Body Building

What Program Is Best For Increasing Your Bench Press?

2009-09-10T16:55:00.000-07:00

How much do ya bench? Oh, if we only had a dollar for each time somebody asked us that! With it being so important, it is no wonder that people are constantly trying to increase their bench.

By: Topic Of The Week

TOPIC: What Program Is Best For Increasing Your Bench Press?

The Question: What Program Is Best For Increasing Your Bench Press?

"How much do ya bench?" Oh, if we only had a dollar for each time somebody asked us that! With it being so important, it is no wonder that people are constantly trying to increase their bench. Nothing feels as good as adding another plate to the bar when it's your turn to use the bench in your gym.

So what type of program should you follow if you want to add some serious weight in the shortest amount of time possible? Should you do some type of periodization program to work up to your next max-out? Should you perform different bench press variations? Should you concentrate on other exercises and bodyparts as well?

Give a detailed bench press strength program including what to do each day, how many days of the week to workout, how many reps and sets you should perform, and any other tips that will help somebody break their gym's bench press record!

Bonus Question: Today you decide to try to beat your one-rep max record. What is the best method to prepare for this big lift? What type of warm-up? What can you do mentally? Should you change your nutrition plan that day?

Bonus Question #2: How much do ya bench? How long did it take you to get to where you are now? What is your bench press goal?

Show off your knowledge to the world!

The Winners:

1st - doggiejoe View Profile
2nd mivi320 View Profile
3rd TRICK D View Profile
3rd (tie) bubba g View Profile
3rd (tie) Ironman88 View Profile

Prizes:

1st place - 75 in store credit.
2nd place - 20 in store credit.
3rd place - Free Bodybuilding.com hat.

To use your credit, e-mail Will @ will@bodybuilding.com for more info.

1st Place - doggiejoe

Rock Big Plates On The Bench Press

Here we go again. Another day and more embarrassing moments at the gym. Its chest day and you know you and your friends are going to battle it out to see who is the strongest.

You're heading out with 3 of your best buds. There's the leader of the group with the gorilla chest and has been bench pressing since being in his mother's womb. Then the other two are just a bunch of average Joes that follow whatever the ape says.

Then there's you who has been lifting consecutively for 2 years now and for some weird unexplainable reason can't get past the same amount of weight.

After reading this and following my advice you will certainly start astonishing your friends with new found strength. So if you're tired of lifting the same girly weight read on.

To begin with, forget everything you have heard before. Everyone is taught to do 3 sets of 10 reps when they first begin lifting. This is a bodybuilder's routine.

If you want to add weight to your bench press fast I need you to do me a favor. Stop thinking like a bodybuilder and start thinking like a powerlifter.

Ever wonder how a 225 pound guy can throw up 500 plus on the bench with ease? Well it's because he trains for it as a powerlifter; meaning lifting in low reps of 3 to 6. Lower reps are used for muscle strength as oppose to higher reps being for muscle endurance.

The program I recommend due to its effectiveness and my personal experience is the 5x5. This method is one of the more classical methods of developing size and strength.

Well known strength coach Bill Star who wrote a classic book named "Only The Strongest Shall Survive" used the method often and believed it was the staple in developing strength.

5x5 means you do the same weight for 5 reps of 5 sets. You want to find a weight that will fatigue you by the last rep of the last set. This type of training puts great amount of strain on your muscles and they have nothing else to do but react and become stronger.

The program is so superior a vast amount of football coaches around the nation adopt this type of training for their athletes. This program is not only used to help increase the bench press but other compound lifts also, such as the squat and deadlift.

The Program

Since it's the bench press you want to improve. You will need to do the lift frequently to improve on it. You will also need to know your weakness. If you struggle at the bottom of your lift then you need to strengthen your shoulders.

If you struggle at the middle of the press you need to strengthen your triceps. Monday and Friday are the days you will save for chest. Tuesday will be back and biceps day. Thursday will be leg day. The most vital day will be Wednesdays where you workout your weakness.

Everything is completed 5x5.

Monday (Chest)

Bench Press

Incline Bench Press

Incline Dumbbell Press

Bent-Arm Dumbbell Pullover

Wednesday (Weakness)

If you struggle with the bottom of your press...

Military Press

Front Raises

Side Raises

Uprights

Close Grip Bench Press

If you struggle with the middle of your press...

Skull Crushers

Tricep Extensions

Tricep Pulldown

Dips

Close Grip Bench Press

Friday (Chest)

Bench Press

Incline Bench Press

Chest Flies

Butterflies

Note: I leave Tuesday and Thursday up to the lifter since this is a program to increase your bench press. I recommend strengthening your abs on these days since they are your core muscles. Abs being your core muscles may make or break your bench press)

Foremost choose a weight you will be able to lift and struggle with but you want to be able to do at least 4 reps on your last set. If you can accomplish this, great it will be time to go up on weight the next time you go out to bench press.

Let's say you start with 185 on the first Monday and were able to accomplish the goal. Then on Friday you will go up 5 pounds (2 ½ on each side) on your presses. And then when you come back Monday you do the same and so on. You want to stay on this program for 4 weeks. At the end of these 4 weeks you will find it more difficult to go up in weight due to the fact that you're reaching a plateau.

If all goes as planned, barring any injuries, you will have put 35 pounds on your bench press in 4 weeks. After these 4 weeks you will want to "shock" your muscles so your progress won't stop. I recommend doing 3x3 on your presses and 3x10 for your other exercises. Keep the mentality of lifting more every time you go out. After 4 more weeks go back to the 5x5 program.

At the end of these 12 weeks there's no telling how much you will improve. You could easily increase 50-75% on your bench press; it just depends on how bad you want it. If you want to be known as the beast with your friends, follow this program and you won't be disappointed.

Other Key Factors

Proper Lifting

How many times have you seen a guy benching while arching his back and bouncing the weight off his chest? Well please don't follow this moron. Let him learn the hard way. Since your going to be lifting heavy I don't recommend bouncing the weight off your chest unless you want to crush something.

The only reason they do this is to cheat and use momentum to lift the weight. You want to touch your chest but never should you bounce it off your chest. Also always wrap your thumbs around the bar so the weight won't slip and crush you.

Of course always have one of your buds spot you, especially since your going serious on weights. In addition have your feet firmly planted on the ground to draw strength from your legs. And what I consider the most important part is the BREATHING. You want to hold your breathe on the way down and exhale and EXPLODE on the way up.

Nutrition

Yes this program works. But don't you, for one second, believe you can just sit there eating potato chips watching the NBA playoffs while downing a cold one. You need to keep your diet clean and healthy. I recommend eating lots of CTT (Chicken, turkey, and tuna) to fulfill your protein needs.

Furthermore spread out your meals 5 to 6 times a day. Also stay hydrated throughout the day (at least a gallon of water a day).

Recovery

After a long straining day of this 5x5 there's nothing better than a pleasant warm shower. Not only does it feel pleasant and your wife won't complain about your stench but it also speeds up your healing. This is something a majority of people don't know.

Enhance Recovery By Working Out
Yes my friend, as hard as it is to believe, sometimes the best thing that you can do for those super sore legs is to workout. Lets talk some more about active recovery and go over some ways to incorporate it into your training.
[ Click here to learn more. ]

The most crucial part of your recovery is the time when you sleep (this is when your muscles grow). You need to get at least 7 to 8 hours of sleep each and every night. I know it's tough to miss those late night shows. But what would you prefer, watching Leno or being able to bench press Leno? The choice is yours.

Supplements

There are two supplements that are a must have in every lifter's diet. They are a high-quality multi vitamin and fast acting whey protein to satisfy your muscles after a grueling workout. If you want to be able to lift with your maximum strength these two should be situated into your routine.

The paramount supplement for strength training would be creatine which is great for a swift strength boost.

In as little as a week you could notice massive strength gains. There's now a new creatine going around which eliminates water retention and is taken in lower dosages, without a loading phase.

This new creatine is called Creatine Ethyl Ester is sold at a great price at Bodybuidling.com.

Aspirations

I want you to come to every workout with the mindset that you're going to be able to exceed your previous performance. The almighty Michael Jordan once said "Play every game as if it were your last". I want you to have the same emphasis when it comes to lifting.

All I ask for is that you add 5 pounds every time you bench press and are successful. If you do this then you're well on your way to conquering amazing personal bench press records. Most of all go all out and put forth maximum effort.

Bonus Question:

Today you decide to try to beat your one-rep max record. What is the best method to prepare for this big lift? What type of warm-up? What can you do mentally? Should you change your nutrition plan that day?

Today is your day of reckoning. The day you say goodbye to your old max and say hello to a new more impressive lift. This like any other day you wake up, but today is a special day. You know it. You're at work thinking about it. You're daydreaming about it. It's in your every thought. Will you be able to lift the weight? The answer is within you.

As corny as it sounds you have to believe in yourself. You have to visualize yourself slaughtering the weight. You can try and trick yourself into thinking it's less weight but that's not going to work. You have to know how much you're lifting and that you have the strength to do it.

You go about the day as every other day but any sexual activity shall be prohibited 4 hours before your workout because you want to have the most testosterone available when lifting. You should also eat healthy meals throughout the day and stay well hydrated.

2 hours before heading out to the gym consume a well balance meal consisting of carbs and protein. Then 30 to 45 minutes before heading out to the gym you take a quenching serving of whey protein with some CEE. You're now at the gym.

You warm up like usual, mainly focusing on your upper body. Now pick up some 5 pound plates and do front and side raises to warm up your shoulders. Do 10 pushups and hold it at the bottom for 5 seconds. Then do the bar 10 times.

Afterwards lead up to your one rep max in large intervals so you won't tire but are properly warmed up. You're now geared up to go. You lay down on the icy lonely bench. It's only you and the weight, nothing else. You envision yourself lifting the weight.

You are now prepared and countdown. Your spotter helps with the liftoff and now all the pressure of the weight rest on your hands. You remember everything from the proper lifting section and put up a new personal record. Excellent job. But don't stop here. There are no limits, unless you set them.

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Bonus Question #2:

How much do ya bench? How long did it take you to get to where you are now? What is your bench press goal?

Currently I'm maxing out at 295 with a bodyweight of 185. I'm 18 and have been working out since the age of 14. During that time I was mostly without guidance and any serious knowledge. This past year I had been on a plateau of 225-245 range, until I discovered the benefits of working out with lower reps and shocking your body.

I was able to put add 40 pounds on my bench press after completing 4 weeks of 5x5. I'm now off it and doing 3x3 while still seeing great gains. As for an ultimate bench press goal, I have none. Reason being is that I see no limits. I can't see myself saying "I don't want to get stronger". I guess you can call me greedy. I like to call it hunger.

Is It In You?

I know you've seen the commercial were a voice is asking "Is it in you?" Well I'm here asking you the same question. Do you have what it takes? Do you have the will to come out every Monday and Friday and slay your goals?

Do you want to get beyond the same old plateau and take your strength to new heights? Do you have it in you to be your own champion? If you answered yes to all these questions, then you my friend should follow everything written in this article.

2nd Place - mivi320

What Program Is Best For Increasing Your Bench Press?

Let's face it, everybody wants to increase their bench press, but gym regulars and bodybuilders eventually hit a plateau and struggle to raise those bench press numbers. Put down that magazine article on "how to increase your bench press by 20lbs. in 1 week," and listen up!

Hit The Bench While You're Fresh

I see this happen many times at the gym I attend. Gym regulars come in and do a few sets of bicep curls, pushups, sit-ups, pull ups, and then proceed to the bench press expecting to move mountains. Why is this not a proper way of training for a big bench press? Well, the bench press is a compound movement; meaning your entire workout should be based around these mass and strength building movements.

What NOT To Do:

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You also want to be "fresh" for the bench press, so you can put in maximum effort. In other words, start off your chest workout with the bench press followed by other exercises you have designated to perform on that day.

As always with any exercise, make sure that you have adequately warmed up to prevent injury and get the blood flowing.

Nutrition

Many avid bodybuilders have made statements in the past about nutrition being 80% of bodybuilding, whilst the other 20% is geared towards training. It's pretty plain and simple; you can't expect to increase your size and strength through the roof if you eat like a bird.

Analyze your nutrition regimen and make sure you're getting in a sufficient amount of calories, protein, carbohydrate, and fats. Once you start increasing your calories, you'll easily increase in your own body weight; meaning you will just as easily be capable of making an increase on your bench press numbers.

Avoid Overtraining

Overtraining is simply defined as engaging in excessive training or training too much, which results in an imbalance between training and recovery. This will truly diminish your dreams of increasing on the bench press.

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There are many bodybuilders who do not realize the important role rest plays in obtaining maximum performance and results from the hours spent in the gym. Learn the importance of recovery!
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Some of the symptoms of overtraining to look out for are constant fatigue, lack of motivation, depression, irritability, decreased performance, injury, and constant muscle soreness. If you're overtraining, there is a remedy: take some time off. This will give your body time to recover and grow.

The Program For That BIG Bench Press

Now that we covered the tips that I mentioned above, let's move onto the program for unlocking that massive bench press. This program is exclusively for strength, but as we know, strength gains can equate to size gains. First let's start off with a list of exercises that can assist or aid you in reaching that impressive bench.

Tricep Pressdowns

Tricep Extensions(Skullcrushers)

Closegrip Bench Press

Barbell/Dumbbell Shoulder Press

Tricep Dips

The reason I have selected these exercises as "assisting exercises for your big bench" is primarily because the muscles that are being worked on the bench press besides your pectoral muscles are your triceps, and deltoids.

The exercises I listed above all target the muscles recruited when bench pressing; meaning if you focus on these exercises, the muscles being used when benching will be stronger and will result in a bigger bench press. Let's now tackle the split you can use that will deliver you a bigger bench press:

Day 1: Legs and Abs

Barbell Squats 3 sets of 3-5 reps

Leg Press 2 sets of 3-5 reps

Stiff-legged deadlifts 3 sets of 3-5 reps

Lying Leg Curls 2 sets of 3-5 reps

Standing Calf Raises 2 sets of 3-5 reps

Weighted Crunches 3 sets of 3-5 reps

Day 2: Rest

Day 3: Shoulders & Traps

Dumbbell/Barbell Shoulder Press 3 sets of 3-5 reps

Side Dumbbell Lateral Raises 3 sets of 3-5 reps

Cable Side Lateral Raises 2 sets of 3-5 reps

Bent over Dumbbell Raises 3 sets of 3-5 reps

Dumbbell/Barbell Shrugs 2 sets of 3-5 reps

Click Here For A Printable Log OIf Day 3 - Shoulders & Traps.

Day 4: 20 minutes of Cardio

Day 5: Back and Biceps

Pull-ups 3 sets of 3-5 reps

Lat Pulldowns 2 sets of 3-5 reps

Barbell/Dumbbell Rows 3 sets of 3-5 reps

Barbell Curls 2 sets of 3-5 reps

Preacher Curls 2 sets of 3-5 reps

Day 6: Rest

Day 7: Chest

Bench Press 3 sets of 3-5 reps

Dumbbell Incline Press 2 sets of 3-5 reps

Weighted Chest Dips 2 sets of 3-5 reps

Dumbbell Flys 2 sets of 3-5 reps

This split will not lead to overtraining, and it stresses the important principle of rest. The choice of exercises depends on what you prefer. Keep the rep range generally low (in the 3-5 rep range) as this will encourage gains in strength. Do you know what gains in strength for supporting muscle groups on the bench press will result in? A bigger bench press.

Also, be sure to warm-up to prevent and avoid injury. Again, this program is primarily for strength gains, but some gains in the size department will be produced. Follow this program for 4-6 weeks, and then perform a max-out (single rep) on the bench press, and be amazed how much it increased!

BONUS QUESTION:

Today is the day you enter the gym with confidence to break that old bench press record. The best way to prepare for this big lift is simple. As soon as you awake in the morning, tell yourself over and over again that you can do this. Make sure your nutrition is in check, as it should be for everyday. Consume a pre-workout meal 60 minutes before working out, consisting of an adequate amount of carbohydrate, protein, and fats to fuel your body for the lift.

Do whatever it takes to get you pumped up mentally before attempting the lift. Listen to your favorite song, relax, or even try supplementing with some caffeine to get you alert and ready! To warm up on the bench press, simply do 2-3 sets just to get the blood moving. Do not warm-up with a weight that you struggle with! This will exhaust you before you try to max-out. Have confidence in yourself; make sure your nutrition program is in line, and warm-up the right way to break that old record!

BONUS QUESTION #2:

How much do ya bench? How long did it take you to get to where you are now? What is your bench press goal?

Currently, at 152lbs, I bench press 220 for one rep. It didn't take me too long to reach a 220lb. bench. I simply followed all of the guidelines I mentioned above, and allowed myself ample time for recovery.

Last year at about this time, my max bench press was 160. That's about a 60lb. increase in one year! The most important principle to unlocking an impressive bench press is rest and recovery. I cannot stress this enough.

What Are Your Goals?
>Lose Fat
>Build Muscle
>Improve Energy
>Other

Nutrition also goes hand in hand with recovery, as it is just important. My goal on the bench press is to max-out at 250 by November, and by following these guidelines, I know I can do it.

Good luck!
Mike

3rd Place - TRICK D

How To Increase Your Benchpress!

Introduction:

As someone that has absolutely loved bodybuilding and powerlifting over the last few years, I really respect the people with the serious bench presses. I have seen some of the most impressive lifts in history that were taped and put online, and some in person.

I once saw a man under 165 pounds, at the Arnold Classic bench almost 700 pounds. The most impressive thing about this is that he was a little person, around 4 feet tall. I haven't been more impressed in my life.

2005 Arnold Classic Results.
Results and information for the 2005 Arnold Classic. View thousands of pictures!
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First things first, it isn't how much, but how you do it!

One of the worst things I see when I go to the gym are guys not knowing the basics of how to bench press. Many people bench press weight, and don't do it correctly, leading to injury.

How To Bench Correctly

Have a spotter on hand. You always need a spotter, no matter what.

Approach the bar knowing that at anytime you can get hurt not following all steps.

Have feet flat on floor (view)

Have shoulders squared flat at the center of the bench.

Have hands positioned on bar with just a bit wider than shoulder width

Keep your butt flat on bench, keep your head down.

Now we got the position right, let's lift the weight!

Wide Grip

Close Grip

Perfect Grip

Take deep breaths, this is where relax, and start psyching myself up. I think about horrible things that I have happened in my life, and then I take slow big breaths, and then focus on getting the weight up.

I hold the bar as tightly as I can, ask for my spotter to give me a lift off, and I start to lower the bar, slowly.

I allow it to touch my chest, with shoulders, head, butt, and feet (pressing against the floor) motionless, not moving at all.

I arch my back and start pressing towards the sky as soon as I feel the weight touching my chest. The key thing is to allow it to touch your chest, if you're going to do it, your going to do it right!

After pressing it, I have my spotter pay attention as much as possible; he should be able to rescue, if needed, as you reach your breaking point.

Once you complete the lift, hold it in the locked position for about a second then have your spotter help put it in the correct resting position.

You have completed a lift.

Trick D's Exciting Process Of Increasing Your Bench

I have been lifting for 7 years now. I have a love for power, but I do not have the best body for it. With over a 74 inch reach, and only being 68 inches tall, I definitely don't have the best genetics for bench pressing.

But to put up serious numbers, you must be happy with yourself. One thing to remember is that patience is key. Your bench is not going to increase over night. The other P to remember is persistence. You have to go every week and workout, missing workouts will set you back. This is what I do when I train for power.

Favorite Excercises:

I like to start off with 5 sets of flat bench, when training chest. I train chest just once a week, to prevent injury and over training. I also do not do any other muscle groups on chest day. On each rep, I pause at my chest for 1 full second, to keep myself from bouncing the bar.

I then explode to the top, and bring it back down and pause. I do 5 sets starting with 10 reps and decreasing it by 2 until I get to 2 reps. So 10, 8, 6, 4, and then 2.

I feel that it is a necessity to lift extremely heavy weights when you want to increase your bench press fast. I would also suggest doing 1-2 lift warm-up sets and of course fully stretching before trying any heavy weights. With me benching around 250, I start off with about 155 x 10, 185 x 8, 200 x 6, 210 x 4, and 225-230 x 2.

The second exercise I like doing is incline bench press. I normally do 3 sets, and don't really worry about doing pauses for these, because I am already tired. I do 3 sets of between 6-10 for incline bench press.

For my third and last exercise for chest, I do lockouts. This is where you put an extreme amount of weight on the bar, one you can barely handle and push it from your chest, to your locking point.

To me your locking point is where your triceps start taking the brunt of the weight, and where most people start struggling. Then I also like doing a set or two where I just hold a lot of weight and shock my muscles, so they can get use to lifting such heavy weight.

While training for strength, I think it is important to do no more than 12 sets. I think that anymore and you are running the risks of injury.

Lifting On The Other Days

The key in increasing your bench press is to train the muscles you use to bench press. These muscles include shoulders, triceps, back, and even legs.

I always do legs right after chest, because my muscles are so fatigued (triceps, shoulders, and chest) and I definitely don't want to have an injury. I normally then take a day off and do shoulders or triceps on this day.

Shoulder Day:

Machine shoulder presses - 2 sets of 10 for a good first warm up exercise

Arnolds - I do 3 sets of Arnolds, where I do a shoulder press with dumbbell and twist as it goes up

Frontals - 3 sets of frontals where I lift the dumbbell from my thigh keeping my arm straight and lift it straight out. Do 10 reps with each arm for 3 sets.

I also do exercises for rear and side deltoids. I change these exercises quite frequently.

Triceps Day:

Note: I normally do these with biceps and always my last workout of the week if I did bench first.

Triceps pushdown - I always feel this is a good exercise for triceps. I normally do 3 sets

Close-Grip Bench Press - Great exercise for increasing triceps strength and also chest strength. I do 3 sets with a lot of weight. Start with 10 reps, and then go down to 8 reps, then 6. Increasing weight with each set.

I normally finish with another triceps exercise, Most of the time with dips. I feel that close grip bench press is the best exercise you can do for improving your triceps to be ready for benching a lot more.

Workouts:

I normally workout 4 times a week, with 2 on 1 off, 2 on then 2 off. That way I get my weekends free to repair my aching muscles, and to prevent injury. Also it allows me to have a life with my friends and my girlfriend.

Nutrition:

Nutrition is very important. Always eat a lot of protein (at least 1 gram per body pound). Also a lot of carbohydrates are good right before you make a good lift. It was aid in energy.

Supplements:

Multivitamin: always take one. Being an athlete you need more than the average person. Don't forget!

Glutamine: Great for recovery

Creatine Ethyl Ester: Great for strength gains, and packing on muscle, after taking axis CEE from Bodybuilding.com I almost got 255 @ 160, and this was after losing 5 pounds because of the flu. I was only benching 250 @ 165 before the weight loss. I contribute the CEE to helping me get back just 3 weeks after the flu.

Protein: I consider this a food, but make sure you get it!

Bonus Question:

If I was getting ready to get into a competition in bench pressing, I would start training extremely heavy 4 weeks out, I would be practicing with 6 reps and less. I would do the workout I told you above for every week until there is one week left.

I would take a week off from doing chest, so that I would be 100% going into the competition. The first lift would be something I know I could get, something like 90% of what I can bench. Right now I would probably go with something around 235.

When getting ready to lift, I always think of death that is what psychs me up. I have had many friends die, which in my opinion died way too young. I start thinking about them, and how they could have had a great life. This pumps me up, and gets me angry, then I take a few big breaths to refocus on the lift. Then I am mentally prepared to lift.

Nutrition wise, I wouldn't change anything that much. I would eat a good meal before hand, about 2 or 3 hours before my scheduled lift. I would also consume a lot of protein and maybe an energy drink (caffeine and carbs) within 30 minutes of lift. Other than that I would keep it normal.

Bonus Question #2.

The most I have ever benched is 250 @ a weight of 163. That is 153% of my body weight. The biggest bench divided by bodyweight percentage I have achieved was 155% when I was 145 pounds and benched 225. All of these were raw benches performed without a bench shirt.

It has taken me 7 years off and on to get to where I am now. When I started lifting weights, I was 5'6 and weighed 102 pounds. I have a fast metabolism and until recently I had problems filling out. At least 5 or 6 of the years that I worked out I was doing everything wrong. I had no nutrition or weight lifting scheme. Now that I am smarter and have better nutrition, there is no one that can stop me!

My goal in bench press is to bench press 100 pounds over my bodyweight. I also have a goal of benching 300 pounds without being over 200 pounds. Either way I will be extremely happy, and I feel both of these goals will be passed within the next year and a half or so.

3rd Place (Ironman88) - bubba g

How To Increase Your Bench Press?

Ok lets start with the basics. Proper warm up, and the use of perfect form are without a doubt the two most important factors in increasing your bench safely and effectively. I have seen people instantly add as much as 25lbs to their bench press simply by warming up correctly and using proper form.

Warm Up

Warm up should start before you even touch the bar. 10 to 15 minutes of light cardio whether it be treadmill, stationary bike etc. This will bring up your core temperature and warm all of your muscles and joints.

Now seeing that the flat Barbell Bench press has probably claimed more rotator cuffs than all other exercises combined, it is a great idea to do a couple sets of at least two of the exercises listed in this article prior to not only your max attemp but whenever performing the Bench press http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/luis4.htm.

All right, now that your entire shoulder girdle is nice and warmed up you'll want to move over to the bench and put on half the weight you plan to max out on and do 10 easy reps. Wait a couple minutes then bring the weight up to 70% of your expected max and do 5 easy reps, Wait two more minutes then bring it up to 85% of your expected max, and do 3 easy reps. now you are thoroughly warmed up. and ready for your 100% effort 1 rep max.

Ryan doing his 800 lbs bench!

Proper Form

But lets make sure we are using proper form. To do this the first thing you want to do is retract your shoulders. This is done basically by pulling your shoulder blades back and squeezing them together. This will give you a good solid platform.

The next thing you want to do is make sure your feet are planted firmly on the floor (no resting them up on the bench). Now you want to slightly arch your back so that your shoulder blades are planted firmly into the bench. Now grab the bar with a slightly wider than shoulder width grip. OK now you're good to go.

Have a spotter help you bring the bar into position. now inhale as you bring the bar down. Do not let the bar bounce off your chest once the bar touches the bottom of your lower chest explode the weight back up as fast and as hard as you can as you exhale. Sounds simple enough right? With a little practice and you wont even have to think about it.

Technique For Increasing Strength & Power

Although their are many techniques available, I have found one to be the most effective. For me that is the use of partial reps. partials are one of the best ways to increase the strength of your joints and connective tissue. To do partials you will need a power rack. Slide the bench into the power rack. Now set the safety pins so that you are only able to move the bar 6 inches (the top 6 inches of your range of motion).

After performing the warm up I outlined above, load the bar with 150% of your current 1 rep max. Now crank out as many reps as you can. Don't bounce the bar off the pins; power it up.

Do this for 3 sets flat, and 3 sets incline. This will really increase the strength of your triceps, especially if the top part of the bench was your sticking point. If the lower part of the lift is your sticking point.

Partials can be done for this as well. Just set the pins so that the bar can come down as close to your chest as possible. And perform the lower half of the bench press, exploding up with every rep, but stopping at the half way point. There are many way to use partial reps. you can increase intensity by either adding weight, or increasing the range of motion.

I have used this program to increase my strength and add tons of mass. Here is one example program I have created where I increased my intensity by increasing my range of motion. I was stuck at a plateau of 275 for 5 reps with a 1 rep max of 315 for a couple months prior to creating this routine for myself.

The Routine

Week 1
Pin 10 - 6 inch range of motion 3 sets of 20 X 350lbs

Week 2
Pin 9 - 14 X 350lbs 3 sets

Week 3
Pin 9 - 19 X 350lbs 3 sets

Week 4
Pin 8 - 13 X 350lbs 3 sets

Week 5
Pin 8 - 16 X 350lbs

Week 6
Pin 7 - 8 X 350lbs

Week 7
Pin 7 - 15 X 350lbs

Week 8
Pin 6 - 6 X 350lbs

Week 9
Pin 6 - 9 X 350lbs

Week 10
Pin 6 - 11 X 350lbs

Week 11
Pin 5 - 4 X 350lbs
> Pin 5 is all the way to my chest... so I did 4 times 350...

Week 12
Pin 5 - 5 X 350lbs

Week 13 Judgement Day

OK time to put my program to the test. on week 13 of my program I benched 400 for a single. I felt I could have done slightly more, but I was completely satisfied with my accomplishments. and seeing that I am a bodybuilder and not a power lifter I felt it was safest not to attempt more.

So this program that I created by combining a couple techniques allowed me to increase my bench press 85lbs in 13 weeks. after being stuck at the same weight for a couple months. I performed no other chest or tricep work while doing this routine and frankly it wasn't needed.

Mental Preparation

The mental preparation for the lift starts the second I crawl out of bed. I start to tell myself that there is no way I can fail, no way that weight will beat me. I think about it all day and psyche myself up for it.By the time I make the attempt I am ready to explode. I can't wait to make the attempt.

I put some Pantera or Korn in the CD player and crank it as I perform all of the warm up techniques I outlined earlier in this article. After I am good and warmed up I sit on the bench and I visualize myself making the lift.

The Power Of Music!
No doubt about it, music is a powerful tool and one that should be taken advantage of. At the same time, music should be used judiciously for optimal performance.
[ Click here to learn more. ]

When I lay back and position myself for the lift I look at the bar and I put myself into a rage I focus all of my aggression at the bar. Now I grip the bar really hard, I tighten up every muscle in my body. I signal to my spotter I am ready. I let the weight drop at a controlled but quick rate. Once it hits my chest I explode the weight back up, with every ounce of strength and power I have.

Residual Effects

One more thing I would like to point out is my strength increased every week for a couple months more then it had previously. In fact I was surprised every week... I think mostly do to increased connective tissue and joint strength.

While performing this routine You must eat like you have never eaten before, or you will over train. Partials are very very demanding on your CNS (central nervous system). Try to take in 2 grams of protein per pound of body weight carbs should be about the same, and make sure you take in plenty of essential fatty acids. I take in 3 tablespoons of olive oil a day to lubricate my joints, as well as to keep my heart healthy.

Bonus Question: Nutrition

As far as nutrition goes the day I attempt a one rep max I make sure I take in a lot of slow burning carbs. For me I feel oatmeal works best but Brown rice, sweet potatoes etc. will do just fine.

I like to get in 3 meals before attempting any max lift. My last meal I will eat approximately 45 minutes before my attempt, and will include some faster burning carbs. Pastas, white rice, regular potato etc.

Bonus Question 2

My current 1 rep max on the Flat Bench press is 435. It took me almost 3 years of consistent training to get to this point. My goals are mainly to build mass so increasing my 1 rep max at this point is not as important to me as moving heavy weights for slow and controlled reps. I can now slowly bench 350 for 11 reps. and increasing that weight to the most my genetics will allow is my ultimate goal.

Ok I will finish here by wishing you good luck on improving your max bench press. I hope that I gave you some new ideas as opposed to rehashing the same old routines. also I hope that my article helps you on your quest.

3rd Place (tie) - Ironman88

So You Want To Master The Bench Press?

The bench press is an exercise that has been long used as a basis of judgment for an individual's overall strength. This statement could not be further from the truth.

We must remember that although the bench press is a great compound lift with profound muscle building effects, we must also work out the rest of the body. To many people today will start out lifting just to get "big arms" and/or a "big bench press". This is a huge mistake, so just remember to take into account how important other forms of exercise are in conjunction with the bench press.

With that aside....Who doesn't want to be able to show off a tremendous feat of strength such as a 350lb bench press? The answer: Nobody I know. So in this article we will learn step by step what is necessary to improve and build upon the bench press, and hopefully by the end you will have a deeper understanding of how to achieve a great bench press.

The first thing we must realize is that all of us are unique. Meaning that we will all respond to different training techniques differently. So the only way to find out what will work best for you is to experiment with several different types of training techniques. Below are several different training methods that have given me success.

1. Training For Increased Speed

If we are to someday reach an extremely high bench press we must realize something. That speed development is fundamental to increasing the amount of weight we are able to lift. It's simple physics.

Power is equal to force multiplied by distance divided by time.
Power = Force x Distance/Time.

Distance divided by time is the same thing as speed so we are able to define power as Strength X Speed. Strength and speed are components of power, increasing one while neglecting the other limits total power development...this is important to remember.

To explain this is simple terms I will use the following example: Say an athlete scores a 4 on a strength part of an exam and a 4 on there speed test too. So there power would equal 4x4 or 16. Now say they train for strength only for several months and then score a 8 on the strength part of the and keep a 4 on the speed part. There power would equal 8x4 or 32.

Now let's say they trained both instead of just focusing on one part. This person now scores 6 on there strength test and 6 on there speed test. So there power now would equal 6x6 or 36. Now think about that. If the athlete that trained for strength had a 100% increase in strength alone and only totaled an overall 32. Now the athlete who trained for both increases each by 50% and scores a 36, higher then the athlete who trained for strength alone.

Now you might be thinking...How do I train for speed in the bench press? What is this guy talking about? These questions are completely understandable, and I will elaborate on what was previously stated. The way to train for increased speed on the bench press is to use lighter amounts of weight then usual (in the range of 45 to 60% of your 1RM).

Work on exploding upward in your positive movement of the bench press when training for speed. I recommend trying this technique out when you are an experienced lifter who had come across a plateau or struggling with progress. I would not recommend this type of training for beginners at this point.

2. Pyramid Training

Pyramid training is a very basic form of training, and is very popular in regard to the bench press. In this method of training a low weight with higher reps is started to build the base for this "pyramid". The weight gets progressively higher and the reps will get progressively lower as the sets continue on.

Here Is An Example:

Warm Up:

x lbs for 12-15 reps

x lbs for 10-12 reps

x lbs for 7-8 reps

x lbs for 4-5 reps

3. Low Rep Training

Training with very low reps(2-5) can be very beneficial to adding large amounts of strength to the the bench press. In my opinion, and in the opinion of many others, is that training at these very low reps with very high weight can be very dangerous. The chances of injury are increased dramatically.

So unless you are going into competition I would not recommend going below 5 reps. The benefits of doing this are not worth the risk of injury in the long term in my opinion.

4. The 5x5

The 5x5 Training method has been used by bodybuilders and powerlifters alike for one reason....It packs on the mass and works! This technique is probably the most effect for me. In this method there are 5 sets of 5 reps of the same weight. Works exceptional.....A must try for all those looking to increase there bench press.

Example Of The 5x5:

Warm Up:

x lbs for 5 reps

Should You Perform Different Bench Press Variations?

Yes, and there are many. One of them is the incline bench press which is done by elevating the bench that you are pressing on you shift emphasis to your shoulders. As the bench becomes more inclined more tension is placed on the deltoids.

The opposite can be done to make a decline bench press, which is also a must. Another variation is made by people who focus on the bench press only for the purpose of increasing mass in the chest. They wish to minimize the involvement of the shoulder and triceps and even the lower body. For this variation you should lift your legs off the ground and keep them bent or crossed in the air to eliminate their involvement with the movement, so that only the chest is being worked.

So if your goal is to just pack on mass on the chest this is a good variation for you. Another variation that should be used is simulating the movement of the bench press with dumbbells. This is often referred to as the dumbbell press, and is great for packing on mass and strength on the bench.

Should You Concentrate On Other Exercises And Bodyparts As Well?

Yes I can not stress this enough. This is one of the major factors that can make or break your bench press. The compound lift of the bench press involves many muscles which are: triceps, anterior delts, pecs, lats, and much more. Some of the most important muscles involved in the bench press are the Triceps and Pecs. It is important to train triceps if you wish to have a good bench....weighted dips are great for this. We must also remember that we need to work out the rest of our body as well. So remember to have a good 3-4 day split intact.

Now the optimal results for each person will vary from person to person so remember experimenting with different techniques is very important.

A very good split I have used and recommend can be seen below.

Monday: Chest/Triceps

Warm up (5 min jog / jump rope etc.)

Chest Bench 5x5

75% of max for 5 reps

1 set incline for 10-12 reps

1 set decline for 10-12 reps

Triceps

2 sets of 12 reps pull downs

2 sets of 10 -12 reps skull crushers

1 set till failure weighted dips

Tuesday: Abs / Cardio

Wednesday: Biceps/Back/Forearms

Warm up (5 min jog / jump rope etc.)

Biceps

2 sets of 10-12 reps curls

1 set 10-12 reps concentration curls

1 set 10-12 reps cable curls

Back

2 sets of 8-10 reps Deadlifts

2 sets of 10-12 reps Lat pulldowns

2 sets of 8-10 reps Shrugs

2 sets of 10-12 reps on T-Bar

1 set of 10-12 reps weighted pull ups

Forearms

2 sets of 10-12 reps zottman curls

2 sets of 10-15 reps wrist curls

1 set of 6-8 reps power cleans

Thursday: Abs / Cardio

Friday: Shoulders/Legs

Warm up (5 min jog / jump rope etc.)

Shoulders

2 sets of 10-12 reps foward raises

2 sets of 10-12 reps side raises

Legs

2 sets 15-20 reps squats

2 sets 10-15 reps leg presses

1 set of 15-20 reps leg extensions

3 sets of 10-15 reps calve raises

Saturday: off

Sunday: off

Tips And Advice On Certain Aspects Of The Bench Press

The key to all success is consistency and dedication. So remember stay dedicated and keep a consistent workout routine and you will be well on your way to success. You just have to set a goal and be determined to reach it. Setting a high goal does nothing, the road to get there is what counts, so remember stay the course and work hard.

A great item to add to your bench pressing weapons arsenal is a benching shirt. When used correctly these shirts can prevent injury as well as boost performance of the bench press greatly. As much as 10-20% in some cases. Do not expect a bench shirt to magically raise your bench press by 50lbs the first time you throw it on. It takes time to get used to and to fully figure out how to take advantage of it.

Supplements

There are many supplements out there on the market today some work, some don't. In this part of the article we will discuss the supplements that are worth buying in hopes of increasing the bench press. We must remember though that supplements are exactly that; supplements. They should not be used in place of, but rather used along with a solid diet.

Whey Protein

Whey protein is an essential to all good bodybuilding diets. Simply put it's the best protein there is. It's great for adding on mass and aiding in recovery. Not to mention how cost effective it is against other protein sources. When on a diet and routine bodybuilders need to consume, as a rule of thumb, at least 1g of protein per lb. of bodyweight. This is a great way to do just that.

Creatine

Creatine, and all of its forms, is a great supplement for bodybuilders. Supplementing with creatine leads to almost immediate increases in LBM and lifts. So creatine is a great supplement to add to any type of routine, it is also a great tool when used to break through benching plateaus. A personal favorite of mine is Creatine-Ethyl-Ester, commonly referred to as CEE.

A Good Multi-Vitamin

Because we bodybuilders live a very strenuous life style we must provide our body with the vitamins and minerals it needs. Any supermarket brand won't do. In my opinion one of the best multi-vitamins on the market is Universal's Animal Pak.

ZMA

In my experience a hard workout split can deplete my body of zinc, thus leading to plateaus and overtraining becoming a problem. You may ask yourself is the amount of zinc in my multi-vitamin enough? No, the answer is it is not. ZMA has many other benefits as well... it's a great supplement to look into.

Other Supplements

There are several other supplements whose worth are still in debate. One of these supplements is glutamine. It is an amino acid that aids in performance and recovery. Many people believe that oral supplementation with this supplement simply doesn't work....In my opinion and experience I believe it works to an extent, but is not very cost effective.

Click Here To Learn More About Amino Acids...

Overtraing

One thing we must try to avoid at all costs is overtraining. Overtraining can slow, stop, or even reverse progress on the bench press as well as gaining mass. There are several tools we can use to help aid in the fight against overtraining. One of these tools is rest. We must make sure to get a minimum of 8 hours of sleep per night.

Another is supplements, as they aid in recovery. A proper diet rich in protein will also help in the fight against overtraining. Overall the most effective tools we have to fight against overtraining are: Rest and Proper Diet, these are a must. Remember to much time in the gym can damage your gains, keep to your split.

Proper Form

We must also remember to use good form and grip when attempting to max out on the bench press. In just form and grip alone a 5-10lb increase can easily be seen in some cases. So remember to use and practice good form always... leave your ego at the door.

Always remember to keep proper form both when maxing and doing sets. If you cheat your only cheating yourself. A brief description of the proper bench press technique would be: back straight and level on bench, feet flat on ground, have proper grip, no bouncing off the chest when you bring the bar down, keep control of the weight when sending it back up.

Form For Fitness Are You Using The Proper Form?
What is the correct way to train, and how do you sort through so much information, some of it apparently conflicting? While it would be impossible to discuss all aspects of proper form for every possible exercise, this article will try to address...
[ Click here to learn more. ]

When maxing some people use a method to increase there max bench. It is known as back arcing. In this method you arc your back to shorten the distance from the bar to your chest as well as to put yourself into a position where you can exert more force upwards on the bar.

I disagree with this method. Although it is very beneficial to the amount of weight you can bench, the risk of injury placed on your lower back while doing this is to great.

Bonus Question

Believe it or not maxing out on the bench press can be greatly altered by mental approach. Some days when you don't feel like working out at all you might be down 5, 10 or even 15 lbs off what your normal bench max is. This effect can also work the other way.

If you are in a great mood all pumped up and ready to go with energy you may lift 5, 10 or even 15lbs heavier then usual. So get yourself prepared mentally before you attempt to max bench.

The warm up that best suits me is a very low weight(about 35-40% of your max) for about 10 reps. Then stretch out a bit, and loosen up...you know get the blood flowing. Then go for a heavier set (60-70% of your max) for about 6-8 reps. After this it's all mental preparation...You just gotta get hyped up and ready to go.

Another great way to help you bench max go up to its full potential is a stimulant. Some of the great pre-workout stimulants I have tried include: NO Xplode, Ready4War, and just pure caffeine. They all are good choices so if you are going for you max on a specific day I would recommend changing your diet for the day by adding a pre-workout stimulant.

Bonus Question #2

Currently I bench 285lbs raw, 310 shirted. Before my last football season I was maxing out just above the 300lb raw mark but I hurt my shoulder during the season and about a month after recovery I could hardly rep 225. I have been struggling to get back to a raw bench of 300 for several months now and hope to achieve it by summer.

I started training at 14, my freshmen year of high school. I am now 17 in my junior year of high school. So it has taken me a little over 2 years (about 1 1/2-3/4 serious) training to get where I am at today. My ultimate bench pressing goal is to pass the 350lb mark before I graduate next year.

Super Charging The 5x5 Program For Massive Gains In Size And Strength!

2009-08-29T21:26:00.000-07:00

People need to believe that existing training regimens really do work and that life does not have to be that complicated. Today I will share with you the tried and true 5x5 program. Yes it does work.

By: Mike Mahler

Over the years training has become more and more complicated. Show the average modern day trainee a simple and effective training regimen and they will look at you like you are dumb enough to buy a time-share. They just cannot believe that simple training programs work.

They want to believe that training is a complicated progress so that they can spend more time planning workouts than doing workouts. This is not surprising, as many people tend to complicate everything in life these days. So it is not surprising that the masses feel that complicated training regimens are a necessity.

The bottom line is that standard training regimens that have been tried and tested over the years are hard to beat. One such program is the well-known 5x5 (five sets of five) program.

It was the favorite of Reg Park who just so happens to be one of Arnold's idols for a very simple reason. The program rocks and when applied correctly builds a tremendous amount of size and strength.

With all of the thousands of training regimens to choose from the 5x5 program remains as one of the most effective programs for packing on size and strength. It has just the right amount of intensity and volume to build strength and size without inducing burnout and over-training.

In this article, I am going to go over what the 5x5 program is and how to apply it. Then, I am going to go over several ways to take the intensity up a notch for further gains in size and strength.

If you are tired of complicating programs that take more time to plan than execute, then you are going to love the 5x5 protocol. Let's get started.

What Is 5x5?

The 5x5 program calls for doing five sets of five reps per exercise. To illustrate, lets use the barbell deadlift as an example. Do two warm-up sets to get the groove down. Then load the bar up to your working weight and do five sets. When you can do five reps on all five sets, increase the weight by five pounds.

Barbell Deadlift.

For a focus on strength, take three-minute breaks in between each set. For a focus on size, try ninety-second breaks in between each set. Finally, for the middle path, try two-minute breaks in between each set. To design a 5x5 program you can either do a split routine in which you do the upper body one day and lower body the next training session.

Or you can do a full body workout 2-3 times per week. It will take some experimenting to determine which option is best for you. Regardless, of which option your choose, focus on compound exercises for each workout such as bench presses, squats, deadlifts, weighted dips, barbell rows, etc. Some isolation work is acceptable, but do not get carried away.

Focus on exercises that give you the most bang for your buck. Now you could do the same exercises frequently such as bench presses three times a week 5x5 style. Or you could try Louie Simmons conjugate approach to switch things up.

Louie Simmons, One Of Only 6 Lifters To Total Elite In 5 Weight Classes.

For example, do bench presses on Monday, weighted dips on Wednesday, and incline presses on Friday. You will avoid overuse injuries and the exercises are similar enough that you will make progress on all three and build overall strength. Here are two sample 5x5 programs:

Option One (Full Body Routine)

Monday

A-1: barbell bench press
A-2: bent over row
B-1: barbell squat
B-2: stiff legged deadlift
Turkish Get-up 2x5 l,r (left and right)

Wednesday

A-1: weighted dips
A-2: weighted chin-ups
Barbell deadlift
Hanging leg raise 2x5

Friday

A-1: incline press
A-2: renegade row
B-1: front squat
B-2: glute/ham raise
Saxon side bend 2x5

Renegade Row

Do each pair back to back. For example, do one set of A-1, wait ninety seconds, and then do a set of A-2 and wait ninety seconds before going back to A-1. Keep going back and forth until you have completed all of the sets and reps. For the midsection work, take two minute breaks in between each set.

Option Two: Split Routine

Monday & Thursday

A-1: barbell bench press
A-2: bent over row
B-1: barbell curl 2x5
B-2: skull crusher or triceps pushdown 2x5

Tuesday And Friday

B-1: barbell squat
B-2: glute/ham raise
Seated calf raise 2x5
Turkish Get-up 2x5 l,r (left and right)

Variations Of 5x5 For Accelerated Increases In Size & Strength

Now once you have gone through a few cycles of a standard 5x5 regimen, there are several things to manipulate to intensify the program and to fine-tune it for various goals.

Different Exercise Breaks At Each Session

Lets say that strength and size is your goal. One thing that you could do is apply variations to the exercise breaks. For example, one day take one-minute breaks to focus on hypertrophy. At the next session, take two-minute breaks to focus on strength.

The breaks would be applied to antagonistic sets. Thus, you are essential getting two-minute breaks on the first option and four minute breaks on the second option. Here is an example of such a program:

Monday (Two Minute Breaks In Between Each Set)

A-1: bottom position barbell bench press
A-2: dumbell row
B-1: barbell squat
B-2: glute/ham raise
Turkish Get-up 2x5 l,r (left and right)

Wednesday (One-Minute Break In Between Each Set)

A-1: weighted dips
A-2: weighted chin-ups
Barbell deadlift
Hanging leg raise 2x5

Friday (Thirty Second Breaks In Between Each Set)

A-1: floor press
A-2: renegade row
B-1: front squat
B-2: glute/ham raise

Decrease The Exercise Breaks To Increase The Intensity

Another option is to change the breaks at each session as a way to increase the intensity. For example, do five sets of five on barbell squats with 315 with three-minute breaks. Instead of increasing the weight at the next session, decrease the breaks to two-minutes and thirty seconds.

Once you can complete five sets again, go down to two-minute breaks. Once you nail five sets again, go down to ninety seconds. When you get down to one-minute breaks, increase the weight by five pounds and start at three-minute breaks again.

Using this format, you start with a strength focus on gradually shift gears to a hypertrophy focus as the exercise breaks decrease. Then you shift gears once again back to a strength focus.

This is a great way to cycle training intensity and keep training fresh and challenging.

5x5 On Steroids: Enter Cluster Training

No I am not talking about using steroids on the five times five program. However applying a concept called cluster training to the 5x5 regimen is like adding rocket fuel to a car. I learned about cluster training in Charles Poliquins excellent book Modern Trends In Strength Training.

Cluster training is essentially a combination of rest pause training and standard training.

Here is how it works. Take 90% of your one-rep max and do one rep. Wait ten seconds, and do another rep. Keep going until you have completed five reps in rest pause fashion.

Once you have completed all five reps, take a three-minute break and then execute another cluster set. Each sequence of repetitions equals one set. Thus to apply this concept to the 5x5 protocol, you would do five sets of five rest pause sets.

What Is The Advantage Of Applying Cluster Training?

For one, you get to train at a significantly higher training intensity. Thus, if strength is your primary goal, you will love cluster training. Regardless, the volume is the same as a regular 5x5 program making the 5x5 cluster training program an excellent option for hypertrophy training as well.

To further induce hypertrophy, just decrease the breaks in between each cluster. For example, instead of taking three-minute breaks, take two-minute breaks in between each cluster. As effective as cluster training is, it takes some time to break into it. If you have never done rest pause training before, then check out the rest pause article that I wrote for t-nation.com a few years ago and start with the program in the article.

Once you are comfortable with both 5x5 and rest pause training, try marrying the two and apply cluster training 5x5 style. Now cluster training is very intense and three full body workouts will be too much for most trainees. Try doing two full body workouts per week with at least two days off between each session.

Or split up the upper body and lower body days and try four workouts per week. Upper body on day one, take a day off, and then lower body on day two. Take another day off and do the upper body workout again etc.

Also, I would recommend that you choose exercises for Cluster training that do not require a lot of set-up time.


	For Example, Bottom position bench presses are better than regular bench presses in which you have to rack the bar after each rep.

Here is a sample Cluster training 5x5 program:

Day 1 & 3

Bottom position bench press
Weighted pull-up
Barbell curl

Day 2

Bottom position squat
Glute-ham raise (regular 5x5 style)
Calf raise
Turkish get-up 2x5 (regular rep style)

Day 4

Barbell deadlift
One-legged squat
Seated calf raise
Dumbbell windmill 2x5 (regular rep style) Ex. Shown With Kettlebell.

Take three-minute breaks in between each cluster set and two-minute breaks in between each exercise. Stick with cluster training for four to six weeks and then cycle back to a regular 5x5 regimen.

Adapting To High Volume Training:
Start With 5x5

Finally, you can use the 5x5 protocol as a platform to build up to high volume training. Once you can complete five sets, stay at the same weight and add another set.

Once you can complete six sets, add another set. Keep going until you are doing 10x5. Once you can complete ten sets, increase the weight by five pounds and start back at 5x5.

This is an excellent method for working up to high volume training and cycling high volume training. More importantly, you build confidence for high volume training.

If you have never done ten sets before, then you are not conditioned to handle the volume. By increasing the volume gradually, you prepare your mind and body for the hard work ahead in a systematic manner. You cannot beat that.

Wrap Up

Like many things in life it is much easier to get excited about doing something than it is to get off your ass and do it. What are you prepared to do?

Are you going to test drive the 5x5 program and get bigger and stronger or continue with complicated training regimens that take two hours to complete? Start with a standard 5x5 regimen and then apply some of the intensity enhancers to stay on the road to gainsville. Shoot me an email with your feedback.

30 Second Pullup, Squats, And Other Training Tips!

2009-08-27T17:11:00.000-07:00

If you can't do a pull-up then you are leaving out one of the best back building exercises...

By: Lance Sganzini

30 Second Pull-Ups

If you don't (or can't) do pull-ups, then you are leaving out one of the best back-building exercises ever. You can't build a championship back without pull-ups - so listen up!

If you've never been able to do a single pull-up, then this program is definitely for you. The only thing you need is a stopwatch and a pull-up bar.

Begin by standing on a chair or bench. Grip the bar, putting your hands in a reverse grip, palms facing you, shoulder width apart. Start at the top of the movement. Have your training partner pull the chair out from under you.

Pull-Ups.

Hold your chin above the bar for 30 seconds. Use a stopwatch and do 3 to 4 sets to start out with. If you can't do this many sets, don't worry - just do what you can. You'll want to do this exercise before you do any of your other back exercises.

I've had clients come in who have never been able to do a single pull-up in their life. Using this simple program, they start pumping out pull-ups in no time! I consider the pull-up a great power move for the back. Use it like you would use squatting for the quads, or the bench pressing for your chest. Soon you'll be able to do pull-ups with the best of them.

Additional Training Tips

Proper Squatting Technique

When doing squats, don't let your knees come in on the ascent of the movement. This will lead to knee problems down the road. The main flaws responsible for harmful buckling of the legs are failing to flare your feet and positioning the heels too close together.

Proper Form

Good form isn't merely about correct biomechanics, it's also about controlled rep cadence (tempo). Slow your rep speed to around three seconds up and another three seconds down, for each rep.


	What Does Tempo Mean? Tempo refers to lifting speed. The first number is lowering, the second is pausing in the bottom position, and the third is lifting. So a 4-1-2 tempo would be a 4 second lowering, a 1 second pause, and a 2 second lift.

Explosive lifting can increase your risk of injury, particularly if you're not accustomed to such high-intensity training.

Training Frequency

Beginners should train each body part twice a week. For more intermediate and advanced bodybuilders, once per week training for each body part is often more productive.

Leg Pressing

Avoid an excessive force of movement when leg pressing. Never descend to a point where your low back starts to round. Discover your lowest safe position, and never descend below that point. To minimize stress on your knees, avoid forcefully locking out on each rep. Stop each rep about an inch short of lockout.

Leg Press.

Overtraining

Never train heavy for long periods of time. You may love your gains, but your joints will hate it in the long run. Always cycle your workouts. Train smarter, not harder.

Ab Crunch Machine - Abdominals

2009-08-23T17:13:00.000-07:00

Ab Crunch Machine

Exercise Data
Main Muscle Worked: Abdominals
Other Muscles Worked: None
Equipment: Machine
Mechanics Type: Isolation

Tips: This is like a situp or crunch, but the machine helps you to add resistance for greater strength increases. Follow the directions on the particular machine that you choose. Be sure to go slow and concentrate on using your abs to push the weight while relaxing your legs and feet.

Bodybuilding pics

2009-08-20T07:10:00.000-07:00

Build Muscle by Manipulating Hormones - 1

2009-08-15T07:23:00.000-07:00

Several hormones play a critical role in exercise in general and strength training in particular. Testosterone, growth hormone and insulin-like growth factor (IGF-1) provide strength and muscle growth stimulus; cortisol, epinephrine and norepinephrine and glucagon control access to fat and glucose fuels by manipulating the release of stored fuel when needed in addition to other important functions; and insulin provides the storage impetus for the fuels derived from the food we eat. Getting these hormones to work so that you can maximize muscle and strength is one of the secrets of natural weight training. In this article I’ll concentrate on how you can get the most from the muscle building hormones we all share.

Testosterone
Testosterone is for the most part a male hormone produced by the testicles, although a smaller amount is produced by the adrenal glands. This hormone is responsible for the development of male physical characteristics, muscle mass, strength, fat distribution and sexual drive. Smaller amounts of testosterone are also produced by women in the ovaries and the adrenal glands. Testosterone production is stimulated by hormones such as leuteinizing hormone further up the chain starting at the hypothalamus in the brain.

To be more definitive, testosterone is an androgenic, anabolic, steroid hormone. ‘Androgenic’ means pertaining to male characteristics and ‘anabolic’ means building up or synthesizing body tissue. ‘Catabolic’ means breaking down tissue. Another important hormone, cortisol, is a catabolic hormone. A ‘steroid’ in broadest terms is a class of similarly structured chemicals produced by the body.

Testosterone is the number one hormone for bodybuilding and weight training, especially for the development of strength and muscle although this is not always the primary goal of weight training.

Anabolic steroids
The use of supplementary anabolic steroids to build muscle bulk and strength has been popular in bodybuilding and other sports requiring bulk and strength for many decades. They do work spectacularly well. That’s why in most sports, taking ‘steroids’ is illegal under the World Anti-Doping Agency protocols, although not all sports are referenced by this organization.

Illegal supplemental steroids include natural testosterone or the very many natural or synthetic molecules based on testosterone or anabolic hormone precursors. Some examples include testosterone enanthate, nandrolone, trenbolone, oxymethalone, stanozolol and the various trade names under which they are marketed. The adverse effects or taking these substances carelessly have been well documented. Although oral formulations of some anabolic steroids are available, they are usually injected once or twice a week.

Growth Hormone and IGF-1
Human growth hormone is produced by the pituitary gland and stimulates the liver to produce IGF-1 which is ultimately responsible for the growth promoting and anabolic effects of growth hormone. Like testosterone, this production declines as we age and is probably responsible for at least some of the decline in muscle mass seen in older people. These hormones seem to have an inverse relation to body fat : the less you produce the more body fat you accumulate. . . so there’s the first call to action.

Enhancing growth hormone and IGF-1 delivery may be possible with nutritional and exercise manipulations. GH and IGF-1, testosterone and cortisol are all increased with intensity of weight training and high-intensity sprint cycling or running.

Insulin
Insulin is the storage hormone. The pancreas produces insulin in response to food. When you consume food, enzymes break it down into constituent glucose, fatty acids and amino acids, vitamins and minerals. Insulin responds to carbohydrate and protein by storing glucose in muscle and liver, fat in fat cells and by the utilizing amino acids from food protein in body building and repair. It’s incorrect to think of insulin as only responding to carbohydrate foods because some protein foods such as fish and beef elicit a very strong insulin response in their own right. In diabetes, insulin is either insufficiently produced or is available yet fails to store glucose efficiently. This is called insulin resistance.

Combining pre- and post-exercise foods or sports drinks containing protein and carbohydrate elicits a very strong insulin response in the refueling period after an exercise session. The value of this is that along with the glucose storage and amino acids synthesis in new protein, you get a powerful anabolic, muscle building response. Insulin is an important anabolic hormone. Manipulating insulin is one of the main tools described here for bodybuilding. See further down for nutritional approaches.

Intermediate's Body Building Programme

2009-06-26T10:26:00.000-07:00

Introduction

By now you should have gotten the hang of the basic exercises and gym routines. Hopefully you've experienced some growth and increased strength as well. Now is the time to start developing a more thought-out bodybuilding strategy. The first step is reviewing your training split.

Training

As you get better at targeting muscles and hammer them with heavy sets, you inflict more "damage" to the muscles at each workout. Your mind-muscle connection has improved, and you need to let them rest more to recover. As a result, it's time to revisit your training split.

Some may get away with continuing a twice-a-week schedule, but many natural bodybuilders find that to be too much - overtraining is common and must be avoided. More on overtraining in the Advanced chapter.

Here are two sample training splits, one with three workouts and one with four workouts per week. For simplicity, I've assumed a 7-day cycle where you do the same workouts on set days of the week, but you can of course adjust this as you see fit.

If you feel fully rested and energized after 6 days, by all means, go on a 6-day cycle and ignore what day of the week it is, or vice versa, with an 8-day cycle if you feel that you need more time to recover. Ultimately, it is your body that decides how frequently you can train.

As you get more experienced and grow increasingly stronger, you should be able to start phasing out the assist-part of chins, dips and other movements that uses your own bodyweight. In fact, if you're naturally light and can easily do 10-12 reps with your own body weight; consider using a weight-belt to strap on an extra plate or two. Some exercises, like lateral dumbbell raises and cable crossover flies still require a lot of "feel" to come to its full right. You're wise to increase the weights in small increments to make sure you're not losing sight of proper form.

Another change you will notice is a couple new exercises. Deadlifts and barbell squats are classic mass-builders, which help you build core strength. While it may be nice to use the latest and greatest machines, it's hard to get the kind of mass the classics provides.

Many distinguished professional bodybuilders got their massive foundation by sticking to the basics for the first few years. Then, once you've reached a solid base you can experiment more with machines and cables.

Sample 3-Day Workout

Using Mon/Wed/Fri training schedule, a sample workout routine could be:

Monday: Chest/Triceps/Shoulders

Exercise	Sets	Reps
Dumbbell presses on flat bench	2	8-10
Dumbbell presses on incline bench	2	10-12
Standing barbell military presses	2	10-12
Cable crossover flies (focus on contraction)	2	12-15
Standing barbell military presses	2	10-12
Lateral dumbbell deltoid raises	2	12-15
Dips	2	10-12
Skullcrushers with EZ-bar	2	10-12
Tricep V-bar pushdowns	2	10-12

Tuesday: Rest

Wednesday: Back/Biceps/Forearms/Abs

Exercise	Sets	Reps
Deadlifts	3	10-12
Reverse-grip lat pulls	2	10-12
Dumbbell rows	2	10-12
Chins	2	10-12
Preacher curls with EZ-bar	2	10-12
Standing alternating dumbbell bicep curls	2	10-12
Seated dumbbell hammer curls	2	8-10
Reverse bicep curls with straight bar	2	12-15
Ab-machine of choice (Nautilus recommended)	2	10-12
Crunches	3	Unlim.

Thursday: Rest

Friday: Legs

Exercise	Sets	Reps
Squats	3	10-12
Leg presses (plate-loaded machine)	2	8-10
Leg extension machine	2	10-12
Seated hamstring curls	2	10-12
Face-down hamstring curls	2	10-12
Standing calf presses	3	8-10
Donkey calf presses	2	10-12
Lying calf presses	2	10-12

Weekend: Rest

Sample 4-Day Workout

A 4-day schedule could span Mon/Tue/Thu/Fri, similar to what we used in the beginner-step. Here's a sample workout routine:

Monday: Back/Biceps/Forearms

Exercise	Sets	Reps
Deadlifts	3	10-12
Chins	2	10-12
Dumbbell rows	2	10-12
Dumbbell shrugs	2	10-12
Preacher curls with EZ-bar	2	10-12
Seated dumbbell bicep curls	2	10-12
Rope hammer curls	2	8-10
Reverse bicep curls with straight bar	2	12-15
Forearm rolls w. barbell over bench	3	8-10

Tuesday: Shoulders*/Calfs/Abs

Exercise	Sets	Reps
Lateral dumbbell deltoid raises	3	12-15
One-hand cable lateral deltoid raises	2	12-15
Shoulder machine of choice (Nautilus or Hammer Strength recommended)	2	10-12
Standing calf presses	3	10-12
Donkey calf presses	2	10-12
Seated calf presses	2	10-12
Ab-machine of choice (Nautilus recommended)	2	10-12
Crunches	3	Unlim.

* excluding anterior delts

Wednesday: Rest

Thursday: Quads/Hamstrings

Exercise	Sets	Reps
Squats	3	10-12
Leg presses (plate-loaded machine)	2	10-12
Leg extension machine	2	10-12
Seated hamstring curls	2	10-12
Kneeling one-leg hamstring curls	2	10-12
Face-down hamstring curls	2	10-12

Friday: Chest/Triceps

Exercise	Sets	Reps
Dumbbell presses on flat bench	2	8-10
Dumbbell presses on incline bench	2	10-12
Cablecross flies (focus on contraction)	2	12-15
Standing barbell military presses	2	10-12
Lateral dumbbell deltoid raises	2	12-15
Dips	3	10-12
Skullcrushers with EZ-bar	2	10-12
Tricep V-bar pushdowns	2	10-12

Weekend: Rest

Diet

With junk food out of your diet and a nutrition log stretching over the past few months, you should already feel more in control of your eating habits and start experiencing the positive effects of better eating. Now it's time to narrow the focus to your specific goals.

Generally, people can be divided into three groups: Those who have a hard time putting on weight (ectomorphs), those who put on weight too easily (endomorphs), and then there's that lucky handful who're just right in the sweet spot and only need to keep eating to maintain their balance (mesomorphs). Not everyone can be placed squarely to one category, but you quick look in the mirror should tell you which general area you're in.

Key to getting the diet right for these three groups is to determine a suitable balance of protein, carbs and fats. The way to do this is simply summing up the totals from each column in your log, then multiply protein and carbs by 4 and finally multiply fat by 9. Then add the three totals and notice that the total calories differ slightly from the calorie-column you filled in.

Don't worry, you didn't mess up - you'll notice the official calorie-count of many foods don't quite add up when you break it down, so just check so you're in the same ballpark and you're ok. For simplicity, let's bring up the sample menu from the Beginner chapter:

Beginner Sample Diet

When	When	Calories	Protein	Carbs	Fat
8:00 AM	Oatmeal porridge w. no-fat milk	385	25	50	5
	5 scrambled egg whites	60	15	0	0
	Banana	105	1	28	1
	8 oz. orange juice	110	2	24	0

Noon	Chicken, rice & wok vegetables (restaurant)	540	35	40	20

3:30 PM	Granola bar	140	5	20	3
	Apple	60	1	20	0
	12 oz. No-fat milk	120	12	18	0

7:00 PM	Low-fat tuna salad, about 1 cup	385	33	19	20
	8 oz. apple juice	110	0	28	0

10:30 PM	Protein drink	189	40	5	1

TOTAL		2,204	169	252	50

Ok, let's do the math:

Total: 2,134 calories

Now, let's divide each number with the total calories:

(NOTE: Calories are rounded to the nearest whole number. This may cause your total calories added up to be different than the calculation above.)

As you can see, even though the diet may have seem lean and extremely low in fat, we got more than 20% of the daily caloric intake from fats because of its high energy content. Just for kicks, calculate what fat-percentage you get if you insert a Whopper with fries and a milk shake instead of the tuna-salad.

Now, let's look at different strategies for the three basic types of people.

Ectomorphs

Naturally skinny people need a lot of calories to put on muscle mass. While it's easy to think pizza and ice cream should be the ticket to getting those extra calories, they should come from good sources rather than junk in order to promote the muscle-building effort.

Since you have a naturally high metabolism to begin with, you need to a lot of fuel to burn, especially when you're lifting weights 3-4 times a week. Carbs is your primary source of fuel, in the gym and afterwards, so it makes sense to keep the carb intake up.

Examples of good sources of carbs are rice, pasta, veggies, bread (preferably the rough, high-fiber types) and oatmeal. In addition to fueling your workouts, carbs stimulate the release of insulin, which is highly anabolic.

Insulin also encourages your body to store fat, but that's not a big issue for someone who has to fight for each gained pound. Any fat you may gain along with the muscle can be worked off later.

Structuring the diet for an ectomorph is not rocket science -- try to eat more of everything! Starting with your daily caloric average (that you derived from your first week with the nutrition log) try to add about 500 calories per day. Adjust this up or down 100-200 calories if you're very large or very small.

This will provide your body with a little extra every day to ensure there's always a "calorie surplus". Get 20-25% of your calories from protein, 20-25% from good fats and 50-60% of your calories from carbs. Aim for complex, aka. slow carbs rather than sugary stuff. Avoid saturated and processed fats -- go with flax and olive oil, fish and nuts for your fat intake.

Sample Ectomorph Diet

When	When	Calories	Protein	Carbs	Fat
8:00 AM	Small omelette w. lean ham	300	20	2	12
	Hash browns, about 100 grams	265	3	35	12
	2 slices high-fiber wheat toast	130	5	24	2
	8 oz. orange juice	110	2	24	0

Noon	Turkey sandwich w. no-fat mayo	300	15	55	4
	Banana	105	1	28	1

3:30 PM	Gainer protein drink	400	20	70	1
	Apple	60	1	20	0
	1 oz. peanuts	160	7	5	14

7:00 PM	Lean beef w. mashed potatoes (restaurant)	390	30	40	12
	Salad	40	2	5	0

10:30 PM	Protein drink	189	40	5	1

TOTAL		2,449	146	313	59

Endomorphs

If you're an endomorph, the challenge is keeping the fat off while gaining muscle. It's a hard line to walk, but it can be done. While the popular high-protein/high-fat/low-carb diets may be questionable for safety and long-term results, they do have a nugget of truth: carbs are not the best friends for people prone to packing on fat.

This is largely caused by the dual-edge nature of insulin -- it helps you build muscle, but it also nudges you toward increased fat storage.

Protein, on the other hand, does not trigger a release of insulin, yet adds good calories that are unlikely to be turned into fat almost regardless. Counter-intuitive as it may seem, you still need to consume fat to function and to burn body fat. Also, since less carbs often mean less vegetables and fiber, you may want to consider daily fiber supplementation for keeping your digestive system in shape.

The endomorph diet strategy reflects this emphasis on protein and carb-avoidance. A tried-and-true caloric split of 40-45% protein, 40-45% carbs and 15-20% fat helps ensure sufficient protein for growth while keeping the carbs under control. If your goal is to shed fat, start with your daily caloric average (that you derived from your first week with the nutrition log) and deduct about 500 calories.

In other words, if you took in an average of 2,400 calories per day while neither gaining nor losing weight before, your new target average intake is 1,900 calories. Adjust 100-200 calories as necessary if you're very large or very small.

Sample Endomorph Diet

When	When	Calories	Protein	Carbs	Fat
8:00 AM	Bran flakes w. no-fat milk	160	10	26	1
	5 scrambled egg whites	60	15	0	0
	Banana	105	1	28	1
	8 oz. orange juice	110	2	24	0

Noon	Chicken salad	270	34	8	8
	12 oz. no-fat milk	120	12	18	0

3:30 PM	Meal-replacement bar	230	30	20	2
	Apple	60	1	20	0
	1 oz. peanuts	160	7	5	14

7:00 PM	Turkey & potato dinner	380	42	25	6
	1 cup steamed assorted veggies	120	5	24	0

10:30 PM	Protein drink	189	40	5	1

TOTAL		1,964	199	203	33

Mesomorphs

Mesomorphs are lucky in that they add on muscle relatively easily without having to worry about packing on too much fat in the process. Still, even the most genetically blessed mesomorphs won't get away with a pizza-and-beer diet. Your goal is to provide enough carbs to fuel your workouts and enough protein to enable optimal muscle growth without going overboard.

Complex carbs, such as rice, pasta, oatmeal and rough bread, along with complete food proteins such as eggs, milk, fish, chicken and lean beef should be the base of your diet. Avoid processed foods and don't forget your daily veggies and/or fiber supplements.

As far as the caloric split, aim for 30-35% protein, 45-50% carbs and 15-20% fat. Based on your daily caloric average (that you derived from your first week with the nutrition log), add an average of 500 calories per day. Be prepared to make adjustments as necessary - use a measuring tape to track your waist, chest, arms and thigh measurements on a bi-weekly or monthly basis.

If your waist stays the same and the rest increases you're good, if all measurements increase you need to cut back on carbs and/or fat, and if nothing happens anywhere you can increase the calories in 100-calorie increments until you see results.

Sample Mesomorph Diet

When	When	Calories	Protein	Carbs	Fat
8:00 AM	Oatmeal porridge w. no-fat milk	385	25	50	5
	5 scrambled egg whites	60	15	0	0
	Banana	105	1	28	1
	8 oz. orange juice	110	2	24	0

Noon	Lean beef w. rice	400	30	40	12
	1 cup steamed assorted veggies	120	5	24	0

3:30 PM	Granola bar	140	5	20	3
	1 oz. peanuts	160	7	5	14
	12 oz. no-fat milk	120	12	18	0

7:00 PM	Homemade chicken sandwich w. no-fat mayo	300	25	35	4
	12 oz. no-fat milk	120	12	18	0

10:30 PM	Protein drink	189	40	5	1

TOTAL		2,209	179	267	40

Supplements

As you become better at hammering your muscles, you need more nutrition to support optimal growth. Unfortunately, it is not always possible to achieve this through regular food so your dependence on supplements is likely to go up as you gain experience in the gym. It may also be time to introduce additional new supplements that can help you gain an edge.

Your multivitamin/minerals and protein drinks remain the foundation of you supplementation regime. In addition to having protein drinks as in-between snacks, you may want to get into the habit of having a pure protein drink before bedtime, caloric budget permitting.

Pure protein drinks, with little or no carbs and fat, typically provide 40 grams of quality protein while staying under 200 calories yet helps your body recover better as you sleep. As protein does not trigger the release of insulin it won't turn into fat. Check out our protein shakes recipes main page, click here!

A new supplement to try is creatine monohydrate. This is a combination of three naturally occurring amino acids: glycine, methionine and arginine. It has proven to be both safe and effective, with both scientific facts and empirical findings to back it up. Being cheap and almost foolproof, it's one of the few supplements no bodybuilder can afford to overlook. It works by helping increase the stored energy in your muscles, which enables you to lift heavier and train harder.

In addition, it increases the water retention in your muscles, giving you a more buffed look while making it easier to get a good pump. Another positive aspect of the increased hydration is that it increases protein synthesis by bringing in more ions into the muscle cells = more growth.

To take best advantage of creatine you should cycle it with distinct loading-phases and breaks between each cycle. Some studies have suggested a low-dose, continuous approach works too, but it is my experience that cycling is more effective. Drinking a lot of water, especially during the loading phase, is key to taking full advantage of the creatine.

How To Take Creatine:

Day 1-4:

Day 5 & Onward:
Take 5 grams an hour before your workout, and 5 grams immediately after the workout (along with something sugary).

After 4-6 Weeks:
Stop taking creatine and take a break for a couple of weeks, then start over.

To get the best absorption, have your creatine with something sugary such as grape juice or dextrose. Some supplement companies sell pre-mixed creatine cocktails that promise rapid absorption.

Another supplement you may want to consider is glutamine. Glutamine is an amino acid that plays a key role in protein synthesis, i.e. helps your body build muscle. In addition, it boosts your immune system and is a major building block for DNA. You've probably heard about "keeping a positive nitrogen balance" as a good thing for building muscle. Unfortunately, nitrogen processing has a nasty side effect: ammonia.

Too high levels of ammonia in the body are not healthy, but glutamine helps keeping the ammonia in check. While you can always reap some benefit from adding a couple of 5-10 gram doses of glutamine to your daily supplementation regime, the real bang comes when you're dieting to lose weight - it can do wonders in helping you preserve muscle mass while shedding the fat.

Last but not least, taking a few doses of vitamin C throughout the day can help you stay healthy. While not producing instant results like creatine, vitamin C is more of a good-to-have supplement with a bunch of intangible benefits. But hey, it's dirt cheap and water-soluble so you don't have to worry about overdosing -- what's to lose?

When	Supplement	Dose

8:00 A.M.	Daily One multivitamin/mineral (with breakfast)	1 capsule
	Glutamine	5 grams

12:00 PM	Vitamin C (w. lunch)	500 mg

4:00 PM	Gainer drink (with pre-workout snack)	2 scoops w. water
	Creatine	5 grams
6:30 PM	Creatine (with something sugary)	5 grams
	Glutamine	10 grams

7:00 PM	Vitamin C (w. dinner)	500 mg

10:30 PM	Pure protein drink (pre-bedtime snack)	2 scoops w. water

Tips & Tricks

If you haven't done so already, get a regular workout partner. As you start pushing heavier weights you need a reliable spotter who knows your strength and can tell when you need a helping hand. Another positive aspect of a training partner is that it helps you stick to the plan of going to the gym on specific days of the week. Last but not least, a little friendly competition can do wonders for making progress.

Opt for movements that make you use each side of your body separately. Most people have one slightly stronger side, meaning you can for example do 1-2 bicep curls more with your stronger arm than the weaker one. You want to avoid this kind of muscular imbalance as it can lead to injuries down the road, so don't encourage it by using machines that let the stronger side pull more of the load and thus get stronger at the expense of the other side.
When you work both sides independently, such as dumbbell presses, it ensures both sides get hit equally hard with the same weight and reps. It may feel odd to not fully clobber your stronger side as much as you theoretically could. Use your frustration to push the weaker side up to par instead.

Don't ignore the cardiovascular training. You need to keep your heart and lungs in shape to get enough oxygen for intense squatting and lifting, so aim for 2-3 cardio workouts per week in addition to your weight training. This can be machines in the gym, biking, jogging, skiing or chasing cars on the highway - whatever gets your heart rate up for over 30 mins should do the trick.

As use heavier weights in your back training you may find that your grip gives in before your back muscles do. If that's the case, it's time for lifting straps or hooks. This will reinforce your grip to get you through the back workouts, but don't forget to make up for it by giving your forearms a few extra forearm rolls so as to prevent them from falling further behind.

Intensity Boosters

Since your body is adjusting to your workouts, you need to crank up the intensitybeyond simply lifting more weight. The way to nudge yourself out of the comfort zone and triggering growth is to reach beyond what you could normally handle. That is, while staying within the realm of safety. At this point in your development there are three primary methods for increasing the intensity: Forced/assisted reps, drop sets and supersets

Forced/Assisted Reps -

Last but not least, the help should only be applied to the positive phase, i.e. while the muscle is contracting. In the negative phase, where you're resisting the weight on its way back down, should be completely unassisted. You're up to 40% stronger in the negative phase anyway, so you shouldn't need the help.

In fact, this difference in strength between the positive and the negative phases comes in handy for one of the advanced intensity boosters, but it carries a fair risk of injury so you don't want to play that game until you have a couple years of experience under your belt.

Drop Sets -

This is great for getting an awesome pump and is a good option for those training alone, but you lose some of the benefits of having the heavier weight in the negative phase. Some exercises are especially suitable for drop sets, such as lateral dumbbell raises, bicep curls and cable crossover flies.

Supersets -

Obviously, you'll be weakened for the second set so choose weights accordingly. Also bear in mind that some muscles are more suited to supersets than others. Chest, for example, is a perfect muscle for supersets, where you can start with heavy dumbbell presses and then immediately go to cable crossover flies. On the other hand, there are only so many ways to hit hamstrings - can the body really tell the difference between seated leg curls or face-down leg curls?

The Mental Game

It can be discouraging to see your progress slowing down even though you're learning more and more about training and dieting. This is perfectly natural - once your body is past the initial surprise of weight training, there is no reason to pack on a lot of additional size and mass as quickly as before.

Don't lose the spark that got you started in the first place! Keep your eyes firmly on the end goal and keep hitting your small partials goals. Adjust your expectations to fit reality and push on.

As mentioned earlier, a workout partner can be golden when it comes to staying motivated. A good training partner will urge you to go beyond what you thought you were capable of, while a bad partner can make you wish you were back home on your couch. Ideally, pick someone who is slightly stronger than you and have an upbeat, positive outlook. Try to match that mindset and don't be afraid to engage in friendly competition. Keep things fun yet focused on the task at hand.

Another dumb but surprisingly effective trick for pushing yourself is to imagine an eccentric millionaire walking in with an offer of a million dollars for breaking your old record.

With a thick stack of $100 dollar bills under your nose, wouldn't you find some extra reserve someplace to squeeze out another 2 reps? Sure you would, so just do it. You may surprise yourself.

Last but not least, learn to accept pain. If you shy away from the fact that the last reps of leg presses will make your quads burn like fire you'll never realize your full potential as a bodybuilder. There's no need to go masochistic, but the sooner you learn to suck it up and push through to the other side the better off you will be.

Acquainting yourself with pain will also help you identify regular, harmless pain caused by a good workout as opposed to unhealthy pain caused by joint injuries, muscular tears and similar.

Mass-Building - Shoulders & Neck

2009-06-14T05:11:00.000-07:00

Mass-Building - Shoulders & Neck

The 2009 edition of the New Year's Resolution: Mass-Building Series has arrived! In this newly updated and improved edition, additional anatomy and physiology is revealed at the basic level, with the inclusion of the many different joints. Also, many new exercises are introduced, and every workout is expanded.

Of course, all of the fundamental information from the first series is still present, with some of it revised and updated. This will ensure that you continue the great progress that you've made since last year's mass building New Year's resolution.

For the newcomers, this is your chance to learn all of the vital information to building muscle mass and truly achieving your newly set mass-building resolutions.

Today's focus is on the shoulders and neck, which primarily consist of the deltoids,traps, and neck muscles.

Mass-Building Exercises

Now that you know the basic anatomy and physiology of the shoulders and the neck, it's time for you to learn about their mass-building exercises.

Internal Rotation (warm-up exercise)

The internal rotation is an isolation exercise used to strengthen the rotator cuff muscles of the shoulder. It is used as a warm-up exercise.

External Rotation (warm-up exercise)

The external rotation is an isolation exercise used to strengthen the rotator cuff muscles of the shoulder. It is used as a warm-up exercise.

Barbell Shoulder Press

The barbell shoulder press is a compound movement used to build mass in the anterior and medial deltoids. The use of a 90 degree inclined bench is recommended, in order to prevent injury and/or hyperextension of the lower back. Also recommended is the use of a slightly wider than shoulder-width apart grip.

Dumbbell Shoulder Press

The dumbbell shoulder press is a compound movement used to build mass in the anterior and medial deltoids. The use of a 90 degree inclined bench is recommended, in order to prevent injury and/or hyperextension of the lower back.

Machine Shoulder Press

The machine shoulder press is a compound movement used to build mass in the anterior and medial deltoids. The machine is a great alternative to free weights and is good to use, especially when there isn't a spotter. The use of a 90 degree inclined bench is recommended, in order to prevent injury and/or hyperextension of the lower back.

Barbell Clean And Press

The barbell clean and press is compound movement used to build mass, density, and power in nearly all muscle groups, especially the deltoids. It is a difficult movement to master and should be performed with lighter weights until correct execution is achieved.

Barbell Front Raise

The barbell front raise is an isolation movement used to build mass and quality in the anterior deltoids. A shoulder-width apart grip is recommended.

Dumbbell Front Raise

The dumbbell front raise is an isolation movement used to build mass and quality in the anterior deltoids. An alternating arms motion is recommended.

Cable Front Raise

The cable front raise is an isolation movement used to build quality in the anterior deltoids. An alternating arms motion is recommended.

Dumbbell Lateral Raise

The dumbbell lateral raise is an isolation movement used to build mass and quality in the medial deltoids. An arms by side motion is recommended.

Cable Lateral Raise

The cable lateral raise is an isolation movement used to build quality in the medial deltoids. An arms by side motion is recommended.

Bent-Over Dumbbell Lateral Raise

The bent-over dumbbell lateral raise is an isolation movement used to build mass and quality in the posterior deltoids.

Seated Bent-Over Dumbbell Lateral Raise

The seated bent-over dumbbell lateral raise is an isolation movement used to build mass and quality in the posterior deltoids.

Back Flyes

The back fly is an isolation movement used to build mass and quality in the posterior deltoids. An upside down hand position is recommended.

Barbell Upright Row

The barbell upright row is a compound movement used to build mass in traps. A slightly wider than shoulder-width apart grip is recommended.

Barbell Shrug

The barbell shrug is an isolation movement used to build mass in the traps. A slightly wider than shoulder-width apart grip is recommended.

Dumbbell Shrug

The dumbbell shrug is an isolation movement used to build mass in the traps. An arms by side position is recommended.

Standing Head Harness

The standing head harness is an isolation movement used to build mass and quality in the neck muscles.

Seated Head Harness

The seated head harness is an isolation movement used to build mass and quality in the neck muscles.

Lying Face-Up Neck Flexion

The lying face-up neck flexion is an isolation movement used to build mass and quality in the neck muscles.

Lying Face-Down Neck Extension

The lying face-down neck extension is an isolation movement used to build mass and quality in the neck muscles.

Mass-Building Sets And Rep Ranges

Next up for you to learn is the amount of sets and rep ranges that will allow you to build maximal muscle mass in the shoulders.

Compound Exercises

All compound exercises in the workout plan require 4 sets. The first set consists of 15 reps with light weights, for warm-up purposes. The following three sets consist of 8, 6, and 4 reps with heavy weights, for mass-building purposes.

Isolation Exercises

All isolation exercises in the workout plan also require 4 sets. The first set consists of 15 reps with light weights, for warm-up purposes. The following three sets consist of 10, 8, and 6 reps with heavy weights for mass-building purposes. There is an exception to this for some exercises for safety reasons. Those exercises consist of 12, 10, and 8 reps with medium to heavy weights for mass-building and safety purposes.

The second exception is the standing head harness, seated head harness, lying face-up neck flexion, and lying-down neck flexion. They each require three sets each. The first set is a warm-up set consisting of 20 reps. The following two sets consist of 15 and 12 reps with medium to heavy weights for mass-building and safety purposes.

Mass-Building Workout Plan

Finally, the moment you've been waiting for! The mass building workout plan consists of 4 weeks of differing workouts, with only one shoulder and neck workout each week. After the fourth week is completed, the workout cycle needs to be repeated.

Week 1-

Shoulder Warm-Up

Internal Rotation (warm-up exercise) - 3 Sets Of 25, 20, 15 Reps
External Rotation (warm-up exercise) - 3 Sets Of 25, 20, 15 Reps

Deltoids

Barbell Shoulder Press - 4 Sets Of 15, 8, 6, 4 Reps
Dumbbell Front Raise - 4 Sets Of 15, 10, 8, 6 Reps
Cable Lateral Raise - 4 Sets Of 15, 10, 8, 6 Reps
Seated Bent-Over Dumbbell Lateral Raise - 4 Sets Of 15, 12, 10, 8 Reps

Traps

Dumbbell Shrug - 4 Sets Of 15, 10, 8, 6 Reps

Neck

Standing Head Harness - 3 Sets Of 20, 15, 12 Reps
Lying Face-Up Neck Flexion - 3 Sets Of 20, 15, 12 Reps

Week 2-

Shoulder Warm-Up

Internal Rotation (warm-up exercise) - 3 Sets Of 25, 20, 15 Reps
External Rotation (warm-up exercise) - 3 Sets Of 25, 20, 15 Reps

Deltoids

Machine Shoulder Press - 4 Sets Of 15, 8, 6, 4 Reps
Barbell Front Raise - 4 Sets Of 15, 10, 8, 6 Reps
Dumbbell Lateral Raise - 4 Sets Of 15, 10, 8, 6 Reps
Bent-Over Dumbbell Lateral Raise - 4 Sets Of 15, 12, 10, 8 Reps

Traps

Barbell Upright Row - 4 Sets Of 15, 10, 8, 6 Reps

Neck

Seated Head Harness - 3 Sets Of 20, 15, 12 Reps
Lying Face-Down Neck Flexion - 3 Sets Of 20, 15, 12 Reps

Bench Like An Animal

2009-06-04T10:59:00.000-07:00

There are many milestones when entering the world of bench pressing. When starting into the gym life, you might see others in the gym benching big weight and wonder how you too can get there.

Read Bench Like An Animal: Part 1

There are many milestones when entering the world of bench pressing. When starting into the gym life, you might see others in the gym benching big weight and wonder how you too can get there. Benching is an eye-catching movement that draws a big crowd. It never seems to fail, that if a conversation starts between two people in the gym, one will ask the other, "So how much do you bench?"

In a normal gym, you might observe lifters benching in the three hundreds, but watch someone load 8 plates on the bar and people will stop to see if the lift goes up. If that lifter does 405 for more then one, people will come from other rooms to watch. If that lifter goes higher into the mid-400s or even crosses into the 500-pound press, well then, all eyes in the gym will be focused on him and all movement in the gym will come to a standstill.

BREAK THAT MARK

People will always ask the lifter how he got there, the 400, 500, or 600 pound bench press. Have you ever been one of them? Are any of these weights one of your goals? Have you been training for months and not seen any improvement in your strength? Are you frustrated because it seems there are so many techniques and magazines with so many different ideas that can't possibly be done in a normal lifestyle? Here are my basics. My routine mixes old school intensity with some new school methods. It ought to help with your training as well.

Listen, training for strength is a tough thing to do. In bodybuilding, a competitor must peak at the right time to insure the best results. In power lifting, a competitor must do the same to insure a best lift. However, in order for a power lifter to be the best at his best, he must first keep the "beast fed." This means eating, then eating, and then eating some more.

Natural power lifting is very tough on the body. The main things the body has to restore itself from the beating is rest and food. I hate to use a cliché¬ but you definitely are what you eat. If you want to be strong, you have to eat for it.

Now bear in mind that this article is specially geared for the natural lifter. I know there are many out there who want to perfect the bench press, naturally. I personally believe lifting natural is the best way to go. Plus, it's a whole hell of a lot cheaper. But your choice is your own. OK. Let's start.

START OFF RIGHT

Too many beginners start right off the bat eating a diet a bodybuilder two weeks out of a show would be proud of. You know what I'm talking about: no fat, no carbohydrates and usually only moderate protein intake. When you're training for strength or size (or both), you should be taking in, minimum, at least a gram of protein per pound of bodyweight every day. Hard, heavy lifters (those athletes getting ready for a power lifting competition, for example) should take in as much as a gram and a half for every pound of bodyweight per day.

There are some people who say that the body only needs 50 grams of protein per day and anything over that will only be eliminated. I can tell you from personal experience that recovery time is cut down dramatically when you follow a high protein diet.

Remember, the body uses protein to rebuild the muscles that get torn down every time you lift heavy. Common sense should tell you that the harder you lift, the more protein you'll need to fix the damage you cause. If you run your big 4x4 truck hard, does it use more gas? Hell yeah!

Calculate your protein intake HERE!

Now young, inexperienced lifters should take special note here. Too many of you are under the impression that the diet of the bodybuilder and the training of a power lifter go together. They do not. Let me repeat: they do not. If you want to be cut and ripped, you have to train and eat for that physique. If you want ultimate power, you have to train and eat for that instead. Very few athletes can look like a hard core bodybuilder and bench like a world-class power lifter, as this usually involves more then just training and diet.

HAVE AN EXTRA STEAK

So, if you want that big bench, make sure to eat a ton. I am not giving you a license to eat all the sweets and chips you want. What I am saying is to make sure you have an extra steak, eat 2 more potatoes, or even throw in an extra meal because taking in at least 5000 calories a day is not uncommon for a serious power athlete. I'm going to say it again because it's that important: Heavy training and a big diet is the way to gaining size and strength.

We all have a comfort zone. The key to diet is to see what yours is. When first starting out, don't be afraid to eat when your body craves extra food. The addition of heavy training will add many calories to your diet. Trust me. Eventually, your body will find out where it wants to stay. Only then can you start to plan out your route for competition.

In addition, drink at least a gallon of ice cold water a day. For those in doubt about eating so many calories a day, drinking the water will help keep extra weight down (not that the beginning power athlete should worry about that right now). Why ice cold water? Because it will help keep extra weight down since your body will burn calories to warm the water up. Another reason that a power athlete should drink a lot of water is because most of the supplements on the market are water-soluble.

SUPPLEMENTAL SUPPORT

Speaking of supplements, if you're just starting out, focus on the nutrition you get from the foods you eat. If you're eating a wide variety of foods, you won't need to start with supplements. Remember, supplements are just another tool for helping you reach your goals. They're not a magic pill. Supplements, in the absence of a solid diet, hard training, and plenty of rest, will be a waste of your hard-earned money. But when you're ready for that extra edge, start with a basic protein powder, maybe some extra amino acids, and a good multivitamin. My feeling is, since the training at the initial stage is not advanced, why should the supplement plan? A beginner should not be worried about supplements so much. Advanced lifters who have more knowledge and experience, on the other hand, should formulate their own opinions about what they want to take.

As an experienced lifter, I personally rely andAnimal supplements. During the year, I useAnimal Pak and Animal Stak religiously. Lately though, I've been using some Animal M-Stak right before a meet and getting great results. Whatever supplements you use though, if you want to train naturally and you want to get strong, take supplements that will increase your body's ability to train and recover.

THROWING IT ALL TOGETHER

Heavy training, a huge diet, a good supplement plan, and plenty of rest is the only way to gain size and strength. So if you're training hard but having trouble getting strong, start by looking at your diet. After all, if you are unhappy with the way you look, you can always cut weight. It is much easier to cut the weight off then put muscle on. And unfortunately, eating big is the only way, naturally speaking, to put on a lot of size. A solid supplement plan will get you to the next level. On top of all that, get your sleep at night. All this will lay the foundation for the next step:training. Next month, I'll specifically talk about training for bigger gains in the bench. Until then, work hard and eat big.

Read Bench Like An Animal: Part 2

In the first part of this article, we talked about diet and nutrition. Now, let's talk training. The one thing I run into all the time is people not knowing how to develop their training routine. The first thing you need to do is know what you are training for. Do you want to be cut? Do you plan on putting on size for show? Or do you want to train for powerlifting?

Typically, when someone wants to be ripped they stay in the area of 12-15 reps. This will not put on maximum size but can be used for rounding and fat burning. 8-10 reps is typically the area for a bodybuilder. 6 or less reps in a set is the powerlifting range. A lifter has to train his body for what he wants it to do. If you want ultimate power you don't do sets of 10 to build size. Sets of 10 will build strength but will not teach the body to hit the highest lift it can for one.The body is a blank slate. Isolating it to one thing will allow the body to be at its maximum for that thing. How many times have you done better on your second or third rep then on your first? Look into your training that might give you the answer. To achieve the big bench, train for it. Developing a training schedule is not difficult if you know a few basic rules.

RULE ONE: DON'T OVERTRAIN

The first, and main rule to follow is don't overtrain. You can't bench three times a week and expect your bench to go anywhere but down. If you do, you'll only increase the risk forinjury. If you are following a routine that calls for you to bench more then once a week, my advice is, stop. When lifting for ultimate strength, every major muscle group needs about 48-72 hours to recover. If you bench three times a week, you cannot achieve huge lifts.

Plus, benching once a week and designing the workout to do accessories, for the bench, will give the body time to rest between benching and strengthen for the bench. By accessories, I am referring to the smaller muscle groups that complement the major one you are working on. For the bench, these include the triceps, shoulders, and lats. When you bench at this level, you have be careful not to over work the accessories.

Sound a little confusing? When you bench, the movement recruits other muscles. This means even if you lift your butt or twist a little, it is still benching. So benching three times a week can burn those muscles out too. If the workout is designed to do the accessories for the bench, it gives other muscles time to recover before they are used directly again.

Ok, now you are saying if you lift other parts in the same week, I still could be using the parts I used while benching. Yes, that would be correct, but now they are used indirectly and give them more time to recover. I never said powerlifting was for the faint at heart.

RULE TWO: GIVE MUSCLES PLENTY OF REST

Plan your routine to allow for maximum recovery. This means if you want those parts to be their best, design the workout so that each body part can rest as much as it can. If you bench on Sunday, for example, triceps would be the most logical body part to exercise after doing the bench routine. Benching and strong triceps go together. If the routine calls for lifting on Monday then doing bicepsand back would be the most logical.

Old school training used to design training schedules on the push/pull method. One day would call for you to exercise muscles that pull (biceps/back) and other days would be designed for muscles that push (chest/triceps).

RULE THREE: NEVER GIVE UP

Put on an intense lifting face. Never, never give up. So many lifters walk into a gym with good intentions. So very few actually accomplish the goals they set out for themselves. The only way you can accomplish any goal is to first show up. Show up mentally and show up physically. Or why bother showing up at all?

Naturally it takes a lot of time and education. While training, be open to new ideas and watch others in the gym. Know when someone in the gym is doing an exercise incorrectly. That way when that person comes up to you and talks, or tells you are doing something wrong, you can just say, "Thanks," and walk away with a smirk.

Learn The Proper Exercise Techniques HERE In Our Exercise Database!

Everyone has a different way to train. Not all of them are right, and not all of them are wrong. But, when you know the facts about training, you can take what works for you out of any conversation and then there is never any wasted time. Strengthtraining is one of the toughest sports to handle. Training has to be heavy, hard, and constant. Saying I can't do that today is not an option. Being too tired is not a choice. Being the best at anything takes a lot of time and dedication. Knowing your training is crucial to success.

There is no wrong way to train when you know and follow the facts. Old school training has its place, as do new forms of training. With education, a competitor can make his own choices. Knowing that not touching the bar when entering a bench contest and only doing accessories does not work for natural competitor cuts down on time and frustration when training for a contest. Learn your sport, keep the goals reasonable, never quit, and know what you got to do. When it comes to powerlifting, know it's not a sport, but a state of mind.

ROUTINE: THE 8-WEEK HEAVY BENCH

I have included a 4-day routine for building a strong bench. It's not the be all, end all, but it will definitely help the lifter who doesn't know how to train for a better bench or the one who needs a boost in the bench. You can adjust this routine to fit your particular needs. This workout should only be used for approximately 8 weeks.

During your 8 weeks of the program, pay close attention to how your body responds to the training. After the 8 weeks is up, change will be needed. Design a modified program that gives you more time for rest or just lighten the weight for a 2-week off cycle.

To maximize this workout, a lifter should start this workout with lighter weights. He should know about his range for each exercise and know failure. If any of the workout is not tough enough, raise the weight. If the reps for the abs are not enough, raise the reps. Always write down and keep track of what you do. The program is designed for increasing the bench press so even though legs are part of the routine, watch the extras as it will drain strength from the main focus. But don't forget this important fact: strong legs and strong abs will mean strong bench.

On heavy bench day, if your final rep is a failure, don't worry. Try again next week with the same weight. If the final rep is easy, then add 10 pounds and try again. If you hit that too, and it takes at least 20 pounds to fail, then start at 20 pounds or higher next week. After completing this program, try your one rep max again. The typical gain you can expect is around 20-30 pounds on your bench.

One final note. Warm up is very important. Whether you choose to lift light, stretch, do some cardio, or whatever, just do it. Anyone who is dedicated to training usually has their own style of warming up. Just make sure that the body part you are training and the muscles associated with that part are ready to start heavy.

__________ THE 8-WEEK PROGRAM __________

SUNDAY

Warm-up
Heavy Bench
- 225 lb. x 6 reps (75%)
- 235 lb. x 5 reps (78%)
- 245 lb. x 4 reps (82%)
- 255 lb. x 3 reps (85%)
- 265 lb. x 2 reps (88%)
- 275 lb. x 1 rep (91%)
- Final end rep (around 90%)
- Note: The above poundages refer to a lifter who already has a 300 pound one rep max. Your numbers will vary depending on your individual goal.
Triceps
- Close Grip Bench: 3 x 3 (75%) -
- Skull Crushers (Light): 3 sets x 8 reps -
- Dumbbell Kickbacks: 3 sets x 8 reps -
- Pushdowns: 3 sets x 8 reps -
Abs
- Crunches: 3 sets 25 reps -
- Cable Crunches: 3 sets 25 reps

MONDAY

Warm-Up
Back
- Pull-Ups: 4 sets x 10 reps -
- T-Bar: 3 sets x 8 reps -
- Dumbbell Rows: 3 sets x 8 reps -
- Front Pulldowns: 3 sets x 8 reps -
Biceps
- Hammer Curls: 3 sets x 8 reps -
- Preacher Curls: 3 sets x 8 reps -
- Straight Bar Curls: 3 sets x 8 reps -
- Seated Curls: 3 sets x 8 reps -
Abs
- Crunches: 3 sets 25 reps
- Cable Crunches: 3 sets 25 reps

TUESDAY

Day off

WEDNESDAY

Warm-Up
Shoulders
- Barbell Shoulder Press: 3 sets x 8 reps
- Dumbbell Shrugs: 3 sets x 6 reps
- Incline Press: 3 sets x 6 reps -
- Front Delt Raises: 3 sets x 8 reps -
- Shoulder Flyes: 3 sets x 8 reps -
Triceps
- Single Arm Skull Crushers (Heavy): 3 sets x 6 reps -
- Barbell Skull Crushers: 3 sets x 6 reps -
- Single Arm Pushdowns: 3 sets x 8 reps -
Abs
- Crunches: 3 sets 25 reps
- Cable Crunches: 3 sets 25 reps

THURSDAY

Warm-Up
Legs
- Squat: 3 sets x 8 reps -
- Leg press: 3 sets x 8 reps -
- Hack Squat: 3 sets x 8 reps -
- Leg Extension: 3 sets x 8 reps -
- Hamstrings: 3 sets x 8 reps -
- Calves: 3 sets 15 reps -
Abs
- Crunches: 3 sets 25 reps
- Cable Crunches: 3 sets 25 reps

FRIDAY

Day off

SATURDAY

Day off

Training Secrets for Building A Sculpted Chest

2009-05-25T01:32:00.000-07:00

How much can you bench? In this article, I hope to engage and gravitate your attention to some of my secrets to building an impressive chest! Take action now and build a sculpted chest with these tips and exercises!

How much can you bench? This is the all-to common question we all know to be used as a gauge of total body strength or manhood. However, in this article, I hope to engage and gravitate your attention to some of my secrets to building a wonderfully sculpted and impressive treasure chest!

Like any treasure chest, one has to dig deep to find it, pun intended! How much one can bench is less important, which may be a relief to many who can not bench as much as their peers. Now, the reason why I am writing on chest training is twofold:

I love writing and sharing my ideas and research-based standpoints on various topics.

I felt that more people enjoy training articles because of the immediate practicality of them (i.e. I got a lot of positive feedback from my upper back training article).

Click Image To Enlarge.
I Will Share My Secrets To Building A
Wonderfully Sculpted And Impressive Chest!

The approach to chest training is 5-step process:

Determine an appropriate strength level that will allow chest development to be seen (chest mass).

Train chest with enough intensity and volume to induce great definition.

Hit the chest from different grips and body planes.

Balance your chest training with back training to be at a ratio of 2-or 3-to-1. In other words, for every chest exercise, you should do 2-3 back exercises.

Work on your posture and train your rotator cuff. These 4 muscles are so intricate and important in maintaining shoulder health and integrity and allowing one to train chest for a long-time to come.

1. An Appropriate Strength Level For Chest:

Well, contrary to popular opinion, I like to use relative strength as a gauge. Research has shown that in a sample of Caucasian males aged 20-29, 1.48 or greater is the 90th percentile, while 1.06 is average (Cooper Institute for Aerobics Research, 1994). 1.48 (ratio derived from 1RM/bodyweight; i.e. 160 lb male/240 1RM bench press = 1.5).

The number declines slightly with age. However, the point is that a 200 lb man who can bench 315 lbs is weaker than a 140 lb man who can bench 225 lbs. Now we have a level playing field with regard to how much one can bench, and also, you might want to take a look at the impressiveness of the 140 lb guy's chest in comparison to the 200 lb guy's chest.

In all probability, the 140 lb guy's chest will have striations and upper-lower pectoral separation, whereas the 200 lb guy will likely have one blob of chest mass and no kind of striations. Muscle density (quality) is more impressive than muscle mass (quantity).

Don't concern yourself with the big chests in muscle magazines of guys who are likely not natural, but focus on your own training and do it the right way. You will never go wrong.

2. Intensity Vs. Volume:

Use the shock principle too (Schwarzenegger, 1998). For example, pre-fatiguing the chest will make it work harder. A sample routine would be starting your workout with dumbbell chest flyes for 2-3 sets, and then doingbarbell or dumbbell bench press.

Click Image To Enlarge.
Dumbbell Flyes.

Video Guide: Windows Media - Video iPod

I know from personal experience this routine works wonders. I know because many of you probably have experienced more anterior deltoid soreness on many occasions after a typical chest workout. However, after this pre-fatigue workout, I was not sore in the delts at all, but my chest was sore!

Another routine could be super-slow reps. Research has shown this type of training to certainly have positive effects on strength and metabolic rate (Hutchins, 1992; Ward, 2004; Westcott et al., 2001).

The basis of slow-rep training is that it forces you to focus more on perfecting your technique and feeling all the little things occurring physiologically that go unnoticed throughout the normal ROM at traditional rep speed. However, in the end, you will eventually discover that you have finally gotten that treasure chest!


	ROM: ROM is an acronym for Range Of Motion.

Flat, Incline Or Decline?

Research has shown that there is no significant difference in upper pectoral recruitment between incline or decline bench, however the lower pectorals are activated more in the decline bench (Barnett et al., 1995; Glass & Armstrong, 1997).

In fact, I will give you a simple test that will impress on you why I don't like incline bench. Lie on an incline bench, and without any weights, hold your arms out in front of you in the plane of the bar path. Now hold your arms like this exactly, and stand up.

Click To Enlarge.
Decline Barbell Bench Press.
Video : Windows Media - MPEG - Video iPod

Not to mention, your arms are above shoulder level, which is conducive to the all-too common shoulder impingement syndrome many weightlifters suffer from nationwide (Gross et al., 1993).


	Shoulder Impingement Syndrome: Impingement syndrome, also called painful arc syndrome, supraspinatus syndrome, swimmer's shoulder, and thrower's shoulder, is a clinical syndrome which occurs when the tendons of the rotator cuff muscles become irritated and inflamed as they pass through the subacromial space, the passage beneath the acromion. This can result in pain, weakness and loss of movement at the shoulder.

You could still do incline, but bring the bar to nipple or slightly below nipple line and keep the elbows lower than the shoulder. Also, you could dounderhand grip bench or you could do close-grip neutral grip incline dumbbell bench press.

The point is, shoulder flexion motion (front dumbbell raises) recruits the upper pecs more than horizontal shoulder adduction motion (typical T-bar bench press). I personally like flat and decline for great chest development and maintenance of healthy shoulders.

Actually, research clearly supports my opinion, since it was found that the clavicular fibers of the chest are recruited greatest with a narrow-hand spacing and anterior deltoid activity tends to increase as trunk inclination increases (Barnett et al., 1995).

4. Muscle Balance:

To get a bigger chest, work your upper back. Not only will this create balance, but it will actually create nice side-view depth and make your chest look even bigger! Additionally, back training will actually strengthen your bench, improve your posture and prevent shoulder problems down the road (Barlow et al., 2002).

Click Image To Enlarge.
To Get A Bigger Chest,
Work Your Upper Back.

5. Rotator Cuff & Posture:

The rotator cuff gets worked hard during the bench press or dumbbell bench press. Reason being, the pectoralis major is not just a horizontal shoulder adductor, but it is also an internal rotator (Hamill & Knutzen, 2003). The rotator cuff has to stabilize against this big internal rotator moment by externally rotating in an effort to bring the shoulder back into neutral position.

Related Rotator Cuff Articles:

The Rotator Cuff: Injury Prevention! - By Dorian Kent

The Rotator Cuff - Surgery? - By Ryan Mclane

The Dangers Of Dumbbell Flyes! - By Matt Danielsson

Other Rotator Cuff Articles...

What happens is, nothing really. But over time, you will see this person grabbing at his shoulder between sets with a look of misunderstanding on his face. What that misunderstanding is, is this guy being upset and wanting to blame someone or something else for preventing him from enjoying a good chest workout.

Instead, he should hire a qualified personal trainer and learn how to bench correctly and how to balance his chest with appropriate back training, and last but not least, learn how to train, strengthen and stretch his rotator cuff muscles.

Click Image To Enlarge.
Stretch And Strengthen Your
Rotator Cuff Muscles.

Best Chest Mass Exercise

Barbell Bench Press Or Dumbbell Bench Press:

Regimin 1:

3 sets of 1 rep
Rest-pause training
75-85% 1RM
Followed by 3 sets of 6-10 reps

Regimin 2:

3 sets of 2-4 reps
Drop-set training
80-85-90% 1RM

Regimin 3:

3 sets of 5-10 reps
70-90% 1RM
Followed by 1 set of pushups to failure

1 REP MAX CALCULATOR

Best Chest Definition Exercise

Dumbbell Flyes/Cable Flyes Combo Or Iso-Tension Cable Flyes:

Regimen 1:

Dumbbell Flyes/Cable Flyes Combo
3 sets of 5-10 reps

Regimen 2:

Iso-Tension Cable Flyes
3 sets of 8-12 reps
Hold for 2-5 seconds in each rep


	Iso-Tension: Iso means - Equal; the same, and Tension means - To tighten; stiffen; contract. So Iso-Tension is simply contacting the muscles and holding it in the same place - no movement.

Getting The Chest Absolutely Shredded With Detail/Definition Training

The key to getting the chest ripped in my personal experience is by increasing the total work done and hitting it from every angle possible.

This involves doing more sets and reps and changing grips, body position, and arm position. Stick to rep ranges of 6-10 reps for the first of 1 or 2 exercises for chest, then gradually begin increasing the reps to 10-15, to 15-20, and then finish with 1 or 2 exercises of 50 or more reps! The workout should look something like this:

Barbell or Dumbbell Bench Press: 3 sets of 3-5 reps
Dumbbell or Cable Flyes: 3 sets of 8-10 reps
Pushups: 3 sets of 20-50 reps

Add Serious Size to Your Arms -Triceps

2009-03-16T02:27:00.000-07:00

Every bodybuilder wants huge guns. Let's face it - what good is a bodybuilder with small arms? The secret to beating out the competition is on the other side of your arm. Check this out right here.

Want to add some serious size to your arms? Big triceps are the secret!

Every bodybuilder wants huge guns. Let's face it - what good is a bodybuilder with small arms? Fielding jokes about "spaghetti arms" and "pea shooters" isn't fun. Fortunately, not many guys are opposed to training their arms, and as a result, there are a lot of pretty good sets of biceps out there.

On the flip side, though, many of these future Mr. Olympians don't have much in the way of triceps mass. Here's a little secret: The true path to giant cannons is by building your triceps. Well-developed biceps look great, but you can't walk around hitting front double bi's all day long. Triceps are what fill up shirtsleeves. Flexed or not, triceps are the ticket to looking huge, no matter what you're doing.

Triceps Anatomy

The triceps brachii has three heads: the lateral, medial, and long heads. These muscles connect the humerus and scapula to the forearm bone called the ulna. It's important to ensure you incorporate exercises that hit all three of these heads to fully develop the back of your upper arm. Simply performing one exercise for triceps probably won't be enough.

Triceps Anatomy

Training Days

In the old days of bodybuilding, they trained triceps on the same day as chest. Actually, many bodybuilders still do this. However, this old-school technique may not be the best way to go if you're looking for optimal triceps size or if your triceps are lagging.

By training tri's after chest to "finish them off," you're not using optimal weight for overloading the triceps, as they've already been partly worked as part of your chest routine. Giving your triceps your full focus by hitting them with heavier weights while they're fresh will improve your results.

The Exercises

Close-Grip Pushdowns

These are the same tried and tested pushdowns that bodybuilders have been doing for years. One common mistake that many trainees make is to let their elbows drift too far forward.

This stems from not controlling the weight during the negative portion of the exercise. Once this happens, the propensity for cheating by using the back muscles to help move the weight back down increases.

Close-Grip Pushdowns

So, remember to keep your elbows tucked against the torso throughout the whole exercise while controlling the weight.

Close Grip Pushdowns


	Tip: At the bottom of the exercise, push the bar towards the ground by dropping your shoulders slightly. This gives an extra squeeze on the triceps and increases peak contraction.

Close-Grip Bench Presses

Keep your elbows just short of lockout during the pressing portion of the exercise. This helps keeps tension on the triceps throughout the exercise. Also, bring the bar to the lower portion of the sternum when lowering it.

Close-Grip Bench Presses


	Tip: Keep your hands about 13 inches apart. Bringing your hands too close together increases the strain on your elbows and wrists.

Parallel Bar Dips

When performing dips aimed at triceps mass, try to remain as upright as possible. Leaning forward will incorporate the pectoral muscles more, taking some of the workload off of the triceps.

Parallel Bar Dips


	Tip: When performing the negative portion of this exercise, lower your body as far as possible in between the bars. Don't stop until your biceps make contact with your forearms. This is important for getting a full stretch in your triceps.

Lying Dumbbell Triceps Extensions

Lying Dumbbell Triceps Extensions
Click To Enlarge.

You can also do this exercise with one arm at a time, if you're looking for even better concentration on each muscle.

Lying Dumbbell Triceps Extensions


	Tip: While you're performing this exercise, remember not to turn this exercise into a lat movement. Many lifters make the mistake of trying to employ a pullover motion while extending the forearms. This is corrected by making sure your arms remain vertical, with the only movement coming at the elbow joint.

Single-Arm Reverse-Grip Pushdowns

Reverse-Grip Pushdown


	Tip: If you're pressed for time, this exercise can be performed with both hands by using a straight bar.

Putting It All Together

The routine itself is set up fairly simply. Close-grip pushdowns lead off; they're a good exercise for getting the muscles warmed up.

Next comes the two heavy-hitters, close-grip bench presses and parallel bar dips. You'll be doing 8 to 10 reps for both of these with fairly heavy weight for 4 sets.

The last two exercises - lying dumbbell triceps extensions and single-arm reverse-grip pushdowns - will be done with a lighter weight.

The goal with these last 6 sets of 12 to 15 reps is to pump as much blood into the muscles as you can. We're looking at trying to improve nutrient delivery and capillary density here.

The Routine

The Triceps Routine

Exercise	Sets	Weight	Reps
Close-grip pushdowns	3	65 to 75% 1RM	12 to 15
Close-grip bench presses	4	75 to 85% 1RM	8 to 10
Parallel bar dips	4	Bodyweight	8 to 10
Lying dumbbell triceps extensions	3	70 to 75% 1RM	12 to 15
Single-arm reverse-grip pushdowns	3	70 to 75% 1RM	12 to 15

This workout will take place at least two days before or after your chest workout. Because traditional chest exercises like bench presses include a lot of triceps muscle recruitment, you'll want to ensure they're properly rested before you subject them to this routine.

Nutrition

Protein... and lots of it, is extremely important. Cell-Tech Hardcore is another weapon to add to your arsenal. Everybody knows creatine works, right? Well, Cell-Tech Hardcore takes creatine supplementation to a whole new level.

Ten Steps to Freaky Arms

2009-03-06T06:59:00.000-08:00

Here are 10 concrete steps you can take to get the most out of your arm training. These steps include both training and secondary issues, all of which are critical to bodybuilding success. Learn more...

Ever found yourself standing in front of the mirror, flexing your mighty guns... and nothing really happens? You go to the gym, hit the weights hard, but the measuring tape and the mirror tells the same old story despite your efforts.

Don't be discouraged - some people aren't genetically blessed with freaky-thick arms, but there are plenty of things you can do to make the most of the cards you were dealt.

10 Steps To Freaky Arms!

Here are 10 concrete steps you can take to get the most out of your arm training. The first five deals with training, while the last five addresses secondary issues that remain critical to your bodybuilding success.

1. Know Thy Anatomy

When you're thinking about your arms, the centerpiece is probably the good ol' biceps. There's a good reason for this, as it tends to be among the most visible muscles you have (the double-bicep flex is, after all, the classic bodybuilder pose.)

However, were you to get a cross-section view on your upper-arm, you'd quickly realize that the real player is triceps. In simplified terms, your triceps makes up about 2/3 of the muscle mass while biceps and brachialis, biceps' little helper, make up the remaining 1/3.

Right there we see why it is folly to put all your effort into hammering biceps while doing a few sloppy tricep pushdowns as an afterthought before hitting the showers. If you want to beef up your arms, make triceps at least as much of a priority as biceps.

2. Hit'em Hard, But Briefly.

The whole point of lifting weights is to trigger a growth response. Anything else is maintenance at best and a waste of time at worst. In order to hit the sweet spot, you must first push yourself beyond your comfort zone.

To achieve this, you must lift heavier and/or do more reps than you're used to. The former is primarily what stimulates fast-twitch muscle fibers, while the latter targets slow-twitch fibers.

Some muscles have a high ratio of slow-twitch muscle fibers and may benefit from more reps with lower weight. Biceps and triceps aren't among them. For best results, focus primarily on fairly heavy training in the 6-8 rep range (using strict form) with just the occasional couple weeks of lighter training thrown in to keep the muscles guessing.

Explosive as biceps and triceps may be, they also tire quickly. Doing set after set of bicep curls for hours may be downright counterproductive, while just a few, high-intensity sets where you really wring every ounce of juice out of the muscles, is enough to trigger the growth response mentioned earlier.

And once you've done that, what's the point of continuing? You've won the game - time to collect the trophy and go home.

3. Mix Things Up.

Always doing the same exercises with the same weights won't push your muscles out of the comfort zone once the novelty has worn off. Keep'em guessing - make changes every couple workouts! These don't have to be earth-shattering changes.

Sometimes just moving the order of exercises around, replacing a cable-movement with free weights, or why not do a crazy set with half the weight you normally use - only this time to do 50 reps?

Click Image To Enlarge.
Standard Barbell Curl.

True, there are only so many variations on bicep curls you can do. That's why there is a bunch of bars to try, from your standard EZ-bar to hammer curl bars with half a dozen widths and angles.

Click Image To Enlarge.
EZ-Bar Curl.

Likewise, cable-based and plate-loaded leverage machines provide a wide variety of angles and resistance grooves. With some imagination, even sparsely equipped gyms can provide plenty of variation.

Click Image To Enlarge.
Cable Curl.

4. Target Specific Parts Of Each Muscle.

As the name implies, biceps and triceps consist of two and three distinctly different sections, respectively. In order to maximize development, you should make an active effort to target each part in every workout. So how do you accomplish this?

If you're serious about your training, this is where you go back to the anatomy chart and use deductive reasoning based on biomechanics, coupled with practical experimentation to learn the right "feel" of stimulating specific parts.

5. Use Intensity-Boosting Techniques - Wisely.

As mentioned in step two, intensity is the magic key to growth. One way to up the ante and potentially speed up your progress is to throw in the occasional intensity booster. These include forced reps, partial reps, negative training and drop sets.

But here's the thing: all of the above taxes your muscles and your nervous system by essentially circumventing the body's natural limitations. Sure enough, that will send it into overdrive in beefing up the muscle fibers, but you also dance closer to the edge of injury.

The biggest risk, however, isn't necessarily that of a snapped tendon or ligament. If you make it a habit to consistently boost intensity using the techniques mentioned above, you are all but guaranteed to slide intoovertraining.

In a nutshell, this is the state where you cause more damage than your body is able to repair between workouts - taking one step forward, two steps back with every workout. Limit yourself to one or two exercises every other week, at most.

6. Get Plenty Of Rest.

This ties in with the overtraining aspect - the body must be allowed sufficient time to fully rebuild itself and then some in order to grow. The easiest way to address this issue is simple: get a good night's sleep! While we're all a little different in our need for sleep, the good old eight hours a night is a good starting point, while many benefit from nine or even more.

Mid-day napping can be a great way to recharge the batteries. Some metropolitan areas have places offering "powernaps" in special sleeping pods, but most of us get by just fine lying down on the couch or flipping the car seat back with a cap over our eyes for half an hour.

Why is sleeping so beneficial? Not only does it make you mentally refreshed, you also have a bunch of naturally occurring growth hormones being released as you sleep. All things considered, it just makes sense to let the body get the downtime it needs to recover and overcompensate, aka. building new muscle mass.

7. Eat Plenty.

The foundation of growth is simple: consume more calories than you burn. If you barely eat enough to break even, where is the extra bodyweight going to come from? Think of it as a leaking bucket of water, where the leak is how much you burn each day by sleeping, walking, training and whatnot. If the water level in the bucket is to rise, you must pour in more than leaks out. It's that simple.

However, this is not a perfect analogy in that massive overeating won't make you grow faster. In fact, once you've hit break-even and some 500 calories or so beyond that, you run the risk of gaining body fat.

This varies by size, age, diet and a bunch of other factors, but the bottom line is that it's a game of consistently eating a little more than you burn every day. Talk to a local nutritionist or certified personal trainer if you need help customizing a meal plan suitable for you.

8. Use Supplements.

Taking in enough calories is important, but most of us can benefit from a little extra help. Your basic protein powder is a given staple, as is the dailymulti-vitamin. For extra power, consider doing a few cycles of creatine monohydrate.

This will help you lift heavier weights for more reps while having been proven to be perfectly safe, so there's no reason not to give it a try. The price has come down considerably in recent years; the shopping page of this site has some great deals.

Another supplement to consider is nitric oxide. This relatively new supplement increases the blood flow and creates that "pump" that lets you really feel the muscle work. It's pretty motivating and helps bring out that extra effort.

Then there's nice-to-have stuff like HMB, BCAA and a bunch of other stuff that you can try if you've got spare cash, but the protein, multi-vitamin and creatine are the only real must-haves.

9. Stretch.

Stretching decreases soreness and may help prevent injury. By flushing out the byproducts of hard training and getting fresh blood and nutrients into the muscle, you'll recover faster. Stretching also prevents shortening of the muscles, which can make you more prone to injury down the road.

Another reported benefit of stretching is that it may help expand the fascia that the muscle fibers are encapsulated in. If you're wearing a shirt that is one size too small, your range of motion is compromised. The muscle fibers work the same way -- if there's not room to grow, they're less inclined to do so.

10. Lose Body Fat.

Finally, one reason your arms may not look very freaky is that you have a thin layer of fat obscuring the lines. Make no mistake; this seemingly small detail can make all the difference in the world.

Ever notice how some pro bodybuilders can look fantastic one show, and then be just blah a week later? That often has to do with water retention mishaps, meaning there's a thin film of water buildup under the skin which makes them look all flat and sorry despite being in just as good shape as they were a week before.

A thin layer of body fat has the exact same effect -- except it's not just a temporary mishap. So if your measuring tape shows you've made some arm progress but the mirror doesn't show it, losing a few pounds may help. There's no need to go nuts aiming for the low single-digit body fat percentage that the pros do; just get rid of the love handles and you should notice considerable improvement.

Future Champion - Dennis Wolf

2009-02-25T00:06:00.000-08:00

Build Wider,Rounder, Cannonball Delts

2009-02-04T01:34:00.000-08:00

This article is aimed at intermediate or advanced bodybuilders whose delts have stopped growing, or who are stagnated mentally... Get those delts fired up with this great workout. Descriptions of exercises also included below.

Nothing offsets a good physique like an impressive pair of cannonball deltoids. The problem for most people however is how to go about attaining a pair!!

I'll skip over the anatomy of the deltoid muscle as most bodybuilders will have the general idea about how delts work, and how the muscle has three heads which should all be trained, except for the beginning bodybuilder of course.

This article is aimed at intermediate or advanced bodybuilders whose delts have stopped growing, or who are stagnated mentally and would like a fresh approach, or whose delts are responding very slowly to training.

First off, let me say that for the most part, you should focus on mass of course, but balance between the deltoid heads is paramount for a nice round balanced proportionate appearance. Too many bodybuilders have big anterior delts from pressing, benching, and doing inclines, etc., and as a result, their development is not in proportion.

Here is a routine that I have tested personally, and have also given to lots of my clients at various times. I have yet to see anyone who doesn't progress from doing it, as long as it is done in the manner as it is written.

Adjust the number of sets to fit your level of training, but keep the reps the same as listed below.

Here ya go...

"> Superset #1:

Do a set of strict Lateral Raises for 10-12 reps followed by a set of Bradford Presses, for 8-10 reps with no rest in between the two exercises, superset style. Rest 45-60 seconds only, add weight, and repeat this procedure for a total of 4 sets each, adding weight and decreasing reps each set.

You may want to use a constant poundage on laterals; it's your choice, but keep them strict, and pull with the side delts; do not swing the bells up using momentum.

On your last set, go back to your original starting weight, and go to failure on each exercise, regardless of how many reps you can get which should not be that many at this point in the routine due to the previous work performed, and the short rest periods.

The reps are just goals or targets to aim for, but laterals should be a minimum of 10 reps on the heaviest set, and the Bradford Presses should be at 8 minimum at the heaviest point.

Doing both exercises with a constant weight, and resting only 30 seconds between supersets is another good way to perform these, especially if you do not feel particularly strong on any given shoulder day.

Lateral Raises:

Click To Enlarge.
Lateral Raises.
Video: Windows Media - MPEG - Video iPod

Bradford Press:

Here is a "how to" on performing Bradford Presses:

Place a barbell at the shoulders as you would in a normal barbell front press, then press to just the top of the head, then lower it behind the neck, press again just clearing the top of the head and lower to the front again, and repeat until you reach your rep goal; back and forth, front to back, just clearing the crown of the head.

To reiterate, the bar should just be clearing your head... you do not lock out; this non-locking motion keeps continuous tension on the shoulders and doing the laterals before the presses in pre-exhaust superset style without resting between exercises is a foolproof method for increasing intensity, resulting in bigger rounder deltoids.

Click To Enlarge.
Bradford Presses.
Video: Windows Media - MPEG

Again, I have trained tons of people over the years, and never once have I seen anyone fail to improve their delts while using this combo.

"> Front Dumbbell Raise:

Stand with a dumbbell in each hand, palms facing backward. Your feet should be about shoulder width apart. Maintain a slight bend in your elbows throughout the exercise so that your arms are straight, but not quite locked. Lift the weight in your left hand in front of you in a wide arc until it is slightly higher than shoulder height. With a smooth, controlled motion, lower the weight while simutaneously lifting the weight in your right hand, so that both arms are in motion at the same time Do three sets at 10-15 reps.

Click To Enlarge.
Front Dumbbell Raise.
Video: Windows Media - Real Player

"> Rear Delts:

Now we move onto the often neglected rear delts. I do around six sets total, a superset consisting of Bent-Over DB Laterals, or Incline Rear Delt Raises. Again this is your choice, coupled with Face-Pulls, also for 3 total sets, no rest between exercises, and only 45-60 seconds rest between supersets.

Bent-Over DB Laterals:

Click To Enlarge.
Bent-Over DB Laterals.
Video: Windows Media - Real Player

Face-Pulls:

Grab a high pulley that is attached to one side of a cable crossover unit and pull to the face while keeping the elbows wide. This really targets the rear delts.

Click Image To Enlarge.
Face Pulls.
Video: Windows Media - MPEG

Incline Rear Delt Raises:

Lie face down on a 30 to 45 degree incline bench holding 2 moderately weighted dumbbells. With thumbs facing each other, do a bent-over lateral while lying on the incline.

Click To Enlarge.
Lying Rear Delt Raise (shown flat).
Video: Windows Media - Real Player

"> Full Workout:

That's it, but remember to train strict, and as heavy as possible for the targeted rep range, and keep rest periods minimal.

Supersets #1:
Laterals: 4 x 10-12 (very strict, no swinging or heaving)
Bradford Presses: 4 x 8-10 (seated or standing)

Front Dumbbell Raise: 3 x 10-15

Supersets #2:
Bent-Over DB Laterals or Incline Rear Delt Raise: (alternate from workout to workout) 3 x 12-15
Face-Pulls: 3 x 15-20

You Tubes

2009-01-24T21:43:00.000-08:00

A Step-By-Step Guide For An Effective Workout

2009-01-24T21:04:00.000-08:00

If you are new to the bodybuilding lifestyle or if you have been a bodybuilder for some time you may already realize that your muscular gains depend on your ability to control three variables: Training, Supplementation and Diet. The effect that each of these three variables will have toward the development of your physique will depend upon how closely each adheres to scientific and physiological principals.

In the article What supplements should you take? I detailed the basic supplements that form the solid basis of a bodybuilders supplementation program. In the articleA step-by-step plan for body fat reduction! I detailed the underlying mathematical, physiological and scientific principals involved in designing a program geared to achieve maximal and safe fat loss.

This article aims to detail how to intelligently construct an effective weight-training program. I will present the underlying physiological and anatomical principals upon which effective weight training regimens are based. At the end of this article you will be able to intelligently create your own effective weight-training program suited to your specific goals and needs.

Considerations

When designing a weight-training regimen several variables must be considered. These are:

For clarity I will discuss each in detail.

Current Health

The current status of your health is the first element that should be given consideration as this can affect secondary factors like recovery ability, susceptibility to injury and overtraining, and physical limitation.

For example, if a 35-year-old male with a history of back problems were to construct a weight training regimen the efficacy of heavy squats in his leg program or deadlifts in his back program would be questionable. Also, due to his age his recovery ability would be less, as would be his ability to gain strength quickly. This would be due to his decreasing levels of growth hormone and testosterone production. The decline in his androgenic hormone levels would leave him more susceptible to overtraining than his 21-year-old counterpart.

When constructing a weight-training regimen, it is essential that one consider individual history of illness and injury and avoid selecting exercises that will induce injury or irritate preexisting conditions.

Personal Goals

Your personal goals will determine the structure of your weight-training program. For example, do you wish to reduce bodyfat or add mass? Do you wish to remain the same size but gain strength? Perhaps your goal is to rehabilitate an old nagginginjury. Whatever your personal goals may be, your training style and method will be adapted toward those ends.

Training Phase

Your training phase will depend upon your personal goals. Again, do you wish to gain muscle? Then your training phase will be mass building. Do you wish to reduce bodyfat? Then your training phase will be geared for fat-loss.

Regardless of training phase knowledge of the human body and its parts is required. For maximum effectiveness you must understand what you are doing, why you are doing it and what results you expect to get from doing what you do.

The Human Body

When designing a weight-training regimen knowledge of the human body and its parts is essential. Being able to identify the major parts of the human body is needed in order to know what bodyparts to work, and what exercises serve to work those parts. When working midnight shift in a retail store I encountered a member of the cleaning staff who was about 5'4 and weighed 130lbs.

While arriving to work one evening he said to me "I can bench press 1000lbs with my legs." Although I did not correct him at the time, it was obvious he was lying. When he accompanied me to the gym for a leg workout two days later he could not even squat 100lbs! When I remarked that I was surprised he could not squat 100lbs when he can bench press 1000lbs "with his legs", he told me that he is used to "only machines."

I told him I never knew machines could go up to 1000lbs! I also told him that I never knew anyone who could "bench press" [a chest exercise] with his or her legs! A coincidence that we did legs right after his comment? Hardly! Unless you want to be like that guy and end up wasting your time in the gym, it is necessary to become familiar with the human body.

The Major Muscle Groups

The major muscle groups that bodybuilders need to be concerned with are:

Pectorals [Chest]:

Upper
Middle
Lower

Deltoids [Shoulders]:

Anterior [front]
Posterior [rear]
Medial [side]

Triceps

Inner Head
Outer Head

Biceps

Back

Latisimus Dorsi
Erectors

Trapezius

Forearms

Legs

Quadriceps
Hamstrings
Calves

Abdominals

Training Split & Frequency

After you have identified the body parts of concern to bodybuilders, you are able to determine what structures will be the subject of your workouts, when those workouts should occur, and in what order. For your benefit I recommend the following split:

Day 1:

Day 2:

Day 3:

Day 4:

Day 5:

Day 6:

Day 7:

The above schedule, as presented in The Ultimate Mass Building Workout, is deal for many reasons. Because each body part group is worked once per week, this split allows not only for maximum growth potential, but also for total recovery of a body part. This recovery time is needed because of the intensity associated with each workout. The split also allows for three days recovery in a seven-day period. Again, this has to do with intensity and the desire to avoid over-training. While the split above is ideal to avoid overtraining, it is not rigid. It allows the user flexibility. I shall explain.

In bodybuilding there is a principal known as priority training or the priority principle. The priority principal states that whatever bodypart is a priority to work get worked first. Thus on Day 1, if triceps were a weak bodypart or the goal of the bodybuilder was to put on muscle to his / her triceps, triceps would be worked first before shoulders. If shoulders were the priority, they would be worked first before triceps. This flexibility can be applied to every working day.

Here is brief explanation behind the split provided.

Day 1: Deltoids should be worked before triceps as triceps assist in deltoid pressing movements like seated shoulder presses and military presses. To gain maximum benefit from deltoid compound pressing movements, ancillary muscles must not be pre-exhausted.

Day 2: Back and trapezius are worked together because the trapezius is the upper back. Traps are also worked during lower back exercises like deadlifts and chin-ups and wide-grip pull-ups.

Day 3: Recovery from previous two days of intense exercise.

Day 4: Working forearms on leg day allows for the forearms to be worked when they are fresh. During upper body movements forearms may be partially pre-exhausted. Forearms are worked last as one requires their use as stabilizers when performing squats.

Day 5: Chest is worked before biceps as biceps do play a minor role in chest movements like dumbbell flyes and bench press. This allows chest to rest while biceps are being worked and will not result in bicep over training.

Day 6-7: Two days are required to recover from intense exercise.

The above split takes into consideration main and ancillary muscle groups. For example, working triceps on the same day as chest would be overtraining because triceps assist in heavy bench-pressing movements. In the same sense so do shoulders. Thus, the schedule calls for working these body parts on differing days so as to ensure optimal muscular stimulation and avoid overtraining.

Some bodybuilders have recommended working bodyparts such as chest and shoulders together but I never do this. Why? Exactly for the reason given above. Deltoids are worked extensively in pressing movements like flat bench and to a lesser degree in movements like incline bench. Virtually all chest-pressing movements involve the use of the deltoids. Even dumbbell flyes involve the deltoids as stabilizers. While their involvement is limited because of pectoral control over the weight, they still do have a role to play.

Shoulder injuries amongst bodybuilders are common. Thus to avoid injury and overtraining these bodyparts should be worked on different days in your training cycle. The same rationale applies to all bodyparts. To prevent injury and overtraining, be sure to reduce overlap as much as possible.

Exercise Selection

Once you have familiarized yourself with main muscle groups as well as the days on which you are going to train those groups, it is necessary to select exercises according to your stated goals. If your goal is to add mass to your frame compound movements are the logical choice. If you are training to lose bodyfat, the incorporation of isolation movements in the higher repetition ranges is recommended.

For your benefit, compound and isolation movements are explained below:

Exercise Types

All exercise movements, regardless of type [compound or isolation] operate on a ratio basis. Put another way, all movements primarily work one target muscle or group and fiber type, and to a lesser degree another [or other] muscles or muscle groups or fiber type.

Compound movements primarily work one muscle group, and to a lesser degree work others. The term "lesser" is relative as "lesser" is still significant enough to elicit growth from ancillary muscles. Illustrated, the ratio of primary:ancillary stimulation with compound exercises would be 75:25 % respectively. Done in low repetitions compound movements work fast-twitch muscle fibers.

Isolation movements primarily work specific muscles within muscle structures [i.e. the medial deltoid in the deltoid complex]. Illustrated, the ratio of primary:ancillary stimulation from isolation exercises would be 95:5 % respectively. Done in high repetitions isolation movements work slow-twitch muscle fibers. Provided is a brief explanation of each movement type.

Compound

Compound movements are movements that work one specific muscle group more than others but also work the others to a significant degree. The best-known compound movements are the deadlift, squat and flat bench press. Here is a brief explanation of each of the "big three."

Flat Bench Press: The target muscle is the pectorals, but deltoids and triceps also share a significant amount of the work, as they assist in the movement.

Squats: A quadriceps exercise that also involves hamstrings, buttocks, lower back, and abdominals.

Deadlifts: A lower back exercise that also involves the trapezius, deltoids, forearms, abdominals, quadriceps, hamstrings, buttocks.

Compound movements are very effective for inducing muscular hypertrophy when done in low repetitions because of the stimulation of fast-twitch muscle fibers. This stimulation leads to dramatic increases in muscle size and anabolic hormone levels within the body.

Isolation

Isolation exercises exist to isolate specific muscles. Isolation exercises are very effective for brining out muscular definition. This is achieved by the stimulation of slow-twitch muscle fibers, and by the pumping of blood and nutrients into the target muscle by using high repetitions.

The ultimate purpose of an effective weight-training regimen is to train both fiber types. Depending upon training phase, which is dependant upon your goals, the ratio or percentage of fast twitch to slow twitch fiber training will call for adjustment [which is achieved by adjusting repetitions]. The effectiveness of any workout regimen is determined by its ability to adjust the ratio of fast twitch to slow twitch fiber training, in response to your goals. Once you have determined your training split, training frequency, and have determined your training phase and exercise selection, you must calculate percentage values for your weight-training regimen.

1 Repetition Maximum

When reading popular fitness magazines one will see phrases such as "do 12 repetitions at 65%" or "do 7 repetitions at 80%." To many beginners this can be a confusing statement. The question is: 65 or 80 percent of WHAT? To answer this question many beginners often assume that they must "work harder" or "give it more effort." The reasoning is that "if it feels tough I must be working hard." However, this approach is flawed.

The difficulty with expressions and concepts like "work harder", "give it more effort" and "give it all you've got" is that they cannot be defined into concrete term. Put another way, they are totally subjective expressions and cannot be expressed in real-world, workable, terms. Expressions of the subjective type offer absolutely nothing material with which to work and therefore are of little use when attempting to make or measure progress in a weight-training regimen.

In the article Bodybuilding: Its true nature! I discussed the scientific method and outlined how and why bodybuilding is a science. The principles of the scientific method apply here.

When constructing a weight-training regimen, regardless of training phase, one must utilize mathematics to ensure that the program will be effective. To do this it is necessary to establish your one repetition maximum (1RM) for the exercises you have selected.

When formulating a workout plan for muscle gains 1RM is crucial. Thus the utilization of 1RM charts to determine 1RM is recommended.

To calculate your 1RM and to use the 1RM calculations as framework for the construction of a weight-training regimen, use the split provided above, selecting exercises appropriate to your training phase, and record the weights you lift for one week. Click here to determine your 1RM!

When using your 1RM to construct a weight-training regimen, bear in mind the following:

Mass Building Set Guidelines

For movements that are more compound than isolation use four sets of increasing poundage and decreasing reps.
For movements that are less compound and more isolation use three sets of increasing poundage and decreasing reps.

Here are the percentages of 1RM you should use per set:

Isolation / Fat Loss Guidelines:

For isolation movements use four sets while increasing poundage and keeping repetitions the same.

Here are the percentages of 1RM you should use per set:

Exercises using four sets: 1st: 45%, 2nd: 55%, 3rd: 65%, 4th: 75%

Bringing It All Together

I shall now provide an example of how to incorporate 1RM values into the construction of a weight-training regimen, regardless of training phase [i.e. mass building or fat reduction]. I will illustrate how poundage increases are achieved in a weight-training regimen and how you can use 1RM calculations to maximize your gains.

Subject Profile:
Sex: Male
Age: 21
Mass: 233lbs

Sample Lift Chart Of Compound Movements

Exercise	Deadlifts	Squat	Flat Bench Press
Poundage (lbs)	200	300	250
Repetitions	10	10	10
1RM (lbs)	267	400	335

In the example the subject performed the three exercises listed and recorded his poundage. He then determined his 1RM by using a 1RM calculator.

Now that the 1RM calculation has been obtained the numbers may be used to calculate the poundage to be done in the following workouts. Consider the following calculations:

200lbs x 10 reps = 267 1RM
215lbs x 7 reps = 267 1RM
255lbs x 2 reps = 267 1RM

The above equations demonstrate that when constructing a mass building or fat loss weight training regimen it is important to gear your sets and poundage so that even though the poundage increases and the repetitions decrease as you move from set one to set three or four, the resultant 1RM value for each set remains the same. Put another way, you need, using a 1RM calculator, to adjust the variables [poundage and reps] so that the resultant [1RM] works out to be equal to the 1RM you initially calculated from your recorded poundage.

But what happens if the poundage values you had recorded previously and your newly recorded values differ? In other words, what happens if your 1RM for a given exercise is 267lbs, and you are able the following week to do 255 for 3 reps instead of two? This is where step 3 of the scientific method [as outlined in Bodybuilding: Its TRUE nature!] comes into play. It states:

STEP 3:

As mentioned, you recorded your lifts during the first week on the program and you calculated your 1RM. You also manipulated the dependent variables of POUNDAGES and REPETITIONS to keep it consistent with the independent variable 1RM. You then worked out at the gym and recorded how much you were able to lift for a specific number of sets and repetitions. To your surprise you can do 3 reps at 255 instead of 2 reps at 255. This means, simply, that you have increased your 1RM and that you must, therefore, adjust the percentages of each set and the rep and weight values for each set to maintain consistency with the value of your new 1RM.

To illustrate, consider the following:

Week	Exercise	Poundage	Repetitions	1RM
1	Deadlifts	255	2	267
2	Deadlifts	255	3	278

In this example, when attempting to determine how much work should be done in the following workout, the layout would appear as follows:

Week 2
1RM: 278
Exercise: Deadlifts

1st set (65% of 1RM): 200lbs x 12 repetitions [278(.65)]
2nd set (75% of 1RM): 210lbs x 10 repetitions [278(.75)]
3rd set (85% of 1RM): 235lbs x 6 repetitions [278(.85)]
4th set (95% of 1RM): 265lbs x 2 repetitions [278(.95)]

Therefore, the following weeks deadlift requirements would appear as above, resulting from the new 1RM.

For your convenience I have included templates that will enable you to record your poundage and repetitions. I have also included a template that will allow you to track the value of your 1RM for the exercises you perform. By updating these you can know for sure if you are becoming stronger over time. Over the course of several months you will be able to visually chart your progress to illustrate your strength gains.

One subject using the principles outlined here constructed a mass building program and gained 30lbs of lean mass in four months, and did so naturally. By using the principles outlined in this article to construct your own weight-training regimen, regardless of training phase, you too can make impressive gains.

Developing the Physique of Your Body

2009-01-21T10:14:00.000-08:00

Part Bigger Wheels - Becoming Quadzilla...

Volume 3 in our *ss-kicking special workout series is a personal favorite of mine. Unlike everyone else, who loves doing chest or arms to get that "beach body" look or the "I want to impress the ladies" look, I am partial to that dreaded word... Legs.

Let's be honest here: doing legs sucks - but having big wheels is a priority in this f*cked up sport. There has never been a top Olympian competitor that did not have huge quads or full hamstrings.

Any bodybuilder can look like a winner from the waist up, but the tell-all truth is seen from the waist down.

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Quadzilla!

Sure, it is not the body part that will get you laid, like your chest or arms (even that won't work for those of you who have no game), but it is the body part that will separate you from the rest of the wannabes out there.

The excitement is killing me, so without further ado; let's turn you into "Quadzilla"... Alright, maybe not. How about just improving on what you already have?

Big Wheels

Before we start getting into heavy movements I must warn you: a legit leg workout is not for p*ssies or quitters; it is not for the people who work out in a "health club," putting 2 plates on the leg press and squeezing out 15 reps without breaking a sweat. It is not for the men who want to go out on a Friday night after doing legs in the afternoon.

This is the real deal, no bullsh*t. You want it, you're gonna have to work for it... You're gonna have to bust your *ss. Pain is part of the workout. Nausea is also expected. It ain't gonna be pretty and you will be a mess. So for all you wannabe lifters out there second guessing your decision to read this article, quit now. If you got balls, keep reading...

Quadriceps

Let's start out with a warm-up, leg extensions.

Leg Extensions

Leg extensions

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Leg Extensions.

Video Guides: Windows Media - MPEG

At the bottom of every rep, do not stop short, but come to a 90 degree angle with your knees. You should feel a nice pump after four sets, enabling you to move on to the hack squat.

Hack Squat

The hack squat is a great exercise to develop the lower portion of the quad - you know, the part that no one really has. Since you are already warmed up and started to break a sweat, no need to do another easy set. Let's get right into blasting those quads.

We are going to do 4 heavy sets of 10-12 reps, progressively increasing the weight with each set. And none of this half way down bullsh*t either - *ss to the floor - that's my motto for superior quad development.

Click Image To Enlarge.

Hack Squat.

Video Guides: Windows Media - MPEG

The key to this movement is the range of motion - keeping your back flat against the pad and adjusting your feet on the platform so that your knees do not surpass your toes. After your last set of 10 reps, we are going to perform a drop set, which is a lighter set done immediately after your last heavy set, in which you lower the weight and perform as many reps as possible.

In this particular instance, we will do a triple drop set. For example, your last set will be done with 5 plates on each side of the hack, then stripping one plate off between each set and doing another 10-12 reps. You will go from 5 to 4 to 3 to 2 plates on the hack squat on your last set, ultimately performing a total of 40 to 48 reps.

Note:
This is not for the mentally challenged or weak. Push yourself to the limit. There are guys training like this every day, trying to beat you, so you cannot settle for less.

People will be looking at you like you have lost your f*cking mind, but those are also the people who envy the position you are in and want to be as dedicated as you. But what we are looking for is quad development, not compliments... At least not now.

Leg Press

After you take a few minutes break, you will waddle over to the leg pressmachine. This is another great movement that targets your thighs. After getting some blood back in your head and finding out you can still bend from the knees and are not broken, load up the machine with enough weight to perform your first set of 10 reps.

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Leg Press.

Do not sell yourself short by not putting enough weight on there. Each set you will add more weight, making you work harder to complete your reps. Remember brainiacs, follow that golden rule: knees come down until you can't go anymore. That's right, down to the chest and pushing back up to the top without locking out your legs.

Do you hear it? It is the sound of bodybuilders grueling over the last reps of their sets, knowing that with each proper rep comes an improved physique. After performing your 4 sets, take a rest cuz we are going to squat next.

Squats

What am I... f*cking nuts? No, I'm serious; you can't make this sh*t up. This is the part of the workout where winners continue and quitters call it a day. Good thing is that you won't have to use heavy weight, because at this point 135 pounds feels like 405.

No workout would be complete without squats. This is the exercise that gives your legs the thickness to make them stand out on stage. You will do three sets of 10 before you feel like collapsing.

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Barbell Squat.

Video Guides: Windows Media - Real Player

At this point, I don't have to remind you about your range of motion, especially on this movement. *ss down to China and back up again - that's how low you go. No exceptions.

Better get the bucket ready, because you're starting to feel queasy. Any serious lifter wishes to have a workout like this each time they step in the gym - you feel sick, but you accomplished something.

Quads are done - phew!

Hamstrings

After a few minutes of rest, hamstrings are next on the list. Don't punk out yet. The hard part is done. After your blowout quad workout, your hams should be somewhat pumped.

Lying Leg Curls

Let's first start with the lying leg curl, doing 4 sets of 10-12 reps. This should ease some of the pain in the quad area and get the rest of the blood back in your head, enabling you to remember your name.

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Lying Leg Curls.

Video Guides: Windows Media - MPEG

Standing One-Legged Curls

standing one-legged curl

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Standing One-Legged Curls.

Stiff-Legged Deadlifts

Finally, just to get a good stretch in the hams and the lower back, you will perform 3 sets of stiff-legged deadlifts for 12 reps each. Always remember to keep your knees bent, chest out, and back flat when performing this exercise. Believe it or not, after this, you will have completed your first workout on the long road to bigger and better legs.

Click Image To Enlarge.

Stiff-Legged Deadlifts.