Today we have an article from Jimmy Smith, the man behind the Muscle Bible, talking about getting big.

How To Build Muscle

By: Jimmy Smith, CSCS,
www.ineedmuscle.com

How to build muscle? Is the question that I am often asked
about. While most people want the magic pill, what they
really need are a few simple tweaks to their training
programs that I am about to outline.

1) There are two things that people can do immediately to
build muscle

A) People can focus on both full body training and body
part splits. We’ve knocked training “arms” for too long but
the only thing that will make us grow is training a muscle
with a big amount of volume. At that same time, we can also
use an upper body day to get stronger. It is the best of
both worlds B) People can sleep more. It sounds simple but
going to bed by 10:30 and not getting up before 6 am will
go a long way in helping us build muscle.

2) Train your legs more. Leg training is so essential for
growing muscle everywhere. By training your legs hard you
raise the anabolic signals in your body that tell you to
grow. Nothing stimulates more muscle heavy squats or
deadlifts. They raise your natural muscle building
hormones, which cause you to grow

3) Use the correct sets and reps. To build muscle we need
to realize that, we have to perform enough volume so we
breakdown muscle then build new muscle. So that being said
I usually advise sets and reps like 4 sets of 8 reps or 6
sets of 4 reps. Remember, low reps can make us grow to
simple because our body adapts to whatever we do for awhile
so we need to change it up.

4) Use this secret trick. First, if everyone isn’t doing
pull-ups or squats then they need to do it right now. My
best piece of advice is to tell everyone to do a back off
set per exercise. For example, if you are training on the
bench press and doing 4 sets of 8 reps then do a 5th set of
20-25 reps. This will push more blood into the muscle which
will force more grow.

Building muscle is all about the quality of your workouts.
Most people get caught up in the typical 3 sets of 10 reps
dogma. While that will work for a certain period of time,
it won’t work forever. In my opinion, the best way to
design your training for growth is to use 4-6 week spurts
of volume phases where you train with sets of 3-4 and reps
of 8-15. For the next 4-6 weeks, you should go with more
sets of 4-6 and lower reps of 5-8. Both of these methods
will lay you to have both muscle and strength gains.

Jimmy Smith,CSCS

Author, Muscle Bible
—————————————————-

Jimmy Smith,CSCS, is the author of the Muscle Bible and is
a training advisor for Men’s Fitness and Maximum Fitness
magazines.His Muscle Bible program has helped thousands of people gain muscle. His muscle building course guarantees that you
will add 10 pounds of  lean muscle onto your frame without drugs, expensive supplements or by spending all day in the gym  or your
money back plus some. His muscle building secrets can be found here.

Remember to sign up for my 5 part Building Muscle and Strength e-course.
If you are interested in me personally designing your programs and helping you achieve your size and strength goals go to busy-fitness.com/online-personal-training/
Wayne

John Berardi author of one  of my recommended nutrition guides, Precision Nutrition is back with another nutrition tip.

Tip #20
How Much Water?
by Dr. John Berardi

You always hear experts recommending that you drink more water but how many of you actually do it? And how much is enough? Well, check out this chart below for some interesting data on water loss.

Water Loss/ Normal Weather No exercise/ Warm Weather No exercise /Exercise in Warm Weather (85° F)

Skin 350 mL/ 350 mL/ 350 mL
Respiratory Tract 250 mL/ 350 mL/ 650 mL
Urine 1400 mL/ 1200 mL/ 500 mL
Feces 100 mL/ 100 mL/ 100 mL
Sweat 100 mL/ 1400 mL/ 5000 mL
Total 2,300 mL (2.3L)/ 3,300 mL (3.3L)/ 6,600 mL (6.6L)

It should be clear that quite a bit of water is lost per day, especially if you’re an athlete. Since most people can get about 1.5L of water from their food and from metabolic water production, for a margin of safety, I suggest:

• Sedentary individuals drink at least 2L or about 8 cups of water per day
  Athletes in normal climates drink at least 3L or about 12 cups of water per day.
• Athletes in hot weather climates drink at least 4L or about 16 cups of water per day.

SEE ALSO:
This tip is sponsored by Precision Nutrition – our pick for the best nutrition and supplement resource currently available. Containing system manuals, gourmet cookbook, digital audio/video library, online membership, and more, Precision Nutrition will teach you everything you need to know to get the body you want — guaranteed.

Order Precision Nutrition now and get $50 off!

Remember to sign up for my 5 part Building Muscle and Strength e-course.
If you are interested in me personally designing your programs and helping you achieve your size and strength goals go to busy-fitness.com/online-personal-training/
Wayne

I’m really pleased to announce that  Charles Staley,  the man behind EDT is now a contributing to this site. In this article Charles dicusses his thoughts on The Bench Press.

How Much Ya Bench

By Charles Staley, B.Sc, MSS
Director, Staley Training Systems

The bench press has achieved almost cult status, reaching even into popular culture. It wasn’t always this way – prior to the 1960’s the most popular upper body lift was the military press – at that time, one of the three lifts contested in the sport of weightlifting (the press was removed from competition in the early 1970’s due to fears that lifters were using dangerous lifting postures in the attempt to press larger and larger weights).

Despite the fact that men tend to turn this lift into a demonstration event, and that women tend to shy away from the lift altogether, bench pressing (and it’s variations) remain the premier upper body development tool for physique and strength enthusiasts. Like any tool, used properly, you’ll get a great result; done improperly, then bench press can tear up shoulders like nobody’s business.

Here are my suggestions for safe and effective bench pressing:

Bench presses may be performed with a bar or with dumbbells. The bench may be flat (overall pectoral stress), inclined (more stress to the clavicular pectorals), or declined (more stress to the lower pectorals).

Lay on the bench, placing both feet flat on the floor (if this causes the curvature of your low back to increase, find a lower bench or place your feet on solid blocks to elevate them).

Grasp the bar such that both hands are equidistant to the center, and make sure your thumbs are wrapped around the bar, rather than on the same side as your other fingers. You only have to drop a big weight on your chest one time to become convinced that a thumbless grip is a big mistake (assuming you survive it).

Although it is difficult to articulate this concept in writing, the shoulder blades should be tucked together prior to unracking the bar. Do this while your hands are on the bar – lean to your right side and pull the left scapula inward, and then put your weight down on it. Then, leaning on your left scapula, tuck your right side in and then center your bodyweight. When the scapulae are tucked (retracted), the shoulder joints will be afforded additional range of motion as the bar descends, thus adding a measure of safety to the lift.

Immediately prior to unracking, the bar should be directly over your nose – if it isn’t, slide yourself up or down on the bench until it is. Inhale and unrack the bar from the supports. Pause in the top position for a brief moment, rather than making a “B-line” from the supports to your chest.

At this time, take in as much air into your lungs as possible and hold until the bar has ascended through the sticking point. Why? Ever notice that great bench pressers have “barrel” chests? This gives the pecs better leverage. You can give yourself a temporary, artificial barrel chest by inhaling as deeply as possible and holding throughout the lift.

As you lower the bar to your chest, keep your elbows directly under the bar, rather than in front of, or ahead of the bar. At the bottom of the movement, the bar lightly touches your chest at nipple level. Return the bar to the starting position (it should actually travel up, as well as slightly back) by contracting your pectorals.

(Note: there are in fact many different variations regarding grip width, elbow position, and contact area on the chest. The variation I’m describing here is intended for muscular development more so than maximum bench press strength. Competitive powerlifters use an array of techniques designed to maximize leverage, but I assume readers who are also competitive powerlifters will already be familiar with these techniques).

Grip Width

Viewed from the head of the bench, your forearms should be perpendicular to the floor at the bottom position.

Torso

Keep your torso flat on the bench at all times – the bench press is not intended to be a hamstring exercise, despite my sarcastic article called Bench Pressing: The Forgotten Hamstring Exercise.

Speed

Although a variety of speeds can be employed, the eccentric phase should always be “tight and controlled.” If in doubt, allow two seconds to lower the bar. If you wish to eliminate the stretch shortening aspect of the lift, you can pause for two seconds at the chest, but don’t relax while doing so.

Depth

Although the most common variant is to bring the bar down until it touches the chest, for some athletes with poor shoulder flexibility, this position may be too deep. As a rule of thumb, the bottom position you choose should not use up all the shoulder flexibility you have – you should be able to go deeper with no discomfort if you had to.

For novice athletes with adequate shoulder flexibility, you can use depth as a method of progression, by using a constant weight over several workouts, slightly increasing the depth every session.

Transition Position

Most bench press injuries occur during the transition between the eccentric and concentric phase, according to Dr. Sal Arria, Executive Director of the International Sports Sciences Association. A common technique flaw involves the fatigued lifter allowing the bar to “bounce” or “chop” down onto the chest, which subjects the pectoral attachments to sudden loads, which is often the stimulus for injury.

A 200 pound bar lowered very slowly exerts about 200 pounds of pressure. But this same bar lowered quickly, may put many hundreds of pounds of tension on the target muscles and their attachments.

Bench Press Standards

According to Strength and Speed (Dale Harder, © 2000 Education Plus), a man who weighs 181 pounds is World Class if he can bench 435, National class at 420, College star at 330, College letter at 275, and HS star at 215.

Anthony Clark, weighing 372, bench pressed 780 in 1996, and I recall hearing that he did 800×2 in the gym recently. Chuck Ahrens, weighing 280, benched 400 for 28 reps. Chris Confessore was the heaviest man to bench press triple bodyweight – 741 pounds. Tamara Rainwater was the first woman to bench 400 pounds. The heaviest woman’s bench press may have been an unofficial 440 by Fibingerova, a Chech shot putter.

Safety

ALWAYS employ (or become!) a competent spotter when performing any bench press variation.

Remember to sign up for my 5 part Building Muscle and Strength e-course.
If you are interested in me personally designing your programs and helping you achieve your size and strength goals go to busy-fitness.com/online-personal-training/
Wayne