A Muscle Bear’s glutes, quadriceps, and hamstrings are the largest muscle bundles in a man’s body. They burn a remarkable number of calories while - and after they're being trained. Those squats, lunges, leg presses and deadlift sets take a significant energy toll on the whole body, yet yield great muscle mass-building results for the long haul. Because one's body works systemically, those demanding leg training sessions will contribute to a rapid increase in both muscle mass and in elevating your body's resting metabolic rate. The burn from hard-core leg training lasts long, long after the workout is finished.

Ham-Hock, you are sitting on your body's best fat-fighting resource: Your rump's gluteus muscles and upper legs are the two major body parts that incorporate the largest muscle groups on the human skeleton. These large muscle masses respond rapidly and well to weight-training: If you feel you haven't been making significant muscular development gains lately, re-focusing on leg training hard and heavy can deliver rapid, visible results.

For the most rapid gains in lean MuscleBear mass, you can’t avoid heavy leg training. The ability for muscular growth and transformations that leg training offers a muscular Bear’s whole body is simply too good to pass up. One doesn't need expensive gym equipment to pack on significant leg muscle. You can get thick, beefy legs with affordable muscle building equipment like kettlebells, dumbbells or performing bodyweight exercises. The exercise focus should be on doing squats, leg presses, dead-lifts and lunges until your legs feel like rubbery noodles.

Get thick calves with some very, VERY high rep Calf Raises. Do both standing and bent-over straddle raises - the latter get more hamstring involvement. Constantly mix-up and vary your Calf Raise with everted and inverted foot positions to target development of the inner and outer edges of the gastrocnemius muscles. Our Bear bod’s calves are used to toting around out bodyweight day in an out, so you really have to torture your calves above and beyond the normal to get them to respond and grow.

A simple, biweekly training regimen is to split your legs into front and rear. One day, train the muscle in front of your legs, then alternately train the muscle on the back side of your legs and calves. If you are looking for a well-defined, beefy, muscular backside, perfect your lunge movements. The bulk of your exercises should be classic, free-standing Powerlifting type moves with a barbell. However, Lying Leg Curl, Seated Leg Extension and Hack Squat machines should be part of the mix too. Try this leg training combo for 6 to 8 weeks then mix your routine. Any number of top-selling bodybuilding books can assist in becoming familiar with the proper way to perform the core leg exercises and familiarize you with the big muscles involved.

Beef Tags: muscle growth, massive muscles, thick legs, biggest muscles

If you’re serious about transforming yourself into a big Muscular Bear, you need to either start your weight training hard and heavy or change-up your current workout routine. With a Back To The Basics and very focused core Mesocycle muscle building phase you can pack on a measurable amount of muscle mass in a short period of time. HIT - H.I.T - H.I.I.T. - whatever you call it - High Intensity Interval Training that focuses on the largest muscle groups in your body is the way to alter your calorie burning Basic Metabolic Rate (BMR) and start trading pounds of fat for pounds of muscle.

In my quest to transform into a Muscle Bear, I’ve made dissappointingly slow but steady gains using a conventional split weight training routine. But even with a systematic approach to alternately training legs, back, arms, chest, etc. on alternate days, it seemed rather scatter-shot and lacking focus. Split Routines are common for most weight trainees and bodybuilders, and allow you to work out 5 or more days a week while still allowing various muscle groups to recover while you’re building up the others. For a lot of fit Bear men, daily exercise is simply part of a ‘Fit For Life’ mantra and it can be hard to actually take days off and really do NOTHING to allow your body, metabolism and nervous system to truly rest and recover like it needs to.

It was a challenge, but I decided if I was really going to take my quasi-muscular Bear physique to the next level, I needed to Stop. Rethink. And Re-Focus on basic core exercises in a Mesocyle. I’d lost the Bear belly, started seeing real muscle definition, but kept losing weight. Clearly I was losing more fat, but not trading it pound for pound with new muscle.

A MuscleBear workout of Classic HIT Training focusing on only my largest muscle groups, done in combination sets of opposing muscle groups helped me gain more lean muscle mass in 6 weeks than I had in the previous six months. A big part of that was reading up on two very popular Mesocycle programs: The WESTSIDE BARBELL WORKOUT and the WENDLER 5 3 1 RESULTS-oriented methods favored by Muscle Bear bodybuilders or Powerlifting Muscle Bears who are dead serious about achieving rapid muscle mass and strength gains.

Most of these Wendler and Westside Barbell inspired routines were modified to include free-weight barbell and dumbbell combinations such as bench presses alternated with bent-over barbell rows, shrugs with overhead presses, bicep curls alternated with tricep extensions, etc. I really stayed focused on free weights and only allowed myself to use machines to substitute for a few critical H.I.T. moves. Because of sacral and lower lumbar issues, a variety of leg press and hack squat machines helped me minimize the issues that strict form in free-standing barbell squats demands. And it’s just hard to substitute the unique muscle building qualities that the standing or lying leg curl and leg extension Cybex, Nautilus or Hammar Strength machines can bring to beef-up and define your quads, hamstrings and glutes. Both the Westside Barbell program and Wendler Training Method incorporate the option for varied supplemental exercises to balance out their core-training lifts.

Keeping in mind the six largest muscle groups of the body, I really kept myself critically aware of a few things: A Bear’s triceps are generally twice as large as biceps, so I made sure to pump and burn the back of my arms more consciously. That my leg workouts needed to become much heavier and painful to shock my muscles and metabolism into serious mass building mode. Ditto for dumbbell shrugs to add the visual mass that well-developed trapezius muscles add to an imposing physique. And for a thick, strong back, I had to load up and grind out more bent-over and barbell rows.

Beef Tags: mesocycles, hit training, westside barbell workout, wendler workout

Recently our decidedly fabulous World Gym in Palm Springs got a set of classic, round cast-iron kettlebells and a rack that I’ve been dying to try out. Not too many other guys at the gym, let alone any of the A-List Muscle Bears seem too interested in becoming Kettlebell Bears - which is unfortunate. It’s also unfortunate that it’s only a single rack of 9 kettlebells of varying weights from 10-50 pounds. Some of the best kettlebell exercises require a matched pair of equally weighted bells for each hand.

The benefits of kettlebell training are well known: All the moves are compound exercises that affect multiple body parts. As with free weight training with dumbbells, supporting muscle groups are called into place to stabilize the movements. Kettlebell exercises also are great for cardiovascular endurance.

I’ve been researching the most popular and basic kettlebell exercises and watching some of the best videos of kettlebell routines. There’s a lot for a novice to learn, practice, and get down cold before attempting some of the more advanced kettlebell workout moves. I’ve also been considering getting a kettlebell or two for home workouts. In particular, coated kettlebells that protect hard floor surfaces, and are contoured like the one featured below. That can spare your forearms from getting bunged-up as you perform movements that involve overhand flip movements overhead or at the chest.

The 5 Basic Kettlebell Routines I’m working on:
Kettlebell Swing, Kettlebell Clean and Press, Kettlebell Snatch, Kettlebell Deadlift, Kettlebell Front Squats

Coated and Contoured Kettlebell

With Bob Harper Training DVD

Lastly, from my limited trial workouts, it’s really, really smart to have good gonad and scrotum support while performing the kettlebell circuit. I highly recommend a snug, well fitting jockstrap, such as any of the Nasty Pig Jock Straps to keep your balls intact through the rather ballistic, pelvic thrust movements that are the mainstay of kettlebell training routines.

Beef Tags: kettlebells, kettlebell bears

Maybe you need to be BOSSED AROUND: Told what to do, when to do it, how long to do it, Huh boy? Maybe you really do need to be trained -- Steady and regular, over and over, hard and fast -- till you get it right.

GymBoss Interval Timer

Imposing Discipline You Lack

Well, who needs a burly, well-built stallion barking orders at your sorry, lame, pansy-ass like a tough Marine Drill Sargeant with a cigar stuffed in his muzzle and a dirty, rough-treaded leather boot pinning you down -- when you can be gently coaxed into doing it digitally with all the sheer force and brute dominating power it's batteries can muster. Now DROP AND GIVE ME TWO!... minutes of whatever you can muster. And then another two, if you're man enough. Rinse, Lather, Repeat yourself into a grueling sweat - with a GymBoss.

Beef Tags: interval training, 10 Minute Fitness, timed exercise

They say a picture is worth a THOUSAND words. And that RESULTS SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES. Well, as you can see below using my revolutionary POSTURE PERFECT ERECTION PERFECTION METHOD...

I transformed myself from a drooping, flaccid, pathetically limp status to full, erect hardness in seconds.



With my revised 10-Second "ERECTION PERFECTION Workout Routine -- Even YOU can achieve results like this without grueling workouts and heavy weights. If you would like tho share the results of YOUR own 'Posture Perfect Erection Perfection' success leave a comment and we'll make arrangements to share YOUR Before-And-After erection pics for all the world to see.

Well that didn’t take long: 14 days into BeefPie’s Back-In-California Fit-Camp Boot-Camp Rehab - B.P.’s physiology threw a tantrum. 10-minute swims morning noon and night, 10-minute each bike, elliptical, treadmill triathalon aerobic workouts, 1 hour “Coreture” (Core Torture) classes - oh and the odd moments of resuming weight-training all hit a crescendo of groaning and whining, leg cramps, and neurological jitters - all symptoms of Classic Over-Training. A day of uh, re-evaluation seems in order. I need salty, buttered noodles and a long, long nap.

Beef Tags: sore muscles, joint ache, sleep-loss

OH CRAP!!! OK, I’ll be honest: BeefPieBear’s first 30-day round of Fabulous Fitness Workout-Routines using the 10 Minute Muscle-Miracle(tm) work-outs just didn’t quite totally, utterly, completely, transform me into a big, giant, massive slab of BEEFY MAN-I-MAL.

OH GAWD!!! PALM SPRINGS GAY PRIDE WEEKEND is EXACTLY 30-Days away and not only do I have to get GORGEOUS F.A.S.T. -- Schit, I have to get my act together AND pack up my cabin AND drive across country AND get to Palm Springs AND get an apartment AND....

Get. My. Ass. Back. To. The. Gym.

Beef Tags: palm springs pride, Gay pride, pride festival

Who needs a tough, cigar-chewing Marine Drill-Sargeant barking orders at your pansy-ass? Well, we all do. But until we find one -- Set your SPORTS TIMER to 10 big-muscle minutes - and simply do ten-minutes of fitness maneouvers with hell-bent FOCUS. It doesn’t matter what: Stretch-It, Crunch-It, Walk-It, Lift-It, Pose-It! All it takes is 10 MINUTE FITNESS, several times a day.

Ok, in Season 2 of Eye On Beefpie - BP starts walking the talk and the Muscle Makeover Challenge begins! So in the first 3 episodes, BeefPieBear preps and SHAVES that gnarly muzzle of his, strips down to the bear essentials, and starts packing on the Meaty-Bones.

Tipping the BATHROOM SCALE at a buck-naked 6’ 220 pounds - BP realizes two things: He has too much fat - and not enough muscle. And that a BODY FAT TESTER would have some rather harsh realities to tell him, and that a BODY TAPE MEASURE would probably agree.

At this point, I’ll trade Five for Five and set a realistic goal: Trade 5 pounds (or more) of body-fat for 5 big burly beefy pound-your-head-in tough raw meaty muscle gain -- before I return to California.

Beef Tags: hairy gut, back hair, sweat, armpits, biceps, deltiod

Life-time fitness starts - or RE-starts for me anyways - with 10 - 3x5 index-cards and a Sharpie. 10 goals that aren’t just vauge notions. Ten realistic, actionable goals with time-frames clearly stated: “I will take timer with me and before breakfast, I will start each morning with a 20 minute walk.” Oh crap! I just wanna drink coffee and smoke cigarettes and check my e-mail before having a greasy, salty breakfast! This old dog needs some new tricks...

Beef Tags: diet, fitness