Abs and Forearms

Forearms and abs are the most frustrating muscles to workout. A lot of people see very little results even after continuous hard work. I believe that forearms and abs are more genetic than anything else. Some people do not even bother wasting their time working out their abs and forearms. There are plenty of exercises that can be done to help people develop their abdominal muscles. When I am in the gym sometimes I see people doing hundreds of sit ups as fast as they can without taking any break at all. I don’t think doing hundreds of sit ups and couple of days is going to get great results. Developing abs does not just involve working out but a healthy diet is essential. Studies have shown that more consumption of fruits and vegetables cuts fat from the stomach region. When I was younger I use to do 100 sit ups every night before I went to bed. Hundreds of fast sit ups is not the best way to cut up your abs. The best method is to do 15-30 repetitions but squeeze your abs for two or three seconds every repetition. Holding your abs flexed after each repetition will give much better results. Some exercises for abdominal workouts are crunches, reverse crunches, cherry pickers, medicine ball abs, abs roller, cable crunches, leg raises, heel touches, side bends, and other variations using weight or other equipment. For some reason my forearms are very small compared to my other muscles. I have worked out my forearms no days a week, one day a week, two days a week, three days a week, and five days a week and still can not get any results. I have tried everything which leads me to believe that forearms are a muscle that develops at a later time in life maybe like twenties or thirties. I have done wrist curls using a bar, dumbbells, and individual weight plates. I think the best exercise for forearms is the wrist curling with the rope where you have to keep curling the weight up from the ground to your shoulders and come back down and up again only using your forearms. When I do this exercise it is hard to lift my arms after so I know it works. I also use a hand flexor where you can do hundreds of repetitions a day because you can bring it anywhere. A lot of people do not even bother working out their forearms because they believe that you use your forearms in every exercise you do.

Legs

Legs are the worst muscle to work out because they are always sore and lifting with legs makes it difficult to run. I usually work out legs on Saturdays which is bad because then they are sore until Monday. I recently just started running a lot so I have to skip legs every couple of weeks because I am to sore from running. During powerlifting season legs are done on Tuesdays and Fridays and your legs are sore every day of the season. Just like bench press there is a heavy day and a light speed day. The most important exercises are squats and deadlifts because they are done at competition. On Tuesdays which is the heavy day I usually would do three sets of three repetitions on squat, heavy quarter squats, three sets of five repetitions of good mornings, and other leg accessory exercises. Quarter squats are another form of squats except you don’t go down all the way. Quarter squats are done to get people used to having heavy weight on their back. Good mornings are when you’re in a squat position but instead of squatting down you practically bend over keeping your back straight and your butt out. Friday is a light speed day for squats and deadlifts. Box squats are done for ten sets of two repetitions with 50-60% of your one rep max but you must come up as fast as possible. When doing box squats when you squat down you sit on a box for a second and then explode up. The box is an indicator of how low you have to come down. Just like speed bench press after enough experience is acquired you can use bands and chains on the box squats. Speed deadlifts are done for eight to ten sets of one repetition. The idea is that you only get eight to ten repetitions a week so explode up as fast as possible and make everyone count. Speed deadlifts are done with 50-60% of your one rep max and you can also use bands or chains after enough practice. Some other accessory leg exercises are lunges, leg presses, leg extensions, reverse leg extensions, and leg curls.

Triceps

Triceps are fun to work out because they are quick and easy. Triceps are located on the arm at the opposite side of the bicep. Strengthening the triceps can increase you bench press because they assist the chest muscles in the lift. The first exercise I usually do is four sets five or ten repetitions of extensions with the curl bar. After every repetition I squeeze my triceps as hard as I can. The second exercise I do is punch press for three sets of twelve repetitions. Punch presses are done with dumbbells and they are similar top bench press except your wrists are turned in and your elbows are kept tight at your side. The next exercise I do is rope ins when you connect the cable machine with the rope and pull the rope down and end away from each other. I usually do rope ins for three sets of five or six repetitions. The next exercise I do is pushdowns or reverse pushdowns on the cable machine for three sets of ten repetitions. The last exercise I always do is close grip bench press. I like doing close grip bench press last because you are already fatigued and you really have to push yourself to do well. I work up to a five rep max on close grip bench press. When you’re using a close grip it does not work your chest because you keep your elbows in and only your triceps are getting the work. When working out triceps form is the most important thing always keep your elbows in and always flex your muscle after every repetition.

Biceps

Biceps are my second favorite muscle to work out under chest. The bicep is probably the hardest muscle to get results because it is a very small muscle. Curling is really the only exercise that is practiced for biceps but over the years more and more variations of curling are discovered. Some curling exercises are preacher curls, hammer curls, concentration curls, reverse curls, buddy curls, deadly 7’s, and cable flexes. It is always best to change up the exercises every couple of weeks but my favorite exercises are preacher curls, concentration curls, deadly 7’s, and buddy curls. Buddy and deadly 7’s are always done last because they require the most energy and it is hard to even lift up your arms at all after these exercises. For buddy curls you obviously need a partner and you curl the bar for ten repetitions, then immediately pass the bar to your partner, he does ten repetitions, he passes the bar back to you, you do nine repetitions, and you keep passing the bar back and forth until you get down to the last repetition. This exercise is tough but if you and your partner motivate each other you will get through it. Deadly 7’s is a complicated exercise where you partially curl the bar from the down position to the halfway up seven times, then your partially curl the bar from halfway position to all the way up seven times, and then you finish by curling seven full repetitions. Deadly 7’s may not sound that bad but they are really tough because there is no rest allowed. I usually work out biceps on Thursdays but during powerlifting season I really don’t work them out at all.

Shoulders

I dislike working out shoulders because they require the most work of all of the upper body muscles. There are a lot of different exercises for shoulders so it takes a lot of time to work out. I usually work out shoulders on Wednesdays. I believe the best exercises for shoulders are military press, shrugs, upright rows, and side raises. I usually do eight sets of military presses; four sets using the bar doing five or six repetitions and four sets using dumbbells doing ten, twelve, or fifteen repetitions. For shrugs I do six sets; two sets using the machine with light weight for thirty repetitions, two sets using the bar with heavy weight for eight to ten repetitions, and two sets using dumbbells with light weight for fifteen repetitions. For upright rows I use the curl bar and do three sets; the first set of twelve repetitions, the second set of eight repetitions, and the last set of five or six repetitions increasing the weight every set. I usually do five sets of side raises switching the grip, weight, and repetitions up every set. Shoulders are the only upper body muscle that I do not enjoy working out.

Back

A lot of my friends dislike working out back because it requires a lot of work. I love working out back because having a strong back can help with other muscles and when your back gets really defined it looks great. Some lifters refer to a cut defined back as a cobra back because you have the cuts like the snake cobra’s head. I usually work out back on Tuesdays. The first exercise I usually do for back is lat pull downs. The lat pull down machine is made of resistance cables and you pull down with a bar. When I see most people do this exercise I always just see people bringing the bar in front of their face but it is much more beneficial to bring the bar in the front of your face and then in the back of your head and count that as one full repetition. I do my first set of ten repetitions with light weight; move the weight up to the next cable for eight repetitions, and the last set move the cable up again for six repetitions. One set of ten, eight, and six repetitions may not sound like a lot of work but I count one repetition coming down in front and in back of my head, so I am really doing one set of twenty, sixteen, and twelve repetitions. The next exercise I do is seated cable rows for three sets of fifteen reps. The seated cable row machine is usually part of the same machine as the lat pull downs but on the other side. Every repetition on seated cable rows that you pull back you squeeze the back of your shoulders together for maximum results. The third exercise I usually do is reverse cable fly’s for three sets of twelve to fifteen repetitions. The cable fly machine can also be used for chest fly’s but when you do them in reverse they work out back muscles. The last exercise I do for back is always four sets of pull ups until failure. I try to do as many pull ups as I possibly can and every week I try to complete more. I do pull ups until failure because I believe they are the most important exercise for back. Sometimes I do pull ups at the beginning of my workout but I try to do them with weight attached to my body but it is very difficult. Other exercises for back that I every couple of weeks are dumbbell or barbell rows, reverse pushups, and hammer strength machine rows.

Chest

Chest is my favorite muscle to workout because it is my strongest muscle. I usually work out chest at the beginning of the week particularly on Mondays. The first thing I do for chest is always bench press. For bench press I do five sets of five repetitions increasing the weight by five pounds every set. If I complete the last set for five repetitions then I will move up five pounds every set the following week. So if I do 200, 205, 210, 215, and 220 all for five repetitions then the next week I will move up to 205, 210, 215, 220, and 225. The second thing I do for chest is inclined bench press which is instead of laying down flat your sitting in an inclined vertical position. I do three sets of five repetitions increasing the weight by five pounds each set. The next exercise I do is fly’s using dumbbells or a cable machine for three sets of ten repetitions. The last exercise I do is either three sets of push ups until failure or three sets of dumbbell bench press until failure. During powerlifting season I did completely different exercises which were much more complex such as board press, lockouts, floor press, and speed presses. During powerlifting I benched on two days, Mondays and Thursdays. Mondays were the heavy days and Thursdays were the light speed days. Mondays would usually consist of board presses, floor presses, and lockouts usually working up to a three rep max. The three rep max is the heaviest weight you can lift for three repetitions. The light speed day would consist of eight to ten sets of three repetitions. On light speed days you use very light weight like 50-60% of your one rep max. The idea of a speed day is to train with speed and lift weight as fast as possible. Eventually when lifters get more experience they start using bands or chains on the weight. Bands or chains add resistance, when you come down with the weight it gets lighter but when you come back up the weight gets more resistance. The purpose of bands and chains is to train your weak points and get make you lift much faster.