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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Barbell rowing has been the primary exercise to thicken the upper back for a long time. While this is an excellent exercise, it is not the only option. Using a large selection of back exercises in your routine will assist in recruiting many kinds of different muscles in the back, not to mention adding a little flavor to your work out as well. The following are some basic exercises that are very beneficial to the back. Hammer Strength Machine Rows This is widely used in the gym for a couple of reasons. First of all, they make the trainer maintain the correct range of movement during the exercise. There are no variables, it stays the same throughout the whole motion, and you can’t cheat. There is a constant path of motion. Second of all, the exercise itself is really safe. For a ...

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We all know how exciting it is to train back in a state-of-the-art facility. The machines are clean, and they are aplenty. The dumbbells are pre-sized, and placed on neat racks. The cable movements have a wide variety of grips. The free weight area is filled with racks, weights, and even those nifty little devices that allow you to load the weight for deadlifts just an inch off the floor. Ah yes, the feeling of training back in a top notch gym. Nothing beats it! Unfortunately, we don’t always have a nice gym at our disposal. Maybe you just moved to a new area and haven’t discovered a gym in your area. Maybe the economy has hit you hard, and joining a gym at the movement isn’t in your budget. Maybe a time ...

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Maybe you already have good forearms. Maybe you just want to make them great. Or, maybe your forearms lag. Perhaps you never made them a priority when you started training, and now that you’re a few years in, their weakness is definitely showing. Whatever the case, it’s time to pump them up! Forearms can be a challenging muscle group to build up. They are like the calves in that they are engaged in low-impact exercise virtually all day long. Whether you’re walking, typing, cooking, eating, training, or doing anything else, there is a good chance you are using your forearms. They’re not moving a lot of weight, but they’re moving a lot. To spurn new grown in your forearms, you need to do two things. First, you have to train heavy. After ...

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Looking to push yourself in a way you have never done before? Ready to instill some new growth in those stubborn arms, in a way you haven’t before? Buddy bicep curls might just be the tool for you! They are very simple – you and a buddy start doing curls with the same barbell, handing it back and forth until neither of you can complete another rep. They’ve simple, tough, and very effective! Find A Buddy You’ll want to select a training partner who is roughly the same weight and strength as you. It’s okay if there is some discrepancy. After all, each of you will only be completing as many reps as YOU can do. Select A Weight You’ll want to begin with a weight that you can curl comfortably for 10 to 12 repetitions. This will ...

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Are you a bodybuilder? You certainly look like one. You’re the biggest guy in most rooms you enter. And you certainly eat like one. Everyone knows that when they see you, they’ll usually see you accompanied by a cooler full of protein and a gallon of Crystal Lite. Finally, you train like one. You’re in the gym five days a week. You see the lesser trainers arrive, train, and depart while you’re still working on your first body part. The staff knows you by name, and you’re well aware of the little idiosyncrasies of both the equipment and the other people in the gym. It’s your second home away from home, and you leave everything on that gym floor. Yet there is still a chasm. There is a gap which exists between the ...

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We’ve all seen the young trainers in the gym, standing in the squat rack with an Olympic barbell, doing bicep barbell curls. Well, not exactly bicep curls. More like, “back heaves”. They add 40 pounds more than they can handle to the bar, and then use an extremely amusing amount of body English to bring the barbell from belt buckle to chin. Some cheating is beneficial in bodybuilding training. The goal of bodybuilding training is to stimulate the muscle group by filling it with as much oxygen- and protein-rich blood as possible. So if improper form at the end of a set helps the bodybuilder to push more blood into the region, it’s a positive thing. However, the question is, when does a little cheating become too much? When does the body English and ...

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Barbell rowing has long been considered the main movement for upper back thickness. However, as with all things, variety is the spice of life. Integrating a wide variety of back movements into your routine will help to recruit different muscles in the back, as well as keep the workouts interesting. Here is a rundown of some basic back movements. Dumbbell rows These are a favorite because they really allow the trainer to isolate the lat muscle on the side of the body doing the rowing. You can pull the dumbbell up as far as you wish – the range of motion is nearly unlimited. This movement is a staple in most bodybuilders’ back training. Incline dumbbell rows This movement is the same as dumbbell rows, except the trainer is lying face down against an incline bench. This allows ...

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A lot of debate has taken place as to whether or not barbell presses behind neck are a safe movement for training shoulders. The effectiveness of the movement cannot be denied – it requires the three heads of the shoulder, along with the triceps, forearms, and upper back, to exert effort. The movement builds mass, no doubt about that. The shoulders are forced to push a heavy weight skyward, and numerous muscle fibers in the upper body are recruited as a result. Barbell press behind the neck can be an effective movement as long as the bar isn’t lowered too far. This is the position which places an undue amount of stress upon the rotator cuff and deltoid muscles. With most exercises, a full range of motion ensures the highest possible number of muscle fibers is recruited. ...

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Many top bodybuilders have recently spoken out about their preference for alternating nearly “all-barbell” and “all-dumbbell” days. They believe that training in this manner, they are able to isolate certain muscle fibers and stabilizer muscles, which can often become overlooked using the same exercises in the same order each week. Let’s look at a standard example of how chest day could be trained in consecutive weeks, alternating barbell and dumbbell day. Workout #1 – Barbell Day Flat barbell press Incline barbell press Hammer Strength Bench Press machine Dips with attached weights Barbell pullovers Workout #2 – Dumbbell Day Incline dumbbell press Flat dumbbell press Incline dumbbell flyes Dumbbell pullovers Cable crossovers As you can see, entirely different exercises are used. The chest, the targeted muscle group of both of these routines, would be hit completely different on workout #1 than it would be in workout #2. Different angles, as ...

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