Archive for the ‘Best Exercises’ Category
Monday, June 28th, 2010
Best Shoulder Exercises
Updated: 6/28/2010 – Added more info about high pulls, push press, and overhead squat.
It doesn’t matter how big your chest and biceps are, if you have narrow shoulders you will appear to be weak and puny. Someone will surely kick sand on you at the beach.
For men, wide shoulders will make you look tall, broad, and powerful so that you can be the one defending geeks from sand kicking bullies.
For women, hard toned shoulders will help you appear sleek and sexy. No man alive wants their woman to have soft, squishy or flabby shoulders. Well, maybe some of us do, but not me.
Half of womens’ dresses I’ve seen have built in shoulder pads anyway. How nice would it be to never have to buy dresses with shoulder pads? Actually, don’t some mens’ military outfits have added shoulder padding too? I rest my case.
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Tags: deltoids, shoulders
Posted in Best Exercises, Weight Training | 39 Comments »
Friday, August 28th, 2009
Finally I was able to finish the conclusion to my best abs exercises series. If you haven’t already, you can read the Top 10 Best Abs Exercises Part 1. Then don’t forget to hit the Top 10 Best Abdominal Exercises Part 2.
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:
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
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Tags: 6 pack, abdominals, abs, six pack
Posted in Best Exercises, Conditioning, Weight Training | 18 Comments »
Tuesday, August 11th, 2009
Here is the long awaited follow up to the Top 10 Best Ab Exercises Part 1 and the precursor to the Top 10 Best Abs Exercises Part 3.
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:
- 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.
- 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…
- 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…
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Tags: abdominals, abs, core, top 10
Posted in Best Exercises, Conditioning, Weight Training | 28 Comments »
Tuesday, July 28th, 2009
Quick Links:
10 Best Ab Exercises Part 1
10 Best Abdominal Exercises Part 2
10 Best Abs Exercises Part 3
With the prevalence of six-pack abs in the media by everyone from Hugh Jackman and Matthew McConaughey, to Janet Jackson and Beyonce Knowles, society as of late treasures that elusive flat defined stomach look. We can thank high resolution for our cultural transition from portly praise to abdominal admiration.
After all, before Hollywood got huge in the 1900s, as a culture we appreciated a little meat on our bones, because it represented comfort, success, and good health. Now that we get to feast our eyes daily on tough-guy actors, beautiful actresses, rock stars, and supermodels, we’ve come full circle into the Washboard Era.
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Tags: abdominals, abs, core, top 10
Posted in Best Exercises, Conditioning, Weight Training | 15 Comments »
Tuesday, March 3rd, 2009
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.
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Tags: chest, chest training, training
Posted in Best Exercises, Weight Training | 107 Comments »
Friday, December 19th, 2008
Biceps. The ultimate show muscle. From age 10 on, every boy, teenager, and man want to have bulging biceps. This is, apparently, a true sign of manliness and strength.
Biceps are among the most famous muscles in the body. When somebody asks you to “make a muscle” or “flex”, they aren’t asking you to flex your hamstrings. They want to see your biceps!
This whole notion of flexing the biceps as a measure of anything, is completely ludicrous to me, but it is a reality. When someone asks me to flex, I ask them if they’d much rather discuss max effort PRs, perhaps dynamic powerlifting strategies, or better yet how to put together the most effective HIIT complexes. Most folks walk away thus. But I digress…
How to Get Big Ass Arms
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Tags: arms, biceps, weight lifting, weightlifting
Posted in Best Exercises, Weight Training | 78 Comments »
Thursday, November 6th, 2008
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.
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Tags: back, lats, traps, weight lifting, Weight Training, weightlifting
Posted in Best Exercises, Weight Training | 100 Comments »
Wednesday, October 22nd, 2008
Male weightlifters want to be able to lift thousands of pounds off the ground with minimal effort. It makes us feel good to be able to pick up anything we want. Especially when most guys in the world struggle to pick up even 100 lbs off the floor.
Female weightlifters want to sculpt and tone their thighs and buttocks. It makes them feel good to have a tight butt that can fit into size 2 pants. Especially when the majority of American women are roley and poley, thanks in no small part to low fat dieting in the 80′s and 90′s, and to the yo-yo dieting of the new millennium.
The number one way to make all these things happen? Train your hamstrings, lower back, and glutes (your bum) with complex free weight exercises.
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Tags: deadlifts, exercise, good mornings, hamstrings, legs, workout routine
Posted in Best Exercises, Weight Training | 18 Comments »
Friday, October 10th, 2008
Male weightlifters want to be bigger and stronger. Female weightlifters want to sculpt and tone their thighs and buttocks. The number one way to make that happen? Train your legs with complex free weight exercises.
Your legs are the largest group of muscle in your body. They are the foundation of your strength and power. Never will you be able to bench press 315 if you can’t squat 315 first. By training your legs hard, you will be setting yourself up to gain the most progress compared to every other muscle group.
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Tags: legs, lunges, quads, squats, weight lifting, Weight Training, weightlifting
Posted in Best Exercises, Weight Training | 40 Comments »
Tuesday, September 16th, 2008
Two common questions you will hear from male weightlifters are:
- How can I get bigger arms?
- 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.
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Tags: bench press, benching, dips, tricep, tricep training, triceps, weight lifting
Posted in Best Exercises, Weight Training | 64 Comments »
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