by Lee Labrada This week, I am going to be revisiting back training. Back training will help you develop a powerful V taper look in the upper body. If you’re female and don’t care for a “V taper” don’t worry – you’re not going to end up looking like me! A well-toned back is sexy, [...]
Exercises that we shouldn’t have forgotten in the first place by Ric Drasin, 1. Wide-Grip Chins “You don’t see too many people doing wide grip chins anymore. Everyone does lat pulldowns, but they seem to have forgotten about chins in recent years. Back in the day all of us—Arnold, Franco, Ken Waller—we all used [...]
by Robbie Durand Hormones such as human growth hormone (GH) and testosterone have been shown to play a role in muscle hypertrophy and strength gains. One of the core training principles for muscle hypertrophy in bodybuilding is short rest— less than 1 minute between sets. In 1988, anabolic hormone guru William Kraemer, PhD, performed a [...]
Free Weights Cause Greater Muscle Activation than Smith Machine Many people like to train on Smith Machines because they are safe and allow greater training loads. Jared Coburn and co-workers from California State University, Northridge found free weight bench presses caused greater activation of the medial deltoid (middle shoulder muscle) than Smith Machine bench presses [...]
By Dorian Yates During my Mr. Olympia reign, I was known for my training intensity. Probably more accurately, I was recognized for my ability to take my sets to total failure and often beyond. To do that, I employed several techniques to stress the target muscle to its maximum capacity. This month I will discuss [...]
The American College of Sports Medicine recommends that advanced athletes who want to maximize strength gains should lift heavy weights (1-6 repetition maximum) with three to five minutes rest between sets. Brazilian scientists reinforced this important principle of strength training. They measured the effect of resting one minute, three minutes or five minutes between sets [...]
How Much Protein Do Bodybuilders Need? Scientists have argued about the optimal daily protein requirement for more than 100 years. The problem is complicated because athletes consume different amounts and types of proteins, ingest protein at different times of the day (i.e., mealtime or after exercise), and eat it with other nutrients. A research review [...]
Antonio, Ph.D., CSCS, FACSM, FNSCA, FISSN According to the NAAFA website, “Founded in 1969, the National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance (NAAFA) is a non-profit civil rights organization dedicated to ending size discrimination in all of its forms. NAAFA’s goal is to help build a society in which people of every size are accepted with [...]
Workers who make their living from intense and prolonged manual labor, often possess outstanding forearm strength. This comes from lifting, twisting and rotating heavy objects, not just lifting a weight up and down in the same plane. As bodybuilders, we don’t typically rely on our jobs to develop the muscles that will win competitions. Nevertheless, [...]
Muscle mass is critical to bodybuilding success, but bodybuilding champions are more than just the accumulation of slabs of beef. If that were not the case, the bodybuilder of average height could never beat a six-foot two-inch athlete. Muscle width, depth and symmetry are additional factors in the formula of bodybuilding success, and the illusive [...]
