Do you want to be defined ?? Get out that Fat stomatch ?? Be Athletic ?? Have that 6pack abs and Chest that girls love ?? That Legs that u will run witout Stop for more than 5 miles ? U cant spent money in a Gym ?? U cant go out many times ?? U have no time ?? i have SOLUTIONS FOR U ALL !

Welcome to Reach Bodybuilding Topic!

1st of ALL. 

Bodybuilding Philosophy

• Enjoy the journey: Bodybuilding is not just about the end result, its about how great the process makes you feel. Don't be so focused on the end result that you cant enjoy the process. Bodybuilding is not the end, it is the means: use it to make life more enjoyable.
• Don't spend money: All you really need to get in fantastic shape is a cheap used set of weights and a good pair of running shoes - don't waste your money on supplements, trendy machines, and expensive newsletters.
• Motivation: In my opinion, long-term success in bodybuilding requires the proper motivation. Internal motivation is the best: if your motivation is to feel better and have more energy, you will get amazing results on your very first day at the gym, and the positive reinforcement will keep you coming back day after day.
• Be a skeptical thinker: Gather as much information as you can, but be a skeptic. Read books, check the forums and, most of all, ask questions! Believe nothing you hear, 5% of what you read, and only 50% of what you see. Most of learning will involve trying things for yourself and see what works for you so don't trust anything you hear or read unless there is published, peer-reviewed, university research which backs up the claims. Remember that not too long ago proper nutrition was "three square meals a day" with lots of red meat, cheese, and dairy. Especially be skeptical of any claims in muscle magazines because many exist just to sell supplements.

LETS START !

1st of ALL VISIT THIS WEBSITE ITS WHERE I GO AND WATCH ALL THE THINGS!! I WILL POST HERE THE MOST IMPORTANT FOR U ALL !!

http://fitness.scoobysworkshop.com/

How to Get a 6-PACK ABS :

Losing Weight and Building 6-Pack Abs

Losing weight is a billion dollar industry in America, there are thousands of devices and programs you can buy that promise to get you "6-pack abs fast" but they don't work!  If it were as easy as buying a pill, shake, or ab machine then the shopping malls across America would be filled with men who have rippling washboard abs-of-death but what do we see instead?  Obesity everywhere!

You can't buy 6-pack abs!

I'll let you in on the secret of getting 6-pack abs for free - are you ready?  Here it is, its a two step process: eat less and exercise more!  Lets clear up one huge misconception right now, ab machines will NOT get you 6-pack abs!  95% of the work in getting 6-pack abs is losing bodyfat and no ab machine will do that.  You can have rippling muscular abs but if they are covered with an inner tube of fat then nobody is going see 'em.

A common sense approach involving exercise and nutrition is all that is required to get ripped, washboard abs.  Just a warning though, there is nothing fast about losing weight and getting ripped, it's simple but takes time and dedication. Proper nutrition does not mean diet though! "Diets" lead to deprivation and hunger which eventually leads to binging - a lose-lose proposition. "Diets" offer only temporary weight loss, when you go off them, the weight comes right back. What we want is permanent weight loss! Yo-yo dieting is way too much work, just learn to make smart nutritional choices and the weight comes off and stays off for good!

Smart nutritional choices exercise = ripped abs

You cant 'target' fat removal unless you are using a machete.  All you can do is lose weight and let the body decide where the fat is coming off.  When you have lost enough weight, the belly and love handles will disappear.  Lets talk about expectations, you cant get ripped in 10 days or even 30 days.  A good weight loss program will let you lose the weight gradually, a pound a week is a good rate - 2 pounds a week max.  If you are 50lbs overweight count on 6 months to a year to remove it.  Losing fat at this gradual rate means you will never be hungry or feel deprived. Another reason to lose the weight gradually is so that you don't burn off muscle - who wants to lose muscle? Nobody!

If you already have 4-pack abs or 6-pack abs (8-12% bodyfat) and want to remove the final bit of fat over your lower abs to get a true 8-pack washboard, then the advanced carb cycling technique is for you.

Step 1 for fat loss: Exercise

Lets look at what its going to take to lose that bodyfat and get abs, remember I said "eat less and exercise more", lets start with the 'exercise more' part.  You lose fat by burning off more calories than you eat, pretty simple huh?. To burn off the calories you need to do at least 30 min of cardiovascular exercise EVERY day.  What constitutes cardiovascular exercise, good question. Good cardio is anything that elevates your heart rate to 70%-85% of your maximum for 30-60 minutes:

By the way, its a very good idea to consult your doctor before starting any exercise program, your target rates may differ from the chart above if you have medical conditions.  For a young person in good health, jogging or swimming is a great form of cardiovascular exercise.  Walking and cycling can be good cardio but you need to push yourself to walk really fast, no sauntering strolls - wearing a heart rate monitor while walking or cycling can help keep you from lollygagging.    At the gym, I shake my head every time I see people "exercising" on the stationary bikes using level 1 and reading the paper -what exactly do they think they are accomplishing? Their heart rate is about the same as if they were watching TV or sleeping! If you don't have a heart rate monitor, listening to high BPM music that you really like is a great way to keep your heart rate elevated too. If you find your iPhone/iPod cords too constraining during your cardio, get a iPhone remote or wireless headset.

Now lets talk about HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training), this is all the rage. There is research that its burns off more calories in a shorter time but I still don't like it, why? Because I have found that most people do interval training with running and that their incidence of injury skyrockets. When you are injured you cant do any cardio, so I don't recommend HIIT running workouts except for elite athletes. If you want to do interval training, I suggest you do it cycling or swimming rather than running. The other thing people fail to realize is although HIIT burns more calories per unit time, you still need to keep your heart rate elevated for 20-60 minutes a day. People often ask if they can do 10 minutes of intervals rather than 20 minutes of steady cardio - No! You must keep you heart rate elevated for 20-60min. If one woman can make a baby in nine months, does that mean that nine women can make a baby in 1 month? No! Good things just take time! Find a way to enjoy your cardio rather than looking for ways to get it over with!

Its not just cardiovascular exercise that is important, weight lifting is just as important in my opinion in the quest to lose bodyfat. Weight lifting burns off calories too but more importantly it helps increase your metabolic rate so you burn off more calories 24hrs a day. Muscle is very "expensive" for the body to maintain and the more muscle you have, the more calories that are burned off every hour maintaining it. The more muscular you become, the easier it is to stay ripped.

Remember 95% of getting 6-pack abs is losing the bodyfat, the rest is ab exercises to make the ab muscles bigger.  For that we will do crunches and you don't need anything except your carpeted floor.

Caution: You can always out-eat your exercise!

A word of warning, don't fall into the trap of thinking that because you are exercising so much you can eat what you want - you cant.  No matter how much you exercise, you can eat more than you burn off and end up gaining fat rather than losing it unless you accompany your cardio program with good nutrition.  

Step 2 for fat loss: Good Nutrition

First of all, 'good nutrition' does not mean diet!  If you are ON a diet then you are admitting to yourself that it is a temporary thing and you will go OFF it later.  We want to change your eating habits permanently!  Good nutrition, no calorie counting, no hunger, and you will still lose weight - sound too good to be true?  Well, kinda. 

Lets start with the basics - many small meals.  You cant lose weight eating one or two meals a day, it puts your body in starvation mode and lowers your metabolism.  You need 6 meals a day. I know your are thinking already, "I CANT eat 6 time a day, I don't have time!"   Well, I cant cook and even I can eat 6 healthy meals a day. Check out my nutrition section for help with quick recipes or no cook recipes.

The 6 small meals a day you are eating need to be well balanced - what does that mean?  The bulk of every meal will be veggies and whole grains, some form of lean protein (beans, dairy, meat), and fruit.  Your body doesn't store protein, you cant just have a big steak at dinner and call that your daily protein.  This is especially important if you are doing a weightlifting program in conjunction with your weight loss program. Every one of you meals needs to have 1/6 of your daily protein! The below chart gives you the approximate amount of calories and protein you need in each of your six meals based on your current weight:

If you want to calculate precisely your nutritional needs, use my new calorie calculator! Ok, now you know how much protein that each of your 6 meals must have and how many calories in can have. Now, what to eat? Can you eat whatever you want as long as it has the protein required and doesn't exceed the calories in the above chart? No! The quality of every calorie counts!!! Each meal must:

• must contain 1/6 of your daily protein requirement (calculated in the above paragraph)
• must contain lots of veggies without sauces (fresh or steamed), the more the better. Vegetables fill you up with just a few calories, this is the key to avoiding hunger!
• must have no more than 20% of the calories from fat (only good fats like flax, avocados, olives, nuts)
• must have whole grain carbs for energy like oats, brown rice, or quinoa. No simple carbs allowed like sugar or white flour products
• must have a small serving of fruit

By the way, I get asked this all the time - There is no such thing as a "snack" - strike that word from your vocabulary! Everything is a meal and must meet the above criteria, period.

Notice something really interesting in the above calorie chart, as you lose weight you need to eat less and less if you want to continue losing weight. If you plateau in your weight loss, its probably because you have not adjusted your caloric intake as the above table suggests.   If you weigh 300lbs and eat 410calories per meal, you will lose weight rapidly at first then your weight will stabilize at 200lbs and you wont lose any more unless you decrease your intake further.  Use this chart as a starting point to give you approximate portion sizes, stick with that a month and see what happens with your weight and adjust the portion size to help you zero in on 1lb/wk fat loss.  With the meals I show, the portion sizes are appropriate for someone around 180lbs.

People often ask if they can skip the cardio if they have really, really good nutrition - NO! You need to do your daily cardio!

I just did a book review of "Burn the Fat" by Tom Venuto and was kind of embarrassed. Although I present most of the same concepts here, his book does a much, much better job. If you don't feel like the information I present here on losing fat makes sense to you, I highly recommend his book Burn the Fat.

Lets talk about protein powders and weight gain powders.  If you follow these nutritional suggestions, you don't need any supplements or protein powders - you will get plenty of protein and vitamins in the meals suggested here.  If you have trouble eating 6 real meals a day then protein powder can be a valuable dietary aid because it lets you get the protein you need without any calories from fat or carbs. In a pinch, mix the protein powder with nonfat milk, soy milk, rice milk or orange juice for an inexpensive meal replacement. Remember though, real food with all its fiber, vitamins, and minerals is always best! "Weight Gain" powders never make good meal replacements, they would better be named "Fat Gain" powder and who wants to gain fat??? I am a pseudo-vegetarian -  I only eat meat/fish/chicken about once a week.  Because of my low meat consumption, protein powder in the form of dairy whey is my most important source of protein.  I like dairy whey without any artificial stuff in it, the product from optimum nutrition is the one I have been using for seven years.

Gain muscle and lose fat at the same time!

Yes! You can simultaneously gain muscle and lose fat, especially if you are beginning or intermediate bodybuilder - its tougher for advanced bodybuilders. Don't believe those bulker/cutters who claim that you have to get fat to gain muscle, that's a myth! To gain muscle at the same time as you are losing fat follow exactly the same nutritional advice as above - no difference. To add muscle, all you need to do is add a good resistance training program.

Here are some easy nutritional meals, all these are really quick and have only two or three ingredients. If I can make these meals then you can too.

BEST abs EXERCISE RIGHT HERE :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=44mgUselcDU&translated=1

Cardio!

Cardiovascular exercise ("Cardio" for short) is more important for your general health than weightlifting. More important than that to most people is that cardiovascular exercise helps you lose fat and look better! The quickest way to look like you have packed on 10lbs muscle is to lose 10lbs of fat, its a really cool bodybuilding illusion. It can take a years to add muscle but in a month you can look more muscular just by losing weight, it's because bodyfat makes the body round and shapeless which hides the muscles. Just check my video comments over the last 6 weeks, I dropped 7lbs of bodyfat with carb cycling and everyone keeps commenting how much more massive I look even though I haven't gained an ounce of muscle. So if you don't do cardio for your health, do it for your appearance!

Cardio is a confusing topic to many so I cover it in detail here. I discuss how much cardio to do, when do cardio, and how to know what is good cardio.

The Importance of Cardio

If you don't have time to do cardiovascular exercise, then skip weightlifting so you can do it - its that important.  Cardiovascular exercise should not be boring, it should be fun!  If you have to do cardio at the gym then find a good book, listen to the radio or books on tape - find a way to make it interesting and enjoyable.  Better yet, find a sport you love and do it with a spouse or friend and the time will fly by.  Walking, jogging, cycling, soccer, skateboarding, or whatever excites your passions.  If you don't have much time then jog to the gym, walk you kids to school, walk your dog, or start using your bike for transportation.  If you don't belong to a gym, and don't have a thousand dollars for a good stationary cardio machine, buy a jump-rope!  Jumping rope is an amazingly intense aerobic workout, in fact, you will probably have to start with just a few minutes and work up to 20-30 minutes a day.  Jumping rope is not only an amazing aerobic workout but is great at increasing coordination.  Contrary to popular belief, jumping rope is not monotonous either if done properly and takes a lot of concentration.  One drawback is that you need a room with high ceilings to jump rope or you need to do it outside.  Here are some great reasons to do cardio:

• To lose fat! - want 6-pack abs, only way is to lose fat thru cardio and nutrition.
• Cardio can improve your mood and significantly reduce depression.  Its been proven by study after study, cardio can make you happier! 
• Perform better at school or work!  Daily cardio reduces mental fatigue and gives you more energy. A recent study from the U of G showed that daily cardio reduces fatigue by 65%
• Tons of other health reason -
  • reduce risk of heart disease
  • reduce blood pressure
  • reduce risk of diabetes
  • live longer - 2hrs longer for every 1hr exercise

How much cardio? 

If you are happy with your body fat percentage and just want to keep your heart healthy then follow the American Heart Association's guidelines and do 30 minutes of  light exercise (walking, gardening, etc) a day.  If you want to lose body fat then try and do 30-60 minutes of strenuous cardio (swimming, running, fast biking) every day.

If you are lacking in time then find some part of your week where you can bike for transportation instead of driving, to work, the gym, or the grocery store perhaps?  Time sitting in your car is not only expensive but it is a waste of time, try and find some way of biking instead of driving the car.  If you are overweight enough that you don't feel comfortable biking then walking is a great option.  Try walking as transportation, beats wasting time sitting in traffic.

When should you do your cardio? 

There is a lot of confusion about when to do cardio, I get asked this question all the time! As many of you have heard, doing cardio before you eat in the morning burns off more calories so is that the best time? Lots believe that the right time to do cardio is before a weight workout to provide a warmup but just as many believe that the right time is afterward. Who is right? None of them! All of them!

The right time to do cardio is when you are most likely to do it! Cardio is very important and its 100x more important that you actually DO your cardio than when to do it! Lets look at some of the pros and cons of doing cardio at various times.

Doing Cardio And Weight Workouts Separately

Its optimal to do your cardio and weight workouts completely separately, that is, with four or more hours of rest between them. This way, neither workout interferes with the other and you can give each 110% effort. For those of us who workout at home, this is easy to do. For those who go to gyms, its not as easy if you depend on the stationary equipment for your cardio because then you need to make a second trip to the gym. Now lets look at the non-optimal compromises.

Doing Cardio Before Breakfast

Yes, studies have shown that you burn off more calories if you do cardio before breakfast, but its a lousy time to do cardio in my opinion because you wont do your cardio for nearly as long. Who can focus on cardio when your stomach is growling and you feel faint from lack of food? Not me! Besides, doing cardio before breakfast isn't the most convenient time for most folks.

Doing Cardio Before A Weight Workout

The fans of doing cardio before a weight workout point to its ability to help warm up your muscles to prevent injury, true it does this. For those who significantly overweight or are fitness beginners, walking or light jogging is the recommended cardio. For these people doing their walking or light jogging before their weight workout is perfect, it warms them up and doesn't interfere with their weight workout. On the other hand, intermediate to advanced athletes need to push themselves much harder in their cardio workouts - they get their heartrate higher and keep it elevated for longer. Cardio workouts of this intensity will exhaust the body to the point where the weight workout will be lackluster at best reducing potential strength and mass gains. If you are an intermediate or advanced athlete whose time is at a premium and don't feel its important to add more muscle mass then doing cardio before the weight workout is ok, otherwise find a better time to do cardio.

Doing Cardio After A Weight Workout

Doing cardio after a weight workout is my personal favorite, its not optimal but its a very good use of time if you are doing your cardio at a gym because it eliminates the need for a second trip to the gym. I always find that even after an intense weight workout, I still can give cardio the intensity it needs. One thing I always do though is make sure to eat a small meal after lifting weights before starting the cardio. Meal timing is important and its important to get a meal right after weight lifting and waiting till after you do 45min of cardio, shower, and get home is too much of a delay. If you do your cardio after your weight workout, you need to find some alternative way to warmup your muscles before the weight workout, not a big deal.

Cardio Is NOT Boring!

If you find cardio boring then you are doing something wrong and you need to fix it. How can you do this? Well, try doing your cardio outside in the real world if you can. Go for a bikeride thru the park, go jogging alongside the river. Join a soccer team or play ultimate frisbee, team sports have a way of making your cardio time fly by. If you are stuck indoors because of weather, you can still make those dreary stationary machines exciting. Watch your favorite TV show while you are doing cardio or read your favorite trashy magazine. Another way to make cardio engrossing is to download lots of interesting podcasts or music to your iPod/iPhone. An iPhone remote can make your iPod/iPhone much easier to use while doing cardio and makes it much less likely you will drop it. This is your chance to get away from the stress of everyday life and have fun!

What is "good cardio"? 

Its clear that there is a lot of confusion about cardio, its really quite simple.  Lets start with the basics.  The purpose of cardio is to elevate your heart rate and keep it (in the purple zone) there for at least 20 minutes.   How elevated does your heart rate need to be?  Depends on your goal, your age, and your health.  If you have medical conditions, ask your doctor what is appropriate for you.  If you are in good health, you can use these charts from the AHA

  http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=4736

So if you are wondering if a particular activity is good cardio, its simple to find out.  Do it for a minimum of 20 minutes then measure your heart rate (15sx4) and compare it to the above chart.  If your heart rate is in the target zone, then its good cardio - simple as that.   With many forms of cardio, like cycling or walking, its easy to get lazy and just lolli-gag along.  Its important that you monitor your heart rate during the cardio to make sure that you are not slacking off.  Just a note, walking has the lowest dropout rate of all forms of cardio - probably because its so enjoyable.

OK, now lets talk about cardio equipment. I get lots of questions asking if a particular kind of cardio equipment is good.   First of all, I don't recommend buying ANY equipment.  I'd much rather see you get exercise outdoors by cycling, jogging, or playing soccer, its cheaper and more enjoyable.  If you have to workout in your home, I would recommend a cheap jump rope.  Having said that, if you are determined to spend money on equipment for indoor use, here is how you can tell if a piece of equipment is good. 

First of all, good cardio equipment is very expensive and typically costs over a thousand dollars  and has three main characteristics

• It gets your heart rate into the target zone
• adjustable speed, very impt
• sturdy = heavy, never seen anything sturdy under 50lbs most well over a hundred
• sufficient adjustable resistance

OK, some common questions I get about cardio.  Many people seem to be looking for shortcuts to cardio.  What if I sprint, can I just do 1 mile?  NO! You must do your cardio a MINIMUM of 20min, preferably 40-60min.  What if I do interval training, can I just do 15min - NO!  You must do your cardio a MINIMUM of 20min, preferably 40-60min.  I get questions about interval training all the time so lets talk about that a moment.  Interval training is alternating bursts of speed followed by short rests, for example in running you might sprint for 60s and walk for 30s.  Studies have shown that exercising in this fashion can burn off more calories than steady cardio.  If you want to do interval training

Wow, I'm really groggy myself.  Time for me to do cardio before I fall asleep.

Some important references:

http://www.depression-help-for-you.com/exercise-and-depression.html

http://www.psychosomaticmedicine.org/cgi/content/abstract/69/7/587

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/02/080228112008.htm

Bulking Up and Gaining Muscle

There are thousands of products, newsletters, and books out there that promise to show you the secret of how to "gain muscle fast" and they ALL want your money but I'll give you the secret for free - lift weights and eat right!   Gaining mass, is really simple but it takes a LOT of work.  Later I will tell you about how to eat right and lifting weights but first, lets talk about expectations.

What do you need to buy? A $10 used set of dumbbells from from craigslist or a garage sale is perfect, your muscles don't know if they are lifting used rusty old dumbbells or new, expensive, shiny, chrome ones! If you cant find a used set then you can buy a new weight set but don't pay more than $1/lb!. You can make your own pullup bar with $5 of metal toprail from a hardware store or buy a no-mar, door mount pullup bar.

By the way, if you have questions you can ask them 24/7 on the free Bulking up and gaining muscle forum.

There is a LOT of bad information out there and people have a very warped view of what are reasonable expectations for putting on muscle thru weightlifting.  Lets talk about teens and growth first, during the ages 16-22, teens are growing fast.  In this time they are getting taller, adding body mass, and getting stronger all as part of the normal growth process without lifting a single weight.  The reason this is important is that many times you hear anecdotes of teens who add 20lbs in one year lifting weights, well the truth is that they would have added 15lbs anyway thru the normal growth process, only the last 5lbs was actually muscle was actually added thru the weightlifting. 

So what is a reasonable expectation for how much muscle you can add in a year thru weightlifting?  Well if you lift with intensity 5 days a week for an hour a day all year long AND have proper nutrition (more on that later), you can expect to add 5lbs muscle per year if you are a hard gainer and 10lbs muscle if you are one of the gifted few.  Doesn't sound like a lot you can do this year after year and slowly those slowly 5lb gains really add up.  Picture yourself a decade later with 50lbs muscle on! 

OK, now lets discuss how to gain muscle, as I said before you need to lift weights and have proper nutrition.   Lets talk about resistance training first.  You have to lift weights to get stronger and gain muscle.  Mass follows strength, you cant get bigger without getting stronger.  Here are workout plans for beginner, intermediate or advanced bodybuilders.   Now lets talk about the dedication required.  You cant add muscle by flitting around the gym now and then.  Remember I said that you could expect to add 5lbs muscle (10 if you are lucky) if you worked really hard?  Well this is the "work really hard part" - it means 5 days a week of intense lifting.  Just being IN a gym an hour a day does nothing, chatting your buddies while standing near weights doesn't make your muscles grow - you need intense, focused workout sessions.  Check out my section on "Focus" to see what I mean by that.

Believe it or not, lifting weights is the EASY part of gaining muscle, nutrition is the hard part.   The #1 reason  bodybuilders have poor results is not because they don't work out hard enough but because their nutrition sucks.   It can take up to FIVE days for the muscles to rebuild after a workout and during that time you need a constant intake of protein.  Your body can't store protein up so just having a huge steak with dinner will not work if you want to gain muscle, you need to take your protein in 6 small, even doses spread evenly through out the day to insure your recovering muscles always have the amino acids they need to rebuild.  Nobody said bodybuilding was easy.  If you can't eat 6 real meals a day then protein powder mixed in milk or water can make a quick and inexpensive meal replacement in a pinch, remember though, real meals are always better! By the way, I'm trying to cover nutrition in a few paragraphs here and its an extremely important subject that entire books have been written on. If you want to read an excellent book on bodybuilding nutrition, the best I have ever read is Bodybuilding Revealed by Will Brink. He spends three meaty chapters and hundreds of pages on nutrition. If you are interested, you can read my review of Bodybuilding Revealed.

The first thing you need to know about nutrition are some numbers.  I suggest that you consume 1g of protein per pound of bodyweight per day so if you weigh 180lbs, you eat 180g protein during the day. Next question is how many calories should you eat, my calorie calculator asks you 5 questions to accurately determine your metabolism and give you the precise number of calories you need in each of your 6 meals.

Eating more than this will not make your muscles grow faster, you will just get fat!!!  This is really important so I'm going to say this gain.  Eating more than what this chart shows will NOT make you stronger or give you bigger muscles, it will just make you FAT.  This is the bulking myth - you don't need to get fat to get strong.  As long as you are getting your six evenly spaced doses of protein as shown my this chart, your muscles will have the building blocks they need to grow bigger and stronger-- eating more will not help. 

Lets take a quick look at what happens if you are not careful with your diet and eat junk food.  Our 140 hypothetical BBer needs 23g protein six times a day.  Lets say that for each of his meals he eats a big mac which has 24g protein.  Each burger has 24g protein so his muscles will grow well but man-o-man look at the calories!  Remember I said that this 140lb BBer needs six 350 cal meals, well the Big Mac is 590 calories, almost 200% too much.  What this means is that our 140lb BBer would gain 3lbs fat per week or 12lbs of fat per month!  Can you say sumo wrestler!  You really need to watch what you eat!  Here are the most common nutrition mistakes made by bodybuilders:

• they get enough protein so their muscles grow but they eat too many calories so they get really fat

• they eat the proper number of calories but don't get enough protein so their muscles don't grow much

• they get enough protein and the proper number of calories but don't distribute their protein intake into 6 evenly spaced small doses so their muscles don't grow much

Don't let this happen to you!  If you are going to all the work of lifting weighs 5 days a week, make sure you give your nutrition the same effort so your muscles can grow.

If you have the time and devotion, you can gain muscle AND lose fat at the same time but its REALLY hard!  Your protein requirements remain the same but the number of calories per meal drops so its even harder to find acceptable meals.  Lets look at the numbers for those wanting to gain muscle and lose fat.  The below chart shows the nutritional requirements if you want to gain muscle and LOSE 1 lb fat per week:

To get meals with this much protein and this small number of calories, the meals need to be virtually nonfat.  Its virtually impossible to buy anything at a fast food restaurant or in TV dinner form which satisfies these requirements - you need to cook your own meals.  For some meal suggestions, please check here.

So remember that to gain muscle requires TWO things: 

To maximize your muscle gains, you need to do research and learn! This website is a great place to start but don't stop here, I'm just one person with one point of view. Look on the internet, go to your public library (best option) or buy some of the recommended books.

Home Workout Basics

There are many reasons to workout at home. You certainly can't beat the convenience, price and comfortable surroundings. There are many excellent home gyms many of which are advertised on TV; however, you don't need to spend that kind of money because you can do fine with a few very inexpensive pieces of equipment.  With as little as two dollars you can put together a home gym.  In the home workout section you will find workouts for every body part. If you are between the ages of 10 and 17, use the teen workout. If you are over 17 and have been lifting less than a month start with the beginning workout.  If you are over 17 and have been lifting six months to a year then start with the intermediate workout.  If you are over 17 and have been lifting more than a year then start right in with the advanced workout.  If you cease making progress make sure and check out the Plateau Busting Methods.

Chest (Pec) Exercises

Building massive pecs is often the first goal of bodybuilders. What do you need to buy? Although you can make great progress in strength and mass just buy doing pushups, dumbbells gives you a lot more exercise options. Please don't waste money on new equipment though, you can get dumbbells used for pennies on the dollar from craigslist Your muscles don't know if they are lifting used, rusty, old dumbbells or new, expensive, shiny, chrome ones so just buy a used set! As a last resort buy a new weight set but don't pay more than $1/lb!. Do NOT buy a bench press setup! Not only do they take up lots of room and cost a lot but they are the most over-rated chest exercise. Stick to dumbbells! Easy to store, cheap and versatile! Please remember, lifting weights without maintaining proper nutrition is a waste of time! Don't bother tearing your muscles down unless you plan on giving them the constant supply of nutrients they need to rebuild.

Many say I have over-developed pecs, what can I say - I guess that chest workouts are the one thing I have perfected. Its not that I work them out harder or more often than any other muscle group, I guess I just work them out smarter.

When trying to build a big chest, most beginners make the mistake of just doing bench press. Even non-bodybuilders know what bench press is from the movies so its natural that this is the first, and often the only, exercise that people do for chest. Just doing bench press for chest is bad because it really limits the size and strength of your pecs, pushing exercises (like bench press) are only half the story when it comes to chest gains. In my opinion, the squeezing chest exercises (like dumbbell flys) are even more important than the pushing chest exercises when it comes to mass and strength gains. I'm 50 years old and I haven't done bench press in over two decades, hasn't hurt my chest development any :) People always are interested in how much I can bench and I always answer - "Sorry, no idea but I do flys with 95lb dumbbells". To maximize your chest development, you need to do both pushing exercises and squeezing exercises - neglect either and you limit your potential for mass and strength. From personal experience I have found that a 50/50 split of pushing and squeezing exercises provides optimal results. I have also found that alternating between pushing and squeezing exercises during the workout maximizes results.

Another mistake people commonly make is they try to specialize, they want to work "inner pecs", "upper pecs", "lower pecs" or "outer pecs". No! Big mistake. You need an all-around pec workout that has you pushing and pulling from all angles. Genetics play a huge role in the shape of your pecs, some people have square pecs, others round ones. Some people have a big gap between their pecs, some have a triangular gap, and the lucky ones have no gap at all. Its genetics, there is nothing you can do about it. Just do give 110% to all the chest exercises and then all people will notice is you massive pecs, not the gap between them :)

I'm going to start off with some complete chest workouts, then at the end of this section show you the individual exercises. I show eight variations of pushup exercises, from easy to killer - these can be done with no equipment at all. Then I show the dumbbell chest exercises, including the all-important squeezing exercises.

Complete Chest Workouts

Pushups

If I could only do two exercises for my upper body, it would be pushups and pullups - the bench press wouldn't even make my top 10 list. Pushups are awesome for beginners and advanced bodybuilders alike. There are infinite variations that can make the pushups as easy or as challenging as you like. The form used for doing all pushups is the same, lets cover that first. We will be doing the pushups from our fists, pushup stands, or octagonal dumbbells - but NOT our palms. Doing them on your palms will result in wrist injury, don't do it! Second, its very important that you hold your torso rigid and straight like a plank, flex your abs to do this. Watch yourself in a mirror or have a buddy watch you, most people make the mistake of sagging as they get tired. Next form item is speed, most people do the pushups way too fast in an effort to eek out more reps with horrible form - don't do it. One to two seconds to go up and one to two seconds to go down - that's a long time! Toward the end of your workout you will get very tired, don't let your form suffer.  Your pectorals are a big muscle group and take a hard workout to make them grow but don't sacrifice form.  You will get a more amazing pec pump from doing these simple pushups than you will from a heavy bench press. The pushups here are listed from easiest to hardest

Chest Exercises Using Dumbbells

Dumbbell Flys The dumbbell fly is one of my favorite exercises and is what I feel has given me my chest size.  If you do flys on a bench, you need a spotter and need to make 100% sure that you don't let your elbows drop lower than your shoulders as this would hyperextend your shoulder and put it at risk of injury.  Like all exercises, the key is to do this exercise very slowly and with strict form - no cheating.  Keep your arms straight but not locked, if you have to bend your elbows then use a lighter weight. Bend your knees and put your feet flat on the ground, this puts your lower back in a safe position. When lifting, flex your abs for additional lower back support.
	It is best to do dumbbell fly laying on the floor to safely limit your range of motion.  To hear more about doing heavy chest exercises safely without a spotter, watch this video on self-spotting techniques for chest.
	Starting Position.  Arms nearly straight but elbows are not locked, palms are up. Slowly squeeze the weights up while breathing normally. Raising the weights should take about two seconds.
	Ending Position.  Arms still nearly straight.  Now lower weights slowly back to starting position while breathing normally.  Much of the benefit in this exercise comes from the negative portion (lowering the weight to the ground) so don't deprive yourself of its benefits by mushing thru it. Resist gravity! Try and lower the weights as slowly as you can. Tremble and shake, swear and grunt but don't let those weights down fast. Try and take at least 3 seconds to lower the weight (count out loud "one-one-thousand, two-one-thousand, three-one-thousand"). If you cant lower the weights that slowly then you should consider using a lighter weight.
	Video Clip showing proper form of the dumbbell fly. Form is everything, try for 2s up and 2s down.

Incline Dumbbell Flys Here is a cool variant of the dumbbell fly that you do on an incline bench (or a board leaning against a wall). For this incline fly use a light weight, approximately 20% of what you use for incline dumbbell press. In this exercise we keep the arms straight but not locked and the arms are not perpendicular to our sides like in a normal fly, are not alongside our legs, but halfway in between. The palms are facing up at a 45 degree angle.
	Starting Position.  Arms nearly straight but elbows are not locked, palms are up. Slowly squeeze the weights up while exhaling.
	Ending Position.  Arms still nearly straight.  Now lower weights slowly back to starting position while inhaling.
	Video Clip showing proper form of the dumbbell fly

Dumbbell Press The dumbbell press works the chest very similarly to the pushup, the advantage of dumbbell press is that you can use precisely the weight you need to challenge yourself. If you are a beginning bodybuilder then you may not have the strength yet to do pushups, by using light dumbbells you can provide just enough resistance to allow you to slowly build up strength so that you eventually be able to do pushups. Conversely, if you are an advanced bodybuilder, basic pushups are not much of a challenge. Dumbbell press for the advanced bodybuilder allows the use of weights far in excess of bodyweight so that the muscles can be sufficiently challenged to grow. If you do dumbbell press using a bench, you need a spotter and need to make 100% sure that you don't let your elbows drop lower than your shoulders as this would hyperextend your shoulder and put it at risk of injury.
	I strongly recommend that you do dumbbell press on the floor rather than on a bench for two important safety reasons. First, if you get into trouble and the weights come crashing down, your shoulders are protected because the weights will hit the floor before your shoulders hyperextend. Second, the floor safely limits your range of motion and doesn't allow your elbows to drop behind the plane of your back. Many people get injured jerking heavy dumbbells into the starting position, on the floor this is a simple matter. Use a stack of big books like encyclopedias to set the dumbbells on, the weight causes the books to sag into a trough so that the dumbbells will not roll off. Use enough books so the handles are about a foot above the ground. Its then an easy matter to roll the dumbbells into the starting position. To hear more about doing heavy chest exercises safely without a spotter, watch this video on self-spotting techniques for chest. For those people who insist that they need more of a range of motion (I disagree), you can lay on a 2x10 on the floor which will give you another 1.5" of range but still maintain the other advantages of doing the dumbbell press on the floor.
	Starting Position.  Upper arms are inline with each other, elbows are 90 degrees.  Push up slowly while breathing normally, should take a count of two to get the weights up.  While pushing the weights up, you are using two motions which combine for a maximum lift. First, obviously you are pushing, that is obvious to everyone. What is not obvious is that you also need to try to squeeze the weight up. What do I mean by squeezing the weight up? Grab a basketball and hold it about 2' away from your body at shoulder level (elbows slightly bent) and try to pop the ball by squeezing it. Squeeze the ball repeatedly while watching yourself in the mirror until you get the feel for that. When you get the hang of that, pretend you are a mime, put the ball away, and pretend you are squeezing the imaginary ball. Your muscles should tense up just as they did when you were squeezing the ball. When you have mastered that, you can easily apply that to your dumbbell press and squeeze the weight up. When you are doing the dumbbell press you are pushing and trying to pop that basketball. (click on thumbnail for larger view)
	Ending Position. OK, we have squeezed and pushed the weight slowly up till the weights are over our head. We will NOT clank the weights, its annoying and you can get metal chips in your eyes. Most people just get excited about the pushing portion of this exercise and rush thru the negative portion which deprives them of much of the benefit of this exercise. Pressing the weights up looks impressive but much of the gains occur in the negative portion of the exercise, that is, when you are lowering them to the floor. We want to make this negative portion as agonizing as possible - remember, no pain, no gain. First, we want to lower the weights very slowly. How slowly? Say out loud "One-one-thousand, two-one-thousand, three-one-thousand" - that's how long it should take you to lower the weights. If you cant lower them that slowly then you are using too much weight. As with pushing the weight up, we are focusing on two things while we are lowering the weights - pushing and squeezing. Work hard on the squeezing. The negative portion of the exercise is SO important that many people use techniques which emphasize it. For example, if you have a spotter you can use a weight 10% higher than you can lift and have the spotter help you get the weights up and then lower them slowly (and agonizingly) under your own power. Don't cheat yourself, emphasize the negative! (click on thumbnail for larger view)
	Video Clip showing proper form of the dumbbell press. This video is old, a better video is coming later this summer.

Incline Dumbbell Press The incline dumbbell press is a simple variant of the dumbbell press.  If you have an incline bench, that's great.  I make one by tying a 2x8 to my coffee table, it works great and I don't have to store a huge bench.  If you do this, make very sure that everything is completely secure and will not move while you are doing your exercise.  As with the dumbbell press, make 100% sure that you don't let your elbows drop lower than your shoulders as this would hyperextend your shoulder and put it at risk of injury.  You either need spotter(s) on this exercise or you need a self spotting rig to safely lift heavy weights.
	Starting Position.  Upper arms are inline with each other, elbows are 90 degrees.  Push up slowly while exhaling, should take a count of three to get the weights up.
	Ending Position.  Now lower slowly back to starting position while inhaling, it should take a count of three to get back down
	Incline press video showing proper form. In this video I use a self-spotting rig but you can use a spotter or do them on the ground as I do in the above two pictures.

Incline Front Press The incline front press is a simple variant of the dumbbell press.  In this exercise the elbows don't point out to the side as they do in the dumbbell press, instead they are parallel to your body.  If you have an incline bench, that's great.  I make one by tying a 2x8 to my coffee table, it works great and I don't have to store a huge bench.  If you do this, make very sure that everything is completely secure and will not move while you are doing your exercise.  this insures that you will not drop your elbows too low and injure your shoulder.    This exercise works both pecs and shoulders in about equal amounts.
	Starting Position.  Elbows touching your sides lightly.  Hold the dumbbells like ski poles.  Push up slowly while exhaling, should take a count of three to get the weights up.
	Ending Position.  Now lower slowly back to starting position while inhaling, it should take a count of three to get back down
	Video clip showing proper form of the incline front press

Still have questions? You can ask your chest exercise questions 24/7 on the free Bulking Up and Gaining Muscle forum.

 Biceps Exercises

If you have a barbell, this is a great basic mass builder.  Form is key on this, most folks at the gym use terrible form.  Here is how to do it correctly.  Your elbows are pinned to your sides, the do not move one bit.  Nothing moves except your your forearms, your back, legs, head are all completely motionless.  If you have to swing or bounce then you are using way too much weight.
	starting position. Arms down along sides, elbows pinned to your sides.  Slowly exhale and raise the bar all the way to the top in a slow motion.  It should take at least a count of "one one thousand, two one thousand" for you to get them up.
	mid position.  Keeping the elbows stationary, keep the bar moving slowly.
	top position.  No resting here, keep it moving. Slowly lower the barbell back down to the starting position while inhaling.  Again you should take at least two seconds to get them back down.
	Video Clip showing proper form of the barbell curl

Dumbbell Curls (thumbs up) An excellent biceps exercise if you have dumbbells.  Form is key on this, most folks at the gym use terrible form.  Here is how to do it correctly.  Your elbows are pinned to your sides, the do not move one bit.  Nothing moves except your your forearms, your back, legs, head are all completely motionless.  If you have to swing or bounce then you are using way too much weight.
	starting position. Arms down along sides, elbows pinned, thumbs up.  Slowly exhale and raise both weights at the same time all the way to the top in a slow motion.  It should take at least a count of "one one thousand, two one thousand" for you to get them up.
	ending position.  Note that elbows are in exactly the same position.  Now slowly lower the weights back down to the starting position while inhaling.  Again you should take at least two seconds to get them back down.
	Video Clip showing proper form of the hammer curl.

Dumbbell Curls (palms up) Another excellent biceps exercise if you have dumbbells.  Form is key on this, most folks at the gym use terrible form.  Here is how to do it correctly.  Your elbows are pinned to your sides, the do not move one bit.  Nothing moves except your your forearms, your back, legs, head are all completely motionless.  If you have to swing or bounce then you are using way too much weight.
	starting position. Arms down along sides, elbows pinned, palms up.  Slowly exhale and raise both weights at the same time all the way to the top in a slow motion.  It should take at least a count of "one one thousand, two one thousand" for you to get them up.
	ending position.  Note that elbows are in exactly the same position.  Now slowly lower the weights back down to the starting position while inhaling.  Again you should take at least two seconds to get them back down.
	Video Clip showing proper form of the dumbbell curl

"Twenty Ones" This are a popular training method and are so named because you do twenty-one reps per set.  I really like them because its a welcome break from heavy weight low rep training and it gives an amazing pump.  The trick in doing these is to choose a weight light enough so you can do twenty-one reps with good form.  If you are having to swing and arch like a banana to get the last few reps then you need to lower the weight.  I like doing these standing with a barbell but you could use dumbbells instead if you wanted.  Grasp the bar with the palms facing up when doing this exercise.
	The first seven reps go from the resting position to the horizontal position and back down.
	... without any rest ...
	The next seven reps start with the forearms horizontal and end with the bar in the top position.  This is a bit easier and it lets you rest up a bit for what is to come ...
	... without any rest ...
	The last seven reps do full barbell curls from the lower position all the way to the upper position.  Pay close attention to your form doing these last seven reps, move the bar slowly and deliberately attempting to do 2s down and 2s up.  These last seven reps are killer!  If you find that you cant use good form to the very end then drop the weight on your next set.
Video coming shortly

Reverse Curls These are great to do at the end of your arm workout for a great biceps pump and a great forearm workout - shaving or brushing your teeth is tough after doing these!  This exercise is done with the palms facing down as indicated with the red arrow in the below photo.  This exercise is much more difficult to do than with the palms up so don't use a lot of weight, start with about 35% of what you can do with the palms up.  These can be done either standing, as the photos below show, or using a preacher bench as shown in the video below.  If you have tendonitis in your elbow, don't do these because it puts a lot of stress on the elbow.  I suggest doing these at the end of your arm workout when your biceps are good and weak, that way, even though the biceps is stronger than the forearm they are both worked out evenly.
	Starting position, note the overhand grip making the palms face down.
	Raise the bar slowly and steadily - yikes what a forearm pump.
	Video clip showing proper form of the reverse curl.

Biceps on a Pull-up Bar If all you have is a pull-up bar, you can get a good biceps workout by doing underhand pull-ups as shown here.

Start hanging from the bar with a shoulder width underhand grip, that is, with your palms toward your face.  Without swinging or jerking, slowly pull yourself up to the bar then lower yourself slowly.  If you cant do this using good form then cheat by helping yourself up by putting your foot on a chair or having a partner spot you.  Since this works your lats a bit too, you should do this exercise on the same day that you do lats if you are going to do this.  If you have a dumbbell set I would skip this exercise and do the above barbell exercises.

Here is a video of a complete 45 minute arm workout (biceps and triceps).

Leg (Quad, Hamstring, and Calves) Exercises

Everybody wants a big chest and arms, you don't have to nag people to do bench press or biceps curls.  Many people though neglect legs thinking that they can just wear long pants their whole life long but that's a BBIIIIIIIIIG mistake.  Are your legs underdeveloped?   Take this simple test, measure the circumference of your chest and measure the circumference of your legs (at the largest point), take the ratio (divide chest/legs).  If your chest/leg ratio is:

Leg strength is very important for all sports and there are few sports where upper body strength is more important than lower body. More importantly though, leg strength is critical for basic health and keeping yourself injury free. If you have strong legs you can lift heavy objects properly and avoid lower back injury.

Scooby's Skateboard Squats Finally a home workout for quads that is as good as anything a gym has to offer!  Took me awhile to come up with a safe, effective exercise people can do at home for quads with simple equipment.  I have to say, I was pretty pleased with myself for coming up with this.  Most home exercises for quads work only work for beginners but these puppies you can really load the weight on!  All you need for this great exercise is a skateboard, a used set of dumbbells and a stool.  There are very few quad exercises I feel I can safely lift large amounts of weight and this is one of them.  I love the burn and even more I love being so incredibly sore the next days that walking is difficult and going down stairs impossible :)
	starting position.  Knees behind the toes, knees bent 90 degrees, lightly touching the stool with your butt.  Dumbbells hanging from your hands, use straps if you need to.  Skateboard is behind your back.  Note, wall must be strong wood or masonry - don't attempt this indoors with plaster walls as you will destroy the wall.
	ending position.  Roll up slowly and smoothly till your knees are nearly straight, but not locked.  Now very slowly slide back down.  Don't thunk on the stool, just barely touch it.  The stool is there for safety, not for sitting on :)

Lunges The lunge is a great quad and butt exercise.  The key is starting with very light weight till you have the coordination of this movement down.  Personally, I have to use lifting straps to hold the weights up otherwise I end up dropping them but perhaps you have stronger wrists than I do.  I like doing these onto a step stool but you can do them on flat floor also.  If you use a step stool, make 100% sure that it will not slide around as this could cause very serious injury.  I find putting the step-stool against a wall on a carpet the safest and most secure.
	starting position.  Natural standing stance with the weights hanging from each arm.  Now take a big step forward onto the stepstool.
	ending position.  Make sure that your knee does not extend forward of your toes to minimize strain on your knees.  Now push off and return to the starting position.  Do 6-12 reps of this then switch legs.
Stiff Legged Dead Lifts / Romanian Deadlifts (hamstrings) For the health of your knees, its important to keep all the leg muscles in balance.  Having huge quads and spindly little hamstrings is a recipe for knee problems.    There are four exercises you can do at home for hamstings, this first one goes by many names. Its called the stiff-legged deadlift, the romanian deadlift and some call it the "good morning". It is an advanced exercise and very dangerous if done improperly so I suggest you have a physical therapist (not a personal trainer) show you how to do it properly.  I personally love this exercise as it is both a stretch and a strengthening exercise all in one.  I know I have said "do this exercise slowly" before, but this time it is absolutely critical for two reasons: first it is a stretch and you have to go down very slowly (2-15seconds) or risk pulling your hamstring muscle, secondly the back is in a vulnerable position and going at a snails pace helps insure that you are using perfect form.  First safety point, flex your abs and keep them flexed as hard as steel: this will help support your lower back.  Second keep your back neutral, lets talk a minute about what this means because its very important.  Neutral means not arched backwards like a swan dive and not curled forward like the fetal position, in fact, if you stand with good posture that is the correct back position. You are going to keep your entire upper torso completely motionless.  You legs are going to be locked and will stay that way, if you cant go down very far that is fine but just go down as far as you can.  If you bend your knees you are no longer exercising your hamstrings.  This exercise is traditionally done with the barbell held behind the neck but I view this as very dangerous because if you have a back twinge you cant quickly drop the weight to avoid serious injury.  When the weight is lightly hanging from your hands as I recommend, you can let go at the first hint of trouble.  Each rep you will go a bit lower as you stretch out but don't force it, the last thing you want is a pulled hamstring, it should just feel pleasantly tight.  After a few months you will find you will be able to go lower and lower and use more and more weight.  We will use an opposing grip on the bar, one palm facing forward and one facing backward, and we will not use straps or gloves so that we can drop the bar rapidly should we feel the slightest twinge of pain.  OK if I haven't scared you off yet, here is the exercise.  The first few times do this without any plates on the bar at all till you build confidence and then move up in weight very slowly.
	starting position. Legs locked, arms holding bar with opposing grip, back in neutral position.  Sllllooooooooowwwlllyyy, drop down gently feeling the stretch on the way down.  Keep your torso fixed, don't be tempted to droop your shoulders toward the ground in an attempt to look like you are going lower than you really are.  Remember to constantly keep the abs flexed to support your back.
	middle position.  On the way down, keep the barbell as close to your legs as you can to reduce the pressure on the lower back.  Notice the back is still in the neutral position - not rounded like I'm hugging a barrel and not arched back into the 'swan-dive' position.
	ending position. When you have gone as low as you can with your knees locked, start to go back up.  Do not be tempted to jerk upwards, arch your back, or any other such maneuver because it will result in injury - use less weight if you feel you have to do any of these things.  Do as many reps as you can with perfect form.  Again note that my back is in the neutral position.
The above video illustrates the stiff legged deadlift as well as the laying hamstring dumbbell curl and the hanging hamstring dumbbell curl.

Calf Raises This is an easy exercise to do at home, all you need is a set of dumbbells and a bit of wood.  In doing the calf raises form is very important, only use the weight that you can move slowly full the full range of motion.
	To do calf raises you need a place to do them. You can make a simple stand like this with 2x4's glue and nails.  Make sure it is rock solid  because if it is not you will get injured.  The below video shows you how to make this stand as well as how to perform the exercise.
	starting position. The ball of your foot is over the edge of the calf raise stand.  The heel as low as you can comfortably go, a slight stretch is good but don't overdo it.  If you have built your calf raise stand correctly, your heel will touch the floor when you do this comfortable stretch and will prevent you from over-stretching and possibly injuring your achilles.
	Ending position. Slowly and smoothly raise the heel as high as you can.

Leg Extensions This is an easy exercise to do at home, its my personal favorite.
	If you don't have a multi-purpose bench with a leg attachment, you can build a leg extension setup with just a leather belt, a dumbbell, and a harness.
	starting position. Very important, don't go lower than this as its really bad for your knees.
	Ending position.  Move the weight slowly and steadily to the horizontal position, try and hold this for a second before lowering again.

For more EXERCISES for others body Parts go to : http://fitness.scoobysworkshop.com/index.htm

Some Basics First

It would help if you understood the following information:

1. Focus. Unless you know how to focus, you wont be able to generate the intensity required to make gains in strength and mass
2. Bulking Up And Adding Muscle This is a good overview of what is required to add muscle and gain strength.
3. Nutrition. I don't care how hard you workout, if your nutrition sucks you wont gain an ounce of muscle. Many bodybuilders who claim they have "good nutrition", actually don't.

Joint Pain

First off, lets clear this up.  “No pain no gain” does NOT apply to joints.  Joint pain is ALWAYS bad – period.  Pain is your bodies alarm system, when it goes off - you better listen to it! If you continue to push hard thru joint pain you will seriously injure yourself and cut your bodybuilding career veeeeeery short.  If you have joint pain, stop whatever it is you are doing which is causing the pain!  Try different angles, different grip positions, or reducing ROM to make the pain stop.  If that doesn’t work, try doing less  weight with higher reps or doing a different exercise completely.  If you still have joint pain, then you need to see a doctor. Now lets talk about muscular pain.

Bad Muscular Pain

Any muscle pain which is sharp, starts suddenly, or occurs as a bolt of pain is ALWAYS bad and is probably the sign that a serious injury has occurred. Tears an separations would cause this kind of pain. This is definitely NOT what we are talking about when we say "No Pain No Gain"! If you have sudden or sharp, lightning bolt like pain in a muscle, stop immediately and have somebody run to get you an big ice pack and ibuprofen to help minimize the injury damage. Then get yourself to a doctor.

Good Muscular Pain

Now lets talk about some kinds of good pain that can be indicators of a successful workout. Before we go into the kinds of good pain, I need to clarify here. There has never been research which proves these types of pain cause muscle growth, in fact, many people have gotten stronger and bigger without ever getting sore. So if you cant get sore while working out, don't despair. Having said that, in my experience the most intense workouts produce the most soreness and workout intensity seems to correlate with strength and mass gains.

OK, lets talk about the good kinds of pain that we are striving for. The first good pain is the one that occurs at the end of a set. It starts as a slow burn when you are about 3/4 done with your set and the pain slowly increases with each subsequent rep till at the end the pain is quite intense.. This is good pain caused by the lactic acid buildup in your muscles. The reason this pain is good is that its a good indicator that you are pushing yourself hard enough to cause muscle growth.

The other good kind of pain is Delayed Onset Muscular Soreness (DOMS). This delayed muscular soreness is very good and sought after, its what makes bodybuilders take the elevator rather than the stairway for many days after a leg workout - if you have had a killer leg workout you know exactly what I'm talking about.  If you workout with sufficient intensity, you get micro-tears in muscles which the body then has to repair.  During the healing process, these muscles can get very sore.  This soreness is delayed (DOMS) and can take 1-2 days after the workout to appear and can take up to a week to go away depending on the intensity of the workout. DOMS appears to be a good indication of the effectiveness of the workout. That wonderful soreness you feel is your muscles being rebuilt - bigger, faster, stronger! By the way, that soreness should be a constant reminder that you need to pay strict attention to your nutrition to insure that your muscles have a constant supply of all the nutrients and amino acids they need to grow. If you workout hard and then eat potatoes chips for 5 days your workout was a complete waste of time.

So, If you have DOMS, its clear you had a very effective workout but the inverse is not true. If you don't get DOMS, don't despair, you might have still had a great and effective workout. Some muscles just don’t seem to get sore and it varies from person to person.  For me, I always can get sore when doing arms, chest, lats, and legs but shoulders and calves never get sore.  By the way, I strongly suggest that you wait till all muscle soreness is gone before you workout that muscle again. The soreness is a sign that the muscle is still being repaired and made stronger, If you workout before the repairs are complete you wont be able to lift with sufficient intensity. If you want to hurry the healing and make the soreness go away so you can work out again, DONT take ibuprofen - that just masks the pain. Studies have shown that stretching does not seem to help the swelling and pain associated with DOMS so that wont work either. Studies HAVE shown that massage does help speed the healing process so if your in a big rush to get rid of the soreness and have lots of money, go for sports massages.

Measuring how good a workout was

So, where are we? If you get DOMS, you know you had a good workout but what if you don't? How do you know if you had a good workout? Well, you cant use a tape measure because it can take over a year to see measurable amounts of gain and you certainly will not be able to measure any difference in muscle size after one workout. You cant use a scale either. Even if you workout hard 7 days a week with strict nutrition, the most muscle you can hope to add is 5-10lbs a year which is about 8oz a month. There is no way you can measure that small amount of muscle gain given the large daily fluctuations i weight. Heck, I can gain 5lbs in 10min by eating salty fries and drinking a double big gulp. So how DO you tell if your workout was successful? Use a logbook. Every workout, write down the exercise you did, the weight you used and how many reps you did on each set. After a month, check your progress. If you have gone up by at least two reps or are using a heavier weight, then your workouts are successful. If you get stronger, you will get bigger, simple as that. For measuring progress in the long term (more than a year), the scale, caliper and tape measure used together are the best way to track your long term progress.

Summary

• It takes intense workouts to gain strength and muscle
• If you get DOMS, it is a good indication you had an intense workout
• If you don't get sore at all, you still may have had an intense workout
  • take careful workout notes in a logbook. Going up a few reps a month or increasing the weight you are lifting is progress and an indicator that your workouts that you had good workouts.
• Taking sufficient rest between workouts and having strict nutrition 7 days a week are key to gaining muscle and getting stronger

"No Pain, No Gain" might or might not be true for you. Expectations

Many people believe the locker talk they hear about gaining 20lbs of muscle in a summer, it just isn't realistic for a natural bodybuilder!  The biggest problem is that people want to believe that you can add massive amounts of muscle quickly - you cant! First, lets talk about how people get these unreasonable expectations. Teenagers will gain weight yearly as they mature whether they do bodybuilding or not, sometimes quite rapidly. Many of the anecdotal stories you hear about adding 30lbs muscle in a year are just due to rapid puberty growth spurts, not any specific workout plan or supplement. When you hear someone in the locker room saying how MegaMassCreatine5000 put 30lbs of muscle on them, don't believe a word of it, they would have gained the 30lbs even if they ate dirt instead. Lets talk about another dirty little secret that leads to unreasonable expectations - steroids. Lots of people use steroids but don't admit it, even to their close friends - Why? Its illegal! Jail term 1-5 years. Many beginning bodybuilders go up to steroid-freak at the gym and ask them - "what are you taking to get so big?" Of course, he isn't about to admit he uses illegal steroids (you never know who is a DEA agent) so he says:

"Mega-creatine 1000 and JinaHyrdroCynine400 made me gain 40lbs muscle in a year! Try them!"

Don't bother asking people at the gym if they use steroids, you will never get an honest answer. You might as well ask them if they robbed the Wells Fargo bank last weekend, only an idiot admits to a crime that can put them in jail. No wonder so many people think they are "hardgainers" or are somehow weak and deficient when they are actually quite normal, they are comparing their results to steroid users! Learn to spot the signs of steroids so you don't compare your progress to that of steroid users.

Possible Signs of Steroid Use

• rapid weight gain
• change in personality
• stretch marks between shoulder and pecs
• severe body acne
• blotchy skin. Very faint dark irregular patches, kind of a purplish tinge that look like they might be a bruise or a zit about to erupt.
• skin looks like its been doused with baby oil at the slightest exertion

Remember that you cant tell for certain if someone is using steroids by looking! The best indicator is how rapidly they have gained muscle mass, see the below chart. The mistake that the naive public and beginning bodybuilders make is that assuming that anyone who is big, muscular, and ripped has used steroids. If someone went from 150lbs to 200lbs over 10 years adding 5lbs of muscle a year, that's probably natural. If they went from 150lbs to 200lbs in 2 years, that's steroids! You cant tell by looking at the "after" photo.

So how much muscle gain can you expect to achieve in a year with five intense, one hour workouts a week and strict, solid nutrition? I would say 5-10lbs/year. Remember though that this is for mature adults, not teens. As mentioned above, teens have puberty growth spurts that are unpredictable in magnitude and length. Its also worth mentioning the "first year gain" effect , some people have very rapid gains (15 or 20lbs muscle gained) the first year they start bodybuilding but this kind of gain is one-time-only. As your body becomes more highly trained, the gains are slower and harder to achieve till you reach your natural genetic limit. The below chart applies to adults who have been training a year or more:

Note here that 'steroids' can also mean the banned pro-hormone supplements that convert to steroids in the body - call these what you want, they are still steroids in my book.

So how much can you realistically expect to improve your physique?  It depends on several factors including your age and body type.   Below is a chart showing some realistic expectations for various body types.  After the age of 40, the hormone levels decrease so the gains will be less than shown in the table below. Remember again that the below gain expectations do not apply to teens or people in their first year of lifting who can have much better results.

	Body Type	Reasonable expectations for male 20-35 years
	Endomorphic body type is characterized by an increased amount of fat storage, due to having a larger number of fat cells than the average person, as well as higher proportion of digestive tissue. They have a wide waist and a large bone structure.	With excellent nutrition and hard workouts expect to gain 10lbs of muscle a year.  With cardio and strict nutrition, expect to lose 1lb fat per week. Note that even though you are gaining muscle your scale weight will go down because of the fat you are losing.
	Mesomorphic body type is characterized by a high rate of muscle growth and a higher proportion of muscular tissue. They have large bones, solid torso combined with low fat levels. It is also noted that they have wide shoulders with a narrow waist.	With excellent nutrition and hard workouts expect to gain 10lbs of muscle a year while keeping the 8-pack abs.
	Ectomorphic body type is characterized by long arms and legs and a short upper body and narrow shoulders, and supposedly have a higher proportion of nervous tissue. They also have long and thin muscles. Ectomorphs usually have a very low fat storage; therefore they are usually referred to as slim.	With excellent nutrition and hard workouts expect to gain 5lbs of muscle a year while keeping the 8-pack abs.

I personally think that way too much emphasis is placed on body-type classification, why? Because it DOESNT MATTER! Regardless of your body type, you do exactly the same thing to gain mass or get a ripped 6-pack!

Good Form

OK, here are two reasons to use the slow, deliberate form that I preach on my website: #1 you will maximize your strength and mass gains, #2 you will minimize the chance of injury.  We are surrounded by a sea of bad-form, everywhere we look are bad examples.  At the gym, 80% of the people there are using horrible form.  Hollywood movies are even worse, every time you see a bodybuilder portrayed they are lifting some huge weight with jerky, swinging, gyrations.  Just say "No" to bad form!

How can I possibly say that my slow controlled form will give you better results than using heavy weights with bad form?  First of all, lets look at "time under tension".  Using my slow controlled form a set will last about 45 seconds, so the time under tension is 45s.  Add another 50lbs will force you to swing and jerk the weights around and the same set will only last about 15 seconds.  The second reason why my slow controlled form provides better results is that you focus 100% of your energy on the muscle being exercised.  When you do more weight than you control it forces you to swing, jerk or bounce to do your reps.  In each of these cases you are having to recruit muscles from another bodypart to help you do the set - what good does that do?  Here is a typical example we have all seen, someone maxing on the bench press.  They arch their hips upward and when the bar hits their chest they bounce it back up using their hips, legs, and abs - this trampolining does nothing to workout their chest.

Lets look at #2, the injury potential.  Any quick jerky motions place additional stress on your joints and increase the risk of injury.  Tell me, is it worth getting an injury that will keep you out of the gym for 4 months just so you can look really tough at the gym?  How much progress do you think you will make sitting on the sofa for 4 months watching TV while your injuries heal?  In the proceeding bench press example where the lifter is using their torso as a trampoline to bounce the bar back up, they are quite likely to have a serious lower back injury, and for what?  So they can look really tough at the gym?

Use good form and don't ego-lift or you WILL get injured - it looks really impressive to do lat pull-downs with twice your bodyweight but dislocate your shoulder and your bodybuilding career is over.  Don't use momentum and don't throw the weights around.  If you have to cheat, then lower the weight.  Everybody thinks they use good form but try this, try 3 seconds up and 3 seconds down for a total of 6 seconds for each rep - count out loud "one onethousand, two onethousand, three onethousand".  If you cant do reps this slowly then you are probably cheating and using momentum to help you so lower the weight and try again.  Check out my videos to see what I consider good form, here is one for the reverse curl.

Another thing to be mindful of when doing any exercise is to mentally note what is moving and what muscles are being used. If you are doing biceps exercises then only the elbows should be moving, not the shoulders. If you are doing abs, the neck and head should not be moving. Always be thinking, what muscle is being used now!  Think about the physics involved and make sure you are not fooling yourself into thinking you are lifting more than you really are.

Home Workout Equipment

To work out at home you will need some minimal equipment. Your first purchase should be a used dumbbell set.  If you have room, a used adjustable bench is a good addition.  Don't buy any of these items new, you can get them for pennies on the dollar buy buying them at garage sales or online at a place like craigslist.  Many people just want these type of items out of their garage and they don't care how much they get as long as you haul them out of the way for them!
Essential Equipment
	Essential, A pull-up bar.  All the time I get emails from people without pullup bars asking for an exercise they can substitute for pullups - there are none!  Pullups are an essential upper body exercise and you must have a pullup bar if you are serious about bodybuilding and want to work out at home.  Get creative.  Look in your basement for a pipe you can do pullups on.  Look for a tree with a low branch you can use.  Children's playgrounds are a perfect place to do pullups, the steel structure of many of the slides and play houses are perfect for doing pullups.  Anything horizontal and strong can be used with a little creativity.  Most convenient is having a bar at home.  If you have a place to install a bar, go to the hardware store and get some galvanized fence top rail or a closet pole, shouldn't cost more than a few dollars.  Put it in your garage, attic, basement or wherever you have room.  If none of the above options is possible, then you are going to have to spend some money and buy a no-mar, door mount pullup bar.  Make sure and get one that lets you have a wide grip (wider than the doorway).
	Essential, Used dumbbell set.  Dumbbells are the ultimate in versatility and convenience, they can be used to exercise every single body part and they can be stored in a small corner of your closet - try that with a rowflexx!  Get these used at a garage sale, no need to buy them new - you should be able to find a used set really cheap.  Use craigslist.org to locate them, a good price is $0.25/lb to $0.50/lb - that is, a 310lb olympic set should sell for $75 - $155.  Best are solid metal plates (not sand or concrete filled) and handles that allow quick plate removal.  If you don't want to hunt at garage sales, you can click here to buy a 160 pound weight set, or a 300 lb olympic weight set.  An excellent price for a new weight set would be $0.73/lb, if you pay more than $1/lb you are paying too much.  If you have lots of money and very little space then consider these adjustable 45 lb Powerblocks/90 lb Powerblocks, but they are really expensive.
	Essential, Chair.  An old chair with a back for shoulder exercises if you don't have the above bench
	Essential, cardio equipment.  If you want to jog for cardio get a good pair of running shoes.  If you want to bike then get an inexpensive bike like this, this one is $215 but you can probably get one for $140 at your local big-box store. Don't get anything with gears, we don't want maintenance problems here as we are trying to save time not add more complications to our life and besides, the idea is to get more exercise and you get more on a one speed bike than a 21speed!  Make sure you get one that will let you raise the seat to the proper height.  Many have blown out their knees riding on a bike with the seat too low.  Jump rope is a good cardio option for those who don't live in a place where its possible to run or bike during the winter.
	Essential, Cushion.  A good cushion is needed to protect your knees while doing dumbbell rows and other exercises.
Optional Equipment
	Optional, Lifting straps.  Good if your wrists give out before your back does when you are doing pull-ups.  Also useful if you are doing lunges with a heavy weight.  You can buy inexpensive lifting straps from amazon for $7 or nice padded straps for $18.
	Optional, Footstool for lunges and calf raises, optional.  I made this one in 7th grade shop class, make sure yours is very sturdy.
	Optional, Push-up stand.  A pushup stand ($13) is great for allowing you to do pushups without damaging your wrists or hands.  You can also use a set of octagonal dumbbells.  Many people ask about the Perfect Pushup , at $40 I think its overpriced but many swear by them.  Personally I don't use either, I do them on my fists (with padding).
,	Optional, Bench.  These are handy but take up lots of space.   I bought mine used for $60 and it included 120lbs of weights!  I use it for doing inclines, preacher curls, leg curls and leg extensions.  Flat bench press and flat dumbbell press I still do by laying on the ground directly.  Again, you don't really need one of these and I would advise against buying one but if you must have one you can buy a weight bench at amazon.
	Optional, Progress Measurement Devices.  A flexible tape measure (about $7) is a cheap, simple and accurate way of measuring progress.   A skin fold caliper ($23) is also a vital tool in gauging progress.  A professional skin fold caliper ($320)is out of control, don't waste your money for this level of accuracy.  Finally, the best form of progress measurement is a digital camera.  A cell phone camera can provide this cheaply.  Somebody in your family probably has a good digital camera you could borrow once a month.  I use the Canon Powershot SD1100IS and love it.  I use it to make all my movies and take all my still photos.  At $170 its a camera bargain.
	Optional, hanging ab straps.  I use them a fair amount to exercise my lats when my elbow tendonitis is flaring up (see the injuries section).  These hook onto your pull-up bar and can be used for ab exercises and for lats exercises when you have an injured elbow or hand.  Get them at your local sporting good store for about $35 or click here to buy hanging ab straps from amazon.
	Optional, Self spotting rig.  If you have a very strong pullup bar in your workout area then it can double as a self-spotting rig.  This is very helpful in getting a good workout without risking injury.  The weights are secured at the correct height to prevent you from hyper-extending and injuring a joint.  Very helpful in chest and shoulder exercises which use a lot of weight.
	The most important thing you need is a place to workout.  A garage or spare room is idea so things don't rust.  Most of us don't have a room we can dedicate to a weight room which is why dumbbells are perfect.  The picture on the left is in weight-room mode with the pullup bar and dumbbells spread out.  On the right was taken 5 minutes later after I put everything away because company was coming over.
	Optional, cable apparatus.  Nice for abs, triceps and lats.  With a little work you can turn your dumbbells into a cable machine:

The Spot Fat Removal Myth

What exercise gets rid of love-handles?

What exercise gets rid of man-boobs?

Of all the bad bodybuilding myths, this is the one I hate the most because unscrupulous skamsters use this myth to convince uninformed people to spend millions of dollars on their useless machines. Just turn on the TV late at night and you are sure to hear ridiculous claims like "targets fat in the troublesome love handle region".

So how can you get rid of the unwanted fat on your stomach, hips, thighs, or chest? Cardio and Nutrition! For more information see my section on getting 6-pack abs. The body decides how it will distribute the fat over your body, all you can do to get rid of love-handles or man-boobs is to reduce your total bodyfat by doing more aerobic exercise and by eating less.  It is not possible to do spot-removal of fat despite the million dollar industry which tries to sell a gullible public one "love-handle remover" after another! 

The myth that you can remove fat in focused areas by doing special exercises is not new. The vibrating belts of the '50s were promoted for fat removal around the mid-section. Its just not possible to focus fat removal on a particular area, surgery is the only way to do spot-removal of fat deposits.  There are some drugs (like AZT) that cause the body to redistribute fat and focus it in the mid section but as far as I know, nobody has been able to do this in a desirable fashion.

Reader Weight Loss Success Stories!

Here are some reader success stories of people who thru hard work and good nutrition, lost weight and completely transformed their bodies! These people are a true inspiration, you can lose lose weight too! See also the muscle gain success stories! To be featured here, click for info.

		Andreas lost 33 pounds age: 18 Ostersund/Sweden before: Jan 2008 after: Mar 2009 before wt: 209lbs after wt: 176lbs Read his weight loss success story!
		Tim lost 47 pounds age: 31 Charleston, SC before: Aug 2008 After: Sept 2009 before wt: 198lbs after wt: 151lbs Read his amazing weight loss success story!
		Ardo lost 29 pounds age: 21 Garden Grove, CA before: April 2009 after: Dec 2009 before wt: 205lbs after wt: 176lbs Read his weight loss success story!
		Rok lost 29 pounds age: 22 Silicion Valley, CA before: July 2009 after: Jan 2010 before wt: 155lbs after wt: 126lbs Read his weight loss success story!
		Sam lost 130 pounds age: 20 Midwest City, OK before: May 2009 after: Feb 2010 before wt: 375lbs after wt: 245lbs Read his weight loss success story!
		Will lost 25 pounds age: 28 Hillsboro, OR before: March 2009 after: July 2009 before wt: 180lbs after wt: 165lbs Read his weight loss success story!
		Khairi lost 29 pounds age: 34 N. Sembila, Malaysia before: Sept 2009 after: Jan 2010 before wt: 183lbs after wt: 154lbs Read his weight loss success story!
		Emil lost 115 pounds age: 20 London, England before: Dec 2007 after: Nov 2009 before wt: 295lbs after wt: 180lbs Read his amazing weight loss success story!
		Dan lost 47 pounds age: 20 Long Island, NY before: Feb 2009 after: Jan 2010 before wt: 197lbs after wt: 150lbs Read his weight loss success story!
		Ramsey lost 70 pounds age: 21 Panama City, Panama before: May 2008 after: Mar 2009 before wt: 240lbs after wt: 170lbs Read his weight loss success story!
		Danny lost 99 pounds age: 20 Motherwell, Scotland before: July 2009 after: Feb 2010 before wt: 275lbs after wt: 176lbs Read his weight loss success story!
		Bryce lost 103 pounds age: 15 Devon, Canada before: July 2008 after: Dec 2009 before wt: 287lbs after wt: 184lbs Read his weight loss success story!
		Colin lost 21 pounds age: 61 Limoges, France before: Nov 2008 after: Nov 2009 before wt: 183lbs after wt: 162lbs Read his amazing weight loss success story!
		Dany lost 22 pounds age: 27 Zurich, Switzerland before: March 2009 after: October 2009 before wt: 163lbs after wt: 141lbs Read his weight loss success story!
		Jake lost 30 pounds age: 17 Hilliard, Ohio before: Dec 2008 after: July 2009 before wt: 170lbs after wt: 140lbs Read his weight loss success story!
		Justin lost 20 pounds age: 17 Rancho Cucamonga, CA before: Dec 2008 after: June 2009 before wt: 195lbs after wt: 175lbs Read his weight loss success story!
		Jonasz lost 23 pounds age: 29 Edinburgh, Scotland before: May 2008 after: Nov 2008 before wt: 201lbs after wt: 178lbs Read his weight loss success story!
		Nic lost 13 pounds age:26 Carthage, TN before: April 2009 after: Oct 2009 before wt: 188lbs after wt: 175lbs Read his weight loss success story!
		Tim lost 56 pounds age: 15 Brisbane, Australia before: Oct 2008 after: Feb 2009 before wt: 194lbs after wt: 138lbs Read his weight loss success story!
		Martin lost 5 pounds age: 19 Karlsruhe, Germany before: Feb 1 2009 after: Aug 1 2009 before wt:174lbs after wt:169lbs Read his weight loss success story!
		Jacob lost 24 pounds age: 20 Chapin, South Carolina before: Jan 2009 after: July 2009 before wt: 200lbs after wt: 176lbs Read his weight loss success story!

Reader Muscle Gain Success Stories!

Thru hard weight workouts and good nutrition, these people have completely transformed their bodies! Gaining muscle is not a fast process, it takes stict nutrition and daily high intensity workouts. These people are a true inspiration! See also the weight loss success stories! To be featured here, click for info.

		Daniel age:17 Sydney, Australia before: 21-07-06 after: 21-07-09 before wt:46Kg after wt: 67Kg Read his muscle gain success story!
		Zamir age:19 Pleasanton, CA before: Aug 2008 after: Dec 2009 before wt: 135lbs after wt: 156lbs Read his muscle gain success story!
		Luis age:17 Pembroke Pines before: Oct 2008 after: Dec 2009 before wt: 115lbs after wt: 132lbs Read his muscle gain success story!
		Mike age: 20 Barrington, NH before: June 06 after: Mar 2009 before wt: 175lbs after wt: 187lbs Read his muscle gain success story!
		Ryan age: 20 Coventry, USA before: Aug 2008 after: Sept 2009 before wt: 141lbs after wt: 155lbs Read his muscle gain success story!
		Danny age: 18 Vienna, Austria before: Dec 2008 after: Jan 2010 before wt: 128lbs after wt: 135lbs Read his muscle gain success story!
		Jason age: 17 Girard, Ohio before: June 2009 after: Jan 2010 before wt: 140lbs after wt: 152lbs Read his muscle gain success story!
		Robin age: 19 Gothenborg Sweden before: Dec 2008 after: June 2009 before wt: 152lbs after wt: 165lbs Read his muscle gain success story!
		Dylan age:15 Moore, Oklahoma before: January 2009 after: August 2009 before wt: 128lbs after wt: 144lbs Read his muscle gain success story
		Daniel age:17 Montreal, Canada before: July 1 2008 after: August 2009 before wt: 165 lb after wt: 170 lb Read his muscle gain success story
		Lasse age: 17 Haderslev, Denmark before: Dec 2008 after: July 2009 before wt: 61kg after wt: 65kg Read his muscle gain success story

YES YOU CAN WE ALL CAN !! I DID IT ! IM NOW MUSCULAR , GREAT 6-PACK AND DEFINED CHEST! AWESOME SOCCER PLAYER LEGS AND A GREAT FORM! I WAS FAT IN TIMES! EVERYONE CAN! FELL Free to post Pics of your progress!

Good luck!

That's a great article Reach.

I personally am eating very well and I run 2-3 times a week but I'm not particularly trying to achieve anything other than staying in good shape.

wow biggesst OP evar

Thanks mate! Awesome to hear that! Good shape its the MOST IMPORTANT THING! CARDIO is the MOST important thing ! Keep the good work ;)

i have been in bodybuilding for some months now aswell... results are fantastic. this has been taking 2 months ago im bigger know special in arms.

There's a BIG difference between working out at the gym and "bodybuilding"!

Bodybuilding is not about how to get a 6 pack.

You can achieve 6pack doing bodybuilding... Bodybuilding is a lifestyle for many people but u are building ur muscles so we can say its bodybuilding... be bigger and stronger... Abs are a muscle in ur body if it get stronger and u have lower body fat u will get a 6pack easy as that. All muscles can grow as we all know.

easy my ass.. Im skinny and I don't have a six pack!

How do I do it!

Bodybuilding is a sport and a way of life, yes. Working out in the gym and building muscles on an amature level, just to have good health and gain visable abs and biceps, is not bodybuilding.Thats all.