Getting to know your muscular Body

Aside from the diet, it is also important to know the anatomy of your body. There are two basic sections of the body; the upper and lower. The upper body consists of the neck, shoulders, trapezius, pectorals (pecs), abdomen (abs), deltoids, lower back and lats (upper back). The lower body consists of the hamstrings, quadriceps, and calves. By the way, as a side note, muscle is muscle, and muscle burns fat, it doesn’t matter where the muscle is on your body. You also need to know that there are two types of muscle fibers, slow twitch and fast twitch. The slow twitch muscles are primarily used in aerobic situations. They are not as quick as fast twitch muscles, but they can hold their energy longer. Fast twitch muscles are responsible for anaerobic respiration. These muscles are like your sprint muscles, they are very strong for a short time, and then lose their energy.

When you work out, you are basically making microscopic tears in your muscles. Many people have probably heard of lactic acid. Many people believe that lactic acid is the cause of muscle soreness, but this is not the case. Lactic acid is a cause for immediate soreness of your muscles, after things such as a hard sprint, but as for the soreness you feel in your muscles 2 to 3 days after you workout, that is not due to lactic acid. The real reason for the soreness in your muscles is slightly debatable. However, most people believe that they tears in your muscles is what cause your muscles to be sore. Anyways, these muscle tears are going to cause you to build muscles mass. These tears are going to be filled with protein and make the muscle bigger and stronger when it grows back. So now that we know a little bit about our body, lets jump into some exercises.

Muscle Mass Equipment

If you seriously want to see muscle mass gains, then I recommend joining a gym. Generally gym memberships cost around $20 to $40 per month, and occasionally have a membership fee. Personally, my favorite gym is LA fitness. All of its equipment, free weights and available activities make it easy for me to build muscles, sculpt my body, and have fun in the process. You can also join 24 hour fitness, which is a cheaper, but doesn’t have all the fun activities that LA fitness has (i.e. basketball, racquetball, swimming, etc.).

For those of you who prefer to stay at home to work out, there are upsides and downsides to that as well. First off, if you choose to workout at home, you are going to need all of your own gym equipment. While I am going to show you many workouts that only require body weight, if you are serious about gaining muscle mass, I suggest purchasing all the equipment to do so. The advantages of having a home gym is that there are no monthly fees and you don’t have to drive anywhere to workout.

If you decide to work out from home, I suggest buying a home gym. Home gyms come with a full package and are generally cheaper than buying all the equipment separately. You can generally buy home gyms at big 5 or other stores.

One home gym that I have heard many great things about is the bowflex. The nice thing about the Bowflex is that the resistance training gives your muscles something unique to work on, and will force many muscles to work together to push the weight. While the Bowflex is great, they only thing I am not fond if is it is kind of limiting in that you can’t just pick the weights up and start working. It is also a bit on the expensive side. However, I would still recommend it to anyone who wants a gym right in their home. It is a good size, and you can really gain some serious muscle mass with it.

Some other gear I recommend is just a few pairs of sweats or shorts, a towel, 1 or 2 water bottles , a deadlift belt and some workout gloves (I highly recommend the gloves, especially after lat pulldowns). And that’s basically it as far as equipment goes.

Tracking your progress

You will never know how well you are doing if you don’t track progress. Tracking progress of your muscle mass gains is extremely important, but many people forget to do it. If you are serious about gaining muscle, then you need to constantly track your progress from your workouts. You should track weight and strength every time you workout. When I say strength, I mean you need to track the weight, reps, and sets of each exercise (I will show you how to do this later). You also need to test and record your body fat percentage and take measurements of your biceps, forearms, legs (thighs), and torso once a month on a regular basis. Lastly, I recommend taking pictures of yourself every 3 to 6 months. These pictures should be from the front and back with your arms on your hips and in the “bicep flexing” position. Then a picture from the side with your hands down and turned toward the camera. For men these pictures should be taken without a shirt. And for girls, these pictures should be taken with a sports bra on.

The pictures are a great way to keep you motivated and show you that you are actually working toward your muscle building goals. This way you can see the physical muscle gains, and not just the numbers to back it up. So, that is really all you need to know about tracking your process working out (this does not include the diet book, which I will discuss later). All it really requires is a journal or spiral notebook. This can be the same notebook that you write your goals in.

Setting Goals

After you decide that you want to take the challenge of trying to find some muscle mass gains, now it’s time to set some goals. When I say set goals, this is something that I really recommend spending time on. Muscle mass is something that takes time, and can be very frustrating. You really need something that you can go to for inspiration if you don’t see immediate muscle. A good place to learn how to write goals is a book called “Think and Grow Rich”. While this book is intended for business owners, it is still a great book for those who want to learn how to set goals and accomplish them.

Building muscle is very hard work. Especially for those of you who want to gain muscle mass, it is very hard to do. When you do set goals, you need to write them down. There are 3 types of goals:

1. Short Term – 1 to 4 weeks

2. Mid range – 1 to 6 months

3. Long Term – 6 months to a year

You need to set goals in all three categories. Usually start by setting a few short term goals, and make new ones at least every 3 weeks. Examples of short term goals are increasing weight on an exercise, increasing reps or even gaining a few pounds. You should also set maybe three or four mid range goals, making new ones every few months. These mid range goals should be more for things like body fat percentage, muscle size or weight. Make at least 2 long term goals. These goals should be very similar to the mid range goals, mainly because you should see the mid range goals as small checkpoints to these long term goals. When you write the mid range and long term goals, write out the goal, then write exactly how you are going to accomplish them. The short term goals will generally be fulfilled when you actually workout. Read the goals every single day in the morning and before you workout. This generally takes only a minute or two, but is very important. So go write out your goals right now!