Bodybuilding and Fitness Tips | Sport Supplement Reviews

Fun New Fitness Blog with Personality!

2012-01-31T03:39:00.000-08:00

So, as you'll see we tend to only post mainly articles here, however I've recently just set up a new website with a friend of mine

We are currently competing against each other in a quest to lose weight and get super ripped up for the summer!

The posts are all written personally and not 'informational' so to speak like i tend to write here, so if you want to learn more about the real me and follow my path to weight loss with pictures and videos head on over to ExcuseMyAbs.com

Get Bigger, Stronger Muscles Faster

2011-11-24T23:43:00.000-08:00

Getting the body that you want is not always easy to achieve and that means that you need to ensure that you not only have the determination but also the right supplements within your body to enable you to aid your body to develop in the way that you want.

There is more to building muscles than simply heading to the gym and using the weight machines that are on the gym floor, you need to know the most effective ways to use them to unlock the hidden benefits that even the slightest alteration would offer, whether that be the way in which you use the weight or how much weight you are putting onto the resistance against your body.

Like a car engine, your body will not be able to function correctly if you are not fueling it with the right fuel, in this case the vitamins and minerals that are vital when your body is looking to enhance, repair or break down any element within your build up.

Although many gym goers believe that simply eating healthy and keeping hydrated with water is all that you need, failing to increase your intake of protein, iron and other minerals will result in you hitting a plateau in your development, something that can’t be overcome with further resistance.

If you are looking to gain lean muscle mass and add definition, you need to ensure that you keep all of the vital requirements within your body to enable it to work its most effective level, so the best advice that you can be given it to buy supplements online so that they can be dispatched to you without the need to interrupt your gym time.

Keeping hydrated is also vitally important because the human body is 85 percent water, meaning that you need to ensure that the balance is restored from the losses that will be lost through sweating after a heavy workout.

Once you have fueled your body effectively, maintain a healthy diet and continue to add resistance to your workouts, without progression there will be no growth.

Do Diet Pills Work?

2011-05-03T09:13:00.000-07:00

Often we see Diet Pills marketed primarily towards women however, there has been a recent increase in males looking at trying out diet pills.

As with anything, diet pills are not a miracle drug! You won't take a few of these and start shedding the weight if your daily routine, diet and exercise isn't on key. All these pills will do is 'supplement' your weight loss and try to speed things up.

There are diet pills on the market that target different areas such as Alli diet pills and Hoodia which tries to suppress appetite and there are others which will speed up your metabolism or mess with your stomach enzymes.

I personally from a male point of view am not a huge fan of these diet pills, I would much prefer to jump on the fat burners band wagon but that's not to say that you guys have to do it!

Here is another great article which looks to answer the question; Do diet pills work? - http://health.howstuffworks.com/medicine/medication/diet-pill.htm

Essentials of How to Build Muscle

2011-04-13T00:33:00.000-07:00

Building muscle is not an impossible task for anyone that is willing to dedicate their time and effort into their goal and do everything that they can to aid their body through the development stages.

There are a number of ways that you are able to build muscle but with each different method there is a different timescale attached to it so if you are looking the build muscles quickly with strong, solid gains then you need to follow these hints, tips and rules carefully.

Sort out your diet

The chances are that if you are looking to add muscle to your body then you are either trying to convert excess fat stores or you are looking to simply strengthen and improve the size of the muscles that you already have, either way you need to have the right diet.

Getting the right diet is not as simple as just cutting out the junk food and replacing it with the heavily pushed '5-a-day' program that looks to have you ensure that you are eating five portions of fruit and vegetables per day.

For your body to be able to generate and strength muscle mass while burning off the fat stores that you are holding on your physique, you need to be looking to eat a protein heavy diet as this is the prime requirement for your body to be able to convert fat into muscle.

Train to the best of your ability

Working out at the gym should be about pushing your body to and through its physical limits if you are setting about the common goal of adding muscle to your frame.

If you are working the body to that level of exhaustion, that is the time that your natural metabolism will be able to operate in an optimum fashion, working much harder than if you were to stay within comfortable levels of work requirement.

If you find that you are breaking away from your rep sets or are talking too much to those around you, you might as well pack up and head home as you are wasting precious workout time, time that you could be fueling your natural fat burning abilities so that they can get to work while at their most efficient.

Give your body as much help as you can

Your body will be working as hard as it possible can in order to repay you for your hard work within the gym but you have to be willing to offer it everything that it needs if you want it to be able to handle the amount of work that you are expecting it to cover.

This means that you should be topping up your vitamin and mineral levels as frequently as required, something that could be done with the use of food but is more effectively done with the use of bodybuilding supplements.

Failure to supply your body with the things that it needs to be able to convert your fat into muscle and repair the growth following training sessions will not only hinder you performance in your next training session but will also reduce the effect of the one that you have just put yourself through.

Continue to push your limits

Falling into a complacent state of mind is one of the biggest problems that many gym users face as they are often afraid to continue to put their body through the pain barrier in order to progress further.

Failure to continue to make progress will mean that your body will quickly become comfortable with the level of workout that you are doing and so development and growth of your muscles will begin to slow before coming to a halt.

To ensure that you are getting the biggest gains, you need to be consistently adding more and more resistance to your workouts, forcing your body to have to deal with increasing demand on its capabilities.

Ensure your have the right form

Making sure that you have the right form for each and every exercise that you do within your workout is vital as failure to do the exercise the way that it is meant to be done will either result in reduced effect or none at all.

Most gyms have personal trainers that are walking about looking for their next client but they are likely to offer you advice for free as long as you ask them. Failing that, ask the gym staff as they should be fully briefed on how to use the machines for such a question.

Remember that doing 10 reps of an exercise with good form is worth 100 reps of doing the same exercise with poor form.

Does Muscle Size Equal Muscle Strength?

2011-04-11T10:14:00.000-07:00

The common goal that is shared within anyone who is looking to improve their physical body shape through bodybuilding is that they are constantly looking to add lean muscle mass in exchange for a reduction in excess body fat.

With that in mind, does it mean that those that are large in terms of the amount of muscle that they have on their frame are naturally gifted with the strength that would be associated with large muscles?

The fact of the matter is that although the natural body has the ability to be able to create, regenerate and strengthen muscles, nothing comes as a pair within those factors, so in order to add lean muscle mass and increase strength, you have to perform exercises that specifically target each goal.

Scientific studies that have been conducted in the past have shown that people of roughly the same size both share the ability to be able to add the same amount of strength to their muscle tissue but that doesn’t mean that they can succeed in doing so without targeting the goal of adding the strength into the tissue fibers.

As you will have seen in the gym, different weight lifters are able to handle a variance of resistances, even though the heavier weight lifters could be smaller than some of their peers.

This is due to the focus that they have being broader than that of the gym user that has focused primarily on simply gaining muscle size.

There are a number of misconceptions when it comes to gaining muscle and adding strength to your frame, especially when you are first starting out on a bodybuilding programme.

One of the main misconceptions that seems the haunt new and inexperienced bodybuilders is that they believe that if you focus on adding strength to your muscles, the gains will happen alongside the growth but that is incorrect and you are simply strengthening the muscles that you already have rather than building new, bigger muscle tissues.

Obviously this means that if you are not focusing on exercises that are going to allow your body to add growth into the size of your muscles, you are going to hit a point where you will fail to see any return for the workouts that you are conducting, simply due to the fact that the muscles that you have can’t handle any more strengthening.

This means that you need to be trying to work both of the goals with each and every workout that you are having, allowing your muscles to grow while strengthening them as you do so.

Getting the right balance of the two will not only increase the look of your results but will also make them solid gains rather than simply adding one or the other.

Why Fad Diets WILL Fail You

2011-04-04T06:22:00.000-07:00

How many times have you opened up a newspaper or glossy magazine to see another random celebrity exposing the virtues of the latest fad diets to be doing the rounds in Hollywood and beyond?

The problem is that most of the time these fad diets are not only not all that successful in losing weight, and certainly not on a long term basis, they can actually seriously damage your health.

It is fine for celebrities who can afford top of the range nutritionists to put together their diets, but for most people trying to follow a fad diet is is more likely to make them ill than lose them weight long term.

Why?

Almost all fad diets rely on one thing – a gimmick. They use this gimmick to beat you over the head with a couple of facts, or some pseudo-science. But they then ignore a huge amount of facts.

So taking their information in isolation leaves big wholes in the truth.

Fuel

We need food not just because it tastes nice but to fuel our bodies. Our bodies need a certain amount of certain foods to be able to go. From vitamin C right through to fats (and yes, certain fats are essential, you should never cut all fat out of your diet).

All too often these fad diets ignore these basic principles of human biology and instead try to get you to give up certain foods.

Our bodies need all sorts of foods, form all the food groups, in order to be healthy. As such it is important that you don't cut certain aspects our of your diet completely.

Cutting down on over eating is one thing, and healthy eating should certainly be encouraged – but denying our body what it needs should never be encouraged.

Next time you see a fad diet that tempts you, stop and look at it properly. If it is missing essential foods then walk away, quickly.

I've also written some great weight loss articles over at http://supplementshack.co.uk/ that are worth checking out if your looking for some more in-depth tips on losing weight.

4 Awesome Tips To Help You Increase Your Bench Press

2011-03-31T05:24:00.000-07:00

There are certain times in your bodybuilding routine that you will find that you seem to hit a brick wall and feel that you will never be able to push anymore additional weight, especially on the bench press.

Increasing the resistance (weight) that is held on the bar can become harder as you progress through the different levels as the requirements of your body become much higher and sometimes you will be trying to push weights that are just out of your ability.

So how about I share 4 tips with you that will help you to add that little more weight to the bar?

Tip 1 – Make your body the focus of your attention, not the bar

Finding your focus while in the gym is vital if you are going to be able to get the most out of your time at the gym.

You wouldn’t run on the treadmill while looking at the running belt as that would distract you from the task on hand so when using the bench press you shouldn’t be focusing on the bar, something that forms one of the common mistakes made by gym users.

Instead of thinking about pushing the bar away from your body, a simple alteration to your train of thought will help you to retain more focus than ever before.

Simply think about pushing your body away from the bar.

The reason that this works while using the bench press is that the brain can be easily convinced into thinking that something isn’t possible and so thinking about the bar rather than your body you are giving your brain the indication that it is the bar that you have to battle against and as with any solid object, there will always be a point where you are unable to beat it.

Tip 2 – Alter the way that you push the bar away from yourself

The way that you push the bar while using the bench press is vital as using a technique that isn’t strong enough to deal with the weights that you are trying to lift will only result in either injury or failure to complete the set that you are working on.

Altering the way that your pushing technique is done will not only help you to secure your grip but will also increase the resistance that you can handle.

The new method that you want to be looking to adapt is that while pushing your body away from the bar, you want your hands to act as if they are pulling the bar into a longer shape, without moving your hands physically.

Adopting this technique helps you to push higher weights due to the body calling on more ‘stabilizer’ muscles within the arm and hands, allowing you to have a firmer grip and push on the bar.

Tip 3 – Envision The Bar Going Up

When working out with a partner or a ‘spotter’ it seems that you are able to increase the weight that you are able to push while using the bench press.

Think about all the times that you have been pushing the bar but seem to have hit a sticking spot with your rep, feeling like you can’t complete the movement. When your struggling with the bar what does your training partner do?

The most common practice is that without taking too much of the weight, the person spotting will place two fingers under the bar and suddenly with their help you are able to lift the bar.

Do you honestly think that the two additional fingers on the bar are really helping you to lift the bar? No, they are there as a signal to the brain to believe that you can now complete the set, giving the brain cause to believe that it can be done.

Because of this, we can clearly see that the majority of situations where you feel that you can’t push yourself to the limit any further can be rectified through positive thought and the brain telling the body that it can do it.

Tip 4 – Give Your Stronger Hand The Visual Power

Once again we offer a tip to help you complete those sets on the bench press that seem to haunt so many gym users.

When you find that you are hitting a sticking point during your set and you feel that you can’t move the bar any further away from your body, take that opportunity to alter your eye line and look at your most powerful hand, often the one that you write with.

Although not giving any reinforcement, altering your line of sight to include your most powerful hand will trigger a message within the brain that will call on the body to increase the power output of your hand.

Remembering that the mind is your most powerful tool is highly recommended as it does possess the ability to help you leave those broken sets in the history books as long as you use it correctly and extract all you can from it.

Once you've worked these tips for a few weeks head over to Brian Macs site and conduct yourself the bench press test to see if you've gained any strength

4 Superb Home Exercise Equipment Pieces

2011-03-29T04:22:00.000-07:00

For many people working out at home rather than in the gym is the ideal. There are many reasons

for it, it could be to save money, to avoid long round trips or simply not to have to work out with dozens of other sweaty people!

The most common reason though is convenience. The ability to spend a spare 15 minutes working out, rather than dedicating huge blocks of the day, is a popular one. Getting the best of workouts at home means getting in the best exercise equipment.

Seeing that many of us only have limited space for equipment at home we need to ensure that what we do buy is the best we can, finding room for other equipment pieces can be hard.

Which is why I put together this list of home exercise equipment for you.

1. Rowing machine

If you have limited space you want a work out that will require effort
from as many muscles as possible. Short of fitting a pool in your home the rowing machine
is best. It gives great cardio work outs and helps strengthen and tone a huge number of
muscle groups.

2. Bench Press

A good bench press is one that can be folded to all sorts of angles so you can
use it in many ways – from bench pressing weights to having it support your back for chest
presses or arm curls.

3. Punching Bag

Not the first thing that you think of when it comes to home exercise equipment. But it is easily stored away and easily hung when needed – and boxing can give you a massive work out in working the arms and burning calories.

4. Games Consoles

Not the first thing that comes to mind when looking to work out at home.
But with the X-Box Kinnect, not to mention things like the Wii Fit, games consoles really
can get you fit!

Lose Weight Fast

2011-03-28T12:12:00.000-07:00

With so many people feeling the need to improve their image and body shape, it comes as no surprise that one of the most searched weight loss terms on the internet is how to lose weight fast.

Losing weight or converting excess fat into muscle is not always about trying to lose the weight as fast as you possibly can, with many methods out there in the industry promising quick results but failing to notify you of the risks that come with their usage.

There is no secret fix to losing weight, it is simply about improving your general health and daily diet, eating enough of the right foods and avoiding those that are creating the excess fat that you are trying to lose.

You would have to have been hiding underground over the last decade to have not heard about the ‘5 a day’ push that the government are trying to encourage people just like us to undertake, ensuring that you are getting enough fruit and vegetables within our daily intake.

Although eating enough fruit and vegetables is definitely a great step in the right direction, you need to couple this with the need to exercise in order to allow your natural metabolism to begin to burn your fat stores and help to reduce the amount of ‘bad’ fat that your body is holding.

Dietary excellence along with the right exercise program is the best way in which to shed those excess pounds but these can be time consuming as well as challenging each time that you begin to lose focus.

The weight loss industry is full of weight loss aids that are readily available for you to buy openly on the market but now it seems that there has been a break through, a new revolutionary weight loss pill that combats multiple causes of body fat.

Meratol, the latest offering from Advanced Health Ltd, has hit the UK market after a hugely successful time in the US weight loss market, attracting the use of some of the biggest names in Hollywood.

Hitting the shelves of Boots and SuperDrug, Meratol was soon rushing off the shelves and so the stock levels of Meratol on the high street quickly became none and now the only place to be able to buy the weight loss aid is online.

To find out about Meratol and to save as much as 30%, head to iMeratol to buy Meratol online before their stock levels follow that of the high street.

2011-03-24T03:25:00.000-07:00

High Protein Foods and Bodybuilding

Successful bodybuilding alterations to your body are only possible if you are able to combine two major factors that are required in order for your body to be able to develop.

The first factor being your workout program that you undertake while at the gym and the second being the diet that you consume on a daily basis.

These two factors are often disputed as to which is most important to your training program and the results that you achieve but the honest fact is that without an equal share of both, you will fail to reach the goals that you have set yourself.

High Protein Diets

Eating a high protein diet is not only for people who are looking to increase their lean muscle mass through bodybuilding, they are also very effective for anyone that is looking to lose weight, or more importantly convert excess fat into muscle.

Knowing how much protein to include within your daily diet can be hard as there are no set guidelines that are written down in black and white but the general rule that has been adopted by many who undertake high protein diets is that you should look to consume 1 gram of protein for every pound of your body weight.

The ‘1g per 1lb rule’ is aimed at those who are looking to simply alter their excess fat percentage and exchange it for muscle and so if you are looking to instead maximise your muscle size, you need to be eating higher proportions of protein on a daily basis.

What Foods Contain High Protein Intake

Almost everybody who claims that they are taking the high protein diet is unable to tell us what foods offer the highest level of protein, something that will not only hinder their performance but could also prove costly when they realise that they could have been taking more protein from a cheaper alternative to that they are eating in their diet already.

Here is a list of foods that are high in protein and will be able to ensure that you are getting the highest level of protein that you can in one single ingredient:

Chicken
Turkey
Lean Meats & Beef
Fish (all fish is high in protein: tuna fish, salmon, shrimp, etc.)
Eggs & Egg Whites
Beans
Nuts
Milk
Supplements (powders, shakes, bars, etc.)

Although there seems to be a good number of food types within the list, there will be a number of others that are not listed and can still carry good levels of protein, so be sure to check the nutritional guidelines that will be printed on all food containers.

Top 5 Protein Powders On The Market Today

2011-03-23T08:15:00.000-07:00

With the ever growing size of the health and fitness market comes new protein powders and supplements more regularly.

Below are 5 protein powders that have stood the test of time, have been around for a while and in my opinion will be around for quite some time to come;

Maximuscle Cyclone

This is an awesome 'all-in one' protein powder that blends protein, creatine, glutamine and HMB packing 60g daily servings of protein. It is however rather 'mainstream' which has led to it coming at quite a hefty price.

To read up more on this product take a look at the page from Maximuscle here

Muscletech Nitro-Tech Pro-Series

Created by the scientifically advanced Muscletech this was hyped to be one of the best protein powders on the market.

However, I personally don't know whether it's down to people having a weird hate towards Muscletech as a company, they've run into quite a lot of crticism from 'customers'

Again the downfall to these guys is their price, but never the less a great product.

PhD Synergy Iso-7

Another great premium all-in-one product put together by the guys at PhD. One thing about this protein is that it has a rather exceptional taste (or at least I think so)

Reasonably priced also in my eyes, for a more detailed review check out the official synergy page

USN Pure Protein IGF-1

Pure Protein IGF-1 is a great tasting, high protein shake which delivers 40g of quality protein and just 3g of carbs per serving making it ideal if your looking to lose weight or gain lean muscle.

Optimum Nutrition Gold Standard 100% Whey

By far the best product on the market in my eyes today, made with the best whey protein available (gold) with no 'fillers' makes this the protein that other companies are striving to catch up with

The guys over at SupplementShack.co.uk have done a great detailed Optimum Nutrition Gold Standard 100% Whey review.

5 Tips To Account For When Choosing A Personal Trainer

2011-03-22T14:34:00.000-07:00

Working out at the gym for the first time can be daunting when it comes to what you should be doing with the machines, their purpose within your workout and how you should be doing a certain exercise to ensure safety and maximum return.

With that revelation recognised by the fitness industry, there are now a vast amount of personal trainers that are readily available to you in order to help you on your way to getting the body that you have always dreamed of.

Choosing the right personal trainer for you is not about finding the first available to you, you have to be happy that the workouts that you will be paying them to put you through are going to end with the same goals that you have set yourself.
So here are a few things that you should consider before hiring a personal trainer:

1. Check their qualifications

Just because a personal trainer seems to know his or her way around a gym doesn’t mean that they are qualified to train you, meaning that although you could well be in line for some fantastic results, you might not be working out safely.
Any qualified personal trainer will only be too happy to show you a copy of their qualification on request, so make sure that you are training with someone who knows more than their way around a weight machine.

2. Speak with them before hiring

The fitness industry is booming within the present day and that has lead to an influx of people looking to become personal trainers.
You are strongly advised to speak with any personal trainer that you are considering hiring in order to get a feel for both their knowledge and personality within the gym.
I have personally failed to speak with personal trainers before and found that they have been shy and unwilling to push you to the limits, meaning that you are never going to be able to develop your muscle growth if you are not pushing your body to the limit.

3. Look for testimonials of former clients

Personal trainers are very proud of their work, especially if they have been able to achieve a specific target or aim that their client has set at the time of appointing them.
This means that their client is happy too, so they will be only too happy to tell you about their experience with that personal trainer, but remember that due to data protection, there could well be an unwillingness to reveal previous clients.

4. Take a look at them

Selecting the right personal trainer is vital when it comes to wanting to achieve certain aims and targets, so if you look at your personal trainer and fail to see your target within them, they are not right for you.
This means that if you were looking to add lean muscle and increase your weight through muscle mass, you would not look to hire a personal trainer who weighs 9 stone and carries very little build to them.

5. Highlight your aims, targets and timescale

To get the best from your personal trainer, you need to be open and honest with them, telling them as much information as you can before you hire them in order to allow them to reassure you that they can help you achieve that goal.
Obviously don’t expect things to happen within a timescale that is unrealistic but they should be aware as to where you want to be within that time frame.

Top 3 Ways to Avoid Food Cravings

2011-03-21T11:58:00.000-07:00

The key to being able to avoid food craving is to understand what is actually causing those cravings and being able to avoid those situations in which you could well buckle and allow your focus to slip for just a moment, before you know it you are eating your second chocolate bar of the day!
Cravings are created within the human body due to a low level of blood sugar, something which can drop as quickly as being completely fine at lunch but then only a matter of hours crashes to the level in which your mind beings to release the craving messages.
To be able to keep your body in the state of well being that you need in order to be able to effectively lose weight and tone your muscles, you need to ensure that your blood levels remain topped up on regular intervals, a blood sugar crash which is then topped up too quickly will tell your body to store fat rather than lose it in fear that levels could drop once again later in the day.
So what rules can you follow to try to avoid blood sugar crashes and overloads?

Eat Less, More Often

Look to reduce the portion sizes of your meals throughout the day but plan to eat every 3 hours, this means that your body will continue to burn fat effectively through your natural metabolism while also keeping a harness on your blood sugar levels.

Up Your Protein

The fact that you are looking to increase your intake of protein on a regular meal basis means that you are able to stay fuller for longer as protein slows down the way in which carbohydrates are digested.

Be Carb Smart

There are plenty of products out there that look to offer you your daily intake of carbohydrates but you need to be looking to purchase whole grain as this form of carbohydrates contains fiber, which will reduce the blood sugar effect.