Rip and Repair: Building Muscle the Right Way

By Rudy Longfellow

One of the most important aspects of life is physical fitness. The fitness routines we choose to work into our every day lives can help to build muscle and thus increase strength and metabolism. With more and more people falling into the definition of obese or overweight, the time to build muscle and become more physically active through fitness is now and everyone needs to jump on the band wagon.

The rules of how to build muscle are simple and straightforward, but are some of the most unrecognized rules in physical fitness. Many people have no idea how muscle is built and this knowledge can immensely increase the chance of making the routine more rewarding and beneficial.

Get that muscle ready. Stretching is one of the most important parts of a program aimed to build muscle. The muscle will need to be warmed up before it can go through the stages of building. As with any fitness program, stretching requires careful movements that are elongated and held in order to increase the blood flow to the muscle. To build muscle that blood flow is essential and necessary.

Hydrate the muscle. Water is not just essential for life, it is also essential to build muscle. The muscles need hydration to build faster, recover more quickly and maintain those high levels of increased strength. The minimum amount of water per day needed for fitness programs that build muscle is 8 glasses of 8 ounces every 24 hours with many fitness magazines recommending even higher amounts per day.

Rip it. When attempting to build muscle through fitness, the muscle needs to be ripped, literally. Muscles growth is created when a muscle is torn and then rebuilds itself. To build muscle, the exercise will need to cause small rips in the muscle fibers and then allow those rips to heal and thus building the muscle mass needed to increase strength and metabolism. It is also important to note that stretching after a routine to build muscle can help to release the lactic acid build up in the muscle and thus remove some of the pain associated with the workout.

Healing Time. At least 24 hours are required to build muscle. This means that the same muscle groups of the body should only be worked on alternating days with one day of rest in between. On the off day, the fitness routine can include exercises to build muscle on other parts of the body or cardio. There is no way around the time needed to build muscle, at least 24 hours is REQUIRED, not suggested.

Repeat. The key to fitness programs that build muscle is consistency. The careful pattern of rip and repair needs to be repeated over and over again to keep the muscle building. It can take up to a month to build one pound of muscle, but the time is well worth it. For every pound of muscle built, the body will naturally burn between 30 and 50 additional calories per day.

In order to build muscle, the fitness program must first be set upon the rules of the muscle build. Without the knowledge of how a muscle builds, it is often easy to break these rules and create muscle pain and weakness that essentially dooms the program. Learning how to build muscle sis as easy as following these steps over and over again.

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How to build big arms & a huge chest by working your... legs?

By caleb lee

If you'd like to know how to build a bigger chest and monster arms... without... spending any extra time working those muscles out, then this article will show you exactly how to do that...

In fact, I will explain how you can build muscle on your chest and arms by working your LEGS!

Does this sound like I don't know what I'm talking about?

Many bodybuilders and weight lifters think so. But it is why they still have limp noodle arms and a scrawny chest.

You see, most trainees spend too much time doing isolation exercises for their arms and chest in an attempt to build a bigger upper body...

Are you wondering, "Why is this bad?"

This is a poor way to do things because one of the primary factors of muscle growth is making sure you jack up your levels of growth hormone, testosterone, and other "body chemicals"... this is what signals your body to "build more muscle NOW!"

The absolute best way to raise the levels of these chemicals in your body is by intense exercise that involves your WHOLE body (or as much of it as possible)... and not just certain parts (like you would do with pure isolation exercises for your arms or chest).

So when weight lifters spend too much time doing lots of different workouts for their arms (curls, etc)... and lots of different exercises for their chest (bench, flies, etc)... they're only working out small muscle groups and not putting their whole body under enough stress to signal muscle growth. (are you making this same mistake?)

So what's the answer?

The secret is to work out ALL of the muscles in your body as often as possible. Focusing primarily on the biggest muscles of your body (because this will put it under more stress -- stimulating more chemicals to be released). Like your legs and back and THEN your chest, arms, etc.

The best way to accomplish this is to start with multi-joint (compound) exercises and lifts like the Squat and dead-lift before you go on to isolation exercises like specific arm exercises (curls, pushdowns, etc) and chest exercises (bench press, dumbbell flies, etc).

So, if you want to build a shirt-popping chest and hulk-like arms then you need to work out your LEGS... follow the guidelines above and you're sure to start building new muscle almost overnight!

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About the Fitness expert: Caleb Lee knows a lot about building muscle. His website will teach you how to build muscle fast.