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http://www.fitstep.com/ unless otherwise credited.

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How Stretching Can Explode Your Muscle Growth Not only is stretching important for flexibility, it is CRITICAL for massive, rapid muscle growth!

When you think about gaining muscle, stretching is probably not the first thing that pops into your head. But did you know that stretching plays a critical role in building muscle?

Every muscle in your body is enclosed in a bag of tough connective tissue known as fascia. Fascia is important for holding your muscles in their proper place in your body.

But your fascia may also be holding back your muscle growth. Think for a moment about your muscles. You train them and feed them properly. They want to grow and will grow but something is holding them back. They have no room to grow!

Because fascia is so tough, it doesn't allow the muscle room to expand. It is like stuffing a large pillow into a small pillowcase. The size of the muscle won't change regardless of how hard you train or how well you eat because the connective tissue around your muscles is constricting the muscles within.

The best example of this is the calf muscle. The lower leg is riddled with fascia because of its tremendous weight-bearing duties in the body. It is because of this fascia that many trainers have great difficulty developing their calves.

The solution: stretching.

Using the pillowcase example from above, imagine you can expand the size of the pillowcase by stretching it. Suddenly, the pillow within has more room and will expand to fill that new space.

By stretching your muscles under specific conditions, you can actually stretch your fascia and give your muscles more room to grow.

The key to effective fascial stretching is the pump. The best time to stretch to expand the bags that are holding in your muscles is when your muscles are pumped up full of blood.

When your muscles are fully pumped up, they are pressing against the fascia. By stretching hard at that time, you increase that pressure on the fascia greatly, which can lead to expansion of the fascia.

One of the major reasons Arnold Schwarzenegger had such incredible chest development was that he finished his chest workouts with dumbell flyes, an exercise that emphasizes the stretched position of the pectoral muscles. He would pump his chest up full of blood during the workout then do flyes, holding the stretch at the bottom of the flye. This gave his chest room to grow to amazing proportions.

Fascial stretching is more rigorous than regular stretching but the results can be amazing. When you stretch hard enough to cause the fascia to expand, you will really feel it! When you are stretching the fascia, you should feel a powerful pulling sensation and pressure as the muscle works against the fascia to expand it.

Be sure you do not stretch so hard that you cause the muscle to tear or cause injury to yourself. You will rapidly learn to distinguish the difference between a good stretch and a bad stretch. You should not feel any sharp pain, just a steady pull.

Hold each stretch for at least 20 to 30 seconds as you must give your fascia time to be affected by the stretch. Stretch hard like this only when you have a fully pumped muscle as you must give your fascia a reason to expand. If your muscles aren't pumped, just stretch normally.

You can find instructions for stretching at:

http://www.fitstep.com/Library/Info/Stretching1.htm

One set of hard stretching after each set you do for a muscle group, besides the obvious benefits of increased flexibility, can have an incredible effect on the size of your muscles and their further ability to grow.

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10 Things You Can Do To Lose Fat Without Even Trying Fat loss doesn't have to be painful. Try these simple tips and you'll see just how easy it can be.

1. Eat smaller more frequent meals - not only is your metabolism boosted every time you eat something, your body can more efficiently process smaller meals. Instead of having 3 large meals in a day, try to break them up into 5 or 6 smaller meals.

2. Drink more water - regular water intake helps to flush away waste products in the body. Get at least six to eight 8 oz. glasses per day. An easy way to do this is to keep a water bottle handy and drink from it frequently.

3. Be inefficient - do you need to go to the kitchen to get a couple of things? Break it up into to two trips even if you can do it in one. Being inefficient like this can easily double your activity level, burning calories without even trying.

4. Eat more protein - sources of protein include foods such as chicken, fish, eggs, dairy, beans, lean red meats, etc. Your body burns more calories processing protein than either carbohydrates or fats. Protein also helps to support your muscle tissue, which burns calories all day long!

5. Take the stairs instead of the elevator - any time you can add in a little more physical activity, do it. This doesn't mean you need to slog up 20 flights of stairs. Even a flight or two done regularly will add up.

6. Don't let yourself get hungry - when you get hungry you will have a much greater tendency to overeat when you do finally get something to eat. As well, because your body is starting to go into starvation mode, it will be much more likely to hold onto whatever you give it.

7. Order small portions at restaurants - it's tough to order small french fries when "supersizing" your order is such a great "value." Take note, however, your real savings will occur in the calories that don't end up on your backside.

8. Eat more fiber - fiber is very filling. By eating more fiber you will find yourself full sooner. This feeling of fullness will last a long time as well.

9. Wait 20 minutes between servings - your brain takes at least 20 minutes to register that you're full. By waiting that long, you'll give your brain a chance to realize that you don't really need any more food.

10. Cheat on your diet - one thing I always make my clients promise is that they will cheat on their diet. The only thing I ask that they do is to cheat ONLY when they have planned to cheat. By planning when you are going to eat the foods you crave, you take back control of your eating habits.

This way you no longer "give in" to your cravings. You "reward yourself" for sticking to proper nutritional habits. Do this once or wice a week and you will feel far more in control of your eating.

In conclusion, if you follow even a few of these 10 easy tips in the long term, you will certainly notice a difference in your overall weight and health.

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Secret Training Tip #998 - Target: Rear Delts. One simple movement and they'll be on fire! The rear delts can be tough to isolate. This trick takes ALL the stress off the assisting back muscles and places it squarely where you want it.

The Bent-Over Lateral Raise is one of the most common exercises used for working the rear or posterior deltoids. For most trainers, it can be difficult to really feel the rear delts working during this movement as the larger, stronger muscles of the back have a tendency to take over.

To really get the most out of this exercise, you need to remove the back muscles from the equation. This can be easily accomplished with a simple technique.

How to Do It:

First, get yourself into position for the Bent-Over Lateral Raise. This can either be standing, seated or with your chest on an incline bench. The same technique applies to all variations.

Your arms should be hanging straight down in the start position.

Now, drop your shoulders down towards the ground without moving your torso. You will be keeping them down throughout the exercise. This forces the back muscles into a stretched position, thereby reducing their involvement in the exercise.

Once your shoulders are dropped, start the movement by doing a reverse wrist curl with the dumbells. This means simply bending your wrists back and up and holding them there.

Now squeeze the weights up to the top position of the lateral so that they are in line with your head at the top and squeeze hard at the top.

Here is an excellent tip for the way up: as you raise the dumbells, imagine as though you are trying to wrap the backs of your arms around a tree. You've often heard that you should try to wrap your arms around a tree for dumbell flyes, now apply it to this movement.

Also, try to force your hands into as wide of an arc as possible and keep the dumbells as far away from your body as possible. This technique will help you to keep your shoulders down as you lift the weights.

What all these tips accomplish is to reduce the ability of the stronger back muscles to contract during the exercise, forcing the rear delt muscles to "shoulder" the burden of the exercise.

The keys to remember are:

1. Shoulders down throughout the movement.
2. Do a reverse wrist curl at the start.
3. Wrap your arms around a tree on the way up.
4. Raise the dumbells up in line with your head.

Incorporating these tips into the bent-over lateral movement will target your rear delts like a laser beam!

For pictures on how to execute this technique go the following URL:

http://www.fitstep.com/Misc/Newsletter-archives/issue10-delt-tip.htm

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Cracked Up Glossary Of Common Gym Terms You've been to gym and have heard the lingo. Now learn the REAL definitions of what you've been hearing.

If you've ever had occasion to visit a gym, you've no doubt heard people talking about "feeling the burn" and "pumping up." But did you ever wonder what people were really saying? Here are some common terms and phrases that will help you to learn what is really going on in the gym.

1. In The Zone - Tired and incoherent during a workout. Commonly described out of the gym as "spaced out."

2. Extended Warm-Up - 20 minutes at low tension on the stationary bike then 20 minutes of casual stretching thena shower.

3. "Just One More Rep" - Said to a spotter during a set. Really means: "Lift the weight for me."

4. Forced Reps - For the reluctant exerciser, every single rep of a workout is a forced rep. This is especially true when they have a mean trainer.

5. Hack Squat - The position a cat gets into when he's coughing up a hairball, commonly mistaken as a leg exercise.

6. "Can I work in with you?" - Translation: "Can I remove all your weights and sweat all over your bench?"

7. Drop Sets - What sometimes happens after doing a hard set of dumbell bench presses. A triple drop set occurs when you drop two dumbells and yourself to the floor.

8. Bulking Up - Name for the phase during which an otherwise healthy trainer will try to get bigger and fatter on purpose.

9. "I'm maxing out" - Translation: "I was going for 6 reps but I put too much weight on the bar and only got 1."

10. Cool-down - Sit on a bench and drink from a water bottle while talking about how much more you'll lift next time.

11. Olympic Bar - Athlete's nightclub.

12. E-Z Bar - "How dare you! I'm not that type of bar."

13. Squat rack - The lonliest piece of equipment in the gym.

14. "It's all you!" - Said by spotter during the last few reps of a set. Translatation: "It's mostly me."

15. Pro-hormones - Hormones that have lost their amateur status.

16. Meal Replacement Supplement - Cold pizza and warm beer.

17. Clean and Press - Surprisingly enough, it's a shoulder exercise, not laundry instructions. A variation of it is even known as the Hang Clean and Press.

18. High Intensity Interval Training - Occurs when there are two or more flights of stairs leading up to the gym.

19. Skullcrushers - An exercise where you make like you're going to bash your own head in with a barbell, a.k.a. lying tricep extensions.

20. "Hold the contraction at the top and squeeze for 10 seconds" - Said by a personal trainer when he or she wants to punish the client for missing a session.

Now that you've got an idea of what is being said at the gym, you'll be able to converse comfortably with the natives. You will be completely understood in any gym in the world when you walk in and say "I just did two sets of high intensity intervals and now I'm ready for some forced reps" or "I'm taking a lot of meal replacement supplements because I'm bulking up."

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