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

What is Hypertrophy Specific Training and will it work for you? The most common form of training style is the split routine, where you spend around a week working individual parts of the body. The definition of the word hypertrophy is, ‘The enlargement of an organ or tissue from the increase in size of its cells’. Research in the laboratory has led to scientists discovering how the muscles really grow leading the athletes developing a new training routine called Hypertrophy Specific Training. Hypertrophy specific training looks beyond what is visible to the naked eye and looks at aspects such as myogenic stem cells, growth factors and mechanical loading. All this scientific knowledge allowed people to adapt workouts according to cellular principles. Main Hypertrophy Specific Training Principles Load and Resistance –  For growth to occur a muscle must have a load applied to it. This has not changed from a traditional ... Read More »

How to Get Stronger Strength is sometimes a confusing attribute, I hear people describing someone who is ripped as being strong when the truth is they may lift less than many people who don’t have a six pack. So what is strength? Strength is a measure of a muscles ability to perform under an exerted stress the more stress it can perform under then generally the stronger the muscle is. What factors contribute to the strength of a muscle? Firstly, size DOES matter if you have a larger muscle mass you will be able to lift more weight. Secondly Muscle density, this is to do with how closely the muscle fibres are packed together. If you have more muscles fibres per unit of volume then you will obviously lift more weight. Lastly the way the muscle has been trained will alter it’s physiological properties so that for instance, it is ... Read More »

You might be aware that in a lot of gyms including my own there is sometimes a lack of people doing squats and a surplus of people doing arms. Every now and then someone will do some heavy squats but it’s not that normal. It’s more usual to see people doing bicep curls, to get pump before going out on the town or going to the park. This may go against any inquisitive nature but working out your legs through squats and deadlifts will be better in the long run for building big arms than bicep curls themselves. You might think I am making no sense but I will explain the process to you now. Doing squats is not just a leg workout, it’s puts your entire body under stress, working the lower back shoulders and lots of core. Studies have also shown that heavy squats promote the release of ... Read More »

So many people have asked me, ‘How do I gain pure muscle?’ Building muscle mass seems to be a slightly mis-understood, this is probably down to the vast amount of information there is on the internet. There are plenty of different workout programs, supplements, and equipment out there to choose from. I must have spent hours reading and researching the subject, and I have summarised my findings into 7 simple ways to increase muscle mass. 1. Get in the Gym – If you want to increase the size of your muscles, then there is no other way about it, you need to get in the gym. Lifting weight is hands down the fastest way to gain size. When your muscles lift weights, they tear. The small tears in the muscle fibers causes the muscles to get stronger and stronger over time. 2. Eat that Protein – Protein and fundamental amino ... Read More »

If you have watched the film 300 you will know that every actor was in unbelievable shape. Muscles bulging, veins pumping and not a ounce of fat to be seen. People in the fitness industry were talking about it, saying, ‘it’s not all natural there must be lots of special effects.’ It turns out that it’s all natural, they did in-fact train exceptionally hard to get in shape and in some cases the actors collapsed due to exhaustion. I bet you can’t wait to try their routine…. Soon after the films release a workout emerged dubbed the 300 workout, which by no means is for the feint hearted. It is an epic full body workout, starting off with a mere set of 25 chin ups. All in all you perform 300 repetitions and you are supposed to complete in a time of 20 minutes or less. The workout is as ... Read More »

What does creatine do – Background Creatine is a naturally occurring nitrogenous organic compound that is used by the body to supply cells with energy, by increasing the formation of ATP. Creatine is produced by the liver and kidneys from three amino acids, L – arginine, L – glycine and L – methionine. The majority of it, 95% is stored in your muscles with the remaining 5% being stored in the brain. The source of these amino acids is principally animal protein, it’s a misconception to think that steak contains creatine it will do however it’s destroyed on heating. Red meats such as steak contain the amino acids needed for you body to produce creatine, not the creatine itself. When taken in a supplement creatine is usual in the form of creatine monohydrate. What does creatine do – How does creatine work? Creatine is stored in the muscles is in ... Read More »

I’m going to keep this brief as being overloaded with information before you start is only going to put you off. A gym can be an intimidating place, I remember the first time I went, it was full of First team Rugby players lifting silly amounts of weight. It’s very easy to be put off and muscled off what you are trying to achieve. Here comes my first rule, always go into the gym with a routine pre planned. If you go around the gym using only what positions are available you might as well not be there. Wait for your equipment to be free and don’t let people rush you or take your spot. My second rule, you need to use free weights and not machines. Machines limit your range of movement, thus building a muscle to work in only the direction set by parameters of the machine. Free ... Read More »

High intensity training was first implemented in the 1970’s and used by many ‘Mr Olympians’ and many world class athletes. This training method is infrequent, usually performed once every fortnight and requires lower weight and higher reps. The rest is needed because you’re pushing your muscles to failure from which they need time to recover. Why are you pushing your muscles to failure? Exercising your muscles to failure is thought to further stimulate growth and stamina, it can be useful when your training reaches a plateau. You should only train one muscle group or a muscle group and their counterpart. For example Back and Biceps, shoulders and triceps etc. When working out like this your form is vital and the movement is mean’t to be slow and controlled. You should be looking to perform 15 repetitions per set at which point you should be reaching failure, and the workout length ... Read More »