Bodybuilding: Building a Standout in the Crowd Chest

Since the beginning of bodybuilding time, men have wanted to build a chest that enters the room a good 2 seconds before the rest of their body. They want a chest that stands out and commands attention, a chest that steps up and sticks out. A broad chest that women seek to lay their head upon.

And ladies too, seek a beautiful chest, one that accents their natural assets. But they also want their chest to be sleek and feminine like the rest of their physique at the same time.

Well, achieving either of those goals is easily attainable with a thorough chest routine. And add a few expert tips and tricks into your overall plan, and you?ll have the chest of your dreams without the shoulder injuries of your nightmares.

Shoulder injuries have always been the rain on the chest training parade. Injuries are often due to overtraining, improper form, or simply not applying a back training ying to the chest training yang.

So when you do this routine, it will train your entire upper, upper body. By that I mean your chest, your rear delts, the rhomboids between your shoulder blades, your traps, and your rotator cuff muscles. From your ribs to your collarbone, at both the front and back of your body, your muscles will be exhausted, but trained to just the right level of exhaustion.

With just the right volume, but without overloading the shoulder joint, we are going to use basic chest exercises, but with a twist in a few cases, to make the most of the least. By training with supersets, you?ll get in and out of the gym if you do only the 6 exercises below. Talk about a beautiful chest fast.

While the full program offers the optimal volume for mega-chest-mass, I?ve included some substitutions for women that are a little concerned with adding too much mass too fast to their chests. So make sure to read training substitutions, included below the workout, so you can customize the program to your goals.

I?ve also included a summary of the methods, and a bonus instant chest building technique you probably never think of, after the workout. As well, a complete set of exercise descriptions is included at the end of the article.

THE UGN STANDOUT-IN-THE-CROWD CHEST workout

Superset 1:
Rest 60 seconds between exercises. Rest 90 seconds before repeating the superset.
A1) DB Flat Chest Press (4 sets x 6 reps) Tempo: 3-0-1
A2) Barbell Row or Seated Wide-grip Row (4x8) 2-0-1
Superset 2:
Do not rest between exercises. Rest 60 seconds before repeating the superset.
B1) DB Incline Press (3x8) 2-0-1
B2) DB Chest Fly (3x10) 3-0-1

Superset 3:
Do not rest between exercises. Rest 60 seconds before repeating the superset.
C1) Medium-grip Bench Press (3x12) 2-0-1

C2) DB External Rotation (3x10) 2-0-1
Female exercise substitutions:

Do only 2 sets of each exercise.
For exercise A1), substitute the maximum number of pushups you can do in place of the DB Flat Chest Press.

How to Instantly Increase Your Chest Size

This is something that everyone should be doing, several times per day. If you work at a computer, you should be trying to hold this position all of the time.

Here?s what to do:

In a seated or standing position, hold your arms down by your side. Externally rotate your shoulders so that your palms are now facing forward. Use the muscles between your shoulder blades to bring your shoulder blades together. Squeeze extra hard and pull your shoulders back by contracting your rear delts. At the same time, try to pull your shoulders down (you might feel a stretch running along your neck between your shoulders and your ears ? the more stretch you feel, the more you need to work on holding this position). This should pull your shoulders back and pop your chest out at least two inches. You should feel tension between your shoulder blades as your muscles work to hold that position. You might also feel a stretch in your chest. Now hold this proud posture as much as you can all day and when standing around in the clubs or in line at the grocery store. Trust me, someone will notice!

Exercise Descriptions

DB Flat Bench Press

Hold the dumbbells above your chest with your palms turned toward your feet. Lower the dumbbells to chest level. Press the dumbbells straight up above the chest. BB Row

Stand with your torso bent and parallel to the floor. Contract your glutes, brace your abs and keep your spine in a neutral position. Keep the lower back in a neutral position and your knees slightly bent. Grasp the barbell with your hands slightly wider than shoulder-width apart. Row the barbell to the abdomen and bring your shoulder blades together. Slowly lower to the starting position and repeat. Do NOT round your lower back. Wide-grip Seated Row

Use a long bar and take a greater than shoulder-width overhand grip. Keep your arms and back straight, knees slightly bent. Row the handle back as far as possible bringing your shoulder blades together. DB Incline Press

Lie on a bench with the backrest inclined at 45 degrees. Hold the dumbbells above your chest with your palms turned toward your feet. Lower the dumbbells to chest level. Press the dumbbells straight up above the chest. DB Fly

Lie flat on your back on a bench and hold the dumbbells with your palms turned towards your body (palms will face each other). Maintain a slight bend in your elbows at all times. Slowly begin to lower the dumbbells out to your side until your elbows reach shoulder level. Don?t lower the dumbbells any further. At this point, squeeze your chest and bring the dumbbells up and in to the start position under control.

Medium-Grip Bench Press

Keep your feet flat on the floor, legs bent, and upper back flat against the bench. Grip the bar half-way between shoulder-width and your normal bench press grip. Keep the elbows close to the sides to emphasize the triceps. Have your spotter help you take the bar from the rack. Keeping your elbows close to your sides, lower the bar straight down to the bottom of your chest. Pause briefly and then press the bar back up above the chest in a straight line. DB External Rotation

Sit on a flat bench holding a light dumbbell (start with 5lbs). Bend your right knee and place your right foot on the end of the bench. Rest your right elbow on the top of your right knee and hold the DB in the bottom position. Slowly, using the small muscles of your rotator cuff, externally rotate the DB up and back until it is in the finish position (your forearm is perpendicular to your body at the top of the movement).

Craig Ballantyne is a Certified Strength & Conditioning Specialist and writes for Men's Fitness, Maximum Fitness, Muscle and Fitness Hers, and Oxygen magazines. His trademarked Turbulence Training fat loss workouts have been featured multiple times in Men?s Fitness and Maximum Fitness magazines, and have helped thousands of men and women around the world lose fat, gain muscle, and get lean in less than 45 minutes three times per week. For more information on the Turbulence Training workouts that will help you burn fat without long, slow cardio sessions or fancy equipment, visit http://www.TurbulenceTraining.com

Using Supplements To Enhance Your Bodybuilding

For attaining peak performance in body building it is imperative that the bodybuilder uses the right nutritional supplements.

Supplements play a big part in male body building diet programs because our diets often do no contain the necessary vitamins and nutrients our bodies require to for increased muscle mass and fat loss at the same time.

Luckily for the bodybuilder, the nutritional supplement industry now provides more pills and more powders than ever before.

With a choice of chemical-based and natural supplements, it is always wise to place preference on the many natural body building supplements available today. Not only do they help to speed up the muscle building process, they are also more in harmony with the body than their chemical counterparts.

Natural bodybuilding supplements play a vital role because they feed the body with the nutrients required for muscle growth. These nutrients are not necessarily present, in the required quantities, in the staple diets that have reduced nutritional value due to cooking.

One must choose body building supplements wisely, because there are supplements that are very dangerous if not used properly or if used in incorrect quantities. Furthermore, the right time, with food, with water, and avoidance if you have certain medical conditions are also important considerations.

Some supplements are made to protect muscles and joints against injury, some are used when you want to put on weight, others improve your circulation, plus a host of other supplements for very specific applications and benefits. You must pay attention to each body building supplement that you plan on taking to ensure that there will not be interaction between supplements that could affect your health.

If you are unsure, then it is wise not take a body building nutritional supplement. Alternatively, ask your doctor or pharmacist about the supplement in question.

You need to finalize your diet and supplements only after a professional has evaluated your body weight and height so that the person can recommend the best combination of supplements for maximum fat loss and maximum muscle gain.

The goal of bodybuilding as a sport is to improve your health while providing you with an enviable physique that is attained through long hours of training and strict diets. The correct supplements will help maintain your health by feeding your body with vitamins and the nutrients that are missing from your daily diet.

For more information on bodybuilding visit InformationAttendant.com, where you can also find a selection of information and knowledge with RSS feeds for syndication.

Natural Bodybuilding and The Secret Keys to a Great Physique Part III

The final installment of this series is about developing the Will of a Champion by finding your Big Reason Why.

Face it; every champion has developed an iron will. It is superhuman will-power that propels the individual through grueling workouts; Spartan diets, all kinds of adversity, to see positives inside of failures, to go beyond conventional limiting belief systems, and to ultimately reach one?s physique goals.

The question is how does one develop the iron will of an Arnold Schwarzenegger, Muhammed Ali or Lance Armstrong?

While psychologists, experts and athletes all talk about different aspects of developing the will to win, the bottom line when developing an iron will comes down to having a big enough reason WHY.

Develop An Iron Will Like Arnold Schwarzenegger

Arnold had a dream, like every other bodybuilder but what separated him from the thousands of other bodybuilders was he leveraged his desire better than anyone else. How did he do this?

What gave him so much willpower to succeed?

How can you duplicate this in pursuit of your physique goals?

These are important questions that you need to ask yourself to build up the will to reach your physique goals, whether it is losing an extra 10 pounds, putting an inch on your arms, or becoming the greatest bodybuilder in the world. It all starts and ends with Will.

Will - The Unseen Force Behind Everything

Classically defined will is the ability to exert force.

Every action, either mental or physical requires some energy. It takes energy to breathe, to blink your eyes, or to bench press a heavy barbell. In each of these examples though the force required can be separated into to distinct aspects.

Let?s look at lifting a dumbbell to illustrate.

First if you lift a dumbbell to shoulder height it is going to require two distinct aspects of force production:

The first and easiest force to examine is the electrical energy provided by the muscles in the arm to lift the arm

The second force is not so easy to measure yet it is this force that has more to do with your success than anything else. This force originates in the mind as the will power to lift the dumbbell or the mental energy exerted to initiate, sustain and complete any task.

You Need Will Power And Electrical Power

For example, if you tried to lift a dumbbell that was heavier than you could lift, no matter how much mental energy you exerted you will not be able to lift the weight. The will was there but the muscles could not produce enough force to lift the arm.

Conversely, you may have the strength to lift a heavy dumbbell up to shoulder height but you were not sufficiently motivated to do it therefore you failed the lift. However if someone put a gun to your head and said lift this weight or die, you would easily lift the weight as your will was leveraged by the fear of death.

Although this is an extreme and yet simplistic example it does illustrate there is more to lifting a weight or performing an action than muscle power.

Will power is the ultimate aspect, because with a strong enough will one can build the muscle power required to lift heavy weights. When the will is developed properly it can be used for other aspects of life such as dieting, success in business, self-development, overcoming adversity and an endless number of possibilities.

In Eastern philosophies such as Yoga and the various Martial arts, the development of will is the foremost component of the individual?s journey and ultimate success. In actuality the development of will is the key to success just as much in the western world as it is in the east.

The development of an iron will is especially true today in building a great physique, winning a national or world championship, or reaching a personal best.

Although there are many ways and systems to develop will it really boils down to leveraging two basic emotions, the desire to experience pleasure or the desire to avoid pain. Self help and personal development guru Tony Robbins emphasizes this in all of his courses, books, and seminars.

We all can learn a great deal from Tony and the many thousands of motivational speakers, psychologist, and athletes who have gone on to incredible levels of success and achievement. The Great news is you don?t have to re-invent the wheel because all you have to do is follow the steps that led other people to success.

I believe there are 3 Keys that almost every successful personal has developed.

The 3 Keys to Bodybuilding Success ?

A Big Reason Why, Hard Work, A Positive Attitude

Bodybuilding is a unique sport where the avoidance of pain will definitely curtail your results. Building a fantastic physique requires you to learn to manage pain from lactic acid, from sore muscles, the pain of being hungry, the pain of missing certain social events, and the list goes on.

The only way you are going to get past these roadblocks is to develop an iron will.

Arnold Schwarzenegger is one of the best examples of someone who has overcome incredible obstacles because he learned how to turn what most people consider pain or suffering into pleasure. He achieved this by developing a massive reason why, followed by hard work and a relentless positive attitude.

After many years of training Arnold became champion of the world and then used the same principles to become a successful businessman, a top grossing movie actor and finally the Governor of the State of California, which he moved to as a result of his desire for success.

What allowed someone of such a humble background to become so successful in such an unlikely way?

The ?Arnold Factor?

The answer is Arnold developed intense willpower by leveraging his basic desires and transmuting them into the energy and drive to successfully achieve them. When interviewed about his success Arnold radiates his passion, joy and love for whatever he is doing which is his biggest secret.

Arnold leveraged his desires so much that training many hours a day, learning a new language, moving to a foreign country, or running a successful election campaign become merely rungs of achievement naturally achievable by following a plan to achieve his objective and working relentlessly to achieve it.

If you study the lives of almost every successful individual you will see striking similarities in the achievement of their dreams. One of the best ways to do this is to read up on the biographies of the most successful people in the world. Pick icons of success that you can admire and dive into their stories.

After a few of these biographies not only will you be pumped about your own ability to succeed you will be able to identify a pattern of success among great individuals.

The Secret to Unlimited Will Power - The Power of Love

The power of love generates more energy than any other human emotion. Tapping into this love is how you can overcome any barrier to your success. While most people use pain and its avoidance to motivate, Arnold tapped into a higher form of will power, one that was generated by his love of bodybuilding, of acting, of business, and of politics.

It is this power of love that activates tremendous willpower in even the weakest individual. We have all heard the stories of the little old lady who lifted a car because a loved one was trapped under it. The will power to achieve this impossible act was created by the love of the individual trapped under the car. Likewise the love of what Arnold was doing propelled him to multiple successes.

In order for you to be successful in building your physique, getting a better job, or successfully accomplishing a challenging task you need to expand and develop your love for whatever you are doing.

How do you develop more love in your life?

The Attitude of Gratitude

Give thanks for everything in your life including the challenges. While this may be tough at first it is a key component to happiness and the first step in becoming a loving and passionate person.

Become passionate about your objective by learning everything you can about it. Involve yourself as deep into your goal as possible and build up a multitude of positive reasons as too why you can achieve your goal. Make a list of everything you love about your life and read it out loud every morning and every night.

Read positive books, ask questions, and hang around people who are passionate and positive about the sport. Study the biographies of the individuals who have achieved similar success. Educate yourself about everything in the sport.

Program your mind for success by building joy around every little success. Do not entertain doubt, eliminate negative people from your life and if you cannot, then use their negativity as fuel to propel you to work harder. Remember?

There Is No Tomorrow, There Is Only ?The Now?

To achieve astounding success you need to look at every workout as the most important in your life. Find ways of leveraging time so that you are aware of the preciousness of each moment. There is no tomorrow, there is only now and what you do today is where you start tomorrow.

Become incredibly positive. Recognize the seeds of success lie in today?s failure, and there are no bad results if you learn from each and every one or your experiences. Don?t judge yourself, simply evaluate your strengths and weaknesses and work as hard as possible on overcoming your current limitations. This is how you develop the will of a champion.

All champions love what they do. Champions are willing to perform even the most unpleasant tasks if they will lead to success. Often times the most unpleasant tasks are the ones you need to focus on the most. Feed yourself daily positive affirmations and take action every day to the achievement of your goal ?

These are some of the keys to developing an iron Will and the way to achieve success in any field. Remember the words written in one of the greatest self-help books of all time Think and Grow Rich written by Napoleon Hill, ?If you can Conceive it, and Believe it, You can Achieve it?.

Wade McNutt is a Natural National Bodybuilding Champion and an IFBB Mr. Universe World Champion. He combined the secrets of Eastern Yoga Masters with, scientific, muscle building to produce a revolutionary new health system, called Freaky Big Naturally, find out more at http://www.freakybignatural.com