Unfortunately teen bodybuilding is not as easy as it looks and can result in injury, bad habits and frustration if stated with out structure and progression. Here are the next five tips to successful teen bodybuilding:

6. Learn Proper Technique First

How well do you think you would golf without supervision? How well do you think you will skate without coaching? How well do you think you will play piano without lessons? How much muscle do you think you will build without proper lifting technique? Not much!

I hope you are humble enough to swallow your pride and accept the fact that your first step should be getting professional coaching from a reputable fitness trainer. I know many of your friends will not even consider this and you will be told, ‘just learn it yourself,’ or ‘watch others.‘ Can you imagine a medical surgeon or dentist who took this approach? Yikes!

Think about it. You are going to be lifting weights the rest of your life. Is spending a few hundred or even a few thousand dollars, on a professional fitness trainer, not going to pay you back over and over (for the rest of your life) if you do things correctly right from the start? Definitely! If you start lifting weights incorrectly, get ready to spend the money you saved on a coach for a rehab therapists next vacation! If you don’t get injured now, most likely it will be in the next few years.

7. Stretch Just As Much As You Lift

Stretching is the most under rated physical quality which is unfortunate because shortened muscles perform weaker and slower and have a higher incidence of injury. Stretching is the only physical quality which more is better. Stretching is one of the only habits that can not be over trained.

If you are serious about getting into the world of teen bodybuilding, I encourage you to start this habit early. Most text books teach stretching methods that include 20-30 seconds per stretch. Don’t even waste your time if this is your idea of stretching. From real world, in the trenches, experience, I would suggest stretching at least the same amount of time that you lift. That means, for every 1 hour of weight training you perform, you must balance the effect of weight training with one hour of stretching. Therefore, if you weight train 4 hours in the week, you better be stretching for at least 4 hours in the week. If you are really lazy, start stretching for at least half the amount of time that you lift. After you see the benefits of increased strength, quicker recovery and less injuries I am sure you will have no problem bumping up your stretching sessions to the recommend 1:1 ratio.

Fail to stretch at least the same amount that you lift is almost a sure fire way of shortening a teen bodybuilding career or lifestyle. Remember, weight training shortens and tightens the connective tissue you train. Stretching counters the effect and ensures your muscles have room to grow!

8. Focus On Bodyweight Strength First

It amazes me at how many teen bodybuilders can barely do a set of 40 push ups, 20 chin ups and 30 dips. In my opinion, these are some standard upper body fitness tests that should be accomplished with ease before loading is introduced (it might take your 3 or 4 months to achieve this if you can’t do them right now). I once heard a famous fitness coach say, “You have no freaking business using a load if you can’t stabilize, control, and move efficiently using your own bodyweight.” I would have to fully agree.

What’s the point of a sloppy 150 pound lat pulldown if you can’t do 10 bodyweight pull ups? What’s the point of a 185 pound bench press with microscopic range reps, if you can push up your body a couple dozen times? What’s the point of a 500 pound leg press if you can do a set of one legged squats down to the floor? Believe me, after a few months of conditioning your body to body weight training, you will be blown away by how quickly your weights climb when you introduce loading.

9. Keep Your Workouts Under 1 Hour

Unless you are in a teen bodybuilding competition for the longest workout possible, it bewilders my mind what you could possibly be doing for longer than a hour! Unless you go to the gym for mirror workouts (that’s when you spend more time looking in the mirror than actually lifting)I suggest getting some help with your workout program. If it takes longer than 20-30 minutes of even moderate intensity lifting to fully exhaust a muscle, I have to question your workout intensity. Shorter more intense workouts will always trump longer less intense workouts.

Your goal should be in fact to complete your workout faster and faster. This will force your muscles to condition and adapt to a greater work load. The more work you expose your muscles too, in a shorter amount of time will improve your muscle density. Your bodies ability to tolerate greater workloads.

10. Develop Full Range Of Motion

Initially, teen bodybuilding should involve building strong muscular attachments, tendons, ligaments and bones – text books refer this as anatomical adaptation. Look at building your muscles as the finishing touches on a solid house. You would not want to start framing the house until the foundation has been built. Strengthening your tendons, ligaments and bones would be considered building a strong foundation to build from.

What is the best way to begin a strong foundation for a house to stand on? Build from the bottom up or in our case, from the inside out. This means developing a full range of motion with each weight training exercise to ensure all the muscle fiber gets activated and all the supporting tissues are fully involved.

Think about it. Partial movements will only develop partial muscle. Full movements will develop full muscle. What would get you better results? Squatting 135 pounds with your butt to the floor or squatting 225 pounds for about ¼ of the way? That’s correct, involving the entire range of motion with a lighter weight will involve more musculature, improve your mind-muscle connection quicker and strengthen all the supporting tissues more rapidly. Initially, as a teen bodybuilder, you should never sacrifice range for load.

Conclusion

If you are serious about doing teen bodybuilding safely and effectively than take all of the tips very seriously. Do not pick and choose the ones you wish to follow. They will all result in a long and fruitful bodybuilding lifestyle. To your teen bodybuilding success!

About the Author: Vince DelMonte is the author of No Nonsense Muscle Building: Skinny Guy Secrets To Insane Muscle Gain.

He also specializes in teaching skinny guys how to get a six-pack and build muscle, without drugs, supplements and training less than before with his program found at YourSixPackQuest.com

© 2006-2008, Vince DelMonte Fitness. All rights in all media reserved. You may reprint this article so long as the article and author bio are reprinted intake and all links are made live. This article may never be sold individually or as part of a package.

So the question is, how is teen bodybuilding done right? Should teen bodybuilders read the latest bodybuilding magazines? Learn from their friends or a professional? Train every day or every other day? Rely on supplements? Start when they are done growing or earlier? Focus on endurance training heavy lifting? Teen bodybuilding has dozens of questions and many different opinions on each. Here is my top 10 tips to successful teen bodybuilding in no particular order:

1. Avoid Steroids

Duh! This might sound obvious and if you have not been offered steroids yet, make your stand now and be prepared to say ‘no’ when you get backed into a corner. Your body is flowing with more natural hormones than any steroid could replace. Don’t screw up your natural hormonal levels at such a young age. Even though all your friends might laugh at you for not conforming to the pressure of using illegal drugs, be a real man and train drug free. In the end your friends will respect you more for staying away from the dark side.

2. Focus On Clean Eating

Old habits die hard. Believe it or not, the nutrition habits you are creating today will affect you all the way into your adult years. As a young teen bodybuilder, you have an opportunity to create good habits at an early age. Focus on eating clean carbohydrates like whole wheat breads, oatmeal, brown rice, potatoes, fruits and veggies. Focusing on eating a variety of clean proteins like tuna, chicken, fish, cottage cheese and protein shakes. Balance out your meals with clean fats like olive oil, fish oil, natural peanut butter and nuts. Take pride in the fact that you even know what clean eating is. Look at this as an opportunity to be an example to your friends to be walking statue of health! I promise you that you will have a few friends who admire your physique and ask you for advice!

3. Avoid One Body Part Workouts And Focus On A Full Body Workout

A full body workout? But all my friends are training chest tonight. And tomorrow they are training back. And on Wednesday they are training arms. But if you have the courage, you are not going to follow the herd and trust me. You are too young to be splitting up your muscles groups into only one body part a day. Unless you are pursuing a career in competitive bodybuilding, one-body part splits are an excellent way to over train at a young age. Look at it this way. Do you only eat once per week? Do you only take supplements once per week? Do you only sleep once per week? Do you only study once per week? Then why would you train your muscle groups only once per week? It does not make sense. Full body workouts will allow you to hit all your major muscle groups three times in the week, without over training, instead of only one time.

4. Emphasize Your Conditioning

Teen bodybuilding can actually become something that appear to be a lazy man’s sport. Next time you walk into the weight room, count how many people are actually doing something. Seriously, I guarantee you will see more people standing around and talking, adjusting weights and staring in the mirror. Not many people are actually hustling from one exercise to another or even sweating. That’s another reason to avoid one body-part bodybuilding style workouts. They don’t emphasize your fitness or cardiovascular system. Your weight training program should be incorporating more than just weights. Balance out your sessions with some skipping, stair climbing, hard running, supersets, and really short rest periods. If you don’t feel like you are going to throw up at the end of your weight training sessions, I have to question your workout intensity.

5. Stick to Basic Supplements

You are a teenager and should be saving your money for college and your first car. Don’t get scammed by over hyped supplement ads that promise the world. Follow the saying, ‘If it looks too good to be true, than most likely it is!” All you need to budget for now is a high quality multi-vitamin which you should take for life as well as a high quality protein powder in your arsenal and a regular omega-3 fish oil cap. Between these three supplements you are more than covered. Don’t worry about creatine, glutamine, fat burners, testosterone boosters or even NO2 products. The first three to four years of your lifting should be done with just the basic supplements.

Conclusion.

Stay tuned for part two when I reveal the next top five tips to successful teen bodybuilding.

About the Author: Vince DelMonte is the author of No Nonsense Muscle Building: Skinny Guy Secrets To Insane Muscle Gain.

He also specializes in teaching skinny guys how to get a six-pack and build muscle, without drugs, supplements and training less than before with his program found at YourSixPackQuest.com

4. Never Train More Than 2 Days Consecutively

But the bodybuilding magazines say to split up my program into 5 separate days… Yes, I am more than familiar. I call these 5 day splits ‘drug programs.’ They treat your body simply as a ‘muscular system’ and neglect the other systems such as your central nervous system, hormonal system and immune system. Each of these systems have a unique part in muscle growth. Not to mention that these ‘drug programs’ only work if coupled with a few thousand dollars a month on drugs.

Just because you trained your chest on Monday does not mean your immune system, or hormonal system or central nervous system has FULLY recovered. What happens when you return to the gym NOT FULLY recovered? Will you be able to lift more weight?

If you are not able to lift more weight than guess what happens to your level of fitness? It certainly will not go up because you will be depleting your energy reserves further into a deep, dark hole called ‘over-training.’ If you can not lift more weight or ‘out-do’ yourself from your previous workout than how do you expect to create any NEW muscle? It is literally impossible. Taking a full rest day every two days will minimize the chance of over-training and ensure your energy reserves are replenished.

5. Go Home If You Are Not Stronger Than Last Workout

Multiple choice question:

Q. You train your chest on Monday and you averaged 4 sets of 8 with 225 pounds on bench press. This workout would be considered a personal best. Your following chest workout, let’s say five days later, you come to the gym with great anticipation to out-do your last workout. To your disappointment you discover that you can barely do 4 sets of 8 with 185 pounds this week. What happened?

A. Your body had not fully compensated from the previous workout and required a longer recovery period.

B. Who cares! You toughed it out and made the most of the workout.

C . Complain to the gym owner that his weight plates are messed up and you want a refund on your gym membership.

If you picked A than say hurray and pat yourself on the back. The rational decision would be to admit the recovery error, assess the factors that could of resulted from not fully recovering (did you take all your supplements, did you sleep enough, did you follow your nutrition plan etc) and plan for success next time. This is the ‘trial and error’ process.

The emotional and irrational trainee would take option B and slug it out. Consider what is actually happening when you take this approach to your workouts:

1. You will be using weights within your threshold so your muscles will simply laugh back at you because there is no new unaccustomed stress on your muscles. Remember, your muscles only grow if you give them a reason to.

2. You will be training in the hole and prolong the period of time that it takes to come out of the hole and super compensate.

3. You will have no new muscle to work with because you have not fully recovered or grown bigger so it will be literally impossible to lift more weight or more reps.

4. You will be using your precious energy reserves, that could be going towards building muscle, instead to fueling an useless workout.

5. You will lose motivation and grow frustrated and confused because of your lack of progress.

This is a very tough and mature training decision one must face. After commencing a workout, if you discover after a few sets that you are on tract for a crappy workout then I would suggest to drop the workout and go home. Plan to come back the next day. If your goals are to simply train to train, then you will probably not follow this rule. However, if your goal is to get huge muscles and pack inches of new muscle onto your frame then this is a critical training decision.

To ensure your trip to the gym does not go in complete vain – have a flexibility session to make use of the time and then try and pick up the cute receptionist phone number on your way out!

6. Find a mentor

What does this have to do with muscle building? Everything – finding a mentor can make all the difference in how much muscle you build! If you plan on becoming successful in the gym than surround yourself with someone who has already walked the path. Would you agree that the quickest way to achieve success is to find someone who has gone before you and done what you want to do – and model them.

So why do millions of fitness enthusiasts wander aimlessly following generic advice in text books, magazines or websites? Although these methods of learning can provide a theoretical perspective, they are absent in accountability, a formal system, time and financial commitment and assessment of performance.

A wise mentor will guide you step-by-step of the way with a formal system that includes a higher level of commitment and accountability on your part. You will be required to fulfill tasks, change habits, meet deadlines and perform at a higher level than you would without a mentor.

The premise of having a mentor is that he has been there and done that. He has walked in your shoes and will give you the appropriate advice in a timely fashion. If you do not perform and follow the advice then you are wasting the mentor’s time and he will ‘fire’ you! If you do perform and follow his advice then you will be successful and build the muscle you deserve in less time!

Seriously consider hiring a fitness coach, a personal trainer or anybody who has done what you wish to do and be prepared to elate the same results!

About the Author: Vince DelMonte is the author of No Nonsense Muscle Building: Skinny Guy Secrets To Insane Muscle Gain.

He also specializes in teaching skinny guys how to get a six-pack and build muscle, without drugs, supplements and training less than before with his program found at YourSixPackQuest.com

1. Body Weight Training

This was once a popular muscle building technique but is very commonly ignored. Why? Perhaps because most body weight training is simply hard and can put a dent in your precious ego! As far as I am concerned, if you can not work with your own body weight than you have no freaken business using external loading such as barbells and dumbbells.

It’s incredible how many attempt to use heavy weights with a microscopic range of motion but can’t do a set of push ups, a squat to the floor or even one chin up. Don’t get me wrong, there is definitely a place for external loading with heavy weights but not until you have the ability to master the following bench marks:

Males should aim for 1 set of 80 push ups, 1 set of 20 chin ups, 1 set of 20 1-leg squats, 1 set of 40 dips and 1 set of 20 pull ups.

Females should aim for 1 set of 40 push ups, 1 set of 5-10 chin ups, 1 set of 10 1-leg squats, 1 set of 10-15 dips and 1 set of 3-5 pull ups.

These standards will ensure a solid foundation of general fitness and muscular endurance and lead to building muscle mass more easily in the following stages of your weight training program.

2. Flip Your Program Upside Down Every 3 Weeks

This is an extremely powerful tip to building muscle mass, not to mention one of the easiest tricks to ensure your body side-steps plateaus forever. Consider that you have been training your chest shoulders and triceps every Monday. In you next phase, three weeks later, you should do the complete opposite. You will train your triceps, shoulders than chest on Friday. This will prevent plateaus because each muscle group will have an opportunity to train completely fresh.

Let’s say you are training your back, biceps, forearms and abs on Friday. Then you will train your abs, forearms, biceps, and back on Monday (in the opposite sequence). You will literally switch everything upside down. Again, this will ensure that these muscles receive an opportunity to train first in the week when your body is the most fresh.

You will curse my name when you blow the heck out of the smaller muscles first and then train the larger muscle groups last. Yes, I know this months issue of Bodybuilders Digest said to never train the smaller muscle groups before your larger muscle groups. I have heard it before so stop analyzing, trust me and give it a try. You be the judge and don’t be surprised if you see new levels of muscle mass and strength after this one technique.

3. Spend More Time At The Grocery Store

If you are serious about building muscle, accept the fact that you will need to spend more time than you do right now in the grocery store. Have you ever opened the fridge for something to eat and all you found was Aunt Wilma’s Thanksgiving turkey leftovers with mold on it? Ever gone into the cub boards and discover only a few leftover bags of potato chips from last weeks Super Bowl party?

To ensure a optimal environment for building muscle and fat loss you must ensure your cupboards and fridge are constantly stocked. This will mean more frequent trips to the grocery store. Chuck the crap that is in your kitchen right now and replace it with good stuff and keep on replacing it. Don’t ever let that supply of good food run low.

About the Author: Vince DelMonte is the author of No Nonsense Muscle Building: Skinny Guy Secrets To Insane Muscle Gain.

He also specializes in teaching skinny guys how to get a six-pack and build muscle, without drugs, supplements and training less than before with his program found at YourSixPackQuest.com

Carrie, Charlotte, Miranda, and Samantha exemplify the modern day multidimensional woman that has it all, including a super- fierce body that is confident, sexy, strong and fit!

And let’s face it ladies, when you look good, you feel good! If you feel like “Sex” has left your “City” it’s time to BRING YOUR SEXY BACK with The Fitness Model Program™.

TheFitness Model Program™ will help you lose that darn ugly fat, blast cellulite and allow you to build feminine sleek and sexy muscle tone with only 4 short workouts per week! Some women are even experiencing the enjoyment of getting their hot body back and not only looking, but feeling years younger and even reporting having higher sexual energy with the help from the
Fitness Model™ Program!

Bring Your Sexy Back with my Fitness Model Program.

The Fitness Model Program™ is a scientifically proven fat burning and muscle toning program which is endorsed by elite trainers and top female fitness magazines. It has been used by hundreds of women of all ages to gain that Fitness Model™ look! Most importantly it does not rely on hours of training; you DON’T have to live in the gym and work out 3 hours a day!
It is the ultimate Bikini Body Program that will give you a round butt, toned arms and flat abs!

Most importantly, it will help you get those flat abs that you have always wanted!
Summer is here- Are you bikini ready? Here are some of my favorite tips for six pack abs:

CRUNCHES: Don’t Count-Just “Burn” Them!

Abdominal exercises are your arsenal at sculpting and toning your tummy. I am strict when it comes to these, almost always exercising my abs until exhaustion. My militant mantra is “If you are not burning, you are not earning”, meaning you have to work for your washboard and a good indicator is that post work out soreness that sets in on the abs after my workouts.

Here I have highlighted my 3 top favorite abs exercises guaranteed to give you a run for your money!

A. BALL BUSTERS: Lay your back on a yoga ball with your knees bent 90 degrees and your workout buddy holding your feel down. Lean all the way back holding a small 5 pound weight behind your neck crunching up and actually curling your torso inwards towards your belly button and at the same time turning your pelvic muscles up.

B. THE PENDULUM: Lay on the floor while holding your work out partner’s ankles. Bring your legs up and have your partner push them down to the floor and then snap your legs back up-the key is to use resistance when your legs are being pushed down.

C. HANGING KNEE RAISES: When I first put myself into these arm straps, I thought that it was some kind torture device! But know I only have my abs thanking me! Hang in 2 arm slings with elbows bent and locked, and gently raise your knees into your chest.

If you want to TRULY maximize your bicep mass, you’re going to LOVE this exercise. It’s one of my very favorite for building bi’s.

The reason I named it after myself is that it basically summarizes what I’m all about – doing everything completely “backwards” and getting MUCH better results!

That, plus I thought it would cool to have at least ONE exercise name after myself when this one really catches on

The Nilsson Curl looks almost exactly like a chin-up.

In fact, another name I’ve called this exercise is the “Forearm-Braced Chin-Up”. Because what you’ll be doing IS a chin-up…but you’ll be doing that chin-up with your forearms braced against another bar so that the VAST majority of the tension goes to your biceps instead of your back.

Just so you know up front, you’ll need to be able to do probably 6 to 10 or so regular chins before you can really use this exercise. If you can’t yet do that many chins, don’t worry! I’m also including a “standing” version below that allows you to set your feet on the ground and spot yourself throughout the movement.

I mean think about it – imagine the kind of growth response you’ll get from an exercise that puts the full tension of almost your entire bodyweight directly onto your biceps…

That’s the beauty of this exercise – it’s a bodyweight exercise, which means increased muscle fiber activation AND you use your entire bodyweight to do it.

How To Do It:

To do this exercise, you’ll need a rack or a chin-up bar that allows you to set another close underneath it. Alternatively, you can also use the metal ladder of playground apparatus (that works quite well, too).

Set the racking pins (where you would normally rack the bar on a squat, for instance) to the highest point you can on the rack.

Now move the safety rails to a point that is about 8 to 12 inches below that (you can play with this height when you try the exercise to get the best dimensions for you).

Set a bar on the top racking pins and set another bar on the safety rails, pushed up against the uprights. It’s going to look like two rungs of a ladder.

In my own setup, I load the top bar with weight plates to keep it from moving. You may find you need to do this with yours, too.

Quick note on setup…if you have a power rack that has pins that you can slide in and out of the frame (I don’t – mine are integrated right into the rack) you can also more easily get this set up by setting one safety rail in the top set of holes then the other safety rail in a set of holes below (making your own ladder, essentially). That’s the easiest way to set this up and how I used to do it when I had access to a rack that I could do it with.

Now get in the rack and take a close, underhand grip on the top bar. Your forearms should be braced up against the bottom bar, just above your elbows. Your arms should be straight when you’re at the bottom.

Now start doing a chin-up. As you pull yourself up, your forearms will press against the bottom bar. THIS is what changes it into a biceps-oriented movement.

Pull yourself all the way up until your nose is at the top bar then lower slowly.

That’s the exercise! And it’s a TOUGH one…I don’t care how strong your biceps are. It’s going to challenge and you will LOVE the way it feels.

When I used to train at a commercial gym, I showed this one to a guy who was built like a gymnast…HUGE biceps, not very big legs. He did 5 reps, his arms swelled up like balloons and he couldn’t wipe the grin off his face.

So as you get stronger with it, you can also add weight by holding a dumbell between your feet or wearing a dip belt. But that’s VERY advanced. This exercise is just BRUTAL even with just your bodyweight.

Do it FIRST in your bicep routine (trust me). You won’t need to do a whole lot of anything else for bi’s when you do 3 or 4 sets of this one…

Click this link to the view the video for this exercise.

Standing Nilsson Curls – A Useful Adaptation

This version is excellent for when you’re either not strong enough to do the “free hanging” version above where you’re using your entire bodyweight for resistance or if you’re just too fatigued from previous training to do enough reps to really get much out of it.

It’s basically the exact same exercise only instead of setting the two bars up high, you set them a bit lower so you can keep your feet on the ground and spot yourself by standing up when you need help!

When it comes to hitting the biceps (even with your feet down), the difference between this exercise and a regular chin-up is just AMAZING. You’ll feel almost ALL the tension go right into the biceps.

So here’s what the standing version looks like. You can do this in rack, using the set up I have here or you can use the safety rails in the rack, same as I mentioned above – just set the two rails into one side so they look like ladder rungs – it’ll give you the same effect.

With this version, I have a bar setting in the racking pins and a bar sitting on top of the rails. I have the weight on the top bar to help keep it from moving. You want about a foot spacing in between the two bars.

You’ll be gripping the top bar and bracing your forearms on the bottom bar.

So stand in front of the bar and get a grip – a little inside shoulder width – underhand grip.

Set your feet a little forward then squat down.

Now pull yourself up, as though you were doing a chin-up. Use your legs only as much as you need to for help. The majority should be bicep pull.

Pull all the way to the top and squeeze your biceps HARD.

Lower and repeat. Remember, use help from your legs only as much as you need to.

You can also use this setup to do negative reps, standing up on the positive and taking your feet off the ground to use your full bodyweight on the negative.

Your biceps will be on fire after a few sets of this one – a bodyweight bicep exercise!
Click this link to the view the video for this exercise.

By Nick Nilsson

About the Author:

Nick Nilsson, also known as the “Mad Scientist of Exercise,” has been training and innovating unique and powerful new exercises and training techniques for more than 18 years. He’s published 8 books on weight training, including his most recent – “The Best Arm Exercises You’ve Never Heard Of“. Visit his site now to learn more about how this book can take your arm development to a whole new level AND get your FREE sample ebook packed with 7 MORE extraordinary arm exercises!

The U.S. Army established a maximum allowable body fat percentage standard that applies to everybody from recruit to four-star general. Failure to meet the body fat percentage standard means no promotions and no career training. Repeated failure to meet the standard will result in an early exit from the Army. That’s a harsh result.

At least with the Army people know what to expect as a consequence of ignoring their own physical fitness. The world we all live in may not be as honest as the Army in defining those consequences but, the results may be as unkind.

Excessive body fat connotes a lack of personal discipline and can lead to low self-esteem. It detracts from appearance and suggests a poor state of health, physical fitness or stamina. That is what researchers found from measuring the responses of people to photos of different body types.

The maximum allowable body fat percentages for everybody in the U.S. Army are shown below. Chances are you are not in the military and never intend to be but, can you suggest a more thoroughly researched or carefully crafted standard?

Maximum allowable body fat percentages are categorized by age and gender. For males this is the breakdown:

Age 17 – 20:  Max Body Fat is 20%
Age 21 – 27:  Max Body Fat is 22%
Age 28 – 39:.  Max Body Fat is 24%
Age 40 and over:  Max Body Fat is 26%

And for females:

Age 17 – 20:  Max Body Fat is 28%
Age 21 – 27:  Max Body Fat is 30%
Age 28 – 39:.  Max Body Fat is 32%
Age 40 and over:  Max Body Fat is 34%

It’s fair to say that knowing your body fat percentage is a necessary first step to getting fit and trim. Because your body is about 55-60% water, you can stage-manage your weight with diet pills and fad diets but, you cannot manipulate body fat percentage.

Consider making your physical fitness goal to get your body fat percentage in line with the U.S. Army standard for the maximum allowable body fat percentage for your age and gender. Once you get there you will have accomplished something meaningful and made physical fitness a positive habit. You will be able to take your body-building and fitness ambitions anywhere you want to go.

Fortunately determining your body fat percentage is easy. If you cannot or do not want to get it done at a gym or anywhere else other than privately, you can get a body fat caliper at a sporting goods store or at Amazon.com. There is an under $15 model and even one with a digital readout for around $30. The instructions that come with the body fat caliper are helpful enough for you to take readings as accurate as you would get at the gym or the doctor’s office.

Body Mass Index (BMI) is a number calculated from a person’s weight and height. BMI is used for creating statistics from large groups of people and in that role is considered a reliable indicator of body fat percentage for an entire population.  Youíre a population of one. Get the body fat calipers.

Myth alert!

It seems like not all the things that we heard from “experts” or overheard in the public areas are true. Maybe the reason why we are not getting those perfect abs are because we are not doing it right. Then that would be such a terrible waste of our time. So we need to know the myths and what is real to get the chiseled abs we want.

Six pack Myth 1: Abdominal muscle is different from regular muscle.

Muscle is muscle. Abdominal muscle is the same with our biceps and lats. The only difference is the location. Abdominal muscles are not resting on a bony surface, instead it is against the stomach and intestines. There is no significant difference whatsoever.

Six pack Myth 2: Strong abs means a strong back.

The key to a strong back is a balanced abdominal muscles. You can work your abs, but no more and no less than you work your other muscles throughout the day. There are heavy emphasis on working your abs, this heavy emphasis is often misunderstood to be the contributor of food health. Infomercials give the false belief that by working out just one part of your body will give your health great benefits.

Working out and exercise should not just be concerned with one part of the body. What you need is an overall body fitness to be healthy.

Six Pack Myth 3: You have to train your abs at least every other day.

They say that you need to train your abs hard enough twice a week, that is to give them time for recovery. The key is to choose exercises that fatigue your abs, so that they actually need recovery time. Include exercises that use the abs functionality. Since abs are used to stabilize the body, holding a push up position without letting your body sag will really feel and develop your abdominal muscles.

Six Pack Myth 4: To gain results, high repetitions are required.

The key to abdominal gains is the to overload. If you aim abdominal endurance, the more crunches you do each time, the more you can do later on. It does not strengthen the abs very much but it also eats up most of your time.

Six Pack Myth 5: Hard rock abs can be attained by doing a lot of sit-ups.

Many doctors say that sit-ups and crunches are the work exercises and perhaps should never be done. A common mistake done during crunches, is throwing the neck out. Crunches and sit-ups cause the abdominal muscles to be pulled to tight, this excessive pulling put stress on the neck or what is known as throwing the neck out. The overuse of crunch type exercises may even lead to the reduction of thoracic extension and contributes to bad posture.

Six Pack Myth 6: It takes years to get great abs.

Everyone has abdominal muscles, you just need to train them in the correct order and reduce the fat surrounding them. For some, it would take a few weeks. For other it may be longer. Different body type develop at different rates.

If your parents are naturally thin or have a small body frame then most likely you will have the same traits. This doesn’t mean you have no chance of building a strong muscular body. It just means you are going to have to work hard.

2. Your metabolism has an effect on your size.

If you have difficulty gaining weight whether it’s fat or muscle, then you most likely have a fast metabolism. Your body is burning calories faster than you can consume them.

3. There is no universal weight training program that is going to get massive results for every individual person.

The best way to find a program that works for you is to find someone who had the same type of body as you before and start walking their walk. There are certainly standard exercises that will build muscle but there is more to building muscle than weight lifting.

4. More training doesn’t mean more muscle.

This is one of the most difficult concepts for many to grasp. The purpose of weight training is to stimulate muscle growth that’s all. Once that has been done, your muscles need to repair and new muscle needs to be built which only happens when you are resting.

5. Isolation exercises aren’t going to get you big fast.

The best exercises to put on the most amount of overall size are multi-muscle exercises. These are exercises that require more than one muscle or muscle group to get the job done. These lifts put the most amount of stress on your body. This is the stress that will shock your nervous system into releasing the greatest amount of muscle building hormones.

6. Free weights build muscle quicker.

Free weights are preferred over machines because they make your body work harder. They require greater concentration and allow the stimulation of supporting muscles. Machines are good for beginners to help with form and basic control, but limit the effectiveness of the exercise.

7. No Pain, No Gain.

Lifting the same weights over and over isn’t going to get you big. In fact it will do the exact opposite.

To build muscle you need to go heavy. This stimulates Type IIB muscle fibers which cause the most amount of muscle gain. Lifting heavy is when your body fails after 4-8 reps.

8. Long training sessions are a NO-GO

The idea is to stimulate muscle, not hit it from every angle possible. This is only a concern for developed body builders looking to tone muscle. Long training sessions cause catabolic hormone levels to rise dramatically. Catabolic hormones are responsible for breaking down muscle tissue resulting in MUSCLE LOSS. Your weight training sessions should go for no longer than 60-75 minutes maximum.

9. You don’t need aerobic activity to lose fat.

The time spent running or swimming is muscle building and recovery time lost. Building muscle is the fastest way to lose fat. Aerobic activities will help you lose fat but not so if you are on a high calorie mass diet for building muscle.

10. 3 square meals a day isn’t going to help you build muscle.

Eating is an important part of muscle building. You need to eat more often and eat more protein. You should be eating roughly every 2.5 hours which is about 6 meals per day. Spreading your meals throughout the day will improve muscle assimilation, and make sure that your body always has the calories it needs for muscle building and repair.

Actually there are some easy and simple tips that would help you get the six pack stomach that you want.  Avoid eating while watching the television.  Since your mind and focus will be on the movie and television show that you are watching, you would not be able to watch the amount of food that you are eating.  You may tend to overeat while watching television.

Do not skip breakfast.  It is the most important meal of the day.  Upon waking up, the metabolism is accelerated and fat starts to burn.  You would need enough food to cope to cope up with the day.  Calories would burn while you perform your daily tasks.  By avoiding a meal, you tend to overeat the next meal.  Since you would feel that need to make up for the lost fat.

Incorporate good eating habits to your daily routine.  Aside from making sure you eat regularly and not in front of the television,  you need to make sure that good fats are incorporated to your diet.  Some people shudder in the word fats, well, there are fats that are good for your.  Fish oil, flaxseed oil, extra virgin olive oil are the healthy fats.

Water is good for you.  The more water you drink, the better.  You donít have to stick just drinking 8 to 10 glasses of water when you can drink more.  But we are required to drink that much water everyday to keep hydrated.  This would regulate fat burning and body metabolic process.

If drinking milk, the choose skim milk.  There are healthier alternatives, all you need to do is make sure that whenever you go to the store to buy groceries, you choose the healthier alternative.

Diet is incomplete if you don’t put some mobility into your routine.  So still incorporate exercise routine into your lives.  Doing a hundreds of sit-ups a day is not good enough.  Think about your whole body and not only about your abdomen.  When aiming for six pack abs,  cardiovascular exercises are a must.  This kind of exercise increase stamina and heart condition, it burn fat in a quick way.  Cardiovascular exercises can be done 5 minutes a day, and can increase it to 45 minutes.  Aside from cardiovascular exercises you can also do some weight training to get the body that you want.

Not all exercises can be done inside the gym, take your exercise outside.  Take a walk, stand straight in a cocktail party, you can even do some exercises during your break time while you are sitting down on your chair.

Aside from proper diet and exercise, getting the minimum seven to eight hours of sleep every night is very important.  Sleeping rejuvenates your body.  It repairs muscular system by decreasing the stress hormone levels.

And last, you need to be consistent.  You may plan or devise your own exercise regimen, but getting your six pack abs just does not stay there.  You must be consistent with the plan or regimen you devised.  That is why diet or exercise do not work, because we lack consistency in doing things.  Six pack abs are easy, as long as you put yourself into it.