So you want strong, broad shoulders tying into a chiseled back, funneling down to a narrow waist? Before you hit the gym and start pounding the weights there are a few things you need to know about your back and how to blast it. First of all this: your back is comprised of three main areas: the upper back, the middle back and the lower back (spinal erectors). It’s no use only training the muscles you can see in the mirror. You’ve got to build all three parts to gain a top-notch posture and to develop a superior physique. Then you’ll not only look strong and confident, you’ll feel fantastic too. The most impressive area of a fully developed back is the sweep of the lats: the traditional v-shape of a bodybuilder. Any movements such as pull-downs, pull-ups or chins-ups are ...

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The Triple Shot is a training technique which allows the bodybuilder to stimulate each muscle group from the three most important angles. It’s not a super-set, which is designed for fast blood loading. And it’s not a giant set, designed for complete muscle annihilation. Rather, the Triple Shot is a technique designed to isolate the three largest parts of a muscle group, then delivering the three most effective movements for hitting these areas. The goal, of course, is the most possible muscle group stimulation leading to growth. Let’s check out routines for some of your muscle groups. Chest Flat bench press, immediately followed by incline dumbbell flyes, immediately followed by decline bench press. Keep the weight heavy enough to challenge you for 6 to 10 repetitions on all sets. Back Deadlifts, immediately followed by lat pulldowns, ...

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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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The best kind of training is the kind that your body isn’t accustomed to, that you can complete religiously. The most detailed, in-depth training protocols in the world won’t amount to a hill of beans if the bodybuilder can’t follow the routine, find an ideal level of training intensity in the gym, or is already used to it. Here is a very simple training routine for the full body. Each muscle group is given its own training day. Chest Incline dumbbell press Flat bench press Incline dumbbell flyes Back Deadlifts Barbell Rows Lat pulldowns Shoulders Seated dumbbell presses Dumbbell side raises Cable raises for rear delts (45 degree angle) Arms Standing barbell curls Chin-ups Seated alternate DB Curls Skull Crushers Legs Barbell squats Leg Presses Lying leg curls That’s it - three movements per muscle group. Two heavy compound movements and one isolation movement ...

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Do you have an extremely poor back? Has it cost you a few spots’ worth of placing in shows? At the local and regional level of shows, it is usually conditioning and structure that wins shows. At the national and professional levels, most bodybuilders already have superior shape and structure, and conditioning is usually pretty similar among the top 5 or 7 athletes in each class. At the lower levels of bodybuilding, having an excellent back is a rarity, as many people just getting into bodybuilding have spent their first few years of training focusing upon the showcase muscle groups of chest and arms. It’s never too late to make back a focus if you wish to go far in the sport of competitive bodybuilding, but the time to act is now. If your ...

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Back in the day, bodybuilders kept it simple. They trained hard, and they trained heavy. They didn’t have dozens of variations of machines, allowing them to torch muscle groups from hundreds of angles using cables and other attachments. They had barbells, plates, and not much else. Yet, despite this lack of technological innovation, they managed to build some seriously well-developed physiques. We’ll be training old school today, using a minimal amount of sets to completely scorch two major muscle groups (back and shoulders) in very heavy and brutal fashion. We’ll be combining back and shoulder day into one ‘super’ day in which you will only need one station and one set of equipment - the squat rack, a barbell, and a pile of plates. Reserve this corner of the gym for about 45 minutes ...

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MMA (mixed martial arts) fighting is extremely popular these days. Fight revenues from television pay-per-view are through the roof, and it seems MMA-style gyms are popping up all over the country. Many athletes from the fields of wrestling, football, and yes, even bodybuilding, and throwing their hats into the MMA ring. Professional bodybuilder Chris Cook moved from a mediocre rookie year in the IFBB to more success in the amateur MMA ranks, where is currently a rising star. If you are a bodybuilder looking into MMA training, or an MMA fighter looking to bring up your strength and power, you are in the right place. Here is a sample weightlifting routine for MMA fighters. Chest & Triceps Flat bench press 6 sets of 8 to 12 repetitions Incline DB Press 4 sets of 10 to 12 repetitions Flat DB ...

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When you are body building it is not an easy task in getting any dream fulfilled as planned. This is because, there are very many challenges which will come along the way and they will make it hard to fetch that individual dream. However, these are just handles to discourage you from successful body building and you should always learn how to over come them. A big back is very necessary for a body builder since it helps in the process of doing vigorous activities for instance, weight lifting. This is why you have to develop a nice workout program to achieve the big back dream. But it is not possible to develop a big back without first understanding the entire part and this is what this article is all about. A thick and well sweeping back is always a key ingredient ...

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Do you possess fairly solid back development, but lack biceps and forearm development of which to be proud? If this is the case, you may want to consider the use of back and biceps supersetting to help spurn new arm growth while keeping the back growth steady. Here is a sample workout.   Deadlifts Let’s start simple. Complete four sets of deadlifts, as you would start your workout. This is no time to get fancy. You will want to complete this heavy compound work as you normally would, nail down a solid compound movement for the back first. Aim for 8 to 12 repetitions for each set.   Barbell Rows, supersetted with barbell curls Complete a set of barbell curls using a range of 10 to 12 repetitions, then immediately drop the bar and pick up a pre-positioned barbell or EZ-curl ...

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Beginner bodybuilders tend to use a lot more machines than free weights when it comes to back training. This might be considered natural. After all, they are new to training, and the back is perhaps the hardest body part of all when it comes to achieving that mind-muscle connection. Many new bodybuilders will resort to arm, grip, or hip momentum when training using free weights for the back. Machines do serve a useful purpose for helping bodybuilders to isolate the back muscles and “getting to know their back”. Once they have trained a year or two, it’s time to advance to an intermediate training routine, such as this one. Deadlifts Always start your workouts with this movement. It may not be exciting, and it certainly won’t feel all that good on your spine, but the results ...

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