Archive for the ‘Weight Training’ 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, June 25th, 2010
How to Perform Front Squats
The best exercises for speed, strength, size, and power, are squats – bar none. Back squats, front squats, overhead squats… they are all great, and will help you develop powerful legs and a rigid core.
Front squats are just about the best alternative to back squats, so let’s see how to do them correctly.
Barbell front squats are just about the same as back squats except the bar is placed across the front of your shoulders, using one of the two styles detailed below.
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Tags: barbell, front squat, hamstrings, how to, legs, quads, squat
Posted in Exercise Technique, Weight Training | 6 Comments »
Thursday, June 17th, 2010
Here we go again! The Twilight Saga: Eclipse is coming out at the end of the month – June 30th if I’m not mistaken, so it is time to examine the developments in the physique of our buddy Taylor Lautner for this, the third installment of the Twilight Saga.
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Tags: gain muscle, jacob black, muscle gain, taylor lautner, twilight, Weight Training, weightlifting
Posted in Martial Arts, Weight Training | 7 Comments »
Friday, June 4th, 2010
I recommend training with bands specifically in the Werewolf Training routines, but also in any routine you might currently be following.
Recent studies investigating the effects of training the bench press with added bands and chains, have confirmed that strength and power increased faster by using bands and chains than by using free weights alone.
The Study
In this 13 week study on the effects of training with elastic tension on the bench press, 11 men in their early 20s started with a 1 rep max (RM) baseline strength test.
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Tags: bands, chains, gain strength, powerlifting, strength, strength gain, strength training, weight traning, weightlifting
Posted in Exercise Equipment, Research, Weight Training | No Comments »
Tuesday, May 11th, 2010
How to Bench Press
I get plenty of questions in various comments throughout the website, but I also get comments and questions via the Project Swole Contact Form.
Generally I address those questions through e-mail, but often I do not have the time to reply to each and every question personally.
From now on I want to take a more proactive approach to answering Your Health Questions by posting them separately in the blog. This way we can be sure that everyone benefits from the Q & A.
Kyle wrote:
“Hey Steve, OK me and a friend got into an argument about how to bench. I said you should touch your chest and he said you shouldn’t because it can injure your shoulder you should stop like 1 inch away from your chest? What is the right way to bench?”
Response:
So, you want to know how to bench press properly?
The bench press is the most popular exercise in the gym among men. It is the strongest upper body exercise for most people, and has been a social gauge (and wrongly so, in my opinion) of male strength and fitness for more than a century. Fortunately, bench presses are the #1 best exercise for building upper body strength and size, and so should be included in nearly all strength training routines.
On the down side, benching is responsible for many weight lifting injuries, especially in the shoulder area. Hopefully this post will educate you as to how you should be bench pressing to avoid injury.
How to Bench Press
A bench press is simple.
Start by laying down on a bench. Place your hands on the barbell with your palms facing away from you (this is a pronated grip). Unrack the barbell and hold it straight up over your upper chest. Bend at the elbows to lower the barbell until it touches your mid chest. Press it back up over your upper chest. That’s a rep.
Now, to answer your questions…
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Tags: bench press, benching, chest, chest training, Conditioning, technique, weightlifting
Posted in Exercise Technique, Weight Training, Your Questions | 6 Comments »
Friday, April 16th, 2010
How to Perform Squats
There are many different lifts that a weightlifter can do to increase their strength, speed, and power. All kind of weightlifting is great for your body, but I prefer to not waste time in the gym lifting with tunnel vision, going from machine to machine and seeing little results from my hard work.
Instead, I would rather do 3-4 exercises with maximal intensity to wipe out my whole body in order to reap a maximal anabolic effect. The most well known and most dreaded of these exercises is the squat.
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Tags: Conditioning, leg training, legs, squats, technique, weightlifting
Posted in Exercise Technique, Weight Training | 5 Comments »
Friday, March 12th, 2010
Increasing Your Vertical Jumping Ability
A single vertical jump for maximum height is one of the most intense exercises you can do.
Why? Because it requires you to utilize your entire lower body chain in a maximal effort contraction, to produce a maximal amount of force in a split second.
The important aspects of training to work on, to increase your vertical leap include:
- Squatting strength – Maximal leg strength transfers directly to a vertical jump. A strong 1 rep max = a big jump.
- Squatting speed – The faster you can squat, the more power you can generate, the higher you can jump.
- Squatting power – Tied in directly with speed and strength, squat heavier and squat faster and you will jump higher.
- Acceleration - You want to continue accelerating out of the hole all the way through the top of your jump.
- Single leg strength – To eliminate strength imbalances and to improve neuromuscular coordination, train your legs individually.
- Calf strength – Your calves are used at the end of the jump, so max calf strength can mean an extra inch on your vert.
- Sprint speed – Sprinting trains the Type-II Fast Twitch muscle fibers, which are what you need to attain your highest jump. Acceleration applies here as well.
- Hip drive – Your hips are responsible for a significant portion of jumping power from a parallel squat position to standing.
- Glute activation – Your glutes are responsible for driving you out of the hole at the bottom of a squat or jump.
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Tags: glutes, hips, jump squat, jumping, jumping rope, jumps, leaping, leg training, legs, plyometrics, squats, squatting, vertical
Posted in Conditioning, Fitness Tips, Weight Training, Workout Routines | 3 Comments »
Friday, February 12th, 2010
At a body weight of 180 lbs, Willie Albert of Iron Will Strength and Fitness in Ottawa Ontario Canada performs 10 total rounds of barbell back squat with 445 lbs, standing military press with 135 lbs, and barbell deadlift with 425 lbs. He was attempting to complete this circuit for time and finished in 4:35.
For all you math geniuses, that would be a total of 10500 lbs of work in less than 5 minutes. He’s not lifting elite powerlifting numbers, but to complete 10 rounds of this in 4 and a half minutes is impressive to me. I bet if he were going for a 1 rm, he’d be squatting and pulling in the 600s, and would be shoulder pressing 200+.
Keep reading to view his video…
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Tags: Conditioning, Crossfit, hirt, Weight Training, weightlifting
Posted in Conditioning, HIRT Routines, Weight Training | 5 Comments »
Wednesday, January 27th, 2010
Build Muscle, Burn Fat, Get Ripped
Originally posted: 1/27/10
Updates:
2/1/10 updated routine, added Excel spreadsheet workout logs)
3/8/10 added example HIIT routines for days 2, 4, and 6.
Many of you are asking for a full body workout routine to burn fat, so here you go.
I have even customized the program for both men and women.
You can skip the details and go straight to the routines if you wish:
The Program
We are integrating 3 full body training sessions with 3 HIIT routines and taking the 7th day off. Since the goal is fat loss, we are striving to add some muscle mass, maintain strength, and burn as many calories as possible.
This is accomplished by staying in a slightly higher rep range than we would normally use for strictly strength training, while using super-sets for most of our exercises. We add an optional set to the end of each workout in case you are able to finish the workout early.
Major compound exercises are rotated to prioritize a different muscle group on each of the 3 training sessions each week.
(more…)
Tags: Conditioning, fat loss, full body, hiit, lose fat, lose weight, weight loss, Weight Training, weightlifting, workout routine, Workout Routines
Posted in Conditioning, Weight Training, Workout Routines | 129 Comments »
Tuesday, January 26th, 2010
Build Muscle, Burn Fat, Get Ripped
Originally posted: 1/26/10
Updates:
2/1/10 updated routine, added Excel spreadsheet workout logs)
3/8/10 added example HIIT routines for days 2, 4, and 6.
Many of you are asking for a full body workout routine to burn fat, so here you go.
I have even customized the program for both men and women.
You can skip the details and go straight to the routines if you wish:
The Program
We are integrating 3 full body training sessions with 3 HIIT routines and taking the 7th day off. Since the goal is fat loss, we are striving to add some muscle mass, maintain strength, and burn as many calories as possible.
This is accomplished by staying in a slightly higher rep range than we would normally use for strictly strength training, while using super-sets for most of our exercises. We add an optional set to the end of each workout in case you are able to finish the workout early.
Major compound exercises are rotated to prioritize a different muscle group on each of the 3 training sessions each week.
(more…)
Tags: Conditioning, fat loss, full body, hiit, lose fat, lose weight, weight loss, Weight Training, weightlifting, workout routine, Workout Routines
Posted in Conditioning, Weight Training, Workout Routines | 5 Comments »
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