The Official Muscle-Build.com Blog

Guest post by Lindsey Wright

The holiday season is a time for relaxation, family and delectably-tasty treats. From the special turkey dinner at Thanksgiving to the finger foods at holiday parties, it is hard to avoid putting on a little holiday weight. Though staying fit, healthy and slim through the holiday season will require restraint and dedication, it is possible to get the most out of the season without giving into the sweets cravings and lazy temptations.

Plan Workout Times:

For many who gain weight during the holidays, the lack of a plan and the mindset that it is impossible to give up those special treats leads to failure. However, according to Women Fitness, taking the time to plan ahead for holiday workouts make it easier to maintain the schedule when it is tempting to sit on the couch and watch that silly holiday movie with the family. Thus, it is important to work out when an appropriate time to exercise is and what will lead to the best success in terms of sticking to your plan.

Eat Every Meal:

During the holidays, it is easy to anticipate that special dinner or party and try skipping out on meals to save extra calories. Unfortunately, Peter Walsh from Oprah.com points out that skipping meals can actually result in extra weight gain. The hunger from avoiding necessary meals results in overeating at the special occasion and taking in more calories than you would have otherwise. This can be particularly true for stressed individuals, such those who have put in a lot of the time at office (or the malls) as well as students who have been hitting the books extra hard for their online classes, as stress can also cause people to overindulge.

Spend Time on Muscle Building:

When devising an exercise plan, always remember to include some muscle building exercises. While it might not be possible to get to a gym and use the lifting equipment, taking a few minutes for exercises such as pushups, squats, and lunges can maintain muscle mass and improve your metabolism.

Muscle building is just as important for the holiday months as it is for any other time of the year. More muscle mass results in a higher overall metabolism that works more efficiently even when the body is at rest. Trying to spend every other day on simple exercises that build muscle can help maintain or lose weight.

Plan a Day for Cheating:

Sticking to a strict diet during the holidays is challenging, particularly when it comes to the special treats that are only around in the winter. Fortunately, staying fit through the holidays doesn’t necessarily mean giving up every treat. Instead, you can plan ahead for a couple days a month to indulge yourself during the holidays. The key to the day of indulging on a diet plan is to keep the amount of treats you eat to a moderate level. Enjoy a slice of pie or extra-buttery mashed potatoes, but avoid overeating.

Eat Slowly:

With so many tasty foods set on the table, eating quickly is a common part of the holidays. Unfortunately, the body requires a little time to process when the stomach is full. By the time the brain acknowledges that it is full, fast eaters often find that they’ve eaten too much and now feel like the stuffing-filled turkey.

Taking the time to savor the meal and chew food thoroughly will not only make the experience more enjoyable but also allows the mind to recognize your body’s signals for when you are actually full.

Pay Attention to the Foods:

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) suggests that diabetic individuals should pay attention to the foods they are eating and avoid or limit foods that have heavy sauces, glazes or gravies. Although the CDC is providing advice to men and women who must watch their blood sugar, the fact that it can help reduce excessive calories and sugars without giving up good food applies to anyone looking to stay healthy during the holiday season.

Avoid turkey that is covered in gravy or the part of the ham with the honey glaze. Instead, opt for pieces without the gravy-heavy, sugar-filled honey or other sauces. This will reduce your caloric intake at the meal without forcing you to eat less.

The holiday season is a tough time for anyone trying to stay fit and healthy. Fortunately, continuing to exercise and working out a plan to avoid eating extra calories is the key to staying healthy and maintaining your weight.
 

Guest post by Dan Blumenstock

What does it really take to build muscle? If you have spent any time at all learning how to build muscle, you might be confused about what it really takes. You might have seen a dozen different training courses from various bodybuilding gurus and muscle building experts that tell you that they have the secret – that magic bullet that will give you the exact results you want in your muscle building efforts.

They claim to have discovered the keys to performing the exact exercises and bodybuilding nutrition you need to develop a muscular physique that you really want. But sometimes, it’s more about inspiration and motivation to work hard instead of finding a magic bullet.

Now, I would never tell you not to look for a mentor in this process. After all, there are others who have already achieved the muscle building success you’re looking for, and you can certainly benefit by learning from their experiences (both their successes and failures) and save yourself quite a bit of time and frustration in the process.

What you have to understand, however, is that the real key to success is YOU.

In other words, you need to have the discipline to consistently apply the principles that you learn for weeks and even months in order to achieve the desired results. Without this discipline, the most expensive and sophisticated bodybuilding training program will be useless to you because you simply have not applied the instructions over time.

What does it really take to build muscle?

You have to use the principle of progressive resistance, which simply means that you gradually challenge your muscles more and more in order to force them to grow. You see, your body will simply not produce the muscle on its own because the process requires lots of energy and the new muscle is difficult for your body to maintain.

So in order to grow muscle in any part of the body, you have to challenge the muscle. When you lift a weight that is heavier than what you're used to, what is actually happening at the cellular level is that the muscle fibers are breaking down. If you give your body some rest and adequate nutrition (including getting enough calories and protein), your body will rebuild the muscle tissue stronger than it was before.

If you apply this principle consistently, then your muscles get stronger and stronger. That's really what it comes down to. You have to challenge your muscles more and more over time, you have to give your body enough rest in between sessions so the muscle can rebuild, and you have to feed your body enough quality food to rebuild the muscle tissue.

Is it really this easy, or is there something more beneath the surface? Well, let's make it clear — I never said this process was easy. It is simple to understand, but applying discipline in any area of your life is not going to be easy. You're going to have to make the time and sacrifices and experience some discomfort during workout sessions (while being careful to avoid injury at the same time).

I hope I’ve provided some inspiration for you to get started on your muscle building quest. By all means, take advantage of a solid training course, but make sure you are ready mentally as well.

Dan Blumenstock
www.TheMuscleBuildingCrusader.com
Raising Money for The Epilepsy Foundation of New Jersey

Everyone knows getting an ample amount of protein is important to the health of the average person. If you are looking to build muscle, though, you will want to make sure that you add in more protein so that your body has the resources it needs when it comes to building muscles. When your body has a steady stream of protein, it can more easily convert that protein to energy in order to build muscle.

Whey protein should be thought of as a complement to a well-balanced and healthy diet. In order to make sure your body has what it needs to stay healthy and fit, you will need to make sure you eat the right way. This means lots of fresh vegetables and fruits, whole grains, and water. When you are choosing your sources of meat and protein, make sure you choose those that are low in fat and calories. Good choices for this include lean cuts of beef and pork, as well as chicken and turkey.

You can also cut back on your intake of animal proteins. By doing so, you will be reducing the amount of fat that is in your diet. You can then add in more meals and snacks that use whey protein. This will ensure that you will not miss out on the protein that is necessary for your muscles to maintain their mass as well as increase it.

Snacks are an important part of your daily meal plan. Be sure that you make the bulk of your snacks low in fat and high in protein. This will provide your body with the energy it needs without weighing you down with high fat foods that can make you feel sluggish. In addition, eating small meals or snacks throughout the day will enable your body to have the nutrients necessary for the demands that you make of it. This article is by George Tempa from MyProtein.com.
 

guest post by Alyssa Jacobs

When working out and building up a strong fitness regiment there are a few things to consider. Things like diet, exercise, and length of sleep are all important to recovery and protein synthesis when building muscle. Another thing that can dramatically affect the process of muscle building is the consumption of alcohol. There is a lot of debate regarding this subject, some myths, and some truths. It is time to sort out what alcohol is really doing to your muscles.

The first thing that alcohol does to the progress you have made in the gym is slow your recovery rate. Alcohol is a nervous system depressant. It retards muscle recovery and production of male hormone testosterone. All of that hard work you put in, and now if you are consuming alcohol, it won't even pay off. If you are to tear your muscles apart by not letting them recover, you will eventually start losing strength if continuous alcohol consumption is not corrected. This is just one of the reasons that alcohol can affect your muscles.

Another reason why alcohol may be bad for muscles is the ingredients. Alcohol by itself is burnt off as energy long before your meals or fat reserves. If enough is consumed you are not burning any extra calories. Not to mention all of the carbs, and calories each beer has to offer, if beer is your drink of choice. That is why beer belly is such a common term. Alcohol increases the likelihood that you will gain fat. If you combine that with slowed muscle recovery, you are not going to see much progress.

Alcohol does however have some good properties. Like anything, if consumed in moderation, alcohol can have health benefits. Alcohol has blood thinning and cleansing properties. That is why you hear a lot of enthusiasts say a glass of wine every now and then is just fine. Of course that is true, unless that glass of wine can leave you inebriated. You should never be able to feel the effects of alcohol, mentally. Once that has happened you have already had too much. Very small portions or alcohol are "okay" but are not necessarily good. A lot depends on your genetic structure. One thing is for sure though—too much alcohol is never a good thing.

One overlooked effect alcohol has on our muscle building is erratic sleep patterns. When consuming a large amount of alcohol our bodies tend not to get the rest we need. Drugs block the REM sleep that is so crucial to our bodies, and our muscles. With sleep deprived muscles, and a dehydrated body, there isn't much room for muscle building. Rest and recovery is just as important as exercise and weight lifting—they are mutually beneficial.

Alcohol can be very detrimental to muscle building. If you are working very hard in the gym, and you want to see results, try to stay away from alcohol, and the excessive partying that comes with it. Of course rewarding yourself with a glass of wine, or a beer once in a while isn't that bad. Just make sure it is always in moderation.

This article was written by Alyssa Jacobs, a fitness enthusiast who works with www.youreviewelectronics.com giving you the latest reviews of HDTV's.

Guest post by Brett Warren

Change in the world of strength training seems to evolve at exponential paces. Maybe we don't notice it on a day-to-day basis – one session at the gym is never very different from the day before – but step back for a moment and contemplate how far we've come.

Our history of exercise for the sake of building muscle dates back two-and-a-half millennia. Milo of Croton, a 6th century BC war hero and famous wrestler in Ancient Greece, was said to have carried a newborn calf on his back every day, until it was fully grown. That's not unlike adding weights to our lifts as we progress in the gym.

By the 2nd century AD, evidence exists of rudimentary dumbbells. Egyptian hieroglyphs depict men lifting and tossing bags of sand. A rod supporting two church bells became a dumbbell in old Europe, replacing stones as the primary lifting object. In Persia, meels developed an ancient version of the clubbell.

Still, 2,500 years of development can't even compare to the progress we've made in the last century. (Of course, with all the focus on things like heirloom crops and romanticism about returning to traditional ways of life, someone today might make a killing opening a gym that features stones and meels instead of machines!)

By the 1960s, gyms began to open in the U.S., and weight-resistance machines were developed. Nautilus machines opened the door for regular exercisers to engage in weight training, building strength without trying to emulate the hulks in popular films like Pumping Iron.

Unfortunately, with the progression of more accessible weight training came the development of a sedentary American lifestyle. Before a half-century ago, most of our jobs required us to move around. Even people who never considered exercise as an end-unto-itself were able to stay in shape, through the movement required by their daily tasks.

Conversely, it's easy today to sit at a desk all day (even writing blogs about exercise!), eat a few less-than-healthy meals, and then veg out in front of the TV all night because we feel crummy from not moving around enough! For many people, especially with office jobs, incorporating weight training into their lives requires going out of our way to some degree.

But it's not just in the gym where change happens. Our lifestyle carries over to every moment of our day, from when we open the fridge in the morning to when our head hits the pillow. And fortunately, it's in that holistic approach to training that evolution has really sped up lately. We know more today about how to build muscle mass than ever before in history!

A few key things we've come to learn in recent years:

1. The kitchen is more important than the gym.
   It goes without saying that you can't just eat right, sit around all day, and build muscle. But you also can't build muscle mass if you're not feeding them properly. It's been said that 80 percent of body sculpting work happens in the kitchen. Eat chicken, brown rice, whole grains, fish, egg whites, potatoes, and plenty of produce. Shoot for 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight, every day. Pass on the pizza, beer, and ice cream!

   What we've learned in the last 20 years about the importance of avoiding processed foods, in favor of whole foods, makes a bigger difference in the gym than any other development.

2. Understand the science.
   When muscles grow, it's called hypertrophy. You know the 'pump' you feel after working out? That's a temporary boost, called 'transient hypertrophy,' due to the accumulation of fluids in the intracellular spaces of our muscles. We want to create chronic hypertrophy through long-term weight training, which requires consistent workouts. Once a week won't cut it for sustained muscle growth.
    
3. Challenge Yourself
   To make our muscles grow, we have to confuse them! If your body becomes accustomed to a lift, it'll stop growing. Switch things up and slowly add weight to your reps. Your body will adjust and build more muscle. Bring a notebook to the gym to help with this, and don't worry about looking silly. Keeping track of your weight and reps will not only help you progress, but it'll serve as motivation to stay on course. The big thing to remember: You can't just stick with one routine and do it for longer and longer. You won't get results. You've got to vary your regimen!
    
4. Rest Up
   It's funny how our society doesn't always realize the value of something until we start to miss it. With our 24/7 lifestyles, sleep has never come at such a premium. But it's also never been so important. Your muscles grow while they're resting. Take at least one day a week off from your workout routine. And get that eight hours of sleep every night – it'll pay off in the results to your physique.

Try telling a weight lifter 100 years ago that the keys to success include eating their vegetables and sleeping, and you'd likely get a laugh! But there's a reason that records keep getting broken. We're evolving more all the time.

Brett Warren is a fitness and weightlifting enthusiast from Boston, Massachusetts. He is passionate about nutraceutical science and loves his job developing workout supplements for Force Factor. Brett's extensive background in biochemical engineering means he's one scientist you don't want to mess with. When Brett is not crushing it in the gym or working at Force Factor, you can find him spending time outdoors with his family.