Tag Archives: exercises

With ‘row’ type exercises being one of the most effective additions to your back and shoulder workouts, following on from our article on bent over barbell rows is a look at upright rows. In this article we will take a look at the different variations of the exercise, how to perform the lift safely, and provide a sample workout plan for how you can include it in your next back or shoulder workout. Variations of the upright row The two muscle groups that offer possibly the widest variation in exercises are the shoulders and back. This not only provides you ...

If you are looking to make the quickest and most noticeable gains in upper body strength, there’s no doubt that compound exercises are the most effective way to do this. While the deadlift may be the best known back builder, another great exercise is the barbell row. Essentially this is an exercise where a barbell moves in a vertical, or nearly vertical plane of motion depending on the specific area of your back you want to strengthen and build up. Although you can’t use as much weight as in the deadlift, the amount of weight you lift and the general ...

The gain in popularity of the overhead press prior to the 1972 Olympics was partly due to the exercise being an Olympic lift. Unfortunately there were too many areas where the form could suffer and the competitors could lift more weight, which made it increasingly hard to judge. This included swinging the hips forward and putting the back in quite an extreme arched position, with heels being allowed to lift off the platform in competitions approaching the 1972 games. With so much variation making it too hard to judge, the overhead press was dropped from the Olympic lifts after the ...

This happens to even the best lifters and will usually be caused by one of 3 factors; lack of variation, overtraining, not consuming sufficient calories. We already took a look at your options for improving your grip, so this article will take a look at some of the methods you can use to break out of a plateau in your deadlifts. What are your options? There are a few different ways of approaching your workout routine when it comes to getting your strength gains moving again. You can change the exercises on a more frequent basis, change the reps and ...

As with any piece of exercise equipment that can help you lift more weight there is some controversy over when they should be used, with 2 main schools of thought. The first of these is from people that say you should never use weightlifting straps. These people will often believe that using lifting straps will be helping you to lift a weight that you wouldn’t have been able to naturally and that it’s more important to build your grip strength. The second school of thought is a little more relaxed and believes that lifting straps do have their place in ...

While this article is by no means designed to put you off the deadlift, I hope to outline the best practices for using on every lift to ensure you stay injury free and keep making progressive strength gains. The following article is based on the standard version of the deadlift. We will take a look at variations such as ‘Sumo’, ‘Stiff Legged’ and ‘Romanian’ in future articles. Why deadlift? There are many reasons for people including deadlifts in their workout routine. Whether it’s because they enjoy lifting more weight than in any other exercise, the real world benefits of having ...

Leg extensions are an exercise that is usually performed from a seated position in a cable machine with a weight stack, although there are designs where weight plates are used in a lever system. While exercises such as squats and leg presses are considered the most important for overall strength and development of the quadricep muscles (quads), leg extensions still have their benefits. Benefits of leg extensions Risk of injury Having control over the weight is key to any effective exercise, but moving the weight too quickly on leg extensions can have other negative effects. Over-extending happens when you extend ...

As with any exercise, arguably the most important aspect is your squat technique when performing the movement. Although you may need to lower the weight slightly to keep your form good and stop yourself from heaving the weight up, this is to prevent injury and joint pain in the future. The importance of good squat technique This is even more important in the exercises where you are moving the heaviest weights, such as squats, deadlift, bench press and overhead presses. If you squat too much weight before building up the muscle then you will end up getting pinned under the ...