Archive for: June 2009

This might be my favorite triceps exercise. It focuses on the outside muscle of the triceps. This muscle shows and is impressive, particularly when you are lifting something.

Lay on the floor or, a bench or an exercise ball and extend 1 arm above your face with palms facing away from you. Lower the dumbbell to your opposite shoulder, bending your arm at the elbow and keeping your arm pointing straight up and palm facing away from you. Reach over and feel the outer muscle of your triceps. It will be bulging and will psyche you to continue. Return to the starting position.

Work your way to 3 – 5 sets of 6 – 8 reps.

While many people think of huge rippling muscles when anyone talks about bodybuilding, the exercises that bodybuilders base their workouts on are the foundation of many strength fitness programs that are used for a wide variety of sports.

The main exercises that form base for most bodybuilding programs are as follows:

The bench-press for the chest with additional muscle building for the arms, in particular the triceps at the back of the arms, and the shoulders.

The squat, which develops the whole of the leg and also strengthens the back, provided the exercise is performed correctly.

The dead lift, which is a strength building exercise for the back that also helps build strength and size in the upper body and the legs.

The military press, which targets the shoulders and also works the arms.

The lateral pull down, cable rowing or dumbbell rows will all build the upper back.

These exercises will all help to build a strong healthy symmetrically muscular body if performed regularly in the correct manner and supplemented with good nutrition.

Muscle building will help to burn fat and create a lean body with enhanced health and fitness.

There are additional exercises that are designed to target specific areas of the body.
What is quite possibly the most popular exercise of all is the arm curl.
This builds the bicep muscle and people who do this regularly will usually see results quite fast.
It is also popular because the arms are very visual muscles and it is good for a beginner’s confidence to be able to display the results of their training efforts.

To gain the size muscles that the bodybuilders achieve is as much about food nutrition and supplements as the exercises they perform on a daily basis.
Obviously those at the top of their game are also taking steroids, so for people who fear that they might look like Arnold Schwarzenegger from following these exercises, they have little to fear.

I love these. They put a heavy stress on the triceps, particularly the underside. You should use a spotter when you do these so the term “skull crushers” doesn’t play true.

Lie on your back, either on the floor or on a bench. Grab a barbell and hold it above your head with arms extended and palms facing away.

Keeping the elbows pointed towards the ceiling, slowly bend your arms at the elbows and lower the barbell to your forehead. Keep the elbows in and do not let them begin to drift to the outside. Press back up to the starting position and do as many reps as you can. Start out slowly as you will feel this later. Work up to 3 – 5 sets of 6 – 8 reps.

A big part of completing a successful fitness-training program is maintaining a good level of motivation.
Some people can workout at home alone and not need any external inspiration to push them to train and improve their training.

Some people like to be inspired by attending a gym where they will get to see other motivated people, or people who are in good physical condition, and this will give them the motivation to continue exercising and ultimately succeed in reaching their goals.

There is always the added attraction of having others to compete with by joining a gym and this is good for advancing your fitness.

Some people like the social factor of attending a gym where they get the chance to interact with other people and this helps to make the gym a more attractive place to visit.

Anything that gets you motivated to continue to exercise is beneficial even if it is just for the social factor.

This is a very important decision that needs to be addressed before determining where you are going to spend your money.
If you are the type of person who doesn’t have much motivation then a home gym might not be the best choice, however you might find that it is easier to use the gym at home that to get motivated to get ready and drive to the gym.

The weather conditions throughout the year need to also be taken into account with winter being a particularly unpleasant time in some areas to venture out at night after a hard day at work.

Finances will also play a part in the decision of most people, with gym memberships requiring on going payments and home gyms being one fixed payment or alternatively paying the equipment off over a period of time but owning an asset once it has been paid for.

The best way to build a stronger body is with the use of weights.
This can be with free weights such as dumbbells and barbells, weight machines, or a combination of the two.

Many purists believe that the only way to do weight training correctly is with free weights as they bring into play all the other muscles required to control and balance the movement of the weights.

It is correct that more muscles are required to lift free weights due to the fact that more control is required but the development of weight machines in recent years has been such that they can also offer benefits that free weights can’t give.

By eliminating the factor of control from specific movements it is possible to lift heavier weights and this in turn can stimulate more growth in the muscle.

In addition to this is the fact that many machines are designed to maintain pressure on the muscles throughout the full range of the movement.
Free weights, on the other hand, generally have the least effect on muscle growth at the top and bottom of any movement.

To explain this better we will use the example of the arm curl where a barbell is curled up from a position resting against the thighs to the chest using the bicep muscles.

When the barbell is at the top or the bottom of the movement there is no resistance on the muscle where as with a machine with the correct design elements there can be maximum tension even at those parts of the movement.

Cables and weight stacks will allow this to happen and due to this, you can expect to get additional benefits that aren’t possible with free weights.

Obviously a combination of both free weights and weight machines will deliver the optimum results in the least time.