Muscle Body Tips

Muscle Gain Truth by Sean Nalewanyj - Does it really work?

Find out if Muscle Gain Truth really does deserve its industry standard status before you make your decision…

From the desk of: Mike, Owner of Muscle-Body.com

Re: Is The Muscle Gain Truth by Sean Nalewanyj really worth it?

Dear fellow muscle building enthusiast,

I’m sure you’ll agree with me when I say that the muscle building industry has some of the most jaded con-artists in the world trying to sell you hyped up useless products and information.

I mean, it’s at the point where you just don’t know who to trust. Everyone I know has a different opinion on what works and what doesn’t because they’ve all been told different things. It’s ridiculous that something as simple as building muscle has been turned into the biggest confusion of the century.

No wonder there are thousands of people who just can’t seem to get anywhere in their quest for a better body. They obviously don’t have the right information, and you can hardly blame them.

So is "The Muscle Gain Truth" another one of these hyped up muscle products?

First, let’s start with how I got here, and why I’m writing this…

It would be a few months ago now that I was browsing the web when I got an e-mail from a friend raving about this incredible muscle building guide called "The Muscle Gain Truth", by Sean Nalewanyj.

Now, my friend is actually someone whose opinion I trust, which is the only reason I clicked on the link in the first place.

I already had heaps of bodybuilding information I was going through so, you can imagine my thoughts when I got my friend’s e-mail recommending Muscle Gain Truth. As I say, it was only because he was normally spot-on that I even clicked.

When I reached Sean’s website, I was actually pretty motivated by his story, and even more impressed with some of the features that his guide appeared to have - powerful training techniques, simple nutrtion recommendations. etc. etc…

But, again, I have to be honest with you…

At this point, I still thought to myself, "nice story, lots of features, this could really work… but yet again, I already have too much information to go through already… so forget it".

And that was that. I left the site… but a few weeks later my friend e-mailed me, letting me know he had changed his workout routine to Sean’s method and was experiencing great results.

So I thought, OK, fair enough. Why don’t I email Sean and ask him to comment on a few questions on my site. See whether he really knows what he is talking about.

Within 24 hours I had a response from Sean saying,"Sure, No problem."

With that I was pretty impressed. Most people just tell me they are too busy and don’t have the time.

So, I waited to see what he would write. Within another 24 hours he had commented on 3 questions and his answers were fantastic. Immediately I thought "Ok, This guy knows what he is talking about." So, I decided to give him a chance, and purchase Muscle Gain Truth…

So what’s the verdict you say?

What I read in Sean’s guide was nothing short of amazing. His ability to take muscle building and define it in simplistic terms was a breath of fresh air. It was so different to anything I had ever read on how to build muscle.

I really liked his reasoning on how the 3 sets of 10 or weight progression type training is not the way to build muscle. He outlined a new training method which when I read it just made so much more sense.

Also, his breakdown of nutrition and how to eat for muscle gain really sorted out the confusion in my head. I had so much garbage information floating around in my thoughts that I had no idea what to eat and what not to eat!

So, to answer the question. "No, The Muscle Gain Truth is not just another hyped up bodybuilding product. It is the real deal!"

There is one other thing I have been using along with the Muscle Gain Truth Package which has been a big help to me, and that’s an ebook called Health and Fitness Tips.

It has exercise descriptions, benefits, and how-to info on the muscle groups outlined in Sean’s guide. It has really helped me to understand why I’m doing an exercise and how to do it for maximum gain. It also includes tips on toning, cardio, diet, and has a great calorie counter section which shows you the Calorie Count and Grams of Fat included in common foods we eat like Breakfast Cereal, Vegetables, Chicken and Meat, Fruit, Alcohol etc. This has helped me to work out quickly what I am going to eat instead of spending half an hour reading the labels of every food item I pick up.

The Health and Fitness Tips ebook is fantastic in conjunction with Sean’s guide which is why I am offering it as a one time bonus to anyone who orders Muscle Gain Truth from the link below.

To get the Health and Fitness Tips ebook I use, there are three steps you need to take…

1. Click on the link below

2. Order Muscle Gain Truth

3. Send me your receipt - forward it to mike@muscle-body.com - and I will send you the Health and Fitness Tips ebook, as soon as I have confirmed your order.

Click Here to Order Sean Nalewanyj’s Muscle Gain Truth and Get The Health and Fitness Tips ebook for FREE!

P.S. Honestly, this is one of the best guides available that gives you the NO B.S. answers to the questions that matter most for someone starting weight training.

P.S.S. I believe Sean has a limited time offer available to save you money right now. If you get to the page and it is not there, than sorry you missed out.

How do muscles technically get larger?

What is the science behind why muscles get larger?

What are the best foods before bed for building muscle?

I know muscle develops or recovers while you are sleeping. What should I be taking before bed to maximize my gains?

What to eat before work out?

Is there anything special I should be eating before a workout?

How do I get rock hard abs?

Abs are the best. What do I need to do to get rock hard abs?

If you get a tattoo will it distort with bodybuilding?

I’ve always wondered this. Will the skin distort like a balloon would or will it be fine?

A Weight Training Schedule for Real People

I’m guessing that you do not have vast stretches of unfilled time in your life.

I’m guessing that you would not enjoy spending most of your waking hours in a gym, even if you had leisure to do so.

I’m guessing that your goal in taking up weight lifting is not to become the next Mr. or Miss Universe. (If it is, then you’ve probably researched what it takes to get there and already know more than I can teach you.)

In other words, you’re a real person, with demands placed on you by job, family, friends, the house, the yard, the dog … the mundane entanglements of modern life go on and on. But you also know that you need to get in shape. And even if your plans don’t include winning a string of bodybuilding contests, you can imagine how great it would feel to step out into the world with a more sharply defined and muscled body.

The good news is, you don’t need to live at the gym or put the rest of your life on hold to achieve a "hard bodied" look in a relatively short amount of time. What you do need is two to three hours of working out with weights per week. This is the total time per week, mind you; in practice, you would chop it into three parts–45 minutes or an hour of weight lifting on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, for example. Between those days you would either rest or do some moderate cardio exercise such as brisk walking or bicycling.

Carving out even a couple of extra hours in a busy week might seem difficult for some people. But how many hours of TV are you watching? How much time do you currently spend surfing the Web? Aren’t there two or three hours you could easily reclaim from these (mostly) unproductive activities?

Two to three hours a week, spread over three non-consecutive days, yields a practical and effective weight training schedule for real people.

The keys to making this schedule work — and getting the body you want in the quickest amount of time — are persistence, consistency and "lifting smart."

Persistence – This means getting yourself out to the gym, or over to that workout bench in your garage, every workout day. No exceptions. You should take your three-times-a-week appointment with your muscles as seriously as you would a meeting with your boss or a rendezvous with your significant other. Once you skip a day, it becomes easier to miss the next … and the next and the next.

Consistency — This means performing your weight training exercises correctly and fully at every session. Merely putting in an appearance at the gym won’t do much for you if you allow yourself too many slack days when you sleepwalk through your workout, or start dropping some of your sets or repetitions because you "just don’t feel like it." The sure way to progress steadily toward your muscle building goals is to engage every ounce of mind, body and willpower, from the beginning to the end of your workout slot.

Lifting Smart — This means learning as much as you can about your muscles and then concentrating on the weight lifting exercises that will build or sculpt the parts of your body you are most interested in developing, without neglecting the other parts.

"Lifting smart" also means varying your exercises from one workout session to another whenever it makes sense. For example, one exercise will work a muscle in one direction–direction "A" –while another one will work the same muscle in the opposite direction–direction "B." Usually, the smartest approach in such a case is to alternate the exercises. Instead of performing both of them during the same workout, do "A" on Monday, "B" on Wednesday, "A" again on Friday," then "B" on the following Monday, an so on.

The main lesson I hope you take from all this is that the quality of your commitment to improving your body is more important than the particular number of minutes or hours you allot to it. That’s what a good weight training schedule is really all about.

Jogging after eating a meal?

If I jog after meals, will this burn off any fat consumed better than jogging later?

What are the benefits of massive quadriceps?

I don’t think big quads look very good. What are the benefits to massive quads?

Perfect rep range?

What is the perfect rep range when doing sets?

Does heart rate affect fat burn?

You burn fat when you exercise right. What does heart rate have to do with it?

How does creatine affect muscle size?

I’m looking into supplements and a popular one is creatine. How does creatine affect muscle size?

Weight Training for Muscle Gain – Don’t Fool Yourself - This Stuff Works!

Weight training involves the use of equipment that enables variable resistance. This resistance can come in the form of “free weights” like barbells and dumbells, machines that use cables or pulleys to help you lift the weight and bodyweight exercises like pull-ups or dips.

Free Weights vs. Machines vs. Bodyweight Exercises

For maximum muscle gain, the focus of your workouts should consist of free weight exercises. Not machines or bodyweight exercises. This is not to say that you should not use machines or bodyweight exercises, but they should not be the focus of your training. To get an effective, muscle blasting workout, you must stimulate the most muscle fibers as possible, and machines do not do this.

The main reason for this is a lack of stabilizer and synergist muscle development. Stabilizer and synergist muscles are supporting muscles that assist the main muscle in performing a complex lift. The more stabilizers and synergists worked, the more muscle fibers stimulated. Multi-jointed free weight exercises like the bench press, require many stabilizer and synergistic muscle assistance to complete the lift. On the other hand doing a bench press using a machine will need almost no stabilizer assistance.

Since machines are locked into a specific range of motion and help to support the weight along that path, they fail to stimulate the muscles that surround the area you are working (stabilizers). This is a mistake. If your stabilizer muscles are weak, then the major muscle group will never grow!

Free weight exercises like the dumbbell press or squat, for example, put a very large amount of stress on supporting muscle groups. That’s why you will get fatigued faster and not be able to lift as much weight as you did on the machine. But you will gain more muscle, become stronger very quickly and have a true gauge of your strength.

If you use machines in your program, they should be used to work isolated areas and only after all multi-jointed exercises have been completed.

Beginners should begin with a limited combination of machine exercises, bodyweight exercises and multi-jointed free weight exercises. Before increasing the weight levels, they should work on becoming familiar with the proper form and execution of each. Soon, bodyweight exercises will become insufficient to stimulate growth and they will need to focus on more free weight exercises.

Multi-Jointed Exercises

The exercises that work the large muscle groups are called compound (or multi-joint) movements that involve the simultaneous stimulation of many muscle groups. These compound exercises should be the foundation of any weight training program because they stimulate the most amount of muscle in the least amount of time.

Here are the basic movements:

* Bench Presses (works the chest, shoulders, tricep)

* Overhead Presses (shoulders, tricep)

* Pull-ups/Barbell Rows (back, bicep)

* Squats (legs, lower back)

* Deadlifts (legs, back, shoulders)

* Bar Dips (shoulders, chest, arms)

They will overload your entire skeletal and muscular system like no machine could ever do, giving you and effective workout in a very short period of time. If you can only do a few exercises, then do these. They have been proven to encourage muscle and strength gain unlike any other exercises.

Lift Heavy Weight

To build mass, you must weight train with heavy weights. To consider a weight heavy, you should only be able to do a maximum of 8-12 reps before your muscles temporarily fail. A weight is considered “light” if you can do more than 15 reps before muscle fatigue sets in.

Heavy weights stimulate more muscle fibers than lighter weights. It’s that simple. More muscle stimulation means more muscle growth.

Don’t Overtrain

Heavy weight training puts a huge strain on your body, so adequate rest and recuperation after your workouts is essential. If you are prone to train too often, several things happen:

You don’t give your muscles enough time to recuperate between workouts. If your muscles have not repaired themselves, you will not be at maximum strength for your next workout. Rest is essential. Other than eating, this should be your main focus.

You are setting yourself up for burnout or an injury. You must pace yourself. You want to be able to keep this up for a long time, not burnout before you reach your goals.

Contrary to popular belief, you do not grow while working out; you only grow when you are resting.

Below is an example mass workout.

Wednesday (legs, abs)

* Heavy Squats, leg extension superset

* Seated Calve Raises, 4 strips sets

* Crunches (4 sets of 20)

——-

Friday (chest, shoulder, triceps, abs)

* Flat bench press, incline dumbbell flyes superset

* Shoulder press, side raises superset

* Tricep pushdowns

* Reverse incline leg raises (3 sets of 20)

——

Sunday (back, biceps, abs)

* Wide grip pull-ups, latbar pulldown superset

* EZ bar bicep curl, incline dumbbell curls superset

* Crunches (4 sets of 20)

Nothing fancy, but effective.

What is a good weight lifting routine to lose fat?

People have said to me that doing weights can burn fat just as much or better than other forms or exercise. What is a good routine specifically for losing fat?

Bodybuilder’s Secret: Learn The Best Way To Build Muscle & Lose Fat At The Same Time

You know, we’ve all heard that you can either bulk or cut, but you can’t do both at the same time.

And so we believe that this is true, so we don’t even try to understand how it’s possible to gain muscle, lose fat and get ripped when we’re working out. But it can be done, and many guys are doing it. And you know what, it’s great for summer when we’ve got to show off our bodies!

So in this article, we’re going to talk about how to bulk and cut, and get results.

We need to understand that it’s going to be a combination of a good workout, with a very precise diet plan.

It takes a bit of adjustment to our diet, but when you get it, you’ll find that you’re able to show off your muscles, as you’ll have less fat covering them all up!

But you have to do it in a specific way. Here’s the scoop.

The first step is a great workout. If you’re not doing this, the rest of the plan won’t work.

You’d want to workout a muscle group, with good intensity every 5 to 7 days.

Some do supersets, or some list to failure over 6-15 reps, the optimal partly depends on your body type. This will stimulate your muscles to grow, yet allowing enough time for the muscle to grow between gym sessions, so you actually gain muscle bulk..

There’s more that we can go on about to get bigger quicker, but we won’t delve into the details here.

Now, what about the diet? Listen up as this is where you can make it or break it.

You need to have a diet that:

1. Provide enough protein to gain muscle,

2. Stimulate testosterone production,

3. Stimualtes a high metabolism, and,

4. Avoiding the wrong type of calories that cause the opposite effects to the above

But how’s this done?

Here are the 5 steps in your diet to start this process today:

1. Eat lean sources of protein. Think about foods such as egg, fish, lean chicken, and whey protein. Have a good portion of this straight after your workout.

2. Thinks about the monounsaturated fats. Why? These stimulate testosterone production. They’re found in avocado, and extra virgin olive oil. Don’t go overboard as they contain dense calories. Just try 2 teaspoons a day of olive oil for example.

3. Straight after your workout, have a high GI carbohydrate, such foods as honey or jam. This will satisfy your sugar fix, yes. But also it will help you absorb the protein and creatine (if you’re taking this).

4. Have no high GI carbs in the evenings before bed. If you’re doing this, this may be the only thing you have to do to get your body going in the right direction. Your metabolism is slowing, so no high GI carbs at this time please! It’s the worse time to have it, and some guys get fat just with this one action.

5. Eat 6 meals a day, as it increases your metabolism. Many Hollywood celebrities do this, as it works. But keep the meals reasonable. Eat til you’re 80% full, not excessively, and you’ll feel more even during the day - no hunger pangs and no binging.

Got it?

If you want to get ripped in no time, and be healthy at the same time, have a look through these rules carefully.

There are more tips available on my website to refine your diet further, for example, if you’re finding that you’re not gaining muscle despite a good diet, or, you’re putting on fat at the same time as muscle.

So get to it, and eat and train well, and transform your body within weeks.

Bodybuilding Diets For Bigger Muscles

Are you working out and would like to have a change in your physique? Then start with a bodybuilding diet.

It is one commonly overlooked aspect when you are on a bodybuilding program. For sure, working out intensely will be a key factor for the transformation of your overall body physique.

However, the true challenge here is the diet program that you will undertake to gain a lean muscle mass, keep the energy level and get rid off the excess weight in your body.

A bodybuilding diet program is a simple program of knowing what types of food to take. You should also know how to incorporate them by choosing from simple charts of food choices for the different kinds of nutrients your body needs.

It is also better for you to indulge in some changes on your eating routines. However, a lifestyle change of healthy eating will ensure of a better physique and a body free from any kinds of diseases.

Here are some bodybuilding diet tips that will help you get started and that will assure you of the success that you want.

1. Eat energy nutrient foods with carbohydrates. A carbohydrate is essential for the development of muscles having glycogen. It also helps your body to optimize its athletic performance.

You should choose food groups rich in carbohydrates from minimally processed sources like eating true wheat bread over a white bread or even those enriched bread. Carbohydrate should make up 50 to 60 percent of your total calorie intake depending on your workout training level.

Some examples of carbohydrate rich food that are recommended for a bodybuilding diet are wild rice, squash, oatmeal, baked potato, pumpkin, whole wheat bread, brown rice, or a sweet potato.

2. It has been said that protein is an important nutrient for any kind of diet. Protein serves the dietary needs of a bodybuilder or an athlete.

Aside from water, protein is the next most abundant nutrient found in your body. It is present on your muscles, skin, bone, and to the blood. Protein is most effective in building muscle mass especially if you are on strength training.

Protein should make up 15 to 20 percent of your total calorie intake. Some examples of food rich in protein that you should take when you are in strength training are turkey, salmon, lean ground beef, low fat cottage cheese, egg whites, chicken breast, or top round sirloin steak.

3. Drinking plenty of water when you are working out is very essential for a bodybuilding diet. Water is necessary to sustain the performance level of your work outs.

For those who are in strength training or intense work outs, you should at least drink 8oz glass of water for every 15 to 25 minutes of intense exercises.

4. It is advisable that you eat in smaller meals more frequently throughout your day.

This is important to have a balance distribution of nutrients for your body metabolism. You will also able to burn calories at a more efficient and balance rate.

Make sure to consult a physician first before you engage yourself on a bodybuilding diet program. You should also make sure to have nutritionally quality rich food in your diet.

Healthy eating is important when you are in a strength training program. Remember to follow these tips to ensure a healthy and successful bodybuilding diet program.

Think Before You Buy Anabolic Steroids

We know it’s tempting. You and a friend have been using the same weight on your lifts for the past year; and both of you weigh about the same. Suddenly in the space of two months he adds 20 pounds of muscular bodyweight to his frame and 50-pounds to his bench. Now you’re not stupid. You know what’s going on.

He’s succumbed to bodybuilding’s dark side. He’s on the juice, pump, gear - anabolic steroids! Now before you make a withdrawal from your bank account, think before you buy anabolic steroids. Every potential source for obtaining steroids carries risks. It’s definitely buyer beware.

The Gym

Gyms are still the most popular places to get steroids. While mainstream fitness centers won’t hold much promise, hardcore bodybuilding gyms will supply you with whatever you need. Of course you need to have the right connections. You don’t just go up to some 250-pound bodybuilder and assume he’s selling. That approach could garner you hospital time. Likewise being vocal about your intentions in the locker room may draw the attention of law enforcement types. If you don’t think police officers are always on the prowl for easy targets, think again. To them you’re easy meat and another rung up the promotion ladder.

Foreign Country

If you have the cash, or live close to the Mexican border, you can try the foreign country route when you decide to buy anabolic steroids. Now buying the drugs won’t be much of a problem as many foreign countries allow you to buy without a prescription. And if a prescription is required, one can be had for a few extra dollars. The problem is getting the drugs back home. Unless you’ve been dead for five years, borders are very dangerous places since the terrorist attacks of 9/11. Trying to smuggle illegal drugs into the US is a serious offence. It will get you major jail time - after they do a full-body cavity search! Not a pleasant experience we assure you.

Internet

It’s safe to say that you can buy anything online; and steroids are no different. There are numerous domestic and foreign mail-order sites where you can purchase steroids using your credit card. The problem you face now is not border patrols or airport customs’ but the post office. The US postal service routinely checks packages for drugs and other illegal substances. You’ll know nothing until you get a call from the post office asking you to pick up your package. Unbeknownst to you, DEA agents are waiting there to slap the cuffs on you as soon as you take possession of the package. If you ever get a feeling that something’s not right - refuse the package and deny ownership.

Drug dealers

With the reclassifying of steroids as illegal drugs back in the early 1990’s it’s not surprising that the dealers of hard street drugs have moved in on the action. In fact most steroids are purchased from the blackmarket nowadays. The problem for you in buying from such shady characters is that there are bigger profits to be made in getting you hooked on other drugs like crack and heroin. Your local gym supplier won’t try this. They also be less likely to break your legs or leave you in a landfill if you’re late with a payment. Hardcore drug dealers do this on a regular basis. Some of them actually enjoy doing so. Our advice - stay away from drug dealers.

A safe and legal alternative?

So you still want to buy anabolic steroids? Why not try some of the legal steroid analogs that are available? Bodybuilders are reporting that these powerful new muscle builders are nearly as effective as illegal steroids. But you won’t have to go to Mexico or some dark alley to buy them. No having to worry about DEA agents showing up on your doorstep. Play it safe. Check out these revolutionary new products today?

Discover The Exercises You Need To Develop Your Muscles!

There are various exercises available that can help you to achieve a stunning physique. You will need to tap into any of them to get what you want. However, before you proceed, you will need to have well defined goals you want to accomplish before the end of the training. These goals can come in any of the following forms: Do you want a Sculpted Body. Do you want a firm body, Do you want to build mass or tone your muscle? Once you have a clearly defined goal in mind, your problem is half solved. Then you may consider any form of exercise that will help you. For some Body builders, combining exercises help them reach their goals.

For those who want to build muscle mass, you will need to work training your strenght, resistance and endurance training together. The reason that you need endurance training is because it will help you to stay longer under muscle straining exercises. When you stay longer, you are the master, and you will find out that you will rapidly reach your goal.

When you seriously consider constancy in your exercise, you see that some of the goals you think will not be easily reached will be achieved by you eventually. As a body builder, you need to know how the muscle organs work. The muscles is an organ comprising of tissues and a sheetlike membrane. These two elements bound connective tissues which accomplishes its task of movement with the aid of the tendons which is directly attached to the bones. The Muscles make movement of all connected body parts possible, it is our strenght.

To successfully achieve your muscle building experience, you will need to consider any of the following exercises dance aerobics, swimming, weights, dance, aerobics, strenght building etc. You will be including endurance workouts with any of them because this will help in your holding power - your ability to withstand any form of exercise that may cause pain for a long time. This act helps the muscle to survive strain and endure longer.

Here is a list of what these workout exercise could help you achieve:

- Stress reduction
- Rise in energy level
- Muscle building
- Achieving a firm body
- Sculpted body

It is advisable that you obey all the rules in the gym while exercising. Make sure you are always wearing the right attire. Always be on shoes, this will protect you, unless you will be sliding with your feet, then you may remove your shoes.

As an athlete or muscle builder, you should already know that every exercise should proceed with warm ups and stretches to prepare the body for the real exercise. in other words, the equation goes this way: Perform stretches + warm ups + real body workouts + stretch again + Rest = Goals achieved after several repeated trainings.

By now you should understand the role of stretches to a full body workout. In case you don’t know, stretches creates flexibility in the muscles. It allows any other exercise option to easily be accommodated and applied to the body. If you are starting any muscle building activity without stretches, you are doing damage to yourself, it will simply lead to injury.

If you are building your muscles only, you will need resistance building, in that case you will need weight lifting to help you accomplish this. Weight lifting forces your muscles to resist the weight by trying to lift it, hence it causes the muscle cell to expand thus resulting in an enlarged muscle mass. However, any person with any history of heart problem should never engage in this type of exercise as this will cause serious health problem for that person. Otherwise resistance building is highly recommended for anyone who wants to build his muscles. The end result is an achievement in your goal of having a perfectly sculpted and stunning physique you will always be proud of.

Pushup Power - Real Strength

Listen up, if you think you can’t get strong or explosive doing pushups, your crazy.

If you listen to all the media or the so called athletes you may believe that the bench press is better than the pushup.

The truth is that you will use more muscles doing pushups than you will doing bench presses.

The bench press has limits- the pushup has no limits, there are so many different types of pushups that can be done- and most people don’t have a clue.

If you can do over 100 pushups in a row, that is excellent, and you have great muscular endurance, but to build strength you will have to work a little different.

You need to do pushups that are very challenging, pushups that will keep the reps low, like one arm pushups, handstand pushups, feet elevated one arm pushups, deck one arm pushups, etc.

And I’m not talking about one arm twisting your body or having your body in the shape of the letter Y pushups these types are easy.

I’m talking about legs close together and no twisting of the body or crossing one leg and doing one arm pushups.

These are not for weak men, but for the strong.

Here is a version you could try:

Get a phone book, now lay down on your stomach.

Now place the phone book under the hand you are going to do the pushup with- now from the ground push as hard as you can, keeping your body straight this is 1 rep try several sets of 3 to 5 sets.

Bodybuilding Exercises

Top 10 Bodybuilding exercises - back to basics training for ultimate muscle mass

In this age of $5000 strength machines and $8000 treadmills, it may surprise readers to learn that some of the best bodybuilding exercises can be performed for as little as $100! That’s right, you don’t need chrome and glitz to transform your physique. Long before Universal, Nautilus, and Hammer Strength, came on the scene, bodybuilders had been packing on muscle mass by training with good old-fashioned barbells.

The following (in no particular order) are our choices as the top bodybuilding exercises of all time.

Squats

Most authorities consider squats to be the best leg exercise. Period. One set of all out squats will do more for your lower body than 10 sets of leg extensions. Squats are also one of the most natural and basic of all body movements (let’s face it how often do you mimic the leg extension in the run of a day!) and target virtually the entire lower body.

Barbell Bench Press

The barbell bench press can be considered squats for the upper body. No pretty machine comes close to what this basic bodybuilding exercise will do for your torso. Long before the Pec deck started taking up space in gyms, bodybuilders were putting muscle mass on their chest, triceps, and shoulders, by training with barbell presses.

Deadlifts

Although long considered a powerlifting exercise, deadlifts are one of those exercises that often get neglected by bodybuilders because they take a lot of effort to do properly. But deadlifts will build you a set of python-sized spinal erectors as well as bestow on you that “no neck” look. They’ll also do wonders for your hamstrings and thighs.

Chin-ups

Long before lat pulldowns transformed the way people trained their backs; chin-ups were tops of back bodybuilding exercises. The great thing about chins is that you can do them just about anywhere from a play ground to a basement. Unlike lat pulldowns, chin-ups require you to lift as well as stabilize your body (i.e. keep your body from swaying). This is what makes them so effective.

Barbell rows

If chin-ups widen your back and produce that much-coveted v-taper, barbell rows will give your inner back that dense, thick, meaty look. Unlike the more often substituted T-bar row, barbell rows have none of the balancing removed. You have to lift and balance the weight. There is no pivoting on the floor or being locked in a given plan of motion that may be unnatural for your body.

Seated Barbell Press

This is another oldie but goodie. Training with seated barbell presses will give your shoulders that cannonball look. Seated barbell presses evolved from the old standing press that was so popular with Olympic lifters and bodybuilders in the 1940’s and 1950’s. They’ve stood the test of time and you should be doing them.

Barbell curls

It’s safe to say that the first exercise performed on barbells when they were invented was a barbell curl. No cable or machine curl will come close to what these babies will do for your biceps muscle mass. They’ll also build up a phenomenal set of forearms. So if you want hams hanging from your shoulder joints you must add barbell curls to your bodybuilding exercises.

Lying triceps extensions

Lying triceps extensions, also called skullcrushers, are the triceps equivalent of barbell curls. They’re simple, basic, and will bring those horseshoes out for all to admire. So you can fluff with kickbacks or cable extensions or put some serious meat on your arms with this great bodybuilding exercise!

Push-ups

Push-ups go back even further than barbell exercises. Push-ups are the best bodyweight exercise for building the chest, shoulders, and triceps. By changing the height of the legs you can target different parts of the chest. They can also be done just about anywhere, whether the gym or in a hotel room while on the road. So drop and give me 20!

Crunches

Crunches will strengthen your abdominal core. They’ll also improve your posture and help protect your lower back. Crunches evolved from sit-ups, but unlike sit-ups they place less stress on your lower back and keep the hip flexors from contributing to the exercise. As with push-ups crunches can be done just about anywhere and should be the primary exercise in your abdominal routine.