Building Muscle - The Best Shoulders Workout

Shoulders are a smaller muscle group with 3 heads, so the best shoulders workout has to hit all 3 together and separately. To hit the front deltoids, side delts and rear delts with an eye to building muscle, this workout will include 4 sets each of 5 exercises, done as a superset followed by a triple set. It's important to use proper form and weights light enough to ensure you focus on your shoulders and involve your chest and arm muscles as little as possible.



This workout can be done in your local commercial gym or just as easily in your home gym. Start by setting up your bench so that your back is supported about 10 or 15 degrees short of vertical - you want to be leaning back just slightly. Place the bench just in front of your rack so the bar is easy to lift out when seated.

Start with a light warmup set or two of seated overhead press - use just the bar or load it lightly. Remember the idea is to avoid pre-exhausting the muscles but rather just to fill the area with blood and work the shoulders just enough to warm them up. Be sure to use a full range of motion so they get a mild stretch as well.

Step One: Shoulders Superset 

This best shoulders workout starts with a superset of seated overhead presses and upright rows. If your shoulder mobility allows it, do your overhead presses behind your head, but if not then bring the bar down in front. The idea to using behind-the-neck presses is to avoid involving the chest in your lift, but it will still work nicely for your shoulders if you need to bring the bar down in front. Have your training partner or spotter stand just behind you to ensure you don't go too far back at the top of the lift and to help you re-rack the weight if necessary.

When you finish your set, immediately stand up and do a set of upright rows with that same weight. Only raise your arms until your elbows are level with your shoulders to avoid impinging your rotator cuff - your grip should be wide enough that your arms are bent at a 90-degree angle once your upper arms are parallel to your shoulders.

Most weightlifters will find they're stronger on the upright rows than the overhead press, so you'll find you can do a few more reps on those. Start your superset with a lighter weight that allows you to do 12 reps of the press and 15 reps of the rows, then over the 4 sets increase the weight slightly each set, ending with a final set of 8 presses and 12 rows. Be sure to maintain strict form throughout to avoid injury, and use a cadence of 1 second to lift and 3 seconds to lower the weight on both exercises. Limit your rest between sets to 30 to 45 seconds, then after your last set rest for 3 or 4 minutes before moving on to the triple set - remember to hydrate during the break!



Step Two: Shoulders Triple Set 

Now that you've recovered from the two big compound shoulder exercises it's time to isolate the 3 heads and hit the rear, side and front delts individually with a shoulders triple set. Grab a pair of dumbbells you can handle easily and start with rear delt flyes. Lean forward about 15 degrees from the waist - if you're not sure how far to lean, look to your side in the mirror and see how far to lean forward to engage your rear delts when lifting your arms to shoulder height. Bend your elbow just slightly and then lock your arms in that position, raising them to the outside to shoulder height and then returning them back down in front of you. Don't worry about lifting the weights to shoulder height - your delts are only involved in moving your upper arms, so just focus on getting your elbows up to that height.

Immediately following your rear delt flyes, stand up almost straight, leaning forward just enough to allow the dumbbells to hang freely in front of your body. Keeping that slight bend in your elbows raise your arms to either side, again until your upper arm is in line with your shoulders. Lower them back down slowly and under control, then repeat until you've finished your reps for this set.

Again without taking a break, start into your front raises. Maintain the slight bend in your elbows and start with your palms facing your thighs, then raise the dumbbells out in front of you to shoulder height and back down again. You can do both arms at once or alternate one then the other based on your own preference. By this point in the triple set your energy will be flagging but don't let your form slip - avoid the temptation to lean back and swing the weights up, keeping to a controlled raise and descent.

Each cycle through the 3 exercises is one set, and after each set take about a 60-second break before starting the next set. Start with light dumbbells you can maintain strict form with for 12 reps of each exercise on the first set then increase the weight slightly each set, doing your 4 sets with 12, 10, 8 and 6 reps. Try to maintain a cadence of 1 second up, 1 second hold at the top, 3-4 seconds lowering the weight and no rest at the bottom of each rep for all 3 exercises.

By the end of the best shoulders workout you'll definitely feel the pump in all 3 heads and know that you've worked them fully. Avoid the tendency to speed up the reps so you can go heavier - remember that your goal is to build muscle so you want to maximize your volume, intensity and time-under-tension. Because the deltoids are relatively small muscles they heal fairly quickly with proper nutrition and rest, so this workout can be repeated two or three times per week on non-consecutive days. At first they may be a little sore the next day but that will fade as time goes on and as you grow your shoulder pumpkins you'll soon agree this is the best shoulders workout for building muscle!

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=D._Champigny

Building Muscle & Burning Fat Fast - 5 Simple Nutrition Tips

I'm going to tell you exactly how and why food is a critical factor for increasing muscle strength, size and burning fat. I think it's safe to say that everyone who reads this article knows that food is important for achieving their training goals, whether to build muscle, lose fat or both. Everybody knows you need carbohydrate energy for workouts and you need protein for muscle recovery and repair. However, what most people don't know is that you can't just haphazardly go about about your muscle building nutrition. For example... What to eat, how much to eat, in what combinations, pre workout eating, post workout eating and meal timing can be tricky until you learn how to do it automatically. With this in mind, here are five expert nutrition tips for building muscle and burning fat fast:

1) Eat Enough Quality Food

Food is anabolic by nature's design, meaning it builds, repairs and nourishes body tissue. According to new research studies, just eating enough of the right foods will help you build new muscle - even without working out. How great is that? You will need to eat approximately 500 extra calories per day over your daily caloric maintenance requirement to add a pound of muscle per week. Similarly, to lose one pound of fat per week you will need to eat 500 less calories per day. Keep in mind that when you add a pound or lose a pound, it's going to be a mix of both fat and lean muscle tissue. The human body does not exclusively lose or gain fat and lean muscle. It's almost always a mix. Your goal is to minimize lean tissue loss when losing fat and minimize the fat gained when building muscle. By consuming most of your extra calories in protein and complex carbohydrates you put the odds in your favor for muscle building. Similarly, when trying to lose fat, make sure you have ample protein in your diet to minimize lean muscle loss.



2) Eat 5-6 Smaller Meals a Day

You should eat your first meal or snack within 1 hour of rising. better yet, eat as soon as you rise. After that, space your meals and snacks 2-3 hours apart throughout your day. This is the most efficient way of eating because you feed your body just the right amount of calories to stay energized and in an anabolic state - to build muscle and burn fat. Your meals should be about 3/4 the size (calories) of a standard meal. Snacks are a little smaller than meals and are typically convenience-oriented, such as protein shakes, hard-boiled eggs, yogurt, cheese, whole-grain snack bars & cereals, fruits and vegetables.

3) Center Meals & Snacks Around Quality Protein

I hate counting calories, carbohydrates and protein. By simply centering your meals and snacks around a solid portion of quality protein, your body will be more forgiving if you eat too much or too little food. For example, some excess "good food" calories will be used to build muscle along with a little bit of fat. When you gain muscle, you always gain some fat too. This is a FACT no matter what the other gurus say. The human body cannot efficiently build muscle and burn fat simultaneously.

While carbohydrates are important, you don't need them in every snack or meal. They are most important in the first half or two thirds of your day and before and after training. However, your body does need protein every 2-3 hours while you're awake and before and after training if it is expected to grow muscle. According to the Journal of Applied Physiology, you should consume 1.0 gram of protein per pound of body weight. That ensures you have a good pool of amino acids for your muscles to use for repair and growth.

4) Don't Fear Fat!

When I was a competitive fitness athlete and natural bodybuilder in the 1990's, I subscribed to the "low fat" theory of weight management. Back then fat was the enemy. I did everything to avoid it. And though I did reduce my body fat percentage to an insane level -- 3.5% -- I did so at a cost to my health and muscle size. 3.5% body fat is not healthy for a couple of reasons: First, your body needs more fat to cushion organs. Second, fat is needed for various biological processes that rely on it -- such as absorbing fat-soluble vitamins and releasing testosterone and growth hormone.

With regard to building muscle, I was cheating myself out of bigger gains by following the low fat eating theory. That's because your body needs fat to release testosterone and growth hormone to levels required for muscle building. Don't make the mistake I made years ago with ultra low fat dieting. Depending on your goals, shoot for approximately 25-30% fat in your diet with the rest coming from protein, carbohydrates and fiber.

5) Glycemic Index Made Easy

For most of your meals and snacks you should be eating a mix of protein, carbohydrates, fats and fiber. This will promote an even flow of calories into your bloodstream for sustained energy throughout the day. It will also ensure that your blood sugar does not spike, which will prevent you from gaining fat. And because you're centering meals around protein, you raise your metabolism. That's because protein has a high thermic value... That means your body must use more calories (energy) to digest proteins compared to what it uses to digest carbohydrates and fats. The mere, involuntary act of digestion is calorie-dependent and much more so when you eat protein.

So there you have it... Five important nutrition tips for building muscle and burning fat fast.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Robert_Thomson