This edition of the Muscle Building Secrets Ezine is ready to go with a few basic yet extremely powerful muscle building tips to get you moving towards your goal of a more muscular body quickly and naturally!

It’s been a while since I’ve sent out a newsletter, so I though I’dbetter sit down and put something together for you guys that you can put to use! I’ve been busy lately writing new articles for www.gain-muscle-workout-less.com and recording new podcast  episodes for www.gainmusclemasshelp.com. So if you haven’t visited the website or browsed through the blog lately go check them out. They’re both packed with practical muscle building content that you can use to achieve your goals…and the best part is they’re both completely FREE!

Alright lets get down to business here and list a few muscle building tips that you can use today to start building more muscle mass naturally.

How To Build Muscle Mass – The Truth, The Whole Truth And Nothing But The Truth (I Promise)!

When it comes to building muscle mass a lot of people are extremely confused about what they actually need to focus their time and energy on to get the results they want. Basically, the muscle building process is very straight forward.  There are only a few principles that you need to master in order to build muscle mass. Not 20 or 30 like most of the “bodybuilding guru’s” would like you to believe.

I know I’ve covered these principles in the past, but it seems like a lot of people are still pretty confused about the muscle building process – so bear with me here.

Here are the things that really matter when it comes to building muscle mass quickly and naturally:

1.) Perform some form of heavy resistance training (weight training)
2.) Learn how to apply some form of progressive overload to you workouts
3.) Learn and apply the bodybuilding nutrition basics
4.) Allow your body to rest and recover between workouts

For a more in-depth explanation of these muscle building basics go read through this article…

How To Gain Muscle Mass Naturally

Also keep in mind that my muscle building program, The Muscle Mass Advantage, that can hep you if you want to start building muscle mass today and you don’t want to waste your time reading through articles and tips. It’s a proven step-by-step plan for building muscle mass fast. You can download it in a few minutes and start moving towards your goal of a more muscular body today!

You can check out The Muscle Mass Advantage at ==> http://www.musclemassadvantage.com

That’s all for this edition of the newsletter. Get out there and start putting these muscle building tips to use – and have a great week!

Your Friend And Trainer,

Nick Andrade
Certified Personal Trainer
Certified Lifestyle And Weight Management Consultant
Author of : The Muscle Mass Advantage

Weighted chest dips are one of the exercises that most people don’t even consider when they sit down to plan out their chest workouts. While dips are traditionally considered a triceps movement, the fact of the matter is that with a few small adjustments to the position of your body during the bottom phase of this exercise, you can isolate you pectoral muscles and seriously target your chest!

I personally think so highly of chest dips that I try to incorporate them into every one of my chest workouts.  It’s a great movement that really doesn’t get the notoriety (as a chest exercise) that it deserves. If you’re serious about packing on some solid mass in your upper body then you need to learn how to perform chest dips with correct form and make it a point to incorporate them into your chest training program.

While chest dips and dips in general have been traditionally thought of as a body weight exercise, you won’t be able to get the biggest muscle building benefit from this movement until you start performing chest dips with some form of weights. However, in order to get the level of strength that you’re going to need in order to perform weighted dips correctly, it’s a good idea to perform at least a couple of workouts of body weight dips in order to learn the proper form and increase your level of muscular strength so that you don’t actually wind up hurting yourself once you increase the training weight.

In order to incorporate weights into this exercise you’re going to need a weight lifting belt that allows you to hang some type of resistance between your legs.  The most common type of equipment that see in the gyms these days is a basic weight lifting belt with two round metal rings in the front that allows you to run a chain through them and, then hang the weight on the chain.  These belts can be purchased ready to go, or you can retro fit one of your own weight belts.

The main benefit of weighted dips lies in the fact that you can really stretch out your chest muscles during the bottom portion of this movement in a very systematic way.  This allows for more blood flow through your pectoral muscles, while increasing your range of motion and improving your pectoral flexibility. But you do have to be careful to not overextend the range of this exercise, as you can hurt your shoulders or tear your pectoral muscles if you don’t use good form.

In order to get the most out of chest dips and and really stimulate some amazing pectoral growth, you’ve absolutely got to learn how to perform weighted dips with decent form. Make sure to practice this exercise a few times before you even try to increase the weight.  You might find that you need to build up a base level of strength before you move on to more intense chest dips.  If that’s the case don’t lose any sleep over it, just focus on performing your dips with proper form and your strength will improve.

Here’s how to complete dips in order to stimulate some serious pectoral development:

1.) Place your hands on the parallel bars spaced out to shoulder width
2.) Straighten your arms in order to lift your feet off of the foot stands
3.) Tilt your body forward while slowly lowering yourself (this is what takes the emphasis off of your triceps and places the bulk of the load on to your pectorals)
4.) Continue lowering your body until the bottom of your chest is even with your hands
5.) Push your body back to the starting position by extending your arms while focusing on tilting forward as much as possible.

If you want to build a bigger chest, then you’ve got to add chest dips to your workouts.  Not only will they help you improve your range of motion in your upper body, but you’ll be able to stimulate your pectoral muscles to strengthen and grow like never before!

While everybody wants to believe that there is some type of most effective bicep workout that’s guaranteed to help them gain muscle mass in their arms, the truth is that the idea of the single best bicep workout for everyone is a myth. Everybody has a body that responds differently and because of this, muscle growth occurs for everybody by different things.  Even though one particular bicep workout may make my arms explode with new muscle mass, that doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s guaranteed to help you build bigger biceps.  That said, there are a few biceps exercises that you should include in your arm routines if you really want to force your biceps to grow.

A massive pair of biceps is certainly impressive, but forcing your arms to grow can be a lot more complicated than most people realize.  While the common 5 sets of 5 reps of dumbbell curls is fine for beginners and even some intermediate trainers, you’ve got to learn how to take your arm workouts up a notch if you really want to build big arms.

Here are a few bicep training tips that have helped me to pack on over 3 inches to my arms over the years.  Each of these arm workout tips is tried and true in the trenches and I guarantee that they will help you build bigger arms.  Read through each of these tips and start implementing them one by one – before you know it your arm workouts will be forcing your body to build some serious muscle mass and everyone will be keeping their eyes on your arms!

1.) My first tip for an effective bicep workout may seem like it’s completely unrelated to the process of training your biceps, but it’s important to your success.  If you’re serious about forcing your arms to grow, then you need to make sure that you’re performing heavy dead-lifts to failure One time each week. I’m not sure why this works but, I think it has something to do with the amount of testosterone and growth hormone that are released in your body when you perform heavy squats to failure. But rest assured it’s very effective for increasing the size of the muscles in your arms. In the past I’ve experienced an increase in the size of my biceps and triceps by 1.5″ – 2″ inches by really focusing in on my heavy squatting…while not even training by biceps at all!

2.) Also make sure that your bicep workouts are designed around the most effective growth inducing free weights exercises. If you don’t piece together your arm workouts around the right exercises, your arms simply will not grow – basic stuff.  Stick with the bicep exercises that allow you to train “hard and heavy” through a complete range of motion.

The Most Effective Bicep Exercises

1. Barbell Curl
2. EZ Bar Curl
3. Alternating Dumbbell Curl
4. Hammer Curl
5. Dumbbell Incline Curl
6. Cable Curls
7. Preacher Curl
8. Dumbbell Preacher Curl

90% of my personal bicep workouts start with either ez bar curls or barbell curls.  These basic bicep exercises allow me to train my arms hard with heavy weights.  If you consistently pound your biceps with heavy weights, they’ll have no choice but to respond by getting bigger and stronger!

3.) Perform each set of your bicep workout in the 6 – 8 repetition range.   6 -8 reps is in the accepted “muscle building” rep range, but closer to the lower side.  Focusing your arm workouts in this repetition range will allow you to stimulate as much muscle growth as possible by pounding your biceps with heavy weights. Whenever I perform bicep workouts built around this rep range, I almost always see dramatic results.

4.) Design your bicep workout so that you perform only 2 – 6 sets of 2 exercises max. This will force you to keep your workout to as reasonable amount of time while making sure that your biceps get the work they need to lay down new muscle mass. Also make sure to rest for 1.5 – 3 minutes between sets so that your muscles are totally recovered for the next set.

5.) Hit the gym to blast through your bicep workout only 1 time each week.  If you insist on training your arms more frequently than this you’re going to have a really hard time packing on any muscle mass in your arms. Sure you can get away with it for awhile, but eventually you’re going to hit a wall and actually start losing strength and size in your arms. Instead of taking the volume approach to your bicep workouts, focus on making each workout as efficient as possible – this is the key to stimulating muscle growth. Get in to the gym, get through your workout then get out of the gym as quickly as possible so that you can focus on feeding your body the nutrients that it needs to pack on muscle mass.

Take these simple bicep workout tips and run with them…Your arms will start to grow quickly. I know that this advice seems too basic to work, but it’s extremely effective for building big biceps quickly.

The straight bar curl is one of the first bodybuilding exercises that a lot of people are introduced to when they first start working out. While there are probably at least 5 muscle building exercises that can allow your arms to grow quicker than  barbell curls alone, a lot of people think that they need to be performing hard core bicep workouts that include 10 – 20 sets of isolation style bicep exercises in order to build bigger arms.

If you need a good solid bicep specific exercise that will literally force you to gain muscle mass and increase the shape of your arms, there is no better movement to stick into your training routine than heavy basic curls.  While I usually like to promote compound exercises for building muscle mass, I don’t consider the straight bar curl to be a compound movement. It is however, as close as you’re going to get to a compound exercise that specifically targets your biceps.

Aside from targeting the muscles in your biceps, the straight bar curl also involves a few other muscles in your shoulders, back and chest, as well as a bunch of stabilizer muscles. While most of these additional muscles have limited involvement in making the weight move through the course of this exercise, simply getting a few of the bigger muscle groups in your upper body working at the same time will produce a more anabolic environment in your biceps and will over time lead to bigger arms.

The big benefit to performing barbell curls is that you can lift very heavy weight, which in turn stimulates new muscle growth with each and every. Even with good form, you will be able to hit your biceps with a much heavier weight than you would with any other bicep exercise. Just in case you haven’t caught on yet, training with heavy weights through a complete range of motion is the best way to stimulate new muscle growth and increase your strength levels – so stick with what works here and focus on hitting your biceps hard and heavy!

I always make it a point to include heavy straight bar curls into each of my bicep workouts so that I can make sure and stimulate new growth each time I blast my biceps.  In order to get the most out of this exercise, create your biceps workout so that you’re performing heavy basic curls before you jump into  any isolation exercises.  This will allow you to make sure that you’re working your arms with heavy enough weight to make them grow before you incorporate any lighter weight isolation exercises. I will typically perform anywhere from 2 – 4 sets of barbell curls followed by  2 – 3 sets of some other isolation style exercise in order to round out my bicep workouts.

How To Perform The Basic Barbell Curl

If you really want to build bigger arms, you need to learn how to perform the straight bar curl with god form.  If you neglect your form you will eventually wind up hurting yourself and you may not be able to lift at all. So make it a point to learn how to train with proper   form.

In order to perform the barbell curl:

1.) Spread your feet out about shoulder width apart
2.) Bend at the knees and grasp the bar with an underhand grip
3.) Stand upright with the barbell hanging in front of you
4.) Hold your back straight with your shoulders back
5.) Curl the barbell up to the top of your shoulders
6.) Pause for a second and then lower the barbell (under control) back down to the starting position

If you really want to build big biceps and you want to do it quickly, then the simple basic curl should be a staple in your everyday bicep workouts.  While there is certainly nothing too exciting about performing barbell curls, over time you will be able to pack on some serious muscle mass on your arms.