Shoulders That Will Look Like Boulders  

When somebody mentions their shoulder muscles, which specific muscles do you think of?  Well if you thought of the deltoids then you are right. according to Schuler and Mejia, “The three parts of the deltoid are the anterior the middle and the posterior” (13), all of which have different roles. According to Schuler and Mejia, “The anterior deltoid raises your arm in front of you, the middle deltoid raises your arm to the side and the posterior deltoid draws your arm backwards” (13).

The shoulders are weak muscles and most people can only lift lighter weights.  When I started exercising, I stayed in the ten to fifteen-pound range on all my shoulder exercises, from the lateral raises, to front plate raises, military press, and many more exercises. With proper exercise and form, I was able to increase my weight by about 5-pounds every two weeks.

Your shoulders are also very sensitive because of the rotators. This could cause people with very sensitive shoulders or previous shoulder injuries to not be able to workout the deltoids. Exercises like behind the head shoulder presses and rocky presses may cause intense pain for those with preexisting shoulder injuries. But if you’re someone like me with no injuries, the behind the head shoulder press and the rocky press are great exercises that you can do to round out those shoulders.

The rocky press is a combined exercise of both the military press and behind the head shoulder press. The behind the head shoulder press is a great exercise to strengthen the anterior deltoids, whereas the military press works all three of these muscles. Other exercises for the posterior include dumbbell bent over rows, dumbbell lateral raises, and rear deltoid raises.

Finally, some great exercises for the middle deltoid include the upright row, both barbell and dumbbell, and the Arnold press. So, if you’re looking for muscular, rounded shoulders, then look no further, incorporate these exercises into your workout and round out those shoulders. So, what is holding you back from getting the shoulders that you deserve?

Top Two Leg Workouts Sure to Get Your Legs Ready for Summer 

Spring is here and it is time to get those legs ready for some additional action.  If you want to get your legs in shape to show them off in your bikini or summer shorts, the workouts I outline will help.  Not only will you look good, but you will feel good.  You are sure to burn lots of calories and increase your strength – just in time.  I have found that legs are some of the most difficult muscles to train next to the back muscles, but with some proper technique and the right exercises, you will look good. 

Before I explain the exercises that will help, we need to cover the anatomy of the legs.  One of the most useful muscle groups in the body, the legs support parts of the rest of your body and help you to walk, run, ride a bike, ski, and many other fun activities.  There are several families of muscles including the major ones such as the quads (front upper thigh), gastrocs(calf muscles), the hammis (hamstrings), and the gluts (butt muscles).  Of course, there are several lesser-known muscles that provide secondary support including big-name muscles like vastus medialis and tibialis anterior. Your hammis are the main muscle that is used to bring your ankle all the way to your buttocks (Schuler and Mejia 16). While your quads extend your leg from a bent position (Schuler and Mejia 16).

Leg presses are a great exercise to develop your quadriceps, but they isolate the rectus femoris.  Like other exercises, switching your grip, hand, or body position, you will change the muscle(s) that you work (isolate). So, when I do leg presses, I start with my feet shoulder-width apart, feet parallel to each other.  I then move my feet shoulder width apart, with my feet facing outward.  I spread my legs apart and push the weighted press forward slowly until my legs are almost fully extended.  When I have reached a good stopping point, I slowly reduce the tension and return the weighted press to the starting position.  This exercise works all four groups of muscles (gluts, quads, hammis, and gastrocs).

Squats are a very common exercise that will produce results and help you show off the lower part of your body this spring.  Doing four sets of ten repetitions each is all it takes.  Just be careful.  Common failures associated with squats include poor form (leaning too far forward) and not dipping low enough during each repetition.  When I do squats, I stand with my legs shoulder-width apart.  I hold two weights at each side of my body and squat my legs.  I keep my back as straight as possible to maintain proper form and dip down approximately to a seated position.  I then lift back up to a standing position and repeat the exercise between eight and ten repetitions. 

So, if you want some great legs for this spring and summer, I highly recommend these exercises.

Pushups Made Easy With These Two Exercises

There was a time when completing 20 pushups used to be an issue for me. Sometimes, doing 10 would make me feel gassed. I decided to research and experiment with different exercises that would help strengthen and also work the different parts of my chest. Here’s what I came up with.

            The chest is split into two heads. You have the pectoralis major and the minor. According to Schuler and Mejia, “The pectoralis’s main duty is to bring your upper arm inward across your body in a motion called horizontal abduction” (12).  However, if you were to take a deeper look into the pectoralis major, you would be able to see there are three sections to it. You have the upper, medial and the lower pectoralis major. In order to strengthen them you have to do many different exercises from leaning forward dips (lower pectoralis) to incline (upper) and flat (medial) barbell or dumbbell bench press.

Exercises:

Bench Press (flat and incline)

The most conventional chest exercise in the world is the bench press. It seems like it could be an easy exercise to do, right? You just bring your dumbbell or barbell down to your chest and repeat the exercise multiple times. Most people don’t realize that doing this could be set them up for injury or use the wrong muscle group for the bench press.

Here are the steps to doing a proper bench press:

1.     For the exercise, you will use a barbell.

2.     Before lifting the barbell off of the rack, adjust your bench to where your eyes are perpendicular to the barbell. Now, place your hands a few inches past shoulder-width apart. While doing this, maintain a slight arch in your back. 

3.     Lift the barbell off of the rack.

4.     Squeeze you shoulder blade together as hard as you can. Maintain this throughout the repetition. This may be something you want to practice. Once you master the exercise, your strength will improve (Schuler and Mejia 122).

5.     Now, bring the barbell approximately one-inch above your diaphragm.

6.     While maintaining your shoulders squeezed together, push the barbell up where the barbell is perpendicular to your body.

7.     Repeat steps 4-6 10 times. 

8.     Rack your barbell.

Here are the steps to doing a proper incline bench press (many of the steps are the same as the flat bench press):

1.     Before lifting the barbell off of the rack, adjust your bench to where your eyes are perpendicular to the barbell. Now place your hands approximately 3 inches past shoulder width apart. While doing this, maintain a slight arch in your back.

2.     Lift the barbell off of the rack.

9.     Squeeze you shoulder blade together as hard as you can. Maintain this throughout the repetition. This may be something you want to practice. Once you master the exercise, your strength will improve (Schuler and Mejia 122).

3.     Bring the barbell to the middle of your chest.

4.     While maintaining your shoulders squeezed together, push the barbell perpendicular to your body.

5.     Repeat steps 4-6 ten times. 

6.     Rack your barbell.

Why worry about doing as many pushups as possible now that you have the opportunity to see your true strength? See really how strong or weak your pectoralis muscles are, maintain extreme focus on these muscles, and see the progression from weak to strong, then strong to stronger.

One Arm Dumbbell row

One-Arm dumbbell row/row bent-over dumbbell row

One of the parts of our body that needs the most attention is our back. The back is important because it holds our entire bodies together as well as contains our nerves which are what allow us to move. Because of this I like to make sure my back is in tip top shape by doing the one arm dumbbell row. As seen on page 78 the one arm dumbbell row uses several different muscles including the latissimus dorsi, teres major and minor and the deltoid. These muscles are what controls our range of motion and allows your back to twist from side to side. These are important because without them your back becomes weaker and your day to day life become more difficult. This is also a really good exercise because it strengthens it while it doesn’t have a high risk of hurting your back while most other back exercises do. This is shown on page 79 when Moran says: “This is a traditional exercise for beginners and experts alike and it allows you to lift considerable weight with little risk on your back” (79). This shows how it’s a good exercise for beginners as well because with the lessened chance of being hurt they are able to feel more comfortable with working out. Especially if they are new to working out and are looking for quick and simple exercises to help them get into a new routine. This is a good exercise for all people who work out too because they are able to add more weight if need be which helps to build the muscles up slowly without straining them or damaging them in some way. Do you agree that your back is a very important to have be strong?

Moran Oscar. Muscle Exercises Encyclopedia. Cape town: Meyer & Meyer Sport, 2012. Print.

Lying neck flexion

Lying neck flexion

One part of the body that many people don’t realize its importance and how much we use it is our neck. Our necks hold up our head which is the most important part of our body and for some reason we forget that our necks also have muscles. A good exercise for strengthening said muscles is the lying neck rotation. As seen on page 136-137 this is an easy exercise to carry out. The book shows an image of someone lying down on a bench and raising their heads up and down off the edge of the bench. The muscles used in this exercise are the sadomasochistic, and the scalene. These are the back as well as side parts of your neck. I like using this exercise after I sleep wrong and I have a crick in my neck to help use and then relax those muscles to make it go away after a bit instead of being stuck with it for the rest of the day like most people do. Because of this I think it is very applicable to everyone and only takes a few minutes which in the morning, we need all the time we can get. However, in the rush make sure that you don’t make the common mistakes listed on page 136 which is as follows: “Common mistakes: using too much weight, doing the exercise to fast and having a range of motion that is too long” (Moran 136). By avoiding these you won’t risk hurting your neck further. This is an exercise I enjoy doing because it helps me out when my neck is hurt in some way but it won’t put so much strain on it to help fix it like some exercises might. In conclusion, do you see yourself using this to help when your neck isn’t feeling well?

Moran Oscar. Muscle Exercises Encyclopedia. Cape town: Meyer & Meyer Sport, 2012. Print. 

Push It Up

Further throughout my reading of Muscle Exercises Encyclopedia I have continued to learn about the different parts of the body and how they work together throughout not only your daily activities but also your workout routine. On page 46 and 47 it shows an easy way of "pumping up" your pectorals which is by doing push ups. It demonstrates proper techniques for doing a push up. A push up is a quick and easy exercise because you don’t need any special equipment for it. It is also good because you are able to do as many as you can and push your limits to what your body can handle. The muscles used for this exercise is pectorals major, triceps and deltoids. As seen again on page 46-47 there are also ways to hurt yourself so you need to make sure to follow proper technique. Moran shows how to avoid injury by saying “lay on the floor with your feet together and your hands shoulder width apart. Push up and then come back down until your chest touches the ground then come back up, repeat until you cannot go any longer” (47). By saying this he shows how to avoid getting hurt as well as showing other techniques to effectively carry out this particular exercise. One of the other techniques that Moran shows is to instead of doing this form against the floor you can also do it against a wall. This is useful for beginners because you aren’t trying to push your entire weight, you can angle yourself up against the wall so you are leaning more or less of your weight depending on how much you can lift at that time. Another way to modify this exercise is to put your feet up on a chair. If you feel as if this exercise is too easy for you and you are getting bored with it, if you put your feet up on a chair it makes it so you are using slightly different muscles which will make it a more challenging exercise. Finally, do you think having different variations on this exercise is an effective way to build up you muscles? Why or why not?

 start in this pose. As seen here my feet are close together and my arms are shoulder width apart.

 Sink down into this pose to complete one singular push up, my arms are bent 90 degrees and I'm far enough down for what The Muscle Encyclopedia says I should be. 

Moran Oscar. Muscle Exercises Encyclopedia. Cape town: Meyer & Meyer Sport, 2012. Print. 

Get your core going

Continuing my reading of Muscle Exercises Encyclopedia, I have continued to learn all sorts of things about the body but lately have been more focused on my abdomen and lower back and how to build and enhance that part of my body. An example of this is on page 278 where the author talks about how to do lying leg raises and how much that helps your entire abdomen (rectus abdominis, external and internal oblique’s, transverse abdominal, and iliopsoas) as opposed to just the lower or upper parts of your abdomen (Moran 278). This is a great exercise because you don't need to have any special equipment and you can do it basically and time that you feel inclined to do so. However, there are a few important things you want to note that you are doing correctly in these poses. On page 279 Moran says "Common mistakes: short movements using jerking motions to gain momentum and bounce raising the hips too far so that you are resting only on your shoulders and gaining momentum by flexing and extending the legs" (Moran 279). These things could lead to possible neck and shoulder injuries as well as just not getting the full affects and results of this exercise. Because of Moran I have now expanded my horizons and feel much better doing my other exercises because I have a much stronger core. He has shown me how to strengthen my core without needing a bunch of different machines and equipment and now i have an exercise i can do where ever and whenever i want which will help me to make sure that i actually am working out my core more than i have been. Having a strong core is vital because it helps with all aspects of not only sports and weigh training but also in daily activities. Do you see yourself using this exercise as part of your normal workout, why or why not? 

 In this picture i am in the starting position where my hands are flat under me to provide support so that I can start doing the lift.

In this picture I am demonstrating what the lift looks like when you are fully extended and as explained earlier this is a good lift because it activates and helps to strengthen all parts of your core. 

Moran Oscar. Muscle Exercises Encyclopedia. Cape town: Meyer & Meyer Sport, 2012. Print.    

lunging around

Throughout my reading of Muscle Exercises Encyclopedia, I have learned quite a bit about all of the different muscles of the body and how to lift and do different exercises to enhance their capabilities. One area I have been spending a lot of time on is the different leg exercises. For example, on page 226 they talk about how to properly do the lunge such as the different techniques, common mistakes not to do when lunging and comments from professional instructors on things to make this exercise a little easier. Another example is when it says "Common mistakes: Bringing your knee further forward than your foot, arching your back as you lower your torso, bounding and not lowering your torso enough (Moran 227). Throughout this page about doing the lunge I can see that the main muscles being used are the quadriceps, gluteus maximus, and adductors. Looking back on page 223 we can also see how Moran is talking about how we need to use all of these different muscles in our day to day lives as such as for walking, running, driving to all of the in-between. This leads me to feel like these are very important muscles to be working out and building up because they are the things that make us mobile and without having strong legs, especially quadriceps that could limit our mobility as well as not inspire us to get and then stay in shape. Because of Moran I now have better knowledge on how to further gain muscle in my legs while doing so in a proper and safe manner; as seen in this picture of me practicing the illustration that is shown on page 226 I am demonstrating proper and safe techniques to successfully do this lift. In conclusion, in my personal opinion I think that your legs are the most important things to be in-shape and to be strong on your body, do you agree? 

Moran Oscar. Muscle Exercises Encyclopedia. Cape town: Meyer & Meyer Sport, 2012. Print.

Wrist Extension

The wrist extension is a very simple exercise that isolates your forearms. First sit on a bench and lean forward with a dumbbell in your hand and rest your elbow and forearm on your thigh palm facing down. "Using your forearm muscles, raise the raise the bar by extending your wrist to as high a position as possible" (220). You this as often as you like varying weight to achieve different weightlifting goals. This exercise creates stronger arms and bigger arms depending on how much weight you lift?

Bompa, Tudor, Mauro Di Pasquale, and Lorenzo Cornacchia. Serious Strength Training. 3rd ed. N.p.: Human Kinetics, 2013. Print.

Leg Press

This is by far my favorite workout. I'm not really sure why I like it so much but I do it as often as I can. During this workout you sit in a machine with a set range pf motion to work specific muscles groups. in the case of the leg press these muscle groups are the quadriceps, hamstrings , and gluteus maximus. This lift requires very little movement and can usually be done with large amount of weight if the user is physically able. on this machine i can lift 1000 lbs which is about 20 45lbs plates plus the initial 100 pound resistance. Release the weight and bend your knees to 110 degrees. "When your knees have reached [110] degrees, slowly straighten your legs to return to the starting position" (149). Now that you know this information, how much do you plan to leg press?

Bompa, Tudor, Mauro Di Pasquale, and Lorenzo Cornacchia. Serious Strength Training. 3rd ed. N.p.: Human Kinetics, 2013. Print.

Preacher Curls

This particular workout is probably the favorite of many
people that go to the gym. It involves biceps and lifting heavy things. Men always one large biceps to impress the ladies or other men, if they are into that. But this workout allows me to get the maximum workout for my arms. The preacher curl is when you sit on a bench and there is a chunk of padding in front of you to hang your arms over. You can use a barbell, dumbbells or a machine to complete this workout. Then, pull you selected weights up to your face. "Your triceps always maintain direct surface of preacher bench" (203). Isolate your biceps to get the maximum effect from the workout. How much weight can you curl?

Bompa, Tudor, Mauro Di Pasquale, and Lorenzo Cornacchia. Serious Strength Training. 3rd ed. N.p.: Human Kinetics, 2013. Print.

Military Press

The military press is not a very well known lift but it is one of my favorites. You start sitting on a char with a barbell over your head. You grab the bar and lower it to you shoulders behind your head or to your chest in front of your head. This exercise works both your deltoids and trapezius. I like this workout because it strengthens my shoulder and makes them larger.

This workout allows me to have a full range of motion in my shoulders and also have strong shoulders to reduce the risk of injury while I play sports. Have you done the military press.

Do You Even Lift?

By Ken Newlon

Many people think that weight lifting is a stupid hobby that requires zero brains and all bronze. That’s is not the case. Weight lifting requires constant concentration and technique. If you mess up for one second it can cause permanent damage to your body. On the squat rack, I am carrying upwards of 325lbs. on my shoulders and if I mess up, I could possibly become paralyzed. I have to focus on what I’m doing and use good technique so that I get stronger and walk out of there alive.

I have been lifting for 2 years and I have realized that technique is one of the most important aspects of what I do. On the bench press there are many different grip and weights I can use to strengthen different muscles. Typically I use the standard grip which strengthens the pectoralis major and deltoids. “Grasp bar using an overhand grip, with hands 3 to 5 inches wider than shoulder width apart, and lift the bar from the standards” (Bompa 168) Using this technique, this exercise maximizes pectoral strength. So do you even lift?

Bompa, Tudor, Mauro Di Pasquale, and Lorenzo Cornacchia. Serious Strength Training. 3rd ed. N.p.: Human Kinetics, 2013. Print.