eat more and aren’t aren’t active, you’ll get fat.

The best way to minimize the fat you build is to increase you metabolism. This creates an environment in your body to feed the muscle and starve the fat. Your activity alone such as lifting heavy weights and interval training will shoot your metabolism through the roof.

But here are some added touches to your diet that will boost it even further. As an added bonus, these foods will assist in building muscle.

1. High Omega-3 Fish

* Mackerel – 2.5g O3 per 3.5 oz of fish
* Bluefin Tuna – 1.6g O3 per 3.5 oz of fish
* Salmon – 1.5g O3 per 3.5 oz of fish

The Omega-3 protein can increase your metabolism by up to 400 calories per day.

Of course you can take an Omega 3 vitamin, but eating fish gives you the benefit of a lot more nutrients.

2. Veggies High in Fiber

* Avocado
* Beans
* Broccoli

Your body can’t digest fiber, but it’ll try anyway and burn a lot of energy in the process.

3. Meat High in Protein

* Venison – 34g per 100 grams of meat
* Chicken – 25g per 100 grams of meat
* Lean beef – 25g per 100 grams of meat

Protein takes twice as much energy to burn as carbs. This will increase your metabolism right away.

Eat these foods along with lifting weights and intense cardio, and you’ll benefit from a higher metabolism around the clock.

Thanks to webmd for some of the information.

Looking to find the best tips on how to build muscle, then visit www.FitWithMitch.com to find the best advice on how to increase your metabolism.

Posted in Body and Mind
December 22nd, 2009 | No Comments »

The six pack is widely known as the holy grail of fitness.

They mainly say this because this area is among the most stubborn when it comes to losing fat.

If you’re carrying around a lot of belly fat, this can be very frustrating. All you want to do is get rid of it!

Well there’s a lot more to abs training than exercises such as nutrition and cardio, but this article will focus on the abs training exercises that build muscle the fastest.

I personally had a toned midsection from all the sports I was doing, but I didn’t have a really defined six pack. I switched up what I was doing with this one tip I’m about to teach you and got phenomenal results.

The little known secret I found was to add weight! Training my abs like other muscles gave me results like my other muscles – they began to grow!

So here are the three abs training exercises with weight for ripped abs.

1. Rope Pull Down Crunch

*Move the pulley up high and get a mat
*Get on both knees about 4ft from the column
*Set the proper weight
*Pull the ropes to both sides of your head – by your ears
*Curl your torso down trying to touch your elbows to your knees – keep your hips still
*Hold for one count and release

With this exercise, you get a full range of motion and your abs remain in tension throughout the movement. Do the standard 8-12 reps for 3 sets.

2. Hanging Knee Raise

*Start in a hanging position from a pull up bar
*Bend your knees
*Curl your torso upward
*Try to touch your knees to your elbows
*Use your abs, not your hip flexors

Once you get comfortable, you can hold a 5,10, or 15 lbs weight between your feet. I promise you’ve never felt anything like this before. 8-12 reps for 3 sets.

3. Decline Bench Sit Up

*Adjust the decline – more declined=more advanced
*Hold an appropriate barbell weight on both sides of your head
*Execute a sit up while keeping your chin tucked
*On the release, stop just below horizontal but don’t let your shoulders touch the bench – then repeat

This exercise also allows for a full range of motion because you drop below the horizontal. Dumbbells are better than the plates for this exercise. 8-12 reps for 3 sets.

These abs training exercises are sure to pack on tons of muscle to your six pack. They’ll give you that great pop-out washboard look that’s the envy of the gym.

Learn more about how to get a six pack. Stop by Mitch Graves’ site to watch his video onabs training exercises where he reveals two more great exercises.

Posted in Body and Mind
October 26th, 2009 | No Comments »

If you are bored of being confronted with confusing suggestions from publications, online forums, TV, etc, then recognize that there is only one totally efficient formula for muscle enhancement.

This formula is available and it has been used for a lot of ahead of the game bodybuilders that encountered success by natural ways (without steroids, chemicals or anything unsafe).

This muscle enhancing formula relies upon a couple of things. Persistence, which comes from your determination to enhance muscles and work hard for that. And additionally from the correct information, which is knowing precisely what you must do in order to make the good use of your time and energy throughout the process of developing muscle mass.

When your hard work is combined with the proper information, the outcome are excellent. See, most people go to the gym and start working out by essentially performing random stuff. They lift weights without quite knowing what they’re doing, what is the purpose, etc.

This is the mistake that most supposed formulas for developing muscle mass create. They never consider the correct information. They simply inform individuals to take chemicals and send them to the hard work. If hard work was the one aspect of success, then you could discharge all the engineers and let the hard workers do the task. This formula isn’t only for exercise. Your nutrition also requires the proper information. Primarily if you’re a skinny guy with problems of gaining muscle mass. The ideal muscle building formula consider all the aspects of bodybuilding (planning, resting, working out, nutrition, scheduling, etc), but it all boils down to knowing the correct information and determination to keep using it. Remember for that, it can be useful for you just as an energy drink that keeps you up whole day!

Jason Myers is a professional writer and he writes mostly about build muscle news. He’s also interested in giving weight loss fitness tips.

Posted in Body and Mind