Insanity Max 30 : êtes-vous prêt pour un nouveau défi ?

Insanity Max 30 : êtes-vous prêt pour un nouveau défi ?

Après quelques mois d'absence sur ce blog justifiés par une ptite princesse qui grandissait en moi et le rush des premières semaines qui ont suivi sa naissance, et après avoir eu le feu vert de la sage-femme pour la reprise, me voilà de retour, pleine de motivation, prête à reprendre le sport après plus d'un an d'arrêt !! 

....Ca va faire mal :-D !!

Les dégâts :

- un ventre tout flasque à cause de la grossesse

- une bonne dizaine de kilos en trop si ce n'est plus

- et des jolis petits amas de graisse disséminés un peu partout entre les hanches, les fesses, les cuisses, la poitrine (mon chéri est content, moi beaucoup moins !!), les bras...

Bref je ne sais pas s'il reste une zone sans gras sur moi ^^(mes doigts de pied peut-être ? mes oreilles?)

Objectifs : 

- rentrer dans mes pantalons d'avant-grossesse...! Et oui 3 mois après mon accouchement, je commence à peine à manger un peu mieux (pendant les premières semaines, le critère de choix d'un bon repas était qu'il fallait que ce soit prêt en 5min et englouti en autant de temps), et à part mes pantalons de grossesse et mes vieux joggings, je ne rentre dans aucun de mes jeans...

- perdre au moins une taille de soutien gorge !  Je sais que je ne retrouverai pas ma taille de soutien gorge de suite, mais là 105E c'est juste plus possible DU TOUT. (Merci de ne pas me balancer à mon chéri par contre, de mon côté je lui dirai que "oh vraiment c'est trop injuste de perdre de la graisse au niveau de la poitrine!")

Plan d'attaque : 

- Alimentation : je vais faire ce qui a toujours marché pour moi : les baby steps :) ! Autrement dit, on y va doucement , je me lance pas direct dans un régime draconien ou un virage à 180° au niveau de mes habitudes alimentaires.

Je commence par changer un seul repas par jour, les changements seront peut être moins rapides mais au moins je sais que j'ai plus de chances de tenir sur la durée si je ne suis pas frustrée.

Je m'attaquerai donc au petit déj, avec un shake protéiné et un thé vert, pour remplacer mes habituelles 6 tartines de beurre- nutella (Non c'est pas une blague et oui j'ai un poil déconné ^^vous comprenez un peu mieux pourquoi je rentre pas encore dans mes pantalons d'avant grossesse..^^)

Si vous ne savez pas par où commencer au niveau de l'alimentation, je vous redirige vers mon Challenge Nutrition :)

- Sport : J'aurais pu recommencer soft. 

Un programme comme Rockin Body (sauf que j'aime pas danser) ou comme Piyo, qui donne apparemment de supers résultats (le mélange du yoga et du pilates de ce programme fait de jolis muscles fins et longs, exactement ce qu'on recherche !!). 

Moui. 

Mais non. 

Moi ce que j'aime, c'est me défoncer, tout donner. 

C'est faire 30min en ayant l'impression d'avoir bouclé un triathlon. 

C'est être trempée de la tête aux pieds à la fin de ma séance. 

C'est gémir pendant 2 jours à cause des courbatures quand s'asseoir sur la cuvette des wc devient le défi de ma journée. 

C'est mourir au bout de 5min de workout en me disant merde j'ai même pas fini l'échauffement. 

Parce que je sais que c'est ce qui me booste, que c'est ce qui me donne une énergie incroyable, et que c'est ce qui me donne des résultats rapidement aussi :) !!

Donc pour ma reprise j'ai choisi....Insanity Max 30 !!!

Le nouveau programme Beachbody de Shaun T, un programme qui a l'air d'être encore plus fou qu'Insanity, puisque le but est de vous faire "max out", c'est à dire "arriver au bout de vos limites"...!!

Toi qui a fait Insanity... toi qui après avoir fait la "Recovery Week" a attrapé un dictionnaire en te disant que sûrement Recovery ne voulait pas dire la même chose en américain vu les séances de malade de cette semaine-là ... Toi, quand Shaun T te dit que son objectif est de te faire "max out", qui as juste envie de prendre tes jambes à ton cou... Puis bin non tu restes, parce que comme moi tu es d'une curiosité masochiste qui te pousse à essayer quand même :-D 

Voilà ce que j'ai choisi pour ma reprise :-D

Et pour ca il a choisi un nouveau format avec plein de nouveaux exercices inédits, des séances plus courtes (30min) donc beaucoup plus intenses, ET, détail non négligeable pour moi qui reprend après plus d'un an d'arrêt : qui comporte une version light !! Pour les personnes qui reprennent le sport, qui ont des problèmes de genoux, ou de dos.... Il y a une version sans saut dans chacune des vidéos :) !!

Je vous présenterai le programme plus en détail dans un article à venir très prochainement :) ! 

En attendant je file faire ma séance du jour, motivée par le défi de Shaun T, et reboostée de vous retrouver enfin :) !!

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Gennady Golovkin Vs Daniel Jacobs 18th March 2017

Daniel Jacobs: I won Fight against GGG by Two Rounds

Daniel Jacobs prevailing on Saturday in taking bound together middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin the separation in a 12-round battle surprisingly, and he likely won over fans while displaying his heart and capacity to box.

gennnady golovkin vs daniel jacobs

The main thing Jacobs didn’t win was the real fight in the ring.

Golovkin (37-0, 33 KOs) made the eighteenth barrier of his middleweight title yet observed his 23-battle back to back knockout streak arrive at an end as Jacobs satisfied his charging as the most troublesome trial of GGG’s vocation.

At last, Golovkin held tight to guarantee a consistent choice (115-112, 115-112, 114-113) at Madison Square Garden in New York.

“I think I won the fight, and I think these fans bolster me on that choice,” Jacobs said. “… I thought I won by two rounds, least. … I felt like I was ahead on the cards, and I had an inclination that I expected to win the last round just to sort of take care of business.”

He proceeded with: “This is boxing. Clearly he’s a greater draw than me, and they need to make that super matchup with him and Canelo [Alvarez], so Daniel Jacobs presumably got X’d out. … I won this battle.”

Golovkin, 34, outlanded Jacobs 231 to 175, as indicated by CompuBox. In any case, it was Jacobs (32-2, 29 KOs) who landed more power shots, 144 to 126.

“I regard Daniel, and he made a decent showing with regards to and clean employment,” Golovkin said. “Regard to my group and every one of the general population that bolster me. Daniel is my most loved contender – spotless, great, quality, great warrior.”

Jacobs, 30, the cancer survivor to win a world title, got up off the canvas in Round 4 after Golovkin handled a couple of clean flush right hands along the ropes.

“After the knockdown, I revealed to him he would need to slaughter me [to thump me out],” Jacobs said. “When I got up, I thought, ‘This is all he has? I got go down and I thought I won the battle.'”

Not exclusively did Jacobs in a split second recapture his legs after the knockdown, he continually changed his assault by changing to southpaw, which on occasion took away Golovkin’s hit and constrained him to think.

Jacobs, whose certainty kept on developing in the center rounds, battled with an awful streak now and again, incorporating driving with his lower arm and hitting both on the break and after the chime. He additionally earned the regard of Golovkin, seemingly the game’s most dreaded puncher, by standing and exchanging now and again within.

“There were ordinarily amid the battle I went toe-to-toe since I knew I could,” Jacobs said. “I am anticipating what’s to come. I think I picked up a great deal of fans. My style is great, I am a fan-accommodating person, and I thought I won the battle.”

Golovkin could climate storms by depending on his hit, which he outlanded Jacobs by a wide edge of 105 to 31. In any case, in spite of cornering Jacobs on occasion as the assailant, he was never again ready to place him stuck in an unfortunate situation with power shots.

“This is boxing. I am a boxer and I regard his group,” Golovkin said. “This is boxing. I require the choice. I wasn’t believing that I required the twelfth round to win the battle. This was my first test at 12 rounds. I required a quality battle not only the twelfth round.”

Golovkin, who went ahead to lose the last round on two of the three scorecards, repeated his plan to confront Canelo Alvarez in a superfight in September.

“Obviously I am prepared to battle Canelo,” Golovkin said. “Obviously I need that battle. I resemble a creature for that battle. I will [also] give Danny Jacobs a possibility for a rematch.”

“We have conceded to a great deal of focuses and a ton of focuses are as yet remarkable,” said Golovkin’s promoter, Tom Loeffler of K2, in regards to his arrangements with Alvarez’s promoter, Golden Boy.

Loeffler, who had planned to convey Golovkin to his local Kazakhstan in June for a title unification session against England’s Billy Joe Saunders, said those arrangements are still open to question.

“We need to perceive how Gennady is feeling one week from now and we need to perceive what the results are out there,” Loeffler said.

Golovkin and Jacobs featured a four-battle primary card that likewise incorporated a dazzling surprise misfortune by maybe the best pound-for-pound warrior in the diversion, junior bantamweight title holder Roman “Chocolatito” Gonzalez.

article originally  :  hboxing.com

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Hardcore Chest Workout to Get Massive Aesthetic Pecs

Developing big chest is a dream of all the body builders. They make you look impressive, giving emphasis to all the other shredded muscles.
However, massive chest are not something that comes for granted. You need to earn them. It takes dedication, good planning and hardcore approach both in training and in your diet. That is why we’ve decided to share with you our hardcore chest training program that will get your chest pumped like boulders.

PLANNING THE WORKOUT

Before starting with our hardcore chest training protocol, you should be well prepared, as this routine requires all your physical strength. So, make sure that you’ve had a good rest, follow a solid muscle building diet and take a proper warm-up before starting your workout.
Since this chest pumping routine is extremely demanding for your body, you might want to consider taking some supplements in your diet. If you opt to go for this you can include:

• Creatine monohydrate
• BCAAs (branched-chain amino acids)
• Natural testosterone boosters (yes they do work, if they contain these ingredients)
• Pre-workout supplement to get you amped up before the workout

STARTING THE ROUTINE

After finishing your warm-up consisting of 10 minutes on a treadmill and few light bench presses proceed to the following exercises.
Incline barbell bench press (6 sets with 7 reps each)
After doing the incline bench press, you are ready for the next circuit, that consists of repeating several exercises for three times.
A1 – Dumbbell bench press (negatives 8 reps with a 8 second negative)

Start with the dumbbells in top position and lower them to the bottom in steady and slow movement. Here your partner picks up by helping you lift the dumbbells back.
Because in this exercise you practically do only half of the movement, you should choose some more challenging weight.
A2 – Dumbbell bench press (normal lift – 10 reps)
For this exercise choose a 20-30lbs lighter weight than the one used in the previous exercise.
A3 – Dumbbell fast bench press (10 reps)
Choose lighter weights than usual. The key of this exercise is in the explosiveness of your lift. You start at top position doing a 3 seconds negative. Once you get to the bottom position, explode the weights back up. After completing the circuit of exercises take a rest for 2 to 3 minutes. Then, repeat the same exercises for two more times.
Now, you can continue to the final exercise for finishing your chests. You can either choose to do push-ups, or cable-flies, or both. Do 3 sets till failure. In the case of the cable-flies you should choose weights that allow you ding at least 9 reps.
If you choose to try this hardcore routine keep in mind that it’s very demanding and that sticking to the three above mentioned rules is crucial.  So make sure that you are well rested and thoroughly warmed up before you set off. You might also want to try some natural testosterone booster, as this protocol requires every bit of your energy.
You might feel sore the first time you try it, but with proper recovery you’ll be able to do it once a week on your chest day. A the results will be truly rewarding.
Good luck.

article originally : fitnessandpower.com

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2 Remedies for Lagging Upper Pecs 6

Incline dumbbell flyes are a great way to not only add mass to your upper chest but to etch in freaky detail. Gunter does a variation where his palms remain pronated throughout the movement. This version involves the front delts a bit more but, according to Gunter, "facing the palm forward, it gives you even better tension in your upper chest and it stretches the upper pecs."
                                                                                                       

                                                                                           

This article originally appeared on : muscleandfitness.com

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8 Awesome Exercises to Get In Shape Quick

Are you enjoying yourself by eating lots of food with your family and friends, but you don’t know how you should lose the excess body fat that builds up from consuming too many calories? If so, then you need to know the most effective exercises needed to get back in shape in a short period of time.

Most of these exercises should be well-known to you, so all you need to do is stick to it – and repeat these exercises more often until you reach your desired results.

1. Push-Ups

-Doing lots of push-ups is a great way to not only strengthen your chest, triceps and biceps, but also lose excess body fat. So, make sure you perform more push-ups not only in the gym but also while you’re at home and in your spare time.

Start doing push-ups by touching the floor with your palms beneath your shoulders while keeping the core straight. Then, slowly lower yourself until your chest is an inch away from the floor and return to the starting position.

2. Pistol Sit-Ups

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This is another exercise you can do wherever you want, like push-ups, because you don’t need equipment to perform it. Complete pistol sit-ups by lifting your right leg to a 90-degree position so that your left leg would be parallel to the ground.

After that, do everything the same as you do while performing regular sit-ups but use only one leg. Make sure to keep yourself balanced so you don’t fall on the floor.

3. Deadlifts

If you want to perform more challenging exercises, you should do deadlifts as they put a lot of strain on your back and legs.

Begin deadlifting by standing behind a grounded barbell. Bend your knees so you can grab the barbell while keeping your back and hips straight. Then, push your hips to lift the bar upright and finally push your hips back to lower the bar.

4. Bent Over Rows

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This is another exercise that requires using heavy weights to build muscle mass and burn calories. Also, it’s especially great for those who want to strengthen their traps.

-Begin this exercise by holding a barbell in your hands while making sure your knees are bent and your body is almost parallel to the floor. Make sure to keep your back straight and core tight as you row the barbell closer your chest, then lower the weight to the starting position.

Continued on the next page… 

                                                                                                                       

                                                                                                          

This article originally appeared on :  spotmebro.com

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10 EXERCISES THAT WILL MAKE YOU BURN BELLY FAT WITHOUT HAVING TO JOG OR RUN !!

6. Spider crawl

Excellent exercise for getting more mobility in your legs and hips!!! It also strengthens your abdominal muscles.

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7. The get up

This is a great exercise for getting those six packs! You will get a great arm workout too and not to forget to mention – this is a challenging exercise!

8. Burpee

This is an excellent cardio workout! It makes your heart race and this melts calories! It may be difficult at the beginning, that’s why you can adjust it by your level.

9. Skater exercise

This is a great exercise for maximum calories burn with minimum effort. It is also a cardio exercise, so your heart will beat faster and you will move from one leg to another in a second. Enjoy it!

10. Rope jumping

Want to tone the arms and legs? Why don’t you try the rope? Great exercise for burning fat and also can be done anywhere!

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This article originally appeared on : healthyuniverses.com

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Build Boulder Shoulders With These 3 Supersets

Most fitness-oriented people simply don’t understand how their shoulders function. What they do know, however, is that the shoulder complex is incredibly vulnerable and prone to injury if trained without extra caution, so they stick to exercises that ‘feel’ the safest or are generally approved and advocated by internet bodybuilding gurus. Unfortunately, that fearful approach also prevents them from adding mass to their shoulders and improving their functional strength!

Don’t forget: you are supposed to train your shoulders with plenty of volume and intensity, as long as you mind your form and technique. One of the most underused yet highly effective ways to overload your shoulders and encourage their development is the inclusion of shoulder supersets – sets which include two exercises performed one after the other without any rest in between.

Step out of the box and blow your shoulders up with these 3 shoulder supersets.

Warm-Up Routine

Never skip the warm-up; it will greatly reduce your chance of hurting yourself. These exercises will increase circulation and warm up your muscles, as well as improve their flexibility, coordination and reaction time.

Cardio: 5-10 minutes

Any type of LISS (Low Intensity Steady State Cardio) activity, such as walking, jogging or running is ideal for waking up the entire body and getting you into the right mindset.

Windmills: 30-60 seconds
Warm up your shoulders by performing windmills – stand with arms out straight and parallel to the ground and start rotating them in an arc-like motion. Start from small rotations and gradually increase the size. Perform in both directions
Shoulder dislocations: 10 reps
Don’t worry about the name of this one – it’s actually an amazing exercise that promotes shoulder flexibility. To perform it, stand with a long stick in front of you and position your hands wide at either end, then raise the stick over your head without bending your elbows.

SUPERSET #1

DUMBBELL LATERAL RAISE: 4 sets x 8-12 reps

                                                        Dumbbell Lateral Raise

As you stand with your feet shoulder-width apart, take a dumbbell in each hand and slightly bend the elbows as the weights hang by your sides, palms facing one another. Bend your upper body forward and allow your hips and knees to bend slightly as well. Raise your arms out to the sides until they are parallel to the ground, maintaining the torso straight and stabile. Lower the weights down and repeat.

UPRIGHT BARBELL ROW : 4 sets x 8-12 reps 

                                                                  Upright Barbell Row

Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart. Pick up a barbell with a narrow grip and row it vertically up until it reaches the top of your chest. Stop when it reaches just below your chin and your forearms and upper arms are squeezed into each other, parallel to the ground. Lower the weight down and repeat.

SUPERSET #2

DUMBBELL SHOULDER PRESS : 4 sets x 8-12 reps

Holding a dumbbell in each hand, sit on a bench that has back support and place the dumbbells on the top of your thighs. Raise the weights to shoulder height, then rotate your wrists so that the palms of your hands are facing forward and push the dumbbells upward, straightening your elbows. Instead of locking out as you reach the top, keep a slight bend at the elbows all through the movement. Pause for a moment at the top contracted position, then lower the weights down and repeat.

                                                  Dumbbell Shoulder Press

FRONT DUMBBELL RAISE : 4 sets x 8-12 reps

                                                         Front Dumbbell Raise

Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart, holding a dumbbell in each hand with the palms of the hands facing towards your body. Keeping your torso stationary and maintaining a slight bend at the elbows, raise the weights in front of you until they are parallel to the floor. Pause for a second at the top, then slowly lower the weights down and repeat. Perform the movement in a maximally controlled manner to avoid using momentum.

SUPERSET #3

FACE PULL: 4 sets x 8-12 reps

                                                                     Face Pull

Set up a cable with a rope attachment so that it is in line with your head and grab each end of the rope. Take a couple of steps back from the machine and pull the weight directly towards your face, separating the hands as you do so. As you bring the rope all the way to your face, flare your elbows out but keep your upper arms parallel to the floor. Pause, return to the starting position and repeat.

FRONT BARBELL SHRUG: 4 sets x 8-12 reps

                                                          Front Barbell Shrug
Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart as you hold a barbell with both hands in front of you, using a neutral grip. Without rolling your shoulders, shrug them while bringing your arms up and keeping them straight. Avoid lifting the barbell using your biceps and try to touch your shoulders with your ears. Slowly return to the starting position and repeat.

Take Home Message

Don’t be too easy on your shoulders – they are not delicate flowers, they are muscles designed to work 24/7 and you need to overload them to produce growth. This workout will allow you to reach optimal shoulder hypertrophy without increasing the risk of injury, so don’t hesitate to challenge your shoulders with supersets at the next gym session.

Don’t forget that even the best exercise can be a waste of time if you don’t use it right, so focus on utilizing proper form and achieving hypertrophy. Try the prescribed sets and reps and see how it feels. If your shoulders don’t burn as much as you’d like them to – increase either the weight or the volume. Good luck!

This article originally appeared on : fitnessandpower.com

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5 Best Shoulder Exercises

Nothing stands out on a physique like a great pair of full, well-rounded shoulders. Even if your shoulders aren’t as wide as you’d like them to be, you can create the illusion of a V-taper look by developing a pair of supersized cannonball deltoids and losing a few inches off the waist.

Shoulder training can often be neglected in favor of training chest and arms, and you’d be surprised how many guys feel like their shoulders already get enough work as secondary muscles on chest/arm day and therefore don’t require any specialized work. This, of course, is far from reality in most cases. Sure, there are a few genetic beasts in every gym who seem to grow no matter what they do or don’t do, but for the rest of us, proper high-intensity shoulder training is required to ensure great development in this area.

Read the rest of this article to learn how to target your shoulders better and reap quality strength and mass gains on every gym visit!

Free Weights First

First of all, make sure to replace most of your machine-based overhead presses with free-weight overhead presses performed with dumbbells or a barbell. This will allow you to engage more muscles and strengthen your stabilizing muscles which although small or hidden, are extremely important for an injury-free and highly effective performance and ultimately for building a strong and well-balanced body.
Free weights enable your body to move in all three planes of movement, which is how your body normally moves in daily life, and this will help you increase your range of motion, target your muscles from all angles possible and build real, functional strength. Also, since you have to work to stabilize the weight while lifting it, instead of having a machine do that for you, your overall stability will dramatically increase. And stability is perhaps nowhere as important as it is for the shoulder area, which is notorious for its vulnerability.
On the other hand, machines allow you to focus more on the effort and less on the mechanics of the movement, and this can be useful for the end of your workout, when accumulated fatigue makes balancing weights over your head very difficult.
So it would be best to do the harder, free-weight variant of the exercise early in the workout, before fatigue sets in, and save the machine version for later, when you can use it to cause maximal hypertrophy and drain your muscles of any remaining strength by focusing on solely pushing the weight. Machines will also allow you to lift heavier weights and isolate specific muscle groups better, so it’s good to have a fair share of machine-based movements in your routine as well, as long as you make sure that free-weight exercises are at the center of your workouts

The Importance of TUT

Besides calves, shoulders can be one of the most reluctant body parts to grow. The reason for this is that these muscles are primarily geared for endurance rather than power and are used to working hard throughout the entire day to power all arm movements. This is why the most important thing to remember when training your shoulders (as well as calves!) is that they need a lot intensity in order to be forced into new growth.
One way to do that is by using heavy weights, but that’s not always recommendable because shoulder joints are very vulnerable to injury and your first priority should be keeping them healthy while improving the strength of the muscle surrounding them. The other way to do it by enabling optimal time under tension (TUT). Make sure to always perform the lowering part of your shoulder exercises in a slow and controlled manner so that you can maintain a good level of tension on the targeted muscle. Also, try to make rest periods as short as possible and never go above 2 minutes. Keeping the intensity high will make your muscles work harder and prompt greater growth.
To completely exhaust the muscles and enable maximum hypertrophy, start your shoulder workouts with heavy presses and end them with lighter-weight isolation work.

5 Shoulder-Building Exercises

The road to building the powerful shoulders you want starts with the introduction of these 5 cornerstone exercises in your shoulder routine:

#1. Dumbbell Shoulder Press

This is a basic shoulder mass-builder that allows you to target any existing muscle imbalances between your left and right side of the body when pressing. It’s very likely that your dominant side is stronger and compensates for the weaker one during barbell movements. When using a barbell this is be hardly noticeable, but with dumbbells you’ll be able to tell the difference right away and address it properly. If you can, perform the exercise in front of a mirror so that you can keep your form in check.

Dumbbell Shoulder Press

Press the weight up in an explosive manner and push your head forward at the top of every rep to make sure that you’re moving the load through your shoulders and not your chest muscles. Return the weight to the starting position with a slow and controlled movement.

This article originally appeared on : fitnessandpower.com

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This Colombian Fitness Model May Have the Best Body in the World

Granted, it’s a bold claim to make and almost certainly not one we’re ever going to find a genuine answer to, but this Colombian model may just be able to stake a claim on the throne of “best body on the planet.”

Michelle Lewin fans will scoff while those who rate Paige Hathaway above anyone else will laugh, but Anllela Sagra can challenge both of those very different physiques with a chiseled frame of her own.

South America has always shared a strong past in producing curvaceous, powerful figures among women, but as far as we can tell, Sagra is the finest female export Colombia has ever produced, and that’s taking the immortal Sofia Vergara into account.

Lewin might be the closest thing this 23-year-old firecracker has in terms of a comparison on the main stage, although one might even suggest Sagra boasts a better frame.
Click ahead to see more of our Sagra-focused gallery, celebrating the figure of a starlet who’s still new to the fitness scene but could adorn our screens for years and years to come.

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Ways to Maintain Your Mental Toughness for More Muscle Gain

Training experts share their top tips for keeping you motivated to succeed in the gym.

 

"Tough workouts are not only about completing a hard workout full of heavy weight and lots of sets and reps," says strength and conditioning coach, Justin Grinnell. "Sometimes the tough part is even getting into the mindset of completing a solid workout. Some days you are on and feel like moving a ton of weight and some days seem to be more complicated. Work, school, stress or whatever may be getting in the way. But I am a firm believer that we all can make time to commit to your workout. So I constantly remind myself about all of the reasons why I even need to start this workout. It simply will make me a better person for my family, others and myself." Justin Grinnell is the owner of one of the leading training facilities in the Midwest, State of Fitness Gym in Okemos, MI.  He also runs a Corporate Wellness Training Center in East Lansing, MI. Justin is a featured writer in various fitness themed magazines and websites, including Muscle & Fitness.
This article originally appeared on : muscleandfitness.com 

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For Stronger Traps, Do THIS Instead of Shrugs

For Stronger Traps, Do THIS Instead of Shrugs

You can have the greatest arms in the world, but if your shoulder development is far than satisfying, you’re not going to impress anybody. Huge guns are impressive, but huge traps scream “hard work” a lot louder – these small muscles are far more complex than you think they are and making them grow isn’t such an easy task. Especially if you’re hoping that your regular back workout will get the job done so that you don’t have to waste time on additional trap training when you’re already tired hung

Newsflash: while it’s true that these muscles get activated to some extent by most upper body movements, building great traps takes real effort. The trapezius is more than a chunk of muscle between your neck and shoulders – it actually originates at the base of the skull, runs down to the upper and mid-back area and covers both scapulae (shoulder blades). Strong traps are pretty much essential for improving overall performance, maintaining good posture and excellent shoulder health and building powerful appearance.

Trapezius muscle

So how should you train your traps? The problem is, only a small number of bodybuilders would answer this question correctly, while the rest would simply shrug (pun intended). Yes, most guys are guilty of leaving the biggest part of their trap-growth potential untapped by performing countless sets of barbell shrugs and calling it a day.
Effective trap training is all about training this muscle with respect for the way it was built to function. And there is one exercise which can help you do that.

Meet the face pull
The lower traps are often neglected in favor of the upper traps. This is a really bad trend, because the lower traps are as equally important as the upper ones for achieving a strong, well-balanced physique. Exercises that employ the vertical plane of motion primarily hit the upper traps, while the lower traps need to be trained with movement patterns in the horizontal plane.
Improving scapular movement and increasing trap strength are the two most important reasons why we recommend face pulls to anyone who’s looking to grow bigger and healthier traps. The face pull involves a horizontal pulling movement and not only does it complement all the pressing you’re doing in the gym and help you build static strength and endurance, it will also  strengthen correct posture and improve shoulder stability.

Face Pull (image source: bodybuilding.com)

For this exercise you can use many different pieces of equipment, but ideally, face pulls are performed with a pulley machine with the fulcrum at upper-chest height.

Tips:

• To get the most of this exercise, set the pulley at eye-level or a bit higher so that the movement is slightly downwards
• Grab the rope with both hands using a pronated or supinated grip
• Choose a weight that will allow you to complete three sets consisting of 8-10 reps each with a relatively slow tempo
• Keep the elbows higher than the shoulders all through the movement
• When you pull the rope toward your face, pull it as far apart as you can by increasing the distance between your hands
• Exaggerate the movement of the scapulae during the stretch and hold the peak contraction for 3-5 seconds
• For best results, perform 3 sets of 8-10 reps of face pulls at the beginning of every back and shoulder workout for at least two months

That’s pretty much it.
Now get off the internet and go build some monster traps!

This article originally appeared on : fitnessandpower.com

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Tips for a Better Deadlift

Pull more weight and strengthen your back with these valuable deadlift coaching cues.

During my barbell deadlifts, I tuck my chin at the lockout. I actually want to keep my head in a more “neutral” position and have it follow the angle of my torso.  As your torso comes up, so should your head. I typically say, “take your head with you". This means when I hit the lockout, I should be looking straight ahead.

At the start, you’ll want to remember to pull your chest through your arms. This will help keep you in a good position at the start, which will give you the best potential for staying in a good position throughout the entire lift.

After the bar passes your knees, the only thing you should be thinking is – drive your hips forward with a powerful glute contraction – to finish the lockout. You don’t have to over pull the finish; just drive the hips forward until your body is in a straight line. Think to yourself, shortest distance between two points.

Taking the slack out of the bar is huge for setting your full body tension and pulling yourself down to the starting position. If there is 225 lbs on the bar, you should be pulling up on the bar with 224 lbs of force before the weight even moves. There has to be that much tension on the bar. 

This cue goes hand-in-hand with taking the slack out of the bar. Both are trying to set your back, get more tension, and get you into the best starting position possible. Pulling up on the bar sets the lats and subsequently creates a tighter core.

Once you are locked into your starting position and have the greatest amount of tension possible, drive the floor away as if you're doing a leg press. This is an amazing coaching cue and will most times eliminate the athlete’s hips from shooting up at the start of their first pull.


This article originally appeared on : muscleandfitness.com

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