Bigger, stronger triceps means you can lift heavier weights on pressing exercises such as shoulder press and bench presses. So, in a round-about way, training your triceps will lead to gains on your pressing exercises, meaning bigger, stronger delts and pecs. You also get bigger arms as a side effect.

Here are some supersets that really add mass and strength to your triceps:

1. Weighted super slow one-rep dips: take 30 seconds to lower and 30 seconds to lift back up
2. Close grip bench press: Use 3/4 of your bench press weight and hold the bar with your thumbs 8 inches apart and keep your elbows close to your sides.
3. Lying EZ Extensions… better known as skull crushers and for good reason! Point your elbows straight to the ceiling and keep them there. Lower the weight by bending your elbow joint only, to isolate the triceps and eliminate shoulder/lat involvement.

Perform 1 of the exercise above at the start of every workout for 3 sets and you should see gains within 2 weeks, assuming your diet is good and you get plenty of rest.

In terms of you diet, you need a calorific surplus, sufficient protein intake, plenty of fruit and veg to optimise your body’s performance and adequate hydration. Protein intake needs to be spread out evenly throughout the day to maximise the amount of protein that can be metabolized. In terms of rest, you need 8-9 hours sleep per night and to avoid stressful situations.

Using protein shakes, protein powder and creatine supplements are all great ways of maximising results.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

Training & Diet Tips For Maximum Strength, Size & Power Gains in Minimum Time

Below are some tips for increasing your strength, “power-lifter style”. You will gain lots of muscle and power, but perhaps gain a little fat… but are you bothered? Tips below:

1. Lift very heavy weights for failure on 4-6 reps. Use a smooth rep cadence, taking 1 second in the postive phase and 2 seconds in the negative phase.
2. Train for 50 minutes per session, training 3 times per week on non consecutive days.
3. Only use big compound movements like squats, deadlifts, leg press, weighted chins, weighted dips, rows, dumbbell pullovers (Nautilus style, over a bench), bench press, shoulder press and shrugs. Aim for a 2.5% strength increase per week, so that you can increase weight, but stay within your rep range of 4-6 reps and rep cadence range of 1 second up, 2 seconds down.
4. Increase the number of meals you consume per day, keeping them spread out evenly and high in protein, such as eggs, ham, beef, chicken, turkey, milk, nuts, etc. and complex carbs, such as brown rice, wholemeal pasta, wholemeal bread, oats, shredded wheat, baked potatoes, etc. – see protein shakes and carb shakes for related supplements.
5. Use creatine supplements – guaranteed noticeable strength and size gains in 7-10 days, when training as above
6. Keep calories above 20 times your bodyweight in pounds every day
7. Sleep 9 hours every night & drink 10 glasses of water per day

In summary… high calorie, high protein diet, heavy weights, don’t overtrain, use creatine, eat lots of protein, keep hydrated and sleep well. Not that tough is it?

Following the above advice religiously will result in massive size, strength power and muscle mass gains, as long as you are able to train to a very high intensity and do not include curls, or smaller exercises that can lead to over-training. You will probably gain some fat as well as lots muscle, following this advice, but as soon as you get to your desired strength and size where you would want to lose fat and show the muscle, you cut back the calories, do some early morning cardio, etc….. but that is another article!

Regards,

Gareth
Promart Supplements

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

Bench Press Vs Dumbbell Press

Something people often ask is “what is best, dumbbell press or bench press?” My answer is probably dumbbell press, but use both exercises for best results. From my experiences, people seem to gain more strength quicker by doing dumbbell presses. This is possibly because it puts slightly more emphasis on the pecs, than the other supporting muscles because you have to support the dumbbells from falling outwards, keeping constant tension on the pecs, for a fuller range of motion. People tend to cheat more on the barbell bench press, by pausing at the top, not using full range and arching their backs. However, performed properly, both exercises are good muscle mass and strength builders and are therefore heavily used by bodybuilders and strongmen in their routines.

Trigger Muscle Growth

Personally, I think that people should use dumbbell presses 2/3 of the time and barbell bench presses 1/3 of the time for best results. However, triggering muscle growth is about training intensity and time under constant tension, whilst actual muscle growth is severely limited by nutrition and rest. If you think you can train your pectoral muscles to a higher intensity using barbell bench presses, then use that exercise instead. I cannot emphasize enough how important your diet is though when it comes to actual results. Take a look at our rapid muscle gain article for more information, or briefly: consume 20 calories per day for every pound of bodyweight, include 1.5g of protein for every pound of bodyweight, eat even meals every 2-3 hours all day, drink lots of water, sleep well. I fyou need to use supplements to achieve this you can, but they aren’t essential, they just make it easier.

Bench Press & Dumbbell Press Summary & Tips

So remember, train to the highest intensity you can, using a controlled, slow, smooth rep cadence. Spend no more than 50 minutes in the gym, but make sure you train progressively higher intensity for best results on the bench press and every other exercise. As you improve, use a split routine incorporating supersets and dropsets to raise intensity higher. Train to failure and beyond. Expect to gain size and strength over a few weeks by training and eating properly, but only increase weight by 2.5% per week, or your perfect form will not last. This sort of training gives the best results, but if your diet is poor you will end up overtrained and get no results. One more time… make sure your diet is perfect!

Regards,

Martin

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

The following advice, if followed 100% will result in muscle mass gains of around 14 pounds in about 7 weeks for people who are new to bodybuilding. If you have been training a while, then you could still gain 7 pounds of muscle. However, it should be noted that following the advice 95% will not give nowhere near as good results.

1. Consume 20 calories per day for every pound of bodyweight
2. Use Allmax Quickmass twice per day
3. Consume 1.5g of protein for every pound of bodyweight
4. Spread meals and protein out evenly every 2-3 hours throuhout the day (6-8 meal per day is recommended)
5. Drink 8-10 glasses of water per day
6. Include plenty of fruit and vegetables in your diet
7. Never miss one single meal
8. For breakfast, blend 1 cup of fine milled oats, 1 scoop of whey protein, 1 banana and a sprinkle of pumpkin seeds and sunflower seeds in 500ml of water and drink. p.s. the fine milled oats don’t need as much chewing as normal oats and can be drank easier.
9. Drink a pint of milk with 2 slices of wholemeal toast & peanut butter before bed
10. Perform 4 High Intensity Training Sessions per week, using only multiple joint movements such as Squats, Deadlifts, Pullups, Rows and Presses
11. Do a part split routine of upper body on Mondays and Thursdays & lower body Tuesdays and Fridays. Concentrate more on chest and shoulders Mondays and more on your back and triceps Thursdays. Similarly, more on your quads Tuesdays and more on your hams and calves Fridays.
12. Follow every training session with your Allmax Quickmass shake.
13. Training has to be progressively higher intensity, using slow, controlled, smooth reps for full range. Intensity is relative to the individual, but personally for me, a set only begins when I reach failure. Supersets, dropsets and pre-exhaustions are the norm for a typical training session.
14. Try and get 12-14 work sets completed in 50 minutes, then get out of the gym! More is less.
15. Rest as much as possible the rest of the week
16. Don’t drink alcohol
17. Sleep 9 hours per night at the same times every night. Nap through the day if you get chance.
18. Avoid stressful situations.

Let me know how you get on!

Brian.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

Allmax Quickmass Background

Allmax Quickmass - Gain 10 pounds in 10 days

Allmax are a supplements manufacturer based in Canada. They are a relatively new company, but they have an excellent team who are responsible for the introduction of Quickmass, a rapid weight gainer, that claims to give gains of 10 lbs in 10 days.

Quickmass Overview

Allmax Quickmass Label

At 1010 calories per serving, Allmax Quickmass immediately gave the impression of being another cheap, low quality weight gainer, full of fat and high in sugar. But, looking at the label and reading forum reviews, etc. it appeared to be the exact opposite. Quickmass provides a whopping 56g of high quality protein per serving from 8 different sources, including whey concentrate, isolate, hydrolysate, calcium caseinate, micellar casein and egg albumen. Carbs are low GI, easily absorbed maltodextrin, like used in CNP Pro Mass. About 12% of the calories found in Quickmass come from good fats, such as CLA, Flax Seed Oil, Sunflower Oil, Coconut Oil, MCTs and Borage Oil. Also included in the mix is Allmax’s NP5™ technology, which includes Creatine Monohydrate, Di Creatine Malate, L-Taurine and Creatine Ethyl Ester Malate. Every forum post I have read about Quickmass so far point towards it being a great product and we think it will become very popuular in 2011.

Allmax Quickmass – Recommended Usage

Allmax recommend using Quickmass twice per day (4 scoops, twice per day) whilst trying to bulk up. The first serving should be consumed between meals 1 and 2 and the second serving should be consumed as a post workout shake. If you want to maintain your weight, then simply use Quickmass at the same times, but halve the serving size to 2 scoops. Consuming such high amounts of carbs with the creatine and protein makes the best use of the creatine and you really should see some huge gains in short time. Just make sure your training is higher intensity than normal by doing extra forced reps, supersets or whatever is needed. Leave your comments to let me know your thoughts on this product. One final point is that we are trialling Allmax Quickmass ourselves but it is the first day today, so no point saying anything other than it tastes great, but you need a blender to mix the all in one shake properly.

Regards,

Martin.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

Why Do I Need A High Protein Diet?

If you have started a weight training programme and you want to get the best results possible, then you need to provide your body with the nutrients required for muscular growth. As muscle is mainly made up of protein and water, it makes sense that you need more protein in your diet to gain more muscle. But, as your body needs protein every 2-3 hours, you need to consume protein every 2-3 hours, to stop your body from breaking down your muscles. You should note that during every second of every day your body is either gaining muscle (anabolic state or anabolism, equivalent to having a positive nitrogen balance) or losing muscle (catabolic state or catabolism, equivalent to having a negative nitrogen balance). You can control this somewhat with your diet and this is why EVERY successful athlete, bodybuilder or sports person eats at least 5-6 highly nutritional, high protein meals per day.

So How Much Protein Do I Need To Consume Per Day?

There has been lots of debate about this subject, but the general consensus is that you need between 1 and 1.5 grams of protein for every pound of bodyweight per day, EVERY day, to keep your body in an anabolic, muscle building state. For example if you weigh 180lbs, you need between 180g and 240g of protein per day. Our macronutrient calculator provides more guidnace on this subject.

Why Do I Need To Use Protein Supplements?

Now you know how much protein you need per day. Next step, divide that number by the number of meals you eat per day, usually 6 and this is the amount of protein you need per meal. So, again, if you weigh 180lbs, you need 180/6= 30g to 240/6= 40g of protein per meal. So, you would aim to consume about 35g of protein every 2 to 3 hours of every day, i.e. 6am, 9am, 12pm, 3pm 6pm and 9pm. So how are you going to get all of that protein, without consuming a massive amount of calories and getting fat? Well, you could either live off chicken, tuna and cottage cheese, whilst spending your life in the kitchen, or you could follow a diet like the one below:

• 6am: 2 scrambled eggs, 2 slice of wholemeal toast, whey protein shake
• 9am: Meal Replacement Shake
• 12pm: Lunch, whey protein shake
• 3pm: Meal Replacement Shake
• 6pm: Evening Meal + whey protein, if meal lacking in protein
• 9pm: Micellar Casein Shake, 1 slice of wholemeal toast with peanut butter

Whey Protein, Micellar Casein & Meal Replacements – Optimum Usage

As already mentioned, you want to keep your body anabolic, so that you are continuously gaining muscle. So, first thing on a morning, you want some fast releasing protein with your breakfast, i.e. whey protein – whey protein concentrate, isolate, or hydrolysate are all effective on a morning – hydrolysate is slightly better, than isolate, which is slightly better than concentrate, but it doesn’t matter much at this time.

During the day, between regular meals, consume a meal replacement shake as they contain about 40g of fast, medium and slow releasing proteins, are low sugar, low fat and also contain most of your recommended daily allowance (RDA) of vitamins and minerals, which improve your overall health and performance. With regular meals, if they don’t contain your 30g to 40g of protein required per meal, then top them up with a scoop of whey protein.

Before bed, you want a protein that provides a slow release and digests slowly, to keep your body in an anabolic state for as long as possible. Micellar Casein is ideal, as it has been shown in trials retain a positive nitrogen balance in individuals for up to 7 hours.

Nearly forgot… you also need to make sure that as well as your protein, your calories need to be spread out evenly throughout the day to increase energy levels, regulate insulin levels and maximise absorption of nutrients. Another rule of thumb is to consume between 15 and 20 calories per day for every pound of bodyweight. Also, drink 8-10 glasses of water per day to keep hydrated – it will allow you to lift more!

Now You Are Anabolic, Get To The Gym!

Now your body is in the perfect environment for muscle growth, you need to stimulate that muscle growth by going to the gym and lifting heavy weights 2-4 times per week, depending upon the individual. I can get away with 2 sessions, but I train to an extremely high intensity which has taken over 10 years to make perfect. If you are fairly new to the gym or you are young and recover quickly, 3 or 4 sessions per week is okay. Research HIT style routines, Ellington Darden style training, Braun series of books by Stuart McRobert and Dorian Yates style training. This will give you all the tools to you need to set up your own perfect routine, that gives progressive results week after week, year after year.

Regards,

Martin Procter
Promart Supplements

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

CNP Pro Solo

Pro Solo Overview

CNP Pro Solo is an “all-in-one” bodybuilding supplement, which contains all of the main ingredients required by the body to gain lean muscle size and strength. All-in-one supplements are the most convenient and cost effective way of meeting the nutritional requirements of busy people involved in high intensity sports and bodybuilding. This enables people who do not have the time or the desire to use several different supplements throughout the day to get all the nutrients they need from a quick shake in the morning and another in the evening.

Why Pro-Solo?

Pro Solo is manufactured by CNP Professional, who are a well established bodybuilding & sports supplements company, with a very large following. They have built their reputation based upon the quality of their products and their research into protein absorption and protein synthesis. Pro Solo is one of CNP’s most recent products, which was only first released in 2009, as a rival product to Maximuscle Cyclone and Reflex One Stop, which have both been around for quite a few years now. The difference with Pro Solo is that it has been designed to be a better product and give better results than the competition. When comparing all-in-one ingredients, most have 25-30g of protein and 5g creatine, with variations on the remaining ingredients. This is where Pro Solo stands out, as it contains 8 additional muscle building ingredients, each of which are described below.

Pro Solo Ingredients & Benefits

CNP Pro Solo Serving Size, Flavours & Cost

Pro Solo comes in Strawberry and Choclate Orange flavours in a 1.2Kg tub, providing 20 servings, lasting 10 days when used twice daily – you can expect significant muscle gains within 10 days with this product. Pro Solo is available with free next day delivery from our website, when ordered before 2pm. Also, we will price beat any genuine UK delivered price on this product! To see the product page, click here – CNP Pro Solo

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

What is Whey Protein?

Whey protein is made from milk and is a by-product of the cheese making process. It is freeze dried and put through various treatments to remove lactose and fat, with natural and/or artificial colours and flavours added for taste and appearance. Drinking whey protein shakes is better than drinking milk, as milk contains a lot of sugar and fat, which means for every 20g of protein from whey protein powder, you would need to drink over a pint of milk, at 2-4 times the calories depending upon whether you use skimmed, semi-skimmed or whole milk. The extra calories from the sugars and fats in milk are likely to lead to the accumulation of unwanted body fat.

How Is Whey Protein Used Efficiently?

To gain lean muscle, when weight training, it is recommended that you consume at least 1g of protein per pound of bodyweight per day, split over 6 meals. For a 12 stone (168 pound) individual, following a weight training programme, requiring 168g of protein per day, results can be massively improved by supplementing with whey protein. Each meal would need to include 28g of protein and as you cannot eat tuna or chicken 6 times per day, you basically supplement the low protein meals with 20g of whey protein, to reach your daily target. You could literally consume a whey protein shake with every meal, as long as you are still eating a complete diet with plenty of fruit, veg, wholemeal bread, rice, cereal, etc.

The mistake that many people make is that they supplement with 40g of whey protein at a time, which can be wasteful, as 20g of whey protein is the optimum amount in terms of digestion and absorption (subject to genetics), not to mention that consuming too much protein de-sensitises the body to protein and provides additional calories.

The Cost of Supplementing with Whey Protein

A 25g scoop of whey protein generally provides 20g or protein, with a very small amount of carbs and fat and based upon the cost of CNP Whey Protein, which is a high quality and affordable whey protein supplement. Each serving costs just £0.35, which works out to be less than 2 pence per gram of protein, meaning that it is the cheapest (and best) source of protein available, whether from normal food or supplements, whilst providing positive health benefits, such as boosting the immune system.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

Whey Protein from EAS

Whey Protein

Whey protein is a collection of globular proteins derived from whey, a by-product of the cheese making process that contains all the soluble constituents of milk. Whey protein is widely recognised as being a high quality, easily digestable source of protein that supports lean muscle growth, fat loss and facilitates muscle recovery after high intensity anaerobic training.

It is absolutely essential to consume adequate amounts of high quality protein whilst training. If an individuals protein intake is too low and infrequent, then their metabolic rate is likely to drop, their strength will diminish and their ability to build muscle tissue will be hindered. In fact, their body will be in a negative nitrogen balance, meaning that they are in a ‘muscle losing state’.

Whey Protein is a fast releasing protein, so makes an ideal protein supplement to be taken with breakfast and before and after training, as well as with regular low protein meals.

CNP Pro Peptide

Protein Supplements

To keep someone weighing 200lbs in a postive nitrogen balance, so that they are in a ‘muscle building state’, their daily protein intake would need to be around 300g (ideally 40g of protein should be consumed every 2 hours throughout the day). To consume this quantity of protein from solid foods such as chicken, fish and milk is very time consuming, costly and not very practical for many people who have busy lives. An excellent solution to this problem is to add protein supplements to an existing well balanced diet. For example, if you are eating a chicken salad, then it is likely that sufficient protein is included within the meal. But, if you are eating pasta in a tomato sauce, then you should supplement such low protein meals with protein shakes. Reflex Instant Whey is an ideal example of a whey protein supplement. Instant Whey contains a high concentration of branched chained amino-acids and a digezyme enzyme system to ease protein digestion.

If you want better results and you have a bigger protein supplements budget, then you could try supplementing with Pro-Peptide from CNP Professional. Pro-Peptide is an advanced blend of bioactive fast and slow proteins. It contains whey protein high fraction concentrate and hydrolysed whey. This mixture of whey contains high levels of probiotic organisms that assist in protein metabolism leading to nitrogen retention and a healthy digestive system. For muscle building purposes, such high quality fast and slow releasing proteins keep you in a muscle building state much longer than regular whey protein supplements.

Its a fact - to develop your body to its full potential a diet rich in protein is critical!

Regards,

Gareth

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

Creatine Supplements Introduction

This article provides a summary of the benefits of creatine supplementation for athletes, sports men and women and bodybuilders, along with an overview of how creatine is made and the different types available.

What Is Creatine and what does it do?

Creatine is a naturally occurring acid which helps supply energy to your muscles. In simple terms, a higher amount of creatine in your muscles will provide more energy to your muscles, allowing you to lift slightly more weight for more reps, meaning that you can train to a higher than normal intensity. When combined with a good high protein diet, with a calorific surplus, you will gain significant additional muscle mass and strength in a couple of weeks, due to the increased training intensity. Whilst using Creatine, your muscles become super hydrated, meaning that 8-10 glasses of water per day are required to get optimum results and avoid dehydration. The increased water uptake in the muscles is partly responsible for the weight gain that will be noticed when using creatine supplements.

Where does Creatine come from?

Creatine can be produced by the body from certain amino acids (which make up protein), meaning that a whey protein shake could boost natural creatine production in the body. However, around 50% of the creatine in your body comes directly from food sources, mainly red meat. So, eating more red meat and supplementing with whey protein will boost creatine levels naturally, without using a creatine supplement. However, only small amounts of creatine will be acquired, compared with the optimum amount provided in a creatine supplement and supplementation provides much better results, without the need to eat excessive amounts of red meat. If you are a vegetarian, then your natural creatine levels will be lower than normal, so you will benefit most from creatine supplements.

Which Creatine Supplement is best?

Creatine Monohydrate has been around for years, has been used by millions of people, is tried and tested and works very well. Creatine Monohydrate is purer than ever now and the main side effects are muscle gain, stomach cramps and dehydration. However, If you drink plenty of water, then stomach cramps are less likely and you are left with the muscle gain! Dosage is usually 20g per day for 5 days (loading phase), followed by 5g per day (maintenance phase).

Creatine Ethyl Ester is an advanced type of creatine supplement, that doesn’t give stomach cramps and requires no loading phase, with dosage typically 2-4g per day.

Other creatine supplements include micronised creatine monohydrate (less stomach cramps), creatine and carnosine (enhances creatine effects) and Creatine and Nitric Oxide (enhances creatine effects and improves muscle pump and recovery)

Creatine Tips

Whichever creatine supplement you decide to buy, you will see muscular size and strength gains almost immediately, as long as you:

1. drink 8-10 glasses of water per day
2. consume a calorific surplus, i.e. 15 to 20 times your bodyweight in pounds, in calories per day, with 20 times for someone with a fast metabolism
3. consume at least 1g of protein per pound of bodyweight, split between 6 or more equal meals, spread out evenly throughout the day
4. sleep at least 8 hours per night
5. perform high intensity anaerobic exercise 3-4 times per week, with sets lasting 30-40 seconds, i.e. 6-10 slow controlled reps per set

The net result of creatine supplementation is that when you stop using it, you will have already gained the muscular size and strength. Your muscles will not hold on to the additional water, so you may lose a little bit of weight, but this is normal and you will retain the extra muscle which was the original plan. A few weeks later, creatine can be used again for further muscle gain.

Note: As always, it is advised that you contact your GP for advice, before you start any new diet, training or supplementation programme.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites