Muscle Mass Building Workout|The Key Exercises

If you're interested in fast ways to build muscle and gain weight in record time, naturally you should ask yourself: "What are the best muscle mass building exercises to accomplish this?"
The answer is simple, but because the market is flooded with so much garbage all you hear or read about is either the latest supplement or "advanced" exercises. If real, solid, steel-like muscles are what you want then anytime you are introduced to a "new" or "advanced" way of performing an exercise, you'll do yourself a world of good by throwing it out the window.
Too many times do I see curious skinny gym members look over at the "gym buff" doing some funky exercise upside down on an exercise ball with one leg up flailing a pair of light dumbbells around thinking that if they learned how to perform that exercise they can look like him. Forget about it. Whether it works for him or not is irrelevant, the bottom line is that this type of exercise or anything like it will NOT work for hardgainers.
If an exercise is "new" I can almost guarantee it is far less effective then the simple, basic muscle mass building exercises. Why? Because all of the best exercises for maximum muscle growth have already been accounted for years ago. They have and always will be the number one exercises for the single purpose of how to gain muscle weight fast. Nothing compares and they will never be bested.
Basic or compound exercises allow you to lift more weight, and the heavier weight you can lift, the bigger you will be. With that in mind, what are compound exercises and which are the best for maximum muscle mass? Compound lifts, or multi-joint lifts, are weightlifting exercises that force you to use more then one muscle group, preferably 3 or more.
For example, the bench press is a compound lift because although the primary muscle used is the chest muscle, your shoulders and triceps are also helping to lift the weight. Tricep pushdowns, however, are what's called an isolation or single-joint exercise. Since this exercise just isolates a single muscle, your triceps, it doesn't stimulate nearly as much muscle growth as a compound lift would. Though there are many different compound exercises, you must focus only on those that stimulate the most amount of muscle and allow you to lift the heaviest amount of weight.
Here are the granddaddy of all compound muscle mass building exercises that you MUST include in your workout if you expect to build maximum muscle mass in the least amount of time:
1) Squats (quads, hamstrings, calves, and also has an effect on most of the upper body)
2) Deadlifts (hamstrings, quads, traps, lower back)
3) Bench Press (chest, triceps, and shoulders)
4) Shoulder Press or Military Press (shoulders and triceps)
5) Bent-Over Rows (back, biceps, lats)
6) Pull-Ups (back, biceps, lats)
7) Bar Dips (chest, triceps, shoulders)
If your workout programs to gain muscle don't include any of these exercises, then don't expect to grow very much, and don't expect to grow at all if you are a hardgainer. Try starting your workouts out with one of these exercises first, before you do any other exercises for that same muscle. This will ensure you exert most of your energy into the most important exercises, the ones that will be most responsible for your growth. For example, if you are training your shoulders, start off with the barbell shoulder press before you do any laterals, shrugs, or any other isolation exercise.
A couple of months ago, a friend asked me why he wasn't gaining any weight and getting any bigger. So I asked him to tell me about his workout. You can probably guess what it was. Sure enough, he was doing about five exercises for each muscle group, mostly isolation exercises. He wasn't doing any lower body exercises whatsoever, and the only compound exercise he was doing was everybody's favorite: the bench press.
So here is what I did: I gave him a simple but proven workout program for fast results that consisted of ONLY compound exercises, which in fact doesn't look too much different from the list of muscle mass building exercises above. I told him to just do a few sets of each exercise a few times a week and to focus on just adding weight to the bar every week. Did he grow? About five weeks later he e-mailed me back and told me of his improvements. He weighed 18 pounds heavier and added around 20 to 30 pounds to each of the compound exercises I told him to do.
Is this a common result? Those who are willing to work hard on just a few compound exercises can expect results like this, even hardgainers. Was it easy? No. He worked hard, just like everyone else who got results like this. No fancy supplements or advanced exercises, just hard work on the key muscle mass building exercises, lots of clean food and plenty of rest.
Now that you know the key muscle mass building exercises for maximum muscle growth in record time, I want you to use them! If you haven't tried any of them before then you will be in for a treat. They're tough, they're demanding, they take sweat and grit and everything you got. They're not the type of exercises you can do while you hung-over or on 3 hours of sleep. You have to have lots of energy, be properly warmed up, and fully concentrated if you want to get the most out of them.
But they will bring you more results then all of the other exercises put together.

Derek Manuel is the author of the best-selling How to Gain Weight and Build Muscle for Hardgainers. If you want to learn how you too can gain 20 to 30 pounds of solid muscle in as short as 8 weeks, or if you just want more quality information on how to gain weight and build muscle.

Exercise and Fat Loss|Examining Strategies for Maximizing Fat Loss During Workouts

These days almost everyone is concerned with losing weight or more importantly losing fat. I am asked more questions about this topic than all others and it is an obvious source of confusion for many people. The problem is there are many different opinions about the best way to lose fat and most have at least some truth to them.
One popular strategy suggests concentrating on the percentage of calories from fat that you burn during the exercise. This leads to recommendations for exercising at a particular intensity/heart rate, which is often called the fat burning zone. This sounds like a good way to figure out how to exercise for maximal fat burning, but when you exercise to burn the highest percentage of fat, you end up burning fewer total calories, because the exercise intensity is too low.
Another common strategy is to focus on the total number of calories burned during your workout instead of the actual fat calories. This is recommended because unless you burn more calories throughout the day than you consume, you will never lose fat, regardless of the percentage of calories you burn while exercising. This is true, but just looking at the number or type of calories burned while exercising never gives you the full story.
There are however other important factors that are often overlooked when determining how to exercise for optimal fat loss. First, some types of exercise, such as resistance training, may not burn a lot of calories during the actual workout, but your body will keep burning calories at a higher rate for many hours after you stop exercising. This increased calorie burning effect will vary depending on the duration, intensity, and type of exercise. As a result, it becomes very difficult to accurately determine how many calories are really burned due to your workout.
Fortunately, knowing how many calories or how much fat you burn while exercising is not as important as you might think. The real issue is how your workout affects your metabolism. Increasing your metabolism is by far the most beneficial thing you can do to improve long-term fat loss. Your metabolism is responsible for burning many more calories than exercise and if your main goal is fat loss, you should focus on increasing your metabolism as much as possible.
Increasing the body's metabolism is a complicated issue that is affected by genetics, exercise, nutrition, and a number of other lifestyle factors. Since this article is about exercise and this issue is too large to be properly addressed in this article, I will concentrate on a basic strategy to help improve your metabolism.
This strategy essentially has 2 main goals, preventing muscle loss and challenging your body. Muscle has a significant influence on your metabolic rate and every pound of muscle burns about 30 calories per day. If you stop doing exercises that stress your muscles, you will start losing muscle and your metabolism will slow down. Moderate to high intensity resistance training (weights, bodyweight exercises, etc.) is an ideal choice for this type of workout.
As a general rule, you should perform exercises that are difficult enough that you are unable to perform 15 reps; 6 to 12 reps per exercise is a good range. This may be more intense than your usual workout, but if you only have enough time for a short workout, it will be enough intensity to retain your current level of muscle. Also, since your exercise time will be short and the number of total sets will be low, you shouldn't have to worry about gaining muscle or bulking up. Bodybuilders have large muscles mainly because they perform an excessive number of sets, sometimes 20-30 per muscle group, not because they lift heavier weights.
The overall workout only needs to be 15-30 minutes long and you have some options as to how to design the workout. You can do 1 set of many different exercises, multiple sets of a few exercises or anything in between. With the increased intensity of the exercises, you probably won't want to exercise much longer anyway.
I also suggest performing a higher percentage of leg exercises (squats, lunges, etc.) than usual. This is because your largest muscles are in your legs and exercises that stress large muscles create a greater overall demand on the body and produce better metabolic improvements. Try for 35 - 40 % leg exercises if your workout is 30 minutes and around 50% if the workout is closer to 15 minutes. This approach will also maximize the number of calories burned during the workout and result in more calories being burned throughout the day.
If you would rather perform endurance activities (running, biking, etc.), you can apply the same principles of increasing the intensity to make the exercise more demanding. Perhaps the best method is to replace a constant intensity aerobic workout with a shorter interval training workout. This involves alternating between your normal pace and much more challenging pace. For example if you are a runner, you could alternate between running for 1 minute at your regular speed and sprinting for 30 seconds.
Regardless of which approach you take, you should feel about as fatigued at the end of your short workout as you do after a regular length workout. However, if you are not accustomed to more intense training, it is important to start out slowly and let your body adapt to the training. It is very important not to overdo it or push yourself too hard. You want to feel fatigued, but not run down or excessively sore. Also, even though the workout is short, you still need to warm up before the workout and stretch/cool down after you finish.
Keep in mind this strategy does not represent a complete well-rounded fitness program and is not intended to replace your existing program. It is especially useful during times when you may have a limited amount of time to exercise, such as while traveling and it is also beneficial for adding variety to your program. I chose this approach so people with different workout routines and overall goals could apply the strategy to their individual situations.
Look at your existing program and determine how to apply this information to benefit your most. In addition, be sure to remember that nutrition and lifestyle factors (sleep, stress, etc.) are always important too. You can have the best exercise program in the world and if you have bad nutrition and lifestyle habits you will still have a hard time losing fat.

4 Jumping Exercises to Increase Vertical Leap quick for athlete's

Speed and strength are important components of athletes movement. With improved power, an athlete's overall performance is enhanced including an increase vertical leap.
Various Jumping exercises such as jumping, bounding and hopping have been used in many various ways to enhance performance, and increase vertical leap.
Not only are jumping exercises beneficial to the athletes performance, it increases the fitness.
The following jumping exercises have been used and tested by athletes and trainers to increase vertical leap, and performance.
Listed below are 4 lower body jumping exercises to increase vertical leap-
1) Bounds - Commence jogging followed by a push off with the right leg, and with an extended stride bring the left leg forward (knee bent and thigh parallel to the floor).
At the same time, the left arm should reach forward for further momentum. Attempt to hold the extended stride for a brief time, and then land on the left foot and immediately leap forward again.
To maximise this jumping exercise, continue to perform the extended stride continuously on each foot and cover as much distance as possible.
Recommended sets are one to three set over 30-40 metres.
2) Hurdle Hopping - This jumping exercise involves the hip and knee for jump movements. The hurdles are set in a row, and spaced at an appropriate distance away.
Whilst standing straight on 2 feet, jump forward over the hurdles and then immediately spring or jump over the next hurdle.
Lift with your knees together, tucked against the chest and land on the balls of the feet, and immediately continue the next jump exercise sequence over the subsequent hurdles.
Use both arms to swing up for balance and increase vertical leap.
Recommended sets are one to three sets over 6 to 8 hurdles(36 inches high) for this jumping exercise.
3) Single Leg Hopping - The aim of this jumping exercise is to stand on one leg, and push off from the standing leg, jumping forward and landing on the same leg.
Use the opposite leg as a balance and for forward motion. With each jump, aim to jump higher.
Recommended jumping exercise set is one to three over 30-40 metres.
4) Tuck Jumps - Standing straight, jump up grabbing both knees to the chest.
As the feet return to the starting position, land on the balls of the feet and immediately spring up in a quick upward motion.
Again with this jumping exercise, aim to jump higher with each spring.
Recommended vertical jumps for this jumping exercise is one to three sets of 10 repetitions.
Note that if this is your first attempt at these jumping exercises, it is always advisable to consult with a personal trainer for maximum performance and prevent injuries.
The jumping exercises above are just only a few, and aimed to to increase vertical leap.
In addition, these suggested jumping exercises plays part in your continual practice of vertical leap performance.
As always, the quality of each jumping exercise is far more important than quantity.
Therefore focus on the technique of each jumping exercise for optimal results.
The better the quality, the better the form of each jumping exercise, which will have an impact on improved power, and an increase vertical leap.
Start the workout small and progressively increase the workout over a period of time. That means it is not necessary to do jumping exercises 7 days a week. Look at 3 to 4 days a week, allowing the muscles to rest.
Also, performing the jumping exercises too often will often lead to boredom, and consequently lack of motivation. The idea with these jumping exercises is to workout less for optimal results.
Importantly keep track of each jumping exercise. Note the repetitions, distance and height of each jumping exercise.
Once you have grasped the 4 jumping exercises, look at varying the routine with more unique jumping exercises that will add more strength to your increasing vertical leap and fitness.
Some other suggested jumping exercises are split jumps, standing jump from height, depth jump from a box. If you want more unique jumping exercises (or plyometric exercises) that will truly unleash your vertical leap, check out the link below.
Finally, before any workout, it is vital that you warm up and stretch the muscles before and after any jumping exercise.
Throughout this century, jumping exercises have been used successfully by many athletes as a method of training to increase vertical leap.

The Best Exercise to Lose Weight

In an effort to save you weeks or months of time using the 'trial and error' method of finding the best exercise to lose weight, I'm going to share with you some information that will surely help you determine not only the best exercise to lose weight, but also powerhouse motivation methods to ensure that you continue to do it - rather than perform the exercise regularly for only a few weeks or months before making excuses and giving up.
Very few of us have much time in the day to waste, and to this end we certainly don't want to frustrate ourselves using our time and energy trying to lose weight through methods that don't give us great results.
Personally, it took me several weeks to figure out what the best exercise to lose weight was. Doctors had their opinions, nutritionists theirs, and bodybuilders had their own thoughts. I couldn't for the life of me figure out how the different factions were measuring their results.
It then struck me like a brick to the head that I needed to go directly to the source: find the people who were actually successfully losing weight. As a result, I spent a lot of time researching the habits of the people who had gone from, say, 300 pounds to 150 and less.
Here is what I found based on what a few dozen such people do:
- The two most popular aerobic activities among successful fat-burners were 1)running and 2)spinning.
- 97% also engaged in weight-training or some form of resistance training to build muscle (and lose weight as a result).
- The majority began their exercise sessions in small increments, some as little as 5 minutes at a time, and gradually worked their way up
I did research into aerobic exercise and exactly why I would need to do it in order to lose weight. I discovered that exercise involving continuous movement for a sustained period of time (30 - 60 minutes when you can reach that level) is crucial because when you engage in any form of exercise the first thing that happens is that the body burns glycogen (stored carbohydrates that fuel muscle contraction) rather than fat. It is only after the glycogen stores are depleted that the fat begins to burn. This explained to me why I was not seeing fantasti results with 10-15 minute cardio sessions, and gave to me the first component of the best exercise to lose weight.
Although running and spinning were the most popular for the most successful 'fat-burners' I studied, many were also getting great results in the gym using things like:

• Elliptical machines
• Rowing machines
• Stair-climbing machines
• Cross-country ski machines

I would guess that running and spinning were the most popular because even if you have the most penny-ante fitness center in your apartment building, they will usually include a treadmill and a stationary bike. Also, running does not require any equipment, and if you own a bicycle then you can use that in lieu of a stationary bike - as long as you make it an aerobic exercise (for example, by cycling on a track somewhere) rather than an anaerobic exercise (where you're continuously starting and stopping). Making it anaerobic takes away the 'best exercise' aspect of it since the fat stores don't get touched as much.The main reason I have listed the other aerobic options above is because ultimately, the best exercise to lose weight is the one that not only fulfills the requirements of sustained aerobic activity, but - and this is crucial - is something that you will enjoy. Enjoyment of an exercise will ultimately determine whether you decide to do it regularly, so this has to be factored into the 'best exercise' criteria. If you truly don't enjoy running, and can't picture yourself doing it regularly in the long-term, then it's not 'best' for you, and you're better off doing a different type of aerobic exercise that will still yield great results.
The other 'best exercise to lose weight' gives you results in a different (though equally effective) way. While aerobic exercise burns fat as you are doing it and for a short time afterwards, weight training builds muscle that speeds up your metabolism even while you are not doing any kind of exercise whatsoever. That's right - the greater amount of lean body mass that results from building muscle means that you are burning off more calories each day while you are at rest.
This is the reason why 97% of the people I studied were including weight training in their exercise plans. Make note as well that 95% of the people I studied were female, and were not involved in weight training in order to become professional bodybuilders. They simply understood the importance of resistance training towards long-term weight loss.
So, what kind of exercise schedule do you need to maintain in order to see the best results? As stated above, I found that for aerobic exercise 30 - 60 minute sessions, 4 - 6 days a week are great. However, as also stated above, many of the most successful 'fat-burners' began their exercise lifestyle with much smaller exercise sessions. If you can't do more than 5 minutes or so right now, there's absolutely nothing wrong with that. In fact, it's great to get started small so that you can get a feel for good exercise form. Make small goals for yourself, such as, "in 2 weeks I will do 7 minutes each day, in 4 weeks I will do 10 minutes", etc, and you will have reason to feel great about yourself every time you hit a new goal.
For weight training, the important thing is just to integrate it into your lifestyle. There are many different ways that the most successful do this: some do 2 days a week, 25 - 45 minutes each day on those days that they don't do cardio; some do it 3 days a week, 25 - 45 minutes a day on those days that they don't do cardio; some do it 3 days a week, 25 - 45 minutes a day right before their cardio sessions; others make the effort to do 4 days a week. The best results are had, however, when you don't do a weight training session for more than 2 days in a row, as your muscles grow in the recovery period, not during the session itself.
The easy rule of thumb for the actual performance is to use enough weight so that you get to the point of muscle failure at between 6 - 12 repetitions of the movement. When a given exercise gets too easy for you, simply increase the weight, or decrease it if you can't do a minimum of 6 reps. Eventually, you will want to do up to 3 or 4 sets of these, though if you can only squeeze out 1 set of certain exercises at the beginning, that's fine. You will progress as your body tells you that you can.
Since this article is entitled 'The best exercise to lose weight', then what is the best exercise in the weight-training category to ultimately lose weight with? Although there are literally thousands of different resistance exercises you can do with various types of equipment, the best exercise to do is a basic one using free weights. These include 'press' exercises (like the military press and bench press); squats (sometimes called the 'king of exercises' because of muscle growth potential of these exercises); lunges (with a barbell or dumbbells); and rows (includes the deadlift, high-pull, and the bent-over row).
At the beginning of this article I spoke about finding methods to ensure that you will keep at your exercise and lessen your temptation to give up. The number one way to do this is to consider all of the effective exercises listed and figure out which of them you would enjoy most. Another important method is to ease yourself into it, rather than thinking you 'should' do a certain amount of exercise, find that you can't, and give up in frustration. Many others motivate themselves by using their exercise time to listen to music that they haven't gotten around to hearing (by bringing a portable device and some earphones), by catching up on the news or watching TV (even most gyms have televisions in their cardio rooms now), or to catch up on their reading. The latter two are not recommended when you first begin, so that you can focus on your form and the sensations arising, but they may help push you to exercise later when you need the motivation more.
So, ultimately the best exercise to lose weight actually comes in two different forms, aerobic exercise and resistance training. They complement each other like Laurel & Hardy, peanut butter & jelly, and you & your thinner new body.

I learn from the very best - the most successful 'fat-burners' who win the battle over failure and self-hatred to lose all those unwanted pounds of body fat...
What methods do they use to completely change their lives and make themselves happy and healthy beyond their wildest dreams?