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

A Beginners Guide To Bodybuilding ? The Basics

As a beginner to bodybuilding there are few basics you need to know before you head off head first down the gym to start training to ensure that you maximize the effects of your work outs and minimize the risks of injury.

One of the biggest mistakes many people do when they are starting out in bodybuilding is to fail to do any research and so they don?t see the results they want, so if you?re reading this you?re a step ahead of the game. A failure to see results causes serious frustration and many people stop training, so do your research first.

You need to learn the most effective and efficient methods to build muscle, burn fat and tone your body, plus learning how to live a healthy lifestyle is essential especially in terms of your nutrition.

One of the first things you need to do before you start any new training program or exercise regime is to get in touch with your doctor and get a full check up. If you are in your teens, a young adult or have had any health problems in the past this is especially important. Also your doctor should be able to give you advice about training programs, your diet and do general checks to ensure your body is in good order. Plus your doctor may be able to recommend good gyms to join.

As a beginner bodybuilder you should make a concerted effort too learn as much about your body and bodybuilding as possible, as it?ll help you in your efforts to get that perfect body if you know what you?re training and why you?re doing it. A good way to get started is to do train your entire body first by working the largest muscle groups, and then focus on specific areas that you want to tone and define. So don?t just go down the gym every day and do a few hundred sit ups and expect to get a six pack, it won?t happen. Don?t forget to warm up before and after you session and stretch thoroughly to encourage muscle growth, keep you flexible and avoid injury.

If you don?t eat healthy you won?t build the quantity of muscle you could do otherwise and you?ll never get the definition you want. Self discipline is essential. You also should speak to a nutritionist and learn the difference between good fats and carbs and bad fats and carbs; also you need to identify the optimum amount of protein you need in you diet.

When you are training make sure that you drink plenty of water to ward off dehydration. If you eat the correct foods and live a healthy lifestyle, such as not smoking, not drinking and ensuring you get enough sleep, you?ll maximize all your training efforts significantly.

Finally speak to other gym goers and find a coach to teach you how to use the equipment properly and to design you a personalized training program to optimize you efforts. If there?re professional bodybuilders at your gym, speak to them and ask them about how they did it. Follow your training program carefully to avoid overtraining and learn your body?s limits so you don?t injure yourself. If you eat and live healthy and stick to your training program you?ll have the lean and toned body you desire in no time.

Do you want to learn how to pack on massive muscle, melt away fat and get the body of your dreams? If so, get your hands on free bodybuilding tips for beginner bodybuilders by clicking the following link: http://teenbodybuildingtips.info

Bodybuilding: Groundless Theories That Can Hamper Your Chest Growth

I wonder how many of you reading this have used alternating dumbell curls for your biceps. If so, let me ask you this: Have you ever asked yourself why you do them? Think about it; you never perform alternating repetitions for most other exercises. When was the last time you did an alternating leg press, alternating leg extensions, or alternating overhead triceps extensions? Probably never. Yet it?s common to see people copying what they see others do in performing alternating biceps curls. And since they?re resting each arm while lifting the weight in the opposing arm, they?re essentially doing a rest/pause between each repetition when performing curls in this manner.

One day in the gym, I asked a guy why he does alternating dumbell curls for his biceps. I pointed out that there aren?t any other muscle groups that get this alternating rest/pause treatment. What benefit was each of his biceps getting from resting as much as five seconds between repetitions? He just scratched his head and looked at the floor. ?I don?t know?? he said, smiling. ?I?ve never really thought about it?

And this brings up my point. I?m not here to tell people they?re wrong in doing alternating dumbell curls. I?m here to express that they might be cutting themselves short in life when they go through it ?never really thinking about it?. We tend to do even less thinking when we perceive the people we?re emulating (like the BIG alternating dumbell curl guy) to be experts.

Here?s something to ponder that?s a bit more consequential than whether you alter your dumbell curls. Do you subscribe to the bodybuilding theory that says you need to focus mostly on compound movements to build size? You know the story: to build a big chest, your routine needs to consist of mostly bench pressing ? for bigger legs, you?d better do a lot of squats. I?ve heard this over and over again. But is it really true? I?ve gained my best pectoral size after putting bench pressing routines on the back burner in favor of flyes. And I?m not the only one; I first became motivated to do it when I read an article many years ago in which bodybuilding legend Scott Wilson said his chest only grew when he dumped the excessive bench pressing.

Think about it: Why would compound movements be better than isolation one?s for building your body? Muscle growth occurs when you advance to moving higher volumes of weight than you previously could. If that happens while doing flat dumbell flyes for your chest, your pecs will get bigger? period. Equally, if you train your chest with bench pressing in a haphazard manner that leads to over-training, your chest won?t get any bigger even though you opted for bench pressing over flyes. It?s that simple.

Consider this: let?s say for argument?s sake that your pectoral muscles will move one third of the load when you?re bench pressing. This sounds reasonable since the deltoids and triceps are heavily called upon when performing upper body pressing movements. If you can eke out ten repetitions of 225 pounds on the bench, you?d move a total volume of 2,225 pounds but your pecs might have been called upon for a third of that work; about 742 pounds.

It?s safe to bet that a person who can do ten good reps with 225 on the bench can also perform ten strict repetitions of flat bench dumbell flyes with 50 pound dumbbells. However, those strict reps of dumbell flyes would place a significantly greater volume demand directly on the pectorals within the same time allotment required by the bench pressing. The two fifty pound dumbells are a hundred pounds on the whole chest, times ten equals a thousand. That?s a thousand pounds of volume (thirty-five percent more than the bench pressing) placed almost exclusively on the pec muscles.

Even if you can only use forty pound dumbells for the flyes, you?ll still beat the bench press for volume load on the pecs (800 lbs vs. 742 lbs). This assumes that your pectorals are indeed taking exactly one-third of the stress during bench pressing. It could be more than that or it could be a bit less; it depends much on the genetically-determined structure of your upper body.

What?s in a Hormone Spike?

Many compound movement advocates site the theory that the body releases more anabolic hormones when performing big movements like squats and bench presses. To this assertion, I can pose three very good questions:

1. How much additional testosterone can bench pressing produce over isolation movements? (unless it?s huge amounts, it?s not going to matter)

2. Does this increase represent higher average levels of the hormone during recovery, or is it only a spike during and directly after a workout? (don?t buy the ?two-hour window? theory)

3. All other things considered ? does it really matter?

Here?s an even better question: If one guy does his bench pressing in a wimpy manner and another guy does his flyes like his life depends on it ? who gets the best testosterone spike?

Another question: Since sexual activity also spikes testosterone levels, does the heavy flye user who has sex after his workout produce more testosterone than the bench presser who doesn?t?

I think you get my point. Natural testosterone ebbs and flows in everyone (women too). It?s really the levels we average during our entire recuperation period between workouts that matters. And how much does that matter? If you average a few nanograms per decileter more than I do, I?ll probably just take one more day off between workouts and make just as much muscular gain as you.

Form Matters on Flye Movements

To build your chest with flyes, good form is absolutely essential. All too often, I see people performing movements that resemble a sort of hybrid between flyes and dumbell presses. These are about the most useless things you can do for your pecs. Your elbows do need to be slightly bent during flyes to prevent hyper-extending them. However, pivoting at the elbows instead of the shoulders is just a sneaky way of deferring or avoiding discomfort.

Let?s face it, doing heavy flyes in a strict and disciplined manner is painful. When relatively heavy dumbells are lowered with outstretched arms until they?re horizontal and even with your head on the bench, there?s a searing kind of stress throughout the chest region. When you squeeze the muscles as you carefully arc the dumbells upward and back together, the pain and positive effect from working the pecs so directly is only intensified. This is a good indication that you?re doing them correctly.

Conclusion

I currently do only one compound movement during my chest workout and the rest of it consists of flyes and pec-deck exercises. What?s more, I do my bench pressing movement late in the workout so that my pectorals have become somewhat pre-exhausted. This has all led to far greater pectoral growth compared to the days when I did set after set of flat and incline bench pressing.

If you?re having trouble with pectoral growth, I suggest you try a flye and pec-deck dominated workout routine. Let go of the erroneous belief that these are ?shaping exercises?. Consider this: Ray ?Thunder? Stern, a bodybuilder from the distant past, had some of the best pectoral muscles I?ve ever seen when he was at his peak. It was said by some of his friends that he could perform incline dumbell flyes with a pair of 120-pound dumbells. That?s incredible.

Impressive flye movements will produce an impressive chest.

Scott Abbett is the author of HardBody Success: 28 Principles to Create Your Ultimate Body and Shape Your Mind for Incredible Success.

Scott is a certified fitness trainer and a certified Master Practitioner and Trainer of NLP. You can view his own physical transformation by visiting http://www.hardbodysuccess.com

Choosing a Home gym-Fitness equipment

Limited time due to a busy schedule of balancing work and family can prevent anyone from regular exercise at the gym. A home gym, however, could just be the solution to incorporate fitness into your daily routine. With the variety of fitness equipment available, how do you select which is right for you? Consider the following during your planning and purchase.

Fitness goals. Determine your fitness goals. Deciding your fitness goals before you start your equipment selection will help you make a wiser purchase. Do you want to perform strength training to reshape your muscles? Boost your energy or loss weight through cardiovascular exercise? If you want to strength train, decide the muscle groups you want to target. Here is a list of the major muscle groups for you to keep in mind when considering what equipment is right for you:

Pectoralis major and minor (chest)

Deltoids and trapezius (shoulders)

Latissimus dorsi, teres major and minor, rhomboid (upper back)

Biceps, brachialis (front of arms)

Triceps (back of arms)

Gluteus maximus (buttocks)

Quadriceps (front of thighs)

Hamstrings (back of thighs)

Gastrocnemius, soleus (calves)

Rectus abdominis, obliques (abdomen)

Erector spinae, quadratus lumborum (lower back)

Sternocleidomastoids, scalene, splenii (neck)

Space. Before you decide to make a purchase, designate a place specifically for your home gym. Ensure you have adequate space to accommodate everything in the home gym. You should measure the dimensions of your room, (the length, width and height) to have available when purchasing the equipment.

Equipment. After you have determined your fitness goals, shop for equipment, which will help you to meet them. Examples of equipment for aerobic exercises are treadmills, stationary bicycles, and stair-steppers. You could even invest in a television to workout with aerobic tapes or view your favorite show while jogging on your treadmill. http://home-gyms-fitness-equipment.blogspot.com/

Strength training equipment can include free weights such as "dumbbells" or "barbells", or a multi-station machine (also known as a home gym). If you plan to lift heavy free weights you may need a lifting partner. Your partner will help you check your form and monitor safety. For more equipment ideas, you could take a tour of a fitness center.

Cost: Ask yourself, how much money do you want to spend. Most fitness equipment can range from $500-$1000 and more if you want a total body work out. Typically, quality equipment is priced in the upper range.

A Test Ride. Always test the equipment before you buy it. Test the machines for comfort and satisfaction.

Talk to the Experts. Purchase your equipment from a fitness specialty store. These stores specialize in fitness equipment and provide a broad selection for you to choose from. Specialty fitness stores would also employ certified associates to address your questions regarding exercise equipment.

Increase your Knowledge. Be certain you increase your knowledge of weight training safety and proper technique to reduce injury. Read directions for your fitness equipment and follow them.

Remember! Choosing equipment and exercises, which are fun for you, will help you to keep at it and enjoy it. Stop by: http://www.fitnessandkids.com/adult_fitness_equipment.html for some great prices on home gyms-fitness equipment.