Junior High School and High School athletes seem to be bigger and better these days. I attend a great deal of youth sporting events and am still surprised at how many athletes are performing at levels beyond those of their peers. So, why is this happening?

In part, it is due to athletes simply “hitting the weight room.” It is very common for High School teams to spend part of their practice time lifting weights. The results? Better, stronger, faster, more intimidating athletes.

Many people ask the question, How do you know if your teen is ready to lift weights? The idea exists that teens should not lift weights because it will stunt their growth. The truth is, weight lifting will not stunt your teen’s growth. In fact, it has been proven, that weight lifting actually strengthens bones! This may seem difficult to believe, but it is true, in weight lifters of all ages.

It is important to remember, that teens can, and do, get injured in the weight room. I think that that is where this myth of stunting your growth comes from. There are several important rules for teens to follow when considering a weight training routine.

SUPERVISE

Teens need to be supervised at all times. This is an easy step to forgo. You think that you can show them the exercises and let them loose in the weight room the next time, figuring that they will remember how and what to do correctly. How many times have you done your exercises correctly the first few times? Because they are being introduced to many different exercises, all of the specific “how to” directions may get confused. Make sure to walk through the weight room with them, pointing out correct form and weight load. Even when they are proficient at lifting weights, it is still critical to provide supervision. You never know when an accident may occur. Safety is extremely important.

WEIGHT LOAD

When lifting weights, teens should stick to lifting a weight that they can successfully lift for 12- 15 repetitions. The amount of weight depends on what the teen can manage. It is better to start out with weights too light and complete the repetitions successfully, then risk an injury because the weight was too heavy. The amount of weight can always be increased if it is too light. In the beginning, it will be through trial and error that the teen figures out the best weight load to use for each exercise.

PROPER FORM

In addition to lifting the correct amount of weight, proper form is essential! If your teen is cheating on the moves, he/she could get injured. Also, the muscle that is being worked may not be the one intended. It is important that form is always being thought of even when a teen seems proficient at an exercise, it must still be concentrated on to gain maximum results.

DIET

It seems like teens can, and do, eat whatever they want. Eating a proper diet is necessary to have a healthy body. Teens need to make sure that they are eating well and include protein and complex carbohydrates with each meal. Drinking enough water is essential, too. This will provide their bodies with enough fuel to be an active athlete.

Many High Schools have weight training rooms in them, now. With so many athletes using these rooms, and more and more teens becoming active in sports, we need to make sure that they are weight lifting in a healthy way. Let’s not take the safety of their bodies and the sport for granted.

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Everyone can agree that cut abs and big arms look great. But in the gym nothing impresses the way doing heavy bench presses does. There’s just something about pushing massive weight off chest that turns heads. Here’s the fastest way to add extra plates to your bench routine.

The bench press is a classic compound exercise. A compound move is defined as any exercise that involves more than one muscle. When you bench the primary muscles worked are the pectoral muscles, also known as your “pecs”. But at the same time you also work the front deltoid, triceps and most of the muscles of the back. If you do a lot of benching all of these muscles should be fairly developed already so isolating can and will help, but there is one move that I have found to accelerate my max bench results more than any other.

Weighted dips, but with a twist.

This exercise assumes that you can do at least a couple full body weight dips on a dip station. If you are developed enough to add chained weight around your waist even better, but it’s not necessary. When your doing dips the more upright your body position the more triceps work you are doing. As you lean forward it engages your chest. The further forward you lean, the more your chest works. We all know that the triceps is a short muscle that tires very quickly and completely (meaning when your tri fails, it fails, there is no squeezing a couple more reps). So here’s the actual move.

Start your dips in a very straight, upright position. As you begin to tire, but before failing, start leaning forward and keep going. The closer you get to failing the further forward you should lean. By adjusting your body position you will isolate (in a manner of speaking) your tries in the beginning, with a lot more weight than doing it any other way, and gradually move into a “semi-push up” that works more chest and front delt. If your shoulders can handle the strain, as you lean forward the deeper you can dip the better. Be careful here though, this is really hard on the shoulder joint. Do as many sets and reps as you can.

By incorporating this move into your chest and/or triceps routine, you will find after a couple workouts that your flat bench will increase. Stop the “Dip with a Twist” move, work at the new bench number for a while, and then come back to it again in a couple sessions. You will almost always see a boost in bench with this pattern.

Steve Robbins has been a fitness enthusiast his entire adult life. He can bench double his weight and run a marathon, all at 52. Editor and main contributor to http://www.muscleandhealth.org where Free weight lifting routines, beginner – advanced and muscle building supplements can be found.

Have you ever seen the site’s with the amazing photos of the complete body transformation? Of course you have. Believe it or not, 99% of them are true and legitimate before and after photos. And the transformations are amazing indeed. Here is what they don’t show you.

Muscle building and fat loss goals are things to be taken seriously. They can be the literal difference between life and death for some people. The decision to change one’s physical appearance is a huge one, something to not be taken lightly. It is life changing to go from an overweight out of shape person to a fit, lean, well built specimen. Every aspect of your life improves, from the obvious physical changes to the less obvious boost in self confidence and elevated feeling of self worth. And the even less obvious way in which every one around you treats you, especially the people who don’t know you and make their initial judgments on how you look and carry yourself.

The person that makes the decision to “change” is like anyone would be, looking for the easiest and fastest route to their desired destination. So it’s obvious that ads and programs will promote how easy and fast you can go from this to that. And a picture is worth a 1000 words. Actually, two pictures. The before and after.

I said before that 99% of theses shots are legit, and they are. And the photo’s are not doctored or altered, in most cases. It is the same person’s head on their body in both shots. But if you look at any of these very closely, you will notice that the people always look a little different, in the face especially. The hair will almost always be a different style, length and sometimes even color. Why? It is so you don’t notice as easily what enabled the real “transformation” to occur.

The passage of a LOT OF TIME.

Not the 8 week, 30 day, 60 day, 12 week, ripped, cut, chiseled, huge, massive, muscle bound time frame they are promising. If you’re 100 lbs overweight you can drop 30-40 fairly quickly. Or, if you’ve never lifted before, you can gain 5-10 lbs of muscle fairly easily. And you can do THAT in 8 weeks or so. But you will NOT go from 20% body fat to under 9% (where you MUST be for abs to show), or go from being a 90 lb weakling to a middle linebacker physique in 8 weeks. You also won’t do it in 8 MONTHS, unless you quit your job, hire a trainer and a chef and happen to be 18-22 years old.

Anything that makes as much difference in your life as a “body transformation” will, will not come easy or quick. But it will be worth it. I just came back from 3 weeks in south Florida, hanging on the beaches everyday. I saw no “after” photos walking around. None at all. One of the major reasons for that is because people buy into the hype and when it doesn’t happen as promised they quit, or they don’t believe the hype and never get to know that it is possible to accomplish what they see in the photos, just not in 8 weeks. Simply realize that a lean well built body is about a life style. You don’t change that overnight.

Steve Robbins has been a fitness enthusiast his entire adult life. He can bench double his weight and run a marathon, all at 52. Editor and main contributor to http://www.muscleandhealth.org where Free weight lifting routines, beginner – advanced and muscle building supplements can be found.

Move over, men! Weight training isn’t just for you anymore! More and more women are weight training in gym, clubs and in the spare rooms of their homes. And why not? The benefits of weight training are superb! Who wouldn’t want to increase their fat loss, strength, and bone density?

The image of a woman with an Arnold Schwarzenegger type of body is not what you will get from lifting weights. It can not happen. Women do not have enough testosterone to make it possible. Unless you are taking steroids, you do not have to worry about it. So, that said, it is time to join the forces and get pumping!

BURN CALORIES 24/7

What better way to burn calories 24/7, then weight lifting? When you are performing cardiovascular exercise, your body burns more calories in those 30 minutes than when lifting weights for the same time. So why lift weights then? The pay-off comes when the weight lifting routine is over. Your body will continue to burn more calories the rest of the day. According to a study in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, women who completed an hour long strength training workout, burned an average of 100 more calories in a day. That can add up quickly if you lift weights three times a week! That adds up to 15,600 calories, or 4 1/2 pounds, of unwanted fat, for doing nothing! Point me in the direction of the dumbbells!

You can even burn more calories in the time after your workout by simply increasing the amount of weight that you lift. When you lift 85% of your max weight load for 8 reps, rather than a lighter weigh load for 12-15 reps, you can burn twice the amount of calories in the two hours following your workout.

Yes, you are building your muscles, and it is a good thing, too! Muscle accounts for 1/3 of a women’s weight and is known to be metabolically active. This means that muscle is burning off calories, even when you are not in the gym! Replace 10 pounds of fat with 10 pounds of muscle and you will burn an extra 25-30 calories a day, without even trying!

TARGET TROUBLE SPOTS

Tired of looking at those flabby arms? Want to firm up those thighs? It is easy to do so when lifting weights. Make sure that you do work all body parts so that you have a balanced look. Because muscle is denser than fat, it squeezes the same amount of weight into a smaller space. This means that you may not have lost any weight on the scale, but your jeans fit better. Measure your success by how you look and feel. You will feel so self-confident when you put those jeans on!

BETTER HEALTH

Weight lifting is a great way to rid yourself of those unwanted, extra pounds. When you lift weights, you are burning fat away from around your abdomen. This fat you do not see, it is actually around your organs, inside your body. By getting rid of this fat, you are reducing your risk of getting certain types of cancers as well as adult onset diabetes. You are also increasing your good cholesterol level, strengthening your bones and increasing your lean body mass.

What are you waiting for? It is time to get started lifting weights! It is time for a new, healthier you!

Are you sick and tired of trying every fad diet under the sun only to find they don’t work? Are you tired of being lied to about the latest weight loss diets? Learn what really works by going to http://weight–loss–diets.com

Most of all of the bodybuilders out there are after the same thing massive and well defined muscles.

If you are wanting to get huge and ripped, you have probably planned to burn fat and gain muscle while trying to achieve muscle mass.

Because people are after the ultimate body, they try to jump into their programs to fast. Trying to push the results will never get them where they want to be, but most people jump in and expect to see huge strides overnight while putting in very little work. Most people are ready to supersize their muscles, but they do not want to put on any extra body fat at the same time.

It is important to know.

There are no quick results; you cannot add a lot of muscle to your body in a short amount of time without adding body fat.

It is necessary to understand that this is the way that it works and if you really want to add muscle to your frame, you have to accept this concept.

In order to increase muscle size, you have to take in a surplus of calories for best protein synthesis. That said, the body simply cannot use 100% of this calorie abundance to fuel muscle growth. This abundance will always end up as some body fat, which is why attempting to burn fat and gain muscle is not a good idea.

Plan to concentrate on first building muscle volume, and then losing body fat, instead of trying to burn fat and gain muscle at the same time.

Ultimately, your muscle mass levels play a important role in deciding your basal metabolic rate, so it becomes easier to lose body fat after you have built your muscles to a significant degree. This is why beginning with a bulking phase is almost always the best route. So, although you will noy be able to lose fat and put on muscle at the same time, it will be much easier to lose weight once you have gained new muscle.

If you think about what we have talked about, the best goal in a bulking phase is to go for as much muscle size as you can get and minimize your body fat gains. While bulking up, your focus should never be on trying to lose body weight but on gaining as little body fat as possible.

These are the 3 things you need in order to obtain your goal.

1) Use a very focused caloric surplus.

Perfect Nutrition does not exist; there is only such a thing as optimal nutrition. Keep in the back of your head that you require a over abundance of calories to feed muscle growth, it is not just about eating as much as you feel like; taking in more calories than you need to build muscle tissue will simply cause you to get fat.

The normal accepted calorie needed for supporting muscle growth is 15-20% more calories than is needed to maintain your weight. There is no reason to go above that range in calorie intake when you are trying to build up your muscles.

2) Pay attention to the actual food sources you are taking in.

When you are thinking about what to eat, focus on natural and high fiber carbohydrate selections, unsaturated fats that are good for you, and lean, high quality proteins.

Rather than aimlessly eating every food item in sight, make sure that you are sticking to lean protein foods, keeping blood sugar levels constant through proper carbohydrate choices, and avoiding large amounts of saturated fats.

As long as you stay with this diet, you do not have to be worried about calculating out how to burn fat and gain muscle at the same time because you are already limiting the amount of body fat that you will put on.

3) Throw in a medium amount of cardio.

Adding on 2-3 cardio workouts during your week can cut down on fat gains during your bulking phase. Longer duration cardio workouts have been known to cause muscle loss, so you should increase only 10 to 20 minutes of high intensity/low duration cardio to your routine.

After you have obtained your muscle mass goal then switch your workout to a program that focuses on removing body fat while maintaining muscle size.

However, just keep in mind that while bulking up, gaining some body fat is inevitable and the trick is simply to minimize it rather than trying to burn fat and gain muscle at the same time.

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Tell me something.

Now that you have started a muscle building program, have you packed on about 5-10 kilos of clean, muscular weight?

When you do the compound exercises like squats and deadlifts, are you using heavy weights?

Have your most important muscle groups increased in size by at least two inches?

Do you think that it’s time to buy news clothes because the old ones don’t fit? Do friends and family compliment you on your new physique? Do people come to you for bodybuilding advice?

If you haven’t answered yes to all of these, stop worrying about the small details like how do I train my inner chest? or how do I build up my upper biceps? It’s not worth it, when you’re at the beginner stage (less than one year’s training). You’ve got to grow muscle mass first.

I am a well known muscle building author and every day I get emails from aspiring natural bodybuilders from all parts of the world asking how to grow muscle mass. In those emails, I get questions like the ones above,

My answer’s the same. If you’ve just started out in the world of bodybuilding and don’t already have a lot of muscle mass to show for your efforts, you need to get the basics right by learning how to grow muscle mass first. Do the basic compound exercises, squats, deadlifts, presses and rows before you specialize and get technical.

Here’s why.

You shouldn’t let your concentration waver from your immediate goals, which it will if you focus on these trivial issues.

And what should you be focusing on right now?

To amass as much strength and muscle size in your body as humanly possible!

Grow muscle mass first and then start to specialize. Once you have trained consistently for over a year and have a steady base, then you can start obsessing about these details, but not until then.

Commit to a weight training schedule that’s sensible and rational, and then stick with it.

Write down every single workout that you perform and place every ounce of energy you can muster on adding as much weight to the bar on a consistent basis as you possibly can.

Grind out all of the biggest, most difficult compound exercises and blast through those discomfort zones with passion and intensity.

Each and every day of the year, you need to pack in at least 5 or 6 balanced muscle building meals without fail.

Drink plenty of water, get enough rest and make sure you’re taking the right supplements.

The only way to achieve success is to prepare to work hard, there are no shortcuts, so create a path that you can follow long term. And the most efficient path possible is the one that focuses on the fundamentals of how to grow muscle mass to start, and the details later.

This is the state of mind that you need to adopt to maximize your bodybuilding program. You can’t run before you can walk!

If you study the principles behind how to grow muscle mass, you will realize that it’s not brain surgery, but you need will power and hard work. It will pay off, trust me.

Don’t over analyse or obsess, just train hard!!

Get that muscular physique you’ve always wanted. Visit the website below and get access to a free 8-part email course jam-packed with killer muscle building tips.

http://www.superchargedmusclefrowth.com