“I can’t do pull-ups, I’m just too big!” You’ve probably heard this excuse from one of your gym buddies in the past, as they try to explain why they’re limiting their outer back to the use of cable pulldowns. The truth is that they aren’t strong enough to pull themselves up, and they are using their body weight as an excuse. While it’s true that skinny lifters at 155 pounds can do pull-ups for days, there is no excuse for heavier trainers to toss out the movement. There’s no doubt that the mechanics of some exercises are going to change as you get heavier. However, for the most part, only a very minimal number of adjustments will need to be made to your training systems to keep making gains and getting the most utility out of ...

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In most sports, being tall is quite an advantage. In football, you can see over your competitors and make plays nobody else can. In basketball, it means you’re first to the rebound and your shot isn’t blocked. Usain Bolt is the fastest man in the world and one of the tallest sprinters in history. Tall tennis players have a reach that leaves others with twisted ankles trying to reach the ball. In other sports, height can be a curse. Tall soccer players aren’t able to cut and move as quickly on the field. In bodybuilding, having a great deal of height can be a curse or a blessing, depending on where you are in your overall development. In the beginning, it will be a curse. However, if you overcome years of being ...

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Many bodybuilding articles are going to blow smoke up your can by telling you tales of how easy it is to change your currently pathetic thighs into the thickest hamhocks this side of Mustafa Muhammad. The reality is that many of these articles are designed to sell bodybuilding supplements and give hope to people who, unfortunately just aren’t destined to have thighs this large. Here are some questions to ask yourself which can help you to most accurately gauge your potential for making leg mass gains. How old are you? If you’re 45 years old, the sad reality is that barring a very heavy cycle of human growth hormone and insulin, the odds of you adding 5 to 6 inches to your thighs are remotely small. Train for cuts, or enjoy the small amounts of size you can ...

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Calves are some of the hardest body parts in which to instill new growth. For many bodybuilders, the calf size and density you achieve in your early twenties is about as far as you will go. Others will find ways to boost growth later in life, when shortcomings become obvious on the bodybuilding stage. Without further adieu, when you have tried to get those calves to grow and all else has failed… Spike volume noticeably If you’ve been using 8 to 10 sets per calf exercise, and you haven’t seen good results, don’t jump up to 12 to 14 sets per training day to see minimal new results. Instead, double your volume to 16 to 20 sets. The huge change in volume should shock those calves into growth. If you’re overtraining the group, soreness will persist and you’ll ...

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Are you looking for a set of arms on par with those of today’s top professional bodybuilders? If so, you’re not going to be able to just attain them with a 2-month training fix found in an article of a muscle magazine. Those arms didn’t arrive to those men overnight, and they certainly aren’t going to replace yours without some major changes to your current regimen. Granted, the pros have a lot of factors in play that you may not. Many of them have been training for years. Their training has been consistent and tough over a long period of time. They have eaten a lot of food each day. Some of the ripped guys you see onstage today spent 3 or 4 years in a bloated state as they added new muscle to their bodies. ...

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You know what the meaty back days entail. You walk into the weight room, and you crawl out. You spend an hour and a half clubbing the back with set after heavy set of deadlifts, rows, and other assorted painful movements. At the end of the day, your back is pumped, you don’t fit in your shirt, and you know tomorrow is going to being some soreness. This is the way you should always train, right? Not exactly. There are going to be times when you don’t want to all-out destroy the back with heavy barbell and dumbbell movements. Maybe your central nervous system is a bit down, and you’re fighting off an illness. Maybe you’re letting a tweaked or overly sore area recover from what has been a bad week. Perhaps your joints ...

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Calf training is tough, no doubt about it. Compare it to training you utilize for body parts such as chest or biceps. When it comes to those areas, you can clearly see the muscle group being stimulated. Motivation is always there because people who take interest in your training or physique will often ask to see these body parts. And since they’re visible in just about any mirror you walk past or photograph you take, you are constantly reminded of them. Calves are a whole different story. First of all, they are usually concealed in your pants. Even when you’re completing, you have no clue when they look like. When a bodybuilding show arrives, you don’t know if you’re winning handily or being destroyed in the comparison poses on calves, because you can ...

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Things just aren’t what they used to be. Back in the days when the A to Z of bodybuilding was Arnold to Zane, bodybuilding training was simple. The guys weren’t dependent upon 10,000 pieces of equipment with cables and pulley leverage designed to tug at the muscle group from varying angles. Rather, men trained with heavy, solid pieces of welded iron and bench. Instead of opting for today’s wide array of ‘fancy-schmancy’ pumping exercises, why not choose the plain ol classic used by the greats of the past to add their mass? Choose Barbell Curls! Barbell curls can be highly effective, particularly when completed correctly. However, rushing through them, letting them damage your wrist, or using them too much can be counter-productive as well. Let’s examine a few ideas for making the excellent exercise even ...

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Remember when you first started lifting weights? It was all so simple then. You would walk into your gym and tackle whatever exercises looked good. It was all about challenging your body from every angle back then, and you loved every second of it. You probably didn’t count anything except the number of plates on the bar, and you kept adding weight every week. It was a glorious time, with those beginner’s gains. However, those days seems to have passed you by. Today it is much harder to grow bigger and stronger in the gym. You actually have to focus energy each day upon specific body parts, and it does matter what exercises you use. Set and rep ranges are influencing your success to a noticeable degree for the first time. ...

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A lot has been written about the benefits of using a low-carbohydrate diet for shedding body fat while retaining or even gaining muscle. In the last few years, a few high-profile gurus have made solid names (and bank account balances) for themselves by selling the idea that fewer carbs can help the bodybuilder get leaner than ever, while keeping the muscle. At the same time, a counter-effort, fueled partly by the politics of a split bodybuilding empire and by emerging research showing some of the dangers of low-carb eating, has emerged. So, the bodybuilding field is basically split down the middle. Let’s look at both the advantages and disadvantages of low-carb dieting, and see which is right for you! Advantages of a low-carbohydrate diet You’re going to get lean – and probably leaner than by using a low-fat, higher ...

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