The Infonian

I use to be a gym rat, go to the gym and lift weights like everybody else In the beginning I made some advances. After a while, those advances stopped happening. And who isn’t motivated by the feeling of making progress?

As if by luck, I found some information on bodyweight exercises. You remember those exercises, from the physical education days? So when I started doing the bodyweight exercises, I started to feel like I was making progress again.

And then I started doing exercises with very light weight, not iron pumping exercises, but exercises that challenged me in ways like no other. And sometimes I only used as little as five pounds. I guess you could also classify these as bodyweight exercises.

Then I added to my ever-increasing routine, I started using kettlebells and balance exercises with the Swiss ball. I now have more routines than I know what to do with. I don’t think I’ll ever get bored again. Is there anything worse than dragging your butt to the gym not psyched for your workout?

When it’s time to workout, I can’t wait. Just some of the variety of exercise I’ve grown accustomed to:

1. Hindu pushups

2. Leg swings

3. Running on the mini-trampoline

4. Feet on stability ball pushups

5. Pushups, feet on stability ball, hands on balance disks

I have literally hundreds of exercises in my arsenal that I can do. There’s no wonder that I’m feeling great and in the best shape of my life. When you add variety back to your workouts, you go a long way in making a commitment to yourself to get in great shape again.

Believe it or not, everything I’ve found on the internet has been free or low cost. I never spent a lot of money, like those ridiculous infomercials. Ok, maybe I did once, but I learned my lesson.

Whenever I feel like I need more variety in my workouts again, I usually pick up another book out there on the web. Before you know it, I’m off and running again. This approach may not be for everyone, some guys like hanging around the gym. But not me!

I head down to my basement, a Swiss ball, my kettlebells, my skip-rope and I have a better workout facility than any gym can provide. And believe me, it’s at one one-hundredth of the cost. I guess you could say I’ve found the Holy Grail when it comes to staying in shape.

Author: Robert Bell

This exercise is often used as a max effort exercise training the chest, shoulders and triceps. It has become very popular with equipped powerlifters because the lift mimics to an extent the use of a bench press shirt. The barbell is placed inside of the bands which are attached to the top of a power rack. By using these bands you feel the most weight at the top of the movement. As you lower the weight to your chest the bands stretch and the tension is decreased.

How much weight does the band take off the weight you’re lifting? This depends on what kind of bands you’re using and how high you have them set up on your particular power rack. To figure it out exactly put enough weight inside the bands and let the bar hoover right at chest level.

However much weight you have on the bar is how much weight you can subtract from the total at the bottom when you are performing working sets.

The reverse band bench press is a good variation to throw in once or twice a training cycle so you don’t do straight weight every week.

It’s also a great exercise to do if you have trouble touching in a shirt. You have to practice pulling the weight to your chest and the bands allow you to do this in a more controlled fashion without as much risk of dumping it on your chest. Performing this exercise can also help break in a new shirt, making it easier to touch in when you go back to the regular bench press without bands.

You’ll be able to bench press a lot more than usual, but do not be fooled. People always try to do the math and project their true one rep max. Just because you benched 700 pounds for one rep with the bands off your chest and the bands take off 200 pounds in your case does not mean you can bench 500 of your chest. You can bench 500 off your chest when you bench 500 off your chest. However you do now have a new PR in the reverse band bench press if that means anything.

Most people perform this exercise for 1-3 reps for 5 or 6 sets, but this varies. Use the lift for variation, to strengthen the top end of your bench press, to shock your nervous system and to practice the grove of your bench press shirt.

To see a video demonstrating the exercise visit this page: http://www.criticalbench.com/reverse-band-bench-press.htm

Mike Westerdal is the owner of www.criticalbench.com. Visit his site to receive two free PDF reports entitled, “31 Days To Bigger Arms” and “Boosting Testosterone Levels for Big Muscle Gains.”

Author: Mike Westerdal

Another article about the bench press you ask? Whether you agree or not the barbell bench press is one of the most highly regarded weight room exercises period. Have you heard this conversation in the gym lately? “So how much weight can you use for preacher curls?”

“I’m moving some heavy weight, how much can you use for kickbacks?”

“I’ve been struggling on those and I have a kickback meet coming up in a few months!”

I’ll take a wild guess and say this conversation has never and will never take place. The truth is the vast majority of individuals measure their strength and even their manhood based on how much they can bench. You could be at the gym, or even at a bar having a beer but when the topic of working out comes up people are almost certain to ask the infamous question, “How much you bench?” If you don’t care how strong you are then I don’t know why you’re lifting weights anyway. The bench press is a benchmark of your strength plain and simple.

Back to the conversation we didn’t hear at the gym. What our friends above should have been asking each other isn’t how much weight they use when doing kickbacks but rather how much weight they use when they’re performing a lower pulley external rotation exercise. Did I lose you there? I know, I know we declared the bench press is the true measure of our strength not all these isolation and stabilizer exercises right?

This is true, but have you ever heard the expression, you’re only as strong as your weakest link? When you bench press there are four tiny muscles that play a major role in whether your bench press takes off or if you’re going to suffer from a bench press blowout. Build these muscles up and you can dramatically decrease the chance of blowing out your shoulder. If you’re benching heavy weight and not paying attention to these muscles you run the risk of muscular imbalances, shoulder pain, and getting stuck in a serious plateau.

When bench pressing it essential to have stability and strength in the shoulder. The four relatively small muscles predominantly responsible for stabilizing the shoulder – teres minor, infraspinatous, supraspinatous and sucscapularous – are known collectively as the ‘rotator cuff’. When these muscles contract they pull on the rotator cuff tendon, causing the shoulder to rotate. While bench pressing you may experience some rotator or shoulder pain, during part of the movement. This is likely due to weak muscles in this area. Weak muscles are often but not always the cause of rotator cuff impingement syndrome and associated rotator cuff tears. If you have the rotator cuff strength of a little girl, your body has no choice but to limit the amount of weight you can stabilize and move to prevent injury. It’s not uncommon to see an individual break through a bench press sticking point simply by incorporating direct rotator cuff training.

OK maybe now I have your attention. So how do you make sure your rotator cuff isn’t the weak link in your bench press? Or even more importantly how will you prevent a bench press blowout where you damage the rotator cuff? Like we discussed you need to strengthen the muscles, so let’s take a look at this workout routine. Remember if you already have an injury you should not use this routine as a rehab program but rather visit a sports medicine physician. If you want to prevent a future injury and break past a bench press sticking point then follow this routine twice a week. If you’re not in pain now, that’s an even better reason to follow my advice. Trust me if you have a nagging injury you’re not going to be growing or getting any stronger. Train smart, so that you can hit the weight hard when you do bench.

The first thing you need to do is stretch the muscles you are about to train. Make sure you have warmed up for a good five minutes on the bike or treadmill before you start stretching. This will help you acquire greater flexibility. You already know stretching is important so just do it. You don’t need any equipment for this stretch. You can do it one arm at a time or with both arms at the same time. Extend your arms out from the torso at a right angle. Now bend your elbows at a 90-degree angle. Place your forearms on the frame of the doorway and lean forward. You will feel the stretch in your pecs and the back of your shoulders. Hold the stretch for 20-30 seconds. Next I want you to hang from a pull up bar for 20-30 seconds. This isn’t a grip strength test so no you don’t have to hang on for the full 30 seconds.

Cuban Press Rotation

Grab an EZ Curl bar and perform a wide grip upright row until the bar is a few inches below your collar bone. Now keep your elbows stationary while you externally rotate the bar as if you were trying to tap your forehead. Next you will press the bar overhead. Lower the weight along the same plane and repeat for ten reps. You will not be able to use the same weight you use for standard overhead presses due to the external rotation. This exercise won’t build your ego right now, but you’ll be thanking me when your bench press increases.

Cable External Rotation

Raise the pulley until it is even with your elbow. You’ll be standing sideways next to the weight stack so if your right hand is holding the handle, your left foot should be closest to the weight stack. Grasp the cable attachment with your far arm while keeping your elbow close to your side and forearm across your stomach. Your palm should be facing in. Pull cable attachment away from body by externally rotating your shoulder. Return and repeat. Turn around and continue with opposite arm.

Cable Internal Rotation

Again raise the pulley until it is even with elbow. You’ll be standing sideways next to the weight stack but this time if your right hand is holding the handle your right foot should be closest to the weight stack. Grasp the cable attachment with the closest arm. Keep your elbow close to your side with your palm facing in. Pull the cable attachment across your body by internally rotating your shoulder. Return and repeat. Turn around and continue with opposite arm.

90-Degree Dumbbell External Rotation

To finish off the infraspinatus, hold a dumbbell in each hand, and perform a lateral raise to 90-degrees while keeping the elbows bent at 90-degrees. Once your upper arms are parallel to the floor, externally rotate your arm so that your forearms are perpendicular to the floor. It will look like starting point of a dumbbell military press. Now lower and repeat. Remember to use light weight. The infraspinatus is a tiny muscle so it can’t handle a heavy load. The shoulder horn is a great piece of equipment that keeps your arms in place while you perform this motion.

Do three sets of ten repetitions for each exercise. Perform the routine once a week in conjunction with your current workout. This is important so listen up. The last thing you want to do is pre-exhaust your rotator cuff before training the bench press. Never do this workout prior to a heavy bench press or shoulders session or you run an even greater risk of aggravating the area. You can give these exercises a try at the end of your workout, but be sure you always give your rotator cuff muscles 48-hours rest after a workout before training chest or shoulders.

Points To Remember:

The muscles of the rotator cuff are very small. Even if you’re pushing five bills on the bench press you’ll still be using five-pound dumbbells for many rotator cuff exercises. So leave your ego at the door!

Avoid lat pulldowns and military presses behind the head as they place the shoulder in a poor biomechanical position which enourages impingement.

Training your rotator cuff muscles can help you avoid pain, prevent future injuries, and fix muscular imbalances.

It’s not uncommon for a trainee to add 20+ pounds to their bench press simply by strengthening the rotator cuff muscles.

Never perform a rotator cuff routine prior to bench pressing or overhead pressing movements.

If you feel serious pain in your shoulder it may be too late. Go see a sports medicine physician.

We all know people who were really into bodybuilding/powerlifting and looked forward to bench pressing only to eventually drop out after a few years of hardcore training. Why? In many cases nagging injuries especially those of the shoulder, simply took the fun out of it. This doesn’t have to happen to you so you’re ahead of the game. The best thing you can do to keep your shoulders healthy, and make sure your bench press continues to improve is strengthen your rotator cuff muscles so that they will never be your weakest link! After all your bench press will be going nowhere fast if you’re injured. Pick up the girlie weights for a few sets once a week so you’ll experience a bench press blastoff instead of a bench press blowout.

Mike Westerdal is the owner of <a href=”http://infonian.criticalb.hop.clickbank.net/” target=”_top”>www.criticalbench.com</a>. Visit his site to receive two free PDF reports entitled, “31 Days To Bigger Arms” and “Boosting Testosterone Levels for Big Muscle Gains.”

Author: Mike Westerdal

This article will assume that you are trying to increase your strength. If you go to the gym to stay in shape, maintain your strength, or even worse, to avoid getting fat, than don’t waste your time reading this. However, if you set your goals for yourself, have an open mind and want to get bigger and stronger than read on.

Negatives can be applied to any exercise to help shock your muscles. They are specifically included in the Critical Bench Program to help you increase your bench press. First lets review what exactly a negative is making sure everybody is on the same page. Using the bench press as an example let’s review a negative set. You will load the bar with a weight that is about 40 lbs heavier than your one rep max. (If you don’t know your one rep max you can look it up on this chart: http://www.criticalbench.com/chart.htm) Three spotters will be needed. The most important spotter is the one that stands behind you because he will keep his hands on the bar throughout the entire lift. The two remaining spotters will stand on opposite ends of the bar. Of course you will need a lift off unless you plan on turning negatives into a positively bad idea. You will now begin to lower the weight as slowly as positive. At first you’ll do fine, but about half way down you’ll feel like you are trying to stop the weight from falling. Once the bar touches your chest all three spotters lift the weight to the lockout position where you start again. When you are lifting poundage this heavy only a few reps will be possible so don’t feel discouraged.

Okay so why in the world would you want to do this? Won’t you look like an idiot in the gym when three people have to pull the weight off your chest? People have even said that the exercise is just an ego booster and doesn’t do much for you. Some clowns might even say that you are cheating! Well don’t believe any of it. Luckily, I’m here to tell you why negatives are so important.

1. Heavy Negatives Overload the Muscles

Most of us will agree that singles help improve strength because you overload your muscles will heavy poundage that your body is not used to. Based on the same principle, if you do negative sets with even more than your max weight you will overload your muscles even further.

2. Conditioning Your Body

Let me give you a few examples of this. A basketball player who is shooting jump shots while he is wearing ankle weights. A swimmer who does laps wearing pants and a t-shirt. A football player preparing for camp by running in the middle of the afternoon during a 90-degree summer day. A sprinter that runs with a parachute tied to his back. How about a powerlifter that does negatives with a weight that is much heavier than his one rep max. Are you beginning to see the correlation? When you run in 90-degree weather, practice in 80-degree heat doesn’t seem so bad. When you shot jump shots with ankle weights, you feel pretty light and explosive when you take them off. When it is time to unload in each situation the body can perform better because it has been strengthened by the overload. You get the point. Let’s say your goal is to bench 400 lbs. If you’ve never tried it, the initial shock might surprise you. If you’ve felt the weight of 450 lbs and done negative sets with it, your mind and your muscles will be preconditioned to handle the 400 you were aiming for. You’ve felt heavier weight, making this weight seem lighter. Your muscles need to feel the shock of heavy weight to prepare for a max. So why not take it to the extreme?

3. The Challenge

If your training lacks intensity I’d like to see you have the courage to take this exercise lightly. Actually I wouldn’t, but don’t worry about it because it’s not possible anyhow. Your heart will begin racing, and you will be pumped with adrenaline. Not to mention the fact that you have three people watching you. You’ll be ready to perform, because there is no other choice. This is more weight than you’ve ever lifted in your life, so you will get psyched up for the big challenge. As mentioned earlier, some people call negatives ego boosters. They are partially correct. It does feel good to load the bar with the heavy poundage. Whipping out a few reps will definitely give you confidence when it’s time to max out for real. The only difference will be you’ve felt heavier.

4. Letting It Down Slow

Still not convinced? Let me pull out the textbook for you. The eccentric phase is the opposite of the contraction. For the bench press it is the lowering of the weight. Many bodybuilders treat this phase as an after thought, which they shouldn’t because it is very important. Research confirms that the eccentric component of a lift may be more important than the concentric phase for promoting muscle growth. One study showed that, when compared to normal weight training, concentric-only training required twice as many repetitions to produce similar results. With normal weight training, during an eccentric contraction (negative) you lower the same weight with fewer muscle fibers, and that means that each fiber involved has to sustain greater force.

5. Get The Last Laugh

We all know variety is important as well. If you haven’t done heavy negatives before than give them a try. It may be just what your muscles are screaming for. If you get funny looks at the gym, don’t worry about it. You’re not there to impress anybody; you’re there to get stronger. The only person you have to look at in the mirror is yourself. The weights will always weigh the same so you can’t compete with them. You may want to practice negatives with lighter weight before you jump right into this. Round up a couple buddies and show them why heavy negatives are positively a good idea.

Mike Westerdal is the owner of www.criticalbench.com . Visit his site to receive two free PDF reports entitled, “31 Days To Bigger Arms” and “Boosting Testosterone Levels for Big Muscle Gains.”

Author: Mike Westerdal

There are body building competitions for boys as young as 13 years old. Is this too young? Just like any just about any other issue, there are plenty of opinions on both sides. Some experts say that age 13 is too young to start a weight training regimen while other equally-qualified experts see no harm in it at all. What are the pros and cons of each side and at what age is it safe for a guy to start lifting weights? Lots of experts say that under proper supervision, when a child is old enough to begin participating in organized sports, he or she is old enough to start “strength training” by doing push-ups, sit-ups and similar exercises. For our purposes though, I want to focus on “weight training” using free weights and/or machines, not the regular gym class stuff.

Boys generally start taking an interest in improving their bodies about the time they hit puberty (12-13 years old). That shouldn’t come as a surprise-that’s when they start to develop masculine characteristics, their bodies begin to change and grow and they become interested in girls. Preadolescent boys (before puberty) lack the androgens-the body’s natural steroid hormones such as testosterone or androsterone-that trigger and control the development of the masculine characteristics.

Given the fact that in prepubescent boys production of natural steroid hormones has yet to ramp up, it would seem to make sense that boys who haven’t entered puberty would not really benefit from weight training because their body lacks some of the basic building blocks necessary to gain lean muscle. However, several studies have indicated that even prepubescent boys can achieve gains in strength through weight/resistance training these gains are attributed to the nervous system and motor learning rather than hormones-in other words, they’ll usually gain strength but muscle gains will be minimal.

Some people say that adolescent boys (about 13 years old) should not be weight training because they believe the risk of injuries is too great and that it can even result in stunted growth. I researched this idea and didn’t found any credible sources to validate it though. The research I’ve found indicates that provided the youth engages in a supervised, appropriate weight training program, there is no danger of stunted growth. Furthermore, experts say that the risk of injury from a properly supervised weight training program is no worse than that of participating in any ordinary sporting activity.

An adolescent who is going to embark on a weight training program should not just jump into a water-down adult workout. The central nervous system in young athletes is still developing so their coordination and balance are not going to be as capable as in adults. So instead of focusing maximum weight or the number of lifts, the emphasis should be on executing proper form. Only once the proper form has been mastered should the weight or resistance be increased. A good rule of thumb is to underestimate their physical abilities rather than overestimate and risk injury.

In general, teen weight lifters should avoid the Olympic-style weight lifting movements. Many of these require a great deal of skill and if done improperly, can result in lower back or even spinal injuries. Interestingly, some experts believe that adolescents should avoid machines in favor of free weights. They say that because machines are designed for adults, improper setup-even just a little-could result in injury.

Similarly, the adolescent lifter should not be training five or six days a week-at least not initially. The American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine recommends that teens around the age of 13 should stick to about two to three 20-30 minute training sessions per week. Again, as their mastery and strength improves, the length and frequency of training can be increased.

Recovery should be an integral part of any teen’s weightlifting program. Injuries from overuse or overexertion can lead to chronic problems later on in life. Young lifters should always be certain that their body parts/muscle groups are fully recovered in between training sessions. In addition, teen workouts should begin and end with warm-up and cool-down periods.

So overall the consensus seems to be that boys should hold off on embarking on a weight lifting program until they reach puberty at about the age of 13. But even then, certain considerations should be taken including: a medical evaluation should be performed first; proper adult supervision is essential; form needs to be emphasized over weight or reps; all major muscle groups should be addressed; and any sign of injury should be evaluated before continuing the training regimen.

Author: Mike Westerdal