New to WorldFitnessNetwork.com?
Download a copy of this 100% free e-book about how to change your body type within 90 days: 3 Months to a New You.
The bench press is one of the best exercises we have for training the chest muscles and triceps. We use the bench press because we can easily add weight to the bar or grab a heavier dumbbell for increased resistance. Probably the biggest drawback to the bench press, however, is that only your arms are moving.
Technically (and I hate getting too technical), pushups are a better movement in terms of total body mass trained. But you already know that trying to increase the resistance on pushups can be a real pain. And let’s be honest, even if pushups are better than nothing when you’re out of town, doing a few sets of 30 pushups won’t have the same mass-building effect as heavy benches will.
The dip
The weighted dip is an excellent movement because it allows for the training of the chest and triceps together in a way that uses a greater mass of muscle from more muscle groups. You’ll notice that you should be able to dip more weight than you are able to bench press for a given number of reps. That should indicate that more muscles are working together to move your body through the full range of motion.
Dips place greatest stress on your “lower chest” and triceps. When I say “lower chest” I’m not referring to the mythical lower pectoral muscle that doesn’t exist, but rather meaning that the upper chest is less involved in this movement for some pretty obvious reasons if you think about how the exercise is performed.
Also, don’t confuse the dips as being a variation of the decline press. The decline press has a decreased range of motion when compared to dips, and dips are generally a superior exercise when compared to the decline press.
When it compares to the bench press, however, dips can really make a great addition chest/triceps routine, and they make a decent replacement for the bench press if you’re not able to bench press for whatever reason.
Proper execution
The first thing you’ll probably notice when you come up to a dipping station is that the grip bars are not parallel to each other, but increase in distance the farther away they are from the base. This is so that you can choose a grip width that suits you best.
- Grip width: In general, a wider grip will place somewhat more emphasis on your chest muscles. A narrower grip will hit your triceps somewhat more.
- Leaning: You can adjust your form slightly depending on how much you bend your knees. Bending your knees more places the weight of your feet further behind your body and requires you to lean forward to compensate. Leaning forward involves the chest muscles in the movement more. On the flip side, keeping your legs straight below you and keeping your body more upright will use less chest muscle and involve the triceps more.
- Recommended form: The form that I recommend the most is to take a grip that’s slightly wider than shoulder width (don’t go too crazy here) with the knees bent. This forward lean involves the larger chest muscles and allows you to get more reps with a heavier weight. Working more muscles overall means building more muscles overall.
Range of motion: All the way. Go down as far down as you can comfortably and safely go. Increasing the range of motion on your dips will increase the amount of muscles fibers that are recruited to complete the movement. Your chest muscles are more heavily involved in the bottom portion of the movement, and so are your shoulders to a certain extent.
So, in this way, doing full dips is important for the same reason that doing full squats is important. They simply work more muscles mass. And as you know by now, working more muscle mass means building more muscle mass (yes, I’m repeating myself on purpose here).
Adding weight
Ok, so we already established earlier that pushups are technically a great movement but that they don’t always get the job done for us because it’s tough to add weight. Well, that’s the nice thing about dips… adding weight is easy with the right equipment.
A special weight belt with a chain that attaches in front is all that is needed. You can buy your own and some gyms will have one available. Simply use the chain to secure a weight plate or a dumbbell in front you and proceed to do your dips as usual. Apply the same principles of resistance progression just as you would to any other exercise by adding weight to your dips once you’re able to do full sets at body weight.
Also, be careful when setting up the weight in front of you. The weight belt sits on your hips and the chain runs downward in front of you, and it comes close to a very sensitive area for guys. I’d hate to hear about any of you getting something important caught in the chains, if you know what I mean…
Topics: Exercises and Routines, Training Tips | 3 Comments »
Posting Update
By Jason
As you may have noticed, the posting schedule here has slowed down. I’d just like to give everybody a heads up on the schedule and what to expect going forward. Posts will continue at a slower schedule.
Original Plan: This website was originally intended to be much more than a blog about training. The original plan involved working together with a partner to program a website that is interactive and helps like-minded individuals to meet up and train together. Hence the name “World Fitness NETWORK“.
To make a long story short, the programmer’s side of things never really materialized. Everything you see at this website is all what I’ve been able to create personally.
Financial plan: The purpose of this site was to attract people to the website who are interested in training and building muscle. Once people arrive, they see the other features and begin using them, and making enough money for me to stay alive depended on some of the features that we would charge money for. I think the original plan is still viable, but I’m not much of a programmer and would need years to learn the needed skills.
The plan going forward: A blog is a great marketing tool, but not if you don’t have anything to market. Since the original plan was to charge money for those features, and since those features never came into existence, blogging will not be a way for me to create income… at least not enough to do anything with. So…
That means making money other ways. I’m working alot lately, training regularly, and blogging less than before. I like blogging though. There are still many points of training worth writing about, so this blog will continue, but on slower schedule.
You can probably expect the blog to be updated once every 1-2 weeks. I know that’s lot less than the 2+ times a week that I was able to do before, but that’s what I can manage.
Do I feel bad? Not really. I mean, it is free content. Kinda hard to beat free ya know. But I’ll still be putting stuff up from time to time, and will be putting up a link to access the archives soon.
But between the different training blogs out there, you should be able to find enough good stuff to keep you busy. Here are the other blogs about training/bodybuilding I’m aware of:
- Stronglifts.com - Mehdi’s blog with a strong emphasis on the strength side of training. Probably the most similar blog to this one.
- Laurensfitness.com - In depth info with some emphasis on anatomy and therapy.
- Musclehack.com - Focuses on the diet side of bodybuilding. Not a bad idea, since you won’t get very far without having your diet in place.
Topics: News & Updates | 6 Comments »
Got Supplements?
By Jason
Image Credit: Deatbybokeh
Finding some decent straight talk about supplements is no easy task. There are plenty of companies out there who are willing to say whatever they have to in order to make a sale to you. There are plenty of good supplements out there, but there are plenty of crap supplements too.
And let’s be honest, none of us has the time to go out and try everything on the market to see what works. Fortunately, you don’t have to go out and try everything in order to know the basics of what’s going to work. This article is intended only to point you in the right direction and help you know where to start with supplements.
Do I need supplements?
If you were to ask me if you really need supplements, I’ll tell you that technically the answer is no. You don’t need supplements, and technically you don’t need a ton of muscle or a really low body fat percentage either. What I’m trying to say here is that “need” is a very relative term. It’s relative to your goals.
If your goal is to build a huge amount of muscle, then obviously you’re going to need more nutrient intake than what the average person needs. But a supplement is exactly what the word means: a supplement to your diet and training.
That means that before you even think about getting near supplements, you need to get your diet in place first. Buying newest version of the “Super Gonado Testosterone Jacking Complex” isn’t going to do you very much good if your body isn’t getting the nutrients it needs to build muscle in the first place.
Are you with me here?
So before you run out and blow a bunch of money on the newest supplement craze, think about what you’re eating first. Supplementing your diet won’t do you any good if you don’t have a decent diet to be supplementing in the first place.
That is the first step.
Supplement hierarchy:
Ok, so your diet is great. You are eating plenty of proteins, proper portions of good carbs, vegetables, fruits, nuts, legumes… on and on. You’re eating 5-6 meals a day and you are keeping your “cheat” meals (junk food) to a minimum. Now what?
Now you start at the bottom of the supplement hierarchy and build your base. You should choose your supplements in the following order:
- Foundation supplements
- Supplementing essentials for convenience
- Specific purpose supplements
1. Foundation Supplements: These are the basic things that your body needs to continue functioning and to survive. Foundation supplements are those that should be taking on a consistent basis to meet your body’s most basic needs.
The reason these supplements are so dang important is that you’re never doing to get all the nutrients you need from the processed foods that are being placed in front of you on a daily basis. The American diet in particular just doesn’t get the job done.
The foundation supplements that you eat should include: vitamins, minerals and essential fatty acids. Here’s what you’ll need:
- Daily multivitamin.
- Sources of essential fatty acids, particularly the Omega-3’s. Daily supplementation of fish oil or flaxseed oil will go a long way. More on essential fatty acids another day.
2. Supplementing essentials for convenience: There are some items that are already found in your daily diet, but getting enough of them can be tough at times. You might not always be able to get a decent meal every 3 hours or so. Protein shakes and meal replacement powders are not actually replacements for real food, but they can sure help out when you’re stuck without any food.
Some of these supplements include the following:
- Whey protein: This type of protein has the highest bioavailability value of any protein. Protein shakes are great to be taken immediately after a workout when your body needs protein right away. The fact that it comes in a powder means it is absorbed by the body more quickly, which is great after a workout, but this also lowers the thermogenic effect you get with eating your protein.
- Antioxidants: Again, these are found in a variety of foods you are already eating (or at least you should be eating). Many fruits and vegetables are high in anti-oxidants. Without getting too deep into the science of antioxidants, they are helpful because they reduce free radicals in the body which helps reduce inflammation, muscle fiber damage, and they help to aid in muscle recovery.
- Creatine: It’s found in some of the meats you eat, especially red meat, and your body is capable of synthesizing it’s own creatine from some of the foods you eat as well. Supplementing with creatine, however, saturates the muscles with this substance. This helps you lift more during a weight during a workout and experience greater muscle growth. Creatine also draws water into the muscles and increases their volume.
3. Specific purpose supplements: These supplements can be designed to serve a variety of purposes from increasing the body’s output of testosterone, preventing aromitazation (conversion of testosterone to estrogen), burning more fat, increasing blood flow and nutrient transport (such as N.O. products and other vasodilators), etc.
There are so many different types of supplements on the market today that each have a different purpose. Getting into all of these is way beyond the scope of this article. Look, you’ll probably hear about these products, you might read the hype in the bodybuilding magazines, maybe you’ll even spend some good money to try them.
The point here is this: before you decide to go out and spend your savings on these types of supplements, make sure that you have the essentials in place first. Get your diet down and make sure you’re eating good food. Get the vitamins and minerals you need, get your essential fatty acids, plenty of protein, anti-oxidants, and other essentials.
If you don’t have these in place first, there’s really no point in trying all the advanced supplements on the market. That would be like doing leg curls every day when you’re not squatting. What the heck is the point of that? Why pay money for a fancy fat-burning stack if you’re eating 10 Twinkies a day and the basics aren’t in place?
I think you get the point.
Topics: Dieting & Food | 7 Comments »
Proper Warm Ups & Stretches
By Jason
Getting a good warm up before you attempt any heavy lifting is an absolute necessity. The purpose of a warm up should be pretty obvious from its name. You need to get your body warm and the blood pumping before you start lifting heavy.
Another fact that should be pretty obvious is that your ability to get your body warm will depend on the temperature the place you’re exercising in. If it’s winter time, a cool evening, or if you life in a cold place, then your body will probably require more warm up than it would on a hot summer afternoon.
Why warm up:
Why you need to warm up is a matter of safety. Just to help you visualize what’s going on, I’d like you to think about a rubber band. This will represent your muscles and other tissues. What happens if you stretch a rubber band that has been sitting in the freezer?
The rubber band probably snaps before you are able to stretch it very far. A warm rubber band, on the other hand, can probably be stretched a long ways before it breaks. This is what rubber bands were designed to do, after all. They are designed to stretch, but they can’t do that job very well cold.
The same is true for your muscles. They can’t do their job nearly as well when they are cold, and starting out with a heavy weight before your muscles are nice and warm can lead to injury and muscle tears. Trust me, you don’t want to be like that rubber band that snaps when it’s cold.
Warm ups are even more important for the bigger exercises such as the squat, deadlift, and the bench press. These will require a more extensive warm up, while other exercises will likely only need a a set or two with a light weight to get warmed up.
How to warm up
1. Clothing: Let’s start off with the right clothing. Wearing a sweater or workout pants is a good idea in cold weather until you’re able to raise you body temperature. Consider wearing several small layers instead of one heavy layer. Smaller layers can be peeled off one at a time until your body temperature is high enough.
2. Do static stretches at the end: In case you don’t know what this means, static stretches are those done without movement. The traditional stretches that you are familiar with are probably mostly all static stretches, such as touching your toes.
Static stretches have not been shown to do anything to help prevent injuries when you lift. In fact, many believe that static stretches increase the number of injuries you have when you lift weights. This may be because weight lifting requires you to keep your muscles tight, and loose muscles holding heavy weights can sometimes move beyond their normal range of motion.
Again, think of the rubber band analogy. The best time to stretch your muscles is when they are already nice and warm after you are finished lifting weights. Take a few minutes at the end of your workout to do your static stretches and lengthen your tightened muscles back out.
3. General warm up: Do some running for five minutes just to warm up your body temperature. You can really pick which type of activity you’d like to do to get your temperature up. Five minutes on the treadmill works fine, so does 5 minutes on an exercise bike. Doing a set or two of fairly light weight squats will also warm up your body very quickly.
4. Dynamic warm ups: The word static means staying still, and dynamic basically means with movement, or motion. Do dynamic warmups and stretches before your workout instead of static stretches. You can check out a decent list of dynamic warm ups here. You don’t have to do all of these, but a few leg kicks, butt kicks, and maybe some high knees should be done before squats/deadlifts at the very least.
If you don’t want to look silly by marching around the gym doing your leg kicks, go ahead and hold onto something and just do one leg at a time as you swing your leg in front of you for 10-15 reps or more. If you’re ever in doubt about your warm ups, make the mistake of doing too much warm up instead of too little.
5. Exercise-specific warm ups: You will need to do 1-2 sets or more of warm ups specific to the muscle group you are about to start working. For example, if you’re going to do the bench press, you might start off with a light warm up set (or more) of 12 reps. Choose a weight that is light enough that you can easily get 12 reps.
Pyramid sets: The idea behind pyramid sets is that you start with a lighter weight doing more reps. Maybe you start with 12 reps on the first set. The second set uses a heavier weight for 10 reps, the next 8 reps, and then 6.
Pyramid rep schemes work best for compound movements like the bench press. They don’t work quite as well for single-joint movements like bicep curls. The point here is that pyramid sets help you to ease into a heavy weight more safely.
That doesn’t mean you have to use them all the time for every single workout you ever do, as sets across (the same number of reps on each set) are useful as well, but pyramid reps are good to keep in mind.
Stretching between sets: There is some disagreement out there as to whether this is helpful or not. If you feel like your muscle is getting a little bit too tight after a heavy set and you’d like to loosen it out a little bit, I see nothing wrong with doing a light stretch for a moment between sets. Others may disagree with me on that, but just don’t go crazy with a deep stretch between sets, and you should be just fine.
Topics: Rest & Recovery, Training Tips, Workout Principles | 5 Comments »
We’ve talked before about how lifting more weight isn’t always the best for creating more muscle mass. You could always go a little heavier on your set and do less reps… train more like a powerlifter to get more weight up.
Here at World Fitness Network, our number one goal is not to put as much weight on the bar as possible, but to build muscle and lose fat. But gaaawsh, it still feels pretty great to put that bigger plate on the bar and hammer out a set with a little more weight. Being able to put more weight on the bar is also great feedback that you are making progress with your training.
Unfortunately, sometimes that great ego trip comes with a price on our training. If you’re not careful, that extra ten pounds on the bar can often come at the expense of your form. The incline bench press is one exercise where it happens all the time.
Excessive Arching
The benefit of doing the incline bench press is that it places stress on the upper chest muscles and helps to give you a more round, full look. Great for how your chest looks under a T-shirt.
In order to effectively hit your upper chest muscles, the incline bench press is best when set to an angle of somewhere between 30-45 degrees or only slightly higher. You can experiment with slightly different angles to see which one you feel is best for your upper chest.
The problem comes when you start trying to put up more weight than you can do with good form. You can’t get the weight up, so you start to take other measures to press that extra weight. The most common mistake is to arch your back more than you should and lift your hips up from the bench.
What this does: When you begin lifting your hips up on the incline press, you essentially bend your lower back and your shoulders move a bit lower down on the bench. This changes the angle of your chest.
Your chest begins to level out and is no longer at the same angle as when you started. Arching your back places your chest so that it is at a flatter angle, similar to the flat bench press. The stress is taken off your upper chest, but of course, the flatter angle allows you to press more weight.
Now, this defeats the purpose of doing the incline bench press in the first place. If you’re going to do the flat bench press, do it on the flat bench that gives you more stability.
Chest up:
Anytime you do any sort of bench press movement, you should always pull your chest up. This gives you greater leverage to press and allows for a more complete range of motion.
- How to do it: Pulling your chest up is accomplished by pulling your shoulder blades together and keeping them tight. This will also help to reduce your nagging shoulder injuries.
- How not to do it: Arching your lower back is not the way to pull your chest up.
- How much arch: To know how much arch your back should have, stand up straight, pull your chest up with the shoulder blades back. Your back should have a slight natural arch. This is the same amount of arch you should use when bench pressing.
Now, I know just as well as you do that all of these ideas sound really great until you get underneath a heavy bar to do a heavy set on the incline, and then your back suddenly starts arching to get the weight up at the end of a set.
I know. It happens. But there are a few things that you can be doing that will help you to eliminate that arch when your form would otherwise start breaking down.
1. Use the foot stand in front of you: Many of the incline barbell bench presses will have a foot stand in front of the bench that you can put your feet on. When doing the flat bench press, you are always best to have your feet flat on the ground, but the incline bench press is slightly different.
Elevating your feet slightly makes arching your back more difficult. Placing your feet on the ground below you will increase the temptation to push off the ground, raise your hips up, and arch the lower back. Take the widest stance that the foot stand will allow. Of course, this might not work well for people of every size, but it can help for many people.
2. Keep adjustable benches at a 90 degree angle: If you’re doing the dumbbell incline press, chances are that you will be on a bench that has an adjustable angle. Some benches can be adjusted to be either a flat bench or an incline bench.
On these benches, you can adjust the angle of the back support and the seat portion. Set the seat portion and the back support to about a 90 degree angle. This will help to keep your hips from traveling forward. If you use the incline without adjusting the seat (leaving it flat), it is very difficult to keep your hips in place on the bench.
3. Tighten your abs: Your abs function opposite of an arching lower back. Keeping the abs tight keeps the rib cage in place and helps to prevent hyperextension of the lower back. Also, tighten up the posterior chain, including the spinal erectors, glutes, and hamstrings.
4. Get a spotter: A good spotter will help you to keep good form throughout the entire movement. Instead of having to throw your lower back out of whack, a spotter can lift just enough of the weight for you to help you crank out those final reps so that you don’t have to look like a monkey to get the weight up.
Topics: Training Tips | 6 Comments »
Brutal Honesty: You Are Fat
By Jason
I had the chance to speak with a friend who lived for several years in
“Well, for one thing, they’re not nearly as fat as the women here.” He continued, “In America, if a person is fat, we can’t say anything about it. In
Huh. Cultural differences are pretty interesting, aren’t they? Even our culture (for Americans at least) is helping to keep us fatter. Seriously, have you ever noticed that the word FAT is like the F-word in
In reality, I think the Italians were the nice ones. They had the heart to actually say what needed to be said. They were caring enough about the person to actually try to help them. How often do we actually do that?
Addiction
Why is it that we can talk to a smoker and tell them that their bad habits are harmful for their health, but we can’t say the same about people who are in the habit of overeating and living a sedentary lifestyle? Does this make any sense at all?
It shouldn’t be that different. In fact, if you are overweight, I’m going to do you a big favor right now and tell you what you need to hear. You are too fat.
The good news is that you are already reading this, meaning that you are probably going to do something about it. Perhaps what we should all do is learn to break the honest truth to the people around us in a way that will motivate them to take action. Being honest with people can go a long ways to helping them change their habits. Here’s a quick example:
I knew a girl several years back who had very curly hair. She wore it in a big curly mass around her head every day. One day, I noticed she had straightened it, and it almost made her look like a totally different person. She looked much better.
Another month went by before I saw her wearing the straight hair again. She got a few compliments on her hair. She asked me if I liked it.
“Sure, it looks great. Your head doesn’t look so big now.”
Alright, I already know. I am a complete jerk. I realized it the very moment it came out of my mouth, but it was already too late. The damage was done, and I couldn’t undo it. There are a thousand other ways I could have complimented her hair in a more polite way, but that’s just how it came out.
As bad as I felt after being brutally honest to her, I noticed something. She never wore the giant mass of hair on her head again. Everywhere she went from that day on, she was more attractive. Within a month, she had a new boyfriend… something I’d heard she was working very hard at for quite a while.
Look, the point is not to be a jerk like I am, but to be honest with people in order to help them. If you can do it in a way that is not offensive, then it is best to be open and help people overcome their struggles. It’s time to start letting people know that they are fat and something needs to be done.
They need you to do it for them, because seriously, people aren’t able to be honest with themselves. People will rationalize and tell themselves that being overweight is genetic. Guess what, so is alcoholism. Should we avoid talking about it to alcoholics? Should we try to avoid offending alcoholics and smokers instead of helping them?
We have to help, because these people simply cannot do it for themselves.
The same is true about overeating. Everybody in
Extreme?
If you’re like most people I’ve met, you are so ready to justify your own habits that you will call these views extreme. You’ll think I’m some sort of obsessive health freak, and from that point of view, it’s probably true. But before anybody decides that I’m crazy to compare overeating or junk food binging to smoking or alcoholism, consider a few facts:
- Eight out of ten people over 25 are overweight.
- Type II diabetes in adults 30-40 years old has increased 76% since 1990.
- 20% of all deaths in the
Think about that for a moment. 20% of all deaths were due to heart attacks. Eating better and exercising really are just as urgent to your health as quitting smoking would be.
But, even still, people like us will be labeled as shallow for choosing not to date others who are overweight, overeating, and leading sedentary lifestyles. Are we really so shallow? Is it shallow to consider a person’s lifestyle choices when choosing a significant other?
I would argue that it is not. Choosing a person who wants to live a healthy, clean life is not shallow in the least bit. Live your life that way, and be honest enough with others to help them do the same… even brutally honest if necessary.
Laziness is how we get fat. Denial is how we stay that way.
Topics: Dieting & Food | 15 Comments »
Readers of WorldFitnessNetwork.com are a smart group of people. You are smart enough to know that your training is important and that you lifting weights will help you achieve your goals. You understand things about living strong that most people just don’t get.
And since you are already such a smart group of people, I already know that I don’t need to tell you that you should never workout naked. There’s no need for me to explain why it would be bad if your flip-flopping appendages were to get caught in the weight stack.
You guys are smart. You already get this stuff.
But there are a few other advantages to not working out naked that you should be taking advantage of. Here we go:
1. Warm up clothing: Wearing some extra clothing until your body warms up is generally a good idea, especially if it’s winter time or if you live in a colder climate. This extra clothing allows your body to retain more heat until it reaches the optimal temperature for going heavy on a workout.
Keeping your body warm is especially important for injury prevention. You are much less likely to pull or tear a muscle that is warmer. Wear that sweater at the beginning of your workout until you are nice and warm.
2. Protection: I’m not talking about that kind of protection… this is about why you shouldn’t workout naked… so get your mind out of the gutter. Any commercial gym these days will require you to wear shoes in case you drop a weight on your foot, but the right clothing will do more for you than just protect against accidents.
Anytime that you are ever placing a bar on your back, it is best to be wearing a T-shirt with sleeves. A tank top can work just fine on workout days that you’re not placing a heavy bar on your back, but skin gets slippery when it’s wet or sweaty. For this reason, a decent shirt is necessary on your leg days.
And I know that wearing a decent shirt is especially important for you since you are working out extra hard and getting really sweaty… and I already know you are a hard worker, not a sissy.
3. Shoes: The type of shoe you wear will probably reflect what your focus for the day is. Weightlifting shoes are great for anybody who is serious about getting the most out of a workout. Running shoes with gels or air in the soles absorb some of the force that you apply when squatting or doing other standing lifts.
Running shoes are, of course, important to wear when you’re running. The extra padding and arch support can be important for reducing the amount of shock placed on your joints. Also, having decent treads on the bottom of your shoes is very helpful when you’re working out your calves.
4. Wick Sweat Away: Getting sweaty is part of getting a good workout. Wear a shirt that is cotton or 50/50 to help with sweat. Also, think about all the nasty sweat that some big guy dripped all over the bench before you lay down on it. Wear a decent layer to separate you from all that dried sweat and any bacteria.
5. Support: Look, guys, you know you need the support of some good ‘ol briefs when you run. You can probably get away with boxers if you’re just lifting, but running requires a bit more support. Same goes for the ladies and their sports bras.
Pants vs. Shorts: Whether you want to wear pants or shorts to the gym a choice you can make. Obviously, pants probably make more sense for keeping warm in the winter or early in your workout. Whichever you end up going with, try to pick some workout attire that can stretch slightly so that it doesn’t grab onto your legs when you get sweaty.
The main thing is that you wear something that doesn’t get in the way of lifting and gives you plenty of freedom of movement. Of course, nothing beats a pair of spandex when it comes to having full freedom of movement, so you guys should really look into getting a pair of those as well. They really let you move and help to show off the definition in your glutes while you workout.
And if you really believed that statement about the spandex, please go ahead and slap yourself right now. You probably need a good slapping, and hopefully it will knock some sense into you.
Topics: Weight Lifting 101 | 13 Comments »
Know Thy Pecs
By Jason
The key to training each of your muscles is to understand their function and how they work. Your chest is no different. Here, we’ll go over your pectoral muscles, how to train them, and we’ll even dispel a few myths along the way.
Chest Anatomy:
The pectorals are your chest muscles. They begin at your sternum and connect to a tendon that attaches to the humeris bone in your upper arm. Each time your chest muscles contract, they essentially pull your upper arm bone forward and in front of you.
To get a feel for the full range of motion of your chest muscles, straighten your arms out to each side of you. Move your arms forward in front of you until your forearms cross. This represents the full and complete range of motion for your chest muscles.
We’ll just skip the rest of the anatomy lesson and get to what you really need to know. For your training, your pecs are essentially trained as a whole using exercises like the bench press, or you can use exercises that focus on your upper chest such as the incline bench press.
Aside from the upper chest exercises, there isn’t really as much specialization for the chest as one might think. Let’s take a look at the different chest specialization areas you might have heard of.
- General Pecs: You will train your chest muscle group as a whole using the flat level bench. This includes the flat bench press, flat bench flyes, dumbbell bench press, etc. Dips will also train your pecs with somewhat less emphasis on the upper chest.
- Upper Chest: You train the upper portion of your chest using an incline bench. Exercises such as the incline bench press, incline flyes, and incline dumbbell bench press will all emphasize the upper chest.
- Lower Chest: The lower chest muscle is a myth. It’s simply not there. The decline bench press will work your chest from a different angle, yes. But there is no such thing as a lower chest muscle that is distinct or separate from other chest muscles.
- Inner/ Outer Chest Muscles: Again, there’s no such thing as focusing on your inner or outer chest muscles. Many people believe that flat bench flyes will work your outer chest while the peck deck flyes work your inner chest. This is more of an illusion that comes from the fact that each exercise places greater stress on your chest at different points in the range of motion.
The whole idea of working the inner/outer chest is flawed because it assumes that you can flex one end of a strand of muscle and not the other end. When you muscles contract, the whole entire muscle contracts, not just one end or the other. You cannot contract the bottom of your bicep without the entire bicep muscle getting shorter. It’s just not possible.
There are generally two main types of movements that work your chest muscles:
Pressing Movements: These include the bench press, incline bench press, and all of their variations and different angles. Dips are also included in the category. Pressing movements tend to directly involve the pecs, triceps, and deltoids in the movement. Secondary stabilizer muscles include your lats, posterior delts, and other back muscles.
Leverage Movements: This means chest flyes. Flyes can be done using dumbbells on a flat bench, using a peck deck machine, or using the crossover cables. Flyes are an isolation exercise. Do your pressing movements first in your workout, and add in flyes only when you’ve progressed to the point where you’re ready for more.
A training program that uses a flat bench pressing movement, an incline movement, and some dips will fulfill your chest training needs for quite a while. Stick to these basic movements before you get too carried away doing cable crossovers or other flye movements.
And of course, I know I probably don’t need to keep saying this to you, but don’t get too carried away with working only your chest and your arms. If you want to be a bodybuilder, train your whole body. Don’t be a boobie-builder.
Focusing only on your chest and arms is bad for your body’s balance and posture. Paying attention to building a strong back will balance you out and even give you greater stabilizing muscles that will increase your bench press and strengthen your pecs even more.
Topics: Weight Lifting 101, Workout Principles | 9 Comments »
Alright, let’s be honest, we all have those days where it’s tough to get up and go to the gym. You can think of a thousand reasons not to do it, and of course it’s so easy to rationalize that skipping just one day won’t hurt anything.
Don’t get me wrong, you’re body needs plenty of rest for recovery, but plenty of rest can quickly turn into laziness if you let it go too far.
So let’s talk about the other side of things. There are also a million reasons for you to get into the gym. Everything in your life… literally everything can be improved by your workouts, either directly or indirectly. Yep, it’s all connected.
1. Confidence: Some studies have shown that heavy, compound lifts activate the endocrine system and release anabolic hormones into your body such as testosterone. This makes you feel strong and confident. It takes the fear out of you and makes you feel like a real man… no, actually, it does make you into a real man. We’re talking about natural testosterone and its benefits here… this is very different than the synthetic hormones/steroids and their negative side effects. This is ok for the ladies too, since testosterone will only be released in much smaller amounts.
2. Dating: You can tell yourself all day long that you’re not shallow and looks don’t matter… but the reality is that a good looking body is always a plus when it comes to dating. Always. Going from overweight to lean & muscular can dramatically alter your ability to attract the opposite sex. So, if a girl has rejected you recently… maybe it’s not that she was rude or didn’t like you… maybe you’re just too fat. Do something about it.
3. Sleep Better: Most people with sleeping disorders are leading sedentary lives. Studies have shown that the amount of time required to fall asleep is cut in half when you’re working out. Hitting the hay never felt as good as it does after a workout.
4. School: Your workouts will sharpen your brain’s function by increasing the flow of oxygen it can receive. That translates to better grades in school and better job performance. Besides, too much fat can clog your brain… ok, not really, but it is harder to have the clear mind and focus when you’re really out of shape.
5. Enjoy Food More: All this working out will help you to realize that you don’t like to eat crap food anymore. Your appetite will start to increase as your body recovers from heavy workouts, and all those lean meats, fruits, vegetables, nuts, legumes… they suddenly start to taste a lot better. You body will demand real nourishment.
6. Look Better, Feel Better: This will help you with #2. There’s nothing wrong with wanting to improve the way you look. It’s not vain… it’s human. More people should try to do this through exercise.
7. Water: It never tasted so good as it does after a heavy set. This will help you to kick the soda/junk food habit.
8. Sex life: Increased strength, speed, endurance, stamina, flexibility… enough said.
9. Happiness: You just plain feel good when your body releases endorphins into your blood stream, so go out and get that natural high. You’re less likely to be moping around, sad about life or getting depressed about all the bad things that happened to you. You’ll become one of those positive people who are successful and driven.
10. Dedication: Speaking about success, the hard work ethic you develop in the gym doesn’t drop dead at the door when you leave. That tough guy that you built in the gym walks out of the gym with you, and he knows how to work hard in life. If you have the willpower to finish a tough set of 20-rep squats, you’ll have the willpower to do anything hard in life.
11. Progressive Overload: This term doesn’t apply to the gym only. Your muscles grow as you gradually increase the stress placed on them, and improvement in life follows the same pattern. You learn step-by-step, and you always improve just a little bit at a time. Instead of running from the tough things in life like most people do, you’ll know that these are what make you stronger. You will embrace the challenges in life.
12. Take the edge off: Those giant, juiced-up guys on steroids give us all a bad name with their attitude and bad temper. The truth is, a heavy weight lifting session will calm you down more than anything, and it’s the perfect outlet. Channel your anger and frustration into the bar, not the people around you.
13. Energy: You’re sleeping better and your workouts are giving you steady energy throughout the day. You won’t have to be cranking down coffee or riding the caffeine roller coaster to get through the morning. You’ll have a steady stream of consistent energy that will give you an advantage over the people around you.
14. Stop being a wuss: Once you toughen up the inner man, you won’t have to whine or complain about hard things in life anymore. In fact, you might even begin to volunteer for doing the tough things in life because you know that the only way to grow is by going heavy, whether it’s in the gym or anywhere else.
And you thought you were only making your muscles bigger…
I’d love to hear how training has improved your life as well.
Topics: Mental Focus, Workout Principles | 7 Comments »
The Straight Bar Vs The EZ Curl Bar
By Jason
Have you ever seen those different curling bars at the gym and wondered what they were good for? Yeah, you know what I’m talking about, one of the bars is straight and one of them has several angled grips, called the EZ Curl bar.
So which of these should you be using? Well, each of the bars has its own advantages. Let’s take a look at the biceps muscle group to understand what the advantages are.
Attachments:
Your biceps muscle group, as the name implies, is composed of muscles with two separate heads, or bundles of muscle. Your biceps attach to your scapula around your shoulders, run down your upper arm, and then attach to something called the radial tuberosity near your elbow.
The radial tuberosity is a bone that can rotate. That means that your biceps not only work to bend your arm at the elbow, but your biceps also work to supinate your forearm.
Supination: When we’re talking about the biceps, supination means moving your forearm so that your palm is facing you.
Pronation: The pronated position points your palms away from you.
Take a look at the picture on the left and notice where the bottom of your biceps attaches to your forearm. Your biceps attach to the portion of your forearm that is on top when your palms are facing up, in the fully supinated position.
That means that when your biceps are fully supinated with the palms facing you, your biceps are able to be involved most fully in your workout.
To get a feel for how this works, bend your elbow so that your forearm and upper arm form a 90 degree angle. Point your palm away from you and flex your bicep muscles. Then place your other hand on your bicep so you can feel it flexing.
Now, starting with your palm facing away from you, slowly rotate your palm until it is in the fully supinated position and facing you. As you rotated your palm toward you, you should have felt your biceps becoming increasingly more tense throughout the movement.
Ok, I think you get it now. Facing your palms all the way toward you is the best position for fully involving your biceps and getting the most out of your arm workouts. It allows you biceps to fully contract at the peak of each movement.
Positioning:
The standard position for bicep curls is about shoulder width. Let your arms hang down directly to either side. With your hands at that width, take the bar directly in front of you and begin your set.
Wrist pain:
The straight bar isn’t going to get a perfect review here… it does have certain drawbacks. Doing bicep curls with a straight bar is much more tough on your wrists. Beginners especially will notice pain in the wrists after doing a few sets.
If you are feeling wrist pain, go ahead and use the EZ curl bar for the rest of your workout. The EZ curl bar was specifically designed to be easier on your wrists, but as we discussed before, it’s not as effective for bicep training as the straight bar or dumbbells.
Don’t baby yourself though. Your bones can become stronger just like your muscles, but only if you use them. The wrist pain you’re feeling with the straight bar will lessen over time.
Don’t just ignore the pain and work through it either. That pain in your bones is your body trying to tell you something. Switch to the other EZ curl bar for the rest of your workout if it starts to hurt, and slowly continue to transition to the straight bar as your wrists become stronger.
We’ll talk more about wrist pain and using dumbbells for curls another day. Also, keep in mind that the discussion here applies to the biceps only… the EZ curl can actually be quite useful for your tricep workouts.
Topics: Training Tips | 2 Comments »
« Previous Entries