Finding the right bodybuilding routine can quite trying, especially since there are hundreds of bodybuilding routines and programs out there to choose from.

So how do you know which one is best for you?
How do you know that the bodybuilding routines stated in the program brochure really works? And how do you choose the most effective bodybuilding routine? Below is a simple guide for you to choose the bodybuilding routine that suits you best.

Finding an effective bodybuilding routine for you is to see whether or not the program has been tested.

Never mind what the website or ad  says. And never mind what the bodybuilding routine instructor is saying. The most objective way for you to see if a bodybuilding routine is effective or not is by relying on true data and not “this could” work mentality.

A good and well thought out bodybuilding routine discusses all of the following key factors: Goals, training loads, progress monitoring, and recovery periods.

In a bodybuilding routine, the “just do it and see” attitude will not likely drive any major results. What a bodybuilding routine needs is program that allows progressive training. Guidance on changing your workout loads and periodic progress monitoring is essential to know if the bodybuilding routine you have is working. Regular visits to the weighing scale, size measurements, and one-rep maximums are only the easiest and most direct way to measure your progress with your bodybuilding routine.

Now often, in bodybuilding routines, recovery periods are frequently overlooked. Keep in mind that it is just as important as working out and performing your bodybuilding routine exercises. Your bodybuilding routine plan should cover rest on a regular basis and across the training phases.

The third important question to ask is: Am I the right type of individual to take up this kind of bodybuilding routine? A good bodybuilding routine is one that specifies its target population, age, training level, and effective duration.

Different people have specific needs in a bodybuilding routine. The question to consider is the gender and the age. Some bodybuilding routines might be too taxing for teenagers who have smaller and less developed muscles.

The same thing applies in the training level of a bodybuilding routine. You do not want to train under a bodybuilding routine for novices when you’re a bodybuilding veteran of 10 yrs.

And last, but certainly not the last important thing to consider is the duration of the bodybuilding routine. The program should state for exactly how long you can use the bodybuilding routine before moving on to a higher level.

So if you are serious about achieving your ultimate bodybuilding potential, the guide above should give you a better idea in what to look for in bodybuilding routines.

When you are looking for a better and more effective routine you can trust the people at Bodybuilding.com
Not only are they the #1 source of information for bodybuilders but the amount of information that they have for free is amazing ( I mean it really is). From 84 days worth of free daily video training to online boards where you can track your progress and share information with others, you’ll be able to get true personal trainer information without having to pay a personal trainer price.

I know that it may sound like hype ( and yes, I do make a commission if you decide on purchasing a product at Bodybuilding.com ) but there is so much information that would cost you hundreds elsewhere they just give you free that once you see what they have you’ll be telling your friends and you will sound hypey.
They didn’t become the #1 source of bodybuilders because of average run of the mill info – their info is really top notch.
Just see for yourself.

Need a BETTER WORKOUT? Find one here FREE! Only at Bodybuilding.com.

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We all seem to have minds that wander.  You have probably noticed this yourself – you get to work then realize that you don’t remember driving there.  You have also probably noticed this during your workouts. You start working out and the next thing that you know your finished – which is fine but during that time you mind was on your weekend plans or your workday schedule. Although you have worked out – you did workout to your fullest potential.

When you work out, do you usually focus on something else?  Do you watch television while walking on the treadmill, or space out while weight training?  If so, you could be decreasing the intensity and effectiveness of your exercise routine.

The reason for this is simple: if you’re not really paying attention to what you’re doing, you are probably not doing it as effectively as you could be.

Here are a few tips to help you focus on your workouts

Rather than distracting your mind, tune into every single movement you make with your body.  If you are working with weights, pay close attention to how your muscles feel as you work them.  Focus intently on keeping the proper form, and do your best to increase the intensity of each movement.

Likewise with aerobic activities; focus on your muscles working, your heart pumping, the air rushing in and out of your lungs.

Immerse yourself in the sensations of working your body, and notice how much better you feel afterwards.  Don’t you feel as if you just had a really GREAT workout, rather than “just” a workout?

You can do the same thing with any physical activity; while you’re walking the dog, focus on how your leg muscles feel as you work them.  While you clean the house, stretch and reach more deliberately than you normally do.

Not only will you end up working each muscle group more completely, don’t be surprised if you start targeting other muscle groups without even meaning to!

Take care that you don’t overdo it, of course.  The idea isn’t to strain your muscles, just tune into what they’re doing as you work them.  The more conscious you can be during workouts, the more effective they are going to get.

If you want to, you can still listen to music or watch television while you work out – just also devote the majority of your attention to what you’re doing.  Let the other stuff fade into the background so you can optimize your exercise routine as much as possible.

If you are going to workout you might as well get the most of your time and energy and focus on what you are doing. This way you will see and feel results more quickly.

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The bench press is by far the most popular exercise for anyone who lifts weights and those who want to start lifting.
Why?  In additional to being able to get bragging rights on how much you press, this exercise also can increase the size of your chest, which both makes your shirts look better on you and also makes your waist look narrower.

Having a big chest looks good and gives you a lot of confidence.
It’s also nice having people asking you all the time how much you can bench and being able to tell them you can bench 400 (or whatever). Weight lifters are always trying to improve their bench press but many go about it the wrong way.

So how do you improve your bench press? Here are 5 tips, in no particular order…

1) Don’t Overtrain
If you want to improve your bench press then you have to make sure you are not over training. If you are benching every time you are in the weight room then you are doing it too much. You only need to do bench press once per week.  If you are benching all the time and not seeing any gains then try cutting back and see what happens. Your muscles need time to rest and recover. They can’t do that if you are constantly tearing them apart.

2) Train Additional Muscles
Your chest is not the only thing you should be focusing on in order to improve your bench press. You should be working on your entire body with a special emphasis on your triceps, lats, and delts because these muscle groups play a huge role in bench pressing.

3) Have a Lifting Partner You Can Trust
Having someone there to spot you while you are bench pressing will help for a few reasons. The most important one is safety. Let’s just say it’s not fun having hundreds of pounds fall onto your chest and a spotter will stop that from happening. But a lifting partner can also help improve your bench by giving you encouragement and pushing you harder during your lift as well as providing someone to prove yourself to. You will also have the added confidence knowing someone is there to help you if you fail, so you will tend to push yourself harder.

4) Aim For Bench Pressing Additional Weight
If you are trying to get stronger and improve your bench press you should not be able to get more than five reps of the weight you are using. However, you should also be able to actually do the weight close to five times each set so you are getting some reps in. Go as heavy as you can while still being able to get a few reps in each set.

5) Take Supplements – But Only Natural and Healthy Ones

Weight lifting supplements such as creatine and whey protein can help you improve your bench press tremendously. They will help with strength, recovery, stamina, explosiveness, and other things that will allow you to bench more.

There you go, five tips to help improve your bench press. If you want to be able to brag to your friends about how much you can bench start with the above tips and you will improve your bench press very soon.

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There are various different types of resistance training programs but they all center around the use of weights, machines or your own body weight to add resistance to a workout routine.
This additional resistance forces the body to grow and at the same time, burn fat.

Depending on what results you are after, resistance training can be used to develop a bigger body, as you might see with bodybuilders, or it can be used solely to gain strength without the focus on weight gain.

Naturally this weight gain would be lean muscle but there are some people who have no desire to gain additional muscle size.

Many women are reluctant to enter into a resistance-training program for fear that they might develop big muscles and lose their femininity.
This does not have to be the outcome of a resistance-training program.

Resistance can be used just as effectively to reduce body weight in the form of fat and also to create a leaner and sexier body.

Fortunately more people are realizing that resistance training is one of the fastest ways to reshape a body no matter what your goals are.

In addition to the reshaping of your body and the reduction of body fat that comes about from a successful resistance-training program, there is the added benefit of better aerobic fitness.

Some people are still of the mistaken belief that resistance training does not help with aerobic fitness but this is not true.

A good resistance-training program will also help with aerobic fitness.
It really depends on the amount of energy you exert during your exercise routines and by simply adding speed to your routine you will be increasing your aerobic fitness.

That speed can be in the time it takes to perform an exercise or by reducing or eliminating the rest time between exercises.

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When putting together a body building workout, it is vital you workout your legs and upper body.  There are three main muscles you want to focus on with your legs; your quadriceps, hamstrings and calves.  By working out these muscles, you will build strong and durable legs.

Luckily, many leg exercises will workout each of the three muscles.  Squats are great for building strong and powerful legs.  It involves you placing weight on a barbell and squatting down with the weight rested on your neck.  It is important you perform this with good technique.  Other exercises for your quadriceps include leg press, leg extensions, dumbbell lunges and dumbbell squats.

Moving along to your hamstrings, there are three great body building workouts you can do.  The first is lying leg curls in which you lye face down on a leg curl machine and lift up.  The other two exercises are stiff legged dead lifts and dumbbell stiff legged dead lifts.

The last of the muscles to include with your body building workout is your calves.  There are several exercises you can do to build up your calves giving you muscle for leaping abilities.  The most common exercises include standing calf raises, seated calf raises, leg press calf extensions, and standing one legged calf raises.  All calf raises consist of you simply standing on your toes and raising yourself using your calf muscles.

Putting together a quality body building workout for your legs is essential.  You want to have strong, powerful legs to support your upper-body.  Unfortunately, far too many bodybuilders focus solely on their upper-body.

Take these exercises and apply them to your workout regimen to build strong legs.  You can work your quadriceps into your bicep, tricep and shoulder workout day and place your calves and hamstrings with your back and chest workout day.  This makes for a perfect workout schedule.

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Most people think that body building is about increasing your muscles to outrageous sizes. The truth is that there is a lot more to body building like strengthening your muscles and then building their tone to create a healthy looking body. It isn’t always about “getting ripped.” It is about increasing your health.

This article contains useful tips for people who are interested in starting their own body building workout routine. Remember: the key to body building is to get healthy first and to get stacked later.

Proper breathing is important. Breathing correctly is essential to a body building exercise routine. You should not hold your breath. You want to take in enough oxygen to keep your muscles healthy and happy. Use your diaphragm to help you breathe correctly instead of your lungs.

If you fill your lungs with air, your chest will expand and that makes it harder for you to work on the muscles in your chest. When you breathe with the diaphragm you are able to get the correct amount of oxygen without having your chest expand.

Set goals you know you can reach. Don’t try to go too far too fast. Choose goals that are reachable while staying healthy. Being able to see your goals actually happen can do wonders for your body building efforts and mindset.

When you meet your goals and succeed at your tasks then you can set your next goals. Setting goals by steps will help your focus and keep you from trying to take shortcuts that will risk your health. Don’t forget: you need to strengthen your muscles before you can build them. If you try to build up too quickly it will be easy to hurt yourself of feel helpless about being able to meet the goals you set for yourself.

Have regular meetings with your doctor. Your doctor will help you ensure that your muscles stay healthy while you get in the workouts that you need to get in. Not only will your doctor make sure that you aren’t overtaxing yourself, he’ll help you make sure that you are staying on track. A doctor can also help identify problems as they develop and keep them from getting out of hand. At the very least, you should see your doctor when you begin the sport to make sure that your approach to body building is correct.

Body building, as an activity, can be incredibly rewarding. It can help you increase your health. It keeps your body fit and in shape. It helps you build your endurance and stamina.

As you work to improve your strength and to build your muscles it is important that you take steps to stay healthy and to protect your muscles from being torn down too much. You will see a high level of success with your body building when you take steps to protect your health.

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In our busy, fast-paced world, who can spare 30 to 60 minutes a day for working out?  You may be surprised by just how much of your day is “wasted” on non-essential activities that you could use for exercise – for most people it will be way more than 30 minutes.

Examples:  You spend 2 hours getting ready for work in the morning, taking more than 30 minutes to check  out what’s new in Facebook or Twitter, make and pack your lunch, and other activities that you could have done the night before and left room for a morning workout routine.  Then after work you finish eating dinner at 6:30pm and your favorite television show doesn’t start until 8:00pm – so you channel surf through mindless shows that you don’t care about for 1 1/2 hours – when you could have easily squeezed in a great workout!

I mention that only because “time” is such a relative term and most of us have a lot more time than we realize.

But okay – let’s assume that your day is packed full of very essential activities from the moment you awaken until the moment you fall asleep at night, and you truly cannot spare 30 minutes or more for exercise.  This article is going to share some easy ways to squeeze in 10 minutes or less of exercise several times a day, and all of those short bursts of activity are nearly as good as a full length workout.

1) Every time you use the restroom throughout the day, you could squeeze in 10 squats, lunges or jumping jacks.

2) You could park your car farther away from your workplace and stores, and walk there briskly for 5-10 minutes.

3) You could take the stairs instead of the elevator.

4) You could keep a small set of dumbells in your desk and do curls while you are on “hold” on the phone.

5) You could use your 10-15 minute work breaks to walk briskly around your workplace, either inside or outside.  Ditto for part of your lunch hour.

6) You could do stomach crunches or sit ups during television commercial breaks.

7) You could walk or march in place during commercials too.

You could do buttock clenches while standing at the sink washing dishes.

9) You could “bench press” your kids while playing in the backyard (only if they are small enough, of course – don’t try it with a teenager unless you’re really strong).

10) While shopping, if you see that the checkout lane is busy, you could keep walking around the store rather than standing in line for 10+ minutes.  When the lane dwindles down to just a few people, then get in line.

If you want to get a serious workout (and not just burn a few calories here and here) take a look at a program like Tony Horton’s 10 Minute Trainer – The Workout Program for the Busiest People – Click here With Tony’s program you’ll get a good workout in less time by super stacking your exercises so that you work out more than one area at a time and you get awesome results by compounding your workout time.

Whether you choose to do a few extra exercises here or there or devote 10 straight minutes you’ll be moving your body and that’s what counts.

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There are other options for men such as Pilates and yoga. As well as, men can use exercise equipment like an elliptical machine to lose weight. In short, losing weight requires setting a goal and making healthy choices.

Men are at risk for heart disease, prostate cancer and diabetes. Also, the risks will increase with age. In addition, a good exercise routine starts with eating breakfast every day.

Eating breakfast will help with increasing metabolism. The best way for a man to lose weight is through a healthy diet, cardio and strength training.  Most guys tend to spend more time lifting weights but more time should be spent on doing cardio. It is important to build an exercise routine. This will help to boost the metabolism and help the body become fit.

Men’s fitness isn’t just about bodybuilding and some of the exercising from body building can be used with regular exercising. In addition, it is important to use a variety of exercise when improving men’s fitness.

For example, you can workout with weights around two days a week and run on the treadmill for three days a week. Also, resting the muscles is important after doing any type of working out.

Most people who are into body building don’t really enjoy working out their legs with weight. An alternative is using the treadmill for exercising the legs.

Most men want to build muscle and can spend too much time on weight lifting for muscle building. It is important to include some type of cardio with lifting weights. Most people are able to burn 150 to 200 calories with cardio exercising.

The amount of calories burn will depend on the intensity of the exercise, a person’s weight and the amount of time spent doing the exercise. As well as, most people are able to do cardio workouts without worrying about straining the muscles or getting an injury.

It is important for men to find other ways to exercise besides body building. In addition, men have a number of exercise options such as playing sports, running and using an exercise machine.

Men’s fitness is important because of the need to lose weight and to prevent becoming sick from obesity. Furthermore, men’s fitness isn’t just about bodybuilding and involves making a healthy lifestyle change to become fit.

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The biggest mistake most people make when they start a fitness-training program is let their enthusiasm get the better of them and over do their exercises in an attempt to reach their goals as soon as possible.

This can be a fast track to disaster where muscles that might not have been used much in years are subject to intensive workouts.

Or alternatively, we decide that we need to reduce weight and eliminate fat and want results like yesterday.

It is also common for people to have a goal that might be completely out of reach for any number of reasons.
While we might like to have the body of a professional bodybuilder, there are factors that might make this impossible like the genetics that we have been born with.
There is also the time involved to get to that level of condition and the supplements and other foods that need to be consumed to reach those goals.

It is better to set goals that are achievable in the short term and change the ‘goal posts’ once you have started down the road to fitness and managed to see some results.

It is also vitally important to listen to the advice of the experts and let them help you plan your fitness program.

They might be telling you something that you might not want to hear about your goals and expectation, but initially you will need to rely on their advice and experience until you have sufficient knowledge of your own to work with.

Staying focused is one of the biggest problems that is found where people don’t reach their goals.

While it might be good fun to go to the gym for socializing, you can’t expect to build a powerful body by leaning on the machines and talking to the other people in the gym.

Focusing on one fitness program at a time will produce better results too, rather than changing from one program to another before either gets a chance to make an impact.

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Over the last year or so there has been much talk about whether or not doing cardio exercises like walking and running and standard interval training actually effective for weight loss – fat loss.

Here is a transcript of an interview of Alwyn Cosgrove talking about this same subject.
I know that you will enjoy it and learn much from it.

Mike: Thanks for taking the time to do this interview. First so we all have some perspective, how long have you been a trainer?

: I started training people in 1989. Actually 1987 if you count teaching martial arts classes. In 1995 (after college) I went full time. Since day one I’ve been very particular about what I do. I track and tweak everything. When we opened Results Fitness in 2000, we really started to gather a lot of data. We currently have 250 members and we track all their workouts and body comp changes week in and week out.

Mike: So it is like you run your own fat loss studies at your gym?
Alwyn: Exactly. We had read all the studies showing interval training to be superior for fat loss than steady state training. This confirmed what we were seeing with our clients. But I am a big belier in that there is no physiological limit to the amount of weight a person can lose in a week, month, or year so I kept tweaking and tracking the results.

Mike: What has been one of your biggest breakthroughs lately?
Alwyn: One day it hit me — cardiovascular programming is an ass-backwards concept.
I don’t know when I first thought this – but it was confirmed to me when viewing Lance Armstrong’s performance in the New York Marathon.
I’d been taught through my college education and countless training certifications and seminars that cardio vascular exercise was necessary to improve the cardio vascular system and subsequently aerobic performance.
But there seemed an inherent flaw in that argument….
Why didn’t Lance Armstrong – with perhaps one of the highest recorded VO2 max levels in history – win the New York Marathon? Or beat people with lesser aerobic levels than himself?
The greatest endurance cyclist (and possibly endurance athlete) of all time – the seven time Tour De France winner – finished 868th and described the event as the “hardest physical thing” he had ever done.
Runner’s World Magazine actually examined Lance’s physiology (and VO2 max which was tested at 83) and compared them to the numbers of Paul Tergat (the World Record holder and defending NYC Marathon Champion at the time).
They concluded:
“This figure wouldn’t mean much if it weren’t for the pioneering research of famed running coach Jack Daniels, Ph.D., who first published his Oxygen Power tables in 1979– According to Daniels, who’s rarely off by more than a smidgen or two, a max VO2 of 83 is roughly equivalent to a 2:06 marathon”
Based on his other physical qualities the magazine suggested that Lance was capable of running 2:01:11.
The world record at the time was 2:04:55
Lance ran 2:59:36 (and don’t misinterpret me – that’s still a great time). But it’s clear that the physiology didn’t transfer the way event he running community expected.
The flaw in this thinking was looking solely at aerobic capacity — VO2 max – the “engine” as it were. And it’s fair to say that Lance had a “Formula One” engine.
But he didn’t have the structural development for running. Lance was a cyclist – his body had adapted to the demands of cycling. But NOT to the specific demands of running (in fact Lance had only ran 16 miles at once EVER prior to running the marathon). Lance had developed strength, postural endurance and flexibility in the correct “cycling muscles” – but it didn’t transfer to running the way his VO2 max did.

From this example we know that cardio training doesn’t transfer well from one activity to another – and it only ‘kicks’ in because of muscular demand – why don’t we program muscular activity first – in order to create a cardiovascular response. Makes total sense.

So how does this relate to fat loss? We have found that our most successful fat loss programs center around stimulating the muscles to burn more calories not ramping up and down the cardiovascular system. What matters is total calories burn and how much you can increase the person’s metabolism. It is a total shift in thinking.

Mike: Wow. So it is this the death of intervals and cardio? How to you put this into action with clients?
Alwyn: What we have found is so great about this approach is that you burn more calories, lose more weight, while putting a lot less stress on your joints.
Here’s how I like to think about it. Let’s look at traditional interval training which uses running.
Depending on stride length – walking a mile takes about 2000 repetitions and running takes 1000-1500 and will burn on average 100 calories or so.
So if we use an interval training model of running and walking – we’re looking at around 1500 reps to burn 100 calories.
If we take traditional models of caloric burn – this means we’d need to do 35 miles to lose one pound of fat from our interval training efforts discounting the metabolic afterburn for now).
So we have a problem. It’s a very poor “rate of return” on our “rep investment”.
Additionally – running applies a vertical force of 2x bodyweight on the joints of the lower body.
So now we have a dilemma.
Let’s choose a 180lb deconditioned overweight client.
1500 reps x 360lbs = 540,000lbs of force to burn 100 calories. (The 360lbs is 2x 180lbs)
That’s a lot of stress on the joints. Now no one was getting injured, but it seemed like there had to be a better way.
So — we started to think of how we could use different interval training methods other than running to get the same metabolic effect without stressing the joints so much.
We used the airdyne bike, other bikes in order to create a training effect with less load. But whenever you take the bodyweight out of the equation in cardio – you have to work harder to burn the same calories. So this usually needs more reps. So that didn’t seem like a much better idea.
At this point we started using metabolic training with weight training implements/kettlebells and bodyweight in the same interval format.
So a circuit of five exercises, performed three times round (15 total sets) would actually burn more calories than the same time spent doing traditional cardio. That was a plus.
But we could also do sets of 10-15 reps. So we’re looking at 225 total reps (with a force LESS than your bodyweight) as opposed to 1500+ reps at double bodyweight.
We gave it a try. Clients loved it (which was a plus), and actually started to get better results than we were getting with intervals.
So we get more fat loss, less stress on the body, and happier clients. It is a win-win-win. Currently we don’t program traditional interval training our regular fat loss clients.
So, yeah…it is the death of traditional intervals.
You can get a sample workout using this kind of training program at:
WarpSpeedFatloss.com

Mike: This is great stuff. Thanks for taking the time. I definitely recommend that everyone go to:
WarpSpeedFatLoss.com and pick up the workout to try.

—
Wasn’t that interview an eye opener? It was for me.

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