Men’s Health

There are many factors to consider when you want to know how long will it take for you to gain and build muscle mass. Questions like are you eating enough and the right nutrients to accelerate muscle growth, are you exercising correctly and regularly and do you have the genes for quick muscle growth need to be addressed.

In this article, we shall discuss whether you have the genetic make up to gain and build muscles quickly. Don?t despair if you don?t because this is only one of the several factors that determine how long will it take for you to build muscle mass.

It is certainly helpful to know your body type when you want to build muscles. By knowing your own body type, you can then plan your nutritional and exercise program to suit your specific body type to encourage muscle growth.

We shall discuss the 3 common body types and their characteristics here.

? Endomorph: You have naturally big frame body and usually have a round face, wide hips, big bones and slow metabolism. You are the type that gain weight and body fat easily. However, you also have potential for gaining muscle mass quickly. Only problem is that your muscles may be hiding under your body fat making you look big bulky and clumsy. Your six pack abs is hidden under your tummy fat is not going to show.

So you will have to build muscles and then burn off the fats to reveal your muscle definition. That means you will take slightly longer time than the next body type to show off your muscle gain and mass because you need time to cut away body fats as well.

? Mesomorph: You are blessed with a naturally muscular body and have wide shoulders, small waist, athletic body frame structure, low body fat with a somewhat high metabolism. With your natural predisposition, you can pack on muscles real fast and are the type that can take up bodybuilding as a career if you want to. You excel naturally in sports and will always have that sexy and handsome body that is to everyone?s envy.

You are the type that will not take a long time to see your muscle gaining size, mass and definition. In fact, if you train, eat and rest correctly, you will visibly see your muscles growing week after week right before your eyes until you hit a body building plateau.

? Ectomorph: You are the skinny type with small muscles, very very high metabolism, narrow shoulders, hips and waist. You find it hard to put on weight and muscles no matter how much you eat. You will need much more greater effort than others to build muscle mass on your skinny frame. People call you the hard gainer.

You will take a longer time and need extra effort to gain muscle mass. Although it can be done, it is a constant battle for you because you are fighting what nature has given you.

Most people fall in between the three types. For example, a person can be a mixture of Mesomorph and Endomorph or Mesomorph and Ectomorphs.

Now that you have identified your body type, you can then write down your goals, objectives and the methodology you wish to take to gain muscle mass. By having a specific body building program to follow, it allows you to take concrete actions each day to achieve your muscle gain goals. How long will it take to build muscles and gain muscle mass certainly depends on the body type you have but it will also depend on numerous other factors.

About The Author
Chris Chew is a personal trainer of actors, pageant winners, models and other celebs. Check his health and fitness sites at http://www.sgfitness.com and http://www.sgfitnessonline.com/yourfitnesscareer.htm.

When looking at the types of abdominal exercises, it is best to divide the exercises into upper and lower ab exercises. Because there aren’t two separate muscles that you can isolate, the abdominal exercises we discuss here will work the entire abdominal wall.

There are different clusters of muscle that are separated by tissue in the abdominal muscles and these clusters make up the "washboard" or the "six-pack" effect in a persons abdominals. You can focus on the upper clusters by moving the torso and focus on the lower clusters by moving the pelvis.

For the lower abdominals, lying leg raises and reverse crunches are great abdominal exercises. Reverse crunches can be done on the ground or on an incline sit-up board. All you need is something behind your head to hold. If you use the incline board, use it with your feet lower than your head. For lying leg raises, lie on your back with your hands, palms down under your buttocks.

Raise your legs about 12" off the floor and hold them there. If you’re big or have long legs, you should probably avoid this exercise. If you have this problem you can either try bending your knees slightly or just try some other abdominal exercises.

For the upper abs, ab crunches and quarter crunches are excellent abdominal exercises. Lying on your back, put your knees up in the air so that your thighs are at a right angle to your torso, with your knees bent. You can rest your feet on something, like a chair. Slowly raise your shoulders off the ground and try to touch your breastbone to your pelvis. Although the actual movement will be very small, you should try to go as high as possible. Only your spine should bend, your hips should not move.

Do these abdominal exercises fairly slowly to avoid using momentum to help. You can increase the difficulty of the exercise by extending your hands out behind your head instead of keeping them at the side. Make sure you don’t jerk your hands forward to help with the crunch, keep them still. If you follow these tips, your abdominal exercises should help you to get the great six pack you’ve always wanted.

Mike Corrado brings you smoking ab exercises at http://www.quickandeasyabexercises.com

Ab training has been done to death but it’s time to take another look. Why? Because people are still training their abs wrong so all that ab training information must not be doing the right job.

Here’s a list of the top Myths about Abdominal Training that you should avoid at all costs…

1 – There’s no such thing as Spot Reducing – Endless crunches will not melt away the fat from your midsection. It just doesn’t work that way. And despite the "burn" of high rep ab exercises, you barely burn any calories while doing those endless crunches.

Your fat burning time is best spent elsewhere on more effective "cardio" training.

2 – The Abs are a Muscle and should be trained as such. You don’t need high reps and lots of sets to work your abs. This just leads to over training.

Now, abs are a more endurance oriented muscle so slightly higher reps may be more effective. However, you should keep the reps at 20 or lower and work on increasing the resistance and variety in your training.

Yes, you should be increasing the weights on ab exercises, just like your other exercises. The stronger your abs, the better they will look when the fat is stripped away.

Ever see a really thin guy with a flat stomach but no abs? In that instance, the abs haven’t been trained and aren’t developed enough to stand out even when the fat is stripped away.

3 – Don’t train the abs more than necessary – What the heck do I mean by this? Well, your abs get a lot of indirect work from other exercises so you really won’t need more than a couple of hard sets of weighted crunches to work your abs.

Your abs are a factor in exercises such as squats, dead lifts, seated or standing presses, dumbbell pullovers, pulldowns, etc. Don’t believe me?

Next time you work out, do a few hard sets of standing stiff armed pulldowns on the lat machine and tell me your abs aren’t sore the next day. I did them yesterday and my abs are more sore than my back today.

If you want to develop a flat stomach with your abs visible, you need to treat your abs the same as your other muscles. And you need to strip away the fat with a proper training and nutrition program designed around total fat loss (like that found in the Living Health Audio Program), not trying to spot reduce through endless crunches.

The number of ab machines constantly coming to market is mind boggling. Especially considering that they aren’t needed and won’t give you the results that you want unless you begin training your abs like regular muscles rather than like a machine that needs 100 reps to get primed up..

Let’s set the record straight on ab training right now and give you the real information you need so you can say no to the next infomercial ab machine and yes to actual results.

1 – Training your abs consistently and persistently will eventually give you the flat stomach or six-pack that you want.

But it’s not gonna happen if your abs are covered by a layer of body fat and doing endless sets of ab exercises is not the way to rid yourself of that excess body fat – even if you buy the most expensive ab machine on the most motivating infomercial.

2 – Skip a day in between your ab training days.

Your abs are a muscle, just like your chest, lats, arms and so on. You should train your abs just like these other muscles, with progressive resistance and high intensity – then allow them to rest and recover. Never train your abs more than 3 days a week.

3 – You don’t need to do hundreds or reps and feel the burn to get great abs.

To get six pack abs you need to strip off the fat, but you also need to build the abs to get them to really pop out. You can see a great 5 minute abdominal workout in The 2 Day Workout.

If the muscle isn’t developed, you’ll just have a flat stomach but no abs. The name of the game is progressive resistance for sets of 8 – 20 reps, just like your other muscles.

You need a proper weight lifting program, nutrition plan, and cardio program in order to rid your stomach of that stubborn layer of fat and bring your abs.

You can get a great program in Maximize Your Metabolism or if you don’t have time to read, you can get an incredible audio program in The Living Health Weight Loss Audio Series, or if you just need the exercises without the diet and other lifestyle changes, then get yourself a copy of The 2 Day Workout.

For a ton of f.ree, valuable tips, tricks, and secrets visit: http://www.MaximizeYourMetabolism.com

? 2002-2005 Wisdom Books, LLC & Christopher Guerriero WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR E-ZINE OR WEB SITE? You can, as long as you include this blurb with it: Christopher Guerriero, is the founder of the National Metabolic & Longevity Research Center and a best-selling author, speaker, and coach to millions. He is creator of the award-winning ‘Maximize Your Metabolism’ system. To learn more about this step-by-step program, and to sign up for FR*EE how-to articles and F.REE teleseminars, visit http://www.MaximizeYourMetabolism.com

There are three basic factors that will help you lose your belly: strength training (which increases resting metabolic rate), cardiovascular exercise (which burns calories), and proper nutrition. Without all three, you can do crunches all day and never get the flat tummy you desire.

Let?s start with cardio. You need to do a cardio exercise you enjoy, 30-45 minutes, 3 or 4 times a week. Running, walking, biking, you pick. Strength training should be performed 2 or 3 times a week. Remember having more muscle mass means you burn more calories during the day. And last but not least, watch what you eat! The stomach is one of the first places bodyfat is stored. So when extra calories are consumed, a ?spare tire? appears. Dieting off the fat is absolutely necessary if you want to reveal the muscles of your midsection.

One way to get the most out of your ab exercises is a better form. Follow these few tips during your work-outs. Keep your hands folded across your chest or rest them at your ears. This will ensure your abs do all the work during the exercise. Many people want to put their hands behind their head-don?t- this will only put pressure on your cervical vertebrae. Instead of raising your shoulders towards the ceiling, think about bringing your ribs and pelvis together. You will get a more intense crunch if you concentrate on using only those muscles.

The key behind great abs is your DIET! If you do not lose the fat that covers your muscles you will never be able to show off your six pack. Great Abs is 90% what you eat and 10% exercise. So start burning fat calories and you’ll see your tight abs in no time!

Visit my webiste www.fitnessinhometraining.com to learn more about getting GREAT ABS!

Gina is an ISSA certified personal trainer. She works with her clients in their own homes and offers online fitness training. She writes a weekly fitness article for her local newspaper. Her passion is fitness and helping others reach their fitness goals. She participates in dualthons and 5K races all the way to marathons.