Work Out Your Chest, Increase Your Squat

We all know the routines. Chest day is bench press, maybe some machines and maybe some free weights. Arms day is a lot of dumbbells and barbells. Legs day is probably squats, maybe some leg extensions or work on the leg press machines. Same routines, same exercises.

But how about working out your chest or your biceps….while you increase your squat. And no, I’m now asking you to do dumbbell curls while you squat. I’m asking you to unlock dozens of muscles throughout your body to intensify your workout and increase all of your exercises.

Everyone wants to up their bench press….but when was the last time anyone asked you:

“Hey, how much do you single leg, stiff leg deadlift?”
“How many stability ball sit ups can you do?”
“When you use the Airex pad, how many touchdowns can YOU do?”
“How many chest flyes on the stability ball can you do?”
My guess is never.

Exercises such as chest flyes on the stability ball will greatly decrease your chance of injury, improve your workouts, and yes, even improve your squat. You’re probably saying chest flyes on the stability ball is clearly for your chest and it will obviously increase your bench press…but your squat?

Working on a stability ball puts your body in an unstable environment. This will work out dozens of other muscles, meaning you can increase your squat while you do your chest flyes. These muscles you are “unlocking” are in your legs, and you are using them every time you use the stability ball….regardless if you’re doing chest presses or sit ups!

Try it. Do some flyes on the stability ball, and you will see what I mean, When you do this exercise, you will notice that you are now working out your ankle, knee and hip complex as your body tries to stabilize itself. And what muscles are major players in your squat? That’s right, your knees, ankles and hips. By putting your body in an unstable environment, you can work dozens of muscles you didn’t even think about working out.

This will literally triple your workout…and you’ll actually be decreasing your weight in a lot of cases. How is that the case? Well, when you put your body in an unstable environment, you need to slow down your reps, and that will force you to concentrate on your form.

Try doing a cable chest press on one leg, and see how slow you have to go. Since your body is unstable (and now working your legs), you can’t go as fast as you did on two feet. You might try to do the same weight and go the same speed, but you will quickly fall over and back on two feet. Eventually you will give in, decrease the weight, and triple the effectiveness of your workout.

All the other hypothetical exercises I mentioned earlier are all focused on your core, which is crucial to your physical development and overall health. Working out your core will drastically decrease your chance of injury, and in the next issue I will discuss why this is, and simple exercises that will work out your core!

Matt Elder is a certified personal trainer who offers the benefits of a personal trainer...at 1/20th the cost. Visit http://www.eldersonlinetraining.com to receive hundreds of dollars in free bonuses, and e-mail Matt at matt@elderspersonaltraining.com to receive a FREE fitness and nutrition newsletter.

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Bodybuilding - Rock Hard Abs

Abs are not only about the washboard stomachs we have grown accustom to seeing on the professional bodybuilding stage. There's a lot more to it then meets the eye. The actual anatomical make up includes the Rectus abdonomis, the external abdominal oblique muscles, serratus anterior and the internal abdominal oblique. Most of us tend to train our abs as a finishing touch on our overall appearance but we forget the main function of the abdominals. The abdominals are responsible for permitting our bodies to bend forward and back as well as to the side. Their main function is keeping our posture but they also aid in keeping our body stable when partaking in different activities and of course in both upper body and lower body lifts while bodybuilding.

By fully understanding the functions of our abdominals we can then implement effective ways of training them. As you read earlier our abdominals allow us to "flex our trunks" or in other words bend forward. The best way to effectively train them is to replicate this movement while in the gym. The reason most bodybuilders train their abs is definitely to increase the overall definition of the abs. There are a number of ways to go about obtaining this. One theory is to eliminate the fat that covers the abdominals. This can be achieved through both dieting and cardiovascular activity. Another way to help define your abdominals is to do abdominal exercises intensely with very high repetitions. The reason for this is that you don't want to add any unwanted mass to your abs. Cardiovascular conditioning is easily the most important aspect used to help a bodybuilder achieve defined abdominals. Bodybuilders use cardio as a tool to help shed unwanted fat. The key to effectively using cardio is to know exactly when to implement it into your routine. If you start doing it to early you will curtail all the gains you're desperately trying to make, but if done to late you won't have enough time to get your abdominals in the shape needed for competition. A good starting point is about 11 weeks out from your competition. This will give you enough time to cut your body fat and water retention.

The most misunderstood and under utilized tool for bodybuilders looking to obtain shredded abs is definitely dieting. I would go as far as saying that dieting alone is responsible for over 80% of a bodybuilders overall physique. If you look at it as, what you put in your body will either dictate whether your body gets bigger or smaller you'll certainly understand what I mean. The general rule of thumb is that your body needs to have 4-6 small meals that are high in protein, spaced out over a 2-3 hour span to keep your metabolism high and prevent fat storage.

As you can see, nothing I've written here could be considered rocket science but many bodybuilders don't take full advantage of this information. If you follow these simple guidelines you will achieve the washboard abs you've always dreamt of.

Michael Russell - Your Independent guide to Body Building
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