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ncomplete proteins come from "plant products", beans, rice, etc. They must be combined in order to supply the body with the 9 essential amino acids it needs. Ladies and gentlemen, now that you see how important consuming protein is let's look at how much should be consume and what types.

The world health organization and many national health agencies have independently conducted studies, which (even though they differ slightly) all conclude our daily protein requirement should be between 10% to 15% of our daily caloric intake. If you eat 2000 calories a day that equates to 50 to 75 grams of protein.

Protein needs of individuals vary in nature. To estimate your personal protein needs you will need to take your current weight in pounds, divide it in half and then subtract 10. The result is a rough estimate of how much protein you should consume.

If you do not already do so, read food lables, then buy your food uncooked and cook it healthfully. If you do not take anything else from this article that last sentence is paramount.

your schedule is hectic and you are just too busy and do not have time to eat high protein foods then bars and powders can be substituted. A lot of bars on the market are loaded with other "not so good" man made additives, trans fats, aspartame, saturated fat content (over 3.5g), etc.

. Increased Workout Intensity Translates To More Muscle Mass

One of the first reasons why you need to start taking creatine is because it will help to increase your overall workout intensity, which means you will achieve a higher level of muscle mass.

The creatine will allow you to keep pushing hard in the gym at a time when you would have previously had to decrease the load or stop entirely, so this helps in terms of building muscle faster.

Better Muscular Contraction Means Enhanced Sports Performance:

The second reason to take creatine is for athletic performance. If you're involved in sports that require stop and go type of activity, creatine is going to come in very helpful for you.

To put this into perspective, a player in a game of hockey taking creatine would not only be able to go harder with each shift he's on the ice, but he'll be able to last through more shifts total throughout the game.

Quicker Atp Re-Synthesis Equates To Frequent Training Sessions:

Third, creatine is going to allow you to train at a higher frequency, which also means quicker and more significant muscular gains.

The more frequent you are able to stimulate a muscle, the faster it will grow bigger, provided that it has had the opportunity to fully grow back after the first stress load that was placed upon it.

Since creatine helps increase the recovery rate of the muscle cells, this means you may not require as much total rest time in between each workout you perform.

So if you're someone who commonly takes a few days off between each full body workout, using creatine may allow you to cut this down to just a single day between workouts. Over time this will translate to more workouts and will make a difference on your results from month to month.

Higher Glycogen Levels Generates Huge Muscle Pumps:

Fourth on our list of reasons why you need to use creatine is because of the muscle pumps you'll get. While muscle pumps don't necessarily help you out physiologically in terms of building muscle mass, they will help with motivational levels.

There's nothing like seeing a muscle grow at the end of a workout to motivate you to get back into the gym and do it again a day or two later, and since creatine causes a higher level of water retention in the body, the muscle pumps you'll experience will go up.

Faster Sprint Performance Increases Metabolic Rates And Fat Loss:

Finally, the last reason why you should consider investing in creatine as one of the muscle-building supplements you use is because it'll help you increase your metabolic rate.

If you're currently looking for fat loss, how many calories you burn on a daily basis will have a significant impact on how quickly you see progress.

Since sprint cardio training is one of the best ways to boost your metabolic rate and sprinting relies strictly on ATP as a fuel source, supplementing with creatine allows you to have a better sprint performance during your weight loss phase.

If you do make the decision to utilize creatine with your training program also remember to perform the loading phase first as this will be critical to getting the muscle cells fully saturated right from the start and allowing you to see the biggest benefits from taking the supplement.

MODIFY YOUR ABS ROUTINE. There isn't a specific abs routine that will work better than all others, but changing your abs routine will maximize the results.

UNDERSTAND THE TRUTHS AND MYTHS ABOUT ABDOMINALS. We all have abs. Unfortunately, some of us have to work harder than others to attain visible ones. Doing 1,000 sit-ups per day is not going to make your abs just magically pop out, but getting your body-fat levels very low will allow your abs to appear.

For a male to able to be see his abs, he has to be roughly at 12 percent body-fat and lower. For a female to see hers, she needs to be at roughly 14 percent and lower. If you can get your body-fat to those levels, you will start to see your abs.

A healthy breakfast is the most important meal for a reason - it jumpstarts your metabolism for the entire day. Not just any breakfast, though. Unless you want a muffin top, skip the muffins and opt for protein, healthy fats and complex carbohydrates. Emphasis on the protein. Can't go wrong with eggs.

BE COGNIZANT OF THE FREQUENCY OF YOUR ABS TRAINING. It is important to train your abs at least three times per week for a beginner and intermediate fitness enthusiast. For the advanced gym guru, train your abs about every other day to build them properly.

DON'T GET SMACKED BY SUGAR, STARCH AND SALT

IMPLEMENT A VARIETY OF CARDIOVASCULAR EXERCISES. Cardio helps you lose fat.

BELIEVE IN YOURSELF. If you believe you can do it, you will do everything necessary in your power to attain that goal. Your mind will help guide your fitness goals and if that goal is to attain great abs, then, provided you do the necessary work, it will happen for you.

Exercising in the morning energizes you for the day—not to mention that gratifying feeling of virtue you have knowing you’ve done something disciplined and good for you

Studies have shown that exercise significantly increases mental acuity—a benefit that lasts four to ten hours after your workout ends. Exercising in the a.m. means you get to harness that brainpower, instead of wasting it while you’re snoozing.

Assuming you make exercise a true priority, it shouldn’t be a major problem to get up 30 to 60 minutes earlier—especially since regular exercise generally means a higher quality of sleep, which in turn means you’ll probably require less sleep.

When you exercise at about the same time every morning—especially if you wake up regularly at about the same time—you’re regulating your body's endocrine system and circadian rhythms. Your body learns that you do the same thing just about every day, and it begins to prepare for waking and exercise several hours before you actually open your eyes. That’s beneficial because:  Your body’s not “confused” by wildly changing wake-up times, which means waking up is much less painful. (You may even find that you don’t need an alarm clock most days.) Hormones prepare your body for exercise by regulating blood pressure, heart rate, blood flow to muscles, etc. Your metabolism, along with all the hormones involved in activity and exercise, begin to elevate while you're sleeping. As a result, you’ll feel more alert, energized, and ready to exercise when you do wake up.  Many people find that morning exercise has a tendency to regulate their appetite for the rest of the day. Not only do they eat less (since activity causes the release of endorphins, which in turn diminishes appetite), they also choose healthier portions of healthier foods.  People who consistently exercise find, sometimes to their great surprise, that the appointed time every morning evolves into something they look forward to. Besides the satisfaction of taking care of themselves, they find it’s a great time to plan their day, pray, or just think more clearly—things most of us often don’t get to do otherwise.  Exercising first thing in the morning is the most foolproof way to ensure that other things don’t overtake your fitness commitment, particularly if you have a hectic family life. (It’s so easy to wimp out in the evening, when we’re tired or faced with such tasks as rustling up dinner and helping with homework.)  More than 90% of those who exercise consistently have a morning fitness routine. If you want to exercise on a regular basis, the odds are in your favor if you squeeze your workout into the a.m.  Non-morning people can always trick themselves in the a.m. Having trouble psyching yourself up for a sunrise jog? Do what I did—tell yourself that you’ll still be so fast asleep that you won’t even remember—much less mind!  

Lee recommends that people aim for that first level — 30 minutes of moderate activity a day — and then ratchet things up if they can.

you may find that half an hour a day of moderate activity simply won’t work - at least not as effectively as you might like.

we all know people who seem to eat whatever they want and never gain an ounce while others struggle continually to control their weight

Looking like a swimsuit model.

How much aerobic exercise you need to burn fat and look fitter will depend on your metabolism, weight, diet and just how toned you want to be.

Any exercise is better than none,

Just Because You're Skinny Does Not Mean You Will Have A Six-Pack

Abdominals Are A Muscle, Too! You want your arms to be bigger, your shoulders to be broader and your chest to be fuller, correct? And what is the solution to making these muscle groups increase in size? High intensity weight training, overload, consistency and a healthy surplus of calories. Starting to sound familiar? The same goes for your abdominals. Your abdominals are a muscle group that requires the same formula and attention and are not any different from other muscle groups. For some reason many consider abdominals to be a 'special' body part that requires a different set of rules and a completely different formula for training.

To get thick, dense abs - the ones that 'pop' out - you must train them with intensity and overload. Here are some practical tips you can apply to your program so that you can be the 'man' or 'gal' at your gym with a ripped and muscular six-pack. Then I will provide a sample

If your abs are your worse body part, then why do you keep training them last, at the end of your workout? Which muscles group will receive the highest priority when you train? The ones done at the start of your workout or the ones done at the end of the workout? Of course, the exercises done at the start of the workout while you have the most energy and focus.

he typical response is "Nobody does abdominals first..." That is pure BS. This just supports the notion that many people who work out don't ever question what they hear or do. They want to be spoon-fed answers and follow the trends of others without thinking for themselves. I ALWAYS train abdominals first in a workout if they need the highest attention.

What's going to receive better results? A muscle group that is trained one time a week or two times a week (assuming you recovered prior to the second workout commencing)? Of course, the muscle that is trained 2x a week. The more stimulus on a muscle, the more growth. That is why professional athletes are professional athletes. They have conditioned their bodies to such a high amount of stress that they are able to train more frequently.

Right now some of you can see a perfectly set of staggered abs that are wide and thick and separated by a line down the middle. Some of you have the classic four-pack which is four big abs with a smooth lower section. Some of you have tiny cubicle boxes sitting high on your abdominal wall. Some of you have the picture perfect eight-pack that makes people's jaws drop.

If building a sexy six-pack is on your 'to do' list for 2007, then start training abdominals 2-4x a week. I will teach you in a moment how to split your abdominals up into two different days based on movement.

To train your abdominals safely and effectively you must know the basic movement patterns of your abs and train them within all sub-categories: Truck Flexion (upper abs) Hip Flexion (lower abs) Rotation (obliques) Lateral Flexion (obliques)

Perform this workout at least two times a week separated by at least 48 hours rest. You should experience a deep muscle soreness after each one of these workouts. Focus on using a load that causes failure within 8-12 reps and then move to the next exercise. This is a non-stop circuit. Rest 1-2 minutes and repeat until you reach 4 sets total. Exercise Sets Reps Tempo Rest Hanging Leg Raises 1-4 8-12 311 - Rope Crunch 1-4 8-12 311 - Reverse Crunch 1-4 8-12 311 - Weighted Ball Crunch 1-4 8-12 311 1-2 minutes

As said earlier, buiding razor sharp abs is not the easiest task in the work but nor is it the hardest. The above abdominal exercises will help you build a deeply separated and evenly placed set of abs in little time. The truth is that if you can't see your abs, then the best exercise for your abs will be better diet.

Eat more often to keep your metabolism elevated and to constantly supply your muscles with nutrients. Have a meal as soon as you get up and do not go more than three hours without eating for the rest of the day. Combine protein and complex carbs in every meal. Turkey tenderloins with a baked yam and steamed cauliflower is a meal example.

Perform cardiovascular exercise to lose weight. Do any type of cardio that you enjoy, such as jogging, brisk walking, cycling, swimming, elliptical training, rowing or stair climbing. The American College of sports Medicine recommends 60 to 90 minutes of cardio for weight loss.

Lift weights to build muscle mass. Spend most of your workout time doing compound exercises. These involve more than one muscle and joint working at once. The end result is faster gains in size and strength. Perform exercises such as bench presses, military presses, back rows, squats and dead lifts. Aim for 8 to 12 reps and three or four sets of your exercises and work out three days a week, alternating with cardio days.

Utilize a maximal amount of weight with your exercises. This will ensure that you fully tax your muscles and gain a maximum amount of size. Have a spotter on hand whenever possible to assist you.

Nuts will help you get the abs you want by keeping you fuller longer. A study at Purdue University showed those who ate nuts felt fuller for longer periods than those who ate rice cakes, Quick & Simple reports. Don't overindulge with nuts, though, because they are high in calories and fat. The U.S. Department of Agriculture also instructs you to avoid salted nuts, because they exceed the agency's recommendations for daily sodium intake.

Record your activities throughout the day as well and use this information to compare how many calories you are consuming to how many you are burning.

I defeated my skinny genetics just after college and I am about to show you four tips that helped me climb from a 149 pound weakling to a rock hard 190 pounds in six months.

f you are underweight, then your first step to gaining weight is to understand that you must play by a different set up rules. I have said this before and will say it again,

You must think outside the box and give up the excuse of being a "hard gainer." It is time to stop listening to all the naysayers who have told you that is impossible to gain weight because of your genetics. Regardless of what you have been led to believe, you do have the potential to build an impressive physique that turns heads and even intimidates!

Double It Up: One of the most practical steps you can take is to double whatever you are currently eating in the kitchen right now. If you are eating one chicken breast per meal, then cook up two.

Live Your Life Around Food: Sure, you know that you must eat every 2-3 hours, but how well do you execute? Set your clock on a countdown timer to go off every 2 and 1/2 hours so that you reinforce the habit of eating literally not a second late for each meal! Don't turn off the damn beeper until you start chowing down.

se BIG Eating Equipment: If you want to bulk, then you have to eat like Hulk. Do you think Hulk eats out of a small plate, or a small bowel, or a small cup? If you are aiming to get big and huge, you are going to require large amounts of food, most likely close to double of what you are currently eating.

Never Train Hungry: How many times have you woken up, whipped up a protein shake and than headed off to the gym? Or maybe you had a long afternoon and missed a few meals and then attempted a weight training workout after work? I thought this was common sense to avoid, until a few of my skinny clients confessed that they were showing up for their workouts having only eaten a piece of fruit and some crackers within the entire day!

. Eat Nutrient Dense Foods: Focus on caloric-rich foods that are loaded with nutrients. Avoid foods with empty calories, which means there is little or no nutrient value in the calories you are eating. Why would you consume a 500-calorie plus meal that is loaded with fat and sugar which does nothing but make you feel sluggish and soft? Instead, eat a high caloric meal loaded with slow releasing carbohydrates, proteins, fats, vitamins, minerals and fiber.

Carbohydrates: Oatmeal Rice Breads Yams Beans Potatoes Fruits Veggies

Proteins: Steak Chicken Lean beef Cottage cheese Whole milk Eggs Salmon

Fats: Olive oil Flax oil Avocados Nuts Peanut butter

Extras (high calorie cheat food): Ice cream Raisins Dried fruit Trail mix

Drink A Carb & Protein Drink While You Workout: How hard is to sip on a calorie-rich drink during your weight training sessions? Simply mix up a 2:1 ratio of carbohydrate to protein with one liter of water and you instantly have a few extra hundred calories per day. Now have an extra workout drink before your workout and extra workout drink after your workout and that's easily an extra one pound per week. Only use this technique if you are weight training at a very high intensity.

Live The Motto, "Never Stop Eating" Did I hear you say, "But I'll throw up if I eat all day?" Maybe... Is it necessary? Of course not. But this is a part of pushing your body's threshold.

As a result, your goals are to optimize fat burning and muscle building alike.

If you're an endurance athlete, I recommend consuming half of your daily carbs post-exercise. Assuming you're training for a upcoming endurance event, I'd advise consuming 3 to 4 grams of carbohydrates per pound of your bodyweight.

To sum it all up, if you want to optimize your physique and health, follow a strict low-carbohydrate approach post-workout for a few days, followed by a large refeed meal.

hat's because of the role that carbohydrates and insulin play in tumor development, cholesterol issues, diabetes, and various other factors11.

The five are: whey protein, egg protein, milk protein also known as calcium cassienate or micellar protein, beef protein in the form of liver tablets, and soy protein.

Weight gainers are a blend of protein, carbohydrates and fats, with a high calorie content designed to help you gain weight. They are particularly useful if you are a hard-gainer with low body-fat and a high metabolic rate. Meal replacement powders are a blend of protein and carbs, but lower in calories than weight gainers. Protein powders typically contain no more than 5 percent carbohydrates. Protein bars contain proteins and sugars. Ready to drink protein shakes, contain low carbs and essential fatty acids. Beef liver tablets, a protein supplement that dates back to the 1960s.

Take a weight-gainer protein supplement or meal replacement supplement within an hour of finishing your work out. These contain simple carbohydrates to replenish muscle stores of glycogen used as energy during your work out, and a blend of quickly assimilated whey protein and sustained release milk protein to accelerate muscle recovery and enhance growth. Hoffman believes the insulin response generated by simple carbs helps the body's uptake of amino acids.

Muscle breakdown occurs during resistance exercise and depletes the muscles stock of the branch chain amino acids, leucine, iso-leucine and valine. Take a quick digesting protein supplement like whey protein before your work out. An article by Jay R Hoffman PHD. in the December 2007 edition of the "National Strength and Conditioning Journal," suggests taking a protein supplement immediately before your workout enhances muscle growth.

Adolescents should obtain 13 percent to 14 percent of their entire calorie intake from protein. If an adolescent weightlifter's diet contains 3,000 calories, 14 percent of the total calories would be 428 cal.

diet containing protein-rich foods such as eggs, lean meats, beans, nuts and low fat cheese and milk easily fulfills the young weightlifter's requirements.

The National Kidney Association cites studies showing accelerated kidney damage in diabetics on high protein diets.

However, Body Building For You suggests that athletes regularly exceed protein requirements with no adverse effects, and that no study ever scientifically proved that high protein diets are dangerous to healthy individuals.

n 1998, "Journal of Nutrition" reported excessive protein metabolism encouraging calcium loss through excretion, yet in 2003 the same journal suggested that calcium is not always lost, possibly because phosphorous helps to enable calcium re-uptake by the kidneys -- at least in people with no prior health problems.

hus, protein supplements may not harm the young weightlifter, even if those supplements contribute to protein intake beyond recommended levels.

Still, two concerns remain: one is financial loss at the expense of weight gain. Expensive protein supplements are unnecessary if the young weightlifter includes protein-rich foods in every meal.

Another danger is hidden ingredients. Some of the most respected Olympian weightlifters have tested positive for banned drugs or steroids hidden in nutritional supplements that they believed to be protein or energy supplements.

Some cause physical and sexual characteristics to alter, and some hasten cancer. In short, young weightlifters aspiring to world-class competition must exercise the utmost responsibility regarding nutrition. It is never too early to start such discipline.

The ectomorph has a fairly easy time losing fat so they will will generally not need to do as much cardio for fat loss. Two or three times per week should be plenty. An ectomorph trying to gain muscle may need to lay off cardio training completely in order to have enough recovery energy available for their body to even build muscle. Once or twice a week should be the maximum cardio frequency. Even weight training may need to be less frequent (two or three times per week) in order to see results

Moderate-intensity cardio training, such as jogging or swimming, will need to be done a little less frequently. This type of training requires more energy both to perfom and for your body to recover from. A person trying to lose fat can generally perform four to six moderate-intensity sessions per week at around 20 to 30 minutes each. A person trying to gain muscle should reduce this amount to two to three sessions per week.

This type of hard training should be done less frequently than the more moderate forms of cardio as it is much harder for your body to recover from. If you are training for fat loss, you should do at least two but no more than three high-intensity cardio sessions per week. If you are training for muscle gain, once or, at the most, twice per week should be the limit.

High-intensity training is extremely effective for fat loss as it not only causes you to burn a lot of calories during the activity, it also raises your metabolism for a long time after the activity is done.

This would mean an ectomorphic person looking for muscle gain and doing low-intensity cardio training could do cardio two days a week at a minimum to maintain cardio capacity while trying to gain muscle.

GOALS Create mini goals. Don't just expect to put on a ton of muscle in one year without checking yourself along the way. Set weight-gain goals every 2-4 weeks and evaluate the results. If you fall short, make an adjustment for the next goal. When you stop setting goals, you stop critical thinking and stop making gains.

MAINTAIN Every 8-10 weeks, take a couple of weeks to prevent a plateau. Don't stop training, but back off a little and let your body recover. Stop trying to get stronger and don't push sets to failure. After two weeks of maintaining your previous gains, go back to 110%. Reduce your calories during this back-off phase as well. This gives your body a break from digesting and utilizing all the food you nee

FST-7 This is the advanced training technique I've used with all my athletes.

Basically, you train that bodypart heavy as you normally would on any given day, keeping the rep range at 8-12, but on the last exercise you perform the 7 sets to finish off that particular muscle, with minimal rest in between to get the best pump possible.

Alternate the first exercise between dumbbells, barbells and machines. Use them all each workout, but change the order and angle. On all chest moves, you must arch your back, throw your chest high and keep your shoulders back. This takes the shoulders out of the movemen

Low-rep flat-bench presses (fewer than eight reps) are a quick way to tear a pec. Use a full range of motion on all exercises. The only exceptions are intensity multipliers used on the last set. When you reach failure, push your muscles further with assisted negative reps or partials. Lean forward on dips to emphasize chest.

Work the angles. There are three sides to the shoulder muscles and countless angles to hit them. Sit, stand, lean; barbell, dumbbell, machine; use them all. Start the workout with a press. Hit the big compound movement while you're strongest. Don't be afraid to work your rear delts near the beginning or middle of the workout. If you always do them at the end they will never grow!

Warm up your shoulders, chest, triceps and rotator cuffs before training. The shoulders are vulnerable to injury. Try seated lateral raises to really isolate the side delts. This is my favorite move to build round shoulders!

BALANCE YOUR PROTEINS: Take in protein of all types from all sources — fast acting, slow acting, whey, casein, egg, fish and animal proteins (beef, chicken, turkey, etc.).

WHERE'S THE BEEF: Beef is great for offseason growth. In addition to the amino acids, you get tons of B vitamins, iron and testosterone-boosting fats.

JUNK IT UP: Don't be afraid to eat some junk food once or twice per week. This boosts your metabolism and gives your body a different type of fuel. Stick to the "clean junk." These are calorically dense, but not super greasy foods. Examples are pasta, burgers, steak, sweet potato fries and cheesecake.

If you want to grow, insulin spikes are your friends. You just have to time them correctly, like breakfast and postworkout. These are the times to have some fast-acting carbs that quickly replenish glycogen stores.

Train your pectoral muscles twice per week. Include exercises like decline pushups, incline chest press, bench press and chest flys for three sets of 12 to 15 repetitions. Lift with light to moderate resistance to avoid placing too much strain on growing tendons and cartilage. Don't compromise form in an attempt to lift too heavy

Muscle tone refers to the firmness of your muscles.

Fitness Level 1 - You never/rarely resistance train Fitness Level 2 - You perform at least 1 set of 15-20 reps on 8-10 of the major muscle groups, 2-3 times per week. Fitness Level 3 - You perform at least 2 sets of 8-12 reps on 8-10 of the major muscle groups, 3-4 times per week.

benefits

Reshaping your body Increasing your metabolism Strengthening your bones Improving posture

A Special Note to Women:

I have found that many women are afraid to lift weights because they don't want large muscles.