Free fat loss and muscle building advice since 2001.
Many factors go into putting together an effective weight lifting workout, and one of those factors is selecting the best exercises. This of course explains why I get at least a couple of emails per day asking me what the best exercises are for your chest, back, shoulders, legs (quads and hamstrings), arms (biceps and triceps) and every other muscle …
When putting together your ab workouts, you’ll often find that there are literally hundreds of different abdominal exercises for you to choose from. For example… Crunches. Leg raises. Hanging leg raises. Situps. Hip thrusts. Side bends. Ab twists. Planks. Ab roll-outs. Hundreds of different ab machines, ab exercises and workouts on video, and abdominal exercise machines sold via late night …
While many people consider the deadlift to be the king of back exercises in terms of building muscle and increasing strength (which I don’t disagree with), I’d personally include pull ups as a very close second place in that discussion. They are probably my favorite back (and bicep) exercise of them all, and I feel pull ups were responsible for …
Most of the time, when you talk about leg workouts, leg exercises, and really just building leg muscle in general… it’s always about squats. The leg press machine? Nope, that’s a useless machine for babies and little girls only. Squats on the other hand are the king of building big legs and all leg workouts should be built around them. …
Readers such as yourself email me diet and workout related questions all the time, and I often turn my answers into articles. Well, here we go again. A reader just sent me the following question… “I have reached a plateau on the flat bench press. I’ve been stuck bench pressing the same weight for weeks now. I’m literally benching the …
Back exercises are classified as either horizontal pulling movements or vertical pulling movements. Why? Because they are all typically done by either pulling a weight in towards your body horizontally from out in front of you (like a row), or pulling a weight down towards your body vertically from above you (like a lat pulldown). Common examples of some of …
Shoulder exercises are classified as vertical pushing movements. Why? Because they are all typically done by pushing, pressing or raising a weight up vertically in relation to your body. Common examples of some of the best shoulder exercises include: Overhead Barbell Press (seated or standing) Overhead Dumbbell Press (seated or standing) Arnold Press Overhead Shoulder Press Machine Lateral Raises Front …
“Leg exercises” are an overall category of weight lifting that includes exercises for the quads, hamstrings, glutes, and calves. For the most part, they are divided into 2 main groups: quad dominant movements and hamstring (or posterior chain) dominant movements. Why? Because most of the best leg exercises tend to hit just about everything all at once, with one specific …
Tricep exercises are classified as elbow extension movements. Why? Because they are all typically done by extending your arm at the elbow joint to lift a weight in the direction away from head. Common examples of some of the best tricep exercises include: Dips Close Grip Bench Press (flat, incline or decline) Lying Triceps Extensions/Skull Crushers (flat/incline/decline, barbell/dumbbell) Overhead Triceps …
Bicep exercises are classified as elbow flexion movements. Why? Because they are all typically done by flexing at the elbow joint to lift a weight upwards in the direction of your head. Common examples of some of the best bicep exercises include: Barbell Curls Dumbbell Curls (seated or standing) Preacher Curls (barbell or dumbbell) Incline Dumbbell Curls Hammer Curls Cable …