I could hardly believe what I was reading.
I sat in absolute bewilderment as I read an article in a recent muscle magazine. It explained in detail why you should lift your hips as high as possible off the bench (called bridging) when you bench press.
Was the author seriously recommending this type of thing to people who are trying to improve their workouts? I could hardly believe that any widely distributed magazine would publish this sort of “advice”.
Of course, I don’t think that the muscle magazines are very good reading for most people out there. They focus on what the pros are doing for their workouts instead of telling the readers what will help them the most. I’ll drop by once a month or so and read them just to see what’s out there (and only because I blog about this).
But there it was, right in the magazine. The author was praising the advantages of arching your back as high as possible and shooting your hips into the air on the bench press.
His argument was that arching your back and lifting the hips gives you more power for your bench. More power lets you lift heavier weights, and lifting heavier weights means you’re building strength and muscle.
So how could that be wrong? (more…)
Continue reading about You Gotta Be Kidding Me- Bridging on the Bench Press
Doing squats is one of the best ways to increase your overall lean body mass and power. Squats involve more muscle groups than almost any other exercise, and if you’re not already doing squats, adding them to your routine can help you to add strength quickly.
Learning the correct squatting stance will go a long ways in helping you to avoid injury. Lower back and knee injuries can happen if you’re not careful to use correct technique, and having the correct stance is necessary to help prevent these injuries. If it’s done correctly, the squat can be a very safe exercise.
Taking the correct stance
One mistake that you should avoid is (more…)
If you ask me, calves are probably the most stubborn muscles on the body.
Getting them to grow and take on the shape you want is no easy task. One possible way to help shape your calf muscles is to either point your toes in or out as you do calf raises.
Actually, there’s a bit of disagreement out there as to whether this helps to shape your calves or not. Let’s take a look at both sides of the issue.
Pointing Your Toes
I’ll explain the idea behind pointing your toes on calf raises. It goes something like this: placing more weight on the outside of your foot and onto your little toe causes the muscle opposite of your little toe to do more work. Your little toe is on the outside of your foot, so the outer calf has to do more work.
To accomplish this, get into position for calf raises with your feet facing straight forward. This helps to make sure that your feet are the correct distance apart. Once your feet are in place, rotate your heels outward so that your toes are pointing inward and proceed to do your calf raises as usual. (more…)
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- You can keep lifting weights after 60, into your 70s, and beyond
I recently took my family to visit my parents and got to workout with my dad at his gym (Gold’s Gym – wow, their membership fees are really low!). While coaching him, I was reminded of many tips that I bet you’ll find valuable. (Dad, you don’t mind do you???) Let’s get right into the list of 12 Tips and Observations:
- After Your Warm-ups, Every Set Is A Working Set. Don’t stop at the end of set #2 with “gas still in your tank” so that you’ll have more energy for set 3. Go all out for set #2. And then, go all out again for set #3.
- Old Guys Can Still Lift Heavy – My dad is almost 70 and of course he can’t lift what I can lift. But there’s no reason to go easy on yourself. Even if you are “an old guy” you still need to lift heavy – that means heavy FOR YOU. For me, lifting heavy might mean X pounds. For you, lifting heavy might mean Y pounds.
- Cable Machines Are Not “Machines”. I discourage use of machines. My dad uses a lot of these newer cable machines from a company called FreeMotion. They really are excellent. I even used them for deadlifts (there wasn’t enough weight on the stack for doubles but it was still surprisingly effective). But most fixed-path machines still suck.
- Intensity Trumps Volume. I had to remind my dad, and I’m guessing you can use the reminder too, that it’s better to do 4 exercises really intensely than it is to do 6 exercises without going all out. 30 minutes of intense lifting is better than 50 minutes of moderate intensity. Of course, you do need to be safe and you can get “too intense”. But I’d bet you are currently really far away from being too intense. (more…)
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Bicep curls seem like such a simple exercise, but one frequent mistake exists that often leads people to transfer the stress of this movement away from the bicep muscles and to the shoulders.
In his Encyclopedia or Modern Bodybuilding, Arnold Schwarzenegger describes that bringing the elbows forward during this movement (more…)
As with all rowing movements, seated cable rows focus mainly on working the lat muscles, as well as working the biceps, traps, and the deltoids (shoulders). When compared to bent-over barbell rows, it has some advantages and disadvantages.
- More muscles involved: This exercise involves more muscles (more…)
