Forearms

Many of you probably have noticed that the forearms on the bigger guys are quite developed. And you probably noticed that the rest of their body is very well developed too, right? Good, now let me explain how weak forearms and wrists slow your development and how to develop them.

There are two basic rules to consistent muscle development, which are 1) Lift progressively heavier and 2) Lift with control (or good technique). You can change-up movements and exercises all you want but lifting progressively heavier is necessary to grow. Lifting heavier requires good technique not only to hit the right muscle group but also to prevent injury so you won't have any set backs that could keep you out of the gym for weeks, months or even permanently. To follow through on these two rules you need strong forearms and the key to this is training them properly.

You may have noticed that usually your forearms will give out first on the dumbbell or barbell bench-press , dumbbell-fly, pull-ups, back-rows, dead-lifts and curls. Some symptoms:

• On a Dumbbell-press, the dumbbells dip in awkwardly enough that you fear for your life
• On pull-downs, your grip breaks after a few reps making you take a rest for your fingers instead of for your lats
  
• Your wrists bend back during curls
• Your arms are burnt out before you finish your first set of back rows
  

These symptoms cause you to give up before the end of the set or go to a lower weight, which means you're not giving your chest or back a workout. Having well trained forearms gives you the ability to work out the large muscles instead of ending the sets prematurely. You don't ever want the forearms to fail before your chest or back.

Many people think that just because the first few reps are good that they are working out at the proper weight and it may be true that their back or chest are strong enough but sadly their forearms aren't. They continue to try and will even move up in weight but barely getting off 3 or 4 proper reps before getting a spotter to lift the weight for them on another 2 to 3 reps.

Strong forearms will give you the control you need to safely draw upon other muscles to get that last rep. For example, on heavy standing-curls I'll squeeze the barbell and lock my forearms while I dip slightly with my legs and drive up quickly to get the momentum to get past my sticking point. The forearms in a bicep-curl really need to be strong through every rep and especially in cheats because it keeps you from losing your grip and wasting your energy before you get a real workout. The more weight resting on the top two joints of your fingers the less grip you have...if you haven't figure it out yet, the bar should be nested half on your palm and half on the bottom joint of your fingers.

Follow these tips to train your forearms:

• Forget about doing wrist/forearm curls and save your forearms for working on big muscle groups. They will grow accordingly and still get enough rest between workouts.
• Go heavy but use a weight that causes you to struggle after rep 7 to 10 (not before)
  
• Squeeze the bar when you feel you're starting to struggle. This will enforce control in the forearms
  
• Curl your wrists slightly on pulling exercises (pull-ups, rows, etc.)
  
• Lock your wrists on pushing exercises (Benches, dips, etc.)

Strong Enough...

Have you ever heard this phrase in the gym: "Big enough to put the weights on but not big enough to take them off..."? If they were talking to you then you were probably facing some pissed off guys who are tired of cleaning up after someone before they can start their first set. Its worse when it's one of those guys who stacks on the 45lbs plates until they can't even get off 3 reps and then leaves without putting the weights away.

Imagine you're really in the groove and you go to start your warm up set...oh wait, first you have to peel two 45lbs plates off each side of the bar before you can start. There are also women who have to face this, which might be why we don't usually see many of them by the free weights section.

Be considerate and put away your weights after you finish with them.

Compound Movements vs Isolation Exercises

I'm betting that you see this scenario in the gym all the time: Average size person just starting out with weights who is doing set after set on isolation exercises such as sitting-bench curls or concentration curls for the biceps. Then they go do triceps push-downs, dumbbell kick-backs and forearm curls; set after set looking to get big arms. I bet that most of you do the same thing too but I hope you will see things differently after I explain to you why compound movements (Exercises that include more than one muscle group) are better for you.

First of all, common sense will tell you that each muscle group is supported by many muscle groups that all work together to lift that dumbbell or barbell. For example the chest (or Pec's) grows best together with a strong back and and powerful shoulders that allow you to lift much heavier weight to push your chest to it's limits. But by doing big bench presses you'll also work the back and shoulders and all the interconnecting but smaller supporting muscles in between. When all of these muscle groups work together you can lift heavier, which translates into bigger, thicker muscles. Think of it this way, the large muscle groups support the smaller muscles for growth just as much as the small muscle groups support the large ones for growth. This is how the body was designed to function and it is the best way to create proportion, which by the way is the most pleasing to the eye no matter what your size or gender.

Isolation movements are exactly that...they isolate one muscle group from the others. This reduces the amount of work overall even though you may seem to be putting in a lot of effort. But the supporting muscles aren't getting a workout and this usually causes an imbalance in your body that is dangerous when you try to do a heavy lift even when you are supposedly safe on a weight machine. Also, you have to do more isolation exercises to strengthen the other muscle groups to get the body-beautiful proportions that you're looking for. However, your muscles haven't been trained to work and grow in unison and that sleek body is now looking a little disproportionate, right? Now go try to do that isolation chest-press machine with some decent weight to grow that chest and you'll feel those shoulders creaking and crackling.

To build strength or size or both it is best to do the big exercises such as bench presses (barbell or dumbbell), squats, rows, standing barbell or dumbbell curls, dead lifts and dips. You don't have to go heavy to get a great workout with these exercises because doing them at a higher rep range will force your muscles to grow in unison as well. Use isolation exercises afterwards to burn out the muscles or to add a bit of variety if needed but you shouldn't need to if you did the compound exercises with enough intensity.

One more thing...the compound exercises burns more energy due to the number of muscles drafted to do that work. Using compound exercises burns way more calories whether you're going heavy or just toning with higher reps. So build and burn at the same time...what more could you want?

Essential things to remember for a great workout

So this being my first Blog I thought I'd start with some simple tips that make a big impact to your workouts. Follow these tips and you'll be able to "Feel" your way to a better workout.

The most important tool is your MP3 player
Contrary to popular belief, the best workouts are when you're relaxed and not hyped up by fast paced dance beats. That kind of music is good if that relaxes you but if that's not what you listen to normally then it should be left in the Aerobics classes that require faster beats for the timing of movements to keep the heart rate up. Faster beats won't do anything for you aerobically but it could make you tense, which tends to make people yank the weights instead of controlling the weights.

Your music should help you relax quickly after finishing each set. Your music could be Celine Dion or Guns N Roses and it doesn't matter as long as it's your favorite music. When you've recovered from each set you will notice that you you have the energy to complete your next set instead of fighting hard to complete it. You know that you're ready for the next set if your breathing and heart rate are "almost" back to normal...keeping a higher heart rate is good if you'd like to burn fat at the same time but you sacrifice reps and sets. Injuries happen when you haven't recovered between sets and you begin forcing reps after the point of failure.

I've been to many gyms and there's nothing worse than trying to relax to music meant for Aerobics or to a radio channel with commercials. Another side benefit is that people rarely try to chat with you once they see that you're wearing ear phones, which lets you finish your workout all the more quickly so you can get on with life.

Full Range reps and your shoulders
I used to do full range reps on every set and every rep, which is the cause of some serious shoulder injuries of mine. Whether you're doing benches, chin-ups or shoulder presses you are involving your smaller shoulder joints to 'assist' the larger muscles that you're trying to work out. This doesn't make any sense at all if you think about it because fully stretched muscles aren't at their strongest, which also applies to fully stretched supporting tissue in joints. The range of motion for reps should begin where the muscles being targeted are engaged and end before locking out the shoulder.

When I start my set, I usually bring the weight slowly to where I feel the target muscles are engaged I start my set there and never go beyond that point for the remainder of the set.

However, full range reps should be involved for light-weight warm ups doing 12 to 15 reps. Doing full range with one or two warm up sets will warm up the supporting tissue around the shoulder to get them ready to assist your larger muscles if necessary while preventing tears or impingement of the joint.

Weights vs Machines
Common sense says that weight machines are safer but is not true for most people. Weight machines are restrictive to a specific motion and are designed to focus the work on the targeted muscles while leaving out the smaller connecting muscles (not to be confused with the supporting tissue in joints mentioned above). This makes you more susceptible to injuries due to the weak supporting muscles being strained on an intense activity because you're only as strong as your weakest link. Further more, doing heavy sets on weight machines can force a lot of pressure on your joints especially if the placements for your hands are too wide for your body type, which forces your joints to work at their weakest.

If you want to seriously build a strong balanced body for sports or just to look good you'll want to build strength throughout from head to toe. How do you do this? The best way is to use free weights that engage many muscle groups at the same time because they are all connected by those very important other muscles and all work together to give you that toned body you know you've always wanted.

• Did you know that your Lats (back muscles) help your bench press from the beginning of the rep to the end? that includes all the muscles between your ribs, your abs, shoulders, triceps, forearms and biceps?
• Doing heavy bicep curls standing up instead of sitting will strengthen you entire upper body including your abs and lower back. (Some guys over do it and we call this "doing Back-curls")

Weight machines have their pro's but should be used more to relieve a boring routine or for those who are injured and recovering.

Wide-grip exercises
There is some truth to "getting a wider build" by using a wide-grip on some exercises like Lat-pull-downs because a wide grip puts the work on the upper end of the range. If you do this long enough you wind up with an upper-lat build while ignoring the lower lats and middle back muscles that makes you think you're wider. Using too wide a grip for your body can also lead to injuries...again because it puts more stress on those joints and wearing them down rep after rep after rep. Instead, change the way you think and aim to be thicker than wider. If you were meant to be wide then working out to be thicker will still make you wider but if not then you will fill out nicely anyways and reduce injuries.

• Wider equals shorter on most people but overall thickness keeps the proportions right to keep you looking fit and taller
• Thicker shoulders are strong and give you the appearance of width
• A strong well built back looks great on anyone (male or female) and burns a ton of energy even when you're just sitting in front of the TV

Take care of your back
Almost everyone I've known who has hurt their back inside or outside of the gym didn't know it was their Sciatic Nerve and how they did it (for some it is a pinched nerve or a bulging disc but i will cover that later). When you injure or strain the Sciatic Nerve the resulting inflamation causes the muscles around the Sciatic Nerve to pull together to protect the body from further damage. This prevents you from moving without extreme pain because now every movement is pulling or trying to stretch that injured nerve. I've done some serious damage to myself until I finally went to a physiotherapist who explained to me why I couldn't walk, sit or drive for weeks.

There is an easy remedy for this in the gym...keep your head up! By doing this you keep from stretching the sciatic nerve that goes down your spine to your legs all the way to your toes. Any time your head bends forward you begin to stretch the Sciatic Nerve. Looking down while doing a set of squats or dead-lifts could be your last set for a long time...

• Keep your head up by looking no lower than your hips in the mirror or by looking straight ahead
• You can round your back on a heavy set to put more gravity on your upper/middle back but keep your head up...this also keeps your spine flat while your shoulder does the "rounding"
• keep your head up on both heavy and light workouts to ensure you make this a habit. Sometimes its easy to slip on this rule when you're tired

Like a sprained ankle, the sprain on the Sciatic Nerve makes it easier to re-injure again. Take care of your back...