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July 8, 2023

The Ultimate Chest and Back Workout for Upper Body Muscle

Filed under: Fitness,Training — Tags: back workout, chest workout, train, training, Workouts — admin @ 12:24 pm

Ready for an efficient workout to build your upper body by creating a more sculpted chest and a more muscular back? Rethink your training week and step away from the usual workout split.

Training chest and back in the same session lets you use agonist-antagonist supersets — a high-dollar term for exercise pairings that hit opposite sides of your body with zero rest in-between.

Woman performing chest exercise on bars outdoors — Credit: Anton Romanov / Shutterstock

By deleting the rest interval, these supersets allow you to get lots of training accomplished in less time. Better yet, they’re less likely to impair exercise performance compared to supersets targeting the same muscle groups. (1)

So buckle up, grab the plan, and get to work hitting just about everything above your hips using a handful of high intensity, highly focused movements.

Chest and Back Workout

Meet Your Chest and Back Muscles

In his prime, massive and full pectoral muscles were among Arnold Schwarzenegger’s most impressive attributes. Arnold’s chest had size and symmetry — attributes which are key to a well-developed chest. Not only will lifters with bodybuilding goals need to perform chest exercises with sufficient intensity, but they will also need to ensure all areas of the chest are adequately targeted.

Pectoralis major, the most prominent chest muscle, has two or three functional “subregions.” The sternocostal head is the largest portion and it is effectively trained during horizontal adduction exercises such as horizontal chest presses and flyes. (2)(3)(4) The upper-most part of the pec major, termed the clavicular head, is emphasized with shoulder flexion exercises and incline presses. (2)(3)(4)(5)

Less often discussed, but relevant to any lifter training for a top physique, is the inferior-most portion of the pecs — the lower costal fibers and abdominal fibers. These fibers pull your arms down from the overhead position, as in pulldowns and pullovers. (2)

Coach Dr. Merrick Lincoln performing dumbbell pullover on flat bench — Credit: Merrick Lincoln, DPT, CSCS / YouTube

An impressive back has three key qualities: breadth or width, thickness, and definition. While the latter can only be achieved by reaching sufficiently low levels of body fat, developing all qualities depends on robust muscle growth, or “hypertrophy,” of the back muscles. Major aesthetic back muscles include the latissimus dorsi, middle- and lower trapezius, and rhomboids.

In bodybuilding, the muscles of the back are trained during vertical and horizontal pulling movements, along with a slew of single-joint accessory exercises. Perhaps counterintuitively, narrow-grip pulldowns and rows tend to promote back width, while wide-grip horizontal pulling tends to promote back thickness. (2) This workout builds both.

The Ultimate Chest and Back Workout

This double-duty routine incorporates free weights and machines, programs supersets and traditional sets, and leans into tension and “the pump” to build the ultimate upper body. It fits perfectly into either a chest and back/legs/shoulders and arms split or an upper/lower workout split. It might also be useful in a more classic “one body part per day” split when a missed workout necessitates doubling up.

Neutral-Grip Lat Pulldown

The neutral-grip lat pulldown is a joint-friendly back-builder. It principally trains your latissimus dorsi — the muscle responsible for back width. The rhomboids of your mid-back, the muscles behind the shoulders (such your posterior deltoids and teres major), and even the lower portion of your pectoralis major (“costal fibers”) will also contribute to the movement. (2)

From the deep stretch when your arms are overhead to the peak contraction when your upper arms are pinned against the sides of your ribcage, the neutral-grip lat pulldown trains the target muscles through a range of motion unmatched by most other back exercises. Since your lower body is locked into the machine, the exercise can also be loaded heavily. Starting the workout with a heavy, full range of motion exercise sets the tone for the workout.

How to Do it: Sit at a lat pulldown station using a grip attachment with parallel handles. Secure your thighs under the roller pads and slightly lean back at your hips. Initiate the pulldown by drawing your shoulder blades downward as you bring your elbows toward the sides of your ribcage. Return to the starting position with arms outstretched overhead.
Sets and Reps: 3 x 8-12
Rest Time: No rest before moving to the next exercise.

Benefits of the Neutral-Grip Lat Pulldown

The exercise trains the back through large arcs of motion at the shoulder joint proper (glenohumeral joint) and shoulder girdle (scapulothoracic joint). Importantly, pulldowns train the latissimus dorsi at long muscle lengths, which may enhance muscle gain. (6)
The neutral grip tends to be well-tolerated by lifters with banged-up shoulders or elbows.
This multi-joint back exercise largely spares the muscles that will be trained in the chest press, the second exercise of this superset.

Machine Chest Press

Provided your gym is not too busy and the lat pulldown station and chest press machines aren’t on opposite sides of the facility, plan to superset pulldowns with machine chest presses. If you’re training in a public gym and are concerned about occupying two machines at once, give the machine you are departing a quick wipe down and carry your things with you instead of leaving them to “claim” he equipment. This will give a non-verbal cue to anyone waiting to “work in.”

Sure, if someone does work in, it’ll slow your workout, but it’s the decent thing to do in a shared public space. Nine times out of ten, the machine will be empty when you return.

Machine chest presses come in many designs — seated, lying, plate-loaded, cable stack-loaded, etc. Ideally, locate one that feels comfortable and provides a stretch across your shoulders in the bottom position. Although it may be acceptable to substitute the barbell bench press for the machine movement, you’ll need a trained spotter for the free weight version. Moreover, most lifters are more comfortable pushing high-effort sets — sets that approach or even reach failure — on a “self-spotting” chest press machine.

How to Do it: Adjust the seat and starting handle position so that your elbows and hands naturally track at approximately nipple-height at the bottom position. If the seat is too high (or if you are positioned too high up the bench on a lying chest press machine), it will feel like a decline press. If the seat is too low (or you are positioned too far down the bench on a lying version), your elbows will be flared out at or near shoulder-height. Even though you’re not performing a competition-style barbell bench press, you should still establish an arched mid-back position to facilitate greater chest tension. Lift your sternum and pull your shoulder blades together and toward your glutes. Press the handles until your elbows reach lockout. Lower with control to a tolerable stretch across your chest and the fronts of your shoulders.
Sets and Reps: 3 x 8-12
Rest Time: Rest two to three minutes before repeating the previous exercise.

Benefits of the Machine Chest Press

Machine chest press may offer more targeted chest training compared to free-weight variations. This is likely due to the stability offered by the equipment, as the machine bench press has shown reduced lateral deltoid and triceps muscle activity and equivalent pectoralis major activity compared to the barbell bench press. (4) However, these findings were not replicated in a recent similar study. (7)
It’s a machine-based exercise, which enables relatively heavy loading and high-effort sets without requiring a spotter. (7)

Machine Wide Row

Wide rows, traditionally performed with an overhand grip spaced wider than the shoulders, target the mid-back and back of the shoulders. As such, wide rows are a great exercise for back “thickness.”

Chest-supported machines, in particular, allow for greater focus on the target muscles and reduced systemic demand (i.e. less fatigue), because the lifter is not required to maintain an unsupported forward-bent posture. (8) Wide rows may also be performed on a chest-supported T-bar row machine or using free weights with your trunk supported on an incline bench.

How to Do it: Set the seat height so the support pad makes contact with your lower chest and the handles are just below shoulder-height. Lean into the pad to ensure your hips are slightly behind your chest. Grab the handles with an overhand grip. You should have to stretch to reach the handles — if not, adjust the chest support or start position of the handles. Initiate the row by drawing your shoulder blades together and driving your elbows to the sides. Your elbows should track slightly below shoulder height, not tuck toward your body or flare above shoulder-height. Return to the starting position, allowing the machine to pull your arms forward and stretch your mid back.
Sets and Reps: 3 x 12-16
Rest Time: No rest before moving to the next exercise.

Benefits of the Machine Wide Row

This rowing variation has a favorable stimulus-to-fatigue, meaning support from the machine reduces the need for activity in non-target musculature. (8)
When appropriately set up, the machine wide row applies a profound stretch to the mid-back and shoulders, increasing range of motion of the exercise and potentially enhancing hypertrophy.

Machine Kelso Shrug

Not all muscle groups targeted by multi-joint (compound) exercises are trained equally. Some muscles are hammered, while others are left relatively unscathed. For example, when using rows to target your mid-back, your shoulder muscles (e.g. posterior deltoid) may fatigue during wide rows, while muscles of the mid-back (e.g. middle trapezius and rhomboids) may not be trained to their potential.

Advanced training techniques such as pre- and post- exhaustion may be useful to address inequitable training stimuli among agonist muscles during multi-joint exercise. Pre-exhaustion places an isolation exercise immediately before a compound exercise with no rest. Although bodybuilding pioneers like Arthur Jones tended to promote pre-exhaustion methods, the research on this strategy is somewhat lackluster. (9) At best, lifters accomplish equivalent training volume and experience similar strength gain compared to performing the isolation exercise and compound exercise as traditional straight sets. (10) At worst, trainees may lose repetitions during the compound exercise due to fatigue. (11)

Fortunately, a related technique called post-exhaustion avoids the major downside of pre-exhaustion. Post-exhaustion uses compound supersets in a specific way. A multi-joint exercise is immediately followed by an isolation exercise for the same target muscle(s).

Paul Kelso, an author and powerlifting analyst, promoted post-exhaustion training for thickening the upper back by using a sequence of rows and Kelso shrugs, his namesake exercise. Kelso shrugs may also be performed on a chest-supported T-bar row machine or using free-weights with trunk supported on an incline bench.

How to Do it: Kelso shrugs involve isolated retracting (“drawing together”) the shoulder blades. While they may be performed with free weights while bent over or supported on an incline bench, performing Kelso Shrugs on a row machine with chest support allows you to better isolate the target muscles — your middle trapezius and rhomboids. Using a wide, overhand grips on the row machine, begin with your arms outstretched in front of you. You should feel a profound stretch as the machine draws your arms and shoulder blades forward. With little to no elbow bend and absolutely no rowing, squeeze your shoulder blades together, drawing the handles slightly closer to your body. Although your mid-back may arch or extend slightly as you draw your shoulder blades together, do not drive this motion by pushing your chest into the pad. Focus on using your middle trapezius and rhomboids. Pause momentarily, then allow the machine to slowly draw your shoulder blades apart.
Sets and Reps: 3 x 8-12
Rest Time: Rest two to two and a half minutes before repeating the previous exercise.

Benefits of the Machine Kelso Shrug

This unique shrug variation hits the mid-back in relative isolation, allowing for additional training volume, especially when performed as a post-exhaustion technique following a rowing exercise.
Kelso shrugs have a relatively easy exercise setup and minimal systemic fatigue.
The exercise builds strength and control of the shoulder blades, which may promote overall shoulder health. (12)

Incline Dumbbell Flye Press

Muscles are stronger during eccentric contractions, which typically occur during the lowering phase of an exercise. One technique that exploits this phenomenon by increasing the intensity of the exercise during the eccentric phase is called eccentric accentuated training. (13) The flye press is a straightforward eccentric accentuated exercise, easily set up using an adjustable bench and a pair of dumbbells.

While any incline press biases the upper chest, the incline dumbbell flye press packs an extra punch by accentuating the eccentric contraction of the clavicular head of pectoralis major. (3)(4)(5)(13) Therefore, this exercise serves to complement other chest exercises found in this workout, which tend to bias the lower muscle fibers of the chest.

How to Do it: Set an adjustable bench to the 45-degree incline position. Lay on the bench and set your shoulder blades together so they lie flat against the pad. Begin with the dumbbells just outside the front of your chest and press them vertically until your elbows are nearly straight. Keeping slight elbow flexion, allow the dumbbells to drift apart. Continue to lower the dumbbells until you feel a strong stretch across the front of your chest. Bend your elbows to return the dumbbells to the start position before pressing to the top to repeat the sequence for additional repetitions.
Sets and Reps: 3 x 8 to 12
Rest Time: Rest one and a half to two minutes between sets.

Benefits of the Incline Dumbbell Flye Press

The exercise is eccentric accentuated, meaning demand on chest is greater during the lowering phase, which may enhance strength development and hypertrophy. (13)(14)
Using an incline bench promotes upper chest — pectoralis major clavicular head — activity and development. (3)(4)(5)

Bar Dip

Dips are typically performed using a dedicated dip station or a sturdy dip attachment on a power rack. The handles of the dip station or dip attachment are often parallel or diverge slightly from parallel — a feature that results in different training stimulus and exercise technique compared to traditional bodyweight bench dips. (15)

Compared to triceps-focused bench dips, which are performed with the heels of hands supported by the long edge of a bench, bar dips show greater pectoralis major muscle activity. (15) Also compared to bench dips, bar dips require less shoulder hyperextension. (15) Since loaded shoulder hyperextension can be hard on the shoulders, dips may be better tolerated by lifters with known shoulder issues. (15)(16)

Bar dips are easy adapt to beginner strength-levels via the use of the lower body or an elastic band for assistance. They can be made more challenging by adding weight to a dip belt. Effective and versatile, the bar dip is a great exercise for building the mid- and lower chest.

How to Do it: If your dip station or attachment has diverging handles, select a grip width comfortable for your shoulders. Begin in the top position with your elbows locked out and your hands on the bars under your shoulders supporting your weight. Your hips should drift slightly backward as you lower your body, allowing your elbows to flex and your upper arms to extend slightly behind you. In the bottom position, achieve a stretch across the front of your chest. Pause momentarily before pushing back to the top.
Sets and Reps: 2 x 8-12
Rest Time: No rest before moving to the next exercise.

Benefits of the Bar Dip

The dip trains your pectoralis major, pectoralis minor, triceps brachii, and lower trapezius. Your latissimus dorsi, serratus anterior, and the posterior rotator cuff may also be active, serving as stabilizing roles. (15)
Your chest experiences a “loaded stretch” in the bottom of the bar dip, which may promote accelerated muscle growth. (14)
High-effort sets of dips may further bias your pectoralis major, as increased muscle activity has been shown when sets are taken toward failure. (17)

Standing Cable Pullover

As the name implies, pullovers involve drawing a resistance over the body from high-to-low. Although typically thought of as back exercises, pullover variations such as the dumbbell pullover and cable pullover train your back and chest. (2)(18)

The cable pullover has a slightly different resistance curve than free weight versions, as the lifter experiences maximum resistance when their arms are perpendicular to the cable rather than perpendicular to the vertical line of gravity. (19) This feature makes the cable pullover more conducive to high repetition, “pump work” style sets.

Cable resistance also enables the exercise to be performed standing, a variation sometimes called a straight-arm pushdown or pulldown. If you’re looking for a high-tension solution to polish off your upper body workout, don’t skip the standing cable pullover.

How to Do it: Grab a straight bar cable attachment with a double-overhand grip, with hands placed wider than your shoulders. Hinge slightly forward at the hips and lift your chest. With your arms outstretched overhead, pull the bar toward your thighs. Once the bar contacts your thighs, control the movement back to the start position. Keep your elbows straight but not locked throughout the movement.
Sets and Reps: 2 x 16-20
Rest Time: Rest two to three minutes before repeating the previous exercise.

Benefits of the Standing Cable Pullover

Pullovers train the back and chest together. (18)
The resistance profile of the cable pullover applies substantial resistance when the latissimus dorsi is stretched, which may enhance muscle gain. (6)(19)
The focused tension of the exercise tends to promote a great lat pump sensation.

How to Warm-up for Your Chest and Back Workout

Traditional warm-ups begin with a short bout of cardiovascular activity to raise body temperature, increase breathing rate, and improve overall circulation, followed by more specific movements and mobilizations to prepare the body for the workout ahead. With a substantial chest and back workout ahead of you, cardio followed by a multi-exercise specific warm-up may feel daunting.

Rather than skip the warm-up altogether, try a high-volume warm-up instead. High-volume warm-ups include long sets of high repetition, light resistance and/or bodyweight exercises performed in circuit fashion.

The benefits of high-volume warm-ups are similar to traditional warm-ups. They physiologically and mentally prepare your body for the workout, but they have the added benefit of extra reps for muscle groups that will be targeted in the upcoming workout and for muscle groups that could benefit from additional training volume (including specific weaknesses you may need to address).

Perform 20 to 30 repetitions of each of the following exercises as a circuit — take no rest between each exercise set. Rest 30 seconds between circuits. Repeat the entire circuit two or three times.

Band Face Pull: Stand facing a light resistance loop anchored at chin-height. With arms outstretched in front of your body, grasp the loop leaving a length of resistance band slightly wider than your neck between your hands. Keeping your chest up and your body stationary, draw the resistance band toward your forehead by simultaneously performing a high row with shoulder external rotation — Your elbows should track at or above shoulder-height, and your wrists should travel higher than your elbows. When the band reaches or nearly reaches your forehead, reverse the movement and return to the starting position.

Elevated Push-up: Begin with your hands elevated on a bench or Roman chair/back extension and your feet on the floor. Perform a push-up by pressing your body up and away from the support surface until your elbows are straight. Your push-up should resemble a “moving plank,” with your trunk and legs moving together as a unit. Lower until your chest touches or nearly touches the support surface.

Dynamic 45-Degree Back Extension: Set up a 45-degree Roman chair so the top of the pad is just below your beltline. Lay with your thighs supported by the pad and your feet on the footplate of the machine. As you lower your torso toward the floor, intentionally allow your spine to round. As you raise your torso toward the ceiling, intentionally extend (“arch”) your spine throughout the movement. This movement requires minimal movement from the hip joints.

Here’s the deal: Some lifters train their back extensor muscles (the “fins” of muscle that lie on either side of the spine) on leg day with exercises like deadlifts, good mornings, and hyperextensions. Other lifters place these exercises with their back training. The jury is out on which practice is “best,” but one thing is clear — most lifters will benefit from more low back training.

Outside of powerlifters who’ve adopted the reverse hyper machine, and those who still use old school back extension machines, few lifters intentionally perform dynamic back extensor training — exercises that intentionally train the back extensors through an appreciable range of motion. If you are new to flexion- and extension-based low back exercises, the dynamic 45-degree back extension is a good place to start, but you may need to reduce the repetition target until you’re accustomed to the direct work.

Jacked from Front to Back

Nineteen sets in total, this formidable workout hits all major parts of your chest and back. Remember to take two or three “work-up sets” per exercise to groove your technique and identify a challenging weight for the target repetition range (“work-up sets” do not count toward set total). Altogether, plan to be in the gym a little over an hour accomplishing more than most do in two separate workouts.

References

Weakley, J. J., et al. (2020). The effects of superset configuration on kinetic, kinematic, and perceived exertion in the barbell bench press. The Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research, 34(1), 65-72.
Ackland, D. C., Pak, P., Richardson, M., & Pandy, M. G. (2008). Moment arms of the muscles crossing the anatomical shoulder. Journal of Anatomy, 213(4), 383-390.
dos Santos Albarello, et al. (2022). Non-uniform excitation of pectoralis major induced by changes in bench press inclination leads to uneven variations in the cross-sectional area measured by panoramic ultrasonography. Journal of Electromyography and Kinesiology, 67, 102722.
Coratella, G., et al. (2020). Specific prime movers’ excitation during free-weight bench press variations and chest press machine in competitive bodybuilders. European Journal of Sport Science, 20(5), 571-579.
Lee, H. M. (2019). Force direction and arm position affect contribution of clavicular and sternal parts of pectoralis major muscle during muscle strength testing. Journal of Hand Therapy, 32(1), 71-79.
Ottinger, C. R., et al. (2022). Muscle hypertrophy response to range of motion in strength training: a novel approach to understanding the findings. Strength & Conditioning Journal, 10-1519.
Muyor, J. M., Rodríguez-Ridao, D., & Oliva-Lozano, J. M. (2023). Comparison of Muscle Activity between the Horizontal Bench Press and the Seated Chest Press Exercises Using Several Grips. Journal of Human Kinetics, 87, 23.
García-Jaén, M., et al. (2021). Electromyographical responses of the lumbar, dorsal and shoulder musculature during the bent-over row exercise: a comparison between standing and bench postures (a preliminary study). Journal of Physical Education and Sport, 21(4), 1871-1877.
Trindade, T. B., et al. (2022). Pre-exhaustion training, a narrative review of the acute responses and chronic adaptations. International Journal of Exercise Science, 15(3), 507.
Fisher, J. P., et al. (2014). The effects of pre-exhaustion, exercise order, and rest intervals in a full-body resistance training intervention. Applied Physiology, Nutrition, and Metabolism, 39(11), 1265-1270.
Vilaça-Alves, et al. (2014). Effects of pre-exhausting the biceps brachii muscle on the performance of the front lat pull-down exercise using different handgrip positions. Journal of Human Kinetics, 42(1), 157-163.
Sciascia, A., & Kibler, W. B. (2022). Current views of scapular dyskinesis and its possible clinical relevance. International Journal of Sports Physical Therapy, 17(2), 117.
Walker, S., et al. (2016). Greater strength gains after training with accentuated eccentric than traditional isoinertial loads in already strength-trained men. Frontiers in Physiology, 7, 149.
Wackerhage, H., et al. (2019). Stimuli and sensors that initiate skeletal muscle hypertrophy following resistance exercise. Journal of Applied Physiology, 136, 30-43.
McKenzie, A., et al. (2022). Bench, Bar, and Ring Dips: Do Kinematics and Muscle Activity Differ?. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 19(20), 13211.
McKenzie, A. K., et al. (2021). Glenohumeral Extension and the Dip: Considerations for the Strength and Conditioning Professional. Strength & Conditioning Journal, 43(1), 93-100.
McKenzie, A., et al. (2022). Fatigue increases muscle activations but does not change maximal joint angles during the bar dip. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 19(21), 14390.
Muyor, J. M., López-Miñarro, P. A., & Alacid, F. (2022). Comparison of electromyographic activity during barbell pullover and straight arm pulldown exercises. Applied Sciences, 12(21), 11138.
Schütz, P., et al. (2022). Chest exercises: movement and loading of shoulder, elbow and wrist joints. Sports, 10(2), 19.

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January 21, 2023

The Ultimate Bench Press Workout to Increase Strength and Muscle

Filed under: Fitness,Training — Tags: bench press, chest workout, train, training, workout, Workouts — admin @ 4:14 am

The ever-popular bench press has built its reputation over the last few decades as a rite of passage, a trial by fire, and a founding member of the powerlifting “big three.” This exercise is all that, and more. The bench press is so popular that it even has its own day of the week — “International bench day” has become synonymous with Monday in many gyms.

The bench press is a go-to exercise when you’re looking to increase the size and strength of your chest, shoulders, and triceps. The stability of the bench and the fixed range of motion of the barbell allows you to use more weight. And moving more weight means building more size and strength.

A person doing a bench press in the gym. — Credit: YAKOBCHUK VIACHESLAV / Shutterstock

If you’re looking for a standalone bench-focused workout to increase strength and muscle in your upper body, you have come to the right place. Let’s dive in below.

Best Bench Press Workout For Muscle and Strength

To gain absolute strength, you must focus on moving heavier weights, working around 85-90% of your one-repetition maximum. (1) The cluster set technique will give you all you can handle in this regard — performing multiple “mini-sets” of low repetitions with heavy weights to accumulate significant volume. This helps set the table for more muscle because a stronger muscle has the potential for more size. After the heavy work, two different supersets concentrate on exercises that efficiently increase your chest size and strength.

The Size and Strength Routine

Perform this workout once weekly as part of your upper/lower body split. To progress with the first exercise, start at three complete cluster sets, do four the next week, and then five. When you’re able to do five cluster sets, add weight. The other three bench exercises start at the lower end of the rep range and add one repetition each week. When you have reached the upper range, increase the weight by five to 10 pounds and start the process again.

Bench Press Cluster Set

The flat barbell bench press should be a staple in your routine and your go-to for more size and strength whenever you want to move the most weight. This benching variation focuses equally on your upper and lower chest for better overall muscle development.

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How to Do it: Lay supine on the flat bench, arch your lower back slightly, and plant your feet on the floor. Pull your shoulder blades together to enhance stability and upper back strength. Grab the bar and squeeze your hands hard to flex your arm and grip muscles maximally before unracking the load. Lower the bar to your sternum/base of your chest. Press the weight up, keep your back tight and your shoulder blades pulled together.

Sets and Reps: 3-5 x (4×2) — Perform four mini-sets of two reps, repeated a total of three to five times.

Rest time: Rest 10 seconds between each mini-set. Rest three minutes after each full set.

Close-Grip Bench Press

The close-grip bench press has your hands set shoulder-width apart and shift the load to your triceps and inner chest. (2) You may not be able to lift as much weight, but you’ll be training your chest and triceps from a different angle for improved muscle development.

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How to Do it: Set up as you would for the flat bench press, but position your hands inside shoulder-width with your elbows tucked into your body. Pull the bar out of the rack and get tight. Pull keep your elbows close to your ribs while lowering the bar to your chest. Once you have reached your desired depth, press back up until lockout.

Sets and Reps: 3-4 x 4-6

Rest time: No rest before moving to the next exercise.

Seated Band Pull-Apart

After two pressing exercises, you’ll get a break with this simple pulling exercise to strengthen your upper back and keep up the health of your shoulders. This seated band pull-apart will increase your upper back engagement (because of the stability of being seated) without you leaving the bench.

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How to Do it: Sit upright, holding a looped band at shoulder height with your hands shoulder-width apart. Pull the band apart, keeping your arms nearly straight. Keep your shoulders down and your chest up. Pull until your shoulder blades are together and your arms are extended to either side of your body. Return to the starting position and repeat.

Sets and Reps: 3 x 15-25

Rest time: Rest two minutes before repeating previous exercise.

Single-Arm Dumbbell Bench Press

This single-arm (unilateral) exercise won’t allow you to go as heavy as you could with the barbell bench press, but there is still a lot to like about this pressing variation. First, you’ll address any imbalances between sides of your body, leading to better muscle development and improved joint health. Second, you’ll have more freedom of movement, because the dumbbell bench press allows you to adjust your grip and arm angle to find a pressing path that is comfortable for your wrist, elbow, and shoulder joints.

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How to Do it: Place one dumbbell on your knee while sitting on a flat bench. Lean back and drive the dumbbell toward your shoulder using your knee, while pressing the dumbbell up. Lower the dumbbell, keeping your elbow at roughly 45-degrees from your body. Press the dumbbells up to lockout and repeat.

Sets and Reps: 3-4 x 8-12 reps per arm.

Rest time: Rest 60 to 90 seconds before moving to the next exercise.

Dumbbell Chest Flye

The dumbbell chest flye is as close to a chest isolation exercise as it gets. This exercise takes the triceps out of the movement and stretches the pecs for a more extensive range of motion, which gives you better muscle-building potential. (3)

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How to do it: Lie supine on a flat bench with a dumbbell in each hand. Begin with both arms locked out above your chest. Create a slight bend in your elbows and keep this bend throughout the movement. Lower your arms out to your sides in line with your shoulders. When you feel a stretch in the pecs, reverse the motion and squeeze the chest muscles to return to the top position.

Sets and Reps: 3 x 8-15

Rest time: Rest 60-90 seconds before repeating the previous exercise.

Chest Anatomy

The chest is a large superficial fan-like muscle, and the two chest muscles are the pectoralis major and the pec minor. It has two attachment points — the clavicular head on the upper chest and the sternal head attachment on the mid-to-lower chest. The pec major is on your anterior (front) ribcage, while the pectoralis minor is a small muscle underneath the pec major.

The pec major’s clavicular head originates, as expected, on your clavicle’s (collarbone) anterior or front surface. The pec major’s sternal head originates at the sternum’s anterior surface. Both muscle heads insert on the humerus (upper arm) and are involved in most upper body movements. The two primary chest functions that the training above focuses on are:

Shoulder flexion — Raising your arms up by pushing or lifting in front of your body.
Horizontal adduction — Bringing your hands (and joints) together in front of your pecs, as you do during a chest flye, bench press, or push-up.

Besides creating a big and muscular chest, the pecs are the primary “hugging” muscle. Pec size and strength help tackle, grab, and fend off opponents in the sporting arena, as well as throw and swing harder and faster if you play sports like football, baseball, or tennis.

How to Warm-Up for Your Bench Workout

Have you ever seen someone walk off the street under the barbell and start pressing away to their heart’s content? Don’t be that person, they’re asking for injuries and poor performance. Although not warming up may not a huge issue on rare occasions, over time, it may lead to a decrease in performance and increased injury risk.

It’s better to take the time to warm-up and get the blood moving through your working muscles, while get your shoulder and elbow joints ready for action.

Because your upper back and rotator cuffs are involved in the bench press, be sure to perform any upper back movement that is effective for engaging your scapula and rotators — face pulls with external rotation or band pull-parts.

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After that, a few light ramp-up sets on the bench press (low rep, light weight sets getting progressively heavier), focusing hard on engaging your chest muscles, will have you ready to roll.

If you decide to take more time for a thorough warm-up, take this upper-body prep for a spin. There are a couple of upper back-focused exercises here because your lats and upper back stabilize your chest during benching. You’ll need to get your back ready for chest day to fully protect and prepare your shoulders and rotator cuff.

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Face Pull with External Rotation: Secure a resistance band to a stable object at eye-level. Take an overhand grip and step back until your arms are extended straight ahead. Drive your elbows back in line with your shoulders while pulling your hands to the top of your head. In the peak contraction, your thumbs should point behind you and your palms should be near your ears. Return to the arms-extended position. Perform two sets of 15 reps.
Scapular Push-up: Begin in a push-up position, with your hands and toes on the ground and your body straight. Keep your arms stiff and locked as you pinch your shoulder blades together while reaching your chest toward the ground. Drive your hands “through the ground” as you extend your shoulder blades down and push your chest away from your hands. Perform two sets of 10 reps.
Rear Delt Fly: Take a pair of light dumbbells in each hand, or stand in the middle of a light resistance band and hold each end. Bend forward at the waist, nearly parallel to the ground, and let your arms hang toward the ground with a slight bend in your arms. Drive your arms up in line with your shoulders. Don’t allow your arm angle to change throughout the exercise. Pause briefly before returning to the stretched position. Perform two sets of 12 reps.
Spiderman With Rotation: Begin in a push-up position, with your hands and toes on the ground and your body straight. Step forward with your left leg, aiming to get your foot near the pinky of your left hand if mobility allows. Keep your right leg straight. Without bending your right arm, lift your left arm to the ceiling, turning your upper body to allow a full rotation. When your arm is perpendicular to the ground, feel a total-body stretch before returning to a push-up position. Alternate sides with each repetition. Perform two sets of five reps per side.
Incline Plyo Push-up: Setup near a stable flat bench or box, in a push-up position with your hands on the bench, your toes on the ground, and your body straight. Lower your chest toward the bench and explosively drive upwards, letting your hands leave contact with the bench. Catch yourself with slightly bent arms and brace your core. Take a breath and reset quickly before performing the next repetition. Perform two sets of eight reps.

Happy Benching

There are many different ways to target your chest, shoulder, and triceps, but the bench press is the most popular and, potentially, the most effective tool. You can build muscle and strength by focusing on a handful of the most effective movements to complement the bench press. Always warm-up your chest and shoulders, and then attack the muscles using the in-depth, ultimate bench workout laid out above. Your Mondays will never be the same.

References

Schoenfeld, B. J., Grgic, J., Van Every, D. W., & Plotkin, D. L. (2021). Loading Recommendations for Muscle Strength, Hypertrophy, and Local Endurance: A Re-Examination of the Repetition Continuum. Sports (Basel, Switzerland), 9(2), 32. https://doi.org/10.3390/sports9020032
Lockie, Robert & Moreno, Matthew. (2017). The Close-Grip Bench Press. Strength and Conditioning Journal. 39. 1. 10.1519/SSC.0000000000000307.
Baroni, B. M., Pompermayer, M. G., Cini, A., Peruzzolo, A. S., Radaelli, R., Brusco, C. M., & Pinto, R. S. (2017). Full Range of Motion Induces Greater Muscle Damage Than Partial Range of Motion in Elbow Flexion Exercise With Free Weights. Journal of strength and conditioning research, 31(8), 2223–2230. https://doi.org/10.1519/JSC.0000000000001562

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January 15, 2023

Try These Biceps Workouts Without Weights for Muscle, Strength, and Fat Loss

Filed under: Fitness — Tags: arm workout, biceps workout, train, Workouts — admin @ 1:00 pm

Ask 1,000 random lifters if they desire more muscular arms and very few (honest) souls will tell you “no.” The biceps are among the most visible body parts, and an impressive set of guns will usually make heads spin.

But there are other benefits to biceps training beyond adding slabs of meat under your sleeves — improved strength, shoulder stability, and joint health. (1) Heck, you could even use it to shed some fat and preserve lean muscle while cutting calories.

A person looking at their arms. — Credit: Ruslan Shugushev / Shutterstock

People usually envision biceps training either as an afterthought after training a larger body part like their back or check, or they approach it as part of a pure arms-only gym session consisting primarily of single-joint (isolation) exercises.

But if you’re smart and creative, or if you’re in a situation with next to no equipment, you can bypass the weights and provide your body with a refreshing and effective workout yielding loads of benefits. Whether you don’t go to a gym, are traveling abroad, or want to spice things up, try one of these weight-free workouts to get your biceps training to the next level.

Best Biceps Workouts

Best Bodyweight-Only Biceps Workout

Training without weights is getting back to the roots of training — being able to master your own body. If you’re tired of lifting iron and want to get back in touch with your primal self, try this routine. It would be a shame to reduce yourself to exclusively single-joint (isolation) exercises, because the biceps are involved in a lot of movements other than simple arm flexion.

A person doing a pull up. — Credit: Blanscape / Shutterstock

This workout uses a combination of multi-joint exercises tweaked to focus more on the biceps, as well as isolation movements. This will cover all of this muscle’s functions while providing the best stimulus for strength, muscle growth, and fat loss for your body. Indeed, multi-joint exercises are generally better for strength adaptations and calories spent, while single-joint work is great to improve the mind-muscle connection or to bring up a specific weak point.

The No-Weight Workout

Perform this workout once per week for optimal results, after a warm-up. Since you can’t increase the weight to progress, you’ll have to use other methods. When you can comfortably perform the desired numbers of repetitions per set, increase it to the upper bracket of the upper range. For instance, if an exercise calls for 12 to 15 reps, once you can do all your sets of 12, try to bump them up to 15. Then, you can try to add another set. Finally, you can also reduce rest periods progressively.

Commando Chin-Up

Position yourself under a pull-up bar and grab it with your thumbs facing you and you hands touching each other. Hang dead from the bar and brace your core to stabilize yourself. Pull your shoulder blades down to initiate the movement and bend your elbows to elevate yourself towards the barbell, and aim your head toward the left side of the bar.

Aim to touch the bar with your right shoulder. Lower yourself down with control back to the starting position and repeat, this time with your head toward the right side of the bar and aiming to touch it with your left shoulder. Repeat for the desired amount of reps. The next set, switch hands so that the one that was the closest to you on the pull-up bar is now the farthest.

Sets and Reps: 4 x 4-8
Rest time: Three minutes between sets.

Headbanger Chin-Up

Position yourself under a pull-up bar and grab it using a nearly shoulder-width supinated grip (palms facing towards you). Brace your core, pack your shoulder blades together and down, and pull yourself up until your arms are approximately at a 90-degree angle.

Hold that position and start moving your body towards and away from the bar by extending and flexing the arms. No other body part should move and it should look like you were trying to headbutt the bar — don’t do it, though. Repeat this movement for the target amount of time. Because this can be a challenging exercise, begin with a shorter range of motion (extending your arms only partially) and gradually work toward full extension.

Sets and Reps: 3 x 30-60 seconds
Rest time: Two minutes between sets.

Towel Curl

Grab a sturdy towel with both hands and twist it until it forms a noodle or spiral. Sit on a chair or a bench, with your back flat and your chest high. Place the center of the towel under one foot and hold an end in each hand.

Pin your elbows to your side and start flexing your arms towards your face against resistance applied by your foot. When you’re at the top and your hands are near your shoulders, reverse the motion and slowly extend your arms, still providing tension through your foot.

Sets and Reps: 3 x 10-15
Rest time: 90 seconds between sets.

Lateral Plank Walk

Get in a plank position with hands on the floor, both arms extended, and your legs straight. Brace your core, pack your shoulders, and keep your body in a straight line. Take one step to the side with your right arm and right foot. Follow in the same direction with your left hand and foot.

Repeat for a few steps in the same direction, then reverse to the move in the opposite direction. Continue for the desired duration.

Sets and Reps: 3 x 60 seconds
Rest time: 60 seconds between sets.

Inverted Row

Position yourself under a doorway pull-up bar set low, a dip bar, under a table, or a sturdy broom positioned between a pair of chairs. Grab the bar using a shoulder-width, pronated grip (palms facing away from you). Brace your core and flex your legs so your body forms a straight line.

Bend your elbows and pull your chest towards the bar, aiming to touch it the bar with your chest. Lower yourself with control until your arms are extended and repeat for as many reps as you can. Try to beat your score each session.

Sets and Reps: 2 x maximum reps until muscular failure.
Rest time: Two minutes.

Best Resistance Band Biceps Workout

Bands are a very interesting lifting tool because they provide accommodating resistance — tension and force increases as the band is stretched farther. This type of resistance allows for a unique feeling and more training possibilities. It’s also an effective way to complement bodyweight training because bands allow for a wider exercise election and better focus on some muscles. Band training is also invaluable for joint and tendon health. (2)

With such a strong case in favor of resistance band training, it’s time to try this biceps workout to gain some strength, build muscle, and help to shed fat.

One-Band Biceps Workout

Perform this workout once per week for optimal results, after a warm-up. To progress, you can use a heavier band, or a combination of several smaller bands to provide enough resistance. You can also play with volume. For instance, if an exercise calls for 12 to 15 reps, when you can do all your sets of 12, try to bump it up to 15. Then, you can try to add another set. Finally, you can also reduce rest periods each week.

Band-Assisted Chin-Up

Loop a band around a pull-up bar. Hang from the bar using a supinated grip (palms facing you) with your hands close to shoulder-width. Place your feet on the band, keeping your legs straight. Brace your core, puff your chest, pull your shoulder blades down, and pull yourself towards the bar by bending your elbows until you touch the bar with your chest.

Lower yourself with control until your arms are straight. Repeat for the desired amount of repetitions. The band will make the exercise easier at the start of the movement, allowing you to perform more repetitions and slightly favor your arms in the movement.

Sets and Reps: 3 x 8-12
Rest time: Two minutes.

Single-Arm Band Hammer Curl

Stand tall and place one end of the band under your foot. Grab the other end with your working hand. Keep your elbows at your sides. Bend your elbow and flex your arm toward your face. Only your forearm should move, not your shoulder.

Contract for a second at the top, then lower with control to the starting position. Perform all repetitions on one side before switching hands. To increase the resistance, hold both ends of the band in one hand.

Sets and Reps: 3 x 12-15
Rest time: 60 seconds between sets.

Band Concentration Curl

Attach a band to a sturdy object around ground-level. Sit on a chair near the band and grab the band with your closest arm, placing your elbow on the inside of your thigh, just above your knee. Widen your stance to make room for your arm. Bend your elbow and flex your arm toward your face, squeezing for a second at the top.

Slowly extend your arm afterwards until it is straight again. Repeat for the desired amount of reps before switching arms. Make sure that no body part other than your forearms are moving during the exercise — don’t squeeze with your knee to assist your arm. To increase the difficulty, sit farther from the band’s attachment.

Sets and Reps: 3 x 10-12
Rest time: 60 seconds between sets.

Band Reverse Curl

Step in the center of a band and grab the ends with both hands using a pronated (palms facing down), shoulder-width grip. Stand tall, brace your core, and pack your shoulder blades down. Bend your elbows by flexing your biceps to pull the band toward your face. Only move your forearms, don’t allow your elbows to move forward. Keep your palms facing down during the exercise.

Lower your hands with control until your arms are straight, and repeat for the desired amount of repetitions. For a more intense exercise and a serious burn, you can immediately add several partial range repetitions, coming up only halfway to fully finish off your arms.

Sets and Reps: 3 x 15-20
Rest time: 90 seconds between sets.

The Biceps Muscles

The biceps are probably the most known and most frequently flexed muscles. Developed biceps are mostly coveted for an aesthetic purpose, but they also cover an array of functions for health and performance.

Biceps Brachii

The biceps brachii is the biggest arm flexor, the ball of meat on your upper arm. Composed of two heads — hence its prefix, “bi” — the biceps is attached from the ulna (forearm bone) to the scapula (shoulder blade) going through the shoulder complex.

It is mostly known as an arm flexor and supinator (rotating the palm towards your face), but also contributes to raising your arms and stabilizing your shoulder and humerus (upper arm bone). Having healthy and strong biceps is a prerequisite for having upper-body strength and health.

Brachialis

This muscle is a part of the upper arm complex, and is located directly under the biceps. It goes from the elbow to the upper humerus, and is only involved in elbow flexion (bending the arm). It’s actually the strongest arm flexor, not the biceps.

A person looking at their biceps. — Credit: ArtFamily / Shutterstock

Developing this muscle will also help if you’re only interested in looks. Making it bigger can actually increase the “peak” of your biceps, by pushing it higher. When you’re lean enough, you can also see it for a truly impressive set of guns. To emphasize this muscle, assume a neutral (hammer) grip during curls.

Brachioradialis

The biceps’ other friend, the brachioradialis, is also attached from the ulna to the humerus. It’s the biggest and strongest forearm muscle. It works synergistically with the biceps and the brachialis, assisting in forearm flexion, supination, and pronation (rotating the palms away from you).

A person's a forearm. — Credit: Ruslan Shugushev / Shutterstock

Having big and strong forearms is useful for many exercises, but can also serve as a visual illusion to compensate for shorter biceps by making them look bigger. You emphasize this muscle with a pronated (palm down) grip.

Biceps Warm-up

Warming up before a workout can improve your performance while minimizing connective tissue strain and risk of injuries. (3) It’s especially true before doing biceps, as the elbow is a notoriously sensitive joint, and some biceps exercises involve the shoulder complex — the most unstable joint in the entire body.

A good biceps warm-up should at least mobilize your biceps and triceps, but if the exercises require other body parts, make sure to include them as well. Here’s a complete resistance band warm-up to prime your body before a biceps workout.

Biceps Band Warm-up

Band Over-and-Back: Grab a band with both hands, using a very wide and pronated (palms down) grip. Stand tall, then hinge at the hips to slightly bend forward while keeping your back flat, and hold this position. While keeping your arms straight, raise the band over your head, then back down to your lower back. Return to the starting position by rotating your arms, still keeping them straight and under tension. Perform 15 reps before moving to the next exercise.

Band Pull-Apart: Stand with a resistance band in your hands, palm downs. Raise your arms to shoulder level, in front of your chest. Pull the band with your hands, bringing them to your sides until it touches your chest. Keep your arms straight the whole time. Return to the starting position. Perform 15 reps before moving to the next exercise.
Band Row: Anchor the band to a sturdy item, just under chest-height. Stand tall with your chest high and grab it using a neutral grip (palms facing each other). Pull with your elbows and squeeze your back as hard as you can until your hands are at your sides. Revert the motion with control. Perform 15 reps before moving to the next exercise.
Band Curl: Step into the band, hold it with your palms upwards, arms extended. While keeping your body braced, curl the band toward your face and squeeze your biceps. Extend your arms with control and perform 15 reps before moving to the next exercise.
Band Pressdown: Attach the band high, at least to eye-level. Hold the ends with a pronated grip. Slightly bend forward at your waist and glue your elbows to your ribs. Completely extend your arms down, only moving your forearms, and squeeze your triceps. Bring your hands back to your chest for a total of 15 repetitions, and perform the entire circuit one more time for a thorough warm-up.

Arm Yourself With Bigger Guns

No weights? No problems. You don’t need them to fill your sleeves. Performing these no-weight biceps workouts can increase your arm size, as well as your strength, and contribute to shedding some fat in the process. This body part might be eye-catching, but there’s more to biceps training than meets the eyes.

References

Rodosky MW, Harner CD, Fu FH. The role of the long head of the biceps muscle and superior glenoid labrum in anterior stability of the shoulder. Am J Sports Med. 1994 Jan-Feb;22(1):121-30. doi: 10.1177/036354659402200119. PMID: 8129095.
Kim GJ, Oh H, Lee S, Lee K, Kim K. Effects of resistance exercise using the elastic band on the pain and function of patients with degenerative knee arthritis. J Phys Ther Sci. 2020 Jan;32(1):52-54. doi: 10.1589/jpts.32.52. Epub 2020 Jan 22. PMID: 32082029; PMCID: PMC7008024.
Fradkin AJ, Zazryn TR, Smoliga JM. Effects of warming-up on physical performance: a systematic review with meta-analysis. J Strength Cond Res. 2010 Jan;24(1):140-8. doi: 10.1519/JSC.0b013e3181c643a0. PMID: 19996770.

Featured Image: YAKOBCHUK VIACHESLAV / Shutterstock

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January 9, 2023

50 Best Abs Exercises That Pack a Six-Pack Punch

Filed under: Fitness,Training — Tags: abs, core strength, core training, core workout, exercises, Health & Fitness, muscle, six-pack, training, Workouts — admin @ 2:33 am

The best ab workouts aren’t just for those seeking chiseled physiques. Anyone looking to improve their core strength can utilize compound movements to maximize gains. Learning how to engage your core is crucial for protecting the spine during everyday movements, as well as while engaged in physical activity.

We’ve highlighted 50 abs exercises that you can mix and match to create an endless array of core workouts, including suggested reps and sets.

The 50 Best Abs Workouts

1. Ab Wheel RolloutHow to do it

Kneel on the floor and hold an ab wheel beneath your shoulders.
Brace your abs and roll the wheel forward until you feel you’re about to lose tension in your core and your hips might sag.
Roll yourself back to start.

Reps: Do as many reps as you can with perfect form.

Sets: End the set when you think you might break form.

How to do it

Lie on your back, knees bent at 90 degrees, and raise your arms straight overhead, keeping them pointing up throughout the exercise.
Sit up halfway, then steadily return to the floor. That’s one rep.

Reps: 12-15

Sets: 3

Rest: 2-3 minutes between sets

How to do it

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Load the barbell with 10-pound plates and kneel on the floor behind it.
Your shoulders should be over the bar.
Brace your abs and roll the bar forward, reaching in front of you until you feel your hips are about to sag.
Roll yourself back.

Reps: 8-10

Sets: 3

Rest: 1 minute between sets

Get the gear: Sunny Threaded Chrome Barbell; CAP Standard Barbell Grip Plate

How to do it

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Grasp the barbell near the very end again—this time with both hands.
Stand with feet at shoulder width.
Swing the bar to your left, pivoting your feet as needed, then swing to your right.

Get the gear: Sunny Threaded Chrome Barbell

How to do it

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Lie back on the Swiss ball with feet shoulder-width apart on the floor.
Your lower back should be supported by the ball.
Place your hands behind your ears and tuck your chin.
Curl your body up off the ball until you’re sitting up.

Get the gear: LuxFit Exercise Ball

How to do it

Suspend yourself over the parallel bars at a dip station.
Bend your knees slightly and raise your legs in front of you until they’re parallel to the floor.
This will build you a magazine-worthy six-pack.

How to do it

Lie on your back with legs straight and arms extend out at your sides.
Lift your heels about 6 inches off the floor and rapidly kick your feet up and down in a quick, scissor-like motion.

How to do it

From a sitting position, raise your right hand in the air and stand using (at most) your left hand. If you have sufficient core strength, get up without the use of your arms.
Do the prescribed number of reps on one side and switch sides.
Work to the point where you get up without the use of your arms.

How to do it

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Set an adjustable cable pulley to shoulder level (or attach a band to a sturdy object) and grasp the handle with both hands.
Stand with feet shoulder width apart, perpendicular to the anchor point, and arms extended, far enough away from the machine so there’s tension on the cable.
Twist away from the machine as if you were chopping into a tree.
Keep your feet stationary.

Get the gear: Body-Solid Adjustable Nylon Stirrup Handle; Marcy Olympic Multi-purpose Strength Training Cage

How to do it

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Lie on the floor and hold onto a bench or the legs of a heavy chair for support.
Keep your legs straight and raise them up until they’re vertical.
Lower back down, but stop just short of the floor to keep tension on your abs before the next rep.

Get the gear: Marcy Flat Utility Weight Bench

How to do it

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Sit on the floor in the top position of a situp and, holding a medicine ball with both hands, extend your arms in front of you.
Explosively twist your body to one side and then twist back.
Alternate sides.

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Get the gear: AmazonBasics Medicine Ball

How to do it

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Hold the med ball with both hands and get into pushup position on the floor.
Drive one knee up to your chest, then quickly drive it back while you raise the opposite knee.

Get the gear: AmazonBasics Medicine Ball

How to do it

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Get into pushup position with your toes on the stability ball.
Bend your hips and roll the ball toward you so your torso becomes vertical.
Roll back so your body is straight again and extend your spine, then roll the ball up your legs so your body forms a straight line with arms extended overhead but hands still on the floor. You should look like Superman flying downward. That’s one rep.
Pull with your lats to return to the pushup position and begin the next rep.

Here are even more ab moves that use a stability ball.

Get the gear: URBNfit Exercise Ball

How to do it

Get into pushup position and bend your elbows to lower your forearms to the floor.
Hold the position with abs braced.

How to do it

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Hang from a pull-up bar with hands outside shoulder width and palms facing away from you.
Pull yourself up until your chin is over the bar and then raise your knees to your chest in the top position.

Get the gear: Iron Gym Total Upper Body Workout Bar

How to do it

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Get into pushup position with your feet in the cradles of a suspension trainer.
Perform explosive push-ups so that your hands leave the floor and you can clap in midair.

Get the gear: TRX Suspension Trainer Kit

How to do it

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Lie on your back on the floor and wrap the resistance band around the arches of your feet.
Cross the ends of the band over each other to make an “X” and grasp the ends with opposite hands.
Bend your hips and knees so that your knees are near your chest and then crunch your torso off the floor.
Extend your legs while you raise your arms overhead—keep your shoulder blades off the floor. That’s one rep.

Get the gear: Fit Simplify Resistance Loop Exercise Bands

How to do it

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Rest your forearms on the Swiss ball and extend your legs behind you.
Brace your abs and roll the ball forward as you extend your arms and hips.
When you feel you’re about to lose tension in your abs, roll yourself back.

Get the gear: LuxFit Exercise Ball

How to do it

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Sit on a bench and squeeze the medicine ball between your feet.
Extend and elevate your legs out in front of you and extend your torso so that your body forms a straight line.
Hold on to the bench for support.
Crunch your torso forward and bring your knees to your chest.

Get the gear: AmazonBasics Medicine Ball; Marcy Flat Utility Weight Bench

How to do it

Lie on your left side resting your left forearm on the floor for support.
Raise your hips up so your body forms a straight line and brace your abs—your weight should be on your left forearm and the edge of your left foot.
Hold the position with abs braced.

How to do it

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Place your feet in the foot cradles of the suspension trainer and get into pushup position with your hands on the floor.
Drive one knee to your chest while the other leg remains extended.
Now drive the opposite leg to your chest while you extend the other back.
Continue so it looks like you’re running in place.

Get the gear: TRX Suspension Trainer Kit

How to do it

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Hold a medicine ball with both hands in front of your chest and sit on the floor.
Anchor your feet under something sturdy for support, and lie back on the floor a few feet away from a brick or concrete wall.
Explosively sit up and throw the ball into the wall and then catch it on the rebound.
If you have a partner, you can throw the ball to him/her instead.

Get the gear: AmazonBasics Medicine Ball

How to do it

Get into pushup position.
Move your arms and feet apart as wide as possible—your body will make a star shape.
Hold the position with your torso straight and abs braced for 30 seconds.

How to do it

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Lie on the floor holding an empty or lightly loaded barbell over your chest as in the top of a bench press.
Your legs should be extended on the floor in front of you.
Perform a sit-up, raising your torso until it’s vertical.
Keep the bar over your head, so it drifts back to an overhead press position at the top of the sit-up.

Get the gear: Sunny Threaded Chrome Barbell

How to do it

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Load the barbell on the floor and stand to the left of it with feet hip-width apart.
Bend your hips back and lower your body until you can grasp the barbell in its center with your right hand.
Brace your core and, keeping your lower back in its natural arch, push through your heels to stand up and lock out your hips.
Squeeze the bar hard to keep it from teetering.
Focus on keeping your spine straight the entire set—do not bend laterally toward the barbell.

Get the gear: Sunny Threaded Chrome Barbell

How to do it

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Place a Swiss ball on the floor and get into pushup position with your hands on it.
Now lower your forearms to rest on the ball, keeping your entire body in a straight line with abs braced.
Use your elbows to roll the ball in a circular motion, clockwise and then counterclockwise, as if you were stirring a pot.

Get the gear: URBNfit Exercise Ball

How to do it

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Lie on your back on the floor and hold the Swiss ball between your ankles.
Extend your arms behind your head.
Sit up while raising your legs simultaneously and pass the ball from your legs to your hands.
Go back down to the floor and repeat, passing the ball from your hands to your legs. Each pass is one rep.

Get the gear: URBNfit Exercise Ball

How to do it

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Lie on your back on the floor holding the medicine ball with both hands behind your head.
Extend your legs.
Brace your abs and sit all the way up.
Raise your legs simultaneously and reach for your toes with the ball.
Your body should form a V shape at the top.

Get the gear: AmazonBasics Medicine Ball

How to do it

Sit, legs extended, heels lightly touching floor.
Keeping your torso tall and shoulders back, lean back until core engages, making sure your lower back doesn’t slump.
Bend elbows at 90 degrees, and lift left knee toward ceiling, allowing left hand to come up and right hand to go back, like a runner, to start.
Switch arm and leg positions back and forth continuously and fast, as if sprinting.
Perform 40-sec. reps.

How to do it

Get into the bottom of a lunge position with your left leg forward and reach up over your left shoulder to grasp the resistance band.
Pull it diagonally downward across your body to the outside of your right hip.

How to do it

From a sitting position, extend your arms out, palms facing each other.
Extend and lift both legs.
If keeping your legs straight is too tough at first, bend at the knees, with the insides of your feet touching to do half boat.
Keep your arms extended on either side of your legs.
Use your abs to keep your back straight.
Stay in this position for five deep breaths, roughly 10 seconds.

How to do it

Start in pushup position, with the balls of your feet on the ground.
Alternate driving your knees toward the opposite arm, twisting your body to that side, for 30 seconds.
Keep your hips down for the entire motion.

How to do it

While hanging from a bar, pull your toes toward the bar.
Keeping control with your obliques and toes together, rotate your legs side to side.
If this is too challenging at first, you can do a hanging leg lift.

How to do it

Attach a light resistance band to a pole at shin height.
Sit on the floor facing the anchor, knees bent, the free end of the band across thighs.
Scooch back until the band is taut, then lie back and grasp a heavy kettlebell behind your head to anchor the upper body.
Draw belly in, lift lower back off the floor, and roll hips and knees toward shoulders, then reverse.

How to do it

Grab a dumbbell or kettlebell in one hand and hold it either overhead or with your elbow bent so it’s near your face.
Keep your shoulder blades pulled back and down and fire your glutes as you walk.
Keep your wrists straight, as if you were waiting tables and holding a tray.
Walk 10 yards out and 10 yards back.
Switch hands and repeat.

How to do it

Start in pushup position, arms straight, with hands on light dumbbells (or start without weights, as shown).
Lower yourself and as you push back up, lift your left arm and rotate to the left until your left arm is straight up and your right side faces the floor.
Your body should look like a “T” on its side.
Return to starting position and repeat on the other side.

How to do it

Kneel on all fours.
Reach one arm as far as possible forward and the opposite foot as far as possible behind.
Bring your elbow and knee together to crunch, drawing in the abs.

How to do it

Carrying just one dumbbell forces the abs to work overtime to keep you stabilized.
While carrying a dumbbell in one hand, walk 10 yards out and 10 yards back. Don’t hunch over.
Keep your shoulder blades pulled down and back, and fire your glutes as you walk.
Switch hands and repeat.

How to do it

This is a full-body move that’s an underrated abs exercise.
From a standing position, squat, place your hands on the ground, and “jump” your feet out into a pushup position.
Perform a pushup, then jump your feet to your hands.
Explosively jump as high as you can, throwing your hands over your head.

How to do it

Lie supine on a Swiss ball with your torso arched over the ball.
Touch your shoulders, back, and glutes to the ball so your abs are stretched.
Hold a weight plate over your head.
Roll your hips and chest up, crunching from the top of your torso.
Lower your hips and chest to the starting position.

How to do it

Stand facing a wall with feet shoulder-width apart, holding a medicine ball in both hands.
Rotate your shoulders, hips, and torso away from the wall, taking the ball behind your hip.
Turn your hip back to the wall and rotate the rest of your body, throwing the ball to the wall.
Switch sides.

How to do it

With knees slightly bent, raise the medicine ball with two hands overhead with arms extended.
Rise on the balls of your feet and bend at the waist to slam the ball to the ground.

How to do it

Lie on your back, arms along sides, legs straight at a 45-degree angle to floor to start.
Inhale, bring legs toward torso and roll spine off mat into a hover position—hips are off the ground and tipped back, feet are overhead.
Exhale, press through hands and tilt legs to left as you roll down the spine through the center at a 45-degree angle.
Tilt legs to right and roll back up to hover to complete a circle.

How to do it

Attach a rope to a high pulley.
Kneel in front of it, grabbing the rope handles on either side of your neck.
Contract your abs to bring your elbows to your thighs.
Pause briefly and return to starting position.

How to do it

Start in a right forearm-down side plank, feet stacked, left hand holding a resistance band anchored in front of body.
Pull left elbow back, then release for one rep.
Do all reps on the left side, then switch sides.

How to do it

Stand on left leg with right leg bent at 90 degrees, foot flexed, holding a heavy dumbbell in left hand.
Don’t rush: Keep obliques and glutes engaged as you dip toward the left.

How to do it

Start in a high plank, hands under shoulders, toes on a BOSU.
Keeping your upper body still, and arms and legs straight, step left foot to the side, a foot away from the BOSU, then return foot to the ball.
Repeat on the right side for 1 rep.
For a challenge, move legs in unison.
Start with the left leg a foot away from the BOSU, then engage hips and push off with both feet, so the left foot lands on the ball and right foot on the floor.
Continue alternating sides.
Perform 40-sec. reps.

How to do it

View the original article to see embedded media.

Set a barbell on a power rack at about shoulder height (if you don’t have a rack, clean it to your shoulders).
Grasp the bar with hands at shoulder width and raise your elbows until your upper arms are parallel to the floor.
Take the bar out of the rack and let it rest on your fingertips—as long as your elbows stay up, you’ll be able to balance the bar.
Step back and set your feet at shoulder width with toes turned out slightly.
Squat as low as you can without losing the arch in your lower back.

Get the gear: Sunny Threaded Chrome Barbell;Fitness Reality Power Cage

How to do it

View the original article to see embedded media.

Lie on the floor holding a weight plate at your chest.
Bend your knees 90 degrees with feet on the floor.
Tuck your chin to your chest and sit up all the way.

Get the gear: CAP Standard Barbell Grip Plate

How to do it

Hold a high plank with a kettlebell just outside your left hand.
Reach under your torso to grab the kettlebell with your right hand and “sweep” or drag the KB back and forth with a full range of motion.
Keep your core tight, glutes engaged, and hips level.
Your obliques should power this exercise.
Perform 60-sec. reps.

Tips for Maximizing Your Abs Workouts

Whether you’re a pro athlete or just want to get ripped abs—a comprehensive core workout should comprise three planes of motion: frontal, sagittal, and transverse to hit your rectus abdominis, external and internal obliques, and transversus abdominis.

An endless number of total-body exercises light up your core muscles, but targeted ab workouts can really make a difference in strengthening your core from every angle. And doing core exercises in a circuit keeps the intensity high and will likely lead to more fat loss.

But we need to acknowledge a hard truth: Not all six-packs are created equal. Some guys need to work their belly to exhaustion before they can carve out abs, while other dudes seem to get a six-pack to pop without a single sit-up or side plank. Yes, genetics play a significant role here, too.

Your meals are also crucial. The visibility of your six-pack “really comes down to the amount of body fat that covers them,” says strength coach Lee Boyce. “This will mainly be affected by diet, though proper core training is still beneficial for the health and function of your abdominal region.”

Once you’ve cleaned up your diet, be patient with progress, and stay consistent. Of course, ab exercises aren’t just hitting your upper abs, rectus abdominis, and deep core muscles. Some of these exercises also hit the upper body, lower body, or total body to help prevent injury by bolstering muscles like erector spinae (muscles along the spine) and hip flexors.

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December 23, 2022

The Only Airport Workout You’ll Need When Traveling

Filed under: Fitness,Training — Tags: holiday tips, train, training, travel workout, Workouts — admin @ 11:18 pm

Travel season is upon us. For many, that means spending time in airports. Aside from the expected overpriced bottled water, bad chain restaurant food, and long lines for much-needed coffee, airport travel can also bring fatigue, bloating, and aches associated with inactivity. That’s not the best combination for getting into the “holiday spirit” or “vacation mode.”

To combat these negative effects, here’s a full workout you can do right in the airport. Complete with targeted mobility work, blood-pumping strength training, mood-boosting cardiovascular exercise, and restorative stretches, this entire workout can be performed within your terminal.

Jetsetter Airport Workout

Why Work Out at the Airport?

It’s simple. You are choosing to spend some of the downtime around your flight moving to counteract a few of the potential downsides of travel. Travel tends to confine us to small spaces and it separates us from our regular movement practices. Fortunately, exercise has powerful effects on our bodies and minds. It can keep us moving well and feeling good.

Just one bout of resistance training has been shown to increase concentrations of anti-inflammatory protein messengers in and around the knee joints. (1) Moreover, this effect lasted over three hours. Since prolonged sitting is typically hard on joints such as the knees, it makes sense to counteract immobility with exercise.

On the psychological side, a single bout of resistance training or cardiovascular training has been associated with improvements in mood and well-being. (2) If you work out regularly, you may be accustomed to the uplifting effects of exercise. On the flip side, you’re also likely to notice its absence. If you could keep the exercise-induced good vibes rolling through travel season, why wouldn’t you?

An underappreciated benefit of exercise is the potential boost to the immune system. Immediate and lasting elevations in immune cell activity occur after submaximal resistance training and cardiovascular exercise. (3) Ultimately, any non-fatiguing workout may stimulate the immune system to mobilize its resources.

Although these acute changes in the immune system have not been directly tied to risk of common illnesses, it seems safe to say that revving up your immune system may be desirable if you are soon to be confined with dozens of strangers on a plane.

Dynamic Mobility

The dynamic mobility part of this workout serves dual purposes. First, it’s a great warm-up. Second, it begins to address some of the “problem areas” that may become stiff or achy during prolonged travel. For this portion of the workout especially, settle into a controlled exercise pace. Find a quiet area of floor space, tune out the hustle and bustle of the airport, and then get to work.

Plank to Pike with Alternating Toe Reach

How to Do it: Begin the high plank position — similar to the top of a push-up with your body straight and supported by your palms and forefeet. Move to the pike position by driving your hips back and up, putting your body into an inverted v-shape. Next, reach one hand toward the opposite foot. Return to the pike position and repeat with the other hand to the opposite foot. Drop your hips and return to the high plank position to complete the repetition. Repeat the entire sequence for reps.
Sets and Reps: 3 x 10
Rest Time: Rest only long enough to transition to the next exercise.

Plank to Deep Lunge with Rotations

How to Do it: From the high plank position with your hands and feet on the ground, bring one leg forward. Place your foot outside of your hand, or as close as your flexibility allows. Lift your hand on the forward leg side and reach for the ceiling. Rotate your trunk and follow your hand with your eyes. Replace your hand to the floor and bring your leg back to the high plank position. Repeat with the other side to complete one full repetition.
Sets and Reps: 3 x 10 per side
Rest Time: Rest only long enough to transition to the next exercise.

Side Plank with Rotations

How to Do it: Get into a side plank position, supporting your body with one forearm and both feet. To enhance stability, place the foot of your top leg slightly in front of the foot of your bottom leg. Reach the hand of your top arm underneath your rib cage, near the ground and toward the wall behind you. Allow your body to rotate at your support-side shoulder and keep your eyes locked on your moving hand. Reverse the movement and reach your moving arm toward the ceiling.
Sets and Reps: 3 x 10 per side.
Rest Time: Rest only long enough to transition to the next exercise.

Dead Bug

How to Do it: Lie on your back with you arms straight up and your legs bent at roughly 90-degrees. Bring your low back into contact with the floor by rolling your pelvis backward (imagine “tucking your tail” or “bringing your belt buckle toward your chin”). Keep your low back in contact with the ground throughout the exercise. Simultaneously bring one arm to the ground overhead and the opposite leg down to the ground. Return to the start position. Repeat with the other arm and leg to complete one repetition. This can require some coordination, so move slowly and focus on controlling the movement
Sets and Reps: 3 x 10 per side.
Rest Time: Rest only long enough to transition to the first exercise.

Upper and Lower Body Training

The main course (or concourse) of the airport workout is full-body resistance training. The first two exercises use your body weight as the resistance, while the final three exercises use your carry-on luggage for resistance.

Each of these exercises will use an intensification technique called “elevator reps” to increase the training stimulus with limited load. Every individual repetition consists of one full range of motion repetition followed by one rep with roughly 50% range of motion and another rep with roughly 75% range of motion. Elevator reps are structured based on the resistance curve of the exercise. Each repetition forces you to spend extra time in the most challenging portion of the range of motion. The specific techniques are shown and described below.

If completing elevator reps for the target rep range is too challenging, either perform the basic exercise without the intensification technique or perform fewer total repetitions per set.

Push-Up with Elevator Reps

How to Do it: Begin in the top position of the push-up. You should be supported on your palms and the front of your feet with your elbows extended and your trunk braced. Lower yourself to the bottom position of a push-up, with your chest just above the floor. This is where the “elevator reps” begin. Push halfway back to the top position then immediately reverse the movement and return to the bottom position. Push three-quarters of the way to the top position and immediately return to the bottom position. Finally, push all the way to the top position. That’s one rep.
Sets and Reps: 3 x 10
Rest Time: Rest 90 to 120 seconds between sets.

Rear Foot Elevated Split Squats with Elevator Reps

How to Do it: Stand in a staggered stance with the top of your rear foot supported by a piece of stable luggage (definitely nothing with wheels), or a bench or chair. Shift your weight primarily onto your front leg and lower yourself toward the ground keeping your torso upright. In the bottom position, the knee of your rear leg should gently touch the floor or hover just above it. Time for the “elevator rep.” Push halfway to the top position then return to the bottom position. Then, push three-quarters of the way to the top position then return to the bottom position. Complete the repetition by pushing all the way to the top for one full repetition.
Sets and Reps: 3 x 10 per leg.
Rest Time: No rest between legs. Rest 90 to 120 seconds between sets.

Suitcase Row with Elevator Reps

How to Do it: Hinge forward at your hips and hold your luggage below you at arm’s length. Keep your legs slightly bent. Pull your shoulders and upper arms up and back to row the luggage to your stomach. To perform the elevator repetition, lower the bag halfway to the bottom position, then row it back to your abdomen. Next, lower the bag three-quarters of the way to the bottom position and row it back up. Complete the rep by lowering the bag all the way to the bottom position.
Sets and Reps: 3 x 10
Rest Time: Rest 90 to 120 seconds between sets.

Suitcase Good Morning with Elevator Reps

How to Do it: Stand up straight and hold your luggage tight to your chest. Unlock your knees and hinge forward at your hips until you feel a profound stretch in your hamstrings. This is the bottom position. To perform an elevator rep, return halfway to the top position then lower to the bottom position. Next, return three-quarters of the way to the top position and return to the bottom position. Finally, return to standing to end the repetition.
Sets and Reps: 3 x 10
Rest Time: Rest 90 to 120 seconds between sets.

Suitcase Upright Row with Elevator Reps

How to Do it: Stand holding your luggage in front of your legs with your elbows straight. Draw your elbows up and out as you pull your luggage along the front of your body. In the top position, your hands should be at neck or sternum level. Lower the bag halfway to the bottom position then upright row it to the top position. Lower the bag three-quarters of the way to the bottom position and upright row it back to the top, and then lower the bag to the bottom position to complete one repetition.
Sets and Reps: 3 x 10
Rest Time: Rest 90 to 120 seconds between sets.

Cardiovascular Conditioning

In addition to duty-free shops, fast food, and the occasional shoeshine station, airports tend to offer large expanses of indoor space. If you avoid the escalators and moving sidewalks, the airport can provide a great environment for cardiovascular training.

After locating your gate and taking inventory of how much time you have to burn, go for a fitness walk. Since you cannot leave your luggage unattended, walking offers the added benefit of loaded carries.

How to Do it: Walk or climb stairs at the highest effort and quickest pace that allows primarily nasal breathing, which may provide a more efficient cardio training stimulus compared to open-mouth breathing. (4) For a greater challenge for your grip and core, perform a literal suitcase carry. Instead of wheeling your luggage or slinging it over your shoulder, carry it at your side in one hand. Switch sides just before your grip fails.
Sets and Duration: Two or three five-minute intervals.
Rest Time: Rest two minutes between each interval.

Targeted Stretching

Stretching serves as a nice cooldown. At this stage, your muscles are warm and ready for a relaxing stretch. To efficiently wrap up your workout, each of these stretches hits multiple muscle groups. Like the dynamic mobility warm-up, special attention is given to areas of the body that commonly become stiff or cranky with prolonged seated travel.

Half Kneeling Hip Flexor Stretch with Side Bend

How to Do it: Kneel down with your front hip and knee bent to 90-degrees and your the knee of your trailing leg on the floor underneath you. Roll your pelvis underneath you (again, think about “tucking your tailbone” or “tilting your belt buckle toward your chin”). You should feel a stretch develop in the front of your trail leg thigh. Squeeze your glute to maintain this stretch. Reach overhead with the arm of the kneeling leg and slightly bend sideways to increase the stretch. Hold this position before switching sides.
Sets and Duration: 3 x 15 to 30-second holds per side.
Rest Time: Rest only long enough to transition to the next stretch.

Pretzel Stretch

How to Do it: Lie on your side with both legs bent in a “zig-zag” position — your bottom leg’s thigh in line with your torso and your other thigh pointed straight ahead. Reach back with your top arm to grab the foot of your bottom leg. Use a luggage strap, belt, or shoelace if necessary. Flex your top side hip and knee and use your opposite arm to push your knee toward the floor as far as comfortable, thereby promoting trunk rotation. Lie back and try to rest your head and both shoulders on the ground. Hold this stretched position for time before switching sides.
Sets and Duration: 3 x 15 to 30-second holds per side.
Rest Time: Rest only long enough to transition to the next stretch.

Thoracic Spine Extension Stretch

How to Do it: Kneel in front of your luggage with your glutes resting on your heels. Place your elbows on the luggage and interlace your fingers at the back of your head. Drive your sternum “up” and forward, and aim to feel a stretch in your mid-back, lats, and triceps. If your luggage is soft-sided or collapsible (like a duffel bag), use a bench or chair instead.
Sets and Duration: 3 x 15 to 30-second holds.
Rest Time: Rest only long enough to transition to the next stretch.

Thoracic Spine Flexion Stretch

How to Do it: Stand with your fingers interlaced in front of your stomach and your arms straight. Drop your chin to your chest and reach your hands forward as you push your mid-back backward. Think about maximizing the distance between your sternum and your hands and focus on feeling a stretch through your mid-back.
Sets and Duration: 3 x 15 to 30-second holds.
Rest Time: Rest only long enough to transition to the first stretch.

But What Will Other Travelers Think?

If you commit to this airport workout, you will draw some curious (and maybe even judgmental) eyes. Forget the lurkers. Your lifestyle is your business alone. Only you will live with the ramifications of prolonged sedentary behavior at the airport, and only you will experience the benefits of completing a light workout during your next layover or wait at the airport gate.

Assuming you want to arrive at your destination feeling fresh, why wouldn’t you take a few steps to ensure that outcome? A light workout at the airport can help. And speaking of feeling fresh, if you do work up a sweat, be sure to make a pit stop at the restroom to freshen up before you board your plane. Mobilized, energized, clean, and ready for take-off.

Add a Workout to Your Itinerary

Let’s face it, air travel is hard on the body. Fortunately, a workout that promotes mobility and a healthy pump might be the best non-pharmaceutical tonic for the ills of air travel. Until more airports start building gyms within their gates, bodyweight moves and luggage lifts might be your best options. Bookmark this airport workout as your travel companion for your next flight.

References

Helmark, I. C., et al. (2010). Exercise increases interleukin-10 levels both intraarticularly and peri-synovially in patients with knee osteoarthritis: a randomized controlled trial. Arthritis Research & Therapy, 12(4), 1-11.
Rocheleau, C. A., et al. (2004). Moderators of the relationship between exercise and mood changes: Gender, exertion level, and workout duration. Psychology & Health, 19(4), 491-506.
Schlagheck, M. L., et al. (2020). Cellular immune response to acute exercise: Comparison of endurance and resistance exercise. European Journal of Haematology, 105(1), 75-84.
Dallam, George & Kies, Bethany. (2020). The Effect of Nasal Breathing Versus Oral and Oronasal Breathing During Exercise: A Review. Journal of Sports Research. 7. 10.18488/journal.90.2020.71.1.10.

Featured Image: Xato / Shutterstock

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December 6, 2022

Try These Hotel Workouts to Stay Fit During Holiday Travel

Filed under: Fitness,Training — Tags: Holidays, train, training, travel workout, Workouts — admin @ 10:28 pm

Pack these travel-ready workouts for your next journey.

Written by Merrick Lincoln Last updated on December 6, 2022

Travel is inevitably associated with a departure from normal routine, but regular resistance exercise is one habit you don’t want to leave behind.

Resistance training helps to maintain and improve physical health, appearance, and strength. Strong evidence even links resistance training to reduced risk of death from all causes. (1) Beyond these obvious benefits, resistance training is emerging as a potential intervention to support mental health. (2)(3)

person in home gym performing single-leg squat — Credit: Prostock-studio / Shutterstock

For the sake of your body, lifespan, and mind, resistance training must be accomplished during travel. Since hitting the weights can be challenging when you’re on the road, here are three travel-ready workouts for your next expedition.

World-Class Travel Workouts

Bodyweight-Only Traveler’s Workout

Staying in a hotel or short-term rental with no fitness facility? Fortunately, bodyweight training is a viable option to hit nearly all major muscle groups.

No Weights, All the Gains

This quick and efficient bodyweight workout can be performed in the comfort of your hotel room or short-term rental bedroom. Classic exercises like the push-up are combined with challenging moves that train body parts you might not have known were possible using bodyweight. Since strength levels and body weights vary, a wide range of repetitions are suggested for this workout. Shoot for a repetition target that results in a challenging set.

Push-Up

How to Do it: Lie on the floor with your palms under or just outside of your shoulders and your toes dug in to the floor. While maintaining a ridged plank (straight line through your torso and legs), push through your palms until your elbows are straight. Lower with control.
Sets and Reps: 3 x 5-20
Rest time: Rest 60 seconds between sets.

Pike Push-Up

How to Do it: Begin in a high plank or push-up position supported on palms and toes with straight arms and straight legs. Push back into the “pike” position by shifting your hips back and keeping your back straight, inverting your head downward. Perform a push-up by lowering your forehead toward the floor then pushing back to the v-shaped pike position.
Sets and Reps: 3 x 5-15
Rest time: Rest 60 seconds between sets.

Rear Foot Elevated Split Squat

How to Do it: Set up for the Rear Foot Elevated Split Squat, also known as Bulgarian Split Squat, by sitting on the edge of the bed and straightening your working leg in front of you, with your heel on the floor. Maintain this foot placement as you stand, and place your non-working foot behind you on the bed. Lower your body toward the floor with control, then return to standing. Keep most of your weight through your front foot, not on the rear support foot.
Sets and Reps: 3 x 10-20 per leg.
Rest time: No rest between legs. Rest 60 seconds between sets.

Elevated Single-Leg Bridge

How to Do it: Lie on your back perpendicular to the bed with your knees bent approximately 90 degrees. Place your working side heel atop the bed, while maintaining the other leg unsupported. Bridge your hips up by driving your heel into the bed and extending your hip. Lower with control.
Sets and Reps: 3 x5-15 per leg.
Rest time: No rest between legs. Rest 60 seconds between sets.

Side Plank

How to Do it: Lie on your side with your support arm on the floor directly under your shoulder. Straighten your support arm and reach your top arm to the ceiling. For balance, widen your base by placing the heel of your top leg far in front of the toes of your bottom leg. Imagine a straight line running through your nose, chin, sternum, and zipper. Don’t let your hips drop toward the ground. Hold this position for time before switching sides.
Sets and Hold Duration: 3 x 20-30 seconds per side.
Rest time: No rest between sides. Rest 60 seconds between sets.

Travel Workout with a Resistance Band

Along with a toothbrush, deodorant, and clothing, a resistance band belongs on your list of “travel essentials.” One simple resistance band allows you to train and add resistance to movement patterns that might otherwise be impossible without access to a gym. Best of all, a resistance band is light, easy to pack, and inexpensive.

Have Band, Will Travel (and Train)

This workout can be completed with a single loop-style resistance band (41-inch / approximately one meter) of moderate thickness. Select a band between 0.5 and 1.5 inches (1.27 to 3.81 centimeters) thick, depending on your strength.

Band Pull-Apart

How to Do it: Stand with the resistance band loop around your torso. Hold a short length of band in front of your shoulders with outstretched arms, palms down. Stretch the band by pulling your arms apart and squeezing your shoulder blades together. Return to the starting position.
Sets and Reps: 3 x 10-20
Rest time: Rest 90 to 120 seconds between sets.

Band Push-Up

How to Do it: Wrap the band around your mid-back, below your shoulder blades. Pin the ends of the band under your palms and begin the exercise in the top push-up position — supported on your palms and toes with your elbows straight. Lower your body toward the floor, then return to the top position.
Sets and Reps: 3 x 5-12
Rest time: Rest 90 to 120 seconds between sets.

Band Split Squat

How to Do it: With the band looped around the base of your neck or across your upper back, securely anchor the other end under one foot. For safety, hold the band with both hands during the exercise. Take a large step back with the leg that isn’t atop the band. While keeping most of your weight over your front foot, lower your body toward the floor by bending your hip, knee, and ankle. Drive back to the top position. Perform all reps with this foot position before carefully switching legs.
Sets and Reps: 3 x 10-20 per leg.
Rest time: No rest between legs. Rest 90 to 120 seconds between sets.

Band Row

How to Do it: Place one foot securely on the center of your band. Hold the ends of the band with a neutral grip (palms facing each other) and perform a modified bent-over row by drawing your upper arms and shoulder blades back. Return to the starting position.
Sets and Reps: 3×10-20
Rest time: Rest 90 to 120 seconds between sets.

Band Half-Kneeling Single-Arm Overhead Press

How to Do it: Hold the band with one hand just above shoulder-height and anchor the other end of the band securely under the same-side knee. Place your opposite foot flat on the floor in front of you. Perform the press by stretching the band toward the ceiling until your elbow is straight but not fully locked out. Return to the starting position.
Sets and Reps: 3 x 10-20 per arm.
Rest time: No rest between arms. Rest 90 to 120 seconds between sets.

Band Good Morning

How to Do it: With the band looped around the base of your neck or across your upper back, securely anchor the other end under both feet. For safety, hold the band with both hands during the exercise. Perform the good morning by hinging forward at the hips while keeping your back straight and your legs slightly bent. Return to the standing positioning.
Sets and Reps: 3 x 10-20.
Rest time: Rest 90 to 120 seconds between sets.

Band Hammer Curl

How to Do it: Stand with both feet securely on a short length of the band. Grasp the other end of the band with your arms at your sides and your palms facing inward. Perform a hammer curl by bending your elbows as you stretch the band. Return to the starting position.
Sets and Reps: 3 x 10-20
Rest time: Rest 90 to 120 seconds between sets.

Workout for the Hotel Gym

The typical hotel gym or “fitness center” is minimalist, to say the least. If you’re lucky, you might find a few treadmills or stationary bikes, a set of dumbbells up to 40 or 50 pounds, an adjustable bench, and, potentially, a random assortment of strength machines. However, even a simple hotel setup is nothing to scoff at. It can provide the tools for a high-quality, full-body resistance training workout.

Get Your Money’s Worth

This workout focuses on building muscle, also known as hypertrophy. A range of 8 to 12 repetitions is the traditional recommendation for muscle growth. (4) For strong lifters, a hotel gym might not offer adequate weight to achieve challenging sets in this repetition range. To remedy this predicament, the hotel workout uses advanced exercise variations, mechanical drop sets, and intensification techniques to ensure a stimulating level of effort is achieved.

Heels-Elevated Dumbbell Front Squat

How to Do it: Elevate your heels one to three inches (approximately 2.5 to 7.5 centimeters) by placing them on the frame of an incline bench. Alternatively, weight plates or squat wedges can be placed under your heels. Hold the dumbbells atop your shoulders. Keep your torso upright as you squat deeply and drive your knees forward to bias the quadriceps. (5) Return to a standing position.
Sets and Reps: 4 x 8-12
Rest time: Rest 90 to 120 seconds between sets.

Bench-Supported Dumbbell Row with Alternating Isometric

How to Do it: Set an adjustable bench to 45-degrees and lie face down holding two dumbbells. Row both dumbbells to the top position by pulling your arms and shoulder blades back. Hold the dumbbell on the left side in the top position as you lower the dumbbell on the right side and row it back up. Next, hold the right dumbbell in the top position as you lower and lift the left dumbbell. Alternate sides with each repetition.
Sets and Reps: 4 x 8-12 per arm.
Rest time: Rest 90 to 120 seconds between sets.

Single-Leg Dumbbell Romanian Deadlift

How to Do it: Hold two dumbbells at your sides and carefully lift one leg into the air behind you. Maintaining a slight bend in your standing leg, fold forward at your hips until you feel a profound stretching sensation in the hamstrings of your working leg. Return to standing. Perform all reps with one leg before switching sides.
Sets and Reps: 4 x 8-12 per leg.
Rest time: No rest between legs. Rest 90 to 120 seconds between sets.

Seated, Incline, and Flat Dumbbell Press Drop Set

How to Do it: This is a mechanical drop set — It uses the the same set of dumbbells and progresses from the most challenging exercise to the least challenging exercise with littler to no rest between each movement. Improved leverage (and mechanical advantage) will allow your muscles to continue after initial fatigue. Set an adjustable bench to a fully upright position. Perform a set of seated overhead presses by pushing the dumbbells from jaw-height to lockout overhead. When your muscles fatigue, adjust the bench to 45-degrees and perform a set of incline dumbbell presses, pushing the dumbbells from your upper chest to overhead. After reaching muscular fatigue again, finally adjust the bench to flat. Perform classic flat dumbbell bench press by pushing the dumbbells from your chest toward the ceiling.
Sets and Reps: 4 x 8-12 for each movement (you may get fewer reps on the latter two exercises due to cumulative fatigue).
Rest time: Rest only long enough to adjust the bench for each movement. Rest 90 to 120 seconds between sets.

Incline Dumbbell Triceps Extension

How to Do it: Perform two arm exercises back-to-back without rest as a superset. Set the bench to a 45-degree angle and perform the incline dumbbell triceps extension — Hold the dumbbells alongside your head with your elbows pointed toward the ceiling. Straighten your elbows to lift the dumbbells, then control them back to the starting position.
Sets and Reps: 4 x 8-12
Rest time: No rest before moving to the next exercise. Rest 90 to 120 seconds between sets.

Incline Dumbbell Curl

How to Do it: Stay on the bench and begin the incline dumbbell curl with your arms hanging at your sides and your palms forward. Curl the dumbbells without allowing your upper arms to swing, then control them back to the starting position.
Sets and Reps: 4 x 8-12
Rest time: Rest 90 to 120 seconds before returning to the previous exercise.

Resistance Training on the Road

Travel can be hard on the body. Changing time zones and forced sedentary behavior in a car, plane, or train threaten to disrupt our normal rhythms and routines. Fortunately, dedicated resistance exercise can be restorative. It maintains training consistency and enables ongoing realization of resistance training benefits. Whether you check into the hotel gym, use a resistance band, or simply show up for bodyweight workouts, be sure to pack resistance training for your next trip.

References

Shailendra, P., et al. (2022). Resistance training and mortality risk: A systematic review and meta-analysis. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 63(2), 277-285.
Carneiro, L., et al. (2020). The effects of exclusively resistance training-based supervised programs in people with depression: A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 17(18), 6715.
O’Connor, P. J., Herring, M. P., & Caravalho, A. (2010). Mental health benefits of strength training in adults. American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine, 4(5), 377-396.
Schoenfeld, B., et al. (2021). Resistance training recommendations to maximize muscle hypertrophy in an athletic population: Position stand of the IUSCA. International Journal of Strength and Conditioning, 1(1), 1-30
Fry, A. C., Smith, J. C., & Schilling, B. K. (2003). Effect of knee position on hip and knee torques during the barbell squat. The Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research, 17(4), 629-633.

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March 24, 2022

The Best Chest Workouts for Muscle Mass, Strength, and More

Filed under: Fitness — Tags: bench press, bodybuilding, bodyweight workout, chest workout, dumbbell workout, pecs, train, Workouts — admin @ 8:20 pm

A well-developed chest is a calling card of lifters who’ve spent months, if not years, dedicated to hard training. From lifters bench pressing jaw-dropping weight and bodybuilders hitting the classic “side chest” pose to beginners learning how to do a push-up, chest training has always been a high priority for anyone looking to build muscle or test their strength.

Whether you have limited equipment at home, access to a fully stocked commercial gym, or no equipment at all, you can find an effective chest workout to deliver the results you’re after. Take a look, choose your goal, and get training.

The Best Chest Workouts

Best Chest Workout With Dumbbells
Best Bodyweight Chest Workout
Best Chest Workout for Muscle Mass
Best Chest Workout for Strength

Best Chest Workout With Dumbbells

Not all lifters have the opportunity to train in a commercial gym and have turned to training in a home gym with whatever equipment they can put together. Training at home can have some incomparable benefits. It’s open 24 hours a day every day of the year, the music is never grating, and the dress code is more lenient than most public gyms to the point of being entirely optional if you’re into that sort of thing.

The biggest compromise with a home gym is typically a lack of options since equipment must be prioritized to accommodate limited floor space. Home lifters should outfit their training area with the basics, and often forgo multiple benches dedicated to specific angles, oversized cable machines with a selection of pulleys, and all sorts of standalone single-purpose machines for flyes or presses.

Muscular man in dark gym lying on bench while pressing dumbbells — Credit: Srdjan Randjelovic / Shutterstock

Fortunately, as long as you have a basic bench and an adjustable dumbbell set or a few pairs of dumbbells, you can always train your chest with the right plan. And here’s the plan to follow.

The Dumbbell-Only Workout

This workout focuses on exercise variety and techniques to increase time under tension to get the most benefit from limited equipment. Perform all sets of each exercise before moving to the next exercise, and perform the workout once or twice per week depending on your overall training split.

Single-Arm Flat Dumbbell Press

How to Do it: Lie on a flat bench as if performing a standard dumbbell bench press, with a dumbbell in only one hand. The single-arm element makes this unilateral exercise an intense core drill while also recruiting the chest significantly.
Sets and Reps: 3 x 6-8 per side
Rest time: No rest between sides, 45 seconds rest between sets.

Neutral-Grip Incline Dumbbell Press

How to Do it: Set the bench to an incline angle. If the bench cannot adjust, place blocks or weight plates under the feet to elevate one side several inches. Keep the hands facing each other, not facing your feet, to slightly decrease shoulder stress and increase pec recruitment.
Sets and Reps: 4 x 10-12
Rest time: 60 seconds between sets.

Flat Dumbbell Press With Pause

How to Do it: Perform the classic flat dumbbell bench press, while pausing in the bottom (stretched) position of each rep for two seconds.
Sets and Reps: 3 x 8-10
Rest time: 60 seconds between sets.

Best Bodyweight Chest Workout

Sometimes having no equipment to train with can be a blessing in disguise. It forces you to be creative in program design, think outside the box, and buckle down to focus on only the most effective exercises.

Bodyweight training has a bad reputation for being “lesser than” training with free weights, but if you know what you’re doing and actually push yourself with the right movements, you’ll never call bodyweight training “easy” again.

The Brutally Simple Bodyweight Workout

When you think of “bodyweight chest exercise”, you think of push-ups. You might also think of dips, but technically you need dip bars for those, so they’re not truly a bodyweight-only exercise.

This workout could not be more straightforward. Do 100 push-ups, no matter how long it takes. Three to five days later, do 100 push-ups again but get them done in less time. It’s basic density training — get the same amount of work done in less time or do more work in the same amount of time.

Bald man wearing headphones performing push-ups outdoors — Credit: Jacob Lund / Shutterstock

Because 100 is a nice round number, that’s the stationary target and you’ll focus on shaving down the time each session. Also, it’s just kinda cool to be able to say, “I knocked out 100 push-ups this morning.” Knocking out 105 push-ups sounds strange.

The most critical element here is that, no matter how fatigued you are, you cannot sacrifice form to squeeze out ugly reps. It’s 100 perfect-technique push-ups, not 36 perfect push-ups followed by 64 half-reps. Each rep should have the chest nearly touching the floor (depending on your shoulder mobility) at the bottom and arms locked out at the top.

Push-up

How to Do it: Support your body on your toes and hands, with your hands set slightly outside shoulder-width. While keeping a straight line from your neck to your ankles during each rep, bend your elbows to lower your entire body, and press to full lockout. To reduce shoulder joint strain, aim your elbows more towards your feet than your shoulders.
Sets and Reps: 100 reps total, broken down into as many or as few sets as necessary until completion.
Rest time: Rest as needed. Start a timer immediately before beginning the first rep and stop the timer immediately after completing the last rep. Record the total time and aim to improve by one second or more each workout.

Best Chest Workout for Muscle Mass

A muscle-building chest workout is a bodybuilder’s bread and butter. The typical lifter will reluctantly trudge through their leg day but channel that lack of enthusiasm into chest day, and that’s A-okay as long as they get their work done in each session.

Chest Day, Best Day

This is a time-tested, bodybuilding-style approach to training. Attacking a body part with multiple exercises and different angles, taking each set right up to muscular failure with high-intensity techniques, and ideally getting a serious pump in the target muscle by the end of the session.

Bodybuilder flexing chest and arm muscles — Credit: ALL best fitness is HERE / Shutterstock

This particular workout can standalone for a chest-only session or it can be followed by training the shoulders and triceps as part of a “pushing muscle” day. You can also get a complete upper body workout by training back immediately before chest or interspersing the exercises as supersets.

Dip

How to Do it: Begin at the top position on a set of dip bars. Emphasize chest recruitment and stretch by leaning your upper body forward (not staying upright) as you bend your elbows and lower as far as mobility allows. Pause briefly before pressing back up.
Sets and Reps: 3 x 8-12
Rest time: 60 seconds between sets.

Pec-Deck With One-and-a-Half Reps

How to Do it: On a pec-deck machine, set the seat so your hands are gripping the handles below shoulder height and in-line with your mid-chest. Perform each set using the “one and a half rep” technique by lowering the weight into a full stretch, raising the weight to full contraction, then lowering the weight halfway down, bringing it up to full contraction again, and finally lowering it fully. That’s counted as one full rep.
Sets and Reps: 4 x 8-10
Rest time: No rest before moving to the next exercise.

Flat Barbell Bench Press

How to Do it: Take a beyond shoulder-width grip and lower the bar in-line with the mid-chest. If shoulder mobility allows, touch the bar to your chest briefly before pressing upwards. Be aware that the previous exercise will have pre-exhausted the chest muscles and they’re beginning this exercise already fatigued. Choose an appropriate weight and use a spotter if possible.
Sets and Reps: 4 x 8-12
Rest time: 90 seconds rest before returning to the previous exercise.

Smith Machine Incline Press

How to Do it: Position a 30 or 45-degree incline bench under a Smith machine so the bar is lined up with your upper chest/collarbone area. Grip the bar slightly wider than the flat barbell bench press grip. Perform repetitions smoothly with no pause at lockout or in the stretch position, bringing the bar to at least chin-level at the bottom.
Sets and Reps: 3 x 12-15
Rest time: 45 seconds between sets.

Best Chest Workout For Strength

“How much ‘ya bench?” might as well be gym-speak for “Hi, how are you?” It’s asked as often and it’s answered as honestly. Everyone’s always “fine, thanks” and everyone always benches “around 300.”

Regardless of the questionable reputation as an ego lift, the bench press is a genuine assessment of upper body pressing power. Building a strong and powerful chest is, has, and will always be a priority for most dedicated lifters. Here’s a simple and effective plan to build serious pressing strength.

The Bigger Bench Plan

A chest-focused strength workout will, appropriately, be centered around the flat barbell bench press. It’s one of the classic “big three” powerlifts for a reason, because it’s one of the very few ways to move significant weight with an upper body press.

Hand holding a barbell loaded with very heavy weights — Credit: sportpoint / Shutterstock

The once-a-week workout uses science-based explosive training, known as “post-activation potentiation”, to improve power output on the bench press, followed by specific accessory exercises to build strength in the chest and pressing muscles. (1)(2)(3)

Plyometric Push-up

How to Do it: From a basic push-up position (hands and toes touching the ground, with a straight line from neck to ankles), descend under control to the bottom position and explode upwards with maximum force. The hands should leave the ground briefly. Catch yourself and pause at the top before performing the next rep.
Sets and Reps: 5 x 5
Rest time: 60 seconds before moving to the next exercise.

Flat Barbell Bench Press

How to Do it: Take a beyond shoulder-width grip and lower the bar in-line with the mid-chest. If shoulder mobility allows, touch the bar to your chest briefly before pressing upwards. Pause at full lockout briefly before lowering the bar under control.
Sets and Reps: 5 x 3
Rest time: Three minutes before returning to the first exercise.

Floor Press

How to Do it: Lie on the floor with a bar set in a rack at arms length above your head. Keep the legs straight throughout the set. Unrack the bar and lower under control until your elbows delicately touch the ground (do not slam the weight down). Pause with the elbows on the ground for one second before pressing to full lockout.
Sets and Reps: 4 x 4-6
Rest time: Three minutes between sets.

Dip

How to Do it: Begin at the top position on a set of dip bars. Bend your elbows and lower to the bottom of the rep. The torso may be slightly upright during the movement to involve the chest, shoulders, and triceps. Pause briefly before pressing back up. Increase resistance with a weight belt, weighted vest, or by squeezing a dumbbell between your thighs above your knees.
Sets and Reps: 4 x 6-8
Rest time: Two minutes between sets.

The Chest Muscles

Many lifters design chest workouts with the intention of training “all parts of the chest”. That approach can certainly be effective, but it first requires knowing exactly what does, and what does not, make up “all parts of the chest.” Here’s a quick and useful lesson in functional anatomy.

Pectoralis Major

The pec major is the muscle everyone simply refers to as “the chest”. It’s the large chunk of muscle on the upper torso, above the abs and below the neck. Common bodybuilding lore says the body part is divided into the “upper chest”, “mid chest”, “lower chest”, “inner chest” and “outer chest”, while claiming each section can be targeted by specific exercises. This is wrong. Or at least, it’s a huge misinterpretation of how the body actually works.

Diagram of the human body focusing on the chest muscle — Credit: Magic mine / Shutterstock

The pec major is one muscle, just like the biceps are one muscle. However, just like the biceps include multiple heads which can be recruited differently to contribute to slightly different overall growth, the pec major contains two heads — the sternocostal and the clavicular.

The sternocostal head is responsible for the vast majority of movement and is recruited in all pressing exercises. The clavicular head is the region commonly referred to as “upper chest” and has been shown to be recruited more efficiently with exercises done at a 30 or 45-degree incline. (4) (5).

So, anatomically speaking, there’s “the upper chest” and “the rest of the chest”. The majority of exercises will work both heads, while inclined exercises prioritize the upper chest, and anyone who talks about targeting the “inner chest” or “outer-lower chest sweep” isn’t really talking about training the human body.

Pectoralis Minor

The pec minor lives underneath the pec major and attaches to the scapula (shoulder blade) to play a role in scapular movement. It’s involved in nearly every chest exercise, but is specifically called into action when the scapulae move forward, such as during a push-up or chest press exercise.

Due to its relatively small size, location, and function, it’s not likely to experience significant (or visible) muscle growth but serves an invaluable role for overall joint function and health.

Serratus Anterior

The serratus anterior is the finger-like cluster of muscles slightly below the chest, along the side of the ribs. Similar to the pec minor, they attach to the scapulae and play a role in scapular movement, stability, and health. (6) The serratus is also involved during chest pressing exercises, particularly toward the lockout position when/if the scapulae are allowed to “flex” forward (protraction).

Serratus muscle growth is minimal, but when the muscles are developed, and particularly when accompanied by low body fat, they can be a noticeable addition to an impressive physique.

A Chest Warm-Up is Essential

No matter your goal or training plan, a specific chest warm-up can help to improve overall performance and reduce the risk of injury. Pec tears, shoulder strains, and excessive elbow stress can occur when poorly planned workouts combine with inadequate warm-ups.

Man in gym holding injured chest muscle — Credit: MDV Edwards / Shutterstock

A thorough and effective warm-up can be time-efficient without compromising on benefits. Grab a resistance band and use this quick circuit to start any chest session.

The Complete Chest Warm-Up Circuit

Slow Push-up Plus: Perform a basic push-up taking two seconds to lower your body and two seconds to press up. When your arms are locked at the top of each rep, continue “pressing” to reach the shoulder blades towards the ground before performing the next rep (this added range of motion is the “plus” part of a “push-up plus”). Do three repetitions before moving immediately to the next exercise.
Push-up Plank Shoulder Tap: From the top of a push-up position, spread your feet slightly wider for support and alternate touching each shoulder with the opposite hand. Perform 10 reps total, alternating each hand, before moving immediately to the next exercise.
Band Pull-Apart: Take a resistance band with a palms-down grip, holding the band at arms-length in front of your body. Keeping a slight bend in your elbows, pull both hands back to perform a reverse flye movement with your shoulders and upper back until the band touches your chest. Return to the starting position under control. Perform 10 reps before repeating the first exercise. Do a total of four sets of the complete circuit.

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Powerful, High-Performance Pecs

Whether you want to bench press a motorcycle, build a beach-worthy physique, or just get a great workout at home or on the road, you’re now armed with plenty of options to train what is arguably the most popular body part in the gym. Just be sure to follow a well-designed plan and never let your ego write checks your joints can’t cash.

References

Krzysztofik, M., & Wilk, M. (2020). The Effects of Plyometric Conditioning on Post-Activation Bench Press Performance. Journal of human kinetics, 74, 99–108.
https://doi.org/10.2478/hukin-2020-0017Ulrich G, Parstorfer M. Effects of Plyometric Versus Concentric and Eccentric Conditioning Contractions on Upper-Body Postactivation Potentiation. Int J Sports Physiol Perform. 2017 Jul;12(6):736-741. doi: 10.1123/ijspp.2016-0278. Epub 2016 Oct 13. PMID: 27736266.
Clark, Ross A1,3; Humphries, Brendan2; Hohmann, Erik3,4; Bryant, Adam L1 The Influence of Variable Range of Motion Training on Neuromuscular Performance and Control of External Loads, Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research: March 2011 – Volume 25 – Issue 3 – p 704-711 doi: 10.1519/JSC.0b013e3181c6a0ff
Lauver JD, Cayot TE, Scheuermann BW. Influence of bench angle on upper extremity muscular activation during bench press exercise. Eur J Sport Sci. 2016;16(3):309-16. doi: 10.1080/17461391.2015.1022605. Epub 2015 Mar 23. PMID: 25799093.
Rodríguez-Ridao, D., Antequera-Vique, J. A., Martín-Fuentes, I., & Muyor, J. M. (2020). Effect of Five Bench Inclinations on the Electromyographic Activity of the Pectoralis Major, Anterior Deltoid, and Triceps Brachii during the Bench Press Exercise. International journal of environmental research and public health, 17(19), 7339. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17197339
Castelein B, Cagnie B, Parlevliet T, Cools A. Serratus anterior or pectoralis minor: Which muscle has the upper hand during protraction exercises? Man Ther. 2016 Apr;22:158-64. doi: 10.1016/j.math.2015.12.002. Epub 2015 Dec 22. PMID: 26749459.

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January 31, 2022

The Definitive Guide on How to Build Big Arms

Filed under: Fitness — Tags: arm development, arm training, arm workouts, arms, biceps, big biceps, big triceps, how to build big arms, train, triceps, Workouts — admin @ 1:00 pm

If you lift, then you probably want to look like you lift. And for many gym-goers, looking the part includes owning a pair of arms that put the seams of your sleeves to the test. Aesthetically, big arms are imposing and signal to others that you do indeed hoist iron. Functionally, bigger and stronger arms help you bench press, overhead press, and row more weight; they’re not just the end; they’re a means to another end (lots of strength).

Muscular man curling a loaded barbell with both hands inside of gym — Paul Aiken/Shutterstock

And while most folks think hammering out close-grip bench presses and standing curls is enough to target the smaller arm muscles, there’s a science to building up your arms. But there are four fundamentals you need to wrap your head around to comprehend how to build bigger arms fully.

Arm Training Tenants

Muscle Mechanics: That is, how your muscle move your joints. To fully develop your biceps and triceps, you must know how they move so you can select the right exercises for the job.
Training Volume: Volume — meaning how many total reps you perform — has a dose-response relationship with hypertrophy. More training volume equals more muscle (assuming you don’t exceed your ability to recover).
Progression: The best progression model to use if you haven’t used one before is double progression. Simply put, double progression is where you increase the weight within your exercises only when you hit the upper limit of a given rep range across all of your target sets.
Training Frequency: A comprehensive meta-analysis concluded that twice per week is better than once per week for maximizing growth, while frequencies of three or more may or may not be better. (1) Because the biceps and triceps are two of the smaller muscle groups you can train, they’ll recover faster. Training your arms three times per week isn’t unheard of. And if you’re at a point volume-wise where you’re pumping out 15 to 20 sets per session, it may make more sense to break those sets up into two to three separate eight-set sessions.

Muscle Mechanics

It’s essential to understand the biomechanics of the arms before understanding how to train the best. So first, we need to cover their basic anatomy quickly.

Anatomy chart of biceps muscle — stihii/Shutterstock

The Biceps

The upper arm consists of three muscles in the anterior compartment. However, we will only need to focus on two of these muscles:

Biceps brachii
Brachialis
Coracobrachialis

Biceps Brachii

The biceps are composed of two heads: a long head commonly thought of as the “outer” and a short head referred to as the “inner.” Both muscle heads originate at the scapula and insert on the radius bone of the forearm. The biceps crosses both the elbow and the shoulder and can flex both the elbow (aka curl) and the shoulder (aka front raise).

Brachialis

The stronger of the elbow flexor is the brachialis. It originates at the upper arm’s humerus bone and inserts on the ulna bone of the forearm. The brachialis isn’t involved in shoulder movement; it only flexes the elbow.

The Triceps

There is one main muscle in the posterior compartment of the upper arm: the triceps brachii. The triceps muscle has three heads:

Long head
Medial head
Lateral head

The long head is the thicker or more dense muscle, which can be seen in poses such as a double front biceps. The lateral head or the “horseshoe” muscle is what you see most visibly in the side triceps pose, and the medial head is a deeper muscle that isn’t as noticeable on the surface as the other two.

The primary function of the triceps is elbow flexion. All three heads cross the elbow joint and insert it on the ulna bone of the forearm. The origin of the lateral and medial heads are both on the humerus bone of the upper arm, with the long head crossing the shoulder joint to originate on the scapula.

Additional Considerations

Both the biceps and triceps are involved in pulling and pushing movements, respectively. Therefore, it’s not uncommon to hear that back and chest exercises are enough to stimulate the bis and tris. And there are several studies have shown pull-ups and rows elicit high levels of biceps activation, and that horizontal presses bring the triceps into play (2)(3)(4). However, pulling and pressing exercises alone may not be enough to maximize biceps and triceps development.

When you rely on indirect movements exercises to engage the arms, the biceps and triceps only receive a portion of the tension. That said, your arms do get hit when your work the chest and back, and it’s essential to keep this in mind when training. If you train your back hard twice per week, you probably don’t need two to three dedicated biceps workouts.

Instead, it’s probably wise to focus more of your sets on moderate (8-12) and high (12-20) rep ranges for recovery purposes and for the sake of avoiding redundancy. Because the triceps are also targeted with any heavy vertical or horizontal pressing movements, it may be wise to focus more of your sets on moderate (8-12) and high (12-20) rep ranges for recovery purposes.

The Missing Link

Ok, now that you have a firmer grasp on those arm training fundamentals, let’s circle back to a big issue in arms training: exercise variance. You may think that simply curling and extending is enough to stimulate the muscles, but there’s more nuance to arm training. Your arm muscles will travel through different ranges throughout the entire range of motion.

To stimulate our muscles throughout their entire contractile range we must be challenging them at these three points:

Mid-range: barbell curl, close-grip bench press
Lengthened (stretched position): incline dumbbell curl, French press
Shortened (contracted position): high-cable curl, cable pushdown

“Fine, then I’ll just make sure to lift with a full range of motion (ROM) for every movement,” you say. Well, hold up. Lifting only with a full range of motion is a great move (so kudos), but you still need to select movements that engage the muscle the most during each of the three ranges listed above. A worthwhile arm training session aims not to complete a movement using a full ROM but to be challenged throughout the entire ROM.

Putting it all Together

Ok, so where do you go from here? You’ve probably already peeped the charts below and noticed that there’s a lot of work to be done. Don’t freak out just yet. Look closer, and you’ll see that most of the movements below are done for just two high-rep sets. The program’s goal below isn’t to decimate your biceps; it’s to partition a moderate amount of work (10 sets for each muscle group) among all three ranges of motion.

Training Explained

There’s nothing complicated about this routine. First, you’ll select a primary movement for your biceps and one for your triceps. These exercises preferably target the lengthened or shortened range since these are the ranges most folks ignore. You’ll perform the primary exercise for four sets of six to eight heavy-ish reps, using a tempo of 3-0-1-0 (lowering phase-pause at bottom-lifting phase-pause at top).

After that, you’ll blast your arms with a circuit of three movements, known as a triset, each of which targets the mid, lengthened, and shortened ranges. The trisets are marked with the same letters (“A” and “B”). Think of this as a template to guide your sets, reps, and exercise choices. If you want to sub out the movements below for others, that’s fine, but make sure you’re hitting each ROM.

Exercise Sequence	Sets & Reps	Tempo	Rest	Target Range
A1) EZ-Bar French Press	4 x 6-8	3010	60 seconds	Lengthened
A2) Incline DB Curl	4 x 6-8	3010	60-90 seconds	Lengthened
B1) Triceps Pushdown	2 x 10-12	2011	15 seconds	Shortened
B2) DB Skull Crusher	2 x 12-14	2010	15 seconds	Mid-Range
B3) Cable Overhead Rope Extension	2 x 15	2110	60 seconds	Lengthened
C1) DB Spider Curl	2 x 10-12	2011	15 seconds	Shortened
C2) Standing EZ-Bar Curl	2 x 12-14	2010	15 seconds	Mid-Range
C3) DB Preacher Curl	2 x 15	2110	60 seconds	Lengthened

Pay attention to the tempo within each exercise especially the triset sequence as you will notice a pause in the shortened position (contract hard) exercises and a pause in the lengthened position (full stretch), if you take these into consideration your arms will be pumped like you have never seen.

While you most certainly could complete this three-times per week, focus on quality over quantity at first. Whereby you focus on the quality of work given within the workout twice per week for six weeks before taking its progression to the next level by completing it three times per week.

Another aspect of progressing this plan is to change the primary exercises from a lengthened to a shortened focus and the same to be done in the triset exercises. After at least 2-3 rotations of this you can then start to reintroduce the mid-range exercises as a primary focus while the others take a back seat. Here is how it should look:

Exercise Sequence	Sets & Reps	Tempo	Rest	Target Range
A1) Triceps Push Down	4 x 6-8	3010	60 seconds	Shortened
A2) Ez-Bar Spider Curl	4 x 6-8	3010	60-90 seconds	Shortened
B1) Cable Overhead Triceps Extension	2 x 10-12	2110	15 seconds	Lengthened
B2) DB Skull Crusher	2 x 12-14	2010	15 seconds	Mid-Range
B3) Single Arm Rope Triceps Extension	2 x 15	2011	60 seconds	Shortened
C1) DB Incline Curl	2 x 10-12	2110	15 seconds	Lengthened
C2) Standing EZ-Bar Curl	2 x 12-14	2010	15 seconds	Mid-Range
C3) High Cable Curl	2 x 15	2011	60 seconds	Shortened

Nutritional Considerations

To maximize your muscle growth, you need to eat within a caloric surplus then you cannot expect to be building any significant amount of muscle mass. With that being said here some recommendations regarding your nutritional intake:

Eat 5-10% above your maintenance (Caloric Surplus).
Eat four to five times per day. This his could be three meals plus two shakes or four meals plus one shake. Make sure it is suited to your lifestyle and daily schedule but keep your protein feeding times frequent.
For your macros aim to eat 35% protein/35% carbs/and 30% fat. Say you’re eat 3,000 calories per day, that comes out to 262.5 grams of protein, 262.5 grams of carbs, and 100 grams of fat.
Excessive supplementation isn’t necessary to grow. Your standard multi-vitamin, fish oil and probiotics will provide a great base of support.

References

Schoenfeld BJ, Ogborn D, Krieger JW. Effects of Resistance Training Frequency on Measures of Muscle Hypertrophy: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Sports Med. 2016;46(11):1689-1697. doi:10.1007/s40279-016-0543-8.
Youdas JW, Amundson CL, Cicero KS, Hahn JJ, Harezlak DT, Hollman JH. Surface electromyographic activation patterns and elbow joint motion during a pull-up, chin-up, or perfect-pullup rotational exercise. J strength Cond Res. 2010;24(12):3404-3414. doi:10.1519/ JSC.0b013e3181f1598c.
Snarr RL, Esco MR. Comparison of Electromyographic Activity When Performing an Inverted Row With and Without a Suspension Device. J Exerc Physiol. 2013;16(6):12-22. http://faculty.css.edu/tboone2/asep/Russell.pdf.
Barnett C, Kippers V, Turner P. Effects of variations of the bench press exercise on the EMG Activity of 5 Shoulder Muscles. 1995:222-227.

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November 26, 2021

Kumail Nanjiani’s ‘Eternals’ Workout

Filed under: Fitness — Tags: celebrities, Fitness, Health & Fitness, mass building, strength training, Workouts — admin @ 3:57 pm

Kumail Nanjiani’s workout helped him pull off one of the greatest Marvel transformations of all time for Eternals. Try the muscle-building routine for yourself.

Mid-2019, Kumail Nanjiani was filming the last episode of his hit HBO comedy, Silicon Valley. The show followed a group of nerdy app creators navigating the cutthroat world of big tech. Not much changed over the course of six seasons except, by the finale, Nanjiani’s character, the insecure coder Dinesh, had become an absolute unit—his biceps suddenly bulging out of polos.

The bulk-up wasn’t the producer’s idea, nor a studio directive for Eternals (in theaters Nov. 5), in which Nanjiani plays Kingo, a cocky, cosmic-powered warrior living undercover as a Bollywood star. The only green light Nanjiani needed to get in shape was from himself.

Underground Operation

The transformation took place at Granite Gym in Beverly Hills, a dimly lit basement that Grant Roberts, the trainer behind Nanjiani’s incredible transformation, had quietly built into one of Hollywood’s most exclusive training facilities.

Even though Eternals is about a group of immortal beings with superhuman powers, Marvel was perfectly happy with Kingo being the more “normal looking” one, says Roberts. But for Nanjiani, who grew up obsessed with comic books, the gig was a massive opportunity to portray a South Asian superhero in a Marvel franchise. He wanted a physicality that could stack up to Superman or Thor.

Breaking the Mold—and Internet

Nanjiani endured punishing sessions five days a week in the year leading up to Eternals. “Instead of worrying about how to keep him lean throughout, we concentrated on adding mass before doing a proper cut.” On first analysis, Roberts says Nanjiani had solid biceps and a strong back, but, uh, some major room for improvement. “I don’t want to be insulting, but he probably had the softest core I had ever seen,” Roberts says, laughing. “I have no idea how he was even able to stand up straight!”

Roberts combined new- and old-school techniques to bulk up Nanjiani, incorporating electronic muscle stim into his free weights work and heavy foundational lifts. The warmup always started with the Power Plate, a vibrating platform that stimulates natural reflexes and jolts dormant muscle fibers to attention. The workouts targeted no more than three body parts, so each area was attacked dynamically.

After six months, Nanjiani transitioned into a sculpting phase. Michelangelo used a chisel to carve rippling six-packs, but Roberts prefers the cable machine.

To ensure symmetry, Roberts had Nanjiani snap shirtless selfies every few weeks to assess progress. Once on set, Marvel had a chef prep Nanjiani’s meals and Roberts trained him virtually to preserve his hard-earned gains.

“People have this mistaken idea that once you get to a certain place physically, you can just coast,” says Roberts. “But it’s a lot of effort and sacrifice to maintain a physique like that.” As far as sacrifice goes, the biggest one for Nanjiani was cutting down on his favorite bakery items.

With Eternals in the can, he can get back to having a treat or two, but don’t expect him to slip back into his old ways. “I’ve seen a lot of actors go on this journey and lose their drive, but it’s different with him. We still train every week. I’m very proud of what he’s accomplished, and I think this is just the start.”

Kumail Nanjiani’s ‘Eternals’ Workout

Directions

This is Kumail Nanjiani’s sculpting workout. In some cases drop sets are utilized, where the rep count decreases and weight increases to promote hypertrophy. Complete prescribed sets for each move, taking 45 seconds rest between.

1. Decline Cable Chest Press

Sets 1-2 (light weight): 20 reps
Set 3 (medium weight): 15 reps
Sets 4-5 (max weight): 10 reps

Adjust a bench 15 degrees to the decline position in the middle of a cable machine with handle attachments to the lowest setting on either side. Grasp handles, then lie back and bend arms wide with palms facing out. Press arms up, squeezing pecs at top, then lower (you’ll feel a stretch).

2. Incline Cable Flye to Chest Press

Sets 1-2: 12 flyes/8 presses
Sets 3-4: 10 flyes/6 presses
Sets 5-6: 8 flyes/4 presses
Adjust a bench 45 degrees to the incline position in the middle of a cable machine with handle attachments to the lowest set- ting on either side. Grasp handles, then sit with arms extended, slight bend in elbows, palms facing each other. Contract pecs to bring hands together. Squeeze at the top, then slowly lower. Perform prescribed reps then change hand position to a wide incline cable chest press.

3. Single-arm Crossbody Cable Flye 4 x 15 reps

Set a handle attachment just below chest level on a cable machine. Stand away in a staggered stance. If right foot is forward, grasp the handle with your left hand using a neutral grip. Place right hand on pec to feel the activation. Brace core and keep shoulders square. Begin the move from a pec stretch position. Perform a wide, sweeping cross-body flye—extending beyond your midline. Move slowly with a concentric hold on each rep.

4. Dumbbell Pullover 3 x 12 reps

Lie faceup on a bench, feet flat on the floor, holding a heavy dumbbell, arms straight overhead. Bend elbows and engage triceps to bring dumbbell just behind head. Up the intensity by extending elbows to perform a triceps extension, then reverse.

Triceps Extension and Triceps Kickback Marius Bugge

5. Triceps Giant Triset x 3 sets

Attach a straight bar to one side of a cable crossover machine and two handles on one clip on the other, both at the top setting. Start with the straight bar, using heavy weight. Hold the bar at forehead height with an overhand grip, elbows bent. “Throw” the weight down using momentum to complete triceps extension x 12 reps. Move to the other side, grasp the handles with an underhand grip, hinge at hips, then extend through triceps to do reverse drag triceps kickbacks x 12 reps. Turn hands over into an overhand grip to perform triceps pushdowns x 8 reps.

6. Biceps Giant Triset x 3 sets

Attach a straight bar low on cable machine and grasp with an underhand grip. Begin in the midway point of a biceps curl, arms bent at 90 degrees, and do partial-rep biceps curl x 7 reps, from bottom to halfway, then immediately transition to drag curl x 7 reps by stepping toward the machine, extending arms, and dragging the bar up your torso by pulling your elbows back (don’t shrug). Stop at chest height once elbows are fully bent. Immediately transition to full biceps curl x 7 reps, taking a step back to resume initial start position.

7. Rope Cable Preacher Curl 4 x 15 reps

Attach a triceps rope low on a cable machine. Grasp the ends in either hand and sit at preacher bench with elbows and upper arms firmly planted on the pad. Begin with arms fully extended, then curl the triceps rope toward your face until fully flexed with hands at each temple. Hold contraction for a full second.

8. Lying Cable Peak Curl 2 x 25 reps

Attach an EZ bar to shoulder height on a cable machine and place a flat bench under the bar. Using a narrow grip, perform a slow curl to forehead, holding each rep fully flexed for 3 seconds.

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November 21, 2021

Beginner Workout: Cycle 5, Week 2

Filed under: Fitness — Tags: Workouts — admin @ 12:30 pm

EDITOR’S NOTE: For an in-depth description of the beginner workouts and the movements contained in them from their creator, Bret Hamilton, have a look at his article on getting started with this 12-week program.

Getting Started with the Beginner Workouts

If you are just starting out and are unfamiliar with the movements included in this cycle, please refer to the instructional videos included and make sure you understand the techniques involved and have access to the proper equipment and space.

Tracking your progress is invaluable in achieving the results you desire. It will aid you on your journey and help you make sure you’re using a load that is challenging enough to help you improve, but not so challenging that you’re risking burnout or injury.

The program is designed to be performed three times a week. Monday, Wednesday, Friday would be ideal.It will help to build strength, improve coordination and flexibility, and also improve anaerobic endurance.

The total number of sets and/or reps will generally get smaller as the program moves forward, meaning it is designed to transition from strength-endurance focused to pure strength over the twelve week period.

Week 2

1. Movement Prep: Consider this the passive warm up. Lots of soft tissue stuff that incorporates foam rollers and/or roller stick tools to break up adhesions and bring some blood flow to the muscles.

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2. Activation: The part of the workout that fires up the vestibular system. These drills are excellent for motor control and coordination.

Crocodile breathing x10 breaths
Creeping X-lift practice with a ball on your back

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3. Intensification: During this phase of the workout, you will perform a “core-focused” drill that promotes developing total body tension for short, intense bursts. Your core temperature will rise and you will be ready for skill building.

Farmer hold with DB, plate, or KB 3x :10
Rotational stability plank x10 per side, :02 hold

4. Skill Building: This is the strength training portion of the session. It is referred to as skill building because an emphasis is put on the quality of the reps, not the quantity. There are typically two groups of three exercises. Perform each group of three as a circuit, one after the other. Rotate through the number of sets prescribed, then move on to the second group of three exercises before continuing to the next section of the workout.

Monday: 2X15 reps each

Friday: 3X10 reps each

Pushup
KB deadlift
1/2 kneeling hip flexor stretch with dowel x10
KB goblet squat (level 1)
DB bent-over row
Side-lying windmill on foam roller

5. Metabolic Conditioning: Here you will improve your anaerobic fitness levels by performing a high intensity interval session for approximately five minutes. Overall time is kept to five minutes, with the work and rest ratios becoming more challenging as your fitness improves.

Monday: speed squats, 6 rounds of work :15, rest :30

Wednesday:18-23 minutes of walking/jogging at 6/10 intensity level

Friday: speed squats, 7 rounds of work :15, rest :30

6. Cool Down: During the cool down, you will perform similar drills to the “Activation” section, except here they will function as total body resets. The drills included will help to bring down the heart rate gradually as well as recirculate blood after a high intensity finisher.

Cross crawls x10
Segmental rolls x3
Rocking x10
Foam roll as needed

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Feel free to include any extra stretching and/or foam rolling you feel is needed after completing this section. Make sure to eat some kind of protein rich food/shake within 30-60 minutes to accelerate your recovery.

If it is your desire to participate in this program, make it a point to stick with it for its entirety, without mixing and matching workouts from other training programs. Make use of the tracking tool provided. It will be invaluable in keeping tabs on your progress.

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