HEpennypacker52's Article Database

[hepennypacker52]

Just for the sake of convience (if any of you want to refer back to one of my b-e-a-utiful articles, or if I want to refer back to one), I'm going to make a post with all my articles. I may even change a thing or two based on newly gained knowledge. I don't expect this to become a sticky or anything like that, just a reference thread.

There's also a few articles that you probably haven't seen, check 'em out. They are :

-Injury Prevention
-Staying Motivated
-Choosing a Protein Powder
-Set and Rep Range

[hepennypacker52]

Getting That Visible Sixpack

Without a doubt, the most misunderstood part about getting that "sixpack" is actually how to get it. Most people believe that doing 1,000 crunches a day, 6 days a week, will get them that sixpack they've always dreamed of. This is wrong. It also leads us to:

*Ab principle #1: Making your abs visible is all about how low your BF (bodyfat) percent is*

What's this mean? It means that no matter how many situps you do, or ab machines you use, if you have a high BF% you will not be able to see your abs. While it is true that doing ab workouts will help define and strengthen your abs, if you don't have your bodyfat low enough, you won't be able to see them.

Diet

Your diet is very important in the process of shedding fat off your body. It's just common sense that you can't stuff twinkies down your pie hole and lose fat at the same time. To lose weight, you must go on a weight loss diet, that's also common sense. How much (or little actually) do you need to eat? This brings us to:

*Ab principle #2: You must eat less than your maintenance caloric intake*

If you want to find our your true maintenance caloric intake, you'll have to monitor your diet for a couple weeks. Record everything you eat, and all the macronutrient values (protein, carbs, and fat) of what you eat. Measure your weight before the start of the week, and at the end of the week. If you're weight stayed the same, find the average amount of calories you took in each day, and that's what your body needs to maintain your current weight.

Ok, so how much less should I be taking in each day? Start off with reducing your maintenance calories by 200. Check your weight after a week. If you're losing weight as much as you want to weekly, keep that amount of calories. If you barely lose anything, reduce total calories by another 200. Keep doing this until your satisfied with what you're losing. You shouldn't have to go below 12 x bodyweight, assuming that you're doing cardio.

Now what macronutrient ratio's should you be using when trying to lose weight? Make 20-30% of your total calories come from fats, good fats of course, try and stay away from eating too many saturated fats. You should also be taking 1.3-1.7g of protein per pound of bodyweight. The rest of your diet should come from carbs.

*A note on carbs: simple sugars should be avoided when trying to lose weight, with the acception of post-workout to restore muscle glycogen. For pre and post workout nutrition, refer here: http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showth...hreadid=272067*

*Ab principle #3: Protein consumption should be 1.3-1.7g/lb of bodyweight*

*Ab principle #4: Avoid simple sugars, accept post workout*

*Ab principle #5: Have 1 cheat meal every week*

Eat absolutely whatever you want, this is your meal to enjoy after the good week you've had following your strict diet. Give yourself this meal, it won't mess you up. Just don't let it get way out of control. An acceptable cheat meal is something like a nice piece of cake and ice cream, not a whole cake and carton of ice cream. What will mess you up is after a couple weeks of following a totally strict diet, you just go on an eating binge and gain back all the fat you just lost.

*Ab principle #6: Don't go on a low carb diet*

I'm not going to go into details with this, but we all know what you will lose weight on a low carb diet, but it's not weight that you will actually keep off for a long time. Using carb cycling can be beneficial, but a low carb diet all the time is no good.

That wraps up the basics for dieting for fat loss. Now on to cardio.

Cardio

Cardio is essential when looking to maximize fat loss, it won't be the "holy grail" that will make you lose 20lbs fast, diet and proper weight training will do that for you, but it will help, plus cardio has great health benifits. There are different ways of approaching cardio.[list][*]High intensity cardio. The most popular of these is HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training). Here are some good links to HIIT:

http://www.wsu.edu/~strength/hiit.htm

http://www.musclemedia.com/training/hiit.asp

http://www.sportsci.org/jour/0101/cf.htm
[*]Low intensity cardio. When you do high intensity cardio, it usually takes about 20 minutes, while doing low intensity cardio takes longer. But in reality, the amount of calories burned is almost the same, no matter if you run it, or walk it. Some very overweight people can't handle HIIT, they could run into serious medical problems. Low intensity cardio is the perfect answer for them. Start off low and gradually build your time walking up, or increase the pace a little. Some links on low intensity cardio:

http://www.janatrains.com/default.as...l&articleid=20

http://www.teenbodybuilding.com/shane2.htm

*Ab principle #7: Perform high intensity cardiovascular exercise 2-3 times weekly*

There's no need to kill yourself doing cardio 6 times per week. Three HIIT sessions is plenty of cardio to burn fat.

*Ab principle #8: Perform low intensity cardiovascular exercise 3-6 times weekly*

There's no problem with taking a long walk every morning, but for someone extremely overweight, 3 times a week would be a better starting platform.

Training the Abdominals

Doing any type of ab workout won't get you a sixpack, we've already covered that. But it still is good to train the abdominals with resistance, because:

• The abdominals are a muscle, and they shouldn't be neglected, just like you wouldn't neglect your chest.
  
• Having a good "core" will also help and provide more safety for the big compound movements (ie squat, deadlift)

*Ab principle #8: Train abs with resistance, with 8-15 reps*

*Ab principle #9: Do not do ulta high rep ab work*

You won't do yourself any good busting yourself with sets of 1,000 crunches. Keep reps low, like any other exercise, with about 8-15 reps, and use resistance.

What exercises do you do? You can do a search anywhere and you'll find a bunch of ab exercises, but I'll give a sample one:

Swiss ball crunches
Hanging leg raises
Side bends

For each exercise, do 3 sets of 8-15 reps. Add weight when and if possible. Perform 1-3 times a week. It's nothing too complicated, and very easy to make your own ab workout.

This wraps up ab training and how to get those visible abs. And don't forget:

*Ab principle #10: Stay motivated, and be consistent!*



Here's all of the principles again:

*Ab principle #1: Making your abs visible is all about how low your BF (bodyfat) percent is*

*Ab principle #2: You must eat less than your maintenance caloric intake*

*Ab principle #3: Protein consumption should be 1.3-1.5g/lb of bodyweight*

*Ab principle #4: Avoid simple sugars, accept post workout*

*Ab principle #5: Have 1 cheat meal every week*

*Ab principle #6: Do not go on a low carb diet*

*Ab principle #7: Perform high intensity cardiovascular exercise 2-3 times weekly*

*Ab principle #8: Train abs with resistance, with 8-15 reps*

*Ab principle #9: Do not do ulta high rep ab work*

*Ab principle #10: Stay motivated, and be consistent!*

[hepennypacker52]

HST for Dummies

Ok, so a lot of people are talking and asking questions about HST (Hypertrophy Specific Training), so I'm going to try to wrap it up as short and as quick as possible, so everyone can get going with their routines. We'll do this in steps.

First off, HST is not just for size, but it's not a strength program from a muscle mag that will add 50lbs to your bench in 8 weeks (did add 10lbs to mine in 4 weeks though). You will gain both size and strength, but with the principles of the program, the size will outweigh the strength. A lot of this also depends on you, and how you respond.
Second off, you need to have a good diet, HST won't add inches to you if you follow a crappy diet, everyone knows this. You would obviously add more size if you were bulking, but some people want to take the fat off, and HST is great for cutting also.

Now, for the do-it-yourself routine creating. Follow these steps:

1) Choose what rep range you want to do. For your first HST cycle I would suggest just the standard 15, 10, and 5 (you'll know what I'm talking about later).

2) Choose 8-12 exercises for your full body that you would like to perform. I myself use only 8, which makes for a nice compact routine. Here is an example of my exercises:

Squat
Bench Press
Stiff Legged Deadlift
Bent Over BB Rows
Seated Shoulder Press
EZ Bar Curls
Lying Tricep Extensions
Standing Calf Raise
-----------------------------------------------------------
3) We'll just assume that you are using 15, 10, and 5 rep weight "blocks". You would take a week to find each of your maxes for every exercise and every rep range. For example, on Monday you would find your 15 rep max for every exercise, Wednesday you would do the 10s, and Friday the 5s.

4) After you figure out your maxes, take 9-14 days off from any training. This is called Strategic Deconditioning (SD). This is taken from the HST website:
-----------------------------------------------------------
"At this point, it is necessary to either increase the load (Progressive load), or decrease the degree of conditioning to the load (Strategic Deconditioning). The muscle is sensitive not only to the absolute load, but also to the change in load (up or down). Therefore, you can get a hypertrophic effect from increasing the load from a previous load, even if the absolute load is not maximum, assuming conditioning (resistance to exercise induced micro-damage) is not to extensive. There is a limit to the number of increments you can add to increase the load. You simply reach your maximum voluntary strength eventually. This is why Strategic Deconditioning is required for continued growth once growth has stopped (all things remaining equal). "
------------------------------------------------------------
Okay, so you've figured out all of your maxes and are ready to start working out this Monday. Now here's a sum-up of how the routine will go. Each rep range (block) (15, 10, and 5) will each be given 2 weeks of training. It doesn't have to be 2 weeks, but we'll assume this is your first HST "experience" and you are just going to do the standard. Training will be 3 times a week, once a day (we'll use M/W/F for this cycle). Again, some people train 6 days a week or some people do an AM and PM split. Each rep range will get 6 workouts over 2 weeks. Now here's where the weird part comes in (well, against what you probably normally do), you will only train to failure once every 2 weeks (until weeks 7+8, which I'll get to later). Workout #6 will be your routine with all of your maxes.
------------------------------------------------------------
So what do you do with workouts 1-5? You take your max, and gradually decrease it over the 6 workouts. The amount you increase each workout could be varied, generally 5-20lbs, with bigger bodyparts and compound movements having the bigger increment. I'm not a real strong guy, so for the Squat, Bench Press, and SLDL I increase the weight 10lbs, and for everything else I increase it by 5lbs. This can also be done percent wise (5-10% increments) So, for example, we'll say your 15 rep max for bench press is 100lbs, and you are using increments of 10lbs. This would be what your weights would look like for bench press:

Workout 1 (Week 1, Monday)-50lbs
Workout 2 (Week 1, Wednesday)-60lbs
Workout 3 (Week 1, Friday)-70lbs
Workout 4 (Week 2, Monday)-80lbs
Workout 5 (Week 2, Wednesday)-90lbs
Workout 6 (Week 2, Friday)- 100lbs
-----------------------------------------------------------
*Set up your HST routine here:HST Calculator*
-----------------------------------------------------------
Ok, so now (hopefully) you know what to do for 6 weeks. Now your at your last workout of the 5s (your maxes for everything). Now it's time for weeks 7 + 8. There are a few ways you can do these weeks. One way is to do negatives with your 2RM for 2 weeks (need a training partner). Another way is to use drop sets. And another way (the way I am using, and probably the simplest), is to repeat workout #6 of the 5s for 2 weeks (M/W/F). Now your cycle will have looked like this
Weeks 1-2: 15s
Weeks 3-4: 10s
Weeks 5-6: 5s
Weeks 7-8: continuation of 5RM
------------------------------------------------------------
Sets: The amount of sets you use for each workout, like everything else, can be vaired. You can fix you sets, so say you do 2 sets of squats and 1 set of curls, you would do that many sets the whole routine. Another way to do this is to progress the sets. The going trend to do this is 1x15, 2x10, and 3x5. So for the 15s, every exercise would be done with one set, for the 10s everything would be done for 2 sets, and so on. This does NOT include warming up, which should also be a BIG part of your workouts.
-----------------------------------------------------------
*See the warming up FAQ:FAQ
-----------------------------------------------------------
Now you have completed your HST cycle right? Wrong. Time for some more SD for 9-14 days. After that you can either:
1) Do whatever kind of training you want or

2) Start another HST cycle because it has worked so well for you. You would generally increase all of your weights 5-10%, depending on the excercise, or you can just re-test your maxes.
-----------------------------------------------------------
You can change the rep ranges, exercises, workouts, and scheduling however you want. Use your first cycle to figure out what you can do better for the next cycle.
-----------------------------------------------------------
*Another note: Some people think that they must do all they can to prevent zig-zagging (repeating the same weights in different rep ranges). I zig-zagged plenty in my first cycle and had great results, so you don't have to worry about it*
------------------------------------------------------------
Well thats HST, as short as I can sum it up. I hope this helps a lot of people, and convinces them to start the best training method I have ever used. Feel free to add things or change things, or ask questions.

[hepennypacker52]

Building Mass
by Hepennypacker52

Tired of being too skinny, and being called names like scrawny and lanky? Hopefully this article will help change that. Gaining mass can be a hard thing, but if you have diet and training (diet coming first) in order, then your weight should go up in no time. First off, we'll go over diet, because without following a clean, over maintenance calorie diet, your weight will go anything but up.

Diet

Diet is the most important thing when it comes to gaining weight. But you can't just eat a box of Ho Hos a day and expect to put on any muscle. The diet should be a "clean bulk" (eating a total amount of calories over maintenance while eating foods low in saturated fat and sugar, basically junk food).

But how many calories a day do I eat?

Well, that depends on you, and your metabolism and activity rate. One way to determine how many calories you should get a day is by multiplying your bodyweight by 18-22 (people with faster metabolisms will need to be in the upper range, and sometimes beyond 22). But sometimes, this isn't the best way to do things. The most accurate way, which will take time, is to first take your weight at the beginning of the week, then eat regular (clean also) for the whole week, and weigh yourself at the end of the week. Track every single thing you eat. Total up the p/c/f (protein, carbs, fat) ratio, and get your total calories consumed. If your weight stayed about the same throughout the whole week, divide your total calories (from the whole week) by 7, and this is the amount of calories needed to maintain your current bodyweight. Now start by adding 200-400 calories after the first week, and if you're gaining weight at a rate you're pleased with, then bulk at that amount of calories.

How much protein, carbs, and fat should I get each day?

If you ask people what ratio they follow, a lot will say a 40-40-20 diet (protein/carbs/fat). For bulking, I suggest a 25-55-20 diet, do not be afraid of carbs, but stay away from simple sugars (accept post workout). As for protein, get about 1.3-1.7g/lb of bodyweight per day. Make sure your diet includes good fats, I'll give some on the list below.

How many meals do I eat every day?

Bulking, cutting, maintaining, about 6 smaller meals a day is the best route to go. Now by smaller meals, I don't mean eat a little amount, you're trying to gain weight afterall. Just divide your totals up into 6 smaller meals, instead of 3 big ones.

What about this "clean bulking" nonsense? What foods do I need to eat?

I'll give a moderate list off good foods and supplements to add to your shopping list :

Protein

• Meat (steak, chicken, lean beef, ect.)
• Natural Peanut Butter
• Milk
• Whey Powder
• Peanuts
• Eggs
• Fish
• Cottage Cheese
• Tuna

Carbohydrates

• Oats
• Whole Wheat/Grain Bread
• Whole Wheat/Grain Pasta
• Sweet Potatoes
• Brown Rice
• Oat Bran Cereal
• Fruits
• Vegetables

Good Fats

• Olive Oil
• Fish Oil
• Flax Oil
• Natural Peanut Butter
• Nuts

Plus, don't forget a good multi vitamin.

How do I track all of this? I don't have the time to pay that close attention to my diet.

It's actually not hard at all. First, find out all of your ratios, and how many calories you are going to consume each day. Then, take a day to make a 6 meal diet, and find foods that will fit the bill. This may take about 40 minutes to an hour, but this will be your basic guide. You don't have to eat the same thing day after day, who wants to do that? But, it's very easy to find replacements to each meal, as long as macronutrients are relatively close. Example, instead of tuna for lunch, have some chicken. Or instead of pasta, have oatmeal. Also, check out www.fitday.com, it will nicely track everything for you.

Training

There's not as much about training to be addressed as there is for nutrition. When it comes to a good training program for size, don't get sucked into the whole "low reps for mass" deal. It's actually higher reps that will promote hypertrophy (muscle growth). No, I'm not talking about 15-20 reps, but around the 6-12 rep range. Fiber type distribution is genetic, so you have to find out what rep range best suits you. Setting up a basic split shouldn't be hard at all. This link should help you get a good split set up. There are programs out there designed especially for hypertrophy though, and they're great to follow :

• HST (Hypertrophy-Specific Training)
  
  
• Max-OT (Great gains in size and strength have been reported)
  
  
• DFHT (Dual Factor Hypertrophy Training)
  
  
• TP-PT (Tri Phase-Progressive Training)

That's only a few programs, there are some more. But whatever training program you follow, make sure that you're consistent.

Wrap Up

Well, that's the end of the article. I hope this helps a lot of you out, if you follow a solid diet and workout plan, you should be gaining in no time. Feel free to shoot me a PM with any questions you may have. I'll just list a few of the key points of this article :

• Follow a clean diet
  
  
• For calories, bodyweight x 18-22, depending on metabolism, but for best results, find out what you bulk on best
  
  
• P/C/F ratio : 25-55-20
  
  
• For protein, 1.3-1.7g/lb of bodyweight
  
  
• Eat 6 smaller meals a day
  
  
• Eat good fat
  
  
• Avoid saturated fat and simple sugars (with the acception of post workout)
  
  
• Train with higher reps (6-12)
  
• Track progress (ie weights and measurements)
  
  
• Be consistent with diet and training!

Good luck, and have fun

[hepennypacker52]

Injury Prevention

Injuries, can't live with 'em, can't live without 'em. Or can you? Injury is one of the biggest (if not the biggest) concerns when lifting weights. Injuries can be short term, or long term. You can usually shake off short term injures within a week or two, and be good to go after that. Long term injuries however can keep you out of the Iron Game for a long time, and sometimes indefinately. Many short term injuries can build up to a long term or chronic injury. So staying as far away from injuries as possible is the right coice, right? Right. So now let's talk about some general things you can do to prevent injuries from occuring.

How to Prevent During the Workout

So what things can you do to ensure that your workout today will be a plesant, injury free one?

Perform a General Warmup

• You should never go into a workout cold. Do some light aerobics for 5-10 minutes to get the blood flowing. You should start to break a light sweat. Nothing intense though, you need to be ready for your workout.

Perform Warmup Sets

• This is also very important. Before you start lifting heavy, do some warming up specific to the bodypart that you're training. For example, if this is chest day, and you are doing heavy bench presses, take 3-5 sets with light weight to warm those muscles up. DO NOT go heavy with this, it defeats the purpose of a warmup. Take a couple sets with light weight, then take a couple of sets to build up to your working weights. Here's an example :
  
  Bench Press
  
  2 x 5 @ 45lbs (bar) ~warmup~
  1 x 5 @ 95 ~warmup~
  1 x 5 @ 115 ~warmup~
  3 x 8 @ 135 - WORK
  
  Notice that the warmup reps are kept low. You can use higher reps (12-15), but make sure for those to be your first warmup sets, and that they are very light. High rep warmup sets close to work set weight will fatigue you too much.
  
  Now if this is chest day, and you do 3 chest movements, you don't have to warmup for all three of them. If there is 1 exercise that isolates a spot, you should take maybe 1 set to warmup that movement. I personally take 3-5 sets to initially warmup, then for each other movement, I'll warmup with 1 set.

Drink Up - Stay Hydrated

• It is extremely, extremely, extremely important to stay hydrated during your workouts. This is a no brainer. Dehydration can yield very serious consequences, including death. Just keep drinking water througout your entire workout, and you'll be fine.

DO NOT Lift When You're Extremely Tired

• Working out when you're tired can very easily lead to poor form, which could lead to a big injury. You may also lose control of the bar, which could have very bad consequences.

MAINTAIN PROPER FORM

• This is the grand daddy of them all. This is the biggest reason people injure themselves all the time, poor form. I can't even begin to explain how critically important it is do execute proper form.
  
  First off, before you ever include any movement into your schedule, practice it with just the bar for a few days before you add weight. Learn how to correctly perform the movement, and keep doing it over and over again with the bar. Starting with poor form is a very bad choice.
  
• One of the biggest reasons people tend to demonstrate poor form is because they are trying to use too much weight. Only use a weight in which you can maintain near perfect form for the entire set.
  
  
• DO NOT let your shoulders slump forward and round your back during any back movement (ie squat, deadlift, good morning). This could lead to serious lower back injury. To help stabilize the back, perform abdominal/oblique exercises with resistance. I do not recommend using a belt all of the time, it will limit stabilizer growth, which could lead to a lower back injury when you're not wearing it.
  
  
• DO NOT arch your lower back when bench pressing. This is another big killer. People tend to do this when they're using too much weight.

Have a Way Out

• One way to do this is to have a training partner. If you get stuck on any movement, they can lift the bar off, or help you finish the rep. Being stuck alone when you fail on bench press or squats is NOT a good thing.
  
  
• Another way to do this is to invest in a power rack. This way, if you can't complete the rep, you'll just be able to lower the weight onto the pins.

Cool Down

• You should also cool down after a workout. This takes heart rate slowly back to normal levels, and starts to relax the muscles. You shouldn't go from high octane working out to sitting on the couch.

How to Prevent Outside of Workouts

Read Up

• One of the best things you can do for yourself is just read, read, read. Read about proper technique, read about physiology, read about stretching, read about injury prevention. Reading will do so much in helping to further your understanding of staying injury free. Bodybuilding.com is a good source of articles, and you can find many more by simply searching.

Stretch

• Stretching promotes flexibility, which in turn helps prevent injury. Let's use an example of why being flexible can help prevent injury. Person A is very flexible, and can bend over and touch his toes with ease. Person B can only touch his knees, pretty sad. They both go workout, and the first exercise up is stiff-legged deadlifts. Person A does his sets and gets a nice stretch in his hamstrings. Person B loads up the weight, starts his rep, and tries to go down as far as Person A. He's not flexible enough, and once he starts going down further, the weight pulls him down. This leads to a torn hamstring, ouch.
  
  Stretch only after you're warmed up. Stretching when cold can also tear a muscle.
  
  Here is a great link on stretching : http://www.cmcrossroads.com/bradapp/...ec/stretching/

Don't Workout While Overtrained

• This could lead to injury. Notice the symptoms of overtraining, and stop lifting. Take a week or two off, and once you feel 100% again, start lifting.

Non-Preventable Injuries

If you have a non-preventable injury, it's most likely that it's genetic. Everybody is different, and different people can do different things. Some people have really bad knees, and go and squat, and end up injuring their knees. Was this non-preventable? No. The person didn't know themself enough to know not to do squats. This is why you should consult your doctor before starting any serious lifting routine.

Common Injuries

There are many common injuries, and they can all be prevented by following the steps I have already provided. I'll name a couple :

Ankle/Wrist Sprain

This will probably take 1-2 weeks to fully recover. If it doesn't recover after 1-2 weeks, go see a doctor. A lot of times people think they sprained their wrist/ankle, when infact they broke it. Stretch your wrists and ankles before working out, and perform resistance exercises to build their strength up. If you do sprain something, follow the RICE method (Rest, Ice, Compress, Evelate). Buy some wraps and wrap the area up.

Hamstring Strain

Many people do this while running also. If you properly warm up, you won't have a problem with this. If this happens, follow the RICE method.

Rotator Cuff Injury

Many people have injured their rotator cuff in their training experience. It is for this reason that you should do plenty of rotator cuff exercises to prevent this injury. This like l-flys and lateral raises work well.

Shin Splints

This injury occurs from frequent running. These are basically stress fractures in your shins. The best way to heal these is to just rest your legs.


BONUS

Name a few of the injuries that either you or somebody you know has suffered. How did it affect you/them? How fast did you/they recover? How could it have been prevented?

I'll use myself as the only example here, because I have sustained a few of the injuries I listed.

Sprained Wrist

I'm still recovering from this, I did it exactly a week ago powercleaning. I had to stop my workouts immediately, which was no good. I'm about 85% recovered, and should be ready to lift again in about 5 days. I could have prevented it by doing things such as wrist curls and exercises to bring up the stregth around that area. I have very small wrists (6.2"), and they just didn't handle powercleaning well.

Shin Splints

I sustained shin splints last year during lacrosse season. I was out for about a week, did no running, and I was better after that.

Rotator Cuff Injury

This was way back just when I had started lifting. If I can remember correctly, I was either benching, or doing DB flys. I can't remember a lot about this injury, other than it was minor, and was a result of my lack of knowledge and form.

[hepennypacker52]

How to Stay Motivated


1) Set realisitc Goals

This one is obvious, and I'm sure many people have tried this in the beginning, and still failed. Your goals have to be within what you can accomplish. You don't just set out to lose 20lbs a week, and then when you only lose 5, you're angry even though that 5lbs is a great loss. Set a bunch of short terms goals leading up to where you want to be in a year or so. But remember, be realisitic!.

2) Get a partner with the same goals

If you have someone there right beside you trying to achieve the same goal, it will provide a great amount of motivation. Training with a good partner will also help prevent you from slacking off, the first thing that happens with a failed regimen.

3) Make things interesting

Get together with a group of friends who share the same goal as you, and have a friendly bet. Don't make it $5, because who cares if you lose $5. Make it somewhere around $50-100, whoever loses the most weight wins. This way, if you start slacking, you lose a good amount of money. If you win, you win a great amount of money, and lose weight at the same time. Now what doesn't sound fun about that?

4) Enter a competition

This one will shock a bunch of people and make them say, "are you kidding me? I'm nowhere close to being in contest shape?!". Just get over whatever fear you have and enter a competition. Once you do that, you will work so much harder and not stop, trust me. Don't enter one in 2 months, look for one down the road. This will give you another reason to train hard, and it works

5) Plan ahead

This one is HUGE. So many people fail because they just go to the gym, don't write anything down, and then come home. Setting up a detailed plan/diet will :

a) Make sure you know exactly what you're doing

b) Also provide motivation. You find a new plan and start it, you're all excited. Keep following that plan and thinking of what you're going to accomplish, that will even put more trust into the plan, which will then also put more trust in yourself.

6) Track results, but not that often

I would mark this as probably the biggest reason why people start up a program, then quit 2 weeks into it. It can be extremely negative to weigh yourself every day, weight fluxuates throughout the week, so you will get different readings all the time. Take measurements/weight/pictures about every 2 months, you will be able to see a difference then, and this will motivate you even more.

7) Have 1 cheat meal a week

Sticking to a solid diet for a full week deserves a reward. A cheat meal brings much satisfaction to trainees who are having a hard time eating clean. Eat what you want for this meal, but do not let it get out of hand.

8) Buy some weighlifting/diet books and movies

Doing this will :

a) give you a greater understanding of what you're doing, which will translate into bigger gains

b) motivate you. look at what other people have achieved, and let that motivate you

9) Alievate as much stress as possible

This one is also a biggie. If you're stressed about everything, it will be extremely hard for you to gain. This goes hand-in-hand with tracking results too frequently. Don't let things stress you out. Make weightlifting something to look forward to, not just another thing on your to-do list.

10) DO NOT make excuses

It's just lame, and will work against you. Don't let anybody tell you that you can't achieve your goals, and this means YOU!!!

11) Make time

No matter how busy your schedule is, make sure you take out at least an hour every day to workout, and plan it. Worrying about finding time to workout is just another stress that will work against you. Another thing that goes with this is SLEEP. Make time to sleep, it is very, very important.

12) Join a web forum

This will also provide a ton of motivation. You can find the answer to almost any question, and people are there just like you to motivate you along the way.

13) Join a gym

This will also help with motivation, and keep you consistent. Why are you paying for a gym membership if you aren't even going to the gym?

14) Sacrifices

Don't think of taking other things out of your life as sacrifices, think of them as things that will allow you to develop an outstanding physique.

15) Be consistent!

Yes, easier said than done. You have to get through the first two months without letting anything get in the way. Once you do that and see the results, you'll want more.

[hepennypacker52]

Set and Rep Range

"How many sets and reps should I do?"

The all commonly heard question, repeated again, and again, and again. The true answer is most commonly not liked to be heard, why? Because people are lazy. They don't want to invest time to figure out what their body best responds to, they just want somebody to tell them what to do in order to grow. It's those very people that go in and out of the gym with no results week after week.

Muscle Fibers

First off, a word needs to be put in on muscle fibers. There are two types of fibers, slow twitch, and fast twitch. Those can then be broken down into :

Type I - slow twitch
Type IIA - fast twitch
Type IIB - fast twitch

Since we're talking about building muscle, we're just going to deal with type II fibers. Without getting too scientific here, type IIa fibers do posess some aerobic qualties, and can also generate anaerobic qualities. These are used for mid to high rep exercises. Type IIb fibers are strictly anaerobic, but they can generate more force than type IIa fibers can, so these are used in low rep, high weight exercises (1-3 reps with greater than 90% of 1RM).

Another thing needed to be said about fibers is, your fiber type distribution is GENETIC. Some people have more type I fibers, and some have more type II fibers. Some people have more type IIa fibers, and some have more type IIb fibers. This is where you can't be lazy, you have to find out what your body best responds to.

Reps

Now that you have a little background on muscle fibers, time to show you what rep range works best for what fibers. The type of hypertrophy I'll be discussing is mainly sarcomere, since that makes up most of the muscle, that's what should be mainly trained. Below I'll type a mini chart of what rep ranges train each muscle fiber type :

Type IIa : 8 - 15
Type IIb : 3 - 5

Generally, sarcoplasmic hypertrophy (not what we're dealing with now) rep ranges look like this :

Type IIa : 16-25
Type IIb : 6-12

Now to answer the ultimate rep question :

What is the best rep range for building muscle?

3 - 15 reps!!!

What??!!!

Nothing special, see. Nobody can give you a magic number, it's up to you to find out what works best for you.

Volume

Oh boy, now this is where it gets very controversial. You have the Mentzer HIT "mob", who belives that all you need is one working set to failure in order to stimulate growth. On the other side of the fence, you have people like Bill Pearl, who believes that there are better ways than training to failure. They believe that staying away from failure will allow you to train more often, with more volume, and that will stimulate more growth. Cool, now which side is the best? There could be arguments for years and years on this topic, and I'm not going to tell you what's best and what's not, because what works for me won't always work for you. What I will do is try to give you some background on each of the methods.

Training to failure

While training to failure will release more growth factors, and will damage the fibers more, they require a lot more time to fully recover. It also takes a lot of time for you to recover. Training to failure will work better for people who are beginning to lift, and people with great genetics. Hey, if they can train like that often and grow a lot, then why should they stop what they're doing? They shouldn't.

Training with high volume/frequency

The idea here is that you stay a couple reps short of failure, and this way you avoid CNS drain, and will be able to workout more frequently, and use more volume. This way, you're not stimulating growth as much in one session, but you're doing it more often. Good arguments here.

*So which one do I choose?*

Well once again, it's up to you to find out what your body can handle. You may be able to handle a lot of heavy lifting, or you may be able to just handle lighter (notice the er) weights more frequently.

What works for me

There's a chance that what works for me may not work for you, but for the purpose of the question, I'll state what I've been doing. I've been doing HST (www.hypertrophy-specific.com) while, and you use different rep ranges for that. I found that I gained best (hypertrophy wise) with higher reps, about 8-15. I can conclude from that, that I have more type IIa fibers, so I take that and use it to my own benefit. I really don't see any point in discussing personal evidence, because it's not plausible.

[hepennypacker52]

Creatine Safety

Link is too long, go here.

[hepennypacker52]

How to Get Big Guns


Train the rest of your body for God's sakes, that's how. I'm sick of the "what does your bicep workout look like", and "my arms seem to be lagging" threads, everybody's arms are lagging . Your arms aren't lagging, you're either :

1) So obsessed with making your arms bigger that you automatically think they're not growing

2) Training them so much you're just overtraining them

Just include a bicep exercise (or 2) in every heavy back day, and a tricep exercise (or 2) in every chest day. Some people gain mass on their arms without even training them directly at all. Here's some examples :

Back/Biceps

Deadlifts
Bent Rows
Weighted Chins
Barbell Curls

Chest/Triceps

Bench Press
Incline Bench Press
French Press
Press Downs

No need to blast the crap out of your arms and overtrain them.

Also, 85% of people don't seem to understand that the triceps make most of the arm, and are obsessed with finding a perfect bicep routine.

You can't expect to have 18" arms with 18" legs. Train the rest of the body hard, and you will put mass on your arms.

You want big arms? Then eat big, you can't eat like a French model and get big arms, you have to eat big to get big.



^^Just a few points I had to make. Follow those steps and your arms will grow

[hepennypacker52]

Different Types of Training


In case people weren't familiar with all the types of training out there (and it's easy to get confused), I'll put up some links on the most popular types of training. This isn't every type of training there is, but it's some of the most popular ones.

Basic Splits:

http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showthread.p...threadid=143006

Conjugate splits/high frequency training:

http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showthread.p...threadid=289834

HST (Hypertrophy Specific Training):

www.hypertrophy-specific.com
http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showthread.p...threadid=280813

Max-OT:

http://www.ast-ss.com/max-ot/max-ot_intro.asp

HIT (High Intensity Training):

http://www.muscletalk.co.uk/article-hit-training.asp
http://www.naturalstrength.com/research/de...p?ArticleID=207

Dogg Crapp Training (DC):



Extreme Stretching (to go along with DC):

http://www.abcbodybuilding.com/magazine/fa...lstretching.htm
http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showthread.p...389#post2046389

Dual Factor Hypertrophy Training (DFHT)

http://forum.mesomorphosis.com/showthread.php?t=682

Westside Training:

www.westside-barbell.com
www.elitefts.com
http://www.ironaddicts.com/articles/westsidemod.htm

German Volume Training (GVT)

http://www.strengthcats.com/CP-GVT.html
http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/luis13.htm

Tri Phase Progressive Training (TP PT):

http://www.mindandmuscle.net/content/page-249.html

Abbreviated Training:

www.hardgainer.com
http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/shannon13.htm

Russian Training

http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showthread.p...threadid=305786
http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showthread.p...&threadid=74669

Bulgarian Training

http://www.tc.umn.edu/~keen0018/bulgar.htm
http://www.fortifiediron.net/invision/lofi...php/t13253.html

Pendulum Training

http://www.t-nation.com/findArticle.do;jse...rticle=296pend2

Undulated Periodization - Variable Repitition Training

[url=http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/alwyn3.htm]http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/alwyn3.htm[/url

[hepennypacker52]

Protein Powder Perfection

Protein powder has become a huge supplement, and can be extremely beneficial for any bodybuilder, no matter what the goal is. Protein powder provides an easier way for bodybuilders and athletes to get the protein they need to build and maintain muscle.

What protein is the right choice for you? Does price matter? What about taste? HELP, what should I look for???!!!

This article should help you answer all of these questions.

The Many Faces of Protein

Let's take a look at the different types of protein powders out there before we get into specifics :

Whey Protein Powder

Whey protein is a protein derived from casein, the protein found in cows milk. This is probably the most popular form of protein powder used throughout the bodybuilding world. Whey protein has the highest biological value of all proteins (see chart). What does this mean? This means that whey is the highest quality protein. They boast a large BCAA (branched chain amino acid) profile, and will highly elevate amino acid levels when taken. Some wheys include little to no lactose, and can be taken by anyone. They truly are a revolutional supplement, and should be a staple in your supplement plan.

There are two kinds of protein, whey concentrates and isolates :

Concentrates : are about 80% pure protein. They are cheaper, and may not have as smooth a taste as isolates. People that are lactose-intolerant may have a problem with concentrates, and people may have problems with gas. If you have no problems, whey concentrate is still good to take, and in fact contains fragments that are beneficial that are removed from isolates.

Isolates : Isolates are at least about 90% pure protein. They are more expensive, and may have a better taste. WPIs (whey protein isolates) can be made different ways :

ion-exchanged : this is the standard WPI. Impurities are removed, but so are benificial peptides that are included in WPCs.

micro-filtered : this is kicked up a notch. The whey is filtered to an isolate, but the peptides that are in concentrates remain in tact.

hydrolyzed : this is micro-filtered whey kicked up a notch. It goes through another filtration process that breaks it down more and makes it quicker digesting.

Whey protein can be beneficial for any use. Most commonly used times are upon waking, pre-workout, and post-workout.

Casein Powder

Casein is the protein found in milk, and is part whey. Casein is a slower digested protein, and although it won't rise amino acid levels as high as whey, it will keep the levels elevated much longer than whey. Whey usually keeps levels up for 3-4 hours, while casein does for 7 hours. The protein forms a type of gel in your stomach, and this allows the slow release over hours. This is what makes casein a great pre-bed protein, it will keep your body anabolic throughout the night. Milk also has a high biological value. Some people may not be able to consume casein protein powder because of their tolerance to lactose.

Also, don't underestimate mixing your protein shakes with milk pre and post-workout. You may be thinking "but won't milk slow down digestion?". Yes, it will a little, but milk can go where whey can't. Milk has great insulin creating capacities, as well as for other growth factors. Milk also creates benefits for IGF-1 that whey does not. So a tip (follow if you wish), mix your protein shakes with milk!

Soy Protein Powder

Soy is a protein that comes from soy beans. Although soy protein does not rank up at the top for biological value, it has become a good substitute for vegetarians. It also helps lower cholesterol and prevent heart related diseases. This is also a great replacement protein for people who are lactose-intolerant.

Soy protein is a choice of protein that can be taken by anybody who wants the reap the health benefits of it, and especially for vegetarians to help increase their protein intake.

Egg Protein Powder

Egg protein is the protein from, well eggs! It provides a way for bodybuilders to get the benefits of high quality egg protein while avoiding the cholesterol and fat found in egg yolks. The biological value of egg protein ranks up close to whey, coming in 2nd.

This makes a great protien for all bodybuilders to use any time of the day.

Meal Replacement Powders

These powders are a combination of protein and carbohydrates, meant to replace a meal. Most MRPs also have a good amount of vitamins and minerals. MRPs are usually a combination of casein, whey, and egg protein, although they come in all forms : from 100% whey to just casein and egg.

MRPs are great replacements for meals on the run, or just as a smaller calorie meal.

Weight Gainers

Weight gainers are shakes that contain a high amount of calories, in order to help customers gain weight. They usually come in a 2:1 (carbrotein) ratio. Something to look out for with weight gainers is a high sugar content. You don't want to be getting that much sugar throughout the day, although it may be ok post-workout. Some companies may try to slide extra fat and bad carbs in to increase the calories, watch out for that. I personally love my own weight gainer, it tastes great and is a healthy source of calories :

2 cups milk
2 scoops whey protein
0.5 cups oats
2 tbsp natural peanut butter
1 large banana

Nutritional facts (estimated, may vary with products) :

Calories : 970
Protein : 70g
Carbs : 100g
Fat : 34g (using 2% milk)

Protein Blends

These are protein powders that are made from a various assortment of proteins, usually whey, milk, and egg. They are a great whey to get the benefits out of all of the types of protein out there. The only drawback to these is that they are usually pretty expensive.

What to look for in a protein powder...

Ok, now you know what proteins are out there, but what things should I look for when searching for the right powder?

Price

Price is probably the biggest thing that is looked at when in search of a good protein. You want to look for something cheap, but you still want a high quality protein. So you probably want to stay away from something that's $15 for 5lbs, the quality most likely isn't that high. What you want to do is check out the other things to look for (below), and find the cheapest match that fits the critera of a good protein powder. But remember, in a lot of cases price does reflect quality. If you want a really high quality powder, you are going to have to pay more money.

Protein Content

You want to look at how much actual protein is in the mix. For whey concentrates, ~80% and above is good, and for isolates ~90% and above is good. You're looking for a protein that is pure, and has minimal added ingredients. Here's what you do :

1) Multiply the grams of protein by 4 to find the total calories coming from protein.

2) Divide the number you got in part 1 by the total number of calories.

Ex. The amount of protein is 23g in 1 serving, and each serving has 110 calories.

23g x 4 = 92 calories from protein
92/110 = .836
.836 x 100 = 83.6% protein

Mixing Quality

Another factor to take into consideration is how well it mixes. Having a powder that always clumps is no fun, although that problem can be almost always solved with a blender. Not everybody has access to a blender though, especially if you drink your shake at the gym. So you want to look at how well the protein dissolves.

Digestibility

You also want a protein that you can digest. People with lactose intolerance will not be able to digest a casein protein, and might not be able to digest a whey protein concentrate. People with stomach problems may also find that a certain type of protein does not sit well in their stomach.

Taste

Probably the second biggest thing that is looked at. I personally don't care about the taste, but you might. It shouldn't be torture for you to drink your shake. MRPs generally have a good taste, as do whey protein isolates and casein powders. Some cheaper WPCs may not have a very good taste.

[hepennypacker52]

(cont'd...)

The Right Protein for Your Goals

Now that you know what the different types of protein are, and how to find a quality produce, what type of protein powder best suits your goals?

Muscle Building

For muslce building, basically any protein powder will do. A weight gainer may also be a good choice for you, it will provide a combination of carbs and protein. Whey protein should be the dominant protein powder in your diet. A good whey protein will do well for pre and post-workout, and a good casein protein will work well before bed. A protein blend also works well throughout the day.

Fat Loss

For losing fat, you are going to want the purest protein, with as little added fat and carbs as possible. For this, a whey protein isolate would be a great choice. Soy protein isolate is also a good option. Also, when losing fat, MRPs are your best friend. They provide protein, as well as carbs for energy, and are low calorie meals. You want to stay away from weight gainers, as your goal is not to gain weight (duh).

Muscle Maintenance

If you're just trying to maintain muscle mass, a good choice would be whey protein. This will provide the BCAAs you need, and is low-carb. You want to stay away from powders with high carbs from sugar (weight gainers). Soy protein and casein protein are also good choice. MRPs also make good meals for muscle maintenance. Protein blends also work well throughout the day.

Athletic Performance

For sports performance, you want a protein powder that may have added carbs. This way you will maintain muscle and burn the carbs for energy. A better solution to this is to buy a whey protein, and then just mix in a carbohydrate powder supplement.

Recommendations

Since you've probably been wondering "ok, you've told me to get these things, but you haven't given examples!", I have come up with a list a quality protein supplements that you can give a shot. Just read what protein you should be taking according to your goals, and take a look at the powders under these lists :

Whey Protein

Concentrates

Optimum Nutrition's 100% Whey Protein
Dymatize Elite Whey
EAS MyoPro Whey

Isolates

Syntrax Nectar
AST VP2
Nature's Best Isopure

Casein Powder

Optimum Nutrition's 100% Casein Protein
VPX Micellean
Cyto Sport Muscle Milk

Soy Protein Powder

NOW Soy Protein
Prolab 100% Pure Soy
NOW Soy Protein Isolate

Egg Protein Powders

Optimum Nutrition's 100% Egg Protein
Bioplex Simply Whites
Universal Egg Pro Ultra

Meal Replacements

EAS Myoplex
EAS Myoplex Lite
Met-Rx Drink Mix
AST Ny-Tro Pro-40
VPX Micellean
Prolab Lean Mass Matrix

Weight Gainers

My Forumla
Prolab N-Large II
Optimum Nutrition's Serious Mass
Cyto Sport's Cyto Gainer

Protein Blends

Optimum Nutrition's Pro Complex
HDT Pro Blend 55
Prolab Protein Component

Carbohydrate Recovery Drinks

Cyto Sport's Cytomax
Endurox Accelerade
Gatorade
Powerade

Conclusion

Now you should have a good understanding of what protein powders are out there. You should be able to tell a good protein powder from a bad one, and be able to pick a protein that best suits your needs.

Good luck, and have fun!

[Aftershock]

yet another thread worthy of a sticky by hepennypacker

[hepennypacker52]

Posting is open now. Thanks.

[waitlifter82]

you really have to much time on your hands, hp

[Bignbuff]

Your just beggin' for rep points, ain't ya? JK bro.

Nice job!

I assume all of these articles are already linked in the sticky, right?

[hepennypacker52]

you really have to much time on your hands, hp

You work too much.

I assume all of these articles are already linked in the sticky, right?

Not the four I mentioned in the first post. I didn't post those here.

[hepennypacker52]

Oh yeah, if you guys have any comments on the articles, or think anything is wrong, just post it up.

[T-Baby]

Your just beggin' for rep points, ain't ya? JK bro.

LOL

Good post hepennypacker.

[T-Baby]

you really have to much time on your hands, hp

No longer Heisman hunting?

[muscleboy333]

Great post HE! You really know your stuff

[hepennypacker52]

Merci.

[Bignbuff]

Bump

[Uriel_da_man]

Why isn't this pinned?

[live4this13]

HP I added this thread in my Links to all your questions thread. I hope ya dont mind, I noted that it was by you, just trying to gather as much info as possibel in one place. PM if you dont want them on there and I could remiove them. But keep up the good work.

[hepennypacker52]

HP I added this thread in my Links to all your questions thread. I hope ya dont mind, I noted that it was by you, just trying to gather as much info as possibel in one place. PM if you dont want them on there and I could remiove them. But keep up the good work.

It's all good.

[live4this13]

It's all good.

kool bro keep up the good work.

[Aftershock]

Why isn't this pinned?

I assume all of these articles are already linked in the sticky, right?

That answer your question?

[Fresch]

Shin splints are NOT fractures.

Lateral raises are not for working the rotator cuff. Most poeple would not know a rotator cuff injury if they suffered one, and the one they are most likely to encounter is impingement and tendonosis!

[hepennypacker52]

Shin splints are NOT fractures.

Oops, you're right. I misread one of the sources I got my information from. It said "shin splints, stress fractures, etc...", and I read it as "shin splints (stress fractures), etc..."

Lateral raises are not for working the rotator cuff. Most poeple would not know a rotator cuff injury if they suffered one, and the one they are most likely to encounter is impingement and tendonosis!

I just put lateral raises because that's what my physical therapist had me do for my RC.