California Dreams - Psychological Effects of Steroids
Some people may state that the wide spread use of steroids among athletes is forcing young and upcoming athletes to use steroids, even though it's against their morals. This is because they know they can not compete adequately against their opponents who are using steroids to achieve higher levels of performance. One might say, this is how competition works though. Race car drivers and gymnasts are out there every day, pushing themselves harder and harder, going just a little faster, or doing a new, more difficult trick.
Many believe they are forced by their own desire to win, and the hazardous risks they take, be it taking a corner a little faster or pulling an extra flip in a routine, are no different than the risks a football player, wrestler, or weightlifter takes when they choose to use steroids to increase their skills. Many believe these reasons make steroid use morally justified, and say their use in sports and other activities are just an added element in boosting their performance.
First, the benefits of steroids are very plain to see. The user gains mass, speed, and strength very quickly. Also, he or she has a more aggressive attitude, which is good for many athletes, especially football players. A weightlifter can gain the strength and mass he wants without having to work as hard as natural body builders do and he or she can get ready for competitions in a much shorter time. A lot of people do not see anything wrong with steroids because the body already produced testosterone; therefore, steroids just increase the amount.
Steroids can also effect family and friends as well. Check out this clip from the TV show Califorina Dreams and watch how taking steroids can not also alter your appearance but also alter your mood and emotions.
First of all I would like congratulate you on taking your first step to building a better body. Right before we get into the details we should go through some basics quickly as well as explain why this program can work for you. To grow you need to get into the gym, train hard and then rest. Resting is where the actual muscle growth takes place not in the gym. This is the typical beginners mistake. He or she will train too much and rest too little. When you are in the gym you break down your muscles. You then leave and they will recover and given enough rest and food they will recover bigger ! Simple huh ? Well kinda...
Below are the basic principles on which our routine is based on...
Compound Exercises
Compound exercises are the exercises that place the most stress on your body and often require many muscles to perform the movement, thus stimulating more muscle growth.. The deadlift is a good example. Although this movement is often classed as a lower/uper back exercise to pull off this movement you need to use your legs and much of the upper body. This in turn stimulates more growth. Do I need to tell you that compound exercises are the cornerstone of the Wannabebig routine ? I didn't think so !
Rest/Recovery
You grow out of the gym not in it ! Therefore to make your muscles bigger you need to work them hard in the gym and then give enough resting time to allow them to recover. Our routine is constructed so you get maximumn recovery time between workouts and muscle groups.
So with a combination of the above you will have no choice BUT to grow!
All that is needed know is the actual routine. Although there may be certain terms you do not understand in the routine, we have links to descriptions and movies of all exercises listed aswell as a full glossary to make things clear ! Good luck!
Are you ready to totally transform your physique ? If so then the Wanna Be Big training routine is for you. Whether you're a newbie to the game or an experienced bodybuilder you can make great gains with this routine.
Just absorb the the knowledge here and then hit the iron HARD. You have no choice but to grow. This is just an effective routine that can help you put on muscle like you wouldn't believe.
Routine Split and Exercise Selection (Part I)
Day 1 : Chest and Back
Chest
Flat Barbell Bench Press : 2 x 6-8 reps Low Incline Dumbbell Press : 2 x 6-8 reps Dips : 2 x 6-8 reps
Back
Chin ups : 2 x 6-8 reps Deadlifts : 2 x 6-8 reps Barbell Rows : 2 x 6-8 reps Shrugs : 1 x 10 reps
Day 2 : OFF
Day 3 : Legs
Squats : 2 x 6-8 reps Hack Squats : 2 x 6-8 reps Leg Curls : 2 x 6-8 reps Straight Legged Deadlifts : 2 x 6-8 reps Standing Calve Raises : 4 x 10 reps
Day 4 : OFF
Day 5 : Shoulders, Triceps and Biceps
Shoulders
Military Press in Rack : 2 x 6-8 reps Seated Dumbbell Press : 2 x 6-8 reps Standing Lateral Raises : 2 x 10 reps
Routine Split and Exercise Selection (Part II)
Triceps :
Narrow Grip bench Press : 2 x 6-8 reps French Press : 2 x 6-8 reps
Biceps :
Barbell Curls : 2 x 6-8 reps Hammer Curls : 1 x 6-8 reps
Day 6 : OFF
Day 7 : OFF
Abs to be done on any training day of personal choice.
Crunches : 4 x 8-10 reps
So you now should know exactly what you should be doing each day of the week.
When performing any of the above exercises the most important thing to remember is to always use good form. This will ensure you continue to progress and limits chances of an injuries.
Progression is the key. Always try to progress on each exercise, each week. Whether it is an extra couple of reps on a weight you used last week or perhaps the same amount of reps with an extra 2.5 KG's. These might seem like small amounts but these small amounts gradually add up to considerable progress.
However although this is supposed to be a training routine we thought we would throw in some nutrition and supplement tips for you. First of all, you should realize nutrition is THE most important factor in achieving your goals. You body will not develop unless you feed it the nutrients it needs to recover from your workouts.
Eat Clean. This can't be stressed enough. You can't build a good body on pizza, chips and burgers. It just isn't going to happen. You need to feed your body good quality carbs, protein and fat sources and each meal should have a healthy amount or each one.
Eat smaller more frequent meals. 6 smaller meals a day are far better than 3 large ones a day. Whether your goal is to lost fat or to put on mass, this approach is best. Eating more regularly keeps the metabolism high which helps you to burn more fat as well as keeping your energy levels good throughout the day.
Count calories. Putting on mass, or dieting for fat loss will mean you have to manipulate calorie totals to achieve your goals. If you do not count your calories, then how do you know you are eating the right amount for your goal, or how can you change your plan if you do not know what to change.
Vacations are notorious for killing willpower. You're free to do whatever you want, and for most of us that means relaxing, kicking back and eating everything that isn't nailed down. After gorging yourself and lying around for a week, you could find yourself packing a few extra pounds along with your souvenirs. Since you're probably not going to pass up all that good food, the only way to avoid weight gain is to incorporate exercise into your schedule.
While each vacation exercise personality has its unique recommendations, some guidelines apply to everyone:
Get A Complete Physical Before You Leave If you haven't been to the doctor in awhile, have your physician give you a full check-up. Too much activity can trigger heart attacks and other ailments, so it's best to know what your body can and cant handle. If you must take medications, make sure you pack plenty for your trip, and don't forget to take them.
Enjoy Your Favorite Foods -- In Moderation If you've been dreaming about that surf-and-turf buffet, by all means, indulge, but leave some food for the rest of the passengers. "You can eat what you want, you just can't eat a lot of it," says Carter. Try cutting those large portions in half and distance yourself from an attractive food spread. The farther away you are, the less tempted you'll be.
Warm Up Properly Vacations are an excellent time to start exercising, especially if you always find an excuse not to at home. It's easier to make time for exercise when you're not worrying about chauffeuring the kids or planning a business meeting. You need to generate some heat throughout your body, If you don't, your muscles will constrict to the point where you won't be mobile. You have to do cardiovascular exercise to build up initial endurance. If you don't have access to a health club, invest in a pair of light dumbbells or an inexpensive exercise band. Before heading out to see the sights, do a light warm-up, and carry a bottle of water with you to keep from becoming dehydrated.
Don't Overdue It. Listen to your body. Leg cramps, excessive perspiration and shortness of breath are all signs that you need to back off. "If you can't talk, you're working too hard," says Carter. "If you can sing, you're not working hard enough." Don't hesitate to stop and rest when you need it. Give your body a chance to cool down. When you feel you've regained your strength, continue.
Vacations are a time to regroup and relax. Give in to your desire to eat, drink and be merry, but don't forget to add exercise to your itinerary. When you do, you'll come back home fit and full of energy. "Take advantage of that time to have fun and pull your mind and body together," says Carter. "After all, you only have so many vacation days each year.
If your idea of a rigorous vacation workout is walking back and forth to the ice machine, you fall into this category. As an Accidental Exerciser, your biggest obstacle is overcoming the belief that exercise will only make you tired, that's a myth, if done properly and within your physical limitations, exercise will boost your energy level, exercise disguised as fun or necessity will work best for you.
When these guys walk on stage, it is an impressive sight. They both weigh in excess of 260 lbs. with body fat percentages so low they aren't even worth mentioning. It's a display of just how far the human physique can be pushed. It's a battle of nutrition and training strategies. Cutler and Coleman are shredded, no question.
Tips on Losing Weight and Exercising while on a Busy Schedule
With my experience and knowledge of Dietary Supplement, I've have the opportunity to speak with people from all walks of life about their health and fitness, and weight loss. Weather their goal was to lose weight, gain muscle, stick to a serious diet plan or program, improve on thier own cardiovascular health or simply trying to maintain their fitness level, just take note that we all have one common enemy---Time.
For a lot of us, the #1 challenge in achieving their goal to stay in shape and/or lose weight not about the excersing itself but being able to fit it into a proper exercise plan on a busy schedule.
So how do you do it? How do you balance the demands of family, career, important errands, relationships, organizational responsibilities, and working out? I have found that there are five keys that will help you to be able to fit a consistent workout plan into your already hectic life.
Commit to a specific schedule When you fail to plan you plan to fail. Don't try to haphazardly fit your workouts into your schedule without any rhyme or reason. Don't think you're guilty? If you've every told yourself "I'll workout as soon as I get some time", you were in direct violation of this key principle.
In order to set yourself up for success, you will need to take the time to literally write your workouts into your weekly schedule. In order to be effective, you will want to be following your exercise program at least 3 days per week. Anything less would be kidding yourself.
Therefore, right in the midst of all of your appointments, "to-do" lists, etc., should be a written plan for your weekly workout routine, so that you will never be in the dark as to when you committed to yourself to go.
Utilize the weekend Take advantage of the fact that it only takes 3-5 days per week to put together an effective, results-producing workout. One trick to help you pull it all off is to workout on the weekends. One of the benefits to this course of action is that your schedule is more flexible and under your control during this time.
What is also means is that when the hectic weekdays roll back around, you will only be responsible for working out 1-3 days during the work week.
Keep your workouts as a high priority One of the biggest mistakes that even many people who have scheduled a workout program into their schedule make is allowing it to be bumped off of their schedule to easily.
Although things will occassionally come up that will cause you to have to reschedule the workout you had planned, you must be vigilant in making sure that only the most important emergencies are allowed to temporarily take you off of your plan.
In the event that one of those important emergencies does happen and you can't make it to your workout, reschedule with yourself to make it up on the next possible day that you are available to do so. If your own health, fitness, and efforts to lose weight are not a priority to you, they certainly won't be so to anyone else.
Enroll others in your goals Don't go at this alone. Let the important people in your life know what you are up to. You love interest, spouse, parents, children, co-workers, and close friends will often pitch in and help you to meet your fitness or weight loss commitment to yourself if you make them aware adn ask for their support.
Leverage these relationships to delegate some of your normal responsibilities or even allow you to shift appointments that you have with them as you restructure your schedule for your workout. If any of them are into exercise or trying to lose weight themselves, don't hesitate to form a buddy system with them as you move forward with your program.
Don't beat yourself up No matter who you are, there will be times in your workout program that you just aren't able to keep it up as you would like due to outside demands. Don't be too tough on yourself on this.
Remember that it is what you do consistently over a long period of time, not what you do in spurts, that truly counts. Just make sure that you get back on the horse full force as soon as you can and continue to press forward, doing your best to avoid slacking off again.
Credit: exercise.about.com
No matter what goals you have for health, fitness, or weight loss, you CAN fit an effective exercise program into that hectic schedule of yours and be amazingly successful at getting the exact results that you want!
Video Tribute to Serge Nubret, Bodybuilding Legend
Serge Nubret remains one of the most significant figure and for lots of bodybuilders, he represents the out-of-the-box aesthetic reference. His legacy is well alive, witnessing the Golden Age of bodybuilding when balance and harmony were keys to all achievements.
There are tons of workout routines that we bodybuilders do to achieve maximum results and get that super shredded look, from time to time we share out regimens with each other in the gym. What I have here is a summary of some strength training methods that seriously work and will definitely assist you in achieve maximum muscle strength in no time!
Training Frequency The two main components of strength training are the intensity of the exercise and the recovery after the exercise. Infrequent, short, high intensity weight training sessions, followed by the required amount of time to recover and become stronger is what is needed to increase functional muscle size in the shortest period of time. The latest research has repeatedly shown that muscles over-compensate (become stronger) up to a week after the previous workout, provided that the muscles are trained to failure.
Remember it's not the training volume but the intensity and recuperation that are important when it comes to gains in strength and muscle.
Exercises Per Session Tests under strict gym conditions have revealed that you've only got a limited amount of (readily available) energy to use for a weight training session. Blood tests on individuals have also revealed that blood sugar levels (available energy) drop dramatically after 20 to 30 minutes of high intensity training. As you only have a short period of time to train before our blood sugar level drops, "Exercise Selection" is crucial. You have to use Multi-Joint or Compound movements, as these offer the most training stimulus for the available amount of time. In other words, we can train many muscles simultaneously and thus use our energy more efficiently.
Performing three to four exercises with high intensity during a session are what most people are capable of. All the main structures of the body are worked hard during this time. Working on these big compound movements has a knock-on effect throughout the whole body; there is no need for specialization techniques or isolation movements.
The fact is, the whole body is worked hard, rest and recuperation is allowed to take place and at the next exercise session we push out a few more reps than before with the same weight, then we have gotten stronger i.e. more muscle.
Number of Sets per Exercise After performing one complete set a compound exercise to total failure, it should be just about impossible to generate the same force and intensity for another complete set of the same exercise. If you're able to generate the same force and intensity for this second set then it'll be pretty obvious that not enough effort has been put into the first set. Thus you'll have to raise the intensity level you put out for the first set.
If you give the first set 100% effort and work the exercise hard to total failure (eg. you cannot move the bar after the last rep) then there will be not more requirement for further muscle stimulation on that specific exercise.
If you think that volume training (multiple sets) is more effective, think again. The latest research shows that single set training is as beneficial as multiple set training. Training one set will decrease the chances of over-training. It will also allow you to save more energy for other exercises required during the workout.
Number of Repetitions per Set The development of muscle and strength is interrelated. Strength training sessions produce increases in strength that are equal to increases in functional muscle. (You’ll become stronger and grow muscle). Cycling intensity through changes in repetitions and weight throughout a ten-week program is an effective way to maintain progression and avoid training plateaus (slumps in strength).
Repetitions can be cycled, the higher repetition range will stimulate the slow twitch muscle fibres and promote endurance. Moving further down the scale, the lower repetition range will activate the fast twitch muscle fibres and increase strength and muscle size.
Credit: sportsmedicine.about.com
Try out some out these training strategies and implement them into your workout routine also keep in mind that you must also remember to eat balance that diet and load up on proteins, fish, chicken, etc. Keep training and have a hardcore workout.
I have never seen a female bodybuilder as feminine, beautiful, and massive as Marika Johanssen. She is a Swedish goddess with muscles. Relax and check out this quick clip of IFBB Pro Bodybuilder Marika Johansson at the 2007 Arnold Classic.
With so much controversy these days about the safety of steroids, more and more men are looking for steroid alternatives. The main concern that men have about steroid alternatives is, of course, whether they work as well as steroids.
Alternative Steroid Problems
The looming problem with steroid alternatives is that their performance is always in question. No one needs to question whether steroids work, since their performance has been documented over many years. Steroid alternatives are a relatively new subject of interest as more men are looking for safer ways to achieve the body that they want with the least amount of side effects.
Another problem with some steroid alternatives is that they have yet to be approved by the FDA for either use or sale. This means that you can find a steroid alternative that works, but that you can face restricted access, and even less scientific research, due to FDA regulations. Whenever you’re using a steroid alternative it’s important to keep an open mind as to how effective it will prove to be.
Alternative Solutions
The following list of steroid alternatives has received some critical approval as a viable alternative for steroids. Keep in mind, however, that tests are still being conducted on these alternatives to see how effective they are compared to steroids; and as such there may be both pros and cons that have not yet been identified and scientifically explored. Some of these alternatives that are considered to be muscles builders include:
As more and more men are concerned about the use of steroids to achieve the bodies that they want, they are looking for steroid alternatives that do the same thing. But when even these alternatives are in question, or unavailable, they need to find other ways to get the body that they want. Some alternative ways to get that body include:
Proper nutrition, with a high protein diet.
Strength training exercise over a long period of time.
Positive mental health.
Yoga for definition and mental health.
Relaxation exercises.
One of the most important things that men can do when it comes to achieving the body that they want is to focus on all areas of their health. This means eating a diet that is high protein and high in the right amount of fats, such as flax seed oil and olive oil. It also means maintaining a regular exercise program that allows for a combination of cardio, weight, and strength training.
When men focus on their overall health they have a better chance of being happy with their body the way it is, thus reducing or eliminating the desire to have a body that “looks” good; instead accepting one that “feels” great.
There are plenty of steroid alternatives that are hitting the market but the question is do they work and how well do they work. No one wants to use steroid alternatives, only to find that the results are not what they want.
