SECRETS TO SUCCESSFUL MAIL ORDER PURCHASES

      With the ever decreasing availability of non-counterfeit black market steroids athletes are increasingly turning to international mail order and the Internet for steroid purchases.

      The success of purchase attempts varies enormously, as does the reliability of the mail order pharmacies. As the laws in this area remain vague, the following general guidelines should be used in mail order transactions in order to insulate the purchaser from potential problems.

Ordering:
1. Never order using your real name.
2. Do not pay by a traceable means -- e.g., personal check or wire-transfer.
3. Keep the order small i.e. there should be no question that the order is for personal use.
4. Never include any personal information (e.g., telephone number) with order
5. Request non-registered delivery only and request a notice to be placed on package "leave at door."
6. Do not order by unencrypted E-mail, order by regular mail.

Receiving:
1. Never sign for or acknowledge ordering a package -- i.e., if a mailperson will not deliver without a receiving signature, write it off as a loss and change your supplier.
2. Check out arriving-orders carefully for dubious looking brands and containers. Use published literature and discussion forums like www.elitefitness.com.
3. Do not order any overseas package shipped via express. The chances of it getting intercepted and checked this way is 90% higher. Always use regular snail mail service. A delayed but delivered parcel is preferable to a fast, intercepted one.

AS YOU GET STRONGER DECREASE THE FREQUENCY OF WORKOUTS AND/OR AMOUNT OF SETS

      Exercise physiologists have found that your strength increases disproportionately to your recovery ability. Thus the stronger you get the LESS high intensity exercise you can tolerate. Some authorities, such as Dr. Ellington Darden, mention a "300/50%" ratio of strength to recovery ability potential.

      Thus in theory, the average trainee has the potential to increase his untrained strength by a factor of 4, but his recovery ability will only increase by a factor of 1.5.

GET AMPLE REST AFTER EACH TRAINING SESSION

Believe it or not, your muscles DON'T get stronger while you work out. Your muscles get stronger while you RECOVER from your workout. After high intensity training your muscle tissue is broken down (although that's a very bas

DO NOT SPLIT YOUR ROUTINE - DO NOT WORK YOUR BODY ON SUCCESSIVE DAYS

     Many bodybuilders practice a split routine. The reasoning is that training their upper body on one day and lower body on the next day allows them additional time to work each muscle group "harder". HIT advocates fervently believe that this is NOT the case.First, split routines lead you to believe that *more* exercise is better exercise.

    Remember HARDER exercise is better. And if you train harder you MUST train briefer, not longer. You cannot train hard for a long period of time. Thus, out of physiologic necessity, people who use a split routine have to reduce the intensity of their exercise which leads to less growth stimulation.

EXERCISE THE MAJOR MUSCLE GROUPS FIRST.

         The emphasis of your exercises should be your major muscle groups (i.e. your hips, legs and upper torso). You should select any exercises that you prefer in order to train those body parts. It is recommended that lower body work be done first, as it is more taxing.

      This is not always the case, as a technique for bringing up a lagging body part is to work it first in your routine, but it is a general outline.

MOVE QUICKLY BETWEEN SETS

       The transition time between each set varies with your level of conditioning. You should proceed from one exercise to the next as soon as you catch your breath or feel that you can produce a maximal level of effort.

        After an initial period of adjustment, you should be able to recover adequately within 1 to 3 minutes.   Training with a minimal amount of recovery time between exercises will elicit a metabolic conditioning effect that cannot be approached by traditional multiple set programs.

TRAIN FOR NO MORE THAN ONE HOUR PER WORKOUT

        If you are training with a high level of intensity, more than one hour is counterproductive as it increases the probability of overtraining due to a catabolic hormone called cortisol.

        Overtraining, next to injury, is your worst enemy. Avoid it like the plague. In addition, the faster you can complete your workout, given the same amount of sets performed, the BETTER CONDITIONING obtained.

REACH CONCENTRIC MUSCULAR FAILURE WITHIN A PRESCRIBED NUMBER OF REPETITIONS

    As stated above, research shows that our level of intensity is the most important factor in determining your results from strength training - the HARDER you train, the BETTER your response. As muscle hypertrophy is an adaptive response by the body to stress, you should always strive to go as far as you can go on that "impossible" rep. Every centimeter matters. Your "impossible" rep should last between 10-15 seconds.

     One could even call this an "isometric rep". If concentric muscular failure occurs before you reach the lower level of the repetition range, the weight is too heavy and should be reduced for your next workout. If the upper level of the repetition range is exceeded before you experience muscular exhaustion, the weight is too light and should be increased for your next workout by five percent or less.The GENERAL recommendation is 8-12 repetitions But this can vary from individual to individual, and from body part to body part. In many cases people have been known to benefit from higher reps for their lower body (12-15), while lower reps for the upper body (6-8).

    The most important thing to remember here is that it the *number* of repetitions isn't the key factor - TIME is. One can perform a set of 10 reps in as low as 10-15 seconds, or a set of only 1 rep in 60 seconds. So how many seconds per repetition? The general guideline is a 6 second repetition consisting of a 2 second lifting (concentric) phase, followed by a 4 second lowering (eccentric) phase. The emphasis is placed on the lowering, or NEGATIVE, as research has shown this to be the most productive part of the rep.The lowering of the weight should also be emphasized because it makes the exercise more efficient: the same muscles that are used to raise the weight concentrically are also used to lower it eccentrically. The only difference is that when you raise a weight, your muscles are shortening against tension and when you lower a weight, your muscles are lengthening against tension. So, by emphasizing the lowering of the weight, each repetition becomes more efficient and each set becomes more productive. Because a muscle under tension lengthens as you lower it, lowering the weight in a controlled manner also ensures that the exercised muscle is being stretched properly and safely. Thus in a 8-12 rep scheme with the above guidelines, each set should take you between 48-72 seconds until you reach concentric muscular failure.

PERFORM 1 TO 3 SETS OF EACH EXERCISE

      In order for a muscle to increase in size/strength it must be fatigued or OVERLOADED in order for an adaptive response to occur. It really doesn't matter whether you fatigue your muscles in one set or several sets - as long as your muscles experience a certain level of exhaustion.

    When performing multiple sets, the cumulative effect of each successive set makes deeper inroads into your muscle thereby creating muscular fatigue; when performing a single set to failure, the cumulative effect of each successive repetition makes deeper inroads into your muscle thereby creating muscular fatigue.

     Numerous research studies have shown that there are NO significant differences when performing either one, two or three sets of an exercise, provided, of course, that one is done with an appropriate level of intensity (i.e. to the point of concentric muscular failure).

FOLLOW THE "DOUBLE PROGRESSION" TECHNIQUE IN REGARDS TO REPETITIONS AND WEIGHT.

        For a muscle to increase in size and strength it must be forced to do PROGRESSIVELY HARDER WORK. Your muscles must be overloaded with a workload that is increased steadily and systematically throughout the course of your program.

     This is often referred to as PROGRESSIVE OVERLOAD.Therefore every time you work out you should attempt to increase either the weight you use or the repetitions you perform relative to your previous workout. This can be viewed as a "double progressive" technique (resistance and repetitions).

   Challenging your muscles in this manner will force them to adapt to the imposed demands (or stress).