Most weightlifters and athletes know that the best way to gain muscle is to train hard and eat enough of the right food. If you have these two aspects of fitness down, building muscle will be straightforward. Once you have experience with training and building muscle, though, the gains can begin to taper off and hormonal, genetic, and lifestyle factors can start to make a large difference in how much you are able to grow. By leveraging your hormones,…
The subject of cardio is a divisive topic within the fitness community. Some believe that cardio is never beneficial for making gains, while others hold the opinion that cardio is needed both for health and for losing fat, and does not have any negative effects on building and maintaining muscle. While cardio does not help make gains, as long as you account for the energy expenditure of additional exercise in your daily caloric intake, cardio will not kill gains….
While training at large commercial and local gyms has its advantages, building a gym at home is more convenient, saves money over time, and gives you complete control over your own training. Before you build your home gym, there are several things to consider such as the location you’re building your home gym, your budget, the equipment you plan on buying, the materials needed, and the supplies required for the building process. Garage vs. Shed vs. Spare Room First,…
Dead hangs, along with stomach vacuums and neck workouts, are less commonly done but despite being unorthodox, could benefit most people. Dead hanging is done by holding on to a bar or branch and hanging. The two variations of dead hangs are passive hanging and active hanging. Passive hanging consists of holding on to a bar and relaxing all muscles except your core and forearms. Active hanging is done by retracting your shoulder blades and using the muscles in…
For many bodybuilders and gym-goers, getting a pump is one of the most enjoyable sensations of working out. There are many rewarding aspects to lifting weights, you look better, you feel better, you become stronger, and more. But a pump is often one of the reasons you keep coming back to the gym, even after you’ve made a decades worth of gains and are not getting stronger every workout. A pump is caused by an increase in blood flow…
The neck muscles are one of the most neglected muscle groups when it comes to training. When first starting to lift, the biceps, chest, and abs are the muscles that are usually concentrated on the most. Over time, as you progress in training these muscles, your physique will begin to look unbalanced, so you begin to add in legs, shoulders, triceps, back, and other muscle groups in order to attain a body composition that is more consistent and well-rounded….
Ginger, or Zingiber officinale, is a tropical plant mainly found in Southeast Asia. Although all of the plant is edible, the root stem of the ginger plant is most commonly eaten and holds all the benefits of consuming ginger. Ginger is one of the most popular natural supplements and has been eaten for tens of thousands of years. The use of ginger as a tonic is recorded as far back as ancient China, where it was taken for lessening…
When on a cut, the largest worry is usually muscle and strength loss. After bulking for months and adding on size, losing all that progress is a formidable prospect. While no one loses all their muscle mass and strength as soon as they start eating below their maintenance calories, some muscle loss and loss of strength is to be expected from remaining in a negative energy balance for an extended period of time. This is because when you are…
Taurine is an amino acid commonly found in energy drinks, pre-workouts, and other popular supplement blends. The body synthesizes taurine on its own, making taurine a nonessential amino acid. Taurine is sometimes also called a “conditionally essential amino acid” because it not used to build proteins and is needed by neonates (newborn infants). Taurine is included in many energy drinks and pre-workout supplements because it has a calming effect but also can boost muscle endurance and performance. For most…
The three common strategies of eating to improve your physique are bulking, cutting, and maintaining. Bulking is done by eating more calories than the body burns per day to build muscle, cutting is done by eating less calories than you are burning per day to lose fat, and maintaining is done by eating at maintenance calories so you neither gain nor lose weight. There are multiple approaches to bulking. The main ways to bulk that are used are clean…
