Try drinking green tea. This can inhibit the enzyme that inhibits nor-epinephrine which mean that you should experience raised levels of this muscle building metabolic hormone which can also aid in weight loss. It is also full of anti-oxidants and can help significantly in terms of post workout recovery and also general health.

Take on board healthy fats. These are critical to the safe functioning of many part sof the body such as the heart, brain, energy production and hormone regulation. Oily fish, natural peanut butter, avocado and oily dressings are all excellent sources of this.

Ingest casein protein. This type of protein takes a greater length of time to digest so therefore it creates an ongoing release of protein. This is great news if you consume it just before sleeping because your body can then make use of it in order to build muscle up whilst you sleep.

Consume 20 grams or more of whey protein immediately upon rising. Immediately on waking up drink a protein shake. This will put a stop to the catabolic state of your body that you may have been in during your sleep and give you a good start on hitting your protein target for the day.

On body parts you find difficult to grow try using dropsets. This is a severely intense technique that can trigger muscle growth even in very hard to grow muscles. Simply do your set as normal and when you have squeezed out your last rep reduce the weight by 10 percent and do more reps, then reduce the weight once more. Continue repeating this process as many times as you can bear but the next day you are likely to experience significant muscle soreness and a tremendous burn at the time.

Drink water. Don’t underestimate the beneficial effects of remaining well hydrated throughout the day. water is critical for many reactions in the body especially muscle building ones.

Continue to learn and educate yourself. There are a great deal of different methods to stimulating muscle growth. try different things and fidn out what works best for your body and leave the rest.

So, by applying some of the above weight gain tips you should be able to build muscle mass even faster than before. Good luck.

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1) Don't pump iron for more than 45 minutes per session. This is because training for long periods of time causes the body to release a hormone called cortisol. This hormone induces the body to ignore carbohydrate and fat stores as a form of energy and uses the bodys muscle sinstead. For sure this is not what you want. Also the testosterone level which aids muscle growth drops at around the 45 minute mark also. This particular combination will stop your muscles growing for sure. So hit the gym train hard and intensely and then leave and rest. Cortisol levels are also much lower when you are sleep so sllep for aslong as you can and make the most of this muscle building time.

2) Do the squat exercise and then do some more. This is the greatest exercise for allround muscle mass but you don't often see people doing it in the gym? Not too frequently. This exercise is truly a whole body exercise requiring extreme effort in the entire leg muscles, back and also the upper body muscles in terms of maintaining balance of the body, gripping the bar and keeping good posture throughout. It obviously creates huge quad muscles but also your back muscles are stressed a great deal and can also help build bigger biceps too as they help keep the bar steady. You can also move a large amount of weight performing the squat which is one more reason it is fantastic for building muscle. Furthermore it has a powerful systemic effect using the cardio-vascular system a great deal. If you have probelms doing this exercise then the only exercise that comes anywhere near close is the deadlift.

3) In terms of gaining muscle mass less is more. Many people find it difficult to take on board enough calories to build muscle up. In order to build muscle up your body requires and excess amount of calories available. if you workout intensley then you ought to consume a great deal of calories. Some people never do this and therefore they'll never gain muscle no matter how much or often they pump iron. Taking on board more calories is going to help but by also reducing the amount of training you do you will also reduce the amount of calories you require to build muscle up. as mentioned before your session should last no longer then 45 -50 minutes and you can still stimulate lots of muscle growth in less time than this also. You may wish to include cardio training in your schedule to maintain good general health which I agree with but don't overdo it as this type of workout will again reduce that amount of calories available for building muscle.

If you have not previously been doing any of these three things then put these weight gain tips into action starting today and I am sure that you will see the difference very soon.

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So precisely what is this well kept secret? A new miracle pill or something?

No definitly not. It has been ignored by many a weightrainer even though it has been known about for a long time.

Exactly what is cortisol?

Cortisol is a hormone released by the body steadily throughout the day and is produced in response to stress such as weight lifting. Cortisol levels decrease gradually throughout the day from their highest point in the morning.

What is its role exactly?

Well it enhances your short term memory, aids in regulation of blood sugar levels and helps detox the liver. However it can raise blood pressure and decrease bone density if your cortisol levels get too high, however this would be unusual. However critically it does diminish muscle because it aids in the body using muscle for energy rather than fat. This is why your workouts should not be more than one hour in duration. They will actually be reducing their progress and not increasing it after this time!

Here are a few guidelines to ensure that you are not wasting your time trying to build muscle up:

1) limit your cardio workouts, too much cardio causes the body to release cortisol which as explained is not what we need.

2) Try to not drink too much caffeine as this can also cause corisol levels to rise.

3) Keep your workouts down to one hour in the gym. Stay focussed wear headphones if you need to avoid talking to people.

4) Chill out an take it easy as cortisol is produced in response to stres.

5) Consume small frequent meals as infrequent meals make the body assume it is starving and will thus try and use muscle mass as a form of energy before it makes use of fat reserves by releasing more cortisol.

6) Sleep. This is when your muscle building hormones peak and your cortisol levels are highest so shot for 8 hours sleep.

With those building muscle tips in mind you should be able to give your workouts a great boost and help you to build muscle mass more efficiently.

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Are you making this bicep muscle growth inhibiting mistake too?

Moving heavy weight is how your muscles grow. The heavier the weight you lift the greater the strength you will have and so it follows the more muscle mass you will have. However if the bicep muscle is worked in isolation individually it is not very easy to shift much weight at all. This then makes it less easy to trigger muscle growth. In short people are doing the wrong exercises to build muscle mass on their guns.

So why do bodybuilders do concentration curls?

Well for one thing, concentration curls are for sculpting already large bicep muscles as it is not a major mass building exercise. If you have no mass on your guns then you have very little to shape therefore quit doing these type of exercises for good!

OK then, what exercises should I be doing for biceps?

Experiment with underhand grip pullups, bent over rows and indeed any other multi-joint back exercise as these allow you to shift much heavier weight which is exactly what you need to do to in order to build bicep mass. These exercises all move a lot of weight. Yes, that is in part due to the fact that they are hitting the back muscles but also stressing the guns hard also. Whats more have you ever met anyone with huge guns that did not also have huge back muscles? No, big biceps are linked with big back muscles.

So, in short stick to the major compound back exercises and maybe standard barbell curls and you will give yourself the best chance of increasing your biceps size! Steer clear of the concentration curls and other isolation exercises until you do have big muscles.

So if you want to build muscle up on your biceps train your back hard, eat lots and rest plenty! Apply these muscle building tips and you will make your biceps bigger fast.

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So are people really able to increase muscle mass and reduce their body fat?

Well, the answer to that question is a yes. However there is a but and that is so as it is a very awkward thing to do. If you desire to build muscle whilst burning fat you will need to work out precisely what number of calories you need to consume and then eat exactly that number.

Why is it necessary to do that? The reasons behine why we ought to do that is because if you want to build muscle mass and not put on fat you have to take on board just enough calories to support muscle growth but not so many that you will have a surplus of excess calories that will become stored as fat tissue.

Can I find out what the number of calories to do that is?

yes you may although bear in mind that these calculations are based on assumptions from data based on the general population. This makes them inaccurate as most people are different to the norm in someway, usually this is in terms of how fast their bodies metabolism is which makes a big difference to the amount of calories that you should actually take on board. You can type into goole ‘ Katch-McArdle muscle building nutrition formula’ if you want to work this out.

Is there a better way than this?

Yes, to burn fat and build muscle you will find it much easier if you adopt a two step process. this means you would spend 3-6 months bulking up and focusing purely on gaining muscle mass and not worrying to much about gaining excess fat. This is then followed by another 3-6 months of ripping or losing excess body fat.

This method is far easier as gaining muscle and losing weight are essentially opposites so by targeting just one of these goals at a time it is better, faster and overall an easier way to build muscle and burn fat. This is one of the best weight gain tips around.

Whilst you may still wish to work out how many calories you should be eating as a minimum you requirement to build muscle up you do not have to worry about going over this amount thus making it easier to achieve. If you consume to few an amount of calories then you will reduce your bodyfat but you will not be able to support any muscle growth therefore a two stage process is far more reliable.

At the end of the day you can use either approach and achieve the same results however most experienced bodybuilders will tell you that the two step approach is the simplest and easiest to get fast results with. One excellent program entitled burn the fat feed the muscle can be found here which guides you through the entire above process.

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Fast food is exactly what you don’t want to eat to build muscle up. Too much fat and very little nutrient value combined with little in the way of decent energy providing nutrition. So, if it is not possible to avoid fast food restaurants then what can we eat for decent muscle building nutrition?

Here are a few golden rules for eating at fast food restaurants in order to build muscle up:

Avoid the apparently good value for money drink and fries. A simple portion of medium sized fries will stuff your body full of around 200 calories including around 400 calories with around 20 grams of fat and the drink will provide you with around 200 calories with heaps of sugary content!

make sure you always choose the grilled option. You can save around 80 calories coming mostly from fat by eating a McDonald’s grilled chicken sandwich as opposed to a premium crispy chicken. A straightforward selection but often overlooked.

Try to give the dessert a miss. At any fast food restaurnat you are going to be bombarded with so many chices of sugary desserts and if you really must have a sugary item then keep it down to a kiddies portion size.

Make sure that you don’t go over the top with the sauces. Many of these are very high in fatty content with little muscle building nutrition value. I am positive that you are very well aware of the fat filled little packages of sauce that I am talking about, mayo tartar sauce and such like. Look after yourself and skip them.

If it is not possible to avoid a fast food restaurant then what can I eat?

If you want to build muscle food that you could eat at McDonalds would be:

For the bulk of your dinner/lunch a Premium Grilled Chicken Sandwich will nourish you with 10 grams of fat, 51grams of carbohydrates, 420 calories, and 32 grams of protein. A Grilled Honey Mustard Snack Wrap would give you around 260 calories, 9g fat, 27g carbs and 18g of protein. The Asian Salad Grilled Chicken would give you 390 calories, 12.5g fat, 38g carbs, 33g protein with the Sesame Ginger Dressing that is low in fat. Probably the premium option would be the Caesar Salad Grilled Chicken that, yields 220 calories, 6g fat, 12g carbs and 30g of protein.

For those of you that reside in Australia the choices change slightly too:
A Beef Burger: 250 calories, 8g fat, 25g carbs, 18g protein or a Herb Fusion Chicken Salad: 100 calories, 2g fat, 3g carbs 20g protein.

Excellent breakfast selections would include an Egg McMuffin which gives your body 300 calories, 12 grams of fat, 30g carbs and 18 grams of protein. Possibly a Sausage Burrito including 300 calories, 16g fat, 26g carbs, 12grams of protein or If you are looking for just a snack then how about the Fruit ‘n Yogurt Parfait which beaks down into 160 calories, 2g fat, 31g carbs, 4g protein.

Ih ope that shows you that you can indeed get a decent muscle building snack even at a fast food restaurant such as McDonalds. Of course it would be better to allocate some time for planning decent meals throughout the week but if you can’t do this then the above selections should be a good guide and on some level help you burn the fat feed the muscle.

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Unfortunately alcohol interferes with many chemical reactions in the body that are productive in order to build muscle up. The effects of alcohol are felt by the body for at least a couple of days as it is metabolised very slowly and can in fact affect performance up to 48 hours after the last glass. 

Just two normal drinks of alcohol can reduce reaction time, lower strength levels, interfere with balance and hand eye co-ordination and increase fatigue. Clearly as a sportsmen all of these will directly affect your performance and as a bodybuilder these will only inhibit your ability to build muscle up.

The liver processes alcohol at the expense of glycogen which is the carbohydrate and fuel for the body therefore leaving the body with less energy and more fatigued. Increased fatigue is caused by this. The muscle growth of the body will inevitably suffer when the cellular functions of the body cannot operate efficiently.

Alcohol causes dehydration as it interferes with the electrolytes and fluid inside the kidneys. The kidneys are responsible for regulation of supplying cells with nutrients for growth and repair and also for cellular waste removal.To process alcohol the kidneys have to filter water vast amounts of water from various parts of the body including the brain, this may dehydrate the body and scupper attempts at athletic performance and muscle building training sessions.

Tachycardia can be caused (which is an abnormally fast heart beat) when consuming alcohol as alcohol raises the individuals blood pressure. Furthermore alcohol reduces the quality of your sleep which is when the body should be growing. It also depletes the amount of vitamins and minerals that the body can absorb, which in turn have important roles in enzymatic and metabolic functions for muscle growth.

Affected greatly will also be the brains thought processes. If the amount of glycogen that makes it to the brain is not adequate then slow dioriented thinking will of then be the result. Unfortunately alcoholic drinks can cause a decrease in your motivation and drive which of course is crucial for success in any field!

So bearing all this in mind, clearly if you are seriously want to build up muscle then you are going to have to lay of the alcohol. Even the recommended daily amount effects the body adversely! Beyond the scope of this article are the many and varied effects on the body of alcohol consumption.

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