Saturday, May 29, 2010

The Top 5 Best Chest Exercises




The Top 5 Best Chest Exercises

Arnold Benching
Bench presses and curls are two of the first exercises that are learned by new weight lifters. For men, the chest or “pecs” (short for pectorals) are second only to biceps as the top show muscles in teenagers and young adults.
For women, the chest is even more important. Keeping well built, toned pecs can be useful in maintaining a solid, perky appearance of the breasts.
More importantly, the pecs are involved in one of the main powerlifting exercises, the bench press. The bench press is one of three exercises, including squats and deadlifts, in a standard big 3 powerlifting competition. For this reason, it is always important for powerlifters to increase their chest strength.
Therefore it seems to me that everyone has a reason to train their chest, including men, women, athletes, bodybuilders, powerlifters, strongmen… everyone; and here are the top 5 best chest exercises you should use.

How to Get a Big Chest


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Training to build a strong back and triceps are just as important to building a big chest, as chest exercises are. So don’t forget to read up about the top 5 best back exercises and the top 5 best triceps exercises. One thing is for sure, without strong triceps, you will never have a big bench.
Also you must always train your lower body in order for your upper body to grow. For the lower body I recommend the top 5 best leg exercises and the top 5 best hamstring exercises. Training your whole body with a full body workout routine is one sure way to make sure everything grows or gets toned, depending on your goals.
Now we must examine how the pecs work so that we can better target them for growth.
Anatomy of the Chest
The pectoralis major (aka pecs) is located on the front of the rib cage.
The pecs attach to the humerus near the shoulder joint and originate on the breastbone in the center of the chest.
The fibers of the pec run like a fan across the chest. Their fan-like structure allows the humerus to move in a variety of planes across the body.
The pectoralis minor is located underneath the pectoralis major, attaching to the coracoid process of the scapula and originating on the middle ribs.

Chest Anatomy
Functions of the Chest
The function of the pectoralis major is to bring the humerus across the chest. A flye movement is the best example of this action, although the true function of the pecs would be more of a combination of the first 1/2 of a chest press followed by the second half 1/2 of a flye, ending with the palms facing each other at the body’s midline.
The pectoralis minor serves to move the shoulder area forward. This can be seen by shrugging your shoulder forward.
The Top 5 Best Chest Exercises
1. Barbell bench press
The king of all chest exercises. The flat barbell bench press has long been the standard for strength prowess. If you could only choose 3 exercise to create a full body workout, the flat barbell bench press would have to be on the list. This is also the same exercise used in any big 3 powerlifting competition. You will find people use a large number of variations of the flat barbell bench press. A close grip flat barbell bench press is used to focus more on triceps, while a wide grip flat barbell bench press is a standard pec builder. A middle grip is used most successfully to combine the strength of the triceps, pecs, and shoulders for a maximal effort bench press.
To set up: find a flat standard Olympic bench with a standard 45 lb barbell. Laying down flat on the bench, you want the soles of your feet to touch the floor. This is because we want a solid base on which to use our legs to help drive the weight up. You want your butt, your upper back, and your head to be touching the bench at all times.
You should also set up so that when you unrack the bar it will drop almost directly down to your chest; in other words you don’t want to be doing a barbell pull-over once you unrack the bar from the bench, as this will create unnecessary fatigue and increase the possibility for shoulder injury.
All that being said, put a couple plates on that bar and lets start benching!
To bench: with a medium grip flat bench press, you don’t want your elbows tucked in nor flared out. They should naturally fall at a 45 degree position away from your body, locked in against your lats for stabilization at the bottom of the rep.
From the unracked position, you will lower the weight slowly so that the bar just lightly touches your nipple area; do not bounce. Using explosive chest strength you should drive the bar through the mid-way point of the rep, which is usually a sticking point. Once you are past the mid-way point you will increase your triceps activation to press and lock out the weight. When I say lock out, I do not mean to lock the elbows out 100%, instead they should be locked out about 95% so that the elbow is completely straight.
The best way I have found to maximize triceps activation is to focus on breaking the bar in half away from you. Think about holding a stick out straight in front of your body with palms down, then break that stick away from you by snapping both forearms and wrists away from the midline of the body. Clearly the bar is not actually going to break, but you can use this concept for maximum triceps activation.
Variations: wide grip, medium grip, narrow grip; board press, floor press, pin press.
The incline bench press is often used to target the upper pecs, while the decline bench press is used to target the lower pecks. I have a bone to pick with this notion. For one thing, the incline press is great. I always work a flat incline dumbbell press into my workout. If you have studied the anatomy of the pectoralis, you will notice that there is indeed an upper pec. Your pecs will appear super powerful once you have concentrated on flat and incline benching, and developed the cut between the two muscles. That, my friend, is good stuff.
Controversial point #1: The decline bench on the other hand is quite bogus. There is no ‘lower pec’ muscle. People are most often stronger on the decline bench because the range of motion is shorter, which eliminates weakness at the bottom of the press, because you are better able to recruit your triceps and lats throughout the entire exercise, and because you use less of your weaker upper pec and more of the bigger, stronger pectoralis major. I haven’t done a decline bench press in 8 years or more, and I don’t intend to start doing them now. A close grip decline bench focusing on the triceps is a whole different story. You can read about the #5 best triceps exercises# for more information.
My only problem with the following video is that he lifts his butt off the bench during each rep. I only show you this because it demonstrates the concept of driving with your feet and legs. It is possible to drive with your feet and legs while simultaneously keeping your ass on the bench.
2. Dumbbell bench press
The flat dumbbell bench press is like core chest exercise #2. This is one awesome way to make sure you don’t have any strength imbalances between the two sides of your body. The dumbbell bench also more closely follows the intended function of the pecs by not only pressing but also by moving the weight toward the midline of your body. To set up: find a flat bench that allows your feet to touch the floor. You will once again want your butt, your upper back, and your head to be touching the bench at all times.
Most of the time I grab the dumbbells I want, stand with the bench about 6 inches behind me, and sit down slowly while transitioning the flat side of each dumbbell to rest on my thigh. From this position I can lay back, rock the dumbbells up to shoulder height, and press up the first rep all in one fluid motion. Without mastering this maneuver you will forever have people handing you the weight or spotting you on the first rep. By this point you have already completed half of your first rep.
To bench: lower the weight to finish your first rep, then at the bottom of the rep, which for me is when the dumbbells lightly touch my shoulders, I use explosive force in my chest and shoulders to power the weight past the mid-way point, and conclude the rep by using my triceps to lock it out. Again, only a 95% lock, not straight.
Many people do not advocate a full range of motion on a heavy dumbbell bench press. They would say stop short of letting the weight touch your shoulders. In fact, many would say only bring the weight down until your upper and lower arms form a 90 degree angle. I completely disagree with this. My shoulders are pretty strong and healthy, and I’ve always lowered the weight to the top of each shoulder.
Variations: incline, decline, flat. It is possible to use a wide, medium, close grip on your flat dumbbell bench, but I prefer to focus on the single medium grip motion so as not to compromise the integrity of my shoulders and rotator cuffs. Also, I think the decline dumbbell bench press is bogus, but probably more useful the decline barbell bench press. I still don’t do it.
I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to put up the infamous Ronnie Coleman dumbbell pressing 200 lbs in each hand.
3. Explosive push ups
You have to admit, aside from using the smith machine, that it’s pretty hard to do any maximally explosive benching. Sure, you can use a Westside Barbell style dynamic effort day in which you use 45-50% of your 1 rep max for 9 sets of 2 reps. Read about the Louie Simmons Westside Barbell theories on dynamic effort and speed lifting on the Westside Barbell Articles page. If you are a strength athlete or powerlifter and you haven’t yet read every article on that page, do it now and come back to Project Swole later.
In any case, this exercise will be used to develop explosive power in your chest, shoulders, and triceps. The two main methods I recommend are clapping push ups and plyometric push ups where you jump your hands up onto an object for each rep. For the purpose of this article we will talk about plyo push ups.
To set up: choose to do push ups either on your palms or on your knuckles. As you lay on the floor, your body should be in a straight line, touching the floor only at the hands and toes. If you are female and struggle with push ups, you may start by doing push ups on your knees, but within a month or two you must practice and master doing push ups from your toes.
Opinions differ as to how to position your head during push ups. When you are doing explosive push ups by jumping up onto objects, you won’t have much choice but to look down so that you aren’t missing your target. Ideally you would look up and forward while doing push ups.
Your hands should be placed 2-3 inches outside of your shoulder width. The closer your hands, the more you will activate your triceps. Since this is for explosive power in the chest, you will choose a wider hand position.
Select two large hardcover books, weight plates, or blocks that are at least one inch thick. Place one of these object directly beside each hand. At the beginning of each rep your hands will be on the floor. At the end of each rep your hands will be up on the blocks. As you get better at this exercise you will want to increase the height of the blocks.
To push up: the starting position is as low to the ground as possible without touching your chest, belly, legs, or chin. The initial movement should be to drive your body off the floor with as much force as you can muster. At the top of the rep, stopping before you fully extend your elbows, the last bit of effort should be a 100% maximal force that will propel your body up into the air, allowing you to execute a clap or to jump your hands up onto the blocks.
After a clap you will land in the original position and descend in preparation for the next rep.
After a plyo push up you can choose to either:
1. Walk your hands back down to the starting position and descend in preparation for the next rep.
2. Descend down into another rep and execute another plyo push up, jumping back down to the original starting position. Then descend in preparation for the next rep.
4. Variations: clapping, hopping, palms, knuckles, variable height boxes, alternating arms, incline, decline, super wide (more chest), narrow (more triceps), legs elevated.
Here is one of the best plyo push up videos I could find on YouTube.
Just so you can see how many examples of plyometric push ups there are, here is an example of a girl executing some mighty fine lateral plyo push ups.
5. Chest dips
Similar to the triceps version, chest dips closely resemble what you would be trying to accomplish with decline pressing except that you are focusing on building triceps strength for chest pressing rather than trying to work the phantom ‘lower pecs’. If you have bad shoulders consider skipping this exercise or work at it slowly by shallow dipping rather than deep dipping. To set up: find yourself a dip station. Grab a weighted belt and some plates or a dumbbell if you need to add weight for your dips.
To dip: start at the top with your arms almost fully extended. The goal is to lean slightly forward in order to keep tension more so on the pecs than the triceps. Now dip down until your upper arms are parallel to the floor, or lower if it doesn’t bother your shoulders. Do not bounce at the bottom, instead pause for half a second. Squeeze your pecs and use your triceps to push yourself back to the top. Never lock your elbows.
Variations: assisted, bodyweight, weighted. You will also find dipping stations with adjustable handles so that you can use a wider or narrower hand position. Keep your body completely upright to focus on triceps instead of chest.
I could not find a chest dips video on YouTube that I approve of, so here’s one with a guy who is clearly going super heavy. Aside from locking out his elbows randomly throughout his sets, this is a pretty good demonstration of the chest dip.
6. Dumbbell flyes
How important are flyes? In my opinion not very important, but I needed a fifth exercise for this list. Honestly I would rather fill up my chest workout with flat and incline benching and dumbbell pressing, and end off with some heavy weighted chest dips. Some people just insist that flyes are the key to growth and flexibility, and I will admit flyes do have a purpose when it comes to bodybuilding. There are many variations of flyes including dumbbells, cables, and any angular position you can put yourself in by either using an adjustable incline bench, or by standing and leaning over with the cables.
I highly recommend that if you are not into this for bodybuilding purposes, that you might want to consider dumbbell rather than cable flyes.
Most importantly, rather than doing dumbbell flyes at the end of your chest workout, choose dumbbell flyes as a recovery exercise a day or two after a heavy chest workout. This will allow you to stimulate your sore chest muscles with a free weight exercise that is dissimilar to what you used to tear them up in the first place. You will be able to get a good stretch and increase blood flow to all areas of the pec.
To set up: for dumbbell flyes, you want to assume an identical position to either the flat or incline dumbbell bench press; one dumbbell in each hand. You want to start the exercise from the top position rather than with your arms out to the sides. Start by pressing the weights straight overhead.
To flye: once the weights are fully extended overhead, keep your arms straight except for a very small bend at the elbow. Lower the weights out to your sides with each arm at the same time. At the bottom position your arms should be parallel to the floor. Pause for just half a second and rapidly bring the weights back to the top position, still without moving your elbows.
At the top position of this exercise you should find that your arms are not straight up and down, perpendicular to the floor. This would only remove the tension from the muscles. Instead, stop 15 degrees short of straight overhead.
This entire motion should be controlled by your chest and front delts.
If you don’t believe me, take it from The Oak himself!
Honorable mentions: hammer strength chest press machine, flat or incline; machine flyes; cable flyes.
Controversial point #2: many people say they do bent arm dumbbell pull-overs to work the chest. I don’t see how anything about dumbbell pull-overs has anything to do with the pecs. I can see them working triceps slightly, lats, and serratus. The exercise itself is great fun; I love dumbbell pull-overs. Unfortunately they aren’t that effective for working any specific muscle. I might add them to the end of a back workout just for fun, but I would never add them to a chest workout on purpose and they definitely have no place in any top 5 list except maybe top 5 best exercises for fun, or top 5 best serratus exercises.
Here is what a dumbbell pull-over looks like, although I’m not sure why this guy is using such a light weight.
Full Body Workout Integration
To integrate these exercises into a full body workout program, you should choose either barbell or dumbbell bench press as your main chest exercise (flat or incline). Follow it up with a leg or back exercise. Then choose either dips or flyes superset with something like calves or abs.
If you chose a flat bench press, you should choose incline flyes; if you chose incline bench press, you should choose flat flyes. This will allow you to lift maximal weight on the compound movement and hit the pecs from a secondary angle, while also training a second muscle group in an assistance fashion (flyes for shoulders, chest dips for triceps).
On a subsequent full body workout day you should choose plyo push ups as the only chest exercise for the day. Focus on completing 10 sets of 5 reps, or 5 sets of as many as you can complete in each set. The goal is to focus only on explosive chest training for that day. Once you start to slow down, or if you you miss a jump or a clap, the set is over. You should never train slowly or with compromised form on an explosive exercise.
Standard Split Workout Integration
To integrate these exercises into a training program that splits the body amongst different days, you can do a flat bench press followed by an incline bench press on chest day, and follow those up with either flyes or dips. I recommend doing one barbell and one dumbbell movement, but choosing two of the same is also acceptable.
As with full body training, explosive or speed training should be done on a different day from strength training.
Focusing on your chest is a significant effort. If you wish to make superior gains in chest training, you should put your squat and deadlift progress on maintenance until you complete a 4-6 week chest prioritization phase. Don’t get me wrong, you can still choose to focus on everything at once and make great gains, but to prioritize any one muscle group you should put everything else on hold.

The Top 5 Best Back Exercises



The Top 5 Best Back Exercises


Arnold T-Bar Row
Nothing is more impressive than being able to bang out 30 pull ups in a row or finishing a set of 10 with 90 lbs hanging from a belt. Nothing LOOKS more impressive than being able to hit an impressive front or rear lat spread with confidence. Furthermore, how many women do you know that can finish a set of 10 pull ups? Trust me, there aren’t many.
The reality is that we can accomplish all of these things with intense free weight back training.
Your back muscles comprise the second largest set of muscles, after the legs. Therefore, putting some serious effort into training your back will pay off huge dividends whether you are looking to burn a large number of calories, better fill out your shirts, condition your body for functional strength, or even to fix your posture from focusing too long on chest training.
Strong back muscles will allow you to:
• Pick up anything heavy off the floor or ground, working in unison with the legs.
• Burn nearly as many calories as you would when training legs.
• Move your body more easily through space, specifically when pulling yourself up.
• Protect yourself from muscle imbalances that occur from overtraining the chest.
• Row a boat faster than any of your punk friends.
Anatomy of the Back
For this discussion we are going to focus on the mid to upper back only. I won’t be talking at all about the lower back or glutes, as this is a discussion in and of its own. You can find out a bit more about lower back and glute training in the post about the top 5 best hamstring exercises. I will focus more on lower back in a separate article at a later date.

There are two main muscle groups that are visible even when our shirts are on. These are called the latissimus dorsi and the trapezius.
The latissimus, or lats, are the muscles that run from the armpits to the waist. This is what you see when people flex their backs as with a lat spread bodybuilding pose.
The trapezius, or traps, are the muscles that start in a point at the base of the skull, sit to either side of the neck, above the shoulders, and extend in a diamond shape to a point in the middle of the back. A muscle called the levator scapulae works in conjunction with the traps and lats.
Trap are what cause some big dudes to appear to have no neck. This is also how you can tell if someone is really serious about their training. Typically if someone has completely flat traps it means that they probably do not engage in significant free weight complex exercises like deadlifts, bent over barbell rows, cleans, and definitely not barbell shrugs.
The Smaller Muscles of the Back
Some of the smaller back muscles include teres major, teres minor, infraspinatus, supraspinatus, and rhomboideus (rhomboids). These are considered secondary muscles and are sufficiently stimulated when you train the larger latissimus dorsi with both vertical and horizontal movements.
The serratus is another back muscle that wraps around the body and it also visible from the font. If you desire to train the serratus directly, which many people do, the best exercise for that is probably dumbbell or barbell pull overs. In the past when I trained 4 days a week I often included pull overs on back day.

Back Anatomy
Functions of the Back
Contrary to what you might think when you picture a row, the function of the lats is to pull the arm down toward the pelvis. When the arm is in a fixed position such as with a pull up, the lats serve to bring the body up towards the arm. The function is the same, but the motion depends upon the position of the arms and torso.
Lats also function to stabilize the torso during many movements, including the flat bench press and overhead press.
Your traps function to facilitate scapular elevation (shrugging), scapular adduction (rowing) and scapular depression (pull downs). Often they work in conjunction with the lats and the other small muscles, especially when rowing or pulling down.
Top 5 Best Back Exercises
Update: Deadlifts
Because I have received so many comments ripping me for not including deadlifts on this list, let the record show that I did indeed mention deadlifts right here at the top of the list, but decided not to include them in the list because they are already in the top 5 best hamstring exercises.
Deadlifts are probably the 3rd best back exercise after barbell rows and pull ups, so include them in your back workout as you see fit. Similarly, you could include good mornings in this list. To reduce the angst of hardcore weightlifters, I have revised this list to include deadlifts as the #5 best back exercise.
My original comments regarding deadlifts are as follows:
Of course deadlifts are part of this list, but I intend to target exercises that train the upper and mid back directly. For more information on deadlifts and other lower back exercises, see my post about the 5 best exercises for hamstrings.
1. Barbell Bent Over Rows – Horizontal training
Bent over rows with a barbell is arguably the most important back exercise you can do for pulling strength and thickness in the upper body. This is a compound movement that works everything from traps to lats to lower back and hamstrings. Using proper form, bent over barbell rows will help you stand apart with thickness and strength, from the people who only do pull ups, chin ups, or (God forbid) pull downs. To set up: you should start by standing on a box or platform with the loaded barbell. This is necessary to avoid the plates hitting the floor when you use 45 lb plates. Your stance should be shoulder width for conventional barbell rows. Now, keeping your knees slightly bent, your head up, and your back straight, bend over until your upper body is lower than 45 degrees to the floor. My goal is always to get as close to parallel with the floor as possible.
The weight should be hanging straight down from your arms at this point, directly below your chest. You should have a pronated grip on the bar; your palms should be facing towards you. Feel free to use a bit of chalk if you are rowing really heavy. NO STRAPS!

To row: to start a row, use your back muscles to pull the bar straight up to touch your chest. The elbows should be tucked in, head up, back straight, and you should NOT bounce. Lower the weight under control and repeat.

Variations: close grip, wide grip, medium grip, two arm dumbbell rows, supinated rows (palms facing away).
There is also a machine called the T-Bar that can be used for rowing. Old school lifters might even put one end of an Olympic bar in the corner of a room, and use the other end as a T-bar and a neutral grip cable attachment as the handle.
2. Pull Ups and Chin Ups – Vertical training
Pull ups and chin ups are a true measure of strength. They are one of those exercises that can be used to gauge a person’s physical strength relative to their body weight. For example a powerlifter might be able to bench press 600 lbs at a body weight of 280 lbs, but maybe he can only do 4 pull ups. Meanwhile a 175 lb guy can only bench 315, but he can bust out about 30 pull ups. So let me ask you, who is really stronger? Better yet, which person’s strength would you wish to have? Sorry, but I’d rather be the smaller guy.
To set up: stand on a box or a platform if you need to, or just jump up, so you can reach the bar. Pull ups are typically harder than chin ups, but I recommend you switch off between the two. Pull ups use a pronated grip (palms down, or in this case palms facing away), while chin ups use a supinated grip (palms up). Hands should be just wider than shoulder width for a medium grip pull up, or just inside shoulder width for a medium grip chin up.

To pull up: the goal is to pull yourself up until your chin is over the bar. Keep your head up, possibly looking at the ceiling, and get that chin over the bar, pause just long enough to get a full contraction. Lower yourself back down so that your arms are about 99% straight, don’t bounce.
If you can’t do a pull up, most gyms have assisted pull up machines. Start there and work your weight towards your first bodyweight pull up.
If you can do more than 10 pulls up with bodyweight, it might be time to consider weighted pull ups and weighted chin ups. You can do this by hanging a dumbbell between your legs or ankles, or by using a belt with a chain to suspend the weight between your legs.
Variations: wide grip, medium grip, narrow grip, neutral grip (palms facing each other), pull ups, chin ups, towel pull ups to blast your grip and finger strength. Many people do lat pull downs on machines or with cables, but I’m telling you not to. Stick with free weights!
3. Barbell Shrugs – Upper back
Shrugs are specifically a traps only exercise. The lats don’t come into play at all. You can go pretty heavy on shrugs. I built a decent set of traps back in the day by working up to 10-12 reps with between 495 and 585 lbs on a standard Olympic bar. To set up: unless you feel like deadlifting the weight off the floor, your best bet is to unrack the bar at thigh height from a platform, squat rack, power rack, or whatever else you can use. This is one of maybe 2 exercises for which I condone using straps. You want to avoid using an alternating grip if possible, and sometimes using chalk just doesn’t cut it if you are using heavier weight than you typically deadlift.
To shrug: take a pronated grip on the bar just outside your hips and unrack the weight so that it hangs to mid thigh. Always stand straight with your head up, and knees just barely bent. Try to touch your shoulders to your ears by shrugging straight up, as high as you can. Hold for half a second to really get that contraction. Lower the weight under control back to mid thigh.
Variations: dumbbell shrugs are good too, but you can’t use as much weight.
The guy in this video shrugs really fast and I would prefer a longer pause at the top, but this is really what a heavy barbell shrug will look like.
4. One Arm Dumbbell Rows – Horizontal training
This is a great way for you to isolate each side of your back in turn. While you can’t go as heavy as barbell rows, you can still go pretty heavy and you can get a fuller contraction with a greater range of motion because the barbell does not restrict your scapula from fully retracting on each rep. To set up: grab a dumbbell and place it beside a bench. Now kneel with one leg on one end of the bench and place your hand on the other end for support. At this point your upper body should be parallel to the floor, and your free leg should be planted just behind you and to the side of your body for support.
To row: grab the dumbbell with a neutral grip (palm facing your body), arm fully extended and lift the dumbbell off the floor. From this point you want to row the weight up and back, pulling your hand in just above your hip, and getting your elbow also up and back as far as possible. Experiment with wrist angles to make this exercise harder, easier, or more comfortable for you.
Variations: you can use a machine or a cable exercise for this, but I highly recommend you stick with free weights.
5. Barbell Deadlifts Deadlifts belong in this list as well as in the top 5 best hamstring exercises, so here it is: 
Deadlifts are one of the primary, fundamental exercises for all serious weight training programs. Deadlifts work 100% of your legs and they require functional stability from 95% of the rest of the muscles on your body. Using proper form, deadlifts will help you get stronger, gain more muscle, and burn more calories than any other single exercise after the squat.
To set up: the barbell rests on the floor, sitting just above the ankles right in front of the shins. Your stance should be shoulder width for conventional deadlifts. Bending your knees, reach down and grab the bar so that your knees are actually inside your elbows. When going heavy, it helps to alternate your grip where one hand is pronated (palm facing you) and the other hand is supinated (palm facing away).
To deadlift: to start a deadlift, use your whole body to begin to lift the bar off the floor. Arms should be straight, knees should be bent. The object is to lift the weight with your legs, glutes, and hips, rather than with your lower back. In fact your lower back should not bend that much, should in fact be pretty straight, and should definitely NOT be rounded. You accomplish this by keeping your head up and by driving with your hips. It is of utmost importance to keep the bar close to your body during the lift.
At the top you should stand up straight, but do not over extend your lower back as if you were doing some kind of hyper-extension. The driving force at the top should be more of a hip thrust than a lower back spasm. Lower the bar under control, keeping it close to your body.
Variations: close stance deads, wide stance deads, sumo style deads, deads off a box, rack pulls or pin pulls, deads or rack pulls with chains or bands.

Honorable mentions: pull overs, cleans, snatches, and…
Dumbbell Reverse Flyes
This exercise used to be listed at the #5 best back exercise, but I really couldn’t live with myself for including it in that list. Therefore, read this section while keeping in mind that dumbbell reverse flyes are probably somewhere in the top 10 best back exercises, but it is not top 5.
OK, you might be thinking this exercise is foo-foo, but it really works the smaller muscles in your upper back, including your rear delts. I guess I wouldn’t really recommend this as a staple exercise for powerlifters or other strength athletes, but it is mandatory for bodybuilders. This will really help to separate the muscles in the back, and will build the rear delts, which are typically very hard to cultivate.
To set up: standing or sitting, grab some dumbbells, bend over so that your upper body is parallel to the floor. Allow the weights to hang at your sides, arms fully extended.
To reverse fly: keeping your back flat and straight, raise the weight vertically until your hands are at their highest possible position. Hold for half a second to contract. Lower the weight under control, but stop a couple inches short of where you started. The goal is not to pause at the bottom of the movement for rest. Tension should be kept on the muscles at all times.
Variations: because this is not a compound exercise, reverse flies on any number of machines or cables are usually an acceptable alternative to dumbbells.

Reverse Flyes
To use this exercise list optimally, you will want to choose 1 horizontal movement and 1 vertical movement, to work into each workout. For full body workouts, choose only one exercise each day, but be sure to alternate between horizontal and vertical. However if you are in a back specialization phase you can definitely choose 1 vertical and 1 horizontal movement for each workout to really force your back to adapt.
If you use the outdated method of splitting up your body parts each day, you can choose to split your back into horizontal and vertical training by using 2 horizontal exercises on horizontal back day, and 2 vertical exercises on vertical back day. Often horizontal back is paired with chest and vertical back is paired with legs.

The Top 5 Best Shoulder Exercises




The Top 5 Best Shoulder Exercises

1. Hang Clean & Press
This is the ultimate shoulder exercise if you ask me. The hang clean resembles a power upright row and if you press without hesitation you can utilize momentum and the stretch reflex to press more weight than you could from a dead stop. However, when using momentum like this, the press tends to turn into more of a push (using the legs and other joints to generate momentum). This is not an exercise designed for any specific kind of training. The hang clean and press mixes Olympic lifting with standard weightlifting and can be used with heavy weight to develop strength or light weight to develop speed and power.
To set up: you will want to load a standard Olympic barbell with some weight, or if you are female you might consider one of the small pre-built barbells that are sometimes setup on weight trees in the free weight area of your gym.
Position your feet on the ground and your hands on the bar, both just outside shoulder width. Keeping your back flat and chin up, deadlift the weight into a standing position with the bar resting against your thighs. This is the starting position.
To hang clean & press: from the starting position you should lower the bar down to just above your knees bending at the knees and waist. From this position you will perform a hang clean to get the bar up to your shoulders.
When you execute a hang clean you want to extend your ankles, flex your knees, flex your traps, and execute something that resembles a 3/4 upright row in order to bring the bar up in a straight line in front of your body until it reaches your shoulders.
At this point you want to rotate your elbows under the bar, catching it on the front of your shoulders, chest, and upward-facing palms. Bend at the knees slightly to assist with the catch.
Immediately press the bar up to full extension. Lower the bar back to your shoulders and drop it back down to your thighs to complete the rep.
The hang clean is not a reverse curl. The movement itself is a combination of a quarter squat, a calf raise, a shrug, and a 3/4 upright row. It is a power movement and should be explosive.
Variations: clean and press, hang clean and push, clean and push.
2. Standing Overhead Press / Military Press
The military press is in league with squats, deadlifts, and bench presses as one of the mandatory exercises for all serious weight lifter. If you are not overhead pressing you are not really lifting. This is the ultimate compound pressing exercise for your shoulders. To set up: either set the bar up in a power rack or squat rack, or you will have to clean the weight up to your shoulders to start the exercise. This is usually what I do since my gym lacks a decent rack of any sort. Grip the bar 2-3 inches outside of shoulder width.
To press: starting with the weight resting on your upper chest and shoulders, press the bar up in front of your face, extending the elbows just short of lockout. Return the weight under control to your upper chest to complete the rep.
Like the guy in the video below, you can take advantage of the stretch reflex by not pausing at the bottom.
Do not bounce, use your legs, or use your hips to get the weight up, as this would be a push press. Push presses are really great too, but we are talking about plain old military presses right now.
Variations: push press, standing dumbbell press.
3. Dumbbell Shoulder Press (3 variations)
In this case I have to point out 3 important variations of the dumbbell shoulder press, all of which I think are important in different scenarios.
1. Standing One Arm Dumbbell Press
I chose this exercise because sometimes you can lift more when you alternate sides in rapid succession. To set up: while standing, clean both dumbbells up to shoulder level or have someone hand them too you if you are a wuss.
To press: lift one dumbbell straight up while resting the other on the opposite shoulder. As you return the first dumbbell to your shoulder, the second dumbbell should already be moving. There should not be any rest between reps.
Variations: seated one arm dumbbell shoulder press.
I could only find a seated version of this exercise with someone doing it the way I would do it.
2. Seated Dumbbell Press
Because you are seated, you are able to drive more with your legs and press back against the bench for added strength and stability. To set up: while seated, rest the dumbbells on each respective knee. When you are ready, use your legs to pop each dumbbell up to your shoulders. You will most likely have to pop up one at a time or have someone hand them to you if you are a wuss.
To press: keeping your feet flat on the floor and your back straight against the bench, press both dumbbells up simultaneously, stopping just short of full lockout. Return the dumbbells to your shoulders to complete the rep.
Variations: standing dumbbell shoulder press – this is one of the few exercises that I find to be awkward, which probably means I should do it every workout until it becomes habit. The standing alternating one arm version is much less awkward in my opinion and I can lift more weight when I alternate.
3. Seated Arnold Shoulder Press
This is a slightly awkward exercise that is very beneficial because it hits the front and side heads of your delts. Don’t plan on using super heavy weight though, as this is a more difficult exercise than regular dumbbell or barbell presses. To set up: start just like a seated dumbbell press, but start with the dumbbells in front of your face, palms facing towards you, the sides of the dumbbells will probably be touching.
To press: rotate the dumbbells externally and press them up at the same time. By the time you reach full extension your palms should be facing away from you and you will have rotated the dumbbells 180 degrees. Return the weights to the front of your face to complete the rep.
Variations: standing Arnold shoulder presses are awkward. I don’t like to do them standing, which again probably means I should.
4. Upright Barbell Rows
Some people seem to indicate that upright barbell rows are tough on the rotator cuffs, but I don’t find this to be true so long as you don’t attempt to rotate the bar higher once it has reached shoulder level. Rather, I believe upright rows are a great exercise for the medial or outside heads of the shoulders. To set up: you will have to choose between straight bar or ez curl bar, but I prefer ez curl. Standing, grab the bar roughly one inch inside of shoulder width.
To upright row: bring the bar straight up alongside the front of your body, bending only the elbows. Your elbows should end up point straight out to either side and the bar should end up just under chin-level.
Variations: two arm, one arm, wide grip, medium grip, close grip, high pulls, dumbbell cleans, barbell cleans, upright cable rows, upright dumbbell rows (slightly awkward).

5. Lateral Dumbbell Side Raises
Definitely not compound by any means, lateral dumbbell raises are the equivalent of dumbbell curls for the shoulders. I recommend this exercise more for bodybuilding than for powerlifting, strongman training, Olympic lifting, or martial arts. To set up: standing up, hold a pair of dumbbells in your hands with your arms hanging straight down to the side.
To raise: using the medial delts (the side of the shoulders), raise the dumbbells straight up to the side until both arms are parallel to the floor. Bend your elbows as little as possible. Technically your arms should be straight the whole time.
Then lower the dumbbells back down, but not such that your arms or the weights touch your thighs, nor should your arms ever be perpendicular to the floor. You always want to keep tension on the shoulders.
Variations: one arm side raise, cable side raise.
Honorable mentions: internal rotations and external rotations for the rotator cuffs, bent over reverse dumbbell or cable flyes.

The Top 5 Best Triceps Exercises




The Top 5 Best Triceps Exercises


Tricep Extensions
Two common questions you will hear from male weightlifters are:
1. How can I get bigger arms?
2. How can I bench press more weight?
Normally I would scoff at such questions, except that the answer is a lesson that most young weightlifters need to learn.
Because your triceps comprise two-thirds of your arm, the answer to the first question is: train your triceps.
Because your triceps are often the weakest link in the chain of muscles that facilitates bench press, the answer to the second question is: train your triceps.
This brings me to the point of this whole post, which is how best to train your triceps.

Anatomy of a Tricep
The triceps brachii has three heads that connect the humerus and scapula to the forearm bone called the ulna.
These heads are known as the Lateral, Medial, and Long heads.
The lateral head is located on the outward facing side of the humerus.
This head is most responsible for the horseshoe shape of the triceps.
The medial head is located towards the midline of the body.
The long head runs along the bottom side of the humerus and is the largest of the three heads.
Again I will mention that your triceps make up about 70% of the total muscle mass of your upper arm.

Triceps Anatomy
Functions of a Tricep
The primary function of the tricep is to extend the elbow, which results in straightening the arm.
The secondary function of the tricep is fulfilled only by the long head of the muscle, which is to adduct the arm (or to bring the arm down towards the body). The tricep shares this function with the latissimus dorsi (back muscles).
Top 5 Best Tricep Exercises
A number of criteria went in to selecting the best tricep exercises. I focused on compound exercises over isolation. We also want to be able to go as heavy as possible in order to build the size and strength we are seeking. Work a couple of these exercises into your weekly training, and you will see a huge improvement in your triceps within 2 months.
Until I get my video camera set up, you can enjoy the following videos from YouTube.
1. Close grip bench press Close grip bench is probably the best tricep exercise on the planet. This exercise allows you to go heavy and put maximum stress on the muscle that can help you bench stronger and better.
You want to set up like a regular bench press, but position your hands no wider than shoulder width. On the decent, you want to keep your elbows in. Do not let your elbows drift away from your body like you would with a regular bench press. At the bottom of the movement, you want the bar to come to the lower portion of your chest; at the top, the bar should be over your upper chest.

2. Dips (weighted) A classic tricep builder. Keep your body as upright as possible to put the stress on your triceps rather than your chest. 
Use a belt with a chain to add weight to your body if you can do more than 5 reps at bodyweight. 
Be careful to always respect the flexibility and stability of your shoulders. Be sure not to lower your body so far that your shoulders become compromised, and always use strict form and a bounce-free concentric movement.

3. Rack lockouts or board press True powerlifting exercises, these two can be used interchangeably but only choose to use one of these exercises in any given workout. For the most part they train the same muscles. 
The goal here is to train the top portion of the bench press, where triceps rain supreme. I prefer rack lockouts because if I do use too much weight I can just rack the bar, and I don’t have to worry about carrying around a bunch of boards nailed together as if I didn’t already carry enough equipment around in my gym bag. 
Rack Lockouts

Board Press
However, most powerlifters that I have ever known prefer the board press to rack lockouts. I believe this is because the board press is identical to a regular bench press, except that the range of motion is much shorter (and there’s a big board on your chest). You can also vary the thickness of the boards from 1 inch to 10 inches or whatever you need for your workout.

4. Lying French press (aka skullcrushers, nosebreakers) This is as close as I’ll get to recommending a tricep extension type exercise. The reason I like this exercise so much is that you really can work up to a decent weight, and it works your triceps from a different angle than any of the pressing movements.
I suggest using an EZ curl bar and positioning your hands shoulder width apart. Lower the bar under control down to your nose, your hairline, or behind your head. If you feel any pain in your triceps, opt to lower the bar behind your head. 
In the following video we split the difference… this guy lower the bar to his hairline. I typically prefer behind the head.

5. Close grip (diamond) push ups (with a clap) What? How did this get in here? No seriously, if you can bang out a set of 10 diamond push ups that’s great, but can you clap after each rep. This is an exercise that will really condition your triceps to contract with maximum force. 
You want to position your hands underneath your chest with index fingers and thumb tips touching. The space between should form a diamond. As soon as you can do 10 of these without the clap, add the clap. In order to clap properly you will need to push yourself up high enough to execute the clap and return your hands to their proper diamond position for the next rep. 
If this is too hard you can work up to it by placing plates or books beside your hands, and ‘jump’ up onto them. This is initially a shorter range of motion than a clap.
In the following video this guy is just doing regular diamond push ups without a clap. We do these in thai kickboxing class.

If you use a 3-day full body training split, you can probably choose 3 of these exercises, using 1 each day. If you have an ‘arm day’ (which is a totally bogus topic for another day), you can probably choose 2 of these exercise for your triceps routine.
Keep reps under 5 per set, and do no more than 3-5 sets of each exercise including warm-ups.
Dedicate yourself to triceps specialization for a minimum of 2 months and you will rep wondrous rewards.

Functions of the Bicep




Functions of the Bicep


The primary function of the bicep muscle is to flex the elbow, which moves the forearm towards the shoulder. The explains the standard bicep “curl”.
The secondary function of the bicep is supination of the forearm, which means turning the hand from a palms-down position to a palms-up position. This is why a a rotational type of curl is always good to add to your bicep training arsenal.
The Top 5 Best Biceps Exercises
I thought about avoiding all compound exercises that exist in the top 5 best exercises for any other muscle group. But I can’t. The reality is that the top 5 best biceps exercises include a form of rowing and a form of chin-up/pull-down. Therefore I will present the top 3 best direct biceps exercises and the top 2 compound exercises that you should use if you want big biceps.
Never should your workout program contain an ‘arm day’ where you focus only on biceps. There’s no need to do more than two biceps exercises in any given workout, and those two exercises better be two totally different movements.
1. Standing barbell curl
If there was ever a ‘compound biceps exercise’, this would be it. This is the only direct bicep exercise that you can just pile weight on and use all the muscle of the biceps and forearms to get the weight up. Standing barbell curls are the only must-use exercise if you want tank arms. To set up: load a standard 45 lb barbell with some weights, and pick it up. Your hands should be supinated (palms up), about shoulder width apart. Arms should hang down beside/in front of your body, the bar in front of your hips. Tuck your elbows into your sides and DON’T move them throughout the exercise.
To curl: keeping your elbows tucked in place at your sides, curl the bar up to your chin, but not so far that your forearms are perpendicular to the floor. Always keep tension on the biceps throughout the motion. Do not let the biceps relax at the bottom of the rep, but also don’t bounce the bar off your hips or quads in order to start the next rep. Keep tension on the biceps.
Variations: wide grip, medium grip, narrow grip; standing ez curls with a 20-25 lb ez curl bar. Do reverse curl to work your forearms.
I don’t know what kind of a bar this girl is using, but does it really matter?

2. Alternating rotating dumbbell curl
This is a simple exercise, that feels natural in its plane of motion. By alternating, you can focus maximal intensity on each arm separately. To set up: grab two dumbbells and hold them down at your sides, arms straight, palms facing your body. Again, keep your elbows tucked into your sides as soon as you start curling.
To curl: start the movement with a hammer curl, then as the dumbbell clears your body, begin to rotate it so that at the end of the movement, your palms are facing your head. Once you lower the dumbbell back to the starting position, start curling with the next arm.
Cheat Principles
Here is an example, but this guy is definitely swaying and cheating. I couldn’t really find a good video for standing alternating bicep curls. Basically take this principle and instead of swaying, keep your elbows locked at your sides and just stand still while you curl.
When you get to the last rep, you may feel free to apply a cheat principle by either swaying a bit or by raising the elbows away from the body, but this should only be on the last rep of the set.

3. Hammer curl
The hammer curl is great for developing the forearms, brachialis, and brachioradialis. I’m not sure about you, but I can hammer curl more than I can traditional curl, and lifting more with good form is always better than lifting less. To set up: grab two dumbbells and hold them down at your sides, arms straight, palms facing your body. Keep your elbows tucked into your sides as soon as you start curling.

To hammer curl: you are basically curling the dumbbell up as high as it can go without moving the elbows. Ideally, the flat side of the dumbbell, at the top of the rep, should come close to touching the shoulder of the lifting arm. We call this a hammer curl because it looks like you are swinging a hammer. This means the palms face towards your body throughout the whole exercise.
This guy here is doing his hammer curls close to his body. This is one way you can alter the plane of motion in order to lift a bit more weight. Notice how he still keeps his elbows stationary though? That is the point you should away from this vid.

4. Supinated bent over rows
OK, now we get into the real biceps mass gainers. When you curl you can use maybe 50-70 lbs dumbbells, or 120-150 lbs on a straight bar, but when you are rowing, you can load the bar up to well over 200 lbs. I personally remember bent over straight bar rows with 265+ lbs back in college. To set up: you will be grabbing the bar with a supinated grip (palms up/away) with your hands about shoulder width apart. You will need to either unrack the bar from a rack or stand, or deadlift the weight into a standing position.
It is important to bent over so that your upper body is close to parallel to the floor, but not so much that your lower back rounds over. By pushing your butt back, you will be able to maintain a stronger core while getting lower to the floor.
To row: the row itself is simply bringing the bar up to touch your abdomen, and lowering it down so that your arms are just short of fully extended. As always, keep your elbows in, as opposed to flared out to the side.

5. Close grip chin ups
YES! Biceps mass will be well on its way once you master this exercise. By keeping your hands close together and focusing on your biceps to lift your body, you will be essentially doing bodyweight curls. How much do you weigh? 150? 180? 220? Can you straight bar curl that much? I didn’t think so. There is a big difference between pull ups and chin ups though. While pull ups are good for your arms and back, close grip chin ups bring that whole movement to a whole new bicep-mass-building-level.
To set up: find a straight bar that you can comfortably reach from a standing position. Grip the bar with an underhand/supinated grip (your palms should be facing you). Keep the hands about 4-6 inches apart; they should be right outside your chin on either side.
If you are strong enough to do weighted pull ups or chin ups, add some weight either by crossing your feet and placing a dumbbell between your ankles, or hanging a couple plates from a weighted belt. A weighted belt should have a chain on one end and a loop on the other end, to which you should hook the chain. Put the chain through the hole in the middle of the plates and clasp the chain to the loop. Good stuff.
To chin up: an important aspect of chin ups, is getting your chin up over the bar. While this isn’t a dire necessity, if you don’t at least get your chin up to touch the bar, you can’t call the rep complete.
The girl in the following video has better form than most of the male pull up videos I found on YouTube.

Honorable mentions: pull ups, deadlifts, concentration curls, seated incline curls
To integrate these exercises into a full body workout program, you should choose either #4 or #5 as your main back exercise, and follow it up with any one of the first 3 exercises. This will allow you to lift maximal weight on the compound movement, and burn the biceps out with a direct biceps movement. Even consider breaking up the back and biceps exercise with something else entirely (legs or chest perhaps) in order to give the biceps some additional recovery time.
To integrate these exercises into a training program that splits the body amongest different days, you can do exercise #4 and #5 on back day, and follow it up with any one of the first 3 exercises. I still recommend not using a dedicated bicep day, or an arms day that focuses on the bis.
If you focus too much directly on biceps, you will just be spinning your wheels. They are more of a secondary muscle group, and for them to really grow and get stronger, all the large muscle around them (shoulders, triceps, back, and chest) need to get stronger first.

My list of the second 5 of my favorite 10 ab exercises




Here is my list of the second 5 of my favorite 10 ab exercises that you can use to get 6-pack abs. Perform these exercises on a regular basis, mix them up, use different speeds, tempos, angles, and positions to get a full workout. Always try to mix it up from workout to workout.

Here are 3 ways you can combine these exercises for different workouts:
1. Choose 5 exercises that work in different plains of motion and perform them all in a continuous circuit. Rest only 1 minute after the circuit and not at all during the circuit. Repeat 3 times.
2. Figure out a way to alter each of these exercises to perform them hanging. You can hang from your hands, arms, legs, or feet. To hang from your feet, go get yourself some gravity boots.
3. Superset each one of these ab exercises with an exercise from your regular upper or lower body workout routine. Do 3 sets of each superset. I used this method to increase the circumfrence of my calves by 1.5 inches in 6 months.
That is quite enough out of me for now. Go ahead and read about the 5 exercises and then figure out how to work them into your routine.

1. Vertical Leg Kicks The vertical leg crunch, or full vertical crunch, was ranked as the fourth most effective exercise in the ACE study for the rectus abdominus. I suggest changing this exercise a bit to focus more on kicking up rather than crunching.
This is a great change of pace from regular crunches, as it works the entire abdominal muscle to its fullest extent similar to Fold Ups.
To set up: Lie flat on your back. Place your hands lightly behind your head. Contract your abs to lift the shoulder blades off the floor. Lift your legs about 12 inches off the floor.
To kick: Bring your knees in towards your chest, then deliver a double-leg kick straight up to the ceiling. By pressing the heels towards the ceiling, you are creating a ‘u’ shape with the torso. At the top of the movement, your hips should be off the floor.
Lower your knees back to your chest, then fully extend your legs back to the starting position. Do not rest your legs or your shoulders on the floor. Instead, keep tension on the abs throughout the movement. That’s one rep.
If you find it hard to perform this exercise with your hands behind your head or if your lower back hurts, you can place your arms and hands palms down about 12 inches away from your body on either side.
I couldn’t find a video for this… yet another reason for me to learn to use my video camera.
2. Russian Twist My football buddy at college taught me this exercise. He had been using Russian Twists to develop a rock hard midsection since his early years in high school. This exercise will hit your obliques HARD.
To set up: First, go choose a medicine ball or a weight plate that you can handle without much difficulty. I recommend starting with 8-12 lbs. In time you can work up to as much as 45 lbs or even more.
Next, sit on the floor with your knees bent and feet flat on the floor. Contract your abs and position your upper body at about a 45 degree angle to the floor. Hold a medicine ball with both hands directly in front of you.
To twist: Contracting your abs, twist slowly from your torso to your right and touch the medicine ball to the floor beside your right hip. Quickly, but smoothly, contract your abs and twist your torso to other side, and touch the medicine ball to the floor beside your left hip. Thats one rep.
Really challenge yourself by keeping your feet off the floor. In this manner, only your butt will be touching the floor. Feel the burn.
3. Medicine Ball Sit Up Toss This exercise is actually best done with a partner. The added weight helps you to work on density, and you may get a bit of an upper body workout too.
To set up: Lie on your back with your knees bent and feet flat on the floor. Hold a medicine ball on your chest and have a partner stand at your feet. Use your abs to push your lower back flat to the floor. You do not want it arched at all.
To sit up: As you sit up, throw the ball to your partner. Hold the position as your partner catches the ball and throws it back to you. Your position should not be straight up, in fact you should hold a 60 degree angle to keep tension on the abs at all times.
Catch the ball and slowly return to the start position, but don’t lay on the floor. Ideally, your shoulders should never touch the floor, but good luck with that.
Don’t have a medicine ball?
Throw a jab and a cross at the top.
Have a medicine ball but no partner?
Throw the medicine ball at a wall and catch it again before you go back down.
4. Windshield Wipers To set up: Just find a pull up bar and hang from it. Now pull yourself up so that your upper body is parallel to the floor and your legs are perpendicular to the floor. There should be a 90 degree angle between your torso and your legs.
To wipe: This exercise is so simple yet so effective. All you have to do is rotate your legs from side to side like a windshield wiper.
This guy has it down pat:
Here’s a great video that will show you how to be creative by combining exercises into a more effective routine. Kat demonstrates hanging leg raises and windshield wipers.
5. Leg Throws You might think this exercise will tighten the hip flexors, but because it is so balistic and you have to maintain such a solid core throughout the movement, you end up working your abdominal muscles hard. In order to do it right though, you have to be agressive. Hard throws, don’t touch the floor, and quickly return to the top position.
Video demonstrates straight and diagonal leg throws.
6. Honorable mentions: Bruce Lee Style Flags, Side Bends, Cable Crunches, Planks.
To integrate these exercises into a 5 day split workout routine, pick one different exercise each day and do 3-5 sets. Try to alternate targeting rectus abdominus and obliques.
To integrate these exercises into a 3 day full body workout routine, pick two to three different exercises each day and do 2-3 sets of each. Consider performing the exercises as one giant superset with little to no rest between sets.
Another way to use these abs exercises, is to combine all of them into 15 minutes of non-stop abs training 3 times a week. Rest at most 30 seconds between sets and train to near failure. 
Remember to train your lower back in addition to your abs. You can use the 5 best hamstring exercises to do that.
That concludes the 10 best exercises for abs part 3. Hopefully you enjoyed all three parts to this series, and your abs will benefit from the results.

5 of my favorite 10 ab exercises




I would like to introduce 5 of my favorite 10 ab exercises, that you can use to get a 6-pack abs look. Do these exercises regularly, mix it up, use different speeds, tempos, angles, and positions to get a full workout. Always try to progress from workout to workout.
Here are 3 ways you can gauge progress with abdominal exercises:
1. Try to complete more reps in a given time period. For example, do as many fold ups as possible in 60 seconds. Try to break your personal record (PR) each workout.
2. Try to complete more total reps each time you perform the exercise. For example, week one do 3 sets of 10, week 2 do 3 sets of 12, week 3 do 4 sets of 10, week 4 do 3 sets of 15, etc…
3. If it applies, try to add weight to the exercise by holding a plate or dumbbell on your chest or behind your head, or use a weighted vest. You can also add weight to your legs with ankle weights. Try to use more weight, or complete more reps with the same weight, each time.
Part 1 of this series was long and tedious, so I won’t put you through any babble-writing. On to the exercises…

1. The Bicycle Maneuver The Bicycle is the best exercise to target the abdominals and the second best exercise to target the obliques according to the ACE study. If this exercise is too easy, you can use ankle weights and you can hold a plate behind your head for added resistance.
To set up: Put a mat on the floor and lie down flat.
Put your hands behind your head, with your fingers touching your head lightly. Do not lock your fingers together at all.
Lift the shoulder blades off the floor without using your arms to pull on your neck. Only use the abdominal muscles for this.
Bring your knees up to a 45 degree angle so that your thighs are perpendicular and your calves are parallel to the floor.
To bike: Slowly pedal your legs as if you were on a bicycle by alternately extending and flexing your knees so that your feet move in an elliptical motion. As each knee approaches your chest, attempt to touch the opposite elbow to the knee by flexing and curling your trunk up and to the side as though you were performing a side crunch.
Your shoulders should remain off the floor for the duration of the exercise. Remeber to breathe.
I like this video because it demonstrates how you should keep your shoulders off the floor throughout the movement. This is still a basic bicycle maneuver.
Here is an advanced bicycle maneuver that is harder on the abs because more of the upper body stays off the floor throughout the movement. This method also takes the hip flexors out of the movement by kicking the legs straight out instead of cycling them.
2. Captain’s Chair Vertical Leg Raise The Captain’s Chair is the second best exercise to target the abdominals and the best exercise to target the obliques according to the ACE study. I don’t know how this targets the obliques better than the bicycle, but I guess the electromyography (EMG) equipment can’t lie.
I personally like these for the lower abdominals, although as we know the abs are a single unit, and you can’t technically target upper or lower abs independently.
To set up: Climb up onto the captains chair. Press your back against the pad and support your body by placing your elbows and forearms on the horizontal pads. Grip the hand holds provided. Let your feet hang straight down.
To leg raise: Lift your knees up and in towards your chest. When your thighs are parallel to the floor you should use your abdominal muscles to pivot your hips up and away from the back padding, so that your knees move vertically and horizontally closer to your chest.
Pause for half a second and return your legs to just short of the starting position, but don’t let them free fall and dangle straight down as it takes all the resistance away from the abs. Instead, you should maintain a tight midsection throughout the movement always keep a slight bend in the knees.
One key to keeping this move safe and effective is to avoid swinging the legs or using momentum to raise the legs or knees. You should also keep the knees slightly bent help you focus more on the abdominals and less on the hip flexors.
A huge mistake most people make, is to use the hip flexors to swing the legs up and down. This is counterproductive and can lead to muscular imbalance, overtrained hip flexors, and ultimately injury.
Here is a slightly annoying example of this exercise from UCLA, which also mentions the alternate variation where you rotate your hips at the top in order to further target the obliques.

Don’t have access to a captains chair? No problem. Hang from a bar and raise your knees to your elbows. 
Observe:
3. Ab Wheel / Roll Outs Whether you do them standing or from your knees, the ab wheel will rock you. This is definitely one of my core ab exercises. Do 100 of these a day with varying angles and positions, and watch your abs bust out washboard-style.
The ab wheel can really be a tough exercise for those with a weak lower back. Be sure not to over extend yourself unless you are sure that your core and lower back can handle it. If you collapse in the middle and feel it in your back, you have gone too far.
By now I can do full reps with my arms straight out from my knees. Back in college I could do reps from my feet, but never to full extension. Work within your abilities, but always attempt to push yourself as you get stronger.
To set up: Most likely you will be doing this exercise from your knees. It helps to have some padding under your knees or you will get bruised. Either an aerobics pad, a rubber mat, a thick rug, or a thrice-folded towel should suffice.
Get up on your knees and hold the ab wheel in front of you with elbows extended just short of lock out. Your body will be slightly bent over the ab wheel from the start of the exercise.
To wheel out: Let the wheel roll out in front of your body as far as you are comfortable. Use your abs to pull the wheel back towards your knees. It is best for your upper body to stay forward of your knees in order to keep tension on the abs at all times.
Kneeling ab wheel done properly:

I found this one woman using the ab wheel standing. I have seen people do this, and have done it myself, with an 80% roll out, but never with a full extension. Give her props.
Aka: Bar Roll Outs…
There is a machine called the Torso Track that does something similar to this, but I prefer the ab wheel. Many other athletes agree.
4. Fold-Ups / V-Sit / Clothespins The fold is a compound, full-body abdominal and core exercise that works the rectus abdominis and obliques. Initially you will have a hard time doing this correctly, and you might need to practice the v-sit, or up-position of this exercise, separately in order to learn how to keep your body off the floor throughout the movement.
To set up: Find a mat and lay down on it. Straighten your legs. You are ready.
To v-sit: The basic v-sit begins in a seated position. Contract your abdominal muscles and core, and lift your legs up to a 45-degree angle. Reach your arms straight forward or reach up toward your shins or toes if you are able. It is important to maintain good core posture and a strong spine.
Hold this “V” position for several seconds to begin. As you get stronger, hold the position longer. Return to your starting position slowly.
To fold up: Eventually you will be able to do this exercise as a sit-up alternative starting by lying flat on the floor, up into a v-sit and touch your toes, back down to a flat position on the floor. In this way your entire body fully extends then folds completely up.
Here is a great explanation of the basic v-sit and the v-sit-up:

5. Lying Leg Kicks / Flutter Kicks Flutter kicks really work your abs, but they are definitely an endurance exercise. All the same, you can really feel this exercise in the lower abs and they will leave you feeling sore the next day.
The point of flutter kicks is to either max out on reps, meaning try to do more reps each workout, or to complete more flutter kicks in a certain amount of time, for example, each workout you might try to finish 5 more flutter kicks in one minute.
To set up: Start by lying flat on the floor, then use your arms (elbows and forearms) to prop your upper body off the floor. Place your hands down by your butt, just on the outside of your hips.
Keep your legs straight, at least 10 inches off the floor throughout the exercise. If you feel too much tension in the lower back, raise your legs higher off the ground.
To leg raise: To flutter kick, simply raise one leg up about 18 inches, and return it to the starting position while alternating with the other leg. Both legs should be in constant motion. When the second foot comes back to the starting position, that’s one rep.

To integrate these exercises into a 5 day split workout routine, pick one different exercise each day and do 3-5 sets. Try to alternate targeting rectus abdominus and obliques.

The Immortal Myth of Spot Reduction




The Immortal Myth of Spot Reduction

The #1 cause of a soft midsection is a result of a myth that just won’t die: if you exercise a certain muscle group you will be able to tone that spot on your body. This is FALSE, FALSE, FALSE!
I repeat: just because you exercise a muscle, does not mean you will begin to show cuts or definition in that area.
Your muscles in the target area will get bigger, stronger, faster, and better conditioned, but fat loss will NOT occur in that area unless it is simultaneously occurring everywhere else on your body. The only way you can do crunches and wake up one day to six-pack abs, is if your bodyfat is already under 8%.
The truth you need to know, is that flat six pack abs are difficult to get. To succeed in this quest, you need the right combination of exercises, diet, and genetics. There, I said it.
I personally have had a 4 pack on several occasions throughout my life. A six pack is just not attainable for me unless I get under that 8% bodyfat mark, and even then I don’t have great lower abdominal genetics. The four pack is maintainable by me year round, although it’s slightly harder to stay that lean during the winter.
What does this mean for you?
It means that a flat belly is achievable for you, just as it is for anyone.
It means that your body might not physiologically be right for displaying six pack abs, but that you should be able to show off some abdominal definition if your bodyfat is low enough.
It means that you need to follow a strict diet in order to drop enough bodyfat from your whole body, that your abs become visible through a wall of various abdominal tissues.
It means that you might not be able to drop that much bodyfat if your lifestyle doesn’t allow it, or if your body just won’t function properly at a low body fat percentage.
It also means that you need a wide variety of effective exercises to shape your abdominals from all angles.

Odd Object Training -




Odd Object Training -


Real DIY Training

Odd Object training is an awesome way of training almost free of charge and is definitely DIY Fitness. 

Pick out an unusual item and train with it. Simple!

The most common forms of ODD OBJECTS that come to mind would be stones and rocks, sandbags, logs, bricks cemented together from an old wall, tyres (tyres full of concrete), barrels (half full of water), kegs, building buckets full of rubble or water, slosh ball (has a cost), pipe full of water (sloshpipe). 

Let your imagination run wild and I'm sure you'll come up with something. Take a look out of your window, what can you see? Any large object/awkward object can potentially be used.

For the actual training part of odd objects, again use your imagination. 
Here are a few ideas to get you going.

Ask yourself when looking at an odd object if the following can be done with it:
Over head lifting
Dragging
Pulling
Swinging
Gripping
Throwing
Running
Squatting
Shouldering...... the list is endless

Check out Joe Hashey's article about Odd ObjectPrimers over at The Art of Manliness

Here's an excerpt from his article. Top stuff!

Stones
Pinch Gripping Pinch Swings

Pinch Grip Farmers Walk – Shown with Stone + 35 lb Hex Head DB

Obviously Atlas Stones can be used for loading or shouldering. However if you do not have an Atlas Stone, a keg can be a decent replacement. Smaller stones can also be used to add grips to things like curls, rows, presses, etc. Again, use your imagination with these objects. That’s half the fun!

Kegs
Clean and Press Shoulder Loading
Setting Up a Keg “Atlas Stone” Style Lift Keg Throwing

Overhead Iso Lunges

Kegs and sandbags are incredibly versatile. I could list at least 100 exercises for each, but again, follow my above rule of first thinking of gym exercises, then applying the object. Remember Zoolander’s walk-off rules? Old school rules – duplicate then elaborate. Same concept applies here, but less pretty.

Sandbags

Sandbags, like kegs, can be used for a huge array of exercises. I prefer to “grab cloth” when sandbag training. This means, instead of using the handles for grip, I grab the cloth of the bag as if I was grabbing someone by the shirt. This makes it tougher on the grip. Here are some suggested exercises:
Sandbag Pull Through Setup Sandbag Pull Through Finish
Shouldered Sandbag Squat Front Hold Sandbag Step-up

Rope
Rope is a unique training tool. I like to use it for everything from rope battling to added grip on pull-ups. It is worth it to have a few different sizes and lengths in your repertoire. It is best to not get the rope wet, as it frays and not to leave it out in the sun.
Rope Mountain Climbers Rope Battling (other end attached to tree)

Thick Rope Supine Rows

Tires

Tires come in all shapes and sizes, so these exercises are just suggestions. They are unique since you can do everything from beat them with a sledgehammer to throw them for explosive training.
Rotational Tire Throws Tire Flips

Primal Workouts




Primal Workouts


An Excerpt from the Lean Hybrid Muscle Building Program

Nature is amazing. Plants, animals, humans, insects and ecosystems, left on their own, over time adapt to their environment to not just exist, but to thrive. Each species is designed to do whatever it does best. For example, carnivores like wolves, lions and tigers are built to hunt and kill. They’re strong and fast with sharp teeth and powerful jaws. And all this happens naturally. When they are born, their parents don’t sit them down and explain to them what they have to do to become skilled hunters—they just go about living their lives and they develop that way naturally.
Animals in nature don’t go to the gym. They don’t lift weights, they don’t do cardio, they don’t read about the latest hot training routine and they don’t go on diets. Yet despite the fact that they don’t do any of these things, wolf cubs, lion cubs and others grow up to be skilled hunters with lean but incredibly strong bodies. Why? Because they live their lives the way nature intended, doing the activities that nature intended them to be doing without giving it any thought. It’s like this throughout nature, with all species. What does this have to do with building a better body and why should you care? A lot—and I am going to tell you why.

Over the last thousand years or so man has gotten soft. By nature, we’re hunter-gatherers, meaning that our bodies are built both to hunt and to forage for food—we kind of get the best of both worlds. But as our society has become more civilized we’ve moved away from doing the things that nature intended our bodies to be doing. And as a result, for the most part we’ve become flabby, soft and out-of-shape. We don’t have to hunt down animals and kill them with our bare hands or with simple tools and we don’t have to traverse long distances, searching for fruits, vegetables and nuts. When we did have to do those things every day in order to survive, we developed naturally lean and strong bodies—without even thinking about it.

Today though, we go to the gym, use machines, moon over the latest fad diet or hot new supplement. And what’s the result? More people than ever before are overweight or obese. Our intellect and knowledge have grown exponentially but yet overall, we’re in progressively worse shape than at any time in our history. What’s the problem? I’ll tell you what the problem is—it’s us. When man intervenes things start to get all mucked up.
We’ve moved away from living the way nature intended us to live. We train at the gym doing exercises that are unnatural and wonder why we don’t get results. Our ancestors didn’t do this but yet they thrived. Look at the warrior cultures like the Spartans, the Vikings, the Roman Gladiators and others. They didn’t have gyms but they developed lean, powerful, muscular bodies. They got that way because they did what they had to do to survive. They trained every day not doing isolated, contrived movements, but using compound movements that incorporated a variety of training styles and developed real-world skills.
Our ancestors didn’t order carry-out food. If they were hungry they had to go out and forage or hunt. And while doing this, sometimes they got chased by wolves, bears or other humans. Food had to be carried across distances. If they killed a bear, they probably had to drag it a long ways back to camp. And the warrior cultures did the same thing—trekking across the land wearing their heavy battle gear and lugging cumbersome weapons, supplies and even wounded soldiers. These are the kinds of activities that are bodies were built to do. When we did those things on a daily basis, we just naturally got the best results without even thinking about it. Our ancestors—the hunter/gatherers and the warrior cultures developed into what they were and thrived because if they didn’t, they would have perished.

And if we today want to see the same kind of results and be lean, muscular, strong and healthy, we need to stop looking for the magic bullet and look to our past. We need to get primal and train the way nature intended our bodies to train. To get really healthy and get the bodies we want we need to exercise the way our ancestors lived by getting primal in our workouts. So how’s a modern guy supposed to “get primal” in his workout? One of the best ways to train like our ancestors is by following training strategies like Lean Hybrid Muscle Training and others.
As you may already know hybrid muscle training is a training philosophy. It incorporates the best of bodybuilding, powerlifting, strongman and cardio and combining them into a cohesive training philosophy that essentially mimics the sorts of intense physical activities our ancestors would have done on a daily basis. The approach runs totally contrary to most of what you may have read in magazines but most “revolutionary” ideas have done the same. It’s a way to burn fat and build muscle at the same time, without the hit or miss—mostly miss—hassles of bulking and cutting. Lean Hybrid Muscle Training will really supercharge workouts and completely maximize your results.

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Fat Loss Lie #12: "It takes just minutes a day"
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Fat Loss Lie #12: "It takes just minutes a day"
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"2 MINUTE ABS"

"A FEW MINUTES IN THE MORNING!"
"THE ONE WORKOUT A WEEK FITNESS REVOLUTION!"
"CHANGE YOUR BODY IN 30 MINUTES A WEEK"
As if all the rapid weight loss claims weren't enough (big fat lie #10), the latest bombardment of advertising hype says that you're spending too much time in the gym and that if you follow their "secret" training program, you can get in tip top shape in just "minutes a day."
What do I think about that? well, you definitely don't have to "live in the gym" or train for hours every day to get great results. And you should always, of course, look for ways get the most benefit from every minute you spend in the gym. That's called "time efficiency," and that is a good thing.
But you should be very cautious of the claims about getting more results in less time without MUCH higher intensity and effort. You really CAN get more results in less time with higher intensity workouts, but "higher intensity" translated, means "hard work." If it sounds too good to be true... well, you know the rest...
It's an error in thinking that you can bypass the law of cause and effect and it's a flaw in character to expect better results without putting in the necessary time and hard work(refer back to lesson #6 if necessary: "The quick and easy lie.").
There's a fine line between training enough to stimulate growth and overtraining. We are warned continually not to overtrain or we'll "hold back our strength and muscle gains." We are also cautioned not to do too much aerobics or we'll "lose the muscle" we already have.
It's true that many people are overtraining. But just as there's fine a line between optimal training and overtraining, there's also a fine line between optimal training and undertraining.
The minimalist "less is more" approach is highly appealing because it represents the ultimate "lazy person's" approach. And most of all, it SELLS!
The promoters are basically saying, "Hey, you're spending too much time in the gym and it's holding back your gains. Buy my secret miracle training program and you only have to train once or twice a week for a few minutes and you'll double your results."
Briefer and less frequent workouts are only good to the extent to which they provide an adequate training stimulus while preventing you from overtraining and optimizing hormonal response. Minimalism as a marketing appeal is a completely different story. Make sure you recognize the difference between the two.
If you thought the "just minutes in the morning" idea was ridiculous (but brilliant from a marketing perspective), now someone just wrote a book called 2-minute abs. What's next? 30-second abs? Massive muscles in five minutes? The one rep muscle revolution?
Your body is begging for exercise - it's an amazing machine that was designed to be used often and vigorously. In fact, your body is the only machine that wears out faster when you don't use it!
Training for basic health benefits and training for maximum fat loss and muscle growth may not be the same thing. To get maximum changes in body composition, you need a much higher frequency, duration and intensity.
You can get health benefits from very small amounts of exercise. Even walking to work or class, or raking the leaves in your yard can have health benefits. But you get even greater health benefits from larger amounts of exercise.
You can get a training effect (muscle growth and strength increase) in as few as two or three 30 to 45 minute workouts per week, especially if you use highly time efficient training methods such as high intensity interval training for cardio and supersets, circuits and short rest intervals for strength training.
However, you cannot expect to become super lean and highly muscular without putting in the time and effort.
Here's what it all boils down to: You reap what you sow... The rewards you take out will always come in direct proportion to the work you put in. The best bodies in the world - with the best body composition and the best fat-to-muscle ratios - are built with high levels of physical activity. There's simply no quick fix.

Top 5 Sources of Protein Drum roll please….




Top 5 Sources of Protein
Drum roll please…. 1. Chicken Chicken headlines our list of high protein foods for being high protein with a low overall fat content. In particular, you want to opt for the white meat portion of the chicken – the breast. The white meat has less than half the fat of the dark meat portion (thighs and drumsticks) of the chicken. The best choice for chicken is a roasted, skinless and boneless chicken breast. A 4-ounce serving has only 187 calories, 35 grams of protein and only 4 grams of fat! Frying the chicken can significantly increase its fat content. For example, that same 4-ounce chicken breast, when fried as over 5 grams of fat. That is a 25% increase in fat! Therefore, when preparing your chicken meals, you should roast, grill, or broil your chicken breast to keep the overall fat content low. Complete High Protein Foods List – Poultry 2. Fish and Seafood Fish is second on our top 5 list of high protein foods. Fish has a higher fat content than chicken; however, most of the fat found in chicken is from unsaturated fats (the good kind). In particular, fish is high in omega-3 fatty acids. Omega-3 acids promote weight loss and may reduce the risk of coronary and heart disease. The most popular fish for protein is tuna. One can of tuna provides you with 220 calories, 40 grams of protein and 5 grams of unsaturated fat. However, tuna is not your only choice. Anchovies, herring, mackerel, salmon and sardines are all great choice for a diet high in protein. These fishes are all loaded with omega-3 fatty acids. More information on why Omega-3 fatty acids put fish on the list of high protein foods Complete High Protein Foods List – Fish and Seafood 3. Beef Beef has a higher fat content, and not necessarily the good kind; as a result, it ranks below chicken and fish in our list of high protein foods. Even though beef is high in fat, it is also loaded with compounds other than protein to help you build quality muscle, such as creatine and vitamin B-12. In order to minimize the amount of fat in beef, you should choose the leanest cuts of meat available such as top round, sirloin and tenderloin. For example, a 4-ounce serving of broiled top round trimmed to 1/8” fat comes in at 201 calories, 36 grams of protein and 5 grams of fat. Complete High Protein Foods List – Beef Products 4. Dairy and Egg Products This category covers cheese, eggs, milk and yogurt. These foods make it onto the top 5 list of high protein foods with one caveat: the “full fat” versions are not allowed! These products can add a lot of saturated (bad) fats to your diet. Therefore, you should look for labels that read “low-fat” for cheeses and yogurts and use skim or 1% milk. For eggs, all of the fat content is in the yolk, so you should consider egg whites as a zero fat alternative to the whole egg. Of course, there is flavor in the yolk, so you can have a yolk for every five egg whites you eat. Complete High Protein Foods List – Dairy and Eggs 5. Whey Protein Whey protein is the best protein supplement on the market. As a result, it is the only protein supplement to make our top 5 list of high protein foods. The creation of whey protein occurs during the process of churning milk in to cheese. Whey protein comes in many great flavors, is soluble in liquids such as water and milk, is easy on the stomach, and the body absorbs it readily, making it a popular ingredient for pre and post workout protein shakes. If you are looking to burn fat, whey protein is an excellent option. On thing you should consider when choosing a protein powder it the carbohydrate content of the powder. Some of these powders are designed primarly for those people looking to build muscle. Those additional carbohydrates in these powders can add extra calories that you may not want. Whey protein isolate contains very little fat or carbohydrates, and may an excellent alternative for those people who are on a calorie restricted or low carbohydrate diet plan. If you primary concern is to build muscle, then those extra calories may not be of any concern, but you should still keep a close eye on the protein to carbohydrate ratio in your protein shakes.