Squats for Size – Hormone Manipulation

March 27, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Everyone knows the squat exercise. It’s the bane of our existence as bodybuilders or a pleasure for those of us who are a bit sadistic. You may already know how to squat and you may already know that it’s one of the best exercises you can do to build size in your legs. What you may not know is that you can use its muscle building capabilities for other body parts.

Hormone Manipulation

The great thing about squats is that they cause a strong release of anabolic hormones. Typically, workouts are structured so that squats are performed on leg day. It seems straightforward enough and it usually results in large gains to leg size.

However, one sneaky technique you can utilize on lagging body parts actually involves the squat exercise. What you need to do is stack your workout with a two to three heavy sets of squats. What this is going to do is induce a huge release of hormones. Now you follow up the rest of the routine with the body part you want to improve. For example, if your biceps have been lagging, you squat, thenfollow up with some curls and other bicep related exercises.

The fact is that you won’t get that same level of hormonal release with a smaller body part specific exercise routine. If you are doing body part specific workouts, like the biceps, triceps, forearms, shoulders, or calves, you can benefit from including the squats at the start of your workout.

Other Examples

Squats don’t have to be the only exercise you use for positive hormone manipulation during body part specific workouts. Other traditional bodybuilding exercises like the deadlift and the power clean can be utilized in a similar manner. Remember, any compound, multi-joint exercise is going to cause a greater natural hormonal release than isolation specific exercises. That is why your routine should use a balanced approach to muscle building. What I mean by this is that if you are focusing on biceps, a series of pullups would make a nice compliment lift. Also, if you are doing a tricep workout, a series of dips is in order.

Considerations

You shouldn’t always put the squat in front of a body part specific workout. Remember, it’s a technique that should be used sparingly. Your leg workout should focus on legs and there are plenty of great compound exercises you can utilize during body part specific routines. However, there is nothing quite like the putting the squats in there to help you bust through a plateau.

Recommended Supplements

1 M.R. Powder by BPI Sports
NO-XPLODE 2.0

(TFSupplements is not responsible for any health complications stemming from this workout. Always consult an doctor before starting / changing a workout routine)

Filed Under: Bodybuilding Advice, Workouts Tagged With:

Arm Workout

December 23, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Arm Workout – Intense Arm Workout

Arm Workout

 

Arm Destroyer Workout

Dedicating a whole workout to destroy your arms is a great way to add size across the whole length of your arm from your shoulders to your wrists. The arm destroyer workout hits all of the major muscle groups in your arms and is designed to fatigue each part worked quickly. That makes this workout excellent if your pressed for time but still want muscle development. The workout is extremely intense and contains three different sets of supersets. This truncates the duration of the workout while pushing each muscle to its limit.

 

Exercise Name

Reps

Sets

Intensity

Recovery

Push Press

8 – 10

3

85% 1-RM

90 seconds

(SS) EZ-Bar Skull Crusher

8 – 10

3

85% 1-RM

-

(SS) CG Bench Press

8 – 10

3

85% 1-RM

90 seconds

(SS2) EZ-Bar Preacher

8 – 10

3

85% 1-RM

-

(SS2) EZ-Bar Reverse Preacher Curl

8 – 10

3

85% 1-RM

90 seconds

(SS3) Dumbbell Wrist Curl

12

3

70% – 80% 1-RM

-

(SS3) Reverse Dumbbell Wrist Curl

12

3

70% – 80% 1-RM

90 seconds

 

Breaking Down the Benefits of the Arm Workout

The four primary muscle groups of your arms are worked: the deltoids, biceps, triceps and forearms. The supersetting of exercises limits the amount of total recovery time and these specific pairings allow you to transition from one exercise to the other very quickly. That makes this workout amazing for cramming an intense workout session into a short amount of time.

Furthermore, each combined superset works the same muscle group; however, the angle at which the muscles are worked is different. This ensures that all, or almost all of the muscle fibers within each muscle are being worked. This ensures muscle growth in these particular muscles is optimally stimulated.

Arm Workout Exercise Specifics

The structure of the arm destroyer workout is primarily a superset routine. This means that exercises are paired together to up the intensity. Each exercise of a particular supetset are performed back-to-back. This means EZ-Bar skull crusher should be immediately followed with the close grip bench press before you take a rest.

The only exercise that is not supersetted is the dumbbell push press. The dumbbell push press is unique in that your legs will help your shoulders in the extension of the arm overhead; however, bringing the dumbbells back to the starting position will require a greater amount of strength. The focus on the “negative” aspect of the push press creates a large amount of muscle damage that will produce explosive growth in the shoulders.

(TFSupplements is not responsible for any health complications stemming from this workout. Always consult an doctor before starting / changing a workout routine) 

Filed Under: Workouts Tagged With: ,

Extreme Chest Workout

December 19, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Extreme Chest Workout

 

 

For bodybuilders, developing a large, well-sculpted chest is crucial for performance on the stage. When building your chest, you need to make sure you hit each specific muscle group in the chest, from multiple angles so that each area is trained maximally. Furthermore, you need to include at least one highly explosive lift and one stabilization lift. The highly explosive chest lift will maximize development of the larger type II muscle fibers of the chest. The stabilization chest exercise will ensure all possible fibers of the chest have been recruited. This ensures every area gets worked.

 

The Extreme Chest Routine

Exercise Name

Reps

Sets

Intensity

Recovery

Dumbbell Bench Press

8 – 10

3

85% 1-RM

90 seconds

Decline Dumbbell Bench Press

8 – 10

3

85% 1-RM

90 seconds

Incline Cable Flyes

8 – 10

3

85% 1-RM

90 seconds

Medball Chest Pass

20

3

40% to 60% 1-RM

90 seconds

Stability Ball Pushups with Feet on Bench

Failure

3

Bodyweight

90 seconds

 

Breaking Down the Benefits of the Extreme Chest Workout

The extreme chest routine hits both the pec major and pec minor muscles of your chest. More importantly both the clavicular portion of your pecs and sternal portion of your pec major are addressed. Many routines fail to include a specific exercise that hits each of these parts. This particular workout does that for you. The extreme chest routine is also versatile in that you will not only gain mass but power and stabilization strength as well. Being more powerful in the chest and being able to stabilize heavier weights will allow you to progress future workouts to new heights and further increase chest development.

 

Extreme Chest Workout Exercise Specifics

The dumbbell bench press is used in place of a traditional barbell bench for two reasons. You have to dynamically stabilize the dumbbells with each arm which maximizes the amount of musculature used at the chest and it allows for a more natural movement at the shoulder joint reducing the risk of injury. The decline dumbbell bench takes this concept and applies it to your pec minor muscles. The incline flyes address sternal and clavicular pec muscle fibers while keeping even tension across the chest. This is one motion where cables are actually superior to dumbbells because of how gravity works in relation to your body position.

The chest pass should be done at maximal speed against a wall. Type II fibers respond best to heavy weight or extreme speeds. Since the weight will be lower, use a fast, forceful push. The stability ball pushup is really going to finish off your chest. Your bigger type II fibers are normally responsible for force production while your smaller type I fibers are responsible for stabilization; however, type I fiber training should not be neglected as these can get larger in size if trained appropriately. The stability ball pushup will accomplish this goal when performed at the end of this particular workout.

 (TFSupplements is not responsible for any health complications stemming from this workout. Always consult an doctor before starting / changing a workout routine) 

Filed Under: Workouts