Nobody can be at 100% all of the time. When athletes try to play with that intensity, they usually wash out of their game after a few years. Those professionals who have the ability to step back for a few months every off-season to allow the bodies – and more importantly their minds – to rest are usually those with much greater longevity in the sport of their choosing. When it comes to bodybuilding, the same tenets apply. Those bodybuilders who take 2 to 3 months off of continuous training following a tough competitive season are usually the guys that end up being able to compete for 10 year or more. On the other hand, the men who complete a show, take the afternoon off, then return to the gym ...

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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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Most body builders who have not tried to adopt a circuit training technique in their program live in ignorance of what is the use for a circuit training routine. It is important that you understand the aim and thus the benefits that accrue from a circuit training workout routine. In the basic, circuit training workouts are specifically designed to evenly strengthen all the major muscles and muscle groups in the body builder’s physique using specialized isolation exercises and a dose of compound exercises. The body must be built from the perspective of individual muscles and their supporting attachments, ligaments and tendons. Such an isolationist perspective helps determine how often and to what level of intensity, we stimulate muscle growth in the distinct body parts within a weekly training routine. This does not however dismiss the importance and need of compound exercises ...

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Movements conducted in the gym are commonly divided into two categories. The first group includes those exercises that are used to finish off a muscle group. This group of movements may be known to some trainers as the ‘polishing’ movements, as they are used to clean up and better define existing slabs of muscle. In other words, these exercises (such as curls, pressdowns, flyes, and rows) help to polish up the muscle you already possess. The second group, and perhaps much more important set of muscle building movements, are those classified as ‘functional strength’. The purpose of these exercises is to build overall body strength. And, as you might suspect, it is this group of heavy movement that leads to brand new muscle mass. The lifting of heavy weights is imperative in building new ...

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For a person who is intent on taking up strength training it is important that from the outset it should be realized that this is more than lifting weights. One needs to be prepared in the heart, in the body, and in the soul because this effort is really intense and it requires so much time and persistence if any meaningful gains are to be made. One needs to understand fully that in order for him or her to shred the layers of fat that make the body seem ridiculous one has to do many repeated sets at different weight levels and so on. Simply put, there is no opportunity for complacency. You must prepare the muscles to work extra hard if you are to lose the bad fats and put on the strength that you desire. The advantage with these sorts ...

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For a person who is intent on taking up strength training it is important that from the outset it should be realized that this is more than lifting weights. One needs to be prepared in the heart, in the body, and in the soul because this effort is really intense and it requires so much time and persistence if any meaningful gains are to be made. One needs to understand fully that in order for him or her to shred the layers of fat that make the body seem ridiculous one has to do many repeated sets at different weight levels and so on. Simply put, there is no opportunity for complacency. You must prepare the muscles to work extra hard if you are to lose the bad fats and put on the strength that you desire. The advantage with ...

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Q:  I'm relatively new to push pressing and I admit that I actually do really suck at it at this point. For instance, I'll powerclean the bar but my grip gets messed up and when I try to reset it, I can't. After that, I'll try to pop up and throw the bar through the roof, but that doesn't exactly happen. What happens is I'm wobbly at lockout and kind of grind out the press. I figure my legs are weak and that's part of the issue. And then the bar ends up in different places either high or low on my chest. Is it a tempo issue or just practicing more and getting stronger and more stable over time? A: First off, you sould work with someone who is experienced and have them watch your form and give you tips to help you become ...

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