Strength and Fitness Tips | How to Build Muscle Top muscle building and fat loss tips.

Summer Is here it’s time to hit the abs The abdominals are often a summer related exercise, people often don’t train them during the winter and then expect to build them up to fitness model standard in a matter of weeks. This simply doesn’t really happen, if you don’t train abs in the winter then you will have a poor basis on which to work on. It also poses the risk of a higher chance on injury. If you are doing deadlifts, squats etc then you are building up your lower back and if you don’t work your abs then you are building muscle disproportionately. This will also mean your performance on these compounds exercises will be lacking, with the core playing a large role in extended squat performance. Having a weak mid section will also make you prone to a hernia. Hernias are most common in the abdominal region ... Read More »

Things you need for a homemade protein shake Whether you’re someone who uses whey protein often or not sometimes making your own homemade protein shake is just a more appealing idea. Quite often I run out of conventional protein shakes and need to find something to replace them. The reason why you take ingredients and put them into a shake is because liquids are absorbed much faster. Protein shakes real advantage over conventional food is that they can get to the muscles much faster and kickstart the repair and building process. Here are 3 recipes you can use to create a protein shake. Homemade protein shake recipe 1 – The Hollywood Body Skimmed milk Cottage cheese Peanut Butter 4 eggs The quantities depend on how you like it to taste. Adding more peanut butter will make the shake thicker while those of you trying to reduce fat content may prefer ... Read More »

5 Reasons why you SHOULD eat meat So in the news lately they have been discussing a study done by the University of Harvard that said we need to vastly reduce the amount of meat we eat, red in particular. If you eat red meat you have a 13% great chance of dying and processed meat 20% greater. Congratulations you now have a 113-120% chance of dying. I am not here to discredit their research, I merely think there are more important health issues to address before the issue of meat eating. I have just written down 5 reasons why I think you should eat meat. 1) Do you want to be a skinny bitch? If you don’t eat meat you’re going to seriously struggle to get a decent amount of protein. It’s not a secret that protein is vital in building muscle, by not eating meat you will essentially ... Read More »

The first thing you need to know in order to make your legs skinnier is that you have to exercise at a high intensity for a high amount of reps. I often advise women to lift some weights as it’s great for weight loss. I still recommend that however if you’re solely trying to slim your legs down then you need to keep the reps to 25+ and the intensity high. Another thing that will determine how much your can lose from your legs is your diet. Legs on a woman is the beer belly on a man, it’s pretty much the first place any excess of calories is transported to, to be stored. This then often leads to the issue of cellulite formation which stops many women having the slender legs they deserve. How cellulite is formed Cellulite is formed by the herniation of subcutaneous fat within fibrous connective ... Read More »

So what exactly does that title mean, basically it’s in regards to the need of carbohydrate when you are getting lean. In my opinion carbohydrate is the main macro nutrient that causes people trouble when they are trying to lose weight or just get cut for whatever reason. I also think people show vast difference in carbohydrate tolerance. I for one have the metabolism of a raging bull, so can eat around 200g of carbs and still maintain a good weight loss rate. Others will find this too much to get down to the low body fat region of 5-6%. How important is carbohydrate? They certainly are important even if your are trying to lose weight they just need to be moderated and the right sort consumed. Getting your daily carbohydrate allowance in the form of sugars is going to be well, not great for you. Firstly you will burn ... Read More »

I’ve wanted to do a post on this for a while. It’s a phrase used a lot in the fitness industry by those who want to give their product the edge. The reason? Quite obvious actually it appeals to those both over and underweight looking to get that Greg Plitt style body. It also plays upon peoples natural lazy tendencies to achieve something as fast as possible. Which is why these programs are so successful, but can it be done? Can you build muscle and lose fat at the same time? In this post I am going to look closely into the metabolic phases your body goes through while building and losing muscle. So can it be done can you build muscle and lose fat at the same time? Short Answer: No Long Answer: Possibly My 3 Rules for gaining muscle  Nutrition: Muscle growth is optimised by the quality of ... Read More »

What, and when you eat can have a crucial impact of your performance in you workout, be it an endurance workout or strength session. I hope today I can give you a good indication of some of the types of food you should be eating before a workout. What to eat before a workout – Energy Source Whether it be aerobic or anaerobic exercise your body is going to need to burn either fats or carbohydrates in order to have sufficient energy. As a rule of thumb you should be consuming a little bit of both before a workout. If you are going on a long run for instance, it is likely that you will have an average heartrate around 70% of your max. This is borderline above the ‘fat burning zone’, this is when fat can be broken down at a fast enough rate to supply you with energy. ... Read More »

Today I wish to open your horizons to a new diet which is sweeping the globe and becoming very popular. I will go through what the diet entails and at the end i’ll give you some of my personal opinions and some great paleo resources. What is the Paleo Diet for Athletes? For millions of years we humans evolved as hunter gatherers. What ever we could find in our natural environment we ate. Natural being a buzz word in the paleo diet. Diet revolved heavily around meats, fruits, nuts, fish and vegetables. As you can see these foods are high in fats and proteins and low in carbohydrates. It’s only really recently that we have been able to harvest and process foods that are unnaturally high in sugars and fats etc. When our diet was like this it would be very very disadvantageous to be overweight. Of course we would ... Read More »

First things first Happy New Year everyone, I hope you have all your goals laid out and that 2012 brings you health and happiness! Secondly I would like to put out a word of thanks to all the followers and supporters of the site. All the likes, comments, and messages make running the blog a really enjoyable experience so thank you. Thirdly I would like to congratulate those people who have taken action and made changes to their body, some of the stories sent in have been very impressive! Now onto other stuff. What am I doing in 2012? Well I have a few ambitious and goals that are going to require pretty intense dedication, the more you put in though the more you get out so I know it’s worth it! I also really want to get a youtube channel up as I am finding explaining exercises quite annoying ... Read More »

These bodybuilding quotes are powerful, they will help you find strength when you need it most. This is merely a collection of some of my favourite ones, if you have any of your own not listed here please leave a comment and I will add it. Bodybuilding Quotes – Best of “The last three or four reps is what makes the muscle grow. This area of pain divides the champion from someone else who is not a champion. That’s what most people lack, having the guts to go on and just say they’ll go through the pain no matter what happens.” – Arnold Schwarzenegger “Intensity builds immensity” – Kevin Levrone “Go hard or go home” – Anonymous “You’re gonna have to go through hell, worse than any nightmare you’ve ever dreamed. But when it’s over, I know you’ll be the one standing. You know what you have to do. DO ... Read More »