Category: Training

The 3 Best Muscle Building Exercises You Should Be Doing

The 3 Best Muscle Building Exercises You Should Be Doing

When it comes to building muscle I like to keep things simple. It’s easy to get caught up in the hype of hot new products and exercises that promise to be the next best thing in muscle building. Theses fancy exercises and products use long “scientific like” words and explanations to show you they work to build the most muscle.

In this article I am going to get back to basics. I am going to show your three muscle building exercises you can’t afford not to do and why you should be doing them. These three exercises are the grass roots of building muscle and are essential for any serious training program.

You might find it hard to believe, but with these three exercises alone you can pack on a serious amount of muscle. I refer to these exercises as the “core” to any good program. When I start planning I muscle building program for a client I always start with these three basic exercises and build the program around them.

3 core muscle building exercises:

Squat

The squat is the biggest exercise for packing on serious poundage. There’s no argument about it. The squat is primarily a leg building exercise. You start the exercise with a barbell resting across your shoulders standing straight up. Then bending at the knees and hips you lower the barbell down until your thighs are almost parallel to the floor. And then push the barbell back to the starting position.

The main muscle groups pulled into action for the squat are your quadriceps, hamstrings and glutes. Secondary muscle groups include the lower back, adductors and to a certain extent your shoulder muscles. As you can see many muscle groups are recruited for this exercise making it the biggest exercise and biggest potential muscle builder.

Like all the core muscle building exercises, you should make the squat the first exercise you do on your leg training day. Because it’s the biggest exercise you want your legs to be fresh and ready. If muscle building is your goal, aim for about 8-12 reps on the squat. Because you’ll be lifting heavy weights a good warm up is vital. Squatting is very stressful for the lower body, especially the knees, so 5-10 minutes on the treadmill and some lights squats first up are recommended.

Bench Press

The bench pres is the king of upper body building exercises. For years the bench press has been used to measure a lifter’s strength. How many times have you been asked “how much do you bench?” I bet you’ve never been asked how much do you squat or how many chin ups can you do.

The bench is a simple yet extremely powerful exercise that targets the entire chest (pectorals), front shoulders (deltoids) and triceps. To perform a bench press you must lie on your back on a flat bench, grip the barbell at slightly wider than shoulder grip and press the bar straight down to your chest.

The bench press is the biggest upper body builder because it allows you to move the most amount of weight possible. This is its advantage over the dumbbell press. With the help of a spotter you can also push yourself to lift heavier weights. There are also other advanced bench press techniques like board presses, bench press negatives and chain presses. See our link at the bottom for more details.

Wide grip Chin Up

If you were only going to do one exercise to work your back this would be it. The wide grip chin up is the ultimate test of a lifters power to weight ratio. This muscle building exercise is very demanding on the body.

The wide grip chin up primarily hits the lats, but also targets the entire upper back, biceps and forearms. To execute this exercise you need a chin up bar or assisted chin up machine. Hold the bar in a wide grip (greater than shoulder width) with your palms facing away from your body. Start in a “hanging” position with your arms fully extended. Pull yourself up until your can get your chin over the bar and lower back to starting position.

Most people will not be able to do wide grip chin ups without some lat/back training first. You can use the assisted chin up machine or lat pull down machine to strengthen your lats before attempting wide grip chin ups. This is the most demanding back exercise you can do so it must be the first exercise in your session.

When should you be doing these exercises?

Like I mentioned previously in this article, these exercises are the biggest muscle builders and also the most taxing on your body so they must be done at the beginning of your workout to get the maximum benefits. I recommend that you do up to 5 sets on each exercise and vary the way you perform these sets each week. For example, the first week you do pyramid up sets, the second week you pyramid down and the third week you do straight sets. This keeps your muscles from getting accustomed to your routine. Good luck packing on some serious pounds!

The Importance of Lifting Heavy

The Importance of Lifting Heavy

Whether you’re a man or woman seeking muscle gain or muscular “tone”, lifting heavy should not be unfamiliar to you. However in some cases, many will shy away from this harder task in belief that it will not produce the desired results that they are looking for. Of course lifting heavier weights will bring strength gains, but a typical bodybuilder-in-training will focus more of his attention on gaining size, not strength.

I’ve seen guys well under 200 lbs bench pressing upwards of 315lb with ease, and on the other end I’ve seen men around 275 pounds of solid muscle struggling with the same weight. Regardless of your goals of obtaining that sought-after physique, heavy weights will only benefit you!

The reason this is, is because training with only hypertrophy gains in mind will leave you continuously lifting weights in the 8-12 rep zone. This, in short will hinder you from progressing as fast as you can. Lifting heavy weights will ultimately increase your body’s capacity for muscular growth. With the normal weights your body is used to lifting, doing 4 sets of 8-12 reps, your potential for strength gains is limited. You MUST include routines of heavy power movements to gain size and strength respectively.

Like I said before with cardio, there are many different ways to go about losing fat, however some are just faster than others. The same principle applies here. There are many ways to gain muscle, but the fastest way is to incorporate heavy weights into your training regimen ALONG WITH hypertrophy training.

Look at it this way:

If a person was to train solely for muscle gains (hypertrophy), they most likely might hit a plateau on their bench press at 225 pounds with 15 reps (just an example). Now if a similar person were to incorporate heavy power training into their weekly routine, their bench press may most likely increase to 275-315 pounds for 15 reps.  So who do you think will make the most gains over the long haul? The person lifting heavier weight would because they have increased their muscular threshold to bear more weight, therefore recruiting more muscle fibers (muscle gain).

Try designating a week or so each month just for heavy lifting. This will tremendously help increase your lean muscle mass. Having a training partner during this time is a great idea to ensure safety and to help on those last couple reps!

 

-Mitch Muller

CPT – MindsetFitness.net

Sources: Dr. Layne Norton, Mega Feature: Layne Norton Training Series + Full Power/Hypertrophy Routine (Updated 2011)


 

The RIGHT Way to Train

There’s a right way to train and a wrong way; but there isn’t a RIGHT WAY.

Wait, that doesn’t make sense, does it? How is that even possible? Well, from a logical point of view it doesn’t at all. Obviously it’s a complete contradiction. But if you take a closer look, you might find that it actually makes perfect logical sense. So let me do some explaining…

These days there are a million different types of training methods: interval, high intensity, power, strength, muscular hypertrophy, plyometrics, endurance, blah blah and the list goes on and on. So how do you come to terms with the right way to train and which training type is for you? Everything you do in the gym must first start with goals, so this covers step number 1:

The Right Way To Train | Step #1.    ESTABLISH A GOAL

“The tragedy of life doesn’t lie in not reaching your goal. The tragedy lies in having no goals to reach.” – Benjamin Mays

When you main goal is established you can then decide which training technique will best fit your needs. And when I say “main goal,” I don’t mean “I want to get in shape.” That’s not a goal. That’s like going to the car wash and leaving your windows down: you won’t accomplish what you came there for, and your progress will come to a screeching halt with even further setbacks. Being vague doesn’t work here. I’m looking for a SPECIFIC goal. Here are some examples:

– Gain 15lbs of muscle by the end of this year

– Decrease my body fat from 15% to 8% in 4 months

– Increase my bench press by 20lbs in 3 months

Do you notice anything similar between these three statements? They ALL have a time period set for the specific goal. I’ve found that setting a specific time frame to achieve a desired goal is not only beneficial, but will help your adherence and motivation to complete that goal. People who fail to reach their desired outcome are people who don’t look at it from at day-to-day basis. This is what I call the “baby steps of fitness.”

It all starts with a long-term goal, so keep that in the back of your mind for now. This is where step number 2 comes in:

The Right Way To Train | Step #2.   ESTABLISH “BABY STEPS”

Let me use Example #3 from up above:

If your goal is to increase your bench by 20lbs, what would be some smaller goals to accomplish this? Maybe…

– Incorporate strength training routines for chest, shoulders, triceps

– Start forearm training twice per week

– Perfect bench press form

– Train with a spotter

These 4 statements are examples of “baby steps” that can be done on a day-to-day basis that will eventually take you to the desired goal you set out to achieve.

The Right Way To Train | Step #3.   PICK YOUR TRAINING METHOD

Every goal is the gym has a specific training method that comes with it. Here are the popular ones:

– Strength = Strength Training/ Heavy Weights

– Muscle Gain = Hypertrophy Training

– Fat Loss = High Intensity Interval Training/ Cardio

– Athletic Performance = Power/Endurance Training

I’ll break these down in later articles, but as for now let’s keep it simple. By now you’ve probably guessed what the “wrong way” to train is. Not setting short, obtainable goals will bring you down the road of frustration and defeat, and more specifically, not knowing the right way to train will give you little to no progress in your fitness goals.

So onto my last point; there is no RIGHT WAY to train. I get questions all day long about how many reps are ideal for mass building, or how many sets someone should complete in each workout to maximize muscle fiber breakdown, what have you…So let me clear the air for all of you with these types of questions. Although there are hard facts about specific rep ranges for your specific goal type, only you yourself know when your muscles have hit failure. Don’t let someone else’s pre-determined rep range stop you from doing more than 8-12 reps when you’re more than capable of completing 15. As a beginning exerciser, I wouldn’t expect you to have this kind of connection with your body just yet. But as you become more advanced, your mind/body connection will grow stronger and your muscles will tell you what works in the gym and what doesn’t. I firmly believe that the 8-12 rep range is ideal for building mass, but if you aren’t hitting failure during these sets, you aren’t pushing your body to its full potential. And that’s basically what this fitness life is all about isn’t it?

What if there’s a day when you feel like doing lighter weight instead of heavy, or it’s back day and you want to do 10 sets of Deadlifts instead of your normal routine? My advice to you…DO IT. If you manage to lift your 12th rep and your spotter can help you get up #13, then you better not stop! Push your body to the limit and it will, without a doubt, reward you. It is extremely important to write down these limits and remember them. This will give you a mental barrier to surpass each week as you train progressively.

Well I’ve babbled on for a while so I’ll call it a day and let you folks get after it! Email me with any questions you have and I’ll be glad to respond back asap.

 

– Mitch Muller

CPT- MindsetFitness.net

The Kaizen Principle

the kaizen principle

The Kaizen Principle

The science behind sets, reps and tempo have been kicked around back and forth over the years by several bodybuilding “experts” who claim to have the barrier busting secrets to packing on the mass. From what I’ve studied and learned, there is no secret to adding muscle and getting ripped to shreds. The answer will always lie in your own persistence, determination, motivation and will-power. Getting up at 6 in the morning to have Meal #1 of the day is something that you, yourself have to get done. No one will make you do it. It will always depend on how bad you want it.

If you’ve been training for quite some time now, you’ve probably hit some sort of wall in the gym. Not literally punching a wall (which sometimes might cross your mind on those low energy cutting days), but reaching that plateau that feels impossible to break away from. I’ll give you an example from my personal experience. For the longest time my bench press was at 225 for 5 reps at the end of my chest workout (Reversed workout regimen). For some reason I just couldn’t seem to reach that next personal record. Even after adding only 5 pounds, it still seemed to be too much weight for documented improvement. With smaller isolation exercises, you might find that it is even harder to see improvement, such as the reverse fly for rear delts, or the lateral raise. Most dumbbells today only increase by 5 pound increments, which make constant strength gains a very hard task, even to the experienced lifter. You are not alone if you share this frustration. It happens to the best of us!

The Kaizen Principle | So what do I need to do to get past this strength plateau?

The Kaizen principle originates from Japanese roots. The word “Kaizen” has no English equivalent, but translated means “constant and never-ending improvement.” This word is used in many areas throughout Japanese culture to express love in relationships, learning new things, or basic improvement in day-to-day life battles. By applying small refinements daily, in the long run, one could achieve progress that most would view as incredible. So let’s apply the kaizen principle to our training…

By using the Kaizen Principle, small increments of one pound (or less) are used instead of making a jump of five pounds. This will ultimately make your lifts more tolerable and psychologically achievable. Imagine the type of improvement you would see if you were to increase your personal records by one half pound or one pound per week? That would add up to a 26-52 lb increase in one year! Pretty cool, huh?

A simple approach I’ve used in my training to reach these gradual increases is to use sleeve collars with my barbell lifts. Depending on the type in your gym, most will weigh anywhere from ½lb to a pound a piece. By sliding these bad boys on the bar, that extra pound will most likely come unnoticed, making your new personal records repetitive on a week to week basis. I don’t know about you but that makes me freaking excited! Once the collars become easy, 2 ½ lb plates will do the trick, and so on…

So regardless of where you are in the bodybuilding world, small incremental increases can reap huge rewards in the long run. Apply this to your training and let me know about your improvements!

Remember to lift with a purpose, keep your goals in your head, and constantly improve. The gains will come with use of the Kaizen Principle!

-Mitch Muller

CPT – MindsetFitness.net