Powerlifting is the quickest way to build strength. Bodybuilding is the quickest way to build muscle mass. Whilst muscle mass and strength are linked, powerlifters are generally much stronger than bodybuilders. The reason for this is because bodybuilders generally train their muscles to a high intensity aiming for a skin bursting muscle pump, where increasing the actual weight used is more of a secondary objective to training intensity. The idea is to make a light weight feel as heavy as possible. Pretty much the opposite applies for powerlifting, where the idea is to use maximum power to lift the heaviest weight possible as fast as you can. In terms of training, typical bodybuilding and powerlifting routines are as follows:

1. Bodybuilding Routine: 4-6 weight training sessions per week, rep range 10-12, time per set 40-60 seconds, 10-20 exercises per session, 1-3 sets per exercise. Routines generally involve isolation exercises, supersets, dropsets, super slow sets, pre-exhaustions, post-exhaustions, etc.
2. Powerlifting Routine: 3-4 weight training sessions per week, rep range 1-5, time per set 5-15 seconds, 4-8 exercises per session, 5+ sets of compound exercises, 2-3 sets of assistance exercises. Routines are based around squats, deadlifts, presses and pulls, with 3-5 minutes rest between sets. A trainee powerlifter usually starts off 2 days per week doing something like:

   5 x 5 Squats
   5 x 5 Bench Press
   2 x 5 Incline Dumbbell Press
   2 x 5 Dumbbell Flies

Prilepin’s Table

Prilepin’s Table shows the optimum range of total sets and reps on a particular compound exercise like squats, relative to your 1 rep max for building power in minimum time. Watch this:

Applying Prilepin’s Table to the bench press over an 8 week cycle, you would start in the 65-70% of your 1RM range, aiming for maximum speed with control completing the relevant number of sets and reps. Build up to 90%+ of your 1RM by week 5 or 6. Continue aiming for maximum speed under control, but by now, your total reps will be about 7 over 4-7 work sets. The aim would be to smash through your plateau, so that you can return back to your bodybuilding routine, lifting heavier weights, thereby achieving a higher intensity and stimulating more muscle mass.

Assuming:

1. your diet contains plenty of clean calories and is moderate to high carb and high protein – use protein supplements!;
2. you sleep 8 hours every night; and
3. you train with maximum effort

then you should gain a lot of strength over the 8 week cycle. Personally, I gained 37.5Kg on my bench 1RM and bigger numbers on the squat and deadlift.

You don’t get that same tight muscle tone with powerlifting and the higher carb diet results in fat gains, but as a bodybuilder, you should know how to shift the fat and retain the muscle shouldn’t you??! If not, read some of our other articles.

Regards,

Martin Procter

We all know the best exercises for your back are deadlifts, barbell rows and pull-ups, which are sufficient for all the powerlifters out there. However, for the bodybuilders among us, we need that extra bit of isolation and focused intensity to really draw out the definition and striations in your lats and the rest of your back.

The problem

After completing your multiple joint, compound movements as above, it is highly likely that your forearms are over pumped and your grip strength is fatigued, making it difficult to complete a good work set on your back using exercises such as cable pulldowns, cable rows, hammer strength pullovers and their variants, etc. as your grip can give way before your back muscles have received the extra stimulus required to trigger muscle growth.

The solution

If you are lucky enough to have the Nautilus Pullover machine in your gym, then 3 high intensity sets on this awesome apparatus will get your back pumped on a completely full range of motion. If not, the alternative is to perform sets of Serratus Pulldowns for the fully contracted range of motion and dumbbell pullovers for the fully extended range of motion. All three exercises require no grip strength and can be completed with a high intensity even when you have skin bursting forearm pumps and can’t even close the grip on your hands. On the Nautilus Pullovers, you are pulling with your elbows, which does not involve grip strength at all.

Try these exercises out for sets of 12, 10 then 8 slow reps all to failure on the same weight, with a 30 second gap for maximum muscle pumps. As a side effect of the Serratus Pulldowns and the Dumbbell Pullovers, your abs get a good workout at the same time.

An explanation of how to do the Exercises

1. Nautilus Pullover Machine – a seated pullover, where your elbows rest on a pad, which you pullover from above your head at full extension down to past your sides for full contraction. This exercise isolates the back muscles, removing the grip/arm involvement. The machine has a seatbelt to keep you in place if you use extra heavy weights.
2. Serratus Pulldowns – Using a high setting on a cable crossover machine, or equivalent, use the T-bar and stand on your knees 2-3 feet back from the machine, reaching up so you can just grab the bar. Pull the weight down smoothly using an arcing motion until the bar hits your hips, then allow to raise back to around eye level taking about 2-3 seconds, then pulldown again. Adjust your setback from the machine to find the most stable position.
3. Dumbbell Pullovers – Lay across a bench, with your upper back resting on the bench and your body perpendicular to the bench. Put both hands round a dumbbell, with hands overlapping, holding the dumbbell on the plates, rather than the handle. Using an arcing motion again, lower the weight behind your head until it touches the floor (if your range of motion permits) and arc back up until the dumbbell is nearly above your head (maintaining constant tension) and then lower again slowly and smoothly. Start with a light weight to avoid neck injuries and increase the weight as quickly as your lats can handle it.

Regards,

Promart Supplements

If you are trying to pack on some extra muscle mass, but getting nowhere, then why not try copying what some of the guys have done from Promart Supplements? Some simple changes to your diet and training and you will see quicker size and strength gains than ever.

1. Increase your daily protein intake to at least 1g of protein per pound of bodyweight per day, using a quality whey protein powder such as Allmax Isoflex – Whey Isolate
2. Add a small sprinkle of sunflower seeds and pumpkin seeds (high in protein and good fats) to your protein shakes 2-3 times per day (using blender)
3. Increase carbohydrates in your diet by eating more noodles, pasta, rice, potatoes, rice cakes, spaghetti, bread, etc.
4. For supper, have 2 slices of wholemeal toast with peanut butter and a pint of semi skimmed milk before bed
5. Go to the gym 2 or 3 times per week, no more


Lift Heavy Free Weights For Bigger Muscles

6. Lift extra heavy weights for 5 sets of 5 reps on two big exercises, such as squats, deadlifts, bench press, barbell rows, dips, pullups, etc., followed by 2 sets of 5 reps on two assistance exercises, such as triceps extensions, close grip presses, standing barbell curls, calf raise, shrugs, pulldowns, etc.
7. Use perfect form, warm up for each exercise, then lift with maximum power, using minimum effort on the negative phase of each rep. Form MUST be perfect, or you will get injured, resulting in you losing all the hard earned muscle you gained to start with.

You should be able to increase weight for about 6-8 weeks with the above power lifting style training tips. Aim for 5% extra weight per week. After 6-8 weeks, you will be more than ready to go back to slower, more emphasised reps, as it can take its toll training as above. You may gain a little bit of fat, but it’s worth it for the extra muscle size and strength. Once you go back to bodybuilding, you can cut your carbs a bit and maybe add a bit of early morning cardio to show all the new muscle.

Regards,

Martin

One of the main reasons men go to the gym is to get stronger. However, after training for a while you can lose sight of your original goals and float between bodybuilding, powerlifting, fitness training and any other form of training that takes your interest.

If you are trying to re-focus on that goal of increasing your power and getting stronger, quickly, and assuming your diet and lifestyle is in order, then you need to do the following:

• Lift heavy weights 3 times per week, no more
• Start your routines with:
  • 5 sets of deadlifts on workout 1
  • 5 sets of bench press on workout 2
  • 5 sets of squats on workout 3
• Do 5 reps per set, using perfect form and explosive lifting style
• Spend no more than 50 minutes in the gym
• Never train on consecutive days
• Increase weight progressively, by around 2% to 5% per week
• Use multiple joint exercises only and avoid isolation exercises

Obviously, a lot more comes into play, such as calorie intake, protein consumption, protein supplements, general diet, hydration, rest, sleep, stress levels, training focus and intensity, genetics, age, bodybuilding supplements, etc., but this article is intended to give you some quick tips only. If you want more detailed tips, check out our Top 50 Bodybuilding Tips article.

Our most popular supplement aimed at helping you increase muscle mass and strength quickly is Allmax Quickmass.

Regards,

Promart Supplements

Whether you are a bodybuilder or a powerlifter, when you are trying to gain significant additional muscle mass, you absolutely have to consume extra calories. If you have been following the Promart Blog for a while, then you will also know for every extra 100 calories you consume per day, the calories should come from 12-13g carbs, 7-8g protein and about 2g fat (= 50/30/20 macronutrient split). Consuming about 20 calories per day for every pound of bodyweight on a 50/30/20 split, will allow your body to gain lots of muscle if you give your muscles the required stimulus for growth, i.e. heavy, multiple joint, compound lifts for low reps, with explosive power.

This is the routine I am following, as you can see on My Journey from being a Bodybuilder to becoming a Powerlifter. Whilst I am gaining muscle and strength at the fastest rate of my whole life, I have also gained fat, not much – just an inch or so over my abs, but I have more fat on my stomach than ever in my life. Being honest, I’ve had a few big mac meals with milkshakes over the past couple of weeks and whilst my diet has been good, it’s also been bad. I therefore have the issue where I am getting strong, but also getting fat – and I don’t like it!

Fat Burning Proposals

To get rid of the fat, this is what I am going to do and you could do the same…

1. Cut sugar out of my diet completely, other than a small piece of fruit (fructose in fruit is a type of sugar) on a morning and after training when a small amount of sugar isn’t a problem
2. Cut out any food that isn’t cooked from basic ingredients at home – this results in less sugar, less salt, less bad fats, more good fats, more fibre, more vitamins and minerals, more protein, etc.
3. Spread my calories out more throughout the day, to avoid allowing my body to store the additional calories as fat
4. Use an ECA stack fat burner (Universal Animal Cuts, p.s. discount code is “march3″) to raise performance and burn more calories
5. Drink much more water to increase hydration for better lifts and to increase metabolism
6. Drink green tea without sugar, instead of tea and coffee with sugar to increase metabolism
7. Do a 40 minute jog at 5:30am, four mornings per week to burn fat at the most suitable time of day and most hormonally correct time of day for fat loss

I will continue powerlifting, but the fat burning proposals above should allow me to reduce body fat a few percent in a few weeks, to bring back my definition and get rid of my gut. I won’t cut my calories though or train differently, so I should continue to progress on the weights. I am going to start using Quickmass, as it offers lots of benefits in terms of powerlifting and bodybuilding, but I will use half servings twice as often to fit in with point 3 above.

Regards,

Martin Procter
Promart Supplements

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Nutrabolics Hemowhey Nutritional Information

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Nutrabolics Hemowhey Review

Benefits of Nutrabolics HemoWhey

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Here is the product page for Nutrabolics Hemowhey.

My Bodybuilding Background

I’ve been training for a lot of years now. For the first couple of years, I just did lots of curls and bench presses in my garage, whenever I felt like it. As I became more committed to my training, I read lots of magazines, online guides, bodybuilding books, etc., which led to me incorporating squats into my training program. I got results, very good results, so put more focus into my squats, leading to better results. However, I never really did deadlifts that often. About 7 years ago, I combined deadlifts into my training program and my results improved massively.

The Barbell Deadlift

Barbell deadlifts are the best mass gaining exercise, closely followed by the squats in my honest opinion. Not only does a heavy deadlifting workout boost your testosterone levels, but it also works pretty much every muscle in your body, as a unit. There are so many variations on the deadlift, that you will always get good results and never really plateau on this exercise (as long as your diet and rest are perfect).

For best results, I recommend using a weight which is around 75% of your 1 rep max and following a powerlifting style, such as 5×5, i.e. 5 sets of 5 reps. Any heavier and your form can be compromised, leading to injuries. Make sure you follow perfect form, by watching as many videos on Youtube as possible. Power the weight up as fast and as powerfully as possible, keeping your back arched, shoulders back and body tight. Increasing your strength on this exercise will make you stronger on seemingly unassociated lifts, such as the bench press, whilst thickening up your back muscles more than any amount of pullups or pulldowns will ever achieve. You can try higher reps, slow reps, partial reps, etc. to vary the exercise. Just find what works for you and go with it.

Barbell Deadlift Variations

Some people struggle to find good form on the barbell deadlift and round their backs on the lower part of the movement. This is dangerous, as heavy weights can lead to serious injuries over months and years of training. From experience, it seems that people with longer legs and shorter arms and bodies struggle on finding good barbell deadlift technique. Your shins and kneecaps generally take a scraping and even get in the way if you have short arms and a short body compared to your legs and rounding the back seems unavoidable for this type of person. If this applies to you, or you have some other issue with the barbell deadlift, then you should try the Trap Bar Deadlift.

The Trap Bar Deadlift allows you to stand inside the bar and perform deadlifts, with more emphasis on your quads and slightly less on your lower back at the bottom part of the lift. You may be able to lift more weight, safer, using this variation on the deadlift, which will yield better muscle mass gains. If you try this exercise, make sure you start with a light weight and position your hands perfectly centrally, or the bar will twist in your hands. If you get a good grip, you should really enjoy this exercise. Partial deadlifts offer another alternative, but you lose the lower part of the lift, which takes away from the benefits of the exercise.

Deadlift Vs Squats

Both exercises are excellent and should form the basis of all bodybuilding, powerlifting, or other strength training programs. Both squats and deadlifts allow you to work with very heavy weights on a multiple joint, whole body exercise, so provide similar benefits. The squats target the quads and glutes slightly more than the deadlift, but the deadlift works the hamstrings and back muscles much harder.

A good point to consider in favour of the squats though is that when you reach your physical peak, you should generally be able to lift more weight on the squats than the deadlift and more weight means more mass gains. The strongest powerlifter in the world at the moment is Andy Bolton, who can deadlift 1008lbs! His best lifts are (roughly):

• Bench Press – 350Kg
• Deadlift – 450Kg
• Squats – 550Kg

There’s some targets for you! For more information about Andy Bolton, check out his Wikipedia page, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andy_Bolton.

Regards,

Promart Supplements

If you are new to training and want some very brief advice as to how to get started, then here is what you need to do…

Everything You Need To Know In Just 1 Paragraph!

Lift heavy weights for 10-12 reps per set, for 12-18 total sets per session for the first 2-3 weeks, then go to 3 times per week for a further 4 weeks. Aim to increase weight by 2.5% per week on all exercise (could be more), whilst staying within your rep range. From week 6 decide if you want to go into bodybuilding (for appearance then strength) or powerlifting (for strength then appearance). Either route, you need a good diet with plenty of protein, i.e. at least 1g per pound of bodyweight per day, every day. You need 15-20 calories per pound of bodyweight per day (depending upon the individual) to increase muscle mass and gain weight. Plenty of sleep, water, fruit, veg, no stress, no alcohol, plenty of effort, strict form and you should make excellent progress.

A Typical Training Routine for the First Couple of Weeks:

MONDAY
Leg Press – 5 sets of 10-12 reps
Bench Press – 3 sets of 10-12 reps
Shoulder Press – 3 sets of 10-12 reps
Barbell Curls – 2 sets of 10-12 reps
Triceps Extensions – 2 sets of 10-12 reps

FRIDAY
Pulldowns – 3 sets of 10-12 reps
Cable Rows – 3 sets of 10-12 reps
Shrugs – 3 sets of 10-12 reps
Calf Raise – 3 sets of 10-12 reps
Ab Crunches – 3 sets of 10-12 extra slow reps (constant tension)

Training Tips
For your first couple of weeks, I would recommend using machines on moderate weight, so that you get results, but don’t get injuries. Personally, the only time I’ve ever got injured, is during my first couple of weeks back at the gym when I try to lift too heavy, too quickly.

After 2-3 weeks, move onto a 3 days per week program, using free weights wherever possible, with perfect form. The benefit of free weights are that you control the line of movement, rather than the machine. This avoids putting undue stress on your joints by following a fixed range of motion that doesn’t fit with your body. Machines do however keep you close to a good range of motion – especially the higher quality machines from brands such as Sportesse – which is good enough in your first couple of weeks, using lighter weights, to get a feel for the movements and to strengthen up a little, ready for the free weights. There are some good machine exercises that can always be used to good effect, such as Nautilus Pullovers, Cable Rows, etc. but free weights are where you will build the most muscle mass.

Take around 1-2 seconds to lift the weight on each rep and 2-4 seconds to lower the weight on each rep, with no stopping, keeping constant muscle tension and using a smooth rep cadence, with perfect form.

A Typical Training Routine for Weeks 3 to 6:

MONDAY
Squats – 5 sets of 8-10 reps
Leg Press – 3 sets of 8-10 reps
Calf Raise – 3 sets of 8-10 reps
Hanging Leg Raises – 2 sets of 8-10 reps
Ab Crunches – 2 sets of 8-10 reps (hold a small 2.5Kg+ plate on your chest if required)

WEDNESDAY
Barbell Bench Press – 5 sets of 8-10 reps
Shoulder Press – 5 sets of 8-10 reps
Lying EZ Extensions – 3 sets of 8-10 reps
Dumbbell Lateral Raises – 2 sets of 8-10 reps

FRIDAY
Barbell Rows – 5 sets of 8-10 reps
Barbell Deadlifts – 5 sets of 8-10 reps
Pulldowns – 3 sets of 8-10 reps
Barbell Shrugs – 2 sets of 8-10 reps

Further training tips and notes
Each set will take around 40 seconds to complete, so with about 2-3 minutes rest between sets, each workout will last 45-50 minutes, which is perfect. Any longer and your body gets stressed and releases a stress hormone called Cortisol, which is associated with catabolism = muscle loss. Keep workout under 50-55 minutes and follow them up with a protein shake to keep your body in an anabolic environment, so it is continually building muscle. Note: this is the reason bodybuilders eat small, high protein meals every 3 hours – to keep their bodies in an anabolic environment – DO NOT underestimate how important this part of your program is to your overall progress.

By the end of week 6, you should have gained a lot of muscle and strength. It is now that you can decide whether to go into bodybuilding or powerlifting, as you will be much more familiar with each exercise and how to lift with perfect form, to avoid injuries. A follow up article to this article will compare bodybuilding and powerlifting routines, with examples and typical progress over the following 10 weeks. A link to the article will appear below when available…

Article link: (will be published on or before 31st March 2011)

Regards,

Promart Supplements

Bodybuilding Meals which are Difficult to Prepare

There are countless websites, magazines and so called experts out there who promote ‘healthy meals’ for bodybuilding, or to enable you to build more muscle mass. However, everywhere you look, you are either given a sales pitch about some new supplement, or the meal isn’t something that the majority of us will ever bother ourselves to consider. I’m talking about meals such as:

Meal 1 – Difficult to Prepare

Ingredients	Picture	Directions
2 Baking Potatoes 1 medium red bell pepper, diced 2 avocados – peeled, pitted & mashed 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro 1/4 cup olive oil 2 green onions, sliced 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin 3 tablespoons lime juice salt & black pepper to taste 1 cup grated Cheddar cheese	Avocado Stuffed Jackets	Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Place potatoes on a baking sheet. Bake potatoes for 40 minutes, or until tender, turning occasionally. In a bowl, mix the red pepper, avocado, cilantro, olive oil, green onions, cumin and lime juice. Cut potatoes in half lengthwise, and fluff the centers with a fork. Top with the avocado stuffing. Season with salt and pepper, and top with shredded Cheddar cheese.

Bodybuilding Meals which are Easy to Prepare

The above meal sounds great and would be a healthy choice. But, would you ever make it? I wouldn’t, It’d be too much effort getting all of the ingredients in and cooking it all up when instead you can prepare the following meal…

Meal 2 – Easy to Prepare

Ingredients	Picture	Directions
Ingredients 3 eggs 1 breadcake half a tin of beans	Boiled Egg and Beans on a Toasted Breadcake... mmm!	Directions put 3 large eggs in a pan of boiling water for 9 minutes Warm up some beans in another pan While the eggs are boiling, cut your breadcake in half and toast it and butter it Enjoy!

In the real world, 9 times out of 10 you are going to eat a meal like meal 2, where you have the ingredients in the fridge and you can prepare the meal in 10 minutes. As a bodybuilder, this is what you need, a high protein meal, which is readily available, but for some reason, no other website or any magazine promote easy meals like egg and beans. The nutritional information for meal 2 is below:

You can see from the table, egg and beans on toast gives you the nutrition required for building muscles. There are plenty of calories coming from a complete and high quality protein source, low GI carbs and some good fats. You can reduce the calories and fat by only eating the egg whites, or by scrambling egg whites to go with the beans, with a 6g reduction in protein, so the meal reduces to 460 calories. You can tweak the meal to suit your requirements for whether you are bulking up, maintaining, or cutting.

p.s. Meal 1 is higher fat and lower protein than meal 2 and doesn’t taste too good anyway. In my opinion, consuming meals like meal 2 and supplementing your diet with pine seeds, sunflower seeds, etc. blended in your protein shakes and a palm full of cashews here and there is the best solution to eating healthy and high protein without the hassle. Adding 2-3 meal replacement shakes to your diet per day would also provide your body with more than the RDA of all vitamins and minerals.

Regards,

John, Promart Supplements

Sometimes it can be hard to make it to the gym for certain reasons, such as not having a car, not having enough money or not having enough time. We’ve all been there. So what do you do? You can either sit at home and let your muscles waste away, or do some exercises at home. All you need are a pair of dumbbells and enough iron to make a low rep set of dumbbell lunges difficult. For under £100, you can buy some spinlock dumbbells and about 70Kg of plates. Obviously an adjustable weight bench and 7ft bar would be much better, but this article just covers the best exercises at home, with a pair of dumbbells only.

Once you have some dumbbells, the best exercises you can perform are deadlifts, lunges, shoulder press, dumbbell rows, skull crushers, various biceps curls and triceps extensions exercises, dumbbell shrugs and lateral raises. You can also supplement these exercises with pressups and pullups (pullup bars that fit in doorways cost under £10 from Argos). All of these exercises cover all of the large muscle groups, so if you train smart, you should be able to gain some good muscle at home, exercising 3-4 times per week. If you find the weights are too light, then do some pre-exhaustions or other supersets, such as

1. Shoulders: lateral raises (holding a plate in each hand) immediately followed by dumbbell press
2. Legs: Super-slow set of deadlifts, immediately followed by dumbbell lunges
3. Back: Pullups, immediately followed by bent over single dumbbell rows (holding spinlock part in each hand)
4. Chest: Bullworker, immediately followed by strict, full range slow pressups
5. Biceps: Three sets of preacher curls alternating hands, with no rest between sets, achieving failure on each set
6. Triceps: Skull crushers (using single dumbbell, laying on floor, holding spinlock part), immediately followed by close grip pressups

Using supplements, such as whey protein powders or creatine would improve results, but are not required.

Let me know how you get on.

Regards,

Gareth, Promart Supplements