Holding down two jobs, meetings to get too, kids to pick up from school and so on there are so many distractions, pressures and time constraints that if we are not careful can only lead to one thing… {not sufficient time to plan and arrange your meals}. As regards muscle building nutrition then this is the ultimate crime. The main reason is that it can lead to eating junk fast food.

Fast food is exactly what you don’t want to eat to build muscle up. Too much fat content that contains very little fat content mixed with very little in the way of quality energy. So, how is it possible to not go to fast food joints when you have all of these limiting time constraints and how cane we eat properly if we do go there?

Here are a few golden rules for eating at fast food restaurants in order to build muscle up:

Avoid the apparently good value for money drink and fries. A portion of medium fries can get up to as much as 400 calories with around 20 grams of fat and the drink we are looking at around 200 calories with bags of sugary content!

Select the grilled option always. You can save around 80 calories coming mostly from fat by eating a McDonald’s grilled chicken sandwich as opposed to a premium crispy chicken. A simple selection choice but often not stuck to.

Skip the dessert if at all possible. There are so many sugary delights in store for you at fast food joints but if you really must try them go for the kiddies size.

Make sure that you don’t go over the top with the sauces. Many of these have very little muscle building nutrition that are high in fat content. You know what I mean, those small little packages containing mayo, tartar sauce and so on. Do yourself a service and give it a miss.

Is there anything I can eat if a fast food joint really is the only option?

If you want to build muscle food that you could eat at McDonalds would be:

For the bulk of your dinner/lunch a Premium Grilled Chicken Sandwich will nourish you with 10 grams of fat, 51grams of carbohydrates, 420 calories, and 32 grams of protein. A Honey Mustard grilled Snack Wrap would gibe your body 260 calories, 9g fat, 27g carbs and 18g of protein. The Asian Salad Grilled Chicken would give you 390 calories, 12.5g fat, 38g carbs, 33g protein with the low fat Sesame Ginger Dressing. Probably the premium option would be the Caesar Salad Grilled Chicken that, yields 220 calories, 6g fat, 12g carbs and 30g of protein.

If you are on of those lucky people living in Australia then your choices may well be:
A Lean Beef Burger: 250 calories, 8g fat, 25g carbs, 18g protein or a Herb Fusion Chicken Salad: 100 calories, 2g fat, 3g carbs 20g protein.

A decent breakfast selection would be: 12 grams of fat, 300 calories, 30g carbs and 18 grams of protein. Possibly a Sausage Burrito including 300 calories, 16g fat, 26g carbs, 12grams of protein or If you are looking for just a snack then how about the Fruit ‘n Yogurt Parfait which beaks down into 160 calories, 2g fat, 31g carbs, 4g protein.

I hope that shows you that you can indeed find a fairly good muscle building meal even at a fast food joint like McDonalds. Of course it would be better to allocate some time for planning decent meals throughout the week but if you can’t do this then the above selections should be a good guide and on some level help you burn the fat feed the muscle.

We hear loads of advice and guidance on what to do to build up muscle but much of it is conflicting. For that reason we are going to clear up a few things right now about what not to do to build up muscles. Here we go, 7 things not to do when trying to build muscle up:

1) Train for more than 45 minutes. training longer than this can be counter productive as at this point a hormone is released that actually inhibits the muscle building process, train for less than this and the hormones are at the right level for building muscle.

2) Follow a ’see food’ diet. Often you hear people say to eat as much of everything as you possibly can. Well sure we need excess calories to build muscle mass but do you really think that stuffing yourself full of E numbers, simple carbs (sugars), fatty red meats, fast food and so on is going to benefit you long term. Of course not, stick to sensible nutritious foods and you will put on lean muscle mass and save your body from long term health problems too.

3) Do not do lots of isolation exercises. That refers to exercises such as tricep presses that place focus on one individual muscle alone. This is not a very efficient use of either your energy or time. Stay with compound multi joint exercises such as squats, pull ups,presses and so on. Muscle growth is triggered in more than just one muscle at a time.

4) Ignoring aerobic exercise. I’m sure you have heard that you should avoid aerobic stuff as it uses up valuable calories that could be used for burning muscle. yes this is true but come on there is a sensible balance here. Sure get big, but do you really not want to be able to walk up a few flights of stairs without losing your breathe. For long term health include aerobic exercise 2-3 times a week in your program and eat more calories to make up for this energy use-age.

5) Change exercises too much. You may know that variety keeps the muscles growing, that is true but at the same time not allowing your muscle to establish an exercise groovecan also stop you from making the progress you otherwise could do. Use an exercise for two or thress months before you drop it.

6)Train too much. Over training is probably the biggest cause for lack of progress. For most people 2-3 sessions a week will be suffice.

7) Stop trying. Way too many people stop working out just because there muscle growth eases up somewhat. This is the exact time when you should be rising to the challenge and training with more intensity, paying attention to muscle building nutrition and showing determination.

Go get em!

We hear loads of advice and guidance on what to do to build up muscle but much of it is conflicting. For that reason we are going to clear up a few things right now about what not to do to build up muscles. Here we go, 7 things not to do when trying to build muscle up:

1) Train for more than 45 minutes. training longer than this can be counter productive as at this point a hormone is released that actually inhibits the muscle building process, train for less than this and the hormones are at the right level for building muscle.

2) Follow a ’see food’ diet. Often you hear people say to eat as much of everything as you possibly can. Well of course we need extra calories to add muscle mass but do you really believe that stuffing yourself full of E numbers, fatty red meats, fast food, simple carbs (sugars) and so on is going to be healthy for you long term. Of course not, stick to sensible nutritious foods and you will put on lean muscle mass and save your body from long term health problems too.

3) exercises that isolate individual muscles. That refers to exercises such as tricep presses that place focus on one individual muscle alone. Your time and energy could be put to use a lot better. Stay with compound multi joint exercises such as squats, pull ups,presses and so on. These exercises stimulate muscle growth in more than just one muscle at a time.

4) Do not ignore aerobic exercise. I’m sure you have heard that you should steer clear of aerobic stuff as it consumes valuable calories that could be put towards building muscle. yes this is true but come on there is a sensible balance here. Sure get big but do you want to be huge and not be able to walk up a few flights of stairs without panting. Train aerobically two or three times a week and just consume additional calories to make up for these sessions.

5) Alter your exercises a great deal. You may know that variety ensures muscles keep growing, that is correct but naturally at the same time not letting your muscles establish an exercise rhythm can also limit your progress that you might otherwise make. Stick with an exercise for a couple of months before dropping it.

6)Train too much. Over training is probably the biggest cause for lack of progress. For most people 2-3 sessions a week will be suffice.

7) Give up. Too many bodybuilders quit just because there muscle growth eases up a bit. This is the exact time when you should be rising to the challenge and training with more intensity, paying attention to muscle building nutrition and showing determination.

Go get huge!

A typical dilemma for any active sportsmen who lifts weights and wants to gain muscle mass is that they know there goal to build muscle up conflicts with the fact that they do a lot of cardio-vascular work. How can someone like this build muscle fastest whilst still doing cardio, indeed is it even possible?

Well often you will read that in order to build muscles fastest you should keep cardio workouts to a minimum. This is said because cardio workouts do two main things that work against muscle building, they are: 1) use up a lot of calories 2) increase the speed of your metabolism. Not getting enough calories on board is the problem that is added too by both of these two things. How many calories ought I to be eating is therefore the next natural question?

Well, to keep at the same weight every day you would be required to consume enough calories to cover the energy usage of your body as if it were resting (basal metabolic rate), then eat enough extra calories to provide energy for your workouts. Every day you will have to take on board another 500 calories if you want to build muscle mass.

Is there a way to figure out this total?

Yes, one way to do this is using the Katch-McArdle formula (BMR based on lean body weight). Here it is:

Men: BMR = 66 + (13.7 X wght in kg) + (5 X hght in cm) – (6.8 X age in years)

Women: BMR = 655 + (9.6 X wt in kg) + (1.8 X ht in cm) – (4.7 X age in years)

Once you have gotten this figure you should then multiply it by one of the following to allow for your daily activity levels:

Sedentary = BMR X 1.2 (desk job, little or no exercise)
Lightly active = BMR X 1.375 (light exercise/sports 1-3 days/wk)
Mod. active equals BMR X 1.55 (moderate exercise/sports 3-5 days/wk)
Very active = BMR X 1.725 (sports 6-7 days/hard exercise/wk)
Extr. active = BMR X 1.{9 (hard daily exercise/sports & physical job or 2X day training, i}.e marathon, competition etc).

So, should you be doing cardio and weights frequently then you should multiply this by at least 1.725. This will give you the figure that will cover your daily energy needs. This total then needs to changed according to your specific goals. A further 500 calories a day need to be added if your goal is indeed to gain muscle mass.

So if your final figure is 3000 calories then you would be looking at eating 6 meals per day of 500 calories each. Each meal would then be made up of 62 grams of carbohydrate, 37 grams of protein and 11 grams of fat. This is calculated as so because one gram of fat equals 9 calories as opposed to one gram of protein or carbohydrate which is worth 4 grams.

Correct muscle building nutrition and working out your calorie needs like this is what is going to ensure you build muscles fastest, not any miracle new exercise!

Bodybuilders are typically always searching around for new ways to bust through training plateaus, to provide variety for your routines and to find new ways to trigger muscle growth and improve strength levels. Finding and making use of new different exercise techniques is essential for muscle building success as your muscles soon adjust to the demands of new exercises and will be unable to continue grow until new demands are made of them.

There are a variety of ways in which to stimulate growth including the standard progressive overload principle of using sets and reps and doing as many repetitions as you can until muscle failure. Other types of variations for stimulating growth include supersets, compound sets, drop sets, 21s, partials and so on. However in this article we shall see how you can make use of negatives to trigger muscle growth.

So, what are negatives? And how can you build muscle fast using negatives?

Well, negatives are performed as follows. Taking the bench-press as an example, imagine that your benchpress is 110kg for 8 repititions. You have stopped making any significant muscle building progress and gotten stuck at this weight. Put an extra 20kgs on to the bar and have your gym partner assist you in pushing the barbell until your arms are nearly fully locked. Now from the top position get your spotters to let go of the bar so that you can steadily under control lower the bar. Then let your friends help you press it back up once more. Do this repeatedly as many times as you can until you are unable to do any more reps safely.

Why should I make use of these negatives? And will I build muscle fast using negatives?

Well it happens to be that your muscles are actually in the lowering phase stronger than what they are in the lifting phase. So, you can actually force your muscles to handle more weight than they are used to using negatives. Do a few workouts such as this and you can trigger muscle mass growth and thus improve your weight training efforts for your normal routine and increase your overall muscle mass.

Does doing this pose any problems?

As your muscles are likely to not be used to doing this and for physiological reasons your muscles are more than likely going to be sore on the following days. Certainly do not workout again until you have totally recuperated and keep high your protein intake and be completely sure to take a quality protein shake straight after your weight session.

Negatives can be made use of for any exercise but work best for the classic mass builders such as the major compound multi-joint exercises like: squats, shoulder presses, dead lifts, pull ups, and so on. To trigger muscle growth and break training plateaus then use these workouts on an infrequent and occasional basis.

With those points in mind keep taking on good solid muscle building nutrition, rest plenty and workout vigorously and regularly and you will likely have no problems stacking on muscle mass. Now go ahead and build muscle fast using negatives.

There are numerous articles, websites, blogs, magazine columns and such like that all give information and advice about the easiest ways to stimulate muscle growth. so, if there are all these varied methods to stimulate muscle growth then how come it is so such a difficult task for certain people? Well the question provides the answer at least in part. With so much conflicting and individualistic advice about, both on the net and in bookstores and magazines, how on earth is someone new to bodybuilding supposed to know what to do?

Whilst some of this advice is good, much of it is irrelevant to the novice bodybuilder who just needs to get the basics down properly to start making progress. So with that in mind here are three sure fire steps to help anyone build muscle easily.

1) Train intensely. Make use of the all time classic muscle mass building exercises such as: deadlifts, rows, squats, benchpresses and pull ups. These are tried and tested exercises that will help you build muscle easily. Steer away from exercises that isolate individual muscle groups, these are usually not designed for packing on mass but more for carving definition and toning up. Get in the gym, workout vigorously for 45 minutes, stay focused and then get out.

2) Pay attention to muscle building nutrition. For many years experienced trainers have been quoted as saying that 80% of bodybuilding success is down to correct muscle building nutrition. This is very true even today! As a general guide half of your food should come in the form of carbohydrates, protein should make up 30% and the remainder should come from fats.

The following source of food come highly recommended, for carbs: rice, potatoes, pasta, brown breads. For protein: turkey, beef, chicken and fish especially tuna and mackerel. naturally these foods will supply all the fats that you need. If you have a few spare dollars to spend then try supplementing with: whey protein, essential fatty, acids, creatine and a good multi-vitamin product.

3) Rest. Muscle grow whilst you are asleep and at rest so it therefore comes as know surprise that you need to spend quality time resting. This sounds very simple and it is, yet the amount of people that train too much and do not give their bodies adequate time to eat is enormous. Two workouts for each body part a week will be enough for most people.

Ok, I said it was simpie and it is. If you just stick to those basics you too can build muscle easy. Whilst you may delve as deep as you like into all of these topics, essentially that is all you need to know if you wish to grow. Now with those things in mind, ensure correct muscle building nutrition, train hadr and intensely and give yourself time to recover!

Ok, great, so you have finally decided that you are going to do something about your skinny physique and try and pack on some muscle mass. Whether it is because you want to look lean and trim for your holidays or you have just seen another ‘Rocky’ film or you just wish to make a bigger impact on the sports field. So obviously you know that you are going to have to get in to the pumping iron game. However you may not be aware of what you are supposed to be eating for muscle building nutrition. This mini muscle building nutrition guide will give you enough knowledge to install an effective muscle building diet.

Firstly to build muscle eat more often. Try eating 5-7 small meals per day. This is because your body is going to be needing extra calories in order for it to have supplies to actually build muscle mass with. If you don’t get enough calories then you cannot build muscle. 5-6 small meal each day will mean that you can consume enough calories without eating too much at any one meal.

Secondly, cutting out or severly reducing the amount of junk food in your diet is a must. Go hands up, we are all guilty of having the odd meal of junk food and it is these which need to be replaced with quailty muscle building nutrition.

Thirdly, you will be needing to drink much more water than previously. take a water bottle around with you and leave one in your car too. nearly all of the bodies reactions need H2O to some extent and of course it is required for muscle building reactions too.

Fourthly, try to divide each meal up into portions of the following amounts of protein, carbohydrtates and fats. Attempt to split your meals in to seperate amounts of 50% carbohydrate, 30% protein with the rest to come from fats.

Fifthly, you will need to educate yourself as to the kinds of foods that you should be eating. Here is a start to illustrate what some of the best muscle building foods are:

For protein: turkey, chicken, fish and shellfish, eggs, red meats, dairy products. These are terrific sources of quality protein so include them in your daily meals as often as possible. However caution is advised as these foods are high in saturated fat so it would be sensible to mix them with the following foods that supply protein but with a great deal less fat: Egg whites, Lean meats like poultry and fish, Non-fat or low-fat milk and dairy products (skim milk and cottage cheese are terrific foods), turkey breast, lean cuts of red meat and skinless chicken breast.

For carbohydrates and sustained energy release: bread, bagel, pasta cereals, brown rice, oatmeal, and potatoes. For short term energy to be consumed near your workouts try fruits such as apple, raisins, orange, grapes, bananas and sports drinks.

Don’t worry about the fat portion of your meal that will take care of itself from the other foods naturally. Also ensure that you are eating lots of healthy fresh green vegetables that are rammed full of minerals and vitamins. If you have spare cash for supplements then shoot for a decent multi-vitamin, whey protein, essential fatty acids and possibly creatine.

Finally a word on timing of your meals. To build muscle eat within one hour of finishing your workout, before bed and immediately on rising. These are critical times if you want to ensure muscle growth. You will be in a great place to start making good muscle gains if you follow the above guidelines.

 It is a well known fact nowadays that to build muscle diet is a key component that will determine whether you are successful or not. If your diet is poor regardless of how hard you train you won’t grow. So we will briefly outline some basic guidelines for a ‘build muscle diet’ and then we will take a look at some awesome bodybuilding foods.

Ok, quick guidelines for a diet to build muscle:

1) Eat 5-7 meals per day. This will enable you to easily consume the amount of calories you need in order to grow. It will also make sure that your body has high energy levels throughout the day. 

2) Divide your meals up in to approximate portions of 50% carbohydrate, 30% protein and the remainder can come from fats.

3) Eat about an hour half to two hours prior to your workout and eat immediately or at least within an hour after your workout. The post workout meal may merely be a shake but ought to include a high amount of protein. taking a energy drink or eating a snack before retiring to bed is a good idea also as this means your body will have enough calories to support growth throughout the night. You muscle will be short on energy at this time so eat as soon as possible after waking.

4) Take supplements if you can afford it. You may wish to try: essential fatty acids, whey protein, multi-vitamin pills and creatine. Whilst you are aware to build muscle diet is key you may also wish to give yourself an further boost by taking supplements.

5) Drink water, little and often. water is important for many reactions in the body. They occur much more easily in the presence of ample supplies of water. Water is required for muscle growth do drink plenty. However you will feel bloated if you try to drink too much water at once.

OK, so we have got the basics down. Now what food precisely is good for building muscle. Here are some great foods for your to try:

Protein is needed for growth and repair of muscles. Naturally this will be an important factor for those wishing to stack on mass.Excellent sources of protein are: Chicken Breast, Egg Whites, Turkey Breast, Salmon, Tuna Cottage Cheese, Lean Beef, Whey Protein.

Carbohydrate fuels day to day activities and workouts and also provides calories to support muscle growth.To help build muscle and maintain energy levels the following carbohydrates are recommended top be included in your diet: Sweet Potatoes, Baked Potatoes, Bagels, Brown Rice, Whole Wheat Pasta, Oatmeal, Fat Free Yogurt and Beans.

Build muscle diets often neglect to mention that fats are important too. Fats are required by the body to sustain it’s metabolic functions. For fats that build muscle try to include in your diet: Avocado, Olive Oil, Nuts, Flax Seed Oil, Natural Peanut Butter and Fish Oil

Vitamins and minerals play a wide variety of roles in all of the important reactions in the body including muscle growth. Great source of vitamins and minerals are: Broccoli, Cauliflower, Asparagus, Green Beans, Peas, Carrots and Spinach.

With those few points in mind there is no reason why you shouldn’t be able to pack on muscle mass relatively quickly. Just remember that you need to eat a lot of calories to both give you energy for training but also so that you have excess calories that can be used for muscle growth. you are not going to grow at all if you aren’t taking on board excess calories. Follow these above rules and a sensible ‘build muscle diet‘ containing these types of foods and you should have no problems building muscle.

Just before I tackle the main purpose of this article which is to show how to build muscle vegetarian style I will briefly outline the different types of vegetarians. Vegans do not eat dairy products or any other animal by products,  pesco-vegetarians will eat fish and dairy products and lacto-ovo vegetarians will drink milk and eat eggs but won’t eat meat. This is sufficient categorisation for now although there are several further types of vegetarians.

Why be vegetarian?

Well due to the dangers of the food that none vegetarians eat, vegetarians actually have a decreased risk of a variety of diseases such as: coronary artery disease, hypertension, cancers and diabetes mellitus. As you can see the reasons for becoming vegetarian are quite compelling and that is before we even talk about the idealistic side of things such as saving animals, keeping food available for others, saving the rainforest, being more enviromentally friendly and so on.

Ok , then as a vegetarian how exactly am i going to take on board enough protein?

Well, suprisingly the answer is extremely simple. Soy actually has more protein in it than beef and it is a complete protein which contains all of the eight essential amino acids. Particularly good sources of soy include: seitan, miso, soy milk, tempeh, textured soy protein and of course tofu. These can all be put in to a variety of delicous tasting dishes. Another great supply of protein for vegetarians are beans, rice, seeds, legumes, nuts and even vegetables which together can pack together a wide variety of amino acids, so you should never go short.

Alright so that is protein dealt with but what about vitamins and minerals, particularly zinc, vitamin D, calcium, iron and vitamin B12?

Well a supplement would actually be appropriate for a vegan here. vitamin B12 is found in dairy products so is not an area of concern for other types of vegetarians. A good meal replacement powder will see that you get adequate amounts of the other. Of course however many minerals and vitamins are easily available in the form of leafy green vegetables and fruit that you should not overlook if you wish to build muscle vegetarian style. 

So, overall there are many health benefits to being a vegetarian and being a vegetarian need not prevent you from achieving your bodybuilding goals. Planning is the key and this is just as true for none vegetarian bodybuilders also. With the above guidelines in mind go ahead and build muscle vegetarian style!! 

There is much advice floating around both on and offline about how to build muscle fast. As a personal trainer myself here are a few little known facts, building muscle tips and secrets that I personally consider worth your while contemplating on your quest to build muscle mass:

I often hear that you should train each muscle group just once a week. Whilst this may produce optimal progress for extreme hardgainers it is not true for most people. Sure, you should avoid overtraining but like most things in life you won’t get good at something by practicing it just once a week, this is true to a certain extent in weight lifting also. You need to train each muscle more than once a week, probably twice per week being suitable for most bodybuilders. Ideally you should rotate your workouts through periods when you are near overtraining and periods where you near undertraining. This provides times of great stress for the body and also times when the body has more time for growth and repair than necessary. Hitting training plateaus can be avoided by doing this.

Make sure that your sessions don’t continue for more than 45 minutes. If you deem that time limit to short then possibly your workout is not short enough or you are not staying focussed and working out intensely. Focussing on intensity and quality should ensure that 45 mins is more than enough time. If your training session lasts more than this then testosterone levels fall significantly because of the increased cortisol production which actually causes the body to eat muscle tissue plus store fat. precisely the reverse of what we need.

You should cycle your training. after a while a workout loses its ability to stimulate growth as your body has already adapted to it. You ought to alter your session before you stop making gains from the program. You ought not to alter your training sessions too often either. Doing so could confuse your bodies muscles overly so and stop it working its way into a nice groove.

If you use the wrong exercises you are unlikely ever to make big gains. The classic time proven muscle building exercises are the multi-joint exercises otherwise known as compound exercises. The time proven exercises being: bench presses, rows, squats, pull ups, shoulder presses plus any exercise that moves your entire bod through air ie, not just moving individual limbs. If you use these exercises, with a few of their variations and correct muscle building nutrition then you can’t help but stimulate muscle mass growth. With those points in mind it is time to go hit the gym and get huge.