We all want to look our best, mainly because it is the number one way to attract the opposite sex and even fool them into sleeping with us. So with that being said, we need to implement a combination of weight resistance training, cardiovascular exercise. Each one is equally important to the equation and for those of you who want to neglect one in favor of the other heed to his advice. There is no such thing as a toned muscle. Muscle is muscle and fat is fat. Muscle can never change into fat and fat can never change into muscle. You either burn fat or store it, or you put on muscle or lose it. For you ladies out there. You don’t produce enough of the hormone testosterone to build mass, so there is no chance that you will look bulky by exercising with weights. So hitting the weights is imperative to look “toned” because steady-state cardio does not do much in the way of changing your body composition.

Looking toned is about having as much muscle as opposed to fat as per your weight. Remember, working out with weights speeds up your metabolism because your body has to work harder to maintain muscle. The more muscle you have, the higher your basal metabolic rate, or the rate at which you burn calories, and the more fat you burn as a result during the day. So, you can see the cycle. The more muscle you have, the easier it is to keep the fat off. So three components are necessary: weight training, cardio done at an extremely high pace (high intensity interval training), and proper nutrition to have an anabolic hormonal environment conducive to keeping the fat off. The types of food you eat are particularly important and the times of day that you eat them are even more important. For you men out there, who say “ya, ya, cut to the chase…this is baby information”. Well, the type of weight training you perform is particularly important and odds are if you haven’t implemented the following steps, you are simply wasting your time in the gym.

In order to recruit enough muscle fibers for muscular growth and development:

-The stress must be specific and above your threshold.

-The stress must be with heavy enough weights to stimulate your central nervous system

-The stress must be placed on the muscle you intend to train by creating a mind-muscle connection to infiltrate a pump

-The stress must be progressive overload, meaning you are doing more than your previous session

-The stress must be INTENSE enough for long enough to achieve momentary muscular failure

-100% of the fibers must be activated during your rep

If even one of those factors is not met in your workout regimen, you are wasting your time!
Thus, in order to involve 100% of the fibers in a particular movement, two conditions are required:

1) The muscle (and its related body part) must be in a position of full contraction; AND

2) A heavy enough load must be imposed in that position

In order to build muscle, we need to be as intense as possible and attack our muscles by providing it with progressive overload, which is presenting your body with a stimulus it has never experienced before so it can adapt and grow. Your training needs to be where you look to achieve what’s called a pump through your exercise and where you are actually taking your muscle to complete failure to present it with progressive overload. Nutrition is going to make up a huge composition of gaining weight also- you need to be taking in an adequate amount of nutrients very frequently and particularly your pre and post-workout meal and breakfast are extremely important if you want to pack on LEAN muscle. The number of reps you should perform is also important and differs based upon the actual muscle you are working, since each muscle is particularly responsive to a set number of reps based on the fibers they are made up of (predominantly fast twitch or slow twitch).

This is explained fully in the MP45 program at http://www.mp45.com. This is a workout program designed exclusively by me. It tells you the exercises to perform, the amount of reps to do, the number of sets, on what days to lift, when to take off, etc.- step by step workout and diet plan for all 45 days. Compound exercises are what are going to give you the best results in the gym because they allow for all of the conditions to be met that I discussed earlier and shift your hormones to become anabolic so that they can be conducive to burning fat all day long. Here are some of the most important exercises you should be incorporating in your routine.

BACK SQUAT

Stand up with feet shoulder-width apart and a barbell across your back (across your shoulders and traps holding with your arms) Toes should be pointed forward and outward a little bit. Stick your butt out a little and then drop it to the floor sitting backward until the top of your thighs (not the bottom) are parallel with the floor. Weight should be shifted onto your heels and never your toes. Head should remain to look forward, (not up and never down) and back should remain straight throughout the entire movement. Drive your feet through the ground and explode upward to return to the original position.

STANDING BARBELL LUNGE

Stand up with feet shoulder-width apart and a barbell across the back. Step out with one foot forward and perform a lunge where your back knee drops to the ground and you maintain a bend in your front knee. You can either walk with it and perform the exact same thing with the other leg or you can step your leg that is now forward and drive it to step back with it and then alternate legs.

ALTERNATING RENEGADE ROW

While seated on the lat pull-down machine, reach out towards a wide grip handle so your arms are fully extended at the top. Go as wide as you can go. Keep a slight arch in your back (about 15 degrees) and pull the weight down and in towards your chest. Squeeze your back at the bottom. Raise the weight slowly until your arms are fully extended.

DEADLIFT

Stand up to a barbell with feet shoulder-width apart. Grip the bar with both palms facing outward. While keeping your back straight and your butt down (in a squatting position) stand up with the weight by pulling the bar up your shins (keeping your arms extended throughout the whole movement). Lock out the deadlift by swaying your hips forward just a little once it reaches its highest point. To bring the weight down, lower your butt down first (do not bend over to drop it) until you bring the bar back to the floor.

STANDING SHOULDER BARBELL PRESS

Stand up to a barbell, with feet shoulder-width apart, and deadlift it up properly in order to prevent injury. With the barbell in hand (hands at shoulder-width apart) with both palms facing toward your body, and head looking forward, back straight, abs tight, and feet planted, clean the bar up to your shoulders by rotating your wrists and lifting the bar while getting under it, and simultaneously splitting your legs so that one foot is in front of the other (staggered stance). Keep your knees bent. Press the barbell up over your head until your arms lock out and fully extended above. Slowly bring the barbell back down to the original position in which your arms are just below parallel.

FLOOR WIPERS

Lie down on the floor and have a buddy hand you a weighted bar over your chest for you to reach up and grab it with hands shoulder-width apart. Hold it at the top as if you were holding the bar at the top of the bench press. While holding it there, bring your legs all the way up to one side (to the edge of the bar or the plate). Slowly bring it back down to the center without letting your legs touch the ground. Repeat this but ring your legs to the other side as well.

If you want to find out more exercises like the above, please refer to the MP45 program, which details a 45 day plan for you to get in the best shape of your life in only 45 days. The program is written by me and contains 3 PDF files including everything you need to know about training, nutrition, and then an actual 45 day plan that schedules everything out for you and lists what you should eat and train on every single day. www.MP45.com.