Chin-ups

  Chin-ups, like squats, also work several muscle groups, thereby stimulating significant overall muscle growth. To begin, grasp the chin-up bar with a palmsup grip. (You may require straps to reinforce your grip for the required number of repetitions.) Slowly begin to contract the muscles in your arms, and try to touch the bar to your lower chest when you have reached the apex of your ascent. Hold this contracted position for a two-count, and then lower yourself slowly (four seconds) back to the starting position, all the while making sure that the latissimus dorsi...

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Standing Dumbbell Curls

  This exercises are to be performed in a superset. First, to perform the standing dumbbell curls, grab a pair of dumbbells and hold them at your sides with the palms touching your upper thighs. Slowly curl both arms up until the dumbbells are at shoulder level.   Pause briefly in this fully contracted position, and then lower the dumbbells slowly, in four seconds, back to the starting position. Perform your fi rst set as a slow, controlled, warm-up set (supersetted with the next exercise), and then increase the resistance by 20 percent (give or take a couple of...

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Lying Triceps Extensions

  Lie on an exercise bench, holding a barbell (or E-Z curl bar) in both hands directly over your chest. From this position, slowly lower the resistance, in four seconds, to a point just behind your head. From this fully extended position, slowly press the resistance back up to the starting position. Just as in the preceding exercise, use your fi rst set as a slow, controlled, warm-up set, and then add approximately 20 percent more to the bar and perform two more sets (supersetted with the previous exercise) of 10 repetitio...

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Presses Behind The Neck

  Use the same form as outlined for the standing barbell press. It’s not necessary to clean the weight here; note the seated starting position in the photo as an alternative technique. Begin with a light poundage in order to warm up your entire shoulder girdle. Take a deep breath before pressing the weight up smoothly to the fully extended position of your arms, and then lower the resistance twice as slowly (four seconds) back to the starting position. Add weight to the bar (approximately 20 percent more than your warm-up weight) and perform two more sets.     You...

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Upright Barbell Rows

This is an excellent exercise for both your trapezius and deltoid (shoulder) muscles. Place your hands about six inches apart on a barbell with an overhand grip (your palms should be facing your thighs). Keeping your body straight and stationary, slowly pull the weight up to your clavicles (collar bone). Keep the barbell in close, and then slowly, in four seconds, lower it back to the starting position. Remember that your development will be accelerated if you work your muscles in both the upward and downward portions of the exercise. Repeat the movement for three sets of twelve...

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Crunches

  This exercise strongly activates your abdominal muscles, which, when fully developed, really set off a well-muscled physique. How your abs appear, or even if they appear at all, is largely due to your dietary habits (an area we will concernourselves with later). This means that no stomach exercise—repeat: no stomach exercise— will “melt” or “burn” or otherwise metamorphose bodyfat from your physique. Don’t make the mistake of thinking that if you perform sit-up after sit-up, you will in some way be ridding your abdomen of surplus adipose; that’s just not the way our species’...

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Stiff-legged dead lifts

  This movement is a tremendous overall muscle developer and is also the single most productive exercise for the muscles of the lower back, referred to as the erector spinae muscles, which, as the name implies, act to keep the spine erect.   To perform the movement properly, stand erect with your feet just under the barbell. Then, by bending your knees, grasp the barbell, with your hands a little wider apart than shoulder width and your knuckles facing front. Now slowly begin to stand erect, straightening your legs as you do so. Keep lifting the resistance...

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Standing Barbell Curls

  This exercise involves the biceps and brachialis muscles of the upper arm. The biceps, on the front of the upper arm, lies on top of the brachialis and is responsible for supinating your wrist to a palms-up position and, in conjunction with the brachialis, fl exes the elbow joint. In essence, this means that these muscles bend the arm, such as when you bring food to your mouth or hold a telephone receiver to your ear.   To perform the barbell curl, stand erect with a shoulder-width grip on the barbell and your palms facing front. Your arms should be fully...

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Bent-Over Barbell Rows

    It’s always impressive to see well-developed upper-back muscles that fan out from the waist to the shoulders, giving the body that much soughtafter V shape. One of the best upper-back exercises for developing that V shape is the bent-over barbell row. That’s because the bulk of the stress of the barbell row is appliedto the latissimus dorsi, which is the muscle responsible for the V shape. This is a large, flat muscle whose Latin root means “broad of the back.” Even though the latissimus dorsi, or lat muscles, are situated on the back, they are in effect arm muscles;...

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Standing Barbell Presses

Whenever the average person asks you, “What can you lift?” chances are the question refers to this exercise. To the uninitiated, the standing barbell press is the touchstone of physical strength, and even experienced trainees place a lot of stock in evaluating one’s strength by the performance of this exercise. Its status as an accurate gauge of individual strength is evidenced by its inclusion as one of the three Olympic lifts used in international competition. The standing barbell press is an excellent deltoid developer. It also stimulates growth in the trapezius and, during...

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Bench Presses

  Because of the number of muscle groups that come into play (triceps, pectorals, deltoids, lats, etc.), the bench press is a great upper-body exercise. The main kinesiological function of the pectorals is to draw the arms into the midline of the body—or, more technically, to adduct the arms—so the action of the arms during the performance of the bench press closely parallels the pectorals’ primary function. The bench press has its shortcomings, as you will learn further on, but for the beginner in search of overall muscle-mass increase, it’s virtually the “perfect” exercise. It...

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Pull-overs

    There’s a twofold manner to developing a massive chest: one way is to develop the pectorals with exercises that build those muscles, and the other is to expand the rib cage with stretching exercises. Thus, performing both of these types of movements enlarges the chest’s external musculature as well as its internal underpinnings. Performance of the straight-arm pullover is simple. Lie on a bench with a light barbell (or a centrally loaded dumbbell), held at arm’s length over your chest. Maintaining the arm’s-length position, slowly lower the weight until it...

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Barbell squats

  Without question, squats are the top-ranked result-producing bodybuilding exercise. If you want to pack on pounds of solid muscle weight all over your physique, then give your all to squatting properly. And certainly this is the most effective leg building exercise that one can undertake with weights. To perform the squat properly, stand erect with a barbell across your shoulders and take a deep breath. Now, with your lungs full, bend your knees and lower your body until you are in a full squat position; you should be slightly below a ninety degree angle to your...

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