7 Reasons to Use BCAA Supplements

•  
• Branched chain amino acids are needed for protein synthesis and muscle maintenance, growth, and repair
• Taking BCAA supplements can help you get enough of these essential amino acids in your diet
• BCAA supplements can help you optimize your muscle growth and recovery

1. Replace Amino Acids

BCAA supplements can help replace branched chain amino acids which are depleted whenever you perform a hard workout. These substances are amino acids which are needed for your body to break down and use protein for muscle building and repair. When you perform vigorous exercise, your muscles use these amino acids and deplete the supply of them. Taking a supplement can help replace these essential amino acids so your body can function optimally, and has the needed components for protein synthesis that benefits your muscles and other tissues.

2. Muscle Recovery And Growth

Branched chain amino acids are needed by your body for muscle growth, repair, maintenance, and recovery. Amino acids can not be manufactured by your body, they must be ingested in your diet, and this can mean a shortage of these acids which can be detrimental to your muscle health and fitness if you are not careful. Taking a supplement will ensure that you have enough of these specific amino acids in your system to allow your muscles to be recover and grow in the shortest possible time.

3. Fat Loss

Taking BCAA supplements can help you with any fat loss you desire or are attempting. Because these amino acids are needed to synthesize protein, they assist in building muscle and eliminating fat from your body. A diet high in protein and these supplements can greatly improve your physical condition and help you lose any fat that you do not want. These substances basically consist of protein components, which will help build muscle. Muscle can help eliminate and prevent fat, because muscle requires more energy than fat to maintain.

4. Improved Brain Function

Branched chain amino acids have benefits for your brain as well as your body. Amino acids are the origin of neurotransmitters in the brain, and taking a supplement will ensure that your brain has the needed amount of these acids to function properly and effectively. BCAAs can also help your brain function by delaying certain messages, such as fatigue during a workout, so that you can continue on. These acids are needed for all parts of your body to function properly, and they can help improve the function of your brain.

5. Heart Health

Taking BCAA supplements can help keep your heart healthy and fit along with the rest of your body. These amino acids are critical to strong muscles that work as intended, and if you do not have enough sources of these acids in your diet all of your muscles, including your heart, could suffer because of these deficiencies. Eating a balanced diet and taking these supplements are the two best ways to ensure that your heart health stays in top shape. These supplements help muscle growth, repair, and maintenance, and your heart is only a muscle after all.

6. Lose Weight While Preserving Muscle

Taking BCAA supplements can help you lose weight while preserving your muscle, so that the weight lost is fat instead. These crucial chain amino acids are needed for proper muscle maintenance, and they are proteins. This means that your existing muscle has the protein and acids needed for proper maintenance, while you lose weight and fat because of the increased efficiency of your entire body. Two of the BCAAs, Isoleucine and Leucine, actually promote weight and fat loss specifically.

7. Healthy Immune System

Branched chain amino acids can have benefits for your immune system. These amino acids may have a preventative effect on immune system suppression cause by strenuous exercise or activity. They can also help to reduce inflammation, and promote healthy immune system functioning even after a vigorous workout. This can help keep you healthier, with a better ability to fight off any infections or diseases.

5 Back Exercises you Aren’t Doing

The back is a notoriously tough area to train. There are three main reasons for this;

a)    When people start out, they don’t usually train their backs, mirror muscles like the chest, abs and biceps get more attention, meaning the back is usually playing catch up

b)   Since you can’t see your back in the mirror, it’s often difficult to form that mind-muscle connection so vital for adequately stimulating the muscle fibers

c)    The back is complex musculature which requires a range of different movements and grips to hit all the different sections

Training your back is crucial for your overall physique, it is part of the crucial posterior chain forming the supporting foundation of the entire body. The back area is an inverted diamond shape, spanning from the upper trapezius to the erector spinae, and, contrary to popular belief, parts of the back –the upper lats for example – are visible head-on.

In short, back training is an absolute must. So what should you do? Everyone knows that pull-ups, deadlifts and lat pull-downs are great back exercises that should form the core of your routine, but what can you throw in to mix things up and keep your back guessing? Here are a few ideas;

1)   Barbell Unilateral Rows

The dumbbell version of this exercise is very popular, but using a bar will add an element of instability. Lean on a bench with one knee supported and the other foot on the floor, make sure you back is parallel to the floor. Start with your arm extended and bring the barbell up to your side, hold, squeeze and repeat.

2)   Bent Over Rows with Hammer Grip

Perform a bent over row as you normally would – back parallel to the floor, rowing the barbell up to your abdomen by retracting your scapulae, but instead of an over or under hand grip, use two single handles from a cable machine so you can grip the bar in a hammer fashion.

3)   Overhead Shrugs

You probably use a lot of weight for regular shrugs – you won’t be able to with the overhead variety. Hold a barbell above your head with a shoulder length grip and literally shrug your shoulders. This move might take some getting used to but it’s highly effective.

4)   Face pulls

This is great for stimulating the middle/lower traps and rear deltoids. Attach a rope grip to a cable station, setting it about eye-level. You can do this standing or seated but I’d recommend standing to begin with. Standing with your arms straight out in front of you, parallel to the floor, gripping the rope with both hands. Pull the cable towards you and up slightly so it’s parallel to your face, let the rope splay out so you can increase the range of movement.

5)   Inverted Rows

Despite this exercise being performed with no weight, it’s arguably the toughest on this list. Find a smith machine and position the bar about 2 feet from the floor, place a bench in front of the smith machine. Suspend yourself so your feet are supported on the bench and you are gripping the bar with a shoulder width grip, pull yourself up to the bar, lower, then repeat. Enjoy!

10 Ways to Build Bigger Arms!

Bodybuilder workouts are done by most guys to build bigger arms but often forget about the most basic principles in muscle building to make it happen. Here are 10 easy bodybuilder workouts and effective techniques for adding muscle size and thickness to your bi's and tri's:

10. Focus on your triceps - your triceps make up 2/3 of your arm’s size!

9. Mix it up. Use a variety of machines, cables and free weights.

8. Do more sets and fewer reps with heavier weight. Try a 5 x 5 or 8 x 8 set/rep scheme.

7. Change it up. If you usually start your arm training with biceps, start with triceps – it’ll keep your muscles guessing and growing!

6. Superset your bi’s and tri’s. Supersets really shock the muscles and stimulate new growth.

5. SQUEEZE! Squeeze every muscle contraction to drive as much blood and nutrients into your arms as possible!

4. Mix your grips. Perform a variety of wide-grip, close-grip and reverse-grip movements to hit all areas of your bi’s and tri’s.

3. SLEEP! Muscle growth happens while resting, not while reppin’ out. Be sure to get your eight hours in.

2. Use proper form. You’ll make more gains working with weights you can handle.

1. EAT MORE PROTEIN! Protein is the most important macronutrient you can consume if you wanna pack on muscle!
 
Incorporate any of these bodybuilder workouts tried and true muscle-building principles into your bodybuilder workouts routine and your arms will grow! And if there are any bodybuilder workouts that we missed, feel free to add them below! Share your tips with the world!

Beginners Guide To Building Your Core And Six Pack

Six pack, 8 pack (genetic freaks), washboard, whatever you want to call it: your core is the center piece for any muscular physique. It is the eye catcher for the opposite sex. A muscular and well defined core shows both strength and health. Both guys and gals strive to have a strong tone midsection but very few of them ever achieve getting one. If you have been looking for the perfect program to get you the tight, strong core that you have always been looking for, look no further.
In this article we are going to go over the basic anatomy of the what makes up the core and list 5 easy to follow workouts to help strengthen your midsection. Note that diet and cardiovascular training will have to be in check for you to see your abs. This article will only focus on the training that goes into building and strengthening your mighty core.
The core is composed of 4 different parts. Below I will discuss where each are located, what its function is and also present a couple exercises you can do to stimulate the muscle.

Rectus Abdominus

• Location: Covers the area from sternum all the way down to the pelvis bone. Referred to as the abs or six pack.
• Function: Pulls the upper torso to the hips.
• Exercises: Crunch or sit up.

Obliques

• Location: Side of the waist.
• 3 layers of Muscle: Internal obliques, transverse obliques and external obliques.
• Function: Tilt and twist the torso.
• Exercises: Side bends and decline oblique crunches.

Intercostals

• Location: Between the side of the rib cage. Comes into play when you flex the torso and twist from side to side.
• Function: Elevation and depression of the ribs.
• Exercise: Truck twists.

Serratus

• Location: Between front abs and lats. Boxer’s muscle.
• Function: Pulling of the scapula forward and around like in the motion of throwing a punch.
• Exercises: Barbell pull-overs and single arm cable crunches.

The core is made up of primarily fast twitch muscle fibers. Fast twitch muscle fibers are denser than its counterpart the slow twitch muscle fiber, so hard, heavy and explosive bouts of exercise will stimulate this kind of fiber a lot more.
This means that core training should be in the moderate rep range for best growth. No more endless reps of crunches and sit up like you’ve done in the past. Focus on sets in the 8-15 rep range.
Now that you understand about what muscles make up the core, their function, location and the rep range needed to stimulate them, let’s give you some workouts to help you get that strong muscular core.
All exercises should be performed in perfect form because bad form or habits that you start now will follow you and will lead to lack of progress or worse off injury in the future. Many, if not all of the exercises will be new to you. So make sure that you use the exercise guide on Muscle 7 Strength to help you with your form.
Below are 5 of my favorite core strengthening workouts.

5 Core/Abs Strengthening Workouts

Core/Abs workout one.

• Cable Crunches  3x8-12  30-45 Sec Rest.
• Bodyweight Side Bends  3x12 on each side 30 Sec Rest.
• Crunches  3x12  30 Sec Rest.
• Seated Leg Tucks  3x12-15  45 Sec Rest.

Core/Abs workout two.

• Seated Barbell Twists  3x8-12 on each side  30 Sec Rest.
• Air Bike Crunches  3x12  30-45 Sec Rest.
• Crunches Hands Over Head  3x12-15  30 Sec Rest.
• Flat Bench Lying Leg Raises  3x8  30 Sec Rest.

Core/Abs workout three.

• Frog Sit Ups  3x12-15  30 Sec Rest.
• Jack Knife Sit Ups  3x12-15  30 Sec Rest.
• Oblique Crunches on the Floor  3x12  30 Sec Rest.
• Reverse Crunch  3x12  30 Sec Rest.

Core/Abs workout four.

• Russian Twist  3x12-15  30 Sec Rest.
• Ab Crunch Machine  3x8-12  30-45 Sec Rest.
• Barbell Side Bends  3x8 on each side  30 sec rest.
• Crunch - Legs on Exercise Ball  3x8-12  30 Sec Rest.

Core/Abs workout five.

• Decline Crunch  3x8-12  30-45 Sec Rest.
• Dumbbell Side Bends  3x8 on each side  30 Sec Rest.
• Exercise Ball Crunch  3x12-15  30 Sec Rest.
• Leg Pull-in  3x12  30 Sec Rest.

There you have it 5 core strengthening workouts. I like to work my core every 2-3 days. Try rotating these 5 workouts into your workout split. These workouts sure will help you get that strong muscular core you are looking for. Remember quality over quantity with the core. Stick with the programs listed above and you will be just fine. Good Luck.