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

For many people, gaining weight is quite easy. Just look at most Americans. It's losing weight that is difficult.

However, even though millions of people are chronically overweight, they're "under-muscled." The objective of this post is to change that.

To build lean muscle mass, you have to take on a serious weight training and diet regimen. Hopefully, you are starting from a point where you are relatively lean or just need to drop a few pounds of body fat. But if you're seriously overweight, you can still follow the prescription I'm about to give; just realize that it's going to take some time and a lot of effort to see lasting results.

All that said, it's pretty easy to build lean muscle mass.

How to Build Lean Muscle Mass

These are some general guidelines to follow. You can check out Building Muscle in 30 Minutes a Day for an in-depth view of how to put it all together. Note that you need to do some form of cardio in order to supercharge your calorie-burning efforts. Here's what I propose:

• Follow the Building Muscle in 30 Minutes a Day system.
• Add 30 minutes every single day of cardio. It can be fast walking, running (not jogging, too hard on the joints), cycling, or active hiking. I prefer mountain biking, but you can do anything you want as long as you do it hard for 30 minutes.
• Eat frequent, small meals. The idea here is to maintain blood sugar levels so that you don't get hungry and don't burn muscle for fuel.
• Add 4 Fat-Loss Secret Ingredients to your diet.
• If you cannot prepare 6 meals a day, buy a meal replacement supplement like MetRx. You really cannot afford to miss meals.
• Portion control is king! Don't eat a lot. Use smaller bowls, plates, and utensils.
• Eat slowly. You may feel like you're grazing all day (because you are) but it's necessary.

As you might surmise from the above list, diet is very important. In fact 80 percent of your success can be attributed to nutrition. Don't take it lightly. In order to build lean muscle mass, you have to eat lean, quality food. No fat diets DO NOT WORK but neither does "all you can eat."

Choose to eat wisely and train smart. You'll build a better-looking body that will be healthier, too!

Building muscle in 30 minutes a day

Yesterday we talked about basic training principles and gave you a workout routine to follow that would build muscle in only 30 minutes a day every other day.

Today, we're going to discuss various methods for increasing your workout intensity.

There are many different tools you can use to boost your intensity:

• Forced reps
• Negatives
• Rest-Pause
• Supersets
• Pre-exhaust
• Drop sets
• Pyramids

There are more, of course. Plus, there are other ways to add to your exercise intensity, one of which is resting less between sets.

Feel free to look up each of those terms. The ones I want to talk about today are supersets and rest-pause.

Supersets

Supersets are two sets performed back-to-back with no rest between sets. Once you've performed your 2 sets, you can take a brief rest period (no more than a minute). There are variations of supersets, too.

The traditional use of supersets called for taking opposing muscle groups and exercising them together. For example, to build upper arm mass, you might do a set of tricep extensions followed by barbell curls.

Another variation was labeled "pre exhaust." This type of superset was devised to place maximum intensity on a major muscle group like the chest. Here's how it works: You know when you do bench presses and your triceps and/or shoulders fatigue before your pecs? Pre exhaust supersets get around that by doing a pectoral isolation exercise (like the dumbbell flye) immediately before a compound movement (the bench press).

In essence, you're isolating the pec first with the isolation exercise, then following with the compound exercise. If you do it right, your pecs will receive the bulk of the load and will fatigue first.

Pre exhaust works best with the big muscles, like the thighs, back, and chest.

One last variation of supersets that I want to touch on: It's a variant of Peripheral Heart Action and Circuit Training. The idea here is to take two muscle groups that are not near each other and doing two, three, or more sets all together. For example, you could do a overhead presses and squats in a superset. The objective is to get blood flowing throughout your entire body. Not so much for building muscle size, but it's great for building muscular and cardio endurance.

Rest-Pause

Rest-pause is a super high-intensity training principle that can build massive muscle size in little time. It is very effective at muscle hypertrophy. But it is brutally difficult on both the muscles being trained and the mind. It hurts.

Of course, there are many variations on the rest-pause theme. Originally, powerlifters would take their One Rep Max (1RM), do 1 rep, rest 10-15 seconds, and do another one for a total of 5-6 "sets."

However, we're not talking about powerlifting here are we? We're talking about building maximum muscle in little time. So we modify rest-pause to achieve that goal. Here's how:

Load the bar with a weight you can lift for 6 reps and do 10!

What?

You read that right. Do your normal 6 reps and then rest for 10 seconds. Then do as many reps as you can and rest again for 10 seconds. Keep on going until you get to 10 total reps. If you chose your weight right, you may do 6 reps, then 2 reps, then 1 rep, and finally 1 more rep. You may need help on the last one (incorporating another High-Intensity Training, or HIT, principle called "forced reps").

You can apply either of these principles in the workout laid out yesterday. I suggest you try both, but not in the same workout!

These methods are very intense and you should be very sore the day after your workout and perhaps for a few days more after that! Don't over do it.

Here's a recap of the week:

• Monday – Basic Training
  
• Tuesday – Advanced Training
• Wednesday – Basic Nutrition
• Thursday – Advanced Nutrition & Supplementation
• Friday – Importance of Recovery

Building muscle in 30 minutes a day

Last Friday, we laid the groundwork for this week's series of posts, Building Muscle in 30 Minutes a Day. Today, we'll jump right into it.

I'm going to show you a workout routine that will build muscle faster than anything you've ever tried before - all in less than 30 minutes a day.

And get this – you'll train every other day!

How cool is that

Here are the main concepts that you'll come to know, understand, and love:

• We'll stick mostly to compound movements that hit multiple body parts at the same time. No isolation exercises here (form the most part).
• 2-4 sets per exercise, depending on your experience.
• 6-10 reps are best for adding size.
• We'll set you up on a 2-way split routine that works wonders.
• Training is done on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday (or some other variation that gives you every other day off from training).

There will be a "Workout A" and a "Workout B" – simply alternate the two every workout.

Here's the plan:

Workout A

• Squat
• Calf Press
• Tricep Extension
• Barbell Curl

Workout B

• Bench Press
• Pull-down
• Overhead Press

As you can see, the split consists of a "Legs & Arms" day for Workout A and a "Torso" day for Workout B. Do 2-4 sets of 6-10 reps for each exercise above.

You should be able to get through either workout in less than 30 minutes. If you can't, you're resting too long between sets.

The goal with every workout is to push just a little more weight than the last time.

I suggest you use this program for 4 to 6 weeks and then go on a maintenance regimen for a few weeks (2 to 3 weeks). You can learn more about this specific strategy at the Stair Step Training System website.

Remember that eating and recovery have to be done right in order to make any gains in muscle size. More on those later.

Here's the rundown again on what we're covering this week:

• Monday – Basic Training
  
• Tuesday – Advanced Training
• Wednesday – Basic Nutrition
• Thursday – Advanced Nutrition & Supplementation
• Friday – Importance of Recovery