Author: rxbodybuilders
So you’re going to be entering the military? Congratulations on your decision to serve your country and put your future on a very bright course. However, there remains work to be done. Before you are handed your uniform, tank keys, and orders, you will have to hone your body from a soft, sedentary blob into a lean, mean, fighting machine. Boot camp will be six weeks of torture – running, pull-ups, obstacle courses and drills – and you are not quite sure your body is ready for it. Okay, let’s be honest – you are NOT ready for it. Nobody…
Before we begin it is important to start with a brief introduction to the leg muscle anatomy. This is vital because without the details of the specific muscles you want to exercise on, you may easily get discouraged if you do not get the results you hoped for. This will help you training to target the appropriate muscle groups and hence lead to positive results. The success of any body builder is governed by how well he knows where the various muscles in his body are located. This is a requirement if you want to develop good muscle tone. We…
In many aspects of life, there is always a magic number. Two’s company, three’s a crowd. A dozen of anything seems to feel a family with no problem. In bodybuilding, 75 is the magic number when it comes to the amount of minutes you should be spending in the gym in order to deliver a maximum effort workout. Not 70. not 80. Your goal is to train seventy-five minutes, every time. Nothing more, nothing less. Less than that can result in your muscles not receiving adequate stimulation, and more than that can lead to overtraining. Let’s look at how that…
Before I ever started training or doing cardio, I told myself, “the harder you work, the better the result.” Makes sense, right? Well, then someone told me, “No, actually, when it comes to aerobic work, you’ll want to do longer duration, less intense exercise for the greatest fat burning.” It took awhile to buy that, but then I did – for years. So there I was, doing low intensity, hour long workouts on a treadmill, thinking I was burning adequate fat. Truth was, I was dieting hard enough that the fallibility of that theory didn’t show itself. But the other…
Upright rows are a movement which are embraced by some, and condemned by others. Some trainers and bodybuilders believe the movement is just plain awkward and causes injury. Others, most notably Bob Paris, owner of some serious cannonball deltoids in the mid-80s, believe they are essential for complete development. They hit the muscles of the shoulder like no other exercise, and are essential, they feel. A third group believes they are useful in a limited capacity in pre-contest training, when the shoulders cannot handle their normal training workload. Let’s take a look at each argument, and discuss the validity of…
Q: What do you think about combining chest and back in a superset? I hear that it should be a large body part like back and biceps, or within one body part, such as legs. What are the upsides and downsides of doing it either way? A: There are no upsides and downsides, per se, because training has no right or wrong answers beyond flat out “overtraining” and “training with poor form”. I personally feel that combining large body parts means that something has to give. But it depends on what you want out of it, how often you do…
Q: I am starting college football in the fall at University of Oregon and I know that I will have access to the best strength and training coaches. But I want to go in a little stronger than I might otherwise just coming off summer vacation. I want to be a superstar in the first weeks and really get noticed. Any suggestions? A: Well, first off, I don’t think that you should have the superstar mentality going in – it’s a sure way to get hurt. I do think you can do things like boost your cardio a bit, train…
Q: Okay, I have some crazy abs – everyone says so. My abs are like ledges on a cliff face. That is, in the upper region. My lower abs are, in a word, nonexistent. Do you have recommendations for exercises I can do to thicken my lower abdominal wall? A: Remember that abs are a crapshoot – you either have great shape underneath it all or you don’t. In your case, your upper abs are very well developed – both from resistance and workouts, and from genetics. But your lower abs may truly lack genetics for thickness. Some bodybuilders have…
Q: I want to supplement with a calcium product, but don’t know which to use. I am also unsure as to what the ratio of calicum to magnesium ought to be. What is the rule here? A: The correct calcium to magnesium ratio is always 2:1. Magnesium is always needed in any calcium supplementation because it helps the body absorb calcium at optimum levels. But Vitamin D and potassium also help the body absorb calcium at the gut level, so they are important in factoring in how your body will “actually” take in the calcium supplements you give it. What…
For many body parts, attaining a pump is the key to muscle growth. If you are able to flush blood into the region, you are able to create growth. Picture the abs, or the forearms, or the shoulders. High-repetition routines with low weights tend to cut these muscle groups right up, and deliver some sparkling muscularity. For other body parts, using heavy weight is an absolute must. You can do leg extensions for ten years, but you’ll never develop massive quads without doing squats and leg presses. You can do cable crossovers until you’re blue in the face. But until…