The key to training each of your muscles is to understand their function and how they work. Your chest is no different. Here, we’ll go over your pectoral muscles, how to train them, and we’ll even dispel a few myths along the way.
Chest Anatomy:
The pectorals are your chest muscles. They begin at your sternum and connect to a tendon that attaches to the humeris bone in your upper arm. Each time your chest muscles contract, they essentially pull your upper arm bone forward and in front of you.
To get a feel for the full range of motion of your chest muscles, straighten your arms out to each side of you. Move your arms forward in front of you until your forearms cross. This represents the full and complete range of motion for your chest muscles.
We’ll just skip the rest of the anatomy lesson and get to what you really need to know. For your training, your pecs are essentially trained as a whole using exercises like the bench press, or you can use exercises that focus on your upper chest such as the incline bench press.
Aside from the upper chest exercises, there isn’t really as much specialization for the chest as one might think. Let’s take a look at the different chest specialization areas you might have heard of.
- General Pecs: You will train your chest muscle group as a whole using the flat level bench. This includes the flat bench press, flat bench flyes, dumbbell bench press, etc. Dips will also (more…)
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Alright, let’s be honest, we all have those days where it’s tough to get up and go to the gym. You can think of a thousand reasons not to do it, and of course it’s so easy to rationalize that skipping just one day won’t hurt anything.
Don’t get me wrong, you’re body needs plenty of rest for recovery, but plenty of rest can quickly turn into laziness if you let it go too far.
So let’s talk about the other side of things. There are also a million reasons for you to get into the gym. Everything in your life… literally everything can be improved by your workouts, either directly or indirectly. Yep, it’s all connected.
1. Confidence: Some studies have shown that heavy, compound lifts activate the endocrine system and release anabolic hormones into your body such as testosterone. This makes you feel strong and confident. It takes the fear out of you and makes you feel like a real man… no, actually, it does make you into (more…)
Continue reading about Dating, Your Job, & Sex… Workouts Make it All Better
Have you ever seen those different curling bars at the gym and wondered what they were good for? Yeah, you know what I’m talking about, one of the bars is straight and one of them has several angled grips, called the EZ Curl bar.
So which of these should you be using? Well, each of the bars has its own advantages. Let’s take a look at the biceps muscle group to understand what the advantages are.
Attachments:
Your biceps muscle group, as the name implies, is composed of muscles with two separate heads, or bundles of muscle. Your biceps attach to your scapula around your shoulders, run down your upper arm, and then attach to something called the radial tuberosity near your elbow.
The radial tuberosity is a bone that can rotate. That means that your biceps not only work to bend your arm at the elbow, but your biceps also work to supinate your forearm.
Supination: When we’re talking about the biceps, supination means moving your forearm so that your palm is facing you.
Pronation: The pronated position points your palms away from you.
Take a look at the picture on the left and notice where the bottom of your biceps attaches to your forearm. Your biceps attach to the portion of your forearm that is on top when your palms are facing up, in the fully supinated position.
That means that when your biceps are fully supinated with the palms facing you, your biceps are able to be involved most fully in your workout.
To get a feel for how this works, bend your elbow so that your forearm and upper arm form a 90 degree angle. Point your palm away from you and flex your bicep muscles. Then place your other hand on your bicep so you can feel it flexing.
Now, starting with your palm facing away from you, slowly rotate your palm until it is in the fully supinated position and facing you. As you rotated your palm toward you, you should have felt your biceps becoming increasingly more tense throughout the movement.
Image Credit: Petranek
It doesn’t take a genius to realize that the more rest you take between sets, the more weight you’ll be able to lift when you do come back. This doesn’t mean that you should always take more rest between your sets… the right amount of rest for you will depend on your goals somewhat.
First off, let’s give little explanation on why you might choose longer or shorter rest periods between each workout. There are 3 different primary energy systems that your body uses to produce ATP, which is the primary fuel your muscles use for exercise.
These definitions come straight from this article on Wikipedia:
ATP-PC System (Phosphogen System) – This system is used only for very short durations of up to 10 seconds. The ATP-PC system neither uses oxygen nor produces lactic acid and is thus said to be alactic anaerobic. This (more…)
Getting the right amounts of food is a huge part of the muscle-building and fat-loss equation. You can train as hard as you want enough in the gym, but if you don’t get enough food, you’ll never have the fuel needed to become stronger.
On the other hand, if you eat too much, you’ll end up overweight and wondering where your muscle is buried beneath the fat. So the question is: How much food, or how many calories do I need to consume?
The truth:
Counting calories is a great way for you to know that you are eating the correct amount of food. In fact, it is the best way for you to measure your daily calorie intake. But the truth is that most of you are never actually going to weigh your food and do the work necessary for calorie counting to pay off.
We can talk all day about how many calories you should be eating, but it won’t do you any good unless you are actually counting your calories.
Portions:
Since most of you are too lazy to count your calories (just admit, and I will too) I recommend the portion method for most people. This simple method has been around for a long time, and it is the quick and dirty way to know the right amount of food for you. Here’s how to do it:
Six small meals: Each meal should (more…)
Continue reading about Portion Sizes & Calories Needed to Build Muscle, Lose Fat
Image credit: cronfeld
Getting calluses while you lift weights is normal, but a lot can be done to reduce the number of calluses that form on your hands.
If you’re getting calluses while lifting, you’re doing some things right. You’re training hard, using a heavy weight, and doing plenty of pulling movements. Just a few changes will help to keep your calluses down to a minimal level.
Why You’re Getting Calluses:
Grip: The biggest reason for getting calluses on your hands is how you grip your bar on pulling movements. On a pulling movement, you are attempting to move the weight toward your body while gravity (or a cable) pulls the (more…)
Continue reading about How to Avoid Calluses When Lifting Heavy Weights
Image Credit: PrairieArt
Talking about the shoulder muscles can really get confusing. Chances are, if you ask someone for a shoulder rub, they’ll grab the meat that sits close to the base of your neck. This part of your “shoulders” is referred to (more…)
Continue reading about What You Need to Know About Your Deltoids
If you’ve been going to a commercial gym regularly, you might have noticed that some guys will crank out a set of 15 reps for an exercise while another guy just does 3 reps on a different exercise. What’s up with that?
The reason you’ll see people using totally different rep ranges is that some people have different goals. Doing more reps in your weight lifting routine can serve a great purpose, and doing less reps can also be useful.
Which rep range you ultimately decide to use should be based on your goals and what you want to accomplish. Here, we’ll talk about a few points that will help you make the best decision.
Let’s take a look at what each rep range can be useful for:
- 1-3 Reps: Best suited to boosting your overall strength. The focus here is improving the maximum amount of weight possible for a single repetition. You’ll see powerlifters use (more…)
Continue reading about The Best Rep Ranges for Muscle, Strength
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