10 Sets of 10 Reps

What are the 10 sets of 10 reps all about? This is a method used to break through new plateaus and build lean muscle mass. This method has been around since the start of the 1960s. It is also extremely popular, having been used by plenty of well known bodybuilders including Vince Gironda, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Dave Draper.

The 10 sets of 10 reps are used by plenty of athletes and coaches alike. For example, Coach Charles Poliquin puts it to use on his Olympic athletes. If building lean muscle mass as quickly as possible is what you wish to do then the 10 sets of 10 reps is for you!

How the 10×10 Method Works

This method works wonders at increasing muscle mass because it wears down and tires the muscles that are being put to work. To get started on the 10 sets of 10 reps routine, a mass building exercise must first be decided upon. Next you need to choose a weight that will allow you to do 15 or more repetitions.

Do 10 repetitions and then stop and take a break. Rest for one minute (but no more) between sets. As you begin to fatigue more and more, do not increase your resting period. This will defeat the purpose of systematically fatiguing the given muscle groups. What you are aiming to do is to use the exact same weight for 10 sets of 10. You want to be able to do all 10 reps in as good a form as possible.

As you build up the number of sets you do, the challenge will become greater and greater, due to the fatigue level increasing. If it becomes too difficult you may not be able to perform 10 sets for 10 reps. That is okay. Do not be too hard on yourself as you will build up to it. What you can do is to lower the weight if you are unable to complete all 10 at once. Do this for awhile and then try the 10 sets for 10 reps again. Once you can do 10 for 10 then increase the weight to what you started with originally.

Exercises Included in the 10×10 Program

Once you have mastered the 10 sets for 10 reps then you are on your way! It is always wise to add in another form of exercise that targets the larger muscle groups of the body. The purpose of this is to work from a new and different angle. Perform the new exercise for 3 sets of 10 to 12 repetitions.

How do you do the 10 sets of 10 reps bodybuilding program? Read on to find out …

Workout # 1- Thighs/Hamstrings/Calves

Superset:

Squats 10 sets of 10 reps (no rest required)
Leg Curls 10 sets of 10 reps (one minute of rest is needed)

Superset:

Leg Extension 3 sets of 10 to 12 reps (no rest is required)
Stiff Legged Dead-lifts 3 sets of 10 reps (one minute of rest is needed)

Calf Raises 10 sets of 10 reps (one minute of rest but no more)

Workout # 2- Chest/Back/Abs

Superset:

Incline Bench Press 10 sets of 10 reps (no rest is required)
Wide Grip Pull-up to Front 10 sets of 10 reps (one minute of rest is needed)

Superset:

Flat Bench Flyes 3 sets of 10 to 12 reps (no rest is needed)
Low Pulley Rows 3 sets of 10 to 12 reps (one minute of rest is required)

Leg Raise and Crunch Combination 10 sets of 10 reps (one minute of rest required)

Workout # 3- Shoulders/Biceps/Triceps

Upright Rows 10 sets of 10 reps (one minute of rest is needed)

Bent Over Lateral Raises 3 sets of 10 to 12 reps (one minute of rest is needed)

Superset:

Incline Curls 10 sets of 10 reps (no rest is required)
Triceps Dips 10 sets of 10 reps (one minute of rest is needed)

How Often Should You Work Out?

How often you need to work out is something that you will have to figure out for yourself. The frequency is not the same for everyone. In general, you need to consider your body type- whether it be endomorph, mesomorph or ectomorph- and formulate a routine based on that.

General Guidelines Based on Body Type

Endomorphs

People with this body type have a slower rate of metabolism but an ability to recuperate faster. Aim to work each body part twice a week. For example do workout # 1 on Monday and Thursday, workout # 2 on Tuesday and Friday and workout # 3 on Wednesday and Saturday. Take Sunday off and relax.

Mesomorphs

These individuals are blessed with natural muscle and leanness. The schedule they need for their workouts is different than that for the endomorphs. An ideal schedule for a mesomorph would be on day one do workout # 1, on day two rest, on day three do workout # 2, rest on day four, on day five do workout # 3 and on day six start the cycle all over again, beginning with workout # 1.

This unique schedule ensures that no body part gets neglected. Every body part gets its fair share of a workout once every five days of the cycle. This type of workout schedule affords good recuperation for the individuals who have good intentions but find it difficult to be training at the gym six days a week, because of their busy work schedules.

Ectomorphs

Sometimes called “hardgainers”, ectomorphs comprise the body type that is skinny by nature and does not gain weight easily. These individuals also have a very fast metabolism, akin to Jughead of the Archie Comic Books. If this is you then your best bet is to train every other day, instead of every day. If you are unable to train during the weekends because of work or family commitments then try this sequence- Monday, Wednesday and Friday do workout # 1 on Monday to start the week. On Wednesday do workout # 2 and then to end the week, on Friday do workout # 3.

Important to note- As a person in training to build leaner muscle mass, you will know when it is time to alter your workouts to better suit your purpose. After you have gone through all three workouts an average of six times, modify your routine. Select heavier weights and perform five to six repetitions. Heavier weights for less sets is the way to go. A good choice at this point in time is to do a different series of exercises with 5 sets of 5 reps.

More information on body types: Nutrition tailored to your body type

Seven Reasons to Increase Your Lean Muscle Mass

High volume bodybuilding can do so much more than give you a better physique. Read on for seven important reasons to increase your lean muscle mass.

1. Increase your metabolism- Strength training allows the body to burn more calories in the run of a day by raising the metabolic rate.

2. Less chance of coronary disease- Your heart will thank you for your efforts. You will lower your blood pressure and decrease your level of bad cholesterol (LDL) levels.

3. Improve balance and mobility- You will have better balance (and therefore coordination, flexibility and ease of mobility. This equals stronger, more resilient muscles and subsequently, fewer falls and accidents to worry about.

4. Optimal performance achieved- No matter what type of physical fitness you take part in, your performance will vastly improve thanks to the addition of strength training to your routine.

5. Improvement in bone density- Strength training helps to enhance and restore density to the bones. This is particularly important as you age. Living a sedentary lifestyle can cause bones to become brittle and more prone to breakage over time.

6. Less worries over injuries- Plenty of life-related injuries and sports-related injuries can be reduced and prevented thanks to exercises that strengthen the muscles and joints.

7. Slow the aging process- No one is in a hurry to age, are they? Slow down the process by taking excellent care of your bones. Exercise of any kind is worthwhile but adding an element of strength training to build lean muscle mass can keep the body functioning at an above average level.

The body ages more gracefully and slowly when strength training is a consistent part of a person’s schedule. Not to mention the fact that strength training adds “strength” to the body. The stronger the body is built up to be, the better it is able to withstand pressures from the inside and out. Aerobic and athletic pursuits are easier to cope with as well which means a person can enjoy a variety of forms of physical fitness.

The Key to the Success of These Workouts

Looking at these exercises on a long term basis, what you need to do is work out with heavier weights for shorter spans of time. Aim for high intensity. It is the quality of the workouts that makes the biggest difference. Some bodybuilders choose to take a supplement to help increase muscle growth, along with the strength training that they are involved in.

Eat Right to Build Right

Nourishment is extremely important for a bodybuilder. A bodybuilder cannot gain in muscle if he does not nourish his body with the foods it requires. Make sure you take a look at what you are eating on a regular basis. If you are not eating right then it is time to make some positive dietary changes.

Bodybuilders need to eat a healthy combination of carbohydrates, proteins and foods low in fat. While it is standard for most people to eat three meals a day, try something different to encourage your bodybuilding regime. Break your meals down into five or six smaller meals throughout the day. Eat lean meats, seafood, whole grains, pasta, low fat milk and lots of fruits and vegetables.

As well never forget the importance of drinking water. When your body is under the stress and strain of strength training this is incredibly important to bear in mind. Energy drinks and fruit juices are fine to drink but do not overdo them. Plain and simple water all by itself is still the best source of liquid nourishment for your body. Water is not called “Mother Nature’s cocktail” for nothing!

The Value of Sleep

Never underestimate the value of sleep to your overall level of health- and to your bodybuilding efforts. Your muscles do not grow as you work out but rather while you are asleep. For this reason, it is so important to get the right amount of sleep each and every night. The recommended amount is seven to eight hours. If you lose sleep on a given night, catch up on it as quickly as you can.

If you consistently deprive your body of the sleep it needs, this can lead to sleep depravation. Sleep depravation will serve to create a lack of energy. It will awaken hormones that you do not want awakened. A hormone called cortisol will begin to be produced in large quantities. This hormone will sabotage your efforts to build lean muscle mass. Cortisol is responsible for depositing fat and destroying muscle. This hormone also decreases the production of the hormone testosterone which can then sabotage your efforts even more. Don’t let the presence of this hormone take you down and destroy months of hard work! Make sleep a priority and make sure you get your zzzz’s every night!

Strength training offers your body more than muscle; it provides you with more energy and the ability to work longer and harder when you need too. As one of the earliest forms for training the body, strength training has stood the test of time offering men and women bodies that they can be proud of. There is a legend about Ancient Greece resident Milo of Croton that says that Milo carried a calf on his back everyday from its birth until it was full grown. We have grown past those ancient days when it comes to ways to strengthen our bodies; however, the principle is still the same. In this article you will learn what it means to strengthen you body, why you should do it and the best ways to go about it.

What is Strength Training?

There are two ways to strengthen your body and the first it through relative strength training. This training is ideal for men and women who need endurance rather than big bulky bodies. People who train for this kind of strength might be runners, cyclists, gymnasts, rock climbers, basketball players, soccer players and other professional athletes. For these kinds of athletes, bulk is not a benefit it is a hindrance making it more difficult for them to have quick reaction times and the speed that benefits them in their sports. These men and women build their strength to its maximum level while carefully monitoring their calories. They also include cardiovascular exercise in their routines to prevent bulk.

Another form of strength training is called absolute strength training. These are men and women who focus on muscle mass rather than being lean. The goal is to become bigger and stronger. Weight lifters, defensive and offensive linemen, some baseball players, professional wrestlers, and fitness models are examples of things that require muscle mass rather than a streamlined body. Being bigger and stronger is the goal of those who apply the absolute strength method of strength training.

What are the Benefits of Strength Training?

There was once a time that if you worked you were probably in shape. With the exception of the standard office jobs, most workers were required to work laborious positions. Without many of the modern conveniences even simple chores like mowing the lawn required muscle strength that is lacking today. People walked more and worked harder, something that we simply do not have to do today with our cars, riding lawn mowers and other modern conveniences.

Strength training can provide you with many benefits the most obvious of which is building muscle. While strength training is not the same as bodybuilding (bodybuilding is a whole other animal altogether), building muscle is a direct result of strength training. For those who want to minimize the amount of muscle they obtain while training then a strong focus need to be made in regards to calories eaten and cardio exercise.

You are going to burn more fat while strength training as well. As you build muscle, your fat starts to disappear. The more you use your muscles the faster you burn your fat. The end result is a low percentage of fat on your body. In fact, women can realize a year round body fat percentage rate of 15% while men can maintain 10%, a very healthy goal. This is done with the combination of eating well and strength training.

Another wonderful benefit of strength training is the benefit that it offers for your health. You will find that you sleep better, have less joint and muscle pain and your bones will get stronger. What’s more, you will find that it improves your heart health as well, especially in combination with a healthy diet by lowering your blood pressure and improving your cholesterol scores.

Lastly, most people find that when they commit to strength training they are able to commit to other areas of their lives. By learning self-discipline, self-control, and perseverance, you are building character. Once you have learned how to maintain the level of commitment you need to strength train it is difficult to not allow it to bleed into the rest of your life.

How do You Build Strength?

There is a process to building strength, it doesn’t happen overnight and the kicker is that it is different for every person depending on his or her current fitness level, health, and body fat. Different fitness programs work differently as well.

The 5X5 workout program works on the stress principle. You force stress onto your body with strength training, your body reacts by increasing its strength to combat the stress being applied. As time goes on you will increase the resistance in order to avoid leveling out. As time goes on you will reduce the amount of stress you are applying so that you can increase it again so the body is tricked into increasing its endurance once again.

The great thing about strength training is that you do not have to have a lot of special equipment. A pull up bar (you can purchase one that hangs in a doorframe) and some free weights will provide you with everything that you need to create the body that you want. If you are using free weights, start slow, there is nothing wrong with building up to heaver weights. Better to go slow than to put on to much weight and injure yourself (slowing down your training even further). Most traditional weight lifting exercises are perfect for strength training.

Resistance exercises with a pull up bar is going to provide you with additional strength training as well. If you don’t have access to a pull up bar and do not want to purchase one you can provide resistance exercises with traditional pushups as well as non-traditional such as chair pushups, Hindu pushups, knuckle pushups, one armed pushups and more.

If you have money to spend on equipment or a gym then consider using weight machines to strength train. Machines provide a more balanced workout and prevent uneven workouts (when one side of the body is stronger than another). The only limitation is the amount of weight the machine allow.

As you can see, strength training offers many benefits for your personality, your health and your body. Learning how to do it properly is important to prevent injury; however, once you learn how, the benefits will be with you for the rest of your life.

A lot of people might wonder, does weight training help with weight loss? The answer, of course, is that it does. Many people want to know how to lose weight with weight lifting, and in this article I will explain how it’s done. Dieting alone can help you to achieve weight loss, but if you try to lose weight this way you are likely to lose a lot of muscle and bone mass as well as fat. You really don’t want to lose muscle or bone mass, so adding weight training to your diet and exercise plans can really help a lot. This will help to prevent muscle loss while decreasing the time it takes you to lose weight. You will lose fat more quickly.

Besides helping people to lose weight, weight training can help menopausal women avoid osteoporosis by increasing their bone mass. Other helpful effects of weight training for those who are trying to lose weight include an increase in your metabolic rate (that even lasts for a short time after finishing exercise) so that you burn even more calories, and the fact that you are also increasing your endurance and your strength.

When people start a weight training routine as a part of weight loss efforts, they might see an initial weight gain. This is not something to be worried about since muscle weighs more than fat. However, fat takes up more room, so although the number on the scale has gone up, your measurements have probably gone down. You can take your measurements with a tape measure and you will see that you are actually getting skinnier.

In addition to diet and weight training, for best results you should also include some cardio or aerobics in order to help build up your heart and lungs and burn even more calories. You can alternate weight lifting days with cardio days so that your training doesn’t take too long each day.

Make sure that in addition to your exercise efforts you are also eating healthily. You want to make sure to include plenty of fruits and vegetables as well as foods from all four food groups in your diet.

Weight lifting can really make a big difference in your weight loss efforts, especially when combined with cardio like bike riding or walking. Although some women are afraid to add this component because they don’t want their muscles to get too big, it is actually really unlikely. You would have to lift really large weights very frequently in order to accomplish this. Weight lifting will mainly just tone your muscles and make them a bit stronger. Toned muscles will mean a much better looking body after you lose the weight as well as while you are in the process of dieting.

Fitness has always been a topic of prime importance to one and all. Looking good is not the only motive behind aiming for fitness; studies also show that fit people are able to keep health ailments at bay.

The desire to keep fit has seen a sudden surge among the people over the last few years, which can be attributed to awareness about good health and wide spreading diseases across the world. One can work out in the gym, sweat it out with a jog and those who like to go the non-traditional way can opt for yoga and Pilates. The alternate therapies like Pilates and power yoga are gaining a lot of prominence due to their overall health benefits and zero side effects.

With the everyday hectic pace of our existence, it is hard to take out time to practice anything or even go out to the gym to burn some calories. To cope with the time constraint many people have resorted to home gyms. Treadmills are a great way to keep you in shape and maintain a good blood circulation to the heart and body.

Electric treadmills are easily available in all fitness stores and there is a range of these pieces of equipment on the market. The latest variety of treadmills has electric monitors to keep a check on the heart rate, reading pulse monitors as well. Some even have ultra efficient speed controls that can be customized according to individual’s needs and requirements. While buying treadmills, one should always keep certain factors in mind:

Price range is completely dependent on market forces.

It is not necessarily true that the most expensive treadmill will be the best treadmill available. Therefore, it is important to strike a balance between quality and pricing.

Look for a model that is foldable as it can save a lot of space if you have a small house.

One can always settle for cheap treadmills with regular features to meet your daily exercise needs, it is not necessary to opt for a highly professional one to be kept at home.

Always look for a model that has strong body and is galvanized against rusting. It should have proper wiring and electric attachments to make it shock resistant and efficient speed control devices.

With the highly advanced features of the electric treadmill one can keep a count of the calories burned during exercise and complete their workout right in the comfort of their home.

Running is a very popular form of exercise and why not, it doesn’t require any expensive equipment and it’s one of the most efficient ways to burn calories. Some day you may be faced with the question of if you should run on a treadmill or outdoors. There are a number of differences between the two which are discussed below.

Impact on your joints: Both running on a treadmill and running outdoors are going to have some level of impact on your joints. The more expensive treadmills have a high degree of cushion and put a lot less pressure on your joints than running on asphalt. However, running on grass has less impact than treadmills.

Efficiency: Since a treadmill provides some assistance by pushing your feet back you are working less than if you were running outside where you have to use all your energy to push off the ground to move yourself forward. There is also wind resistance which requires you to exert more energy outdoors.

Convenience and privacy: A treadmill is much more convenient and private than running outdoors. You can jump on it at anytime, rain or shine, and you can watch your favorite television show too. The convenience and privacy alone can save your running program especially on those days when you don’t feel like going out on public display or when it’s extremely hot out or pouring rain.

Cost: A good electric treadmill can be expensive. The cheap treadmills have less cushion making them tougher on your joints. For those who can’t afford a treadmill but would like the convenience of knowing how many miles they’ve run, at what speed, their heart rate, etc. should think about purchasing a GPS watch which can be purchased for as cheap as $100. Treadmills can also take up space so if you don’t have a lot of room in your home you might want to stick to outdoor running.

Safety: Those that live in the city are better off running on a treadmill for safety from lots of traffic and pollution. It is especially important not to be breathing in chemicals when you are exercising as you are breathing heavily.