Tightening up your midsection is one thing. Toss in a couple of sets of crunches each week, cut back on the soda, and voila, you’ve changed things for the better. But building up a sliced and diced set of abs is a much greater challenge. Are you ready to push your body to a new level, and get your abs sharper than they’ve ever been before?

First you will want to clean up your diet – in a big way. Yes, you can cut out a little bit of junk and see some subtle change. But you need to do more. Begin by cutting back the obvious items which you don’t belong for health reasons – fast food, soda, and other obvious snacks and junk food. Then, begin cutting back on the carbohydrates – just 500 calories per day from your baseline number – until you reach a point where the scale starts showing some weight loss.

Addressing your cardiovascular exercise will be your next step. Initially, you’ll want to use something like 4-5 walks per week, each lasting 20 minutes at a moderate pace. Add to that three weekly sessions of more intense cardio using an elliptical or stair stepper.

Have you used supplements before? Now is the time! ECA, or a combination of 25 mg ephedrine, stacked with 350 mg aspirin, and 200 mg of caffeine is combined to deliver fat loss, appetite suppression, and metabolic boost. You can also locate a variety of OTC supplements.

Finally, one of the most important aspects is training – specifically abdominal training. You’ll want to hit your upper, side and lower abdominals at least four times per week. Use crunches for upper abs, along with rope crunches and machine crunches. Side abdominals are best hit with broomstick twists, which will allow you to train them without much resistance. Using heavy weight will result in a thickening of the midsection, which will harm your symmetry. You’re trying to get your abs tighter, remember? Finally, use leg raises and frog kicks for the lower abdominals.

Give it time and be patient. When you implement all 4 of these changes, you will likely see an initial loss of water weight, and you’ll be highly encouraged. Then, you’ll have a bit of a bounce back, where a little weight may return – and that can be frustrating. Always keep the weights low (or use none at all) and the repetitions high for best abdominal development results!

Summertime is right around the corner. Are you ready to shed some belly fat and get your midsection looking tighter and ever for the beach, bedroom, and everything in between? You’ve come to the right place. Check out these seven surefire ways to burn your belly fat.

Reduce your calories
First off, you have to eat fewer calories. If you have a little extra pudge on your midsection, then you probably already know that you’re consuming too many calories, right? So cut back! It doesn’t have to involve any major sacrifices. Drop the soda and candy, eat fewer carbs with each meal, and choose leaner meats over fatty cuts of beef and pork. Easy enough, right?

Bump up your fiber
Fiber does plenty of things to help keep your body healthy, but it also serves a great role in helping your body (especially the midsection) to look better. A few small salads before meals and a couple of pieces of fruit for snacks will deliver all the fiber you need to remove excess waste from your intestines, making your midsection smaller, tighter and leaner!

Cardio upon waking
Immediately after waking in the morning, jump on your treadmill (or go for a walk) before consuming any calories. Even juice and fruit is forbidden until you have walked, run or stepped for your daily 25 minute regimen. Now you can enjoy a healthy breakfast, knowing that your body fat levels will soon be dropping.

Use supplements
Your local grocery store, nutritional chain, or online store will have a myriad of weight loss products. Give a few of them a whirl! You may be able to discover a single supplement, or combination of supplements, that helps you to lose that midsection fat.

Run an ECA cycle
If you’re looking for proven results, then you should give the ECA stack a try! This combination of 25 mg ephedine (available as Bronkaid), 200 mg caffeine, and 350 mg aspirin can be purchased at any grocery store or pharmacy. When used together, they lead to fat loss, elevated metabolism, reduced appetite, and a slight elevation in body temperature. Give ECA a shot – it works!

Crunches Daily
You should be climbing on the floor – upon waking, and before bed, and knocking out 100 to 150 crunches. Religiously. No exceptions. Got it? Build up the muscle and the shape will appear, giving you greater confidence as you work to burn that belly fat!

Get a tan!
Finally, get a tan (real or spray tan) to help bring our the shadows and three-dimensionality of your midsection. There’s a good reason bodybuilders and fitness/figure athletes tan before shows – it makes every muscle group look better!

It can be tough to define the best way to find the energy you need for training. Sure, you can chug a 5-hour energy drink a few times a day, but that kind of shock to the system repeatedly isn’t going to be a healthy way to find long-term energy levels that satisfy you. Instead, you should opt for these surefire ways to stimulating your energy levels.

Bump up the fruits and veggies
Fiber is the key for moving the garbage and waste from your body out of your system, and helping you to lose that sluggish feeling. Two large green garden salads each day, coupled with a few servings of veggies with meals and a piece of fruit here and there is all you really need!

Bump up the cardio
Energy levels rise when you have plenty of oxygen in your bloodstream and your cardiovascular system is firing on all cylinders. Help your body achieve this state of bliss by completing your cardiovascular exercise each week for 4 sessions of 20 to 30 minutes. It might be strange to think you’ll get more energy from doing more work, but this is exactly the case!

Drink more water
Muscle, digestion, blood and brain function, and all other parts of your body work better when you’re fully hydrated. You should be consuming .75 to 1.5 gallons of water per day for best results!

Check into some supplements
Your gym, grocery store, or favorite supplement online store undoubtedly sells a variety of herbal and sports science supplements that can boost your energy levels by removing a mineral or vitamin imbalance of which you aren’t currently aware. Give them a shot!

Can’t beat ECA
The combination of 25 mg ephedrine, 200 mg caffeine, and 350 mg aspirin can’t be beat for bumping energy levels, shaking body fat and suppressing appetite for the athlete looking to shed body fat. Just be sure to cycle off the ECA every 6 weeks to ensure your blood pressure stays at a manageable level and your body doesn’t become addicted to the ECA for normal energy level requirements.

Remove stress
Much of the energy you feel is mental, and it can be very difficult to train, sleep, eat and relax correctly when your mind is preoccupied with other tasks or concerns. Take a few days from the gym, clear your plate, and return with a serious vengeance!

Sleep more
Sleep is the #1 way to recharge your energy levels. Make sure you are enjoying at least 7 hours each night, with a 30 minute nap or recharge period each day.

Do you have a special occasion coming up? Do you need to look a lot lighter and tighter, and you only have a week to achieve it? Never fear! Check out these tips for tightening up your appearance and losing 5 pounds of fat and water – in just one week!

Slash the calories – but only by a bit
Cutting back your daily calories by about 700 will help you to pull 2-3 pounds from your waistline in a week while doing minimal damage to the muscle you have worked so hard to build. You’ll want to limit your carb and fat intake to reduce these calories, while keeping your protein intake very high. Cut carbs after 2 pm for best results!

Keep hitting the weights
You’re going to want to build up muscle to look as solid as possible, so hit the weight 5 to 6 days this week. Heavy compound exercises such as squats, bench press, and deadlifts should be the centerpiece of your weight training week.

Get a tan
Every cut on your body looks deeper and harder when you are tan. An actual sun tan looks best, but if you’re afraid of damaging your skin, you can always opt for a spray tan. They take about 5 minutes to complete, and will leave you nice and bronzed for 5-7 days for minimal cost.

Run a week of ECA
Stacking up 200 mg caffeine, 325 mg aspirin, and 25 mg ephedrine, taken twice per day, will immediately pull water from your skin, bump your metabolism, and give you the energy to do cardio even when you’re enjoying fewer calories. ECA is very effective and highly popular. You can pick up all of the components at any grocery store or pharmacy.

Bump up your water
The more water you drink, the faster it is removed from your body. Depriving yourself of water to look leaner will only force your body to hold more of it. Stay lean while drinking up to one gallon per day, spaced out into 1-2 cups per hour throughout.

Lots of greens
Eating a great deal of lettuce and fiber will flush out some of the food that has found its way to your intestines. This will make your waistline smaller, which will make you look better in pictures or in person!

30 minutes cardio per day
Six days this week – elliptical or stair stair stepper – is your best bet!

Granted, if you’re currently sitting at 30% body fat and carry about 40 pounds more fat than you need, then a single week of crash cutting isn’t going to help you all that much. But if you’re sitting at 12 to 15 percent body fat and are looking to shave down some fat and cut a little water for a photo shoot, cruise, wedding, or other special event, then using these tips will help you to get on your way!

The flat bench press is probably the most popular bodybuilding exercise of all time. “Whattya bench?” is asked more than any other question in gyms, and for good reason. The bench press delivers new muscle, strength, and size, and does so quickly. It recruits half of the muscles in the upper body, from chest and triceps, to shoulders and even lats. But you can always make a good thing even better by analyzing your current bench press practices while looking for some means of improvement.

How fast are you completing each repetition?
Do you blast through the reps? Or are they slow and steady? Mix up your speed and you’ll quickly discover you are able to see new muscle fiber recruitment. Slower reps, speed reps, and your normal range should all be used for at least 6 sets each month.

How is your form?
Many lifters will do anything possible to get that weight up. Others will maintain some semblance of good form while moving the weight. The truth is that some people will grow no matter what kind of repetitions they are using, everyone will grow using intelligent, consistently good form. And you’ll avoid injuries too!

What repetition range are you using?
A rep range of 1-5 will build strength. A rep range of 5 to 8 will build thick muscle. Going 10 to 15 adds cuts & endurance. Going above 15 reps makes it more of an exercise in cardio than in muscle building. Choose accordingly based upon your own personal goals.

Do you vary the benches you use?
Using the same bench for years will limit your results, as your chest muscles will become accustomed to the same range of bar movement. This will stifle growth. Try new benches in your gym, or at other gyms. You’ll be surprised at how your body responds!

How much has your lift improved in the last year?
Look at what has happened as a result of your training for the last 12 months. Did you grow bigger and/or stronger? If the answer is no, then it’s time to add some volume, bump your calories, or simply start training with some greater intensity if you want to see some satisfactory results!

How is your rotator cuff health?
If your AC and RC joints are giving you trouble, then your best bet (in terms of long-term bodybuilding viability and sustainability) is to walk away from the flat bench press for 1-2 months. Training “through” an issue will never allow it to heal. Your muscles will bounce back very quickly in 8 weeks once you do hit the exercise again.

Are you using incline movements as well?
Flat bench press alone will not build up a chest. Incline movements should be included on each chest day as well!

Do shoulders & triceps dominate?
If your chest is taking the back seat to your shoulder and triceps muscles during your workout, then it might be time to use some isolation chest movements FIRST. This will ensure you are able to use the pectoral muscles to get the work done – and they’ll see the results and growth as a result!

Remember when you first started lifting weights? It was all so simple then. You would walk into your gym and tackle whatever exercises looked good. It was all about challenging your body from every angle back then, and you loved every second of it. You probably didn’t count anything except the number of plates on the bar, and you kept adding weight every week. It was a glorious time, with those beginner’s gains.

However, those days seems to have passed you by. Today it is much harder to grow bigger and stronger in the gym. You actually have to focus energy each day upon specific body parts, and it does matter what exercises you use. Set and rep ranges are influencing your success to a noticeable degree for the first time. When should you go heavy, and when should you stay light with the weight? It can be confusing to say the least. Let’s look at three common repetition ranges and decide which is best for you, and when.

1 to 5 reps

Bodybuilders should rarely be lifting in the range of under 6 reps per set. Gains made in this range arrive as a result of adaptations to your nervous system, and not the muscles themselves. This is why powerlifters don’t grow all that much as they make improvements in their lifting numbers. You recruit more muscle fibers, to be sure. But you don’t cause them to grow.

6 to 10 repetitions

If you are looking to make massive gains in terms of power and raw muscle mass, then a repetition range of 6 to 10 per set is probably going to be where most of your sets should land. Gains made when using this repetition range are of the size variety due to significant jumps at the metabolic level of the muscle. You don’t get all that much stronger lifting in this range, but that shouldn’t matter to bodybuilders.

10 or more repetitions

Unless you want to look like a big frumpy block of wood waddling from place to place with all this new muscle, then you’re going to want to take your sets to the land of 10, 12, or 15 or more sets per movement, for at least one set per exercise. Adaptations by your body at this level occur at the cellular level. You attain much better endurance, with maximum blood flow to the muscle group being achieved. But you aren’t going to get bigger.

Any rep scheme you use is going to make you bigger, stronger, or both. The key to success in bodybuilding is to decide what your goals are, then to employ sets in the range most beneficial to you reaching these goals. For most bodybuilders seeking gains in muscle mass and shape, 60 to 80% of their sets should fall in the 6 to 10 range, with the remainder being in the 10 or higher range. Sets lower than 6 reps should be saved for those special occasions when you’re maxing out on bench press with your friends. They are not conductive to bodybuilding success.

Let’s take a look at 10 healthy snacks that won’t ruin your muscle gains or physique.

1. BioNutritional Power Crunch Bars

Power Crunch Bars are the real thing. These creme filled wafer cookie taste just like a real cookie and pack high quality Proto Whey, and almost no sugar. Proto Whey is what makes Power Crunch so much better Proto Whey is a micro peptide protein supplement designed specifically to fulfill the entire spectrum of metabolic requirements for optimum human health and performance.

2. Stallone High Protein Pudding

Each serving of Stallone™ High Protein Pudding contains 20 grams of high quality protein and is lactose free. Stallone™ High Protein Pudding is the world’s first ready-to-eat protein pudding that is shelf stable and only needs refrigeration after you open it. It contains 3-5 times more protein per serving than other so-called high protein puddings and it tastes delicious!

3. CytoSport Muscle Milk ‘N Oats

Muscle Milk and all the goodness of oats in one great tasting combination! Muscle Milk N Oats is the quick and convenient way to get your daily protein intake. Now all you need to do is add water, and you have a delicious, on-the-go breakfast filled with high quality muscle milk. Yes! Just add water and enjoy 30 grams of unbelievable protein and oatmeal. EvoPro is a complex ratio of proteins, peptides and amino acids designed to replicate the amazing benefits of mother’s milk for rapid tissue growth and repair.

4. BBNC Snacks Power Pop

Power Pop is the perfect snack when you crave a tasty boost. Power Pop Popcorn is a very economical grain so it is an inexpensive way to add fiber to ones diet. Health and medical groups regard popcorn as one of the healthiest snacks around. Power Pop Popcorn contains more protein than any other cereal grain, more iron than eggs, peanuts, spinach, roast beef, and more phosphorous and fiber than potato chips, ice cream cones or pretzels. Popcorn is always low in calories.

5. Da Vinci Gourmet Flavored Syrup – Sugar Free

Da Vinci Gourmet Sugar Free Flavored Syrups sweetened with Splenda Brand Sweetener. Splenda is the only no calorie sweetener made from real sugar and because Splenda is derived from real sugar, it tastes like real sugar. Everyone, including diabetics and phenylketonurics can safely enjoy Splenda. Thus, they are extremely popular among diabetics, low-carb dieters, and others who are interested in no-calorie products.

6. Clif Bars

Clif bars are packed with more juicy apricots, sweet chocolate chips, and larger chunks of almonds and peanuts. Each bar now has 23 vitamins and minerals for overall wellness, 5 grams of our proprietary fiber blend and 8-12 grams of soy protein for enhanced muscle recovery.

7. EAS Myoplex Carb Control Bars

Myoplex Carb Control nutrition bars were designed specifically to offer a meal supplement or snack for those who wish to avoid taking in excess carbohydrates. Packed with high-quality protein your body needs to repair and support lean body mass, Myoplex Carb Control nutrition bar delivers only 3 grams per bar, 30 grams of quality protein, and 26 vitamins and minerals.

8. SciFit Fat Free Beef Stix

These High Quality Fat Free Beef Stix have 15 grams of protein and one 1 gram of Carbohydrates! They come from beef raised without the administration of Antibiotics and Added Hormones, and there is no MSG added! This product contains 15 grams protein, only 1 gram of carbs, most of all, they are delicious, nutritious, and perfect for snacks!

9. Apex Crisp Bars

Many foods today are spiked with excess vitamins and minerals that, taken together with a multivitamin, give you too much. Apex designs all of its products to work with your multivitamin, so you are always in the optimal and safe range. Apex Crisp Bars are a light and crispy quick fix of energy and great taste.

10. Balance Bars

Balance Bars are based on the 40-30-30 nutritional philosophy; a diet high in protein with moderate carbohydrates. Plus, they have 23 essential vitamins and minerals. Balance Bar is committed to helping you understand and adopt a positive nutrition outlook. Whether you’re looking for lasting energy, high protein, vitamins and minerals or more fiber, or if you’re monitoring your carb intake; Balance Bar can help.

If you have been training with weights consistently for any length of time, then you are probably already aware of the fact that it can be tough at times to squeeze in all of the movements you want to use, into the allotted 60 to 75 minutes that is optimal for muscle building training. Sure, you can extend your workouts longer, but at that point you really begin to interfere with the function of your central nervous system and you prevent recovery. But what kind of solution would allow you to preserve your body’s precious recovery resources which are available in short bursts, without squandering your mini-windows for muscle growth each day? That’s right – splitting up your workouts!

Two workouts per day
Some bodybuilders find a solution by splitting up their workouts into two each day. They will devote 45 to 60 minutes to a morning workout, then another 30 to 45 minutes for an afternoon or evening workout. The morning workout will typically be devoted to the larger muscle group, such as chest or back, with the afternoon session being devoted to triceps or biceps, respectively. Ideally, the muscle group trained in the afternoon should be the supporting muscle group for the major muscle group that was targeted in the morning when your body was at its freshest. Use that middle period of the day, after your first workout, to squeeze in two meals and a big nap, if your job allows for it.

Three workouts per day
If you are preparing for a contest, and/or using steroids, then training three times per day may be ideal for you. You can split up your muscle groups into two as mentioned before, then add an additional training session for the evening where you will engage in cardio training. Or you can keep the weights in one session, and opt for an early morning, then late night cardio session. This 3x daily split is very popular with athletes who are 2-4 weeks out from a bodybuilding show and need a little bit of help getting lean fast.

Going beyond
Moving yourself up to 4 or more workouts per day is not going to lead to success for most people. Sure, some chemically assisted bodybuilders will find it works for them. But for the most part, training this much will make it impossible to build any NEW muscle. At best, you will hope to maintain your existing muscle while shedding fat. This is ideal if you have a show on the horizon, but not if you are trying to add new muscle mass to your frame.

Let’s assume you’re currently a lean and mean 180 pounds. You enjoy food, you love training, and you’re way more fit than most people your age. Progress is coming adequately, but your goal of reaching 200 pounds seems to be a lofty one. No matter how much time you put in – whether it be the kitchen or the gym – you just can’t seem to top the 200 pound mark. You’re doing everything right – for a 180 pounder. But you’re not acting like you weigh 200 pounds, are you?

To achieve the body you want, you must force the demands upon your body that go beyond your current level of achievement. Look at it this way – All the training, eating, and sleeping you have done up to this point in your life has only forced your body to grow to 180 pounds. Anything else at this level of food, weights and snoozing won’t grow you to 181 pounds. You have to increase these factors in order to see a greater weight on the scale. A higher input (food, iron and sleep) results in a higher output (body weight).

Apply this to what you are doing now. Consuming 3000 calories each day will keep your body weight at 180 pounds. So why in the world – if your goal is to be 200 pounds – would you ever limit your daily caloric intake to 3000? Wouldn’t you automatically bump this up to 3500 calories (or more) immediately, and keep it there until you weigh 200 pounds? Absolutely!

Training applies these same tenets. Your current bench press, squat, and deadlift numbers are great, and they got you to 180 pounds. You’re a strong guy, right? But you aren’t as strong as the 200-pound version of yourself. You need to lift more weight if you want to weigh a muscular 200 pounds. No matter what it takes, you need to scratch your way up the poundages. Train with a buddy. Use drop sets. Train to failure. The added calories (and a nice cycle of creatine with Mesobolin) will help, but you need to realize one very clear point: You need to train harder.

Act “As If” you have already achieved that goal of being 200 pounds. Lift, eat, and sleep as if you are a 200-pound bodybuilder. And before you know it, you will be 200 pounds. Stop engaging in the factors that made you 180 pounds, cause they stop at 180. Set your vision to 200 pounds, and you’ll be there soon!

People and animals aren’t all that much different. We can let the creationists & the evolutionists argue all day about the scientific nature of things, but there are lots of attributes and tendencies of animals which are reflected in people, and vice versa. Some animals have an aggressive nature, attacking everything they see. Others are timid and survive by hiding, disguising as their surrounding, laying low, and allowing camouflage to be their chief means of survival. Some are clean, some are messy. Are you the type of lifter who wipes down a machine before AND after using it in the gym? Or are you that messy animal that leaves a trail of sweat, towels, and Crystal Lite as you plow through the gym. When it comes to training – what kind of animal are you in the gym?

Or, here is a better question. What kind of animal SHOULD you be in the gym? It’s not entirely clear such an animal already exists. You would have to possess the focus of a bald eagle, your intent on conquering each body part adamantly clear to everyone in the gym, particularly yourself. With the precision of a bird swiping a fish out of the water, you should descend upon the bench or machine of your choosing, ready to inflict some damage. Once on that machine, you need the reckless abandon of a wild Silverback Gorilla, tearing that iron limb from limb as you press out repetition after repetition. You’ll need the memory of an elephant to recall the last personal best you completed, and the drive of a cheetah to explode into higher numbers every time you train.

However, once you complete the workout, you don’t want to display that kind of personality “out in the wild” once you leave the training environment and enter the real world, right? Nobody likes the guy in the buffet line still wearing his gym clothes, piling ten chicken breasts on his plate while lecturing everyone around him that “you really need to get in the gym, bro”. A timid and quiet personality, humble and helping, best serves you in the real world.

Now that we have developed a real conception of how the varying and different personalities of the bodybuilder should be employed in the gym and in the real world, we are better prepared. We can now show insane intensity in the gym, the likes of which will bring new levels of size, strength & conditioning. At the same time, we know how to handle ourselves are a representative of the sport which won’t get animal control called on us. Time to start lifting & representing!