I recently took a poll on my facebook fan page that read “Are you finding it harder to build your arms or harder to build your chest?”
I quickly realized that not only were some people finding it harder to build their chest over their arms, but most of these people found their chest to be the most stubborn muscle group for them, period.

With this information in mind, it is only right that I put together this quick guide to jumpstarting your chest into serious growth. In this article I am going to share 3 extremely underutilized strategies that are going to help put mass on your pecs no matter how “genetically challenged” you THINK you are.

Chest Building Tip #1 Drop it like it’s hot!

We all know that more tension on the muscle equals more growth. This is the reason that anaerobic activity such as weight lifting will increase muscle mass and aerobic activity such as cardio will not. However, there is one other factor that influences muscle growth and this is called metabolic stress.

In theory (because I am not even sure if this has been scientifically proven YET), high levels of tension combined with metabolic stress are optimal for maximizing new muscle growth.

One way to achieve this combo is by incorporating a little-known technique called Drop-Sets. This technique has been shown to increase metabolic stress substantially.

How to perform drops sets: Take a set to muscular failure and then immediately lighten the weight by 25% and bang out as many additional reps as you can with this weight. If you want to kick it up a notch, immediately drop the weight by another 25% and pump out another set to failure.

Warning! Do not try to perform drop sets for every set of every exercise. This technique is extremely taxing on the neuromuscular system and should be incorporated sparingly. I would recommend using drop sets at the very last two sets of your very last workout.

Chest Building Tip #2 Negative Training for positive results

It has been proven that the eccentric (the negative) portion of a lift has a greater affect on muscle hypertrophy that the concentric (the lift) movement. And although focusing on the lift is important, ignoring the negative is far from optimal.

Controlling the weight on the way down is primarily responsible for muscle damage. Although your first reaction may be to want to avoid muscle damage, it is actually crucial that you damage the muscle in order to benefit from rebuild new, larger, and stronger muscle.

How to perform negatives: What I typically recommend is that one control the weight on every lift and focuses on having a 3-4 second controlled negative on each set or for at least 80% of your workout.

Note: You will have to decrease the weight used when focusing on the negative but more time under tension makes for more stimulus.

Chest Building Tip #3 Train to success…not to failure

No matter which way you cut it, the goal of training for muscular growth is increased performance. By increasing our performance, our body will always feel perturbed to change due to the new stimulus.

Performance Killer
Training to failure: Doing this frequently will reduce performance.
Training to failure: Does not maximize muscle fiber recruitment.
Training to failure: Maximum muscle activation in an exercise is achieving a couple of reps short of failure.

Performance Enhancer
Training to success: Doing this frequently will increase performance.
Training to success: Maximizes force. (More Force = More Muscle Fiber Recruitment = More Muscle)
Training to success: Maximum muscle activation

What is force?
Force = Mass x Acceleration
Acceleration = the concentric movement of the lift
Mass = the amount of weight used

If we can train in a potentiated state as oppose to a fatigued state (which is caused by training to failure), we can easily increase force regularly. We know that increasing force (more total weight lifted) we are recruiting more muscle fibers. With that said, the more frequently we train in a potentiated state, the easier it will be to increase force, and ultimately the faster we will perturb our body to change.

One last word of advice…
If you feel your chest training is spot on and still training to no avail, I highly recommend that you check out the most complete chest specialization guide, 42 Day Primal Chest. This program was created for even the most genetically challenged individuals and is 100% guaranteed to pack on some serious mass to your lagging pecs.

If you want to build size there is only one sure way to do so and that is to eat in a caloric surplus. In order to ensure you are in a surplus, you must first know your maintenance calories. Once you have your maintenance calories or at least an idea of what they are, you will be a few short calculations away from creating a well balanced caloric intake and macronutrient spit.

What are macronutrients: Nutrients that the body uses in relatively large amounts – proteins, carbohydrates, and fats. This is as opposed to micronutrients, which the body requires in smaller amounts, such as vitamins and minerals. Macronutrients provide calories to the body as well as performing other functions.

Note: In order to calculate your EXACT maintenance level and establish a “perfect” macronutrient split for yourself can be time consuming, expensive, and simply not worth the efforts. This is why I have chosen to give you a simple and very basic starting point that will do the trick.

Simple way to calculate your caloric maintenance level

If you are a male with a healthy metabolism who exercises regularly then the number 16 is a great place to start. Simply multiply your current bodyweight x 16 to get an estimated caloric maintenance level. If you are not as active with a sluggish metabolism, 14-15 may work better for you.

Where does this number come from?

Resting Metabolic Rate: Your resting metabolic rate is approximately 10-11 calories per pound of bodyweight.

Thermic Affect of Activity: This is roughly 10-20% for someone who lifts weights regularly.

Thermic Affect of Food: Food has to be digested thus requires calories to do so. This is approximately another 10%.

Calculating your maintenance calories

Example:

170 lbs x 16 = 2,720 Calories per day to maintain your current weight.

Creating a caloric surplus

The larger the surplus, the more weight you will gain, faster. Do not confuse weight with lean muscle tissue. If you are interested in gaining lean mass while avoiding losing your six pack over night then I would recommend a smaller surplus. A surplus of anything from 100-500 calories per day is the standard.

I recommend a 250 calories per day surplus for a steady weight gain while avoiding packing on too much fat during your bulk.

Example of a caloric surplus:

2,720 maintenance calories + 250 caloric surplus = 2,970 calories per day to build size

Calculating your protein intake

The rule of thumb for adequate daily protein intake is 1 gram per pound of bodyweight. Some may require a little less, some could benefit from a little more. Anything from 0.8-1.5 grams per pound of bodyweight is typical.

Note: If you are sensitive to carbohydrates I would recommend using the higher end of the protein formula. This will allow you to meet your caloric surplus without consuming too many carbohydrates.

Example:

1.2 x 170 lbs = 204 grams of protein per day

Calculating your fat intake

Fat intake is also determined using a very simple formula. The rule of thumb here is 0.25-0.5 grams per pound of bodyweight. I tend to think that 0.25 is a little too low but nonetheless, it is up to you.

Note: Increased fat consumption will also decrease total carbohydrate consumption for the day.

Example:

0.5 x 170 lbs = 85 grams of fat per day

Calculating you carbohydrate intake

This is, in my opinion, the easiest part of it all. Your carbohydrates will come from the remaining calories.

Step 1: Convert your daily protein into calories. There are 4 calories per gram of protein.

204 (grams of protein) x 4 = 816 calories

Step 2: Convert your daily fats into calories. There are 9 calories per gram of fat.

85 (grams of fat) x 9 = 765 calories

Step 3: Figure out how many daily calories are left over.

2,970 (daily calories) – 816 – 765 = 1,389 Calories left over

Step 4: Convert your calories into grams of carbohydrates. There are 4 calories in each gram of carbohydrates.

1,389 / 4 = 347.25 grams of carbohydrates.

Macronutrient Split

Tracking you calories and macronutrients

If you are planning on simply writing everything down in a log and tracking your intake that way, that is totally fine. However, if you want to make things much simpler on yourself, download an app called My Fitness Pal to your cell phone, ipod, ipad, or computer. This will not only allow you to input all of your foods as you consume them, but it will also calculate all of your calories and macronutrients for you. Now, this is not the only application available for this purpose, but it’s the one I use and find that most people use as well.

Food for though

If you recall the beginning of this post I mentioned micronutrients. These consist of your vitamins, minerals, and (for some) fiber intake. So before you get the idea that you can attempt to meet your macronutrients for the day consuming pizza and cake, you have to consider your micronutrients. It is very important that we include a good amount of fruits and vegetables in our diet along with hitting about 30-50 grams of fiber per day.

If you take all of these factors into account, you will soon realize that creating a macronutrient-tracking based diet is a great way to maintain a healthy and well balanced diet without completely blacklisting your favorite foods.

If you are someone who is naturally skinny and are looking to build size, I recommend using this formula along with my free Mass in a Flash guide for some serious gains. The guide is completely free and extremely easy to follow so make sure to download that now and get started right away!

If you have any questions concerning this calculation, please leave it in the comment section below and I will gladly get back to you with a response.

If it has been a while since you have made any significant improvements to your chest, it could be time to take a more functional approach. The thing about the pecs is this; if you train them incorrectly, they could potentially never grow…but if you take an educated approach to chest training, you could benefit from some serious gains.

The first thing you must understand if you are going to pack on slabs of muscle to your chest is it’s (the chest’s) functions. If you can understand the function(s) of the pectorals, then you will find it much easier to decide which exercises work best and which ones are a waste your time (and energy).

Now that we understand the functions of each area of the chest, we must then choose exercises that train those specific functions. By doing this, we will ensure that we are purposefully training the pectorals.

Chest Training Tip #2: Proper Pectoral Positioning

Most experts would argue that the peak contraction is the most important part of an exercise. Although I don’t agree with this completely, I do believe that a good contraction and/or the ability to contract a muscle well is highly responsible for how much it grows.

The most common mistake I see in the gym in regards to chest training is improper pectoral positioning. If you are not familiar with the term, I’ll explain. You see, at the top of the rep your aim is always to contract the target muscle. However, one small mistake at the top of the range could completely sabotage your ability to contract optimally or even contract at all.

If you are training your chest using the proper form and proper exercises but can’t seem to achieve a pump, soreness, or just plain muscle growth, you may be having a hard time contracting the pecs. If this sounds like you, take a look at the picture below and notice how just a slight, out-of-line movement can destroy your ability to fully contract at the top of the exercise.

Note: Always push in a straight line when training your chest.

2 Advanced Chest Workouts for SERIOUS Mass

Now that we understand the function of the chest, how to purposefully train the chest using those functions, and how to contract the chest and avoid a pointless workout, we can take a look at some advanced training methods that will further improve your chest training.

There you have it, two hidden chest training secrets for massive pecs and a couple of advanced training methods to take your chest to the next level.  If you enjoyed this article, please make sure to share it with your friends and leave any questions in the comment section below.

Being a torso-dominant individual has really helped expand my knowledge of arm specialization training. I say this because having visibly weaker arms (in comparison to my chest and back) and seeing no success with the typical information that has been taught to us by “fitness experts” has really pushed me to dig deep with my research on the matter. I’ll spare you the long boring details about all the hours I spent studying and get right into a few of the major sticking points. Today I am going to reveal 2 little-known tricks for building massive arms for those of us who are having a hard time seeing noticeable gains in our biceps and triceps.

2 Little-Known Tricks for Monster Arms

Arm Specialization Secret #1 – P.A.P
“Heavy loading before an explosive movement induces a high degree of central nervous system stimulation. This will result in great motor unit recruitment as well as force.”

The secret to building more muscle is no secret at all. The more motor units/muscle fibers we recruit, the more muscle fibers we can break down. The more we break down, the more new muscle we will create.

The biceps and triceps are considered smaller muscle groups and isolating these muscle groups doesn’t do much for motor unit recruitment. This is why endless curls, alone, will never get you big arms. Although isolating the biceps and triceps is keen when building them, it is not optimal unless we have activated enough muscle fibers.

In order to ensure we are optimally training are arms, we must always start our arms training with a heavy load in order activate the nervous system and ultimately set off more motor units.

Biceps Training: Start off with 3-5 sets of heavy weighted pull ups and THEN go into your traditional biceps training.
Triceps Training: Start your triceps training with 3-5 sets of heavy close grip bench press before moving on to your push downs, kick backs, dips, etc.

Arm Specialization Secret #2 – R.B.E
We have always been told that training a muscle group more than twice a week would cause over-training. Some trainers would even argue that more than once per week would be overkill.

This was of course until science proved otherwise by introducing us to the repeated-bout-effect or RBE.

RBE has proved that training a specific muscle group more often will actually cause your body to adapt faster. Most would argue that adaptation is a bad thing…but I would call them “idiots”. Building muscle is 100% about adaptation. We train a muscle, it adapts to the training by building new, stronger muscle, period.

Adaptation = New Muscle

Now before you decide to train your arms 5 days a week, let me just say this. Use common sense. The muscle needs time to recover…RBE simply helps the muscle recover much faster and is only effective for a specific amount of time.

If you want to build bigger arms, train them 3 times per week with 24-48 hours rest in between each session and do not do this for more than 4 weeks at a time.

Build Monster Arms in 21 Days

If you are having a hard time packing on muscle to your arms, check out 21 Day Arm Explosion. This is the same program that I used to almost 2 inches to my arms using secret techniques that the bodybuilding magazines and supplement companies don’t want you to know about.

If you have any tips that you used in order to bring up a specific muscle group I would greatly appreciate if you shared it in the comment section below.

We all know that eating like a bodybuilding can become very expensive. In fact, this is one of the largest complaints I hear from most of my readers and clients. But that fact is, eating to build muscle doesn’t have to break the bank. You see, when I first started training, like most, I was young and broke and I certainly couldn’t afford to put extra food in the fridge over paying my rent. Naturally, I had to learn to economize while still getting in the proper nutrients. With that said, today I want to share my top 10 cheap mass-building foods for bulking on a budget.

The foods on this list are all essential, nutrient dense, and best of all they are inexpensive. These food items are in no particular order and are all beneficial in their own way. If you are a college student, jobless teen, or just as broke as I was at one point, then these inexpensive mass building foods should become a staple in your diet.

Whole Eggs: Eggs are a rich source of natural protein. Not only are they healthy, calorie dense, and cheap, but they are extremely versatile. You can use them for omelets, sandwiches, scramble them, fry them, and the list goes on. It’s also important to note that eggs are high in BCAAs, which aids in muscular growth and development.

Peanut Butter: Besides being packed with protein, essential fatty acids, vitamins, minerals and dietary fiber. Peanut butter is also known to help support the repair of muscles after injury. It makes an ideal addition to your meal replacement or bedtime shakes. And the best part of all, it makes this list because it is dirt cheap!

Beans: One cup of black beans contains about 230 calories with less than 1 gram of fat and a whopping 15 grams of protein. With over 40 grams of carbohydrates, black beans are ideal for any hardgainer who finds it hard to meet their daily caloric requirements. If that wasn’t enough of a reason to bring this mass building food into your diet, 1 can of beans can be purchased for as little as 0.99!

Tuna: Tuna is one of the best foods you can eat if you want to build lean muscle. Not only has it got more than 20% protein but it’s cheap and rich in natural essential oils. If you don’t like the taste or smell of tuna (like me), then mix it with some mustard.

Body Fortress Whey: This is the fastest absorbing protein and can become easily consumable for those of us who don’t have time for full meals. One serving of whey protein can contain over 50 grams of protein. But I am sure that in most cases Whey Protein Powder does not fit in a low-budget bodybuilding diet plan. However, while doing some shopping at a local Wal-Mart some months ago, I discovered a 2 lb tub of whey protein powder for about $15. Now that’s cheap!

Ground Meat: Ground meat has the same amount of protein in it as steak but it’s much cheaper. Like eggs, ground meat is very versatile and can be made into beef patties for burgers, chili to feed you for a week or even tacos and burritos. Those are my personal favorites. One thing to remember though, always get the premium mince. The normal stuff has way to mach fat in it. (>20%)

Chocolate Milk: Muscle is built outside of the gym and ample recovery is critical. Most brands of chocolate milk supply around 20 to 25 grams of carbohydrates and between 8 and 11 grams of protein (per 8 oz.), which makes for an optimal post-workout replenishment choice. This source contains two types of protein: Casein and whey. Casein is a slow digesting protein that does wonders for preventing muscle breakdown and whey is a fast digesting protein that makes for speedy absorption.

Cottage Cheese: 12g protein/100g. This power-packed snack is a great source of both casein and whey protein. For newcomers to the world of fitness, whey protein is not only a staple protein source for bodybuilders, but it’s also a key food in building muscle and burning fat. Casein on the other hand is a slower digesting protein, which makes cottage cheese the optimal bedtime choice to help keep your body in an anabolic stage overnight.

Chicken: Chicken has a good protein to fat ratio. The average 6 oz. chicken breast is approximately 200 calories, 40 grams of protein and only 2 grams of fat. It’s one of the most versatile foods for salads, wraps, sandwiches or even on its own. Although chicken breast is typically not cheap, buying frozen chicken in bags is easily affordable for even the most broke college students.

Whole Wheat Pasta: Foods such as multi-grain and whole wheat pastas may not sound like a muscle builder’s top food choice, but they are great sources of energy. Whole wheat products are usually low in sugar and calories, making them a good choice for those trying to burn fat and build muscle. But get this, the multi-grain pasta that I purchase is also packed with over 15 grams of protein…and it costs me $2.00 for an entire box.

Bulking on a Budget

Another thing I would recommend for anyone who is “bulking on a budget’ is buying in bulk. This is the most effective technique to economizing your diet. You may say “I can’t afford to buy in bulk”, but the reality is, you can’t afford NOT to!

There you have it, 10 cheap mass building foods. Don’t let a tight budget be the reason you don’t achieve your fitness goals. If you have any cheap mass building foods that you would like to share, please leave a comment in the section below!

Two of the main reasons your arms are not growing as fast as you would like are, lack of muscle activation as well as insufficient muscle fiber recruitment. If you walk into the gym for “arm day” and start off training biceps with preacher curls, the bicep muscle alone is so small that activating it will take forever. Not to mention, isolating a muscle that small will not require additional help in the form of muscle fibers to assist with the lift. If we can manage to fully activate the muscle as well as force muscle fiber recruitment, we will cause our body to maximize the isolation training for the biceps and/or triceps while breaking down more total fibers resulting in the creation of more new muscle.

How Do I Activate The Target Muscle?
The best way to activate a small muscle is to perform a heavy compound lift that uses the said group as a secondary muscle. For example, if you want to activate your biceps, perform pull ups, chin ups, or some kind of back workout. I prefer pull ups, chin ups, or any exercise that requires you to lift your body in space. These exercises tend to activate the smaller muscle groups much faster by also targeting stabilizers. Not only will they activate the smaller muscle group, but they also require a larger number of muscle fibers to help perform. The more muscle fibers are recruited, the more we can break down. The more muscle fibers that are broken down, the more new muscle are created, period.

Activating the Biceps

Biceps are a “climbing” muscle. Because climbing trees or rock climbing is not ideal for most, we must take the pull up approach.

Start off ever biceps isolation training with 5 sets of heavy-weighted pull ups or chin ups. You can use a dip belt, dumbbell between the legs, weighted vest, or weighted book-bag. Heavy weight = 5 reps maximum.

Activating the Triceps

Triceps are larger than the biceps and therefore a little easier to activate.

Activate your triceps by starting your triceps compound training with weighted dips or heavy close grip bench press.

Choose one of the given exercises and start off with 5 sets of 5-8 reps.

Final Words

Now that you are aware of exactly how to activate these smaller muscle groups and force the recruitment of additional muscle fibers, you will be able to train your arms much more effectively. Start your arm training off with these techniques and notice as your arms explode with new growth. If you are anything like me, your arms are a stubborn body part when it comes to packing on muscle. But don’t be discouraged because with a few little known techniques, you arms WILL grow faster than ever before.

If you are familiar with my past transformations, you’ll know that I was as small as 107 lbs (as an adult) and managed to pack on a substantial amount of muscle while reducing my bodyfat.

Program I Used to Transform My Physique <== Click Here

After maintaining that physique for some time, I decided to take a very popular approach to bulking. The idea was simple, I would pick a goal weight and I would surpass that weight by 10-20 lbs. I would then cut whatever fat I had put on and reveal my new, more muscular physique.

Program I Used to Cut 14% Body Fat  <== Click here

Although I had put on a great amount of muscle in a very short amount of time, I am certain that the extra fat I piled on was unnecessary. I am currently maintaining a lean physique while bulking and am seeing amazing results WITHOUT the unwanted fat.

If you are looking to bulk up without putting on the unwanted (and unnecessary) fat, here are 3 tricks I am using in order to eliminate fat gains while bulking.

3 Tricks to ELIMINATE Fat Gains While Bulking

1. Take it easy on the surplus

We all are aware that in order to put on muscle we must be in a caloric surplus. However, this does not mean that the higher the surplus, the faster the muscle gains. You see, your body can only synthesize a certain amount of muscle tissue per day. Therefore, it makes much more sense to put your body in a precise surplus rather than aimlessly stuff your face to move the scale.

A VERY simple formula for hardgainers is 18-20 x your bodyweight (in lbs) = Your daily caloric intake.

Example: 18 x 145 lbs = 2,610 calories per day

This will ensure that you are in a surplus without overdoing it and ending up packing inches onto your waist instead of your arms.

2. Add NEW muscle stimulus

I don’t care how accurate your diet is, if you are not introducing new stimulus to the muscle, it will not grow. This is why it is crucial that you follow a proper weight training program for your body type in order to ensure you are training properly. You see, if you are in a surplus (like the one mentioned above) but you are not training intense enough, you WILL put on fat, period. If you are following a shitty training program, your caloric surplus will have nowhere to go except fat stores.

3 Reasons Your Workout Program Sucks <== Click Here

3. Cardio while bulking?

We all know that too much cardio can have negative effects on muscle growth. However, 2-3 short sessions of THE PROPER CARDIO per week can help eliminate fat gains while bulking without hindering your muscle gains.

Although any type of cardio will help eliminate fat gains, I recommend shorter duration, more intense intervals. These sessions do not have to be longer than 10-20 minutes and have been shown to spare more lean muscle tissue and stimulate great fat loss than lower intensity cardio.

Bulk up the right way!

There you have it guys, 3 simple tricks for bulking up without worrying about unnecessary fat gains in the process. Don’t exaggerate your caloric surplus, follow a solid training program, and implement some HIIT 2-3 days per week.

If you learned anything from this article, please share it to spread the word!

Have fitness questions? Leave a comment below!

So what’s the first thing you think of when you think of “arm training” – if you’re like a lot of trainers, you immediately think barbell curls and pushdowns. Or dumbell curls and dips, etc. The “standard” exercises, right?

Well, it’s time to think outside the box! Or as Nick Nilsson (the author of “The Best Arm Exercises You’ve Never Heard Of“) puts it…time to make a NEW box and think outside of THAT one!

“The Best Arm Exercises” is a very interesting book…68 unique exercises for the bicep, triceps and forearms ONLY. This is thing has NO fluff – it’s just packed with training information.

So Why a Book on JUST Arms?

That’s the first question I asked Nick when he first sent this book along to me for a review. After all, the trend right now is more towards functional and “total body” styles of training. Direct and/or isolated arm work seems to take a back seat to that type of approach these days.

Basically, is this just for fun or just fluff training?

So here’s his reasoning as to why direct arm training should be done…as he was telling me this stuff, it really made a lot of sense.

1. Direct Arm Training Can be Useful as Assistance Work for the “Big” Exercises

Let’s say your bench press has been stuck in a plateau because you have trouble fully locking the bar out at the top. That top range of motion is a primarily triceps. By directly working the triceps with effective “assistance” exercises, you can immediately see results that carry over to your big movements.

Obviously, any pressing movement is going to have a substantial tricep component. What about biceps? Bicep strength plays an important role in rowing and pulling exercises, like chin-ups, bent-over rows…even deadlifts.

Remember…your body is only as strong as it’s weakest link.

If you’re doing a bench press and your triceps are relatively weaker than your chest, it’s going to LIMIT the amount of weight you can push. By directly strengthening your weak links, you can improve your total strength in the big lifts.

Same for an exercise like chin-ups. Your back may be strong, but if your bicep (or even forearm!) strength limits your training, you’ll never maximize your performance in that exercise.

A targeted application of direct arm training can really make a big difference in your lifting.

And, of course, you need to use EFFECTIVE exercises for this purpose, otherwise you’re wasting your time.

“The Best Arm Exercises” has some EXTREMELY targeted stuff that certainly fits the bill as big exercise “assistance” exercises.

2. Training Variety

Obviously, a book full of 68 new exercises is going to give you a LOT of variety to choose from. Your body thrives on variety and change…you still DO need to maintain a level of consistency to achieve a training effect, but something as simple as a new exercise or a new way of doing something can really spark results.

Nick actually acknowledges this as well – in his own training, he tells me that it’s about 75% “normal” stuff…squats, deadlifts, bench press, that kind of thing. The other 25% is a rotation of the unique exercises you see presented in his books and on his sites.

You really do HAVE to keep some consistency in order to see results – perform random exercises without regard to adaptation just won’t get you anyway. When I asked Nick about this specific point as it relates to his book, he said…

“Here’s the approach you have to take with this type of resource – take your time with it and pick out a few exercises you want to try. Use them the next time you train arms and see how they work for you. Generally speaking, if an exercise is going to work for you, you’ll feel it pretty quickly. Stick with the ones you get the biggest effect from then gradually work in OTHER exercises on a rotational basis like a continuous audition process at a soap opera.

As good as these exercises are, I’m quite sure there will be ones that don’t work equally as well for everybody. You have to experiment and find out what works best for YOU. Then work it HARD!”

3. Deloading

Let’s say you’ve been training the “Big 3″ lifts (squat, bench, and deadlift) a LOT and for a LONG time. There comes a time when you need to back off and “deload”, reducing your training volume for recovery purposes. If you keep hammering away at heavy exercises, your body breaks down…muscle, connective tissue and nervous system. That’s when injuries happen.

And this is the perfect time to work in some unique exercises like the ones Nick has in his book – you can use this time to build strength in your weaker muscle groups and really target your weak points.

4. Compound Exercises For The Arms

One of the nice things Nick has done with this book is include plenty of compound exercises for the arms…not hard to find for the triceps in the scope of normal exercises (think of dips, close grip bench press, etc.) but generally a bit tougher to find for biceps…it’s usually all curls.

Several of the exercises are variations of pull-ups or rows that make adjustments in setup and/or execution in order to change the focus from back to biceps. They’re VERY simple to execute and WOW do they really have potential.

The real standout exercise in that department is the Nilsson Curl, which can be best described as a chin-up with your forearms braced against a bar set about a foot lower than the one you’re gripping on.

As Nick explains it, this bracing keeps you from being able to pull your body straight up, which normally engages the lats. By blocking your forearms like this, it forces you to pull yourself up and around in an arc with the elbow as the pivot. This is almost ALL biceps (80 to 90%) with assistance being provided by the lats instead of the other way around.

You can actually SEE this exercise in action as one of the sample exercises on Nick’s site for the book. It’s a very cool exercise and it’s a great twist on a classic exercise to really shift the focus to the biceps and work them with a compound exercise.

5. FUN

Yes, arm training IS fun and SHOULD be fun! The real “meat and potatoes” work is done under the squat bar and at the deadlift, but there’s nothing wrong with enjoying training those “mirror” muscles from time to time, too.

A Few Things That Could Be Improved About the Book…

When you get this book, you’re obviously getting a book about exercises. But One thing that would be a nice addition would be some targeted sample workouts for working those exercises into a program.

These exercises are so unique, that it might be hard some trainers to figure exactly how to best use these in a program.

I asked Nick about this and he said he’s actually got several unannounced bonus gifts for people when they pick up the book that will address this exact thing. He wanted to keep it as a surprise, as a way of saying “thanks” but if it’s the lack of programs really shouldn’t be something that should hold you back from getting this book.

The other thing that I can see is that there aren’t that many forearm exercises in the book (5 for the forearms as compared to 33 for the biceps and 30 for the triceps). Nick told me he’s going to be addressing this in updates to the book as he definitely knows the forearm stuff needs to be built on.

Here’s the thing…

When you get the book, you’ll also get free updates for life, so those forearm exercises are going to be something you’ll be getting soon enough…as if the other 63 exercises aren’t plenty to keep going for a long time anyway!

The last thing I should mention is that if you’re limited on equipment, there will be a few exercises that you won’t be able to perform…there are a few that require cable machines (though creative use of training bands/elastics would be a good substitute) and a few that require a power rack.

But even with fairly BASIC equipment like a bench and some free weights, you’ll be able to perform the VAST majority of these exercises just fine. Several of them require no equipment at all or things that can very easily be improvised.

CONCLUSION:

Now, if you’ve seen the exercises that Nick has created before, you’ll know exactly what this book is all about…very cool, very effective exercises that will have everybody in your gym coming up and asking you what the heck you’re doing.

These exercises are very well thought out and have a lot of potential both for improving your arms AND for helping improve your “big” exercises through assistance training.

Plus, the exercises are just plain fun!

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Clean Bulking With Intermittent Fasting

If you’re into bodybuilding you may have heard the term “intermittent fasting.”

Intermittent fasting (IF) is a pattern of eating that alternates between periods of fasting (usually meaning consumption of water only)…

Although this strategy is typically used for fat burn and may seem like a strange way to gain muscle mass, by only eating food for a short period of time in a day, it can actually work to your advantage if done correctly. This can be a great diet plan to adopt to get the muscle size that you seek while avoiding unnecessary fat gains while “bulking”.

Bulking on Intermittent Fasting (IF)
On this plan you’ll be eating your calories at set a period of the day and then not eating at all for several hours. You will need to maintain a caloric surplus by getting enough calories into your body during your “feeding window”. Use my simple hardgainer diet plan formula to calculate exactly how many calories YOU will need in order to maintain a caloric surplus. Ideally you’ll want to eat all of your calories in a 6-8 hour window. I would recommend a feeding window of 12pm-6pm or 12pm-8pm. Once you have chosen the hours in which you will be consuming your calories, you can then schedule your meals accordingly.

Following this approach means you will need to consume the 2000-3000+ calories in a selected period of time and then fast for the rest of the day. Avoid eating foods that are low calorie as you won’t meet your calorie goals for the entire day.

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Intermittent Fasting Schedule Example:
12pm: Meal 1
2pm: Meal 2
3pm: Gym
5pm: Meal 3
7pm: Meal 4
8pm-11:59am: Fasting

Training on IF
I recommend fitting your training session somewhere during your 6-8 hour feeding window, but it is NOT required that you do. Although I tend to train better when fasted, you should eat before and after your exercise if you feel too weak to train in a fasted state. Some (like me) can pull it off, but others should never try working out in the middle of a fast if you simply don’t have the energy to complete the workout. If you do decide to consume a pre-workout meal, make sure you rest for a bit and let your food digest before your training session. The amount of meals you consume is completely up to you, just make sure you get all the calories that you need for the day in the given window.

Recovery
After your workout you might find the recovery process easier if you get the majority of your carbohydrates directly after training. This works to restore your muscle glycogen levels which may or may not be depleted after an intense session. Some people might find they don’t need to do this, but it’s always best to just listen to your body. If you want to minimize fat gains, I recommend scheduling your carbohydrate in take around your workout while you’re active or your metabolic rate is increased.

Is Intermittent Fasting for You?
This plan can be different for everyone. Decide when you’re going to eat and when you’re going to fast. Make sure to take into consideration your personal life and schedule before deciding to try intermittent fasting. This approach, although beneficial, is not for everyone and certainly not NECESSARY for clean bulking. This is simply just another approach/technique that some may find helpful.

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