Filling Out Your Shoulders – Part 4 of 4

We’ve spent the past 3 weeks talking about shoulder routines, and today is the final installment!

As with the traps, you have to be careful of overdeveloping your delts because it can cause you to be a little out of balance.  The photo to the right shows a young kid who’s obviously working hard on his shoulders but needs to get his triceps and his traps caught up (my opinion)…

Last week we introduced two delt exercises and today here are two more.

Dumbbell Side Laterals

1. Take one relatively light dumbbell in each hand and stand with your feet about shoulder width apart.
2. Let the weight hang just in front of your body with the palms facing inward toward each other. Your elbows should be bent just slightly and the body should be leaning forward just a little bit.
3. Use the strength in your shoulder muscles to pull the weights outward and upward in a semicircular motion until the weights reach the level of your shoulders.
4. This exercise best focuses on the median deltoids when the wrist is rotated just slightly so that when the dumbbells are fully raised, the back end of the dumbbell is slightly higher than the front end.  Imagine you are holding a pitcher of water and want the pitcher to slowly empty.
5. Squeeze your shoulders for a moment at the top.
6. Lower the weight slowly, back to the starting position, but for extra burn don’t let them touch your thighs.
7. Repeat this movement for the desired number of repetitions.

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Continue reading about Filling Out Your Shoulders – Part 4 of 4

It’s probably obvious to you that steroid use is just about the last thing we’d recommend at WFN.  It’s exactly the wrong look we are going for in our ideal physique.  The photo to the right is not our goal. To refresh your memory on what our ideal physique is, check out (and comment on) the WFN Manifesto.

But so many bodybuilding sites, especially those with forums, have entire sections devoted to them.  Why is that?

I really question where people are coming from when they consider steroids.  What’s the motivation?

Is it just to get bigger in a shorter period of time? Why?

Just simply “to be bigger”?  That’s sad.

Is it because they were scrawny as a kid and now want to prove to everyone they can be a big man? Pathetic.

Although still twisted, I can at least understand the motivation for professional athletes – “everyone else” is doing it, and their livelihoods depend on them performing at an inhuman level.  I still don’t agree with it, and it still says something about the weakness of that athlete’s self-worth, but I can understand it.

Yet illegal is illegal.  You are cheating yourself, cheating your peers, cheating your fans (if you are a pro) and cheating “the system”.  Illegal is a pretty black and white word.

I could never look my kids in the eye, tell them to obey the law, and at the same time be taking steriods.  I’m also one of those people who never copies a CD or DVD from someone else.

But even if someone wants to argue that there are shades of grey in “illegal”, it comes back to the motivation.

For me, the motivation for lifting is to be healthy for my kids and grandkids, to look good, and certainly see how far I can push my body safely.  Those are part of my UFG.   Weight training is pretty much unparalleled in this regard. There’s a real thrill in seeing progress and knowing that it’s purely my willpower and hard work getting me there.

If you want to take steroids, I think you really need to question your motivation and find something else in your life worth striving for.  When you strip down to the basic motivations involved, I would argue that there’s nothing admirable about anyone’s primal drive that would lead them to take illegal steroids.

Darrin

p.s. I can hear some people saying “yeah, but adding protein powder to your meals isn’t natural either”.  Come on.  You really can’t compare them. Protein powder (more…)

Continue reading about You Don’t Need Steroids To Develop Lean Muscle

In the last two weeks we’ve talked about shoulders.  We focused on the traps previously but today let’s talk about the deltoids (a/k/a delts).

What are the delts?  They are the muscles surrounding the joint where your arm connects to your shoulder.  They are involved in many exercises, as well as tons of everyday motion.  Plus, they are a visible part of your physique, from the front, the back, and the side.  For more description, click here.

Many exercises that target the shoulders involve laterals – pivot-type movements that will be described below.  But I can’t stress enough, like I tried in the first installment, that targeting/isolating your shoulders is really only important after you’ve mastered the basic compound exercises like squats, bench press, and deadlifts.

Military Press – Standing

I like the military press since it hits the front and side deltoids, but also involves other muscles because it is a compound movement.   Start with just the bar and no weight until you have mastered the movement.  Here are the basic steps.

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Continue reading about Filling Out Your Shoulders – Part 3 of 4

I’ve been having a lot of fun recently with my kids and wife doing bodyweight exercises.  I’m doing a lot of research into them for an upcoming project and so I figured we could do them as a family.

Now, I’m very much a solo weight trainer, meaning that I like working out by myself.  The “me time” and the focus I get by working out alone is priceless.  But so is my family. If you’re like me, you really should get your whole family involved.  I don’t really recommend kids getting into weight training until their teens, and my two youngest daughters are pre-teen, so bodyweight exercises are perfect.

I’ve outlined a sample routine below – it’s only 15 minutes or so.  But let me make some comments first:

• Ask your kids what they do in school for calisthenics (more…)

Continue reading about Bodyweight Routines With My Kids

A British family of 4, who get the equivalent of a £30,000 salary in benefits from the UK government, says

• “we’re too fat to work”
• “it’s not our fault, it’s in our genes”
• “we need more money – it’s not enough”
• “I don’t have time to exercise”

I’m not making this up – check for yourself:  http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/5004431/Family-who-are-too-fat-to-work-say-22000-worth-of-benefits-is-not-enough.html . (more…)

Continue reading about Too Fat To Work? Really??? Really!!!!???

All of us (at least us men) would love to have such an awesome physique that we could be a Men’s Health™ cover model.  For the most part, those guys look amazing and definitely fit the physique we are going for.  They’re strong, they’re healthy – I have no idea whether they’re happy or not – but they do embody the physicalness that we strive for.

But at the same time, in a very practical sense, only 1% or 2% of us will ever achieve that physique.  And maintaining that as we age can be tough.  Some of us, a big percentage, could never get there no matter how hard we worked, because our genetic proportions just aren’t quite “perfect”.

Enter:  The Paradox

So on the one hand, these guys are inspiring.  On the other hand, they are depressing!

When you set up a mental image that is that far out of reach, it can be demoralizing. So that’s why it’s a paradox:  it’s fantastic to hold that type of physique up as a goal to strive for; but if that’s really your objective, chances are you’ll never reach it. Just like if your objective is to be president of the United States, there’s nothing wrong with trying to do that; but at the same time, on some level, reality has to factor in.

The Ultimate Fitness Goal – Look, Feel, Do

A goal is something you achieve and allows steps toward achievement.  Your “ultimate fitness goal” (or UFG) is your ideal, so that’s the vision, and you hold that vision in your mind throughout your life and throughout your eating habits and exercise routines.  The routines themselves are not your ultimate fitness goal.  They are step-goals or process-goals that lead you toward your UFG.

Take a moment and close your eyes.  Yes, I’m saying literally close your eyes after reading this paragraph and do these steps.  Picture how you will look, how you will feel, and what you will be able to physically perform when you achieve your ultimate physical goal.  Really imagine that you have achieved it and imagine yourself looking, feeling, and doing.

There’s a very good chance that the “looking” portion is pretty similar to that Men’s Fitness cover model, right?

But we just established that that is unlikely.  So what do you do?

I say, keep those goals anyway. I don’t care how unrealistic they are, your ultimate fitness goals (look, feel, do) need to be your own personal vision for ideal.  Realistic or (more…)

Continue reading about The Men’s Health Model Paradox – What Is Your UFG?

Last week we talked about “what are the shoulder muscles” and started on trapezius muscle exercises.  If you haven’t read that yet, please do so first.  We focused on deadlifts and cleans.  For 90% of you, those two exercises are all you need for decent traps.  But for completeness, and before we (more…)

Continue reading about Filling Out Your Shoulders – part 2 of 4

I love running. I love weight training and bodybuilding. By trying to do both, am I destined to be ineffective at both?

Many of you are runners too. And if you subscribe to this blog, you are no doubt into weight training. I keep hearing and reading on other blogs that you can’t do both.   That’s bull.  Here’s their theory: pumping iron builds muscle mass that will add weight to your body; that added weight will slow you down and add stress to your knees and other soft tissue ultimately leading to injuries if you run. And on the other hand, steady-state cardio (medium or long distance running) will burn more muscle than it burns fat.  [Some experts even go so far as to say "give up cardio totally".  I've got an upcoming post to dismiss that, but back to today's post...]

Bottom Line: They’re partially right – yes, it presents big challenges to try to do both, and their theory is correct.  But their conclusion is wrong – of course you CAN do both!  I say – forget the science. Do what you love!

Did He Just Say To Ignore Science?

Well, sort of.  I’m not saying ignore it – I’m just saying that life is too short to live in fear.  So a more pragmatic (but less pithy) way of saying is:  learn the science so that you can compensate for the hard realities and still do what you love.

What is  “Running”?

For simplicity, let’s break running into two categories (yes, I know there are a million ways to slice it, but stay with me here for my point):

a) steady-state, medium- to long-distance (like jogging or at the high end, marathons); in this running you are keeping your pace and heart rate pretty constant

(more…)

Continue reading about The Running Bodybuilder – 8.5 Tips