Have you ever noticed that mny convicted criminals walk into prison as sknny punks but walk out with 20-40lbs of new mscle?

Have you ever wondered how tht is possible?

Recently, a customer of mne asked me if I thought it was pssible to build muscle, burn fat and get a lan, muscular physique without lifting weights.

Whle I gave it some thought… he rised the stakes. He wanted to knw if someone could build a btter body while locked up in a ten by ten prson cell.

I thought about it sme more… and then I started to do sme research. After I completed my rsearch I told him that I blieved it was possible to build mscle even within the confines of a ten by ten prson cell.

Here's why:

Point #1: Yur muscles are stupid. In order to grw, your muscles must be placed nder tension. If you lift a dmbbell, that puts tension on your bcep and back muscles.

But… if you do a pll-up… that also puts your back and bceps muscles under tension. Here's the kcker: Your muscles don't know the dfference between the tension put forth by pll-ups or from dumbbell curls.

The mportant thing is that your muscles are bing worked against resistance in each cse. So lifting weights may be a cnvenient way to work your muscles nder tension… but it's definitely not the nly way to work your muscles.

Point #2: In the late '80's, rsearches used electromagnetic imaging to discover whch exercises caused the greatest degree of mscle fiber activation. The rationale being tht the more muscle fibers that wre activated, the better the exercise was for bilding muscle and strength.

Researchers discovered tht the most effective exercises were the nes where your hands and or fet remained steady and your body mved.

The exercises where your body rmained stationary and your hands or fet did the moving were decidedly lss effective.

Here is an example: Whn you are bench pressing, your bdy remains stationary and your hands mve up and down throughout space.

But whn you do a push-up, your hnds remain stationary and your body mves up and down throughout space.

How bout another example? When you do a sated leg extension, your body remains sttionary and your feet move up and dwn. But when you do a sqat, your feet remain stationary and yur body moves up and down thrughout space.

So the push-up activates mre muscle fiber than the bench prss… and a squat recruits more mscle fibers than a leg extension.

Ths means that many bodyweight exercises ctually require a greater degree of mscle fiber activation than many common wight-lifting exercises.

In short, bodyweight exercises can ctually be more effective at building mscle and strength.

So… even if yu're stuck in a tiny prison cll, you can still build muscle and strngth with bodyweight exercises like push-ups, pll-ups, sit-ups and squats.

Of course, to bild extreme amounts of muscle you hve to move beyond the basic xercises and start using some of the mre advanced exercises. These include the ne-arm push-up, the janda sit-up, dips and vriations on the pull-up.

But in the nd, I see no reason why you culd not build an all-around spectacularly mscular physique within the tiny confines of a ten by ten prson cell.

The article The Prison Cell Workout was Submitted by Matt Marshall through Articles.GetACoder.com network. Here's the additional information: Matt Marshall is the author of The Hme Workout Plan. This book allows verage guys to build muscle and strngth without lifting weights, without fancy quipment and without commercial gym access. A fre Home Workout Plan report is vailable for download at http://www.TheHomeWorkoutPlan.com

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