I hope you have a cable machine at your gym so you can try adding cable crossovers to your list of chest exercises. Not only do they help to build muscle mass, they also help to define your chest muscles by creating separation between your pectorals. The chiseled look that bodybuilders have in their chest is in large part due to chest stretching exercises such as the cable crossover. The first time I did these I instantly noticed the difference in the way my chest felt, giving it a great pump and stretching it like no other exercise I’d done before.

A couple of things to note when performing cable crossovers:

• Go slow. Feel the stretch in your chest as your arms are extended and hold the squeeze for 2 seconds when your arms are in front of you.
• Keep your elbows bent. Straightening your elbows will not work your chest as well and can injure your joints.
• Concentrate on your chest. By focusing on your chest muscles, you can help target them better and stimulate more growth.

Note: the video says to perform 2 sets of 12 reps, but I prefer 3 sets. This really depends on what other chest exercises you are performing, and how many sets and reps total. You want to get the best exercise possible without being in the gym forever.

Many people are reluctant to take any significant time off from working out. It seems the most likely reasons are that they do not want to lose their gains in size or strength, and they are afraid taking a week off may really hurt their progress. Another common argument is that this will really kill their motivation; a lot of times people stop working out for a few days, which turns into a week, and a month… These are some very legitimate concerns that I want to address because I think this is an important decision.

1) Will you lose your size and strength gains if you take time off?

If you have been working out consistently for a few months in a row, and have put on noticeable muscle mass and gotten a lot stronger, it makes sense you would not want all your hard work to go to waste. But taking time off from the gym is not going to hinder your efforts. You may notice a minor drop in the amount you can lift the first time back to the gym, but this will quickly be gained back. You shouldn’t lose any muscle mass in a period of a week without working out, as long as you continue a proper diet. What will happen, though, is you will feel a renewed strength in your muscles thanks to the extended duration of rest that they are not used to. It seems counterproductive in the short-term, but in the long-run it is only going to help you.

2) Will a week off from the gym kill your motivation?

This depends on your reason for taking a week off. People who get into the spiral of skipping a few days because they are lazy or have other things to do are not putting their goals first. That’s why it is so easy for them to get off track. If you are consciously taking a week off with the objective of giving your body the rest it needs, motivation shouldn’t be a concern for you. Actually, you should be dying to get back in the gym after a week because you are going crazy not working out. If anything it will help to serve as a motivator.

3) When is it time for a week off from the gym?

This depends on who you ask. Most people think that after about 10-12 weeks you should take a week off because your body needs a break. I think this is a pretty good rule of thumb, but it really depends a lot on your workout schedule and intensity. If you are working out 5-6 days a week, you are likely going to need a break before someone who is working out 3-4 days a week. If you have been working out for 8 weeks straight and you are mentally and physically exhausted, take some time off to recuperate. If you are working your ass off and aren’t making any gains for weeks in a row, think about taking a week off (or changing up your workout routine). If you are losing some of your motivation to workout, maybe you need a little time off to remember how much you hate not going to the gym. If you’re making great gains and feeling fine, then you may not need a break…go on to 16 weeks and then take a week off.

What works best for you?

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This is a point of much contention between professional trainers, weight lifters, and body builders. There seems to be no agreed upon answer to the question of which muscle groups to workout together. You can either lift opposite muscle groups, such as biceps and triceps together, back and chest together. Or you can lift complementary muscle groups together, such as back and biceps in one workout, chest and triceps in another. In my opinion, it’s mostly a matter of preference, although there are some definite benefits to each.

Image Credit: d_vdm

Working Out Opposite Muscle Groups

When you pair opposite muscle groups together, you are choosing to work muscles that will have very little effect on each other in your workout. Normally, this is a combination of push/pull exercises. For example, almost all back exercises involve the pulling motion (barbell row, lat pull-down, seated row, etc.), whereas nearly every chest movement is a pushing exercise (bench press, inclined bench press, dips). This benefits you because you do not work your back at all while working your chest, so your back muscles are not fatigued before you even get to that portion of the workout. However, one drawback to pairing opposite muscle groups is that the following workout day you will likely have to work a complementary muscle. If you do triceps in Workout A, then you will have to do chest in Workout B. Your triceps may be fatigued from the previous day’s workout, which can have adverse effects on your chest routine. Another disadvantage when compared with complementary workouts is that you will not have the benefit of warming up your triceps during your chest routine, or your biceps during your back routine, so you will have to stretch or warm them up on their own to help prevent injury.

Working Complementary Muscle Groups

Complementary muscles, such as chest and triceps, are often paired together in a workout. This is because they are involved in many of the same movements. When you do bench press, your main focus is usually on your chest, but you are also giving your triceps a bit of a workout as well. This helps to warm up the complementary muscle, but it can also hurt by fatiguing your muscle before you get to it. If you always do chest before triceps, then you will never be able to do as much weight on your skull crushers or your cable press-downs because your tris will already be a little tired. And you definitely cannot train triceps first, because if you do you won’t be able to lift as heavy on the bench. However, the advantage here is that in your next workout (assuming it is back and biceps, in this case) neither muscle group will have been worked at all the day previously, ensuring optimal rest and growth.

I’ve switched back and forth a few times myself. I was training opposite muscles together for about a year, for the benefits listed in the first paragraph above. However, currently (and for the past 3 months) I have been training complementary groups together, and I like this method and the results I am seeing as well. Until there is any scientific evidence that one way is superior to the other, just go with what works best for you. Train opposite pairs together for a couple weeks, then try muscles that complement each other, and figure out what you like best.

Are you trying to build huge arms that bulge out of your shirt sleeves? Do you spend most of your time focusing on your biceps, doing exercises like dumbbell and hammer curls? Are your arms growing at a rate you are satisfied with? This post will help you build the muscular arms you are looking for by focusing on your TRICEPS!

Image courtesy of: Boldsey

Most guys go about their arm training in completely the wrong way. They spend workout after workout trying to build up their bicep muscles, often times completely neglecting their triceps. Did you know that your triceps make up about 70% of your upper arm’s muscle mass? They are a larger muscle group than the biceps, and therefore deserve more attention and more work, and they will pay greater dividends if you do them right. And the fact that there are three heads to the triceps means that there are various workout options that you will need to combine to make sure you hit them all and maximize your gains.

There are two different types of exercises you will want to combine to create a good triceps workout. The first group is called isolation extension movements, and the second is called compound pressing movements.

Isolation Extension Movements - these exercises involve keeping the upper arm stationary, while moving the forearm and holding the weight in your hand. Examples include cable press downs (performed with either a straight bar, v-bar, or rope), dumbbell kickbacks, overhead triceps extensions, and skull crushers. In each of these exercises, the work is being done to straighten the arm while the weight is working to bend it at your elbow. Isolation extension movements help to build mass as well as target and define individual heads of your triceps.

Compound Pressing Movements - as their name suggest, these compound exercises involve the use of more than one joint in the movement. Examples that work the triceps particularly well include the close-grip push-up, close-grip bench press, and dips. If your main goal is to pack on substantial muscle mass, then you will want to include two of these in your triceps workout, as well as one of the isolation extension exercises listed above. Read more about compound exercises.

Being sick is never good, but it’s even worse when it keeps you from working out (or at least working out to your full potential). When you have a cold, you usually don’t feel like going to the gym for at least a day or two. If you can tough it out, you still usually have less energy than normal so you’re not going to get in as good a workout as you should. Instead of sitting there and accepting these illnesses year after year, shouldn’t you do what you can to prevent them? I’ve compiled a list of things you can do to lessen your risk of getting sick, so you can continue your muscle building program 52 weeks a year!

• Wash Your Hands - This is the single most important thing you can do to protect yourself and others from getting sick. Scrub with soap and water or use an alcohol based gel to clean your hands after you use the bathroom, eat, sneeze or cough, or touch dirty surfaces.
• Exercise Regularly - Your fitness regimen actually helps you to keep from getting sick. It builds your immune system to protect you from dangerous bacteria, or at least lessen the symptoms and shorten the duration of your illness.
• Disinfect Common Household Objects - Think about all the people who touch these things and what is probably on their hands, and your own. Here’s a list: keyboard and mouse, phones, remote controls, door handles, toilet handles, faucets, light switches…
• Eat Well - Include the right amount of carbohydrates, protein, vitamins and minerals in your diet to make sure you are getting the proper nutrition. I’m going to include multivitamins and nutritional supplements in this category. These things will help keep your immune system operating at its peak.
• Drink More Water - Your entire body is made up of about 2/3 water by weight. Maintaining this level is of great importance to your health. If you get dehydrated, your body will be weaker and therefore you are more likely to get sick.