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Muscle-Building Video
Lesson Transcripts
By Sean Nalewanyj
- Copyright & Disclaimer -
Before beginning any new exercise, nutrition or dietary supplement program you should consult a physician first. The information presented herein is not meant to treat or prevent any disease or to provide the reader with medical advice. If you are looking for specific medical advice then you should obtain this information from a licensed health-care practitioner. This publication is intended for informational use only. Sean Nalewanyj and www.MuscleGainTruth.com will not assume any liability or be held responsible for any form of injury, personal loss or illness caused by the utilization of this information. The individual results obtained from the use of this program will vary from person to person and we make no guarantee as to the degree of results that you will personally achieve.
This publication is fully copyrighted and does not come with giveaway or resale rights. You may not sell or redistribute this report. It is reserved solely for MuscleGainTruth.com members. Copyright and illegal distribution violations will be prosecuted.
2006 - www.MuscleGainTruth.com - All Rights Reserved
Online Muscle-Building Video Lesson Transcripts http://www.musclegaintruth.com/
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Table Of Contents
Proven Principles For Thick, Powerful Pecs 4 How To Build A Bullet-Proof Back 13 Simple Steps To Strong, Shredded Legs 22 Massive Shoulders In Just Minutes 32 The Keys To Absolute Arm Development 42 The Truth About 6-Pack Abs Revealed 51
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Proven Principles For Thick, Powerful Pecs
Introduction
Hey guys its Sean Nalewanyj here and welcome to this special online video lesson where
Im going to be teaching you exactly how to structure an effective chest workout for
maximum gains in both muscle size and strength.
I receive a ton of email every single day and one of the most common questions that Im
asked is
How can I build a big chest?
Its no secret that almost every single lifter out there places their chest development at
the top on their list of priorities. The big problem is that the vast majority of these lifters
are approaching their chest workouts in an ineffective and downright counterproductive
manner by choosing the wrong exercises, using the wrong rep ranges, performing too
many sets and by not executing their exercises in the proper fashion, and because of
this they severely limit the results that they obtain from their efforts.
The truth is that developing a round, thick set of pectorals is not rocket science and after
sitting through this short lesson youll be surprised at just how simple it really is.
So forget everything you thought you knew about chest training and lets get right down
to business here
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2 Main Ways To Stimulate The Chest
Im going to start by outlining the 2 main ways to stimulate chest growth.
When it comes to stimulating the chest, were dealing with
1) Pressing movements
A pressing movement is where the arms are extended away from the upper body in a
pushing motion. Examples of pressing movement include the barbell bench press, incline
dumbbell press and wide-grip dip.
2) Flye movements
A flye movement is when the arms are bent and are drawn across the front of the upper
body in a hugging motion. Examples of flye movements are dumbbell flyes, pec-deck
flyes, cable crossovers and machine flyes.
So Which Is Better: Presses or Flyes?
When it comes to training the chest for overall size and strength, pressing movements
are the KEY to success. They are the basic bread and butter of solid chest development
and cannot be replaced in their effectiveness.
What makes pressing movements so great?
- They will allow you to handle the greatest amount of total resistance
- They place the highest amount of stress on the entire chest region
- They are the most challenging to perform
- They stimulate the greatest amount of total muscle fiber
- They will produce the most dramatic overall anabolic effect on the body
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Pressing movements should be given 100% focus in your chest routine.
Are Flye Movements Necessary?
The simple answer is no.
Flye movements are just not a necessary part of an effective chest routine.
Flye movements are unnecessary because
- they limit the amount of total muscle stimulation you can achieve
- they are less challenging to perform
- they promote a much smaller overall anabolic effect on the body
People tend to gravitate towards flye movements because these types of exercises allow
them to feel it more in the muscle. Flyes are an isolation exercise and when performed
intensely they seem to produce a more focused effect on the chest muscles because of
their isolated nature.
But what you have to realize is that muscle growth is much more than a simple localized
event that happens at the level of the muscle tissue itself.
Muscle growth also results as your entire body adapts as a whole to an overall level of
stress. Anabolic hormones such as testosterone and growth hormone increase, and this
results in an overall, total-body muscle growth response.
Even though flyes may feel like theyre hitting your chest really hard, the isolated,
unchallenging nature of these movements produce only a fraction of the overall anabolic
effect that heavy pressing movements will produce. For this reason, flye movements are
simply unnecessary and do not need to be included in your routine.
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Some people might argue with this, but what you need to realize is that building muscle
is all about efficiency. Its about stimulating your muscles to grow using the lowest
number of sets and exercises possible, and not a thing more. Flye movements will not
produce any serious chest growth and if you add them into your routine youll simply be
placing additional, unnecessary stress on your shoulder joints while simultaneously
dragging your workout on for a longer period of time AND eating further into your
recovery time.
Approved Chest Exercises
Given this information, here is my list of approved chest exercises. If you dont see an
exercise listed here then you dont need to perform it
- Flat barbell bench press
- Incline barbell bench press
- Decline barbell bench press
- Flat dumbbell bench press
- Incline dumbbell bench press
- Decline dumbbell bench press
- Wide-grip dips
Thats it! Thats all you need. These are the most effective chest exercises available and
will stimulate growth as efficiently as possible.
Lets now talk about how to structure a proper chest workout using these exercises.
Frequency
For maximum gains in size and strength, you should only directly stimulate your chest
once per week.
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After every high intensity chest workout you should allow a full week for your body to
recuperate and to rebuild. Anymore than this is counter-productive and will lead to
overtraining.
Sets
Most lifters in the gym perform way too many sets for their chest. Theyre caught up in
the idea that more is better and usually perform something like 10, 12, 15 or more
sets for the chest.
High intensity weight training is far more stressful to the body than most people think,
and stimulating your chest for growth really only requires a few hard, focused sets.
I recommend that you perform anywhere from 5-7 sets TOTAL per workout for your
chest. As long as you train hard and with full focused effort, you should not perform
anymore than this. And remember, thats total sets per WORKOUT, not per exercise.
Reps
In order to stimulate chest growth as effectively as possible I recommend performing
5-7 reps for every set that you perform.
This means that the weight should be light enough to allow for 5 full reps using proper
form but heavy enough that you cannot complete more than 7 reps using proper form.
Theres no need to pyramid or mix up your rep ranges in order to shock your muscles
into new growth.
The goal is to logically and intelligently stimulate your chest to grow, and 5-7 reps is the
best rep range to accomplish this.
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Exercise Selection
I recommend that you perform 3-4 chest exercises per workout and 1-2 sets per
exercise.
Try to include at least one barbell and one dumbbell pressing movement into your
routine, since each of these tools has its own unique advantages and this way you can
reap the benefits of both.
I would also suggest using various angles throughout your workout by mixing it up
between flat, incline and decline exercises in order to allow for full, complete chest
development.
* Wide grip dips are such a powerful chest movement that Id recommend including
them in every workout.
Given all of this information, here are 3 sample chest routines that you can use for
yourself
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Sample Chest Routines
Routine#1
Flat Barbell Bench Press - 2 sets of 5 to 7 reps
Incline Dumbbell Press - 2 sets of 5 to 7 reps
Wide-Grip Dips - 2 sets of 5 to 7 reps
Routine#2
Incline Dumbbell Press - 2 sets of 5 to 7 reps
Wide-Grip Dips - 2 sets of 5 to 7 reps
Decline Barbell Bench Press - 2 sets of 5 to 7 reps
Routine#3
Incline Barbell Bench Press - 2 sets of 5 to 7 reps
Wide-Grip Dips - 2 sets of 5 to 7 reps
Flat Dumbbell Press - 1 set of 5 to 7 reps
Decline Dumbbell Press - 1 set of 5 to 7 reps
Any of those routines will work just fine.
Im going to close this lesson out with some tips about how to properly execute these
routines so that you can get the most bang for your buck possible
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Workout Details
Make sure to perform all sets to concentric muscular failure, that is, to the point where you cannot complete any additional reps using proper form despite your
best efforts.
Write down the exercises, sets and reps that you perform for each workout and then strive to improve upon those numbers each week by either increasing the
weight or by performing more reps.
Rest as long as you need to in between sets so that you can perform each individual set with full effort, strength and intensity.
Always use a spotter for all of your barbell pressing movements as a safety precaution.
Make sure to perform all movements with a full range of motion, that is, by lowering the weights all the way down to your chest and pressing them up until
your elbows are just short of locking out.
You should follow each individual workout for a period of 8 weeks, at which point you
should take a full week off from the gym.
Thats it!
Thats all you need to know in order to see the best chest gains of your life. Forget about
all the crazy routines you see posted in the muscle magazines and on message boards
across the Internet. Most of those routines will do nothing more than overtrain your body
and hold you back from making the gains you deserve.
Achieving maximum muscle growth is all about using an intelligent, logical approach just
like Ive outlined here. Building the largest, roundest and thickest set of pecs that you
possibly can only requires a few hard, focused sets of a few basic exercises.
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I hope you learned some useful new tips for accelerating your chest development, but I
just want to mention that as much as you desire a muscular, well-developed chest, I
HIGHLY recommend that you do NOT give your chest any special priority over your other
muscle groups. Most people in the gym tend to give special attention to their chest
because its a showy muscle and because the bench press has somehow become a
landmark for measuring your strength. This is a big mistake!
If youre trying to develop an impressive, muscular physique, then you must train every
muscle group with equal focus and intensity. Not only does it look ridiculous having a
lop-sided, unsymmetrical body, but it can also throw your joints out of whack and this
can lead to serious injury.
Well, that closes out this lesson. Thanks for watching and make sure to email me if you
have any questions.
This is Sean Nalewanyj and Ill talk to you again soon.
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How To Build A Bullet-Proof Back
Introduction
Hey guys, its Sean Nalewanyj here and welcome to another special online muscle
building video lesson. Today were going to be focusing on a very large and very
important muscle group, and one that most trainees tend to neglect.
You see, everyone is so focused on building a big chest, big arms and big shoulders, that
they fail to acknowledge the other half of their muscles on the other side of their upper
body. Im of course talking about the muscles of the back.
There are many individual muscles that make up the back, but in terms of bodybuilding
we usually talk about the back as including the lats, the trapezius, the spinal erectors
and the mid-back. Most trainees dont know this, but around 70% of your total upper
body muscle mass resides in your back.
Why then, do trainees neglect this massive reservoir of muscle?
There are 2 main reasons
1) The back is not considered a showy muscle. In other words, most trainees
simply dont see the value in having a muscular back because they dont feel that its
really going to enhance their physique.
2) Back training is typically more challenging than any other type of upper body
training. Youll ultimately be stimulating more total muscle fiber on your back exercises,
and this makes it more demanding and strenuous overall.
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If youre one of those people who hasnt been placing equal focus and emphasis on their
back muscles, you are missing out on some huge muscle gains and are severely limiting
the amount of upper body size and thickness that you can achieve. In order to develop a
winning physique, a thick, muscular back is a must have.
While I do feel that every muscle plays an important role in bringing the entire physique
together, if given the choice between training only my back or only my chest for the rest
of my life, but not both, I wouldnt even hesitate. I would choose to train my back
hands down.
So that being said, lets dive into the most effective ways to stimulate maximum back
growth.
Stimulating Back Growth
Theres an endless list of different exercises that you can perform to stimulate the
various muscles of the back, but when training for maximum muscle size and strength
there are 4 main movements that you should be focusing on.
1) Deadlifting Movements These exercises target the entire back complex and are
performed when a loaded bar or pair of dumbbells is lifted off of the ground in a
squatting motion.
Examples of deadlifts include: Barbell Deadlifts, Dumbbell Deadlifts, Trap-bar Deadlifts.
2) Vertical Pulling Movements These exercises mainly target the lats and are
performed as the arms are extended above the head and then resistance is pulled
downwards toward the body.
Examples include Chin-Ups, Lat Pulldowns and V-Bar Pulldowns.
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3) Horizontal Pulling Movements These exercises target both the lats and the
muscles of the mid-back. They are performed as the arms are extended in front of the
upper body and resistance is pulled toward the upper body.
Examples include Bent Over Barbell Rows, One-Arm Dumbbell Rows and Seated Rows.
4) Shrugging Movements These exercises target the upper traps, and are performed
as resistance is moved up and down in a shrugging motion of the shoulders.
Examples include Barbell Shrugs and Dumbbell Shrugs.
Categorizing The Different Exercises
Those previously mentioned exercises are the 4 main movements to include in your back
routine: a deadlift, vertical pull, horizontal pull and shrug.
Here is my list of approved back exercises organized into the various categories that I
just mentioned. If you dont see an exercise listed here, then you dont need to include it
in your routine
DEADLIFTS
- Barbell Deadlifts (As long as you have no injuries or specific conditions, I would
recommend a basic barbell deadlift as your first choice)
- Dumbbell Deadlifts
- Trap-Bar Deadlifts
VERTICAL PULLING MOVEMENTS
- Wide-Grip Overhand Chin-Ups (These are the bread and butter of solid lat development
and are my #1 recommended vertical pulling movement)
- Close-Grip Underhand Chin-Ups
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- Wide-Grip Overhand Lat Pulldowns
- Close-Grip Underhand Lat Pulldowns
- V-Bar Pulldowns
HORIZONTAL PULLING MOVEMENTS
- Bent Over Barbell Rows (These are my #1 recommended horizontal pulling movement)
- Bent Over Dumbbell Rows
- One-Arm Dumbbell Rows
- Seated Cable Rows
- T-Bar Rows
SHRUGGING MOVEMENTS
- Barbell Shrug
- Dumbbell Shrug
- Smith Machine Shrug
Lets now take a look at how to combine all of these exercises into a well-structured back
workout
Structuring An Effective Back Workout
There are many different ways to structure a solid back workout, but in my training
experience there is a basic template that works wonders for stimulating maximum
growth.
1) First off, you should start every back workout with a basic, bent-legged barbell
deadlift. Deadlifts are without question the most effective growth-producing exercise not
only for the back, but for the entire upper body as a whole. Deadlifts work you from
finger to neck to toe and should be given primary focus in your back workout.
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I would highly suggest performing your deadlifts first in your workout when your
strength and energy levels are at their peak. Consistently adding poundage to your
deadlifts is one of the most important things you could possibly do to add maximum
muscle mass and thickness to your entire back. They are one of the most challenging
exercises to perform in the gym, but the rewards are well worth the battle.
2) After your deadlifts you should perform a vertical pulling movement to directly target
the lats. As far as Im concerned, wide-grip overhand chin-ups are the most effective
vertical pulling movement you could possibly perform. They are the most demanding
movement to execute and will place maximum stress and overload on the lat muscles.
Any of my approved vertical pulling movements are fine choices, but unless there is a
specific reason why you cant perform basic wide grip chin-ups, then that is the exercise
I would recommend using.
3) Next up is a horizontal pulling movement. These exercises are very effective at
stimulating the muscles of the mid-upper back as well as the lats. A basic bent over
barbell row is the meat and potatoes of horizontal pulling movements, and this would be
my first recommendation. You should try to stick to freeweights whenever possible and
only use a machine row if you specific condition, such as a lower back injury, that
prevents you from being able to perform bent over freeweight movements.
4) To finish off your workout you can throw in a basic shrugging movement in order to
fully stimulate your upper traps. Barbell shrugs or dumbbell shrugs will work just fine
here.
* Side note: The order of the vertical pulling movement and horizontal pulling
movement can be swapped if youd like.
Well now take a look at some of the specific aspects of your back training approach
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Frequency
Just like every other major muscle group, in order to allow for optimal recovery and
growth I would recommend no more than 1 direct back workout per week.
Anymore than this is counter-productive and will lead to overtraining. Your muscles do
not grow in the gym, they grow out of the gym while you are resting and eating.
Intense back training is very stressful to both the muscles and the central nervous
system, so always make sure to only train your back once per week.
Sets
The back is a bit of a tricky muscle group to assign a concrete number of sets to, as it is
comprised of many different individual muscles. Instead of assigning one direct number
of sets for the entire back in general, I instead prefer to assign a direct number of sets
for each specific type of back exercise. Using this model I would recommend
2 sets of deadlifts
2 sets of horizontal pulling
2 sets of vertical pulling
1-2 sets of shrugs
This is a solid foundation for structuring an effective back workout.
Reps
For almost all of your back exercises I would recommend sticking to the basic rep range
of 5-7. This means that the weight must be light enough for you to complete 5 reps in
good form, but heavy enough that you cannot complete more than 7.
This will allow for maximum stress to be placed on the back muscles and is the best
growth-producing rep range possible.
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There is one exception to this rule, and that is for the shrugging movements. The upper
traps tend to respond better to a higher rep range, and for this reason you should stick
to 10-12 reps on all shrugging movements. This of course means that the weight must
be light enough to allow for 10 solid reps, but heavy enough that you cannot complete
more than 12.
Here are some highly effective sample back routines, and dont worry about writing
these down as they can all be found in the PDF transcript for this video lesson.
Sample Back Routines
Routine #1
Deadlifts 2 sets of 5 to 7 reps
Wide-Grip Overhand Chin-Ups 2 sets of 5 to 7 reps
Bent Over Barbell Rows 2 sets of 5 to 7 reps
Barbell Shrugs 1-2 sets of 10 to 12 reps
Routine #2
Deadlifts - 2 sets of 5 to 7 reps
Bent Over Dumbbell Rows - 2 sets of 5 to 7 reps
Close-Grip Underhand Chin-Ups - 2 sets of 5 to 7 reps
Dumbbell Shrugs - 1-2 sets of 10 to 12 reps
Routine #3
Deadlifts - 2 sets of 5 to 7 reps
Overhand Lat Pulldowns - 2 sets of 5 to 7 reps
One-Arm Dumbbell Rows - 2 sets of 5 to 7 reps
Barbell Shrugs - 1-2 sets of 10 to 12 reps
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Routine #4 (only recommended if you physically cannot perform deadlifts)
Wide-Grip Overhand Chin-Ups - 2 sets of 5 to 7 reps
Bent-Over Barbell Rows - 2 sets of 5 to 7 reps
V-Bar Pulldowns - 1 sets of 5 to 7 reps
Seated Cable Rows - 1 set of 5 to 7 reps
Barbell Shrugs - 2 sets of 10 to 12 reps
Any of those routines will work just fine.
Lifting Straps
If theres one piece of equipment that will really benefit your back workouts, a good high
quality set of lifting straps would be it. Lifting straps help to eliminate your grip from the
equation and ensure that you always reach muscular failure in your target muscles,
rather than being forced to drop the weights because your grip gave out. These are
especially useful on exercises such as deadlifts and shrugs where youll be handling
heavier poundages. You can read a little bit more about lifting straps in my main e-book.
In any case, I would highly recommend that you use lifting straps as they will enhance
the effectiveness of all of your back exercises and will allow you to place greater stress
and muscle overload on the target muscles. If you dont use lifting straps and find that
your grip is reaching muscular failure before your back muscles, then a set of lifting
straps is absolutely mandatory.
Workout Details
Make sure to perform all sets to concentric muscular failure, that is, to the point where you cannot complete any additional reps using proper form despite your
best efforts.
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Write down the exercises, sets and reps that you perform for each workout and then strive to improve upon those numbers each week by either increasing the
weight or by performing more reps.
Rest as long as you need to in between sets so that you can perform each individual set with full effort, strength and intensity.
Make sure to perform all movements with a full range of motion, that is, by lowering the weights until your arms are just short of being fully extended, and
then pulling the weights all the way up until your back muscles are fully
contracted.
You should really focus on developing a solid mind-muscle connection on your back exercises. The back can be a difficult muscle to really stimulate to the fullest
since you cant actually see it while youre performing your exercises. You need to
think of your arms as simply being hooks that are attaching you to the weight, but
make sure that it is your BACK that is doing the pulling, NOT your arms.
You should follow each individual workout for a period of 8 weeks, at which point you should take a full week off from the gym.
Well, thats everything you need to know to develop your back to its utmost potential.
Nothing special or fancy, just basic, straightforward, focused training on a few basic
exercises.
Train your back with full intensity and effort and I guarantee that your entire upper body
will progress faster than ever before. If theres one muscle group that will go the farthest
in giving you a wide, thick appearance, a well developed back is it.
I hope you enjoyed this video lesson and if you have any questions dont hesitate to
shoot me an email.
This is Sean Nalewanyj and Ill talk to you soon.
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Simple Steps To Strong, Shredded Legs
Introduction
In this video lesson were going to be talking about a group of muscles that tend to be
ignored in the gym. Most trainees are so preoccupied with building a big upper body
that they forget about other half of their muscles down below.
I am of course talking about the legs: the quads, hamstrings, glutes and calves.
Lets face it, the majority of lifters out there just arent concerned with the size of their
legs.
I mean, how often does a buddy compliment you on your well-developed hamstrings? Or
how often does a female friend come up and ask you to flex your quadriceps for her?
The plain fact is that because the legs are usually hidden underneath a pair of pants or
shorts and because they arent considered to be a showy muscle, the majority of lifters
just arent willing to expend the necessary effort to train their legs hard and heavy.
Some lifters train their legs in a passive, nonchalant fashion and others neglect them
altogether. It seems that people will come up with just about any excuse they can to
avoid the squat rack.
The truth is that this is actually a huge mistake, and in this video lesson Ill explain
exactly why. Ill also outline all of the most effective, growth-producing methods for
maximizing the results from your leg training. So listen up, as this is all very important
to your bottom-line results
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The Muscles of The Legs
There are many small, individual muscles that make up the lower body, but in terms of
bodybuilding we categorize them into 4 main muscle groups:
- the quadriceps (front of the thigh)
- the hamstring (back of the thigh)
- the glutes
- the calves
In order to achieve maximum lower body development, all of these muscle groups
should be fully developed.
The Importance of Leg Training
Before we talk about the actual methods for stimulating your legs to grow, lets first talk
a little bit about why training your legs is so important in the first place.
There are 2 main reasons why training your legs hard and heavy is so important
1) Total Body Symmetry
This is the most obvious reason of all. As a person serious about achieving a lean and
muscular physique, its very important to develop every muscle on the body to its full
potential. Just because the legs are not a showy muscle does not mean that they
should be neglected or that they arent an important part of a complete physique.
If youve seen those huge guys walking around the gym sporting massive, thick upper
bodies but small, skinny and undeveloped legs then you know just how ridiculous this
looks. Well-developed, muscular legs bring the entire physique together as a whole and
will keep your body looking symmetrical from head to toe.
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2) Your Upper Body Will Greatly Benefit
Even if you really dont care about the size of your legs, what if I told you that by
neglecting to train your legs, you were actually limiting the amount of upper body
growth you could achieve? You might think it was just a cheap tactic to get you into the
squat rack, but its true, and let me explain why. Just like I mentioned in the chest
training lesson
Muscle growth is more than simply a localized event that happens at the level of
the muscle tissue.
Yes, when you train with weights you break down the muscle tissue and force it to
rebuild itself, but this really doesnt tell us the whole story as there is much more going
on behind the scenes than you think. Your body builds muscle as it adapts to stress, but
not only does it adapt to stress at the level of the muscle tissue itself, it also adapts to
stress as a whole.
Hard, intense training in the gym places the entire body under stress, not just the
muscle tissue that is being directly stimulated. One of the main ways that the body
adapts as a whole is by increasing the secretion of powerful anabolic hormones such as
testosterone, growth hormone and insulin-like growth factor. This increased
secretion of hormones forces your body to not only build and repair the muscle tissue
that was directly stimulated and broken down, but it also builds muscle in other areas of
the body that werent even directly trained.
Leg training just happens to be the most demanding and intense type of workout that
you could possibly perform in the gym, and as a result it forces your entire body to
adapt as a whole and this will cause your upper body to grow as well. It may seem like a
strange concept that squats could cause your arm size to increase, but its true.
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If you havent been training your legs intensely up to this point, I guarantee that when
you do, youll notice an entire body spill over effect in both muscle size and strength.
Heavy squats, leg presses, lunges and stiff-legged deadlifts are all very demanding
exercises, and if you want to get the most out of both your leg growth and your upper
body growth, you must include them in your program.
So, even if you really dont care about the size of your legs, just keep in mind that by
neglecting to train them with equal focus and intensity youll actually be limiting the total
amount of muscle size and strength that you can achieve throughout your entire body.
Im sure that I have your attention now, so lets move on and talk about how to
structure an effective leg workout.
Stimulating Your Legs To Grow
Lets start with the thighs.
There are 2 major muscle groups that make up the thighs, and those are the
quadriceps and hamstrings. Since all compound exercises for the quadriceps involve
the use of the hamstrings as well, I would suggest that you always train these muscle
groups together in the same workout.
In order to see the maximum gains from your thigh workouts, there are only a few select
exercises that youll need to include in your routine. Here is my list of approved
quadricep exercises
Squats These are the granddaddy of all lower body movements and must be included
in your routine both for their effects on leg growth and total body growth. A basic barbell
squat is arguably the most effective exercise that you could possibly perform in the gym,
and should be included in every single leg workout that you execute.
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Not only will squats heavily stress your quads, but they also heavily stress your
hamstrings and glutes as well.
Other approved quad exercises include
- Leg Press
- Dumbbell Lunges
- Barbell Lunges
These are the only exercises that need to be a part of your quad routine. There are
many different variations of these exercises, but if you want to maximize your results
the basics cannot be beat. I would suggest performing a barbell squat as your first
exercise, and then choosing one of the other exercises listed above following your
squats.
Although all of these exercises will also provide stimulation for your hamstrings, you
should still include a couple of sets of direct hamstring work. The most effective
movement for directly hitting the hamstrings is the stiff-legged deadlift. This exercise
will allow you to move the most weight and will place the greatest stress on the
hamstrings. You can also supplement your hamstring routine with a direct isolation
exercise by performing a set of lying or seated leg curls, or a set of good mornings.
To achieve full leg development its important that you also train your calves as part of
your leg routine. Effective calf training is very straightforward and really one requires the
use of 2 main movements.
Standing Calf Raises: these exercises target the gastrocnemius, which makes up the
major portion of the calf muscle.
Seated Calf Raises: these exercises target the soleus, which is the smaller portion of
the calf that runs down the outer side of the lower leg.
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These exercises can be performed using either machines or freeweights. As you already
know, I typically recommend that you stick to freeweights for most of your exercises in
the gym. However, when it comes to calf training I would recommend the opposite and
suggest sticking to standing machine calf raises and seated machine calf raises.
When it comes to training calves, machines will allow you to place a greater amount of
total stimulation on the calf area as opposed to most freeweight movements. Because of
the mechanics of the calf raising movement, youll be able to handle fairly large amounts
of weight in comparison to most of your other lifts. Machines will allow you to safely
handle the greatest amount of total resistance while keeping the majority of the focus on
the calf region. You wont have to worry about balancing huge amounts of weight on
your back and this will allow you to focus directly on the muscles that you are trying to
train.
If you are unable to performing standing machine calf raises, then I would suggest using
standing one-legged dumbbell calf raises as a substitute.
If you are unable to perform seated machine calf raises, then I would suggest using
seated barbell calf raises as a substitute.
Frequency
All of the muscles in the lower body should follow the same protocol of being directly
stimulated only once per week. Leg training is more demanding than any other type of
training out there, and you must give your body a full rest in between workouts in order
to allow for optimal growth.
This applies both to the thighs and to the calves. Some people train their calves more
frequently by hitting them 2 or 3 times in the same week. As long as you take your calf
exercises to full muscular failure on all sets then you simply do not need to train them
more than once per week.
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Sets
Here is a basic template that you can follow to structure the most effective leg routines
possible
Thigh Routine:
2 sets of squats
2 sets of leg press OR barbell lunges OR dumbbell lunges
2 sets of stiff-legged deadlifts
1-2 sets of lying leg curls
You can rearrange the order of the second thigh exercise and the stiff legged deadlifts if
you wish, but I would recommend keeping the squats as your first major exercise and
your leg curls as the last exercise.
Calf Routine:
2 sets of standing calf raises (preferably with a standing calf raise machine)
1-2 sets of seated calf raises (preferably with a seated calf raise machine)
As you can see, this is a very basic template to follow. I usually like to train my thighs
and calves in the same workout, but this isnt mandatory.
Reps
For all of your thigh movements I would recommend utilizing a rep range of 5 to 7. This
means that the weight should be heavy enough to allow for 5 full reps using proper
form, but heavy enough that you cannot complete more than 7.
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Big movements like squats or leg presses will be highly effective no matter what rep
range you choose, but for maximum gains I believe that 5 to 7 is the most effective.
When it comes to calves, you should train the gastrocnemius (your standing calf raises)
using a rep range of 10-12 since this area is made up predominantly of slow twitch
muscle fibers. For the soleus (your seated calf raise movements), a rep range of 5 to 7
works just fine.
Sample Leg Routines
Thighs
Routine#1
Squats - 2 sets of 5 to 7 reps
Leg Press - 2 sets of 5 to 7 reps
Stiff-Legged Deadlifts - 2 sets of 5 to 7 reps
Lying Leg Curls - 1-2 sets of 5 to 7 reps
Routine#2
Squats - 2 sets of 5 to 7 reps
Barbell lunges - 2 sets of 5 to 7 reps
Stiff-Legged Deadlifts - 2 sets of 5 to 7 reps
Lying Leg Curls - 1-2 sets of 5 to 7 reps
Routine#3
Squats - 2 sets of 5 to 7 reps
Dumbbell Lunges - 2 sets of 5 to 7 reps
Stiff-Legged Deadlifts - 2 sets of 5 to 7 reps
Lying Leg Curls - 1-2 sets of 5 to 7 reps
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Calves
Routine#1
Standing Machine Calf Raises - 2 sets of 10 to 12 reps
Seated Machine Calf Raises - 1-2 set of 5 to 7 reps
Routine#2 (If machines are unavailable)
Standing One-Legged Dumbbell Calf Raises - 2 sets of 10 to 12 reps
Seated Barbell Calf Raises - 1-2 set of 5 to 7 reps
Workout Details
Make sure to perform all sets to concentric muscular failure, that is, to the point where you cannot complete any additional reps using proper form despite your
best efforts.
Write down the exercises, sets and reps that you perform for each workout and then strive to improve upon those numbers each week by either increasing the
weight or by performing more reps.
Rest as long as you need to in between sets so that you can perform each individual set with full effort, strength and intensity.
Make sure to perform all movements with a full range of motion. Always make sure to perform your squats in a safe area. This means performing
them either in a squat rack with safety catches or in an area that allows you to
safely and easily drop the bar off of your back if you need to.
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Conclusion
Hopefully by now you understand just how important leg training really is to your
bottom-line results. Leg training will keep your body balanced and symmetrical and will
also greatly enhance your upper body growth. One of the biggest mistakes you could
possibly make in the gm would be to neglect your leg training and skip out on the huge
value that you could obtain from heavy compound leg lifts such as squats, leg presses
and stiff legged deadlifts.
Leg training can be very tough and brutal when performed to muscular failure, but if you
want to maximize your total body growth youll have to suck it up and battle through.
This is Sean Nalewanyj signing off, thanks for watching, and of course, if you have any
questions about anything let me know.
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Massive Shoulders In Just Minutes
Introduction
Lets face it, when it comes to building a thick and muscular physique, a set of well
developed shoulders is an absolute must have. Round, powerful delts play a key role in
creating the v-tapered look that all bodybuilders strive for by widening the shoulder
region and also contributing to the illusion of a smaller waistline. Many bodybuilders
agree that underneath clothes, a set of wide, muscular shoulders will make the greatest
contribution to the overall appearance of the upper body.
Everybody wants a powerful set of shoulders yet so few implement an intelligent and
well-structured plan when approaching their shoulder training. Most trainees perform too
many exercises and too many sets and as a result they limit the degree of shoulder
development they can achieve. Youve heard me say this a million times before in
relation to almost every body part, but the shoulders are one area where this really
needs to hit home for you.
Proper shoulder training is actually very straightforward and only requires a small
number of sets using a couple of very basic movements. In this lesson Ill teach you
exactly how to structure the most effective shoulder routine possible, and you may be
surprised at how simple it really is.
Shoulder Anatomy
The shoulder consists of 3 main heads: the anterior head (the front of the shoulder),
the medial head (the middle of the shoulder), and the posterior head (the back of the
shoulder). The shoulder is the most complex joint in the entire body and performs the
function of lifting and rotating the arm.
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In order to achieve the most round, muscular shoulders possible all 3 heads need to be
developed to their fullest.
Stimulating Shoulder Growth
The first key concept that you need to understand is this
Virtually every single upperbody exercise that you perform will stress the
shoulders in some fashion.
All pressing movements for the chest involve the use of the anterior head and all pulling
exercises for the back involve the use of the posterior head. In virtually every workout
that you perform, the shoulders will always be stimulated in some fashion.
Because the shoulder muscles are involved in virtually every single exercise that you
perform for your upper body, they only need to be directly stimulated using a very small
number of sets in order to make sure that you dont overtrain them.
Direct stimulation of the shoulders involves 2 types of movement.
1) Overhead Pressing
This is the absolute backbone of shoulder development and should form the cornerstone
of your shoulder routine. Overhead pressing stimulates the entire shoulder complex and
allows you to place the maximum amount of overload on this area possible. If youre
shooting for as much shoulder mass as you can possibly build, basic overhead presses
are the key.
Examples include the Military Press, Overhead Dumbbell Press and Overhead
Machine Press.
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*Side Note: When performing your overhead pressing movements, always make sure to
perform them in FRONT of your body, NOT behind your neck. Behind-the-neck presses
are another very common type of overhead press but they place the shoulder joints in a
very compromising position and therefore should be avoided.
2) Raises
These can be performed in a variety of ways and are used to isolate each individual head
of the shoulder region.
Front Raises are used to isolate the anterior head of the shoulder. This is where a
barbell or pair of dumbbells is raised out in front of the body with the arms extended.
Rear Lateral Raises are used to isolate the posterior head of the shoulder. This is
where the body is placed in a bent over position and a pair of dumbbells or a cable is
raised out to the sides.
Side Lateral Raises are used to isolate the medial head of the shoulder. These can be
performed using dumbbells or cables and are executed when the arms are bent and
raised out diagonally in front of the body.
Another common type of raising movement that many lifters perform for the shoulders is
the Upright Row. While this is a fairly effective movement for stimulating shoulder
growth, I would recommend steering clear as it is very stressful to the shoulder joints
and simply cannot be performed for an extended period of time without putting yourself
at risk for an injury. Stick to overhead presses as your core exercise as these will provide
all of the shoulder stimulation youll need.
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Structuring Your Shoulder Routine
When it comes to directly training your shoulders, a basic overhead press and a side
lateral raise is all you really need in order to see the best growth possible.
The overhead presses will stimulate the entire shoulder complex for overall mass, while
the side laterals will directly isolate the medial head of the deltoid in order to give the
upper body more overall width and thickness.
The anterior and posterior heads of the shoulder receive more than enough stimulation
during all of your heavy chest and back training, and therefore they really dont need to
be directly isolated.
Since the medial head does not receive very much stimulation from your other exercises
it should be given direct attention during your shoulder workouts.
Approved Shoulder Exercises
Here are my approved overhead pressing movements
- Standing Military Press
- Seated Military Press
- Seated Overhead Dumbbell Press
- Standing Overhead Dumbbell Press
Here are my approved side lateral movements
- Standing Dumbbell Side Laterals
- Seated Dumbbell Side Laterals
- Cable Side Laterals
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In order to structure an intelligent and effective shoulder routine, these are the only
movements you really need to perform. I would recommend starting off with a basic
overhead pressing exercise as your core movement for the shoulders and then finishing
off your shoulder routine with a side lateral movement.
The overhead presses will go the farthest in building overall shoulder mass and should
therefore be given primary focus. If you perform your side lateral raises before your
overhead presses, youll be sacrificing the amount of weight that you can lift and will
therefore compromise the total amount of stimulation you can achieve. Make sure to
always perform your overhead presses first, and follow that up with a side lateral raise.
Frequency
Nothing new here; your shoulders need recovery time for growth just like every other
muscle and therefore should only be directly stimulated once per week.
Because your shoulders receive so much stimulation from all of your other exercises its
very important that you follow this once-per-week guideline in order to ensure that you
dont overtrain them.
A great way to ensure that you dont overtrain your shoulders is to pair them up with
your chest. Since your shoulders are so heavily involved in all of your chest pressing
movements, you can avoid overlap throughout the week by performing both your chest
and your shoulder presses in the same workout.
Sets
I would recommend using the following template for your shoulder routine
2 sets of an overhead pressing movement
1-2 sets of a side lateral movement
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As long as you train to muscular failure you absolutely do not need to perform any more
sets than this in order to see optimal shoulder growth. Most trainees perform far too
many sets for their shoulders because they simply dont understand how hard their
shoulders are being hit on all of their other upper body exercises. Dont make this
mistake, the shoulders require far less direct stimulation than you might think.
As a whole, 2-4 sets of direct shoulder work is all youll need.
Reps
There are 2 different rep ranges that should be used to stimulate full shoulder growth.
On all of your overhead pressing movements, stick to the standard rep range of 5 to 7.
For every set of overhead presses that you perform, the weight should be light enough
to allow for 5 reps using proper form but heavy enough that you cannot complete more
than 7.
When performing your side lateral raises, a higher rep range works best. The medial
deltoids respond best to higher reps, and when performing raises youll find that you are
able to really isolate that area much easier this way. If you try moving heavy weights on
side lateral raises youll find that its much harder to execute an effective set, not to
mention that it will place a lot of stress on those delicate shoulder joints.
For this reason I would recommend that you stick to a rep range of 10-12 for your side
laterals. This means that the weight should be light enough to allow for 10 complete reps
using proper form, and heavy enough that you cannot complete more than 12.
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Sample Shoulder Routines
Routine #1
Seated Overhead Dumbbell Press - 2 sets of 5 to 7 reps
Standing Dumbbell Side Laterals - 1-2 sets of 10 to 12 reps
Routine #2
Standing Military Press - 2 sets of 5 to 7 reps
Seated Dumbbell Side Laterals - 1-2 sets of 10 to 12 reps
Routine #3
Seated Military Press - 2 sets of 5 to 7 reps
Standing Cable Side Laterals - 1-2 sets of 10 to 12 reps
As you can see, structuring an effective shoulder routine is actually very basic.
Here are a few things to keep in mind when executing your shoulder routines.
Workout Details
Make sure to perform all sets to concentric muscular failure, that is, to the point where you cannot complete any additional reps using proper form despite your
best efforts.
Write down the exercises, sets and reps that you perform for each workout and then strive to improve upon those numbers each week by either increasing the
weight or by performing more reps.
Rest as long as you need to in between sets so that you can perform each individual set with full effort, strength and intensity.
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Make sure to perform all movements with a full range of motion, that is, by lowering the weights all the way down to your shoulders and pressing them up
until your elbows are just short of locking out.
Shoulder Safety
Im going to finish off this lesson by briefly talking about shoulder injuries and how you
can avoid them.
Along with the lower back area, the shoulders are the most commonly injured area for
people who train intensely with weights. The shoulders are a complicated, delicate joint
and if you arent careful you may end up stressing the joints and connective tissues
beyond the point of recovery. This is one of the absolute last things you could ever hope
for, since a shoulder injury will have a negative impact on virtually every single upper
body exercise that you perform. Here are some basic tips to follow in order to make sure
that you can achieve maximum shoulder development without harming your joints and
compromising your training as a result
- Train to concentric muscular failure and not a moment beyond. NEVER perform forced
reps with the help of a spotter on any of your overhead pressing movements. As soon as
your form begins to slip or you are unable to move the weight any further despite your
best efforts, put the weights down immediately.
- Train your shoulders in the same workout as your chest. This will place all of your
major upper body presses in the same workout and will allow for maximum recovery
throughout the week. If you train your shoulders separately from your chest youll be
performing heavy presses 2 days out of the week, and this could place an excessive
amount of stress on the joints.
- If you do decide to train your shoulders apart from your chest, always perform a full
weight acclimation warmup for your overhead pressing movements.
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Warming up properly is the #1 way to avoid injuries, so always make sure that your
joints and connective tissues are fully warmed up before performing any muscle-building
sets to failure.
- Avoid potentially dangerous exercises such as behind-the-neck presses and upright
rows. While these exercises are effective at stimulating shoulder growth, they place the
joints in a very vulnerable position and therefore should be avoided. Basic overhead
presses to the front will provide all of the shoulder stimulation youll need and are much
safer to perform.
- Implement some basic rotator cuff exercises 2 times per week. The rotator cuff is a
group of 4 small muscles that hold the shoulder joint in place. Keeping these small, little
muscles strong and healthy is a great way to keep your shoulder joints fortified in the
gym. The majority of shoulder injuries are in some way related to weak or damaged
rotator cuffs, and therefore performing a few basic exercises a couple times per week to
keep these muscles strong is a great way to prevent injuries.
Here are 4 basic exercises that you can include in your rotator cuff routines. Make sure
to use very light weights for these exercises and to execute all movements with a slow
and controlled motion. I would recommend 2 sets of each exercise with a rep range of
10-15 performed twice per week.
These pictures were provided by familydoctor.org, and if you would like further
information about this rotator cuff routine you can visit their website at
http://familydoctor.org/265.xml.
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Conclusion
Well, that wraps up this shoulder training installment, and thats everything you need to
know to develop the most muscular, powerful shoulders that you possibly can.
2 sets of overhead presses and 1-2 sets of side lateral raises.
Sound too simple? Well, believe it.
If you have any questions at all, let me know.
This is Sean Nalewanyj and thanks for watching.
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The Keys To Absolute Arm Development
Introduction
Hi guys, its Sean Nalewanyj here with another online muscle-building video lesson. In
todays lesson were going to be talking about 2 muscle groups that most trainees place
a huge amount of value on, but also severely misunderstand at the same time. Almost
everyone wants to develop these muscles to their utmost potential but instead they end
up limiting the amount of growth they can achieve by not training them in the proper
fashion.
Im talking about the arms the biceps and the triceps - 2 relatively small yet highly
valued muscle groups that we all love to train and we all love to watch grow.
The big problem is that in search of pair of thick, rock-solid arms, almost all lifters end
up overtraining and fail to realize that these small muscles only require a very limited
amount of direct stimulation in order for maximum growth to be achieved.
They perform too many exercises, too many sets and as a result they cross the point of
arm recovery and therefore limit the amount of arm development they can ultimately
achieve.
This video lesson may come as a bit of shock, but believe, if you can understand and
implement the strategies that I lay out here, youll be able to perform less work in the
gym and actually see an acceleration in your bicep and tricep growth.
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The Truth About Arm Training
The most important concept that you need to grasp when it comes to bicep and tricep
training is this
The majority of your arm growth will actually be produced as a result of your
direct chest and back training.
Let me say that again
The MAJORITY of your arm growth will actually be produced as a result of your
direct CHEST and BACK training.
Remember, compound exercises stimulate multiple muscle groups at a time and the
basic compound exercises for the chest and back place a high level of stress on the
triceps and biceps respectively.
Basic pressing exercises for your chest and shoulders (such as bench presses or
overhead presses) heavily stimulate the triceps, while basic pulling exercises for the
back (such as chin-ups and rows) heavily stress the biceps.
Even if you NEVER performed any direct isolation exercises for your arms such as bicep
curls or tricep presses, your arms would still increase in size as you continued to pack
size and strength onto your chest and back. And for these reasons, you should only
perform a very limited amount of direct arm exercises in order to make sure that you
dont overtrain them.
Well assume that you are properly training your chest and back using the advice that I
outlined in the other video lessons, and so with that out of the way, the rest of this video
lesson will focus on the very limited amount of direct bicep and tricep exercises that
youll need to perform in order to achieve optimal results.
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Directly Stimulating The Arms
As Im sure youre probably aware, the arms are made up of 2 main muscle groups, the
biceps and the triceps. The biceps make up 1/3 of your upper arm mass while the
triceps account for the other 2/3.
The biceps are directly stimulated through flexion of the elbow joint, in other words,
through curling movements. Examples include barbell curls, dumbbell curls and cable
curls. Direct bicep training is extremely simple and only requires the use of the various
types of curls.
The triceps are directly stimulated through extension of the elbow joint such as tricep
pressdowns, skull crushers, and overhead extensions, and through narrow-grip
pressing movements such as narrow-grip dips and close-grip bench presses.
Approved Arm Exercises
Lets now take a look at my list of approved arm exercises. Keep in mind that there are
an almost endless number of possible arm exercises that you could perform in the gym
using different grip variations and tools, and I couldnt possibly list all of them. That
being said, theres no need to get fancy with your arm training, and sticking to the
basics is by far the most effective and efficient route. These are in my opinion, the
absolute most effective arm exercises out there.
Biceps
- Barbell Curls (this is the most basic bicep exercise possible, and if your goal is to build
overall size then I would suggest using barbell curls as your staple bicep exercise)
- EZ-Bar Curls
- Standing Alternating Dumbbell Curls
- Seated Alternating Dumbbell Curls
- Cable Curls
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- Hammer Curls
Triceps
- Cable Pushdowns
- Skull Crushers (these can be performed with an ez-curl bar or with dumbbells)
- Overhead Extensions (again, using either an ez-curl bar or a single dumbbell)
- Close-Grip Bench Presses
- Narrow-Grip Dips
Those are the most basic, straightforward exercises for producing maximum bicep and
tricep overload. Again, there is literally an endless list of different variations and twists
that can be made on these exercises, but theres just no need to get fancy here. Sticking
to the basic, proven, straightforward arm movements is the best way to achieve
maximum stimulation and growth.
Frequency
The biceps and triceps are relatively small muscle groups and you should only directly
stimulate them once per week in order to see the best gains. A lot of guys directly train
their arms two times or more per week, and this is usually a big mistake.
You have to keep in mind that since your biceps and triceps receive heavy stimulation on
all of your chest and back exercises, its very easy to overtrain them without realizing it.
In order to truly hit your arms just once per week, its usually best to train the back and
biceps together in the same workout, and the chest and triceps together in the same
workout. This doesnt apply in every single situation but is a good general guideline to
follow.
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Sets
This is the section that might come as a bit of a shock, since youre probably used to
training your arms with something in the range of 8 total sets or more. Most people
simply perform way too many exercises and way too many sets for their biceps and
triceps. When you combine the fact that
a) the biceps and triceps are relatively small muscle groups
b) the biceps and triceps receive heavy stimulation on all chest and back training
It becomes quite clear that only a very limited amount of direct arm training is
necessary.
For this reason, I would recommend that you perform no more than 2-4 total sets for
the biceps, and 2-4 total sets for the triceps. And remember, thats total sets per
workout, NOT per exercise. As long as you take all of your sets to concentric muscular
failure, any more than 4 sets for either of these small muscle groups is just plain too
much, and I usually recommend even less.
I have no doubt what some of you are thinking
You mean I should perform just TWO or THREE direct sets for my biceps or triceps
ONCE A WEEK to see the best gains possible?
And the answer is, yes! That is absolutely correct.
Remember, successful weight training is about quality and not quantity. As long as you
take your sets to true concentric muscular failure, then 2-4 total sets per week is ideal to
stimulate your arms to grow without overtraining them.
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Reps
Nothing special here, just like Ive recommended for most of your muscle groups, the
biceps and triceps should both be stimulated using 5 to 7 reps per set. This means that
the weight should be light enough to allow for 5 full reps using proper form, but heavy
enough that you cannot complete more than 7 reps using proper form. Once you can
perform 7 reps on any given exercise, its time to increase the weight.
Bringing It All Together
Here is a basic template that you can use to structure your arm workouts.
I would suggest choosing 2 approved exercises for the biceps and 2 approved exercises
for the triceps, with each exercise consisting of 1-2 sets each.
If youve decided to train your back and biceps in the same workout as well as your
chest and triceps in the same workout, then make sure to always perform your direct
arm exercises at the end of your workouts when ALL of your back and chest training is
fully complete. If you perform direct arm movements before any of your compound back
and chest exercises, youll sacrifice the amount of weight that you can lift since your
arms will be prematurely fatigued and will become a weak link in the exercise.
Here are some sample arm routines based on this template
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2007 www.MuscleGainTruth.com - All Rights Reserved Page 47 of 40
Online Muscle-Building Video Lesson Transcripts http://www.musclegaintruth.com/
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Sample Arm Routines
Biceps
Routine #1