There are literally hundreds of muscle building programs available today. The internet has brought forward a plethora of good and not so good programs, guides and ebooks on bodybuilding. Whilst some are great, others are written by people who have little knowledge of muscle building in order to make a quick buck. So how do you know which ones to trust? The key is to find a quality program that has received many positive reviews,  has been around for some time, and continues to garner interest from real bodybuilders and fitness fanatics. I have found one such program that fits this criteria and it is called Turbulence Training.

Craig Ballantyne has come up with possibly the best muscle building program that I have seen in a very long time. The program focuses on three 45 minute weight workouts a week so it’s perfect for those with little time but with a great desire to burn fat and build muscle. They are intense workouts so are not for the lazy, but the results speak for themself. You have to be prepared to work hard in short bursts and you will reap the rewards. It is certainly better than spending 2 hours in the gym per day!

Some of the positive reviews that have been posted about Turbulence Training all over the internet include:

“For years, I had been doing slow, boring cardio, but the 12-Week Turbulence Training Transformation Contest was one of the best things I have ever done.”

“The single most effective fat loss training system in the world today.”

“I lost 14 pounds this month and the weight is just falling off me.”

“I have been able to lose fat and build muscle at the same time. This is something I had never been able to do before”

Turbulence training muscle building program costs only $97 and for that you get the main program as well as several bonuses including:

- The Turbulence Training 6-Month Bodyweight Manual
- The TT Bodyweight 500 Workout Challenge
- The TT for Athletes 8-Week Training Program
- The TT Ultimate Advanced Bodyweight Workout
- The TT Bodyweight 1000 Fat Burning Challenge

Considering the sheer amount of material you are receiving, this is well worth the small expense.  Click here to find out more about this fantastic muscle building program

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So make sure that your expectations are realistic, and that you have a reasonable time frame for achieving your goals. It takes time and hard work to convert flabby, out of practice muscles into a lean, ripped physique. People who think it’s going to happen in just a matter of a few weeks, and without much effort, are kidding themselves. Anyone who doesn’t understand what it takes to build muscle mass is setting themselves up for a major disappointment. So don’t expect to see miraculous progress.

You also need to stick with your weight lifting program religiously. Skipping a day or two here or there might seem like no big deal, but it can have a huge effect on your progress. Don’t do it, unless it’s an absolute emergency. You’ve got to get in there every day and stress those muscles. Plus, if you skip one day, it will make it a lot easier to skip the next one, and another one, etc. It’s a bad habit to get into.

But many times people who are discouraged at their progress, if they’re really honest, will have to admit that they didn’t stick with the program rigorously. Don’t be one of them. When it comes to building muscle mass, have realistic expectations, and workout on schedule every time, and you’ll reduce your chances of being discouraged and quitting.

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1. More Training
This suggestion is controversial in that some people think training less is actually beneficial, whilst others believe that the more you train, the faster your muscles will grow. I believe the latter but with conditions. You can train the same muscle everyday (you know that) but what is the point of wasting time taking complete days off when there are so many other muscles to train? Stick to training each muscle twice per week, but train other muscles whilst the previous worked ones are recovering.

2. Workout Variety
Just doing more sets or reps generally won’t make a massive difference to your gains. Because it is all about the weight you are lifting and not necessarily how many times you can lift it. Gradually increasing your weights over time is the best way to get fast muscle gain.

3. Sweet Spot
People try out different rep patterns but the key is to hit your sweet spot; usually 6 to 12 reps which will keep your muscles under enough tension each lift for them to be strained enough to grow. Adjust your weights so that you can achieve this rep amount without it being overly easy or difficult.

Now, back to that guide I mentioned earlier. It is called No Nonsense Bodybuilding and has been instrumental in my muscle gains and ongoing fitness. It shows you how to achieve fast muscle gains with just 3 hours of training per week, training each muscle twice every 5 days and how to achieve the best results in just 6 months.

Click here to read No Nonsense Bodybuilding

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But what really works?

Is there more than one routine that will give you the results you want?  Without a doubt, there are so many different ways to train that you could not possibly define the perfect muscle building workout routines. But there are certainly some practices and exercises that are better than others and that are tried and proven to work. Bodybuilding is an old sport so naturally by now people would have a good idea of what are the most effective routines and exercises.

5×5 Training
This type of training routine has gained popularity in recent times. But one reason that people overlook it is that it’s so simple. They believe that working out should be complicated! The 5×5 training method is by far one of the most effective for gaining muscle. All it involves is doing five sets of five reps for each exercise in your workout. Once you can comfortably do that, increase the weight. It is a good idea to focus on the upper body on one day and the lower body on the next day with the 5×5 routine.

Single Set and Multiple Set Routines
Single set routines involve doing one set for each exercise. Beginners usually start with this type of routine. Multiple set routines are the most common type and there can be endless variations. You can do pyramid weights or focus on doing more reps per set.

Pyramid Routines
This involves starting with a lighter weight and doing more reps, and gradually moving up to a heavier weight with less reps. The only downside is that pyramid routines involve a lot of time adjusting weights, but they can be effective. Many people combine the pyramid workout with a muscle failure ending whereby the last set using heavy weights is done until muscle exhaustion and not just stopped when a certain number of reps are lifted.

For more ideas on the best muscle building workout routines check out the excellent guide Turbulence Training here.

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The truth about building muscle is that you have to absolutely want it. Like anything in life, if your desire is strong enough; you will succeed.

Turbulence Training provides an excellent guide for people who do best when they have a mentor or instructor, or simply for people who want great advice about bodybuilding from someone who walks the walk: not someone who is trying to milk you for every dollar you’ve got. Find out more about it here

The good thing about Turbulence Training is that it teaches you how to gain muscle and lose fat WITHOUT doing cardio work.

Without a doubt, cardio is the most dreaded type of exercise for 95% of bodybuilders or even for most people who go to the gym. Treadmills can make you shudder and there’s no doubt you’d rather hit the weights instead. So why do so many bodybuilders still succumb to the myth that they have to do cardio 5, 6 7 days per week in order to burn fat? Because it’s just that: a myth that has not been dispelled. Thankfully Turbulence Training reveals why this routine is simply a waste of time. Get all the information from the official website here

Turbulence Training is without a doubt its one of the leading bodybuilding guides that you will find. You’ll learn how to lose a lot of fat (they quote one pound per week which is very reasonable). At the same time you’ll also be putting on muscle, and maintaining any muscle that you have.  Why not visit the website here and see how this program can help you with building muscle?

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The food you eat can make or break your success as a bodybuilder. It doesn’t how many hours you spend in the gym or how hard you work, if your diet is wrong you are not going to reach your goals.

A diet of junk foods and fatty foods will leave you feeling tired and lethargic, won’t contribute to muscle gain and will greatly hamper your performance in the gym. You will simply find it difficult to lift weights that you should easily be able to lift. In addition to that, your mental clarity will be harmed and you will feel lethargic all over.

Avoid letting diet spoil your hard gym work by eating the right foods.

What are the right muscle building foods?
Opinions vary about what the ‘perfect’ bodybuilding diet is and everybody will have different needs. Your rewired calorie intake will vary drastically from other people so always experiment to find what works for you.

One thing that everyone agrees on is that eating many types of vegetables every single day will benefit you considerably. Dark green vegetables are highly nutritious and contain so many vitamins that are required for gaining muscle.

In addition to veggies, include fruit, nuts, seeds, beans and other sources of non-meat protein in your diet – if you do eat meat, limit it to 3 times per week to avoid any related problems that can occur from excessive meat intake.

You are probably well aware that protein is touted as the holy grail for bodybuilders, and rightly so. But you can’t live well on protein only. Certainly a diet heavy in red meat and fish on a daily basis will cause more harm than good. You must balance your diet to include all types of good foods.

No Nonsense Bodybuilding takes you by the hand to show you how to eat properly for muscle building. You will find out which exact foods contribute to rock hard muscles and what foods you have to avoid at all costs if you are at all serious about making the most of your workouts and reaching your goals faster. Get more information on No Nonsense Bodybuilding here.

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Don’t think that this means you cannot take any body building supplements at all, because you can, there are many on the market that are natural products. All it means is that you stay away from the man made steroids and hormones that are used by many bodybuilders to help in muscle building.

You can find competitions that are geared towards natural body builders who have used natural muscle building – these competitions will generally test all competitors to check for illegal substances, if they are found, you are banned, simple as that.

Although the man made products can help to build muscle quickly, they can also have some nasty side effects. Natural muscle building is all about maximising your nutritional input, and staying as health as possible while you are gaining your muscles.

If you decide to go down the natural muscle building route you need to be able to make the most of your workout sessions. This means you need to have the correct amount of vitamins and nutrients, so you will have to eat properly and take a multi-vitamin so that the muscle building proteins will get sent to the proper parts of your body.

It is also important in natural body building to keep a positive attitude when you are working out. Natural supplements are helpful if you want toned, fit muscles. So long as these contain natural ingredients like glutamine and creatine they will be fine – all they will do is to increase the substances that are naturally in your body anyway. Natural Muscle Building Supplements

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Muscle gives you strength and energy. Fat makes you, lethargic, unenergetic and inflexible. It also looks horrible.

But don’t be mistaken: many people who build big muscle are not considered by purists to be ‘fit’. People have different definitions of fitness.

For some, it’s about being able to run a marathon. For others, it’s about how you look. On looks alone, bodybuilders are certainly fit. They are toned, muscular and have very little body fat.

But can bodybuilders run a marathon? Well, it depends how big they are and how much cardio training they do. Huge bodybuilders are unlikely to be very flexible and probably don’t enjoy running all that much. With that said, I hate to stereotype and there are certainly big guys who can run quite well.

If you want a balance between muscle and fitness you need to train both cardio and resistance workouts. The cardio will help you to retain flexibility that is vital when you are doing cardio work. The cardio workouts aid your heart and lungs and help to keep your health in check. Anyone who has toned muscles and can also run for at least 20 minutes without stopping is very fit.

But you need to lose fat before you can be considered to be really fit. Everyone has some fat on them; you need it and its normal. But excessive fat will just hamper your fitness and your weight lifting.

It’s sometimes hard to find the balance between losing fat and gaining muscle. Trying to lose fat without losing muscle is difficult at best. You certainly don’t want to be losing that muscle that you have worked so hard to attain.

The answer lies in the excellent Turbulence Training guide. The author is a strength training and fitness expert and the guide focuses on how to lose fat and gain muscle. But the catch is that he does it without cardio. How? You’ll have to read Turbulence Training to find out. Click here for full details

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Biceps Brachii
Brachialis
Pronator TeresThe Biceps Brachii is the main muscle that you will have a desire to grow, but you should not abandon the other 2 smaller muscles: The Brachialis located on the outer elbow and the Pronator Teres which runs from the forearm to the elbow. Big biceps are without a doubt the desire of most people who start to lift weights. Having well toned and protruding bicep muscles gives you that muscle man look, particularly when you flex your arms. Training all the biceps muscles is an absolute must and should form a major part of your weight training routine on a weekly basis.

There are some biceps exercises which are particularly useful and more effective than others, and these will be briefly mentioned in this article.

Some of the very best biceps exercises are:

Standing barbell curl
One-arm preacher curl
Incline dumbbell curl
Hammer curl

Isolation exercises can also be incorporated (cables, machines) can also be useful as a toning and definition mechanism, but free weights should be focused on the build the bicep muscles. Once you have the muscle there as a foundation you can start looking at isolation exercises.

Bar curls and preacher curls are undoubtedly 2 of the most popular biceps exercises. They don’t work any other muscles besides the biceps. Curls can be performed in various ways such as standing, resting one arm on the inner thigh and seated with dumbbells. But the best biceps exercise of all time has to be the standing barbell curl as it allows total flexion of the elbow which is the major role of the biceps.

The biceps are highly visible and are the first muscle that people will look at when asking you to flex; so make sure you pay them due attention in the gym.

If you want to learn more about bodybuilding and how to get huge without steroids, without expensive supplements, without conflicting advice and without spending hundreds of hours in the gym every month, take a look at a guide called No Nonsense bodybuilding. The title says it all: it is straight to the point, sold information about how to put on muscle in just a few months by utilizing the very best workouts and training procedures. More information can be found here

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This is a must if your aim is to make solid and noteworthy gains in muscle size and strength.   If you ar enot sure what a compound exercise is, it is a lift that will stimulate more than just the one group of muscles at the same time.   A good example of these types of lifts are the bench press, barbell row, overhead press, squat or deadlift.   Compound movements will allow you to deal with the most weight and will also stimulate the largest amount of total muscle fibers.

2) You Must Be Prepared To Train Hard.

This is one area that a lot of beginners fall down on.  To make serious gains you need to keep up a good level of training, this will make the differencde between an average gain and a good gain.  You need to be prepared to take each set of your muscle mass building routine to the absolute limit.

3) Keep A Note Of Your Progress.

Once you realise that your body builds muscle mass in response to the environment you will see that when you visit the guy you are breaking down your muscle fibers by using weights to train.   Your body will sense this as a threat and will react by rebuilding the damaged fiber so they are larger and stronger than before.  It therefore stands to reason that to carry on with gains in muscle mass and strength you will need to concentrate on progressing with your workout from week to week.   This could simply be by adding in an extra rep or or for each exercise, or by adding extra weight to the bar.  Keep it all noted so you can see how you are progressing.

4) Avoid Overtraining.

Although you need to train hard, you also need to be aware that overtraining is not going to do you any good when it comes to building muscle size and strength.  Lots of beginners make the mistake of thinking that more is best – they think that the longer they spend in the gym the better their results will be.   This is not right – too much time in the gym can hinder your progress.  Muscles do not grow in the gym, they grow while you are resting and eating.   Recovery is a vital part of the muscle growth process.  Your muscles will not have the chance to grow if you do not provide your body with proper recovery time.

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5) Eat More Frequently.

Proper nutrition is essential to building muscle mass, the training itself is only half of it. You are breaking down your muscle fibers while you are training, but you must give your body the right nutrients at the proper times, if you don’t then you will not succeed in gaining muscle mass. Ideally you should be eating somewhere between 5 and 7 meals each day, and these should be approximately 2 to 3 hours apart – this way you will be keeping your body in a muscle building state. High quality protein and complex carbohydrates should be eaten at each meal.

6) Increase Your Protein Intake.

Protein is the most important nutrient out of carbohydrates, fat and protein, and it is essential to increase your protein levels if you are wanting to build muscle mass. The main role of protein within your body is to build and repair body tissues, so if you do not have enough that it will not be possible for your body to build up the muscle. As a rough idea of amounts, you should aim for 1 to 11/2 grams of protein for every pound you weigh, and this should come from high quality sources like beef, eggs, fish etc.

7) Increase Your Water Intake.

Water plays a very important role in your body. Did you know that your muscles alone are made up of 70% water? Drinking more water will make your muscles look fuller and more vascular and also increase your strength as well. You should be aiming for 0.6 ounces for every pound of body weight every day.

Be Consistent!

If you want to succeed in building muscle mass, then consistency is key. If you can workout and follow the other tips here regularly you stand much more chance of gaining that muscle mass.

Building muscle mass is a journey with lots of small steps. One extra rep will not make a huge difference, and nor will eating one extra high protein meal, but lots of these little things added together certainly will! Work hard and you will achieve your dream to build muscle mass.

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There are 2 basic ways to train legs and the way that you do it will depend on what equipment you have access to and whether or not you have a gym membership. If you are training your leg muscles at home and don’t have any fancy equipment then you can get by totally with just a barbell and weights. You can work all parts of your legs with the barbell, believe it or not. Squats are known to be the best leg muscle exercise and using a barbell in conjunction with squats will exhaust your muscles quickly – make sure you rest for several days afterwards.

If you have access to gym equipment then you can take advantage of the specially designed machines that give you an all round workout including thighs, calves, hamstrings and all the smaller muscles in your legs.

Training your legs is a satisfying process. There are many types of workouts you can do so you wont get bored focusing on the lower half of your body. Make sure you cover all areas of your legs such as thighs, calves, hamstrings etc – you don’t want your legs to grow out of proportion. Professional gym equipment makes body building muscle leg training easy, but you can achieve just as good results using a simple barbell at home.

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If you’re thinking of starting a muscle building workout, congratulations! It’s always a wise and admirable decision to take better control of your own health and fitness, and you’ll find it very rewarding if you stick with it. But getting started can be daunting. There are so many questions to deal with at first…like should you go with free weights, body weight exercises, or circuit training? What nutritional supplements do you need, if any? Should you join a gym, or work out at home? But probably the biggest question has to do with your actual workout plan – should you come up with your own, or follow one that’s already pre-designed?

There are good arguments for going either way. But for most people, there are far more benefits to be obtained by following a ready made muscle building workout that’s already been used and proven by thousands of people. In fact, many aspiring body builders who try doing it on their own come to find out that designing a workout that hits all the right muscle groups and works them out in just the right ways is a lot harder than they thought. They start off going it alone, but after they see how difficult it is, they switch to a popular workout plan.

And that’s probably the best bet for you. Of course, there are exceptions. If you’re a certified fitness trainer, of course, you don’t really need any further instructions. People with college degrees in phys ed are probably qualified to do it on their own, too. But odds are that you don’t fall into either of these categories, and you don’t really have the necessary training to design a proper muscle building workout. So find one that’s worked for lots of people, with testimonials, and follow it. You’ll probably get a lot farther than trying to go it alone.

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1. Do Warm Ups
Warming up is vital both before and after a workout to avoid tearing your muscles and causing long term damage. 

2. Get a Training Partner
A training partner will be able to motivate you on days where you don’t feel like working out. You can also assist each other when lifting weights, otherwise known as ‘spotting’.

3. Set Realistic Goals
There is little point wanting to look like a pro bodybuilder if you are just starting out. Setting realistic short term goals will keep your motivation levels up.

4. Focus on your Diet
Lifting weights is not enough – you must couple that with a smart diet in order to see muscle gains. Healthy eating habits are vital and foods should include mainly fresh food like vegetables (particularly green vegies), lean protein sources, beans, fruit and whole grains. You will notice that you feel more energetic and stronger when your diet is right.

5. Use Supplements
A protein powder supplement will help quicken your muscle gains. There are also protein shakes if you prefer those. Creatine is another supplement that is commonly used but consult your physician before using any supplements.

6. Concentrate on Breathing
Each breath you take when working out supplies oxygen to your muscles, so make sure you breathe evenly and have a breathing pattern when you are lifting weights.

7. Do Cardio
Some people think that doing cardio will take away and gains you make with muscle building but that is untrue. A little bit of cardio is vital for heart health and they will also assist you in burning excess fat. Around 15 to 20 minutes of moderate treadmill walking or exercise bike riding is ideal.

These seven muscle building workout tips for beginners will make everything clearer for you. Lots more great muscle building workouts can be found here.  Good luck with your muscle building!

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The key to building lean muscle is to increase the weights that you are lifting over time. As you become stronger and fitter, you will find it easier and easier to lift to a certain weight; therefore you must extend yourself by increasing the weights so that your body can once again be challenged. It is only through muscle exhaustion that you will be able to build lean muscle.

You can also increase the number of repetitions that you do with a certain weight, but there is a limit to this. Weight training is not about doing hundreds of reps; you will always at some point have to increase your upper weights limit in order to be able to tire your muscles sufficiently for them to be able to grow through recovery.

The other part of the lean muscle building process of course concerns your diet. What you eat will greatly determine how effective your workouts are. You can have the best workouts in the world, but if your body is not getting the fuel it needs to grow, repair and build muscle then your gains are going to stagnate or even go backwards.

Protein is the main component and focus of a bodybuilder’s diet.

You have to push your body if you want to gain lean muscle: it is that simple. If your body can already life 35lb weights easily then you need to increase it so that you reach a point of exhaustion while lifting.

Your goal when entering the gym should be to improve upon your previous workout. You should always be gaining momentum to move forward and improve your workouts each time. Every small milestone is a step in the direction of increased muscle mass.

Learn how to build lean muscle and lose fat at the same time with the revolutionary training guide Turbulence Training which squashes common bodybuilding myths and reveals how to get the fastest muscle building results.

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