Building Muscle Mass Like You Mean It

By Emmanuel Palmer


Have you always wanted to look like Superman? The key to achieving that is by building muscle mass. Don't think only a gifted few can only achieve that physique. If you are determined, patient and have a strong sense of discipline, you can build chest muscles as big and muscular as how you want it to be.

What do you need to do? First of all you have to increase the calories in your diet starting yesterday. Your daily calorie allowance should be around 3,000 to 6,000 calories derived from healthy sources like chicken and fish. Your goal is to gain a lot of weight so you can then convert this to the big, bulging muscles you want to have. Indulge in sweets and junk food once in a while but generally stay within the neighborhood of lean meat and carbohydrates.

In building muscle mass, it is vital for you to keep track (at least in the earlier stage) of your calorie intake. The ratio for this should be 50% carbohydrates, 30% protein and 20% fat. Useful tip: a gram of protein and carbohydrates both are equal to four calories while a gram of fat is equal to nine calories.

As soon as you have your food plan in, let us concentrate on the next part of getting a great chest which is the appropriate workout regimen for you. Always start your training with thorough stretching and a sufficient warm up to get the blood flowing to the rest of your body. This prepares it for exercise, even optimizes the condition of your body so it will be prepared for the incoming barrage of physical pain and soreness.

A beginner's program will look something like this: 3 sets of 12 reps bench press using 40 pounds (add or subtract according to your more detailed specifications); 3 sets of 12 reps dumbbell flyes using 10 pounds; and 3 sets of 12 reps dumbbell pullovers using 20 pounds. After few weeks, you can include 3 sets of 12 reps incline bench press using 30 pounds; and another 3 sets of 12 reps decline bench press. Monitor your progress; you should be increasing weight loads gradually while lowering the reps.

As with all effective training programs, vary the weights and drills every 2 to 3 weeks to challenge your body to perform its best. Train the target muscles using different positions like the flat, incline and decline angles. Flyes especially give a good workout to your pecs so make sure you always include this in your routine.

Observe that you do not risk under training your other body parts even if your main objective is to build chest muscles. You don't want to be the man with a barrel chest walking around in chopsticks legs right? Set aside two to three days training the other muscle groups.

Concentrate on building muscle mass, have a healthy diet and perform the exercises in the right form and position - you will soon achieve that wide, muscled chest everybody wants. One last thing you should never forget - enjoy! A great workout is a rewarding experience for those who keep on until they see the results. Work hard and don?t give up, you won't regret it.




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