Bodybuilding knee safety

I received e-mails lately from people with knee injuries. The most common problems seems to stem from squats and leg presses, two staple exercises among serious bodybuilders. There are many things that can influence whether you get a knee injury or not, but there are steps you can take to minimize the risk. Here are my five best bets for keeping the surgeon away:

1. Make sure that your knees are aligned with your feet. By that I mean that during a squat, your knees should be traveling forward in the same direction as the toes. If your toes are pointing out to the sides, but your knees seem to be going straight forward, you know you're asking for trouble! Imagine an invisible line to which your feet are aligned. All you have to is keep your knees strictly in the same line.

2. Use good form. Don't stand on your toes during the last two sets, and whatever you do - no squirming around!

3. Don't wrap your knees all the time. By always babying your knees you will build muscular strength, but you're not preparing your knee joint and supporting muscles to handle an un-wrapped squat. Over time, your muscles will get more powerful, while your knees stays the same or may even get weaker. At some point, this will come back to haunt you in a big way, be it at the gym, a company softball game or wherever.

4. Get good shoes. Inch-thick, gel-filled or gas-pumped soles are great for basketball,
as they help absorb the impact from all the jumping. You don't see much jumping in the gym, however, so what's a good shoe on the court is not necessarily a good shoe everywhere. With a couple of hundred pounds on your shoulders, you want to be sure that you're stable. Pick shoes with thin soles and very little "bounciness". Try to get a feeling of having solid contact with the floor.

5. Check the ego at the door. A muscular guy that can leg press 1,200 lbs for reps is respectable. A wannabe that barely does 3 sorry reps while cheating badly is not.

Use a sensible weight that you can do at least 6-8 strict reps with, keeping the focus on safety and control at all times. That will bring you the fastest results and the least risk of injury.

Muscle gain facts

Many health and fitness magazines portray the wonderful promise of turning fat into muscle on their covers once in a while. They do it for the same reason the tabloids claim Elvis' half-alien offspring is hanging with his old buddies Bigfoot and Jay Leno -- it sells extra copies. Unfortunately, neither is true: You simply cannot transform fat tissue into muscle, and I'm almost certain Jay would choose better company than that.Muscle mass and fat are two different animals: Muscle is active tissue that burns calories around the clock even as you sleep, kind of like an engine running in neutral.
When you move around, you burn more calories, just like a car will consume more gas the faster you go. Fat, on the other hand, is just a storage of excess energy. It does nothing but sit there with its sole goal in life to be a spare tire around your waist until you put in the effort to burn it off. Bodyfat is not particularly useful except as padding against bumps, as insulation to preserve warmth, and as a convenient surface where you can balance a can of beer while watching the game, as frequently demonstrated by my potbellied father. You need some bodyfat to stay healthy of course, but unless you're walking around with razor-sharp abs and sunken, fat-depleted cheeks year-round, you probably have nothing to fear.

Having recognized the difference between the two, let's get down to business: Getting rid of the fat and grow the muscles. Unfortunately, it is almost impossible to achieve both goals at the same time. The reason for this is that in order to maintain an environment in your body that facilitates fatburn, you must deplete yourself of calories. Growth requires extra calories, much like you'd need extra building material to add a room to your house. In addition, insulin, which is a key component of growing muscle, is the anti-Christ of fatburn and is released whenever you eat carbohydrates (how much and how fast depends entirely on the type of carbs, however.) The conclusion is that you'll have to focus on one thing first and take on the next challenge later on.

I recommend beginning by trying to pack on the muscle. That means you'll have to eat extra calories, including the extra carbs, and live with the fact that you'll probably gain a few pounds of lard in the process. There's no need to worry about this as long as you keep the increase in bodyfat under control and avoid ballooning like the Pillsbury Doughboy. Train heavy, eat lots of healthy bodybuilding food (pasta, rice, chicken, lean beef, tuna, oatmeal etc.) but no junk food, candy or alcohol.

When you've packed on perhaps 5 or 10 pounds of muscle (or whatever your goal was,) switch gears and start the diet. As always, you'll have to keep a daily log of what you eat and carefully adjust your eating patterns so that you eat an average of 500 calories less than you burn each day. Here's where you reap the benefit of having gained the muscle beforehand: Remember the analogy of your muscles being like an engine running in neutral? Muscle burn calories 24/7, and the more mass you have, the more calories are burned without you even having to lift a finger. This in turn translates to a more lenient diet. In other words, if your added muscle mass boosts your natural metabolism by, say 200 calories per day, that's 200 calories more you can eat and STILL lose bodyfat! In other words, you'll look better, get to eat more, and will still lose fat at the same rate. How sweet of a deal is that?As you diet, you want to keep the protein intake up. Also make sure to keep hitting the weights as you did before -- it's your best insurance policy against losing your hard-earned muscle mass. The goal at this point is to slowly but surely shave off the fat without sacrificing mass, so take it easy. No sudden changes in eating habits will improve your situation, only worsen it.

After a few months you should have lost at least 10-15 lbs of fat, and if you played your cards right, you should have kept most of the gains you made prior to the diet. Ta-daa! By taking a little more time and splitting up your two goals, you achieved what you wanted. Had you tried to chase both rabbits simulateously, you'd been almost guaranteed to fail at least one of the goals.

Bodybuilding Supplements

Bodybuilding supplements, which should you be taking to help you reach your goals? First of all rememeber bodybuilding supplements are not a substitute for hard work in the gym and a well-balanced diet.

Bodybuilding supplements will give you an edge in your fat loss and muscle building efforts, if you use the right ones. Bodybuilding supplements must also be taken on your days off from workouts because it is on your off days that your body is recovering and needs the proper nutrition to support growth.

Bodybuilding Supplements, list of the five best:

1) Vitamins and Minerals - Take as an insurance policy than anything else. You may not need one but it certainly can't hurt. Because of some bodybuilder's very restricted diets and repetitive consumption of the same foods they are at particular risk of developing deficiencies.

2) Protein Powders - These supplements can be an inexpensive and convenient way to add calories and protein to your diet. What could possibly be simpler than mixing up a powder in a little milk or water and then drinking it. It takes all of 2 minutes and can provide potentially all of the nutrients of a solid meal. The best soures are whey and egg based protein powders.


3) Creatine -Creatine is one of the muscles' main energy sources, the muscle will store more creatine then we consume in our normal diets, by supplementing it the muscles will soak up the extra creatine. When muscles absorb creatine it also brings water with it, your muscles are 70 % water) this makes the muscles bigger and harder. Also when you ingest creatine it is stored, and about 20 minutes later it is transformed into ATP. ATP's are what gives your muscles'energy' during a workout, on creatine you might be able to push a few more reps than usual. The best type of creatine to take is creatine monohydrate. Many companies tell you that you should 'load' on creatine.Which means you should take up to 4 times as much creatine than usual during the first few weeks on creatine. It is optional to load.

4) Glutamine - Glutamine is an amino acid. It's the amino acid which is found most in human muscle tissue. Therefore making it an essential to all bodybuilders. Everyone knows that you need protein to get any bigger, and glutamine is the number one part of the protein the makes you grow. Glutamine is one of the best supplements on the market today.

5) Testosterone Raising Supplements - They are converted into testosterone after a chemical reaction in the body. Should be used if you are looking for a nice pump during your workout. It is best when used with tribulus terrestris to enhance and prolong the testosterone increase. You should only take these products only if you are over 21, if you are under 21 your own natural testosterone levels are still developing and you don't want to mess with that.

Stretching helps in gaining muscle

When you think about gaining muscle, stretching is probably not the first thing that pops into your head. But did you know that stretching plays a critical role in building muscle?

Every muscle in your body is enclosed in a bag of tough connective tissue known as fascia. Fascia is important for holding your muscles in their proper place in your body.But your fascia may also be holding back your muscle growth. Think for a moment about your muscles. You train them and feed them properly. They want to grow and will grow but something is holding them back. They have no room to grow!

Because fascia is so tough, it doesn't allow the muscle room to expand. It is like stuffing a large pillow into a small pillowcase. The size of the muscle won't change regardless of how hard you train or how well you eat because the connective tissue around your muscles is constricting the muscles within.The best example of this is the calf muscle. The lower leg is riddled with fascia because of its tremendous weight-bearing duties in the body. It is because of this fascia that many trainers have great difficulty developing their calves.

The solution: stretching.

Using the pillowcase example from above, imagine you can expand the size of the pillowcase by stretching it. Suddenly, the pillow within has more room and will expand to fill that new space.
By stretching your muscles under specific conditions, you can actually stretch your fascia and give your muscles more room to grow.The key to effective fascial stretching is the pump. The best time to stretch to expand the bags that are holding in your muscles is when your muscles are pumped up full of blood.
When your muscles are fully pumped up, they are pressing against the fascia. By stretching hard at that time, you increase that pressure on the fascia greatly, which can lead to expansion of the fascia.

One of the major reasons Arnold Schwarzenegger had such incredible chest development was that he finished his chest workouts with dumbell flyes, an exercise that emphasizes the stretched position of the pectoral muscles. He would pump his chest up full of blood during the workout then do flyes, holding the stretch at the bottom of the flye. This gave his chest room to grow to amazing proportions.

Fascial stretching is more rigorous than regular stretching but the results can be amazing. When you stretch hard enough to cause the fascia to expand, you will really feel it! When you are stretching the fascia, you should feel a powerful pulling sensation and pressure as the muscle works against the fascia to expand it.

Be sure you do not stretch so hard that you cause the muscle to tear or cause injury to yourself. You will rapidly learn to distinguish the difference between a good stretch and a bad stretch. You should not feel any sharp pain, just a steady pull.

Hold each stretch for at least 20 to 30 seconds as you must give your fascia time to be affected by the stretch. Stretch hard like this only when you have a fully pumped muscle as you must give your fascia a reason to expand. If your muscles aren't pumped, just stretch normally.

Arnold Schwarzenegger strips

This video dating back to 1977 is real fun to watch.Well, i dont want to comment any more,the video speaks by itself

Vegetarian Bodybuilding

You will hear it often, a vegetarian bodybuilder cannot be a successful bodybuilder! rubbish, there's plenty of people who have built a great physique while being on a vegetarian diet, it just takes more planning, especially where protein quality is concerned.
There are plenty of benefits for a vegetarian bodybuilder,there are different types of vegetarian too, vegans who are strict vegetarians, lacto-ovo vegetarians who will drink milk and eat eggs, both of which come from meat producing animals and pesco vegetarians who eat fish and dairy products.

The main question for vegetarian body builders is how to get enough protein, Soy has high levels of glutamine. A lacto-ovo vegetarian body builder, can get protein from cheese, milk, eggs and whey protein which comes from milk, will fit your diet, if you are following a pesco-vegetarian diet, eating fish is a very good way to get your protein.

You have to always remember, vegetable proteins are of a lower quality than animal proteins you should learn how to combine different protein sources so your intake is substantial for the exercise regime you are undertaking.Vegetarian and vegan bodybuilders can also make use of beans, hummus, soya, coconut, oat milk and rice milk all of which have a very good amount of carbohydrate which helps in gaining weight and arealso low in fat, a true vegan should try to include seaweed or VitaminB12 as a supplement, if you don't eat meat you will be lacking in the B12 vitamin.

As your intake of proteins and carbohydrates will be high you must always remember to drink plenty of water, this helps move the essential substances of your diet to where your body will need them, your body also stores these essentials for use later during your exercise and after in the recovery period.

Bicep & Tricep Implants

I came across bodyimplants which offers services on bicep/tricep implantation.Their before and after pictures of biceps are amazing.Most of you would have already heard about it,but i just want to spread the info.

What they say:
"A board-certified plastic surgeon with over 20 years of experience, Dr. Chugay and his staff are well respected in the art of muscle contouring, and have over a decade of surgical experience in sculpting and placing the silicone implants. Dr. Chugay is proud of the fact that he's performed thousands implant procedures with an almost perfect record over his decade-long tenure."

The cost for the implants are as follows:
Butt Implants $9,000 - 10,000
Pec Implants $8,500
Calf Implants$7,500 - 8,500
Bicep & Tricep Implants $8,500 - 9,000