Part III Showtime

To hit the vacuum on stage, set your legs by lifting your knee to flex your inner psoas muscle. DO NOT LET GO OF THIS FLEX. Look down and bring your hands together making 2 fists.  These fists will flex your biceps automatically for you. Exhale all the air OUT of your lungs. Suck your diaphragm in and up into the back of your neck as your arms go overhead.

Jam your fists down as far as possible down your back, keeping your biceps to the sides of your head.  It will make you look thicker with less space showing next to your head. Push your fists into your back while they’re down there, and learn to use this push to pop your lats out.

Learn to flex your upper pecs by bringing your elbows slightly towards center.  It’s an impressive shot to see striated pecs , flexed biceps, and your psoas in this shot.

And most importantly SMILE AND MAKE IT LOOK LIKE IT DOESN’T HURT!

Known as the bodybuilding/golf pro, Michael Manavian works on improving peoples health and fitness as well as their golf game. He is the author of Atomic Golf, The Alternative to Swing Gurus, Pie-in-the-Sky Theories, Perfect Greens, and Everything Else That’s Failed and is available for fitness consultations as well as golf instruction.

Be sure to visit his website, www.atomic-golf.com.

Part II Hoover or Dyson

I was very fortunate to be introduced to weight training focusing on structure first before building muscle. During my first 6 months of training a majority of my exercises were geared towards manipulating the bone and cartilage of my torso.  Once this is formed then you can pack on the muscle – otherwise it’s too late.  You cannot go back and change structure once muscle is developed.

The cornerstone exercise used to achieve this look with me was dumbbell pullovers.    The key to this exercise is to expand the ribcage thru stretching and breathing using relatively light weights at first. (I started with a single 15 lbs weight that I struggled to do 8 reps with!) Laying flat start by taking a deep breath filling your lungs with as much air as possible, raising your ribcage to the ceiling.  As the weight lowers over your head attempt to expand your chest by increase your lung capacity even though you’ve started with full lungs. It will feel you’re your breathing though not getting air in.  This is not about repping out or throwing around weight.  Its about maxing out your lung capacity then adding more air!  At the bottom of the rep, release all the air but keep the volume of the lungs the same size – huh? Yes! Keep the volume of your lungs big, but exchange out the carbon dioxide for a new breath of oxygen.  As the new breath flows in, push the weight up against that breath as you increase your lung/ribcage volume.  It’s completely counter intuitive.  Your resistance becomes not only the weight pulling on your arms but your chest pushing against your breath.  Direct your effort to getting your ribcage towards the ceiling the entire rep.  You can relax at the top when you bring the weight back to the starting position – up in front of your chest.

If you’re feeling a sharp piercing pain in your ribs in your back you’re doing it right. Between sets grab underneath your ribcage and using your hands like meat hooks and pull on your ribcage upwards. Switch up the workouts using dumbbells, barbells, and med-low bar on a cable. Keep your head at the edge of the bench to give the most leverage. Use a flat bench (both on it and across it), an incline bench (on the smallest incline), and moon bench (if available). Start by doing 8-15 reps 15-25 sets a day – everyday!  Because you’re not building muscle here rather stretching tendons/ligaments and cartilage, this can be worked on daily.

To really perfect this:

Always expand your ribcage on every exercise possible during your workout. Keep your ribcage up always! Never walk around with bad posture! Minimize serratus work.  Why build a wider waist? The next level is to learn how to pull the vacuum AND show abs underneath.  It takes time to learn how to contract your abs without crunching your ribcage.

All this work is key, so that when you get to the stage you’re not thinking about it or suffering.

Known as the bodybuilding/golf pro, Michael Manavian works on improving peoples health and fitness as well as their golf game. He is the author of Atomic Golf, The Alternative to Swing Gurus, Pie-in-the-Sky Theories, Perfect Greens, and Everything Else That’s Failed and is available for fitness consultations as well as golf instruction.

Be sure to visit his website, www.atomic-golf.com.

Part I – Just an Illusion

Bodybuilding on stage is about creating illusions.  Doing what it takes to give the appearance of having more volume in some areas and less volume in others by manipulating your body when viewed.  Note I said volume not size or weight.  It’s not about the scale rather the volume of space one can occupy.

That is the end all.  The presentation of body manipulation all the while taking into account the viewpoint of another – be it a judge or observer – is what you are striving to effect. The human brain is very keen in picking out and noting differences of the dichotomies. Light – dark, big-small, fast-slow, etc. It is imperative to play on these observations in order to positively affect the emotions of the observer in your favor. Most every show I’ve entered, I was the smallest guy in the class, but even with that I was able to win my share of events.

Remember flexing is a contraction – when things contract they get smaller! Think about what you’re doing in a front double bicep shot: Bringing your hands IN, flexing your pecs IN (which the above two pull on your lats hunching you forward and down) and flexing your abdominals IN and DOWN.

On paper, the pose is ill suited to show ones physique, but this all changes if you know how to offset these contractional shrinkages by using your ribcage effectively. The area of the torso is the make or break area.  By volumizing the chest cavity, you create a stable base to flex against!  Think about it, when you raise your rib cage you’re: Posture gets better, your head goes back, your chin goes up, your shoulders raise and go back, your chest is pushed out, your lats appear and your arms raise.

And that’s just standing relaxed!  Now go into the pose with a high ribcage you have a something to flex your arms against.  As your arms are contracting in, your ribcage is pushing out against your shoulders in turn pushing against your arms – creating a stable balance between the muscle’s insertion and attachment points. You ribs also are pushing against your lats popping them out.

By doing this high ribcage shot, the poser now can create the dichotomies within.  A high ribcage pulls the skin covering the abdominals and shrinks the volume of the waist.  Now you have a superman/wonder woman cartoony look, with a small waist and high torso bringing everyone’s attention to the difference in size; not necessarily the size of one or the other.  People can’t put their finger on what it is, and remark that the person has a small waist or a big chest when in fact he may not have either, but it sure looks likes he does.

Now that’s the why one would hit a high ribcage shot.  Now to answer the most common bodybuilding question I get asked – How the hell do you do that????

Known as the bodybuilding/golf pro, Michael Manavian works on improving peoples health and fitness as well as their golf game. He is the author of Atomic Golf, The Alternative to Swing Gurus, Pie-in-the-Sky Theories, Perfect Greens, and Everything Else That’s Failed and is available for fitness consultations as well as golf instruction.

Be sure to visit his website, www.atomic-golf.com.