Video Blog: Ab Training Tips!

Hello beautiful readers!

I'm back again with ANOTHER video blog post this week as per the request of a good friend of mine. In this post, I'll talk about some ab training tips. As always, I will also offer a discussion below. Click on the link and / or read the post and tell me what you think!



Click here for the video





Ah yes....abs. Is there any other bodily development we quest after more than a nice six-pack? Turning on the t.v. and / or looking for workouts online for 5 minutes will surely show you the obsession we have with getting a heavily defined core.

And it's kind of funny. The optimal aesthetic for the abs that I feel is widely accepted doesn't necessarily tell you anything about someone's ability outside of the fact that they have low body fat. There's no inherent function to having  a six pack as opposed to someone else who trains their core just as much while carrying more body fat. It doesn't necessarily tell you how intensely someone dedicates themselves to the gym, and is more or less 100% a product of leanness. It's just one of those things that I guess people find aesthetic value in.....without anyone really knowing why.

But I'm here to offer tips on how to work out abs. I opened up with a discussion on six-pack abs because, let's face it, when someone asks about ab workouts, what they're really asking about is how to get six pack abs. And while I'd like to go into yet another epically long discussion on why nutrition is the most important thing in fitness and bodily aesthetic manifestation, my focus here will be on how to properly stimulate the core and get get a good workout (though I will kind of touch on how to build a nice core aesthetic). Keep in mind though.....a six pack is 100% a product of the kitchen.....not the gym.

The mindset one should have while working out their core is the same as any other muscle group in that you want to properly stimulate every muscle in the core, both internally and externally. HOWEVER, the difference is that your aim shouldn't be to overly develop your abs from an aesthetic standpoint...and I can't believe I'm saying that.

This is because overdeveloping the core pushes your stomach outward, spoiling your aesthetic. If you like the look of a muscle belly, or just want a lot of core strength, then by all means train your core to the max with as much weight as you can. But if you're doing this just for looks, consider only semi-stimulating your core and focusing on losing body fat, while also concentrating on mostly body-weight exercises that stimulate that area.

Most ab exercises will utilize a "crunching" motion. You know what this is. But to fully get a lot out of a crunch, it's important to arch the back and stretch the abs on the non-flex end range of motion and COMPLETELY curl every part of your abs inward as you go towards the end flex-range of motion. The end flex range of motion is achieved by bringing your body inward towards the middle of your stomach, and then pushing the top of your body (while still crunched) straight up in the air to get an even greater, fuller crunch. In fact, on all crunch-like exercises it is good to practice pushing the upper part of your body forward or straight up whilst you crunch your core.

Also consider doing exercises that rotate your body like bicycles, windshield wipers, and side crunches. Those are good for stimulating the parts of the core that are on the outside of the abs.

And that's pretty much it! Lift till failure on all of these exercises. You can choose to save a day for abs, or do abs throughout the week.Furthermore, make sure you evenly distribute the crunch so that one side does not get more developed than the other.


-Jtrain

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------*Have a question about natural bodybuilding / fitness / nutrition / stress? Need some advice? Email me at jtrainfitness@gmail.com and I will answer it on this blog! Be sure to enter your email to receive alerts for when the next blog post has come out, and be sure to tell your friends about this blog! Follow me on twitter @jtrainfitness and tell your friends to do the same!*
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Video Blog: Shoulder Training Tips!

Hey guys!

I'm back with another video for this week's blog post! I keep getting some great feedback from these videos, so you might actually see more of them in the near future.

This week I'd like to talk about some shoulder training tips you can use during your next workout. Below is the video, but I'll once again describe a lot of the key points below the video as well.

Shoulders are.....so important. But for whatever reason, a lot of people tend to neglect them. This is a poor choice not only because it doesn't maximize the aesthetic of your upper body, but also because the shoulders have so much mobility and flexibility that they remain especially vulnerable to injury. And injuring an area of your body so crucial in many aspects of mobility that gets activated in almost every upper body exercise you do can severely set you back in your progression towards accomplishing your fitness goals. Just ask anybody who has injured their shoulder how much it hindered their workouts and completely ruined their gains.

So workout your shoulders guys. And work them out FULLY. The front of your deltoid is not the only part of the shoulder that matters. In fact, overdeveloping only one of the three sets of fibers that make up your deltoid (anterior, medial, posterior) can cause it to pull on or what I call "bully" the other deltoids and cause chronic strain and pain that you don't want.

In other words, get a complete shoulder workout. workout the front, middle, and back of your shoulders.

Also, make the line of drive for your shoulder workouts BEHIND your head. Often times people will go straight up without noticing that their elbows or arms are situated in a way that activates just the front of the shoulder and other muscle groups that you may or may not be trying to focus that day. This results in the shoulders not fully being activated. When doing this backwards motion during your lifting motion, aim to also get your shoulder blades to touch.

Be sure to also make sure that you're not moving your body in a way that gets you to "cheat" in your lifting movement. Often times I'll see people move their legs upwards or sway their body to gain power and momentum that are not optimal for a complete shoulder workout.

Most importantly of all however, is to make sure you are never putting your shoulder in an awkward position. They can be SUPER fragile. It's important to strengthen them, but it's also very important to listen to them and pump the brakes a little on the intensity if they feel like they're really starting to hurt. It's better to rest such an important muscle group for a week rather than have to be out of the gym for months because you've injured them. Be smart when lifting shoulders.

And those are some shoulder training tips for you to experiment with during your next workout! I hope they help you out!

-Jtrain

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------*Have a question about natural bodybuilding / fitness / nutrition / stress? Need some advice? Email me at jtrainfitness@gmail.com and I will answer it on this blog! Be sure to enter your email to receive alerts for when the next blog post has come out, and be sure to tell your friends about this blog! Follow me on twitter @jtrainfitness and tell your friends to do the same!*
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Photoshoot!

Hey guys!

So I just wanted to tell you some exciting news! This past Saturday I was part of a photoshoot with my new friend Linda of Andsam Photography!

Take a look at this amazing job by an amazing photographer. Be sure to check out her website as well located at http://www.andsamfitnessphoto.com/
 

How to Build a Bodybuilding Lifting Routine

Hello again beautiful readers!

For those of you just starting out with your weight-training / bodybuilding program, a major question you might be asking yourself is how you should go about building your workouts.

By "building your workouts" I mean developing a lifting schedule to meet your fitness and aesthetic goals. This is obviously important to ensure that day to day and week to week you're completing the steps necessary to achieve said goals.

Not every workout plan will be the same. Bodybuilding, strength, weight-loss, performance, etc. workouts will all be different depending on what your goals might be. It pains me to see countless cookie-cutter workouts and ideals show up on my screen as I search the internet and overhear others talking about what may or may not actually be optimal and beneficial to the person wanting to achieve something.

Flickr.com / Joanna June / No Changes Made

I'm not a cardio fanatic, and I'm not a professional in any kind of sport. I'm also not trying to be a competitive lifter. And so today I'm not sure I really want this post to be centric or all-encompassing of those topics because I am not as knowledgeable on the nuances and minutia of those realms of fitness. So for today, my focus on building a workout will solely be about lifting in terms of bodybuiding and developing muscle.

What I'm about to write is in no way the "right" way to go about this. In fact, whatever works for YOU is what you probably should focus on so long as you are getting a complete workout and covering all of your bases.

When I started working out, I followed a lifting plan on a website that instructed a 3-day split, meaning that three days out of the week would be devoted to working out / lifting (with nutrition obviously being a 24/7 affair). That meant that I had to find a way to fit biceps, triceps, shoulders, chest, back, legs, and abs into three days out of the week.

And that may or may not be optimal for you. If putting in the amount of time it would take to fit all of these muscle groups in effectively and then taking the other four days out of the week off is something that works for you, then by all means go that route.

But here are some things that I personally like to keep in mind when developing a lifting routine:

You have to workout every muscle group

When you're bodybuilding, every muscle group counts. And you can't take shortcuts. If you want superb definition and development coupled with a very symmetrical and non-cartoonish physique, you have to work out every muscle group to the max. The only exception comes with abs, which may or may not be more aesthetcially pleasing somewhere in between being underdeveloped and overdeveloped. For all other muscle groups though, push them to the max.

Lift on days where you can fully devote your time

I don't accept excuses. If something is important to you you WILL find a way to make it happen. So don't assume that what I'm saying on the heading here is that you should skip the gym if there's something  more important happening that day.

However, if you're trying to decide which days you should work out and have room to play around with shifting days around, choose the days where you're most mentally and physically capable of giving it your all and killing the workout. If you don't want to do ANYTHING at the beginning of the week, maybe you take Mondays off. If you want weekends all to yourself, maybe you lift every day out of the week except on weekends. 

Also important to note is to lift at the time of day where you'll have the best workout. Personally, I can hardly function in the mornings, and have most of my energy and focus in the early afternoon. So it would make no sense for me to ever workout at 5a.m. just because everyone thinks there's something intrinsically better and more valuable to working out at that time. 

Lift for however many days it takes to optimize your lifts

Personally, I could probably get all of my lifting done over the course of 3 days if I really wanted to push it. However, I've noticed that I get out of the gym quicker, and focus my muscle groups harder / can push my muscle groups harder when I work out five days a week. Maybe five days a week would be absolutely terrible for you and your responsibilities, and taking the time it would take to finish a workout in fewer days is a better option for you. Whatever works for you and makes your workouts optimal, while not putting you at any risk for injury or anything, is what you should do. I'm a fan of the five day plan, but you might want to work out for three days in a row and take a break, or spread them out throughout the week to give yourself more frequent breaks and / or fit better with your schedule. Just make sure you're consistent.

Try saving your favorite muscle groups for last, and your second favorite muscle group for first

This is actually a mind hack that has REALLY helped me out. If I were to save my least favorite muscle group (legs) for the end of the week, I would not have the mental focus or willpower to really give it my all....especially after giving all of my energy to the rest of the muscle groups throughout the week.

Flickr.com / HA! Designs / No Changes Made

So give yourself something to look forward to. Take a muscle group you love to workout whenever you can (everyone seems to have one), and save that for the end of the week so that you don't think that what you're about to do is a chore or some mountain in your mind that you're going to hate climbing.

Getting into the groove and priming your body to start preparing itself to workout for the week is also important. And that's why I recommend doing your second favorite muscle group first. Starting back up an exercise program for the week can be hard after you've had so much fun resting and relaxing. So one way you can get over that is to use a muscle group that generates almost as much enthusiasm as your favorite muscle group that you saved for the end of the week.

Try devoting a day solely to the muscle groups you hate to workout the most

This is another technique that has really helped me out. If you hate working out a particular muscle group, it will be SUCH a drag to go through a workout where you have to not only do that muscle group, but think about the workout you'll still have to go through for another muscle group...or vice versa.

So, one way to combat this is to devote an entire day to JUST that muscle group. For example, I'm not a fan of working out legs. So you better believe that on leg day I'm going to go in and focus all my attention and energy on just doing legs and then get out. I don't have anything else planned on leg days. And that really helps me focus on the legs because I don't have to worry about the anxiety of other muscle groups to come after being exhausted from high intensity leg workouts that drain your energy.


So those are some tips you can use to build around a muscle building routine. I'm sorry if it's not as cookie-cutter / clean cut as you may have wanted in terms of what to do and when, but again YOUR workout can be tailored to YOUR preferences to get optimal gains and lucrative workouts. The muscle groups you choose to workout and when also don't really matter, but I would advice not working out muscle groups that use too many of the same areas of the body to create movement (like shoulders and chest), as one may fatigue the other before you workout the second muscle group.

Workout for as many days and on the most optimal days that give you a workout that works every muscle group efficiently and effectively. And as always, supplement with proper nutrition and rest.

-Jtrain

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------*Have a question about natural bodybuilding / fitness / nutrition / stress? Need some advice? Email me at jtrainfitness@gmail.com and I will answer it on this blog! Be sure to enter your email to receive alerts for when the next blog post has come out, and be sure to tell your friends about this blog! Follow me on twitter @jtrainfitness and tell your friends to do the same!*
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Video Blog: Biceps Training Tips!

Hello again Jtrain Nation!

So my last video blog post (vlog post?) was so successful and fun to do that I decided to try it out again for today's post.  

 In this video, I discuss some techniques and principles I've discovered over the years training my biceps that have made me at least feel like I had an amazing and beneficial workout. I will of course also give a discussion below on the points I make in the video in case you like reading better, or just want a refresher of what you saw in the video.

Biceps  are a pretty laid back and forgiving muscle group. By that I mean that they can grow pretty easily despite how much you may be giving up on attention to form. Biceps in my experience really only need a good deal of general stimulation to start growing as opposed to other muscle groups where your differing levels of form can make all the difference in your results.

HOWEVER, there are still techniques and minor "tweaks" that you can use if you think you're plateauing or don't feel like you've had a good workout. When I first started paying attention to these tweaks my mind was blown, and focusing on these kinds of techniques and ideals have really helped to improve my workouts I'd say.

I first want to give credit to a well-known bodybuilder, Ben Pakulski. Please check out his Youtube channel, website, or any other form of media he's on. He's the one who first got me thinking about these ideas and, in turn, helped improve my workouts. He also gives some of the best advice I've ever seen on form and technique.

The biceps muscle is made up of a short and long head that function as one muscle and works to rotate the forearm up and outward.

Many people focus solely on moving their forearms up in the form of curls during their biceps workout. And while that's the correct motion (assuming proper form), what if one were to take advantage of the biceps' propensity to also rotate outward?

So here's the adjustment you can make: when your biceps muscle is at its end range of motion during a standard curl, to the point it doesn't feel like you can curl any further, continue to curl OUTWARD. That is, follow a line of drive that is not straight towards your shoulder, but rather heads towards and alongside the outside of your biceps. You'll feel your standard squeeze from the curl, but you'll feel an even better, more intense squeeze when you go outward. This, I believe, is because you're actually doing a complete range of motion as opposed to a nearly full range of motion. You therefore get a more complete repetition and potentially more stimulation in the biceps.

Also make sure that when doing biceps exercises that your elbows are pinned to your sides and that you do not recruit your shoulders at all into the movement. All flexing and movement should be initiated and finished by the biceps. Furthermore, consider working out each biceps muscle individually so that 100% of your attention is being placed on each side of your body for optimal levels of stress and stimulation.

I hope that these tips and techniques makes sense and help you during your next biceps workout!

-Jtrain

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------*Have a question about natural bodybuilding / fitness / nutrition / stress? Need some advice? Email me at jtrainfitness@gmail.com and I will answer it on this blog! Be sure to enter your email to receive alerts for when the next blog post has come out, and be sure to tell your friends about this blog! Follow me on twitter @jtrainfitness and tell your friends to do the same!*
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