Do You Know How To Gain Muscle Fast?

By Vince DelMonte

<>Could you teach me how to gain muscle fast? Could you teach me how to pack on an extra ten to fifteen pounds of muscle mass before my next vacation? Could you help me get ready for my first bodybuilding or fitness model competition? Could you help me look like someone who actually lifts weights? Could you help me build a body that turns heads and demands respect?

<>As a skinny guy muscle building expert, I get approached these questions daily in my office. Every single hard gainer I consult with wants to know how to gain muscle fast and how to do safely and effectively.

<>Hard gainers, please listen up! There is hope for you. I am happy to say that learning how to gain muscle fast is not as hard as some would make you believe but it also not as easy as you might think. But you must be prepared to train smarter and not harder. Don't get me wrong, I'm not talking about wimping out during your workouts. I am referring to the big picture of training more intelligently.

<>Here is some of the most popular advice I give to the hard gainer when he wishes to gain muscle fast.

1. Never Perform More Than 10 Reps.

<>If you are lifting weights beyond 10 reps than you are emphasizing your slow-twitch muscle fibers which have the smallest opportunity for muscle growth. You are a hard gainer and you need recruit the maximal amount of muscle fibers in every set. Always choose your weights knowing that a 11th rep is forbidden and trespassing into 'skinny land.'

If you really want to gain muscle fast than get your mind into heavy lifting mode. Every single set and every single exercise. Keep the weights heavy and never more than 10 reps. Approach every workout knowing that you are going to be venturing into new territory and waging war on your skinny genetics. I recommend these workouts with a workout partner so you can eliminate any safety issues, not slack off and push your limits every inch of the way.

2. Reduce Your Workout Time

Perform more work in less time and you have increased your work capacity. Work refers to the number of sets, reps and poundage within your workout. Who is fitter? The guy who can do 4 sets of 185 pounds bench press with 30 second rest or the guy who can do 4 sets of 185 pound bench press with 90 second rest? The one who can do the same amount of work in less time. Guess who is more muscular? The one who has a higher work capacity.

Next time you enter the gym, try to complete your current workout in less time. Take shorter rests. Move from one exercise to the next much quicker. Don't be surprised if you feel out of shape! This is one of the easiest tips you can take away to increase your muscle density and take your fitness to a new level. Be prepared to humble yourself and get out of your comfort zone.

3. Do Only One Exercise Per Muscle Group

Only one? Yes, only one, unless you want to buy into the notion that you must mutilate a muscle for over an hour to get any growth out of it. Consider this typical day in the gym. Today is your chest day. Your first exercise is bench press. You perform your first set with 185 lbs, second set with 205 lbs, third set with 225 lbs and fourth set with 245 lbs.

Assuming this is your max weight for the desired number of reps, is it not safe to say that you have used the maximal number of muscle fibers? Your goal is to simply spark your muscles into growth. Not exhaust them to death. Once they experience a unknown assault (stimulus), your body will be forced to adapt and create new muscle to prevent future assaults! Therefore, your take home lesson is this: Once you have out performed your last workout, it is time to move onto the next exercise.

4. Do No More Than 3-5 Sets Per Muscle Group

I question a hard gainers workout intensity if they must do more than 3-5 sets per muscle group. Now if you are using anabolic steroids or have muscle friendly genes than you can safely dismiss this advice. Remember, learning how to gain muscle fast for the hard gainer requires following a new set of rules.

Consider the first 1-2 sets at 85% maximal effort. The third set at 95% maximal effort and the fourth (and sometimes fifth) set at 100% maximal effort. It is only this last all out set that contributes to the greatest muscle growth. Anything over and above this last go till you blow set simply exhausts the muscle beyond reason and delays your recovery ability to hit the muscle again. It is this last set that you should perform at least 1-2 extra reps or 5-10 extra pounds than last workout. Mission accomplished. You have sparked your muscles into growth. Time to move on.

5. Increase Your Strength 5% Every Two Weeks

One of the biggest mistakes I see hard gainers make in the gym is not track their progress. They return week-after-week to simply rehearse the same workouts with the absence of progress. How do you expect to gain muscle fast if you continue to lift the same weights each workout? Your body is designed to tolerate stress. Assault it and let it get bigger. Assault it and let it get bigger. It's a simple concept.

So your take home message is to aim for a minimum of 5% strength increase every two weeks. You might progress a little quicker with larger muscle groups like back and legs versus smaller muscles like biceps and triceps. Just think, in six months from now, you will be over twice as strong as you are now! I would actually recommend writing down your strength goals for six months from now and than work backwords. If you are currently dead lifting 135 lbs, aim to be deadlifting 270 lbs over the next few months!

Conclusion

I know these five tips were not your typical Muscle and Fitness 101 advice and not your typical generic bodybuilding advice. I learned a long time ago to question everything you read and hear. Learn for yourself by doing and not by talking about it. As a skinny guy once myself, 149 lbs to be exact, I defeated my skinny genetics and learned how to gain muscle fast by not following the herd and training smarter and not harder Will you?

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About the Author:

Vince DelMonte is the author of No Nonsense Muscle Building: Skinny Guy Secrets To Insane Muscle Gain found at http://www.VinceDelMonteFitness.com/

He specializes in teaching skinny guys how to build muscle and gain weight quickly without drugs, supplements and training less than before.

How To Look Like A Female Fitness Model

By Vince DelMonte

Do you pass by the magazine stands in the store and envy the bodies of the cover models? More and more women today are coveting this body type; strong and muscular while still being feminine. Gone are the days where strong women are seen as too masculine and unattractive. The female fitness body is here to stay.

Now, curves are back so long as they are created with muscle mass and have a softer appearance. Hot celebrities such as Jessica Biel and Jessica Alba are now gracing the covers showing off their new curves. What's more is that these women are garnering a great deal of male attraction - much more than their thinner counterparts such as Lindsay Lohan or Victoria Beckham.

Luckily, if you make some smart changes to your workout program you can get yourself on the road to looking like the next female fitness model, maybe even covermodel!

First things first. Pink Weights.

If you want to add sexy curves to your body, you need not be afraid of heavier weights. Don't worry, you are not going to bulk up and begin bearing resemblance to Vin Diesel, as women simply do not have the testosterone in their bodies to be able to do this. In fact, in a very good situation, assuming sound training and great nutrition, a woman would be lucky to put on about half a pound of muscle mass per month. Not quite as scary as you thought right? And that is assuming everything is done right… many will experience a slower rate yet.

The problem with pink weights is that for most of you, they aren't challenging! You'd be surprised at how strong you already are if you'd just push yourself that little extra bit. So next time you're in the gym, pick up a ten pound dumbbell or if you're really ambitious, go for fifteen. You'll start noticing your body changing more in the next few weeks than in the last few years you've spent slaying away on the stairmaster.

Weights have the power to completely transform your body. They will make you a smaller, yet curvier version of your body now.

Don't be alarmed at your scale weight though as upon weight training your body weight may go up. Relax however, because one pound of muscle takes up much less space on your body than one pound of bodyfat does, therefore you may weigh more, but you will look smaller.

Next comes cardio.

Women have this tendency to just gravitate towards the cardio section of the gym. Whether it is the best place to check out the men lifting or it feels safer to them, whatever the reason, they go there and stay there - for hours at a time.

This is something that has to change. Think about how many hours of your life you've spent on that treadmill, stairmaster or elliptical machine. Do you really look that much different because of it? I'm guessing probably not.

Not only that, but how many of you put in your hour while watching TV or reading your favourite magazine? This is probably a good indicator that you aren't quite working as hard as you could be.

The truth of the matter is that your body will quickly adapt to all that cardio training that you are doing. So while before you might have burned a hundred calories running a mile, now you are only burning 80. Unless you continually add more and more time to get the same calorie burn, it is going to stop being an effective fat loss tool. And when you're already doing six hours a week, who really wants to spend MORE time doing cardio?

The secret is changing the format of your cardio from that of a comfortable steady-state session to one that's composed of high intensity intervals that will really kick you out of your comfort zone - and blast away body fat as well.

This is by far a more productive form of cardio to be doing so rather than wasting another hour of your life not really getting anywhere, next time you're in the gym for cardio, do twenty minutes, alternating thirty seconds going as hard as you possibly can with a minute and a half at a much easier pace to recover. It will be hard - I warn you. Stick with it for one month however and you will be extremely happy you did.

Now. Bring on the carbs.

Have you grown a love-hate relationship with carbohydrates? You love the way they taste but don't like the number they're doing to your waist. Understandable - many women feel this way.

The key thing to remember with carbohydrates is that they are not necessarily 'evil', so long as the portion size you eat remains under control and you are timing them properly. To have carbohydrates working most effectively for you, it is critical that you time them before and after your workouts. This is when your muscles are going to need the energy and will rapidly soak them up!

So if you're craving a bagel, have at it, but enjoy it right after you've finished a hard lifting session, as described above.

Get rid of your fat phobia.

One critical thing that many women do not understand is that in order to lose fat, they must eat fat. Women in particular actually tend to do better on a higher fat diet than males do. This has to do with their hormonal make-up and the way their body functions and responds to various macronutrient levels.

How many times have you reached for the cookies on the shelves, solely because they were 'fat-free' so you thought they'd be a safe dieting food? This was a terrible mistake.

When you remove the fat out of products, often times manufacturers will begin to add in extra sugar to make up for the taste. Newsflash. Extra sugar sends insulin levels skyrocketing and guess what insulin is? The fat storage hormone. So, what you need to do is try and minimize the amount of insulin surges you create throughout the day, while staying within your total calorie budget. Do this and you will have your best defence against warding off both hunger and fat gain.

Now, guess which macronutrient has the least effect on insulin levels? That's right - dietary fat.

So do not be so scared of consuming fat in your diet. It will help you deal with hunger and help your food taste better. Ideally you should be aiming to get no less than 25-30% of your calories coming from a combination of healthy fats (fish oil is particularly important).

Work Those Glutes

Finally, the one body part that most women usually will say they want to improve upon is their glutes. That curvy, sexy backside appearance tops the list of many gymgoers and in order to achieve this you are going to have to be doing the right exercises.

Concentrate on adding heavy-weight lunges, one legged squats, hamstring curls and ass-to-the-ground squats into your program. These are your fast track to a great behind. You can do all the cardio you want to try and get it, but unfortunately, all that might do is make you a smaller version of your exact same self. If you want to change the way you look, then you need to change the way you train.

So next time you pass by one of those covermodels and start dreaming about what it would be like to have that body - make it a reality for you. Many women are capable of making great improvements to their bodies if they would just stop with the training methods they are currently using and get on ones that are much more in tune with their goals.

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About the Author:

Vince DelMonte is the author of No Nonsense Muscle Building : Skinny Guy Secrets To Insane Muscle Gain found at http://www.VinceDelMonteFitness.com/

He teaches males and females how to develop a fitness model body without supplements, drugs and training less than before.

Learn How To Build Muscle In 4 Simple Steps

By Vince DelMonte

<>Are you sick and tired of everyone telling you a different way to build muscle? Are you unhappy with how you look in the mirror? Are you frustrated with your slow progress in the gym? Are you ready to learn four simple steps that will teach you how to build muscle safely and effectively?

There is a good chance that you are not maximizing one of these four steps. Your problem and solution lies in correcting these essential steps before you have any chance of building a muscular and lean physique.

Get read to learn how to build muscle in four simple steps, in less time, without any drugs and without bogus supplements.

Step #1

Commit to lifting weights at least three to four times per week. Your goal is to stimulate your muscles with resistance (stress) which results in your muscles growing bigger to avoid the stress from occuring again. Once you go home, let the muscle heal through nutrition and rest, it will grow bigger and you will repeat this process again. Ideally you should hit your muscles once every 72 hours so you could perform 2 upper body workouts per week and 2 lower body workouts per week.

Step #2

Focus on eating at least 5-7x a day with balanced meals from carbohydrates, proteins and fats. If your goal is to build muscle than you should be eating at least 15-18 x your current body weight. Your carbohydrates should equate about 45% of your intake, your proteins should equate about 35% of your intake and your fat should be the remaining 20% of your intake. You should focus on over half of those meals being solid whole food meals and the remainder can be liquid meal replacement shakes.

Step #3

You should focus on stretching at least half the amount that you lift weights. One of the biggest mistakes I see is people training, training and training with out any stretching. Stretching helps restore normal length to the tissue and if you are constantly training, your muscle tissues will shorten and big to perform weaker and slower and have a higher incidence of injuries. So if you are lifting weights 4 hours in the week, at least an additional 2 hours should be dedicated to stretching. You must counteract the shortening of the muscle tissues that occurs with weights or else you are a injury screaming to happen.

Step #4

Avoid supplements that have not been around for longer than 3 years. I learned this philosophy from an Australian strength coach who recommended not trying any supplement until it has been around at least 3 years to pass the test of time. This will make your life much easier and help you avoid all the marketing hoopla in the latest fitness and bodybuilding magazine. If you follow this rule, you will discover only a small handful of supplements still standing. Here are the ones you should not go with out: a high quality multi-vitamin, fish oil capsules, powdered creatine and a protein powder. These products will cover your nutritional basis for health, healthy body composition, strength and muscle mass.

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About the Author:

Vince DelMonte is the author of No Nonsense Muscle Building: Skinny Guy Secrets To Insane Muscle Gain found at http://www.VinceDelMonteFitness.com/

He specializes in teaching skinny guys how to build muscle and gain weight quickly without drugs, supplements and training less than before.