3 Exercises to add muscle

Here are 3 exercises that people need to do more often to help with your muscle gains.

1) INCLINE DUMBBELL BENCH PRESS- Ok, so I know a ton of people bench and work their pecs, but not many people do incline often and with enough volume. Dumbbells are great because they allow for a greater range of motion more so than the traditional barbell does. Also, incline press will help your anterior delt ( front of the shoulder ) and upper pec to develop at greater speeds which will result in a fuller looking chest. Every 3 weeks or so try to change the angle of the incline slightly to keep yourself progressing in the workouts.

2) STIFF LEG DEADLIFT WITH BARBELL-Nothing beats these in terms of really torching your hamstrings. Focus on a controlled lowering of the bar to get that negative and then explode on the way up. Mix up your rep schemes by going heavier with low reps ( 3-5 ) on some weeks and then going moderate weight with medium reps ( 8-10 ) on others. Make sure you always keep great form and never spare the back by trying to do too much weight1

3) WALL BARBELL BICEP CURLS-I love these things because they help you avoid cheating. Normally you do a standing bicep curl and by the end your rocking, your back and shoulders are working and it becomes a mess. Now that you wont cheat as much you can get greater recruitment of the bicep than before. Get yourself against a wall and keep your butt, and whole back against it the whole lift. I stand with my feet about 1-2 feet away from the wall.

Weak Training advice

Fitness professionals are naturally full of opinions and have numerous recommendations on exercise. And they’ve populated the Internet with blogs spouting their ideas about health and fitness.

There are many trainers, but there are few great trainers. Some of smartest minds in the industry are Todd Durkin http://www.todddurkin.com/, Joe Dowdell http://www.joedowdell.com/, Tony Gentilcore http://www.tonygentilcore.com//and Mike Boyle http://strengthcoachblog.com//. These are the individuals people should be listening to – they’re the experts people would be smart to follow.

Then there are so-called "celebrity trainers" … like Tracy Anderson. I’m not sure how she has become so successful. Maybe because she makes crazy claims or gets celebrity women to think she is actually smart and is getting them results. Or maybe these celebrities – like the rest of the public – just don't know any better.

If you want to get a laugh, check out her website: http://tracyandersonmethod.com/tracy/. Here are just some of her more ridiculous claims:

TRACY’S SITE: The mission of her method is to "strengthen the smaller muscle groups so that these muscles can pull in the larger muscles – which results in a lean figure that is not bulky."
*** Who knew our body's smaller muscles had such power over our larger muscles? Oh, wait … they don't! This statement on her site is not only ridiculous, but it can inspire people to work out in ways that can result in injuries.

TRACY DISCUSSING DANCE CARDIO AND THIGH-BUSTERS: "Doing 20-40 reps of each move pulls away the fat from the muscle – the cardio burns that fat to help diminish the look of cellulite."
*** A certain rep scheme pulls fat away from muscle? Wow. Her claims might be funny … if they weren’t so ridiculous.

TRACY IN LIFE&STYLE MAGAZINE: "We don't want to take away Kim Kardashian's amazing curves, so we just do specific movements to tighten the skin and to pull the muscles tight against the bone."
*** Last time I checked, you can’t pull skin and make it tighter through exercise. I’m no doctor, but I'm just saying. Also, your muscles already surround your bones. Is Tracy going to go inside your body with a wrench and tighten the bolts?

Tracy has a flashy website, she’s fit and she can drop celebrity names faster than an amateur weightlifter can drop a set of dumbbells. But I don't care and either should you. She’s clearly not educated in the field and she doesn't really know what she is doing.

The purpose of this blog post to remind you to pay careful attention to the things you read and hear in the fitness industry. Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to finish my workout so I can pull in my larger muscles and tighten my skin.

Try this!

Do 100 reps of pullups in as few of sets as you can. You can take whatever rest you need between sets just don't exceed 2minutes. Then next time you workout your back try and get to 100 reps in fewer sets as you did the first time around. It doesn't matter what number you start with your how many you do in each set just get to 100 in the least amount of sets. If you are not strong enough to do legit pullups then you can use the assisted machine or just wait til your stronger!

Example

25 reps-set 1

15

15

10

10

10

10

5

Done

Things I like

• Good Health brand peanut butter pretzels-Whole wheat pretzels filled with natural pb a perfect combo.

• Combo of-Dumbbell hammer curls for 10 reps, followed by 10 neutral grip ( palms facing each other ) chinups. Without resting keep going back and forth between the two exercises dropping the reps by one each round. So 10/10, 9/9, 8/8 and so on until you get to 1. Of course you need to be able to do chinups in the first place.

• Rosie Huntington-She is the new girl in Transformers. See above.

• Ground bison+bell peppers+onions+garlic+diced tomatoes over a bed of brown rice=a perfect protein meal after a hard workout day

• Unilateral work-One arm chest press, one arm row, one arm squat and lunges. Not only will you stimulate your core but you will shock the body into new growth!

• Running hills-Great to build lower body strength and power. Hills also force you to drive your arms harder than running on flat ground. Nothing feels better than knocking out some hill sprints on a nice summer day.

Keep your shoulders healthy with this....

This routine is a great way to maintain overall shoulder health. Heavy weights are not needed at all, 2.5-5 lb dumbbells work just perfect. Make sure you do all of these exercises under control for best form.

Do this sequence non stop for 10 reps of each exercise.

Lateral raises ( palms up )

Lateral raises ( thumbs up )

Lateral raises ( thumbs down )

Front raises ( thumbs up )

***Cross overs ( palms facing away from you )

Military press


*** The cross overs-have your palms face away from you and your arms out in front of your hips. Then bring your arms up and over your head like you were going to do jumping jacks ( minus the jump ). Cross your arms in front of your head and then bring them back towards the hips.

Try this workout if your tired of yours

If you are bored with your workout today and your goal is weight loss or just to get in the best shape possible then give this a try. You will hit every major muscle group in this workout.

A1) ANY PULL MOVEMENT ( Row, pulldown, pullup, etc )-12 reps
A2) ANY LEG MOVEMENT ( variations of squat, deadlift, press, lunge, step-up etc )-12 reps
A3) ANY CORE EXERCISE-12 reps
A4) ANY PUSH MOVEMENT ( pushups, shoulder exercises. chest press variations)-12 reps
A5) ANY LEG MOVEMENT ( something different than you did for A2 )-12 reps
A6) ANY CORE EXERCISE -12 reps
A7) ANY PULL MOVEMENT ( something different than you did for A1 )-12 reps
A8) YOUR CHOICE ( pick something you need the extra work, biceps, triceps, legs, etc )-12 reps

Take rest if you need after doing all 8 exercises but try and start round 2 as quick as you can. Each round you will drop the reps by 1. So it would like this:

Round 1-12 reps
Round 2-11 reps
Round 3-10 reps
Round 4-9reps
............You get the picture

Your goal is to see how many rounds you can get in 45 minutes. If you you did 5 rounds and ended with doing 8 reps of everything then next time you do this workout try and do 6 rounds. Every workout you can also try and decrease your rest time between rounds.

A bigger back with this

T-bar row-10 reps
SUPERSET WITH
Narrow grip lat pulldown-6 reps ( make sure the weight is very heavy for 6 reps )

Rest 90 seconds and repeat 4 more rounds


Decline straight bar row-10 reps
* Set up a decline bench in front of a cable pulley. Put the cable at about hip height. Lying face up on the bench grab the straight bar from behind you and pull the bar towards your thighs keeping your arms locked out and straight.
SUPERSET WITH
Decline dumbbell one arm row-10 reps
* Hold a dumbbell in your right arm and put your right leg out to the side for support. Place your left leg back on the top of the bench. Row the weight up from the floor. The dumbbell should start from the lowest end of the decline bench near the floor.

Rest 90 seconds and repeat for 4 more rounds