This is not going to be an article for generating 1.21 gigawatts!! of electricity. But, this article will definitely give you a solid foundation on how to build some muscle for your back into your future. It is important to note that neglecting your back in your workout routine will definitely make you look asymmetrical and unbalanced. You might think that you don’t need to work this part of you body since 1) you cant really see your back everyday 2) all the hype is for having big arms and 3) you might have some back problems due to an injury or other health issues.

Exercising your back will not only help you with having a good posture but also provide your bones in your spine the added strength and stability. Further, training your back will help reduce back pain and reduce your chances of injury.

For those who want to start with a back routine, doing simple stretches, assisted pull ups and some light stretches with dumbbells should get you on your way to a healthier back. Keep in mind that before starting you should consult your physician before you start any type of exercises that will put stress on your lower back and spine.

For people who want to go a step further and are willing to devote the time and effort, a variety of core muscle building and sculpting exercises will get you on the way to an impressive back physique.

To start, the workouts should be very simple and pretty basic, you should focus on compound exercises, which will put the maximum stress on  your core muscle group.  To be clear by what we mean by compound exercise, compound exercises move the body through more than one joint movement, while isolation exercises only move the body through a single joint movement. In this case it will be your latissimus dorsi and the muscles that support your lumbar region. The exercises you should concentrate to build your back will be squats, dead lifts and pull-ups. These combined, will put a tremendous amount of stress on the body. The stress will force your body to compensate by gaining muscle mass on your back. These exercises will allow you to lift heavier weights and work more muscle groups at the same time than starting to build your back with exercises such as lat pull down and rows. These exercises will come later during our journey to sculpting a good back physique.

So lets get started….

Stiff-Legged Barbell Dead lift (3 sets, 2 min-break, 8-12 reps)

Step 1: Place a barbell with weights that you believe you will be able to perform the above repetitions. Stand with your feet about shoulder width apart.

Step 2: Bend forward and keeps your head up so that you are looking straight ahead. Keep your back straight. Grip the bar, keeping your hands about a foot apart,  your knuckles facing away and knees slightly bent.

Step 3: Come up to your starting position, keeping arms straight. Then slowly lower the weight back down, bending forward until the weight almost touches the floor.

Perform 8-12 reps with a 2 minutes break in between.

Pull-Ups (3 Sets, 2 minutes break, 8-12 reps)

Step 1: Grasp the pull-up bar with a slightly wider than shoulder width overhand grip. Bend your legs 90 degrees and cross your feet.

Step 2: Pull upward, aiming to hit the bar with the top of your chest.

Step 3: When you reach the bar, SLOWLY lower yourself to the starting position.

Note: For beginners, you can do assisted pull-ups if your body is not used to pulling your own weight. Once you build the strength you should start doing the former.

These exercises should well get you on your way to having a good muscular back physique.  In the next upcoming parts, we will discuss some back isolation exercises to give you more definition. Stay tuned!!

Check out this site on Fat loss…

Do you think Aamir Khan got his physique in Ghajini by just lifting weights? The answer is NO. When he was lifting weights at the gym he was giving his muscles small microscopic tears from heavy lifting. In order to build the muscle back he followed a strict diet routine which not only supplied constant nutritional support to his body, but also helped him lose fat and increase his muscle mass. Continuing on with the 3 part article on gaining lean muscle and getting the Ghajini physique …It is very important to have a good diet plan. There are a few points to note in order to achieve a desired physique. First key point is that you need to take in more useful calories than you burn. For example, a small bag of potato chips with 200 calories is not the same as eating a fruit or small piece of chicken. The potato chips have empty calories. This means that your body does not get the nutrients it needs to rebuild your muscles after you have broken them down from heavy training. Second, you need to increase your basal metabolic rate and keep it constant through out the day. For example, a normal person eats around 3-4 big meals a day. You get up and eat breakfast, that’s your first spike in the blood glucose levels. The body starts digesting it as soon as you finish eating. Slowly, the metabolic rate slows down until lunch time. That’s where the second spike occurs. The same spikes happen when you eat a snack and eat dinner.

As you will notice that the Basal Metabolic spikes are too volatile in the sense that you have significant highs and lows in your daily life. Here is a simple graph:

So in order to have a constant Basal Metabolic Rate throughout the day, you need to increase your meal frequency and eat foods which have good nutritional value. Here is the Graph if you eat 5-6 small meals during the day:

As you can see there is less volatility, and your BMR remains almost constant. The body is only capable of utilizing so many nutrients at a time. With small meals, there is greater opportunity for nutrient absorption. With the goal of building muscle fast, you need maximum retention of the nutrients necessary to accomplish this goal. Providing the body with a complete protein source at EVERY meal will help your body build lean muscle.

On the other hand, if you only eat 3 square meals a day then the body is more likely to store fat when it is unsure when it will get its next feeding. Your body is incredibly smart and whether or not you plan for the future, IT does. When it becomes used to being fed consistently, to six meals a day, it tends not to worry so much about tomorrow’s need for energy and is therefore less likely to store energy as unsightly fat.

Here is a Sample guide on Meals: for Vegetarians and Non-Vegetarians

Veg: Eggatarians/Jains

• Meal 1: Breakfast: Oatmeal, Juice, Whey Protein Shake or 6 Boiled Eggs or Omelet w/wheat bread
• Meal 2: Mid Morning Snack: Fruit (personal choice), Refried bean on Wheat bread or brown rice
• Meal 3: Lunch: Roti, Dal, Chole, Paneer (cooked/baked very less oil)
• Meal 4: Pre-Workout Snack: Granola bar/ Fruit/bottle of water or Gatorade, Whey Protein Shake.
• Meal 5: Post-Workout: 4 Eggs (Boiled or poached) w/ Wheat bread or your choice of Veg dish with brown rice.
• Meal 6: Bed time snack: Cottage Cheese/ Milk.

Non-Veg:

• Meal 1: 6 eggs (boiled or poached) or Oatmeal/Fruit juice
• Meal 2: Can of fresh tuna or Protein shake/w fruit
• Meal 3: Lunch: One and a half chicken breasts (Subway or Quiznos or Panera)/ ¼ cup Brown rice
• Meal 4: Tuna w/Granola bar, Gatorade
• Meal 5: Dinner: Chicken breast, Turkey, Fish, or your choice or Red meat subzi  (cooked in less oil/Baked)
• Meal 6: Cottage Cheese w/Apple/Milk or Protein Shake

While this plan may seem somewhat bland and even sparse compared to a more colorful day of brown bag bologna sandwich and McDonald’s take out dinner; in practice, these meals, spaced two to three hours apart, will not only satisfy any sense of hunger you might usually feel, but will provide you with far more energy than the regular work week diet.

You need at least 1 gram of protein for every pound of bodyweight. To build muscle eating protein from these sources will definitely add muscle:

• Whole Grains (Daal, rajma, lima beans, soybeans)
• Poultry (Chicken, turkey)
• Dairy( Milk, cheese/paneer, yogurt,cottage cheese etc.)
• Fish (Tuna, sardines, salmon, etc)
• Eggs
• Red Meat (beef, lamb, pork)
• Whey

And always remember to drink 5 to 6 bottles of water all through out the day to support growth!!

So to continue…in order to gain weight you have to take in more calories than you burn. Everyone has a different type of metabolism. For example, if you burn 3000 calories a day and if you eat 4000 calories that day your body will automatically put on weight. Furthermore, you have to eat high-quality calories. You cannot get away with eating potato chips and beer and expect to gain good weight which is adding more muscle.

A lean muscle weight gain involves a good workout by incorporating exercises which put stress on your body and triggers your body to put on weight in order to cope with the stress which your body goes through due to weight training.

This is MY workout which I followed in order to gain my weight. Please use this workout at your own risk.

So for this workout plan I have divided the plan into 3 major categories.

1. Gaining mass and strength
2. Increasing muscular endurance
3. Cutting Fat

These categories will be divided into weeks. Week 1-Week 6 will be Gaining Mass and Strength. Week 7-Week 9 will be increasing muscular endurance. Last but not least Week 10-Week 14 will be cutting the fat.

Gaining Mass & Strength (Week 1 to 6): Exercise

Monday: (Chest, Shoulders, Triceps, Abs)

• Flat Bench Press
• Shoulder Press
• Dips
• Crunches

Do a warm up set before starting your exercise in order to loosen up the muscles and to avoid injury. Do these exercises with 4 sets each by increasing weight when you go to the next set.

For Example:  Bench Press: Set 1:100 lbs (6-8 reps)

Set 2: 110 lbs (4-6 reps)

Set 3: 120 lbs (2-4 reps)

Set 4: 130 lbs (1-2 reps)

Tuesday: Rest

Wednesday: (Legs, Abs)

• Squats
• Leg Press
• Leg Curls
• Crunches

Thursday: Rest

Friday: (Back, Bi’s, Abs)

• Pull Ups
• Deadlifts
• Lat Pull Down
• Barbell Curls
• Dumbbell Curls
• Crunches

Increasing Muscular Endurance (Week 7-9)

You will do the same exercises but now you will reduce the weight and increase your rep ranges from (6-8 reps) to (12-15 reps constant for all sets)

Cutting Fat (Weeks 10-14)

You will do the same exercises with normal rep ranges of (8-10 reps) and now incorporate cardio into your training for days your are resting which are (Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday/Sunday)

The cardio will be a high intensity routine which will be a 30- 40 min treadmill run or on an elliptical machine.

Note:

These exercises incorporate stabilizer muscles since multiple muscle groups are involved while performing them. For example (working out the back will also workout your biceps.

Stay Tuned for by next post on the Diet Part 3…this will be the most important part of this plan since your diet means everything for the way you will look. You will need to follow a strict diet in order to achieve your goals.

After starting college you realized that how important it was to be healthy and alert not only in class but also in general. Therefore, It is important to educate yourself  by researching and dedicating some time to be knowledgeable in weight training and dieting, if you want to put on weight by increasing muscle and lose fat in order to stay lean and healthy. As an Indian kid with “desi genetics”it really doesn’t help you have a good start to your venture, but with some determination you can tweak your genetic makeup and fool your body in order to reach your goals. All of the Desi Guys out there know what I am talking about. I know that at some point in your life a thought must have crossed you mind that “hey I am sooo skinny…how can I get big like some of these kids who wear Affliction t-shirts and have arms like the size of my thighs”. Am I RIGHT?? Well..if you answered Yes to my question then you are a step closer to being lean and muscular…if you answered NO then you are either content or want to lose the excess fat which you have amassed over the years by going to frat parties and drinking their jungle juice, going to some kids place who lives with 4 other roommates on a off campus house who  just invited you to come to his house party at the end of midterms OR your weekly hookah and beer pong meetings.

Sooo the big question is why can’t you gain weight? I believe there are couple of reasons for this problem you are facing. First, it’s your genetic makeup…remember bio class all you premed students??? You get half the genes from your mother and half from your father…soooo if your parents are naturally skinny, then you most likely will have the same body type….(of course there are a few people which do not fit this hypothesis). Second, its your metabolism. Your body just simply burns more calories than compared to a person who is a little built. Therefore, the type of diet that you have plays a crucial role in order to gain weight (More on this later…)

Soo all of you desi guys…and also people who are reading this and thinking if it pertains to you as well…ready to take a dive into how you can do this? How you can gain weight and lean muscle and maintain it?

There are a few rules for this journey and you CANNOT and I cant stress this enough…YOU CANNOT..break these rules if you want to achieve your goals.

Here on this site..I will give you details on the diet and bodybuilding exercises you need to follow and which I have followed over the years in order to gain lean muscle. So stay tuned for my next article (Part 2)…