I want bigger shoulders

I want bigger shoulders!!

This seems to be a goal of many recently, with a lot of people asking me how can I build boulder shoulders after seeing people like Ryan Terry and Steve Cook. It's kind of like the new chest and huge arms. 

The one thing you must remember about shoulders are that they are often secondary muscle group or stabilising muscles in most of the exercises you do, this therefore means when it comes to training them don't always use a lot of volume. Front delts get a big hammering when training chest, and even more so performing exercises with an incline.

Warm you shoulders up! Shoulders are prone to injury and if you have a recurring injury in your shoulders say goodbye to ever building big shoulders. Always spend a good ten minutes before any upper body session really warming up the shoulders, particular attention paid to the rotator cuff. 

Focus more on the lateral and posterior head, more than the front delt. As already mentioned the front delt is used often in through other exercises. The lateral and posterior will is also give more depth and roundness to your shoulders, thus making it appear a lot larger. This is in my opinion the easiest way to build size fast through isolation, high rep, low weight and focus on the contraction, squeezing the muscle. 

Lastly is split the shoulders into two workouts. This is something I'm using at the minute and absolutely love it. I do a anterior workout focusing on the push press to begin with then upper chest along with the lateral head of the muscle. The following day I deadlift heavy at the beginning, slightly using it as a secondary back day. Then I focus on face pulls and flies to recruit my rear delts, finishing with a shrug marathon. It is certainly working for me as this has always been a lacking muscle of mine. If you're cut for time add triceps onto the end of the anterior workout and biceps onto the posterior day.

So there are four easy steps you can adjust into your training in order to build bigger shoulders. Have a fab weekend. Eat clean, train hard and get plenty of rest. 

The season is upon us, let the bulking begin!!

Now as I sit and write this the dark nights are closing in, meaning winter is arriving which can only mean one thing in the fitness world, let the bulking commence. So before everyone starts eating whatever they want I thought it would be good to outline a few points with regards to nutrition.

Track your Macros:
By this I mean monitor your macros in order to ensure you're eating enough but also eating enough of the right stuff. Firstly work out your Basic Metabolic Rate then usually add on 500 calories to put on weight. You don't have to eat absolutely loads. Then add in the break down of the calories, I follow around 50% carbs, 35% protein and the remaining 15% fat. This will ensure you have carbs for energy but also a surplus to add on size with enough protein to ensure you're repairing the broken down muscle. Use MyFitness pal to track this, it doesn't need to be exact, like if you were dieting, but you'll be surprised how much food you actually need to eat.

Selection of Carbs:
Now for example say your macros allows you to eat 400 grams of carbs, this doesn't mean it can be just any carbohydrate. Try and have low glycemic based carbohydrates such as rice and oats throughout the day then both pre and most defiantly post workout opt for a high glycemic carbohydrate such as fruit or a dextrose based drink. This will help spike insulin levels and will be quickly absorbed into your system, thus helping with the recovery process. My favourite currently is a banana, kiwi and dates!!!!

How often to eat:
Now there are many different ways of consuming your calories. Some swear by eating all your food in a short period and fasting the rest, e.g. 8:16 diet. This is an option but if your sticking to a clean ish diet I can't see that this is going to be needed. I would tell many people to try and split the meals up throughout the day in three hour periods. This keeping you full and also allowing for you to be able to consume your meals without force feeding yourself. However at the end of the day as long as you're sticking to your macros it really doesn't matter when you consume them as long as you get them in.

Eating on rest days:
This is a thing that I am going to start changing in my diet and that is consuming less on rest days. Some would say this is incorrect however my body doesn't require the energy output it would need on a day which I am training and therefore believing cycling carbs in order to eat less on these days will reduce putting on unwanted body fat. Don't get me wrong you can't put on size without gaining fat but you can slightly slow the process down in order to not gain to much weight, which will be so much more difficult to lose when it comes to the summer cut. Just add this in maybe once every two weeks and see how it effects you.

Four easy puts you can input into your winter bulk. Hope this helps

Jack 

Creatine Monohydrate by Pro 10 supplements

Are you taking creatine? Have you ever thought about taking creatine? Well this is the one you must buy.

Creatine is found in red meat and tuna but through the process of cooking this is often lost. Your body also produces creatine, however not enough to see substantial gains as your metabolism often burns this, therefore this must be supplemented.

If your goals are to put on size and strength then creatine is a way to aid you for this. Firstly it helps when producing ATP (adenosine triphosphate) which, in turn with type 2b muscle fibres, will help with your explosive power which is why many weightlifters use this supplement. So if you want to get a new pb deadlift, squat or bench press then this supplement will definitely help!!!

Creatine infuses in the muscle, causing water retention to occur, thus helping protein synthesis; and lets not forget a muscle is made up 80% of water. Anyway no more boring stuff, but this will help you put mass on with a good, strength based routine. 

Now the creatine supplement you need to be taking is pro 10 creatine monohydrate. (See link below). I've taken many in the past which have upset my stomach or not dissolved well with water, but this doesn't do any of that. I have seen real gains in my strength as well, taking this supplement twice a day pre and post workout with pro 10 whey concentrate. It goes down a treat. Just follow the cycle of 7 weeks on and a week off, 5 grams a serving and you'll see results. My only one bit of advice would be drink plenty of water as this will aid the creatine to work its magic.

Don't forget 70% diet, 30% gym

Jack

http://www.pro-10.com/en/creatine-monohydrate.html#