SAVE YOUR ABS

I had abs before they were cool. I had no idea how lucky I was, or why my dating prospects improved so dramatically as the weather warmed up. All I knew was that I was skinny and I wanted to be bigger. My wish came true soon enough; with a desk job and a workout programme that consisted almost entirely of lifting heavy things, the weight was easy to put on. My abs disappeared, but I enjoyed the modest strength gains more than I missed the jagged contours.




 Over time, the unholy alliance of word-processing software and an unbalanced workout programme left me with a series of injuries that made sitting easier but lifting nearly impossible: My body was, literally, molding itself to hunch over a keyboard.

So I returned to my core. Instead of a few random sets of midbody exercises at the beginning or end of my workout, core training became the centerpiece of my programme.

Meanwhile, Alwyn Cosgrove, co-owner of Results Fitness in Santa Clarita, California, was searching for solutions to the same dilemma as he designed his workouts. Cosgrove noticed that clients were coming to him in far worse shape than demographically identical clients were just a few years ago. Their posture was distorted, thanks to years of working ever-longer hours with ever-smaller technology. Even the clients who were "fit" often displayed unbalanced fitness: The strong ones lacked endurance, the ones with good endurance lacked strength, and most of them struggled with injuries related to training for one goal at the expense of all others.

The solution, Cosgrove discovered, was to spend less time in the weight room and more time on mobility, conditioning, and core training. Especially core training. You'd think that less time with the iron would mean a softer body and weaker muscles. But that's not what happened-not to me, and not to Cosgrove's clients. The focus on core training not only helped me recover from my injuries but also left me leaner and more athletic than I'd felt in a long time.

Cosgrove's training approach, and my success with it, led us to write our book, The New Rules of Lifting for Abs. Read on to learn the top body-changing benefits you'll achieve using our core-centric approach.




Burn fat without moving

Ab training is easy; core training is hard. An exercise like the crunch works a tiny amount of muscle through a minuscule range of motion. Core training works your abdominal muscles along with your lower back and draws in your glutes, hamstrings and everything in between. Even your lats are involved; the connective tissue at the bottom of your lats play a crucial role in stabilising your spine and helping transfer force between the muscles in your upper and lower body when you row, climb or pull.

Training that much muscle at once burns a lot of calories, even if you're not moving.

Here's an example: Assume a pushup position, with your arms straight. Lift your right arm and left leg simultaneously, and hold that position. Concentrate on keeping your body still-don't let your hips drop or your torso rotate. Keep holding. A little longer. Wait . . . okay, you lost it. No problem. Just repeat by lifting your left arm and right leg. And hold that. Unless you're a recreational acrobat, you're probably sweating, shaking, and wheezing like an asthmatic. Train like that for 10 minutes each time you go to the gym and it's hard not to get lean.

Build muscle where it matters

If your goal was to build your biceps, you'd target those muscles with curls. Why curls? Because you can feel your biceps contracting on each rep. Most guys use the same logic in pursuit of abs: Crunches shorten the muscles, so that must be the best way to work them. It isn't!

A study in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research shows that exercises that extend your body while keeping your lower back in a safe, neutral position, work the rectus abdominis-the six-pack muscle-25 per cent harder than crunches do.

Try this: Grab a Swiss ball and assume a plank position-your toes on the floor and body straight from neck to ankles-but with your forearms on the ball. Slowly push the ball out and away. Go as far as you can while keeping your lower back completely stiff-that is, the arch in your lower back shouldn't increase or decrease. Pull the ball back and repeat. Chances are, it'll take a few workouts before you can do 10 reps with a good range of motion. And you may find yourself with sore abs a day or two afterward. But at least you'll know you're truly developing these muscles.




Win the game of life

Core training isn't the answer to every fitness question. When researchers try to correlate core stability with athletic performance, the results are underwhelming.

But good strength coaches include core training in their programmes anyway; they know it's important for back injury prevention, if nothing else.

However, when a Canadian research team looked at specific tests of fitness and longevity, they found that men who scored lowest for abdominal endurance had more than double the risk of death from any cause over the course of the study compared with those who scored highest.

Why? The same reason strength coaches stress core training, even if it's not directly linked to goals or touchdowns. Stability of your lower back depends on the endurance of the supporting muscles.

Spinal instability leads to injury. Injury can be a career killer for an athlete, and plain deadly for an older adult. Train your abs now and you'll have many more years to enjoy the benefits.


By: menshealth.intoday.in

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From: LAmuscle.com

SHOULDER SHOCKERS

You´ve got delt problems I´ve got solutions.




To have a balanced physique, you must have balanced shoulders. In terms of structure and symmetry, the shoulders are the most crucial bodypart because theyre visible from every angle and because theyre the visual reference points for establishing your V taper. 

Even if youre not a competitive bodybuilder, your shoulders are still a crucial body part. When youre wearing street clothes, your shoulders define your physique because they establish your width. Without great shoulder development, much of the hard work you put into the rest of your body will go unnoticed.

If you have any weaknesses or structural imbalances in your shoulders, follow my suggestions for improving shoulder development and appearance. Read on for my solutions to particular problems such as lagging delt heads or overall shoulder weaknesses. Experiment with my shock techniques, and try my training prescriptions to overcome those sticking points and build impressive cannonball delts.




SHOCKS TO THE SYSTEM

Pick and choose from among the following eight pointers to help build better shoulders. Further into this article, Ill tell you which tips may be best implemented for particular shoulder problems. Dont try to put all of these strategies into play at once. Try compatible strategies for a few weeks before giving others a try. Varying these shoulder shockers will keep your muscles guessing and growing.

Shock 1 Train shoulders after two days of rest. Train a lagging bodypart or a problem area after two days of rest. Full rest will allow you to train with greater intensity and get better results.

Shock 2 Train shoulders first in your workout. Regardless of what other muscle groups you are working on that day, train your shoulders first while youre trying to make improvements in them.

Shock 3 Train shoulders twice a week, but at reduced volume. Bodybuilders often train a bodypart once a week, which is an ideal strategy for overall growth. To bring up a bodypart, though, train it twice a week. Reduce training volume slightly for each session to avoid overtraining.

Shock 4 Concentrate on the area of weakness. When you perform a rep, think about the specific part of your body that youre trying to stimulate. If your rear delts are weak, focus on how theyre working during exercises such as dumbbell presses that target the whole shoulder complex.

Shock 5 Develop a mind-muscle connection. Weight stimulates growth, but it has to be used effectively to develop a targeted body part. By cultivating a mind-muscle connection, youll overcome problem areas more effectively. Heres the key: Never think about the weight. Always focus on the stretch and contraction of the targeted muscle. Thats the essence of the mind-muscle connection.

Shock 6 Use heavy weights and fewer reps. Heavy weights stimulate better growth than high reps and lighter weights. Once you develop the mind-muscle connection, the best strategy is to use six to eight reps for mass-building exercises.

Shock 7 Take shorter rest periods during training sessions. Bodybuilders often make the mistake of resting too long between sets. Try reducing rest periods to about a minute between sets. You wont be able to use as much weight or perform as many reps, but the overall stimulation of your targeted muscles can be enhanced.

Shock 8 Focus on proper nutrition prior to shoulder workouts. Eat a large breakfast, take supplements, drink plenty of water, and consume a carb and protein shake before you train. If you have plenty of calories in your system early in the day, youll have much more energy when you train. As a bonus, these nutrients will also help you repair and build muscle mass after your workout. Proper pre-workout nutrition is an often overlooked aspect of effective training.

PROBLEM 1: LAGGING DELTS

SOLUTION Use a targeted approach to building all delt heads. Apply all the Shocks to the System techniques, discussed above, that are compatible. For example, use Shocks 1, 2, 5, 7 and 8 for four weeks and make note of any difference in your delts. Replace Shock 7 with Shock 6 for another four weeks. Continue to mix and match as you learn what works best for you.


PROBLEM 2: UNDERDEVELOPED FRONT DELTS

SOLUTION Focus on the front delts during shoulder work. Use Shocks 1, 2, 3, 4 and 8 for six weeks, then use Shock 6 in place of Shock 3 for another six weeks.


PROBLEM 3: LACK OF SHOULDER WIDTH

SOLUTION Emphasise middle delt-head training to widen your physique. Bodybuilding is a sport of illusion, and your goal is to create the illusion of more shoulder girth. Use Shocks 1, 2, 4, 6 and 8 for four to six weeks, then add Shock 7, keeping the weights as heavy as short rest periods allow.


PROBLEM 4: ROUNDED SHOULDERS


SOLUTION Learn to use your delts more effectively, while removing traps from the movement. At first, reduce the amount of weight you use so that you get the feel of this more isolated style of training. Use Shocks 1, 2, 5 and 8. Think about the sensation in your delts during each rep, and dont allow your traps to do the work. It will take concentration to accomplish this. As you develop the mind- muscle connection, add Shock 6, gradually increasing weight and decreasing reps.



PROBLEM 5: UNDERDEVELOPED REAR DELTS


SOLUTION Concentrate on rear delts during shoulder and back training. It can be tricky to build rear delts. Theyre used in both shoulder and back training, but they arent visible from your vantage point, so you have to master the mind-muscle connection to build them effectively. Use Shocks 1, 2, 4, 5 and 8 for four weeks. Then add Shock 3, training shoulders twice a week and reducing training volume for each shoulder workout. This is an effective strategy because rear delts are small muscles and they recover quickly. For the second shoulder session of the week, train back first and alter the prescription by eliminating machine presses, lateral raises and the final two sets of bent raises.


SHOULDERING ON

Use these prescriptive measures to correct lagging areas. Train smart, hard and consistently, and be sure to pay proper attention to bodybuilding nutrition. Youll soon have to turn sideways to walk through your front door. 

By: Dennis James - FlexOnLine

Arnold Sports Festival: USA in Columbus Live Stream

Arnold Amateur Live Stream

BUILDING BIGGER BICEPS BY PUTTING A TWIST ON YOUR CURLS

Take your bicep development to the next level with this simple but potent tip from Cory Gregory. Get your twist on during incline dumbbell curls and build bigger arms.




I’m always on the search for a way to build my arms to another level, I felt like I hit the jackpot when I was 15.

I started hearing about a guy named Shawn Dorsey who grew up around us, and I was totally blown away by the size of his arm. Simply put, the dude had some huge-ass arms, so the wheels in my head immediately began to churn.

His arms were undoubtedly bigger than anyone I knew, so I had to find out what he was doing to get his arms that much bigger.

I asked to train with him in his garage, and that’s when I got in on a few of his secrets, and he told me one of the biggest twists he used to get some serious gains.

It all started with Shawn seeing some old pictures of Arnold doing some incline curls, and if I remembered correctly, Arnold was always big on doing both arms at the same time.

The exercise was an important one for Shawn, but instead of doing them at the same time, he alternated arms, doing 6-8 reps depending on the weight.

Of course, this exercise is nothing new or revolutionary, but he had a unique addition to the movement.

After finishing his final rep on both arms, he simply let the dumbbells hang for about three seconds. Then, he twisted them clockwise and counter-clockwise in a continuous motion from the hanging motion, doing this for about 6-8 seconds.

It didn’t seem like much initially, but Shawn was clearly laboring doing this after his set. I noticed some considerable discomfort, but I also noticed his biceps swelling up with blood quickly.




From there, he immediately did 4 more reps, which looked like complete torture. Of course, there was a killer pump that came with the pain making it well worth the extra effort.

After just seeing it one time, I was completely sold on the movement and I couldn’t wait to try it for myself. Now, I’m addicted to the movement and it’s a staple when it comes to working my biceps.

Yes, it’s now 17 years later, but I’m still adding a twist to my incline dumbbell work every week, and it’s very much worth it.

So thanks Shawn for opening my eyes to this unique and crazy exercise.

If done correctly, this little twist will make sure your arm training will never be the same again.

Step 1: Grab dumbbells out of a rack or off the floor and sit down on an incline bench (which should be angled around 30-45 degrees).

Step 2: Keep your arms straight and, using an overhand grip, grab the dumbbells off the floor. Have the dumbbells by your side with your palms facing each other. Keep your feet firmly on the floor, pinch your shoulder blades together and make sure your back is tight and knees are bent. Your upper back will likely come off the incline bench.

Step 3: With your wrists straight, bend your elbows and curl one dumbbell upward toward the front of your shoulders in a controlled manner, twisting the dumbbell on the way up so that your palm is facing you once it reaches shoulder level. Continue to keep your back tight and your knees bent.

Step 4: Once the dumbbell reaches shoulder level, pause for a split-second, squeeze your bicep, twist the dumbbell and then straighten the elbows, lowering the dumbbell in a controlled manner, until it is by your side and your palms are facing each other. Your elbow will continue to remain by your side throughout the descent. Repeat with the opposite arm.




5-SECOND TWIST

Step 5: After a certain amount of reps, twist the dumbbell out of the starting position. Your arms will be straight and simply twist the dumbbell from side-to-side for 5 seconds. Once completed, resume full reps with each arm.

Step 6: Take a breath between reps, exhaling only when reps are completed. Repeat until the desired reps are reached and then set the dumbbells back on the ground.



By: Cory Gregory - muscleandstrength

10 Tips From Conor McGregor To Succeed

Irish wrestler Conor McGregor is synonymous with success. 




The UFC star has become a media personality, not only for triumphs within the octagon, but for the challenging statements he makes at event conferences and interviews.

1. Be grateful: "Gratitude is one of the strongest ways to attract good things, if you are thankful even with the smallest things, then you can celebrate the great things"

2. Train and pursue your dreams: "When I left school, a lot of people questioned what they were doing, they did not know what MMA was and that they could make a race with it. I focused on training and I knew where I was going I showed that they were wrong and I was right "

3. Express what you feel in each moment: "If you see it in your mind and you have the courage to say it, it will happen.Many people believe in many things, but they do not manifest it, they have it.If you are verbal with it, You are creating that law of attraction and that will come true "




4. Look at your heroes: "Muhammad Ali was someone who did something never done before, changed his face to the world, fought for his ideals and was a legend.I admired him as a hero.When I was 11 I had a fight , I dodged a blow and thought of Ali "

5. Pure cholism: "I do not like to think about the future or long-term goals, I feel that I live every day, I move on, every day as I come. I can know what will happen in the near future"

6. Enjoy with your fans: "Every day I drive to the gym and I see flags of Ireland and people greeting me." One day I went to greet one of them at his apartment.I appreciate the support of all the fans, I use it as a motivation "

7. Open mind: "People think things should be done in a way, but with John Kavanagh (coach) it was not like that, I had an open mind and I was trying new things. There is always a time and place for everything"




8. Love what you do: "Fighting is in my head 24/7, I do not think about anything else.Everything I do in my life is related to the struggle.I see myself healthy, for me something that is not healthy is to wake everyone The days to do the same from 9 to 5, that defeats your mind, I love what I do and that's why it has become a career "

9. Look for the top: "I do not usually look back, I continue straight to the top"

10. Inspire others: "No one works harder than I do in and out of the octagon. Many people will see me and bring out something positive, inspiration, people who do it will rise and can experience this life."

DUMBBELL FLYS ON A FLAT BENCH

Increase the depth and definition of the chest with this movement in flat bench. 




Keep your elbows locked and slightly bent to isolate the chest. Imagine that you are trying to hug the trunk of a large tree while joining hands describing a large bow.

EXECUTION

* Lie on your back on a flat bench with your feet flat against the floor. The head, back and buttocks should be in contact with the bench.

* Grab some dumbbells with palms facing each other and arms extended on the chest. Lock the elbows and fold them slightly.

* Inhale deeply and hold your breath while lowering your arms directly to the sides.

* As the arms approach shoulder level or slightly below, contract the chest muscles to reverse the direction, keeping the elbows slightly bent. Follow the same arc as you raise your arms to the vertical position and expel the air.

* Pause and repeat.




TRAINING TIPS

* Avoid using too heavy weights, which would force you to bend your elbows excessively and lower them to a level well below shoulder level. Folding more elbows transforms openings into a pressure movement, changing the way it affects muscles and facilitates injuries.

* The breathing rate is crucial. When you breathe in and hold your breath, the rib cage expands and stabilizes the torso and so the muscles involved have a firm base from which to push. If the rib cage is not held steady, the ribs will move as the muscles contract, resulting in a weaker contraction. Start by expelling the air or do a forced exhalation to quickly relieve the pressure in the chest once you pass the most difficult point of the ascending phase.

* Dumbbell openings are one of the best exercises to fully develop the main muscles of the middle pectoralis, but only if the arms are perpendicular to the torso. All other actions involving the pectorals mainly use the upper and lower areas. Keep your arms slightly bent and in line with your shoulders.

* The peck-deck apparatus can double the muscular participation of the dumbbell openings.

»To increase stability, keep your feet on the ground throughout the exercise. Do not place them on the bench by trying to relieve tension in the lower back, as this practice greatly reduces stability and increases the chances of injury.

BASIC MUSCLES INVOLVED

In the openings with dumbbells are involved the muscles of the shoulder joint and the deltoid band, which are: pectoral, anterior deltoid, coracobrachial and serrate. The pectoralis major - the great muscle that covers the majority of the chest originates in the frontal border of the clavicle, along the sternum and in the cartilages of the six first ribs near the sternum. The anterior head of the deltoid is one of the three that form the shoulder. The coracobrachial is a small muscle under the deltoid and the pectoralis major in the front and inside of the arm.

In the deltoid band, the minor pectoralis and serratus are the main muscles involved. The small pectoralis minor is located in the upper part of the chest and is covered by the pectoralis major. The serrate is placed on the outer surface of the ribs (just below the axilla) and is covered by the scapula at the back and by the pectoralis major at the front




MUSCULAR AND ARTICULAR ACTIONS

In the horizontal adduction of the shoulder joint, the arms move from the sides to the front of the body in a line perpendicular to or at an angle to the torso. In scapular abduction in the deltoid band, the muscles move the scapula from the spine to the sides of the ribs as the arms move toward the midline of the body.


SPORTS USES

Dumbbell openings are used in bodybuilding to develop the chest and the anterior shoulder in addition to the serratus. The combination of horizontal adduction of the shoulder and scapular abduction is very important in all actions involving extending the arms to the front or embracing as in gymnastics, especially in the rings; In boxing and martial arts; In rugby in tackles and grabbers to the contrary and in powerlifting in bench press. These actions are also used in tennis and other racquet sports, in baseball when throwing a hand and throwing a disc when it is released.