12 Greatest Abs Foods

Courtesy Men”s Health
Fuel your muscles, ignite your metabolism, and fight disease with this dozen Read more.

Choosing the Best Way to Increase Height Naturally

Syndicated from eZineArticles
Many people wonder if they can increase height naturally after a certain age. Because they have been disappointed in some many ways by medicine, which offers them no change to a normal life and because they are constantly under pressure because of the society. Read more…

The Most Effective Diet Changes You Can Make

Syndicated from eZineArticles
There are hundreds of different nutrition tips available to us on the internet. Whether we are trying to lose 50 pounds or 5 pounds, there is an answer to every problem. However, often times, the results we want to attain are not the results we get. There could be several reasons behind this dilemma; however, one of the most vital of these reasons is poor nutrition. In this article I will reveal some of the most effective diet changes you can make. Read more…

Hardgainer Blog Carnival Is Returning

The Hardgainer Blog Carnival is returning.

The deadline for this one has already passed. The idea is to get 10 awesome posts and publish excerpts of them on this site. You get a backlink and possible traffic; I get a little break from creating all my own content 🙂

Win-win.

Ground rules: Fitness-related posts about building muscle, burning body fat, or increasing athletic performance. I'lll consider health-related posts, too, but they really have to be targeted the overall theme of this site. Your post does not have to be specifically about hardgainers.

Does that make sense?

Oh, yeah, the backlink you get for making a successful entry is Do Follow. Very valuable for SEO purposes.

I'll post the top 10 entries on May 31 and then again when I get to 10 great posts. So far, there have been a lot of submissions that are not relevant. Any suggestions on what I should do with them?

Cycling

One of the most often overlooked training principles is that of cycling. Also known as Periodization, cycling is perhaps your greatest tool to continued gains in the gym. It also works great on the diet, whether you're trying to gain mass or lose body fat. Either way, changing things up, in a strategic way, can really give you an edge in your bodybuilding and/or body shaping efforts.

There are varying degrees and flavors of cycling. There are microcycles, mesocycles, and macrocycles. I'll define these by way of examples.

Microcycles are characterized by their shortness of duration and their frequency. A microcycle might best be understood by thinking in terms of days whereas a macrocycle might be thought of in terms of months.

• Microcycle => Days
• Mesocycle => Weeks
• Macrocycle => Months

Your training split could be thought of as a microcycle. You don't train the same body parts, using the same exercises, sets, reps, and weights every day; you cycle your workouts. Generally speaking, a 4 day split routine really is nothing more than a microcycle of 2 workouts followed by a day (or two) of rest. Guys on a "Hardgainer" program might have a microcycle that consists of a 3-way split, cycled over the course of a week (legs on Monday, chest and arms on Wednesday, and back and shoulders on Friday, for example).

I personally cycle my nutritional supplementation, too. Every Thursday and Sunday, I lay off them completely, even if on a heavy phase.

A mesocycle may be one where your general workouts change over a 3 to 6 week period. I almost never have the same workout, but I keep the same split and generally keep the same or similar exercises (it's the weight, reps, and sets that vary); however, after about 6 weeks, my mind (and probably body) starts to get bored and I need a change (as you know, all progress – and failures – start at the brain). Such a change is actually positive on a few counts.

First, the aforementioned mind problem. Second, the body has little time to adapt to a workout if it's changing every 3-6 weeks. Finally, your muscles are better stimulated (think "all around") with a variety of exercises, sets, reps, and weights. Different muscle fibers may come into play with different workouts.

Finally, a macrocycle could be thought of as a pre-contest, contest, and post-contest training (if you're a competitive bodybuilder or VERY serious about your bodybuilding). Generally, bodybuilders train for many months, attempting to add mass; then they get into contest mode, where they're shoring up small weaknesses while stripping themselves of as much body fat as possible. Then, there's the post-competition training and dieting, where they might go on a break and then resume with their pre-contest program.

Personally, after every 3-6 weeks, I like to take off a week from weight training. I don't become a couch potato, of course. I don't want to see all my hard work vanish. What I do, however, is take a week off from the gym. I may go on several bike rides or hikes. I take along my hobbies, too. For example, I like photography. I will carry my trusty digital SLR with me on a hike up Half Dome.

Every year, I also take off a month from "regular" training. I might take up some "Caveman Training" or some body weight exercises. I may take up some very low volume powerlifting. Nothing that will kill my joints (the idea here is to rest the body and mind, let them heal from nagging injuries), but just experience something different.