What Causes Muscle Growth?

In order for muscles to grow, three things are required:

1. Stimulus - exercise is needed to make the muscles work, use energy and cause microscopic damage to the fibers.

2. Nutrition - after intense exercise the muscles need to replenish their stores of fuel.

3. Rest - it is during the rest or recovery phase that the muscles repair the microscopic damage and grow.

Muscle size increases due to hypertrophic adaptation and an increase in the cross section area of individual muscle fibers. Intensive exercise impacts more on the strength influencing fast twitch type II fibers, therefore the increase in muscle size is accompanied by greater strength.

This will deplete the muscle's energy stores and cause microscopic damage to the muscle tissue. During recovery, these stores of glycogen and phosphocreatine will replenish from carbohydrates and creatine ingested as food or supplements. Amino acids supplied in the diet will trigger the protein synthesis that repairs the damaged muscle and lead to the creation of bigger muscle fibers.

To achieve continuous improvement you will need to keep reaching for higher levels of training intensity otherwise the improvement process will grind to a halt. Fortunately, this is relatively easy to plan for provided certain basic principles and rules are clearly followed. Just be sure to build sufficient rest into your training program otherwise the hard work will go to waste. For many bodybuilders and athletes generally, it is the rest element that seems most difficult. Subsequent articles in this series will examine these principles in detail.

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How Long Should You Rest Between Muscle Building Sessions?

In an earlier article we concluded that muscles must be worked to failure if an adequate hypertrophic response is to occur. Whether this involves one or more sets is irrelevant as in either scenario the muscles must be worked to failure and beyond. This causes significant microscopic damage to the muscle tissues and it is during the period of recovery that protein synthesis undertakes the repair process that results in bigger muscle fibers.
But how long does this process take and when is it safe to expose those same muscles to further intensive exercise? Scientific studies suggest that muscle fiber degradation takes approximately five to seven days to repair and recover. Any further exposure of the affected muscle to intensive activity will interfere with the recovery process and actually prevent it from achieving maximum growth. However, using the muscle to assist in exercising other body parts or even taking part in low intensity aerobic exercise will not prevent recovery.
It follows therefore that each muscle group should be trained intensively only once each week in order to allow full recovery. This can be achieved by incorportating a split training regime that allows you to work out several times each week but still exercise each muscle group intensively only once every seven days.
You can find out more about building muscle by visiting the site listed below.

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Know Your Muscles - The Chest And Upper Back

Becoming familiar with the muscles that make up your body has more benefits than simply allowing you to talk shop with your training partners. The more familiar you are with the muscles you're working, the better you'll be able to judge what's needed to make improvements. In this article we'll get to know the muscles that make up the chest and upper back.
Although they are two distinct areas, the chest and the upper back will be considered together because achieving a muscular balance between them is crucial, particularly in relation to maintaining good posture. Creating an imbalance between the two is likely to result in injury.
The main muscles found in the chest and uper back are as follows:
1. Pectoralis major - these are the large chest muscles found to either side of the breastbone. Its main job is to bring the upper arm inwards across the body, a movement that is known as horizontal adduction.
2. Latissimus dorsi - this is the largest back muscle that runs from the lower back to the upper arm bone. It pulls the upper arm towards the body and acts as an internal rotator of the upper arm.
3. Trapezius - this muscle runs from the mid spine to the shoulder and then to the neck. Its main role is to faciltiate movement of the shoulder blades.


Richard Mitchell is the creator of the bodybuildingadvisor.com [http://bodybuildingadvisor.com] website that provides guidance and information to athletes at all levels of bodybuilding experience. Go to Bodybuilding Advice [http://www.bodybuildingadvisor.com/index.html] to learn more about the issues covered in this article.

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The Importance of Sets in Your Muscle Building Program

In an earlier article we looked at how repetitions contribute to the muscle building process, but is the position regarding sets just as clear cut? Unfortunately, the answer to this is no as some experts feel one set to failure is sufficient, whereas others argue that multiple sets are needed to ensure maximum muscle gains.

Research to date suggests that, when using six to eight repetitions to failure at 75-80% 1RM, there is little significant difference between training with single and multiple sets in terms of increasing either strength or muscle size. Any small differences that have been recorded indicate that a single set completed to failure encourages strength gains but subsequent sets have a slightly greater impact on muscle size. What is clear is that the law of diminishing returns applies, so you have to question if the marginal improvements in size justify the extra time and effort expended.

Like everything else in life, bodybuilding does not remain static and several cutting edge experts have redefined the boundaries of achievement. Increasingly, serious athletes are using methods that extend the set beyond the point of failure. This involves forcing the muscle to perform more work despite having experienced failure in the previous rep. In practice, you perform one last forced repetition with the help of a training partner.

This obviously calls for great commitment and high motivation but the rewards include better mass gains thanks to the greater muscular overload. Such intensive training places additional importance on the need to lift with sound technique and to incorporate sufficient recovery time into your muscle building program.

There are many excellent websites and books available to guide you in the right direction, but finding a knowledgeable training partner or qualified coach will accelerate your progress quickly.

Richard Mitchell is the creator of the bodybuilding-revealed.com [http://www.bodybuilding-revealed.com/] website that provides guidance and information to athletes at all levels of bodybuilding experience. Go to Bodybuilding Revealed [http://www.bodybuilding-revealed.com/] to learn more about the issues covered in this article.

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Skin Care for Oily Skin

Proper skin care is something that people should not overlook and do in order to look and feel good. Since the dermis is the biggest organ in the human body, it is understandable that caring for it may have some difficulty at times. The reality is, your face usually gets the most attention because this is the area that is usually seen in the mirror first and is the first thing people notice about you. Other areas that may be noticed easily are those of the hands and the legs. In spite of this, the face is also one part that may be oilier than the others.
An oily face is not an attractive quality, not only because of the shiny sheen that one usually gets but also because of the messy appearance that comes with it. Dirt and other debris will stick easily to the oily surface, which is why skin care for the face is important.
Having an abundant presence of sebaceous glands in the face is not all that bad, though. It should be noted that those who have been blessed with an overabundance of oil in the face are less prone to developing wrinkles and creases. This is because the oil helps to keep the dermis supple and helps to moisturize it naturally. This means that caring for it should not leave it dry and in need of moisture, but rather just enough that it does not shine and have a messy appearance.
One way of doing this is to regularly use blotting paper to take away the oil. The use of blotting paper should be around every two or three hours or when the person has been exposed to some heat or when the individual notices that the face has an oily sheen to it already. There are no ill side effects of using these because all they do is take away the excess sebum.
Another skin care tip for facial oil is to use a cleanser in the morning and at night to rid the face of the excess production. It is best to follow the instructions that come with the cleansers because the wrong use might encourage more oil production. Harsh soaps and astringents should also be used minimally because these can make the face dry and encourage the production of more sebum.
Too much oily presence can lead to the development of acne. Some people also use medicated pads to blot out the excess production of oil as well as to apply some medicine on the area. These act the same as the blotting paper with the combined power of salicylic acid or glycolic acid. Instructions regarding the use of medicated pads should be followed since the medicines in them may not be good if used too frequently.

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