0 7 Muscle Recovery Tips to Reduce Muscle Soreness

After every intense workout fatigue sets in body of any sportsman. The most common manifestation of intense exercise is muscle soreness, which can last from two days to a week. For a better performance at gym it is necessary to know what to do in order to recover quickly and to relieve muscle pain as far as possible.

Muscle soreness can occur when you are doing a movement pause too long. It is important to make the difference between muscle soreness and muscle cramps. Unlike the first one, muscle cramps are involuntary contractions of the skeletal muscle. Whether it involves a part or the whole muscle, cramps can occur in the most unexpected moments.

Let's see the 7 muscle recovery tips and how you can reduce muscle soreness and cramps:
1. Active recovery of muscle

Some studies have shown that the best muscle recovery is made by doing exercises at low intensity. The studies shows that active recovery immediately after exercise, reduces lactic acid in the body, more intense than the total quiescence. Researchers have found that low intensity activity stimulates blood circulation and the athlete has a better ability to relax because the muscles are receiving more nutrients and electrolytes.

So, after you finish your training, do some cardio exercises for 15 minutes slowly, or go for a walk in the park or everywhere you want for 20-30 minutes.

2. Take a shake after every training
To fill your batteries and bring important nutrients to your body, in order to recover and relieve muscle soreness that may occur the next day, consume a shake full of carbohydrates with rapid absorption and proteins.

3. Drink more water, preferably electrolyte water.
What is the most important benefit of electrolyte water?
Well, besides that hydrates you, it brings you magnesium, potassium, calcium, and sodium. These are important elements for muscle recovery and to reduce fatigue. Sodium you can add drinking bottled water, for potassium, bananas are the most important source. Grains, nuts, green leafy vegetables are important sources of magnesium. To consume calcium electrolyte, the plan includes calcium-rich foods each day such as (soy) milk + cereal, yogurt.

4. Massage
Go to a massage saloon or you can massage yourself the muscles that were subjected to effort. Increases blood circulation, helps post-workout recovery and reduce the level of lactic acid from muscles.

5. Take enough sleep
Sleep at least 8 hours a night and even more in days when you are training. If you can, sleep afternoons, even 30 minutes can be beneficial in the recovery. Remember: Muscles are growing when you are resting, NOT when you are training. Going to gym represents only 25-30% of the bodybuilding equation. Remaining pieces are occupied by resting and nutrition. I need a whole article to enumerate the importance of a good sleep for muscle recovery and relieve muscle soreness.

6. Consume large amounts of VITAMIN C
Besides the antioxidant effect, vitamin C has many other benefits such as: strengthens your immune system, reduce bad cholesterol, prevents scurvy and has an important anti-inflammatory role so it can reduce the muscle pain or muscle cramps.

7. Take a hot-cold shower when you get home
Increases blood circulation, so your muscles will receive more nutrients and will be able to recover much faster. It also boosts your immune system and helps to prevent the common colds in winter.
Above you have 7 tips for rapid muscle recovery and I have shown you how to reduce muscle soreness as possible. Now tell me in a commentary, what tips do you use for your post-workout recovery and how effective they are.

More information about muscle soreness and many other advices you can find at Gaining Muscles.
Passionate about bodybuilding, nutrition and sports in general.

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0 How to Bench Press More Weight in Just 20 Seconds With 3 Mental Tips

These days there are a lot of tips about training, there are hundreds of workout routines, but there are very little information about mental aspect of training. I think that mental tips are very important in sport, so I decided to share with you 3 great mental bench press tips that combined can instantly increase your bench press by 5, 10 or even 20 lbs.

1. Squeeze the bar. When you are doing bench press squeeze the bar as hard as you can. And I mean squeeze it really hard. Imagine that you want to crush the bar. Imagine that you want to squeeze some "iron juice" from the bar. Now, just sitting at home, try this exercise - take your hand, make a fist and squeeze it as hard as you can. Squeeze it tighter ant tighter until it feels like your forearm is like a piece of steel. And you should feel that when you squeeze your fist really hard, not only your forearm tenses up, but also your whole arm and shoulder. It is very simple tip, that you probably heard many times - but don't be blinded by simplicity, and actually use this tip again and again until it becomes your habit. Because even thought it is so simple, this tip alone can increase your weights by 5-10 pounds.

2. Tear the bar apart. Now, obviously we are not able to actually "tear" the bar apart, but remember that it is a mental tip. We are trying to unite our mind with body here. So, back to the topic, when you are bench pressing, apart from squeezing the bar really hard imagine that you want to tear the bar apart. Imagine that it is an elastic band that you want to stretch it sideways, both to the left and to the right. Imagine that you are trying to bench the weight not in a straight line "I I", but that you are drawing a letter "V" with your arms. Maybe it sounds too complicated, but I hope that you understand this tip.

3. Press yourself away from the bar. Again, we are not able to actually press ourselves away from the bar. We are not able to press ourselves through the floor - that is obvious, right? But usually, when we are doing bench press, we imagine that we are pushing the WEIGHT away from ourselves. And that is what this tip is all about. Imagine that you are not pushing the weight away from you, but imagine that you are trying to push YOURSELF away from the bar, just like when you are doing dips - you are pushing yourself away. Use this tip again and again until it becomes your second nature.

If you wish to know how I managed to increase my lifts by 40 lbs in 14 days, visit my blog http://simplewaywithin.blogspot.com

If you want to know how you can add 50 lbs to your bench press in 3 weeks, read my story here:
http://simplewaywithin.blogspot.com/2012/08/how-to-gain-weight-how-to-gain-20.html

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0 The Mindset, Strategy, and Best Workouts to Build Muscle Fast

Most everyone these days in the weight lifting gyms plan a strategy of high volume body part splits. The beginning of the week starts the high volume weekly parade starting with the chest, back, legs and then arm days. For some people they exercise all the same body parts, but on different days. Studies are now proving that low volume exercises are the best workouts to build muscle.

The high volume way of training has passed down through the years without revisiting whether this form of training is a good rational approach to building muscle. Also in the 60's the appearance of anabolic steroids really got the folks in the gym fired up and gung-ho to increase the volume of their workouts. The prevalent thinking is that you must increase your volume, and if you don't, you will not see any beneficial muscle growth.

People that take this type of approach will swear that you need the higher volume in order to get higher levels of growth hormone secretion. They don't realize that this hormone growth secretion can happen anytime you do any type of physical activity, even from the heat when you take a shower.
And we all know we don't gain muscle growth in the shower. The bottom line is the growth hormones produced during the typical workout are not enough to make the slightest difference whatsoever.
If you are not blessed with great genetics in the muscle growth gene area then you are making a mistake by training with high volume lifting exercises. This type of training will drain your amino acid pool and glycogen stores, and this will dramatically increases the time it takes your body to recover. For example, if you do 8 - 12 sets of chest exercises, to really get your body the proper recovery time you should rest for a week. This cuts down on the actual muscle stimulus from your 8- 12 sets for chest to once a week; remember any additional workouts that week are fueled from a depleted amino acid and glycogen pool. Now just think if you cut down the volume, you would benefit more from training the same body part more than once a week because of the extra recover time.

The best workouts to build muscle are those that utilize exercises with lower reps and with heavier weights. You should aim to decrease the total sets per workout keeping them low, and the total sets per exercise should be even lower. I can understand how difficult it is to change from the high volume way of thinking, but you have to get away from thinking that you have to hit every muscle from every angle to induce muscle growth. This is simply not the case; I challenge you to observe your workout gym closely with an open mind. I would be willing to bet there is someone you never see doing hours of weight lifting and cardio who is in tremendous shape. I myself have seen people over the years that I never saw on the treadmill, or bike, or elliptical machine for extended times and they are very muscular with athletic bodies.

This a radical change from the traditional exercise philosophy and there will be proponents of higher volume workouts that will defend their stance. But remember it has always been difficult to change the prevalent ways of thinking. That's fine, let them continue to do what they choose; personally I have way more important things to do than spend all of my waking hours in the gym. If I can get the best workouts to build muscle in a fraction of the time I will choose that option every time.

Lee H Dinkins is a health and fitness advocate with a passion for the continuous learning and sharing of healthy lifestyle advice and information, You can check out his latest website at Muscle Gaining Help, where he provides unbiased fitness information including Gaining Muscle Fast, and other fitness tips and help

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0 Planning And Building A Better Body

Never has there been a better time in history of the sport of body building to join it. The sport has come a long way since its heydays of the 1970's. Body building legends like Lou Ferrigno and Arnold Schwarzenegger, blazed a trail in perfecting many of the techniques and exercises that are still being used very effectively today.

Before these body builders there was a founding generation of body builders who ushered in the world of piling up muscle in the days when it wasn't conceived of. People like, Scott Wilson, Charles Atlas and Dan Lurie. These 'founding fathers' of body building and others have invented and perfected techniques and forms of lifting as well as ideologies of nutrition and lifestyle that paved the way, so that others could benefit from using them in the gym There is no need to reinvent the wheel, it is already spinning, just jump on!

Many people have no clue about how to train or what foods to eat to maximise their efforts. It is the purpose of this article to shed some light on the basics of entering into the gargantuan world of the body builders or the elite and toned look based lifestyle of the fitness trainers. The main purpose of this article is to help you begin to make a plan that will work for you!

In beginning assembly of any routine that is going to be of benefit, simplicity is the essence that will carry them forward to the next level. The first step is to look at the goals of what is in reality achievable over the course of a few weeks. Setting these types of short term goals is the most important step on the path of body building and fitness. The notions and dreams of instantly becoming a Schwarzenegger or Lee Priest aka "the myth" should be dismissed from your immediate plans.

The truth of working out is that changes will happen to muscle structure and growth in a relatively short time, but it may not be noticeable immediately to the person who is just starting out with their new training program. Seek help in putting a plan together and a weight training schedule. Don't reinvent the wheel; there are many sources of guidance on the market place today. Weight lifting and body building and nutrition are a multibillion dollar industry each year. Subscribe to some of the magazines and fitness web sites that are out there and you will learn a lot of things about this game, very quickly.

When designing a routine, try to break it into the main basic muscle groups. The back, shoulders, legs, and chest groups, are the main ones to start with. Doing this will simplify a new persons point of reference for each group, and since our bodies don't isolate muscles in the real world, this way of thinking about muscles in terms of "the groups", facilitates a more natural look when all is said and done. Within each of the main muscle groups it will be important to train the targeted muscles. In thinking along these lines the body builder is identifying the muscle they desire to train and targeting them with a set of exercises and with purpose!

In building a proper training program that covers each of these muscle groups and yet isolates the exact muscle that the person is attempting to "hit". Some of the experts would say that it is important to not over train any muscle group; and in order to prevent this, that they should be broken out onto different training days. The idea behind this is that all of the muscle groups actually do overlap. If a person trains one series of muscles there are others in the next group that may be getting hit during the same workout. By exercising each muscle group on a different day the body builder is in fact separating and isolating the targeted muscles while allowing the other muscles to recover. In this way most of the people who utilize this type of "one day one group" system can condense their program down to a four or five days a week system.

By training two muscle groups on the same day that are not going to have an effect on each other, and by training a different muscle group the following day that also won't be over trained; the body builder is streamlining the amount of physical training time that they need to hit each group and still rest the muscles that were trained on a previous day. An example of a typical 5 day routine would be as follows.

Day one - Back and Biceps
Day two - Legs
Day three - Shoulders and Calves
Day four - Chest and Triceps
Day 5 - Repeat day one or take day off
By spreading out the training of each muscle group a longer cycle of training is achieved without over fatiguing the muscles. Although there are people who only train one muscle group per day, it isn't as efficient as the workout that allows more groups to be trained on the same day. The trick is to not over train anyone group. The feeling that not enough has been done to hit the muscle is common on one day one muscle group types of programs.

By training more groups the body exhausts it daily levels of muscular energy, and satisfaction is achieved. Try the two groups a day program before necking it back to just one group. The only exception to this rule of course is leg day. Because the leg muscles constitute the largest muscles in the body, it is important to give them their own day. Anyone who has properly trained legs on a "good day" will understand this. If they have been totally "hit" even walking down stairs becomes difficult for a few days. The above program cycle is just a suggestion, but it is a very common alteration for training in most gyms, and seems to suit the variety of training schedules most people can afford. 7 day programs just aren't feasible for people with full time jobs and families.

A combination of diet and exercise and getting enough rest and sleep will begin the new body builder on their path to the physique that they are after. By resting muscles for a day the muscle group has time to replenish its cellular energy levels and be ready for the next workout. Drinking plenty of water will hydrate the body and carry the much needed nutrients to the muscles so that they can grow. A secondary benefit to keeping the body hydrated is to wash away any lactic acid buildups that are happening to the muscles on their days off. By the time the body builder gets back to that muscle group in the four or five day period, the muscle is ready and recovered enough to begin the process all over again.

In other articles the requirements for a well thought out training program and system of nutrition that will work for each body builder will be discussed. The main thing is to become familiar with the weights and equipment in the gym that you are using, and decide how best to apply them towards a routine that will build muscle. Not all gyms have exactly the same equipment, but if the gym panders to the bigger body builders, rest assured that there is sufficient equipment to begin with!

The trick though is to stick to that "simple plan" for the first few months. The grandiose ideas that fitness and strength can be gained over the short term is a dangerous one, and should be dismissed. The use of artificial means of muscle enhancement and those short cuts that you will hear about are dangerous and harmful to your body. There truly are no shortcuts that can make your body better than simple plans and hard work. The movement of "pumping iron" was implemented by guys and girls who led the way in the world of body building, if the newbies to the world of body building read their writings over time, it will quickly become evident that many of them had tried the short cut methods with sometimes drastic results.

There Is nothing more detrimental to this life style or training programs than an injury. If a newcomer to the sport pushes the envelope to hard too fast, the resultant payoff is "time off" because it's virtually impossible to train when muscle groups are torn and health problems arise from the use of steroids and metabolic enhancements are factored in. Another truth to the world of body building and fitness is that it is not just a sport; it can be considered a lifestyle. As such it is not only a social setting where friendships and trusts can develop, but also a place where a person can feel good about their achievements and proud of overcoming the obstacles that are intrinsic to the sport of body building! Stay well, stay fit, and keep on training.

Author's Website Link:
http://www.phillipharrison.com/
Build a Better Body Links:
http://www.bodybuildingforyou.com/articles-submit/joe-czarnecki/build-stronger-core-muscles.html
http://www.athleticmusclebuilding.com/how-to-get-stronger.html

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0 Female Bodybuilding Diet: Tips to Make It Work

A female bodybuilding diet is an important element of bodybuilding. For women who want to get fit, going to the gym and spending hours running on the treadmill or lifting weights will never be enough if they do not follow a particular bodybuilding diet. Such diet will ensure that your efforts are not done in vain as it will help maximize your bodybuilding training.

Women normally face challenges throughout their bodybuilding training and career that are different from that of men. One of the apparent reasons why some of them face these challenges is the lack of sufficient information about the subject female bodybuilding. This is because almost all of the information available over the Web is pertained to men. When I first started out i felt very frustrated with it all. Can't women also have healthy defined bodies? Without enough information, it would be too risky to go on with this activity as one's physical health may be compromised in case a mistake in the training is done. Although some of the advices directed to men can also be applied to a woman's bodybuilding regime, this is not always the case. A specific female bodybuilding diet, for instance, should be clearly laid down and followed.

Tips for Women Bodybuilding Diet
Female bodybuilding diet is an important element of any efficient bodybuilding program for women. Here are some tips that you can follow to make your venture surely work.

Changing your eating habits - If you are serious about building your body healthily, you should begin by changing your everyday eating habits. Basically, you need to quit the three-full-meal system.
Eating big meals three times a day is not really healthy although it may seem energizing - especially if you've been used to it. What you should do instead is to eat small meals several times a day (about seven times a day or every three hours).

You see, your body needs a constant flow of nutrients especially if you are burning a lot of calories through working out. Eating three big meals will leave long gaps in between. The lack of constant flow of nutrients may be more harmful to women than men, so make sure that you follow this new routine.

Eating balanced meals - Following a proper and balanced female bodybuilding diet is very crucial if you want to gain optimal results. There are a lot of women who vigorously work out and train to achieve their goals. Unfortunately, some of them complain of insufficient results. This is normally due to improper and imbalanced diet.

Basically, protein is very important when trying to lose fat and gain muscles. Protein is basically the building blocks of the body and muscles. You should consume more lean meat and products that are high in protein such as chicken, fish, lean red meat parts and protein shakes. You should also consume much of these proteins during breakfast for maximum effect.

Employing the right trainer or coach - Bodybuilding can be a daunting activity especially for a woman. The assistance of an expert trainer or coach who can lead you all the way towards the achievement of your bodybuilding goals is important especially if you are just starting out. The coach or trainer can provide you with good advices and tips on the female bodybuilding diet and in my opinion is it paramount for someone who is serious about getting toned and lean to consult in the right expert advice and training. They can take you to your perfect body goal quickly, saving you time and effort that you might have spent trying things that have no hope in getting you to your dream body. It is also necessary to get into a programme that understands you and your requirements. It took me a long time before I got to where I wanted to be because I was seeking advice from the wrong people and programs!

Linda S Barker takes pride in all the women she has helped achieved their dream physique by giving them a firm foundation of what is required in the workout programs, their diet and their mentality. Her mission is to bring fresh and upto date information about how all the things one needs to get them closer to the results they want to achieve.

Visit her site, howtobuildmuscleforwomen.org for more information on products which are currently absolutely the best ones in the market today.
Click Here to get started right away.

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0 Bodybuilding Pumps - Some Great Ways To Help You Build More Muscle And Recover Faster!

Building muscle and recovering fast can be much easier with the best tips, tricks and tools out there. The truth is that getting amazing pumps when you're working out and getting the most intense workouts are keys to success when it comes to bodybuilding as well as powerlifting. However, another important aspect of success in bodybuilding and lifting overall is the healing and recovery process.

Your muscles grow when they heal and recover, and this is the time when you really want to give your body everything that it needs to heal better, faster and give you the best results possible from your incredible lifts.

Here are just some of the things to do to help you recover faster:

Take Certain Amino Acids
Certain amino acids such as Glutamine, the most abundant amino acid in muscle, and Lysine can greatly improve healing speed and recovery time. They can also help you to build more muscles during the healing process, taking them with a high protein diet can compound the benefits and offer you maximize recovery and muscle growth.

Eat A High Protein Diet
This one is obvious, eat a high protein diet and you'll recover faster and build more muscle.

Eat A Lot Of Complex Carbs
Healthy, complex carbs help with muscle volume and can help you to recover faster. While complex carbs offer give you energy, they should be a staple of a bodybuilding or powerlifting diet.

Get More Sleep
Getting a lot of sleep is key to healing faster, a bare minimum of 5 hours is absolutely essential, but optimum is between 7 1/2 and 9 1/2 hours, any less than your optimum amount and you should take a nap or two throughout the day to make up for lost sleep or get a lot of extra sleep the next night. While supplements and nutrition can help, there is truly no substitute for getting enough sleep.

Vitamin C
This one is key. You hear a lot about high hype supplements, and they usually can help a lot, but a diet high in Vitamin C can make a massive difference as well. Vitamin C helps you heal a lot and promotes the production of collagen, a key protein that makes up many parts of your body. More Vitamin C, especially in combination with other great tips listed here, can really make a huge difference when it comes to recovery time as well as muscle growth while recovering!

Now listen carefully, visit the #1 source for all your BodyBuilding Needs. This Bodybuilding Website has amazing resources, articles, many products including great preworkouts, vitamins, supplements, workouts, exercise videos and much more to help you gain muscle very fast!
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0 The Specifics of Bodybuilding Workouts for Women

When doing bodybuilding workouts for women, the aim is to tone muscles in order to achieve a healthy and toned physique. Most women aren't into bodybuilding to bulk up but to go for that streamlined, athletic look seen on sports magazine covers or famous athletes. Even First Lady Michelle Obama is known for her well-defined upper arms, which is part of why she looks great in practically anything.

Bodybuilding workouts for women specifically target the arms, legs, thighs, rear, chest and stomach areas to create leaner muscles. In order to do this successfully, good training programs set different exercises for women to do when focusing on a certain part of the body. This makes the exercise regimen more orderly and molds discipline, yielding better results is less time. Here is a sample for one week of training where cardio and strength exercises are mixed up to work for each body part involved.

Day 1 - Strength training for the legs. After proper warm-ups, you can start your weekly bodybuilding workouts for women by targeting your quadriceps, hamstrings and calves. These may be in the form of freehand jump squats, dumbbell lunges and dumbbell squats, dumbbell deadlifts, lying leg curls, standing calf raises and leg presses. The approximate number of sets for each is 3 of 12-15 reps per set. Rest for around 30 seconds to a minute in between sets to allow your muscles to recover.

Day 2 - Strength training for the chest and triceps.The second day goes for your pectorals, abs and triceps. These include pushups, the incline dumbbell press, dips for triceps, machine bench press, butterfly, cable rope overhead triceps extension, ab roller and the decline crunch. Again, 3 sets of 12-15 reps with brief rest periods in between.

Day 3 - Cardio.After doing some stretches, do around 20 minutes on the treadmill, which is a moderate cardio workout. This immediately follows 2 days of heavy weight training so that your body has enough time to recuperate. Doing marathon workouts is not healthy nor will it do anything for your muscles.

Day 4 - Strength training for the back and biceps. Again, these exercises are in 3 sets of 12-15 reps each, rest periods in between. This aspect of bodybuilding workouts for women tones your back and biceps through butt lifts, lat pulldowns, bent-arm dumbbell pullovers, one-arm dumbbell and lying t-bar rows, hyperextensions for the back and dumbbell bicep curls.

Day 5 - Strength training for the shoulders.Apart from the shoulders, the abs are also targeted, 3 sets each of 12-15 reps. Don't forget to rest in between sets. Exercises here include military presses,
external rotation, push press, back flyes with bands, butt-ups and knee or hip raises on parallel bars.

Day 6 -Cardio.As before, do your stretches. This is a more relaxed day of moderate cardio. Do 20 minutes on the stationary bike then get some much-deserved rest.

Day 7 - Full rest.You've had a full week of working out and your muscles are in dire need of some recovery time. Get plenty of sleep, hydrate, prepare and cook meals, go over your progress and don't forget to stretch or do some yoga so your body doesn't entirely forget that it's in the middle of training.

Following given bodybuilding workouts for women like these are guaranteed to give you excellent results, coupled with the proper diet. For more information, you can always visit the links listed here, as there's never too much of a good thing!

Linda S Barker takes pride in all the women she has helped achieved their dream physique by giving them a firm foundation of what is required in the workout programs, their diet and their mentality. Her mission is to bring fresh and upto date information about how all the things one needs to get them closer to the results they want to achieve.

Visit her site, howtobuildmuscleforwomen.org for more information on products which are currently absolutely the best ones in the market today.
Click Here to get started right away.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Linda_S_Barker