How to Build Your Self Confidence

 

Have you ever wished you had the confidence that someone else has? Have you ever wondered what their secret was? Why do some people build confidence with ease while others have a hard time? It is the age old question. What if you could build the same self confidence? The good news is you can. Are you ready to learn the secrets?

 

Learn and Improve

If you want to build confidence, get better at something. Put your energy into building your expertise in a certain area. Not sure, what you want to become an expert in? Consider where your strengths are and where your talents are.

 

How many times have you said, “I’m worthless,” or “I’m useless,” to yourself? Well, my friend, that is not the truth. Every individual is born for a purpose, and you just need to find it. It all starts with the thing you love to do. Is it painting, cooking, teaching, building objects or solving complex mathematical equations? No matter where your interests may lie, you can become an expert. All you have to do is persevere.

 

The more you do something the better you get at it. Taking the first step is the most difficult, but it’s important to take a leap of faith and find the courage to take that initial step. You will find the road ahead much easier. Practice and perfect – keep working at it. Your self confidence will increase in no time at all. Set challenges and goals you can achieve to build your self-confidence.

 

#2 We Don’t Livein a Perfect World

We don’t live in a perfect world so don’t try to create it. We all make mistakes. Don’t convince yourself that you won’t make mistakes, because you are going to. If you aren’t making mistakes, at least now and then, you aren’t trying anything new. Don’t be afraid of mistakes. Think of them as learning opportunities. Try to learn from those mistakes.

 

#3 Always Believein You

Be comfortable in your own skin. It’s the biggest boost you can give your self confidence. What really matters is that you are okay with who you are. What others think really doesn’t matter. You have the power to change your destiny. You should accept who you are strengths and weaknesses. Know your limitations. Strive to become better and you will.

 

#4 AvoidNegativity

Are you a glass half full or glass half empty person? Avoid negative thinking and look for the positive in situations. Try to avoid negative people too. You’ll be much better for it.

 

There you have it – 4 ways you can build your self confidence.

What is the best way to build muscle?

Your muscle requires strength. Yes! strength is the size. The heavier the weights you lift, the bigger your muscles grow, the stronger your body becomes.

Your muscle mass will increase in order to lift heavier weights. Lift heavy weights and you’ll gain muscle mass naturally.

Here are the best tips to gain more muscle mass quickly:

• get stronger

As I said, more strength is more muscle. Increase the weight you lift on the deadlift, squat, bench press, and your overall muscle mass will increase because strength is the size.

Try to lift more than last time. If you don’t lift more than last month or year, you are not building muscle.

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• train smart

You should train for muscle gain not for fat loss. Focus on lifting heavy weights for 6–8 reps and avoid using light weight for high reps.

Do exercises that work several muscles at the same time, integrate compound movements like squat, bench press, rows, and deadlift. This kind of movements increases the release of testosterone.

Here is an example of a Full body workout plan :

1 – Dumbbell Split Squat (Leg)

Alternatives:

• Single-leg press
• The Bulgarian Split Squat
• Squat

2 – Deadlift (Back)

Alternatives:

• Dumbbell deadlift
• One-armed dumbbell deadlift
• Bent-over rows

3 – One-Arm Dumbbell Row (Upper Back)

Alternatives:

• Bent over barbell row
• Hammer strength pulldowns
• Cable row

4 – Bench Press (Chest)

Alternatives:

• Dips
• Push-Ups
• Hammer Strength Chest Press

5 – Dumbbell Overhead Press (Shoulders)

Alternatives:

• Standing Overhead Barbell Press
• Behind-The-Neck Press
• The Partial Overhead Press

6 – One-arm overhead dumbbell triceps extension (Triceps)

Alternatives:

• Tricep Pushdowns
• Close Grip Bench Press
• Lying Dumbbell Tricep Extensions

7 – Dumbbell Curl (biceps)

Alternatives:

• EZ-Bar Curl
• Wide-grip standing barbell curl
• Hammer Curl

8 – Seated Calf Raise (calves)

Alternatives:

• Dumbbell jump squat
• Standing calf raise
• Jump rope

9 – Plank (Abs/Core)

Alternatives:

• Dip/Leg Raise Combo
• Barbell Russian Twist
• Barbell Rollout

To avoid injuries, start lifting weights and increase the weight frequently, and don’t forget to use a proper form.

• Go on a caloric surplus

Your body needs calories to fuel workouts and feed the muscles. You can follow the best training plan in the world, but without getting enough nutrients, your muscles won’t grow and recover. Some guys need 3000 calories to bulk, I need 3600 calories.

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• Calculate your calorie needs

To gain muscle, you have to consume calories more than your body needs to maintain weight.

First, calculate your basal metabolic rate (BMR) then calculate your total daily energy expenditure (TDEE) by multiplying your BMR and your average activity level.

BMR for men: (12.7 * height in inches) + (6.23 * weight in pounds) - (4.7 * age) + 66

BMR for women: (4.7 * height in inches) + (4.35 * weight in pounds) - (4.7 * age) + 655

Activity level:

• Sedentary (little to no exercise): 1.2
• Lightly active ( exercise for 1–3 times per week): 1.375
• Moderately active (exercise 3–5 times per week): 1.55
• Very active (exercise 5–7 times per week): 1.725
• Extremely active (exercise twice a day): 1.9

Example:

A very active man (age: 22 years old | height: 72 inches | weight: 173 pounds)

BMR = (12.7*72)+(6.23*173)-(22*4.7)+66 = 1954 calories

TDEE = 1954 * 1.725 = 3372 calories

Conclusion:

This very active man needs a lot of calories to maintain his body weight (3372 calories), to gain muscle with a minimum of body fat, he should increase 300–500 calories. So he should now consume 3372 + 300 = 3672 calories each day.

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• Consume more healthy fat

People think that consuming healthy fats will make them gain more body fat. The truth is high-fat foods are high in calories (1g gives you 9 calories) and may help you to regulate your hormones.

You must include fat in your diet, take 0.5 grams per pound of your body weight. It will help you for maintaining optimal cell structure and hormone levels.

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• Eat more protein

Consuming more protein may help you repair and rebuild muscle tissues and recovery after a hard weight lifting session.

Increase your daily protein intake, 0.8 to 1.4 grams per pound of your body weight. A guy with 180 pounds of body weight should consume 200 grams of protein per day.

The best protein sources are beef, eggs, chicken breasts, salmon, lentils, shrimp.

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• Get enough sleep

The lack of sleep causes a lot of health issues, including hormonal distributions, obesity… It decreases human growth hormone and increases cortisol (stress hormone) levels.

Try to sleep for 6–8 hours per night, recovery is important for muscle growth as well as diet and training. And there is no better way to recover than sleeping.

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Metabolism and body type (Something you may consider)

Some people burn energy more than others do, some of them turn energy into muscles, others turn it into fuel for exercise energy.

There 3 body types:

• Ectomorph: Short upper body, long legs, long arms, with little fat storage. An endomorph has a fast metabolism, which makes gaining muscle a bit harder, he needs more time to reach the goal.
• Endomorph: The opposite of the endomorph, he is naturally fat with a slow metabolism, he has low carbohydrate tolerance. An endomorph needs to avoid sugary foods to get the minimum of body fat during the bulking.
• Mesomorph: Large chest, well-defined muscle, and strong body. He is naturally muscular with high testosterone and growth hormone levels.

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Something you should know:

If you follow an effective training program, clean diet, and recover, you can gain 1 kg of lean muscle mass per month or 12 kg in a year.

You may gain more than 1kg per month when you start lifting, your muscles store glycogen to fuel your workouts and glycogen binds water, and this water increases your body weight.

How do I build body at home?

Working out at home  is a great  option as it saves money and time. There are vast amount of workouts,exercises that can be done at home.For example: Freeletics, Calisthenics etc. you can also do it in park as it serves well for running, good space and fresh air as well.

STEPS TO ACHIEVE YOUR GOAL:-

1. Divide particular set of muscles to work on for 6 days of the week(Let sunday be the rest day).
2. Choose only exercises that work only on the particular set of  muscles for each day.
3. Example:-monday be chest day,tuesday be for biceps and triceps.
4. Then consume 4 to 6  protein rich meals .
5. Reduce fat intake as much as you could for shredded and lean look.
6. Buy Home gym equipment set for more advanced training.[1]

WORKOUTS:-

FOR UPPER BODY  AND CORE:-

• Push ups:incline,decline,normal(100 to 120 a day)
• Pull ups
• Dips
• Plank,Crunches,Leg raises

FOR LOWER BODY:-

• Squats
• Lunges
• High intensity cardio
• Donkey kicks

HERE IS A POSTER FOR DETAILED EXERCISES OVERVIEW

4 Proven Ways to Build Muscle

Just so you know I am not a dinggleberry blowing smoke up your bunghole via the internet, here is my own transformation (no this photo is not photoshopped and no I’ve never used any illegal substances)…

My Internal Shift:

1. Define Your “Why”

Here is the kicker though, in order for your “why” to power your vehicle it must have enough horsepower.

For example, 4 a cylinder 100 horsepower “Why” = “I want to get in shape to look sexy”

Pretty generic why….

Our job is to take another step further and unearth your deepest desire and motivation for wanting to get fit.

On the flipside a supercharged V12 “Why” = “I want to get in shape so I can show up in my life authentically. I want to build a body which awakens my inner confidence and allows my greatness to shine through to the world. I am tired of hiding and feel uncomfortable in my body, I am ready to level up and become the best me”

See the difference?

Here is the deal, even with a successful training/nutrition plan and a clearly defined “why”

Sh*t is still going to be hard along your path.

You’ll have ups.

And you’ll most definitely have downs.

The key is to have a “why” so powerful and inspiring that it will propel you through the natural undulations.

2. Have a plan

Cliche I know, but this is ground zero along your fitness journey.

After coaching over 112 clients in the last 12 months, I have learned that nearly every single one of my clients struggled immensely before joining Thrive Coaching for one reason...

They were lost in the gym.

They felt as though their workouts weren’t bringing them closer to their goals.

And on top of all that, they felt blindfolded in the kitchen.

In the majority of cases, they knew exactly the results they desired for themselves

but they simply didn’t know how to obtain them.

They would dabble with some random workout they found from scrolling through instagram...only to leave the gym feeling hopeless and confused.

Feeling as though their efforts did little to bring them closer to their dream body.

Same was true in the kitchen.

The all to common pattern was to jump from one fad diet to the next, in hopes that one of these silver bullet diets would give them the results they were looking for.

Keto one week followed by Whole30 a month later.

They were on the figurative fitness hamster wheel.

Trying hard, but getting nowhere.

Sound familiar to you?

The central issue here is that their efforts were hodge podged and lacked any clear direction.

Pretty difficult to have consistency and motivation when you don’t have a clear plan of attack, huh?

3) Honest Assessment

Once you have clarified your “why” and have a plan which will drive you towards your vision, you need to take an honest inventory of yourself and your efforts.

Are you training with proper form/executing your exercises conciously or letting your ego get in the way?

Good form and execution is grossly underrated IMO.

Are you listening to your body or aggressively training through injuries?

Nothing will put the brakes on your progress faster than a long term neglected injury.

Are you truly bringing your A game to your workouts or half heartedly putting in effort?

Effort…most don’t go it. Do you?

Are you stay consistent and trusting the process or constantly getting sucked into new fads and trends like an caffeine infused ADD chimpanzee?

In an age of social media influencers spreading information which is equivalent to a steaming pilling of horse dung, you must be careful who you listen to and how often you change things up.

Side note: most times, changing things simply for the sake of “changing things” is a horrible idea. Please avoid this rookie mistake of program hopping frequently.

My Practical Shifts:

1. Train Progressively

Without a shadow of doubt, mechanical tension based training should occupy 40–60% of your time in the gym.

The reality is, your body wants to stay in homeostasis.

It does not want to change.

For a natural lifter, simply getting a “sick pump” in the gym with your bros is not enough to kick your body out of this state of wanting to be unchanged.

You must apply a stimulus which is truly challenging.

There are many ways to implement progressive overload, but far and away the most “scalable” long gains producing strategy is to consistently get stronger on your compound lifts overtime.

Our bodies have mechanosensors which sensitive to the magnitude and temporal aspect of load (weight on the bar).

These magical internal little gains producing gremlins spark anabolic and anti-catabolic signaling pathways through mechanotransduction.

In layman terms….

Lift heavy things.

Eventually lift heavier things.

Do this with enough volume, and you will get bigger.

2. Periodize your training

Your training program should not be binary.

It must be dynamic.

It must account for changes in volume, intensity, and rest overtime.

Training is stressful…like really stressful.

In order for your body to adapt your must periodize your training.

This can be done via deloading, or simply having periods of high volume training followed by lower volume training.

3. Focus on your shadow

Let’s be honest….

Most peoples only metric for success in the gym is simply how “good” you look.

If you fall into this category (myself included at times), you want to maximize your shadow.

What the heck do I mean by this?

This means prioritizing development in the illusory muscle groups.

This includes your: deltoids, lats, calves, and the like.

These are the muscles which when trained properly can give you the illusion of having a supernatural physique.

4. Protein is actually important

This is perhaps the only point which the “bro scientists” have gotten right.

No, you do not need to be slamming protein shakes immediately post workout or eating 300g of it daily…

but you must be conscious of your macronutrient balance (carbs, fats, and protein).

For my first two years of training, my post workout meal was peanut butter and a bowl of cereal.

Yikes…

(FYI In a perfect world this post workout meal would have been 20–40g of easily absorbed protein , 40g o f starchy carbs, and little fat. )

As a blanket statement, I recommend .6–1g of protein per pound of bodyweight daily.

While it is hard to quantify the exact benefits I saw after I began tracking my macros two years into my fitness journey, what I do is that my results began to skyrocket around the exact same time.

Food for thought (literally).

Hope that helped:)

What is the best way to build big arms naturally?

Arms are probably the most sought after muscle group after six-pack Abs. Having big arms is a sign of strength and power, and they are the first muscle group that people notice on your physique.

So, developing a sleeve-busting Arms is a must to give the illusion of a muscular physique.

But, before we dive into the best exercises for Arms growth, let’s take a look at the Arms anatomy so we know how we should train them for growth.

Arms Anatomy:

The arm has two main muscle groups: the Biceps and the Triceps.

The Biceps:

The Biceps or Biceps Brachii is a two-headed muscle that origin from under the deltoid and insert below the elbow.

The basic function of the Biceps is to lift and curl the arm. Also, another function of the Biceps is to pronate the wrist.

The Biceps has two main head, the short head, and the long head. Also, another muscle group of the Biceps is Brachialis or the outer head of the Biceps.

The Triceps:

The Triceps or Triceps Brachii is a three-headed muscle group that works in opposition to the biceps.

It is also originating from under the deltoid and inserting below the elbow.

The basic function of the triceps is to straighten the arms and supinate the wrist.

As it name apply, the triceps has 3 main heads: the long head, the lateral head, and the medial head.

Now, after this brief anatomy lesson, let’s move to the fun part, the keys to develop sleeve-busting Arms.

So, what are the best exercises to gain Arm size?

As we already established, in order to gain size in your Arms you will need to work both Biceps and Triceps. Here are the best exercises for both muscle groups

The Best Biceps Exercises:

1-Barbell Curl:

This is the most basic Biceps exercise. It will target all your Biceps heads evenly and it will allow for increasing poundages and implementing progressive overload.

2-Hammer Curls:

This will target the Biceps brachiialis. The Brachiialis is that small muscle shaped like a golf ball between the biceps and the triceps. Although it is trained in every elbow flexing movement, the brachiiali muscle can become a weak link and derail your progress if not targeted optimally. Focusing on the Brachiialis will give you that thick arm looks from the front.

3-Incline Dumbbell Curls:

Due to improper execution, the long head of the Biceps is often a weak link for most bodybuilders. This head is optimally targeted when your elbows are behind the torso.The best exercise to target the long head of the Biceps is Incline dumbbell curls. Including this will tremendously improve your Biceps.

4-Preacher Curls:

This will work the first part of the range and give you that thickness in the lower biceps. Also, preacher curls will minimize cheating so they will directly put more stress on the biceps. That equals more growth.

5-Concentration Curls:

If you want a mountain like Biceps, then you need to work on improving your Biceps peak. The best exercise for achieving that is concentration curls in my opinion. They were Arnold favorite Biceps peak exercise and we all can agree that he had one of the best Biceps in all bodybuilding history.

The Best Triceps Exercises:

1-Close Grip Bench Press:

This is the main muscle builder of the Triceps. forget about Pressdowns and all those machine exercises, if you are not doing Close-Grip Bench Press you will never develop big Triceps. this exercise will allow the use of heavy weights and progressive overload and it will place a lot of stress on those Triceps. The good kind of stress that will lead to muscle growth.

2-Overhead Triceps Extensions:

Those will work the long head of your Triceps, one of the most neglected muscles. developing a big long head will give you that thick Triceps look from the back and it will widen your Arms. On this exercise, focus on maximum stretch rather than just lifting heavy weights. I personally prefer the cable variation over the dumbbell variation on this exercise.

3-Skull Crushers:

even though that their name is scary, but when done right this exercise won’t crush your Skull. Instead, it will grow the lateral head of your Triceps like no other Exercise. the lateral head is the biggest head of all the 3 and when properly developed, it will give you that horseshow Triceps look. Again, stress form rather than weights. use a full range of motion and play a good attention to your elbow placement.

4-Dumbbell Kickback:

You may think that this exercise is for girls, but in reality, it is one of the best exercises when it comes to developing the medial head of the Triceps. Arnold himself was a big fan of this exercise and he included it in all his Arms workout routines. Again, the key with this exercise is to stress a full range of motion and to fully extend your arms in every single rep.

You don’t need to do all of those exercises in one day, but try to do the majority of them within one eek so you hit your Arms from all angles and get them to grow!

GOOD LUCK.