Bodybuilding Arm Workout Gold's Gym

Bodybuilding Arm Workout Gold's Gym

Bodybuilding Arm Workout Gold's Gym

Jay Cutler - Golds Gym - Training Arms

JAY CUTLER - TRICEPS TRAINING AT GOLD'S GYM VENICE - Bodybuilding Muscle Fitness Workout

Jay Cutler - Triceps Training at Gold's Gym in Venice - bodybuilding muscle fitness. thanks for watching.

bodybuilding bodybuilder muscle muscles fitness fit shape exercise workouts working out training gym health crossfit train lifting weight weights strength mass size gain body arnold schwarzenegger ronnie coleman jay cutler mr. olympia arm arms

Arm Workout Gold's Gym Las Vegas

This is an arm workouts that we did the day after the 2009 Mr. Olympia in Las Vegas. It was a busy spot because a lot of the pro's were doing photo shoots after the show. I've never seen so much muscle in a gym in all my life

Bodybuilding Arm Workout Gold's Gym

Cathy Lefrancois @ Venice Golds Gym, training arms 2 weeks after Olympia 2013

Cathy Lefrancois 2 weeks after Olympia 2013 @ Gold's Gym Venice in October 2013 with Chrissy Brooks and Evelyn Lopez, Female Bodybuilder Cathy Lefrancois Priest, IFBB Pro

Bodybuilding Arm Workout Gold's Gym

Contest Prep Episode 7: Arms at Gold's Gym

Arm workout at Golds Gym August 28th, 2014. 10 weeks out from the Sandra Wickham Fall Classic

Bodybuilding Arm Workout Gold's Gym

Jay Cutler training arms at the Mecca Gym - Feat The Rock

Mr. O Jay Cutler stops in at The Mecca, Gold’s Gym in Venice and runs into some of his friends, including Dwayne The Rock Johnson!

Picture for Jay Cutler 

Jay Cutler

Jay Cutler

Jay Cutler

Jay Cutler

Jay Cutler

Gym workout intensity Bodybuilding

Gym workout intensity Bodybuilding

muscle building workout

Let’s come to the point at once. The main gym workout efficiency criterion is its intensity. It includes the following three major parameters:
1. The Amount of Weight used
2. Duration of Rest Between Sets and Exercises
3. Repetition Velocity (method and speed of performing exercises)
That means the following: the heavier workout weights are, the shorter rest intervals are – the HIGHER gym workout intensity is.
In the very beginning you need to set exactly the first point as your main priority. Regular increase of basic weights guarantees growth and increase of intensity of your gym workouts. In bodybuilding everything is about workout overload: when increasing it you force your muscles adapt to new loads and, consequently, grow. But when increasing workout weights we are to keep the correct exercise movement biomechanics and perform the required quantity of reps, that we had already talked about. If you increase weights but sacrifice performance technique your intensity does not increase because you deceive your muscles by an easier way of performing  workout exercises.

muscle building workout

You need to work harder and harder with each new gym workout session. Only in this case it’ll mean that your load intensity is increasing; and increase of workout weights is the most appropriate time-proved way of intensity growth.
Another way of training intensity increase is shortening of rest intervals (and the duration of the whole gym workout session in general). More rapid training rate will force you rest less during rest intervals; and it’ll be exactly the increase of workout intensity. If you remember, we decided to stick to one-minute’s rest intervals; and this is quite a short time; that’s why it would be unreasonable to shorten it even more at the current stage. If you do it than your training will become less of power and more of endurance character; and that will not allow you to build muscles.

muscle building workout

The third method to increase intensity concerns the most technically correct way of performance of each workout exercise movement. These techniques are extremely dangerous; you need to use them very carefully because they can easily cause over-training state of your organism.
I’ll describe these gym workout techniques in brief in order you know about this matter; but what comes to their mastering – I advise you to use only positive failure.
Do or Die! Intensity techniques
POSITIVE FAILURE
CHEATING
FORCED REPS
PARTIAL REPS
REST-PAUSE
STRIPTEASE
STATICS
NEGATIVE REPS

muscle building workout

So, let’s start. The first station of our journey is POSITIVE FAILURE. It’s not difficult to reach muscle failure when performing a particular workout exercise; the thing you need to remember is that you are to be sure in efficiency of this failure.
What else can you do? – CHEATING. It’s idea lies in the following: you assist your muscles to overcome the most difficult points of an exercise with the help of your whole body. You force muscles to complete 2-3 more reps in excess to muscle failure and by doing this you additionally stimulate muscle fibers. This gym workout technique is not for beginners because it’s extremely difficult and dangerous.
Cheating is followed by FORCED REPETITIONS which you should to do together with your partner (spotter) after your force has ‘died’ completely. For example, when performing Bench Presses on reaching positive failure your partner helps you to complete several additional reps.
The next gym workout technique is PARTIAL REPETITIONS. It’s absolutely clear: you limit an workout exercise trajectory, for example, by a third or a quarter of its amplitude; and due to this you can ‘squeeze’ out of yourself several additional reps in excess to muscle failure. It would seem that the rules of intensity increase prescribe you to increase this amplitude but not to reduce it; but you shouldn’t forget that after muscle failure you are almost a dead man. And for a dead man partial reps are just the right thing to do.
We go on: REST PAUSE WORKOUT. Do you feel it – something starts burning. It’s your muscles – you wanted it, didn’t you? So, the procedure is the following: on finishing a set you put the working weight back on a rack or just on the floor and rest right on the spot for about 20 seconds; then you start working with the weight till you are no more; than again – 20 seconds of rest… and again… and again…

muscle building workout

Now we switch to STRIPTEASE (it is not about my occupation))). In the beginning of an workout exercise you should load the barbell with maximum weight but don’t put on locks in order your partners can easily ‘pull’ off the barbell plates according to your command. Start performing the workout set; as soon as you reach muscle failure, command to remove two plates; than again work till failure and command to remove the next two plates – and so on till there are no plates on the bar.
Finally we came to the most difficult gym workout techniques. The first of them is STATICS (static failure). It’s performed like this: after reaching failure you lift or lower (depending on the exercise) an apparatus by several inches or leave it in the upper point of the exercise trajectory and try to keep it there for as long as you can.

muscle building workout

And the last one is for those who have no restraints – NEGATIVE REPETITIONS. After you reached failure your partner helps you to lift the weight to the upper point but you are to lower it absolutely on your own and to do it slowly, deliberately slowly. Did you manage it? – Well then, – UP once again with the partner’s help… and so on, till you reach one more (this time absolute or negative) failure when you will be able to move the weight not by one inch.

Gym Workout Tips
In gym try to use each rest interval in an active way: stretch the muscle you are training, imitate the exercise workout without weight to train its performance technique, take a small walk, rub worked muscles with your hands. The main idea of  time between sets is to make rest more efficient.
– When do gym workout exercise, you should  follow two  rules:
1. Don’t be worry  by anything unimportant;
2. Everything but the training is unimportant.
Such psychological set will help you to gain the required mental mood for gym workout.

muscle building workout

– Speed of an workout exercise movement should be average. Weight lifting (the positive phase) should be quicker than its lowering (the negative phase). While the first one lasts approximately 2 seconds, the second one – approximately 3-4 seconds. Breathe out during the positive phase; when lowering the training weight, breathe in slowly through your nostrils. Don’t reduce an workout exercise amplitude; don’t help yourself by ‘jerks’ of the whole body (don’t cheat). It’s better to reduce the weight but to perform an exercise in the required way. Correct biomechanics of an workout exercise  excludes hurry.

When do gym workout exercise, it’s very important to reach muscle failure. Remember: “What does not destroy me, makes me stronger”.  That means that having completed a set, you are to be sure that your last repetition was the last one you were able to do correctly. If you are not sure in this, it means that you are trying to deceive yourself and need to increase the basic weight. When do gym workout exercise, always remember about the overload principle. I can often hear such excuses like ‘I just do fitness’ but I think that this case represents no fitness but self-admiration. Any kind of activity (including fitness gym workout) needs to have its final goal; but if your goal is just to visit a gym and show other people what a great person you are – it’s no useful for your body.

muscle building workout

- Use your rest intervals between gym workout exercises  also to write down in your workout schedule log the weight and quantity of reps you managed to perform. Compare the current numbers with the previous ones and get ready to overload them. Don’t be sad if your present weights are rather light; think about how good it is that you are sticking to this system and understanding your progress. With such persistence you’ll be able to catch up with local fitness gym favourites who got used to work with heavy weights but haven’t changed them for years and leave them far behind in short time. In comparison with them your gym workout achievements will be constantly increasing. Still, it’s very important that you never lose your self-confidence.
SEQUENCE OF GYM WORKOUT EXERCISES
Muscles building better if we workout them  in a certain sequence.

muscle building workout

You need to start a gym workout with compound (multi-joint) exercises and finish with isolation (single-joint) ones because strength growth is especially important for muscle building. These two parameters appear to be in direct proportion; and if you tire one of muscles that participate in a compound exercise by performing an isolation one you’ll not be able to achieve the maximum result. For example, if you’d trained front deltoid muscles by means of Dumbbell Shoulder Raises before performing Bench Press they will limit your basic weight for this exercise because it engages not only chest muscles but also triceps, biceps and front deltoid muscles as well. Remember the following rule: ‘The strength of a chain is defined in accordance with the strength of its weakest link’.
Always start your gym workout exercise  program with big muscles groups that are the following: legs, back, chest; small ones – deltoid muscles, biceps and triceps. Here is the descending body parts size list:
1. Legs
2. Back
3. Chest
4. Shoulders
5. Arms

muscle building workout

GYM WORKOUT EXERCISE: HOW MANY SETS?
The question about the quantity of gym workout exercise sets is rather important. Some body builders  say that 1-2 sets till muscle ‘failure’ are enough for muscle growth and all additional sets will only spoil it. Others are sure that an efficient  gym workout training requires numerous sets. Who is right, after all? – Nobody is, as usual. The truth always lies somewhere in the middle.
There are people who need only 1-2 sets; there are others for whom 5 sets isn’t enough. It all depends on genetic and (even more often) on psychological features that allow an athlete to get ready for maximum efficiency of the only but the most important gym workout set. The absolute majority of people (and especially beginners) are not capable of such 100% efficiency.
Besides it, even if you are a lucky man who can workout effectively performing such a limited quantity of sets, you’ll have to do at least two more sets to warm up (otherwise you’ll definitely traumatize yourself). Ligaments and muscles are to be warmed up before hard gym workout; besides it, light-weight warm-up sets prepare not just our body but also our mental state for maximum efforts.

muscle building workout

From a practical point of view, you shouldn’t run to extremes. You should do neither minimum nor maximum quantity of an workout exercise sets: stick to the middle. For example, do 2 warm-up sets, then 3 basic ones – it’ll be enough for the first exercise. So, if your basic weight for 8 reps of Bench Presses is 250 lb  it’ll look something like this;
Bench Presses
120 lb X 15 reps (warm-up)
200 lb X 10 reps (warm-up)
250 lb X 8 reps (the major workout exercise set)
250 lb X 6-8 reps (the 2nd workout exercise set)
200 lb X 10 reps (the last workout exercise set (‘pumping’))
The first two sets we complete with reduced weight and numerous reps. This technique assists safer and more efficient warm-up of muscles and ligaments. This warm-up is followed by the first workout set. It is the most important one. Try to increase the barbell weight for this set regularly. The following (the 2nd workout) set is also a power one; it additionally stimulates your working muscles. Most probably, you won’t be able to complete the same quantity of reps in this set because you muscles are be rather tired after the previous one. The third (the last workout) set is the finishing one; here you should increase the quantity of reps in order to feel your muscles and pump them with blood to the maximum extent. To do it you’ll need to decrease the barbell weight because the working muscles are extremely tired.

muscle building workout

Compound exercises in your training
Actually, it is possible to progress without basic exercises; in other word without compound exercises, during the execution of which, the work includes several muscle groups and multiple joints.
The main arguments of adherent of basic exercise is the assertion that compound exercises involve a large number of muscle fibers, thus contributing on increase muscle mass and strength. But in order to grow, the body must receive a constant load. And if for quite a long time to provide the same load, at the end your body will not respond to the training. Besides getting used your mind is overloaded, and this is much worse. You may overtrain or lose interest in training. Generally, performing basic exercises is easy to undermine your energy source, because powerful movement not only involve a lot of muscles, but also require a lot of energy.
Another negative aspect of the basic exercises is high risk to get injury. Exercises must be performed technically correctly. Therefore, beginners should not immediately get involved in this system.

muscle building workout

So, you have in the arsenal a huge selection of isolation exercises, that is, those which involve in the work only one muscle group. But movement whiles this workout can be seemed only in one joint. For example, the extension of the legs while sitting in an exercise machine loaded quadriceps, but the motion is seemed in the knee joint; dumbbells fly loads pectoral muscle but motion is seemed in the shoulder joint. It is believed that the isolation exercises are not suitable if you are going to gain some mass, their purpose is form and relief. But if that were the case, it would not be the main exercise in bodybuilders’ workout. This conclusion is important, because many people believe that isolation exercises create only the illusion of exercise and are not suitable for serious training.
For example, let’s take a tall man who believes that the only way to increase mass would be for him squat. But, in a time, he will find out that after the hard work the main pain occurs not at the quadriceps, but on the glutes and lower back. A good alternative will serve the hack squat machine. Goldenmuscles.com assures you in this case about hypertrophied buttocks and expanded waistline you can forget.

muscle building workout

Now let’s talk about chest muscles. Regardless of a growing breasts from this exercise or not, most athletes start training with the Bench Press. But the main burden falls on the front deltas and triceps, but not on the chest muscles.

Exercises for back

When training the back, we must remember that the back muscles – are the largest and are designed for heavy workload throughout the day. So just need to train with large weights and train on the conscience! Argued that from heavy exercise increases waist, buttocks and lower back and buttock becomes wider than shoulders, but this is a complete nonsense. Of course, the waist is growing too, but with proper technique a spin grows much faster and your upper body becomes so massive that the waist seems even smaller, even is added another couple of centimeters.
Chin-up wide grip
These popular exercises have effects on muscles. At the same time “pump” your biceps and forearms. Chin-up “to the breast” develops a lower region of the broadest, but pulling “over head “- the upper region.

muscle building workout

When performing chin-ups, make sure not to swing or jerk as momentum will make the exercise less efficient and promotes injury. During the chin-up, the lats, teres major, rear delt and traps contract to bring the arms down (or body up). The biceps contract to bend the elbow. The lats are the largest muscles of the upper body and the most powerful movers of the shoulder joint. Over developed lats muscles can have ahuge negative impact on the integrity of the shoulder and spinal joints. An easy way to check the flexibility of your lats is to stans with your arms hanging at your sides. If your hands naturally face inwards toward your body, you’re doing well. If your hands are more than slightly turned inwards and to the back of the room, your lats are too tight. Lay off the chins and simply hang from the bar for 30sec-1min to stretch out.
Traction barbell to the belt in inclination
This is one of the fundamental movements that promote active growth of the volume of the broadest muscles. Indirect burden placed on the muscles – extensors, trapezius(trap), biceps and forearm.
Technology of Implementation: stand next to the barbell and feet shoulder width apart grabbing it from the top. The legs bend at the knees. Bend so the body has acquired a right angle with legs. Arch spine and start to pull the barbell up until it touches the neck of the lower chest. Slowly lower the barbell to the starting position. To increase the amplitude of motion, we can stand on a small stand, or even on a small gymnastic bench.
One Arm Row
Assume a staggered stance and bend your knees. Bend forward at the waist supporting you body with one hand on your knee or a bench. Rows involve the biceps and mid-upper back including the Trapezius, Rhomboids and Posterior Deltoid (shoulder). During a row exercise; the biceps contract to bend the elbow; the posterior deltoid, teres major and latissimus dorsi (lats) contracts to bring the arm back; the rhomboids and trapezius (traps) contract to retract the shoulder blades; and the erector spine (lower back) contract to stabilize the spinal column. Rows are a great exercise for correcting slouched shoulders and winging of the scapula.
Pull the dumbbell up towards your body while retracting the shoulder blades. Keep your shoulders level as opposed to turning at the waist.

muscle building workout

Bent over Row
Bend forward at the waist maintaining a neutral lower back and bent knees. Rows involve the biceps and mid-upper back including the Trapezius, Rhomboids and Posterior Deltoid (shoulder). During a row exercise; the biceps contract to bend the elbow; the posterior deltoid, teres major and latissimus dorsi (lats) contracts to bring the arm back; the rhomboids and trapezius (traps) contract to retract the shoulder blades; and the erector spinae (lower back) contract to stabilize the spinal column. Rows are a great exercise for correcting slouched shoulders and winging of the scapula.
Pull the dumbbells up towards your body while retracting the shoulder blades.

Beginner’s Guide To Strength And Muscle-Building

Beginner’s Guide To Strength And Muscle-Building
Over the course of our four-part ‘Simple, Beginner’s Guide To Strength And Muscle-Building’ we’ll give you all of the simplified, need-to-know info to help streamline your path to a healthy, powerful, lean physique.
First things first: nutrition. It took me several years of floundering around in the gym making minimal progress before I realized that without optimal nutrition you can’t maximize gains. It’s no surprise — no matter how much you bust your butt in the gym, if you nourish your body with crap you’ll only see half-ass results.
A quick word for the ladies: if you follow this program you will NOT look like The Incredible Hulk (however, you may look more like the woman below). I hear it all the time, “I don’t want to lift heavy weights, I’m going to look like a man.” The truth of the matter is, without copious amounts of exogenous testosterone (steroids), natural female lifters just don’t have the hormonal or genetic make-up to build muscle in the same way men do.

Optimal Nutrition — Calories:

Working out puts enormous stress on the body. In order to build muscle you need to provide the body with sufficient molecular building blocks to effectively repair, recover, and ultimately grow. Specifically, in addition to eating enough to fuel your body’s everyday activities (e.g. breathing, digestion, etc.) you also need to take in sufficient incremental food to support your body’s muscle building progress (anabolism).
But if you’re taking in more calorie than you burn, doesn’t that also mean you’ll get fat in the process? The simple answer is yes — it’s nearly impossible to gain pure lean muscle mass without any fat gain on the side. The main objective here is to ensure that the caloric surplus isn’t excessive, that way any fat gain will be minimal and easily burned off. In fact, for beginner and intermediate lifters, a moderate caloric surplus may produce steady gains in lean muscle without any significant, visible fat gain.
So how many calories should you eat each day? First you need to figure out your maintenance caloric intake, which is simply the amount of calories needed to maintain your body weight. To determine your maintenance level of calories, I recommend tracking your caloric intake and weight for a week or two. If your weight is roughly the same over that time period, use your average calories as your maintenance calorie number. As an alternative, you can use Lean It UP’s downloadable calorie and BMI calculator to proactively estimate your personal caloric requirements.
As a rule of thumb, once you’ve determined your maintenance level of calories add an additional 200-300 calories as your starting point. The goal here is to gain roughly one-to-two pounds of lean muscle per month, with little-to-no fat gain. If you’re not seeing any gains after about a month, simply increase your caloric surplus by 100 per day and reassess your progress after a month. On the flip side, if you feel as though you’re gaining too much body fat, decrease your caloric intake by 100/200 per day.
Food Sources:

Now that you know how much to eat, where exactly should you source your calories from? The good news is that there is a tremendous amount of variety available with food choice. As a recommendation for general health and muscle gain, I recommend a diet that consists primarily of high-quality, non-processed whole foods, such as a fresh veggies, fruit, meat, fish, nuts, and whole grains. Foods not found pre-packaged in a can, box, or bag are your best friends.
The exception to this rule would be a whey protein shake, which is ideally consumed post-workout. For protein, stick to lean meats and other low fat options such as non-fat Greek yogurt. When choosing fats, avoid trans fats (aka hydrogenated oils) found in many processed foods such as margarine and various baked goods. Finally, with carbs consume low Glycemic Index carbohydrates such as those listed in the example below. This will help keep your blood sugar levels flat lined and stabilize your energy throughout the day, which helps prevent sudden hunger cravings shortly after eating.
Some examples:
Protein: eggs, chicken breast, salmon, tilapia, lean beef, turkey breast, tuna, Greek yogurt, cottage cheese, milk, etc.
Fats: nuts and nut butter (almonds, peanuts, walnuts, etc), olive oil, coconut oil, avocado, flax, salmon and oily fish, eggs, etc.
Carbohydrates: brown rice, sweet potatoes, quinoa, lentils, oats, fruits, etc.
For a complete list of low calorie, high protein meal ideas you can refer to our guide here.

In addition to those listed foods, it’s absolutely essential to have a diet rich in vegetables, particularly green leafy vegetables to ensure adequate levels of micronutrients (vitamins and minerals). As a rule of thumb aim for a minimum of 3 servings of vegetables per day.

Lean Foods The Best Low Carb Wrap 

foods

Party up. The wrap game is about to flip inside out.
Wraps and tortillas, even when whole wheat, are stealthy, carb-bloated caloric bombs. Stop for a second and digest what’s in a few big brands:
Mission 12″ Whole Wheat Wraps: 290 calories, 7g fat, 750mg sodium, 50g carbs, 6g fiber, 44g net carbs, 9g protein1
Thomas’ Whole Wheat Sahara Wraps: 170 calories, 4.5g fat, 320mg sodium, 27g carbs, 4g fiber, 23g net carbs, 5g protein, contain trans fat2
Cedar’s Whole Wheat Wraps: 220 calories, 4.5g fat, 480mg sodium, 38g carbs, 3g fiber, 35g net carbs, 6g protein3
Baja Sun-Dried Tomato Wraps: 210 calories, 5g fat, 620mg sodium, 36g carbs, 1g fiber, 35g net carbs, 5g protein, contain trans fat4

That’s unreal. Before you even get to the meat, veggies, eggs, dressings, etc. pinwheeled inside, you’re already 220+ calories & 37g+ of empty carbs deep (on average) on something that’s realistically only holding the flavor in place. Throw in that most commercial wraps are loaded with trans fats, artificial colors, preservatives, and about a billion ingredients, and everything quickly spirals out of control.

Food Court — Bringing Down The Lean Hammer On Kashi Snack Bars

Whether it’s Nature Valley, Clif, Special K, LARABAR, or one of a million different protein bars, chances are you frequently scarf down some form of snack bar. That puts Kashi’s line of uberpopular granola bars firmly in the spotlight.
I know, I know, Kashi is a reputable company that prides itself on producing HQ, natural, nutritious products. BUT, given the facade put forth by faux-healthy Subway and Special K, I’m naturally skeptical of anything in a wrapper and/or with a brand name. You should be, too.
Here’s the full, loaded arsenal of Kashi bars:
Chewy Granola Bars — Almond Flax, Peanut Peanut Butter, Cherry Dark Chocolate, Trail Mix, Berry Lemonade w. Chia, Chocolate Almond & Sea Salt w. Chia, Dark Mocha Almond
Crunch Granola Bars — Honey Toasted 7-Grain, Roasted Almond Crunch, Pumpkin Spice Flax
Layered Granola Bars — Dark Chocolate Coconut, Peanutty Dark Chocolate
Soft n’ Chewy Bars — Berry Muffin, Apple Cobbler, Banana Chocolate Chip
Cereal Bars — Blackberry Graham, Ripe Strawberry, Cherry Vanilla
GOLEAN CRISP! Bars — Chocolate Almond, Chocolate Peanut, Chocolate Caramel, Cinnamon Coffee Cake, Chocolate Pretzel
GOLEAN DIPPED! Bars — Peanut Butter & Chocolate, Chocolate Malted Crisp

Soft-Baked Squares — Almond, Chocolate

Kashi Bars — What I Like

Kashi Bars — What I Like

An unbelievably simple shortcut to benchmark different packaged foods — with the exception of fruit & veggies — is the ratio of protein & fiber-to-sugar. For example, if a bar has 4g of fiber, 4g of protein, and 8g of sugar that’s (4+4)/8 = 1.
Higher ratios are leaner, and if that number is under 1, I typically ALWAYS steer clear. Live by that rule — it’s a powerfully potent Jedi mind trick.
KILLER RATIOS — for a whole grain product, the majority of Kashi bars shockingly fall on the better half of 1; the only egregious offenders fall under the cereal bar veil (.54 average).
Fiber Rich — nearly every bar has 4+ grams of fiber, which helps reduce hunger, maintain digestive health, and slows the digestion of food; reducing the likelihood of fat storage.
Low Cal — no bar tops 200 calories; most fall under 150.
Protein — for a family of bars that isn’t designed purely as a protein delivery mechanism, most lines have a hearty 4-11g. That’s enough to curb hunger and slow digestion, boost metabolism, and support lean muscle growth/recovery.
All Natural Ingredients — most processed foods are a breeding ground for artificial ingredients and sweeteners, added sugars, fake dyes and coloring, trans fats, low-quality carbs, and unnecessary filler ingredients. While some Kashi lines contain added sugar — to varying degrees — at the very least it’s natural, courtesy of agave nectar, evaporated cane juice, fruit and others.
Vitamins & Minerals — most bars pack 10-30% DV for iron, calcium, zinc, the B vitamins, and vitamin E.
Whole Grains — Kashi bars are predominantly constructed from natural oats, wheat, rye, brown rice, barley, buckwheat, and fruit — NOT corn, refined white flour, white rice, or other LQ carbs. This boosts the fiber and protein content, contributes nutrients, and keeps fat storage in check.

Omega-3s — the chewy granola bar and soft-baked square lines sport up to 300mg of ALA omega-3 per serving; not massive by any stretch, but more omega-3’s and healthy fats are always a nice plus.

Ronnie Coleman Hip Replacement Surgery

Ronnie Coleman Hip Replacement Surgery

Ronnie Coleman

Ronnie Coleman with his wWfe in the Hospital after Hip Replacement Surgery

Ronnie Coleman

 Ronnie Coleman Hip Replacement Surgery 2014

Ronnie Coleman

Ronnie Coleman Hip Replacement Surgery 2014 

Strong Broad Shoulders

Strong Broad Shoulders

Strong Broad Shoulders

It’s no coincidence that business suits are designed to make men seem broader in the shoulders – constructed shoulders are the padded push-up bras of male culture.

… actually that’s unfair to suits. Women respond to broad shoulders far more powerfully than men respond to babely breasts, making suits the more powerful of the two. You know that lustful feeling well cloven cleavage can instil in you? Well broad shoulders give women that same feeling, except stronger.(study)

The first things women will take in is your overall shape, allowing them to get a quick guess at how you’ll stack up in all the following aesthetic arenas. There’s a lot of information in how broad your shoulders are – especially in comparison to your waist – and it’s available at a glance. Every study is in unanimous agreement here, and you’re probably already well aware of it. (study, study)

Why? Well broad shoulders are very indicative of a strong man, since adding muscle to your body invariably adds several inches to your shoulders. And what woman doesn’t want a man whose shoulders can bear the weight of the world? There’s a correlation between guys with naturally broad shoulders and naturally high levels of testosterone too, so even in the absence of muscle it’s still a very masculine trait, which girls dig. As such the breadth of your shoulders is a very good indicator of health, strength and masculinity: it’s accurate, it’s hard to fake, and women can see it right away.

The ideal shoulder to waist ratio: 1.618 to 1.

This particular ratio—the golden ratio—appears all over the ideal human body (and throughout nature) and sculptors and artists have been using it for millennia to depict the ideal physique. All those sculptures of Greek gods and Olympians are rockin’ exactly that ratio. What this means is that if you’re a skinny dude with a lean 30 inch waist you’d want to build your shoulder muscles up to 49 inches (1.618 times as big as your waist). With a 32 inch waist you’d build your shoulders up to 52 inches around, etc.

Whatever width your shoulders are right now, don’t fret. Like I said, powerful shoulders can be built:

Strong Broad Shoulders

Some tips:

Narrow shoulders. Guys with naturally narrow shoulders have some advantages and disadvantages. The advantage is that they’ll appear more muscular earlier into their training, as their frames fill out easily. The disadvantage is they need to build up a fair bit of muscularity to achieve a powerful broad-shouldered look. Posture is important as well, as proper shoulder alignment will make your shoulders appear broader.

Typical shoulders. These guys have it easy. If you’re skinny your shoulders will appear narrow, yes, but often after adding just a dozen or so pounds of muscle you’re already rocking a badass shoulder / waist ratio. Further down the road, you’ll likely hit the ideal ratio at the same time as you hit the ideal level of muscularity, making achieving the ideal physique pretty straightforward. Clothing is designed for you too, and with a bit of mass on your bones you’ll fit into clothes incredibly well—especially “fitted” clothing, as you’ll have a leaner than average waist.

Broad shoulders. With broad shoulders the ratio is incredibly easy to achieve, but this body type can be equally as tricky as the narrow one, since you need a fair bit of musculature to fill out your frame. Otherwise you’ll look broad from the front but thin from the side. Another problem here is that you need to buy really damn big shirts to fit your really damn broad shoulders … which tend to be designed for overweight people. You’ll probably need to buy huge shirts and find a tailor that can take ‘em in at the waist, and perhaps even in the arms (until you add some arm size).

ECTOMORPH AESTHETICS

ECTOMORPH AESTHETICS 

Every straight guy knows how a girl’s femininity can tug on our heart strings. And our lust strings. Sometimes a woman’s shape, personality, face, voice—it all just adds up to make her absolutely irresistible. (Here‘s an article on the most attractive female body.) Women feel the same way about us men … just based on a whole different set of traits.

bodybuilder

For better or worse, the impression we give off can have a huge impact on our life. Even if we train and eat well for our health and performance, we also want to attract great women, and ultimately spending the rest of our lives with the one we want is a pretty damn big deal. And of course, even once we have her that doesn’t mean we should stop striving to be the man of her dreams.

It’s not just about women either—getting the respect of other men is important to us too, both in our personal and work life. Aesthetics, muscle, health and masculinity are all so closely related that how we train and eat can roll over into every area of our life. It makes sense for us to care.

bodybuilder

If anything, as men sometimes we tend to think attractiveness matters less than it actually does. A new study just published at the University of Notre Dame found that the whole successful but unattractive guy marrying a beautiful woman stereotype is pretty much just a myth. It turns out that attractiveness attracts attractiveness, just like success attracts success. This is good news for sexism, bad news for thinking you can get away with being a schlub. (study)

The tricky part is that some of the traits we portray are obvious … but some we’d never even think to think of. Moreover, sometimes it’s those elusive traits that make or break us.

I should also point out that caring about building a manly physique isn’t just a skinny-boy thing. In a study done on college football players—guys who are madly in love with their sport and whose careers depend on how well they perform—they found that while most of them listed power and performance as their reasons behind wanting muscular bodies … they also admitted to caring a whole hell of a lot about their physical appearance and sex appeal. (study)

bodybuilder

Aesthetics isn’t something we can avoid, and everyone is influenced by it. To a certain extent we’re all unique snowflakes, sure, but when it comes to aesthetics, well … we aren’t. Personal preference has its place, but a lot of it, in fact almost all of it, is basic human nature with some social conditioning sprinkled on top. Love it or hate it, it happens. It’s instinctive, uncontrollable and often subconscious. We’re built to automatically respect men who display certain traits, and in a similar but different way some of our male traits can create gut-level attraction in women.

Think about the effect that a curvy female hourglass physique has on you. Combine the right bone structure with fat in the right places and muscle in the right places and bam—you get that instinctive response that turns your head and knocks the wind right out of you. I often find myself tempted to click on ridiculous ads featuring photoshopped girls for that very reason.

bodybuilder

As men, sometimes the character we portray is obvious. I have one uncle who’s 6’2 and maybe 250 pounds. That man loves his football and loves to eat. He’s been lifting heavy things and eating big his entire life, resulting in around 100 of those pounds being in his shoulders. He doesn’t look like a bodybuilder, he looks like a bear. He has to get all of his clothing not just tailored but completely custom made to accommodate his cartooned musculature. Combine that with his deep booming voice and the overall effect is pretty wild—when he speaks the room falls silent, when he walks down the sidewalk guys give him a wide berth, and when he asks you for something you hurriedly splurt out a yes, often before he finishes his sentence.

It isn’t all show either, and I’ve seen him lift a man off his feet who was (very) disrespectful to my female cousin. When my uncle put him back down the man hit the ground running. Seconds later we heard tires skidding as he sped off. Understandably—if a bear set me back down I’d seriously consider the same exit strategy.

Having a guy like that on your side immediately makes you feel safe. If something goes wrong you just figure things will be okay. He’s a smart and well-read guy, too, and his voice, physique and confidence all make for a hell of a lot of charisma when he speaks.

Do you know what words a stranger would use to describe you when you walk by?

As men we tune into certain things about other men, immediately sizing them up and forming an opinion … yet we’re often totally unaware of how we’re portraying ourselves to other men, let alone women. There are traits we don’t even know exist that can have a powerful drug-like effect on women. Some strong athletic masculine men convey them naturally, but I’ve always found that it pays to consciously know how we can improve, even if just to encourage ourselves to be the most that we can be. That’s how us ectomorphs become strong athletic masculine men, after all.

Besides, aesthetics aren’t just skin deep. The benefits go all the way down to our bones*, improving our health, strength, intelligence, performance and mood. Good looks signal higher degrees of those traits after all, which is why they look “good” to begin with.

*Not a figure of speech—heavy strength training actually increases bone density, as does solid nutrition.

MUSCLE-BUILDING MYTH #2: THINKING THAT TRAINING TO TOTAL MUSCULAR FAILURE IS THE ONE AND ONLY WAY TO TRAIN

MUSCLE-BUILDING MYTH #2: THINKING THAT TRAINING TO TOTAL MUSCULAR FAILURE IS THE ONE AND ONLY WAY TO TRAIN

MUSCLE-BUILDING

But isn’t it no pain no muscle-gain? In rare cases this can be true, but this depends on your particular goals, level of experience and training plan. For most guys stopping short of total muscle annihilation will get them to their goals much faster. For ectomorphs looking to quickly build muscle this is always the case—unless you’re such an enormously muscled ectomorph that no one would ever describe you as one. There’s a very big difference between uselessly fatiguing yourself and getting a good workout, but even most advanced trainees can’t recognize the difference. I’ve been there.

But isn’t that last rep the only one that matters?! Isn’t that last rep the one that separates the weaklings from the champions?! Grab a seat by the squat rack, and let me tell you about keeping 2 in the tank.

Why you shouldn’t train to failure

If you train to total muscle failure you’ll totally crush those muscles. This means they’ll require a ton of recovery to get back to the point where you can train them again. Most weightlifters do this because they think it’s the only way to make their muscles grow—not true. Your muscles will actually grow quicker by stimulating them with a heavy load, and steadily and progressively upping that load. Frequently. Not once a week.

MUSCLE-BUILDING

… But most guys damage their muscles to the point where they can only train them once per week, and thus need to follow a bodybuilding split routine instead of a full body training routine. This results in much less frequent stimulation and a significantly reduced weekly hormonal response from your training. As ectomorphs we need those hormones.

The difference between giving it 95% and 99% are very similar—both will build you beastly muscles and allow you to train them often enough to build them really damn quickly. Take it to 101% (failure) though and wham—huuuuuge recovery time required before your muscles recover and you can train them again.

There’s also form to consider, and yours should be stellar. One of the biggest factors in putting on muscle rapidly is executing each exerciseproperly. We aren’t form nazis here—there’s a balance to be found. Training shouldn’t feel clinical. Pushing yourself to the limit on every single set though is taking things way too far. It’s almost impossible to maintain rockin’ form when you’re struggling against failure, so this should only ever happen rarely, once you’ve built up great habits and great form has become intuitive. At that point hey yeah, let your form twist a little as you struggle to break a new personal record, but as you’re training to build muscle this should not be a regular occurrence.

MUSCLE-BUILDING

Now I’m not saying you should come out of the gym feeling like you didn’t work out. You should. You should need to rest between sets and you should definitely feel your muscles working—really damn hard. You shouldn’t come out of the gym feeling like crap for the rest of the day though. You should recover shortly after and feel fantastic. You shouldn’t be getting sick every second week because your body is struggling to keep up with your training regime, you shouldn’t be sore all the time, and you shouldn’t have trouble sleeping. Training is supposed to make you feel superhuman, not geriatric.

When should I train to failure?

Sometimes, when you’re struggling to push beyond your genetic potential or training to compete in a powerlifting event, you need to go really damn heavy. When you do, you need to back off for a couple weeks afterwards and train light. This isn’t the most effective way to build muscle or strength, but sometimes it’s unavoidable, depending on what your goals in the gym are.

And there’s a caveat with pushing yourself to your limits and taking an exercise to failure. It should only be done on particular exercises. Some joints and muscle groups should never be taken to failure. Your rotator cuff (shoulder joint) for example, should never ever be brought to the point of failure. That’ll be how you wind up with a messed up shoulder. It’s also totally unnecessary if your goal is building muscle.

The Solution?

MUSCLE-BUILDING

If you’re a typical trainee—even one with a few years lifting experience—you’ll gain strength and muscle mass much quicker by lifting close to failure, and then training each muscle group more frequently. We typically train three times per week, and stimulate all major muscle groups each time. This results in much much more rapid muscle growth and strength increases when compared with the guy who’s absolutely wrecking his muscles with every workout.

How do you do it? Keep two in the tank. If you really feel adventurous leave just one in the tank every once in a while. Feel like you have more than one or two in the tank after an exercise? No problem. Count that set as a warm-up, up the weight a bit, and hit ‘er again. When you finish a set you should be thinking to yourself “Phew that was tough… but I prrrrrobably could have done one or two more if I had really given it everything I had.” That’s what we call keeping two in the tank. Keeping two in the tank will turn you into a tank.

Even when you aren’t going to total muscular failure, most advanced training programs include de-load weeks to allow for full muscle recovery. A de-load week is where you reduce the training volume to let your body catch up with itself and start fresh into the next phase of training. You should be doing one of these every few weeks. We go hard for 4 weeks and then have a de-load week in the fifth week before gearing back up.

As a bonus to building muscle more quickly, training with a bigger emphasis on recovery will also result in far fewer injuries, a stronger immune system, and less time spent suffering from muscle soreness and fatigue.