Muscle Building Home Workouts

With work, family obligations and an odd night-out everyday, it's probably hard for you to find time to get to the gym on regular basis. That's why it's always a great idea to have a back-up workout option that you can do with minimal equipment. In the following workout, the only piece of equipment you need is a chair and half an hour of free time. For each exercise, perform 2 sets of 12 to 15 repetitions (reps).

Home Workouts!

1) The Plank: Place both feet on the seat of the chair and form a 'table' with your body by placing your elbows on the floor in front of the chair (you may wish to put down a towel if you are on a hard floor). Make sure your back isn't arched and that your whole body forms a straight line. Keep your core muscles tight and hold this position for up to one minute.

Benefits: This total body exercise will work your core muscles as well as your upper body.

2) Pushups: Get into same position as for the plank, but instead as of balancing on your elbows, place your hands on the floor shoulder-width apart. Then, begin to perform a pushup, keeping your feet on the chair. Be sure not to let your back arch while performing this exercise.

Benefits: Your chest muscles will be targeted.

3) One-Legged Squats: Stand a few feet in front of the chair, facing away from it. Place one leg behind you on the seat of the chair and find your balance. Slowly lower your hips as far as you can go, using the muscles in your standing leg. Once at the bottom, carefully rise up again to complete one rep.

Benefits: This is another great action for targeting your gluteus maximus muscle, as well as your hamstrings and quadriceps. Due to nature of this exercise, you will also work on your balance.

Random Tip:Maintain the starting stance and bring both forearms half way up, keeping them parallel to the floor. The fists should be pointed upwards. Just curl the fist up and down several times in a controlled move of the small wrist joint. Make sure to keep the wrist in line with the forearm.

4) Triceps Dips: Sit on the chair with your arms at your sides and your palms resting on the edge of the seat. Next, walk your body out from the chair so you are only holding on by your palms. Slowly move your body down, using your triceps to lower yourself and rise up again.

Benefits: You will feel a good burn in the back of your arms (triceps). For an added challenge, you can also put your feet on the seat of another chair or on an exercise ball.

5) Front Raises: Stand up and hold onto the two front legs of the chair with a sturdy grasp. Slowly raise the chair straight out in front of you, from below the waist to your shoulder level and back down again. When you hold the chair right up, hold the position for 15 seconds.

Benefits: This exercise will help you target your frontal deltoids as well as your biceps. It is a form of strength training.

No Excuses: So, when you are pressed for time next, don't just give up on your workout. With some imagination, you can create your own workout at home using common household objects that will stimulate your body in new ways, thus preventing you from reaching a plateau.

Even if time isn't a factor and you could have made it to the gym, it's never a bad idea to take a few sessions away, both to give you a psychological break, as well as to give your body some time away from the customary movements.

Ensure you are using proper form to avoid injuries. Take a day off in between each workout so you don't risk overtraining.

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Gain Muscle at Home

Dumbbell Workouts - What You Need to Gain Muscle at Home

Dumbbell workouts are the ideal at home workout to gain muscle. You see all sort of infomercials now days promoting different kinds of complicated contraptions. Yet what they don't tell you are that dumbbell workouts are cheaper, simpler, and much more effective for gaining muscle.

Here's what you need to gain muscle at home with dumbbells.

1. There's two choices for the actual dumbbells. First you can choose to just get a pair of dumbbell handles and an assortment of weight plates. You will simply interchange the weights on the handles according to the exercise you are doing.

You second choice is getting a dumbbell rack system, which already has all the weights included, and simply requires hitting a few buttons to get your desired weight loaded onto each dumbbell. This is very convenient and should be considered if you think you'll be switching weights frequently.

2. Rubber mat. It is a good idea to have a rubber mat which you can put your dumbbells down on in between sets. These can actually be found at auto parts stores, as well as fitness stores. This way you won't damage your flooring, and you will have a firm surface to perform your dumbbell exercises on.

3. Dumbbell Exercise Instructions. Here's the important part. There are a lot of different exercises you can do with dumbbells. It's key to get dumbbell exercise instructions so that you do the routines safely and effectively. There are a number of exercises that are incredibly effective for building muscle and if muscle gain is your goal, then these are the exercises you will want to follow.

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Muscle Fitness

Best Muscle Fitness Training System

The structure of a muscle fitness training system can take many forms, varying from extremely short and intense to overly lengthy and exhaustive.

One basic way in which a muscle fitness training system is structured is by utilizing a "split routine", dividing the muscle groups up and targeting a certain group one day and another group on another day and so forth. One of the best and basic muscle fitness training systems consists of a split 3 day a week routine which basic structure looks something like this:

Basic muscle fitness training system: 3 day a week workout:

Monday: Chest/Shoulders/Triceps

Wednesday: Back/Biceps

Friday: Legs

Looking at this basic 3 day a week muscle fitness training system, Monday three different muscle groups are worked. The pectorals (chest), the deltoids (shoulders), and the triceps. Since there is some overlap in muscles being worked, that is the deltoids and triceps will be assisting in pushing movements involving pectoral work. So it makes sense to also train shoulders and triceps in this workout as they're already being "activated". So shoulders are followed after chest, and the workout concludes with tricep training (the two larger muscle groups are worked first, and then the smaller triceps muscles are worked last).

Wednesday in the basic muscle fitness training system consists of back (latissimus dorsi) and biceps. Once again there is muscle overlap. When one trains the back performing pulling movements, the biceps also get activated to a degree. So the biceps will be trained on back day since they're already getting worked.

An added note to back and forearm training in Wednesdays muscle fitness training system. The back is sometimes split between upper back for width, and mid back for back thickness. After the biceps are performed, some trainees will also train their forearms, if their goal is overall arm development and especially if their arm development is particularly lacking in the forearm department.

Friday in this muscle fitness training system calls for legs, or in gym circles its "leg day", or in hardcore dungeon gym settings, its "DLD", "dreaded leg day". Since dreaded leg day can be so taxing on the entire body, two days rest are given for recuperation before starting up again with chest on Monday. Leg day consists of training the front leg muscles-quadriceps, the back leg muscles-hamstrings, and the calves round out the Fridays muscle fitness training system.

This is just one basic muscle fitness training system split, which provides the trainee the benefit of working overlapping muscle groups in the same day and allowing rest and recovery in between each muscle building workout. There are a number of other muscle fitness training system splits, routines, and workouts. Only through beginning a routine and seeing what personally works for your bodytype and genetic capabilities, can you begin to personalize your own ideal muscle fitness training system. Future articles will outline specific exercises one can implement within this workout split.

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