Daily Bodybuilding Tips

One of the most commonly asked questions so many aspiring bodybuilders want to know is “How to Get a Big Chest”. Why? Because having a thick, muscular chest is very impressive to say the least. Whether your goal is to compete as a professional bodybuilder, or you are just out to impress the girls, learning how to get a big chest should be your number one priority.

To get right into it, there are typically two main exercise types which you need to be aware of being; Isolation and Compound. If you want to know how to get a big chest fast, you need to understand what these exercise types mean. Isolation exercises are those of which work only one muscle over one joint e.g. dumbbell chest fly’s. Compound exercises are those that work more than one muscle group over two or more joints.

Compound exercises are generally done at the beginning of your workout and should make up at least 80% of your total workout. Without boring you with all the theory behind building lean muscle, let me give you an example chest workout demonstrating both compound and isolation exercises. This was one of my original chest building routines and is designed to hit your chest from multiple angles to maximize the development of the Pectoralis Major and Minor muscles (Pec’s!).

How to Get a Big Chest – Chest Workout 1

* Incline Dumbbell Bench Press – 3 sets (12, 10, 8). Compound exercise
* Dumbbell Bench Press – 3 sets (12, 10, 8). Compound exercise
* Dumbbell Fly – 2 sets (12, 10). Isolation exercise
* Decline Barbell Bench Press – 2 sets (12, 10). Compound exercise

This chest routine will put sufficient stress (overload) on your muscles to make them want to grow. You’ll notice that we have primarily used dumbbells and compound exercises for most of the workout. Why? Because if you want to build a bigger chest, these are the exercises that you are going to have to do.

It has been proven through numerous studies that free weights are much more effective at building muscle mass than machine weights. Free weights put your body under higher physical and mental stress in the three dimensional world that we live in. Your body adapts by developing a high mental focus to recruit every muscle fiber available to lift the weight safely through all planes (Frontal, Median, Horizontal, and Sagittal).

Some common mistakes…

A common mistake inexperienced bodybuilders make is following the routines from bodybuilding magazines which involves them doing 20+ sets per muscle group. This is a big mistake! The routines that professional bodybuilders use are the routines which you need to be taking anabolic steroids for. Period!

Your natural body simply can’t cope with those high volumes, split workouts which require you to be in the gym 6 days a week for hours on end. This type of training will most definitely lead to overtraining before you know it. If you over-train your muscles you will never experience how to get a big chest - or body for that matter.

Now, there are some basic rules to using the program above which must be followed;

How to Get a Big Chest – Rule # 1

The best chest exercises to build rock hard muscle mass are without a doubt compound exercises performed with dumbbells. Stay clear of machine weights and make free weights (dumbbells/barbells) your two best friends.

How to Get a Big Chest – Rule # 2

The repetition range outlined in the program above should be the maximum amount of reps you can do with a particular weight without any assistance. If you can do more reps than specified above, simply select a heavier weight. You won’t get big looking at the big weights so get in there and show them whose boss. Saying that, remember to always use a spotter where you can to avoid injury to yourself.

How to Get a Big Chest – Rule # 3

Always remember that REST is the most important factor of muscle growth. The general rule of thumb is 60-90 seconds rest between sets, and 72 hours rest between training the same muscle group. Do not train your chest every day. I see it all the time and these guys are not getting any bigger. In fact, it’s laughable!

How to Get a Big Chest – Rule # 4

Always use proper lifting techniques and strict form. Sadly, this is where most beginner bodybuilder and weightlifters miserably fail. Their high enthusiasm coupled with their low knowledge is a recipe for disaster. Any exercise you perform should be done correctly to maximize muscle growth and to prevent serious injury. If you don’t know how to do an exercise correctly, ask one of the trainers in your gym, I’m sure they will be more than happy to assist.

A good place to start to ensure your lifting technique is correct is to time your reps in your head. For example; let’s say you were doing bench press. For the concentric phase (pushing the bar away from your body in this case), you would count “one thousand” in your head, or out loud if you prefer but you might get a few strange looks from the other guys in the gym. One second is how long it should take for the bar to travel from the chest to the arms extended position. For the eccentric phase (lowering the bar to the chest), you would count “one thousand, two thousand” in your head. Ensuring that you don’t bounce the bar off the chest, you would then have a count of “one thousand” before pressing the bar up through the full range of motion. By adding a count of “one thousand” or one second at both ends of the repetition, this will prevent you from cheating and pretty much force you to have better form.

This is just the tip of the iceberg as far as learning how to get a big chest fast and obviously we can’t cover everything in a single article. An excellent free resource I have found recently is called “The Top 20 Ways to Screw up in the Gym” and can be downloaded completely free by clicking on this link. I guarantee that you will be already making a lot big mistakes in the gym that are sacrificing the massive gains that you’ve been working so hard to get. If you haven’t already got this e-book, get it now – it’s free!

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From: ThaiMarathon

Are you searching for that “one” solution that blasts your plateau and sends your muscles into an explosive growth phase all over again?

The solution to your problem has been under your nose all along…

I’m not going to waste your time with “exercise variety” and “switching rep schemes”, because chances are, you already know these common techniques and use them in your workout routines anyway.

What I want to share with you is something fairly known in the weight lifting industry, but seldom used correctly and maximized to its full muscle-building potential.

The technique that can instantly force your muscles into growth is eccentric training, better known as “negatives”.

Chances are, you have already heard of negatives, but you probably don’t know how to use them for maximum muscle growth.

WHAT IS IT?

A concentric movement is your typical movement, in which the muscle fibers shorten to “lift” the weight.

Eccentric, or negative, movements are when you lower the weight, or bring it back to the starting position. It is the opposite of “lifting” a weight.

Negative movements unleash the power of the “other half” of your repetitions, the lowering phase. In an eccentric contraction, the muscle fibers lengthen to lower the weight.

Now, it is not enough to simply lower the weight slowly in your regular exercises. For maximum benefit, you must isolate and do negative movements alone!

WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS?

Here is a brief list of the benefits of eccentric (negative) training:

1) Increase in Training Weight: You can add a lot more weight when doing a negative movement. It is much easier to lower a heavier weight than it is to “lift” that same weight, which means that you can increase your training poundages instantly.

2) Neural Adaptations: After adapting to your regular concentric, or “lifting” movements, you can shock your muscles and nerves into adapting to a whole new negative movement. This causes confusion at the neuro-muscular level and forces you muscles into growth.

3) Muscle-Fiber Breakdown: Eccentric (negative) movements have been scientifically shown to cause greater muscle trauma and breakdown than regular concentric movements, resulting in greater muscle gains.

4) Type II Muscle-Fiber Activation: A study published last year concluded that maximum weight eccentric movements recruit more Type II Muscle fibers, those responsible for strength and speed.

5) Long Term Strength Gains: New research also shows that maximal eccentric movements cause neural adaptations that result in longer lasting strength gains.

THE BEST WAY TO DO ECCENTRIC (NEGATIVE) TRAINING

1) Choose a resistance level about 30% greater than what you would normally lift, and slowly lower that weight from the top position for a period of 3-5 seconds. MAKE SURE YOU HAVE A PARTNER!

2) Perform 2-3 sets for larger muscle groups such as chest, shoulders, and back. Perform only 1-2 sets for smaller muscle groups such as biceps and triceps.

3) Rest for 3-5 minutes between sets, because negative training is very intense on your muscles.

QUICK TIPS

1) It is best to dedicate one day out of the week and do a whole workout routine focused on negative movements only.

2) If you can hold, or lower a weight for longer than 5 seconds, consider increasing the weight as it may be too light. If it takes you less than 3 seconds to lower a weight, consider reducing the pounds as the weight may be too heavy.

3) Don’t overtrain! Listen to your body…Stick to less sets, and once you reach a set where it’s taking you less than 3 seconds to lower a weight, STOP!

4) If you don’t have a partner, you can train uni-laterally, using only one side of your body. This can be achieved with dumbbells, machines, and cables. Your non-active side would spot or support your active side.

CONCLUSION

As mentioned earlier, eccentric, or negative, movements have been shown to cause greater muscle-breakdown, neural adaptations, & recruitment of Type II Muscle Fibers.

This means that you can experience better muscle growth, greater strength gains, & more explosiveness.

Make sure to dedicate one day a week to do an entire workout routine focused on negative movements only.

You now have the knowledge to enter the fast-lane of muscle growth. How fast you want to go is entirely up to you…

Until next time, have an absolutely muscle-blasting workout routine!

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One of the great things about weight lifting workouts is the feeling you get after your workout. And that feeling, that full sensation you have in your muscles is what you're after when you're in the gym.

A lot of guys that haven't been working out very long think the ultimate objective in the gym is to lift as much weight as humanly possible and that's just not true. If that's your objective or goal then you're a power lifter not a bodybuilder.

A bodybuilder is anyone who is interested in building muscle through the use of weight lifting workouts. Unfortunately when most people hear the word bodybuilder they immediately think of the roided up freaks in FLEX magazine.

Your goal may be to be as big as those guys in FLEX magazine or it may be to just add enough muscles to pick up more chicks whatever the case... you're a bodybuilder.

And your number one goal as a bodybuilder is to work your muscles not to swing all kinds of weight around and look like an idiot in the process.

Bodybuilding isn't for chumps and your weight lifting workouts should be painful. If you hear someone tell you they lke working out then they're obviously doing something wrong or they're just not working out hard enough.

Weight lifting workouts aren't fun. They're not supposed to be fun. The muscles you get from the workouts and the feeling of invincibility are the reason your workout and just remember that when you're in the gym the key is to work your muscles not to make your ego feel better by moving a lot of weight without concentrating all of that movement into one specific muscle.

They key to building muscle with weight lifting workouts is completely fatiguing a muscle. You can accomplish this by using strict movements in your workouts. The easiest way to do this is by using a really light weight and repping out to like 25-50 reps.

When you get to like 50 reps you should feel some type of burning sensation in your muscles and that's the feeling you're going after. That's called the burn and when you feel that burn you know that you've worked out a particular muscle group and that your weight lifting workouts are working.

Go for the burn! Once you feel comfortable with your form and you know how to properly execute an exercise then you can increase the amount of weight you are using in your weight lifting workouts.

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