DAILY Bodybuilding FACTS and TIPS!

[heavylifting1]

Train for strength in the decline triceps extension and the preacher barbell curl. EMG measurements have recorded the highest fiber activity on these 2 exercises, followed by the seated dumbbell curl and the triceps press down on the mushroom grip. Try to increase your poundage by 5 % every week, for the barbell curl; small magnetic weights from Kaizen can be an excellent investment. Kaizen means "improvements" If you are able to add ? or even ? pound over the course of a week, you will make size gains.

 

[heavylifting1]

Understand Caloric Surplus

This is another thing I am very tired of hearing. 'No matter what I do or what I eat, I can't gain weight'. I have heard this countless times and I am here to tell you that you are dead wrong. That's OK, because I actually said the same thing until I realized the truth.

Most people think they are eating lots and you just may be. But no matter what you are eating, if you are not gaining, you are not eating enough. Most times, you should re-evaluate your diet as well and focus on more calorie dense foods. But you need to eat more if you are not gaining.

Also, when changing your body composition, you will need to 'force' things a little bit. Your body doesn't want to change and it doesn't care to gain weight. You need to 'coax' it along and yes at times it may be a little uncomfortable.

 

[heavylifting1]

Quit the caffeine.

Yep, we all love our pre-workouts, Starbucks and energy drinks, but adrenal fatigue will kill your progress quicker than anything else. Once the CNS is over-stimulated, your cortisol levels are constantly elevated.

My suggestion: take a weekend where you do not have much planned and go cold turkey (plan to sleep a lot). After one week without caffeine and other stimulants, you can re-introduce them twice a week. You'll be shocked how much your body will change once the cortisol gets flushed out.

 

[heavylifting1]

I am going to be bringing this thread back everyone. Training tips to help you squeeze all you can out of your cycles. We try to help anyway we can. No matter if its a deal on our products or some everyday tips to help you get where you need to be. It all counts and it helps. This is why we do it.

 

[heavylifting1]

Focus & Range of Motion.


Range of motion is an incredibly important part of lifting technique, getting a longer range of motion to up the intensity of a lift can give you great benefits. Doing half repetitions can tire you out quickly but you?ll never feel true intensity. Whether it?s strict shoulder press or dumbbell flys, increase your range of motion. If you?re doing dumbbell flys, get them to touch the floor, feel the stretch. Same goes for just about any exercise, range of motion is important. Don?t underestimate it. You don?t see decent range of motion anymore, it would seem it?s been lost in a sea of noise.

Focus and range of motion go hand in hand, focus on the lift and increase your range of motion and it?s the quickest way to give you a greater sense of intensity. Losing focus can ruin a workout. Tuning into music is the best way to go, get something on that will increase your focus on lifting.

Next time you?re in the gym, tune out of all the talking, all the noise and everything else and focus solely on your lifting, you?ll be amazed at the difference it can make.

 

[heavylifting1]

FLEXIBILITY FACTS

1. Flexibility is an extremely important part of any exercise program. Some of the benefits include:

-prevention of injury
-improved range of motion
-reduction of stress
-ease of movement.

2. Weight Training will NOT cause a loss of flexibility.

-As long as one engages in a consistent proper stretching program, and use of the correct lifting technique through the full range of motion, you will not lose flexibility by weight training.

3. If you are born stiff and inflexible, you remain that way. If a person has always been inflexible it is probably because that person never followed a regular flexibility program. While it is true that some people are genetically more flexible than others, it is possible for anyone to increase their flexibility to some degree.

 

[heavylifting1]

The Ultimate Stretching Technique for Bodybuilders


One of the best and under utilized secrets in the world of bodybuilding is the use of intense stretching of the trained muscle immediately after completing your workout for it. Intense stretching means that it should hurt (although you must know your body well enough to realize if you are going too far), with each extreme stretch lasting for 30-60 seconds before slowly being released.

Some examples of intense stretching would be holding the bottom of a chest flye with moderately heavy dumbbells in your hands, hanging with a close grip from a chinning bar while having your partner pull down on your waist, or sitting in the deepest position of a sissy squat. In other words, you have to go beyond the light stretching you normally perform to make this effective. And what is the benefit of this?

Research has demonstrated that this form of stretching can actually increase the rate of hypertrophy through the increased activation of satellite cells and the enhanced release of growth factors (hepatocyte growth factor, myogenin, IGF-1) within muscle tissue! Talk about an anabolic activator! Yeah, its painful, but it works!

So, to summarize? Don't stretch a cold muscle before training, and don?t stretch the muscle you are in the middle of training. However, DO stretch the antagonistic muscle to the one you are training during your workout, and once the session for the body part is complete, finish it off with two or three intense 30-60 second deep stretches. Train hard...train smart...train to grow!

 

[heavylifting1]

9 Quick Tips For Bigger Arms

1) Include a lot of close grip chin ups and dips in your workout program.

2) Never go ultra heavy on curls or direct triceps work unless you want screwed up elbows.

3) If you already have tricky elbows I?d recommend some neoprene elbow sleeves when training arms directly.

4) Get a massive pump. That?s more important than moving big weight when it comes to direct arm training.

5) Let your bench and overhead presses take care of the heavy loading for triceps. Then pump on pushdowns and extensions for higher reps with low rest periods.

6) Consider training biceps on your leg day, 48 hours after your main upper body day. This allows you to hit them more often and also when they are fresher. The biceps are small muscles that recovery quickly so this could work out quite nicely.

7) Since they are a smaller body part, the arms can tolerate more volume and frequency than the lats, quads or other larger body parts,
when specializing on them for a month or two.

8) Climb ropes or do some type of rope rows with a 1.5-2″ diameter rope. You can loop a rope over the top of a power rack and do inverted rows like that or you can attach one end of a rope to a sled and row that fucker toward you, hand over hand for a good 20-60 second. That?s what you see guys doing in the worlds strongest man contest and that shit will grow some pipes.

9) Stretch the biceps and triceps in between sets and after your last pump set.

 

[heavylifting1]

Rotator Cuff Strengthening Exercises:

There are many types of exercises specifically used to strengthen the rotator cuff. These exercises are to be done with a light weight. Using a weight that is too heavy will surely make the problem worse so to prevent this many therapy clinics are using bands or tubing to rehab and strengthen the rotator cuff.

Some of the most common exercises that can be done for the rotator cuff would be external rotation, internal rotation, abduction, and extension. As always, if you feel you have injured your rotator cuff, get it checked by your physician before you do anything else which could aggravate the injury even more.

Exercises To Avoid Rotator Cuff Injuries:

Some exercises to avoid due to the stress they put on the rotator cuff would be the behind the neck pulldown. This movement puts great stress on the rotator cuff and can easily cause an injury due to the external rotation of the exercise. If you are going to be doing pulldowns or pull-ups, the safest way to do them would be to bring the bar to your chest.

Another exercise to avoid would be the behind the neck shoulder press. This again puts a lot of stress on the rotator cuff and is a main culprit of rotator cuff injuries in the gym.

To minimize injuries your best bet is to use a weight that you can control throughout the movement. If you have to throw the weight around or can only do partial reps, the weight is too heavy and you are putting undue stress on your shoulder. Lighten the weight and make sure you can go through a full range of motion with correct form/technique.

It is also a good idea even before you have a symptom of a shoulder injury to start strengthening your rotator cuff with some band work during your shoulder routine. This will help prevent the problem before an injury can arise.

 

[fuzepd]

great thread