Transform Your Body and Get Ripped, How to Get Ripped

So what are your goals? Do you want to get bigger, stronger, leaner or all of the above? The first thing you need to know is if you want to transform your body the absolute best way is with weight training. Weight training is without a doubt the perfect exercise to lose fat and build muscle, nothing else compares. There are a lot of other great types of exercise programs such as kickboxing, aerobics, running, cycling and others but none with change your body quicker then doing resistance exercises.

With that said it's time to get down to it. Bottom line is if you want to transform your body and get ripped you WILL need to put in some hard work. There are no magic potions or pills that will get you fit,strong and healthy. Most stuff on the market are just plain crap. All you need is hard work, a healthy diet , a good protein powder and maybe a good multi vitamin. Yes there are some other good products on the market but if your just starting out this is all you will need.

Getting started can be the hardest part so first thing on you agenda should be to set up a schedule and some goals. The schedule should be bible in the beginning otherwise you will be starting and stopping and see no results. Then you will get frustrated and quit. Make a schedule and stick to it. Life will get in the way sometimes but you really need to do everything you can to stay on track.

When setting your goals make them tiered and realistic. Have some weekly, monthly and yearly goals in mind and write them down. Weekly goals can start of simple like cutting out all white breads from your diet or losing a pound. Monthly goals will be bigger such as lose 5 lbs of fat or gain 2 lbs of lean muscle. Yearly goals even bigger and so on.

Once you have your schedule and goals in place it's time to work.

 When starting a training program it helps to know the 3 muscle fiber types. The muscle tissue body  can be broken down into; Slow twitch, Type B fast twitch and Type A fast twitch. All 3 have very specific jobs to perform within the muscle. You can't physically see these different types of muscle fiber but your training will be effected by them.

First Slow Twitch: These muscle fibers are related to endurance activity more then anything else. Runners, cyclers, swimmers, triathletes and any other activity that goes on for an extended duration all focus on the slow twitch fibers. These muscle fibers have a high ability to resist fatigue. This is largely due to the high capacity for oxygen. There are a large number of capillaries running throughout their bodies to get more oxygen to muscle tissue. This in turn helps the muscle work for extended periods with less fatigue.

Next is Type A Fast Twitch: These muscle fibers fatigue very quickly but are will give you your strongest, most forceful muscle contractions. Think Olympic power lifters and Strongmen. A power-lifter with basically need 1 lift and then be done. It's an all or nothing muscle fiber in a sense. These muscles have a very low capacity for oxygen and will use creatine phosphate and muscle glycogen as their main fuel. They are basically the opposite of the slow twitch muscle fibers.

Finally Type B Fast Twitch : These are your middle men so to speak. They do use oxygen and have a higher resistance to fatigue then Type A but are not at all near the capacity of the slow twitch fibers. These fibers are used more by your typical weight training programs with rep ranges of 6-10 reps. There is more endurance then the one lift of the type A but nothing like running a marathon.

So how do you train the different muscle fiber types?

For slow twitch you would do exercises like running or cycling as mentioned above. Your goal will be to go longer periods of time everytime you train.

Fast Twitch A would be more like Sprinting full speed or with weight training doing your max in the 1-5 rep range.

Fast Twitch B would be like weight training in the 6- 10 rep range. Interval training with minute res periods also works well with these muscle fibers.

Knowing the muscle fibers and how they relate to your goals should help you get a proper training plan in place. This in turn will help you achieve your goals in less time and with more efficiency.

The following 7 exercises are probably the best compound exercises that will help you both build muscle as well as boost you metabolism so you burn more fat. You will be using compound exercises with free weights as opposed to machines. These exercises bring more muscle groups into play and promote building of more muscle faster then isolation exercises.

First Exercise is Bent Rows. This exercise will incorporate almost all of your muscles from your butt up to your shoulders. Your core will be used to stabilize along with your glutes while your back arms shoulders and even chest will help with the work load.

Next exercise is dead-lifts. Dead-liftsare a great way to get both upper and lower body involved in an exercise while again using your core to keep everything stable.

3rd is clean and press. The clean portion of the exercise will work the lower body and core while the press hits all your upper body muscle as well as the core for stabilization.

4th is the classic bench press. There are many variations of the bench press but, the best is the classic flat bench press. This will work the most muscles for maximum gains. Again other varations would be more isolation exercises and we want to get the whole body working.

5th is pull-ups. Pull-ups work better then machine exercises because again you need to incorporate a larger amount of muscles to stabilizeyour body. So you not only work your back but your core keeps you from swinging around while your arms and shoulders help with the actual pulling up of the body.

6th is Dips. Dips work the chest, arms and shoulders while once again using your core to stabilize your body position.

Last but not least, the dreaded squat. I say dreaded because most people hate doing squats. I personally hated doing squats but found that when I incorporated them into my own workout my muscle gains started coming much quicker.The squat is known to many as the absolute best exercise for building muscle. Again your stabilizers are your core muscles, your legs do most of the work but you also need your upper body muscles to hold the weight in place.

As you can see there is a theme here. Get as many muscles to work in 1 exercise so as to get the metabolism cranking while making the body adapt by growing bigger, stronger muscles.

Check out the video below to learn a little more about these exercises. For more muscle building routines as well as a great all around plan check out How To Get Ripped Naturally

Traditionally resistance bands were considered to be more for physical therapy but, can you build muscle with resistance bands? Most bands originally were fairly light weight and meant to help get started on recovery for muscles or help with the stretching process.

Now though there are many different sets that have a lot more weight to them and can in some cases replace a full home gym or gym membership. Many popular home training programs incorporate band training as a major part of their programs.

Still, the question remains for someone that is really looking to put on muscle, can you do it with bands?

Absolutely, I have done it myself and it actually surprised me how much stronger and more muscular I was able to get using only resistance bands.

The first thing to know is that you are not going to build muscle using just a small rehab type resistance band. You will need a good set that will continue to add resistance and challenge you. Just like with traditional weights, you will need to push yourself with all your workouts.

When looking for a set of resistance bands you will want to make sure that they come with both handles and leg attachments as well as a good door anchor. Many sets will also come with a carrying case an a guide but you can use a regular small string bag to carry them and as for a guide YouTube has a ton of great videos.

If you are looking to build muscle then you will definitely want want a set of bands that is stackable as well as can be expanded on. Resistance Bands Reviews has a lot of information on the top brands available, 2 of which I use myself. Everything you need to know is covered to help you pick out the right set.

What I did as far as a workout goes was pretty simple. I did 1 body part a day 5 days a week mixing up the exercises and order of them on a regular basis. For example:

• Monday Chest
• Tuesday Shoulders
• Wednesday Legs
• Thursday Back
• Friday Arms

I would mix my ab workout in with which ever days I had more time. One of the things I noticed is that using the bands made me engage my core and abs a lot more just during my regular workout. This is a big plus if you are short on time.

Another thing I like about the bands that is different then traditional weights is that the exercise actually gets harder at the end of the motion. With regular weights you have a little resting point at the end of the movement but the resistance bands are constantly pulling back. As you finish the movement the band stretches more making it even harder at the end of every movement.

Even if you are a hardcore free weight person this is an excellent way to mix things up and hit your muscles in a totally different way. Recently i have started to mix and match free weights and bands a little more and it can really intensify the workout.

Bottom line is whether your looking for a cheap and effective home gym, want to mix things up or just want to get started, resistance bands are a great option!

The short answer is yes. Too many people think that when trying to gain hard muscle you have to avoid any and all cardio. This is far from the truth. You do want to avoid over-training so your best bet would be to make sure your cardio sessions are not too close to your weight training sessions. My personal preference is weight training in the early afternoon and cardio at night. Using this schedule has helped me make the most muscle gains with the least amount of added fat gains. Keeping your diet clean is also important but you do need a lot of food if your trying to gain muscle. Because of the extra food intake it is important to incorporate some cardio into your routine so as to avoid getting fat. What you are going for is a bigger, ripped body not a bigger, covered by fat body.

When doing your cardio train like you would(or at least should be) when doing weights. Keep the intensity high and do not let the sessions last too long. I high intensity 20-30 minute cardio session will help you a lot more then an hour long run. You have a lot less chance of losing muscle and will still get the fat burning benefits of a good cardio workout.

so bottom line if you want to get big as well as ripped you will need cardio in your overall program. Play with your program and see how it works for you.