Friday, February 15, 2008

How to Gain Weight & Build a Barn Door Sized Back


If you want know how to gain weight and build a thick, muscular back there are three exercises that you need to become very familiar with. Those exercise are chin ups, rows and lastly but most importantly; deadlifts. If you did nothing but those three exercises faithfully you would end up with a thick and impressive looking back.

When it comes to uncovering the secrets of how to gain weight you need to realize that the back muscles make up a huge portion of your total musculature and that developing them will add countless pounds to your frame.

So how do we go about developing all of the muscles of the back? Firstly we have to address the traps which start at the neck and go all the way down to the mid back. These can be worked most effectively with dead lifts, shrugs and hang cleans. Deadlifts can be done for anywhere between one and twenty reps. Shrugs are best kept at 6-12 reps and cleans should usually be done for six reps or less.

Next on the list are the smaller muscles around the shoulder blade area which are the infraspinatus, rhomboids, teres major and minor and rear deltoids. These muscles work during all forms of rows. If you are really looking to get the most bang for you buck and to work as many muscles as possible then stick with big compound rowing exercises like dumbbell and barbell rows. These will work most muscles in your back. But if you are more advanced and want to isolate and directly target some of these smaller muscles you can do that with face pulls, bent over lateral raises, scare crows and external rotations. These smaller isolation type exercises are not necessary but can help prevent imbalances and can put the finishing touches on a well muscled back. Unlike other isolation exercises like leg extensions and concentration curls, these exercises actually do serve some purpose and are effective at building size and strength and preventing injury. When utilizing some of these smaller isolation exercises be sure to keep the reps in the 8-12 range as that is what seems to work best for these muscles.

The lats are next and are the muscles that stick out under your armpits and give you the appearance of width. They make up a great deal of the total back musculature. To really increase the size of your lats and thus the width of your back, focus on all variations of chin ups and the occasional higher rep set of pulldowns.

Lastly we have the erector spinae which is basically the lower back musculature. This area extends from the top of the glutes up to the traps. A well developed set of erector spinae really stands out and lets people know you are way more than all show and no go. There is no better lower back exercise than the deadlift and its variations. Some other great erector spinae builders are good mornings, back extensions and reverse hypers. These exercises should be done for 6-20 reps, while deadlifts can be done for 1-20 reps.

While everything written above is important and should be considered, you could ignore all of it and just deadlift on a regular basis and still develop a very impressive back. Whenever someone asks me how to gain weight I tell them to eat a lot and do deadlifts. Deadlifts are the king of the back builders and work every muscle group. If you are pressed for time, stick with deadlifts. If you have more time to dedicate to building a big back do two sets each, twice per week of some type of deadlift or lower back exercise (deads should only be done once per week as they are very tough to recover from), shrug, upper back “isolation move,” compound row and chin up.
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For more advice on how to gain weight visit MuscleGainingSecrets.com

Tuesday, February 05, 2008

New Private Members Forum

Many of my emails have not been getting through to people so I am announcing this here. We recently started a private members only forum for those of you who have purchased Muscle Gaining Secrets. The forum is free for one year if you purchased the book. If you have not received the email about your membership please contact Eileen at info@relentless-athletics.com with the subject header "Private Forum."

Try to have your ClickBank receipt. If you don't have it we can check your info for you and get you into the forum but having it would make things much easier.

Thanks and see you in the forum.

Friday, February 01, 2008

Got Milk?


May of you know by now that dairy is not good for getting lean. Others probably know that the consumption of dairy products has been linked to a decreased immune system response.

But there may be a few things about milk that you don't know.

Before you have another glass of milk or consider chugging another whey or casein shake or loading an extra slice of cheese on your sandwich you should know that most of us are lactose intolerant to some degree.

All human beings can handle lactose as babies. Most of us lose this ability as adults. The majority of adults have some level of lactose intolerance. It is not a rarity but rather the normal state for fully grown adults; we simply don't need milk anymore.

Below are some more accurate numbers, although as stated, most of us have lactose intolerance to some degree.

Lactose Intolerance Among...

People of Asian descent- 90-100%
People of Native American descent- 95%
People of African descent- 65-70%
People of Italian descent- 65-70%
People of Hispanic descent- 50-60%
People of Caucasian descent- 10%

You also have to consider that human beings are the only species that actually drinks the milk of another species. Think about that for a second and really let it sink in.

If I poured someone a glass of milk that I just squeezed out of a pregnant womans right breast they would freak out and not even consider drinking it. But if I poured them a glass of milk laced with 80 different allowable antibiotics (according to the FDA) that I just got down on my knees and squeezed out of a smelly, disgusting cow that same person wouldn't think twice about slugging it right down.

Pretty disgusting if you ask me.

High milk consumption has also been shown in studies to actually increase the risk for osteoporosis instead of decrease it. In fact, the calcium absorption rate of milk is quite low.

Below are calcium absorption rates for a few different foods:

Brussel sprouts- 63.8%
Mustard greens- 57.8%
Broccoli- 52.6%
Turnip greens- 51.6%
Kale- 50%
Cow's milk- 32%


As you may have guessed I am not a fan of milk consumption and no longer recommend it for anyone. But the choice is yours.

What should I drink instead?

Water.

What about in my cereal or with a peanut butter and jelly sandwich?

Soy milk, rice milk, almond milk or oat milk.

Doesn't soy increase estrogen?

The research is not conclusive in my opinion but even if it does, 1-2 cups of soy milk won't be enough to do it. Of course, if you are a pear shaped fat ass who already has a pair of D cups I wouldn't go near anything that even had a one in a billion chance of being slightly estrogenic.

I drink a glass or two of soy milk a day and haven't noticed anything negative from it. I also use rice and almond milk.