How to Get More Bang From Your Barbells By Jim Robertson At Isnare.com Ezine Articles

Good for you, you’ve decided to jack up your metabolism so you can be healthier and look better. You’ve got your six-meals-per-day diet regimen ready, and now it’s time to head for the gym to add all that lean mass they say will really crank your metabolism into a fat-burning, calorie-munching machine. Maybe you’ve lifted before, maybe you haven’t, but just as it has with dieting – be honest, ten years ago the idea of eating six meals a day sounded ludicrous – things have changed. There’s new thinking on the table, all of it based on science and none of it the stepchild of supplement marketing companies looking for a way into your wallet. Follow these principles and you’ll get more bang from your weight lifting buck, and your metabolism will thank you for it in short order:

- Time under contraction equals growth. Which means you need to do each repetition slowly, deliberately, with great focus and concentration. The goal isn’t to move the weight itself, the goal is to contract the muscle to a maximum degree, which requires maximum concentration and effort.

- Work the muscle to “failure” if you can, or complete exhaustion. But always do this with perfect form, slowly and deliberately executed. Select a weight that you can lift 10 to 12 times before “failure” occurs – anything less is too heavy and you won’t work the muscle deep enough, anything more is too light and you’ll not work the muscle intensely enough. You’ll be doing a bit less than that for each set here, but with multiple sets you should reach failure toward the end of the routine.

- Never work a given muscle two days in a row. Always allow at least one, preferably two days of rest (meaning, don’t do any lifting that targets this muscle on a resting day). The point of everything here is to cause the muscle to grow, and it doesn’t happen during the exercise itself (indeed, the muscle is actually being broken down when you lift weights), but rather, during the recovery phase, when it grows back even stronger than before.

- Nutrition is critical to muscle growth. Your muscles need both protein and complex carbohydrates to grow. Moderation is critical here – if you starve your body on a diet your muscles cannot grow no matter how hard you work them, and if you over-eat or eat poorly you’ll create a calorie surplus that will indeed result in weight gain, just the wrong kind, which is the opposite of your overall goal. Just be sure to partake of nutritious, reasonable meals with a good balance of protein, complex carbohydrates and essential fats, and then sneak in a few extra grams of protein (about 50 to 100 per day) through protein drinks or bars, or even an extra chicken breast.

Begin your program by focusing on the largest muscle groups in the body, which are the quickest to grow and consume the most calories to function. And if you’re worried about getting anything close to muscle-bound, sorry, it’s just not gonna happen. That takes years, and usually the addition of supplements and advanced techniques to the routine, and even then, is determined by genetics that very few possess. But the results last for years, and you’ll be able to manage your weight easier, and more effectively than ever before.

Published At: Isnare Free Articles Directory http://www.isnare.com
Permanent Link: http://www.isnare.com/?aid=341672&ca=Wellness%2C+Fitness+and+Diet

Important Notice DISCLAIMER: All information, content, and data in this article are sole opinions and/or findings of the individual user or organization that registered and submitted this article at Isnare.com without any fee. The article is strictly for educational or entertainment purposes only and should not be used in any way, implemented or applied without consultation from a professional. We at Isnare.com do not, in anyway, contribute or include our own findings, facts and opinions in any articles presented in this site. Publishing this article does not constitute Isnare.com's support or sponsorship for this article. Isnare.com is an article publishing service. Please read our Terms of Service for more information.