For most of us, getting to the gym is the toughest part of bodybuilding. Once you’re there, you can usually find the motivation to train for new personal bests and reach new limits. However, now and then you may find yourself sitting on a bench, staring into space, looking for the motivation you need to start moving. For many people, music provides that motivation.

Selecting A Device

If you train at home, you’re in luck. All you need is a boom box in the garage or weight room, and you have all the music you need. You can play it at any volume (provided the neighbors don’t call the police) and you get to choose the style. If you train at a gym, a small mp3 player will suffice.

While I-pods or other advanced devices might be tempting, be careful. Your mp3 player will be subjected to rigors of heavy, swinging weights and bouncing on cardio. It will be left in gym bags, dropped, and perhaps face the risk of being stolen from your car or gym locker.

For these reasons, it’s often a good idea to purchase a cheaper mp3 player and designate its use “for gym only”. 1-gig mp3 players can hold twenty albums worth, and still only cost $35 to $40. Find one on eBay, and you might spend even less, but you’d probably prefer to buy locally.

Save the receipts on everything, and you can return items that can’t keep up with your training style. When it comes to earpieces, the standard “ear bud’ headphones are great. A cheap pair will run you $7 to $10 and will last for months.

Selecting The Tunes

For most, a nice mix of new and older favorites helps motivate us in the gym. Many rock fans will reserve a heavy metal record for certain days certain songs for certain lifts, etc. For cardio, techno or dance music provides a nice steady beat at very much the same tempo at which you will be pumping those thighs on the elliptical or stair-stepper machine. Find your style, and load up the mp3 player. Keep it fresh to keep yourself motivated in new ways, or keep your favorites if you know what works for you.

Remember:

When wearing headphones, you are at a disadvantage in both social and safety matters. If you’re outside jogging, you may not hear a horn blowing a warning to you from an oncoming car. If you’re sitting on a bench, you may not hear another lifter asking to work in on your bench, and you may come off rude or selfish. Be sure to keep your eyes open, even if your ears are in their own little world. Being safe and courteous are just as important as being focused and motivated in the gym.

Dane Fletcher is the world-wide authority on bodybuilding and steroids. He has coached countless athletes all over the world. To read more of his work, please visit either http://www.BodybuildingToday.com or http://www.SteroidsToday.com

Beginning bodybuilders often train in a haphazard fashion in the gym. They walk into the gym, hop on the nearest free machine or bench, and then bounce around the gym, hitting random body parts on random machines, with no rhyme or reason.

Intermediate bodybuilders are a bit wiser. They find a routine and stick with it. They know to start with the same two or three essential compound movements each time, then to move on to isolation movements. They know what exercises they will do, but they do vary the rep/set scheme to ensure some variety.

Once you’ve been training for 3-4 years, you begin to get a feel for what works and what doesn’t. More advanced bodybuilders often utilize a technique known as “instinctive training”. They enter the gym knowing what body part they will be training. They start on the treadmill for a few minutes of warm up.

If they’re feeling strong, they might select a heavy compound movement for low reps, heavy weight. If the mind-muscle connection isn’t quite there yet, they may start with some isolation movements to get the blood pumping into the area, and make it a medium-weight, higher-rep range day.

Advanced bodybuilders know their bodies. They are able to determine the limits their body can handle. They know when they’re ready to give 100%, and they know when it’s safer and wiser to only give 85% and train a bit longer.

They understand their capabilities and limitations thanks to years of training, and they are able to more effectively grow as a result. They waste less time, and they face fewer injuries, because they are able to adjust training protocol to match the demands of the gym and the available resources of their bodies.

If you are new to bodybuilding, find a routine that works, and stick with it. Train for 1-2 years using this routine and build up a solid foundation of muscle. As you make progress and learn how certain movements and rep/set ranges affect your body, take notes and detail your progress. As time passes, you’ll find yourself in situations where a certain bench won’t be open, or you’ll feel stronger or weaker than usual.

At times like that, alter your training to take advantage of this opportunity. Record your results. After a year or so of slight alterations, your workout will slowly evolve into one where you train instinctively each time and you get better results because you know your body so well.

Dane Fletcher is the world-wide authority on bodybuilding and steroids. He has coached countless athletes all over the world. To read more of his work, please visit either http://www.BodybuildingToday.com or http://www.SteroidsToday.com

If you’ve ever had a hard time developing your shoulders, this exercise is going to be a lifesaver for you! Personally, shoulders are one of my WORST bodyparts. It’s tough to keep them strong…tough to get them bigger…and tough to really feel them working when I’m actually doing shoulder exercises!

But the first time I used this technique, it absolutely blew my mind. As soon as I finished the set, my shoulders felt like they were inflating! The blood was came rushing in and I knew I was on to something special…that rarely happens to me with ANY shoulder exercises.

So what makes THIS exercise so special? You’re going to reach muscular failure TWICE within the same set. AND you’re going to do it with no rest in between the two phases of the exercise. BAM BAM…one part right into the next.

But here’s the twist…it’s not a typical drop set in which you reduce the weight to achieve this! You’re going to use the same weight for both phases of the exercise.

The real key lies in the range of motion of each part of the exercise…

You see, when you do a normal barbell shoulder press, as you push the barbell up, you go through what is called a strength curve. In basic terms, it means at the bottom of the movement you are fairly strong. But as you press further (normally about 3 to 5 inches up in the movement) you hit a point where the leverage in your shoulders changes. The exercise gets a lot tougher.

This is called a sticking point – it’s basically the weakest point in the exercise. Another example of a sticking point is commonly seen in the bench press. If you were doing a bench press using a heavy weight, lowered the weight to your chest then started to press but couldn’t get past a certain point (a few inches above your chest), THAT is also a sticking point.

Bottom line, you can only lift as much weight as you can move through that weakest point in the range of motion of an exercise. But outside that sticking point, your muscles are stronger and can lift more weight!

The question becomes, how do we still do full range-of-motion lifting while putting greater tension on the muscles to maximize their strength in other phases of the movement?

We’re going to break the movement into two distinct phases. On the first phase, you’re going to do FULL reps of the shoulder press. When you can’t do any more full reps, you’re going to do partial reps in only the top, stronger half of the range of motion.

It’s a powerful technique and it’ll get your shoulders burning like crazy!

The key to geting the most out of this exercise is the setup…

How to Do It:

First, you’ll be doing this exercise in the power rack. While there IS a way to do it without being the rack (and it is still effective that way), the rack is going to allow you to really push your shoulders to the maximum.

Set the safety rails in the rack to just below shoulder height. You’re going to be doing a standing military barbell press for your shoulders, bringing to the front, of course! I NEVER recommend doing any behind-the-head shoulder pressing – it can cause shoulder damage.

For this exercise, start with a weight you can get at least 8 to 10 reps for. I would suggest doing 3 or 4 sets of this exercise in total for your shoulder workout.

Grip the bar with your pinkies or fourth fingers on the smooth rings of the Olympic bar. You need to take a narrower grip on the bar than with the bench press. The rails should be set so you have to bend your knees a bit to get under the bar. The bar should be held across your extreme upper chest.

Next, begin the pressing movement. Press the barbell up in front of your face then lockout at the top. When you do a military press, your knees should be slightly bent and abs tight to keep stress off the lower back.

Because of the path of the bar, you will be leaning back a little bit – it has to go in front of your face. But as soon as the bar clears your head, shift your torso forward so that the bar is directly over your head.

It almost resembles a bobbing-forward motion. This is a key point that a lot of people miss with the shoulder press. If you keep leaning back, it keep tension on the front delts and takes it off the rear delts.

Lower the weight slowly back to your chest then press again. Keep going until you can’t get the weight past the sticking point. Try and get it past the sticking point, though! We want to be sure you’re right at the limit.

When you’re done, set the bar back on the safety rails. And here’s the trick that’s going to set your shoulders on fire…keeping your hands locked onto the bar, drop down onto your knees under the bar. Now keep pressing in the partial top range of motion of the press!

Because the bar is now ABOVE the sticking point, your shoulders have better leverage and can continue with the exercise! Do as many reps as you can until you can’t even budge the bar. I prefer to set the weight down on the rails in between reps here but you can keep a continuous movement, if you want. Do it whichever way feels best to you.

By exploiting the top range of motion after fatiguing the muscles in the full range of motion, you’re going to finally be working the shoulders with full resistance in the whole range of motion.

When you’re done, stand up. Your shoulders will be swelling up any second now!

As I mentioned previously, there IS a way to perform this technique without a power rack.

First, perform the barbell shoulder press, just like above. Now, instead of doing reps until you can’t get past the sticking point, you’re going to have to stop a rep or two short of that point of failure.

Basically, you’re going to have to complete that last rep to the top. When you’re at the top, now lower the bar only halfway down (just above where your sticking point normally is) then press it back up to the top.

Keep doing reps in this shortened range of motion until you can’t hold the bar up anymore!

Conclusion:

Give this exercise a try in your next shoulder workout. If you’ve got good shoulders, this will blow them up even more. If you’ve got poor shoulders, you’re going to be in for a treat!

Nick Nilsson is Vice-President of BetterU, Inc. and has been inventing new training techniques and exercises for 17+ years. Nick has written many training books including “Muscle Explosion! 28 Days To Maximum Mass” & “Metabolic Surge – Rapid Fat Loss” – http://www.fitness-ebooks.com

Female bodybuilding has increasingly become a more popular sport. Women are now interested in losing body fat and building a strong body just like their male counterparts. The idea of creating a tight, toned body not only increases self confidence, but also boosts a woman’s physical empowerment. However, the challenges of women’s bodies and lack of muscle building hormone make building the ideal body difficult to achieve. Therefore, lots of women have sought assistance from supplementation to help the build muscle.

When you think of supplementation for muscle building, what probably comes to mind are hard core muscle enhancers such as Steroids. Supplementation to build muscle for women is totally different than what you may be used to seeing when watching male bodybuilders. There are natural supplement products that help women gain the similar muscle gains as men, without harmful side effects.

Whey Protein
Whey protein is ideal for any woman that wants to gain muscle to control her weight. Adding whey protein to your diet can achieve these results by increasing lean muscles mass. Lean muscle mass allows the body to burn off excess fat fast. Consuming .88 grams of protein per body weight each day is enough to minimize risk of overtraining; a common condition endured by hard core bodybuilders. The best times to take whey protein is right after a workout as a fast absorbing protein to fuel your muscles then another serving before going to bed.

Fat Burner
Studies indicate that a women that don’t workout gain, on average, one-half pound of body fat each year after the age 18. This is the reason why serious female bodybuilders still face difficulty losing weight even after hard training. Don’t be alarmed, this is just a woman’s metabolism natural slowing down as she ages. However, if you are a bodybuilder, your goal is to eliminate as much fat around the body as possible so you might not give into the slow metabolism excuse. Fat burners, in natural form, can help. Natural fat burners consist of a mixture of herbs that increase the body’s thermogenic effects to speed up the metabolism; enhancing fat loss.

Creatine
Female bodybuilders take Creatine to gain weight with its water retention effects. However, there are Creatine supplements that have minimal water weight gain assisting in muscle circulation. In the body, Creatine produces ATP, which allows for quick, explosive bursts of activity, enhancing the amount of weight lifted.

Essential Fatty Acids
Consuming the right amounts of dietary fat is important to reach your fitness goals and overall health. Contrary to what people believe, there are some good fats such as nuts, fish oil, and other sources that help with energy production, reduction in water retention, control cellular fluids, and oxygen diffusion all of which are beneficial to creating the best environment for proper muscle growth.

Calcium
High calcium intake plays a vital role in helping female bodybuilders to increase bone strength, while enduring the demands of heavy training. Calcium is also essential for proper muscle function and contraction. Calcium supplements should be taken instead of food sources that contain calcium such as milk and cheese due to their high fat content.

The right combination of supplements can help female bodybuilders put on muscle faster than if they were only training and dieting. As with any nutritional program, you want to consult with a certified nutritionist to understand the proper way to implement supplements into your diet. To ensure the best overall physique, be sure to compliment your supplementation with a healthy diet and exercise.

Are you looking to gain weight or build muscle? Check out http://www.builtfit.com to learn more tips on building muscle.

The method employed by many top bodybuilders and strength athletes is to train beyond failure. How can this be done? Is it physically possible to complete more of a workload after failure has been achieved? Is it actually possible to give 110%?

The answer, technically, is no.

When failure is achieved, no more full repetitions with that amount of weight can be completed within the next 2-3 seconds (normal repetition delay time). Athletes continue training using a few techniques, which allow them to squeeze out a few more repetitions.

Less weight
If you are using a machine with a pinned weight stack, it’s very easy to quickly re-rack the pin and continue pumping out a few more repetitions. Moving down the rack using dumbbells in an uncrowned gym can be equally fast. If you’re using a barbell, it is often not productive to risk sliding off the plates, but it can be done. A quick reduction of weight allows for a few more reps to be completed after muscle failure with the heavier weight has been achieved.

Poor form
Loosening form or slightly swinging the weight in order to recruit tendons and other body parts to help the muscle group move the weight is a great way to keep the muscle working even after it fails being able to move the weight alone. Be sure to use correct form until failure. Only after the muscle group cannot move the weight alone, should other parts of the body be used to assist.

Spotter assistance
Your spotter can remove 5 to 10% of the weight resistance by simply putting a finger or a hand on the bar, and helping it move through the positive part of the exercise. This removes just a bit of the workload, and is essentially the same as the less weight method. Spotters can be useful on bench press, squats, and other movements where it’s hard to remove weight plates from the bar.

Pause
The use of rest-pause sets allows athletes to continue a set, after pausing for 5 to 10 seconds to allow blood and lactic acid in the region to dissipate. This allows the muscle to regain some of its strength so a few additional reps can be competed.

Always train using good form, with full weight, and minimal spotter involvement, until you reach failure. Once you cannot move the weight again, employ one or more of these methods to continue taxing the muscle group.

Dane Fletcher is the world-wide authority on bodybuilding and steroids. He has coached countless athletes all over the world. To read more of his work, please visit either http://www.BodybuildingToday.com or http://www.SteroidsToday.com

You’ve been training for years, and you’ve developed a fairly impressive bench press, right? Most of the guys in the gym can’t touch you. I mean, you warm up with 225. You rep out with a spotter at 315. And yes, you have successfully moved 401 on your own. You’re a big guy, and above all, a strong dude. But it seems that in recent months, you haven’t been able to get much stronger.

It happens to all of us. It’s called a plateau and essentially, it means you have reached a point in your training where gains have temporarily stopped coming. It’s very normal, especially as you get closer to your absolute peak physical performance potential. Ronnie Coleman may have added 50 pounds to his bench press maximum for the first 5 or 6 years of his career, but even his numbers have stopped advancing in recent years. There is a peak for all of us.

Luckily, unless you’re benching in the 550s, you have a long way to go until you reach your absolute physical peak. What you’re facing now is just a temporary plateau, due to your inability to challenge your body in new ways. Well, you are in luck. Today we’re going to discuss some new ideas which can help to challenge your body to grow once again, adapting to a new workload and subsequently making gains in your bench press numbers. Here are some tips.

Gain a little weight
It’s very hard to grow new muscle, without eating more food, and gaining more weight. And its very hard to get stronger without some new muscle. Add 300 to 500 new calories to your daily diet, and see if your numbers don’t start to climb again. Just be sure that the new calories don’t come in the form of a candy bar. Rather, they should be from an additional whey shake or protein breast.

Change your rep scheme
If you’re a powerlifter, there’s a very good chance you’ve been training with a 5 x 5 rep scheme, or something similar. Spend 2 or 3 workouts using a 10-12 repetition range. Then return to the 5 x 5 rep scheme and see if the added muscle fiber recruitment you caused by training with the higher repetitions has led to any new strength. You may be surprised!

Get a training partner
If you train alone, that has to change. We have all had those moments where we know that we have one repetition left in us maybe. However, if you’re training alone, you usually cannot risk going for it. You know that at the very least, you’re going to fail and be embarrassed. And at the very most, you could seriously injure yourself if you lose control of the bar. Plus, if you drop the bar enough time, the gym owner may escort you out the door. Training with a partner eliminates all of these worries. You can train until absolute failure, and push yourself even when you’re not sure if you will succeed. Someone will always have your back!

Dane Fletcher is the world-wide authority on bodybuilding and steroids. He has coached countless athletes all over the world. To read more of his work, please visit either http://www.BodybuildingToday.com or http://www.SteroidsToday.com