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Here are eight proven muscle-building tips garnered from more than 40 years in the trenches.

When you’re a newbie weightlifter, you don’t have to work too hard for your gains. Because you are putting new stress on your body, it responds well and your strength and muscle gains come quite quickly. But the longer you stick at it, the harder it is to continue making progress. That’s when you need to start employing more advanced training techniques to force your body to respond. Here are eight proven muscle-building tips garnered from more than 40 years in the trenches.

1. The Pump Set

Make your final set of an exercise a high-rep set where you drop the weight way back and perform perfect-form reps in the 30-rep range. Research has shown that when you finish your set this way, you not only get an awesome muscle pump but you also increase the muscle’s strength and size.

2. Focus on Explosive Movements

The fastest and most effective way to build strength is through explosive movements. Strength trainers all over the world use this method to create better and stronger athletes. A slow, controlled negative, in which you resist gravity, followed by an explosive positive, is a surefire way to achieve significant strength. This method is best used with moderate to heavy weights – using an explosive motion with light weights can cause you to hyperextend a joint.

3. Injury Avoidance

Nothing stymies muscle growth like a training injury. The majority of training injuries are strains, overstressing, or overstretching muscles and tendons. A proper warm-up, a little dynamic stretching, and pyramiding your sets from high down to low, are all key to preventing injuries. A good rep range that will ensure your muscles ease into the load is the following:

Set one – 30 reps

Set two – 20 reps

Set three – 15 reps

Set four – 10 reps

Set five – 8 reps

If a strain occurs, you need to rest the area. You should also elevate the area to promote the venous return of blood and apply compression. Later in the healing process, heat can be used.

Most joint and tendon problems in lifters are the result of years of wear and tear on the body. As you grow older, you need to adapt your training. Guys over the age of 50 should stop doing overhead presses and avoid training to failure.

You can go a long way to alleviating joint, tendon, and muscle soreness issues with smart nutrition. Supplementing with glutamine, fish oil, and psyllium are three of the best options.

4. Train With a Stronger Partner

When you train with a partner who is slightly stronger than you, you will make more progress than if he is at your level or not as strong as you. A partner can spot you and assist with forced reps to help you keep going after you’ve reached positive muscle failure. When your partner is a bit stronger than you, you will get a mental boost from observing him lifting more as your competitive juices kick in.

5. Eccentric Training

Eccentric training involves focusing on the lowering or negative part of the rep. This involves lowering the resistance more slowly than you normally would. Research confirms that eccentric straining brings about greater gains in terms of strength and muscle gains than positive or concentric reps.

Use eccentric reps sparingly as it is a pretty intense technique. Just throw it in every few weeks or so. If you have a training partner (see the previous tip), load up 20 percent more weight than you normally use and have him help you get the weight during the concentric part of the rep. Then resist gravity as much as you can only in the eccentric part of the rep. It should take as long as five seconds to lower the weight.

6. Choose Unilateral Exercises

When you do a bilateral exercise, such as the bench press or squats (or any exercise with a barbell), your stronger arm or leg will take more than its fair share of the load. However, when you do unilateral exercises, each limb must carry its own load.

Doing unilateral exercises also involves more core engagement due to the instability in the load. In addition, unilateral exercises are more functional as they more precisely mimic such everyday activities as lifting shopping bags, carrying children, or throwing a football.

To benefit from unilateral movements, simply choose dumbbells over barbells. Here are six of the best unilateral movements you should be doing:

• Dumbbell Bench Press

• Dumbbell Row

• Alternate Cable Curl

• One-Arm Lat Pull-In

• Single-Arm Triceps Pushdown

• Seated Double Pulley Shoulder Cable Press

Choosing these exercises over barbell versions will activate your muscles more, allowing you to bring your hands in together, something you cannot do on a barbell.

7. Do Cardio After Your Weight Training, Not Before

Doing cardio before a workout can negatively impact your weight training because it depletes your glycogen energy levels. By doing cardio after weight training, your body will start to tap into fat stores for energy more readily, as your muscle glycogen stores will already be significantly depleted.

8. Train by Feel

When you begin working out, you need to train according to the basics. However, as you gain experience, you will more and more rely on instinct or feel to guide you. Experiment with your workouts; think about what you are doing. Try training body parts by themselves and then supersetting, say, the back and chest. Do each one for six weeks and then compare the results that you’re getting.

The key to success is to learn all the relevant techniques and then analyze how each one affects you as an individual. The first step is to understand exactly what you’re doing in the gym. Then you need to be able to interpret the feelings you experience from day to day as you go through your training routine.

If you plan on ever becoming a competitive physique athlete, your opponents will probably know just as much about technique as you do. What will make the difference is the degree to which you have been able to utilize your instinct and feelings.

Check out the muscle-building supplements from Enhanced to help you boost your muscle gains. Enhanced is the home of 2020 Mr. Olympia Champion Big Ramy, 11x Olympia competitor Dennis “the Menace” James, and hundreds of other professional bodybuilders, athletes, fitness enthusiasts, and biohackers.

The post 8 Muscle-Building Tips for Bigger Gains appeared first on FitnessRX for Men.

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By: Team FitRx
Title: 8 Muscle-Building Tips for Bigger Gains
Sourced From: www.fitnessrxformen.com/training/8-muscle-building-tips-for-bigger-gains/
Published Date: Mon, 09 Aug 2021 19:13:17 +0000

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Mens Health

MACHINE GREENS + REDS

Published

3 days ago

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June 8, 2023

By

2122

Machine Greens + Reds is the most complete Greens and Reds product on the market with 1 gram of MaquiForza™, boasting the highest antioxidant levels of any fruit!

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if you could get all the benefits of multiple servings of fruits and vegetables without the calories or bowls full of food – not to mention the added sugar in fruit and the extra chore of having to wash the dishes? What many people want is just a delicious and refreshing beverage that they enjoy once per day. Voilà, your nutritional wishes have been granted by MTS Nutrition.

Machine Greens + Reds is the most complete Greens and Reds product on the market with 1 gram of MaquiForza™, boasting the highest antioxidant levels of any fruit!

The Nutrients Your Body Needs

Machine Greens + Reds isn’t just grass shavings in a powder. Machine Greens + Reds contains the patented Greens Balance Alkalinizing Blend® (4,000 mg) and Betta Berries™ Antioxidant Blend (200 mg) to ensure you get what you need out of a greens and reds blend – validated ingredients that deliver the nutrients that your body needs.

Drink Your Fruits and Veggies

Directions: a dietary supplement, mix one scoop into 6-10 ounces of water, depending on flavor preferences and consume 1-2 times per day.

MACHINE GREENS + REDS

• 4g Green Balance®

• 1g MaquiForza™

• 200mg Betta Berries®

• FDA-Inspected Facility

• Made in a GMP Facility

• Strawberry Banana Flavor

For more information, visit tigerfitness.com

The above statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.

MTS Nutrition: Quality and Performance

All MTS Nutrition products are created to be the highest possible quality. The company takes pride in the quality of its products and the results they will provide users. Quality control and truth to label are very important to CEO Marc Lobliner.

MTS Nutrition assures its customers that they are receiving the most advanced and adequately dosed ingredients with NO proprietary blends. The reason? So you know exactly what you’re putting in your body, and that each supplement is as effective as possible.

MTS Nutrition supplements have taken performance and taste to heights never seen before.

495718777 tiger nutrition mts greens and reds img 4633 1024x1024 1

The post MACHINE GREENS + REDS appeared first on FitnessRX for Men.

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By: Team FitRx
Title: MACHINE GREENS + REDS
Sourced From: www.fitnessrxformen.com/nutrition/supplements/machine-greens-reds/
Published Date: Thu, 08 Jun 2023 14:04:46 +0000

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Mens Health

Smart Carb Choices for Better Health

Published

5 days ago

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June 5, 2023

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dreamstime m 212181259 good carbs vs bad carbs 683x1024 1

Naturally Occurring vs. Processed Carbs

I’ve always emphasized the differences between naturally occurring carbohydrates and processed carbohydrates when I created individualized meal plans for clients. Naturally occurring carbohydrates appear as they do in nature, and processed carbohydrates are ground into a flour, typically for a baking process or to be used as a filler. Our bodies are hardwired to break down naturally occurring carbohydrates efficiently. And before certain food crops such as wheat were genetically modified, our bodies were able to digest processed carbohydrates fairly well, but not as well as naturally occurring carbs. However, since the introduction of the genetic modification of foods, the majority of which are grain crops, our bodies reject the genetically modified foods due to the incompatibility of the DNA sequences in relation to our DNA’s sequences. When consumed, the resulting inflammation throughout the digestive tract is caused by the body’s rejection of the genetically modified food. When there is inflammation in the digestive tract, the body’s ability to absorb vitamins and minerals is compromised. When we do not absorb vitamins and minerals properly, disorders begin to occur over time. Simply put, our bodies were designed to break down specifically natural foods and not genetically modified, processed foods.

Increase in Blood Sugar, Body Fat Storage

Another adverse effect of the consumption of genetically modified, processed carbohydrates is the sudden increase in blood sugar as opposed to the slower, gradual increase of blood sugar for energy that naturally occurring carbs provide. When sugar spikes suddenly, or becomes erratic, the body recognizes the sugar as a primary fuel source, which results in body fat storage. The slower, gradual increase in blood sugar which occurs with naturally occurring carbohydrates can provide energy while maintaining the body’s ability to use or “burn” body fat, as a result of the stabilization of the blood sugar.

I strongly encourage the selection of naturally occurring carbohydrates rather than processed carbs to maximize the body’s potential for energy and proper digestion and absorption of nutrients. Alter your diet for a month and witness the results firsthand. Here are two lists displaying the differences:

Naturally Occurring Carbohydrates

• Organic Sweet Potato

• Organic Yam

• Organic Red Skin Potato

• Organic Oats

• Organic Brown Rice

• Organic Quinoa

• Organic Chickpeas

dreamstime m 212181259 good carbs vs bad carbs 683x1024 2

Processed Carbohydrates

• Bread

• Cereal

• Wheat Flour

• Pasta

• Bagels

• Muffins/Pastries

 

Helpful Tip: Limit your carbohydrate intake to your first three meals of the day, or a timing of 9:00 a.m., 12 noon, and 3:00 p.m. (or morning through the afternoon). Our bodies utilize carbohydrates more efficiently earlier in the day. Set a rule to have no starchy carbohydrates with dinner or later, and keep those meals limited to protein, vegetable, and a salad.

The post Smart Carb Choices for Better Health appeared first on FitnessRX for Men.

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By: John M. DiFazio II
Title: Smart Carb Choices for Better Health
Sourced From: www.fitnessrxformen.com/nutrition/smart-carb-choices-for-better-health/
Published Date: Mon, 05 Jun 2023 20:30:33 +0000

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Mens Health

MRE PROTEIN MUFFIN

Published

5 days ago

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June 5, 2023

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495718521 wb 1024x1024 1

MRE PROTEIN MUFFIN is a whole-food protein snack that packs 15 grams of protein and is baked to perfection.

We’ve all been there: you grab some coffee after hitting the gym and you see tempting muffins available for purchase at checkout. The muffins would go great with your coffee and really hit the spot, but you pass because muffins aren’t on your diet. Well, the days of muffins being off-limits are over thanks to Redcon1, which has launched the delicious MRE PROTEIN MUFFIN, a whole-food protein snack that packs 15 grams of protein and is baked to perfection.

Whole Food Protein

MRE PROTEIN MUFFINs are freshly baked with real food ingredients and have a mouthwatering, homemade taste that makes it easy to boost your daily protein intake as well as your calories. Available in Double Chocolate Chip (230 calories) and Wild Blueberry (210 calories) flavors, each bite of a MRE PROTEIN MUFFIN is a flavor sensation and protein boost that will satisfy your nutritional needs and overwhelm your taste buds. The Double Chocolate Chip MRE PROTEIN MUFFIN is made with real chocolate chips, and the Wild Blueberry muffins will transport you to blueberry muffin paradise with their authentic flavor sensation.

Satisfying and Tempting

Redcon1 has really outdone themselves with the advent of the MRE PROTEIN MUFFIN. Now you can have your muffin and eat it too. Not only are the muffins satisfying, moist and tempting, but they are low in sugar too. And they are a convenient, on-the-go source of extra calories. Make Redcon1’s MRE PROTEIN MUFFIN part of your meal plan and rediscover the joy of eating a good muffin without any of the guilt.

MRE PROTEIN MUFFIN

• Whole Food Protein Snack

• Baked With Real Food Ingredients

• 15g Protein

• 5g Collagen

• No Whey Protein

• Freshly Baked

• Homemade Taste

• Boosts Daily Protein Intake

• 230 Calories (Double Chocolate Chip)

• 210 Calories (Wild Blueberry)

For more information, visit redcon1.com

Use MRE PROTEIN MUFFINs as a food supplement only. Do not use for weight reduction. Not a low-calorie food.495718521 wb 1024x1024 2

The post MRE PROTEIN MUFFIN appeared first on FitnessRX for Men.

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By: Team FitRx
Title: MRE PROTEIN MUFFIN
Sourced From: www.fitnessrxformen.com/nutrition/mre-protein-muffin/
Published Date: Mon, 05 Jun 2023 19:48:13 +0000

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