Other articles in this series looked at a number of exercises, mainly from the perspective of developing a comprehensive muscle building program. Sometimes we take things for granted, especially when it comes to performing the basic exercises that constitute the core of most bodybuiders' training regimes.

It is useful, therefore, to describe in detail the processes involved in actually doing these exercises. This will help beginners to start out using the correct techniques before moving on to potentially more dangerous heavy weights. If it also helps more experienced lifters to redress some of the little faults that have almost imperceptibly crept in over the years, all the better.

In this article we'll take a close look at the bent-over row using a barbell.

MUSCLES TARGETED: latissimus dorsi, teres major, middle trapezius, rhomboids

PREPARATION

Grasp the bar with a closed, pronated grip.
Grip should be slightly wider than shoulder width.

STARTING POSITION

Adopt a shoulder width stance with knees slightly flexed.
Flex the torso forward so that it is not quite parallel to the floor.
Make sure the back remains straight.
Look to a point just ahead of the feet.
Let the bar hang with the arms fully extended.
This is the starting point for all repetitions.

UPWARD MOVEMENT

Pull the bar up towards the lower chest.
Point the elbows up.
Keep the torso rigid, back flat and knees slightly flexed.
Touch the bar to the chest in one smooth movement.

DOWNWARD MOVEMENT

Let the elbows slowly extend back to the beginning position.
Keep the torso and knees in the same position.
Repeat or finish set.

Richard Mitchell is the creator of the bodybuildingadvisor.com website that provides guidance and information to athletes at all levels of bodybuilding experience. Go to Bodybuilding Exercises to learn more about the issues covered in this article.

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When it comes to gaining body mass, bodybuilding supplements are the most powerful weapons for in any natural muscle-developing program that you can use effectively which come in an array of options ranging from whey protein to glutamine and protein bars.

Most Professional trainers and fitness consultants agree protein is the staple supplement for bodybuilders and other athletes because of its wide number of benefits. In fact, whey protein is a complex ingredient made up of fat, minerals lactose and protein, which is its best component.

The protein in whey is made up or several smaller protein subfractions including bovine serum albumin (BSA), alpha-lactalbumin, glycomacropeptides, peptides, immunoglobulins (IgGs), Beta-lactoglobulin and other minor peptides such as lactoperoxidases, lysozyme and lactoferrin.

Furthermore, each of those protein subfractions found in whey has at the same time its own unique biological properties found recently because before modern filtering technology it was impossible, prohibitively and expensive doing it on a large scale for research purposes.

Creatine and Glutamine are basic for bodybuilding along with protein and perhaps some weight gainers depending on the body mass to work out, with additional benefits. Protein subfractions also prevent various diseases, improves immunity and overall health.

Protein powders have evolved from low protein to very high protein isolates required to building blocks of muscle.

There are other types of proteins such as casein protein, soy protein and egg protein but bodybuilders prefer whey, protein bars, protein powders, creatine and glutamine that generally can be purchased in different products according to each individual's requirements.

Trainers recommend the use of whey protein within the first 45 minutes after workouts to allow proper absorption of the protein, while creatine is an amino acid considered the fuel source for ATP, the energy system used by athletes for short bursts of power.

The component of skeletal muscle discovered in 1832 by French scientist Michel Eug?ne Chevreul later named creatine after the Greek word for flesh (Kreas). In the human body creatine is found in muscle and it is the energy source for muscle contraction.

However it was not until 1912 when researchers found that ingesting creatine boosts the creatine content of the muscle, and in the late 1920's that the intramuscular stores of creatine increases by ingesting creatine in larger than normal amounts.

On the other hand, glutamine is one of the 20 amino acids encoded by the standard genetic code used in nutrition therapy and also considered to be a brain fuel and used therapeutically for alcoholism and mild depression.

Whether you choose, whey protein, creatine, glutamine, or protein powders, Protein Bars include at least one of them in your daily workout bodybuilding program.

Natalie Aranda writes about beauty, health and fitness. When it comes to gaining body mass, bodybuilding supplements are the most powerful weapons for in any natural muscle-developing program that you can use effectively which come in an array of options ranging from whey protein to glutamine and protein bars.

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I'd like to discuss an issue with a certain question I receive concerning training and angle variation. Can you add more muscle size by adding more angels to exercises for each muscle group? Not necessarily.

Many lifters are under the notion that adding more angles, sets, and repetitions can enhance their physique by recruiting all the muscle fibers. While this may sound logical, it can do more damage then good in the bodybuilding world. The fact is, you either stimulate the muscle, or you don't.

Those individuals seeking muscle hypertrophy (muscle growth) should stick to the basics for the core of the workout, and not over train. The basics include the flat press, shoulder press, chins, close-grip bench press, overhead extensions, straight bar curls, squats, etc.

Various fancy movements may change the direction of stress applied to the muscle, but you will receive optimal results from power movements designed to add mass. The poundage and intensity will determine if all the muscle fibers are recruited or not.

Example #1 (may produce muscle growth ) Chest Workout:
Flat Press - 4 sets of 10 repetitions
Incline Dumbbell Press - 4 sets of 10 repetitions
Incline Dumbbell Flys - 4 sets of 10 repetitions
Seated Pec Dec Machine - 4 sets of 10 repetitions

Whew! I'm tired just reading that. If your poundage and intensity were right for the first exercise, the rest are a waste of time.

Example #2 (will produce desired growth)

Chest Workout:
Flat Press - 3 sets of 8 repetitions
Incline Press - 3 sets of 8 repetitions

Example #2 is a more productive workout for chest development. The entire chest muscle can be stimulated with the flat press because it's one muscle, and therefore it contracts as one. If you put 100% into Example #2, there is no reason to add more exercises, sets, or reps.

A multitude of angels and exercise are not necessary. There is no sense in making your training a cardio session or an all out marathon. Remember, you are not growing in the gym. You must stimulate the muscle, feed it, and allow it to grow through rest.

The concept behind gaining muscle mass and strength lies in stimulation and form. If you can master these two concepts, then adding muscle will be easy.

Train, Eat, Rest = Growth

Karen Sessions has been in the fitness industry since 1988. She embarked on weight training to overcome an eating disorder, Anorexia Nervosa in its early stages. She overcame the eating disorder, received her personal training certificate, competed in many local bodybuilding contests, and qualified for Nationals. Since then she?s went on to write six e-books (weight loss, female bodybuilding, contest preparation, leg training, figure/fitness secrets, and cellulite removal). She writes articles for several fitness websites, as well as her own, www.theelitephysique.com, and also distributes a monthly e-newsletter. She has a very active and lively forum, filled with positive and supportive people with informative content. Karen?s sole goal is to educate others and help them apply that knowledge.

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If you are a gym rat or bodybuilder or simply interested in beginning an exercise program you have probably heard a lot about creatine and the muscle miracles it performs. Unfortunately, most people believe that creatine helps build muscle and it does in a way, but probably not the way you are thinking. The best way to describe creatine is to say that it helps the muscles help themselves build muscle. If that is not clear enough, continue reading.

Creatine does exactly what it claims to do and that is to retain water in your muscles. This is the point of creatine and it really is effective at keeping water in the muscles. Now, what happens is when your muscles are retaining water they are in an optimal state for building new muscle. As a result, when you take creatine and water is retained in your muscles then when you weight train you will get more of an effect because your muscles are better capable of building muscle. After this period you may develop more strength and increased endurance as well. So, if you are taking creatine to help you build muscle and you understand what creatine does and how it helps you build muscle then you will not be disappointed. On the other hand, if you are taking creatine and hoping it will simply grow you bodybuilder?s muscles without putting in the work then you are mistaken.

The best thing to do is begin taking creatine and working out with weights on a regular routine or even with a trainer. By taking the creatine your muscles will be poised to grow and get stronger while building endurance. However, keep in mind you have to put in all the hard work and that all creatine does for you is helps your muscles retain water in order to be in a state where building muscle is easier. Over time you will see your muscles growing and should not see any loss of definition because of the retained water in your muscles. Don?t become confused about creatine building big muscles; it just helps your muscles build themselves stronger and better when you put in the work.

SearchArticles.net features over ten thousand articles, tips and information on a variety of subjects. For additional muscle building and fitness tips and articles, visit http://www.searcharticles.net/health.cfm

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Supersets give you the most bang for the buck. They give you more muscle in less time, and don't bore you from how long it takes to actually do the exercises.

If you're into body building at all, you'll know the basics of what a Superset is. It's when you switch between different exercises with a little rest between them, instead of doing all your sets for one exercise before going to the next one on the list.

Now let's figure out a superset to build bigger muscles.

There are 2 kinds of muscle fibers. The smaller ones are slow-twitch fibers wich are mostly used for endurance. The bigger fast-twitch fibers are mostly used when strenght is required. But both of these can get bigger, so if you want the biggest muscles possible, you'll have to work both. Here's what you'll do:

- Do 10 reps of one exercise
- Do 20 reps of a different exercise for the same muscle without rest.
- Rest 1 min.
- Repeat 2-3 times.

Here's how one would go about using supersets to build strength and power. But you have to know some things first. Strenght and power, aren't the same thing. Strenght is the amount of weight you can move, at any speed. Power, is your ability to move an inanimate object. Or the speed at wich you can lift a certain amount of weight, if you will. Both are important, especially if you play sports. Here's how you train for strength/power.

- Do 5 reps of a heavy-duty strenght exercise
- Doe 10 reps of a power exercise ( something where you can move your body as fast as possible with a lighter weight. )

You can also use supersets for fat-loss purposes of course. Supersets help this even more than normal body building because it requires much more energy, spending all those extra calories. Here's the plan:

- Do 10 reps of one exercise for your lower body
- Without resting, do 10 reps of upper body exercise.
- Make sure both exercises target the largest muscle groups possible.
- Rest 60 secs.
- Repeat 4 times.

With supersets, you'll be in and out of the gym before you know it and more pumped up than ever.

If you'd like to learn some more stuff about building a better body, then come check out http://www.thebestmanyoucanbe.com

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There are statistics which show that, after years of training in body building, many of the persons who practiced this sport turned to fitness. The reasons of this change are different, from the most common ones, like the boredom which intervenes at a certain time, to health problems.

It is well-known that body building training of anaerobic type is very demanding. In most of the cases, the aerobic programs are avoided because sportsmen are afraid of losing muscular mass.

Another disadvantage of body building trainings is the fact that sportsmen have to work a lot with their chest blocked, in apnea, because of the great weights they use for increasing their muscles.

The respiratory blocking during the force effort is also known as the Valsalva phenomenon and it was initially studied in the case of weightlifters. Applying this technique can have as consequences, in time, rising of blood pressure, low blood feedback through the veins, varicous veins, etc. It is obvious that because of the ageing process, the blood veins become more rigid, a process favored by the arteriosclerosis which appears to younger and younger people. The elasticity of the walls of these blood vessels decreases, so while making force effort with really heavy weights, the sportsmen are in danger of having a stroke, because the vessels can break. This risk is much smaller in fitness.The weights used in this sport are small or medium, because the purpose of doing this sport is not a spectacular hypertrophy of the muscles, but fortifying, putting into relief and reshaping the muscles.

Another advantage of fitness is a richer and more varied area of exercises, inspired from the complex training of body building but also of many other sports. For example, we find in fitness plyometrics exercises used in athletics, gymnastics, weightlifting, fight sports, etc. These programs have as consequence the forming of much more functional muscles, which can cope with demanding situations in real life, not only with posing during body building contests.

Because there is no obsession for muscles, aerobic training can be introduced in the programs. Its advantages are: making the blood vessel walls more elastic, decreasing cholesterol and making excellent prophylaxis of cardiovascular diseases.

Time is another factor which must be considered. While in body building the simplest divided program requires a minimum of four weekly trainings, in fitness, where all or most of the muscle groups are exercised during one training, three non-consecutive days a week are enough. The aerobic exercises can be done either in the free days, or additional to the training in the gym, in this case the total time of training being of one hour and a half at most.

Passing from body building to fitness does not have as consequence significant loss of muscular mass, even if the volume of the muscles is diminished. Anyway, the fortifying and relief of the muscles are not lost. This small loss is fully compensated by the advantages of practicing much more complex exercises and, why not admit, much safer for the health of the people.

Gaby Munteanu is a fitness trainer, with over 15 years experience, and editor at http://www.healthfitnessworld.com HealthFitnessWorld.com - Health, Fitness, Body Building, Weight Loss, Nutrition - Articles and Resources.

HealthFitnessWorld.com is dedicated to providing high-quality, free advices, tips and resources on health, fitness, body building, supplements, nutrition, weight loss, beauty, massage, acne, medicine, depression, massage.

This article may be reprinted or published without the author's consent as long as the About and weblinks are kept intact and active.

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If you're frustrated with your muscle gain or fat loss goals, I sympathize with you completely, and understand exactly what you are going through. I worked out for years before finally figuring out the correct ways to build muscle and lose fat.

I finally figured ou that the routines and body building tips touted by professional bodybuilders and the muscle magazines just aren't going to work for most people. But take heart, you can reach your muscle mass and fat burning goals.

Putting together a program that incorporates the following body building tips will point you in the right direction and get you making gains you hadn't thought were possible.

Tried and True Body Building Tips

Train Intensely - You must work each set until you can't do another repetition in good form. There is no point in stopping at a set number of reps (such as 8), if you are capable of doing 12. Your body needs to be challenged or it will not adapt by building new muscle or burning off body fat.

Cycle Your Intensity - In order to prevent burnout and overtraining from training intensely, it's important to take a week off from training every 8 - 12 weeks. If, like me, you can't stay out of the gym that long, you should train for a week at a very low intensity level.

Train Briefly - Your workouts need to be short. This is a very important weight lifting tip. You should never need to do a weight lifting routine that takes over an hour. If you are in the gym that long, you aren't working intensely enough. You can workout hard or long, but you can not do both. And to succeed in building muscle, you need to workout hard.

Train Infrequently - Your body needs time to recover from your weight training routine, so that in can adapt and grow. If you train with weights before your body is completey recovered, you won't add new muscle and will eventually over train, a big no no.

These are extremely important body building tips. It seems that your body's potential for strength increases far outweighs your body's ability to recover. What this means is that as you grow stronger, your body needs more time between weight training sessions in order to recover.

Bench pressing 300 pounds is a far greater stress on your body than bench pressing 50 pounds, even if both were maximum attempts at the time.

Train Progressively - You need to constantly challenge what your body can do by continuing to add more weight and/or repetitions to your previous best effort as often as possible.

Following is a sample weight training routine that incorporates the above weight lifting tips. If you put the other pieces in place, such as your nutrition plan and supplementation plan, you'll be well on your way to great gains and transforming your physique.

1 - Squats

2 - Deadlifts

3 - Chin Ups

4 - Dips

5 - Bench Press

6 - Military Press

Here's another weight lifting tip - break in to this routine. For the first few weeks, try working out 3 times per week on nonconsecutive days, performing 2 working sets of each exercise, doing 12 - 15 reps per set.

Don't train to failure.

After about a month, you can lower the reps on everthing but Squats and Deadlifts, to the 8 - 10 rep range. Start training to failure on some sets.

After another month, begin training to failure on all working sets and consider only weight training two times per week to accomodate the higher level of intensity and strengh that you've developed.

Gregg Gillies is the founder of http://www.buildleanmuscle.com His articles have appeared in Ironman Magazine. He has written two books and is a regular contributor to Body Talk Magazine. He publishes a free fitness newsletter available at his site that includes lots of weight training tips, fat loss, nutrition and exercise program information to help you build your best body as quickly as possible. check it out at Build Muscle and see how you can get a customized muscle building nutrition plan at http://www.mynutritionjournal.com

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