it's all about looking at your frame and how your muscles are shaped and work together.

if you are trying to build muscle, not necessarily get huge but
replenish what you're working out with growth then you definitely
need 1g of protein for everypound that you way each day. myoplex
is a great meal supplement shake and the strawberry doesn't taste bad at all.

if you're looking to get that six-pack to show then you need to cut down the carbs mostly in the saturated fat area which you can do
very easily if you get rid of most of the junk and fast food. the only way that
abs will show will be if you get rid of the layers of fat on top of
them.

as far as building muscle. i usually go into the Gym and lift hard
for like an hour concentrating on what it is that i want to improve.
if you do three sets of a variety of movements that should be enough, but you have
make sure that you do at least 3-4 movements for each muscle group
more for the larger ones.

if you do the first set at a weight that you can put up 8 times
the second set at a weight you can put up 6 times and drop the weight on the third set so that you can get it up 10-12 times and really put extra emphasis on the form to make sure your burning out the muscle's you're trying to focus on, then that should sculpt your body and fill out your muscles by tightening what you have. it's important and also good cardio wise to only take about 30 seconds between sets and aobut a minute between movements or exercises.

after you workout though you should drink some kind of protein shake or drink with whey isolate in it
these drink are already broken down for you so they get absorbed immediately when they enter your system and go where they are needed. it's important to do this within 30 minutes of finishing your workout because that's
obviously when your muscles are in need and looking for anything they can grab to replenish them.
if you don't put the right stuff in then they're going to have to
grab some second rate stuff that the body synthesizes like a substitute for the first choice in its absence.

you can do cardio as much as you want with this and in fact if you run for
10 minutes or more at a good pace before your workout you will
start burning those carbs and if you get into your workout that will carryover.

like any other exercise, don't be too caught up with regiments. as long as you're doing it
faithfully and you want to do it you'll get there, just be true to
what you're trying to do and follow the advice like guidelines.
once you get into it you'll know how your body works.

the key with lifting or running though is form and that's making sure you're working what you are trying to work.