Dexter Jackson and Victor Martinez were very close after prejudging, and the major talk was how Dexter just might win another contest over Victor Martinez, who has not won an IFBB contest since 2007. However, Victor looked just as impressive, and in the end, Victor took the contest of Dexter Jackson. Here are the results and highlights from the 2011 Arnold Classic Europe.

1. Victor Martinez
2. Dexter Jackson
3. Ronny Rockel
4. Toney Freeman
5. Flex Lewis
6. Hidetada Yamagishi
7. Robert Piotrkowicz
8. Michael Kefalianos
9. Edward Nunn
10. Alfonso Del Rio Valencia
11. Sergey Shelesov
12. Martin Kjellstrom
13. Clarence De Vis
14. Zaher Moukahal
15. Alvin Small
(T) 16. Antonio Morales
(T) 16. Gian Enrico Pica
(T) 16. Carlos Ruiz Asensio

In the Arnold Classic Europe Pro Fitness Results, Tanji Johnson won over a powerful Bethany Cisterino. Here are the results.

1. Tanji Johnson
2. Bethany Cisterino
3. Regaine Da Silva
4. Myriam Capes
5. Tina Durkin
6. Mindi O’Brien
7. Diana Monteiro
8. Kayde Puckett

[Source: 2011 Arnold Classic Europe Results and Highlights | pmXfit.com]

Instead, why not just throw all that out the window and tackle chest day from a whole new direction this week? Let’s start the day on the dip machine. You’ll be fresh, so you can probably knock out 20 or 30 reps in a row, right? Wrong! You’ll be strapping some weight upon you for this movement, in order to make it a mass building exercise! Grab the chain, wrap it around your weight training belt, and after a few warm up sets, strap two 45 pound weights to your body and get to some dipping! You’ll be just as strong as if you were climbing under the dumbbells on the incline bench. Knock out FIVE sets of this movement. And when you’re done with each set, detach the weight and keep training to failure with your own body weight. You can do it!

From there, move to the dumbbell racks and alternate some decline and incline dumbbell presses and flyes. Don’t focus so much upon keeping track of which movement you’ve done for how many repetitions. Rather, focus upon the minutes you spend, and how much of a pump you obtain. After 12 to 15 minutes of various presses and flyes from various angles, your pectoral muscles will be torched beyond belief!

From there, you should move to the machine section and work instinctively. You know you’ll want some butterfly or cable action to work that shoulder/pectoral tie-in area, but you don’t have to stick with traditional movements, you know! Instead, why not opt for new angles, new machines, and new movements. Try higher repetition ranges too!

This kind of instinctive training works for all body parts. Instead of starting leg day with squats and leg presses as usual, why not begin with heavy hack squats, followed with lunges? You always start back day with heavy deadlifting. Why not begin the day with heavy dumbbell rows followed with the t-bar movement. The idea is that you are going to be able to stimulate new areas of each muscle group with heavier movements and more reps. You may complete these exercises normally, but often at the tail end of your training session. By using them earlier in your session, you can push certain blocks of muscle fibers further than they have ever gone before – which leads to new muscle growth!

Eat more food
You aren’t going to meet too many 150 pound monsters who can bench press 405 pounds. Sure, you’ll find the world-class genetic freak that is 4 foot, 9 inches tall who may fall into this category. But for the vast majority of us, the amount of weight you can lift is going to be somewhat related to the scale reading. If you keep your body fat levels the same, you will be stronger at 200 pounds than you will be at 150. So if you can’t get that bench press to move, try increasing your daily carbohydrate and protein intake. As the scale move up, your benching numbers will as well!

Sleep more
We all know that muscle growth – and strength increases – do not occur in the gym. They occur when you sleep. So if you can’t bench more than 315 and you sleep 5 hours per night, we may have just discovered your problem! Go to bed earlier, sleep in, take naps, and grow stronger! Turn off the television, and pick up a book on nutrition. You’ll be sleeping before you can say macronutrient…

Higher repetition range
The slow twitch muscle fibers – the ones which aren’t stimulated until repetitions 12 through 20 arrive – are often neglected by powerlifters and Olympic lifters. Cut the weight in half, and train with more repetitions. You’ll move far more blood into the pectorals, deltoids, and triceps than you ever have before. The result will be a greater number of muscle fibers stimulated, and presumably, suddenly able to develop some new muscular size and strength. This may translate to you moving more weight.

Hit triceps and shoulders
Perhaps your chest is capable of moving more weight, but your shoulders and triceps are the weak points which prevent you from benching more. This is very common with lifters on back exercises as well, when their biceps and forearms prevent them from deadlifting or rowing more weight. Whichever the case, building up these support muscle groups so that they do not become the failure points as the secondary point of stimulation, will be the key to success.

Supplement
We can only do so much to create the anabolic environment within our bodies with food alone. This is why the vast majority of lifters will select some sort of bodybuilding supplement. Creatine will force your body to retain more water, resulting in fuller muscles which are sturdier under the bench press bar. Mesobolin can boost testosterone levels, making you more aggressive in the gym and better able to heal following workouts. Study the top popular supplements, and talk to your peers. These supplements are very popular because they do help many lifters to move up their bench press numbers.

Creatine monohydrate works by forcing the muscle cells of your body to hold a little extra water for a little extra time. This small amount of new volume in the muscle fibers leads to you, the lifter, being able to complete more repetitions with more weight. This, in turn, leads to new growth of actual muscle. It’s a form of a crutch that leads to the leg (in this case your muscles) being stronger for its use.

Ideal dosing of creatine is well-documented and pretty straight forward. Initially, you will want to mix 5 grams (one teaspoon) with fruit juice, four times per day. Do this for 5 days, and your body’s creatine levels will be peaked. From there, you can ‘cruise’ on 5 grams per day for the next 28 days without fail. Then, it is time for another loading phase.

Water consumption should be very high when taking creatine. Your body will suddenly need more water to be drawn to the muscle cells, which means your organs may be deprived if you do not raise your water intake immediately. Most people on creatine will drink 1.5 to 2 gallons of water each day as a rule.

Do you have any family or personal history with kidney ailments? If this is the case, then you may want to avoid creatine use altogether. At the very least, you should consult with your doctor and have a blood panel done to ensure your kidneys are strong and healthy enough for creatine use. If you consume a fair amount of alcohol, or even some prescription drugs which have been known to cause the side effects of dehydration, then you will want to be very cognizant of this fact while loading then using creatine.

Consistency is the key when it comes to effective creatine usage. You cannot use it twice per week and expect to see very good results. Rather, you must use it consistently, mixed with quality fruit juice and with plenty of water, in order for results to be optimal. And did we mention you’ll have to be training extremely hard and heavy too? This should be a given for some lifters, but it does bear repeating. You will get out of creatine what you put into it – hard work and consistency pay off!

Finally, you are going to need to eat. This isn’t your standard diet, where you’ll chomp down a few servings of protein and carbohydrates every 3 to 4 hours. This is a highly regimented bodybuilding diet which will force you to consume the proper levels of carbs and proteins every 2 to 2.5 hours, like clockwork. Missing a meal is not an option if you wish to force your body to break free from its current form. Let’s check out the 7 to 8 meals that you’ll be consuming daily.

Pre-breakfast
Initially upon waking in the morning, consume two scoops of whey protein mixed with two cups of cold water. Only then may you shower, shave, and prepare for your day.

Breakfast
Now that you’re ready to face the day, swing through your favorite fast food restaurant and enjoy a double helping of eggs and a single hash brown. Again, this will take minimal time, cost minimal money, and will give you the protein and carbs you need to start facing the day.

Snack
Hello, protein. Two scoops of whey with cold water are your friend again.

Lunch
Two servings of meat stacked upon two servings of carbohydrates should round out your lunch. You know the best sources – beans, pasta, rice for carbs and chicken, beef, fish or turkey for protein.

Snack
It’s that time again – two scoops of your favorite whey protein with two cups of ice cold water. Enjoy!

Dinner
Dinner will match lunch, with an extra serving of protein if you have room for it on your plate and in your stomach!

Snack
Your late night meal should consist of a handful of cold meat. This can be some turkey or other cold cut which will help you sleep. The idea at this point is to enjoy some slightly fat, slow digesting protein source over the night while you sleep, without adding carbs to the mix.

Additionally, you will also want to include a quick whey protein shake immediately following your workout. You will calculate that on training days, this will equate to an 8th mini-meal of the day. However, given the fact that it will be low calorie (two scoops of whey) immediately following your workout before your post-lifting shower, you will have plenty of time to digest the meal before your next meal, 45 to 60 minutes later.

Protein
When you consume the macronutrient protein, your body is given a wealth of amino acids. They are shuttled to your muscle fibers and, assuming you have trained hard, they give these torn and dilapidated fibers the tools they need to grow. When you lack dietary protein, you lack muscle growth and strength gains. You should be consuming protein 5 to 6 times per day, every 3 to 3.5 hours, from quality sources including chicken, beef, eggs, milk, fish, and whey/casein sources.

Fats
Fish oil is the key to building muscle and maintaining clear skin and overall health, when it comes to fats. Keep your dietary fats low, opting for eggs and nuts for your primary sources, along with the fat marbled in the protein sources you consume. Junk from drive thrus or candy wrappers has no place in your daily diet.

Carbohydrates
If you want the energy to train and the tools to grow, you will need to devour some very useful quality carb sources each day. Sweet and white potatoes, yellow and white rice, beans, and plenty of fruits and vegetables should round out your menu to ensure you are giving your digestive system adequate fiber. Enriched white flour products should be kept to a minimum, as should processed sugars.

Supplements
Nitrox-ATP, Mesobolin, and Creatine are among the top supplement sin the world for building new muscle mass and aiding in recovery. You can make good gains without their use. However, the addition of them to your daily regimen will result in your seeing the same gains, only faster, as your recovery ability will improve dramatically.

Multi Vitamins
A great deal of chemistry takes place at the cellular level when it comes to growing your existing muscle base. This isn’t possible when there are vitamin or mineral deficiencies. For this reason, it is always advisable to start each day with a multi-vitamin. Then, later in the day, bump up your antioxidants with vitamins C and E. This will help to combat the free radical influx that comes with the stressors of your daily routine. Finally, use Iron or B vitamins if your need a little bump in the muscle building department.

Water
Finally, an often overlooked aspect that is required for muscle building activity is water consumption. Drink plenty of water before, during and after training, and keep your daily H2O intake between one and two gallons.

Thanks to sports technology (read: steroid use) at the time, proponents of both sides were able to achieve terrific gains in muscle mass and reach the pinnacle of their sports. Higher volume athletes won out most of the time in competition, but their numbers were much greater thus increasing their chances of winning. The muscle magazines declared higher volume training the winner, but that may have had more to do with politics and magazine ownership than actual results.

In the 1990s, past Mr. Olympia winner Dorian Yates, winner of 6 Sandow titles, swore upon the effectiveness of low-volume, extremely high intensity training. His results are unquestionable – as is his work ethic. Still, many lifters could strive for a lifetime to reach his level or training intensity and fail. He was the biggest and grainiest of his day, but many fans of the sport believe that given his work ethic and genetics, he could have achieved that kind of success – or greater – with a higher volume training methodology.

Today, the vast majority of top bodybuilders employ high volume training. It is, in effect, the status quo. Some of the top bodybuilders in the world will use heavy powerlifter style training from time to time in order to add slabs of beef to their bodies, but when it comes down to it, volume is the name of the game, just as it was in Arnold’s heyday.

Perhaps the recovery technology, supplements, and otherwise, has become so good that bodybuilders are able to recovery from just about any training, no longer how long and arduous it may be. Or, it would be the case that as greater amounts of better information are able to reach bodybuilders thanks to the internet, more people are learning about proper training methods. Whatever the case, HIT seems to be finding fewer and fewer supporters these days, even as more and more commercial gyms make such training an option.

For your personal use, HIT is a great option when time is limited and you wish to work to train quickly to maintain your existing muscle mass. Unless you are a chemically assisted athlete, you are probably not going to find great success with HIT. However, it does have its place from time to time in training rotations.

Dietary protein contains amino acids, and you know that they are vital for muscle growth. However, you are also aware that since you aren’t using steroids, your body isn’t going to be able to make much use of anything past 450 grams of protein each day. The rest will be urinated away harmlessly, placing your kidneys at a slight disadvantage but nothing from which a healthy person cannot recover. Spiking your fats doesn’t sound like a very good idea either. Aside from the fact that a new fresh sheen of body fat will obscure your muscles and make it tougher to get in shape the next time you diet down, you also have to consider the health effects. You don’t exactly want to be facing a heart attack at age 40 like so many other bodybuilders who have scoffed down 300 grams of fat each day in the name of building new muscle mass.

The key to giving your body adequate fuel for training, recovery and growth will therefore be in carbohydrate manipulation. You’ll need to consume more carbohydrates more often, and they’ll have to be the correct kinds of carbs. But which carbohydrate options for making muscle mass gains are going to be your best choice? Ideally, a diet rich in potatoes, granola, pasta, legumes, rice, yams, and beans will serve a lifter right.

Timing is also an important key to successful carbohydrate feeding. You are probably already consuming protein every three hours as per the standard muscle meal eating plan. And this will be the same. Each protein feeding will be accompanied by a carb feeding. Suppose you average 1.5 to 2 servings of protein (35 to 50 grams at each meal). You will want to average 2.5 to 4 carb servings at each meal as will. This will place your daily carb intake at 60% or more of your total diet – which is a very good thing.

Fiber can also not be overlooked when planning your carbohydrate intake. Too many starchy carb sources will leave you constipated and slow. But they are required for building muscle and fueling workouts. Therefore you should include one fruit or vegetable serving at each meal.

Remember that simply spiking your carbs intake alone won’t build new muscle – it’ll actually lead to a caloric surplus which can make you gain body fat. However, a gradual increase of carb source feedings every three hours, coupled with a high protein diet, plenty of heavy compound lifting, and adequate rest and recovery time will lead you to plenty of new muscle. Now get lifting – and eating!

Start your day with crunches. A flat bench works fine for these. Drop to the floor, place your feet up on the bench, and crunch not by the repetition, but by the clock! When you have crunched for a few minutes and cannot do any more, jump up on the bench and complete a set of lying leg raises. Again, do not focus upon how many repetitions you are doing. Rather, use the music in the gym house system or your own iPod mix to drown out the clock completely. You don’t count reps anymore, if you want to train abs like the serious athlete. Rather, you count minutes. You count songs. You count the veins that pop out of your midsection because the pump you’re developing is just so insane.

Alternate the crunches and leg raises until you cannot move. Then it’s time to rest and regroup. Pick up a broomstick, have a seat on the bench, and zone out. You’ll complete 2 to 3 songs’ worth of twists, and allow the blood in your midsection to dissipate a bit. Then it’s time to re-attack your midsection!

Move to the machine section of the ab area. You must resist the urge to push aside the weaker listed, the ‘everyone elses’ of the world. Once your station opens up, you lock into it. Hop on the abdominal machine and train by the clock once again – or by the song, if possible. Put 70 pounds on the machine, and crunch until you fail. Move it to 50 pounds, then 30, then 20, then 10, then zero. Stop only long enough to catch your breath and wipe up your sweat, then do it all over again! You’ll know when your machine portion of the workout is complete when the abdominal area floor is covered in your sweat, and your midsection is purple and cramping from all the blood flow. It is only then that your serious athlete abdominal training for the day is complete. This workout should be completed 1 to 3 times each week.

The important thing to remember about training in this manner is that you have to hit the entire abdominal region, for a decent amount of time. You might end up training for 20 or 30 or even 40 minutes – on abdominals alone. At the time, it may not be fun. But the end result will be something greater than what “everyone else” gains in the gym.

1. Consume More Protein

Protein, whether its animal based protein, such as lean white meat, fish, eggs, and low fat dairy, or whether its plant based protein, such as nuts, seeds, legumes and tofu, all contain the necessary building blocks of muscle fiber. These substances are known as amino acids. There are both essential and nonessential amino acids that the body needs to quickly bulk up with additional muscle.

You can obtain these protein sources either from food or from protein supplements that come in powders, such as whey protein, or in so called protein bars, which are usually loaded with cabs in the form of sugar. The average adult man require 50-60 grams of protein a day for normal growth and nutritional needs. To bulk up with muscle mass, a bodybuilder will have to consume much more than that daily.

2. Heavier Weights

Adding muscle mass faster can easily be accomplished by working out with the heaviest weights you can without straining yourself or getting injured. The heavier the resistance you lift, the faster your muscles grow. Using heavy weights, you’ll quickly begin to see much more bulging muscles.

3. Lift Your Own Body Exercises

This is similar to the lifting very heavy weight principle described above. To gain massive muscle mass rapidly, you need to perform many sets of low rep exercises such as leg squats, parallel bar dips, bench presses, and chin ups. Aim for six to eight reps in each set of eight to twelve sets per exercise and body region.

4. Extend Duration of Weight Workouts

When you follow the lifting of heavier weights concept, you can add even greater muscle mass and bulk by lengthening your workouts. Increase by ten percent in time during each subsequent week. This will force your muscles to have to grow even faster due due to substantially increased resistance that comes when more time is put into workout sessions.

5. Don’t Burn Excessive Calories

Even though you should be doing regular cardio to effectively cross train, you don’t want to be running marathons every day and burn off all the muscle calories you just packed onto your body the day before in the gym. Only do enough cardio to keep the fat off and have you looking ripped. Too much and you’ll quickly diminish the muscle mass you’ve been working so hard for.