Do I need to take an amino acid or bcaa? If yes which one is the best? Thanks.

I feel it is extremely important to supplement with your simple basic amino acids or bcaas. They are the building blocks for a good supplement program. These are the foundation. To many people worry about their creatine, prohormones and other types of muscle builders when they need to keep in mind the effects of using the basics. Amino acids are the building blocks of protein. They come from sources high in protein such as red meats, fish, poultry and dairy products. They also come from some sources of vegetables and grains. Amino acids are essential to the human body. But even more, bodybuilders have a much more demand for them because of the repair aid and development of new muscle.

5g or 10g of creatine for me? 135lbs.

That is a good question. At this bodyweight I would say load at 10g a day for a week then use 5g a day as your maintenance dose. I use between 10-20g daily. I do this so that I keep my body guessing. Another reason for the higher dose is that at a body weight over 240lbs I was seeing no results using less that 10g on a daily basis. I also cycle it for 8 weeks on and 4-6 weeks off.

I need some help. I'm going to start a cycle on Pinnacle Poppers 100. I'm only going to do 1 cycle for like 3-4 weeks. Should I take an estrogen blocker with them? If yes, what is a good estrogen blocker?

I have yet to understand why so many people are so concerned with taking an estrogen blocker. I have never had nor ever known anyone who has ever had any problems with gyno from taking any andro products. Even at dosages as high as 1500mg a day I have had no problems with this. It's like some people think that andros are as potent as steroids.

Post Workout - What does everyone here recommend eating right after you workout?

After a hard training session the last thing I want to do is eat or fix something to eat. So I drink a Prolab N large 2 shake with 10g of creatine and 10g of glutamine mixed in immediately following a workout. It's the best way to re-fuel your body. It's simple and requires very little effort to do.

More reps or fewer reps Which is better for gaining size?

Fewer reps with heavier weight will add size faster than any other lifting technique. Stay basic with your exercises and go as heavy as possible. Give you muscles no choice but to grow. When training heavy I do 5-6 sets for 4-6 reps and even go as few as 2 reps from time to time. Like I said before, if you want to add size nothing is better than heavy training.

Building mass - Hello, I was just wondering if I should still do cardio when I am trying to gain mass. Should I wait until I pack on some pounds first or what? Thanks!

I consider doing any type of cardio activity, while trying to gain mass, a sin. You don't want to burn any more calories than you have to. Besides if you work out really intense you're burning a ton of calories any way. When bulking pretty much the only cardio activity I do is walk to my car to and from work. It's not uncommon for me to see guys at the gym training very hard and complain about not being able to gain any weight or size and then go hop on the treadmill or bike for 20 to 30 minutes a day. To me cardio is for cutting up so it's useless to you if you are trying to bulk up.

Calf Workout - What's a good workout program to develop this muscle and how many days a week should you do it?

I think the best exercise is standing calf raises, nothing hits them harder. But in order to really see growth fast you need to pound them with heavy weights, like 2-3 times your bodyweight. I also like to perform one legged calf raises as well. After 10-12 sets of calves I always do just simple raises with no weight for 15-20 reps making sure I use full range of motion, this is a great finishing exercise. I like to train calves 3 days a week hitting them hard on each day. I have known some people who have trained them every day, just try and see what works best for you.

I want to develop bigger leg muscles, please help!!!

Squats, Squats and more Squats. Nothing adds size to the quads like squats do. You can do leg presses, hack squats, front squats, what ever you want but until you get under a barbell and perform good deep (parallel to the floor or below) you will not have big legs. There is a reason why you see so many guys with great upper bodies and poor lower, squats demand hard work. They not only make you sweat but can make you puke too. I do squats in a variety of different ways. I will do them with a wide stance, close stance and medium stance, all of them hitting different areas of the quad. I will do high reps, low reps and partial reps (partial reps are great for hitting the teardrop area and the outer portion of the quad around the knee. Essentially, for a great pair of legs, your entire leg routine should revolve around squats, period.

Building big shoulders - I'm a 19-year-old male and have a good routine down for my weightlifting. I'm seeing great results in all my muscle growth except in my shoulders. I do military presses and bent over dumbbells but it doesn't seem to be doing the trick. Anyone one with some good advice or routine for shoulders please help me.

Sounds very familiar to me, because this is exactly the way my shoulders responded or should I say, didn't respond. My shoulders have always been strong but never had the development I wanted, until. Until I started training them twice a week. I train them on Tuesday and then again on Saturday. Now my Tuesday work out is my hard and heavy routine, I stay very basic focusing on the mass building movements (military press, upright rows, rear laterals) then on Saturday I will do more shaping exercises (dumbbell press, side laterals, front laterals). This has worked great for me and I think it will work well for anyone who tries it. I felt they were once one of my lagging body parts but now I get a lot of compliments on them.

Squat and deadlifts - Do squats and deadlifts really help strengthen your whole body? I read somewhere that even though these are for back and thighs; they strengthen your whole body too.

Yes, they do. Squats are the best exercise one can perform for adding size. Now the reason they help strengthen the whole body is two fold. First it is a great exercise for releasing growth hormone. Second when performing these it really helps expand the chest cavity thus helping breathing. Not to mention the fact that if you don't do these legs will be lacking mass.

Deadlifts to me is the best upper body movement there is. They not only hit the back but also they bring in the shoulders, traps, upper chest, legs and forearms. The deadlift is also the best back exercise you can do. My back was always lacking in thickness until I started doing them.

So if you doesn't perform these two exercises then I recommend you start if you want to grow like never before. Nothing will add total body mass like these two movements, period.

These have been just a few of the better questions on the Bodybuilding.com message boards that caught my eye. There are a lot of things I have noticed on the message boards but one of the major things is this. Too many people on the boards think that there is a magic exercise, supplement or diet that will make them swell up like Arnold in just a few weeks. Well I wish that were so but I am here to tell all of you that there is no such thing. With each person on the boards exchanged opinions, views and advice you can pick and choose what you want to try and see what works best for you. The answers I gave in the above Q & A is nothing more than my opinion and that opinion is based on what worked for me. The bottom line is this, don't justify what you do or don't do based on what some one on the boards told you, try it, it may work, or it may not. Just remember try everything and build a great knowledge of what works and doesn't work. This has been a tremendous help to me in the past year and a huge reason of why I made so much progress. Trial and error, it can be a great advantage to any bodybuilder.

Todd Blue
Mblue533@cs.com

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