:BodyFitnessInfo.com BLOG

Ketosis is basically a state where your body converts fat into fatty acids because it isn’t receiving enough glycogen from carbs. So, its something you definitely want to avoid. Here’s a link to another blog that has a pretty good definition about this. Ketosis is one of the potential habits of diets that are really low in carbs. Anyway, read below to find out more about it, or you can also always look it up on Wikipedia.

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When it comes to finding out the best way to gain muscle, there are a lot of suggestions out there. These tips and hints range anywhere from telling you exactly how much to eat to exactly what particular exercise will pack on the most muscle guaranteed. For the sake of this post, we’ve gone through several articles and picked out what we consider to be some of the best general tips that you should keep in mind if you are trying to gain muscle.

Here are some of the top tips to help you gain muscle.
1- Focus on compound / multi-joint lifts. The best lifts for gaining overall muscle mass are the big lifts that involve more than one muscle group at a time. These include the bench press, squat, rows, and dead lifts to name a few.

2- Eat a lot more than you’re used to eating. A lot of gaining mass is simply eating more calories that you burn each day. Figure out your RMR and about how much you burn from your workouts, then make sure that you’re eating more calories than that.

3- Use mostly free weights. For a long time now, free weights have been the basis of any real mass gaining routine. You’ll get a lot more out of them than using machines all the time. At most you should only use machines 25% of the time in your workouts.

4- Workout INTENSELY! Honestly, if you’re just going to the gym and lifting some weights, you’re probably not going to see the results you’re after. You have to have some good intensity in your workout! Push every set to the point where you can’t do another one without help or resting. In order to gain muscle, you have to push your muscles to the limit.

5- Eat more protein. Up your protein consumption to 1 gram per pound of body weight. This will give your muscles the nutrient they need to build muscle.

These are the basic rules. If you follow these rules and adjust some of the more particular things to your own needs and abilities, you should start to see some gains. Remember, putting on muscle can take some time. Have the dedication and discipline to stick with it long term if you really want to see things happen.

Related Articles:

Why You Should NOT Try to Isolate Muscle Groups When Weight Training - by Michael Geary

15 Muscle Building Rules For Skinny Guys And Gals! (Part 1) - by Anthony Ellis

5 Action Ideas To Get Big Fast - by Gary Matthews

Ten Secret Steps to Build Body Mass - by Geoff Morris

6 Simple Steps To Catapult Your Muscle Gains - Gary Matthews

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Many people have the question of “How often should I train?” or different variations that essentially mean the same thing. Is it twice a week? Once a week? Do I have to train every single day to get any results? Well, it depends!

Let’s take this from a very practical aspect. Life seems to be at its best when its in some sort of a balance. So, the recommendation we’d like to present to you is that your training frequency for general lifetime fitness is whatever works for you!

Here’s the thing, you don’t have to workout 2 hours a day to see results. If the best you can do is work out once per week for about an hour, make sure you get in that one workout each week. But don’t just do it half way and think “Poor me, I can only workout once per week”! Make that the best workout ever, full of intensity, giving it all you’ve got for that time that you have to actually work out. Make it count! If you follow this, you should see at least some results with the limited amount of time that you put in. It will probably take you a lot longer to make drastic changes, but who knows? If you really put in more effort with that one workout than you could working out 3 times a week, you might see results quicker afterall!

So figure out when you can exercise in your own schedule, stick to it and make each one of those workouts really intense and valuable. Do what works for you and you’ll be much happier with your workouts and more likely to stick with it longterm.

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Here’s a link to another blog that gives some good tips about getting back in shape for the summer months. Nothing new here, but we like the way that they organized the information as a simple review of things you should be doing to get back in shape.

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There’s a big difference between just losing weight and just losing fat, and when you’re starting a new weight loss program you need to make sure that you understand what you’re really going for. I remember reading a newsletter from Tom Venuto once where he would joke with his clients about sawing their leg off if they just wanted to lose weight. That would lose a good amount of weight, wouldn’t it? His point was that you don’t just want to lose weight, you want to lose body fat, and they are two completely different things.

So remember, for healthy weight loss you’re not just trying to lose overall weight, you’re specifically trying to lose body fat. So keep building muscle and doing things focused on fat to be more effective.

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That is the question! When should you supplement and when should you not supplement.

The best answer to this question is that it depends on what you’re currently getting in your regular diet. One thing that a lot of people tend to overlook is what a supplement really is. A supplement is something that you use to fill in something that is missing. So, if you had a perfect diet, essentially you wouldn’t even need to supplement. Unfortunately, these days its almost impossible to have a perfect diet for several reasons: no time to cook or even eat what you’d need, or for example if you were to get enough protein from natural sources you would probably also be ingesting too much fat. So that’s where supplements come in handy and are worth using.

One recommendation that you need to consider when looking at supplements is that they are not meant to completely replace a regular diet. Use them as a supplemental part of your diet, not the foundation.

So what are some common supplements that actually really make sense?

Multivitamins/Multimineral: in today’s world, most of your foods you buy at the grocery store are very vitamin and mineral deficient. So, take a good multivitamin/multimineral to make up for this

Creatine: if you haven’t heard of this one, you might be living under a rock. More and more research has been done on the benefits of creatine, something you should definitely check out.

Vitamin C: great for keeping you healthy and not on the sick bed.

Whey Protein: more net utilization than eggs, a great source of protein to reach the recommended 1 gram per pound of bodyweight. Best if taken with some carbs.

We could add to this list more, but that should be enough to at least get you started. Again, remember that supplements are meant to be a small addition to make up for the deficiencies in what you’re already eating. They shouldn’t be the only thing you eat!

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Most of you have probably heard this before, and if so just take this as a simple reminder: if you are consistently working out, you need to make sure that you’re eating enough protein. But sometimes the question is what is enough? The common recommendation of protein intake (whether your goal is healthy weight loss or to gain muscle) is about 1 gram per pound of body weight. This will give you muscles enough fuel to actually be able to grow. So eat and grow!

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Below you’ll find a link to a good article about the importance of carbs. Sadly, carbs have been made the enemy over the last few years as part of the new ‘low carb’ diet craze. But, carbs play a very important role in nutrition that should not be overlooked. See the link below and enjoy the read!

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We did a post a several months ago about listening to music during your workout to stay in the zone. Here is a blog post from another site that gives a sample list of music to listen to when you’re working out. Of course, this list would need to be customized with your own music preferences. Make sure your music is upbeat to keep you moving and energized throughout your workout. Music can be a very powerful part of your overall workout.

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No doubt about it, we live in a quick fix, get it now, get rich quick, fast paced society. Rather than doing the hard work necessary to be successful in something (whether its business, health, or whatever), people would rather believe that there is some ‘better way’ out there that will be effortless and easy for them to achieve their goals.

Let’s be realistic. If you are a person that is overweight, or has a lot of fat to lose, it’s going to take some time to get rid of that extra weight. Think about it this way: how long did it take you to gain the weight? So why should you expect it to be gone with some miracle diet in 2 weeks? And even if there was a way to do that, would it really be that healthy? Think about it!

As most of us should know, healthy weight loss occurs at a rate of about 2 pounds per week. So, if you’re 50 pounds overweight, a good pace for you would be to work to have that weight gone in about 25 weeks. Now, don’t misunderstand, it is possible to lose weight faster than that. But too many people set themselves up to fail because of really high expectations that they just aren’t able to commit to. So give yourself a break. Set some reasonable goals that you can stick to and be willing to take the time necessary to really make some life changes.

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