World Bodybuilding

Increase your brain power with useful snacks

Eggs
Eggs are packed with choline, a nutrient that has been found to increase the size of neurons in the brain, meaning they can fire electrical signals more quickly and efficiently.


Strawberries
Full of antioxidants that prevent age-related neurological decline, strawberries also contain compounds that improve the lines of communication between brain cells.


Almonds
The riboflavin in almonds helps improve memory and recall power, while their phenylalanine stimulates the brain to produce mood-boosting neurotransmitters to help you stay positive.

DINNER

Veggie Pasta


Amount of calories: 150 calories per serving

Contains:
2 pounds spaghetti squash, halved lengthwise and seeded
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 red onion, sliced
1 zucchini, diced
1 yellow squash, diced
3 tomatoes, diced
1 clove garlic, minced
1⁄2 red pepper, diced
1⁄4 teaspoon salt
1⁄4 teaspoon pepper
1⁄2 cup freshly grated reduced-fat Parmesan cheese

Method of Preparation
Place the spaghetti squash halves, cut sides down, in a glass baking dish. Add 1⁄4 cup water and cover with plastic wrap. Microwave on high 10 minutes until tender. Meanwhile, heat 1 tablespoon of the olive oil in a large skillet. Add the onion and cook over medium heat 3 minutes. Add the zucchini and yellow squash and cook 4 minutes. Add the tomatoes, garlic, and red pepper. Reduce heat and let simmer 10 more minutes. Using a fork, scrape the spaghetti squash strands into a bowl. Toss with the remaining tablespoon of olive oil. Spoon the spaghetti squash into the center of 4 pasta bowls. Pour the vegetable mixture over the top. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Garnish with low-fat Parmesan cheese as desired.

Check out this creative and beautiful photo gallery and acknowledge the glamour of strength!

You probably already know that refined carbs - such as the ones found in cakes, white bread and white flour- are bad for you but you'll notice that this plan also avoids starchy carbs in the form of potatoes, rice and pasta. That's because all of the above will create an insulin spike, drive up your blood sugar levels and - in all likelihood - be stored as fat.

You're going to avoid this by getting your carbs from vegetables, which will give you plenty of energy for your workouts while keeping you full and leaving your blood sugar stable. Some diets - such as the increasingly popular paleo diet - go even further and suggest that you should limit your intake of sweet potatoes but we're not going to give you too much to worry about. Focus on avoiding the really bad stuff for now and you can always make further tweaks later.

It may sound like a difficult task to avoid these foods, but if you stick to what's in the plan you'll find you don't go hungry over the three weeks. In fact, if you did nothing but cut out carbs, you'd almost certainly lose weight, so this is arguably the most important thing you can do.

There are several main advantages for an athlete or for every human being of getting rid of fat:

Longer life
Want to live for years to come? You could steal a donkey and bravely head off in search of the life-extending Holy Grail -or just shed some fat. A study in The New England Journal Of Medicine showed subjects with a body mass index (BMI) over 27.5 had a greater risk of death from cardiovascular disease or cancer. Work your BMI out by dividing your weight in kilos by your height in meters squared.

More happiness
Losing some chub can make the world brighter. In a study from the University of Pennsylvania, subjects with depression who lost eight per cent of their body weight over six months reported an improvement in their symptoms.

Less injury
Piling on the fat makes you more vulnerable to injury because it puts pressure on your muscles, tendons and joints. Being overweight makes you more than twice as likely to be injured in exercise, a British Journal Of Sports Medicine study revealed.

Improved brainpower
Being slimmer can make you smarter. US researchers conducted a memory test of 150 people, all of whom weighed more than 136kg. Three months later the tests were done again. Subjects who lost 23kg over the period were more attentive and had increased cognitive ability, while those patients who remained obese showed a loss of memory.

Lower blood pressure
Modern life is stressful enough - don't let flab make things worse. People who reduced their weight by 4.5kg over a 30-month period decreased their risk of hypertension (high blood pressure), according to a study in the Annals Of Internal Medicine.

Fewer aches and pains
Everyone wants a long and healthy life, so lose weight now and you won't spend your twilight years feeling as if you've gone 12 rounds with David Haye. An American study showed those with a BMI of under 18.5 were 8.9 per cent less likely to suffer knee pain and 3.6 per cent less susceptible to a dodgy hip.

Less chance off illness
Being fat isn't a disease but excess weight could increase your risk of contracting one. Men who lost weight over five years had a much lower risk of diabetes, according to a study of nearly 7,000 men in the Journal Of Epidemiology & Community Health.

Substitute salt for seaweed granules and you could avoid a number of health problems. Seaweed is a loose colloquial term encompassing macroscopic, multicellular, benthic marine algae.The term includes some members of the red, brown and green algae. Seaweeds can also be classified by use (as food, medicine, fertilizer, industrial, etc.). Seaweed granules have low sodium content - just 3.5 per cent compared with 40 per cent in regular salt - and it's almost impossible to taste the difference, according to a study by the Government-funded Food Innovation Project. It also contains a vast array of vital micronutrients, while consumption is said to make consumers feel full, which means it could be useful in reducing obesity levels. Seaweed could theoretically provide a valuable new food source for a world struggling to feed rising populations.

Lowering the nation's salt intake could help reduce the number of heart attacks and strokes every year in the UK, which currently stands at 70,000. Seaweed also contains a vast array of vital micronutrients, which are said to keep you fuller for longer.

Get your head right and the muscles will follow – Charles Poliquin

There is a series of persons that find it very difficult to focus on their training and gain muscles.The primary reason these individuals have such a difficult time making gains is they believe they are hardgainers, so they are never in a positive frame of mind. Thinking they can't put on muscle, they become frustrated and constantly change their workouts, so they never improve at anything.


The people who get the most impressive results are those who train hard consistently and then tweak certain variables - exercise selection, tempo, body position - to elicit further growth. Even more importantly, they have a confident, positive outlook on what they want to achieve. This gives them the clarity to approach each session in the most effective and efficient manner. There are no excuses, just hard work and impressive results.

Weight issues are also very important in this sense. Another type of attitude adjustment that needs fixing is that of the "self- delusional achievers”. They are convinced they're training and recovering perfectly, and are seemingly oblivious to the very real evidence that they are not. That's why their skinny arms hang like hosepipes from their skin-tight sleeveless T-shirt, which vacuum-wraps their bulging potbellies.These people are 'skinny-fat', which means they have very poor muscular development yet high levels of fat storage. So not only do they get mistaken for a beached whale when they sunbathe on holiday but their appearance is also one of the biggest indicators for a large number of serious health issues, including diabetes and heart disease. They need to take serious action to restore the muscle-fat balance, or else they are looking at a later life full of ill health.


Among the worst self-delusional achievers are those with a debilitating condition. Although most of them are unaware they are carriers, it is an unpleasant and embarrassing ailment that the rest of us have to deal with. I'm talking about Imaginary Lat Spread (ILS).We've all seen this condition in the gym. The sufferer struts around the weights room hunched over because too much chest work and not enough back work have rotated his shoulders forward, resulting in this unbalanced posture. And his arms are so far out to the sides it looks as though he is carrying two giant, invisible watermelons. In actual fact he is hoping to give you and me the impression that the musculature of his back is so big and strong and wide that he physically can't get his arms any closer to his body.

So when it comes to building a bigger and stronger physique, everything must begin in your brain. If you believe you can't put on muscle, then you won't, no matter how hard you train. And kidding yourself that you are a modern-day Amie by wearing skin-tight tees or walking around like a gorilla with a stick up its ass means you'll never get the body you want. And this is because you're spending too much time thinking about what you look like when you should be spending that time changing what you look like. Get your mind right and the muscle will quickly follow.

Magnesium compounds helps you avoid fatigue, weakness and lost sleep.
Magnesium is the fourth most abundant mineral in the body, playing a role in more than 300 biochemical reactions in the body, including helping maintain normal muscle and nerve function, a steady heart rate and a healthy immune system. Yet six in ten of us are thought to be deficient in this all-star mineral, leading to fatigue, tiredness, muscle weakness and trouble sleeping.

Halibut


Almonds


Cashews


Spinach


Baked Potato


Peanut Butter

Wrist curls work on the flexors of the forearm and also increase finger strength. The forearm muscles should not be neglected. They are as important as the muscles in the shoulders and lats and calves. Mane prefers doing the curls in a sitting position, resting the back of my forearms on the bench and holding the barbell in a close grip. It is very important to keep your elbows together. Moving only your wrist, curl the weight up until your forearm is fully contracted. Allow the weight to go down slowly, then at the bottom let the bar roll out on your extended fingers. The forearm, like the calf, is a hard muscle to reach. Do as many full reps as you can, then continue with partial reps until your forearm is tight and burning. Don't worry about pain; it means growth.

Chill out
That doesn't mean kicking your trainers off, pouring a beer and settling down with a box set. Researchers recommend extreme temperature changes to repair damaged muscles, reduce swelling and flush out lactic acid. Try a five-minute jog or stretch, six minutes of alternating hot showers (37-43°C) and ice baths, six minutes of cycling, walking or stretching at low intensity, finishing with a final chilly two-minute ice bath.

Aim high
Although low glycaemic index (GI) foods help to maintain energy levels during the day, high-GI foods - such as white bread, watermelon and raisins -are best straight after exercise because they release glucose into the blood.

Protein power
Have a combination of protein and carbs within 30 minutes of your workout. Carbs spike insulin levels in your blood, which shuttles protein into fatigued muscle cells. Protein is essential for repairing these damaged muscle cells.' Studies recommend a carbohydrate/protein ratio of four to one.

Stretch it out
Finish your workout with a stretching routine to improve the elasticity of your muscles. Maintaining a stretch for 30 seconds will give you the maximum length gains to reduce tightness the next. It will also flush out waste products. When you stretch a muscle it constricts vessels to squeeze out the excess lactic acid that causes stiffness.

Get a rub-down
A post-exercise massage prevents delayed onset muscle soreness. Massage relieves tension in muscles after weight training, which reduces pain. A massage two hours after hamstring exercises reduced the intensity of soreness 48 hours later.


Roll with it
If you can't convince your girlfriend to hammer your hams, foam rollers are a useful self-massage tool. Rollers can be used to loosen tightness in the iliotibial band, calves and quads and stretch the spine out

Drink Water
Rehydrating is crucial. Your body requires extra water for two to three hours after exercise. It is recommended drinking 1.2 to 1.5 times the weight of fluid lost during exercise. Hit the scales before and after your session and drink the requisite amount.

Check out this Bodybuilding motivational Video!

Good posture isn't just about standing up straight! Not only does it help you look slimmer and more confident, better posture can improve your mood and help ease a wide range of problems. Bad posture can effect your breathing, give you a bad back, sore neck, voice problems (it compresses the larynx), muscular aches and pains, indigestion and sluggish bowels and a range of problems caused by compression of the internal organs.

Stand side-on to a mirror to check the position of your pelvis and shoulders. Seventy per cent of us stand in a sway-back posture with the pelvis tipped back, a result of spending too much time sitting down, the pelvis slightly tipped forward is another posture type. It's important to bring your pelvis back underneath you. For those with a sway back, squeeze your bum in slightly to tuck your tail in, making sure your lower back still has a gentle curve. Your kneecaps should point forwards. Gently pull in the area between your belly button and pubic bone, and check your beltline is horizontal or near to it. Bring your shoulder blades back and pull your chin in slightly; your earlobes should be above your collarbone.


It is important to make sure your earlobes are above your shoulders. Roll your shoulders back and down. Also have your feet flat on the floor and knees level to or just below your hips: use a specially designed foot-rest if you need to. Both your hips and knees should be bent at 90 degrees. Your feet and knees should be shoulder-width apart. Avoid crossing your legs or ankles as this misaligns your pelvis and spine. Walk tall; hold your head up, bring your shoulders back and pull your tummy muscles slightly in. Your head should be tall. Don't drop your head - it puts a lot of tension on your neck. To see where you're going, drop your eyes without dropping your head. If you have to carry a bag, make it as light as possible and use alternate sides, or even better, use a backpack so your arms are free. Carrying something restricts the oppositional movement of the upper body and legs.

During your workouts, good posture is crucial to help you avoid injury and ensure you get the best results. We tend to be more aware of maintaining good posture and using the appropriate postural muscles when we're working out. especially if using mirrors in the gym. Take the good form you use during your workout with you into everyday life. And don't overdo it at the gym. If you lose your form when exercising, stop-you're building in misuse of the muscles.

Dexter Jackson called "The Blade" was born November 25, 1969. He is an IFBB professional bodybuilder and the 2008 Mr. Olympia bodybuilding champion. He lives in Jacksonville, Florida.

Dexter's first National Physique Committee competition was the NPC Southern States Championship of 1992, where he took 3rd. He first competed professionally in the 1999 Arnold Classic, Night of Champions, and Mr. Olympia contests, placing 7th, 3rd, and 9th, respectively. In 2008 Dexter Jackson won the Arnold Classic, Australian Pro Grand Prix VIII, New Zealand Grand Prix, Russian Grand Prix and the Mr. Olympia. Jackson placed 3rd in the 2009 Mr. Olympia contest. Jackson has been featured in many fitness and bodybuilding articles, including being pictured on the cover of Muscular Development and Flex magazine. He was shooting his new documentary DVD titled Dexter Jackson: Unbreakable with filmmaker Alex Ardenti which was released in 2009.