When you first begin bodybuilding training, there is a good chance you aren’t going to take forearm training all that seriously. After all, they aren’t listed as target muscle groups in nearly all the articles we read in magazines. In the beginning, we usually employ a group of compound lifts which deliver stimulation all over the body. The forearms grow at a rate determined by genetics, rest, diet and stimulation through secondary training. Every time you complete a barbell row, biceps curl, or lat pull down, the forearms are targeted. In the beginning, they grow as a result. However, there are a few reasons why direct and sustained training designed to isolate the forearms is a good idea. Here are a few of them!   Aesthetics There is nothing more comical to see upon a bodybuilding stage ...

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When it comes to planning cardiovascular training, most bodybuilders don’t put much thought into it. They plan their muscle group workouts with great precision and focus. They select exercises, set and repetition ranges, and even toss in a few training principles to increase intensity, such as drop sets or training beyond failure. However, their cardio training sessions usually involve jumping on the nearest open machine and completing the time required to stay trim, with little regard for muscle group crossover or spillover effect. There are ways to stimulate the muscle group that has just been trained with weights, during the following cardio session. Not only does training in this manner help to avoid overtraining a muscle group, it can also be used to compliment the anaerobic weight training session you just completed by hitting those muscle fibers ...

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Many bodybuilders find success with brief, high intensity training. They discover the magic secrets to feeling peak contraction, and can manage to elicit some growth despite only using a few sets. For steroid users, this sort of success is easy with low-volume, extremely heavy training. For naturals, it can be much harder. Meeting peak intensity and training to actual failure isn’t always possible, especially when training without a spotter. For this reason, many bodybuilders resort to higher volume training. Hitting that peak failure point or achieving absolutely perfect repetition tempo isn’t as necessary, when you hit the muscle group with enough quality sets. Let’s look at a sample back day utilizing high volume training. You don’t have to train to failure on any set, although it is productive to toss that method ...

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Looking to give your bodybuilding training a kick in the pants? Check out these five steps for getting more out of the hours you spend in the gym lifting weight! Plan every workout Treat every workout as if it is a special project, unique and extraordinary. Plan your workouts each night for the following day. Spend 5 to 10 minutes analyzing your notes from the previous week’s workout for that body part (and yes, you should be keeping notes) to ensure the new workout irons out any bugs from the week before, and adds variance into the exercise selected. Variety is the Spice of Life You need variety in your bodybuilding training. This doesn’t just include mixing in new bodybuilding exercises on training day. This includes catching a workout in different gyms whenever possible. The variance in machines ...

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Bodybuilding nutrition is a very tricky topic to discuss. While working out and eating clean can make us much healthier than the average American, the excesses that are often required in order to maintain a level of weight and muscle mass (which our bodies were never designed to do) almost always involves the consumption of too much food. Top bodybuilders spend decades eating more food than they need, and as a result their body weights skyrocket. This places demands upon the heart, organs which must process what we eat, and our overall system battling toxins to keep our immune system high and our bodies free from ailments.   Are you ready to balance health and bodybuilding eating? You should start by establishing your baselines. These will include the caloric and macronutrients (protein, carbohydrates, and fat) that you ...

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Most bodybuilding manuals prescribe about the same movements for training back. You’re supposed to start with deadlifts, move on to chins and barbell rows, then finish your day with some lat pull downs. This primary focus upon free weight movements has served many bodybuilders well over the years, but it has also cost many bodybuilders years off their competitive career due to injury. Additionally, some bodybuilders, because of their training style, body type, or other factors, are unable to attain the pump in their back required for balanced muscle growth. They might get bigger, and they sure get stronger, but they often will lack the ability to attain and maintain a balanced pump which leads to balanced growth. Here are a few movements which trainers can use to attain great bodybuilding back growth without the use ...

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The barbell curl is often the first exercise a bodybuilder will discover in the gym, and one which delivers terrific results in terms of upper arm mass when they are completed correctly. This is the tricky part, however. Many bodybuilders don’t complete the exercise correctly, and there isn’t a great deal of literature out there dedicated to proper completion of slow and effective barbell curls. Here are four tips for making your barbell curls more productive. Back it up! Keep your back straight for the entire duration of this movement. Slouching or bending over not only places your lower back and neck at risk of injury, but also removes the workload from the biceps and draws it to other parts of the body. If you have a tough time keeping your back straight, you may want to consider ...

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Tomorrow at the gym, you should stop training on every set before you reach your failure point. When you know you have only 1 or 2 repetitions left in the tank, set the bar down. In some bodybuilding training circles, this would be considered hypocrisy. However, when employed correctly, stopping your lifting before you have reaching your peak of lactic acid buildup and muscle failure can be a wonderful thing. Here are some potential advantages you may see when halting your training sets before muscle failure has been reached. You will need less rest between sets Training in this manner means your heart rate will not reach as high of a pace as with normal training. You will be able to start the next set sooner. And, you will be stronger when you do so. You can ...

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Nearly thirty years after Tom Platz stood as one of the top 5 bodybuilders in the world, his gigantic thighs still rate as arguably the best in the history of bodybuilding. Amidst his current whimsical comeback talk, at nearly 60 years of age, he still hasn’t been eclipsed in terms of leg development by today’s crop of professional bodybuilders. How did Platz do it? His legs were larger and thicker than those of his contemporaries, and more defined and conditioned than many of today’s competitors. Did he have some magic diet that allowed him to grow more than others? Did he discover some secret drug cocktail that today’s pros have yet to match? No, the simple fact is that Platz was able to develop those incredible quadriceps by simply outworking everyone else. Let’s look ...

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Abs balls are among the most overlooked exercising equipment in the gym. They are normally lost within the steel vegetation of the several compound machines, and treadmills which encompass the moving monsters in the gym. Not just as a mantle piece in the localities of a gym, abs balls are the secret to an effective abdominal exercise, the best complement and in other cases, a road map to attaining the commonly admired six packs. This article shares 3 major benefits of abs ball workouts, and how they eventually change the mode of your thinking about, which are the proper abs workouts and how relevant they are. Abs balls are machines available in the gym, meaning that they are built specially and serve a particular purpose of toning and ripping the abs up. The single mindedness nature of the particular abs ball is ...

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