Some say the squat is the king of all leg exercises. They even go as far as saying that if you don’t squat, your chances of building big, strong legs are next to impossible. And there are others who even take it one step further, claiming the squat is the best overall exercise there is period, and no routine should be without one.

Yes, I agree that the squat is unquestionably a very productive exercise in that it works a large number of major muscle groups. More so than any other exercise, however, it is not essential to do the barbell squat in order to get muscular and strong legs. More-over, for some the pain caused by injuries or anatomy makes this exercise very uncomfortable and unproductive. For instance, those who have very long legs and short torsos have trouble doing squats due to bad bio-mechanics. Some people need alternatives, but, for this Exercise of the Month article I focus on how to perform the barbell squat properly and show how to change what muscles are emphasized.

In my recently rewritten article “A no-nonsense guide to design your workouts“, which is a three-part series, I offer no BS ways for beginners and veterans alike to keep their workouts fresh while consistently making gains.

Everywhere you turn these days, weight training seems to be the focus. And why shouldn’t it be? A proper weight training program produces many positive effects, including: increased muscle mass; reduced body fat; increased bone density; improved insulin sensitivity; improved self-esteem; and overall well-being. The list goes on. Yet with all the information available, why is it so hard for people to make progress? Because most of what is out there is BULLSHIT!!

Helping people is what being a trainer and a coach is all about. Most publishers and editors are so hell-bent on selling magazines, they print things like this: “Put 2 inches on your arms in 21 days;” “Have a chest like Arnold’s in just 6 weeks.” People, just like you, purchase this type of trash in the hopes that it might work. These writers and editors rely on your ignorance.

Having the knowledge and ability to help somebody achieve their goals goes far beyond writing an article about workouts. Writing workouts is actually a pretty easy thing to do. Just about anyone with a little bit of knowledge can do it, and many – unfortunately — do. The barriers to entry to become a personal trainer are so low, most certificates aren’t worth the paper they’re written on. In contrast, look at the barriers to entry to become a nurse. Several years of school filled with prerequisites, in which you need a 78 percent just to pass, coupled with many hours of hands-on clinicals. What education does a trainer need? Send away for some study guides, take a test, and “Bam!” you’re a certified trainer.

In my Q&A column posted in January, I discuss the NCAA legality of Tribex and Hardcore ZMA and drug tests, whether or not kids and teens will stunt their growth if they lift weights and use creatine supplements, and I share some fan mail from a wellness chiropractor.

Q: Mike
Nice job on the recent health article. I’m a wellness chiropractor and I’m always looking for ways to communicate ideas of health to people. I never in my life thought I would use Bullz-eye.com as a professional reference, but you did a bang up job writing in simple, but not watered down language.
Do you have links to some of your other works? And, do you have a good form of your recent article that I can hand out (I’d rather not direct conservative clients to bullz-eye.com’s bikini page for nutritional advice. That said, what you wrote needs to get out everywhere in America!

Evan

(Dr. Hughes)
Concord Family Chiropractic

A: DR. Hughes
Thanks so much for your kind words. I understand as a business owner not wanting to offend any clients. Being considerate and service oriented is lacking in for too many businesses. I am glad to hear that there are some people out there as considerate as you. However, I do feel Bullz-eye.com’s “bikini” features are very tasteful. Offensive, risqué content, which I understand is subjective, is something Bullz-eye.com’s partners have always wanted to stay away from.

I appreciate you taking the time to visit B-E.com and reading my articles. I’m attaching several articles you can use as hand outs.

Mike

The question, “What’s best workout for building strength and muscle?” has been the subject of heated debates for years.  My answer is always the same.  There is no one workout that is the best.  There is no one workout that works for all.  However, there are training principles that do apply to everybody.

Anatomically and physiologically we are identical.  A bicep is a bicep and has the exact same function from person to person.  An aorta is an aorta.  Our anatomical structures may have different shapes and sizes, but they all function the same.  This holds true for all tissues in our bodies from blood to hormones.  If this weren’t true medicine could not exist.  How could an anesthesiologist do his job if everybody were different?

Therefore, in order to get bigger, stronger muscles the same stimulus is needed.  That stimulus is short, intense training sessions.  Why short?  Because we have known for centuries the body can either train long or train hard.  A perfect example is to compare distance runners to sprinters.  Because of the types of training, one is emaciated looking and one is muscular.  Remember you can not sprint a mile.  Is it difficult to run a mile, yes?  But it is essentially impossible to run a mile with 100% intensity.

The other factor one needs to take into consideration for building bigger, stronger muscles is recovery.  How much or how often can you train?  Or better yet, how much “should” you train?  Here is where the differences in genetics lie.  Our muscles need the exact same stimulus in order to cause a chain of events that forces them to adapt by making bigger stronger muscles.  However, the rate at which we are able to recover from these intense bouts is as different as the shapes and sizes of our bodies.

So what are you to do?  If you’re training using the typical muscle building routine, which is 3 or more working sets per exercise and 4 or more sessions a week, and not getting anywhere, change it.  First, reduce your sets per exercise by half and only train each body part once a week.  If you still don’t make gains or you plateau after a short while, reduce your sets again.  Remember, if you’re training with 100% intensity and you’re not making gains, you’re not recovering.

More is only better when it comes to sex and money.        

Purpose:  These machines are designed to isolate the muscles that spread the legs apart and bring them together.

Pros:  The machines allow you to feel the burn in the targeted areas.

Cons:  Despite the perception (mostly among womem) that these machines “tone” flabby thighs, they don’t actually apply enough resistance to burn many calories.  Because they don’t allow the legs to stabilize a load like squats or lunges, the abductor and adductor don’t build much strength or muscle.  Plus opening and closing your legs in a public gym is just asking for trouble.

Verdict:  Bad.  “If you want strong, athletic looking legs,” says Jason Ferruggia, an MF training advisor, “you need to squat, lunges and deadlift.”  Those simple movements will train the thighs’ inner and outer areas much more efficiently and without comprimising your manhood.

Men’s Fitness March 2008

Amazingly these machines are still in many fitness centers and gyms. It isn’t bad enough that women are still using these contraptions, but amazingly I also see men using these useless machines. Why? outside of shear laziness and ignorance, I haven’t a clue. The adductors and abductors are worked to a much higher degree by performing multi-joint lower leg exercises like the squat and it’s variations.

There is no such thing as a free lunch. Working legs properly, like anything that yields good results, takes effort. If you can talk while you’re performing a set, go home. Start taking your sets to the point at which you start breathing hard and feeling a deep burn in order to get the gains you want

A highly overlooked, but very useful tool for progressive resistance training is – Tempo. I will even go one step further and call tempo an essential tool for attaining optimum results from weight training. Yes, it’s true one can attain results performing reps just like every other hack in the gym, but I’m talking about optimum results.

If you’re going to spend the time in the gym, why not get the most out of it. The biggest reason most people who weight train don’t use tools like tempo is shear laziness. Performing a set to momentary failure, to the point where you can’t possibly get another rep is grueling. Few people have what it takes to train correctly, achieving 100% intensity. Hence, the legions of frustrated people in gyms across the US. Like any endeavor, doing your best takes hard work, focus and dedication.

So what is tempo? Tempo goes hand in hand with “time under tension” or TUT. TUT is simply the amount of time a muscle in under tension. To develop the optimum amount of muscle in the shortest amount of time, a set should last between 20 and 60 seconds.

Tempo is the speed of your reps. It is expressed and recorded by three or four digit numbers representing the seconds required to complete a rep. Example: 402 (four, zero, two) or 50X0 (five, zero, explosive, zero). Using the bench press, the first digit is the speed in which the weight is lowered (negative). The second digit is the amount of time one pauses once they’ve reached their chest. The third digit is the amount of time one takes to raise the weight (positive). The forth digit, if used, is the amount of time one takes before lowering the weight again. If an “X” is used, it means explosive, or as fast as possible.

Designing Your Workouts

Is it really necessary to count each rep in order to build strength and muscle? No. Is it necessary to lift under control and to vary your speeds to get the best most rapid gains per your genetics? Yes. When you perform an exercise under control, the muscles are truly doing the work. “Slower”, not “slow” speeds make the muscles work harder by eliminating momentum and bouncing. There’s nothing impressive about performing a bench press by allowing the weight to drop, bounce off your chest and then barely being able to complete the lift.

If tempo is used properly, the target muscle group is truly performing the exercise. Tempo forces one to lift in a very controlled manner, but like any training tool it should be used as an adjunct to your weight training program.

Bending over to pick something up can be a very dangerous move if done with a rounded back. Most people in their lifetime will have an injury to the lower back. One way to help prevent such injuries is to do the good morning.

Performing the good morning is an excellent choice for strengthening and building the posterior chain, which includes the lower back, glutes and hamstrings. The glutes (butt) and the hamstrings are responsible for hip extension while the muscles of the lower back (erector spinea) are contracted statically.

Because of the large degree of hip flexion, the gluteus maximus and the hamstrings are utilized throughout the movement. The glutes work in unison with the hamstring to extend the hips in the concentric (raising) part of the movement. The hamstrings, located on the back of the upper thigh, become more involved as you begin to decrease the degree of hip flexion while raising the weight. The erector spinea, which run the length of your spine on both sides, are statically contracted throughout most of the movement, keeping the normal curvature of the spine. A static contraction of the rhomboids and the trapezius muscles help maintain the shoulders.

Extension of the body occurs when the upper body, torso and pelvis rotate up and back. The biggest mistake I see with this movement is allowing the back to “round” and magnifying the kyphotic (upper back) curvature while de-emphasizing the lordotic (lower back) curvature. I need to add that a slight curve of the upper back will present no danger and will happen to most while using heavy weight, but if you look like a big question mark (?) while performing the exercise, that’s a different story.

The good morning

I am not a huge fan of using partial reps, but will use them sparingly with experienced lifters to “through a wrench into their workout”. When I prescribe them they are performed after the client has already reached momentary concentric failure during a set. But, because partial reps place such high demands on the recovery ability of the muscles being worked, I caution against using them more than once every 4 workouts per body part. In reference to this belief, I received an email from an intermediate lifter claiming a study (J Strength Cond Res, 2004, 18(3), 518-521) proved partial reps should be incorporated in his workout instead of full range reps.?

I did a little research, as always, and found the study the gentleman was referencing. This study was conducted over a 10-week period using the bench press as the criterion measurement. Subjects were divided into three groups. Group one trained with full range of motion sets. Group two trained with partial range of motion sets. A partial range of motion was defined as two to five inches from full extension of the elbows. Group three trained with a combination of both partial and full range reps. All groups were pre and post-tested with a full range of motion one rep maximum. No differences were found between the groups. So should we or shouldn’t we use partial reps?

There are several problems I find with this study that are common to many studies trying to illuminate the most efficacious training principles. First, and perhaps most important, inexperienced, recreational subjects were used. Inexperienced subjects can achieve gains in the first few months on just about any program. Second, the length of time the study was conducted was entirely too short. six, eight or, like this study, 10 weeks is just not enough time to show the efficacy of a particular training protocol. And third, the intensity of the exercises or perceived exertion is not mentioned or monitored. Are the subjects going to failure on their sets? Are some subjects pushing themselves harder than others? Are the subjects training in the same manner on exercises other than the bench press? This study like most training studies shows nothing.

Like a great set of developed arms, a well developed chest always gets attention.  Chest and arms are the most frequently worked body parts in any gym across the country.  You never hear of anyone skipping a chest workout to do legs, but frequently hear people skipping their leg workout.  Most of this is due to shear laziness, but some is because chest is much more fun to work.

In their quest for an “Arnold like” chest many people look for that one exercise or that one workout that, like magic, will give them the chest they want.  Unfortunately, genetics, as with all body parts, determines the size and shape of ones chest.  This doesn’t mean, however, that one can’t improve upon what they have.

Do not get caught up in the game of trying to make your muscles look a certain way.  You will consistently be disappointed.  Instead concentrate on making the best of what you’ve got.  You can do this by hitting the chest from a variety of angles.  It is also imperative you “feel” the muscle being worked.  Concentrating on feeling your chest work is as important as performing the exercises. And last, using TEMPO to increase muscle tension is essential and will help to improve your concentration level. 

Learn more about these and other guidelines to build Perfect Pecs.

These days it’s becoming common practice to start sports earlier and earlier in a child’s life. Soccer is no exception. In the United States the popularity of soccer has exploded along with strength and conditioning camps focusing on sport specific programs. Unfortunately many coaches do not train their players correctly because they do not look at the metabolic demands of the sport.

Research on soccer players has shown, to the surprise of many, anaerobic as well as aerobic power are prerequisites to success. More-over, it’s been reported that 96% of the sprints in a soccer game are shorter than 30m, and 49% are shorter than 10m. It’s becomes obvious that strength and power are important aspects of a player’s development. As soccer becomes more competitive, becoming faster and stronger to get to the ball before your opponent by jumping or sprinting is becoming more important. As a strength coach the question is, how do we develop a player to their optimum ability?

A study by Chelly et al recently reported the effects of a back squat training program on leg power, jump performance, and field performance in junior soccer players. Twenty two male soccer players were divided into two groups a resistance training group (RTG) and a control group (CG). Both groups completed tests before the start of the program and after 2 months of strength training twice per week with heavy loads (80 – 100% 1RM). The tests included a force velocity test to evaluate power, 3 jump tests, a 40m dash, and a 1 RM back half squat. (J Strength Cond Res 2009;23(8):2241-2249)

No significant changes were noted in leg or thigh muscle volume after the 2 month training period between the 2 groups. However, the RTG showed significant improvement over the CG in leg cycling power, jumping and sprinting. This is another example of the value in sticking to the basics. Too many coaches try to reinvent the wheel while training their athletes. There is no need or value in complicated, high volume strength training programs. KISS, Keep It Simple Stupid and train according to the athletes needs