Found this article and thought it would benifit the community

1: Bei ng obs essed wi th li fti n g hea v y!

Ever notice that you FEEL the muscle better on your warm up sets than you do on your "working sets"? Isn't it so true that the lighter weights often burn way more than the heavy ones? Why do you think that is?

Well, one of the main reasons is that you're not focusing all your attention on stabilizing a weight and barely moving it from point A to point B, likely using every muscle in the general vicinity to get it to move and the range is WAY smaller than it was with the lighter weight.

The PROBLEM here is that the TENSION has SHIFTED everywhere BUT the working muscle!

Your body adapts and starts using anything it can to keep itself safe. You can continue lifting heavy weights, all day long, but without optimal muscle tension, don't expect to see any improvement in your skinny arms and legs! If you can't "feel" your muscles then you won't be able to exhaust them enough to illicit the hormonal, metabolic and nervous system response for muscle growth.

Let's go through this again.

You will NEVER build a muscle you can't FEEL.

At some point in your muscle-building journey, you have all heard the term "Mind/ Muscle Connection."

But REALLY, what the heck does that mean!?

We've all heard someone say, "You've got to squeeze" or "If you don't squeeze it, you will never build muscle".

BUT how many of us REALLY know what that means? Or how to do it?

The truth is: not many!

QUESTION: If we've all heard it, and we all know we NEED to be doing it, why aren't more people doing it?

Because IT'S NOT EASY TO DO!

Or is it?

ANSWER: It's VERY easy to do! But in order for you to do it, you must first know HOW to do it!

What an amazing concept! Tomorrow I'll teach you that concept applied to your chest and legs.

2: #2:

Say WHAT?! BPak, whatchu smoking now'?

I know it sounds like a silly statement, but hear me out.

We all have our "strong" body parts. You and I both have body parts that just seem to grow much more easily than the rest of our parts: the part that we really don't have to think about when we train: it just sort of feels natural and grows easily. Isn't this so true?

Look at your training buddies and you'll see how real this is. You and your training partner use the same weight and same exercises and same intensity and his arms are huge, and yours are small. Or perhaps it's another body part this resonates with.

Have you ever stopped to ask yourself WHY this is true?

The truth of the matter is that it's what you DON'T SEE that is making all the difference in the world.

Is it just because maybe I did a few extra calf raises in my mother's tummy? Or, maybe I knocked out a few extra pushups in there?

What does "genetics" really refer to? Does it mean that some people just have more dense muscle then I do?

Possibly, but people typically have the same muscle density all over their bodies (at least proportionally). So, out goes that theory.

So then, what does this umbrella term "genetics" actually refer to?

After having extensively studied biomechanics and observed more athletes than I care to remember, the answer is actually pretty simple.

Genetics refers to the "mechanical advantage" some muscles have, and other muscles do not.

To explain this in simple terms, it means that some people's structure is just set up to develop certain body parts quickly.

Some people might have short arms, or slouched shoulders. Some might be double-jointed in their knees. Maybe they have a particular pelvic tilt to make their butt bigger, or certain spinal curvature that allows them to build their lat muscles much quicker. The list goes on!

Tomorrow we'll review how to break crappy lifting technique and retrain movement patterns.

3: #3:

IF you want FULLY developed muscles, you must use a FULL Range of Motion and I bet you have NO IDEA what that actually looks like in application!

This may sound a little harsh, but it's really not.

Let me ask you:

1. Do you know how to FULLY shorten your lat? 2. How about fully lengthen your pecs? 3. Can you fully shorten your triceps on pressdowns? 4. Could you show me what a fully lengthened bicep looks like when performing incline curls?

I bet you THINK you have the answer, and I'd also be willing to bet that 99% of you would be inaccurate.

If you're not fully shortening and lengthening your muscles through their complete range of motion, then you're not leaving the gym having maximally stimulated the muscle and no new growth is initiated.

THIS is one of the major reasons you're getting less than average results.

I would say, of the last 1000 people I've encountered in the gym, ONE has known what a full range actually means for any of the major muscle groups! If you scored less than 1 out of 4 above, it's okay because this knowledge is not taught in the generic websites and magazines.

Many pros don't even know about most of these things.

So, how are you supposed to train with a full range for optimal muscle growth if you don't actually know what it means?

The next thing many of you might be thinking is: so why do so many guys with great physiques train with poor form or do not use a full ROM?

How did these freaky bodybuilders build their bodies with horrible technique?

The truth of the matter is there are probably about 10 guys in the entire world that train with terrible form and grow immense muscles.

TEN. That's 10. Out of the millions that train regularly.

They are the tiny, tiny EXCEPTION, not the rule.

The rest of these bozos are yanking big weights to appease their buddies and hurting themselves a lot more than they're growing. Sure they might have some muscle, but its usually disproportionate and they look like they're in pain all the time by the way they walk around. Swollen from head to toe.

Not cool. Not in this day and age anyway. Maybe in the 80s. Parachute pants.

The goal of weight training is to build an aesthetic physique, capable of looking great for years to come. Learn to build a SMART PHYSIQUE and maintain it for life, with less effort.

I'm sorry if I'm making you feel like you've been wasting your time in the gym. The truth is, most people are actually completely wasting their time.

I don't know about you, but inside the gym is NOT where I want to be spending my spare time!

The beach sounds nice and so does being at home with my dream girl and our soon to be baby boy!

Wherever it may be for you, it's not the gym.

I'm here to help you spend LESS TIME in the gym, and get WAY MORE RESULTS, FAST!!!

Wooooooooo! J (See, I get a little excited about this stuff!)

4: #4:

When we lift weights, the endocrine system is stimulated to kick up production of muscle-building chemicals -- the anabolic hormones like testosterone, insulin, IGF-1 and growth hormone -- to create the optimal biological scenario to support muscle growth and repair. But, exactly what kind of workouts elicit the greatest anabolic response from the endocrine system?

For years, I had been searching for the best way to overload my muscles each and every time I go in the gym. I know you can relate to those days when you worked "hard" but still felt like you could have done more.

How do I know when I've done enough to stimulate growth? Are my muscles completely exhausted, or should I be doing more? Ever ask yourself that? I know I have. I remember days when I would get in my car after the gym and say to myself "Damn, I wish I had done more" and legitimately contemplate going back in to do more. I'm sure we've all been there. "I wish there was a way to know that I had completely exhausted every single muscle fiber that I could!"

I CRAVED something that would ensure that my muscles are taken to their limit, and CREATE NEW GROWTH!

Let's first understand something about the human body.

Our bodies want to maintain EXACTLY as they are.

It's called homeostasis. For all our attempts to change it, our bodies fight back as much as possible to maintain the status quo.

We need to coerce them! We need to show our bodies that there is a reason to grow bigger and stronger. We are going to be placing some increased demands on these muscles, so you better make them bigger!

In order for this to happen, the stimulus you are subjecting your body to MUST be greater than it is used to. Sounds simple enough, right?

Well, the problem is that your body is smarter than you are. It's going to tell your brain to shut your muscles off. It doesn't want to do all this work you're subjecting it to, so it starts to create lactic acid.

Lactic acid builds up and your muscles STOP! This is a fact we cannot control.

Being a research junky, I had always read about overloading the muscle and overloading the nervous system to stimulate new muscle and strength gains, respectively. Time under tension was proven to be the number one factor that correlated with muscle growth and overload!

Something clicked in my brain!

Time under MAXIMAL TENSION!! This had to be better than just time under tension!

And so, my GROWTH BABY was born! Tomorrow you'll learn how to do the most intelligent intensifier in existence --NOS ™!

5: #5:

I'm not going to sit here and assume you all don't already know how important nutrition is to optimizing growth. I KNOW you do.

People come to me all the time and ask "What is the BEST approach to take if I want to gain muscle and lose fat?"

Is that even possible?

Well, the truth of the matter is that, yes, it is absolutely possible.

Is it easy? Of course not. BUT it is SIMPLE.

Let me do my best to explain.

Your first consideration when it comes to nutrition is RECOVERY.

You need to always ensure that your body has what it needs to recover when it needs it.

It is very important to nourish your muscles around the workout.

Your muscles need protein, in the form of amino acids, present in the bloodstream ALL the time or the body will start to leach those aminos from other parts of your body (Read: break down your muscles). This is BAD NEWS for those of us trying to build muscle.

REMEMBER: Weight training is a catabolic process -- it breaks down muscle! It's when we leave the gym and feed the body that the growth and re-growth processes occur.

Whenever possible we want to minimize the amount of muscle breakdown during the workout. In order to do this, certain essential nutrients MUST be present:

-branch chain aminos

-glutamine

-arginine

-antioxidants

-glucose

-zinc

This is your first consideration when it comes to building muscle.

The other main considerations of an intelligent nutrition plan are timing of nutrients, and ratio of nutrients (percentage of fats/carbs/proteins).

How do I know WHEN to EAT WHAT?

I think by this point in my life I have probably read EVERY nutrition book ever written (or at least started to read them all. Some are terrible so I toss them out halfway through).

I have probably tried every single logical approach to nutrition at some point in my life.

I was once a vegetarian; I have tried really high carb, low protein; I have tried high protein, low carb; zero carb; zero fat; gluten free; Ketogenic diet; Metabolic diet; Hollywood diet; Fasting diet -- you get the idea!

The only one I think I haven't tried yet is raw food diet because I just don't think I could support my bodyweight with the limited food sources.

I could tell you pros and cons of each one for someone trying to build muscle and optimize their body composition a.k.a. losing fat.

My approach to nutrition is very much a hybrid of them all. I believe I have taken the best points from each one and manipulated them to create a 3-phase formula for people trying to build lean muscle without the excess fat. You'll learn about 3-Phase Nutrition tomorrow!

Do you wa n t to av oi d th ese cri t i ca l error s an d lea rn th e sol u t io n s to dou b l in g you r ga i n s in

If you're tired of making mistakes and derailing your gains, be sure you show up for tomorrow's update because I'm going to be offering 5 irrefutable solutions to ensure you never slow your progress again.

Until then, be sure to review the last few updates for your review:

Update #1 - 5 Tricks To Immediately Double Your Gains (Audio Interview) Surprise Gift - 12 Winning Strategies To Intentional Gains (Live Large Seminar) Update #2 –My Personal Story…

Yours in health, fitness and passion,
Coach Ben

http://www.benpakulski.com/mi40/5mistakes.php