Muscle building



The muscle system makes up 40% of the body weight; or more than 50% for sports people. Muscles work only as an effect of the nervous system, they cannot work individually without this: this is why concentrated muscle training is very important. The biggest part of the muscle is muscle fibres, which contains 75% water and 20% protein, and the last 5% is made up of carbohydrates, fats and mineral salts.

Your muscle is made up of fibres: the more fibre there is in the muscle, the bigger the basic size of the muscle. For total exercise of the muscle all the fibres should move, but the system is economical: it will move only as many fibres as it needs for moving. With the strengthening of your muscles the same work will be done with the help of less fibres, therefore, you need to use different weights and exercises if you want to improve, beautify and strengthen your muscles. For increased muscle, it is not the number of muscle cells that grow but the size of them.

In the first phase, your system focuses on learning new kinds of movements, so your muscles don't grow but keep on stretching. This nervous system learning process means that your muscles will be able to make more effort. This phase lasts for 6-8 weeks, and afterwards muscles start to grow visually, providing that they get the necessary amount of protein. It can take much more time until the increase of muscles begin, the reason being that your body forces your nervous system to conform to the learning process, instead of muscle-building. The basic reason for the growth of muscle size and muscle power is regular overloading. If the...

It is well known that aerobic training helps to make rolls of fat disappear. The more intensely and the more often we do it, the more fat it burns. The fat disappears and underneath the muscles become visible, mostly undeveloped, decayed weak muscles. The final result is lighter body weight, but in proportion the build is the same. That's why the training of the muscles is needed even among those who want to lose weight.

Weight lifting causes stunning, nicely shaped, strong muscles. The outcome of body change: more muscular shoulders show off narrower hips, more muscular arms demonstrate power and more muscular legs illustrate longer thighs. With the training of your muscles you can build up a good condition for other sports, you can increase your power and fitness, and you can strengthen your muscles.

It's a fact that with weight training we burn similar amount of calories as with running, and the system tries to substitute most of it from carbohydrates. Weight lifting increases appetite, and accelerates metabolism, but if we pay attention to our diet, we will manage to burn more than we consume.

It is wrong to assume that by training one part of the body, local fat burning will occur. The body must be considered as a whole system and the aim is that extra kilograms disappear from everywhere. The aim of training one certain part of your body is not burning fat there but the reshaping of muscles under fat.

Muscle soreness is caused by lactic acid not burning because of lack of oxygen, and therefore accruing in the muscles: it can develop after a 35-45 second hard, high intensity muscle workout. If you are a beginner, your muscles haven't done the work they were developed for (and that they should manage to do soon).Muscle soreness has different levels: but if it hurts a lot it should be taken seriously and you will need rest. You cannot do exercises focusing on different movements because of the pain, as this could lead to injuries.You can train with light muscle soreness. If you don't train regularly, you will often have muscle...

Besides muscle soreness there can be real strains and sprains. These can be and must be avoided! You must warm up precisely, and starting practise with light weights. It is dangerous to lift heavy weights to over force your muscles, and you must always listen to the state of your muscles carefully.  Stop training even in the case of the smallest pain. Stop training rather than becoming injured and unable to do sports for weeks or months! Attention! There are many criticisms concerning certain weight training practises, about their effect on over forced muscles and joints. These are not fake concerns, because heavy weights could...

We distinguish between one-hand and two-hand dumbbells, a short bar (10kg), a curl bar (10kg) and a long bar (20kg). There are pulley conditioner machines with different handles that make one muscle group work in particular. Apart from this, a chin up and parallel bar frame, a bench, a mat, a broomstick and a hand grip are needed for training. You will need a pair of training gloves so that holding weights will not cause harsh calluses on your palms, or gloves can be substituted with two pieces of sponge. It is also recommended to use a stopwatch, but the best solution is if your watch is also a pulse meter. Bring towels to...

1. Warm up: Warm up well! 2. Concentrating: Concentrate on regular execution! Always focus on the actual muscle in every exercise. Pay attention to the gradual stretch of it, strain it maximally at the end of the movement, then loosen it gradually. 3. Help: Ask for help to be nearby if you are using heavy weights! 4. Safety: Put a clamp at the end of the weight bar! 5. Breathing: Don't hold your breath during lifting weights! 6. Hygiene: Always use towels when using any machine! 7. Rest: Keep the rules of passive break time for muscles in between training the same muscle-groups!

Exercise - this is a certain kind of movement (lifting, pressing, pulling, pushing). Between 2 types of exercise there should be a 1-minute break. Repetition  - repeating the exercises a certain number of times. Between the repetitions there is half a second break, this is during the resting of the weight. Serials - these are the total amount of a certain number of repetitions. Between the serials, there should be a 1-minute break.

Active break - the time between exercises, repetitions and serials. Passive break - time until restarting the training of the same muscle group, to allow for the regeneration of the muscle.

The movements have to take place in the biggest range of movement and only suitable muscles have to move. It's not worth cheating, because it doesn't lead to results. Do not sway or fling weights, do not do exercises off balance. If you don't have the power to repeat a movement precisely and in the greatest range of movement, rest for a minute, then restart. Think about it: in everyday life we also use our muscles, but they do not develop. The reason is that their movements do not take place within the biggest range of movements possible and without concentration. If you don't pay attention to this fact while practising, your...

Sports people who hold their breath during weight lifting make a huge mistake. With this, they stop blood flowing in and out of the brain, which can lead to fainting. Apart from this, the constant chest pressure changes develop a sucking effect on the vena cava system of your veins, so they help the changing of the oxygenated blood and the used blood. This must not be blocked during weightlifting. The correct breathing technique: when releasing weights, inhale through the nose, when lifting, exhale through the nose and/or the mouth.

A beginner should always have a stop-watch. Advanced check their breathing and pulse during exercising. Training by watching the clock is also effective, because you can check any time whether you followed the prescribed schedule. To adjust to the prescribed timetable it is best for you to concentrate on the movement during training, not relax for too long during exercises, and not talk too much. The schedule of weight lifting I would suggest: - Lifting the weight, or pressing it (exhale): 1 second; - Keeping the weight, tensing the muscle completely: 0.5 second; - Releasing the weight (inhale): 1 second; - Relaxing the...

The active breaks FitFive suggests: - Between changing types of exercise: 1-2 minutes; - Between serials: 30-60 seconds. The passive break time for training a certain muscle group grows with age and training state, so the older you are, or the harder you train your muscles, the more time you must leave for your muscles' regeneration. - For beginners or between 20-30 years of age:  48 hours = 2 days. - For intermediates or 30-40 years of age: 72 hours = 3 days. - For advanced or above 40 years of age: 96 hours = 4 days.

Attention! Muscles need longer break times as well. Every 6 weeks I suggest 1 week when you totally avoid training. When you restart training, you will expereince an incredible change of tone and serious growth of strength, because your muscles have rested themselves totally and continue developing with renewed power.

For achieving even better results, radical changing of training parameters is not recommended. FitFive recommends you change the features of training gradually, always considering the principles of safe loading. You can do exercises in 3 or 5 series. Generally you ought to practise in series of 5: this means 12+10+10+10+8=50 repetition, taking 5 minutes. Practise a decreased series of 3, if you don't have enough time or enthusiasm to train: this means 12+10+8=30 repetition, which takes 3 minutes. There are certain exercises, which must be done in double repetitions, so that the muscle gets an appropriate load.

Weight exercises can be divided into 5 different training levels: 1. Absolute beginner: if you have never been to gym before. 2. Beginner: you began training a few months before, but you have no previous routine. 3. Intermediate: you train 1-2 times a week, and you have a previous routine. 4. Advanced: you go to gym 2-3 times a week. 5. Absolute advanced: you go to gym 4-5 times a week.

To develop muscles it is necessary to give them a gradual burden, so you must increase the weights in each upcoming series. On the basis of training levels, it can be calculated how much weight you need to exercise with, and how much weight you need to increase your training with. Use heavier weights in each upcoming series. Recommended weight for adding to the next series: For absolute amateurs: + 1,25 kg For amateurs: + 2,5 kg For intermediate: + 5 kg For advanced: + 10 kg For absolute advanced: what you can bear :-) Weight adding is always calculated in series of 3. For example, an intermediate increases their weight +5 kg per...

In the case of each exercise begin power-testing with basic weights, or even with only a weight-bar, if you are an absolute-amateur! Increase weights till you can do your practise 8 times in a row precisely without stopping. This weight value will be your own starting value, so note this in your Power-testing schedule. If you are training for a long time, then you naturally ought to use weights you can lift 8 times at best, and note this value in the schedule. In the case of exercises done without weights, repeat the exercise till your first stop, and note the maximum repetition number in the schedule. If you have finished...

FitFive shows you 82 weight lifting exercises, divided into 11 muscle groups. Bodybuilding is a sport that requires a lot of energy; we can get very tired by the end of training. The bigger a muscle, the more training it needs to improve. So it is practical to train in order, so that by the end of the training you are using not the muscle requiring the biggest work, but the one that needs the smallest.  Therefore the suggested order of the muscles is the following: Thigh hip and bottom back chest shoulder calf biceps triceps lower arm stomach and neck. It's worth differing from this order if some muscle is...