Author: rxbodybuilders
Blood pressure is defined as the force that blood exerts upon the walls of the blood vessels within your body. It’s used as a measurement tool for determining cardiovascular and circulatory health. High blood pressure can lead to heart disease and other conditions. High blood pressure is caused by a variety of factors, including diet, weight, genetics, daily stressors, and level of physical activity. Bodybuilders and powerlifters are especially susceptible to high blood pressure, or hypertension. The heart and blood vessels cannot tell the difference between a 300-pound muscle man and a 300-pound obese man when it comes to pumping…
Gyms are filled with men and women of all ages. With different ages come differing goals, and it’s important that trainers recognize the differences, train according to the stage they fall into, and respect those in differing stages. Breaking down each decade of life into general gym goals and pitfalls allows us to be more realistic about our own expectations in the gym, and recognize the successes of others as they move upward into the later decades of life. Age 20-30 Your goal in your twenties is to pack on the muscle. Your testosterone and energy levels are the highest…
Q: What do you think of high volume training? It just seems to me that these pros are lying – guys like Jay Cutler do six exercises and then do between two and three sets for those six, each. How is that possible? A: Do you want the short answer? The short answer is they are on steroids and can do it. High volume training is the best way to utilize a cycle, in fact, because it’s virtually impossible to over-train. You recover from almost anything, so getting in tons of high volume work is the best thing for maximizing…
Most of us train in one of two places. Typically, we’ll select a climate-controlled gym where we know it’s going to be florescent lights and a steady 76 degrees every time we walk into the gym. Or, we might train at home, where the temperature is the same as the house – anything you’d like it to be. Typically, it will be similar to the gym, a comfortable 74 to 76 degrees. However, there is one group or bodybuilders who prefer to bypass the standard comfortable conditions for something a little more hardcore. They are called the Outdoor Trainers. They…
Pyramiding your sets is simple, and it can be used to ensure that you are adequately hitting both the slow- and fast-twitch muscle fibers. Not only does this give your joints a rest in avoiding four ultra-heavy sets and ensure you are properly warmed up before attempting heavy weights, but it stimulates as many possible muscle fibers in the targeted muscle group as possible. Here is a sample shoulder routine, which uses pyramid sets. Military Barbell Press – Standing Or Seated 12 reps, 10 reps, 8 reps, 6 reps Adding mass is the key with this movement, so you want…
The human body is a remarkably adaptive organism. It constantly adapts to new challenges presented to it by growing, changing, and evolving. Bodybuilders are no exception. Every time we enter the gym and present our muscles with a brutal workout, our muscles respond by growing to meet this demand. Once the muscle has adequately adapted to a workload, it stops growing. When you see the same gym members benching with the same 135 pounds, looking the same for 1, or 2 or 3 straight years, you see a perfect example of this. Their bodies have adapted to the 135-pound workload…
We’ve all seen the young trainers in the gym, standing in the squat rack with an Olympic barbell, doing bicep barbell curls. Well, not exactly bicep curls. More like, “back heaves”. They add 40 pounds more than they can handle to the bar, and then use an extremely amusing amount of body English to bring the barbell from belt buckle to chin. Some cheating is beneficial in bodybuilding training. The goal of bodybuilding training is to stimulate the muscle group by filling it with as much oxygen- and protein-rich blood as possible. So if improper form at the end of…
Proportional Training In most cases in the gym, it is very easy and always to observe that the one and only bench press as well as distinct curl stations are always occupied while on the other hand a number of leg stations as well as squat racks are always idle. Many bodybuilders are naturally in love with training with visible groups of muscle which include the chest as well as the arms such that the most exercises targeting these areas happen to be the most exercises in popular with many upcoming and intermediate bodybuilders. The catchword in this is to…
Bodybuilders may slather oil over the peaks and valleys of contest-ready muscle for maximum sheen, but it’s the oil they gulp during the off season, and during pre-contest training, that matters the very most. But while fat is fat is fat when it comes to gaining, losing or shredding, and in terms of how the body sees all fats as mostly equal when it comes to weight gain and fat loss, fats are far from created equal. That’s because some oils serve the body and metabolism much better than others in the long run. Health may be a six-letter word…
Most bodybuilders believe that, like legs, the back is a complex muscle group, and therefore requires a higher volume of sets in order to properly stimulate the muscles into growth. They split back day into muscle groups, then train each muscle group as if it deserved its own day. An example of a high volume back day is as follows. Lats Chins 4 x 10 Lat pulldowns 4 x 10 Barbell rows 4 x 10 Low cable rows 4 x 10 Lower back Deadlifts 4 x 10 Hyperextensions 4 x 10 This makes back day a 24-set day, which is…