Many moons ago when people asked me how to build muscle fast I told them that they had to squat, deadlift and bench press. That was before I injured my own shoulder and saw it happen to countless others. It happened again yesterday. My friend and ex training partner called and told me he tore his rotator cuff while benching heavy over the weekend. This did not come as shocking news. This bench press has been injuring shoulders and tearing pecs since the first time it was ever performed.

Back in the golden days of the Iron Game, when the military press was the main upper body exercise of choice, nobody ever heard of rotator cuff injuries or pec tears. It was only after the bench press achieved extreme popularity that shoulders and pecs started getting obliterated at record rates.

The bottom position of a heavy bench press puts your shoulders in a very vulnerable and dangerous position. Some people can tolerate this for decades. For others it will only take a few years. But sooner or later it’s bound to happen. It’s really not a question of if, but when. The flat bench press will eventually lead to some kind of shoulder problems or pec tear in the majority of lifters who do it heavy enough and long enough.

Like a lot of you, I have always been obsessed with learning more about how to build muscle fast, and the bench press has long been a staple in popular mass building programs. For years I proudly proclaimed it to be a great size and strength building lift and measure of upper body power. Nothing made me happier than helping one of my athletes add 50 pounds to his bench in the off season and watching him go to camp and destroy the competition.

But after 20 years in the game, having been witness to far too many injuries resulting from the flat bench press and getting my own shoulder cut open recently, I have finally had to look myself in the mirror and admit the truth that I have been hesitant to come to grips with for far too long…

Bench pressing sucks!

I have discussed this issue with many of the worlds top shoulder specialists in recent months and they are all in full agreement.

That’s not to say that you can never bench again. I know many of you will refuse to stop and I can relate to that mindset. If you get tested on the bench or compete in powerlifting, of course you have to do it. For the rest of you, who still love to press big weights and impress your friends and gym members I recommend you do so with extreme caution.

Make sure your technique is picture perfect and you bring the bar down to the right spot while properly activating your upper back and lat muscles. Secondly, don’t use the flat bench for more than 4-6 weeks without switching to a safer version of a barbell press like an incline or floor press.

The smartest route, however, is to get rid of this destructive exercise forever. There are far more effective movements that will build mind blowing strength and size in your chest, shoulders and triceps while saving you years of frustrating and costly injuries.

While the bench press is probably the most dangerous exercise most of you are doing on a regular basis, it is not the only harmful one. Unfortunately many of you are probably doing damage to other body parts without even realizing it.

To learn how to build muscle fast and to discover the most effective and safest exercises that will replace the bench press and many other useless movements, check out MuscleGainingSecrets.com today… before it’s too late.

Train smart,
Jason Ferruggia

Jason Ferruggia is a world famous fitness expert who is renowned for his ability to help people build muscle as fast as humanly possible. He is the head training adviser for Men’s Fitness Magazine where he also has his own monthly column dedicated to muscle building. For more How to Build Muscle Fast tips, check out musclegainingsecrets.com

I often wonder how guys were even able to workout before internet training forums were around. I mean if you can’t visit 469 different message boards per day and post your muscle building workout in order to get the approval from at least half the world’s population before hitting the gym that day how could you ever make progress? It’s bewildering to me.

Or where would the variety in your training come from? Everyone knows the fastest way to make gains is to mindlessly, blindly and without reason switch on a monthly basis from the Russian Pyramid Scheme to Indonesian Drop Sets to Hungarian Hypertrophy Training to German Volume Training and so on and so on. Right?

Oh, the insanity…

There are a few very important factors that need to be remembered if you are interested in muscle building.

Consistency, dedication, commitment are three of the most important.

You have to be willing to put in the time and pay your dues. You have to pick a plan and stick with it. Results won’t come overnight. You have to be patient and consistent. If you are trying to get bigger and stronger you have to add weight to the bar; AS OFTEN AS POSSIBLE. You have to eat way beyond the point of being uncomfortable. I’m talking about having a fork in your mouth for the majority of your waking hours. There are some guys who will argue that you can gain size on a caloric intake at or slightly above maintenance. They will talk about “dry muscle” and other nonsense. This is good advice to follow if you want to remain a pencil necked geek forever. If you want to gain size as rapidly as humanly possible you have to eat inordinate amounts of food and lift incredibly heavy weights. There is no way around it.

If you don’t want to get fat in the process you should do cardio, time your carb intake and make healthy food choices. Although the truth of the matter is if you allow yourself to get fat while getting bigger you will reach your goal faster. More calories, more weight gain and better leverages to lift heavier poundages will lead to faster hypertrophy gains. It won’t be the prettiest look in the world but you can slowly diet the extra fat off later. That’s the fastest way. I’m not saying it’s the most attractive option for everyone. But you’ll get big and strong in a hurry. If you try to stay under 8% bodyfat year round while trying to gain size, you’re going to be in for a long battle ahead.

Decide what it is that you really want to accomplish with your training and do it. Don’t over analyze everything because I can promise you that you’ll never get anywhere. Don’t question it. Don’t think about it. Just pick a solid, proven training plan that has a good track record of success and stick with it. For at least 8 weeks. Don’t ask everyone you meet what they think of your training program or what they are doing. Just commit to making the fastest gains possible in the next 8 weeks, train hard and heavy, eat a lot and you’ll be blown away by the progress you can make when you actually believe in yourself and what you are doing.

For a proven muscle building program that will remove all the guesswork for you and has helped thousands of guys get huge and strong in a hurry click HERE now.

Jason Ferruggia is a world famous fitness expert who is renowned for his ability to help people build muscle as fast as humanly possible. He is the head training adviser for Men’s Fitness Magazine where he also has his own monthly column dedicated to muscle building. For more How to Build Muscle Fast tips, check out musclegainingsecrets.com

Let’s be honest. Everybody wants to improve the way they look. I don’t know of too many people that don’t want to build muscle fast or lose more fat in a hurry. It’s just human nature. You want to appeal to the opposite sex and command respect from you peers. Personally, I am obsessed with performance gains and train for strength and function first and foremost, but even I would be lying if I said I didn’t want to look better. We all do.

But wanting and doing are two entirely different things. Everyone wants to dramatically transform their physiques and make mind blowing gains, but how many people actually do? How many people do you know that build muscle fast and get absolutely jacked in the course of even a one year period? Very few. And do you know why? Because they don’t have the right mindset. Change your mindset and you will change your body. With the right mindset you can make gains in as little as 12 weeks that other guys don’t even make in 12 years!

People who have made unbelievable physical transformations first accepted the fact that it wasn’t going to be a walk in the park and they were willing to work for it and do whatever it took. That’s not to say that it takes an incredible amount of time. You don’t have to spend every waking hour in the gym. You can progress incredibly well in just a few short hours per week. But if you don’t possess the proper mindset and the determination to do whatever it takes during those three or four weekly hours of training you will never get anywhere.

We all have commitments and time restraints that prevent us from working out as much as we would like to. But lack of time never was and never will be an acceptable excuse. If you search hard enough and cut out the wasted hours of TV time and other useless nonsense, you will find that we all have two or three hours per week to dedicate to our health and to transforming our bodies. After all, what is more important in life than your health and your body? Very little if you ask me.

Guys like Arthur Saxon, Dorian Yates, Arnold, Bill Pearl, George Hackenshmidt and Ed Coan all had the never-say-die, take-no-prisoners attitude that is an absolute prerequisite of massive physical transformation. Bill Pearl found that he was so busy that he had to rise at 4am every day just to get his workouts in. But that’s what it took, so he did it happily.

It doesn’t require fancy machinery and a high tech gym, it doesn’t take a lot of time each week, it doesn’t take any over hyped, over priced supplements; but it does take hard work, dedication and a burning desire to be the best. If you think you are going to loaf through your workouts and make head turning changes to your physique you are simply lying to yourself.

Will be this be the day when you finally make the mindset change necessary to achieve greatness or will you just keep putting it off ‘til tomorrow?

For a simple to follow, step by step plan that will motivate you beyond your wildest dreams and finally help you build muscle fast and get in the best shape of your life, while spending less than three hours per week in the gym, check out MuscleGainingSecrets.com now.

Jason Ferruggia is a world famous fitness expert who is renowned for his ability to help people build muscle as fast as humanly possible. He is the head training adviser for Men’s Fitness Magazine where he also has his own monthly column dedicated to muscle building. For more How to Build Muscle Fast tips, check out musclegainingsecrets.com

Everywhere you go today you find more and more people who are dealing with increasing stress levels. Excess stress leads to excess cortisol production and lowers your testosterone and growth hormone secretion, which of course makes muscle building nearly impossible and leaves you with a lot more bodyfat; not to mention a decreased sex drive, the inability to relax or focus and a whole bunch of other problems like decreased immune response and higher frequency of injuries.

For centuries, meditation has been known to reduce stress and relax the mind thus greatly improving your overall health and physical appearance. By decreasing your stress levels you will automatically increase your muscle building dramatically. You will immediately experience greater energy, tighter pumps in the gym, faster muscle building and improved recovery. You will find your sex drive rapidly increasing and you will be able to focus and experience a whole new level of clarity.

Most gym rats, lifters and other fitness obsessed individuals have largely ignored the benefits of meditation and the dramatic muscle building impact it can have on your training and your well being. Recently I was turned on to the Holosync Meditation CD’s and the results were dramatic within just the first few days. These are the only mediation CD’s out there that actually work. In the past I have experimented with other meditation programs but never seemed to get anything out of them. This program is completely different. Several friends and clients that I have recommended the program to have all noticed great benefits including improved performance in their muscle building workouts.

I have always been an intense person who can get a little too stressed out sometimes. Recently, I have made some drastic changes in my life that have helped me reduce my stress levels. The Holosync Meditation CD’s have played a large part in my recent transformation. I use these CD’s every night and really look forward to my meditation sessions. I usually listen to them immediately after my workout and find that it helps me relax and accelerates my recovery. I have also noticed a marked improvement in my productivity since starting the program, which was a very nice surprise.

I can’t recommend the Holosync Meditation CD’s highly enough and sincerely think that everyone should give this program a shot ASAP. You will not be disappointed and your life will be a lot better for it.

Jason Ferruggia is a world famous fitness expert who is renowned for his ability to help people build muscle as fast as humanly possible. He has trained thousands of clients during his 14 years as a professional fitness coach, including more than 500 athletes from over 20 different sports. Jason has written hundreds of articles for numerous top rated training magazines and websites and has authored four fitness books. He is also the head training adviser for Men’s Fitness Magazine where he also has his own monthly column dedicated to muscle building. For more great muscle building information, please visit musclegainingsecrets.com

My favorite muscle building cardio workout is to get up and go for a half hour walk before breakfast. I usually do this about four or five days per week and I do it for a few reasons. First of all, I do it for cardiovascular health. Too many people simply lift weights and ignore all the other components of fitness. I do it first thing in the morning because I know that if I start my day by checking email or doing some other sort of work the likelihood of me walking later in the day is very low. I get up and get it done immediately so it’s out of the way. Also, it increases my appetite and seems to stoke my metabolism for the day.

This allows me to eat more with less likelihood of adding bodyfat. It also helps wake me up, clears my head, gives me time to think and packs my lungs full of fresh air, which is incredibly important during the winter when everyone around you is sick as a dog 24/7. I believe this is one of the many things I do that keeps me healthy.

There are a lot of hills in my neighborhood so it’s pretty easy to get the heart pumping. If you don’t live in a hilly area and are in decent shape you will probably need to wear a weighted vest or drag a sled. If you opt to wear a weight vest, which I do some mornings, depending on the route I take, be sure that you don’t get overzealous and add too much weight too soon.

You have to remember that if you are walking for thirty minutes you are going to be taking a lot of steps. Each of those steps will add up to stress on your ankles, knees, hips and spine. So start with no more than ten pounds on the vest and try to keep the majority of the weight in the back instead of split evenly. Slowly, over time you can add a few pounds per week. Personally, I wouldn’t recommend ever adding more than 30 or 40 pounds to the vest if you are going to be walking for a half hour.

It should be noted that the more muscle mass you have the more calories you will burn when you walk. In fact, legendary bodybuilder and multiple time Mr. Olympia winner, Dorian Yates used walking as his only muscle building cardio workout to get him down to single digit bodyfat percentages before contests. That was because he carried nearly 300 pounds of muscle on his six foot frame. If you aren’t quite as jacked up as the Diesel, walking alone will probably never get you shredded. You are going to have to build more muscle or you are going to need some sprints and more intense methods to get the job done.

If you do decide to start walking on a regular basis for your muscle building cardio, please remember that one of the major benefits is getting outside and breathing heavy in the fresh air. Whatever you do, DO NOT walk on a treadmill. This is by far the most ridiculous invention in the history of the planet. There are roads, hills, sidewalks, woods, mountains and fields everywhere across the world. And there is no way that you can honestly tell me that you can’t find somewhere else to walk but on a treadmill.

Jason Ferruggia is a world famous fitness expert who is renowned for his ability to help people build muscle as fast as humanly possible. He has trained thousands of clients during his 14 years as a professional fitness coach, including more than 500 athletes from over 20 different sports. Jason has written hundreds of articles for numerous top rated training magazines and websites and has authored four fitness books. He is also the head training adviser for Men’s Fitness Magazine where he also has his own monthly column dedicated to muscle building. For more great muscle building information, please visit musclegainingsecrets.com

These days it’s very trendy to use bands and chains for building muscle and strength. Several years back, I got caught up using chains and bands with almost everyone in my gym. After a couple years of doing this I realized that nobody was progressing any faster than they were before. It occurred to me that what we were doing was overkill and from then on, I kept the chains and bands reserved for only the strongest members of my gym. Now I don’t use them at all (or at least in that sense).

The fact is that there is no need to use bands or chains unless you are extremely strong. If your max squat is 225, squatting with bands and chains isn’t going to do much for you in the way of building muscle or gaining strength. In fact, it will be detrimental to your progress. Tons of people have gotten inhumanly strong for decades without ever using bands or chains and plenty of guys continue to do so today.

Unless you are capable of doing a full back squat, all the way to ground with no belt and pristine technique with 500lbs, you have absolutely no business using bands or chains. These are advanced tools to pull out of the toolbox only at the times when you really need them. During your first several years of training all you need is a hammer and nail. Don’t search deeper in the toolbox for something you don’t need yet. If you get to 545lbs and plateau there for a while then maybe it’s time to pull out the chains and bands. But not before then. The problem is that when you incorporate advanced methods before you need them you miss out on the potential huge gains that they could provide later on down the road when you really need them.

So layoff the bands and chains until you are really advanced and stick with more tools for building muscle, at least until your strength levels are at the point where the entire gym stops to watch when you squat or deadlift.

Jason Ferruggia is a world famous fitness expert who is renowned for his ability to help people build muscle as fast as humanly possible. He has trained thousands of clients during his 14 years as a professional fitness coach, including more than 500 athletes from over 20 different sports. Jason has written hundreds of articles for numerous top rated training magazines and websites and has authored four fitness books. He is also the head training adviser for Men’s Fitness Magazine where he also has his own monthly column dedicated to muscle building. For more great muscle building information, please visit musclegainingsecrets.com

One of the most frequent email requests I get is for a description of my vegetarian muscle building diet. Since there is such great interest in this topic I thought I would share it with you today.

Breakfast- My day always starts with a shake. This will normally consist of rice, pea or hemp protein, or some combination of the three. I blend 30-40 grams of protein in 8oz of organic coconut milk and 8-12 oz water. I also blend in a banana, mixed frozen berries, a tablespoon of cacao nibs, and 2 tablespoons maca powder, which is tremendous for increased testosterone production and virility. This shake is absolutely delicious.

Snack- Some time a few hours later, I will have a few tangerines and some pistachios/cashews or a couple apples with almond butter. The fresh ground almond butter from Whole Foods is one my favorite things and I could easily eat an entire container in one sitting. Sometimes for a treat at night I mix it with organic honey and kill the entire container, washing it down with a cup of hemp or almond milk.

I am big fan of high sodium intake for strength and energy production so I always have a few pickles every day and add sea salt to much of food.

Lunch- This usually consists of some kind of legumes or beans, which are a mainstay in any vegetarian muscle building diet, with organic brown rice or quinoa. I will sauté black beans with peppers, tomatoes, onions and garlic and mix that in with the rice. I top it with salsa and some fresh avocado. That is my Mexican style rice and beans. Sometimes I just mix the beans and rice or quinoa with marinara sauce. I always cook enough for two days.

I will sometimes have a salad with that or eat some raw veggies or mix some steamed kale or spinach into the whole thing.

Occasionally I will have a couple almond butter and jelly sandwiches for lunch. I have cut out peanuts and peanut butter completely due to the deadly toxins that they contain, along with wheat because of it’s inflammatory properties, so these are not eaten as much as they used to be. I get some brown rice bread for the times I do eat these.

Snack- Similar to above. When I’m not near food I always carry Raw Organic Food Bars with me and a variety of nuts. If I am home and have had fruit for my first snack I try to make this snack raw veggies and hummus along with a decent amount of nuts.

I also drink another shake some time during the day which is usually right after I train. It is similar to the shake above except that I don’t include the coconut milk or the cacao but I do use the maca powder. I blend a banana, almond milk, water, frozen spinach (you don’t taste the spinach at all so this is nowhere near as gross as it sounds) with Vega and some extra protein.

During my workouts I drink coconut water or regular water. And I try to drink at least a half gallon of water throughout the day out glass or my Sigg bottle and do my best to avoid plastic because of the estrogenic effects. I also drink a couple cups of green tea each day.

Dinner- I normally cook some kind of stew consisting of a large variety of vegetables and some kind of legumes. For example, the other day I got home and all that we had was squash, onions, spinach and garlic. I threw it all in a pot with vegetable broth, salt, pepper and yellow peas, which have 10 grams of protein per ¼ cup (you would have to eat a lot of meat to equal the protein in two cups of yellow peas). I let that cook for 2 hours and then mixed in some quinoa. It was absolutely delicious. Other times we will mix brown rice in with a variety of other veggies and lentils. If I was trying to get lean I would probably skip the brown rice. Adding potatoes (even just one) to the stews makes them creamier and even more delicious.

I severely limit my soy consumption because of it’s estrogenic effects but for the occasional cheat meal I will have some tofu with brown rice or some kind of meat substitue with brown rice pasta.

I also eat soy and wheat free veggie burgers one or two nights per week and always have a huge spinach salad mixed with tomatoes, broccoli, olives, peppers, onions, carrots, apples, berries, nuts, seeds, avocado, and whatever else I can fit in there. I top that with olive oil, Vega oil and balsamic vinegar.

Dessert- Occasionally, when I am going to cheat I will have some organic coconut milk ice cream. This is, obviously, made with coconut milk and not cows milk. It is delicious and pretty healthy. Coconut milk contains healthy MCT’s and has none of the dangers of cows milk. It is sweetened with organic agave syrup. I highly recommend it.

The only other cheat dessert that I will regularly eat is organic, dark chocolate. This has been shown to have a variety of health benefits. The brands I buy are those that support slave free, fair trade practices. These include Newman’s Own, The Endangered Species Chocolate Company and Green and Blacks.

So that’s my vegetarian muscle building diet. It’s very easy to follow, and a whole lot healthier than eating pounds of red meat and saturated fat.

Jason Ferruggia is a world famous fitness expert who is renowned for his ability to help people build muscle as fast as humanly possible. He has trained thousands of clients during his 14 years as a professional fitness coach, including more than 500 athletes from over 20 different sports. Jason has written hundreds of articles for numerous top rated training magazines and websites and has authored four fitness books. He is also the head training adviser for Men’s Fitness Magazine where he also has his own monthly column dedicated to muscle building. For more great muscle building information, please visit musclegainingsecrets.com

Guns, jacks, pipes, hooks, pythons… Whatever you call them, the fact remains that most guys want bigger arms. While they are nowhere near as impressive as a big set of traps, you still don’t want to have and extra six inches of space in your shirt sleeves; that’s for sure.

So the question is how to build bigger arms? The answer is not as simple as you might assume. If it were easy, you would see tons of guys walking around with 18 inch arms. But that simply isn’t the case.

It’s been said over and over again that in order to add an inch to your upper arms you need to gain ten pounds of bodyweight. This advice has become gospel and it seems that nearly everyone agrees with this these days. Real world evidence shows that this is not the case, however. Walk into any public gym on a Monday night at five o’clock and you will see quite a few skinny guys, weighing no more than 170 pounds, who are sporting decent sized arms.

Many of them probably have not gained more than 10 or 15 pounds total since they started training but they all have put more than an inch or two on their arms. This is because localized hypertrophy/ muscle growth will take place if enough volume is present, without a large increase in bodyweight. Look at the calves on soccer players or the forearms on mechanics. But this only happens up to a certain point.

So these young guys read in some magazine about how to build bigger arms and start by doing ten sets of arms two or three days a week. The volume is enough to elicit a growth response and they may even get a good eight weeks out of this and a quick two inches of arm growth in the absence of any significant weight gain. Seems to defy the ten pounds per inch rule, right?

But what happens after that? Where do they go from there? The gains will halt and there will be absolutely no more arm growth whatsoever unless they make some drastic changes. And that is the pitfall of high volume training- where can you go when you plateau? Add more volume? At what cost? How much volume can you add? If ten sets isn’t enough should you try twenty? And then thirty? And eventually a hundred?

There’s nowhere to go with this approach. Like I said, it’s great for some quick gains on your arms but isn’t a long term approach. Once you hit a plateau you have no choice but to start lifting heavier weights and eating more. More weight on the bar and more food on your plate is the fastest way to increase the size of any body part. All the fancy supersets, drop sets, tri sets, pre exhaustion, post exhaustion techniques in the world won’t help in the least if you are not doing those two very important things.

Beginners can train the arms three times per week and intermediate and advanced lifters seem to do better training them twice per week. Stick with big exercises like close grip chin ups, barbell curls, hammer curls, towel curls, dumbbell curls, parallel bar dips, close grip benches, and lockouts. You shouldn’t need more than 2-4 sets of biceps and triceps twice per week to achieve optimal growth, providing that you are always increasing your loads and steadily adding more calories to your diet. After a couple of heavy sets finish your arm workout by getting the biggest pump possible with one or two higher rep sets.

For more information on how to build bigger arms and increase the size of every other body part, check out MuscleGainingSecrets.com now.

Train hard,
Jason Ferruggia

Jason Ferruggia is a world famous fitness expert who is renowned for his ability to help people build muscle as fast as humanly possible. He is the head training adviser for Men’s Fitness Magazine where he also has his own monthly column dedicated to muscle building. For more How to Build Muscle Fast tips, check out MuscleGainingSecrets.com

A few years ago I wrote my Athletic Body Workout.  You see, I know that most men want to look like a strong, lean athlete… NOT a bodybuilder.  And I figure the only reason these guys were still doing workouts based on bodybuilding was they didn’t know how to do an athletic workout.

I mean, who would knowingly do a workout that wasn’t designed to product the results they wanted?

Now, I am not claiming to be the cause… but I have noticed a switch to more athletic workouts over the past couple of years.  Trainers and exercisers alike have finally realized they need to train more like an athlete if they are to get the strong, lean, athletically muscular physique that performs as good as it looks. MaxWorkouts is such an athletic workout.

Here are some things I took from the site…

You Want To Look Like An Athlete?
Then You’d Better Start Training Like One.

This isn’t some run-of-the-mill training or body building program. Hardly.

What you will find here are short, intense, full-body workouts that get you a lean, defined, muscular, athletic physique. But it goes deeper than just looks. You’ll gain strength, power, and endurance — giving you the performance edge. So let’s talk about the main reasons why you should train like an athlete (even if you’re not one)…

1. Real Strength

Real strength isn’t just about being strong — it’s about the ability to perform at a higher level for any type of athletic event or even non-athletic activities. If you’re a weekend baller, wouldn’t it feel good to outrun or out rebound your competition instead of bolstering about how you just curled 135 lbs? How about being able to out sprint and outlast your competition for a game of touch football with the guys?

2. Increased Power & Performance

In the world of fitness and athletics, power and performance go hand in hand. When you combine the right elements in your workouts, you can produce a favorable neuroendocrine response — which has an eerily similar effect to that of taking growth hormones.

3. Build More Muscle & Burn More Fat

As I mentioned earlier, performing weight-bearing, full-body exercises in high intensity interval and circuit training formats is the single most effective way to skyrocket your power, lean muscle development, and fat-burning — getting you a lean, ripped, athletic body.

——————————————————————————–

So, if you’ve performed any of my workouts, like Athletic Body Workout or Gladiator Body Workout, then you know I love these kind of high-intensity, full body workouts that blur the lines between strength training and endurance conditioning.  And I not only believe this is the best way to train to increase performance and fitness… but also to achieve your athletic body goals as fast as possible. Let’s look at what some of Shin Ohtake’s customers had to say about the MaxWorkouts program…

If you are still struggling to reach your fitness, fat loss and athletic physique building goals I encourage you to start working out like an athlete. Be honest… is your workout program based on athletic workout, or are they some type of bodybuilding workout? Make the switch to a more athletic workout today, and you might just find this is the key to getting the RESULTS you want.

I just got an email from someone wanting to know how to train for an athletic body.  I see a lot of people struggling to understand how to get a more athletic looking and performing body, so I decided to answer the question here.

Here is an excerpt from the email…

i am trying to build a bit more muscle and tone what i have already got.

i am trying to get an athletic body.

should i do shoulders, back, chest, biceps, triceps and so on all in the same day.

or should i concentrate on each ones on different days. like biceps and triceps one day, back the next, chest the next, shoulders the next, and so on.

———————

Let me try to help you get an athletic body.

You want to get an athletic body, but it still looks like you are doing a bodybuilding style workout. When you split your body up into a lot of different (smaller) muscle groups and try to figure out how to design a workout to hit those muscles separately, you are training like a bodybuilder.

Bodybuilders DON”T have an athletic type body… so you don’t want to train like a bodybuilder if your goal is to look and perform like an athlete.

On the other hand… athletes train the whole body and focus on large muscle groups, or multiple muscle groups at the same time.  I would go so far as to say that an athletic workout should be a full body workout that blurs the lines between strength training and heart and lung conditioning.

I was just looking over a page called MaxWorkouts yesterday and doing a write up about it that I’m going to post here.  I think you should read it to get a feeling of what an athletic approach is.  Read about MaxWorkouts here!

I can give you an example from on of my own workout programs: Gladiator Body Workout.

The Gladiator Body Workout uses both dumbbells and bodyweight exercises.  There is nothing more athletic that using a combination of bodyweight and weighted exercise to challenge your entire body. So, first off… we are doing a full body workout with different types of resistance.

I have a full workout program there called The Above & Beyond Package.  (This should only be done after you build your athletic body with the Optimum Fitness & Physique Workouts).

What you’ll notice about these workouts is they combine dumbbell exercise, bodyweight exercise AND endurance training. For example: Dumbbell Snatches for 30 seconds, Push Ups for 30 second and then sprint 50 yards.  Rest briefly and repeat.  This is the type of exercise that builds a strong, lean, athletic body ready for anything.

As you’ll notice… there is no mention of muscle groups, split routines or any of the other stuff bodybuilders talk about.

I know this might be hard for you to wrap your brain around.  Everyone has been “conditioned” to think of the body as a bunch of parts. But if you want to train, look and perform more like an athlete, you are going to have to take a broader view and stop using bodybuilding routines. Spend some time thinking about this.

Again, I recommend reading over the Gladiator Body Workout page.  There is a lot of good info there.  Plus, read over the MaxWorkouts page.  I see a lot of trainers moving into this ATHLETIC style of training and I believe it is the way to get the fitness, performance and body most exercisers are looking for!

Hope this helps.

Eddie