Are you breathing correctly

When you do an exercise, of course you are breathing. The key question is are you breathing correctly ? You would think that you don't even need to practice something that comes so naturally to us human beings. However, the way you breathe will determine your performance in a workout and thus affect your overall results; so it is very important that you breathe right. For example on pull exercises such as the pull up that I am performing on the right, I make sure to exhale as I pull myself up until my chin is above the bar and I inhale as I lower myself back down until my arms are fully extended.

Rest days

Weight training is simply about breaking the muscle down during a workout and it will repair itself and grow bigger with adequate training and recovery. Every time you train, you are actually tearing the muscle(s) and these tears become repaired,hence the muscle becomes bigger and stronger. Bodybuilding is just the body's ability of adaptation to stress to grow because it has no choice but to as you are demanding it to by putting it through its paces where it will answer and match your intensity. Depending on how hard you work, the reflection will be mirrored by your body.  

Muscle Memory

Sometimes you will suffer an injury or sickness that will keep you out from training. Your physique will lose the muscle it had once gained through constant previous training. Thanks to muscle memory, the muscle has the ability to remember a movement and the process of how to grow. Extra nuclei built up during inactivity prove to be very beneficial. After a period of absence from training, muscles are able to grow much larger in size as the nuclei have now been built up inside the cell and can synthesise protein very quickly. In conclusion, do not be disheartened if you sustain an injury or cannot exercise for a few weeks or months because when you resume training, the muscle will grow bigger and stronger than ever before. 

Muscle Protein Synthesis

Muscle protein synthesis is the process of building muscle. Protein is the building block for muscle growth. To stimulate muscle protein synthesis it is ideal to have around 4 meals split apart by 2 to 3 hours each containing at least 20-40g protein. This will make the optimal conditions for the muscle to grow.  Tip: Remember to space out your protein in meals frequently during the day and not to eat all your protein requirements in one sitting which will hinder the efficient utilisation for building muscle.

How to get Abs

Everyone wants abs. But people trying to get their abdominal muscles to show commonly make the mistake of doing hundreds of crunches and sit ups a day in a desperate attempt to look lean and thin. The way to show your abs is a much more different route. Diet and planned weight training will give you what you are looking for. I can help you to have abs like I have in the photo of me on the right.

Training splits

When going in to health and fitness you need to identify and incorporate a training split that suits you. A training split outlines the areas of the body you will focus on during your workout and on which day. Depending on how long you have been working out, your training split will vary in terms of volume and specificity of the muscle groups.

Beginner Split (Anyone from 0 to 1 year in fitness) Monday: Full body - Thursday: Full body - Sunday: Full Body.

Intermediate Split (For those with 1-3 years in fitness) Monday: Upper body - Tuesday: Lower body - Thursday: Upper body - Friday: Lower body.