It’s
been 30 days since you hit my leg workout. I’m hoping you are back to walking normal and you’re ready for a change to your shoulder workout. Here are a FEW TIPS to help maximize the results of the workout.
TIP 1: When doing shoulders really focus on form and do not sacrifice it no matter what. Shoulders are the easiest body part to injure and many times the most nagging. Shoulder surgery is not fun and can be a 6 month recovery.
TIP 2: When doing side laterals or front raises make sure you bring the weight SLIGHTLY above the shoulders. I see many people in the gym without a good range of motion and unless you bring that weight SLIGHTLY above the shoulder you will be missing out on some key growth.
No 
matter how long I’ve been training, or how much I learn, one thing remains the same; my complete and total awe of the vast intelligence contained within the human organism and its ability to adapt to various stimuli. Resistance training is a perfect example of this! Most experienced trainers know that lower reps and volume, tend to primarily elicit strength gains. These tend to be the result of neurological adaptations (especially in the early stages of training). Protocols based on higher reps and overall training volume tend to be more effective at producing muscle growth (i.e. hypertrophy) via structural changes in the actual muscle tissue itself.
How 
many times have you spent the last half of your workout on the special ab machine at the gym or doing countless sit-ups only to see no results? You’ve done every abdominal workout that you’ve heard of to no avail. Are you finding that getting that ever elusive six pack you want to show off in your board shorts seems unattainable. Here are 3 “Six pack” myths that may be holding you back or at least wasting your time.
“How much do you bench?” 
As you are reading this article, I am sure that is a question that you have been asked many times. It seems to be the measure of alpha male prowess when you are chatting to someone in a bar. You are rarely asked, “how much do you deadlift?” or “how much do you squat?” Yet out of these movements I have mentioned, the bench press is probably the one where technique between training for a maximal lift and training for aesthetics varies quite considerably. Sure there may be slight changes in feet placement when deadlifting or squatting for a maximal lift as opposed to when focusing on muscular aesthetics, but for the most part the technique is the same. The bench press however is quite different. For this reason it is no wonder that one of the most common errors I see in the gym is a guy trying to push as much weight as possible for reps on a bench press rather than focusing on working the muscle group they are trying to improve. This then spills over to other chest exercises too. Let’s take cable crossovers for example, it seems that the “cable-press-over” has become one of the most common moves you will see in most gyms! With the focus on moving as much weight as they can, a trainer ends up doing something closer to a press with cables rather than a crossover.
Muscular 
Symmetry is the hallmark of an aesthetic physique. A more subtle, yet no less important, aspect to muscular balance is your inner muscular symmetry. This consists of developing appropriate strength and flexibility between opposing muscle groups not only for the sake of appearance but for musculoskeletal health as well!
Muscles in the body tend to work in pairs that have opposite functions (called Functional Antagonists). For example the biceps on the front of the arm bends your elbow while the triceps on the back of the arm straightens the elbow.
As you can imagine if the biceps was in a chronically tight position you would have a situation where your arms would favor a flexed position as its “normal” resting state. This would also put your triceps in a chronically stretched position. I’m sure we’ve all seen guys in the gym who spend 90 % of their arm workouts doing curls and walk around with their arms bent 24-7!
The most problematic imbalances involve muscles that affect posture.
I 
hope you enjoyed my back workout from last month. Now that we warmed your body up from the chest and back workouts, I thought it would be time to get serious and move to the legs. Just like the other workouts this is not designed for the beginner. This is designed for individuals that have put some time into the gym, have learned and mastered the form of these exercises, and whose bodies are use to a little pain ;-). Make sure you drink plenty of fluids leading up to and after this workout as always. Feed the body the nutrients it needs to get through the workout and have that post meal ready to start recovery immediately. Have fun and hit me up on Facebook and tell me what you liked best about it.
Training 
the traps can be a bit tricky, because of the unique anatomical configuration of the muscle. It’s fan-shaped - originating over a broad area along the upper spine, and narrowing down to a much smaller insertion on the shoulder blade (scapula). Because of this configuration, it is able to pull the shoulder carriage straight upward, slightly back and upward, straight backward, back and slightly downward.
Part of the trapezius already works, during a typical back workout that involves rowing. The lower portion of the trapezius works when we do pulldowns, provided the pulley is slightly in front of us (thereby causing us to pull slightly backward, as well as downward). This is why we usually do standing shrugs for our traps - because the upper part doesn’t get enough stimulation from rowing and pulldowns.
I 
hope you enjoyed my chest workout from last month. I thought I might continue with a back workout to even things out a bit. This should give your back a little shock and awe!! This workout is not for the beginner…..you have been warned. Try it out and let me know what you think. Hit me up on Facebook and tell me what you liked best about it.
BACK ATTACK: The Lift...
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