Bodybuilding Resources

Ready to begin your journey for REAL bodybuilding success?

We all know how much it costs to hire a personal trainer! A personal trainer would be great for everyone to have, but unfortunately, not everyone has deep pockets like the rich and famous. Fortunately for you, you’ll be glad to know that you CAN build a body like those who can afford a personal trainer,

• Without having to break the bank
• And within the comfort of your own home

Below you will find product comparisons that I highly recommend to help you take your muscles to the next level. These are the products, which I have found to work best to take your muscles to the next level, all through trial and error. I have listed comparisons of each type of product that is needed to assist you on your bodybuilding journey. You can then gauge which one can fulfill your needs in regards to price, features and/or your current level in this bodybuilding game.

What supplements should I take to build muscle?

Protein Supplements

Which Protein Supplement to Buy?

Protein and carbs are the two nutrients that you will have to refill as you workout and pump your muscles. It’s common knowledge that lifting weights actually makes you lose weight. In order to make them grow you’ll have to shock them AND feed them… with food. Sounds simple, just eat decent meals 5-7 times a day. But we are talking about life in the 21^st century here, where time is often not in our favor to eat 5-7 times a day. If you don’t eat, you won’t grow. Simple!

So if you are serious about building muscle in today’s world you better start taking supplements to help refill those nutrients that you lose during your weightlifting workouts. And we begin with protein supplements.

Below are supplements, which I’ve personally tried at some point during the past 10 – 12 years.

I have also been provided  discount coupon codes for all Stay-Fit Bug readers on selected items.  All you have to do is enter the coupon code on the purchase page before you buy to save you even more money!

RED = Stay-Fit Bug Favorite!

Note:

Please be aware that there are vendors out there that sell ‘fake’ supplements. Because of this, I have made sure that I have affiliated with well known and trusted retailers of the products listed on this page (Bodybuilding.com and Amazon.com), and in which I have managed to obtain discounts in some cases. So if you do find any cheaper prices else where, make sure you question the vendors authenticity and reputation. Paying extra for reassurance, trust and more importantly your health… can go a long way!

Creatine Supplement

Which Creatine Supplement to Buy?

Creatine Monohydrate is the stuff that you can take to reduce muscle fatigue in your workouts. However, many supplements today don’t just contain creatine, they also contain other compounds which in turn, make for great pre-workout supplements as a whole.

Multi-Vitamins

Which Multi-Vitamins to Buy?

Going back to what I mentioned earlier, our bodies need to be fed correctly if we wish to build REAL muscle. This can be done by eating GOOD food 5 – 7 times a day. But to take your muscles to the next level you really do have to supplement them to the next level. Real food is good, but it won’t be enough. Your body will need super doses of amino acids, carbs, vitamins, minerals and essential fatty acids (EFAs) in order to grow the way that I know you want them to grow, and the multi-vitamins listed below will help you do that, without question!

A note about Vitamin C

We need to take vitamin C because unlike other mammals, we don’t make it naturally. So we need to consume it in the form of our diet. 60mgs was the old school recommended amount to take, but this is 2010 where a demanding lifestyle has hit us all. For most people, the new recommended daily amount is 2 grams per day. So 3 grams per day is about right for us fitness freaks. If you do take too much, your body will let you know (Via the toilet seat!). Either way, vitamin C is a must!

Amino Acids

Why Amino Acids?

Because they are the building blocks of building muscle mass

Bodyweight Exercise Equipment

Which Bodyweight Exercise Equipment to Workout With?

Bodyweight exercises are great for quite a few reasons,

• Build great functional strength
• Work out from home
• Work out and maintain muscle mass while on vacation
• Target muscle groups that you may miss with free weights and machine weights

It’s also what I started out with 10-12 years ago back as a broke student.  But when you add any of the products below to your bodyweight workouts, you really can maximize the above points to ensure that bodyweight exercises help you build that body you know you deserve. I’ve used or still use all of these products. Take your pick! They are all great in their own way. If you get lost on how to use these products in your bodyweight workouts, be sure to grab the Stay-Fit Bug Unique Bodyweight Exercises Ebook HERE There are plenty of tips there to assist you on your bodyweight workout journey. Version 2.0 is on its way soon, so make sure you grab it while it’s still at the promotional rate.

Dumbbells and Weights

How to Choose the Right Dumbbells? If you are just starting out, it can be quite confusing on which weights you should buy for your home gym. If so, checkout this post, Vinyl Weights or Cast Iron Weights? Now, although the default weights are,

• Vinyl
• Cast Iron
• Chrome

You may want to upgrade your dumbbells and invest in a pair of Powerblocks or Bowflex dumbbells. Both are good, although I do favor the Powerblocks. Why these dumbbells?

• Save space
• Easy to transport
• Easier to change weight during exercises

There are other bonuses, but those are the stand out ones. You’ll find what you need below, whichever your current needs are.

The Programs

The Books

There are so many books to choose from out there , I need some direction! It has been said that I write good articles (Thank you for those who have praised). But I am no best selling author… yet . But there are some great books out there that I have read that will help you on your bodybuilding journey. I’ve read all of these, so take your pick

Gourmet Nutrition Cookbook

Before I picked this book up, I did do a lot of searching around as there are a lot of ‘bad’ books out there and this wasn’t a usual recommendation from a friend. The first thing I noticed is that the books format is like a ‘cookbook’ and a ‘manual’ and if you are a single guy/girl or not a good cook like myself… I’d say, get this book! The authors are the main reason I like this book. They go out of their way to give step-by-step guidance on how to actually process the meals outlined properly.

Scrawny to Brawny- The Complete Guide to Building Muscle the Natural Way

Since starting this site I have talked quite a bit about going from ectomorph to a daddy mammoth. If my advice to you so far hasn’t been enough, then this is a gem you can stash away and retrieve whenever you don’t have an encouraging voice to turn to.

Tom Venuto’s -- Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle

Discover Quick And Easy Fat Torching Recipes
Designed With Simple Metabolism Boosting
Ingredients To Banish Your Boring Diet
While burning fat and building muscle Faster!

And of course, our very own…

Stayfitbug.com Unique Bodyweight Exercises Ebook

Click the image for the full low down.

And more recently…

Our Friends

Fresh Coffee

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As the winter month’s creep in I would assume that many of you are running back indoors like scaredy cats to start your winter home weightlifting workouts.  If so then I know that your main concern will be to maintain the fine physique that you have built throughout the year.

To do so you will need home gym equipment that will allow you to do that, regardless of the type of exercise that you do.

When I first started to workout in my teen years, I didn’t have much money, along with all my other teenage buddies at the time.  And all of us put money together to build our own home gym, which actually ended up just being in a garage or bedroom.

But there was one issue that always bugged us when it came to building an area that we could actually workout in?

SPACE!

There just wasn’t enough of it, and unless you live in a decent sized house, this will be an issue for quite a few of you reading this too. There are various types of equipment that will take up space in your home weights room more than others, but apart from the weights bench (Which is more of a necessary fixture) One of the pieces of equipment that takes up the most space are dumbbells, barbells and weights racks.

For a while I pretty much just got used to that, but when I flew overseas and stayed in a friends (spacious) apartment, I noticed this tiny radiator/ power bomb looking thing over in the corner of the room.  And I later found out that it was a set of,

Powerblocks

So not only did the thing look cool, I also found out that it can stack a massive 90lbs of weight (on each hand) all within its compact size!

What! Are you serious! How does that work?

Yea, I’m serious. I won’t bother go  into a deep level of detail of how I started to use them just yet, but these are the essentials of how the Powerblocks work.

It is made up of 3 parts

The core -- The PowerBlock handle

This fits inside the first weight. The first weight fits inside the second weight, the second weight fits inside the third weight and so on.

The weight selector pin

This slides into the sides of the PowerBlock just like the pin on a weight stack. When you lift the weight, all of the weights above the selector pin are lifted at the same time. When you are done with the exercise, you place the block back in the middle of the unused weights.

All quite simple, as all good things should be.

Now I am not going to get overly happy and start telling you that you should sell your iron free weights and persuade the bosses of your local gyms to do the same and replace them with Powerblocks. That’s a bit extreme. But what I will tell you to do is to replace or sell your dumbbells for the Powerblocks. As I am going to be bold enough to say that it is that good of a solution for your home gym workouts and will allow you to perform all of those exercises that you do in the gym, but with some added benefits.

Check the stats

• Saves space
• Eliminates the time delay of changing weights caused by using ordinary dumbbells
• Is safe and secure to use (Which was a main concern)
• Has a magnet in place to prevent the weights slipping (A never ending problem with ordinary dumbbells)
• Provides wrist support

(As most of you may have experienced, when you lift dumbbells and if you are a natural skinny guy, it sometimes feels like your wrists are going to snap. This solves that problem)

Don’t be cheap

It is a true saying that saving money is a smart man’s move, regardless of who you are. But being cheap will only hurt you in the long run because,

1) You can’t visualise the goal of increasing the weight   (Which we know you will want to do) as the max weight won’t be present.

2) You will actually end up wasting more time and possibly money, buying additional weights.

3) Will have a non-efficient workout routine and goal from the off.

The weights coming in 5 sizes

* 3-24 lbs
* 5-50 lbs
* 2.5-55 lbs
* 2.5-90 lbs
* 2.5-130 lbs

And you can buy a 50lb set for around $250. But you are better off going for the full set which I found on Amazon.com for $687.00. You can check that out here.

PowerBlock Elite 90 Adjustable 5 to 90-Pounds per Dumbbell Set

If you do so then you know that set will be an asset for years to come, and when it comes to your yearly winter home workout, you won’t think twice about what you need to prepare for when it comes to dumbbell exercises.

You’ve seen the pictures and you’ve read about me babbling on about the Powerblocks, now here’s a video of them in action.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3wNtz8cRY8

And the promised ‘dumbbell only’ weightlifting routine.

Have you used any dumbbell alternatives?

Have you already used the Powerblocks?

Got Questions, comments or even feedback? Hit me down in the comments section.

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I hope you are all enjoying your weekend wherever you are, but today will be the last of the products that will be of use to you for your bodyweight workouts. After that, no more talk of bodyweight exercises until the e-book.

Now I’m a bit of a traditional exercise guy at heart, as that is how I started off in the fitness and weightlifting world. When I attended university and worked part-time, I would workout during my breaks and after work, doing only bodyweight workouts with exercises including:

• Dips
• Chin ups
• Pull-ups
• Sit-ups
• Press-ups

In the very beginning I had no money to go to the gym and I would perform all of these exercises on a recreation sports ground that had a high chin up pull up bar and two parallel bars for dips exercises.

As with most things, the way in which you learn something in the beginning is how you’ll probably do them for the present and future (all a part of muscle memory). So that is where my traditional bodyweight training mind set comes from and why I tend to make bodyweight exercises compulsory in all of my workout routines.

However, as time goes on and we learn about new ways of doing things for fitness, new products will inevitably be created that will allow for easier execution of exercises and some times enhance performance. The P90x workout programme is a great example of that.

Although traditional ways of working out is embedded into my workout roots, I am definitely a fan of change and trying new things, especially in the fitness world. That is the reason why I am now here talking about the Iron Gym Xtreme chin pull up bar.

First impressions of this bar may throw you off a little, but the pictures I have added should give you some idea of what you can do with it. Just know that change is good, and that this change is fairly new compared to a normal door chin up bar.

First impressions

Yes! I was initially unsure about this bar. I mean… you’ve got a door chin up bar that is not fixed to the door! What sort of chin up bar is that? So that started ringing some bells in my mind. You’ll look at the pictures and know that you can perform some great bodyweight exercises all with one tool (and which inspired me to share with you all)!

• Back dips
• All types of chin up and pull exercise
• Sit-ups
• Press-ups

Impressive yes! But it is still a chin up bar that is not fixed to a door.

After a few times of using the bar, I started to see that our ingenious ergonomic fitness product-building friends were onto something, and that it works very well and that it does exactly what it says on the tin. I then found myself slowly saying,

‘ I CAN WORKOUT ON THE MOVE’

That is,

- All doors of my house (no more screwing up the wood work)

- In the hotel (the bathroom door way)

- Girl friends place (more time -- some one’s happy now)

Leaving me feeling genuinely happy. I’m usually an early bird with new products, but I was late in adapting to this one. But that should not be you, and you should add this to your arsenal of homegym fitness equipment. And I’ll be sure to include it in future workout routines. I’ll leave you with a video.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=FIHCqxtKXas

View It Here

The Ontel Iron Gym Xtreme

Bonuses!

Discount codes to use at checkout: 5off100 / 10Off200

You can also checkout other fitness equipment over at

Stayfitbug.com Bodybuilding Resources

See you in the comments.

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SPRI Xercise Ball Package With DVD And Pump, 65 Cm Xercise Ball Pack

It’s time for another addition to your arsenal of home gym equipment. In previous posts (namely unique bodyweight exercises part 2) you would have seen the exercise ball being used a few times for exercises such as crunches. There are other exercises you will be using this ball for such as side bends and leg presses, but the abdominals will be the key body part that you will work on the most with the exercise ball.

Since this site has been up, it has been made aware to me that the abs are the no.1 area that most of you want to train, whether you are trying to lose fat to get it to show, or are simply trying to get the the ripped ‘ I’ve eaten a radiator’ look.

Some of you have complained about lower back problems too, from doing normal floor sit ups. Using the Xercise ball will solve that problem as performing the same or similar exercises with the ball will give you a greater range of motion (how far you can stretch). If you are lost when it comes to knowing how to perform the exercises you have seen so far, then hold tight, that will be included in the ebook as well.

So for those who don’t yet have one of these, or are intending to get one since viewing the bodyweight exercises posts, this is the one I’ve been using.

(Note: If you are a pretty big guy, say 5’10″ plus, you’ll want to go for the biggest ball at 75cm)

Only a couple of more bodyweight exercise accessories to go, but for now, go and have a ball.

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Altus Deluxe Chin Up Bar, 1 BarAltus Deluxe Chin Up Bar, 1 Bar The Ultimate Upper Body And Abdominal Workout!

Some of you may still be buzzing from the unique bodyweight exercises. But before i give you the Ebook lowdown on that, i would like to prepare you for those bodyweight workouts that I’m sure you’ll be doing as we lead up to the festive season in these sure to be cold winter months.

The door chin up bar

If you haven’t already got one of these, then this should be the first piece of home gym equipment that you should get. I’m now onto my 2nd chin up bar that I’ve put onto a 2nd door in my home.

Why?

Well, The chin up bar allows you to perform some of the best bodyweight exercises there are that will give you the best strength gains.

• Chin ups
• Pull ups (Wide grip, close grip, both with a dipping belt)
• Hanging Leg raises

And when you are just relaxing in your home, or feeling energetic after a good meal, you can just easily jump on to the bar and max out on a few sets of the above bodyweight exercises. No real preparation, just spontaneous muscle action.

There are many chin up bars you can buy out there, but this was the 2nd one I bought earlier this year. It’s been pretty sturdy since putting it up and hasn’t given me any problems (such as falling down scares when in use!). This one is better than my all steel chin up bar as it has rubber handles that don’t slip, which also absorbs sweat from your hands. The grips are actually a vital accessory for any chin up bar, and if you have performed chin ups on a groove-less steel bar, then you’ll know how frustrating slipping across the bar can be during a workout. If you truly are heavy handed then you can always use a paper towel for extra grip, although i don’t think it will be necessary. (see picture)

So if you haven’t yet got one, be sure to get it, as the Ebook won’t be to far off, and i definitely want you to be ready in time for that. I’ll be updating you on a few other must-have bodyweight exercise accessories, until then, get pulling.

But wait…

Whether you have been hit by the recession or not, one can always save money… right? Any how, I’ll leave you with these coupons for you bodyweight enthusiasts.

Take $5.00 Off Your $100 Order! Use coupon code 5off100.

Take $10.00 Off Your $200 Order! Use coupon code 10off200.

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TRX Door Anchor

In a previous post (Hotel Workout) I talked about the importance of keeping fit while on vacation, without letting your workout routine disrupt your ‘holiday time’. For my home workouts, i use a chin up bar placed between a door frame. This allows me to maintain my muscle mass while I’m not at the gym. But while I’m away i use a door anchor instead, as i know most hotels don’t build there rooms around fitness and workout needs. My first reaction when i first got introduced to this tool was, ‘Is this thing even safe…what if it slips off the top when I’m using it?’. You are probably thinking that right now, but rest assured, it really is safe to use. I personally use it for building and maintaining my triceps, forearms and back shoulders. But the versatility of this thing is great so you can use it in a variety of ways for different muscle groups and it will work those muscles you may usually miss doing normal exercises. If you:

1. Workout at home
2. Travel a lot
3. Have no time for the gym

Then add this to your collection of home gym accessories if you haven’t already done so.

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Progryp 100% Leather Dipping Belt, One Size Fits All, Black A Durable And Comfortable Way To Increase The Safety Of Each Lift!

I can’t actually believe i have left it so late to share my favorite toy with you all. For those who don’t know what this is, a dipping belt is something you wear to add extra weight to your body while doing bodyweight exercises such as chin ups and pull ups (see ‘ How to build lats (wings) like these‘ ). This is what you need to have when certain exercises become very easy, which means you have gained strength and have gotten used to lifting your own body weight. exercises such as

• Chin ups
• Pull ups
• Dips

The reason I recommend the leather one is because it is more durable than material belts (lasts longer). if this product looks alien to you it could be becasue you don’t see many guys doing chin ups/ pull ups in the gym. If that is so, i can tell you this…. they do not know the secret to build functional raw strength! But if you have seen people using this and you have wondered what it is… now you know! For more understanding on how it works,

And again, read that post to get an idea of how i used it.

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