Hugo Rivera New Site

Maintaining a healthy diet is a question I get asked all the time. With so much misinformation out there and diet fads, it is difficult to know what works and what does not.  So I decided to put together an article with 6 tips of how to maintain a healthy diet even when you are traveling.

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As you probably already know, losing body fat has to be one of the most challenging , if not most misunderstood, endeavors that any bodybuilding aficionado can undertake. Losing body fat is not rocket science, although in our society you’d think it was, with the legion of rip-off infomercial shape-up gizmos, the monthly “diet of the month” book releases, and the abundance of weight loss pills being pushed by pharmaceutical companies.

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Guess what the biggest threat to your bodybuilding success is? I guarantee that nine out of ten of you will get the answer to this question wrong and that is the reason why I want to expose this huge threat. The biggest threat to your bodybuilding success is: your own mind!

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Overeating can be a problem for many people as it can sabotage your diet.  Resisting the temptations of  a late night snack or eating serving sizes that are too large has proven to be an issue for those following a diet at one point or another.  Through my years of experience, I feel that there are 4 tips that can be used by anybody to help prevent overeating.  These 4 tips are as follows:

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One of the biggest challenges that come with traveling is how to prevent your bodybuilding diet from being affected.  There are a few strategies that I follow, as I described in my bodybuilding while traveling article, that allow me to keep up with my bodybuilding diet.  One of the most important ones is being able to carry a grill with me so that no matter where I am, all I have to do is go to the supermarket and get me some meats to cook for the day.  My grill of choice is the Original Next Grilleration George Foreman Grill.

The Bottom Line on the George Foreman Grill

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I recently had the pleasure to interview fitness celebrity Tony Little for my Bodybuilding.About.com site.

For those of you who are not familiar with “America’s Personal Trainer”™, Mr. Tony Little, you are about to discover the incredible story behind a man who in my opinion has one of the most inspirational stories to share. Tony’s success proves that if you put your mind to something you can accomplish anything; regardless of any obstacles faced or how far fetched the goal may seem.
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This is something I cannot stress enough to bodybuilders who are serious about growing. Many may not even know about push and pull exercises and why you should always perform one push and one pull per day. If you train only one muscle group a day it is okay, but still try to alternate from a push and the next day a pull. Some examples of push exercises would be your chest, shoulders, triceps and your thighs. Some examples of pulls would be back, hamstrings, and biceps. (more…)

Lee Labrada on the Making of a Champion

Nothing brings the fitness community together like a bodybuilding competition. Besides providing an outlet for competition, bodybuilding contests serve an important social function. Because bodybuilding is an “individualist” sport, its aficionados have limited opportunities to come together en masse. Sure, you see your buddies in the gym, but there’s nothing like a good bodybuilding competition to bring together bodybuilders from far flung places. Bodybuilding shows are like big parties! (more…)

A superset is a combination of one exercise performed right after the other with no rest in between them. There are two ways to implement a superset.

Using Two Exercises for the Same Muscle Group:

The first way is to do two exercises for the same muscle group at once. For example, doing cable curls immediately followed by dumbbell curls is an example of a biceps superset. The drawback to this technique is that you will not be as strong as you usually are on the second exercise. However, this is a great technique to pre-exhaust a muscle and really isolate it.

Using Two Exercises for Antagonistic Muscle Groups or Different Muscles:

The second and best way to superset is by pairing exercises of opposing muscle groups such as Back and Chest, Thighs and Hamstrings, Biceps and Triceps; or different muscle movements such as Shoulders and Calves, Upper Abs and Lower Abs. When pairing antagonistic exercises, there is no drop of strength whatsoever once your cardiovascular system is well conditioned and this is a great way to save time!

A big misconception in regards to supersets is that they are only good when on a cutting or definition phase.  However, many bodybuilders such as Dave Draper and Arnold Schwarzenegger have used them with great success for mass building purposes.  The same is true of my own training.

Supersets are a fantastic way to get a lot of work done in a very short amount of time.  While at first it may be hard for you to use the same amounts of weights that you usually use, your cardiovascular system will get used to the increased workload and then your strength will go back up.

In my opinion, the best type of supersets for mass gains are the ones performed with opposing muscle group exercises (such as chest and back, thighs and hamstrings, or biceps and triceps) as they allow you to use maximum weights once your body gets used to the increased cardiovascular demands.

Using Supersets to Break Plateaus on Stubborn Bodyparts

Another great application for supersets is to use them for shocking of stubborn bodyparts.  We all have a bodypart or two that just does not seem to respond to weight training as good as the others.  For stubborn body parts like these, supersets of two exercises that target the same muscle group work really well.

For example, my quads are my stubborn body part.  So many times I like to superset leg extensions followed by leg press.  Other times I superset leg extensions followed by squats.  While I will not be able to do as much weight on my basic exercise of choice, the muscle is really stimulated and I get much better results by using these type of supersets than when I use the heavier weights on single sets of leg press or squats.

Sample 30-Minute Bodybuilding Routines That Use Supersets

Sample Bodybuilding Training Schedule #1
Workout Notes:

1. Ensure that all sets are performed with impeccable technique and taken to failure; the point at which performing another repetition with good form becomes impossible.

2. Rest 60 seconds between sets.

3. There should be no rest between exercises listed as a superset. Only rest for 60 seconds after the second exercise of the superset is executed.

4. Perform this routine for a month, doing 3 days on and 1 day off. Alternatively, you can work out 5 days a week by doing your workouts on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. That leaves Thursdays and Sundays always off. If you have a good recuperation capability, then simply workout from Mon-Fri resting over the weekends.

Workout (A): Chest, Shoulders, Triceps

Chest:

Incline Bench Press 3 sets of 8-10 reps

Chest Dips and Incline Dumbbell Flyes Superset 3 sets of 10-12 reps

Shoulders:

Dumbbell Shoulder Press and Bent Over Laterals Superset 3 sets of 10-12 reps

Lateral Raises 3 sets of 10-12 reps

Triceps:

Overhead Dumbbell Triceps Extensions and Triceps Pushdowns Superset 3 sets of 10-12 reps

Workout (B): Thighs, Hamstrings, Abs

Thighs and Hamstrings:

Squats and Lunges Superset 3 sets of 8-10 reps

Leg Press and Stiff Leg Dead-lifts Superset 3 sets of 10-12 reps

Leg Extensions and Leg Curls Superset 3 sets of 12-15 reps

Abs:

Leg Raises and Crunches Superset 3 sets of 15-20 reps

Workout (C): Back, Biceps, Calves

Back:

Wide Grip Pull-ups to Front 3 sets of 8-10 reps

Reverse Grip Close Grip Chins and Low Pulley Row Superset 3 sets of 10-12 reps

Biceps:

Incline Curls and Hammer Curls Superset 3 sets of 10-12 reps

Concentration Curls 3 sets of 12-15 reps

Calves:

Standing and Seated Calf Raises Superset 3 sets of 10-12 reps

After 4 weeks of using the program above, here is a second training program that can be used to introduce variety into your bodybuilding workouts.

 
Sample Bodybuilding Training Schedule #2

Workout Notes:

1. Ensure that all sets are performed with impeccable technique and taken to failure; the point at which performing another repetition with good form becomes impossible.

2. Rest 60 seconds between sets.

3. There should be no rest between exercises listed as a superset. Only rest for 60 seconds after the second exercise of the superset is executed.

4. Perform this routine for a month, doing 3 days on and 1 day off. Alternatively, you can work out 5 days a week by doing your workouts on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. That leaves Thursdays and Sundays always off. If you have a good recuperation capability, then simply workout from Mon-Fri resting over the weekends.

Workout (A): Chest, Back, Calves

Chest and Back:

Incline Dumbbell Bench Press and One Arm Row Superset 3 sets of 8-10 reps

Bench Press and Wide Grip Pull-ups to Front 3 sets of 8-10 reps

Flyes and Neutral Grip Pull-ups 3 sets of 10-12 reps

Calves:

Seated Calf Raises and Calf Press Superset 3 sets of 12-15 reps

Workout (B): Thighs, Hamstrings, Abs

Thighs and Hamstrings:

Leg Extensions and Lunges Superset 3 sets of 12-15 reps

Wide Stance Squats and Leg Curls Superset 3 sets of 8-10 reps

Leg Press and Stiff Legged Deadlifts Superset 3 sets of 10-12 reps

Abs:

Leg Raises and Crunches Superset 3 sets of 15-25 reps

Workout (C): Shoulders, Biceps, Triceps

Shoulders:

Military Press and Upright Rows Superset 3 sets of 8-10 reps

Rear Delt Machine 3 sets of 12-15 reps

Biceps and Triceps:

Barbell Curls and Triceps Pushdowns Superset 3 sets of 8-10 reps

Preacher Curls and Lying Dumbbell Triceps Extensions Superset 3 sets of 12-15 reps

Sample Bodybuilding Training Schedule #3

Workout Notes:

1. Ensure that all sets are performed with impeccable technique and taken to failure; the point at which performing another repetition with good form becomes impossible.

2. Rest 60 seconds between sets.

3. There should be no rest between exercises listed as a superset. Only rest for 60 seconds after the second exercise of the superset is executed.

4. Perform this routine for a month, doing 3 days on and 1 day off. Alternatively, you can work out 5 days a week by doing your workouts on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. That leaves Thursdays and Sundays always off. If you have a good recuperation capability, then simply workout from Mon-Fri resting over the weekends.

Workout (A): Chest, Back, Calves

Chest and Back:

Superset #1

Incline Bench Press 3 sets of 8-10 reps

Wide Grip Pull-Up to Front 3 sets of 8-10 reps

Superset #2

One Arm Rows 3 sets of 10-12 reps

Dumbbell Bench Press and Wide Grip Pull-ups to Front 3 sets of 10-12 reps

Superset #3

Incline Flyes 3 sets of 12-15 reps

Close Reverse Grip Pull-ups 3 sets of 12-15 reps

Calves:

Superset #1

Standing Calf Raises 3 sets of 8-10 reps

Seated Calf Raises 3 sets of 15-25 reps

Workout (B): Thighs, Hamstrings, Abs

Thighs and Hamstrings:

Superset #1

Leg Extensions  3 sets of 10-12 reps

Squats 3 sets of 8-10 reps

Superset #2

Leg Press 3 sets of 12-15 reps

Seated Leg Curls 3 sets of 12-15 reps

Superset #3

Stiff Legged Dead-lifts 3 sets of 15-20 reps

Lunges 3 sets of 15-20 reps

Abs:

Superset #1

Bicycle Crunches 3 sets of 15-25 reps

Crunches 3 sets of 15-25 reps

Workout (C): Shoulders, Biceps, Triceps

Shoulders:

Superset #1

Upright Rows Superset 3 sets of 8-10 reps

Lateral Raises 3 sets of 12-15 reps

Superset #2

Dumbbell Shoulder Press 3 sets of 8-10 reps

Rear Delt Machine 3 sets of 12-15 reps

Biceps and Triceps:

Superset #1

Preacher Curls 3 sets of 8-10 reps

Triceps Pushdowns 3 sets of 8-10 reps

Superset #2

Lying E-Z Triceps Extensions 3 sets of 10-12 reps

Close Grip E-Z Bench Press (Use same weight as for triceps extensions) 3 sets to failure

Superset #3

Reverse E-Z Curls 3 sets of 10-12 reps

E-Z Curls (Use same weight as for reverse E-Z curls) 3 sets to failure