Question: Ben, please identify the number one training mistake that would be preventing individuals from achieving maximal muscle gains. 

Answer: Mistake number one is never knowing what the right amount of exhaustion is

Have you ever left the gym wondering if you could have done more?  If you should have done more? I know I have. Heck, there has even been days when I comtemplated going back in the gym because I just didn’t KNOW that my muscles were exhausted. That’s a terrible feeling.

I don’t know about you, but when I go to the gym I want to KNOW that my time is well spent and im not wasting my days and getting less results than I am after.

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Here is the next cutting edge intensifier in muscle building: NOS

NOS stands for Neurological Overload Set. The set that overloads the body and creates the optimal hormonal environment for growth inside the muscle!

Hormones like testosterone, growth hormone, IGF-1 are responsible for growth. The best way to stimulate these hormones is through intense exercise that takes muscles to their limit.

NOS is the single most effective way to take a muscle to its complete physical exhaustion.

As many of you already know, TIME under TENSION is the number one most highly correlated factor with muscle hypertrophy (growth).

NOS start out by putting you in the exact optimal range for muscular growth via optimal Time under Tension (40-70 seconds)

8 repetitions done with a 4010 cadence (5-second reps) . For those of you unfamiliar with this cadence reference, it is very simple. It means 4 seconds DOWN(negative/eccentric portion) , 0-seconds pause, 1-second explosive concentric (contraction), and then 0-second pause.

The “0’s” tend to be most confusing for people, this simply means DON’T STOP. Use continuous motion and no rest or pause at the top or bottom of the rep.

Once you have completed 8 repetitions with 5-second reps, IMMEDIATELY decrease the weight by 20% and keep going. No cheating, no extraneous movement, just strict executed form.Repeat this 20% drop in weights 2 more times for a total of 3 decreases in weight.

This process will take your muscle to complete physical exhaustion. The lactic acid will be uncomfortable but find comfort in knowing that more lactic acid is correlated with more growth hormone, bigger muscles and a leaner, harder physique.

Question: Ben, please identify the number one training mistake that would be preventing individuals from achieving maximal muscle gains

Answer: Well, we all know “the guy” in the gym that throws a ton of weight on the bar and moves it with terrible form and looks like hes going to hurt himself. He is the root of many of our jokes, and definitely gets a lot of sideways looks from the patrons of the gym.

We’ve all asked ourselves “WHAT is he trying to do?” Chances are, he has no clue. He comes in the gym everyday and does the
Exact same thing week in and week out because he really has NO IDEA what he is trying to do. Therein lies the problem!

Guess what, more likely than not, you have all been guilty of doing this too at some point in your life (whether you care to admit it or not).

The first thing you need to do is identify your desired goal. If your goal is to build muscle, then you have come to the right place and you should take a minute listen up.

The one and ONLY most important factor that you need to consider when it comes to your quest to build muscle, is TENSION. (more on that in a minute..)

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We have all heard people speak about mind-muscle connection, or that you’ve got to really “squeeze” a muscle to make it grow. I don’t know about you, but for most people this is a really hard concept to figure out. Those of us that “get” what it means, still really have a difficult time putting it to action.

The good news is, this is quite a simple concept and I will show you how to apply it to building your muscles literally TWICE as fast.

Here is what you need to know:

Muscles communicate in terms of tension. They have absolutely NO idea how much weight youre lifting. They only know how much tension or torque is going through them.

What if I told you there was a way to perform more or less ANY exercise so that you could FEEL it EXACTLY where youre supposed to feel it, AND increase muscular tension with LESS weight to get results TWICE as fast in half the time. Sounds pretty cool, right? I’ll explain.

YOU can control exactly how much tension or torque that goes through a muscle you are working at ANY point in the workout.

You have complete control over HOW HARD you squeeze, HOW LONG you work, and most importantly EXACTLY WHERE you squeeze and contract.

You can selectively train EXACTLY the muscle youre supposed to be and not train anything that you don’t want to be.

Every guy out there knows what im talking about. We've all don’t bench presses and got NO pump in our chests but our delts and tris were cooked! No more, gents!

I would like to take this moment to introduce to you the revolutionary muscle building technique called INTENTION!

The way I describe intention to people I encounter that are unfamiliar with it is this:

“Intention is the CONSCIOUS INTENT to create TENSION in the muscle”

I know, I know, sounds a little hokey. BUT the fact of the matter is that this is BY FAR the best way to ensure you are maintain tension on the working muscle.

The number one most highly correlated factor with building muscle is “TIME UNDER TENSION”. The longer you can keep tension directly on a muscle, the more you control the rate at which that muscle grows.

You can do a bench press all day long, and if there is not tension in the pecs, you WILL NOT build pecs. Why is it that some people can build great chests while bench pressing while others cant? Because some peoples “genetics” all them to 
thoughtlessly keep a greater amount of tension in that muscle!

We now have the ability to do this consciously. The best part is, IT'S EASY!!

INTENTION in action.

The most simple example of intention exists on the bench press. Grab on the bar in front of you, just like you would on a bench press. You can use any stable surface for this example. I will use the edge of my desk. I grab the edge of my desk about equally as wide as I would on a bench press. Hold on firmly, and without letting your hands move from that 
position, “shove” them toward each other. What happened? Your chest contracted didn’t it?

Now imagine doing this exact thing through a range of motion, like in a bench press.

WOW! You just created continuous tension in the EXACT muscle you wanted to! Pretty cool right!?

Above is a really big question for anyone who spends time improving themselves in the gym each week.

The technique (form) you use on each and every exercise can play a pretty big role in how fast you make gains and how much of an impact those gains will have on your performance.

This week's post isn't a 'step by step' form guide for a big group of exercises, this is rather a complete explanation as to what form actually is, how best to treat it and how correcting any weaknesses in your form at the moment will benefit you.

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What is exercise form?

For me, instead of talking about why one form or technique is better than another, I want to discuss forms practical application when training.

Perfect form can be measured and classified into 2 groups;

1) Using correct ROM (range of motion)

ROM stands for the distance (range) a muscle travels throughout a particular exercise. Some exercises like the barbell squat have a very large ROM and others like the bent over dumbbell tricep kickback have a rather short range of motion.

Now imagine an exercises range of motion as a long footpath, the further you walk along that path the more things you see and the more experiences you encounter.

The same thing applies to your muscles, the larger the range of motion you use, the more muscular fibers you recruit and therefore stimulate. 

The only difference is that a muscle has different peak points of stimulation along that range of motion. These peak points are areas of stimulation that enforce much more isolation on a muscle group than along other parts of the muscles range. 

To put simply, you should combine full range of motion exercises to stimulate an entire muscles range and should also use partial ROM, like half reps or static reps to further isolate individual muscle groups when training.

2) Maintaining exercise safety and remaining injury free.

Naturally, weight lifting causes much greater stress to our internal organs, muscles, bones, joints, ligaments and cartilage. Because of this it has the potential to take them to dangerous levels above what can be handled, causing damage and injury.

Not using correct form when training with resistance is one of the most common reasons for those injuries and can easily be avoided with the implementation of some basic principles.

It is all about controlling your movements when under 'hyperextension'

Hyperextension is when a muscle and its surrounding structures are taken past their normal range of motion, as seen in the pictures above. 

Many common weight lifting exercises enforce slight hyperextension to reach full range of motion, here are some examples.

Hyperextension of the shoulder – Barbell / Dumbbell bench press of fly's

Hyperextension of the knee – Leg extensions / straight leg deadlifts

Hyperextension of the elbow – Bicep preacher curl / tricep extensions

Hyperextension of the spine – Barbell Deadlift / Lying rear leg raises

As you can see some of the most common exercises even have potential to cause injury so make sure you follow these simple rules when taking your muscles into hyperextension;

1) Ensure your movement is slow, controlled and deliberate

2) Never use explosive force in a hyperextension. Use explosion to get to the point before hyperextension and then slow down your movement

3) If you have a previous or current injury to a muscle, don't take it to the point of hyperextension. If you do you are a very good chance of re-doing it or causing it further damage.

Summing things up on form…

So are you currently using correct form?

Well if your exercise technique is taking each muscle through its full range of motion and you are in total control of the weight throughout and more importantly through hyperextension, then the answer is YES!

But if you're using excessive momentum (swinging) during an exercise you are more than likely recruiting other muscle groups to assist in the lift. This not only increases your chances of injury from hyperextension but also takes away valuable stimulation from the muscle you're actually targeting. 

LESS STIMULATION = LESS RESULTS

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About the author.

Get My Bonuses Worth $197

Reuben Bajada is known around the world as an elite results based coach and trainer. He is a renowned strength & conditioning coach, personal trainer and sports performance nutritionist who offers his time, knowledge and training advice to anybody ready to commit to both improving the way they look and perform.

He is the author and mind behind 2011's most popular muscle building program; 'Permanent Muscle' which guarantees to build real muscle, on real people, real fast. 

http://www.permanentmuscle.com

How Much Weight and Many Reps Should I Be Using?This is very good question. The correct number of repetitions and the weight lifting  determines whether your muscles grow or not.

This topic is so intensely disputed in the weight training arena that I thought I would clear everything up for you and put you on the right path to brilliant results.

Let's first take a good look at the common beliefs out there for the ideal rep range. There are 3 major beliefs depending on the results you are trying to achieve;

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Common Belief 1) Mass Gains

Heavy weights – 4-6 repetitions per exercise

Common Belief 2) Strength Gains

Medium weights – 8-12 repetitions per exercise

Common Belief 3) Toning / Cutting / Fat Loss

Lighter weights – 16+ repetitions per exercise

So how familiar are those rep ranges to you? You might be using something similar yourself at the moment, but now I want to take this time to review each common belief and actually show you the truth behind creating the most effective workouts for you.

Where are people going wrong?

The first thing that must be mentioned is that each and every time you walk in the gym you need to cause your muscles something called 'microtrauma' which is when your muscle fibers are damaged due to forcing resistance against them.

Growth happens during recovery when the process of protein synthesis occurs to repair those 'micro torn' muscle fibers into a stronger and larger state.

So when you are training for mass gains, strength gains or even fat loss your number 1 priority is to cause as much microtrauma as physically possible before your muscles fatigue and eventually fail. 

So what rep range is ideal for building muscle?

I want you to totally forget about rep ranges from now on and start concentrating on 2 factors;

1) Isolating the targeted muscle group

This is important during every set because it ensures that the targeted muscle group is the actual muscle group doing the majority of the work. Try grabbing the heaviest set of dumbbells in your gym and lifting for a set of standing dumbbell curls. How many reps did you manage to get out? 2, maybe 3 on each arm? Now grab a pair of dumbbells half that weight and see if you can complete any reps. Wow, you managed to complete a full set of 8 each arm, what that's telling you is that the ultra heavy set really had no impact on fatiguing your biceps to the point they need to grow beacause you were able to complete a full set with the correct weight immediately after.

Use a weight that allows for maximum muscular isolation/stimulation on all repetitions.

2) Lift with good form using the heaviest possible resistance

Understand that; the heavier the weight you use, the larger the surface area of a muscle is recruited to move it. 

Each muscle in your body is made of inter-connecting muscle fibers, now think about the size of your pecs and quadriceps, they are huge muscles that span both the width of your torso and upper legs respectivly. Your goal when training them is to recruit as many of those muscle fibers as possible during each set and exercise.

Perfecting each and every set… 

Let's say for example sake that your pecs are made up of 1000 muscle fibers.

If you had a 1RM (1 repetition maximum) of 220lbs (100kg) on your bench press that would indicate that all 1000 of those muscle fibers would have been used in that 1 repetition.

That would be effective in one sense but a waste in another because you only applied 1 reps amount of tension on those muscle fibers (around 3 seconds), NOT causing effective muscle fiber fatigue.

Let's say you dropped the weight lifted to 175lbs (80kg) and managed to get out 6 repetitions at this weight before your muscles failed.

This would be much more beneficial to you because those 1000 muscle fibers were again all recruited (due to reaching muscle failure) and you applied 6 reps of tension to the muscle (around 20 seconds)

How I can make your workouts even better…

In the following example you have taken your muscles to the point needed for them to grow (microtrauma), I also call this point your muscles 'stim point' (point on maximum stimulation).

Over 96% of all people in the gym will in fact never actually get their muscles to this point during a workout, so it SHOULDN'T be taken for granted but SHOULD be capitalised on! 

I recommend further maintaining this point of maximum stimulation by performing a simple drop set or static set directly after your muscles fail for the first time. 

Imagine your muscles work on a capacity scale of 0-100. 

When your muscles are at rest (sleeping), let's say they are running at around 5 capacity. 

When a muscle completely fails due to resistance training it is obviously at a capacity level of 100. 

It is at level 100 that you want to be at MOST OFTEN during a workout. 

When you recover between sets, your muscles glycogen/creatine/ATP stores begin to resupply and in as a little as a minute your muscles can recover back to around level 40 before your next set. 

The KEY is to maintain high capacity levels (> 80) for as long as possible. 

Lifting a heavy set like the example above to failure puts you at level 100, then moving directly into another lighter set straight after (lifting to failure again) maintains that high capacity level for the double the amount of time than lifting for just 1 heavy set on it's own!

Putting it all together.

I honestly hope I didn't lose anyone there, it is a fairly complex topic to discuss in text but I get asked this all the time and like always I wanted to set the record straight.

So forget about sticking to the same reps every single set.

Listen to your muscles and let them make the big decisions. 

Concentrate on isolation, recruiting a large surface area of a muscle and maintaining the point of maximum stimulation for as long as possible.

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About the author.

Reuben Bajada is known around the world as an elite results based coach and trainer. He is a renowned strength & conditioning coach, personal trainer and sports performance nutritionist who offers his time, knowledge and training advice to anybody ready to commit to both improving the way they look and perform.

He is the author and mind behind 2011's most popular muscle building program; 'Permanent Muscle' which guarantees to build real muscle, on real people, real fast. 

This post is a short description of recently launched, the “Stage Shredded Status” from Vince DelMonte . Click the link below if you are looking for -

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Jay Cutler won the fourth time Mr. Olympia and is the best bodybuilder in the world. Here take a look a video of the event and below is a list of 18 best.

Final Results:

1. Jay Cutler
2. Phil Heath
3. Branch Warren
4. Dexter Jackson
5. Dennis Wolf
6. Ronny Rockel
7. Kai Greene
8. Victor Martinez
9. Toney Freeman
10. Hidetada Yamagishi
11. Dennis James
11. Johnnie Jackson
13. Marcus Haley
14. Roelly Winklaar
15. Troy Alves
16. Edward Nunn
17. Evgeny Mishin
18. Bill Willmore
18. Craig Richardson
18. Erik Frankhouser
18. Paco Bautista
18. Robert Piotrkowicz

202:
1. Kevin English
2. David Henry
3. Eduardo Correa
4. Jose Raymond
5. Jason Arntz
6. Jaroslav Horvath
Ahmad Ahmad
Bola Ojex
Daryl Gee
Luc Molines
Mike Valentino
Roc Shabazz
Stan McQuay
Steve Namat
Tricky Jackson

I thought that Victor Martinez win or Branch Warren and what were your predictions?

Today I would like to present you a list of the main advantages of practicing exercises.
Exercise can help to:

 reduce body weight and the body’s overall fat percentage
 improve cardiovascular fitness (stamina)
 reduce blood pressure to a controllable level
 reduce an individual’s resting pulse rate
 increase muscular strength
 improve the body’s posture, due to increased muscle tone
 improve overall flexibility
 improve muscular endurance
 more efficient blood circulation system
 speed up the body’s metabolic rate (the rate at which the body burns
calories)
 speed up the rehabilitation of an injury or muscular imbalance
 reduce cholesterol levels
 regularise sleeping patterns
 decrease stress levels
 guard against the onset of coronary artery disease
 improve self-confidence and self-esteem
 retard the onset of osteoporosis through weight bearing exercise
 overcome outside stresses and reduce the body’s susceptibility to infection
or illness
 last but not least, exercise can make you feel good! It does this by
releasing endorphins, the body’s feel-good drugs.

Think about this question for a few minutes, and jot down your thoughts
about it. Your aim is to come up with a list of a few benefits of regular
exercise.
If you are stuck for ideas, talk to friends and colleagues and anyone you know who enjoys regular exercise.

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Fitness tests are basically tests conducted by fitness trainers on people who are fitness training themselves so that they can monitor the progress of their clients. Fitness testing is a very serious and important activity for all those people involved seriously in fitness training or those people who workout and just want to make sure that their physical health is in order. Usually, fitness trainers will also make beginners undergo fitness training because it is often taken as a bench mark and then their particular fitness training schedules are settled around the results of their fitness tests.

A lot of people believe that these evaluations are unnecessary but nothing can be as important as initial fitness evaluations to gauge the amount of work you will need to put in during the life of your fitness training. Usually athletes and sports player will undergo these fitness tests on a regular basis to determine their progress and to see if further improvement is required or not. The trainer will also tell them the kind of protein supplements the bodybuilders or athletes should include in their diet, including proteinpulver, protein bars and which ones to include.

Normally, a competent trainer will perform these basic but important steps on each of his/her clients starting a new training cycle and at specific points during their training cycle. The tests performed before the training cycle can be of two types; the first are the ‘resting’ tests involving resting heart rate, resting blood pressure and body composition. The second type of test is based on your physical performance and includes flexibility evaluations, aerobic endurance and low-impact muscular endurance. Examples of some of these tests would include the treadmill stress test, sit and reach, shoulder stretch etc.

When mentioned that these tests act as an important benchmark, it was meant that if the client is exercising too much or too less, then their fitness training schedule can be re-arranged according to that. Plus, knowing whether or not you are fitness training adequately is important because you don’t want to be over working your body, something that could lead to muscle injuries or even worse. On the other hand, you don’t want to be under working yourself either and feeling disappointed at the lack of positive results. Fitness tests will be able to prevent such confusions and the problems that could result from such confusions.

Throughout your fitness regime, do not forget the significance of a nutritious and healthy diet on your physique and on your training. Make sure you get the appropriate amount of carbohydrates, minerals vitamins, fats and proteins to keep your muscles happy and healthy. As a fitness trainer, you can even take regular doses of protein pulver or powdered protein as an energy booster for your training regime.

Remember, fitness tests are also important to be conducted throughout your training cycle as well; for instance, if your cycle is supposed to last for twelve weeks, fitness tests should take place every four to six weeks. The additional benefit of this is to motivate the trainer, when a person happens to see improvement as a result of their efforts; they tend to work harder with determination. So, fitness training is a sort of reference point in your fitness training, very important to gauge your current standing and to estimate your future efforts.

Many people think that exercising is a one-off sort of deal. Hit the weights, run a few miles, or engage in some sport, and that takes care of that. It’s not quite that simple, however. Just as important is maintaining a proper diet, and nutrition is never as crucial as in the hour or so after completing a workout. Your body is crying for replenishment of vitamins, proteins, and essential nutrients. Below, we’ve listed some of the best foods to crunch after a tough fitness regimen. By no means is this an exhaustive list, but rather a quick point in the right direction to get you started thinking about the right exercise fuel.

Chicken: Packed with protein and relatively low in fats, chicken is a powerful fuel. Don’t overload with seasoning, and you’ll have a great source of energy. Buy rotisserie chicken and pull the skin off for an inexpensive, easy meal. Frozen lean chicken breasts also make for a hassle-free post workout dinner or lunch.

Soy products: Think of soy as the veggie version of chicken. It has almost as much protein, along with a metric ton of vitamins. Best of all, it’s very versatile. You can cook it up with some vegetables for an easy stir fry. Also keep an eye out for edamame in your local market. This Japanese dish is a quick way to pack in protein, taking only a few minutes to boil in a pot. Sprinkle just a touch of salt on, and you’re ready to go.

Fish: Most people know that fish is among the healthiest of foods, but it’s worth repeating here. In particular, salmon is famous for its heart healthy omega 3 vitamins. Remove the skin, sprinkle on a bit of salt and pepper, and you have the makings of a very tasty dinner.

Avocado: You wouldn’t think that one vegetable could pack so much protein, but avocados are quite the wonder. Underneath that taut black skin is a serious store of protein, along with all the right fats that you want to put into your body. Consider taking one along to the gym, again topped by a very light sprinkling of salt (preferably sea salt).

Choosing the right food after a workout is the perfect complement to exercise. Consider combining a light meal with a whey protein shake. Braised vegetables can do the trick; you’ll get all of the vitamins and nutrients you want with none of the fat. Supplemented by a protein shake, this is a very solid option.

Although all of the above are great options, you should never eat just for the sake of eating. If you’re not hungry after a meal, look to some very basic protein like a shake, or an energy bar. Regardless of what you eat, it will have calories, so if you finish a mid-morning workout, pause until lunch. The same goes for a late afternoon workout a couple of hours before dinner.
Eating the right food is essential to making the most out of your workout. Use the guide above to get started on the road to fitness success.

About the Author: Victoria Crowdell works for SportsEquip.co.uk, leading suppliers of ‘capital’ sports equipment such as tennis and football nets and wet pour safety surfaces.