Natural Bodybuilding Articles

The ideal Body Measurements
Tom Venuto writes, "I’m often asked what my body measurements are and/or what are the ideal measurements for a bodybuilder or a classical muscular male physique. Believe it or not, there are actually many formulas for determining the "ideal body proportions.'"

Build a Bigger Chest in 3-4 Workouts
Tom Venuto states, "I’m currently on workout 3 of 4 in this pec routine and the results have been so impressive that I decide to write it up for you before I even finish the final workout next week."

The New Visualization Breakthrough
Many people are familiar with affirmations and goal-setting as ways to give instructions to your subconscious mind. But perhaps the ultimate "mental training” technique is visualization.

3500 Calories To Lose A Pound: Is This Formula All Wrong?
Most fitness conscious people have heard that there are 3,500 calories in a pound of fat, so if you create a deficit of 3500 calories in a week, you lose a pound of weight. Well, not so fast…

Setting Realistic Fitness Goals
Fitness isn't an easy feat, especially when you're committed longterm. That's why setting goals from the beginning is so crucial to keeping with the program.

Overcoming Fitness Obstacles: Defeating Negativity
Negative comments can be challenging to your fitness program. This article offers a few pointers on dealing with negative remarks from others.

Overcoming Fitness Obstacles: Advanced Challenges
As you advance along in meeting your fitness goals, many things can and often do happen to trip you up. Let’s take a look at popular fitness challenges and see how to successfully tackle them.

Why Some People Quit and Why Some People Never Give Up
Like my brother's driver's ed teacher always said, "On the highway there are drivers and movers, winners and losers. This also applies to the road of life." It also applies to fitness.

Count Down to Fitness Success and Keep Your Motivation Alive
There are many fantastic ways to get focused and motivated to begin a diet or exercise program, but often the most difficult thing to do is keep that drive and ambition alive for more than a few weeks and see your goal through to completion.

The Truth about How Much Exercise You Really Need
Today it's all about the easy route and losing weight in one or two sittings, or developing perfect abs through some trademarked gimmick. Tom Venuto breaks down proper exercise without the hype.

What a Muscle Head Says about Organic Food
If you've ever been to an Earth Fare or similar organic food grocery store, you know how high the bill can rise. Rebel body builder and health expert Tom Venuto discusses the body building take on organic food.

Tuna and Mercury
According to the FDA and EPA, the fish most likely to be contaminated with unsafe levels of mercury are those highest up on the food chain, including swordfish and shark meat.

Induction Destruction: The Risk of Diving into Diets Headfirst
Tom Venuto discusses the risks of "diving" headfirst into popular diets without doing your homework.

How to Repair a Damaged Metabolism
If you've caused metabolic damage as a result of following starvation diets or losing weight too rapidly in the past, it can be extremely difficult to achieve any further fat loss at all.

The Paleolithic Diet: Should We Eat Like Our "Cave Man" Ancestors?
Tom Venuto states, "The 'paleolithic' eating plans have been around for a while and there are quite a few books that have been written on the subject."

Building a Better Body One Brick at a Time
Natural bodybuilder Tom Venuto writes, "When you look at someone with an incredible body as a finished product, you often tend to dismiss the long, arduous journey and hard work it took to build that body."

How to Use Glycogen Loading to Avoid Getting Fat or Flat
Warrior Diet author Ori Hofmekler explains the tricky nature of glycogen loading and glycogen storage. Learn all about this process and what it can do for you in weight training.

Banking Calories
"Banking calories" is analagous to saving calories like money because you're going to consume more later. Learn from natural bodybuilder and fitness expert Tom Venuto why this is not good for you.

The Truth about Counting Calories
Do calories matter or do you simply need to eat certain foods and that will guarantee you’ll lose weight? Should you count calories or can you just count “portions?”

Superset Your Way to a Muscular Upper Body
There's an old Chinese saying, "Good things come in pairs," and in the case of strength training, that maxim is 100% true. Pairing two exercises is an easy and effective way to build more muscle in less time.

Get Out of Your Comfort Zone
Take a moment and think about the sum total of everything you’re currently doing to improve your health, fitness, physique and athletic performance.

Better Abs: The Secret Is in Your Mind
That's right. According to Jon Benson, attaining superior abs may be as much a mental exercise as it is a physical one.

Thoughts of Eternal Youth
You don't have to sign up with Ponce de Leon's conquistador company to find the fountain of youth.

Post 40 Training Tips
Sound nutrition (like that demonstrated by all our Fit Over 40 role models) and an understanding of your goals and abilities in the gym can keep you in great shape well into your senior years.

Nutrition and Wellness: Growing Younger by the Meal
Medical science is buzzing with talk about anti-aging medicine. However, people need to turn their attention to changing their diets before they can be completely successful with anti-aging.

Do I Have Enough Muscle to Compete in Body Building?
Natural body builder Tom Venuto can answer your question.

How Can I Reduce Post Workout Soreness?
After a hard workout, most people begin to experience soreness in the body parts trained within 24-48 hours, lasting for as long a week after the soreness sets in. This type of pain is called "Delayed onset muscle soreness" or DOMS.

5 Star Arm Workout
Next to “six pack abs,” the one muscle group that almost every man and woman wants the most is arms. Learn about a score of effective techniques in getting perfect arms.

What It Takes to Be a Champion
Every so often you meet a bodybuilder who is very different. They radiate a mysterious strength, power, and charisma that is seldom seen. Read this article to learn 12 of their secrets.

Does Aerobics Make You Lose Muscle?
Once again Tom Venuto breaks down what's true and what's not about aerobics and muscle loss.

Tom Venuto's Story
Read how the natural bodybuilder and fitness champ became the muscular mass he is today. He was not born with muscles in his genes -- like all of us, he had to work for every one.

How Much Exercise Do You Really Need?
What ever happened to, “Get some exercise every day because it’s good for you?” You hardly ever hear that anymore. Exercise expert Tom Venuto looks at the old homage.

Bodybuilding and Fat Loss Programs
Natural bodybuilder Tom Venuto compares two popular fat loss and bodybuidling programs: Body for Life and Burn the Fat Feed the Muscle.

How to Bench Press
The world's No. 1 bench presser and record holder, Scot Mendelson, teaches you how to do it in this interesting article.

Fat Loss for Intermediates
If you've been training for at least three months and now you're ready to kick it into high gear and start learning more about training, nutrition, and natural bodybuilding so you can get better and faster results, then this article by Tom Venuto is for you.

How to Gain Weight and Bulk Up
If you're a hard gainer and need to add some pounds to your frame, this article by natural bodybuilder Anthony Ellis provides an excellent routine to meet your goal.

How to Lose Body Fat
Natural bodybuilder Anthony Ellis discusses how losing a little or a lot of fat involves pretty much the same concept: consistent dieting coupled with cardiovascular exercise and weight training. This is how many professionals do it, and it works.

How to Gain Muscle and Lose Fat on the Warrior Diet
Warrior Diet author Ori Hofmekler answers a question that he hears all the time: "How can I keep gaining muscle mass while losing fat on the Warrior Diet?"

The Warrior Diet
Ori Hofmekler's fascinating and controversial Warrior Diet is a "must read" book for the unconventional health enthusiast and those interested in natural bodybuilding who are fascinated by diet and workout approaches that flip the bird, so to speak, at traditional diet and fitness wisdom.