This action is the major component of sitting up. Because of this, when you are doing sit ups your psoas muscles are the primary muscles being engaged and not your abdominal exercises.

So, sit-ups are a pretty useless exercise if you want to get your abs in shape. Instead, use crunches, because they directly work your abs.

The Right Way

Lie flat on your back with your knees bent and your feet together flat on the floor and about 10-15 inches from your buttocks. Your hands should either be crossed on your chest, by your side, or cupped behind your ears.

Without moving your lower body, curl your upper torso up and in toward your knees, until your shoulder blades are as high off the ground as you can get them. Only your shoulder blades should lift – not your back. As you come to the highest point tighten and flex your abdominals for a brief second. Slowly lower yourself back to the starting position. Repeat for reps.

Diet

Remember cruches only tone the ab muscles, you need a lowered calorie intake to burn off the fat, so the muscles then show through clearly.

About The Author: Paul Becker is a natural (steroid free for life) bodybuilder and fitness consultant. For more information on Bodybuilding and Bodybuilding Supplements visit his website at http://www.trulyhuge.com

Regarding the reduction of body fat, these problems are almost always diet, not workout, related. The “Iron Guru” Vince Gironda stated “body sculpting is 80% diet…if you don’t have your diet down first, the rest is moot.

I was told a story of a nineteen-year old named Pete who was overweight and fat, his diet consisted of mainly pasta and other carbohydrates. Pete’s goal was to become a Mr. America winner. Under Vince Gironda’s wing, Pete got ripped and won the Mr. California title. How did he do this? By taking Vince’s advice, he gradually reduced his carbs and increased his protein intake.

Stone Age Eating

The vast majority of nutrient consumption for the past 100,000 years or so has been in the form of saturated animal fat and protein, with fat taking the larger percentage. The balance was made up of  things that could be eaten in a raw state such as vegetables, berries, some fruits (in season) and nuts. That’s basically it. It has only been fairly recently that mans diet has shifted to a diet of high carbs – breads, pastas, candy bars, sodas, etc.  And we grew fat and sicker and weaker after that change was made.

Arnold and many of the bodybuilders of the 60′s were on the Vince Gironda’s diet of steak, eggs, protein powder mixed with half and half, etc.  It was a healthy moderate fat, high protein, low carb diet with plenty of green veggies.

A bodybuilder named Eddie Giuliani, who worked at World’s Gym in the 1980′s, used to laugh at the “carb freaks” who were trying to get lean on diets full of pasta. “I can’t wait until bodybuilders go back to the steak and eggs diet.”,  he would say.  At the time Eddie was in his fifties, but he still had a ripped six-pack that would make everyone envious.

There should be  no doubt that dietary fat does not make people fat.  It is the combination of fat and carbohydrates (and excessive caloric consumption along with a sedentary lifestyle) that makes people fat.

Recently I decided to radically lower my carbohydrate intake. I replaced all carbs with green vegetables and limited my fruit to one serving per day. I got much leaner on a 65% fat diet than I ever was on 50% carbs. (I do try to balance my saturated fats with omega 3 oils and try to consume more lean meats, but fat is still fat calorically speaking. Dietary fat also has little to do with cholesterol and heart disease. If you want the truth, read The Cholesterol Myths by Uffe Ravnskov, MD, PhD.)

My calorie intake was higher, but my body fat has decreased and my energy levels were way up and I didn’t have the “blood sugar lows” I had while on a higer carb diet.

Give Vince’s Diet a test drive

First, gradually cut back on the amount of processed carbs you’re consuming. Pastas, breads, sugars, etc., are typically the biggest problems. Replace the calories from these with protein foods and green vegetables.

Plan on eating five to six small meals throughout the day will help.  For example, if you’re consuming 2,500 calories, divide that by five and have 500 at breakfast, morning/afternoon snack, lunch and dinner.

Drink lots of water.  If you’re not drinking at least a gallon per day, you’re setting yourself up for water retention.  Your kidneys won’t have enough fluids to work with and you’re going to have trouble losing body fat.

About The Author: Paul Becker is a natural (steroid free for life) bodybuilder and fitness consultant. For more information on Bodybuilding and Bodybuilding Supplements visit his website at http://www.trulyhuge.com

Why would anyone want to workout without weights? Everyone knows that using weights and machines is the fastest most efficient way to gain size and strength. While this is true, there are many resons why someone would want to, or even be forced to train for a while without the benefit of using weights. Someone working long hours trying to support his family may not have the time to get to a commercial gym, and may not have the extra space or money to set up a good home gym.

Also, someone who has to travel quite often for business might prefer getting a good workout in his or her hotel room rather then wandering the streets of South America asking “Donde esta el gymo?”.

Let’s face it there are times (vacations, etc.) when all of us can’t easily get to a gym. There are also many trainees (beginners or athletes training for boxing, baseball or some other sport) who aren’t trying to get a lot of muscular bulk but want the type of strength, endurance and definition that calisthenic exercise offers. These exercises can also be preformed anytime, anywhere and you can do them over your entire life to keep fit.

The idea behind this course is – If for some reason you do workout without weights, what is the most efficient and result producing way to do it? You can use these exercises in many ways: To build muscle, to maintain muscle you already have, in combination with your weight training to add variety and a change of pace, as a warm-up or pump-up routine, to ease back into training after a layoff or injury, etc., etc.

Very early in my training carear I started thinking about how to make calisthenics more result producing. The original reason was to help out one of my best friends at the time, who also happened to be the person that inspired me to start training by seeing the great progress he was making. Let’s call him Joe, mostly because that was his name, I believe he prefers to be called Joseph these days but back then he was still good old Joe.

Anyway, one day Joe’s father forbid him to workout with weights anymore, he gave Joe some reasons for this decision but I think the real reason was that he didn’t like the idea that his 15 year old son was getting a little too big and strong to be easily controlled and he better do something about it before he gets any bigger. The funny part was that his father didn’t object to him doing push-ups or other freehand exercises, only weight training was forbidden, I’m sure he figured that at best Joe would be able to maintain the muscle he had but he wouldn’t get any bigger. Joe was very distraught by the situation, convinced that his muscles were doomed to waste away to nothing, but I was sure there was some way to make those exercise more intense and maybe he could even gain some size. I came up with some ideas and tried to tell Joe about them but he didn’t seem too interested, his attitude was like “Hey, I know more about training then this guy, I’m the one who got him started. And besides I don’t have time to listen to this I’m too busy feeling sorry for myself and performing satanic rituals to curse my dad-”.

Joe never used my ideas but I did many times over the years, whenever I used calisthenics, and always got good results. I got even more ideas, a few years back, after reading the famous “Dynamis-Tension Course” by Charles Atlas. I found an old comic book and decided to write to the address and see if the course was still available, much to my  delight it was and I ordered it. I ordered it mostly as a collectors piece and novelty item, like owning a part of American pop culture. Who could forget those great advertisements like, “The insult that made a man out of ‘Mac’.”, “Who else wants a He-Man body?” or “In just 7 days, I can make you a Man.”, I was also curious as to what was this Dynamic-Tension method exactly. I have always believed that – Only a fool thinks he knows everything and that a wise man never stops learning., so there wasa possibility that I could find some good information in this “old, outdated course”. I read the course and found it quite interesting, I was slightly disappointed to find out that Dynamic-Tension is really just  some calisthenics and some isometric exercises. And while I’m sure they would do a lot for 198 lb weaklings”, what can they do for someone who’s already fairly big and strong? This got me thinking again about the same thing, how can these exercises be made more intense. Since then I came up with a few more ideas and now it’s time to end the history lesson and share them with you.

THE TECHNIQUES

(1) The first technique is to just do the exercises in the traditional manner, I know you can do 60, 80 even 100 reps but that’s the idea, grind out as many reps as you can this will build up your endurance and give your muscles a change of pace. And while this most likely won’t give you any extra size right away, when you go back to weight training with heavy weights and lower reps you may be supprised that you are now gaining faster then before. A few years ago some top bodybuilders were talking about a technique they called “100′s”, they reduced the weight and did literally 100 reps on all their exercises, they claimed it brought about certain physiological changes that made the muscles more responsive to later heavier training. It’s worth a try, especially if you’re going to be doing calisthenics anyway.

(2) Another way to get more results from these exercises is, right after a set flex hard the muscles just worked, flex as hard as you can and hold for at least a count of 10. Arnold talked extensively about ”Posing as exercise” and the use of “Iso-Tension”(Iso means – Equal; the same, and Tension means – To tighten; stiffen; contract. So Iso-Tension is simply contacting the muscles and holding in the same place – no movement.) he said that it really gives the body a more chiseled look, reaches areas that training misses and will make muscular contractions while training more intense, and more isolated. All good reasons to try this technique.

A better variation of this is to flex the muscles you are working first, get them good and tired and then do the exercise, thus Pre-Fatiguing them. For example flex the chest or tricep muscles as hard as you can, then immediately do a set of push-ups. Feels different doesn’t it? It’s a lot harder and produces much better results.

(3) Another technique is to reduce the rest time between exercises, let’s say you start with 60 seconds after a while cut it down to 45 then 30, then 15, etc. How about no rest between sets, a whole cycle of calisthenics all done nonstop that makes it way more intense. Also try it this way – do one set, let’s say of chin-ups, go until the muscles are really tired or even to total failure wait only a few seconds and then do another set. How many reps did you do on your second set? Only 4 or 5 I bet, that’s about what you’d do if you were doing some heavy pull-downs. You should see some growth from this style. Make it even more intense by increasing the reps on the first set and by decreasing the rest time before the second set, this is using the Rest-Pause method without weights.

(4) Why not simply add some weight, just because it’s not metal disks doesn’t matter your body can’t tell the difference. Put some heavy books on your back and do push-ups, or even your 8 year old son, he likes to play horsy. Get your wife or girlfriend (but not both at the same time, that could be trouble) to sit on your shoulders while you do squats. Do donkey calf raises, get creative there’s always a way to add some more resistance.

(5) How about using only one limb at a time, like doing one legged squats, one arm chin-ups, one arm push-ups, etc.. It takes some balance but it definitely makes it harder and puts on more muscle.

(6) Slow-Motion training is becoming popular again, try taking a full 12 seconds for the positive phase and 6 seconds for the negative phase of each rep. Don’t lock out in the top position and don’t rest in the bottom position, change smothly from the positive to the negative. This is using Slow Continous Tension, how many chin-up can you do this way?

Not many I bet, it’s intense.

(7) This last technique is based on what I thought Dynamic-Tension was before I read the course, Dynamic means – Dealing with motion, and we know from before that Tension is simply contraction. Therefore true Dynamic-Tension would be flexing the muscles hard while also moving, martial artists use a form of this to increase punching power.

Let’s try to use this applyed to our freehand workout, do your push-ups nice and slow while flexing hard your pectorals, shoulders, triceps, biceps and even your lats and forearms. When doing chin-ups flex hard your lats, shoulders, biceps, triceps and even chest and forearms. Do deep knee bends and flex hard your quadriceps, hamstrings, gludes, hips and even calves. Keep the tension hard and steady, it will take some practice to do it all together, but the increadible pump and  muscle growth you will get from it will be well worth your while.

SOME SUGGESTED EXERCISES

Deep Knee bends – Builds thighs, gludes, hips and great for lung power and endurance. With your feet about shoulder width apart, grab on to the edge of a sink (or something that will give you support) and while looking up slowly bend your knees and lower until your butt is just about touching the floor. Slowly standup again using only your legs to lift you, keep your heals on the floor and do as many as you can. For vairation you can place your feet wider or closer together, or do them one leg at a time.

Calf Raises – Do them on steps, put your toes on the edge of a step and hold on to the hand rail for balance, lower your heals to get a good stretch, then raise up on your toes as high as you can, lower and repeat for as many as you can. For variation try them in the squated down position, one leg of a time or donkey style.

Chin-ups or Pull-ups – For building back, shoulders, and biceps. Grab a bar with an under hand         grip and hang down getting a good strecth in the lats, Pull up until your chest hits the bars, lower and repeat for as many. These can be easily be done in a park, school yard or on a doorway chinbar.

Also try with an overhand grip, with one arm at a time, or even on monkey bars using a parallel grip (palms facing each other).

Push-ups – For building chest, sholders and triceps. Lie face down on the floor hands about shoulder width apart keep your palms turned inward slightly, push-up until your arms are straight, lower and repeat for reps. To make it more difficult elevate your feet. Also, try different hand placements (closer together or farther apart). They can also be done between chairs, this was the favorite exercise of Charles Atlas. Another varition is Dips between parallel bars.

Handstand push-ups – Great for shoulders and arms. Get into a handstand next to a wall, put your toes against the wall for balance, lower yourself until the top of your head touches the ground, push back up and repeat for many reps. Try both close and wide hand Placements.

Crunches – For firming abdominals and reducing stomach. Lie on your back with your legs bent and your heals close to your butt, put your chin on your chest and your hands behind your head. Raise your head up crunching your abs hard (you should only go about 1/3 of the way as compared to traditional sit-ups) lower and repeat for lots of reps.

Hyper -Extentions – For strengthening your lower back. Place a chair near a bed, while lying face down with your hips on the chair and your lower legs shoved between the mattress and boxspring, put your hands behind your head and bend forward at the waist as far as you can, raise back up until your back is straight and repeat for reps.

Grip Excercise – To build forearms and hand strength. Use a store bought pocket hand gripper, or a hard rubber ball that fits in your hand, squeeze as hard as you can, relax and repeat for many reps. Also try just the thumb and one finger at a time, exercise each finger this way.

FINAL WORDS

Always use proper form while exercising, remember – it’s safety first. It is also recomended to stretch before and after your workout. Give these ideas a try, and never again have bully’s kick sand in your face.

Good Training!

Paul Becker

About The Author: Paul Becker is a natural (steroid free for life) bodybuilder and fitness consultant. For more information on Bodybuilding and Bodybuilding Supplements visit his website at http://www.trulyhuge.com

SECTION ONE: BODY TYPE

1) My bone structure is:

__ (a) Very Large  __ (b) Large to Medium   __ (c) Small to Frail

2) My body tends towards:

__ (a) Carrying too much fat   __ (b) Being lean and muscular   __ (c)

Being too skinny

3) My body looks:

Men answer here:

__ (a) Round and soft            __ (b) Square and rugged    __ (c) Long and

tenuous

Women answer here:

__ (a) Pear-shaped  __ (b) Hourglass-shaped   __ (c) Mostly straight up

and down

4) As a child I was:

__ (a) Chubby            __ (b) Normal            __ (c) Too thin

5) My activity level is:

__ (a) Sedentary   __ (b) Fairly Active    __ (c) Over active, can’t sit

still

6) My approach to life is:

__ (a) Laid back   __ (b) Dynamic    __ (c) Worrisome

7) My metabolism is:

__ (a) Slow   __ (b) Just right    __ (c) Too fast

People tell me:

__ (a) I should lose some weight   __ (b) Stay the same, that I look

fine

__ (c) I should gain some weight

9) If you encircle your wrist with your other hand’s middle finger and

thumb:

__ (a) Middle finger and thumb do not touch   __ (b) Middle finger and

thumb just touch

__ (c) Middle finger and thumb overlap

10) Concerning my weight, I:

__ (a) Gain weight easily, but find it hard to lose   __ (b) Gain or

lose weight fairly easily. Usualy stay about the same weight __ (c)

Have trouble gaining weight

11) I am hungry:

__ (a) Almost all the time   __ (b) Just at meal times         __ (c) Rarely

12) People would describle me as an:

__ (a) Emotional person   __ (b) Physical person    __ (c) Intellectual

person

RESULTS

Give yourself a 1 for each A answer, a 2 for each B answer and a 3 for

each C answer. Add them up and divide by 12.

Look below at the number you now have. If you come up with a fraction,

for example 1.5, then you are somewhere in-between those two body types.

And recommendations would be a middle approach.

1

You tend towards being an Endomorph, you biggest concern should be the

losing

of fat and adopting a lifestyle that keeps it off.

Strength training should be done to get a better muscle to fat ratio and

therefore improve metabolism. Use moderate weights at a fast training pace (very

little rest between sets and exercises).

You should lower your calorie intake (but not try to starve yourself)

and should eat frequent but small meals. Sugars, sweets and junk food should be

eliminated from your diet.

Engage daily in some activity like brisk walking, biking, etc., and try

to increase the amount of time you spend each week.

2

You tend towards being a Mesomorph and have a naturally fit body but to

maintain it or improve it you should exercise and diet correctly for your

type.

Strength training can be done more often and for longer sessions then

would be good for an Ectomorph, but you must still be careful not to overdo

it. You should train with moderate to heavy weighs and at a moderate pace,

not resting too long between sets. You will find you gain muscle quite easy

(some women and even men might not want to get too bulky, but this won’t

happen suddenly. When you are happy with your muscle size simply train to maintain it).

Stick to a good healthy diet to keep you lean and muscular, and watch

for any slow creeping fat gains.

Engage in and enjoy aerobic activities, sports, etc. but do not overdo.

3

You tend towards being an Ectomorph, you should concentrate on gaining

weight in the form of good lean muscle tissue (some women that are too

thin may also want to put on a little fat to look more feminine).

Weight training should be done but not too often or for too long each

session. Weight should be fairly heavy and workout pace slower (longer rest

periods between sets).

Diet should be high in calories (good quality food not junk) and you

should eat more then you’re used to and often.

Aerobic and other activities (sports, dancing, etc.) should be kept to a

minimum,

at least until you are happy with your weight and looks.

HISTORY

In the 1940s, Dr. William H. Sheldon introduced the theory of Somatypes.

His theory described three basic human body types: the endomorph,

characterized by a preponderance of bodyfat; the mesomorph, marked by a well-developed

musculature; and the ectomorph, distinguished by a lack of either much

fat or muscle tissue. He did also state that most people were a mixture of

these types.

Sheldon’s description of three body types has become an integral part of

most literature on weight loss, fitness and bodybuilding.

The three body types are further described below.

ECTOMORPH

fragile

thin

flat chest

delicate build

young appearance

tall

lightly muscled

stoop-shouldered

large brain

Has trouble gaining weight.

Muscle growth takes longer.

MESOMORPH

athletic

hard, muscular body

overly mature appearance

rectangular shaped (hourglass shaped for women)

thick skin

upright posture

gains or loses weight easily

grows muscle quickly.

ENDOMORPH

soft body

flabby

underdeveloped muscles

round shaped

over-developed digestive system

trouble losing weight

generally gains muscle easily.

CONCLUSIONS

When you know which type you are (or which mixture) and diet and

exercise correctly for that type, you will make much better progress.

While some women may think that Kate Moss is the ideal, from a fitness

view point she really isn’t. And many women who tend to be endomorphic

will save themselves much suffering by not striving to change themselves

into ectomorphs, it’s not going to happen. Conversly a true ectomorph

who wishes to be a Sumo wrestler would also be in for a big disappointment.

Your goal should be to look as close as possible to (or stay looking

like) a mesomorph. With the correct exercise and diet this can be attainable,

and while you may be a bit upset that you have to work hard to look good

while the true mesomorph looks that way naturally, at least you will still be

fit and look good. And even the mesomorph will find, as he/she gets older

that some exercise and diet is needed if they want to continue to look good

and be fit.

About The Author: Paul Becker is a natural (steroid free for life) bodybuilder and fitness consultant. For more information on Bodybuilding and Bodybuilding Supplements visit his website at http://www.trulyhuge.com

In the last article we talked about work and how to calculate your workload for each workout, the first part of the formula for power is the same (Force X Distance), now we add the factor of time.

Now, for the purposes of muscle building we don’t mean increasing lifting speed, this just allows momentum to do the work and not the muscles. All exercises should be preformed slowly and deliberately.

As you will see when we talk about power, we are talking about training intensity. Let’s look how we can increase our workout power (intensity):

1) Use a full range of motion, for example let’s say your full range of motion on the bench press is 2 1/2 feet, that means1 rep (up and down) is 5 feet. And let’s say each rep takes 6 seconds (2 up and 4 down), if you use 250 lbs for 8 reps the power would be – 250 lbs X 40 ft -:- 48 sec = 208.3 ft-lbs/sec.

Now let’s say you cut 3 inches off the range of motion by not bringing the bar all the way down to your chest, this takes 1/2 foot off of each rep. So, if all other factors are the same, the above set now looks like this – 250lbs X 36 ft -:- 48 sec = 187.5 ft-lb/sec. With less range of motion power goes down.

2) Increase the weight you lift, for example, on our full motion bench press (250 lbs X 40 ft -:- 48 sec = 208.3 ft-lbs/sec) if next workout 5 lbs is added , it then looks like this – 255 lbs X 40 ft -:- 48 sec = 212.5 ft-lbs/sec. Lifting more weight increases Power.

3) Decrease time between sets, for example, 3 sets of bench using 250 lbs for 8 reps has the workload of – 250 lbs X 40 ft = 10, 000 ft-lbs. If these 3 sets are done in 10 mins (600 sec) the power is – 10,000 ft-lbs -:- 600 sec = 16.7 ft-lbs/sec.

If by decreasing rest time those same 3 sets are done in 6 mins (360 sec) then the power is – 10, 000 ft-lbs -:- 360 sec = 27.8 ft-lbs/sec.

About The Author: Paul Becker is a natural (steroid free for life) bodybuilder and fitness consultant. For more information on Bodybuilding and Bodybuilding Supplements visit his website at http://www.trulyhuge.com.

When we workout we use a certain amount of muscular force to lift a weight across a certain distance, the work done is measured in Foot/Pounds. If we kept track of the work we do each workout it will tell us much about our progress and also how we should proceed with our training. You can measure the work done each workout in the following way:

1. Take an empty bar and do the full range motion for each exercise you are currently doing in your workout, have your training partner measure the distance (e.g., how far is it from the bar being on your chest to it being at full extension for the bench press, how far is it from the bar being on the ground to when you are standing up with it on the deadlift, etc.) and write down all these measurements. When there is an exercise that the movement is in an arc, like curls, you will have to find a way to measure the distance of the arc, you might want to take some chalk and do the motion against a wall and then measure the arc of the line you drew, or some other bright idea on measuring the distance of an exercise that travels in an arc.

2. Now the next time you workout you can figure the amount of work done (called workload), just take the reps done on your first set and times it by the distance (this would be twice the distance of the distance you measured, since one rep is both down and up), for example, if one rep down and up on the squat is 7 feet and you did 10 reps that would be 70 feet. Now take the weight lifted and times it by the distance, for example if you squatted 265 lbs: 265 lbs X 70 ft = 18,550 ft/lbs.

3. Take every set of the workout and used the same formula (F X D) and you will know the workload for each set add the workloads of all the sets and you will have the total workload of that one training session.

Now when you keep track of your workload each workout in this way you can see that as you get stronger your workload increases, you will also see that you can monitor how much workload you can handle each week before overtraining sets in. Just watch yourself for signs of overtraining and see where you workload is at.

You can increase or decrease your workload as you feel is necessary, and you can see that not all sets are created equal – a set of curls is much less work then a set of squats or deadlifts. You can also vary the workload from workout to workout, may alternating heavier with lighter sessions.

Keeping track of your workload will give you a much insight and the ability to predict things in your training, experiment with it and you will learn much more about how useful it is. In the part 5 I’ll expand a bit on this formula.

About The Author: Paul Becker is a natural (steroid free for life) bodybuilder and fitness consultant. For more information on Bodybuilding and Bodybuilding Supplements visit his website at http://www.trulyhuge.com

Mechanical Advantage – is the ratio of the force exerted by a machine to the force applied to a machine.

Our muscles contract to exert force and our skeletal structures (made up of simple machines – hinges, ball and sockets, etc..) transfer that force into motion. But the force exerted by our muscles (input) is not equal to the force we can use to move our bodies or lift other objects (output). let’s look at some of the factors that cause this increase in force output, first would be bone length and muscle attachment points. Generally shorter bone lengths are better for strength output then longer bones, also attachments further down the bone being moved would give better leverage and therefore the ability to lift more.

The above two factors explain why a smaller man may lift more then a bigger man, but there is nothing we can do about the length of our bones or the placement of our muscle attachments. There is another factor that we can use in our training and that is that even taking into consideration the information from Part 1 of this series (Gravity), due to the change in mechanical advantage during a full range of motion all exercises have a harder part and an easier part. Different movements have different strength curves, but usually the closer you get to full contraction the stronger you are.

All this just serves to show that when lifting fixed resistance over a full range of motion you are limited by the range of least mechanical advantage, in other words – The Sticking Point. If you are only lifting as much as you can handle in your weakest position you are not overloading your muscles to your fullest ability.

There are a few ways to overcome this – (1) Partial Movements and (2) Variable Resistance.

(1) Partial Movements, these are also called 1/4 reps or lockouts. With this method you need some adjustable squat stands or a power rack, set the barbell so you only do the top part of the movement. For example, the top 6 to 8 inches of the squat, this is when you’re in your strongest position to lift some really heavy poundages. The benefits to this type of training are both physical and mental, on the physical side you will be forcing you muscles to lift heavier weights thus increasing their strength (most trainees find that they are much stronger, when they return to full movements after a cycle of partials), on the mental side you get over a fear of handling really heavy weights and feel like “I can lift this, I’ve lifted even more then this before”.

You can do partials on overhead presses, bench press, deadlift, curls, etc., you will be able to handle a lot of weight with this technique, but to avoid the chance of injury work up to it gradually, so that your muscles, tendons and ligaments get used to the big poundages.

(2) Variable Resistance, this is done over a full range of motion and requires some method of increasing the resistance as your strength increases due to more mechanical advantage as you get closer to the fully contracted position. Nautilus was the first to put out machines that provided variable resistance and since then many manufacturers of exercise machines have also built this factor into their machines. But not everyone trains in a big commercial gym and even some that do prefer to train with free-weights, well there are some very simple ways to create an increasing resistance.

Before he released the first Nautilus machines, Arthur Jones experimented with chains to regulate resistance. It works this way, you attach some long sections of heavy chains to the bar or weight stack and as the chains are lifted off the floor they add more resistance. You can also use small plates tied every six inches to some long pieces of strong cord or rope, you can even tie some slightly larger plates near the end of the rope so that at the point just before full contraction/lock-out you are really pushing a lot of weight. Work with this a while to get the right amount of increasing weight, when you get it right the weight should feel consistent all the way through the movement, you will have to make some extra adjustments after using this method for a while because of the previously under worked areas of your strength curve will gain more then the area near the sticking point.

These methods force you to lift more weight and you will get bigger and stronger because of them.

About The Author: Paul Becker is a natural (steroid free for life) bodybuilder and fitness consultant. For more information on Bodybuilding and Bodybuilding Supplements visit his website at http://www.trulyhuge.com.

When working with machines friction can become a problem, you have the situation of weight on the machine plus friction making it feel much heavier than the weight stack says it is. This can wreck your progression, let’s say you’re going along on lat pulldowns, last workout you made over 10 reps, you add 5 lbs and start to pull and nothing happens, a big yank gets the weight moving and you have to use excessive momentum to keep it moving, all this cheating still only gets you 4 reps. You wonder “what’s wrong?”, friction that’s what.

Each time you use a machine, you should inspect in for any loose nuts and bolts, frayed cables, stuck pulleys or any broken plates on the weight stack. Any of these can cause you problems with friction. Also you should regularly keep machines oiled and otherwise well maintained.

There is another kind of friction I’d like to talk about, and that is the friction within your own body, yes, of course your body has it’s own friction, and this gives us 3 levels of strength:

1) Positive strength – contracting your muscles to lift or pull a weight, during this phase you are working against your own bodies friction.

2) Holding strength – contracting your muscles to Keep a weight in one position, you are aided by your bodies friction here and can thus hold 20% more then you can lift.

3) Negative strength – lengthening your muscles to lower a weight, you are also aided in phase by friction and it has been found that most trainees can lower 40% more then they can lift.

This would mean that if your max on the bench press was 200lbs, that you could hold 240lbs and lower 280 lbs. Research done by Nautilus in the 1970′s showed that any increase in positive or negative strength would result in an increase in the other, of course, skill is also a factor.

Now all this is very interesting. But, can it help us to build larger and stronger muscles? Yes, it can, let’s take a look at some of the techniques that can come from this.

If your lowering strength is 40% more then your lifting strength, but you use the same weight for both then you will not be really be taxing your negative strength. We must find a way to make the negative harder, there are many ways to do this. One way is to do some of your exercises on Life Circuit machines they automatically make the negative 40% heavier then the positive, while these machines are good I feel they can be improved on due to a perceived lack of resistance during the change from positive to negative and then back again. Another way would be for your training partner to grab the bar and push down what he approximates to be 40% of what your lifting, have him do this on each negative of the set. And for safety have him have a good hold on the bar while doing this and make sure he’s ready to stop pushing and Start pulling, in case you for some reason lose control of the weight. You can also try it this way, (use only a universal type machine for this, because you couldn’t balance a barbell for this technique.) take a weight that’s about 50% of what you usually use lift it with both arms and then lower it with your right arm only, lift it again with both arms and now lower it with your left arm only, continue to alternate the lowering arm till you make you target reps or until you can no longer lift the weight with both arms.

Other techniques would involve training the holding and lowering phases totally separate from the lifting phase. When doing this you would need at least two very strong training partners to lift the weight for you while you try to hold it in place as long as you can (a good position would be the sticking point for that particular lift), or you have them lift in up and then you lower it slowly and under control and they lift it again and then you lower it again, repeat for you target reps or till you can keep the bar moving slowly and controlled. Again for safety your training partners should keep their hands on the bar and be ready to take the weight if you should lose control. You would also want to work gradually up to the really heavy poundages.

These techniques will raise the intensity of you workouts and can lead to overtraining if used too often, but if used properly can help you reach new levels of size and strength.

About The Author: Paul Becker is a natural (steroid free for life) bodybuilder and fitness consultant. For more information on Bodybuilding and Bodybuilding Supplements visit his website at http://www.trulyhuge.com

Gravity is defined as – The natural force that causes objects to be pulled towards the center of the earth, it causes objects to have weight.

Because the earth is round, no matter where you are on it the center is always straight down. Thus, in order to have continuous tension on our muscles while training we must make sure the actual resistance we use travels a path that is straight up and straight down. an example of this is the military press, the weight is pushed against the force of gravity in a straight line up until the arms are locked over your head, then it is lowered slowly resisting gravity, in a straight line to about shoulder level.

In all of the big basic exercises (deadlifts, squats, bench press, military press, rows, etc.) the bar always travels straight up and straight down, this keeps the muscles being worked under a constant load. The basic exercises produce the best results because they stimulate growth in more then one muscle at a time, but we also now know that they provide continuous tension in the muscles involved – this is the secondary reason why they are so productive.

There are a group of exercises called isolation exercises these tend to work only one muscle or muscle group at a time, these exercises are not very efficient at producing overall body mass as the basic exercises. The reason for this is they don’t stimulate growth in many muscles at once, but also secondarily because most of them don’t provide continuous loading of the muscles.

In most isolation exercises the bar travels in arcs where only the middle of the movement approximates a pull against gravity. Take the barbell curl for example, The bar is lifted from the upper thighs in a circular path towards the chin, at the beginning of the movement the bar is traveling more horizontally then vertically, it is only when the bar is in the middle position that you are pulling it upwards against gravity, then as you move into the top position of the movement you are once again moving the bar in an almost completely horizontal direction. This is why curls tend to be easy at the beginning, hard in the middle and the easy again at the end.

Other examples of this type of exercise are, lateral raises, flys, tricep extensions, pullovers, etc.. Any exercise preformed with a barbell in which the resistance doesn’t travel straight up and down, will cause a loss of continuous load on your muscles. As a side note, preacher curls done with a barbell are even less effective because it make almost the whole movement horizontal, the only benefit is the elimination of cheating by benefit the upper arms from moving.

Ok, so how do we use this data to make our training more productive? We make sure that we have continuous tension on our working muscles by making sure that the resistance we are using is traveling straight up and down. There are many machines that use pulleys to lift a weight stack up and down against gravity even though you may be moving in a circular motion, if you workout in a gym where these are available – make use of them.

But even if you train in a home gym you can still use these principles to build more muscle. Let’s take bicep work for example, do some close grip pull-ups with the palms toward your face, this strongly works the biceps and the resistance (your own body and any extra weight you add) is moving straight up and down, it also give you the added benefit of peak contraction at the top of movement. Or instead of regular barbell curls try body drag curls, take a shoulder-width grip and start from the regular curl position drag the barbell against your body up to your throat while keeping your elbows back.

For your triceps, nothing beats dips with extra weight added by mean of a belt you can hang plates on to. For deltoids, notice that the shoulder joints do the exact same motion when doing military presses as doing lateral raises, so you don’t even need to really do the lat. raises it’s just more of the same.

You may ask “But what if i want to do some pre-exhaustion, I would have to do some lateral raises then, wouldn’t I?”. No, you don’t Try this instead – do a set of upright rows immediately followed by a set of military presses. It works this way, the upright rows fatigue the biceps and shoulders but leave the triceps fresh, now on the presses the strong triceps push the already fatigued shoulders even harder really making them grow. This is what I call the pull/push method of pre-exhaust, it can also be used for other muscles of the torso.

In conclusion, there are many ways to make gravity work for you in weight training, now that you know the theory of this article you may come up with some new and interesting exercises or exercise combinations.

About The Author: Paul Becker is a natural (steroid free for life) bodybuilder and fitness consultant. For more information on Bodybuilding and Bodybuilding Supplements visit his website at http://www.trulyhuge.com

Photo by Francesco Pillari

Climbing The Ladder Of Intensity

Mike knew that as a bodybuilder grew bigger and stronger, he would eventually require an even more intense training stress if he hopes to continue progressing. If the stress is not more intense he will stagnate and stay at the same level of size and strength.

Beginners

For beginners starting a weight training program is a huge leap in intensity from not training, and this is why they make such rapid gains at first. To keep progressing they can simply keep increasing the weights and decreasing the rest periods between sets. When they stop making gains this way they are ready for the next level of intensity.

Intermediates

At this stage a more intense stress is required, this is be done by using Pre-Exhaustion sets, for example a set of Leg Extensions to failure followed by a set of Leg Press (or Squats) to failure. Also forced reps and negatives to go beyond the point of positive failure can be occasionally used. These techniques will carry someone into the advanced level, Mike reached this point and using these techniques he was unable to get bigger or stronger, this forced him to do further research into the highest levels of intensity.

Advanced

At this level Mike found that he was so strong and his willingness to work at maximum effort was so high that each rep of a set was so intense that oxygen debt and lactic acid build up was practically immediate and severe enough that he was forced to stop due to cardiovascular limitation rather then because he reached a point of actual muscular failure. He looked for a way that he could do even more intense reps while at the same time slowing the build up of lactic acid and the onset of oxygen debt in his muscles.

The way he did this was to do his own version of Rest Pause training, he used a weight that would allow him to do one all out maximum rep, then rested for 10 seconds, this would give enough time for his muscle to clear out waste products and bring new fuel and oxygen so he could do another all out rep. After the second rep and another 10 seconds rest he would have his training partner help him do another all out rep, or he would reduce the weight by 20%. He would then rest 15 seconds and do his last all out rep. This was considered one set, with each and every rep of the set being an all out effort. An example rest pause workout that Mike would do for his chest was Pec Deck 1 set of 4 Rest Pause reps, Incline Bench Press 1 set of 4 Rest Pause reps and Dips (Negative only style) 1 set of 5 reps. Mike then had to ask himself what could be more intense then Rest Pause training?

Super Advanced Heavy Duty

Mikes next step up the ladder of intensity was what he called Infitonic training; he followed each maximum positive rep of a Rest Pause set with a maximum negative Rep. He had his training partner push down a little on the negative and he would fight to resist it, lowering it as slowly as possible. He then rested 15 seconds before his next maximum positive and negative rep.

The very highest level of Heavy Duty he called Omni-Contraction training, meaning all contraction. There are three ways a muscle can contract, that is lifting a weight (positive), lowering a weight (negative) and holding a weight (static).

In Omni-Contraction training Mike would make each a maximum effort. He would do his one all out maximum positive rep, followed by a maximum negative, but during the negative he would stop the weight and actually try to raise the weight again (which was impossible). He would do these static holds at three different points during the negative rep, the first was at the top, close to the fully contracted position, the second was halfway down and the third was close to the bottom position. Each position was held for a count of 3.

The Results

Mike and his brother Ray used these advanced and super advanced techniques in the summer of 1979 and it resulted in Mike gaining 14 pounds of pure muscle in 9 weeks (while losing fat and at an already advanced level of mass and strength), and winning his first pro show beating the likes of Robby Robinson, Danny Padilla and Roy Callendar. While Ray was able to improve so much he walked in and took the Mr. America crown that year.

So maybe, just maybe, if you have tried Heavy Duty and it stopped working it was because you didn’t know the higher techniques on your way up the ladder of intensity. Try them for yourself and find out.

About The Author: Paul Becker is a natural (steroid free for life) bodybuilder and fitness consultant. For more information on Bodybuilding and Bodybuilding Supplements visit his website at http://www.trulyhuge.com.