Advanced Training Techniques for High Intensity Workouts

In a previous post, I described some basic techniques to increase training intensity, which is mandatory for stimulating the muscles and inducing them to grow. This post presents more of these techniques, probably not as popular as the previous ones but that can be a good complement when developing your training program. However, some of them must be carefully used, whether because they are very demanding and can lead to overtraining if abused, or because they are intended for very specific purposes, and can be counterproductive if wrongly used. The techniques covered in this post include giant sets, eccentric training, partial reps, and cheat reps.

The concept of a superset can be generalized to a composition of any number of different exercises for one particular body-part performed without rest, which is known as giant set. Typically, the exercises are performed in an order such that you lift the heavier weight first and the lighter weight last. This is not a common technique since it requires high effort and concentration to be accomplished and it cannot be used with all body-parts (probably only back training can take real profit of this technique). The particular case of a giant set where you do three exercises for one body-part is commonly referred as tri set.

Eccentric training exploits the negative part of the exercises (when going from contraction to rest). Studies have shown that this type of training results in greater fiber activation than concentric training, resulting in an increment in muscle mass and physical power. The key of eccentric training is handling a weight that you cannot lift. This can be accomplished in two ways. The first, sometimes referred as ‘forced negatives’, applies when you reach failure in a regular set. At this point, a spotter helps you thoroughly to accomplish the positive part, and then you slowly bring back the weight to the resting position, repeating this process for 2 to 4 reps. Second possibility consists of using eccentric training since the beginning of the set, i.e. do eccentric-only contractions. Load a weight about 125% of your one rep max and focus on controlling this weight during the negative phase of the movement, while one or more spotters perform the positive part. Notice that in both cases having a spotter is mandatory to perform this technique. Eccentric training is very demanding and if done too frequently can lead to overtraining.

Partial reps consist of moving the weight through a partial range of motion. They can be done anywhere in an exercise range of motion. When used in the strongest part, they can contribute to pack additional size by emphasizing the contraction of the muscle. When used in the weakest part, they can help to get through sticking points. Partial reps can also be used to extend a set once you reach failure. Notice that this technique goes against one of the basic principles of bodybuilding, namely using full range of motion. For this reason, it must be used only for one of purposes commented before, since wrongly used or overused, it can exacerbate muscle imbalances.

Cheat reps can be applied when you reach failure and cannot do any more reps with good form. At this point, you can use a bit of body swing or momentum to help get the weight past the sticking point. This technique must be carefully used, since cheating excessively, may lead you to injury. Cheat only to work the muscle harder, not to make the exercise easier, maintaining always the focus on the worked muscle. Probably arm and leg muscles are those that can obtain more benefit with this technique.

I’ll go in detail on these techniques in future posts but, in the meanwhile, you can check the article “Training Styles: Which One is Best for You” by James Sadek, the article “The 16 Most Advanced Intensity Building Techniques” by Nick Nilsson, and the article “A Question Of Intensity” included in the I.C.E. Training Program developed by Big Cat.

Basic Training Techniques for High Intensity Workouts

Achieving high intensity in your workouts is mandatory for stimulating your muscles and inducing them to grow. However, plain sets and reps are often not enough for advanced bodybuilders for achieving the needed intensity levels. To deal with this, many specialized techniques intended to increase the training intensity exist. This post introduces some of these techniques, namely supersets, pre-exhaust training, forced reps, rest-pause training, and drop sets.

A superset is a composition of two exercises performed consecutively in a row with virtually no rest between them. Supersets are especially useful when the training time is limited. Two types of supersets can be distinguished. In the first one, you superset two exercises for two different body-parts (typically two antagonistic body-parts). This allows recovering each body-part while working the other one. Typical antagonistic body-parts that can benefit from this technique include biceps/triceps, but also chest/back or quadriceps/hamstrings. In the second one, you superset two exercises for the same body-part. This allows hitting a muscle from two different angles (or hitting different heads of a muscle) without rest. You can superset any two exercises basically, but it is generally more of application when referring to pre-exhaust training (see next paragraph).

Pre-exhaust training consists of doing an isolation exercise followed by a compound exercise for a given body-part. The isolated exercise fatigues the major muscle and, for this reason, during the compound exercise the smaller and weaker secondary muscles must come into action, which allows pushing the major muscle harder. Typically, weight in the isolation exercise is light to moderate and reps are usually in the higher range. Pre-exhaust training can be approached in two different ways. One consists of first doing all the sets of the isolation exercise and the move to the compound exercise. The other uses the superset concept, namely first doing one set of the isolation exercise and then, without rest, doing a set of the compound one. In fact, the pre-exhaust concept can be extended to an entire workout, for instance by doing triceps first, followed by chest. This applies also to biceps and back, shoulders and chest, or calves and thighs.

Forced reps involve working a body-part to failure. When you reach failure, a spotter gives you a very gentle lift to finish the rep and squeeze out the muscle a bit more. As you can see, the utilization of a spotter is essential in this technique, but providing more a mental boost than actual help. In this sense, typical abuse with this technique comes when the trainer relies on the spotter for assistance during most of the set. Notice that properly executed, this is a very demanding technique, and it should not be done for every set.

Rest-Pause training is similar to forced reps, but when you reach failure, instead of getting help from the spotter, you put the weight back on the rack for a few seconds. Then you do a few more reps until failing again, and repeat this process until you get the desired total number of reps. This technique is useful when a spotter is not present and it is very effective for getting past sticking points.

A drop set entails performing a set of any exercise to failure, then drop some weight (the necessary to maintain the same number reps) and, with little or no rest, continue for more repetitions with the reduced poundage until failing again. Notice that a spotter is recommended to keep rest time short (by helping you to drop the weight). Several names are used to refer to this technique, including breakdowns, descending sets, or strip sets, and it entails also a lot of variations, such as the double-drop (reduce the weight once), the triple-drop (reduce the weight twice), or the down-the-rack sets (use every consecutive set of dumbbells down a rack).

Remember that these techniques are great for increasing your training intensity, stimulating in this way muscle growth, but they are also very demanding on the muscular and nervous systems, taking longer to recover totally. For this reason, using them too often (especially those moving around the failure concept), can lead you to overtraining.

I’ll go in detail on these techniques in future posts but, in the meanwhile, you can check the article “Training Styles: Which One is Best for You” by James Sadek, the article “The 16 Most Advanced Intensity Building Techniques” by Nick Nilsson, and the article “A Question Of Intensity” included in the I.C.E. Training Program developed by Big Cat.

Avoiding Injuries by means of an Accurate Exercise Selection

In previous posts, we have already stated that performing the exercises with proper form is mandatory for preventing injury. However, some exercises are inherently dangerous because their biomechanics situates some muscles and/or joints in a position that is prone to injury. The safest for the bodybuilders is to neglect most of these exercises when designing their program, while some of them can be slightly adapted in order to avoid harmful positions. This post describes some problematic exercises, and provides pointers to avoid harmful positions (if possible).

Typical exercises that should be eliminated from your program include the behind-the-neck pull-down/pull-up, the behind-the-neck shoulder press, the upright row, and the sit-up/straight-leg raise. The behind-the-neck pull-down/pull-up can easily cause a shoulder injury. This occurs because this movement requires to externally rotate the shoulders as much as possible. This position is known as external rotation, and it is a very delicate position for the shoulders (especially when you add resistance), since it puts a great stress on the rotator cuff muscles. In addition, since most people do not have enough shoulder flexibility to pull the weight in a straight line behind the neck, they must bend their neck forward to do the movement. This can also result in an injury (e.g. a neck strain), being another cause to avoid this exercise. The problems described above occurs also with the behind-the-neck shoulder press, since to do the movement, you must also externally rotate the shoulders.

The upright row is also a dangerous exercise for the shoulders. The problem with this exercise is that it places the shoulder in internal rotation as the arm is raised. When resistance is added in that position, every time you raise the weight, a small tendon gets pinched (i.e. impingement) by the bones in the shoulder. Probably this will not hurt immediately, perhaps nor in a long time, but the tendon will gradually become damaged.

The sit-up and the straight-leg raise have been traditionally used to train the abdominal muscles. However, when doing these exercises, the hip flexors pull directly on the spine, placing excessive pressure in the vertebrae and the spinal discs, which can lead to strain in the lower back area. In addition, since these exercises primarily involve the hip flexors, the abdominals are not trained in an effective way, because they are merely exhausted in prolonged static work to hold the torso steady.

The wisest solution is to avoid previous exercises in your program. For other exercises, it is not necessary to be so drastic. Just avoiding compromised positions can do the trick. For instance, when performing the deadlift or the stiff-leg deadlift, in order to protect the lower back from injury, you should keep it slightly arched during the whole movement. Without the arch, supporting muscles will relax, switching to the spine much of the tension that they are supporting. For this reason, avoid going down beyond a position that impedes you to maintain a straight back.

The bench press is another example of exercise that wrongly performed can lead to a shoulder injury. Using a too wide grip increases the stress on the shoulder joint. You should use a grip in which your elbows are at a 90º angle at the bottom of the motion. The shoulder joint also suffers when touching the bar to the chest too high up. Aim for lowering the bar to approximately the nipple line by keeping your forearms perpendicular to the floor during the whole movement and your elbows at a 60º angle to your body at the bottom of the motion.

There are other controversial exercises, such as dips or pullover (see Luis Berrios’ article) or flyes (see Matt Danielsson’s article), which have been labeled as dangerous exercises by some authors. You can find additional details about all these exercises in the article “Five Exercises You Must Avoid To Stay Injury-Free!” by Nick Nilsson, in the article “Bodybuilding and Shoulder Injury” by Luis Berrios, and in the article “The Dangers of Dumbbell Flyes!” by Matt Danielsson.

Overtraining: The Natural Bodybuilders’ Nightmare

Overtraining is probably one of the most serious obstacles for natural bodybuilders. As you already know, muscle growth occurs as a response to high intensity training that progressively overloads the muscles and forces them in this way to grow in order to meet the demand. However, when the muscles do not get the time and rest needed to rebuild them, this strategy immediately backfires, resulting in overtraining. This post provides basic advice to detect overtraining and summarizes the best practices for its prevention.

Overtraining results in a variety of negative effects on the body, including both physiological and psychological disturbances. Physiological symptoms include lower performance in the gym, manifested with decrements in strength and lean body mass, changes in blood pressure and heart rate, prolonged muscle soreness, stiffness, increased joint and muscle aches, delayed recovery from training and increased chances of injury. You can also suffer from chronic fatigue, dehydration, loss in appetite and sleep disturbances (insomnia, poor quality sleep). In addition, your immune system can be also compromised, thus making your more susceptible to minor infections (e.g. colds), gastric problems, headaches, and prolonging your healing time. Psychological symptoms include loss of motivation, pessimism, unusual feelings of sadness or depression, mood swings, increased apathy and irritability, anxiety and reduced ability to concentrate. The appearance of some of these symptoms must be used as a warning, and deserves a detailed following in order to assess your overtraining degree.

Of course, the best treatment for overtraining is prevention. This must be accomplished from several points of view, including training, rest and nutrition. With respect to training, the key is to do exactly the right amount of sets needed for stimulating the muscles. Doing additional sets will yield no benefit and it can even be counterproductive. In this sense, you should keep workouts short (preferably less than 1 hour) since after that time your hormonal levels become very unfavorable (pronounced cortisol release and testosterone depletion). In addition, don’t overuse high-intensity techniques such as supersets, pre/post-exhaustion or descending sets, since they are very demanding both mentally and physically.

Adequate rest is fundamental for allowing muscle recovery. Don’t go to the gym too often (aim for 3 or 4 days per week, maximum 5 in advanced routines) and let a muscle fully recover before directly training it again. In addition, once a while take a break in your routine. You will come back totally recovered, both mentally and physically, being able to deal with intense activities once again. It is recommended to take a week off for every 12 weeks of constant exercise. In addition, remember to get adequate sleep (at least 8 hours per day) for proper recovery. Focus also in mental recovery by getting lots of relaxation and trying to minimize stressful events in your life which will contribute to slowdown recovery.

Nutrition has also an important role in overtraining prevention. Have a balanced diet including the right amount of all macronutrients (e.g. 55% calories from carbohydrates, 30% from protein and 15% from fat). Take care of fulfilling your daily caloric requirements, or even better, having a caloric surplus. Distribute your food intake among 6 different meals along the day to guarantee a constant flow of nutrients to the muscles and control cortisol levels, avoiding catabolism. Take care also of having the needed micronutrients (vitamins and minerals) and plenty of water, using a multivitamin supplement if needed.

These practices contribute to prevent overtraining, and they must be also followed if you have already entered in an overtraining state. In this case, you should additionally rest completely from training of any form for some days. Then, begin training tentatively, with very light weights and short sessions. Once you recover, it is important to review your training program to avoid overtraining again. Set realistic goals so you don't train your body harder than it can handle, train depending on how the body feels and learn to recognize overtraining symptoms.

You can find further details about overtraining in the article “Overtraining: A Bodybuilding Nemesis!” by David Robson, the article “How Can One Prevent Overtraining?” and the “Overtraining” section of Muscle 101 site.

Consolidating Your Muscle Gains: Advanced Program

After sticking with the intermediate’s program for the last 1-2 years, you have surely experienced noticeable muscle gains. However, lately your progress seems to slow down, or even halt. You keep training hard and your nutrition and rest are adequate, but you have hardly gained any muscle during the last months. Facing this situation denotes that you have to go one step further in your training and enter into the advanced level. This post provides the basic guidelines for designing an advanced program.

Surely you remember how easy was gaining mass during your first months in bodybuilding. Unfortunately, being an advanced bodybuilder, you have to work hard for gaining each additional pound of muscle. As we commented in previous posts, this occurs because your muscles evolve to work more efficiently, and for this reason, you require to increase intensity for further progress. As a consequence of this, the primary goal in an advanced program should be achieving constant muscle stimulation and maximum intensity. As you know, the key to constantly stimulate your muscles is introducing periodization in your training, switching regularly between heavy cycles (mainly compound exercises and low rep range) and light cycles (isolation exercises and high rep range). In addition, it is also mandatory to vary your workouts every 4-6 weeks by altering one or more factors (i.e. number of reps, sets, tempo, exercise selection, etc.). In this sense, it is important to avoid doing always the same exercises, or performing the same number of sets or reps, since the muscles adapt to this workload and then stop growing. For instance, you can alternate the 3-day split introduced in the intermediate’s program, with a 4-day or even a 5-day split.

Intensity can be achieved by staying focused, reducing the rest between sets and giving the maximum in all your sets and using the maximum weight that allows you to maintain strict form. In addition, you can also include in your workouts high-intensity techniques such as supersets, pre/post-exhaustion, descending sets, negative reps or forced reps (I’ll go in detail on each one in later posts). These techniques are great for increasing the intensity of your workouts and stimulate in this way muscle growth. However, they should be carefully used, since they are very demanding on the muscle and can contribute to overtraining, which is always threatening natural bodybuilders when training to the limit. For this reason, watch carefully for overtraining signs (I’ll also go deeper on this in the future), and use adequately high-intensity techniques.

With respect to nutrition and rest, you are probably on the right way, since the same principles provided with the intermediate’s program rule here. Stick eating several small meals throughout the day (every 2.5-3 hours) including enough protein (1 gram of protein per pound of bodyweight per day), drinking plenty of water and sleeping at least 8 hours per night. Be also careful of regularly monitoring your metabolism in order to adequate your caloric intake if needed. You have to take into account that muscles are active tissues that continuously burn calories. For this reason, if you gain muscle, your metabolism will go up, thus you have to adjust your daily caloric intake upwards to meet the demand. Finally, this is probably the right moment for considering supplementation in your program. The basis should consist of a multivitamin/mineral stack and some protein supplement. Then you can experiment with other supplements such as creatine, glutamine, and BCAAs and see what works better for you.

These and other guidelines for developing your advanced program can be found in the article “Advanced Bodybuilding Program” by Matt Danielsson and also in the article “Progression of Training” included in the I.C.E. Training Program developed by Big Cat.

How to Deal with Injuries for Safe Muscle Development

Making progress in bodybuilding requires intense and consistent training. Unfortunately, pushing yourself to the limit day after day increases your chance of getting injured. Typically, an injury can turn you away from the gym a few days or weeks, but if neglected, it could even end your days in bodybuilding. As you can see, this is a critical issue and deserves special attention. Learn with this post how to deal with injuries, and some safety tips for preventing them.

Of course, nobody wants to get injured. However, this happens to almost everybody at some point in their training career, and for this reason it is convenient to learn how to deal with injuries. If you get injured, you have to stop training immediately. By continuing with your workout you are only making the injury worse, probably prolonging the recovery time by weeks.

For most injuries, you will be fine again if you just give yourself the time to heal properly, thus rest is the key. Additionally, you can try to accelerate recuperation applying ice to the painful area for approximately 15 minutes every two hours following an injury, compressing the area with a bandage and elevating it, and applying heat for 10 to 15 minutes several times a day four or five days after the injury.

You have to avoid any kind of training on your injured part until you notice definite improvement. At this point, you can probably start with very light training but avoid heavy training until you are completely recovered. However, that does not mean that you have to stay out of the gym until being almost recovered. In fact, you can still train all body-parts which are not related to the injured body-part. For instance, having an elbow-injury, you can still do legs, abdominals, and lower back. Use the time to work on your weaknesses, keep going to the gym regularly, stay active and stick to your diet.

When coming back from an injury, spend some time on reviewing your training routine. In order to prevent future injuries, it is important to determine what caused the injury so you can avoid it. During this review process, you have to pay special attention to the following issues:

Are you thoroughly warming up before weight training? This refers both to general warm-up for raising your body temperature, and generally preparing the body for activity, and to specific warm-up for the muscle you are about to train, for adapting it to the weights you will use. Refer to previous post “Proper Warm-up for Gaining Muscle while Preventing Injury” for details.

Do you consider some stretching in your program? Stretching reduces soreness, increases flexibility, and strengthens your joints. You should do some stretching after warming up and between each set, and you have to stretch thoroughly after working a muscle. Refer to previous post “Stretching for Safe and Successful Muscle Development” for details.

Are you always using proper form in your exercises? Poor form is a primary cause of injury. For this reason, use always textbook form, maintain the control on the weight over the whole movement, and avoid cheating, jerking or using momentum. In this sense, it is convenient to stay focused and avoid distractions which contribute to poor form. Related to this, it is also convenient to avoid dangerous exercises (such as behind-the-neck pull-down, behind-the-neck shoulder press, and upright row) that put your joints in a position that is prone to injury.

Are you evenly training all your body-parts? Having an unbalanced body can increase the chance of having an injury. In this sense, it is important to have a strong midsection (abdominals and lower back), since this acts as a stabilizer in a great amount of exercises.

You can find further details about how to deal with injuries in the article “Injuries: How To Prevent & Treat Them” by Matt Danielsson and the article “A Bodybuilder's Guide To Injury Prevention” by Jon Huston.

Supplementation for Natural Bodybuilders

Supplements are present throughout in bodybuilding. For instance, one can find many people that trust in supplements as a magic pill to transform their body from day to day, even when their training and nutrition are not precisely an example to follow. On the other side, one can also find many bodybuilders that adequately use natural supplements as a complement to their nutrition. The industry contributes to this situation by offering a huge amount of supplements, all of them with the most fantastic claims. However, some of these supplements are not natural, or not effective (or at least not for everyone), or even dangerous. This post intends to guide trainees in this crowded space by discussing how supplementation fits in a natural bodybuilding program.

Proper use of supplements requires a clear understanding of what are they intended to, since this a common point of confusion. In this sense, people tend to forget that if training and nutrition are not adequate, supplements are virtually worthless. In fact, it has been established that training hard, eating clean and resting enough determine the 90% of your success. Supplements are a good complement, but they can never fully compensate bad eating habits or inadequate training (although they probably can slightly reduce the negative effect of these bad practices). For this reason, it is important to focus on getting the basics in shape before bothering with the details.

Having said this, what is then the role of supplementation in natural bodybuilding? Well, although supplements are not needed to succeed, they can be a great aid for making this process easier and quicker, acting as a complement for ensuring that you get enough of all needed nutrients, and also for optimizing physiological processes, such as muscle growth, fat loss and recovery. Supplements can be broken down into 3 groups, namely foundation supplements, enhancing supplements, and application specific supplements. I deliberately omit in this list unnatural solutions, such as steroids, that can have catastrophic secondary effects on your health.

Foundation supplements provide substances which are mandatory for proper body functioning such as vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, protein and essential fatty acids (EFAs). In fact, if you could follow a perfect diet, you would obtain the needed amount these substances from food alone. However, in reality this is often difficult to accomplish. Foundation supplements come into play to alleviate this problem, and should always be the basis of your supplementation regime. Use a multivitamin/mineral stack daily (some vitamins are also antioxidants), add some protein supplement to your diet (e.g. protein powders) and consider supplementing EFAs during fat loss periods.

Enhancing supplements contribute to optimize your body functioning and in this way accelerate your gains. Supplements in this category, such as creatine, glutamine, BCAAs, arginine, and HMB, are mainly focused to build muscle. As you gain experience in the gym and muscle gains slow down, you can give a try to this kind of supplements. Finally, application specific supplements are intended for advanced bodybuilders allowing them to increase their control on certain physiological processes such as fat mobilization (e.g. L-carnitine), metabolism acceleration (e.g. ephedrine, caffeine), natural testosterone boost (e.g ZMA), and joint injury prevention/healing (e.g. glucosamine).

Further reading about basic supplementation and its role in natural bodybuilding can be found in the article “Broke Buying Supplements?”, and the article “Food vs. Supplements”, both by Matt Danielsson.

A Fat Loss Program for Muscle Definition

When referring to bodybuilding, most people have in mind muscle development. Of course, gaining muscle is extremely important, but most of the times losing fat is also required to achieve a balanced, muscular and defined body. Losing fat is only possible when combining proper nutrition, cardiovascular exercise and weight training. Find in this post the basic guidelines for developing your fat loss program.

Controlling your nutrition is mandatory for losing fat. You have to adjust your diet in order to consume fewer calories than needed, by creating a small deficit of at most 500 calories per day with respect to your daily maintenance caloric requirements. Don’t go beyond this since diets that severely restricts caloric intake promote loss of lean body weight as opposed to fat. When cutting down on calories, you should keep the protein intake up in order to avoid muscle breakdown (about 1 gram of protein per pound of bodyweight per day). Control the amount of fat you eat, but don’t eliminate it from your diet. Focus preferably on essential fatty acids and avoid saturated fats and junk food at all. The main reduction on calories should come from carbohydrates. Stick with low GI carbohydrates, especially those rich in fiber, and limit high GI ones (except immediately after training). In addition, drink plenty of water (3 or 4 liters of water per day).

You should eat several small meals throughout the day (every 2.5-3 hours) instead of 3 big meals. This prevents blood sugar level fluctuations, helps control hunger, ensures constant nutrients flow to your muscles, increases metabolism, and avoids excess calories that could be stored as fat. Each meal should include a serving of protein and just enough carbohydrates to replenish glycogen stores in the liver and the muscles. In addition, make the meals smaller as the evening approaches in order to accommodate to the reduction in energy usage that occurs as the day goes on.

In order to increase the amount of fat you burn, you should incorporate to your program some aerobic exercise like cycling, swimming, jogging, rowing, etc. Perform 3-4 cardiovascular sessions per week, lasting 30-40 minutes. Avoid sessions in excess of 1 hour since anything past this promotes muscle breakdown. If you really want to do more cardio, split it up into several shorter sessions. Preferably perform your cardiovascular sessions first thing in the morning on an empty stomach. In this way, you ensure that your insulin level is low. Remember that eating causes an insulin response which inhibits fat burning.

Optimal fat burn is achieved in the 60-70% heart rate zone. Lower intensity (50-60%) burns more percentage of fat calories, but the total amount is not very high. Higher intensity (70-85%) burns more fat calories, but muscle protein wasted is also higher. Thus stay better in the 60-70% zone or use ‘interval training’, which consists of varying the training intensity during the exercise by moving between the different heart rate zones. This has demonstrated to be very effective for losing fat.

Incorporating weight training to a fat loss program is indicated in order to maintain muscle while burning fat. Building muscle is important for giving a muscular and hard look to the body once definition is reached. In addition, muscle is an active tissue that consumes energy. Thus the more muscle you have, the more calories you burn. This does not apply to fat tissue, which does not consume energy at all. You can use your regular workout oriented to muscle growth, but being immersed in a low carbohydrates diet will decrease your performance in the gym. For this reason, probably this is a good chance to train with high reps (12 and above) and stimulate those forgotten slow-twitch muscle fibers, which are more involved in fat burning because they get their energy more from fatty acid oxidization. Training these muscle fibers also leads to development of more mitochondria, providing a greater ability to oxidize fat.

You can find further advice for designing your fat loss program in the article “How to Replace the Love Handles with a Rock-hard Washboard” by Matt Danielsson and in the “Losing Fat” section of Muscle 101.

Recovery Significance for Successful Bodybuilding

Although one could think the opposite, muscle gains occur when you are outside the gym, provided that muscles receive adequate nutrients and enough rest. However, most bodybuilding programs focus only on training routines and overlook recuperation, which lead these programs to a probable failure. This post provides a basic understanding of the importance of rest for muscle grow, and some guidelines for allowing your muscles to recover adequately.

Sufficient rest and adequate nutrition are indispensable for bodybuilders in order to build muscle. No matter how hard you train if you don’t pay attention to these factors. In addition, skimping with recovery can lead to overtraining, which can compromise not only your muscle gains but even your health. Rest allows your body to recover after exercise, recuperating the nervous system from the accumulation of stress, as well as permitting muscles rebuild to make them stronger.

Maximizing recovery between training sessions requires a multi-dimensional approach. The first step is having enough quality rest. This includes two aspects. First, you should sleep at least 8 hours per night (preferably 9). This is when growth hormone is mostly released, and when most of the muscle repair and psychological restoration occurs. Try to maintain a regular sleep pattern to maximize recovery. That means not only getting the same amount of sleep every night, but also trying to go to sleep and wake up at the exact same time every day. In addition, a short nap (20-30 minutes) during the day can also contribute to better recovery. Second aspect related to rest includes having enough time to recover between workouts. Limit the number of workouts per week to 3-4, and the keep them short (preferably less than 1 hour). Don’t train again a muscle until it is fully recovered (this may require up to 7 days).

Additionally to rest, adequate nutrition plays a huge role in the recovery process, because it must supply the materials that the body needs to repair and restore the muscle fibers broken by training. Though enough rest and clean nutrition are required for proper recovery, the process can be accelerated using other techniques, such as ‘active rest’, which consists of performing some light activity during the rest periods. This technique includes several forms, ranging from the light aerobic activity and stretching that you can do as a cool-down for your training session, to intercalating periods of light training (high reps) between the heavy ones or performing some light activity during your rest days. Active rest has been demonstrated to support faster recovery than rest alone.

Other techniques such as massage, which contributes to reactivate the peripheral circulation and reduce muscular fatigue, thermotherapy (i.e. application of heat), which increases the blood flow to the targeted area, cryotherapy (i.e. application of cold), which contributes to localized pain relief by reducing spasms and increasing local blood flow, and contrast showers (i.e. changing between heat and cold), which create a rapid variation of vasoconstriction and vasodilatation helping in waste removal and nutrient delivery, can be also used to accelerate recovery. In addition, trying to minimize sudden changes in your life that can induce stress and using relaxation techniques to reduce this stress can also sum in the recovery process.

For more details about the importance of recovery in bodybuilding, check the article “Recuperation & Muscular Growth!” by Randy Herring and the article “Rest & Recovery: The Overlooked Aspect of Training Success” by ISSA.

Proper Warm-up for Gaining Muscle while Preventing Injury

Probably almost everyone would agree that adequate warm-up is mandatory for having an injury-free workout while achieving maximum performance. In spite of this, a considerable amount of people go into their routines without warming up or with a deficient warm-up. This post reviews the importance of warm-up for bodybuilders, and provides some guidelines for warming up properly.

Warm-up plays an important role in bodybuilding. It prepares the body and the nervous system for physical activity. In addition, it increases muscles and joints lubrication and blood flow to the muscles, making them more suitable for weight training. More importantly, warm-up reduces the risk of injury by increasing muscles flexibility and gradually preparing them to the upcoming workout.

For accomplishing an adequate warm-up, the first stage, before any intensive training, must be a general low-intensity aerobic activity, such as light jogging, stationary cycling, jumping rope, or rowing machine, for about 5 minutes, just long enough to raise the body temperature, get the blood flowing and generally prepare the body for activity. After this aerobic activity, you can finish this phase of the warm-up with some light stretching.

At this point, you can move to the weight room. However, even though you have had a general body warm-up, you need additional warm-up for the muscle which you are about to train. Defining this specific warm-up can be tricky, because you must gradually prepare the muscle to handle heavy weights without injuring yourself, but at the same time you do not want to be fatigued when facing your working sets.

A good way for approaching this problem is as follows. Start by giving the muscle a light pump by completing one set of 10-12 reps with a very easy weight (e.g. 40-50% of the working sets weight). Then, in order to gradually habituate the muscle to the heavy weights it will have to handle during the working sets, perform 2-3 sets with low reps (2-5) in a pyramiding fashion, increasing progressively the weight until reaching the 80-90% of the working sets weight, while decreasing the reps. Do not rest too much between these sets (preferably less than 1 minute). Once you have finished all the warm-up sets, rest 2-3 minutes before starting the working sets.

Let’s see an example applied to bench press exercise. Assuming that working sets consist of 6 reps with 100kg (100x6), an adequate warm-up can be as follows: 40x10, 60x4, 75x2 and 85x1. Obviously, this is not a fixed scheme. The needed amount of warm-up sets will depend on the intensity of the exercise. The lower the reps you are performing on the working sets, the more warm-up sets you should do. The higher the reps, the fewer warm-up sets you may need.

This specific muscle warm-up is not necessary on every exercise in a workout. You have to do it only for the first exercise for each muscle group. Once the muscles are warm any further warm-up is just wasting energy. An exception can be made if the following exercise hits the muscle in a substantially different way with respect to the first.

Finally, in the same way that you warm up before starting the workout, it is also a good practice to do some cool down after training. A proper cool down usually consists of 5 minutes of walking or riding a stationary bike at a relatively slow pace, so that your breathing should be able to return to a relaxed pattern and your heart rate should slow. After that, you can follow with some stretching exercises.

Further information about warming up can be found in the article “Warming Up For Mass Gains!” by Shannon Pittman and the article “How Important Is Warming Up?”

Stretching for Safe and Successful Muscle Development

Most bodybuilders neglect stretching in their training program, though a flexible body is an essential requirement for proper muscle development. This post reviews the importance of stretching for bodybuilders, and provides hints about how to incorporate stretching into your program.

Benefits of stretching are numerous. It contributes greatly in preventing muscle injuries (strains, sprains, and pulls) and in delivering blood into the muscle. For this reason, stretching after workout is highly recommended, since the nutrient rich blood can easily reach the fatigued muscle so it can recover and start growing as soon as possible. In addition, stretching makes you bigger and more powerful by lengthening your muscles, and at the same time contributes to give you a cut-look by emphasizing muscle separation. Finally, stretching reduces muscle and joint tensions and plays a role in the healing process of injured or over-trained muscles.

Stretching can be performed after warm-up, once you have finished your workout, or even between sets while training, but never when muscles are still cold. A good approach consists of performing some stretching between sets targeting the muscle that you are currently working. This allows more fresh blood to access the muscle, reducing the lactic acid buildup and giving you more power for the next set. Then, once you have finished working that muscle, you can perform a more thorough stretching, which acts as the "cool down" phase of your workout. This will help to increase muscle size and to reduce soreness.

Whenever you stretch, it is mandatory to do it properly, since stretching is a dangerous type of exercise if done incorrectly. Never force a stretch or go past the point of serious discomfort or pain. Do not bounce at all as this can cause muscle and tendon/ligament damage. You should start gently stretching as far as you can go, that is, until you hit a natural stop which does not hurt but will do so if you keep pushing beyond that point. Hold this position for about 20 seconds without bouncing. Then, contract the muscle statically for 8-10 seconds and gently stretch it again until it stops and maintain this position during 20 seconds more. When doing this second stretch, you will notice that the stopping point has moved, thus enabling you to safely stretch beyond what was previously possible. The reason behind this lies in the body's natural defense mechanism. During the first stretch, in order to prevent tearing a ligament, the muscle that connects to these ligaments tenses trying to resist the pull. By contracting the muscle, your defense mechanism gives out, and you can stretch into a further position.

You can find additional information about all the stretching issues for the bodybuilder in the article “Stretching and the Bodybuilder!”, the article “Contract-Release Stretch” by Matt Danielsson and the chapter “How to Become Flexible” of the book “The Insider’s Tell-All Handbook On Weight-Training Technique” by Stuart McRobert, which includes also a complete program for improving your flexibility. Additionally, you can find a great amount of stretching exercises for the different muscles in the “Exercise Instruction & Kinesiology” section of the ExRx.net site.

Important Amino Acids for Bodybuilders

Protein is made up of structural units or chains called amino acids, which are involved in innumerable physiological processes in the body. Understanding the basics and providing a complete spectrum of them in the diet is basic for any bodybuilder. For supporting this task, this post reviews the primary amino acids for achieving success in bodybuilding.

There are 20 standard amino acids. Of those 20, 9 are considered essential, namely isoleucine, leucine, valine, histidine, lysine, methionine, phenylalanine, threonine, and tryptophan. Essential amino acids must be supplied entirely by diet, since body cannot manufacture them.

Isoleucine, leucine, and valine comprise the Branched Chain Amino Acids (BCAA). They are probably the most important amino acids in the growth, maintenance and repair of muscle tissue, exerting a strong synergistic effect among them. They contribute in preventing the breakdown of muscle tissue and in promoting muscle recovery. In addition, they also play a role in the regulation of blood-sugar levels and stimulate growth hormone release. Leucine is found in nearly all protein sources, especially whole grains and milk products, but also brown rice, beans, legumes, nuts, eggs, and meat. Major isoleucine sources are pork, chicken, cashews, fish, eggs, lentils, cottage cheese, milk, and cereal grains. Valine sources include dairy products, meat, poultry, fish, mushrooms, lentils, soy, and peanuts.

Lysine contributes to the maintenance and manufacture of muscle protein, playing additionally a role in revitalizing the body to combat fatigue and overtraining and maintaining a positive nitrogen balance. Lysine appears in fish, legumes, cheese, eggs, milk, meat, and potatoes. Methionine assists in the breakdown and use of fats. In addition, it is a precursor of creatine monohydrate within the body, an essential compound for energy production and muscle growth. Sources for this amino acid include meat, fish, beans, eggs, lentils, yogurt and seeds. Lysine, methionine and vitamin C together form L-carnitine, which is used for transport of long-chain fatty acids. For this reason, L-carnitine is commonly supplemented during fat loss periods.

Phenylalanine is a major precursor of tyrosine, which increases neurotransmitters levels (e.g dopamine). It's also one of the manufacturers of glutamine. Sources of this amino acid include dairy products, legumes, nuts, whole grains, poultry, fish, and seeds. Histidine is needed for the growth and repair of tissue of all kind, and it can be found in dairy products, bananas, grapes, meat, poultry, fish, rice and wheat. Threonine is used to form collagen and elastin and allows better absorption of other nutrients, so protein sources containing threonine are more bio-available than others. This amino acid can be found in poultry, fish, meat, lentils, dairy products, and eggs. Tryptophan is a major precursor of serotonin, which relieves insomnia and promotes restful sleep. Major sources are chocolate, oats, bananas, dairy products, red meat, eggs, fish, poultry, chickpeas, seeds, and peanuts.

Next to these essential amino acids, there are 11 non-essential amino acids (a.k.a. dispensable amino acids) which can be synthesized to a certain degree by the body. This category includes alanine, arginine, asparagine, aspartic acid (a.k.a. aspartate), cysteine, glutamic acid (a.k.a. glutamate), glutamine, glycine, proline, serine, and tyrosine.

Some of these non-essential amino acids have been demonstrated to be of great importance for the bodybuilder, especially glutamine and arginine. This has motivated these amino acids to be commonly supplemented. Glutamine is directly involved in the regulation of protein synthesis and breakdown and is a powerful anabolic stimulus. It regulates ammonium levels in the tissues, which can be toxic to the body's cells. In addition, glutamine can be used as an alternate energy source in glucose deprived conditions. This amino acid appears in large amounts in all high-protein foods. Arginine contributes to protein synthesis with its nitrogen retention ability. It also stimulates the GH release. In addition, it facilitates muscle mass gain while limiting fat storage. Arginine sources include whole-wheat, nuts, seeds, rice, chocolate, raisins and soy.

Further details can be found in the article “Amino Acids Guide!” by Big Cat and in the “Amino Acids” section of Gym Addiction site.

The Role of Hormones on Muscle Growth & Fat Loss

There are plenty of hormones in the human body that regulate all sorts of physical development and metabolic processes. Some of them contribute in an important way to regulate the anabolic and the catabolic processes. This post reviews the main hormones involved in muscle growth and fat loss, namely testosterone, growth hormone, insulin, glucagon and cortisol, which are of primary interest for the bodybuilder.

We have already described insulin and glucagon role in a previous post dedicated to metabolism. Remember that these are antagonistic hormones responsible for regulating blood glucose levels. Insulin is an anabolic hormone which facilitates glucose and amino acid transport into muscle cells (stimulating protein synthesis and inhibiting protein breakdown), but also fatty acid transport into fat cells. Glucagon is a catabolic hormone which mobilizes glycogen stores to recuperate glucose levels as well as stimulates breakdown of body fat to be used for energy. Both hormones are controlled entirely by diet.

Testosterone is a steroid hormone which is the responsible for the development of male sex characteristics (e.g. body and facial hair, deep voice, etc.) and the maturation of sperm and male sexual organs. In addition, testosterone is probably the most important hormone for building muscle through the promotion of protein biosynthesis. This accelerates muscle buildup and regeneration, and increases your recovery capacity after exercise, injuries, and illness. In addition, protein biosynthesis also stimulates the metabolism and promotes the burning of fat. You can stimulate your testosterone production through intense exercise and adequate sleep and nutrition. In addition, some bodybuilders use natural boosters when testosterone levels begin to drop due to age.

Human growth hormone (GH), also known as somatotropin, is the primary hormone responsible for stimulating tissue repair, cell replacement, brain function, and enzyme production. GH is a highly anabolic hormone having profound effects on the growth of the skeleton and the muscles. You can naturally control your GH levels through exercise, rest and nutrition. First, intense and strenuous workouts stimulate GH release because these catabolic states require extra protein synthesis and in case of lack of energy, fat metabolization to make up for glycogen depletion. Second, most part of your total daily GH is released while sleeping, especially during REM phase. For this reason, having a good sleep is mandatory for building muscle. Finally, a high protein diet contributes also to raise your GH levels.

Cortisol is a catabolic hormone which reduces cellular synthesis, and carries out the gluconeogenesis process (conversion of amino acids from muscle tissue to glucose for energy), causing in this way muscle breakdown. On the other side, cortisol is also involved in fat mobilization. Cortisol levels are highest early in the morning and during periods of high stress (i.e. after training). In order to control your cortisol levels, you should eat first thing in the morning and right after your workout (since insulin nullifies the effects of cortisol), limit your workouts to no more of 1 hour and have a good sleep. In addition, some amino acids (e.g. glutamine) and vitamins (e.g. vitamin C) help also to control cortisol levels.

You can complement the hormones information in this post by reading the article “Nitrogen Balance, Hormone Manipulation and Recovery Critical Factors in Bodybuilding!” by Jim Brewster, the article “Hormones: How They Build Muscle and Burn Fat” by Eric Hesse or the “Hormones and Neurotransmitters” section of Muscle 101 site.

Importance of Micronutrients for Bodybuilders: Water, Vitamins & Minerals

A common mistake in bodybuilders’ nutrition is neglecting those elements that do not provide calories. However, these elements, known as micronutrients, are indispensable for many physiological functions. This post reviews the importance of basic micronutrients (water, vitamins, and minerals) for achieving success in bodybuilding.

Water is one of the most important nutrients, as it has many health and performance benefits. It keeps your organs functioning properly, clears toxins from the body and regulates the body cooling system. In addition, it is essential for proper digestion, nutrient absorption and chemical reactions, and it contributes to muscle growth by favoring the transport of nutrients to the cells. It even increases the body's ability to metabolize stored fat. On the other side, water is also very important for the athletic performance, since improper hydration can result in muscle cramping, decreased strength and reduced endurance.

In general, people wait to be thirsty in order to drink. This is not a good idea, because when you are thirsty, your body is already dehydrated. You should drink on average 3 or 4 liters of water per day, distributed at regular intervals regardless if you are thirsty or not. Use water itself as you main water source. Soft drinks, alcohol or coffee should be better avoided as a water source because they are diuretic (they take away more water than they provide to the body). In addition, soft drinks and alcohol supply a great number of calories which can turn into body fat.

Vitamins are organic substances essential to the normal functioning of the body, as they help to catalyze biochemical reactions controlling metabolism, growth and maintenance. A deficiency in a single vitamin can have great effects in the athletic performance and even in the health. Vitamins must be obtained from food (fish, fruit and veggies are great vitamin sources) since, with few exceptions, the body cannot synthesize them. Vitamins can be divided into two categories: fat-soluble and water-soluble. Fat-soluble vitamins (A, D, E, and K) are stored in the body fatty tissue and for this reason they do not have to be replenished daily. Don’t overdose since this can lead to toxicity. The water-soluble vitamins (vitamin C and all the B complex vitamins, namely B1 (thiamine), B2 (riboflavin), B3 (niacin), B5 (pantothenic acid), B6 (pyridoxine), B12 (cobalamin), folic acid, and biotin (a.k.a. vitamin H)) are not stored in the body and excessive amounts are excreted in the urine. This means that toxicity is generally not a problem, but these vitamins must be continually replenished through the diet.

Minerals have also a great importance. They act as catalysts for many biological reactions within the body, including muscle response, the transmission of messages through the nervous system, the production of hormones, and the assimilation of nutrients in foods. In addition, all tissues and internal fluids of our body (e.g. bones, teeth, muscle, blood, and nerve cells) contain varying quantities of minerals. Since the body cannot manufacture any single mineral, your entire mineral intake must provide from food. The most important minerals for a bodybuilder include magnesium, calcium, zinc, chromium, sodium, phosphorous, iron, selenium, cooper, and potassium. Be aware of overdosing on any mineral, since this can cause a functional imbalance of another mineral or even toxicity.

I’ll provide a detailed description for each vitamin and mineral (importance, deficiency symptoms and food sources) in a later post, but in the meanwhile, you can find more information about the importance of micronutrients in the article “Understanding The Importance Of Proper Hydration For Maximum Gains In And Out Of The Gym!” by Jeff Behar or the article “Anabolic Nutrition!” included in the I.C.E. Training Program developed by Big Cat.

Proper Training for the Abdominals

This post concludes (at last!) the series describing how to design adequate routines for training the different body-parts. This chapter provides you with the general guidelines for proper abdominal training.

Classical aim of bodybuilders has been achieving six-pack shaped abdominals. However, only training is unproductive to achieve this. Surely, you will not see your abdominals unless you eliminate the layer of fat covering them. Effective fat loss can only be accomplished with a proper clean diet in conjunction with cardiovascular exercise (I’ll go deeper on this in a future post). In spite of this, you must not neglect the abdominal work, because it can contribute to the whole picture providing muscle definition and thickening. And more importantly, abdominal work contributes also to prevent injury, since the abdominal muscles are heavily involved in maintaining the posture (along with the lower back), and they act as a stabilizer in almost every exercise.

What is commonly referred as the abdominal body-part is comprised of several muscles, namely the rectus abdominis, the obliques and the transversus abdominis. The rectus abdominis runs down the front of your stomach and its primary function is to flex the trunk. It is a single muscle and, as such, the whole muscle contracts when exercised. Because of this, we cannot really differentiate lower from upper abdominals, though some exercises can put slightly more emphasis in one area than in the other. The obliques, which run down the side of your stomach, have two heads, namely the external oblique and the internal oblique, and though these muscles contribute to abdominal flexion, they are mainly activated through rotation and lateral flexion (e.g. bending from side to side). The transversus abdominis lies underneath the rectus abdominis, and it is responsible for stabilizing the trunk during lifting movements and pulling your stomach flat. Finally, although they are not part of the abdominal core, the serratus anterior and the intercostals muscles, which lie just above the rib cage, contribute also to your abdominal look.

In the past, abdominal training relied on exercises such as sit-ups or straight-leg raises. However, these exercises are based on flexing the hip joint instead of flexing the trunk. For this reason, they primarily involve the iliopsoas muscle, contributing to increase your waist size, while the abdominals are not trained in a productive way, because they are merely exhausted in prolonged static work for preventing your spine from breaking off.

Proper way of training the rectus abdominis must involve decreasing the distance between the ribcage and the pelvis, for example, bringing the chest toward the hips, as occurs in crunches, or bringing the hips toward the chest, as occurs in reverse crunches and hip raises. Obliques training must be approached with caution, because too much oblique development will make you appear blocky, ruining your X-frame. Just in case you need some oblique definition, use exercises with a twisting motion, but with none or very little resistance, and aiming for a good stretch. Side bends can be another option, but also with extremely light weights. Training the transversus abdominis is important for avoiding that your abdominals begin to protrude and for improving your abdominal control. This muscle is engaged using bridges and vacuums. The serratus anterior and the intercostals work synergistically and are best trained using straight-arm pushdowns and pullovers.

Train your abdominals once, or at most twice a week, preferably after the other muscles. Use at least 2 or 3 exercises. People generally use none or low resistance, but you can occasionally experiment with more resistance for giving some relief to your abs (not with obliques!). Finally, perform all the exercises in controlled motion and hold the contractions for a count.

If you need more information for designing your abdominal workout, you can read the article “Atrocious Abs: A Guide to a Rock-Hard Midsection” by Matt Danielsson or the article “Intelligent Abdominal Training for Athletes and Bodybuilders!” by Ben Black.

Proper Training for the Calves

This post follows the series describing how to design adequate routines for training the different body-parts. This chapter provides you with the general guidelines for proper calves training.

Calf muscles have been traditionally neglected arguing that they are very difficult to develop because progress in these muscles is heavily determined by genetics. Although is true that some people are genetically gifted with great calves, the rest of us can achieve good improvements in calves with adequate and intense training.

The calves body-part comprises mainly two muscles, namely the gastrocnemius, which is located at the top rear end of the lower leg, and the soleus, which lies underneath the gastrocnemius. The gastrocnemius is made up of two heads, the medial head (a.k.a. inner head) and the lateral head (a.k.a. outer head), and provides the major part of the mass of the lower leg. Usually, another muscle called tibialis anterior, which runs up the front of the lower leg, is considered within this body-part, since it has related functionality. In fact, all these muscles are the responsible of foot movement (flexion, extension and rotation).

Unlike is commonly believed, calves must be trained in the same way you train the other body-parts. Training them intensely does not mean to train them everyday. Train calves once a week, hitting them hard and then let them rest. Use at least 2 to 3 exercises for stimulating the different muscles that comprise this body-part. The gastrocnemius is worked with all standing calf raises versions (with a barbell, one leg version with a dumbbell in one hand, in a leg press machine or in a specialized machine) and with donkey calf raises, while the soleus is trained using seated calf raises. All these exercises are based on the same motion, that is pushing the body up on the toes and return to the original position, letting the heels drop down for having a deeper stretch. On the other side, the tibialis anterior is stimulated with the reverse version of all calf raises exercises.

Due to its fibers composition, optimal calf development occurs as a response to the combination of two training styles, namely heavy weight and low reps, and lighter weight for higher reps. Form is fundamental in calf training. The proper way is to perform the exercises slow and strict, using full range of motion, emphasizing the contraction in the top of the movement, and giving the muscle a deep stretch in the bottom. Some people claim that pointing the toes in different directions stimulates different areas of the calves. There are different opinions with respect to this issue. Try it, and check what works better for you. Finally, don't forget to fully stretch the calves at the end of your workout.

If you need more information for designing your calves workout, you can read the article “Killer Calf Training!” by Jim Brewster or the article “Training the Hamstrings and Calves!” included in the I.C.E. Training Program developed by Big Cat.

Proper Training for the Hamstrings

This post follows the series describing how to design adequate routines for training the different body-parts. This chapter provides you with the general guidelines for proper hamstrings training.

In the quadriceps post, we already discussed the importance of training your legs for achieving a proportionate physique. However, some people tend to do only quadriceps dominant exercises when training legs, forgetting about the other muscles of the upper thigh. Of course, this is not recommended either, because you will ruin the muscular balance, which is not also an aesthetic problem, but also can lead you to injury.

The hamstring body-part comprises the major part of the back of the thigh and performs two major functions, namely hip extension and knee flexion, but also assists in knee rotation movements (medial and lateral rotation). The hamstring is made up of 4 different heads: the long head of the biceps femoris, the short head of the biceps femoris, the semimembranosus and the semitendinosus.

For proper development of the hamstrings, you'll need at least 2 or 3 exercises including movements for exercising the two major functions of the hamstrings: knee flexion and hip extension. The first is accomplished using leg curls, which is an analogous exercise to biceps curls. You can choose among seated, lying, or standing versions, though the one-legged versions have the added benefit of avoid muscle unbalances. Use always a full range of motion and squeeze your hamstrings at the top of the movement. You can vary your foot position (inward, neutral, or outward) to shift the focus among the different hamstrings heads.

The second is accomplished using stiff-leg deadlifts (or variations such as Romanian deadlifts). This is a power exercise that has demonstrated to be very effective for stimulating the hamstrings fibers, involving in addition other muscles such as the glutes or the lower back. This is an isometric exercise because the muscle contracts without significant movement (a.k.a. static tension). Proper form is essential when performing stiff-leg deadlifts, because bad form will put your lower back in a potentially injurious position. Bend at the hips while keeping your back straight and knees slightly bent during the whole movement. Do not fully stretch the legs at any point. As you descend, your butt should move back slightly and you should feel a stretch in your hamstrings. This form can be difficult to master, hence practice a lot and start using light weights.

Hamstrings are also involved to a certain extend when training other body-parts such as the quadriceps (e.g. when doing lunges) or the lower back (e.g. when doing hyperextensions or good mornings). For this reason, some typical workout splits place the hamstrings routine in the quadriceps day (for instance when these two parts are supersetted), while others advocate for splitting legs routine among several days and place hamstrings workout together with the lower back.

If you need more information for designing your hamstrings workout, you can read the article “Hamstring Paradigm!” by Charles Poliquin or the article “Training the Hamstrings and Calves!” included in the I.C.E. Training Program developed by Big Cat.

Proper Training for the Quadriceps

This post follows the series describing how to design adequate routines for training the different body-parts. This chapter provides you with the general guidelines for proper quadriceps training.

Leg workout is certainly the most skipped, probably because while training legs you suffer as with no other body-part. However, leg muscles comprise about 50% of your body mass, thus their training is mandatory if you want to achieve a proportionate physique.

The quadriceps is the muscle that comprises the major part of the front of the thigh, and its main function is to extend and straighten the leg. As the name implies, the quadriceps is made up of 4 heads: the rectus femoris, the vastus intermedius, the vastus medialis (a.k.a. inner head), and the vastus lateralis (a.k.a. outer head). Despite this complexity, balanced quadriceps development is not difficult, since all the heads are involved in almost all quadriceps exercises. You can only shift the focus to inner or outer head to some extend by varying your feet stance in some exercises (e.g. squats).

An adequate quadriceps workout should consist of 3 o 4 exercises. The squat is a basic compound movement that builds overall power and strength and it is the most effective way for developing the quadriceps, hence it should be present in almost every quadriceps routine. The squat has the added value of all the exercises that move the body and not the weight, namely stimulating your hormonal release. This exercise is relatively safe if you use correct form, though it is not easy to master, so you have to practice a lot. Keep your back straight and the head fixed in a straight line looking ahead of you during the whole movement, while bending through your knees. Control the weight during all the exercise and use a full range of motion (but without locking out the knees at the top of the motion).

Although none of them can substitute squats, there other good exercises for completing your quadriceps routine. You can use leg presses and hack squats for introducing some variety or if you cannot perform squats with adequate form. Lunges (done with a barbell on your shoulders or a dumbbell in each hand) involve also the glutes to a great extend. Leg extensions are more an isolation exercise that can be used for finishing your routine, or as a pre-exhaustion exercise. Once in a while, try also other squat variations, such as dumbbell squat, front squat, sumo squat, or barbell hack squat.

Many people include exercises for other body-parts such as the glutes and the abductors/adductors in their quadriceps workout, since these muscles already receive a certain amount of work with quadriceps exercises. For the same reason, another popular approach is training these muscles along with the hamstrings. Though specialized machines exist to train the glutes (which can be used for some variety), the best way to work them is using a full range of motion when doing squats. Lunges hit also the glutes and the hamstrings to a great extend. For training the abductors/adductors you can also use specialized machines (which work by opening and closing the legs respectively). Other options are attaching an ankle handle to a low cable pulley or using some squat variation (i.e. sumo squat).

If you need more information for designing your quadriceps workout, you can read the article “Build Monster Quads!” by David Knowles or the article “Training the Quadriceps!” included in the I.C.E. Training Program developed by Big Cat.

Proper Training for the Forearms

This post follows the series describing how to design adequate routines for training the different body-parts. This chapter provides you with the general guidelines for proper forearms training.

The forearm is a complex body-part, which is made up of a muscle located in the upper/outer portion called brachioradialis and two counteracting muscle-groups: the wrist flexors, which run the length of the inner forearm, and the wrist extensors, which run the length of the outer forearm. The wrist flexors are composed of six heads: flexor digitorum superficialis, flexor digitorum profundus, flexor carpi radialis, flexor carpi ulnaris, palmaris longus, and flexor pollicis longus. The wrist extensors are comprised of eight heads: the extensor digitorum, extensor carpi radialis longus, extensor carpi radialis brevis, extensor carpi ulnaris, extensor indicis, extensor digiti minimi, extensor pollicis longus, and the extensor pollicis brevis. All these muscles are in charge of controlling the movement of the hand and the fingers, and for this reason, the forearm is the main responsible of your grip strength.

The forearm is a commonly neglected body-part, but an adequate development is mandatory not only for strengthening your grip, but also for symmetry and aesthetic reasons. Good grip is necessary in almost every exercise, especially when training back and biceps. Hence, increasing your grip strength has an added benefit for the rest of exercises, allowing better returns for the target muscles of those exercises since your forearms are not the weak link anymore.

A few genetically blessed people have achieved great forearms only with the indirect stimulation provided in their general training, but the most with less favorable genetics will require 2 o 3 exercises of specialized forearm training. Typically, this training uses to be performed after the biceps routine. In any case, since forearms are used when training almost every body-part, save your forearm routine for last of your workout, in order to not compromise other body-parts training. This is also the reason for avoiding training back the day after the bicep/forearm workout.

As usual, for maximum results, it is best to include in your routine exercises for targeting each of forearm muscles. As commented in the biceps post, the brachioradialis is stimulated to a great extend with all the curl exercises that use a hammer grip or a reverse grip (refer to that post for the list of exercises). Wrist flexors can be stimulated using all versions of wrist curls (barbell, behind-the-back, cable or dumbbell). Wrist extensors are worked using a reverse grip on wrist curl exercises (barbell, cable or dumbbell).

In addition, forearms training should regularly include some specific exercises for improving grip strength. This includes developing the crushing grip strength (fingers work to close the hand against a resistance) and the pinch grip strength (the resistance is held just between the thumb and fingers). I’ll go into details of grip strength training in a future post dedicated to this.

If you need more information for designing your forearms workout, you can read the article “How To Develop Fantastic Forearms” by David Robson or the article “Training the Forearms!” included in the I.C.E. Training Program developed by Big Cat.

Proper Training for the Biceps

This post follows the series describing how to design adequate routines for training the different body-parts. This chapter provides you with the general guidelines for proper biceps training.

When referring to biceps body-part, two different muscles are actually considered: the biceps brachii and the brachialis, which are responsible for elbow flexion (moving the hand toward the shoulder) and elbow supination (rotating the palm upwards). As the name suggests, the biceps have two heads, the short head (a.k.a. inner head) and the long head (a.k.a. outer head). The brachialis is a small muscle which lies just beneath the biceps.

In order to get a biceps body-part that looks both big and proportionate, your routine must include exercises for stimulating the two biceps heads and also the brachialis. Don’t use too much exercises (2 or 3 exercises will be enough), because the biceps receives already some work when working the back and, in the same way as the triceps, since it is an explosive and small muscle, it tires quickly.

When training biceps, it is very important to use a full range of motion in all curl exercises, lowering the arms until they are fully stretched. Using an incomplete range of motion will create a gap between the biceps and the elbow (a condition named ‘midgety biceps’). In addition, in single arm exercises you should start always with the weaker arm and perform the same number of reps with the stronger arm to prevent creating imbalances.

The main compound movement for training the biceps is the standing barbell curl. This is a vital exercise for building overall mass in the biceps. Use a shoulder-width grip and keep your elbows pinned to your sides and the back straight to avoid cheating. Using a straight bar involves more the short head, but you can use an EZ-curl bar to save the wrists by putting the hands into a more ergonomically correct position, hitting in this way both biceps heads more evenly.

Other exercises such as alternate dumbbell curls, standing cable curls (barbell and one arm versions) or incline dumbbell curls, which involve also mainly the short head, can be used as a complement/alternative to standing barbell curls. Cable exercises have the added benefit of constant tension, while incline curls allow a maximal stretch. On dumbbell exercises, remember to twist the inside of the dumbbell even further inward as you reach the shoulder in order to exercise the elbow supination movement.

Supinated versions of preacher curls (barbell, dumbbell and cable), spider curls and concentration curls work very well for isolation and peak development. These exercises focus also in the short head, providing in addition a great stimulation for the lower portion of the biceps. For this reason, they are recommended for fixing the ‘midgety biceps’ problem (together with full range of motion, of course).

For shifting the focus to the long head and additionally working the brachialis, you have to use a hammer grip (palms facing each other) or a reverse grip (palms facing down). Hammer grip is used in all hammer curl versions (dumbbell, rope, incline, alternate, cross-body), while reverse grip is used in reverse curl variations (barbell, cable, preacher and drag curls). These exercises (especially all the reverse curls) involve also some forearm muscles (particularly the brachioradialis) to a great extend. You can also focus in the long head of the biceps by using a close grip in some exercises such as standing barbell curls or barbell preacher curls.

If you need more information for designing your biceps workout, you can read the article “Want Big Biceps? Here’s How to Get Them!” by David Robson or the article “Training the Biceps!” included in the I.C.E. Training Program developed by Big Cat.

Proper Training for the Triceps

This post follows the series describing how to design adequate routines for training the different body-parts. This chapter provides you with the general guidelines for proper triceps training.

The size of your arms is highly determined by your triceps, since it covers about 2/3 of the muscle mass while the biceps covers only the remaining 1/3. The triceps brachii consists of three heads: the long head (a.k.a. inner head), the lateral head (a.k.a. outer head) and the medial head. The main function of the triceps is to extend the elbow (straightening the arm). In addition, the long head of the muscle is also the responsible of bringing the arm down towards the body. For this reason, the medial and lateral heads are recruited only by movements at the elbow joint, while the long head can be recruited by movements occurring at both the elbow and shoulder joints.

Your triceps routine must include exercises for stimulating the three heads of the muscle, using both compound movements and isolation exercises. Don’t use too much exercises (2 or 3 exercises will be enough), because the triceps receives already some work when working the chest and the shoulders and since it is an explosive and small muscle, it tires quickly.

Compound exercises involving the triceps include the french press and its variations (e.g. skull crushers or lying triceps extension), the close-grip bench press (which involves also the chest and the anterior deltoid to a great extend) and parallel dips (keeping your body straight up for hitting more the triceps and less the chest). These exercises provide an overall stimulation for all the triceps heads. This also occurs with triceps pushdowns (using a straight bar, a v-bar for a more natural wrist position or a d-ring attachment for the one-arm version), but this is more an isolation exercise.

Although previous exercises stimulate the long head of the triceps to some extend, if you need additional work for this head, you can use exercises in which your arms are raised overhead, such as overhead triceps extensions (barbell, dumbbell or cable variations). Focusing on the medial head and the lateral head is probably trickier. However, you can target the medial head to some extent performing exercises that use a hammer grip, such as triceps kickbacks (one arm at a time or both arms at the same time), the dumbbell french press (one arm at a time or both arms at the same time) or rope pushdowns (pulling your hands to the side at the end of the movement for achieving a better contraction). For recruiting the lateral head you can perform exercises using a reverse grip (i.e. supinated grip, the same you use in biceps curls), such as reverse pushdowns, reverse cable overhead extensions, reverse one-arm pushdowns or the reverse french press.

Proper execution is very important when training your triceps. Perform strict movements, keeping your elbows as close together as you can, and maintaining constant tension on the muscle. In addition, use full range of motion, emphasizing the muscle contraction and achieving a good stretch during the negative part of the movement.

If you need more information for designing your triceps workout, you can read the article “Tri’d & True: Your Journey to Dubs…” by Mike Hajoway or the article “Training the Triceps!” included in the I.C.E. Training Program developed by Big Cat.

Proper Training for the Chest

This post follows the series describing how to design adequate routines for training the different body-parts. This chapter provides you with the general guidelines for proper chest training.

The chest is made up of two main muscles, the pectoralis major and the pectoralis minor. The pectoralis major is the main visible part of the chest and allows bringing the arms in front of it in a hugging motion and it is also heavily involved in any pressing movement that happens in perpendicular form to the body. The pectoralis major consists of two separate heads: the sternal head (a.k.a. lower pecs) and the clavicular head (a.k.a. upper pecs). The pectoralis minor is directly under the pectoralis major and it helps pulling the shoulder blade down.

Training the chest requires 3 to 4 exercises. The base must be some kind of pressing movement. The barbell bench press in a flat bench is the most popular exercise. It provides general chest stimulation, with special attention to the sternal head. Alternate this exercise with the dumbbell version, which involves also the stabilizers and allows better stretch. Your chest routine must include also some exercise for stimulating the clavicular head. This can be accomplished with the incline versions of the bench press. If you have started with barbell flat bench press, then use dumbbells for the incline bench press, and vice versa.

Pressing exercises tend to involve the triceps and the deltoids (the anterior head) to some extend in addition to pectorals. When performing these exercises, try to place the stress on the chest. To do this roll your shoulders down and back into the bench (i.e. scapular retraction) and keep them in this way throughout the entire movement. In addition, use a grip on the bar/dumbbells that puts the forearms perpendicular to the floor when arms are in a 90 degree position and emphasize the contraction (without locking the elbows) at the top of the movement.

For completing your chest routine you can choose from a variety of exercises. Flat/incline/pec-deck flies isolate the pectoralis major, developing especially the outer part. Flies are commonly used as a pre-exhausting exercise for the chest. Parallel dips (leaning a bit forward for hitting more the chest and less the triceps) and decline variations of bench press and flies can be also part of your chest routine, especially for giving special attention to the lower and outer parts of the muscle. Dips have the added value of all the exercises that move the body and not the weight, namely stimulating your hormonal release.

Close grip bench press, apart from working the triceps, hits also the chest, focusing in the inner part. Grab the barbell using shoulder width and squeeze the chest at the top of the extension. Cable crossover is a good isolator for the chest. Use light weights and maintain always a strict position in this exercise. Finally, for training the pectoralis minor you can use pullovers. This exercise has the ability of stretching the ribcage out a little bit and it hits also the lats and the serratus. Raise only the weight to the point where the tension on the pectoralis minor begins to drop off.

If you need more information for designing your chest workout, you can read the article “Champion Chest Development” which describes the right exercises for achieving symmetry and balance in your chest or the article “Training the Chest!” included in the I.C.E. Training Program developed by Big Cat.

Proper Training for the Shoulders

This post follows the series describing how to design adequate routines for training the different body-parts. This chapter provides you with the general guidelines for proper shoulders training.

The primary muscles in the shoulder are known as deltoids. The main function of these muscles is lifting and rotating the arms on the shoulder joint, and also assisting the triceps in pressing weights overhead and the pectorals in pressing weight to the front of the body. The deltoids are made up of three separate heads: the anterior (a.k.a. front) deltoid, the lateral (a.k.a. side) deltoid, and the posterior (a.k.a. rear) deltoid. The shoulder includes also a group of four muscles, called rotator cuff, that help to stabilize your arm during movements and allows the shoulder joint to move in multiple directions.

For training the shoulders adequately you have to combine a compound movement for building overall size and strength in the muscle, with some isolation work for each head to maximize muscle growth and striation. This leads to at least 4 exercises. If you have a specific head that is lagging behind, you can add an additional exercise for it, or change the order of the exercises to prioritize this head. Remember that your goal should be achieving a full and complete shoulder development with a good balance between the deltoid heads, and you must adapt your routine to accomplish this goal.

Your choice for the compound exercise should be a variation of the shoulder press, preferably the dumbbell press or the military press. Dumbbell version is more complete, because it uses more supportive muscles and allows deeper stretching. When doing this exercise, be sure to describe a wide motion (the forearms must be always in a 90 degree angle with the floor). For your compound exercise avoid the behind-the-neck press, since it increases the risk of rotator cuff injuries.

Stimulating the lateral deltoid is crucial for adding width to the shoulder. The best exercise for this is the lateral raise or any variation thereof, including the dumbbell lateral raise, the cable lateral raise, the one-arm lateral raise, the seated lateral raise, the lying lateral raise or the incline and decline one-arm lateral raise that stress the upper or lower portions of the deltoids. When doing this exercise, control the weight during the whole movement and avoid cheating. The lateral deltoid can be worked also using upright rows but, as I commented in the trapezius post, this exercise puts your shoulder joint in a position very prone to injury.

The posterior deltoid uses to be a commonly neglected shoulder part for most people, but it is essential for proper shoulder symmetry. Your options for training it include the rear lateral raise and its variations (e.g. dumbbell, cable, etc.) or a machine that simulates that effect. In addition, you can also perform rowing exercises, but maintaining your elbows up.

The anterior deltoid receives a certain amount of work when you are training your chest (with bench press, and especially with incline bench press), and for this reason, it is uncommon to have development problems with it. If you need to isolate the anterior deltoid, you can choose among barbell front raises, cable front raises and alternate dumbbell front raises.

Finally, it is a good practice adding to your routine some work for the rotator cuff in order to prevent injuries, for instance doing internal and external rotation exercises with cable or dumbbells.

If you need more information for designing your shoulders workout, you can read the article “Boulder Shoulders” by Jon Huston or the article “Training the Shoulders!” included in the I.C.E. Training Program developed by Big Cat.

Proper Training for the Trapezius

This post follows the series describing how to design adequate routines for training the different body-parts. This chapter provides you with the general guidelines for proper trapezius training.

The trapezius is a large diamond shaped muscle placed on the upper back which is the responsible of retracting the shoulder blades and carrying or assisting in all lifts that go from a lower to a higher point. Two different portions can be differentiated in the trapezius: the lower trapezius, which consists of the middle and the lower fibers, and the upper trapezius, which consists of the upper fibers and the levator scapulae muscle.

The trapezius is a commonly neglected muscle, but it is mandatory to work it for a proper upper back development. This muscle is trained in a very simple manner and responds even to the shortest amount of exercise. You need to hit the trapezius from two main angles in order to develop the upper and lower portions. The upper trapezius is stimulated using a shrugging motion (i.e. shoulder blades moving upward) while the lower trapezius needs a backward shrugging (i.e. shoulder blades retraction).

The lower trapezius is already worked in back rowing exercises and for this reason you won’t probably need additional training for it. Anyway, if you require more training for this body-part, you can do seated cable shrugs. Use the same stance as you would use for seated cable rows, but keep your arms straight and simply retract the scapulae.

The upper trapezius has been traditionally trained with the back or with the shoulders, since both recruit it to a point. You can alternate both options when designing your programs. The best known exercise for developing the upper trapezius is the shrug. This exercise includes several variations such as barbell shrug, dumbbells shrug or gripless shrug in a standing calf-press machine. Free weights exercises are perhaps best for mass building, but gripless shrug is a good choice for people with weak or sensitive hands, since the arms are not involved in the exercise. Dumbbell shrug is preferred over barbell shrug because it allows a more natural grip (i.e. hammer grip). In addition, barbell shrug forces you to stand slightly unbalanced, as the bar is a couple of inches away from your center of gravity. Upright rows also work the upper trapezius, as well as hitting the shoulders. However, I don’t specially recommend this exercise since it puts your shoulder joint in a position very prone to injury.

For proper development of the upper trapezius, you'll need at least 1 to 2 exercises, including always at least one shrug-based exercise. Use weights as high as you can handle them with strict form and keep the movement simple (shrugging upwards). Never rotate your shoulders when doing shrugs, since this can lead you to a chronic rotator cuff injury.

If you need more information for designing your trapezius workout, you can read the article “Bull-headed? Build a Massive Neck” by Matt Danielsson or the article “Training the Trapezius!” included in the I.C.E. Training Program developed by Big Cat.

Proper Training for the Lower Back

This post follows the series describing how to design adequate routines for training the different body-parts. This chapter provides you with the general guidelines for proper lower back training.

The lower back is made up of muscles called erector spinae, which are mainly responsible of maintaining the posture (along with the abdominals), and for this reason, they act as a stabilizer in almost every exercise. In addition, they protect and guard the nerve channels, and they are the primary muscle responsible for straightening the back from a bent position and for arching the spine.

Training the lower back requires 1 to 2 exercises. Deadlifts are probably the best option. This is a great exercise, because apart from working the lower back, it also provides a lot of overall strength, it accustoms you to handling heavy weights and it stimulates the release of anabolic hormones into your bloodstream. It is important that you dedicate some effort on getting the right form in this exercise, since bad form can lead you to injury. Remember to keep your back straight during the whole movement. Deadlift variations can be also used for training your lower back. For instance, although stiff-legged deadlifts hit mainly the hamstrings, they also involve the lower back to some extent.

You can alternate deadlifts with hyperextensions and good mornings, which work the lower back by bending it using a full range of motion. However, I don’t specially recommend these exercises (in particular good mornings) because you are in a very harmful position and using too much weight or a bad form can lead to a serious injury that could end your training days. Therefore, when doing these exercises, use light weights and maintain always a strict form.

As a final comment, I want to emphasize the need of training the lower back, which is probably one of the most neglected body-parts. As commented, the lower back acts a supportive muscle in a great amount of exercises, and ignoring it will decrease your performance in these exercises, and even worst, will increase your chance of getting injured. In addition, the lower back plays an important role in your overall back development.

If you need more information for designing your lower back workout, you can read the article “All Out Back Training” by John Giljum or the article “Training the Back!” included in the I.C.E. Training Program developed by Big Cat.