Barbell Curl
Who among us doesn’t want to have those bulging biceps that peek out from the sleeve of you T-shirt and make your arms look like tree trunks?
The Barbell Bicep curl is a classic exercise that will help you do just that. It’s one of the exercises that will surely feature prominently in all of your bicep workouts.
Bicep barbell curls not only build muscle mass, they also build strength that will help you with all sorts of other exercises.
To do the barbell curl you need either a regular, olympic style barbell or an EZ bar which you pack the weights on. As always, the right form is crucial to getting the best results with this exercise. There are a number of variations of this exercise, mainly a standing and a seated one.
How to Do the Standing Bicep Curl
Starting position and Movement
- Grab the barbell in an underhand grip with both hands about shoulder width apart. I recommend wearing workout gloves for all the exercises you do, this one included.
- Let your arms hang downward completely straight with the barbell lightly resting on your thighs.
- Without swaying your body or bending your back, curl the barbell upward as far as it will go.
- Hold the uppermost position for a second before lowering the barbell down to the starting position.
- That’s one rep.
Tips
- Keep your elbows firmly by your sides at all times. Avoid pushing your elbows forward and upward. If you do then you need to reduce some weight.
- You can put one foot behind you if you find that it gives you better balance and support.
- Don’t let the barbell drop too quickly on the way down. Maintain control throughout the exercise.
- Don’t sway, rock, or tilt your body. If your biceps alone can’t do this exercise than you need to cut down on the weight that you’re lifting.
- If you find that you’re swaying your body, you can brace your back against a wall and perform the exercise.
>> Click here For some of the Best Biceps Exercises Ever <<
Seated bicep barbell curl
A popular variation of the bicep curl is to simply do it sitting down. You need to find a flat workout bench, sit down at the edge of it with both legs close together, feet firmly on the ground, and knees bent.
Starting position and Movement
- Grab the barbell or EZ bar in an underhand grip with your hands at shoulder width apart.
- Let the bar rest lightly on your thighs.
- Using your biceps alone, curl the bar up as far as you can.
- Lower the barbell down slowly back to the starting position.
Tips
- Keep your back straight at all times.
- Tuck your stomach in to increase stability.
- Use only your biceps to curl the bar, so make sure your elbows remain at your sides all the time.
- You can place your feet on a small step to ease some of the pressure off your back.
>> Click here For some of the Best Biceps Exercises Ever <<
In Conclusion
Barbell Bicep Curls, whether seated or standing, are a basic exercise that you’re going to be doing often. Be patient, don’t pack on weight that makes you break form and you should be alright.
Manic Muscles Recommends
Nick Nillson’s manual of the best arm exercises you’re never heard of. Nick Nillson is one of those guys you don’t want to meet in a dark alley.
The guy’s huge, ripped, and seems like he was made of steel. When you look at some of the exercises he has compiled here, you will see why I often think of him as ‘Mad Nick’.
He knows how to create challenging, killer exercises that can really push your growth to a new level. If you’re looking for a little more challenging workout, check out the Best Arm Exercises you’ve never heard about
Barbell Row – How to Do Bent Over Barbell Rows
The Barbell Row is one of the hardest back exercises but it’s also effective. However, it is also one of those exercises you want to make sure you really know how to do to avoid risking injury and pain.
One of the benefits of doing bent over barbell rows is that they can help you build awesome strength and improve your abilities in other exercises.
The other main benefit of the Barbell row is that it helps to build a lot of back muscles. You’re targeting the upper back, but your arms, hips, and lower back also contribute to this exercise.
- Your arms help to lift the barbell from the floor to your torso.
- You hips help you lift the barbell off the floor at the beginning of the movement
- Your lower back and legs help you remain stable during the exercise
How to do the Bent Over Barbell Row
- Place the barbell with sufficent weights over your feet and stand over its middle.
- Stand with your feet at shoulder width apart, bend your knees slightly, bend your back over straight, and grab the barbell with an overhand grip with both hands space a bit outside your legs on both sides of your body.
- Use your hips, arms and back to lift the barbell off the floor
- Keep your eyes on the floor slightly infront of you. Don’t keep your head up or straigh down.
- With your upper back, pull the barbell toward the place where your chest meets your stomach in one fluid movement.
- Lower the barbell back to the floor. Don’t keep it hanging in your arms, actually place it on the floor.
Barbell Row Tips
- This is a hard exercise to perform so don’t put too much weight until you get used to the technique
- Make sure to keep your back straight at all times and isolate the upper back throughout the workout.
- Don’t use your hips too much. You can make use of you hips only to lift the barbell from the floor, not to bring it to where your chest meets your stomach.
- Don’t use your knees. This is a back exercise. Make sure to keep the involvement of other muscle groups to a minimum.
- There’s no reason to puff out the chest to meet the barbell sooner. If you see that you continue to do it, you will have to forget about your pride and reduce some weight.
- If your lower back aches you should stop doing the barbell row. On your next workout use a lower weight.
In Conclusion
The Barbell Row is an excellent back exercise but one which you should make sure to do carefully, slowly, and with perfect technique. Don’t rush to pack on the weight for this exercise. Focus on building perfect form before you increase the weight. It will help you avoid injury.
>> Click here to See How to Gain Massive Muscles <<
>> Click here to see how to become super lean like an athlete <<
Barbell Shrugs
If you ever wished to have those crazy bulging traps and shoulders that the top bodybuilders have, or just wanted to make sure you have more conformity in how your shoulders, chest, and back look, you should definitely do barbell shrugs.
The Barbell Shrug is one of the ultimate exercises to develop the trapezius back muscles (traps) and achieve that hard, ripped, bulging strong look that so many of us crave.
To do this exercise (which should be part of your back workout routine), grab a wide barbell and place weights at either end.
Starting position
Grab the barbell in an overhand grip with both hands. Place your hands shoulder width apart and stand with both legs at shoulder width as well. Stand straight or with a slight bent with the barbell held straight before you with both arms stretched down.
Movement
While keeping your arms straight at all times, pull your shoulders up as much as you can. The further you can go, the harder this workout becomes. Your arms should not help in this exercise, so make sure they’re straight and close to your body at all times. Don’t forget to exhale while doing the barbell shrug.
Once you reach the topmost position you can get to with both shoulders, pause for 2-3 seconds, and then slowly lower both shoulders and arms to the starting position. This counts as one rep.
Behind the Back barbell Shrug
One variation of this workout is to hold the barbell behind your back. You just step over the barbell, bend down at the knees, grip the barbell overhand just the same as you would in a regular shrug and do the same movment. It allows you do attack the trapezius muscles in a slightly different way than you normally would have.
Dumbbell Shrugs
Another way to work the traps is to do shrugs with dumbbells instead of a barbell. The movement is the same, only the equipment is slightly different.
Make sure to use dumbbells of equal weight for symmetrical growth and work in a coordinated manner, not favoring either side.
Seated Barbell Shrugs
One of the challenges of the shrug exercise is to make sure your back and shoulders are responsible for the effort involved. One way to do that is to do the exercise sitting down rather than standing. This immediately takes your lower body out of the picture and practically ensures that your upper body muscles are the ones doing the work.
Common mistakes
Some people like to roll their shoulder joint backward and forward while holding a barbell or dumbbells. This exposes the shoulder joints to injury and is also useless. The roll is a movement which is parallel to the floor and to gravity (your source of resistence). Therefore, the movement should be straight up. That’s it.
In conclusion
The Barbell or Dumbbell shrug is an excellent focused exercise that you can do to build your traps. Make sure to do it often, with the right weight to make sure you don’t use your arm muscles to lift the weight, just your shoulders and back. For slight variations, you can change the space between your hands, or do it sitting down.
>> Click here for an awesome way to get bigger shoulders and back <<
Vince Delmonte Fitness Review
The No Nonesense Muscle Building program (also known as Vince Delmonte Fitness) is one of the leading muscle development programs in the world today. It was created by the ‘former Skinny Vinny’, Vince Delmonte and has been used by tens of thousands of trainers from around the world.
In this review of the No Nonesense Muscle Building program, I will try to provide a detailed and extensive rundown of what this program is all about, what you can learn from it, whether it really delivers, and will list its pros and cons. If you want to know whether Vince Delmonte Fitness really works, then you should definitely read this review.
Who is Vince Delmonte anyway?
Vince Delmonte is a physical trainer and nutrition expert who is recognized as a prominent authority in the muscle building niche. I don’t like to use the title ‘Guru’ lightly as I believe it should be reserved for really groundbreaking achievements. However, Vince Delmonte is probably called a Guru by some people. I just think he’s a well informed guy who knows how to teach as well.
He used to be known as ‘Skinny Vinny’ because he used to do a lot of long distance running. While he may have been in awesome cardiovascular shape, he looked puny and rather weak. He decided that he didn’t want to be this way anymore and embarked on a journey of self-teaching, massive workouts, and a diet focused on building muscle mass fast.
The results of his efforts is the impressive body that he has now. Again, I don’t like to use words like amazing, awesome, or fantastic that often, but Vince Delmonte sure has a body that most men would kill for. The No Nonesense Muscle Building Program is based on his own experience and success.
What is the No Nonesense Muscle Building Program?
No Nonesense Muscle Building is a collection of guides, tools, software, meal plans, and resources that were created to help you gain muscle mass fast. This is a natural muscle building program so there are no steroids or illegal substances involved. In fact, Vince Delmonte mistrusts many of the supplements sold on the market today, so expect to have a few myths shattered when reading his program.
As he was skinny himself, the program also works for people who are not genetically made to build muscle mass fast. Naturally, if you have the right genes, you will get faster results, but no longer do you need to accept the false myth that your genes prevent you from gaining muscles. It is simply not true. It may require more effort, but with the right knowledge it can be done quicker than you think. Vince Delmonte Fitness provides such knowledge.
Basically, the program tries to cut through all the confusion, half-truths, lies, and scams surrounding the science and art of muscle building and tries to teach real, simple to follow, and cost effective ways to burn body fat down and build lots of muscles.
The program covers the entire spectrum of muscle building: workouts, rest, nutrition, motivation, meal plans, metabolism, nutrients, truth about supplements and so on. It is truly an all around solution for people who have trouble building muscle as fast as they would like.
The part which exposes many of the supplements on the market for what they really are can probably save you hundreds if not thousands of dollars over the course of your lifetime.
The main ebook begins with a section in which Vince covers the basic muscle building mistakes that people make. While some of these mistakes are well known, I feel that most trainers will learn something new here.
Once you learn to avoid the common mistakes you can begin learning how to prevent falling for the common pitfalls and focus on the real ways to gain muscle mass fast.
Vince Delmonte has a unique and rather personal writing style. It will probably take you a while to get used to it, but I like this direct, personal style as I want someone to cut through all of the mess for me and teach me what are the real facts I need to know to gain more muscles.
Vince’s writing tends to be rather extensive. He doesn’t just tell you what to do or show you how to do it. He talks about the WHY of things so you can really understand the reason behind what you’re doing.
The workout sections include a large variety of exercises, including guidelines on how to reduce risk of injury, a multitiude of exercises for different body parts and with an assortment of equipment including bodyweight exercises.
What No Nonesense Muscle Building Includes
- No Nonesense Muscle Building main manual
- A 29 week workout program for beginner-intermediate trainers
- A 29 week advanced workout program for maximum power
- An introductory manual on correct workout techniques including posture, flexibility, core training, lagging body parts and so on
- Meal plans for 84 days straight
- A virtual exercise demonstrator to help you maintain proper form
- A metabolism calculator to help you keep track of your nutritional needs
- A supplement review guide to help you avoid the scams and plain useless supplements on the market these days
Pros and Cons
Pros:
- This is a comprehensive and detailed program
- There are many positive testimonials for the No Nonesense Muscle Building program
- It has a money back guarantee
- It produces results
- Excellent workout and nutritional guidelines section
- Detailed and varied exercise information
Cons:
- This program is slightly on the ‘too much information’ side of things. There is really no need for so many bonuses and additional tools
- The salespage of the website is a bit hypey which is a shame since this is a high quality program
In Conclusion
The No Nonesense Muscle Building program by Vince Delmonte is for real. It is a high quality, extensive program that can help you achieve much faster results than you would have achieved otherwise by teaching you how to workout right, how to eat properly, how to make use of your body’s hormones to burn more fat and build bigger muscles.
There is no shortcut that will get you big muscles without the work involved. You will need to workout hard to get the results you seek. Vince Delmonte fitness simply shows you how to do this. It can do it for you. Therefore, make sure you’re up for this hard challenge before you take it on.
If you are prepared to put in the work, I believe that this program is an excellent resource to get ripped in a short time.
Click here to read more about Vince Delmonte’s program
How to Build Chest Muscles
The pectoral muscles are one of the most important body parts a bodybuilder or muscle-conscious person should work on.
Having a firm, lean, chiseled chest can make or break your entire appearance so be sure to give it enough time and attention.
Before we get started with tips on how to build chest muscles, let me tell you a bit on how your pecs are built:
Your pectorals stretch all the way from your breastbone to your collarbone, attached to some of your ribs and covering a large part of your rib cage. There are various levels of interconnected muscles here, most of which aren’t visible even when developed.
The key is to understand that the pecs aren’t a one-dimensional muscle but a muscles system. All the components in this system have to be developed to get a killer chest.
There are two main layers of muscles in the chest: The lower layer is called pectoralis minor which begins at the upper ribs and is connected to your shoulder joint.
The pectoralis minor layer is covered by the pectoralis major. It is this layer of muscles you need to build to have that barrel-chested look. However, all the muscles, even the invisible ones, come into play to make sure you’re fit and strong.
To get chest muscles, you have to work the pecs in a variety of ways. This is due to the length and breadth of these muscles. You have to change exercises, positions, grips, and so on to make sure you are really getting the best stimulation you can.
One website which has some killer, and unorthodox, muscle exercises is Nick Nillson’s The Best Chest Exercises You’ve Never Heard Of… but there are other, more common, exercises you can do to start building your pecs.
A lot of movements work the pecs and you need to utilize these movements in your various exercises. Anything that’s pushed away from your body works the chest, and anything which you pull from the side to you (with full arm movement) also does but in a different way.
There are many pushing exercises but some of the common ones are:
1. Chest barbell press – You basically take a barbell, put some weights on it and press it away from your body while lying on a workout bench. This pushing away motion is what causes the pecs to strain.
2. You should make sure to do the barbell press in a variety of angles to work different parts of the chest. By placing the workout bench in an incline position, you work the upper chest, by placing it in a decline position, you work the lower.
3. Push-ups are similar to a chest press as you are basically pushing the floor away. Since you can’t move the floor, your body rises, but the movement is the same.
4. You can and should do both barbell pressed and dumbbell presses. Each person has his or her own preferences. I like dumbbells better than a barbell, but it’s up to you, really.
5. Chest flies – This is different from presses or pushups and works the inner part of the pecs, where they’re connected to your breastbone. However, they do influence the shape and growth of the entire chest muscle. You do this exercise with a pair of dumbbells, letting your arms fall to your side and then, bringing them back in front of your chest.
6. You can do variations of the chest flies similarly to the chest presses by changing the angle of the workout bench. Do flat, incline, and decline flies to work the chest all over.
7. Standing cable crossover is also an excellent exercise to build inner chest muscles.
Here are some tips to make sure your workout is awesome:
1. Your exercise isn’t finished even when the weight or barbell is lowering. This is called the negative part of your exercise because you’re not making the stimulating motion. However, your muscles are still working. Make sure to lower the dumbells or barbell slowly, keeping them steady between reps, and you will get better results.
2. Don’t forget to pack on the weight. If you want massive muscle growth (or Manic Muscles as we like to call them), you need to push your muscles. This can only be done with a lot of weight. Don’t forget to push yourself.
3. When you’re doing your workout, take care of the big muscle groups first, supporting muscles later. For instance, make sure to do the chest exercises before shoulder and triceps exercises. The shoulders and triceps help you perform chest workouts. Don’t tire them out with focused exercises before finishing with your pecs for the day.
Again, I super recommend The Best Chest Exercises You’ve Never Heard Of… as it got some killer workouts to really bring your pecs out, but this is up to you.
Nick Nillson has some really crazy and creative exercises here which can push your pecs to their limit.
I believe that this is a manual that you can find very useful and will help you get better pecs.
What are your favorite chest exercise? Leave a comment below and let me know.
