|
|
Before beginning with a good chest workout program, it is important that we know the muscles that we are
dealing with, so that we can design an effective program to develop them.
Your chest is made up of the pectoral muscle – both the major and the minor. The pectoral muscle is the large muscle that lies over the pectoral minor, starts at the breastbone and wraps around the chest and anchors itself near the armpit. The muscle can be divided into a lower and upper section. It is this large muscle that will be the focus of our attention.
But remember, that we are devoting ourselves to the weight training aspect on building up you chest muscles. Don’t forget the role of dieting and cardio exercises in this program.
The pectoralis minor, which is the smaller muscle that lies beneath the larger pectoralis major, sits near the top of the chest.
By Increasing this muscle you push the pectoralis major forward and upward, giving a fuller look to the chest. It may be to your benefit to add this muscle into your routine if you wish to build your muscle quickly with your good chest workout.
Any good chest workout geared toward building muscle fast should be composed of two types of movements – presses and fly.
Presses are the movements that press weight from the chest and away from the body by straightening the arms. Most people know this as flat bench press. These exercises are performed using barbells or weights on a bench that is inclined flat.
Presses can zoom in on different parts of the chest. Setting the bench to either incline or decline target either the upper or lower parts of the chest. This can be done with either dumbbells or barbells.
Flys are buildup exercises wherein the arms are first extended and then brought together over the chest.
These exercises concentrate on the chest more so than the press exercises, and therefore are used to buildup mass and add shaping.. Flys are usually performed with dumbbells.
Flys can be done by setting the bench at three basic angles: Incline to target the upper chest, decline to hit the lower chest, and flat to concentrate on the general region of the pectoral muscles.
You should remember to focus on the proper form when lifting. Allowing the weight to descend too quickly, or allowing the elbows to straighten out during fly routines can lead to injury.
Did you find these tips on how to lose chest fat useful? For more information, visit Burn-Chest-Fat-Now. Enjoy!
If you are a Guy, You have Probably been doing Chest Exercises Since your Childhood.
From push-ups in P.E. class to bench pressing in the weight room a majority of your resistance training probably consists of working on those pecs. You may be preparing for the inevitable question, “How much do you bench?” You may just want to fill out your shirts better. The common goal for most men and weight training is to increase chest size, definition and strength.
If you have Not Achieved the Desired Results or Want More Results.
Maybe you are not lifting enough? Maybe you are not performing enough sets? Maybe you should work your chest every day of the week? Usually the method is to change or increase number chest exercises. This will most likely result in little or no change. Sometimes this causes people to give up and accept failure. This does not have to be the case.
The Problem May Not be Your Chest, but Your Upper Middle Back!
An increased incidence of poor posture due to our sedentary lifestyle exists. The average person spends many hours sitting in front of a computer or on a couch. The constant forward posture while using the computer will most likely lead to protracted scapulae or shoulder blades. Protracted shoulders are commonly referred to rounded shoulders.
The effects of poor shoulder posture is characterized by tight lats and chest along with lengthened, weak rhomboids and lower trapezious (muscles of upper middle back.) This leads to movement irregularities and overdevelopment of the synergist muscles. This synergistic dominance during the bench press causes the anterior deltoids (front of shoulders) and triceps to perform most of the work. The results are a poor looking rounded shoulder physique and concave chest.
The Key to Properly Working Your Chest is Shoulder Stabilization.
With weak and lengthened muscles in your upper middle back it will be difficult or impossible to stabilize your shoulders. Stabilizing your shoulders is the key to effective chest exercise. If you bench press with your shoulders protracted you will not work the significant portion of your chest muscle fibers needed to build your chest.
The Key to Building your Chest is to Strengthen Your Upper Middle Back!
Maintaining scapular retraction will allow you to use the highest percentage of chest muscle fibers hence helping you strengthen and build the chest most effectively. Retraction is when your shoulder blades come together in the back. If you “stick out your chest” your shoulder blades will most likely be retracted. It is imperative to keep the shoulder blades stabilized in retraction during the entire duration of all chest exercises.
To strengthen the muscles which retract your shoulders (rhomboids & lower trapezious) you should be performing the seated row. If performed correctly the seated row will help you keep your shoulders retracted during chest exercise. To perform the seated row correctly, make sure you focus on the last part of the range of motion where you squeeze your shoulder blades together. Do not let your shoulder blades protract, or come forward. Make sure they go from the neutral position to retraction every repetition. Also do not shrug your shoulders while you are performing the seated row. This will take the emphasis off the muscles you are intending to work.
Once you improve your posture and strengthen your upper middle back your normal chest routine which has not provided you with the results you want will start showing the results you have been looking for.
Michael Behnken, MS, NASM-CPT-PES, CSCS – http://AskTheTrainer.com
Something interesting happened as my triceps workouts continued in their intensity. After doing some triceps elbow extensions and numerous other elbow extension exercises, I began to feel effects of what is known as elbow tendonitis. The symptoms generally included a pain with any movement of my elbows. So much so, that even resting my arms on a chair began to have an associated soreness to the touch. Similar to my bicep tendonitis experience, the pain experienced was not normal. A bodybuilder who is tune with their muscles can tell the difference between an intense workout and an intensely painful workout.
This elbow tendonitis came about from an overuse of any exercise. With the increased weight, I eventually reached a peak of classic overuse of the joints. Not sure of a treatment, I did the first thing I could. Adjust my form. Keeping the elbows locked in on triceps movements is critical. It can alleviate if not remove the pressure on the joints when doing a very heavy exercise movement. This was my first elbow tendonitis treatment experiment.
Continuing week after week with my new form, the pain was less severe, but it was not a full treatment. Some of the elbow tendonitis symptoms became less painful but the general pain was always present. This has an acute effect on your motivation to continue to do exercises. Doing triceps exercises (dips, skull crushers, one arm and two arm overhead extensions, rope pushdowns) has always been something I look forward to with each arm workout. But with anything that is painful, your body doesn’t want to do it. In fact, continuing and pushing past the pain “no pain no gain” mantra, I would have eventually damaged my joints beyond repair.
After talking to a friend’s wife, she told me about her husband, who started taking Glucosamine for his joints. There are basically two kinds of people who need some type of cartilage therapy. Those who are suffering from osteoarthritis or athletes with overuse injuries. Considering he’s not very old and probably isn’t losing too much cartilage, I had to believe that it was working on cars daily and using his joints excessively (turning hands, manipulating small parts) that lead to his overuse of his finger joints and the pain associated. Thus began my short research and trial of a Glucosamine product to see what benefits Glucosamine might have and any possible side effects specific to me.
Glucosamine is a combination of sugar and amine. It’s found normally in cartilage and plays an important role in cartilage health and resiliency. As you naturally age, you lose some Glucosamine and that leads to the eventual thinning of the cartilage around the joints. Osteoarthritis defined as the deterioration of the cartilage in the joints. Glucosamine and Chondroitin are found naturally in your body. Chondroitin Sulfate helps draw water into the cartilage (that the Glucosamine is repairing) making it more elastic.
Glucosamine is derived from the shells of crabs and shrimp. Most studies show that taking approximately 500mg three times a day for a total of 1500mg is effective in improving joint health. Those who have damaged their joints to the point of little to no cartilage, or who have had cartilage surgically removed, probably won’t experience any benefits simply because it’s impossible to repair cartilage that no longer exists. Most oral Glucosamine is easily absorbed because the molecules are very small, easily diffused and water-soluble.
After viewing the brief research above, I began taking oral doses of Glucosamine and Chondroitin, 1500mg a day, 3 capsules. My first choice was AST’s ProFlex 750 Joint Support formula. I ended up going to Costco and getting Kirkland’s Glucosamine Sulfate product as well. Just so I could have a supply at home. Different products but basically, Glucosamine and some Chondroitin.
Within the first few days, my elbow tendonitis symptoms started to disappear. I’ve been taking this product for about 2 weeks now, and my workouts are back to their regular intensity. Taking a Glucosamine and Chondroitin supplement has all but cured my elbow tendonitis. From the research I could gather, it’s important to take these products when you still have a lot of cartilage to repair. It’s pretty ineffective to take it when the damage is too severe or the cartilage is absent. Glucosamine is a naturally occurring substance in the body with a primary function of stimulating the growth and repair of cartilage tissues.
About The Author
Marc David has a degree in Criminal Justice from Sacramento State, a 16 year history of non-competitive bodybuilding and is the owner of Freedomfly -the fitness network! For free fitness tools, discount supplements, fitness consultation, and workout routines, visit http://www.freedomfly.net
mrcd@freedomfly.net
Image : http://www.flickr.com
I’ve been training in bodybuilding for some time now and I was just thinking about the main building blocks to the sport. I thought a lot of it was insightful, so I decided to share my conclusions with the world.
Block 1: It’s not your workout that defines your outcome. Your diet is essentially the most important part of the equation. Without a proper diet, you’re just wasting your time at the gym. Having a great diet with a sub par workout will have much better results.
Block 2: Dietary fat is a good thing. The media has led us to believe that eating fat is bad for us. Fat plays an essential aspect of our body and we need it. Not only do we need it, but also it can help raise your metabolism, allowing you to burn more calories than you consume eating it.
Block 3: Eating smaller meals more often plays a far greater role than bigger meals, less often. Our body needs a consistent flow of nutrients to repair muscle tissue. You can’t leave your body with periods of 4-7hrs without food. That is why it is essential to eat every 2-3hrs, so your body has the nutrients to repair tissue.
Block 4: The amount you sleep will have a toll on your success. You need 8-9hrs of sleep a night. There’s no way around this. The body needs time to rest and repair. If you’re only getting 5hrs a night, your results will be sub par. I’ve experienced poor results on 5hrs a night doing the same things I’ve always done that worked when I was sleeping 9hrs.
If you follow these you will have great results. You’ll notice that very little of what you do in the gym will make up the results. Your diet will determine how well things are going to go. That’s why you need to follow all these bodybuilding diet blocks.
If you need more information on building muscle, click here for Male Bodybuilding.
Image : http://www.flickr.com
When competing, bodybuilders always ensure that they have increased vascularity on the day of the contest. Bodybuilding vascularity is a condition whereby their veins on the muscles look more prominent and visible. However, female bodybuilders are not particular about this, as aesthetic body symmetry is more important. Furthermore, female with high vascularity looks quite awkward.
There are a few tricks of the trade to ensure that they has vascularity on the day of the competition. One way is to lift weights to pump blood to the muscles, just before a competition. Muscle pumping will slightly increase muscle size and significantly enhance muscle vascularity. By practicing posing and flexing, they can also increase the vascularity. Alternatively, some uses posing oil such as Pro Tan Hot Stuff, a menthol-based oil to enhance vascularity while on stage.
About 4 to 6 weeks before a competition, bodybuilders will start on a special dieting program consisting of fat loading, carb loading, sodium loading and depletion to increase muscle density and increase bodybuilding vascularity. This is known as “Peaking”. Fat loading involves increasing fat oxidation to provide energy instead of using carbohydrates, thereby conserving carbohydrate and enhancing performance. High carbohydrate supplement drinks are used for carb loading. Carb loading increases carbohydrate intake to prevent the onset of muscle fatigue during the competition. The sodium loading/depleting method will initially induce the body to retain water, and then during the low sodium intake days (just before the contest), water will be flushed out of your system resulting in a skintight look.
This condition improves a bodybuilder’s chance of winning in a competition as it enhances the overall impression of a bodybuilder’s physique. Without a doubt, it helps to score points in contests and it certainly pays to see that a certain level of vascularity is achieved on the competition day.
For more information on Bodybuilding workout, bodybuilding videos, celebrity bodybuilding, please visit the blog at: http://bodybuildingworkout.nichinfo.com and at Build Muscles
Being active in any sport can help in strengthening the muscles of your body. This is already a great way to do your daily exercise. But although a lot of individuals want to be involved in sports, there are certain things that hold them back. Popular sports like basketball, football, and volleyball requires vertical jumping, and it’s quite embarrassing if your jump is just a few inch higher than a can of sardines.
You will be the laughingstock of many people, and to make matters worse, you will not have the courage to join such sports. But don’t despair; with a little effort and useful tips, you can greatly improve your vertical jump.
The key to improving your vertical jump is to strengthen your muscle fibers and your legs. Check out these cool tips and start your way to higher vertical jumps.
- Start your workout everyday by muscle warm-ups and leg stretches.
- Your target is to build your muscle fibers so you should do explosive stretching and jumping.
- If you want to achieve cardiovascular conditioning, do jump ropes. And remember if you want to get results fast don’t forget to do this.
- Building your muscle can improve your ability to jump and another way is to sprint. Run up a flight of stairs using your toes, and then walk your way down. You can repeat this as many times as you can.
- Do elevated, explosive, and double jumps.
These are just simple ways to improve your vertical jumps. But if you want to get better results, you must have a program to follow. It’s not true that people are born with the ability of high vertical leap. You have to develop and utilize certain muscles through exercises that help in increasing vertical leap.
You must be able to track your progress. By doing this at intervals, you can easily determine which exercises greatly improves your jump. You can also stop doing certain exercises that doesn’t give enough results.
Your quad and calf muscles are very important. These muscles are found in your legs, and you must develop it. However, don’t forget to seek advice from the physician, trainer, or coach on the right way to do such exercises because jumps usually result to ankle and shin injuries.
Make sure that you do calf raises regularly, and incorporate this workout in your program. Begin with small repetitions on both feet and gradually do it on one leg. You can also do toes push-ups and holding about ten seconds. And don’t forget that whenever you walk, use your heel and toe. Try not to walk the normal way. You can also do this when running. You will eventually feel that your stamina will increase, and if this happens, you can increase your workout for another ten minutes.
After getting substantial results, don’t stop with your exercises. You must do it consistently because best results are achieved through a sustained jump program. But this doesn’t mean though that you can’t take a rest. During the week’s course, you can rest for about two days.
Don’t expect results to come in days. Vertical jump exercises take a lot of time and this is the best way to avoid accidents or injuries. And after you’ve improved your vertical jump, you can show off your Michael Jordan leap.
For the ultimate guide to improve your vertical jump, please visit http://www.how-to-go-up-strong.com/
Image : http://www.flickr.com
While most of us will probably confess to wanting to get great abs, only a few are willing to spend hours in the gym doing grueling exercises to achieve their ideal form, with abs that are absolutely to die for. The most common excuse for not going to the gym being lack of time or “I’m too busy”, fitness gurus have come up with several exercise sets that take less and less time to perform; hence robbing us of our most convenient excuse for exercise avoidance. Following is a set of exercises that are easy enough to do, with no need for any high-tech machine. And what’s more…it takes only as much time as a set of commercials between your two favorite TV shows. Follow this routine everyday and you are sure to develop ripping abs in 6 minutes.
Exercise 1: Knee-ups
Simply sit on the edge of your couch with both feet flat on the floor. For balance, place both hands on each side of your hip. Slowly raise both knees towards your chest as far as they would go. Hold knee-to-chest position for 3-5 seconds, then slowly return to the original position. Repeat 20 times.
Exercise 2: Leg Raises
Lie flat on the floor, holding the sofa edge for support. Extend both legs and raise then about six inches off the floor. Slowly raise your legs towards the ceiling until they form a 90-degree angle. Return to original position, making sure that your legs do not touch the floor when you lower them. Repeat 20 times.
Exercise 3: Cycles
Placing your hands behind your head, raise your knees toward the ceiling and make cycling motions with your legs. Variations to this exercise are either doing 30-50 cycles or cycling continuously for a full minute.
Exercise 4: Basic Crunches
Position your legs on top of the couch. You can leave your hands by your side, place them behind your head or extend them in front of you like a swimmer preparing to dive into the water. When placing your arms behind your head for support, make sure not to pull your head up. Simply lift your shoulders off the floor slowly, and just as carefully lower your torso back to the floor. Do 30-50 repetitions. For variation, you may decide to throw in a twist after 20 repetitions. As soon as your shoulders are raised, twist your upper body to each side before getting back to the starting position.
Exercise 5: Cool Down
Lie flat on the floor with both hands by your side. Extend both legs then slowly raise them towards the ceiling. Hold for three seconds. Lower your legs towards your torso until your feet touch the floor just beyond your head. Hold this position for five seconds. Raise your legs back toward the ceiling and hold the position for three seconds. Repeat five times.
Here’s an additional tip, especially for beginners: before starting the routine, make sure that you are wearing light clothing that will allow you to move smoothly and steadily. Exercise clothes made of lightweight material also makes movement more comfortable and allows more flexibility.
Simple, short and hassle-free. That is the best way to describe the above routine and by simply setting aside a few minutes everyday, you’re on your way to getting abs that is good enough to flaunt anytime, anywhere. Now there’s no longer any reason why we all can’t get a fit and fab body when there’s a routine that allows us to develop great abs in 6 minutes.
If you really want to know what the best exercise for abs development is, we’ll show you the top 3 on our site – Just visit us here
Have you been unsuccessfully trying to lose belly fat? If so, there is a good chance you might be making some basic mistakes.
In this article, we are going to go over the 2 essential areas that are crucial to have correct if you want to exercise to lose belly fat quickly and permanently.
1. Total body strength training workouts 2-3 times per week.
This can melt fat from your body by gaining muscle and increasing your metabolism!
The more muscle you work, the more calories you will burn. Remember that muscle is the main thing that will burn fat while exercise. Strength training will help you to lose belly fat because the more muscle you have, the more calories you will burn.
Don’t make the mistake of doing the common “3 sets of 10″ on a strength machine with a minute of rest between each set. It is a better idea to follow more of a “circuit training” structure. Here is an example:
Warm up: 5-10 minutes
1. Pushups – 10 reps
2. 1 arm DB row – 10 reps per arm
3. DB squats – 12 reps
4. Leg curls on stability ball – 10 to 12 reps
5. Side planks – 5-15 seconds per side
6. Hyper extensions – 12 reps
7. Standing DB overhead press – 10 reps
8. Ab crunches on stability ball – 10 to 15 reps
Go from start to finish, and rest 30-45 seconds between each exercise. Try doing the entire rotation 2-3 times around. This should take no more than 20-30 minutes depending on how much rest time you need.
This workout is just an example to show you what a total body workout looks like. There are lots of different ways to structure a workout like this, but this serves our basic purpose.
With this type of total body workout, you will exercise to lose belly fat as well as gain strength. Whenever you doing total body workouts, you always want to wait a day before doing it again so your muscles can rest and recover.
2. Interval training cardio instead of long, boring, same speed workouts.
Interval training differs from regular “same speed” cardio routines because it is quicker and a lot more fun. It is a great way to exercise to lose belly fat because you alternate between high and low intensities throughout the whole workout. Here is an example:
First 5 minutes: warm-up
2 minutes: slow
30 sec – 1 minute: fast (almost as hard as you can)
-Repeat the “2 minute slow 1 minute fast” 3-6 times.
Last 5 minutes: cool-down
By doing this type of routine, you are making your fat loss workout time shorter and more effective. You will increase your metabolism and you will have a lot more fun burning fat! Do this right after your total body strength training workouts 2-3 times per week.
Be sure to keep your heart rate in mind. Because you are working very hard, you should check with a doctor and make sure this is a safe way for you to exercise to lose belly fat.
Now that you have a structure for how to exercise to lose belly fat. The effort to lose fat does not have to be frustrating and slow. If you exercise correctly and have the right diet, you should be able to lose 1-3 lbs of belly fat each week until you reach your goal!
Want to Reprint this Article?
Reprinting is welcome as long as the content, links, and author bio and resource box are all included and remain unchanged.
Looking for some more tips and tricks? Check out Tom’s website at http://www.TheFatLossZone.com for a complimentary copy of the original 59 page ebook titled “Super Simple Fat Loss”. Tom’s free newsletter from The Fat Loss Zone is jam packed with tips and techniques guaranteed to get you on the fast track to having a slim and sexy physique.
Every person desires to have a good looking Chest muscles as it is considered as one of the sexiest muscle group in the body. But there seems to be a lot of confusion in people, especially in the beginners mind about how exactly to develop a full balanced chest.
Don’t worry, I will tell you how to build a good-looking and an attractive chest muscles by using these exercises:
# Push ups – Push-ups are one of the common and the most awesome exercises that help in building a sound fitness foundation. Push-up works for almost every muscle in the body. They’re important to a fitness routine for developing general body strength, and core body strength. There are many variations in push-ups. Each variation has its own benefits. Doing Push-ups will help you to avoid back injuries and will also throw you a good posture.
# Upper Chest Workouts – Some of the amazing upper chest workouts are exercise ball inclined push-up, Incline bench dumbbell press, declined push-up, incline dumbbell flyes and incline barbell bench press. Include these exercises in your daily workout program.
# Lower Chest Workout – Some of the Lower chest workouts are decline dumbbell flyes, wide grip decline barbell bench press, decline barbell bench press and exercise ball push-up. While performing lower chest workout keep your abdominal muscles tight, shoulders down and chest up.
# Bench Press – The bench press is one of the handy workouts that help in building a good looking chest muscle especially the major muscles that is the shoulders and triceps. Perform a basic bench press by bending elbows at 90 degree angles. Remember that heavy benching is not the only way to build a chiseled chest but there are other exercises too.
# Stretches – Stretch your chest muscles frequently. By doing so, you will improve your flexibility and it will help you to avoid injuries.
# Common Chest Exercises – There are several chest exercises to focus on. But here are some of the common chest workouts which include dips, push-ups, barbell bench press, cable crossovers, dumbbell pullovers, smith machine bench press, single arm dumbbell, free motion cable crossovers, isometric chest presses, and single arm dumbbell.
# Warm ups – Begin each exercise with warm up. This allows your muscles to “wake up” and start receiving the blood they require. It is very important to warm up as it avoids injuries and helps you to do a better workout.
Do not move up and down in a jerky or uncontrolled manner, as these exercises can place considerable stress on body. And don’t change your routine too often and confuse your body muscles. Following these steps will surely give you a better result.
Remember: Beginners must choose only 1-2 exercises per day to avoid stress and injuries.
Get more information on building a Sexy Chest and a wide range of other fitness workout programs in the 24hr Fitness Workout Guide.
Image : http://www.flickr.com
You won’t see Matthew McConaughey doing bench-presses at the gym. In fact, lately, you won’t see People magazine’s “Sexiest Man Alive 2005″ anywhere near a gym. Matthew McConaughey maintains his Adonis-like physique by enjoying various calisthenics workouts. The t-shirt-challenged star is often seen doing pushups by the beach, doing pull-ups at the park, running, swimming, or even cycling with his buddy Lance Armstrong. These types of workouts are what allow Matthew McConaughey to keep his body lean and sculpted.
However, when McConaughey has to ditch his attractive lean and fit model bod and get into action-figure shape for movie roles like his one playing leading-man “Dirk Pitt” in the action-adventure movie “Sahara”, he relies on supersets. Supersets are an excellent way to get in shape and bulk up your muscle mass in a short amount of time.
Basically, a superset is an advanced training method in which you engage your muscles by performing two exercises in a row with no resting time in between the sets. Supersets are advantageous to those who want to have a quick workout, increase the intensity of their workout, and prevent injuries by overloading your muscles without the heavy weights that require a spotter. Supersets allow your body to shed fat and build more muscle in less time by shocking your muscles into accelerated growth.
There are many different types of supersets that you can do. These include:
Pre-exhaustion – Using the same muscle group, do one isolating exercise and then one compound exercise. Ex: leg extensions followed by squats
Post-exhaustion – Same muscle group, do one compound exercise, and then one isolating exercise. Ex: squats followed by leg extension
Isolation – Two isolating exercises. Ex: dumbbell fly and cable crossover
Compound – Do two exercises that both workout multiple muscles groups. Ex: Squats and leg presses
Opposing muscle groups – Two exercises that focus on opposing muscle groups (biceps/triceps,back/chest, hamstrings/quadriceps). Ex: Bicep curls followed by triceps
Staggered supersets – Throwing in mini workouts in between sets. Ex: doing crunches in between chess press sets
Tri-Sets – Doing any of the other supersets, but doing three exercises instead of two.
Jay Dubois writes lots of articles. Visit him on the web here
Go here to see an animated example of a fat-burning superset workout: Fatloss Supersets Workout
|
|
