http://www.articletrader.com/ Articles at ArticleTrader en-us http://www.articletrader.com/health/weight-loss/how-to-speed-up-your-metabolism.html http://www.articletrader.com/health/weight-loss/how-to-speed-up-your-metabolism.html Thu, 24 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0500
You may have experienced this first hand. I know I have!

If you want a super-charged metabolism that churns through fat like a Hummer does through fuel, you have to eat and train in a specific way.

Here are 3 tips that’ll show you how to speed up your metabolism.

1. EAT A LOT MORE FOOD
Our body fat becomes much more stubborn as soon as we drastically cut calories. This is because our body realizes that there is a shortage of food coming in, and that it may need to keep our energy reserves (fat stores) to survive in the future.

After all, our body can’t predict the future. It can’t see how long this scarcity of food will last. It simply sees there is a lack of food, and it tries to adjust accordingly to survive for as long as possible.

Since it doesn’t want to use fat, it instead uses our muscle tissue for energy. And since muscle burns calories, losing it results in our metabolism slowing down.

To prevent this from happening, eat enough food to show our body that keeping our fat stores is useless. Seeing this abundance of energy coming in will make it much more comfortable to burn off our fat stores.

So if you want to lose fat, try to eat less than 15 calories per pound of bodyweight a day. However, do not start out eating less than 12 calories per pound of bodyweight. For instance a 200 pound man should start by eating roughly 3000 calories a day.

2. STRENGTH TRAINING
Every extra pound of muscle we add burns an extra 50-100 calories a day. Therefore, the more muscle we have, the faster our metabolism, and the easier it is to lose fat.

So if you want to speed up your metabolism, strength training is a must. Stick to the basic exercises such as Bench Press, Push Ups, Dips, Chin Ups, Lat Pulldown, Rows, Squats, Lunges, Leg Press and Deadlifts.

If you don’t want to build massive muscles, don’t worry. If you are trying to lose weight, you will be eating a calorie deficit. You will simply not be eating enough to build more than a few pounds of muscle at most.

3. INTENSE CARDIO
When I say, intense, I mean 10 minutes of ball-busting effort that has you gasping for air and struggling to finish your workout.

Pushing to the limit like this, stimulates your metabolism so much so, that it stays elevated for the next 48-72 hours after the workout. This means that over the next few days after a workout, you will be burning more calories in your daily activities then you usually would.

What if you did another intense workout while your metabolism is still elevated?

Quite, simply your body fat wouldn’t stand a chance!

What I recommend is doing 10 minutes of exercise as hard as you can. This can be as simple as a 10 minute run or breaking it up into periods of intense bursts followed by periods of active recovery.


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Luke Johnstone managed to overcome his lifelong weight loss struggle and get a six pack for the first time in his life. He did this eating whatever he wanted, pigging out occasionally and spending only 90 minutes a week exercising.

For photo proof, as well as a free report outlining how he did it, check out http://www.lukesfatlosstips.com


Source: http://www.articletrader.com ]]> http://www.articletrader.com/health/weight-loss/the-absolute-easiest-way-to-lose-fat.html http://www.articletrader.com/health/weight-loss/the-absolute-easiest-way-to-lose-fat.html Thu, 24 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0500
To start with, I recommend that you eat whatever you want. Forget all the hype around fat or carbohydrates making us fat, because they don’t. Too much food makes us fat. No matter what food it is, we will gain weight if it is more calories then we burn off a day. At the same time, we can lose weight eating anything we want as long it is less than our body needs.

Now doesn’t that just make sense?

The problem with strict dieting is that it deprives us of the foods that we love. Our natural tendency is to want whatever it is we aren’t allowed to have. So then, this deprivation increases our cravings, testing every inch of our willpower. Eventually, our cravings get the best of us and we ruin our diet on the very foods we weren’t allowed to have.

Just remember that fat loss is as simple as burning more calories then we eat. It’s that simple. This is the number one reason why all those fad diets work. It has nothing to do with the foods they make you give up; they are simply low in calories.

This is why I recommend eating whatever you want. It will keep your cravings under wraps and will help you stick to a reduced caloric intake for much longer.

So how many calories should we eat?

Now obviously eating too much will prevent us from losing fat. What many don’t realize though, is that eating too few a calories will also make it extremely difficult to lose fat. This is because when there is a severe reduction in calories, our body panics. It becomes very reluctant to use our fat stores for energy, as it wants to keep it for as long as possible to survive.

Since there is a lack of food coming in, and the body wants to keep our fat, our body actually breaks down our muscle tissue to use as energy. This is how we lose muscle on low calorie diets and our metabolism slows right down.

To prevent this, all you have to do is eat more. This will show the body that there is plenty of food coming in, and that hanging onto our fat stores is pointless. It will then feel more comfortable to burn our fat for energy.

So a safe figure will be to eat 12-13 calories per pound of bodyweight, spread out over 4-6 meals. For example, a 200 pound man should eat 2400-2600 calories.

Even though this is a safe figure for fat loss, eventually our metabolism will adjust and slow down. After all it is less calories then our body actually needs. Our body is just trying to survive the best it can on the amount of food coming in.

To prevent this have a cheat meal once or twice a week where you eat as much of anything you like. This will again show your body that there is plenty of food coming in and that it is safe to use our fat for fuel. It will also help keep you consistent, as it will help you survive in social situations. Don’t worry; you won’t be ruining your progress. It helps you burn fat even faster by giving your metabolism that boost when it just starts to adjust and slow down.

So to sum up eat whatever you want and focus primarily on your total caloric intake. Combine this with an occasional meal off and regular exercise and you will be surprised with how easy fat loss can be.


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Luke Johnstone managed to overcome his lifelong weight loss struggle and get a six pack for the first time in his life. He did this eating whatever he wanted, pigging out occasionally and spending only 90 minutes a week exercising.

For photo proof, as well as a free report outlining how he did it, check out http://www.lukesfatlosstips.com


Source: http://www.articletrader.com ]]> http://www.articletrader.com/health/weight-loss/how-to-stop-binge-eating-in-4-easy-steps.html http://www.articletrader.com/health/weight-loss/how-to-stop-binge-eating-in-4-easy-steps.html Thu, 24 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0500
After over 6 years of going between periods of strict dieting and binge eating, I devised a simple 4 step formula that helped me control my binge eating problem. I managed to pinpoint why I was binge eating and came up with a few simple solutions to overcome them.

I hope this helps you as much as it did me.


4 Tips That Will Show You How To Stop Binge Eating

1. EAT WHATEVER YOU WANT

Forget the notion that a certain food makes you fat, because it doesn’t. Too much food makes you fat. You will lose weight as long as you eat less food then you burn off a day.

So then, wouldn’t it make sense to eat foods you enjoy?

From personal experience, I would often binge eat and ruin my diet on foods that I was forbidden from eating. Depriving myself of these foods caused my cravings to get so out of control that I would eventually crack under the pressure and binge…big time.

The good news is, it actually doesn’t matter what food you eat, as long as you eat less total calories then you need a day. So stop depriving yourself of foods that you enjoy, this only increase our cravings, and in turn increases our chances of bingeing.

2. EAT MORE

Low calorie diets cause our metabolism to slow right down, so we burn less calories. At the same time, these low calorie diets seem to increase our appetite. So we end up eating more and burning off less!

I know that depriving myself of feeling full and content after a meal, lead to me wanting, then needing to experience it more and more. After a while of resisting temptation, I would explode and not only eat enough to feel full and content, I would eat way too much and end up feeling sick.

In actual fact, you don’t need to cut calories so far to lose weight. To safely burn off fat simply eat 12-14 calories per pound of bodyweight spread out over 4-6 meals. This should also be more than enough food to avoid ever feeling hungry or deprived.

3. OVEREAT BUT DON’T BINGE

Let’s face it, overeating is fun. It’s enjoyable. Now is that really such a bad thing? It is our natural instinct. This goes way back to our caveman days. Do you think that when they made a kill, they portion controlled it, and put the rest in the freezer?

Stupid question I know, but it shows that overeating is instilled in our DNA from thousands of years ago.

What is great is that overeating actually helps us lose weight faster. You see, our body fat is stored on us for a reason, to help us survive in periods of food shortage. After a few days of reduced calorie eating our body starts to realise that there is a shortage of food coming in. It will then become more reluctant to burn it off for energy.

Giving it an abundance of calories occasionally gives our metabolism a much needed kick in the pants. This convinces the body that there definitely isn’t a shortage of food. It will then realise that it is pointless to hang onto our fat stores, and continue to burn it up at a faster rate.

So what I did, was every 4th or 5th day I would eat my calorie limit (see point 2) times 2-2.5. So if I was eating 2400 calories to lose weight, every 4th or 5th day I would try to keep my intake under 6000 calories. This was more than enough calories to satisfy my cravings, allowed me to enjoy myself socially and it still allowed me to burn fat.

I figured that if I didn’t do this, my cravings would soon become too strong and I would binge eat well over 10,000 calories.

4. CONTROL EMOTIONAL EATING

I know many binge eaters do so when they are stressed. I don’t blame them. However, try to find other non-food ways to relieve stress. Get outside and go for a walk, play with your children or your pets, go to the park or the beach. A hard workout is great stress-buster. Put on some music, have a hot bath, do some stretching or meditation. Anything, just try to find other areas to vent your stress.


No one is perfect. Next time you binge, think about how and why you do so. And think of how you can prevent it the next time. Learn from your mistakes. If your mistakes are similar to mine, then hopefully these tips can help you.

Best of Luck :-)


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Luke Johnstone managed to overcome his lifelong weight loss struggle and get a six pack for the first time in his life. He did this eating whatever he wanted, pigging out occasionally and spending only 90 minutes a week exercising.

For photo proof, as well as a free report outlining how he did it, check out http://www.lukesfatlosstips.com


Source: http://www.articletrader.com ]]> http://www.articletrader.com/health/weight-loss/how-to-burn-fat-fast-in-3-easy-steps.html http://www.articletrader.com/health/weight-loss/how-to-burn-fat-fast-in-3-easy-steps.html Thu, 24 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0500
3 Tips That’ll Show You How To Burn Fat Fast

1. EAT MORE FOOD

I know this sounds counter-productive, but eating more food does speed up your rate of fat loss. Cutting calories too far, causes our metabolism to slow right down, making it much harder to lose fat.

You see, our body fat is stored on our bodies to survive when food is in limited supply. Drastically cutting calories causes our body to be reluctant to use up our fat stores. This is because it doesn’t know how long this period of food shortage will last for. So, for energy it will actually break down our muscle tissue and use that instead. This results in a loss of muscle and a slower metabolism.

If you eat more food, your body will think that hanging onto our excess fat is pointless. This is because there is more than enough energy coming in. It will then feel a lot more comfortable to use our fat stores for energy. Exactly what we want!

A good rule of thumb is to eat 12-13 calories per pound of bodyweight.

2. PERFORM STRENGTH TRAINING

Muscle burns calories. Every extra pound of muscle we add burns an extra 50-100 calories a day. Think of our metabolism as a car engine. The larger the engine the more fuel it burns, even while sitting at the lights.

There are 2 main reasons why strength training increases our metabolism. Firstly, it builds muscle. This increases our metabolism permanently. The more muscle we add, the faster our metabolism.

Secondly, the intense nature of strength training causes a temporary increase in our metabolism. What’s great is that our metabolism can remain elevated for up to 72 hours after our workout.

All that is needed is to take each muscle to failure once a week. Focus on the bigger lifts such as Dips, Chin Ups, Bench Press, Rows, Squats and Deadlifts. These exercises are much more efficient at stimulating the metabolism. There is a reason why they work so well though, they are hard work!

3. PERFORM INTENSE CARDIO

Like strength training, intense cardio also gives our metabolism a temporary boost for up to 72 hours afterwards. However we must really push the boundaries for this to happen. Walking or jogging has little to no effect on our metabolism.

The fastest way to speed up the metabolism and burn fat is to train hard, not long. An intense 10 minute run will do more than a 45 minute jog. This is because it speeds up the metabolism, stimulates muscle building hormones and burns more calories.

A great workout would be something as simple as going as hard as possible for 10 minutes in any exercise you choose. Increase the intensity by striving to outdo yourself each workout. Another great way is interval training. An example would be to go as hard as you can for a 30 seconds, followed by 30-60 seconds of active recovery. Do 6-10 total reps.

My personal favourite is sprinting. Choose a distance between 30-150m. Sprint the whole distance like your life depended on it. Recover by walking back to the starting line. 5-8 sprints will be more than enough.

Implement all 3 of these tips together and you’ll build a red-hot metabolism. Your body fat will have no chance of surviving!


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Luke Johnstone managed to overcome his lifelong weight loss struggle and get a six pack for the first time in his life. He did this eating whatever he wanted, pigging out occasionally and spending only 90 minutes a week exercising.

For photo proof, as well as a free report outlining how he did it, check out http://www.lukesfatlosstips.com


Source: http://www.articletrader.com ]]> http://www.articletrader.com/sports/bodybuilding/the-easy-way-to-build-muscle.html http://www.articletrader.com/sports/bodybuilding/the-easy-way-to-build-muscle.html Thu, 24 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0500
In this article I’m going to outline a quick and easy way to build muscle. A way that allows you to eat whatever you want, not have to worry about protein consumption and spend only 90 minutes a week at the gym.

And most importantly…this article will help you grow a hell of a lot bigger!

DO THESE EXERCISES

Dips, Chin Ups, Bench Press, Rows, Squats, Lunges, Deadlifts. These exercises are the most efficient exercises to build muscle. They use more than one muscle, enable you to lift a lot more weight and they stimulate the release of our powerful muscle building hormones, Testosterone and Growth Hormone.

You may notice that I didn’t include any arm exercises. This is because exercises like bench press, dips and chin ups build bigger arms much faster than bicep curls or triceps kickbacks.

DO ONLY ONE SET TO FAILURE

Once you have taken a muscle to complete failure, there is no need to do any more work. You have done all that is necessary to stimulate muscle growth. Now all you have to do is give your muscles enough time to recover and grow stronger. Doing any more work, is then pointless and can interfere with your recovery.

I should mention that if you can do another set with the same weight, for the same or more reps, then you obviously didn’t do the first set hard enough.

GET STRONGER

Strength gains directly relate to muscle gains. Each week you should strive to lift more weight or do more reps. This progression forces the body to adapt and grow bigger to better handle the stress we are subjecting it to.

So it isn’t the amount of work that determines your results, but how strong you get. Strive to lift as much weight as possible in the 6-10 rep range.

TRAIN ONLY ONCE A WEEK

Never train a muscle more frequently then once a week. Muscles do not grow with training. Yes training is the stimulus for growth, but if you don’t give your muscles enough rest, recovery and food, you will never gain a pound of muscle.

After going to failure, your muscles need 48-72 hours to recover and regain the condition they were in before the workout. They then need another 2-4 days to overcompensate, adapt and grow stronger. Statistics show that muscles are still growing stronger up to 21 days after a workout! This is more common in hard training elite athletes, but for building muscle once a week is perfect.

EAT, EAT AND EAT SOME MORE

The main reason so many fail to gain muscle, is because they struggle to eat enough. This is crucial. Don’t waste all of your hard work at the gym by neglecting your food intake. A good starting point is to eat 16 calories per pound of bodyweight.

Focus entirely on eating enough food everyday. Forget about the excessive protein requirements that are recommended. Large amounts of protein (more than 1 gram per pound of bodyweight) are simply recommendations and have no backing in science. Several studies show that there is no benefit in increasing your protein intake to build muscle.

Don’t take my word for it though. One of the greatest natural bodybuilders of all time, Bill Pearl recommends that any more than half a gram of protein per pound of bodyweight will simply go to waste. There are many other athletes that eat very little protein and are extremely muscular. Guys like Mike Mentzer, Andreas Cahling and Carl Lewis are just a few I can name off the top of my head.

The reason protein powders work is because it is a convenient way to get in enough calories. Protein won’t help you build any muscle if you aren’t eating enough total calories.

MEASURE YOUR PROGRESS

Before you start, measure your biceps, chest, thighs, and any other muscle you wish to increase in size. After 2 weeks of consistent training and eating measure again. If you haven’t added at least ¼ to ½ inch to any measurements, increase your daily caloric target by 500.

So just remember, train hard with the big lifts, eat a lot of food and give yourself plenty of rest. In no time you will have to go and buy some new shirts to fit into!


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Did you find this article helpful?

The author, Luke Johnstone recently managed to get a six pack for the first time in his life. He did this eating whatever he wanted, pigging out occasionally and training only 90 minutes a week.

For photo proof, as well as a free report outlining how he did it, visit http://www.lukesfatlosstips.com


Source: http://www.articletrader.com ]]> http://www.articletrader.com/health/weight-loss/tony-ferguson-weight-loss-a-starvation-diet.html http://www.articletrader.com/health/weight-loss/tony-ferguson-weight-loss-a-starvation-diet.html Tue, 15 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0500
The Tony Ferguson Weight Loss program is the latest program that gets under my skin. It promises fast and easy results, yet is another strict, fad diet that is going to leave a lot of people unhappy with their results.

It seems the guy has got no idea what causes weight gain, and is simply out to make a few bucks.

My main complaint with the program is that it is ridiculously low in calories. The average diet contains approximately 800-1000 calories a day. (1200 for men.) This will result in fast weight loss, (great for his marketing plan) but will ultimately lead to faster weight gain in the future.

This is because low calorie diets lose more muscle and water weight, resulting in a slower metabolism. This leads to weight gain when you go back to your normal eating because you no longer burn off as many calories as you did before going on the diet.

Our body fat is stored on us for a reason. It is our energy source to survive when food is in shortage. Problem is, when we cut calories too far, our body panics.

It realises that there is a shortage of food coming in, so it is reluctant to use up its fat stores. This is because it doesn’t know how long this food shortage is going to last.

So what it does then is it breaks down our muscle tissue and uses it for energy. And since every pound of muscle helps us burn an extra 50 calories a day, losing it results in a slower metabolism.

Another way to look at it is by knowing that the body is always trying to adapt to survive. So if we cut calories, our body is going to find ways to survive on this limited supply of energy.

It does this by burning off less calories during the day. The easiest way to do this is to get rid of muscles, because muscle burns a lot of calories.

One last thing that Mr Ferguson doesn’t realise is that people are overweight because they love food! Cutting calories so far, and cutting out our favourite foods only cause our cravings to increase.

The longer we deprive ourselves of what we love, the more our cravings intensify, until sooner or later we give up, and usually binge.

So not only does low calorie diets destroy our metabolism, it increases our appetite. This extra intake of food coupled with our now slower metabolism will put fat back on us faster than we can imagine.

So forget the Ferguson diet, it is unrealistic and too tough. The bottom line to weight loss is to simply eat less calories then you burn off.

Eat foods you enjoy, keep your calories around 11-12 calories per pound of bodyweight, do regular exercise and the fat will come off much easier.


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Did you find this information helpful?

For more fat loss tips, as well as a free ebook outlining how you can lose fat eating absolutely anything you want check out http://www.lukesfatlosstips.com


Source: http://www.articletrader.com ]]> http://www.articletrader.com/health/weight-loss/lose-weight-sleeping-more.html http://www.articletrader.com/health/weight-loss/lose-weight-sleeping-more.html Sun, 13 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0500
3 Reasons Why You Can Lose Weight Sleeping More.

1. A lack of sleep is stressful on the body. This causes the body to release a catabolic or muscle wasting hormone, cortisol. Now increased cortisol levels result in the body losing muscle. This leads to a slower metabolism and makes weight loss a hell of a lot harder.

2. Our growth hormone levels are elevated during sleep. Increased Growth hormone levels actually make our body want to build muscle and lose fat.

What is also great is that high levels of growth hormone actually makes our body do its best to keep fat from building on our bodies, no matter how much we eat.

So then we obviously want to get enough sleep to take full advantage and maximise our results.

3. Strength training is the best way to speed up our metabolism. This is because the more muscle we have, the faster our metabolism will be.

Now what many don’t realise is that muscles don’t grow in the gym. Once they are stimulated they need plenty of rest, recovery and food.

Now sleeping is the absolute best way to speed up your recovery. Cutting out sleep cuts into your muscles recovery time, and hence leads to sub optimal results.

Obviously you aren’t going to lose weight by simply sleeping more. However, getting enough sleep can drastically speed up your results. Strive for at least 8 hours a night.


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Did you find this information helpful?

For more weight loss tips, and a free ebook outlining how you can lose weight eating absolutely anything you want check out http://www.lukesfatlosstips.com

Source: http://www.articletrader.com ]]> http://www.articletrader.com/health/weight-loss/how-to-stimulate-growth-hormone-naturally.html http://www.articletrader.com/health/weight-loss/how-to-stimulate-growth-hormone-naturally.html Sun, 13 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0500
To experience these wonderful benefits, there is no need to take dangerous or expensive supplements. There are a few things that you can do to boost your growth hormone levels naturally.

6 Tips To Stimulate Growth Hormone Naturally

1. Get At Least 8 Hours of Sleep a Night.
Growth hormone levels are elevated during sleep. Getting more sleep is a great way to speed up your muscle gain/fat loss progress.

A lack of sleep not only results in a decrease in growth hormone production, it increases a muscle wasting hormone called cortisol. This hormone actually destroys our muscle!

2. Perform Strength Training
Strength training is proven to be more efficient at stimulating the release of growth hormone more than any other form of exercise.

3. Perform the Big Lifts
When in the gym, it is best to focus on the big lifts. Exercises such as squats, lunges, deadlifts, bench press, chin ups and dips are the most efficient exercises at boosting our growth hormone levels.

4. Short Intense Cardio
Doing brief, intense cardio sessions are a great way to increase our growth hormone levels. They are far superior to longer, lower intensity exercises such as jogging.

5. Get Out Of Breath
Whether it is your strength workouts or your cardio, you want to push to the point where you are gasping for air. The build up of lactic acid and the out of breath feeling, are good indicators your training will boost your growth hormone levels.

6. Wait a While After Training Before Eating
You want to wait an hour or 2 before eating anything after a workout. This is because our growth hormone levels are elevated after a workout.

If we eat during this time, we risk increasing our insulin levels. This will automatically decrease our growth hormone levels. This is because growth hormone and insulin don’t work well together. If one is high, the other will be low.


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Did you find this information helpful?

For more fat loss tips, as well as a free ebook outlining how you can lose fat eating absolutely anything you want check out http://www.lukesfatlosstips.com


Source: http://www.articletrader.com ]]> http://www.articletrader.com/sports/bodybuilding/the-2-greatest-upper-body-exercises-to-build-muscle-and-burn-fat.html http://www.articletrader.com/sports/bodybuilding/the-2-greatest-upper-body-exercises-to-build-muscle-and-burn-fat.html Tue, 01 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0500
- They stimulate more than one muscle to work. (many times 3 or more major muscles are working during these exercises)

- They enable us to lift more weight

- They are the best upper body exercises to stimulate the muscle building hormones Testosterone and Growth Hormone.

- They cause us to work a lot harder and therefore burn more calories

- And they speed up our metabolism faster than any other exercise


There is a reason why these 2 exercises work so well. They are hard work!

So if you actually to go to the gym to train hard and get results, unlike others who would rather chat, flex and check out the opposite sex, then add these 2 exercises to your training arsenal.

PARALLEL BAR DIPS

This pushing exercise is the most efficient way to gain size and strength in the chest, shoulders and triceps. It is far superior to the bench press because you’re moving your body through space. The extra stability required in this exercise recruits a lot more muscles to come into play to assist in the movement. It is also a lot more functional, and trains the body as it was meant to work, as one collective machine.

Simply place your hands at about shoulder width. With a slight lean forward, lower your body until your arms form a 90 degree angle. Explode back to the top position. Your elbows should stay by your sides at all times. Don’t let them flare out.

CHIN UPS

I know you might dread doing these, but that’s why they are so good. Chin ups are the absolute best way to develop large biceps, and that wide lat spread that creates that desirable V shape. They are superior to exercises such as lat pulldown or rows because they cause us to move our body through space, against gravity.

The difficulty of chin ups brings many muscles into play, including our stabilizer muscles to help complete the lift. I often get sore abs after a heavy chin up workout!

To start, grab the chin up bar a bit closer than shoulder width apart, with your palms facing you. Lift all the way up to your collarbone and lower all the way until you are fully stretched. You should be really close to the bar, almost grazing your nose on the way up.

Maintain good posture throughout by keeping your shoulder blades pulled back, almost touching each other and also remember to keep your bum sticking out and your abs tight to support your back.


Collectively, these 2 exercises train every muscle in your upper body. There is no need to do any more exercises.

So if you want to get the most out of your time spent in the gym, use up all of your energy on dips and chin ups. Don’t waste your limited supply of energy on exercises that simply cannot deliver the benefits that these two exercises can.


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Luke Johnstone recently overcame his lifelong weight loss struggle. He did it eating whatever he wanted and training only 90 minutes a week. For photo proof and a free report outlining how he did it you can check out at http://www.lukesfatlosstips.com

Source: http://www.articletrader.com ]]> http://www.articletrader.com/sports/bodybuilding/how-training-less-builds-more-muscle.html http://www.articletrader.com/sports/bodybuilding/how-training-less-builds-more-muscle.html Mon, 31 Mar 2008 00:00:00 -0500
In actual fact it is quite the opposite.

You know the old saying “more is better”? Well forget it! It doesn’t apply to building muscle.

Once a muscle is stimulated it needs at least 3-7 days to recover. That is, it takes 3-7 days to simply recover and regain the condition and strength you had before completing the workout. Another couple of days of rest are required to allow the muscle to over-compensate and grow stronger. Research has shown that muscles are still developing strength 21 days after a workout.

Muscles do not grow in the gym. Once they are stimulated, they need adequate time to rest, recover and grow stronger. Training the muscle again during this recovery and overcompensation phase will only interfere with the body’s recuperative process and thus lead to diminishing gains.

Another fact to consider is your central nervous system. The CNS can take longer to recover then your muscles. After an intense weight training session, it can take from 7-14 days for your CNS to completely recover. Even if you train different muscles on different days, your central nervous system is still being stimulated.

Not giving your CNS ample time to recover will cause you to overtrain. Symptoms include tiredness, agitation, lack of sleep and decreased performance.

So can you see why training 3-4 times a week doesn’t work? Problem is many believe that this isn’t working because they aren’t training enough. So they might increase it to 5-6 times a week! This only leads to overtraining, lack of recovery and a decrease in gains.

You must realise that gains in size and strength are dependent on your recovery between sessions. Sufficient recovery is vital if you are to receive optimal gains from your training. That is, the adequate recovery of both the physical and psychological stresses that comes from training.

For optimal gains in size and strength, I recommend training a muscle only once every 7 days. To prevent overtraining the CNS I also recommend that you stimulate all muscles in only 1-2 workouts a week. Any more than this will become too much stress for the nervous system to handle.

Here is a great workout that only has to be performed once a week.

Parallel Bar Dips OR Bench Press

Chin Ups

Squats OR Deadlifts


I know many of you might find it hard to swallow, but training less will provide faster results. If you are in a rut at the moment, give it a go. Just make sure to give your body plenty of rest and food in between workouts.


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Luke Johnstone recently overcame his lifelong weight loss struggle. He did it eating whatever he wanted and training only 90 minutes a week. For photo proof and a free report outlining how he did it you can check out at http://www.lukesfatlosstips.com

Source: http://www.articletrader.com ]]>