Legendary bodybuilders like Jay Cutler and Ronnie Coleman earned plenty of praise and Mr. Olympia hardware by constructing hulking physiques that included sculpted shoulders, killer quads, and bulging biceps. While most people don’t have plans to pose on stage someday, many lifters do have aspirations to walk around with muscular arms that look good in […]
When lifters talk wanting to about build a “barrel chest,” they’re often recommended to emphasize the upper portion of their chest muscles. Indeed, this typically neglected body part can create a fuller, more rounded chest. But what if your lower chest actually needs attention or what if you want to harmonize every section of your […]
Ab workouts are one of the few types of exercise that some people are instinctively drawn to whether they’re dedicated lifters or not. Many people use ab exercises as an entry point into some type of regular exercise, which is great. Hopefully they eventually move on to incorporate training their other body parts, but a […]
Part dumbbell bench press and part isometric dumbbell flye, the hex press is a unique high-tension chest-builder. The hex press is performed on a flat bench with the dumbbells squeezed together throughout the pressing motion. This feature explains why one alternate name for this unique chest exercise is the “squeeze press.” Credit: sornram / Shutterstock […]
Due to their prominence, well-developed back muscles have been described as wings. Want wing-like back muscles? On the short list of things that allegedly “give you wings” are energy drinks, good deeds, and upper body vertical pulling. After consuming energy drinks throughout my younger years, I can dispatch the first claim. Alertness and insomnia? Yes. […]
The lat pulldown can be a reliable and effective alternative to back-training staples like chin-ups or pull-ups. Pulldowns can be useful for novice lifters who may not yet be strong enough to perform high-quality repetitions, as well as more experienced lifters looking to minimize the role of their core or lower body while zeroing in […]
Physical therapist John Pallof shared a simple exercise with a few influential strength coaches in the early 2000s. It offered an effective way to challenge core stability in an upright, athletic position. Due to the exercise’s relative starting and ending point, he called it the belly press. Fast-forward two decades. Pallof’s “belly press” was renamed by […]
Ask several people to describe the toe-to-bar movement and you’re likely to hear multiple descriptions of how the outcome should be accomplished. That is, actually getting one’s toes “to the bar.” You might think the exercise was relatively simple enough considering its self-evident name, but that’s like thinking there’s only one way to “squat.” Credit: Jordi […]
For most lifters, a week full of workouts just isn’t complete without some tickets to the gun show. But good arm training goes beyond simply ripping through some biceps curls and triceps pressdowns. There needs to be a method to the madness if you want to do more than build a pump that only looks […]
When it’s time to train your lower body, barbell back squats get plenty of attention, but single-leg training should spend more time in the spotlight. In particular, it’s worth focusing on the dumbbell split squat to bring awareness to the staggered position and learn to coordinate weight distribution across both feet. The dumbbell split squat, […]