Bodybuilding and More

If it is one thing people want to know about more than anything when it comes to adding lean muscle to their frames, it is this—what are the best supplements for gaining muscle?

When you think about it, this really comes as no big surprise, after all if you simply flip though one of the popular bodybuilding magazines—you will see page after page of ads.

One promising more benefits than the next.

A TRUE BODYBUILDING SECRET

If there is one thing that gets underplayed in the magazines and online, it is this.

Plenty of rock hard muscle has been built over the decades with nothing more that good wholesome food.

This is how they did it back in the sixties—good food and hard and heavy training.

No exotic supplements or anything like that.

And lo-and-behold, they all gained muscle—they did not shrink because they did not have some scientifically designed supplement that you must take right after your workout.

O.K. I am being funny there, but the truth is if you work hard on the basics and consume plenty of good food like, whole eggs, lean beef, chicken and turkey.

Along with good carb sources like oatmeal (if you like it, I don’t), yams, brow rice, beans, etc.

And healthy fats from all kinds of nuts and seeds and fatty fish like sardines—you will be good.

BUT COME ON WHAT ABOUT SUPPLEMENTS

O.K. O.K.

I know, I said in the title the best supplements for gaining muscle, so if I was pressed I would say this.

First and foremost would be a hood quality, and I MUST  STRESS GOOD QUALITY multi vitamin multi mineral supplement.

Then…

Get a good whey protein isolate to have post workout (you don’t REALLY need to add in any carbs into this if you do not want to) and a good mixed blend powder to take when you cannot grab a good meal.

That is it, that is all you need.

A WORD ON MEALS

A mistake too many beginning bodybuilders make is thinking that when they read that they should eat six times a day they have to be massive meals—NO!

A couple of boiled chicken breasts and a piece of fruit is a meal—it does not have to be fancy.

As long as you are eating, SOME, good quality protein and carbs or fat every two to three hours—it is good.

Do not make things more complicated than they need to be.

CONCLUSION

Yes, all of the fancy supplements look nice, but the truth is, if you are looking to pack on pounds of muscle, all you really need is good quality food.

This is how all of the past champions of yore did it—and you can do it too.

WORK HARD

The allure of big arms—I think more than anything is what most young men want when they first set foot in a gym.

On paper things look easy, bust out a ton of curls and your arms will grow.

The magic word here is—on paper.

After all, curls work the biceps, so if you do them, shouldn’t you get bigger arms?

While curls do work the arms—they really do not push the whole body to get bigger, the way a hard set of squats would do.

Plus, and this is something that never gets a lot of play—you cannot put on any arm size if you do not gain weight.

A NEW APPROACH

Believe it or not, your biceps and triceps (which make up two thirds of the size of the arm) get tons of work from just doing the basics.

Think about it this way, do you think the biceps come into play when you do some heavy dead lifts.

Sure they do.

Same goes for overhead presses and flat and incline benches.

GETTING STRONGER ON THE BASICS

The best way for a beginner to add some serious size to his/her arms is to simply work at getting stronger on the basics.

Work up to using some good poundage (in good form) on squats, dead lifts, all different kinds of benches and rows—and you will be hard pressed NOT to add size to your arms.

A WORD ON SQUATS

I know some of you may be wondering why squats are included—after all they do not work the arms even indirectly like the other movements listed.

Good question!

The reason they are listed is because they are so demanding that they do influence the whole body to grow.

However, if you have been around bodybuilding for any length of time you have probably read about high rep squatting.

This usually involves doing a set of twenty squats.

There is more to it, but I wanted to bring it up because I am NOT (I repeat not) a fan of this method of squatting especially for beginners—and I am not sure about advanced lifters either.

Beginners simply have not mastered the form on squats and invariably when you do higher reps, your form starts to break down, and when this happens.

And injury is usually the result.

Nothing deters progress faster than an injury—so until you have mastered squats, work in the normal eight to twelve rep range.

A WORD ON NUTRITION

I do not care how hard and heavy you train, if you are not eating right, you will not grow.

So just like the basics in bodybuilding, the basics in eating have worked for years and still work today.

Stick to eating lean beef, turkey, chicken, fish, and eggs for protein.

Yams, sweet potatoes, brown rice, and things like whole wheat breads and some fruit for carbs.

And healthy fats from fatty fish like sardines.

Eat something, focusing on protein first, every two to three hours and you will be doing yourself right.

CONCLUSION

Unfortunately, building big arms takes more than curls, but that is O.K., because if you stick to the basics and eat big—you will not only get big arms, but you will be big all over.

Not a bad thing.

STAY MOTIVATED

One thing most bodybuilders are guilty of (including me) is making the mistake of thinking that heavy weights are the only way to build muscle.

On paper this makes sense, after all, if you can lift more weight than you did last month for example, moving from fifty pound dumbbells to sixty’s in the over head press, you should be bigger right?

Yes, but, this approach has some problems.

First, you might not always be able to get stronger.

Second, this approach can really tear up your joints—over time.

To be honest, and I do not know about you, but I do not want to have joint pain when I get older.

O.K.

You might be thinking, what is my alternative.

Well, a lot of times when people strive to us heavier and heavier weights—form goes out the window.

So, try this approach.

Take some weight off the bar and try and do each rep of each set in a slow and controlled manner—really trying to feel the muscle working.

You will be surprised at how effective this can be.

Another approach is to shorten the rest you take between sets.

You will be surprised what happens when you go from taking three minutes between sets—to taking a minute or less.

In fact, over time try to reduce you rest periods all the way down to thirty seconds or less.

CONCLUSION

While heavy weights are nice, they are not the be all and end all of getting bigger.

It can be done with lighter weights, higher reps and shorter rest periods between sets.

If you have been doing the heavy weight low rep training thing for, well forever, give the above ideas a try.

You might just be surprised with the new muscle you gain.

KEEP GOING

There is an old joke that goes,

Doctor my arm hurts when I do this—and the doctor goes—well then don’t do it.

O.K.

I might have gotten the joke wrong.

And my joke telling skills could use some work, but the point remains, if an exercise hurts—don’t do it anymore.

Or, figure out why it hurts and see if you can correct the problem—and if you can’t then don’t do the exercise anymore.

O.K.

So you might be thinking—man this is nothing new—I know that!

Sure, maybe, but it amazes me what some people do.

For, example, you are committed to getting a big chest—so you start pounding away on the bench.

In short order one or both of your shoulders or elbows start hurting—but you just keep pounding away on the bench.

Until of course you can no longer bench at all.

God was good to me, because I can be very pig headed and have made some seriously stupid mistakes—like my twenty rep squat workout (which I will save for another time), but when I started training I read about lateral raises being good for your shoulders—so I tried them.

They hurt.

So, amazingly I stopped them.

Thank you God for this.

Because normally I would continue—like the bench press example from above—until disaster would strike.

BODYBUILDING HAS MANY CHOICES

The thing about bodybuilding is this, there are tons of exercises, so it makes no sense to continue to pound out lying french presses (for your triceps’s) if they hurt your elbows, because you can always find another exercise.

CONCLUSION

If you do nothing else, please take my advice on this, if something hurts and you cannot figure out why—then stop doing it.

Before you can no longer stand the pain and need to go for surgery or therapy on the area.

There are more than enough options out there—so find exercises that work the target muscle—and yes I will say it again—that don’t hurt.

When you find yourself ten years down the line, and your shoulders, elbows, and knees do not hurt—you will be glad you did.

WORK HARD BUT SMART