Avoid looking like a rookie and improve your results by following these corrective techniques.
1.) Pull with Your Back, Not Your Arms
When performing pulling exercises such as those for upper/middle back like rows and lat pull-downs, initiate the movement with your scapula instead of your biceps.
It’s a natural tendency to initiate these pulling movements with your arms (i.e. biceps), but this is improper form if your intention is to train your back. Start the movement by grasping the bar with your arms straight, torso vertical and upright, and your shoulder girdle (shoulder blades and shoulders) slightly rolled forward for rows or upward for lat pull-down/ pull-ups.
I prefer a thumb-over grip, which treats your hands like the hooks they are meant to be in these exercises and therefore places less effort on the forearms. In other words, your forearms won’t tire before your back does.
Now for rows, initiate the movement by retracting your scapula (shoulder blades) backward toward your spinal column as if pinching your shoulder blades together. I teach my clients to try touching their elbows together behind their back. Of course this will never happen, but if you try to do so you will ensure that you are contracting the muscles to the fullest potential.
For lat pull-downs or pull-ups it’s the same concept except the angle of pull is different so your scapula will be pulled down and backward. Once your shoulder blades have exclusively initiated the movement, begin following through with your arms until the finish where you will squeeze your back for a moment or two. Your chest should remain high throughout the movement as well as maintaining the natural arch in your lower back.
Once you master this movement it will be less awkward and will become one fluid, natural movement. You may have to drop the weight a bit at first but you will rewarded with a fantastic fatigue and pump in your back that will let you know you were not previously training effectively and the soreness in your back the following day should be unparalleled.
Using this proper lifting technique should also reduce the amount of biceps fatigue you are normally accustomed to.
2.) Use Mass Building Exercises For Mass
If you’re goal is simply to put on muscle mass then you shouldn’t be messing around with isolation exercises or exercises that are better suited for adding definition.
You’re program should revolve around exercises that work multiple muscle groups and allow for heavy weights and maximum overload.
Example: Instead of performing isolation or concentration exercises for the triceps like one-arm cable push-downs or cable rope push-downs, which are best suited for definition of a particular head of the triceps (depending upon how it’s performed), you should be performing known mass-builders for the triceps like the close-grip bench press, dips, standard push-downs, skull-crushers, etc.
Mass-building exercises stress multiple muscles, which allows for heavy weights and successfully overloads the involved muscles. Stick with the tried-and-true mass-building exercises that are proven to add mass to the particular muscle group you are training.
Spend your time and energy on the basics if mass-building is your goal.
3.) Get a Grip for a Big Chest & A Big Bench
If you’re performing the barbell bench press for a big, strong chest make sure to use the optimal grip width.
Most people grasp the bar too narrowly and force their elbows inward by their sides, or too wide and force their elbows outward. Too narrow of a grip puts too much emphasis on the triceps. Too wide of a grip shifts most of the emphasis on the shoulders, which usually results in injury. Either way you are not providing sufficient stress to your chest… and that is the muscle you are trying to work!
To correct your form, simply lie on the bench and set an empty barbell on your chest at about your nipples or a little lower (or have someone help you). With the bar on your chest, grab the bar so that your elbows are in-line with your shoulders and your forearms are perpendicular to the floor.
Make a mental note of where your hands and fingers are positioned on the bar, which is usually in relation to the rings on the barbell.
When you’re ready to perform your set, place your hands in the appropriate place and go for it! If you’ve been using the same narrow grip for years, chances are you will not be able to lift as much weight at first. If you’ve been using a wider grip, you will probably notice an increase in your poundages right away. It is not uncommon to feel the difference in your chest that this position change has after just one set.
Keep in mind that flaring your elbows out so that they are in line with your shoulders may cause discomfort in some people with shoulder problems especially if you are bringing the bar down above your nipple line. Comfort and preventing injury to your joints should be priority number one, so simply move your elbows inward into a comfortable range in order to avoid the stress on your shoulder complex.
4.) Don’t Fatigue before You Get Started
It’s a given that you should be properly warmed up before you begin working out, but some people make the mistake of warming up with too heavy of weights, or with too many sets before they even get to their “working sets”.
When done this way, warm-up sets essentially become working sets as well. The point of warm-up sets is to prepare the muscles, body, and mind for the work-load you are about to place on it and to prevent injury. The problem of doing too much before you get to your working sets is that by the time you do get to them you are beyond warmed up and your muscles have actually become fatigued, even if slightly so.
Hence, if your muscles are fatigued, you will not be able to lift as much resistance as you could if they were completely fresh and you will not be producing optimal progressive overload on the muscles. Your results will therefore not be as good as they potentially could be.
Instead, I recommend warming-up with very light weights, high reps (12-15), and using a slow and controlled pace in a comfortable, full range of motion for no more than 2 sets. Never go to failure or even close to failure on your warm-up sets – you just want to pump some blood into the involved muscles and get those ligaments and tendons ready.
However, if you’re using lower reps and real heavy weight (typical of power-lifting or mass-building) on your working sets, you may need one more warm-up set called an “acclimation set”. The acclimation set involves using relatively heavy weight and higher reps than you would for your working sets (8-10), which will force you to use some effort but will not bring you to fatigue.
The purpose the acclimation set serves is bridge to gap between the very light resistance of your warm-up sets and the very heavy and strenuous resistance used in your working sets. This will prevent total shock or injury to your body when you do perform your first heavy working set.
If you didn’t use an acclimation set before an exercise such as a heavy barbell bench press, chances are that you might drop the weight on your chest as soon as you or your spotter un-rack it. Or worse, you could injure yourself.
There is also no need to perform warm-up sets for anything other than your first exercise for a specific muscle or muscle group. The muscles are already thoroughly warmed up from the preceding exercise and any wasteful sets would only serve to fatigue your muscles rather than produce the progressive overload needed for strength and muscle gain.
You should instead go straight into your working sets. Think of this new way of warming up as energy conservation so that you can lift bigger weights and produce better results.
5.) Perform Less Crunches for Better Results
Quality training is more important than quantity training for an impressive midsection.
I frankly don’t care how many hundreds or thousands of crunches a day somebody says they do. If done correctly one wouldn’t need to, and more importantly, couldn’t be doing so many, so often – unless wasting time and energy or “trying” to impress someone is the goal.
As with anything worth doing, you should be using the quality over quantity philosophy. Because the abdominals generally have more endurance-type fibers, they tend to respond better to higher repetitions.
If you can do more than 15 to 20 repetitions of whatever movement you are performing, then in my opinion, you are either performing the movement incorrectly or the resistance used is not sufficient. Additionally, the abdominals are best trained and fatigued by keeping constant tension on them. This means that even when you return to the beginning position, your abdominals are still tensed and contracting isometrically (contraction without movement).
The third major key to abdominal training is contracting your abdominals at the top of the movement as hard as you can for a moment or two (also an isometric contraction or what some people call a peak contraction).
This is how to effectively and efficiently train the abdominal muscles.
Once you have trained them correctly, now you need to let them rest and recuperate just as you do for other muscle groups. When the abdominals are trained and fatigued correctly, you should not need to train them more than 2-3 times a week. You should experience muscular soreness the following day just as you would for any other productive weight training session. And with this next-day soreness you wouldn’t be able to train your abdominals even if you wanted to.
Furthermore, it would be defeating the purpose because you would not be able to create progressive overload.
6.) Don’t Pace Yourself
Once you are warmed up and ready to perform your “working sets” treat each set like it’s your last.
This is something that I need to constantly remind my clients of. Don’t think about how many more sets you need to perform or how many other exercises you need to do. Pacing yourself through your workout will not produce optimal results. Intensity is the most important factor in producing results.
Example: If a program calls for 3 sets of 8 repetitions (after one or two warm-up sets, of course), individuals tend to stop themselves at 8 on the first or second set even if they can perform more than 8 because they are thinking that if they do 9 or 10 on this set they might only get 6 or 7 on the next set. Do not stop at some pre-determined number. Let your body tell you when to stop… not your mind!
Your first “working sets” are when you are fresh and strong and that is especially when you need to push yourself and leave it all on the line in order to lift the most weight you can and produce the greatest overload possible. As far as I’m concerned, everything after that is just icing on the cake.
If you need to incorporate techniques such as drop sets, rest/pause or simply drop the weight on the following set(s) in order to reach your target repetition range, then so be it.
7.) Want Bigger, Stronger Muscles? – Then Let Them Grow
It’s great to have goals and priorities in the gym, but being overzealous will get you no results.
Don’t expect to destroy your muscles in the gym and return the next day or two and train the same muscles and be able to lift more – especially if you are a drug-free lifter or your diet and sleep patterns are not up to par.
The general point of resistance training is to cause microscopic tearing of your muscle fibers, which causes your body to repair the tissue by making it stronger than before so that it can handle the increased demands being placed on the muscles. But if you are not allowing sufficient rest and repair time then you are interrupting this process and will NEVER grow or become stronger.
It is crucial to listen to your body, know how it responds to different training, and schedule your workouts accordingly in order to make continued progress on a regular basis.
Recovery time is going to differ for everyone, but generally you should wait at least 48-72 hours before training the same muscles again – you may even need as much as a week if you are using very high intensity or volume.
The more experienced you become at weight training and the more you become aware of your body, the easier it will be to know the perfect timing to train those muscles hard again in order to achieve the best results. A general personal philosophy that I have is to avoid training any muscle, or muscle group, if it is still sore from a previous workout. Once in a while won’t kill you though.
8.) Chest & Biceps Are Not Your Only Muscle Groups
Don’t be one of those guys who stick out like a sore thumb in the gym because they follow what I like call “the classic freshman workout program” where chest and biceps are trained almost exclusively.
This workout is typically composed of bench presses and flyes from every imaginable angle, as well as a multitude of biceps curls including hammer curls and is usually performed every time they come to the gym. Don’t forget that the legs and back are the largest muscle groups in the body and that they need to be trained as well.
A stronger back may even help with movements like the bench press because the back muscles work as antagonists during the movement. A wide back will help give you that coveted v-taper, making your midsection appear smaller and your appearance more aesthetically pleasing.
Training the trapezius (middle and lower fibers) and rhomboids of the back as well as the posterior deltoid will aid in improving any appearance of a forward slouch of the shoulders, thus bringing your chest up and giving you a more confident stronger appearance.
Not only will strong legs improve your power in sports (or God forbid, physical altercations) but a big, strong lower body will give you an overall strong, muscular looking physical appearance even while fully clothed.
There is nothing worse than seeing someone whose biceps are bigger than their thighs, or someone who can bench press more than they can squat. Incorporating days with other muscle groups into your weight training program will also serve to give you recovery time in between chest and biceps workouts.
So make sure you are spending as much, if not more, effort on these neglected muscle groups especially if you’ve been following the freshman workout for a while. If these muscles have been neglected, chances are that you may experience an immediate increase in strength, size, and bodyweight (muscle mass weight) once you begin training them.
9.) Use a Smaller Range Of Motion for Leg Raises
If you’re performing leg raises with your body in a vertical position and your intention is to concentrate on the lower portion of your abdominals, then your range of motion needs to be smaller than what is typically seen in a gym.
Moving your thighs from a vertical position to a horizontal one (90 degrees to your body) mainly solicits your hip flexors (iliopsoas, rectus femoris, tensor fascia lata). It is not until your thighs are at least horizontal that your rectus abdominis becomes intensely solicited and the primary mover.
So, in order to concentrate on your rectus abdominis (mainly the portion below the navel) you should start the movement with your thighs horizontal and perform small oscillations with your legs, keeping a rounded back and never lowering the knees below horizontal. The movement can be made even more difficult and effective through an isometric contraction (contraction with no movement) by keeping the knees tucked toward the chest for a moment or two.
This movement can be performed with the legs extended rather than with the knees bent in order to increase the resistance and its difficulty.
You can further increase the resistance by adding ankle weights or by having someone resist against your thighs on the concentric contraction (the way up).
Performing this movement with the legs extended requires good hamstrings flexibility so you may need to stretch your hamstrings first.
The movement can be made even more difficult and effective through an isometric contraction (contraction with no movement) by keeping the knees tucked toward the chest for a moment or two. Beginners, heavy individuals, or those that are not feeling the lower part of the abdominals working during this movement may want to try this exercise on an incline sit-up board or even a flat bench.
This will lessen the resistance of your bodyweight lifted, thereby making it easier. The lower the incline is set to, the easier it will be to perform. Make sure you are rounding your lower back in order to achieve the spinal flexion needed to target the lower abdominals.
10.) Mix It Up For Continued Progress
Sticking with the same exercises, in the same order, with the same sets and repetitions on the same days is a surefire way to achieve no results.
By the time you start to feel that your program is stale, chances are it’s been stale for longer than you think. There are many different methods for keeping your workouts fresh that involve such things as changing repetition ranges, exercise order, exercises, frequency, the pairing of various muscle groups, etc.
What I like to do sometimes when beginning with a new client who has been doing the same type of program for a while, is ask him or her what they are presently doing or what they have done recently. And then I’ll design a program that is the exact opposite, which completely shocks the body and spurs rapid results.
Complete overhaul of your exercise program sometimes means getting out of your comfort zone, but the results are worth it and you can always go back to your old routine at some point. And who knows, maybe you’ll find new exercises that you enjoy even more than the old ones.
Keep in mind that not everyone’s program needs a total makeover.
Personally, I find that changing the pairing of muscle groups for a given exercise session, changing from barbells to dumbbells and vice versa, as well as changing the repetition ranges used can have a large impact on avoiding or jumping over plateaus.
Everyone is different as far as how long it takes to hit a wall.
Generally you’ll want to change your program maybe every 4 weeks or so. But I always tell people if you are still genuinely moving up in repetitions and/or resistance for every exercise at every exercise session, don’t change a darn thing! If it’s not broke, don’t fix it.
Continue until you are unable to increase the resistance or repetitions for two consecutive exercise sessions. Just make sure you are not pacing yourself which will be a false indicator of if you are truly able to move up in weight or not.
There is also the school of thought that trains like myself by training instinctively instead of sticking with a set-in-stone program for a certain period of time. Instinctive weight lifters listen to their body and their intuition and may not even know what exercises or in what order they are going to do them in until they walk in the gym. They will have a general guideline in their head though.
If their body’s telling them it’s not ready to train that muscle again, they may take an extra day off, or if they feel extra good they may move their session up a day. If I don’t feel the muscles working the way I want them to on the first couple of reps, I’ll stop immediately or finish the set and then move on to something else.
If my energy level happens to be low on a particular day, I’ll use a higher rep range and really concentrate on slow and controlled form and feeling the muscle under continuous tension instead of using real heavy weight.
Spontaneity, keeping your body guessing, and going with what feels right in the moment is the name of the game. Weight training, in my opinion, shouldn’t make you feel like an accountant crunching numbers in between sets. Above all else, you should enjoy what you are doing which will keep you interested and motivated and moving towards progress.
As always, you need to decide what works best for you – scheduled set-in-stone workouts, instinctive training or a little of both. No one method is necessarily better than the other is.
The key is to keep the intensity high and keep plugging away.
Rick Streb
