Advanced Bodybuilding Butt Workout

Although I usually feed you hardcore and often intense methods to take yor muscles to the next level, I thought I’d just share with you a butt routine that I have been currently focusing on. After all, It’s still ok to do the basic exercises throughout your weightlifting routines, as they will be a crucial link in the chain when you need to mix things up in your workouts. However, you will still have to up the ante while performing this routine, as it involves increasing the weight throughout each exercise.

Glute Extensions

• Sets: 3
• Reps: 8-12 (Increase the weight after each set)
• Rest: 3 minutes between each set

Cable Hip Extensions

• Sets: 3
• Reps: 8-12 (Increase the weight after each set)
• Rest: 3 minutes between each set

Smith Machine Squats

• Sets: 3
• Reps: 8-12 (Increase the weight after each set)
• Rest: 3 minutes between each set

See you in the comments.

Elite Exercise Execution (Part 2)

The Calf Raise

This is one exercise that I had no choice but to get good at. Being 6ft 2″ and 2/3’s of my body being all legs (probably not 2/3’s, but it certainly feels that way) it is a no brainer that I would struggle to build muscle mass on my lower legs. Nevertheless, I have been progressing and the changes in growth have been noticable. But this has only begun to happen from using the following techniques.

Performing The Exercise Properly

• Find a standing calf raise machine
• Get into position by holding the bar and placing the pads on your shoulders
• When positioning your feet, make sure there is a good separation between your feet and your toes
• Make sure your toes are pointing forward
• Start with your heels low and as far down as you can get them
• Keep your knees straight but not locked
• Lift

The Mistake That You Will Not Make

Now, you want to avoid lowering your heels all the way down. By doing this you are stretching your calf muscles before they get a chance to contract, which will affect your ability to effectively build muscles on your calves. You will want to imagine that there is only flat ground below the area of your heel and lower your heel to flat ground level only.

You will want to keep your knees straight also, as mentioned above. If you start bending your knees then you will introduce your quads and butt muscles into the movement. This too will reduce the tension that you are building up in your calves.

Another thing to avoid is turning your toes in or out. This will only put unnecessary stress on your knees.

Tips, Tricks and Tweaks

And now for my favorite part. Taking exercise to the next level.

Contract Your Butt

This will allow you to get a 1-2 inch raise above what you normally do, thus giving you a better and more effective calf workout.

Isolation

I’ve mentioned this technique in a few exercises, such a the leg press. The idea here is isolate one leg and press it behind the remaining leg. Then carry on performing the calf raise. This will make the exercise that much harder to perform and in the long run will give you better results. This is especially good for hard-gainers, those with chicken leg syndrome or for those who are over 6ft in height, as all of those body types will have a hard time building muscles in their calves.

Work The Inside Of Your Calves

Set your feet wider apart and start rising up from the balls of your feet.

Workout The Outside Of Your Calves

Bring your feet in closer and rise up on the outer balls of your feet.

This has been working well for me so far, but if I do find any other tweaks that produce results, you will be the first to know.

See you in the comments.

How To Find Your Own Bodybuilding ‘Map’ And ‘Route’

Most people that are already into bodybuilding are probably already fighting fit. But depending on your age, previous/current injuries and other things, you may want to ensure that you are ready to take up a weightlifting program, let alone taking things to the next level the stayfitbug.com way. You can do this by,

1.  Taking a PARQ (Pre Activity Readiness Questionnaire) – These questionnaires are designed to understand if there is any risk involved for the individual in question to take up an intense fitness program. Here’s an example of one PARQ

2. A lifestyle questionnaire – These can help determine what level of workout you should go for.

3. Determining your goals

The easiest way to write your goals down is by asking yourself 4 questions in this order.

1. Overall Goal(s)
2. Break down these goals into shorter achievable goals. Say 1-3 months.
3. The purpose of each goal
4. Look deeper into it… do these goals you now have seem impractical in anyway. If so how can you make them more practical?

Find Your Routine And Then Follow ‘These’ Articles

It’s simple… follow the rules of bodybuilding and you will get to where you need to be. Eat well, supplement well, workout with intensity and results will come. You will feel the burn, the pain, and the agony. If you keep at it, you will prevail.

However, there will likely come a day when you simply wont be happy with how your body looks. In fact you probably never will be. You will always look at someone else’s body and want what they have.

Yes, I have taught you to know better than to compare with others, but lets face it… It’s going to happen anyway. Especially when you catch your girlfriend eyeing up some muscle bound model type on a hot summers day. But hey, at least the jealousy will push you to work harder. Never the less, it is at this point when Shaun of stayfitbug.com will come to the rescue and show you ways to keep those muscles active. It is these exercises that you will use to find your own map. What tweaks work and which don’t? Here you will pick those posts that either unveil an innovative exercise or workout routine such as,

Hard Gainer Weightlifting Workout Routine

Shock Body Exercise Variations

Unique bodyweight exercises

How To Build A Sandbag For Your Weightlifting Routine

And use them to take your muscles to the next level… in your own way.

Understand Your Genetics

Unfortunately you cannot change the genes that you have been blessed or cursed with. Whether you have a big butt, high calves with skinny ankles, a long neck, small wrists or whatever… you are lumped with it for life. But the quicker you understand that, the quicker you can figure out what you can do in your workouts so that everything you do works to your advantage.

If you have small wrists like I do, then you will have focus on grip work and building your forearm muscles more (compound exercises can fix this too). If you have a long neck, then focus on neck exercises and building up your traps. Then make sure to build yourself a tailor made wardrobe so that your hard work is always on display when you are in public. You might not be a show off all of the time. But I bet you would like to show off that one part of your body that you have always been insecure about… right?

Once you have understood this, then it is up to you put more focus on the areas of your body where your genetics have decided to curse you.

Watch How Your Body Responds To Certain Scenarios

This is a key thing that you need to do. You can read everything that I tell you here and a lot of it may work. There will be times when you do something ‘right’ in your workout, different to what you have done previously, and that is when you will have found out what works for you! When that does happen, make sure you write it down. If it begins to work again then you know you can use that method over and over again. You will now have learned how to ride your own bodybuilding bike… just know that you will have to change the gears every now and again so that your muscles always have something new to talk about.

Now, this probably won’t happen often… well, it just might. But when it doesn’t, you will be faced with bodybuilding failure. You will either face a plateau or worse… lose muscle mass. I have personally experienced the pain of losing muscle mass, at a time when I was working out the hardest. I just couldn’t figure it out. Looking back now, it was probably a combination of things.

• Not having enough rest days
• Working the same muscle group to much
• Not taking my glutamine supplement
• Or just not eating the right food before my workout

Since then I haven’t really faced any traumas as I did then. I’ve managed to find ways to prevent that from happening. I guess you could say that I have begun to find my own map. But it’s not to say that the same thing can’t happen again.

The devil really is in the detail here. Just make sure you keep your eye on the ball. Watch how your body responds to everything you do. And when the good things happen, write it down… and celebrate a little.

Create And Follow Your Own Trial And Error

In the last couple of posts, you will have learned the about the importance of

• Writing things down

(If you don’t yet use a journal, here is a simple one that you can use)

And here’s another simple one, which you can just download.

However, I personally think I can design a better one. If I do, you will know about it.

• Following up what you did with what you had planned

• Understanding why you didn’t follow through with the whole plan

• Drafting a new plan to fix and improve

• Keeping a journal of that

• Tracking and analyze the results

• Using that data that as a base of progression

This is a much better way than following the leader for a few reasons

• You have different genetics – Your bodies will respond different to different things
• You may have slightly different goals
• You don’t know their ‘real’ lifestyle (What they eat, how they eat, how much they sleep etc.)

There are many factors in ones lifestyle that could affect the way one looks and performs in the gym.

But something that is beneficial is if you find a leader in the gym that openly states what works for them, but also recognizes what may work for you, using the same info. I might even be a contender to be your virtual gym partner. Time will be the decider of what happens with that.

The last thing you want to make sure you do is HAVE FUN!

I’ve already covered a few ways in which you can do this, both when working out and not.

Forget About The Gym! Play Rockband and Guitar Hero For Fitness

Help! I Can Barely Lift My Own Body Weight, How Do I Start?

Working Out is Boring! Lets Just Dance (part 1)

But there’s no point doing any of this if you aren’t going to have some fun along the way. (Don’t worry; I will always be on the quest to find new ways to have fun with bodybuilding)

Once you follow this map in this order, you’ll be able to see where all of the loopholes exist in your workout routine.

See you in the comments.

The Ultimate Shock Bodybuilding Supplement

It’s time to unveil another secret again folks. It is….

… You know what, I can’t be bothered with all of this ’secret’ shit any more!

You need to take Glutamine as a ’supplement’. Now get gut stacking!

See you in tomorrows post.

Ok, I can be harsh at times, but that’s to much brutal treatment for you lovely stayfitbuggers. I’ll explain.

I’ve recently introduced ways that you can preapare for shock bodybuilding workouts. For those of you that haven’t been following, this is also known as creative high intensity training (Like HIIT, but the stayfitbug.com way). However, one thing I didn’t mention to you (which I seem to speak about daily), is the impact that these type of workouts will have on your immune system.

When you put your body through stressful activity, your immune system will take a hit, which exposes you to a higher risk of catching a disease or infection (No risk, no reward right?) And if that does happen, then you will be taken back to that horrible place called injury. And you know you can’t workout then.

But we can prevent that happening by adding Glutamine to your diet. Supplementing with glutamine, right after your workout will enhance your immunes systems ability to handle stress when you workout. It also acts as a great hormone level booster. The growth hormone is very important in this case, as it is responsible for helping your body to increase muscle mass.

Glutamine is also great for replenishing those carbs that you would have lost during your workout.

Remember that lovely post workout recipe that I described here?

Well, that is the type of shake you will need to take 30 minutes after you finish your workout. I haven’t always taken this supplement after my workouts though. I just used to go home and EAT. However, my meals were never specific. This could be the reason why I often felt like crap at the beginning of every other gym session… because I failed to replenish my glycogen stores.

I remember it perfectly in fact. I would walk into the gym, lift some weights for approx 20 minutes, then all of a sudden I would run out of steam. I just couldn’t get it. This didn’t just disable my ability to perform my workout. It also PISSED me right off. I fully prepared for my workout, knowing that I’m about to rip some muscle, and in an instant my body decides to die on me?

This may or may not have happened to you yet. It may even be happening, but you just fail to notice it. Nevertheless, this is the reason why you need to add Glutamine to your post workout meal if you decide to start performing shock body exercises. Don’t know what Glutamine looks like? Take a look to your right >>>>

… It’s that purple coloured tub.

If you aren’t into the whole supplement shake mix, you can easily just take Glutamine on it’s own. If so, just be sure to take it right after you workout.

I’ll leave you with a nice cliche quote once again.

‘Fail to plan, then plan to fail’

See you in the comments.

Why Hardgainer Bodybuilders Need Tailor-made Wardrobes (Part 2)

Today I’ll show you the 3 places where you can buy yourself a tailor made wardrobe. All have their pros and cons, but which one you wish to go for is entirely down to your own personal preference.

The Cheap

If you want an early taster of what it feels like to own some tailor made gear, then you might want to do it on the cheap first time around. And to do so, you’ll have to fly yourself to one of my favorite continents in the world.

Asia
(Thailand, Vietnam and South Korea to be specific)

And this is what you will have to do.

The Guide

1. When you pack your suit case, you will have to add some weight. A catalogue and your favorite garments to be precise. This is what you will use to pitch to the tailor of what it is you want made. This way you are more likely to get exactly what you want.
2. When you get to these countries you are going to have to start schmoozing a little. Why? Because you will find many a tailor, but it’s up to you to find out who is actually good. This will save you time and money.
3. When you find a good one, take time to browse through the fabrics he has on offer. If he is good he will have some lovely ones on offer.
4. When you go over the design, be REALLY specific with what you want. Every little detail. This is your garment and it’s all about getting what YOU want and how YOU want it to look.
5. Make sure you discuss prices in advance.
6. The time to finish your garment will be dependent on the complexity of your specifications. You may be required to revisit in-between this time, so be ready.
7. When it is all done, try it on and scrutinize every little thing. If there is anything to be fixed, then be sure to give sufficient time for them to complete.
8. Hopefully you walk away a very happy customer.

In general, what you do here is just copy everything and study everything that well dressed Celebs wear.

And by following the above (with a bit of practice), you will find that your wardrobe truly will be one of your greatest assets. You will get the super start look on the cheap… and trust me, people will react to you like one and the compliments will be many.

How do i know?

Because I have done the same thing in the past, and that is exactly what happened at the time (around 2005-2006).

And like I said yesterday, there is nothing wrong with doing this on the cheap. But to pull this off, all of the above points need to be met to a 10/10 standard. For myself… I prefer the best of both worlds these days. Some cheap, some expensive tailor made wear.

The Web

The rise of the web also means there has been a rise in the no. of Internet businesses out there. Some creative ones too in various industries. And for the tailor made clothes market you now have places such as this.
www.asuitthatfits.com

They give you all of the benefits that a traditional tailor would offer. But they now allow you to do most of the tasks online, such as entering your measurements. That is good if you are a regular when buying tailor made clothes. This site however isn’t a recommendation to you by yours truly. It’s just that they happen to be at the top of Google and seem to have some authority online. But they seem ok, but who knows.

The High Street

If you’re going to go the high street route these days, then you might as well go all out and spend top dollar on a designer suit. Some people may say that the most of what you pay for is just the brand. You can dispute whether that is the case or not in the comments, as I am sure many of you will have some knowledge in that area. Whatever the case is, buying these brands may provide a more authentic, longer lasting, special touch of original design garment over your cheap made solution. But more importantly you are getting what you pay for.

The example I’m going to use is the recent collection from Vivienne Westwood. First, the suit

And now for my favorite shirt.

Yes, you now know a bit more about the Bugmeisters taste in fashion and feel free to copy my taste or slaughter it to death. Heck, I may even start up a bodybuilders stylist venture… who wants to join me

Now that you know the importance of building yourself a tailor made wardrobe and how to go about building one, I’m going to leave the next part to fellow blogger ‘Rusty’ of fitnessblackbook.com to show you,

10 Crucial Buying Tips to Look Stylin’ Like James Bond

This truly is a great post from Rusty and I give him credit for it. After all, I can’t know it all… really

Ok, I do know quite a bit… nevertheless, this is a good guide.

Now go and get suited n booted. Just make sure you stay fit, and don’t get fat!

See u in the comments.

The Only Exercise That Will Truly Test Your Strength

I always preach to you how important it is to increase your strength opposed to just lifting to look nice. If you happened to be the biggest guy in the room when I fight breaks out, yet get shoved out of the way by smaller ‘ironically stronger’ guys than you, how stupid will you look? Eh?

That is why you must lift heavy and lift often.

Now I know you have all been doing that. You wouldn’t still be subscribed if you hadn’t been. But every now and again, you should check your strength increasing progress.

Obviously you will feel when you are becoming stronger, but it never does harm to test EXACTLY how strong you have become.

The Dead Lift

The deadlift is already one of the… if the not the best compound exercise out of all.  It will work your calves, hamstrings, quads, glutes, back and core. It can also help you improve your ability to lift explosively too.

But did you know that you can use it to gauge your current strength? Well, you can with this technique.

The Deadlift Strength Test

Estimate your 1RM (1-Rep Max). This is the most weight you can lift for one rep. Then compare it to the table below.

• Less than your body weight = Weak bastard. You are not Stayfitbug worthy.
• 1.25 x your body weight = You just about pass.
• 1.5 x body weight = You are a certified fit-bugger and you are not be messed with.
• 2 x body weight = You are an animal. You might even be able to teach me a thing or two.

As I mentioned at the start of the year, there will be many new products, services, workout routines and even exercises that will enter the market. Hell… even I’m in the process of cooking up some goodness as you all know (Take the survey If you haven’t done so already). But key exercises like the deadlift and squat will remain the daddy of all exercises for some time to come.
See you in the comments.

Shock Bodybuilding Preparation (Part 2)

Welcome to part two buggers. But before I go on, I think you need a little reminder.

The practices involved with many of the shock body exercise techniques are very similar to those used in HIT (High Intensity training)

• The similarities
• Train briefly
• Train infrequently
• Train extremely hard
• No more than 30-40 minute long workouts
• 3-day rest periods

If you can still train after this time period, then you are not working hard enough. Put your back into it!

There is a very thin line between success and failure and the ability to take yourself to the next level. Only YOU will know if you have the will to break through the success barrier. The battle won’t be an easy one, but to help you long the way, take one of the bodybuilding mantras from last weeks post and stick it everywhere.

• The Car
• The fridge
• The Bedroom wall
• The desktop background

Because you will need that on the days where you really feel like giving up. This is the one small addition that you will allow you to break through those times of self-doubt and allow you to succeed.

The good news is that if you do manage to succeed, everything there after will seem like a breeze. Still hard… but a breeze nonetheless, because you will be on a confidence high. Belief will be high, and once you begin to believe, anything you put your mind to will become possible.

Anyhow, here’s some more preparation tips.

Training Partners

Select a few spotters

Why?

Because your spotters are just like you, they will want to focus on there own muscle building routines and won’t always be present while you perform these exercise techniques.

It will be very easy to try and tell yourself that you don’t need a spotter, which may be true for your normal weightlifting routines. But not for this!

So you either

• Find a dedicated gym partner
• Select a few partners from the same gym
• Or just attend the gym at peak times during the day. Someone will always be around to help.

The Advanced Warm-up

You’ll see many warm up techniques out there, many involve various types of stretches and they all have their advantages and disadvantages. The specific warm up I am about to show you will help you enhance performance, which is exactly what you’ll need for these shock body exercises. It’s all about getting your muscles ready and prepared, and you do this by performing warm up sets.

General rule

1. More warm-up sets are required for heavier loads.
2. Lighter loads require fewer warm-up sets.

Here are some I’ve used previously.

Work set 300 lbs: 5 Reps Warm-up Sets

• 95 lbs. 8 reps
• 135 lbs. 4 reps
• 185 lbs. 2 reps
• 225 lbs. 2 reps
• 70 lbs. 1 rep

Work set 250 lbs: 8 Reps Warm-up Sets

• 95 lbs. 8 reps
• 135 lbs. 4 reps
• 185 lbs. 2 reps
• 225 lbs. 1 rep

Work set 175 lbs: 15 Reps Warm-up Sets

• 80 lbs. 8 reps
• 125 lbs. 4 reps

Increase Your Endurance

You do this because, just like when you are active with your girlfriend, you will want to last longer… but during your sets . Most ‘average’ peoples endurance is beyond disappointing to say the least. If that is you and you are interested in performing shock body exercises, then take note of the following.

Breathe!

It’s very easy to mess this one up when you workout. But do not mess this up for these exercises. Make sure you maintain steady, deep breathing throughout the entire routine.

Increase your cardio

How much you do is down to your own personal goals that you have set. If you haven’t set any goals, just give my guest post on dieslecrew.com a read for some guidance.

Learn to pace yourself

You will probably get the pacing wrong the first time around, but once you get into the rhythm, learn to keep that pace. Just know when it’s time to ante up.

Drink water

I recommend keeping a bottle nearby when working out like this. Walking to and from the water fountain in the gym is energy consuming. It might just be a few steps away, but that small journey some how manages to screw up the workout flow.

There maybe some more shock body preparation for you tomorrow, but there’s only one way to find out… be here!

See you in the comments.

Bodybuilding Mantra’s I Chose – Just For You

In yesterdays post, I talked about finding a mantra that you can use to help keep you motivated in your weightlifting workouts. I know that staying motivated is a challenge for many of you, but one way to overcome that is to drum some mantras into your brain and repeating it over and over on those days where you feel you are on the road to nowhere.

So what I did was take several mantras used by some of the greats… past and present. Mantras which I think will be great for you to use as a bodybuilding mantra.

“Do not wait to strike till the iron is hot;
But make it hot by striking.”
- William B. Sprague

“Nothing can stop the man
with the right mental attitude
from achieving his goal;
Nothing on earth can help the man
with the wrong mental attitude.”
- W.W. Ziege

People often say that motivation doesn’t last.
Well, neither does bathing –
That’s why we recommend it daily.”
- Zig Ziglar

“People seldom see the halting and painful steps
By which the most insignificant success is achieved. “
- Anne Sullivan

“Far better it is to dare mighty things,
To win glorious triumphs even though checkered by failure,
Than to rank with those poor spirits
Who neither enjoy nor suffer much
Because they live in that gray twilight
That knows neither victory nor defeat.”
- Theodore Roosevelt

“So go ahead and make mistakes.
Make all you can.
Because that’s where you will find success.
On the far side of failure. “
- Thomas J. Watson, Sr.

“Change will not come
If we wait for some other person or some other time.
We are the ones we’ve been waiting for.
We are the change that we seek. “
- Barack Obama

“Success is a journey, not a destination.”
- Ben Sweetland
(I use this one often)

“Don’t find fault. Find a remedy.”
- Henry Ford

“Champions aren’t made in the gyms.
Champions are made from something they have deep inside them
- a desire, a dream, a vision.”
- Muhammad Ali

“The man who moved a mountain
Was the one who began carrying away small stones.”
- Chinese Proverb

“I have failed over and over again – that is why I succeed.”
- Michael Jordan

“The way to succeed is to double your failure rate.
Failure is the opportunity to begin again more intelligently.”
- Henry Ford

“You must have long range goals
To keep from being frustrated
By short-term failures.”
- Bob Bales

These were all hand picked by yours truly. You can add to this if you wish, or simply slate my choices. You choose. Stay tuned for tomorrows post when I give you the 3rd and final part of Shockbody exercise variations.

See you in the comments.

How To Be A Motivated Bodybuilder

Why do I need learn how to be a motivated bodybuilder? You may ask.

Well, because you are human. And although we are all different, I know that you will feel one of these emotions at some point in time.

• Demovated
• Uninspired

In the body building world this can be caused by things such as,

• Looking in the mirror and thinking… ‘My body looks like shit… I’m never gonna look ripped’
• Lack of female attention… not noticing or even acknowledging your muscle building efforts ‘ Stupid women, can’t they tell that I have muscles!’
• A few weeks off training, you go back and realize what an IDIOT you have been. You have now lost all of your muscle mass that you worked ever so hard for. (TWAT)

And many others, which I’m not going to go over.

For most of you animals reading this, you are probably saying to yourself,

‘No worries, If I ever do feel like that, I’ll just work through it regardless of how I really feel’

But that’s where I think one may be on a downward spiral. Remember, bodybuyilding is all about fun and making you feel good.

Body build to live and not live to body build…

So therefore it would be much better to perform these actions when you are in a ‘motivated’ state of mind. You will

• Work much harder
• Get more satisfaction from your bodybuilding workout
• And be more effective

And that is why I will now share with you several ways in which you CAN get motivated.

Find Your Mantra

This is something you will have to find out yourself. Yes, someone could lift your spirits by giving you a great motivational talk… but that’s just temporary. You will wake up and feel like shit again if you don’t connect with your inner soul and find out what makes YOU tick.

My personal mantra is this,

‘ You don’t find animals like ‘THIS’ in the jungle!’

Once that drums into my head on my ‘low’ days, I get filled with rage and I’m off on a high again. I recently talked about finding your own map, regardless of what I preach to you here. If you can’t find a mantra, then go to your map for guidance.

- Stop wasting your life

- Value your time

- Stop complaining that you are bored (If you are saying this, then I think I need to get one of the soldiers in the current war to slap you upside your head. They can die at anytime… do you think they are bored?)

It’s your life, it’s your body. Do something with it.

Remember When You Was ‘In The Zone’

These are your happy times, times when you were at your best. Times when it seeemed that all you had to do to build muscle was breath and sneeze. I can tell you the times when I was in the zone. 1999 and 2005. I may have had a good looking body before, inbetween and after this time, but it never has felt like it did in those specific years. It was at these times that I felt fulfilled, stretched and in flow… my greatest body building achievements!

Remembering times like these will help get you back into the zone. Becasue you attract what you think about.

Do Less – Make everything count

You do this by cutting the crap out of your life. Don’t spread yourself too thin. Simplify your life. Doing many activitites may seem like ‘Ooh, i’m busy, busy is good’ But what actually happens is that you will begin to feel like you are carrying the world on your shoulders… and you will be unhappy! Even worse, you won’t have a fulfilling bodybuilding life.

Make room for the important things (bodybuilding included)

Set small goals and achieve them. Once you do, you will always be motivated to follow them through.

There’s Good Even In The Bad Times

How?

Because when you get old and look back in time, you’ll realize that everything you went through was all a part of the process. So make everything you do count at all times.

You will face plateaus, you will face injury, you will shed blood, sweat and tears. My advice is to have fun with it. Because when you look back (while standing on that greener grassier side), you will only remember the good parts of the journey.

Stay Fit, Stay Active

Now I don’t know how or why this works, but it does. When you stay active in fitness, it tends to make you WANT to stay active and motivated to push furthur. You may be doing some cardio work, you take a break, and for some strange reason your inner self decides to cut that break short and power forward.

That is a really good feeling. At this point you are probably on top of the world. But you can only get into this state, if you stay active!

The last thing I’ll say is to get out of your cave. Look…

• You wake up in a box
• You wake up to watch a box
• You leave your house to go and work in a box
• You stare at a box while working
• You come home to a box to stare into another box……

Think outside of the box for once PLEASE! It was depressing even writing that. When you do, you won’t even have to think about being a motivated bodybuilder. Like NIKE, you’ll just do it.

See you in the comments.

Shock Body Exercise Variations (Part 2)

What! Shaun has even more shock body tips to get ripped?

Correct. The more varied exercises that you have at your disposal, the less likey you and your muscles will become victims of boredom.

But just a quick reminder to why you would be performing these type of exercises.

• To build muscle (real muscle)
• To maintain your ‘real muscles’
• To take your ‘real muscles’ to the next level
• To ease back into training after injury

All in combination to your current weightlifting routine.

And we continue…

100 Rep Sets

This involves performing 100 reps straight with a very light weight.

Light weights don’t give bulk. What’s the catch?

Well, you’ve probably been lifting heavy weights and increasing the weight even furthur while performing less reps per set. Which is great and is what I preach to many that want to bulk up effectively. But what the 100 rep set does is give your muscles a change of pace and help build up your endurance.

You perform 100 reps for each exercise that you do!

When you go back to performing heavy weights, you will now find that your muscles are a lot more responsive. You will be able to lift more and in turn, will give you faster gains.

MAGIC! You are now a certified magician.

Flex Hard, Hold Hard

Building the true ripped look

After you perform a set of whatever exercise you do, immediatly flex those same muscles, hold that position and count to 10. You basically treat this as ‘posing’ as an exercise.

By doing this, you will be making more muscular contractions, reach the areas that normal training may have missed and give your body the ‘icing on the cake’ rips.

Alternative

Do the reverse

• Flex your muscles first before doing the exercise.
• Tire them out (Pre-fatigue).
• Example: Flex your chest and triceps, then perform the push ups exercise.

This makes for a more challenging exercise. But if you manage to pull it off while performing the same amount of push ups that you would usually do, you will produce much better muscle building results.

Reduce Rest Time Between Sets

This is a pretty common thing to do, yet not many people have the balls to action this during their workouts. You basically cut down your rest periods over time, like so…

60, 45, 30, 15 to 0 seconds

At this point you will be performing your workouts at the level of the workout routine that has it all.

NOW THAT’S INTENSE!

But here are 2 styles of ‘resting between sets’ that you can do, which will without a doubt give you some real gains.

Style no.1

Exercise for examples sake – chin ups

• Perform one set of chin ups to failure
• Wait a few seconds and perform another set

The first time you do this you will probably pull off 4-5 reps for your second set. But get real good at this and the gains will come.

Style no.2

Increase the number of reps on the first set and decrease the rest time for the second set. This is for all of you ‘hard nuts’ reading this. But if you feel you are man enough, then please.. go ahead. I’d love to hear about your run in with deaths door.

That’s enough of shock body for today, but stay tuned for tomorrows post. I might even give you a special part 3.

See you in the comments.

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