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Archive for the 'Muscle Building' Category
By Jason Ferruggia
The 5×5 system is one of the oldest muscle building programs in the book and has stuck around forever. 5×5 is good and 5×5 is bad; it just depends on the situation. There are a few ways that the 5×5 muscle building system is implemented.
The first way that people use the 5×5 system to build muscle is that they warm up to a weight and then stick with that weight for five sets of five. So you need to choose a weight that you can handle for that many sets. In essence, the fifth set will be the only set that is quite difficult. This is a decent method to build muscle but largely a waste of time for anyone but a beginner. There is too much volume at an intensity that is too low building muscle. For beginners and early intermediates, I think the 5×5 system is a good one. When you are neurologically inefficient, you seem to respond better to a few more repeated efforts. I still don’t know if five sets are really necessary though; 3×5 is probably better in most cases.
The next way people employ the 5×5 system in an attempt to build muscle is by starting with a heavy weight that they can barely get five reps with and then lowering the weight with each significant set. Again, I think this is too much. The only set that was worth doing was the first and maybe the second. This is not the optimal way to build muscle.
The third way I have seen this system employed to build muscle is to work up to a heavy weight that you can barely get five with and then keeping that weight for the next four sets, no matter how many reps you get. Progression is made each week by trying to get more reps in the subsequent sets. This is a favorite of one particular egomaniacal strength coach and like everything else he recommends, is total crap.
The last way that the 5×5 system is used to build muscle is by doing five increasingly heavier sets so that only your last set is tough. Basically the other sets are warm ups so you are really just warming up to a five rep max or very close to it. If this is the case, it’s really 1×5 and not 5×5. It’s a bit of a misnomer. But if I had to pick one, this would be the best method.
Working up to a five rep max and then a down set at 90% of your best is an even better option for building muscle. Or you could do a very heavy set of five but leave a little something in the tank and then go for broke on the second set. There is some evidence which shows that this second option may even be the better choice simply because the body may not function optimally during the first heavy set. This is due to the laws of homeostasis and various things of this nature. The first set causes shock and certain protective mechanisms may set it which prevents the first heavy set from actually being the best set. The job of the first heavy set may be to provide neural arousal and prepare the body to go all out on the second set. This is something that people have to play with on their own and see what approach helps them build muscle fastest.
For more information on how to build muscle fast, please visit http://www.musclegainingsecrets.com/
Jason Ferruggia is a world famous fitness expert who is renowned for his ability to help people build muscle as fast as humanly possible. He is the head training advisor for Men’s Fitness Magazine where he also has his own monthly column dedicated to muscle building. For more great muscle building information, please visit http://www.musclegainingsecrets.com/
by Mike Westerdal
You know, going to the gym and working out isn’t the only way to get strong. There’s actually a huge difference between being gym strong versus real-life strong. It’s completely possible to be in good shape and strong—and I mean really strong—without ever having stepped inside a gym.
How is this possible? Are these guys just genetic freaks? Let me tell you that it is possible and no, you do not have to be a genetic anomaly to be in great shape and what I like to call “real-life strong.”
My own dad is a great example of a guy who is really strong but yet he’s never worked out a day in his life. He did however, do a lot of manual labor. He was always working on things outside in the yard, building stuff, working with wood or any number of other things. On the flip side is me—I have been working out since I was in high school in Connecticut.
I really started to get serious about training when I finally started growing and getting stronger. By the time I hit my senior year and was playing football I was able to bench 275 pounds and was really proud of myself.
It all got put into perspective though one day when my dad needed my help to get rid of some large rocks sticking out of the grass. The area where we lived in Connecticut was kind of mountainous with these huge rocks just about everywhere. Around our yard, they seemed to even multiply so every now and then we’d have to dig them up and haul them away in a wheelbarrow.
One year, my dad wanted to get rid of some especially big rocks on the property so we got to work digging.
Once the dirt was removed I went in to move the boulders. Knowing how strong I had been getting I figured I could take care of the bulk of it by myself. I was shocked though to find out that I could hardly even budge them. But my dad—the guy who had never worked out a day in his life—was able to move them all by himself.
I was shocked. I could not believe that this “old man,” who I knew I could beat on any machine in the weight room, was still “stronger” than me when it came to real life. I started to refer to it as “old man strength.”
Today, I’m older, a bit wiser and I realize that my dad hadn’t developed “old man strength” but he had actually developed “hybrid strength” without even trying. Those activities that he did around the house just about every day gave him a physical edge that is very difficult to duplicate in a gym.
Most ordinary training routines isolate individual muscles, which is not how our bodies are really designed to work. The kinds of things my dad did though recruited multiple muscle groups simultaneously and even more important—would have required both strength and endurance, just like a hybrid workout.
And what he did in the process of doing these activities was to develop hybrid type III muscles, which is really the “optimal” muscle fiber because not only does it produce strength, but it’s also able to sustain that strength for extended periods. Ordinary type I or type II fibers just can’t do that—they basically sit at opposite ends of the spectrum.
Typical gym workouts focus on developing the type I, type IIa and type IIb fibers—not developing hybrid muscle. And because my dad was developing type III muscle fibers, he had a lot more real life strength than I did. Sure I could have beat the snot out of him at the gym, but in the real world, there was no competition—I was licked.
Of course my dad isn’t the only example of someone who either by accident or by design, was engaging in hybrid muscle training and in the process, developing hybrid type III muscle.
The movie Rocky IV provides another great example of the superiority of real world strength versus gym strength. In the movie, Rocky trains in the mountains focusing on building his real world strength—in reality doing hybrid workouts and developing hybrid type III muscle.
Conversely, the Russian guy trains in this futuristic high-tech gym using scientifically-designed treadmills and exercise equipment. Yeah, the guy looked pretty muscular but when it came time to fight, his gym-engineered muscles were no match for the real-world strength of Rocky.
So you see, although science has tried to come up with all sorts of interesting ways for guys to get bigger, stronger and leaner, when it comes down to actual results, basic functionality and real-world strength still triumph every time.
by Mike Westerdal
Many of you know that I compete as an amatuer powerlifter. One thing I’ve noticed over the past few years is that there are a lot of guys that believe the bigger you get and the more bodyweight you carry the stronger you will get. This was pretty much undisputed in the past.
All you had to do was look up all the world records in the squat, bench and deadlift and you’d find that the super heavyweights weighing 300 lbs and more dominated all the record boards regardless of age.
I’m not sure exactly when it started happening, but the tides are turning. When you look up the powerlifting rankings you’ll see that today the top numbers at many of the biggest powerlifting events each year are not always held by the heaviest guys.
In fact on forums across the Internet people are arguing that the strongest guys in the world today are representing the 198, 220, 242 and 275 lbs classes.
And I’m not talking about short fat guys that weigh less than their taller counterparts. These are lean powerlifters that look like they compete in bodybuilding.
Matt Kroczaleski pictured above competes in the 220 lb class giving the
heavyweights a run for their money and I don’t see no stinkin body fat!
The world famous strength coach and owner of Westside Barbell Louie Simmons is an advocate of having his powerlifters push a weighted wheelbarrow and do sled drags. You can read about it in many of his articles.
What does this have to do with Lean Hybrid Muscle, Mike? Well, there’s a new breed of powerlifters that are taking over and they do cardio! Can you believe that, powerlifters doing cardio? Well they’re doing hybrid cardio or resistance cardio.
Not only are they improving their fitness level, but they are increasing their overall or “absolute strength” which seems to be carrying over to their max strength powerlifting results.
It’s true, times are a changing in the powerlifting world. Pretty soon the word powerlifter may just bring to mind a lean hybrid muscle machine instead of the stereotypical big fat bald guy with a goatee. Hybrid cardio or type III muscle training has a lot to do with it in my opinion.
Sometimes I train with an elite powerlifter named Mike Schwanke over at Tampa Barbell. Here’s another example of a lighter guy giving the heavyweights a run for their money. He squats over 1K and has deadlifted 800 lbs. Check out this video of his training footage prior to a meet earlier this year.
Even though he’s a powerlifter he implements cardio and hybrid conditioning so that he can reduce his bodyfat while building strength.
Yes – You Can Be Strong, Lean & In Shape At The Same Time
This is important so listen up. Hybrid cardio is not a “style” of training but rather, it is a component of training-and it doesn’t require and special training or fancy equipment.
If you are interested in developing balance among fitness, strength and size, then you should be taking a good look at this blog and the developments. For example, a guy can lift and lift and lift until he’s as big as an ox with bulging muscles of steel but be short of breath from a climb up a flight of stairs.
Or, if you are into competitive sports, adding the Hybrid Muscle Training component to your training mix can really give you a competitive edge. Guys also use hybrid conditioning to improve weak spots, to be more adaptable, improve their overall fitness levels and to boost and speed up their bodies’ capacity to recover.
The sled pull, tire flip, farmer’s walk, wheelbarrow push and plate lifting are some of the more common hybrid exercises around. In doing any of these exercises you start out with a goal of doing it for maybe ten minutes or so, with a long-term goal of working up to about 30 minutes.
It’s important to remember this part: Once you reach 30 minutes, don’t keep striving to be able to do longer stretches of time. Rather, enhance your capacity by increasing the weight, not the amount of time you’re doing the exercises. This is where you’ll really see improvements in your performance.
One of the great things about Hybrid cardio as it relates to muscle building is that it involves compound exercises that require you to use multiple muscle groups and multiple skills (balance, coordination, etc.) at the same time. By doing compound exercises you’re not only improving your all around fitness level but you’re also significantly lowering your risk of injuring yourself.
Lots of bodybuilders get totally caught up in building size, focusing on doing the same exercises over and over again. By keeping the focus just on the muscles that you see in the mirror (the “beach muscles”) and not training the core, they are setting themselves up for injury.
Powerlifters are equally guilty on totally concentrating on their maximum strength without paying much attention to their hearts or work capacity as we discussed earlier. If you can squat 700 pounds you should be able to squat 225 for 15 reps without getting totally winded.
Many powerlifters myself included could use the fat burning benefits of incorporating some hybrid cardio training which as a bonus will develop the type III muscle fiber. Maybe there’d be a little more gas in the tank by the time the deadlift rolls around on meet day.
I’ve heard the excuses, doing this will make you weaker. Well I’m calling Bullshit on that one! How many of you have seen the DVD “242 Raw” featuring Jeremy Hoornstra? For those of you who don’t know him he’s one of the top raw bench pressers in the world having hit a 675 bench in competition right before my eyes!
It was amazing. Well in Jeremy’s DVD him and his buddies push his SUV up a hill for their early morning workout. So don’t tell me this kind of conditioning will make you lose max strength, because if anything it will make you overall stronger.
That’s another great thing about hybrid cardio/muscle building exercises, you can do them with whatever you have handy. If you don’t happen to have a sled hanging around the house, no worries just push a vehicle around.
And if you aren’t able to do that, then maybe you can flip a tire or attach some rope to a piece of plywood, put a bunch of bricks on it and start dragging it around. With lean hybrid muscle building workouts, you’re not tied to a specific routine or exercise.
It’s not a requirement that you do specific exercises or follow a particular routine-it’s more important that you do “strongman” type exercises in addition to your current routine that are really going to challenge you.
Even if you live in the heart of the city you can incorporate hybrid muscle exercises into your training routine. The farmer’s walk can be done anywhere. Just grab a couple of heavy dumbbells and start walking. As you improve, use heavier dumbbells.
If the weather is lousy then you can do it at the gym. At the gym you can also carry around plates instead of dumbbells, if you’d like. Kettle bells are great for doing these exercises too. You can use them to do snatches, the farmer’s walk or any number of other compound exercises.
You can even do these hybrid training exercises if you don’t have anything more than your own bodyweight. Jump squats are just one example of a bodyweight exercise that you can do. The point is this kind of training allows for a great deal of creativity, flexibility and adaptability. Watch the Strong Man competitions on the television if you want some great ideas for coming up with your own routines.
To wrap up, by including Hybrid muscle training exercises into the training routine, dangerous imbalances-and the injuries that often accompany them-can be avoided. Adding some of these exercises into the mix can also help keep boredom at bay and can also keep you from getting burned out on training.
You’ll also be giving yourself a serious competitive edge and as an added bonus, because the body is in all-around better physical condition, you’ll also find that you recover more rapidly and will probably have more energy too.
Thanks for letting me get this off my chest. I’m learning so much just from reading everyone’s comments. So if you learned anything or enjoyed this post, than please leave a comment below. It’s only fair that I get to pick your brain too!
CLick Here to learn more about hybrid muscle training==> Click Here…
The Science Of Rapid Muscle Growth
Constructing the type 3 muscle fiber
Constructing the type 3 muscle fiber
Lean Hybrid Muscle building routines include some of the most grueling workouts that most people have ever experienced. Its a good day when none of the guys that train at Strength Camp puke after a training session.
Well, if you’re like most AVERAGE fitness folks you are probably asking yourself… “Why the heck would someone pay this psycho… only to engage in this form of fitness brutality?”
There are many strength and conditioning coaches that train their athletes and clients to the point of “revisiting their lunch” simply to punish them or to prove a point. But when members at Strength Camp engage in our hybrid muscle training sessions there is a SCIENCE behind the sadism.
You see, most people go to the gym on Monday and do their weight training followed by cardio on Tuesday. But at Strength Camp we combine both weight training AND cardio in the same session… in fact, many times both elements are expressed in a single exercises.
Here’s an example…
Instead of the average training routine that would include dead lifts and biceps curls for 3 sets of 10, our “hybrid” routine may consist of heavy sandbag loading for as many reps as possible in a 60 second span.
Here are the benefits of training The Hybrid Way:
1. When you force a fast twitch (type 2b) muscle fiber that is accustomed to explosive movements such as heavy sand bag loading to maintain its function via high repetitions within a short span of time, repeated for several sets… you train it to behave more like a slow-twitch (type 1) fiber.
2. Type 1 fibers have a higher mitochondrial density than type 2 thus they are more fuel efficient. Simply put, they burn fat for energy better than the type 2 fibers.
3. Type 2 fibers are usually more explosive and have a thicker diameter… they are bigger fibers. When they begin adopting the behavior of type 1 fibers by gradually increasing their mitochondrial density they ultimately become even BIGGER in size as well a better at burning fat for energy.
4. We call these newly formed, mitochondrial infused type 2 fibers… Type 3 Muscle Fibers.
5. Type 3 Muscle Fibers are BIGGER, STRONGER, and more fuel efficient (burn more fat) than the speedy yet sluggish Type 2 fibers. Type 3 fibers are also more explosive and have greater athletic capacity than the slow and steady Type 1 fibers.
Here is a challenge that I invite you to try this week.
Instead of your normal back and biceps training routine followed by cardio… create a 100 pound sand bag and load it onto a 54″ platform (or about the height of your chest) for as many reps as possible in 60 seconds. Repeat for 5-10 sets with no more than a 2 minute rest in between.
Step 2 – come back to this website and post comments below about how soaking wet and soar you were after this workout!
This type of training is the World’s Fastest Way To Burn Fat & Build Muscle — ever!
For more info about Lean Hybrid Muscle workouts ==> Click Here
| By Vince DelMonte |
| There are two common fitness goals – to gain muscle mass and to lose body fat. Unfortunately, for the most part, the two goals are at opposite ends of the spectrum.
Building muscle mass is going to require you to take in a surplus of calories because, well, let’s face it, you can’t build muscle out of nothing (unless of course you have some chemical help going on). Losing fat mass on the other hand is going to require you to be in a negative calorie balance because that is what will get your body burning off additional body fat as fuel for its tissues. Striving to accomplish both goals at the same time is rarely a good approach because more than likely you will just end up spinning your wheels and getting nowhere. Most weight lifters will have to accept some fat gain when they are looking to gain weight, however how much fat gain they need to add is question. It is this variable that we are hoping to influence. Can you really gain weight without getting fat? When adding muscle mass there are two approaches you can take. Some take the approach of just eating as much food as they can possible cram into themselves. Their life suddenly becomes one long 24-hour buffet in their quest for muscle mass as they are under the thinking that the more food that goes in, the more muscle synthesis that will go on. This thinking is heavily flawed. The body can only assimilate so much muscle tissue at once and after it has done so, any remaining calories are simply going to be stored as body fat. Plain and simple. You my friend, are no exception to the rule. For those guys who are out there taking in five thousand or more calories per day, this is obviously going to be way more than they need and will result in a considerable amount of unwanted fat weight over a period of three to six months (how long most people will ‘bulk’ for). The second option is to adopt a more moderate approach and only eat so many additional calories to support this muscle growth and that’s it. This will allow you to hopefully get as much lean tissue gained as possible without the accumulation of a monstrous rise in body fat. So that leads us to the next question you’re probably wondering. How much muscle can you build? How many calories over maintenance should you be eating? You’ve probably already heard of the guy who claims he’s added 20 pounds of muscle in the short timeframe of six weeks. While this may be a very rare occurrence among an individual who is brand new to weight lifting, has insanely good genetics and utilized an excellent training and nutritional program, the fact of the matter is that most guys are simply not going to be able to come even close to adding this much muscle tissue. A natural trained individual can hope to achieve about half a pound to one pound of muscle per week – if he’s doing everything correctly. If he doesn’t have the greatest genetics or isn’t feeding himself optimally, this will decrease even further. So as you can see, at a measly two to four pounds of muscle growth per month, you aren’t going to be needed to eat insanely high calorie intakes. The higher your intake is, the more you risk putting on additional body fat. As a general rule, keep it to about 250 to 500 calories above maintenance in hopes of putting on mostly muscle without too much body fat. Keep track of your current body fat levels and appearance and if you see that too much of your weight gain is coming on as fat mass, reduce your calorie intake slightly. It is always best to go by REAL WORLD results since you are in the real world after all. You can read as much as you like as to how many calories you should be eating, but this does not mean that’s going to be the exact number that will produce results. Different people have different metabolisms that will respond to an increase in calories in various ways. So as you go about your bulk, adjust according to the results you are getting. Remember that the more patient you are with your muscle gains and the slower you go, the more time you can spend adding muscle mass and the less time you have to spend dieting off the additional fat you gained – which as I’m sure many of you already know, is not a pleasant experience. So next time you decide you are going to do a ‘bulking’ phase, take a slower approach. Not only are you much more likely to maintain a favourable appearance this way but your mind will thank you as well. Nothing kills confidence levels faster than seeing all muscle definition go out the window in a matter of weeks, so keep the weight gain under control so you don’t have to deal with this. |
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About the Author:
Vince DelMonte is the author of No Nonsense Muscle Building: Skinny Guy Secrets To Insane Muscle Gain found at http://www.VinceDelMonteFitness.com
He teaches skinny guys how to get big muscles, without supplements, drugs and training less than before.
| By Vince DelMonte |
| Do you know what it really takes to build big muscles? Do you think it’s as simple as buying a gym membership, training each body once per week, slamming back some protein shakes and trying to eat as much chicken and tuna possible? Viola, you are big enough to enter a bodybuilding contest. Can you imagine it was that easy to build big muscles? Unfortunately, your monthly gym membership, regular weight training workouts and casual eating habits, isn’t going to cut it. Here are five simple steps to getting big muscles fast :
Squat and Deadlift Squatting and Deadlifting are known as two of the Big Three exercises that are responsible for power and mass muscle building. Consider these two animal exercises the kings of the jungle! Without them, you do not have a chance of survival. These two exercises alone, work out about 75% of your entire musculature, including your traps, shoulders, arms, back. Gluts, hams, calves and core muscles. Not to mention the degree of intensity, squats and dead lifts force your body to release greater volumes of growth hormone, which results in bigger muscles all over your body. This spillover effect results in strength gains in all you other lifts which translates into a more muscular you! Squatting and dead lifting are especially critical for hard gainers because of the hormonal spikes affecting the entire body. Stick to Compound Exercises What is going to isolate more muscle fibers? A bench press or cable cross over? A military press or lateral raise? A chin up or bicep curl? A dip or tricep kickback? If you ever hope to get big muscles than compound lifts are not optional, they are mandatory. Stick to squats, leg presses, deadlifts, bench preses, barbell rows, pull ups, chin ups, over head presses, and dips. If all you do is concentrate on building your puny muscles like arms and calves, then you will end up with exactly what you focus on – puny muscles! Keep Your Rest Periods Honest When was the last time you were in the gym and you watched the average guy time his recovery with a stop watch? Stop watches are not just for endurance athletes but should be used by every person who is serious about building big muscles. Generally, the closer you lift to your one rep max, the longer the rest period and the higher the number of reps, the shorter the rest period. This is a crucial variable, which is often overlooked, yet will determine whether you create the correct training response. For example, if you are training for maximal strength which requires at least 3-5 minutes rest between sets and you are only taking 2 minutes, you are not giving your nervous system an honest workout. If you are training for muscle size which requires shorter 30-90 second style recoveries but are gazing at the cute girl on the elliptical letting your rest periods carry over these ranges, you are not giving your metabolic system an honest workout. Lastly, how do you know if you are truly stronger if you do not monitor your rest period? For example, let’s say last week you bench pressed 135 pounds for four sets of ten. This week you bench pressed 145 pounds for four sets of ten. Assuming the rest period was identical for both workouts, this is a tremendous improvement and a measurable sign of improvement! However, what if you took an extra minute or two between each set on the recent workout? This means that you did not actually become stronger. You just had a longer rest period! Conclusion You now know that building big muscles is not easy as showing up at the gym and throwing back a few protein shakes. Apply these three simple steps in your next program and I promise that you will start building brand new muscle all over your body! |
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About the Author:
Vince DelMonte is the author of No Nonsense Muscle Building: Skinny Guy Secrets To Insane Muscle Gain found at http://www.VinceDelMonteFitness.com
He specializes in teaching skinny guys how to build muscle and gain weight quickly without drugs, supplements and training less than before.
by Jason Ferruggia
Here are 5 random muscle building tips that may make a big difference in your training.
– Don’t exceed 5-6 reps on most of your warm up sets. Your first set could consist of a very light weight for 10-20 reps just to get loosened up and get the blood flowing but beyond that you want to keep the reps low. The reason for this is that you don’t want to build up too much lactic acid or accumulate too much fatigue with your warm ups.
– Don’t stretch before your workout in the hopes of preventing injury. This doesn’t work. The only benefit of stretching before a workout is to help you get into positions you might not be able to reach (such as a full squat) because you are tight in specific areas (such as the hamstrings and hip flexors). But stretching for the sake of injury prevention is an outdated idea and doesn’t really work.
– Don’t over-analyze and over-think everything you do in the gym. This never gets you anywhere. Don’t worry if the incline of the bench is supposed to be 50 degrees or 55 degrees. Don’t worry that if you don’t supinate at exactly the right time that you won’t activate your biceps optimally. Don’t stress out about the exact grip width on the bar. If someone tells you that a 16? grip on the bench press hits your triceps better than anything else, but because of an injury or anatomical difference you can only comfortably use an 18? grip, don’t sweat it. People over-think themselves to death and they never get anywhere because of it. Go to the gym, get stronger, go home, eat, sleep and repeat. Don’t turn it into advanced calculus. That is one of the best muscle building tips I can give you.
– Always train both sides of the joint with equal volume. Therefore if you do six sets per week of pressing exercises you need to do six sets per week of pulling exercises. If you do two sets of curls you should do two sets of triceps work. And so on and so on…
– If you can’t get your forearms to grow, try hitting them with more frequency than other muscle groups. They can easily be trained three times per week and recover without any problem. Also, try to hold the bottom stretched position of wrist curls for 3-5 seconds per rep. When you finish training the forearms, hit them with a deep stretch for both the extensors and flexors for 30-60 seconds. These muscle building tips should get the forearms to grow.
For more incredible muscle building tips please visit MuscleGainingSecrets.com.
Jason Ferruggia is a world famous fitness expert who is renowned for his ability to help people build muscle as fast as humanly possible. He is the head training adviser for Men’s Fitness Magazine where he also has his own monthly column dedicated to muscle building. For more How to Build Muscle Fast tips, check out http://www.musclegainingsecrets.com/
By Jason Ferruggia
When it comes to the question of how to build big traps the discussion starts and finishes with deadlifts. This incredible mass builder will pack huge slabs of beef on your traps faster than just about any other exercise there is. Just look at powerlifters and you will see that there is simply no way to avoid building huge traps when you do a lot of deadlifts.
While the deadlift is the king of trap building exercises, an argument could be made that Olympic lifts are equally as effective. I would tend to agree if not for the fact that Olympic lifts are harder to teach and learn than deadlifts are, which moves them down to second on the list. Everyone can do at least a partial range deadlift properly. Not everyone can clean or snatch properly.
Finally, you have shrugs. While it seems like a very simple and straight forward movement there is actually a great deal of confusion over how to build big traps with shrugs. Nobody seems to be able to agree on how they should be done. On one hand you have the camp that says you need to go as heavy as possible and do partial reps, just heaving the weight up. Then there’s the camp that says you need to go light and get a full range of motion, trying to get your shoulders as close to touching your ears as possible and hold it there for a second.
Who is right and who is wrong?
They both are.
To understand where the answer truly lies lets again take a look at the athletes with the biggest traps: power lifters and Olympic lifters
Powerlifters have huge traps because of all the deadlifts they do. Deadlifts are heavy, period. There is no shrugging movement at all, in fact. Olympic lifters lift relatively lighter weights explosively and with a range of motion that does indeed have them bringing their traps to their ears.
Looking at these two groups, what does this tell us about shrugs and the proper way to do them?
Quite simply, what it tells us is that the best way to get huge traps is to deadlift and Olympic lift. Bottom line.
BUT… what if you can not do either of those exercises due to back or shoulder problems or just want more variety in your trap training routine? Then you have no choice but to shrug. Traps are the most important, intimidating and impressive bodypart there is and you can’t walk around with none.
So then, exactly how do you do shrugs and which camp is right? They both are. Sometimes you should go heavy for low reps, cheat the weight up and don’t worry about getting an extreme contraction at the top. Then on another day of the week go lighter for higher reps with a complete range of motion and exaggerated contraction and hold at the top.
Another option is to do both variations in one workout. You could start with a lighter weight, doing 10-12 reps, bringing your shoulders as high as they can go. With each set add more weight and work your way down to the point where you can only get five partial reps with a little cheat at the end. You could start with the heavier sets first and lighten them as you go.
Deadlifts and Olympic lifts should always be your first answer to the question of how to build big traps. But sometimes and in certain situations, shrugs can be very effective as well. Just make sure to go straight up and down and don’t roll your shoulders forwards and backwards; that’s for nitwits who don’t have a full understanding of how gravity works.
Be relentless,
Jason Ferruggia
Jason Ferruggia is a world famous fitness expert who is renowned for his ability to help people build muscle as fast as humanly possible. He is the head training adviser for Men’s Fitness Magazine where he also has his own monthly column dedicated to muscle building. For more How to Build Muscle Fast tips, check out http://www.musclegainingsecrets.com/
By Jason Ferruggia
Guns, jacks, pipes, hooks, pythons… Whatever you call them, the fact remains that most guys want bigger arms. While they are nowhere near as impressive as a big set of traps, you still don’t want to have and extra six inches of space in your shirt sleeves; that’s for sure. So the question is how to build bigger arms? The answer is not as simple as you might assume. If it were easy, you would see tons of guys walking around with 18 inch arms. But that simply isn’t the case.
It’s been said over and over again that in order to add an inch to your upper arms you need to gain ten pounds of bodyweight. This advice has become gospel and it seems that nearly everyone agrees with this these days. Real world evidence shows that this is not the case, however. Walk into any public gym on a Monday night at five o’clock and you will see quite a few skinny guys, weighing no more than 170 pounds, who are sporting decent sized arms.
Many of them probably have not gained more than 10 or 15 pounds total since they started training but they all have put more than an inch or two on their arms. This is because localized hypertrophy/ muscle growth will take place if enough volume is present, without a large increase in bodyweight. Look at the calves on soccer players or the forearms on mechanics. But this only happens up to a certain point.
So these young guys read in some magazine about how to build bigger arms and start by doing ten sets of arms two or three days a week. The volume is enough to elicit a growth response and they may even get a good eight weeks out of this and a quick two inches of arm growth in the absence of any significant weight gain. Seems to defy the ten pounds per inch rule, right?
But what happens after that? Where do they go from there? The gains will halt and there will be absolutely no more arm growth whatsoever unless they make some drastic changes. And that is the pitfall of high volume training- where can you go when you plateau? Add more volume? At what cost? How much volume can you add? If ten sets isn’t enough should you try twenty? And then thirty? And eventually a hundred?
There’s nowhere to go with this approach. Like I said, it’s great for some quick gains on your arms but isn’t a long term approach. Once you hit a plateau you have no choice but to start lifting heavier weights and eating more. More weight on the bar and more food on your plate is the fastest way to increase the size of any body part. All the fancy supersets, drop sets, tri sets, pre exhaustion, post exhaustion techniques in the world won’t help in the least if you are not doing those two very important things.
Beginners can train the arms three times per week and intermediate and advanced lifters seem to do better training them twice per week. Stick with big exercises like close grip chin ups, barbell curls, hammer curls, towel curls, dumbbell curls, parallel bar dips, close grip benches, and lockouts. You shouldn’t need more than 2-4 sets of biceps and triceps twice per week to achieve optimal growth, providing that you are always increasing your loads and steadily adding more calories to your diet. After a couple of heavy sets finish your arm workout by getting the biggest pump possible with one or two higher rep sets.
For more information on how to build bigger arms and increase the size of every other body part, check out http://www.MuscleGainingSecrets.com/ now.
Train hard,
Jason Ferruggia
Jason Ferruggia is a world famous fitness expert who is renowned for his ability to help people build muscle as fast as humanly possible. He is the head training adviser for Men’s Fitness Magazine where he also has his own monthly column dedicated to muscle building. For more How to Build Muscle Fast tips, check out http://www.musclegainingsecrets.com/