Summary

– The glute-ham raise trains the hamstrings‘ two key functions simultaneously.

– Sets of 5–8 reps may be appropriate to start; later, the glute-ham raise can be trained with low-, moderate-, and high-rep ranges.

– The glute-ham raise movement can be approximated with the Nordic hamstring curl, and other variations that don’t require a glute-ham bench.

What Is the Glute-Ham Raise?

(See 00:23 in the video above.)

The glute-ham raise is a posterior-chain exercise. That is, it trains the muscles on the back side of the body that work together in unison. The hamstrings, however, get hit the hardest. The glute-ham raise is unique in that it works the hamstrings’ two functions—bending the knees and extending the hips—in one fluid movement, and through a full range of motion. We’ll explain in detail how to perform it below, but to get a sense of how the glute-ham raise is done, picture starting off with your torso parallel to the floor, and using the back of your legs to lift your entire body up until it’s perpendicular to the floor. (If that sounds hard to do, well… it is!)

There are only a handful of exercises that mimic the glute-ham raise movement (we’ll show you how to do some of them below, if you don’t have a glute-ham bench). Without them, you would need to perform multiple different exercises to achieve complete hamstring development. For instance, leg curls to work the knee flexion component, and Romanian deadlifts or kettlebell swings to train hip extension. So, glute-ham raises maximize efficiency. They also train the hamstrings in a very functional way that’s perfectly suited to faster running and overall lower-body explosiveness.

Think of how your foot strikes the ground during a sprint. Your hamstrings help to pull it underneath and behind your hips, and bend the knee, to propel your body forward. Powerlifters and weightlifters—guys and gals who need strong posterior muscles to lift the heaviest weights—also flock to the glute-ham bench. Glute-ham raises are a powerful assistance exercise for building up your numbers on the squat, deadlift, and clean.

And that’s why they were originally created. Glute-ham raises were first implemented by weightlifters in the U.S.S.R. sometime in the 20^th century. Soviet athletes dominated the world stage in many different sports for decades. In the 1970s, when American weightlifter Bud Charniga was studying up on Soviet training methods, he discovered the glute-ham raise, and brought it to the States. Unable to find a bench that would allow him to perform it, Charniga mocked up his own using a pommel horse and a car seat. Specially-designed glute-ham benches have since become staples in serious strength and conditioning facilities, and are used by different kinds of athletes of all levels.

How to Properly Execute A Glute-Ham Raise

(See 01:05 in the video.)

We asked Clifton Harski, Director of Education for the Pain-Free Performance Specialist (PPSC) certification, to explain how to do a perfect rep.

Step 1. Glute-ham benches have a foot plate that is adjustable, and many have adjustable ankle pads as well. The foot plate can slide closer to and further away from the big pad that your hips rest on, and the ankle pads can be elevated or lowered. You’ll have to take a few minutes to experiment with setups until you find one that’s comfortable.

Ultimately, you want the foot plate far enough away from the pad so that, when you climb onto the bench, your knees can hang below the pad. The height of the ankle pads should be set so that your shins are angled slightly upward when your feet touch the plate and your torso is vertical (the top of the movement).

When you slide your feet between the ankle pads, your toes should touch the foot plate. Make sure these pads are secure, as they’re about to support your bodyweight. Try to get your feet to point straight down at hip-width distance, but you may find that you need to turn your toes out a few degrees to perform the exercise. Use your hands on the big pad to push your body up until it’s vertical. Draw your ribs down, take a deep breath into your belly, and tuck your pelvis slightly so it’s perpendicular to your spine. Brace your core.

Step 2. From this tall kneeling position, slowly extend your knees to lower your body. When your torso is parallel to the floor, bend your hips slightly so that it dips a few inches below parallel. You want to use as big a range of motion as you can, but without taking tension off your hamstrings. For that reason, don’t bend so much that your head points toward the floor. And whatever you do, don’t let your lower back round. Stay rigid.

Step 3. Extend your hips and drive the balls of your feet into the foot plate, allowing your heels to rise off the plate. Push through the big pad and bend your knees to pull your body back to vertical. This should look similar to how your leg works when it’s running. (You drive off the ball of the foot while the hamstrings are extending the hips and curling the leg.)

You can cut the range of motion a little short, stopping slightly before vertical, if you like. This is a good technique for targeting pure muscle gain, as the tension won’t subside at either end of the range of motion.

The glute-ham raise is relatively simple to perform, but because it’s foreign to most people, it’s liable to pose some problems at first. If you notice your calves cramping up, it’s a sign that you’re setting up with your upper body too far in front of the pad. This is making your calves work harder than they should to pull you back up. Move the foot plate more rearward, and check to see that your knees are pointing out below the bottom of the pad at the top of the exercise. If your bench doesn’t adjust to the right position for you, fold a towel over the hip pad, or drape a rubber mat over it, to add a little more mass to the pad and position your body further back. An inch or two can make a big difference.

Another common mistake is lowering your body until your torso is perfectly parallel to the floor. This shortens the range of motion a little bit, but it’s also the hardest position in the range, and it puts you at the greatest leverage disadvantage. When you’re just starting out on glute-ham raises, it pays to lower your body a little deeper so your hips flex; then you can use a bit of stretch reflex to come out of the bottom position. This makes the lift safer and will allow you to get more reps.

Finally, avoid hyperextending your spine on the way up. As your hamstrings tire out, you’ll have a tendency to want to finish the lift by arching your back hard. This can cause injury, so remember to keep your ribs down and your core tight.

“The glute-ham raise can provide such a large overload directly to the glutes and hammies—without a substantial lower-back strength demand—that it can serve as the big strength move for those muscles for most people,” says Harski. “It can actually replace the deadlift for a period of time. It is important to train the posterior chain aggressively and often, but to do so while minimizing loading of the spine, specifically the lower vertebrae.” In other words, the glute-ham raise can play a key role in strengthening your lower body without risking injury to the lower back in the way heavy deadlifts and back squats can. While it’s a simple bodyweight movement, the glute-ham raise packs a similar punch to big barbell exercises.

Once you’re experienced with it, the glute-ham raise can be trained through several different rep ranges. You may need to use sets of 5–8 reps at first, because the exercise is so challenging, but within a few weeks, you will likely be able to do it for 8–12 reps, treating it like you would most other assistance exercises that are done with moderate weight for moderate reps. If you’re pretty strong on glute-hams, or want them to serve as a substitute for a big barbell lift such as the deadlift, you can add resistance by holding a weight plate to your chest or wrapping a band around the feet of the bench and the back of your neck, allowing you to train in the 5–8 rep range again.

As your own bodyweight becomes easier to manage, you can do glute-ham raises for sets of 20 or more reps, which can serve as a brutal finisher for your leg day.

What Muscles Do Glute-Ham Raises Work?

(See 03:28 in the video.)

The glute-ham raise focuses on the hamstrings, but the tension it creates on the back side of the body irradiates all the way up the chain. That means that the glutes get involved as well (as the name of the exercise would imply), along with the spinal erectors, which run from the pelvis all the way up to the neck. The ab muscles also have to work with your erectors to brace your spine, so it doesn’t flop over while you perform the raise. And don’t be surprised if you wake up with some calf soreness the day after doing glute-ham raises the first time, since the gastrocnemius activates to assist the hamstrings in flexing the knee.

If you really want to nerd out, tell your friends that you’re training your semimembranosus, semitendonosis, and biceps femoris, aka, the leg biceps. (These are the three hamstring muscles, from the medial side of the leg to the lateral side.) All three muscles originate on the lower portion of the pelvis and insert below the knee, which gives them a unique ability to bend the knee and extend the hips at the same time. Imagine doing a machine leg curl but without the machine to support your hips. You’d have to keep them from bending while you flexed your knees. In the glute-ham raise, you have to do this against the resistance of your bodyweight—which is far more than what you can load on a leg curl machine. Now you see why glute-hams are such a ruthless move for the hamstrings.

Can I Do the Glute-Ham Raise Without A Machine?

A glute-ham bench is the best option for performing the glute-ham raise movement safely, but if you don’t have access to one, you can mimic it with other equipment. The Nordic hamstring curl, typically done with a barbell or regular utility bench, is a challenging but suitable substitute exercise. That said, it is even HARDER than the glute-ham raise, and definitely not for beginners. However, if you’ve been training a while and are confident in the strength of your hamstrings, give it a go.

Nordic Hamstring Curl

Step 1. Load a barbell on the floor and wrap a pad or towel around it to protect your ankles. Place a pad or mat on the floor to save your knees. Kneel on the pad and secure your ankles under the bar. (You can also use a bench that’s secured to the floor, or the spotter bar in a power rack, or have a partner hold your ankles down).

Step 2. Tuck your pelvis so it’s perpendicular to your spine. Take a deep breath into your belly, and brace your core. Have your hands ready at your sides so that you can catch yourself if you lose control on the descent. Bend your hips back so your torso leans forward a little—maintain this hip position throughout the set.

Step 3. Begin extending your knees, lowering your body toward the floor under control. When you feel you can’t maintain tension in your hamstrings anymore, let your body fall and break your fall with your hands. The range of motion won’t be great, but the extreme tension you create in your hamstrings will still make the exercise effective.

Step 4. Push off the floor and try to perform a glute-ham raise to return to the starting position.

You will probably only be able to manage a few negative reps at first (just the lowering portion of the movement). Build up to where you can perform full reps, and gradually increase your range of motion from there. (That is, aim to use less assistance from your hands over time.)

Harski says you can try using a physioball as well—the big inflatable ball most people use for situps and other ab exercises.

“Place the ball under your thighs and anchor your feet under a stable bench,” says Harski. Make sure the bench is secured to the ground—you may have to weight its feet down. The movement is done the same as the glute-ham raise and Nordic curl.

Yet another option is to use a Bosu ball, which looks like half a physioball (dome on one side, flat on the other). Kneel on the edge of the inflated dome side and press your feet against a wall, driving primarily through the balls of your feet. Perform the Nordic curl movement, using your hands on the floor to push yourself back up if you can’t make it through the full range motion.

Great GHR Alternatives

(See 03:57 in the “Perfect Your Glute-Ham Raise” video at the top.)

If you don’t have a glute-ham bench, and you aren’t inclined to build a DIY one, you can still work your hamstrings and glutes hard with exercises that train these muscles in a similar fashion and are doable at home.

Slider Hamstring Curl

(See 04:35 in the video.)

Sure, you’ve done hamstring curls, and they’re nowhere near as powerful as the glute-ham raise, but they can be with a small tweak. What we miss in an isolated hamstring curl is the hip extension we get in a glute-ham raise. One easy way to bring both knee flexion and hip extension together is to do a leg curl motion with furniture sliders, which allow you to drive your feet into the floor to raise your hips first, followed by sliding your feet toward your butt for knee flexion.

Sliders can be bought in any hardware store. They’re cheap, effective, easy to store and carry in a gym bag, and have a myriad of uses. The only catch is that you need to be on a smooth waxed floor, turf, or carpet to use them. Rubber flooring can cause too much friction and make the move overly difficult or even impossible.

Step 1. Lie on your back on the floor and place the sliders under your feet. Bend your knees and slide the sliders in close to your butt. Tuck your pelvis slightly so that it’s perpendicular to the floor and take a deep breath into your belly. Brace your core. Drive the back of your arms into the floor at a 45-degree angle to your torso to add stability.

Step 2. Push through your heels to raise your hips up to full extension. Keep your core tight so you avoid arching your lower back.

Step 3. Slowly extend your knees, sliding your feet out in front of you as you lower your hips. Stop just short of where your butt would touch the floor. When your legs are extended, reverse the motion, curling your legs as you bridge your hips again.

Banded Rolling Hamstring Curl

(See 05:35 in the video.)

One way around the stickiness of sliders is to use a glute-ham roller or glider. It works the same as sliders but offers a platform to rest your feet on and wheels that roll it, making it usable on any flooring.

With any sliding leg curl variation you do, start by adding reps to progress the challenge. When you can do several sets of 10 or more, you’ll need to add resistance, which you can easily do by adding an elastic exercise band around your ankles. The band will amplify the concentric portion of the exercise (pulling the heels back), and make you work to stabilize yourself on the eccentric (extending your legs).

Step 1. Attach a light band to a sturdy object and wrap the open end around the back of your heels. Lie on your back on the floor and rest your heels on the roller.

Step 2. Perform the movement as you would the sliding curl described above.

Note: There are still more options that will allow you to perform the same sliding/rolling hamstring curl movement. A suspension trainer and a physioball can also be used.

Leg-Banded Ab Rollout

You’re probably familiar with rollouts done on an ab wheel. By adding a band around your feet, you can make a standard rollout into a posterior-chain exercise that nearly replicates the glute-ham raise while you train your core at the same time. The band forces you to maintain hip extension while you flex the lower leg, just as a glute-ham raise does.

Step 1. Anchor a band to a sturdy object and place a towel, mat, or pad on the floor to protect your knees. Kneel on the pad and hook the band around the back of your ankles. Curl your heels toward you to 90 degrees, so that there’s tension on the band, and you feel your hamstrings engage. Hold an ab wheel on the floor directly under your shoulders (or use a barbell loaded with light plates so it can roll, as shown above). Your body should form a straight line from your head to your knees, with your core braced.

Step 2. Roll the wheel forward, extending your hips while maintaining a tight core and alignment between your spine and your pelvis. Maintain the isometric hold in your legs. From the end position, draw the wheel back into the floor and return to the starting position. That’s one rep.

Back Extension and Leg Curl

If you don’t have the equipment to address both knee flexion and hip extension in one solid move, performing each of the movements separately is enough to ensure that you at least don’t skip training one of the hamstrings’ key functions. Though its name is something of a misnomer, the back extension exercise done on a 45-degree back extension bench trains hip extension. Do a few sets followed by leg curls—seated, standing, or prone—and you’re giving the hamstrings the one-two punch they need to grow and strengthen to their potential.

Back Extension

Step 1. Adjust the pad of a back extension bench so that it fits in the crease of your hips when you mount the bench. Get on the bench, and secure your feet under the ankle pads. Tuck your pelvis so it’s perpendicular to your spine, and brace your core. Your body should form a long, straight line.

Step 2. Bend only at the hips to lower your torso toward the floor. Stop before you feel your lower back is about to round forward. Squeeze your glutes as you extend your hips and return to the starting position.

Need more exercises for hamstrings? See our article with 8 exercises and 4 hamstring workouts.

The post How To Properly Do Glute-Ham Raises appeared first on Onnit Academy.

– A good upper-chest workout requires learning to better isolate the clavicular head of the pec major muscle.

– The best angle to set the bench for incline presses and flyes depends on the dimensions of your own sternum and ribcage.

– The path of motion that your arms travel is a critical factor in upper-chest training technique.

The Best Upper-Chest Workout for Getting Defined Pecs

Your pecs are sure to look fuller and more impressive when the region that attaches to the clavicle—called the clavicular head—is more prominent, but for some reason, the upper part of the chest doesn’t seem to respond like the rest of the muscle. You’ve heard it before: “If you want your upper chest to grow, do incline presses and flyes, bro.” The thing is, if you’ve been lifting for any length of time, you’ve probably already tried that. And if that was all there was to it, you wouldn’t be reading this now.

The truth is, putting your bench on an incline isn’t the only consideration for targeting the upper chest. The new, more scientifically-sound advice for boosting the upper chest is to base your training on your own individual anatomy, so we asked a trio of physique-training experts to tell you how to do that for a more balanced pair of pecs, top to bottom.

The 4 Best Upper-Chest Workouts

(See 01:28 in the “Best Upper-Chest Workout for Defined Pecs” video at the top of this article)

Here are four sample workouts (A, B, C, and D) you can do that prioritize the upper chest. Continue reading below to get the science behind why these exercises work, and our experts’ opinions on how to set up your own upper-chest workouts in the future.

Sample Upper-Chest Workout A

Here’s a solid routine that trains all the upper-body pushing muscles—chest, shoulders, and triceps. (What trainers call a “push workout.”) Still, the upper pecs are heavily emphasized, as you hit them directly with the first two exercises.

1. Dumbbell Incline Press with Semi-Pronated Grip

Sets: 2 Reps: 6–8

Muscles Worked: upper chest, front delts, triceps

Step 1. Set an adjustable bench to a 30–45-degree angle, depending on your sternum angle (see How Do You Target The Upper Chest? below). Grasp a pair of dumbbells and lie back on the bench, making sure your entire back is in contact with it—do not arch your back so that it causes your lower back to rise off the pad.

Step 2. Start with the dumbbells just outside your shoulders, elbows bent, and your forearms/wrists in a semi-pronated (or neutral, palms facing in) position. 

Step 3. Keeping your elbows pointing at about 45 degrees, press the dumbbells straight up until your arms are just shy of full lockout. Lower the dumbbells back down under control, until they’re just above and outside your shoulders.

Step 4. As you press and lower the dumbbells, establish a natural, comfortable wrist position—something between neutral and semi-pronated. The dumbbells give you the freedom to adjust mid-set.

Perform as many warmup sets as you need until you reach a weight that’s heavy enough for your first work set. Choose a load that allows you to do 7 or 8 reps, but perform only 6. In your second set, reduce the load as needed so you can perform 6 reps again. Each week, try to add a rep to your first set until you can perform 8–10 reps. At that point, increase the weight by 2.5–5 pounds and repeat the process.

2. Low-to-High Cable or Band Flye

Sets: 2 Reps: 10–12 (or 12–15, if you use bands that don’t provide as much tension)

Muscles Worked: upper chest

Step 1. Set the handles on both sides of a cable crossover station to the lowest pulley setting. Grasp the handles, and step forward to lift the weights off the stack so that there’s tension on the pec muscles. If you don’t have access to cable stations, use elastic resistance bands as shown, attached to a rack or other sturdy object.

Step 2. Stagger your feet for stability, and let your arms extend diagonally toward the floor, in line with the cables—but keep a slight bend in your elbows. Your palms will face forward. Keep your torso upright and stationary throughout the movement.

Step 3. Contract your pecs to lift the handles upward and in front of your body. The upward path of motion should be in line with the clavicular fibers of the upper pecs—think: diagonal.

Step 4. At the top of the rep, your hands should be touching each other in front of you at around face level, wrists in line with your forearms. Squeeze the top position for 1–2 seconds, and then lower the weight under control, back to the start position.

3. Seated Lateral Raise

Sets: 2 Reps: 5–10

Muscles Worked: lateral delts

Step 1. Sit up straight with your arms at your sides. (You may keep a slight forward lean if that feels better for your shoulders.)

Step 2. Raise your arms out 90 degrees with your palms facing down.

4. Overhead Banded Lateral Raise

Sets: 2 Reps: 5–10

Muscles Worked: triceps, core

Step 1. Kneel down on the floor and wrap the center of a band around your ankles. Grasp the ends with both hands and reach your arms overhead, allowing the band to pull your elbows bent. Straighten up so that you’re in a tall-kneeling position, and brace your core.

Step 2. Extend the arms up overhead, and hold for a count of 2. Slowly return the arms back to the flexed position where you began. That’s one rep.

Sample Upper-Chest Workout B

This workout focuses on strength—specifically on the bench press—but since we want to prioritize the upper chest, we’ll perform a neutral-grip incline press instead of a flat one and use a Swiss or football bar.

1. Neutral-Grip Incline Bench Press

Sets: 2 Reps: 5–7

Muscles Worked: upper chest, front delts, triceps

Step 1. Rack a Swiss bar (or football bar) at an incline bench press station. Lie back on the bench and grasp the neutral or semi-pronated grips (palms facing each other or a little angled) with hands just outside shoulder-width.

Step 2. Unrack the bar, and lower it under control to your upper chest with your elbows tucked in close to your sides, about 45 degrees from your torso.

Step 3. When the bar touches your upper chest, explosively press it straight up to full arm extension, keeping your elbows tucked in as you press.

Perform as many warmup sets as you need until you reach a weight that’s heavy enough for your first work set. Choose a load that allows you to do 6 or 7 reps, but perform only 5. In your second set, reduce the load as needed so you can perform 5 reps again. Each week, try to add a rep to your first set until you can perform 7–8 reps. At that point, increase the weight by 2.5–5 pounds and repeat the process.

2. Single-Arm Tate Press

Sets: 2 Reps: 6–12

Muscles Worked: triceps, core

Step 1. Hold a light dumbbell in one hand and lie back on a bench. Press the weight above you as in a dumbbell chest press so your elbow is locked out.

Step 2. With your palm facing toward your feet, allow your elbow to bend and slowly lower the weight toward the center of your chest. Stabilize your upper arm so only your forearm is moving. When the weight touches your chest, extend your elbow again. That’s one rep.

3. Chest-Supported Dumbbell Row

Sets: 2 Reps: 5–12

Muscles Worked: upper back, lats, biceps

Step 1. Set an adjustable bench to about a 60-degree angle and lie down with your chest against it. Your spine should be long and your core braced. Grasp dumbbells with your arms extended, and allow your shoulder blades to spread apart while the weights hang at arm’s length.

Step 2. Row the dumbells to your sides, drawing your shoulder blades back and down. Lower under control.

4. Barbell Landmine Raise

Sets: 2 Reps: 6–12

Muscles Worked: lateral delts, core

Step 1. Set up a barbell in a landmine unit, or wedge one end into the corner of a wall. Grasp the very end of the sleeve (where you load the weight plates) and stand with feet shoulder-width apart with the end of the bar in front of your hips.

Step 2. Raise your arm up 90 degrees as you would in a normal lateral raise. Note that you’ll probably only be able to use the empty bar or very light weight. Don’t try to go heavy. Repeat on the opposite side.

Sample Upper-Chest Workout C

This routine alternates push and pull exercises to work the entire upper body as quickly as possible. It’s also extra joint-friendly, making it a great choice for older or very busy lifters who need to get in and out of the gym fast.

1. Converging Incline Machine Press

Sets: 2 Reps: 6–10

Muscles Worked: upper chest, front delts, triceps

Step 1. Set up for the exercise by raising your upper arms to line up with the direction the clavicular fibers of your pecs run. (This should be roughly 45 degrees out from your sides.) Draw your elbows back and retract your shoulder blades—that’s the bottom end of your range of motion. Now set up in the machine so that you can duplicate that end range position, adjusting the seat height as needed.

Set the incline according to your sternum angle—less steep for a flatter sternum, and closer to 45 degrees for an angled one (we explain this more below). If your machine’s incline isn’t adjustable, this may require scooting your butt forward on the seat to (ironically) take away some of the incline. If your machine allows it, you can use a neutral (palms facing in) grip, which may feel better for your shoulders or allow a better angle of the arms to hit the upper pecs.

Step 2. Unrack the weight to put tension on the pecs, and then press the handles up to full elbow extension, focusing on driving up and in. Think about bringing your biceps up to your collarbone on each side, so you squeeze both ends of the clavicular pec head together.

Step 3. Lower the weight under control. Stop when your hands are just above chest level (don’t let the weight rest on the stack between reps).

Perform as many warmup sets as you need until you reach a weight that’s heavy enough for your first work set. Choose a load that allows you to do 7 or 8 reps, but perform only 6. In your second set, reduce the load as needed so you can perform 6 reps again. Each week, try to add a rep to your first set until you can perform 10 reps. At that point, increase the weight by 2.5–5 pounds and repeat the process.

2. Inverted Row

Sets: 2 Reps: 5–10, or as many as possible

Muscles Worked: upper back, core

Step 1. Set a bar or suspension handles to around waist height, and hang with your feet on the floor. Extend your hips and position yourself so that you’re suspended above the floor and your body forms a straight line. Draw your shoulders back and down to engage the lats.

Step 2. Pull your body up to the bar or handles, and lower yourself back under control. It’s important that your body moves as a unit. That means no hiking the hips or bending the knees to help yourself out.

Do a few warm-up sets with low reps (5 or fewer) to determine the right height. Try to find a range that will allow you 5–10 reps.

3. Cable Or Banded Straight-Arm Pulldown

Sets: 2 Reps: 5–10

Muscles Worked: triceps, lats

Step 1. Attach a band to the top of a power rack or other sturdy object, and grasp the open loop with both hands. (You can also use a cable with a rope handle attachment.) Hinge your hips back while maintaining a tall posture and driving your shoulder blades down and together to create tension in the back and arms. Your hands should be at face level.

Step 2. With arms extended, pull your hands down toward your hip pockets. Pause at the bottom, and slowly return to the starting position. That’s one rep.

4. Banded or Cable Rotating Biceps Curl

Sets: 2 Reps: 6–15

Muscles Worked: biceps

Step 1. Pick up a circle band and grasp an end in each hand. (You can also use cables.) Stand on the center of the band so it’s secured to the floor. Stand tall with your abs braced and pelvis level with the floor. Your palms should face in to your sides.

Step 2. Curl the band, rotating your palms outward as you come up, so that you lift against the resistance of the band.

Sample Upper-Chest Workout D

If you want a minimalist, do-it-at-home, virtually no-equipment-required routine, try this one. It starts with upper chest but works the whole body in just three moves (every major muscle group gets some work). Do the exercises one at a time or perform them as a circuit to get done faster and amp up the conditioning challenge. In other words, you can do a set of each resting only briefly in between, and then rest as needed at the end of the round. Repeat for 3 rounds.

1. Feet-Elevated Pushup

Sets: 3 Reps: 5–12

Muscles Worked: upper chest, front delts, triceps

Step 1. Place your hands around shoulder-width on the floor, and raise your feet behind you on a bench, box, or other stable surface. Your feet should be high enough so that your arms will press your body up at a roughly 45-degree angle from your chest. Tuck your tailbone slightly so that your pelvis is neutral, and brace your core. Your body should form a long, straight line.

Step 2. Lower your body, tucking your elbows about 45 degrees from your sides, until you feel a stretch in your pecs. Press yourself back up, allowing your shoulder blades to spread at the top. This action is another advantage of the pushup—pressing exercises done on a bench restrict your scapular movement, while the pushup allows these muscles to work naturally to stabilize your shoulders.

If that’s too hard, lower your feet closer to the floor. If it’s too easy, raise your feet higher if you can, or, perform your reps with a slower negative (lowering phase).

2. Split-Stance, One-Arm Dumbbell Row

Sets: 3 Reps: 5–15

Muscles Worked: lats, upper back, biceps

Step 1. Hold a dumbbell in one hand and get into a split stance. Bend your hips back and brace your forearm against the inside of your thigh. The hand holding the weight should be opposite the foot that’s in front. Your torso should form a straight line with your back flat.

Step 2. Row the dumbbell to your hip. Complete your reps on that side, and then switch sides and repeat.

If you only have one or a few light dumbbells at home, hold the top position 2 seconds. Take 4 seconds to lower the weight back down.

3. Close-Stance, Heel-Elevated Squat

Sets: 3 Reps: 5–15

Muscles Worked: quads

Step 1. Place weight plates or blocks on the floor, and rest your heels on them with feet hip-width apart.

Step 2. Without letting your feet actually move, try to screw both legs into the floor as if you were standing on grass and wanted to twist it up—you’ll feel your glutes tighten and the arches in your feet rise. Take a deep breath into your belly and bend your hips back. Bend your knees and lower your body down. Push your knees out as you descend. Go as low as you can while keeping your head, spine, and pelvis aligned, and then extend your hips and knees to return to standing.

Ideally, having your feet elevated will allow you to achieve a full bend in the knees without losing your balance or your lower back position. If bodyweight alone is too easy, add some weight for resistance (a loaded backpack is one option), or slow down your descent to three full seconds on each rep.

Best Exercises for Building Upper-Chest Strength

Pop quiz: Are presses or flyes better for hitting the pecs, and, in this case, the upper (clavicular) fibers in particular? Despite what you may have heard, there’s no blanket approach that applies to everyone, and both movement types can be beneficial when performed with the proper setup.

“Presses tend to be better for working the lengthened portion of the range of motion,” says Kassem Hanson, a trainer of bodybuilders, designer of gym equipment, and creator of biomechanics courses for muscle building (available at N1 Education; @coach_kassem on Instagram). That means that chest presses of any kind activate more muscle fibers when your pecs are stretched out at the bottom of the rep. “Flyes, [when done with a cable], tend to be better for working the short portion of the range of motion,” when the muscle is nearly fully shortened (such as when your hands come together on a cable flye). “The best option is to use both exercises. Presses tend to have more total pec recruitment, so, when programming, you may do more presses, because one to two good presses in a workout will cover it.”

“If I’m doing a flye, I’m going to be able to better isolate [the pecs] from the deltoids and triceps” says Jordan Shallow, DC, an Ontario, Canada-based strength coach and licensed chiropractor (@the_muscle_doc on Instagram). “With the press, you’re going to be able to use more load, but that load will be dispersed through the delts and triceps,” and that relieves some of the tension that the pec muscles could be experiencing and use as stimulus for growth. However, this isn’t to say pressing can’t work the pecs in a more isolated fashion. (It won’t isolate them like flyes can, but it can be closer.) “If we can set it up properly to make the pecs a prime mover based off the anatomical variants,” says Shallow, “we can really make the press a good exercise and challenge the pecs.”

Below are five moves that, if performed properly, will emphasize the clavicular head of the pec major for most individuals. They come courtesy of Hanson and Bill Shiffler, owner of Renaissance Physique, and a competitive amateur bodybuilder. (The moves without directions are explained step-by-step in the workouts above.)

1. Low-to-High Cable or Band Flye

One of the problems with dumbbell flyes is the lack of tension at the top. As your arms come up from the outstretched position, the resistance drops off, and at the very top, your shoulder, elbow, and wrist joints are stacked, so the weight is just resting on your arms like they’re pillars. You also can’t bring the dumbbells past the midline of your body at the top, because they’ll clang together. Hanson and Shiffler both argue that full range of motion (ROM) is key to developing the clavicular and upper-sternal pec fibers, so pulling the arms across the body is especially important. With cables, you can keep tension on the pecs throughout the entire arc of a flye.

“Free weights give resistance in one direction, which eliminates the ability to get full range of motion,” Hanson says. “A low-to-high cable flye is going to be your best way to get full ROM—especially the range where the muscles are fully shortened.” 

Other than offering optimal ROM and biomechanics, the low-to-high cable flye will also provide some much-needed variety to a chest program that includes a healthy dose of pressing movements. “When doing machine and free-weight presses for your middle [sternal] pecs,” says Hanson, “you’ll get some overlapping stimulus in the upper chest, but not in the range of motion you get in a low-to-high cable flye.”

Of course, if you don’t have access to cables, bands can be used as a substitute.

Sets/Reps: 2–4 sets of 8–15 reps, training close to failure, is Hanson’s general recommendation.

2. Converging Incline Machine Press

A converging pressing machine is one where the handles come together as you press the weight, rather than remain static on one path of motion. This allows you to perform a movement that’s more of a hybrid press/flye than what you’d get from most pressing machines, better mimicking the range you’d use during a cable or resistance-band flye and keeping tension on the pecs in multiple planes. When doing a barbell or Smith machine incline press, for example, your hands don’t come together as you press because they’re fixed on the bar, and, as explained earlier, a dumbbell incline press offers no tension in the top position. Though not available in all commercial gyms, a converging press can be a great addition to your training arsenal if you have access to it. (PRIME Fitness USA makes an excellent converging incline press machine, as shown above.)

The upward pressing angle combined with converging handles makes this particular type of incline machine press extremely effective for targeting both the clavicular and upper sternal pec fibers, provided you also achieve an optimal arm path through proper setup.

Exercise Variations: To target more of the sternal fibers that make up the middle/upper portion of the pecs, the upper-arm position will be slightly different than what’s described above. Because the sternal fibers run more or less side to side, you’ll want the arms to line up with those fibers. That means your elbows will be up a bit higher and pointed out to the sides, with a path of motion going from out to in, straight across the body. (This is shown better in the first variation used in the video above.)

Hanson shows both variations of the incline converging machine press (sternal and then clavicular pec emphasis) in this video.

Sets/Reps: 2–4 sets of 6–12 reps, training close to failure.

3. Dumbbell Incline Press with Semi-Pronated Grip

According to Hanson, a relatively narrow grip better targets the upper chest because it allows the elbows to stay in closer to the body, and that prevents the front delts from taking over the movement (as is the case on presses done with a wide grip). If you’re pressing with a barbell, he recommends a grip just outside shoulder-width. “However,” he says, “narrower arm paths work better with a neutral grip [palms facing each other] or semi-pronated grip [palms somewhere between facing each other and facing straight forward],” whichever is more comfortable for you. This being the case, dumbbells are a better option than a barbell for targeting the upper pecs.

With dumbbells, you can easily assume a neutral or semi-pronated grip, whereas a barbell locks your hands in a fully pronated position, and, Hanson says, “encourages the elbows to flare out.”

Sets/Reps: 2–4 sets of 6–12 reps, training close to failure.

4. Swiss-Bar Incline Press

This exercise, also recommended by Hanson, is more or less the barbell version of the incline dumbbell press described above. A Swiss bar (aka “football bar”) is a specialized barbell with handles that offer neutral and sometimes semi-pronated grips. While not typically available at big box fitness clubs, if you can find a hardcore powerlifting or bodybuilding gym, or athlete training facility that has one of these bars, it’s worth trying out.

With the Swiss bar incline press, you get the upper-pec biases of the angled bench and neutral grip with the added bonus of greater overload placed on the muscles because you’re using a barbell (which is more stable than pressing a pair of dumbbells).

If your sternum is fairly flat, go with a 30-degree angle. If the top of the sternum is behind the lower ribs (an inverted angle), go with 45 degrees. (More about this below.)

Sets/Reps: 2–4 sets of 6–12 reps, training close to failure.

5. Incline Dumbbell Flye

The key to targeting the upper chest with a dumbbell flye is the same as with the low-to-high cable flye: establish an arm path that moves in the same direction as the diagonal fibers of the clavicular pecs. Doing a flye with the torso at an inclined position should automatically help you.

If you were doing a flye on a flat bench, the upper arms would more or less be moving in the same direction as the sternal fibers—straight horizontal, not diagonal. (The exception here would be someone with a sternum angle where the clavicles are significantly further forward than the lower ribs, which would put you at a natural incline even on a flat bench.)

An incline bench, on the other hand, puts you at such an angle that the same flye motion has your upper arms moving diagonally upward in relation to your torso—same as the clavicular fibers. Will there still be some sternal fibers activated? Of course. But as mentioned earlier, these fibers reach into the upper chest area, so no harm there.

As for what bench angle to use, again, assess your sternum angle. If your sternum is fairly flat, go with a 30-degree angle. If the top of the sternum is behind the lower ribs, use 45 degrees (see How Do You Target the Upper Chest? below). As mentioned above, a free-weight flye isn’t quite as effective as one done on a machine or with cables/bands, because the resistance is reduced at the top, but it’s a solid option for those who don’t have access to fancy equipment.

Step 1. Set a bench to the appropriate angle for you and lie back against it with dumbbells at arm’s length overhead. Your back should be flat on the bench.

Step 2. Open your arms, lowering them out to your sides until your feel a big stretch in your pecs. Allow your elbows to bend a little as you descend.

Step 3. Bring your arms back up overhead. Stop the range of motion short of where your arms are perpendicular to your torso.

Exercise Variation: The incline flye can also be done with cables, placing an incline bench in the middle of a cable crossover station and using handles at the lowest pulley settings.

Sets/Reps: 2–4 sets of 8–15 reps, training close to failure.

Upper-Chest Exercise Alternative

If you’re training at home without the luxury of much equipment, you can resort to the classic pushup done with your feet resting on an elevated surface. “This is pretty similar to an incline press in the way it targets the upper chest,” says Shiffler, “with the added benefit of targeting some stabilizer/core muscles while you’re at it.”

Pushup with Feet Elevated

As with other variations, adjust the height of your feet based on your sternum angle—body at around 30 degrees to the floor if you have a flat sternum, and feet up a little higher if your sternum is angled.

Sets/reps: 2–4 sets of 8–15 reps, training close to failure.

How Do You Target the Upper Chest?

The idea that any chest exercise done on an incline bench hits the upper pecs has been perpetuated for more than a half-century, at least. Arnold credited his outstanding upper chest to incline presses and flyes, and most bodybuilders still swear by them. Indeed, some degree of incline is important to get the clavicular pec fibers working against gravity in the most efficient way, but elevating your bench is only part of the equation.

The key to targeting a certain area of the chest, says Shallow, is “understanding where to look from an anatomical standpoint. That will indicate what pec fibers you’re training. Arm path is going to be a key factor, but sternum angle and ribcage depth are going to be anatomical variations that will drastically affect how you recruit the pecs.”

“The pecs gain their mechanical leverage by using the ribcage as a fulcrum,” adds Hanson, “allowing them to pull the arm forward when it’s behind you, and pull your arm across your body when it’s in front. When you put your elbows out wide, you move the pecs away from the ribcage, taking away that fulcrum and leaving you to rely more on your anterior deltoids. This is a common mistake people make when performing an incline press, and also one of the reasons there’s conflicting research on the impact of incline angles on chest recruitment.”

In other words, you can choose any degree of incline that you like, but if you move your arms out too wide on your incline presses, you still won’t target the upper chest effectively.

In addition to arm path, the angle of your sternum and the depth of your ribcage should be considered. Yes, we know that sounds very technical and complex, but it’s not that difficult to assess.

Why Your Sternum and Ribcage Matter

The degree to which you incline your bench depends on your sternum angle and ribcage. “Some people have a very straight up and down chest—a flat sternum angle,” says Hanson, “while others have a steeper angle where the lower portion of their sternum sticks out further. The more angled your sternum, the greater the incline you should use,” up to 45 degrees. “The flatter the sternum,” says Hanson, “the less of an angle—usually around 30 degrees.”

Determining your own sternum dimensions is really as simple as standing in front of a mirror, turning to one side, and taking your shirt off. Look at where your collarbone is versus the bottom of your breastbone and lower ribs. If it’s behind these bones, you’ll probably need a steeper incline than if the two are nearly in a straight line. And if your clavicle is slightly in front of the sternum and ribs, you may need only a few degrees of incline, because your chest is basically on an incline already.

But don’t just rely on bench angle. “One of the most common cheats is people arching their back and completely negating the incline on the bench,” says Hanson. So, once you’ve found the appropriate bench angle, make sure you take advantage of it by keeping your back flat against the bench (even though, alas, it will force you to go lighter and use stricter form).

Remember, too, that the orientation of the pec fibers determines the way you need to move to work the muscle. As you can see in the diagram above, the fibers of the different pec major heads don’t all run in the same direction. The fibers of the clavicular head run at an upward angle (diagonal), not side-to-side like the sternal head. So using an incline bench isn’t as important as making sure your arms are moving along the path that the upper-chest fibers go.

“The clavicular pec is unique in that it originates on the clavicle, not the sternum,” says Hanson. “This gives it more of an upward line of pull, which means you’ll use motions that go low to high. This can be done with a cable, using an incline on a bench, or adjusting your torso position in a machine. Bottom line is, you need to be pressing at an upward angle [to target the clavicular fibers].”

What Muscles Are In The Upper Chest?

When discussing the upper chest, we’re only talking about one muscle: pectoralis major. However, the pec major consists of three distinct portions of muscle fibers, called heads, and the way they’re arranged determines their function (i.e., the mechanics you need to use to develop them). From the top down, the sections of the pec are:

1. The Clavicular Head (Upper Chest)

The fibers originate on the clavicle (collar bone) and run diagonally downward to attach to the humerus (upper-arm bone). They work to pull the arms in front of the torso and up overhead.

2. The Sternal Head (Middle Chest)

The fibers start on the edge of the sternum (breastbone) and reach across to attach to the humerus (just below where the clavicular head goes). The sternal head pulls the arms forward and crosses them in front of you.

3. The Costal Head (Lower Chest)

Fibers run from the cartilage of the ribs and the external oblique muscle to the humerus. The costal head pretty much assists the the sternal head.

To improve the upper chest specifically, you’ll want to focus mainly on training the clavicular head, but with some emphasis on the sternal head as well, because it covers the upper portion of the sternum (see the diagram above).

Now for the big question: can you really train specific portions of a muscle? For decades, bodybuilders have argued that you can, but scientists have rebutted them, citing the “all or none” principle, which states that a muscle either contracts or it doesn’t. Indeed, due to the way muscles are innervated, when the signal to contract is sent from the brain, all sections of the muscle shorten at once.

“The ’all or none’ principle is more around the actual depolarization of the muscle [that] causes it to contract,” says Shallow. “There’s no partial contraction—the muscle’s contracting or it’s not. But people conflate that with the idea that a muscle contracts and we can’t put particular tension, or effective tension, across certain fibers… and we absolutely can.”

The truth is, both sides of the debate are correct to a degree. That is, when you work your pecs, you work the whole muscle, but one part of it will work harder than another depending on the movement you’re doing. That means that certain muscle fibers will be activated to complete the movement while others won’t be, and that makes sense, as we know the brain works for maximum efficiency in all things. If you’re raising your arms up in front of you from a 45-degree angle at your sides, your nervous system will call on more clavicular pec muscle fibers than sternal pec, and it won’t require much from the costal pec heads.

A study in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research showed as much, with regard to the upper chest specifically. Researchers had subjects perform the bench press at various angles and tested the muscle recruitment for each. Pressing at an incline of 44 degrees resulted in greater activation of the upper-chest muscle fibers than pressing on a flat bench, or a bench set to 28 degrees of incline. A 2020 study on bodybuilders in the European Journal of Sport Science had comparable findings, with the incline bench press again outperforming horizontal and decline presses for recruiting the upper chest.

How To Stretch Your Upper Chest

Prepare your chest, shoulders, upper back, and elbows for your upper-chest training with this quick mobility routine from Eric Leija (@primal.swoledier). Perform each move for 2–3 sets of 10–15 reps.

Tips for Building More Muscle

Here are a few more tips for getting the greatest possible upper-chest growth.

Sets and Reps

You don’t have to train the pecs with a wide range of reps, or bomb it with multiple exercises in one session. One or two movements is enough. The fewer sets you do, the faster you’ll recover, and the sooner you can train again and make progress, so aim to train your chest at least twice in a seven-day period (three times, via full-body workouts, is probably the most you should do).

Moderate rep ranges strike a balance between weight that’s heavy enough to efficiently recruit lots of muscle fibers and a load that’s so heavy you risk injury and burnout. Hanson generally recommends doing no fewer than 4 reps per set on presses and no fewer than 6 reps per set on flye movements, unless you’re training for a specific strength goal. However, virtually all rep numbers and ranges have been shown to work equally well for muscle gain, at least in the short-term. Reps between 5 and 10 seem to be a good mainstay, keeping fatigue to a minimum and lessening the chance that your performance will suffer in subsequent workouts. Choose your reps based on efficiency, or just personal preference, but there’s no need to do very high numbers (15+) or very low ones (1–3). Avoid the extremes.

Tempo

When it comes to the speed with which you perform your reps (which trainers call tempo), Hanson says the biggest key is making sure you control the resistance during your sets. Don’t bounce the weights up, or let them drop as you lower down on a rep.

“Presses can be performed with a wide variety of tempos,” says Hanson. “But you shouldn’t be going super slow or throwing the weight up explosively. For flyes, you’re using your whole arm as a lever, so controlling the eccentric [negative/lowering portion of the rep] is much more important for safety and stimulus.” 

Advanced Techniques

The more experienced you get, the more creative you can get with tempo. For pressing exercises, “adding a two-second pause or an extra quarter-rep at the bottom can be a great variation in stimulus,” says Hanson. “You’ll get more sore with those techniques, and they increase volume, so consider dropping a set or two when using a more advanced tempo, and then progressing back up.”

With cable flyes, Hanson recommends a one to two-second squeeze in the end position, when your hands are close together. “Because you fatigue in the shortest part of the range of motion first, an advanced technique is to use a pause in your early sets and decrease or remove it in the later sets,” he says. This way, you can keep up your reps and not be limited by the weakest part of the movement [as you get tired].”

Want to work on lower-chest now? See our Lower-Chest Workouts for the Gym & Home.

The post The Best Upper-Chest Workout for Getting Defined Pecs appeared first on Onnit Academy.

What’s the whole truth, bottom line, and final answer on abs? We’re about to clear up all the misconceptions. Consider the following your tome on ab training.

What Muscles Make Up The Abs?

The term “abs” can refer to all the muscles of the midsection, ranging from the deep core muscles that stabilize your spine to the obliques on the side of your torso that help you twist your shoulders and hips and bend to each side. But when most people say abs, they mean the rectus abdominis, more popularly known as the six-pack muscle.

The rectus abdominis originates on the pubic bone and stretches up to the xiphoid process (the bottom of the sternum), as well as the cartilage between the fifth, sixth, and seventh ribs. It works to bend the lumbar spine forward (spinal flexion), pull the rib cage down, and help stabilize the pelvis when you’re walking. When an individual is very lean with well-developed musculature, the rectus abdominis can appear to be six distinct muscles, but it’s only one. The six-pack look is due to a web of connective tissue that compartmentalizes the muscle. Whether someone has a six pack or an eight pack comes down to genetics alone—it’s the way nature shaped their abs—and has nothing to do with training or diet. (For all his gargantuan muscles, Arnold Schwarzenegger’s abs were always comparatively less impressive; he famously sported only a four pack!)

How Is Working Your Lower Abs Different From Upper Abs?

(See 00:30 in the video above.)

Bodybuilders have long believed that exercises that bring the ribs toward the pelvis (crunch variations, for example) work the upper portion of the rectus abdominis, while movements that do the reverse—lifting the pelvis toward the ribs—train the lower portion. Scientists and some trainers, however, have disputed this, arguing that, since there’s only one rectus abdominis muscle and its function is pretty simple, any movement that brings the ribs and pelvis closer together is going to work the whole muscle.

So who’s right?

A study from the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research measured rectus abdominis activation across six different ab exercises, concluding that, while some of the moves worked the muscle more than others, none showed much of a difference in which part of the abs (upper or lower) was activated. Still, other research has shown the opposite. One trial found that the old-school curlup worked the upper portion of the muscle to a greater degree, and the posterior pelvic tilt (basically a reverse crunch, in which the tailbone is tucked under, lifting the pelvis toward the upper body) favored the lower abs—just as the bodybuilders have claimed for years.

So far, the correct answer seems to be a little from Column A and a little from Column B. In his 2021 book, Science and Development of Muscle Hypertrophy, Brad Schoenfeld, PhD, CSCS, the world’s foremost muscle-growth researcher, concludes that while the entire rectus abdominis will be worked during exercises that target it, it is also possible to emphasize recruitment of the upper abs over the lower abs, and vice versa.

He writes: “Although somewhat speculative, there is a sound rationale for performing traditional crunch variations to target the upper abdominal region and performing reverse crunch variations to develop the lower aspect of the muscle… Not only do the tendinous intersections [of the rectus abdominis] suggest some degree of functional independence of the muscle, but its upper and lower aspects are segmentally innervated by the ventral rami of the lower six or seven thoracic nerves, providing a further mechanism for selective activation.”

Schoenfeld goes on to cite pro tennis players whose abs are bigger on their non-dominant side, which he says indicates that people can, to some degree, recruit not only the upper and lower abs selectively, but also the sides of the muscle.

Long story short: you can target different areas of the abs to shape them according to your goals, but you’ll never be able to isolate any one area of the muscle completely while turning off another one.

What’s The Difference Between Situps and Crunches?

Before we go any further, we should clarify some terms. If ab training really comes down to situp and crunch-type movements, let’s define what these are.

For many years, the situp was the primary ab exercise. You lie on your back with knees bent, and raise your upper body off the floor and up to your knees. This works the entire abdominal area, but it also recruits the legs and hip flexors, and it can be hard on the lower back (as we’ll examine in the next section). In the past few decades, trainers began recommending crunches in place of the situp—a more isolated movement for the rectus abdominis that requires you only lift your head and shoulders off the floor. It’s the safer, more targeted ab workout option between the two, but crunching alone won’t get you a six pack. These days, it seems best to favor crunches over situps, but perform them with different tools—such as a cable machine, stability ball, or inclined bench—to get more muscle activation without sacrificing safety.

Is It Safe To Do Situps and Crunches?

Whether you’re trying to work upper abs, lower abs, or both, the standard prescription is to perform some kind of spinal flexion exercise—i.e. situps or crunches—because bending the spine is a major function of the rectus abdominis.

In recent years, however, some athletes and trainers have contended that repeatedly bending the spine over time can lead to lower-back injury, including disc prolapse or herniation. The idea is that bending the spine pinches the intervertebral discs, gradually pushing them backward until they bulge out and press against a nerve, causing pain. While situp and crunch exercises may not cause back problems entirely on their own, they could throw gas on a fire that’s already burning in many athletes and recreational lifters. If you’ve been following a program that includes regular back squats and deadlifts, which compress the spine, and your lifestyle includes a lot of sitting and slouching (spinal flexion), you can understand how the concern arose. 

For these reasons, some experts recommend developing the abs using only variations of the plank exercise, where the ribs and pelvis are held still and the rectus abdominis, along with the other core muscles, contracts isometrically. Schoenfeld agrees that well-chosen plank exercises can effectively train both the upper and lower abs, but argues that there’s nothing inherently dangerous with spinal flexion exercises either, assuming you’re not already contending with a back issue. In a review he co-authored, Schoenfeld determined that, if an individual has no pre-existing back problems, spinal flexion exercises are not only safe when done as normally prescribed, but probably necessary for maximizing development of the rectus abdominis. If you have aspirations of competing in a physique show, where your opponents will surely have well-defined abs, you’ll probably have to do some spinal flexion exercises to get the ab development needed to keep up with them.

For abs that look great and perform well, including having the ability to protect your back, healthy people should probably perform both planks and spinal flexion. Schoenfeld and spinal-flexion critics do agree, however, that too much spinal flexion isn’t good for anyone. If you’re old-school and think that 100 crunches or situps every day is the only way to see results, you could be setting yourself up for injury. Whatever the ab exercises you choose, they should be performed with moderate sets and reps like training any other muscle, with time off for recovery afterward. (We’ll give more specific recommendations below.)

Tips for Isolating Your Upper Abs

Just to recap, you can’t completely isolate your upper or lower abs, but you can emphasize one section over the other with different exercises and careful technique. To lock in on the upper abs, “You want exercises that are going to bring your ribcage down toward your hips,” says Jonny Catanzano, an IFBB pro bodybuilder and owner of Tailored Health Coaching, a fitness coaching service (@tailoredhealthcoaching on Instagram).

This means crunch/situp motions of all kinds, generally starting with your spine straight and finishing where it’s fully flexed at the lumbar. Yes, that means you’ll be rounded in your lower back, which is a major no-no for most loaded exercises such as squats and deadlifts, where the spine has to be kept neutral for safety’s sake. But to fully activate your abs, you have to take them through a full range of motion, and that means crunching your body into a tight ball. If you have lower-back pain, you may want to skip these kinds of exercises and do plank variations (we have a good one for you below), but otherwise, a few sets done two or three times a week shouldn’t present a problem.

Perform your crunch exercises for moderate sets and reps (2–4 sets of 6–15, generally speaking); don’t train them heavy. This will help to prevent placing unnecessary stress on the lower back.

To get the most out of your upper abs, “Squeeze your glutes to tilt your pelvis back, so your tailbone tucks under you when you begin a rep,” says Catanzano. Called a posterior pelvic tilt, this helps take your hip flexor muscles out of the exercise, so that your abs do the majority of the crunching.

What Exercises Work Your Upper Abs?

(See 00:52 in the video.)

A study by the American Council on Exercise showed that, out of 15 exercises tested, crunches done on a stability ball—as well as reverse crunches done on an inclined surface—both worked the upper abs the hardest, and nearly equally. (Incidentally, the reverse crunch on the incline also ranked highest for lower-ab activation.)

But don’t take these findings as gospel. Only 16 subjects participated, and two of them weren’t counted because they didn’t complete the study. Still, the results do suggest that you’d be smart to include crunches done on both a stability ball and an inclined bench in your program, provided you can do them safely.

In addition to those two moves, Catanzano recommends the following.

Kneeling Cable Crunch

(See 01:00 in the video.)

This exercise isolates the upper abs as much as possible, and the cable ensures that there’s tension on the muscles even when the spine is extended (where they would normally rest in a crunch done on the floor). The cable stack also makes it easy to increase the load as you get stronger. Use a V-grip to go heavier, or a rope handle for greater range of motion.

Step 1. Attach a V-grip or rope handle to the top pulley of a cable station, and grasp it with both hands. Kneel on the floor a foot or so in front of the cable so that you have to reach forward a bit with your hands to grasp the handle, and you feel a stretch on your abs. You may want to place a towel or mat under your knees for comfort.

Step 2. Squeeze your glutes and tuck your tailbone under so your lower back rounds a bit and you feel your abs engage. Crunch down, pulling the cable down behind your head as you bring your ribs to your pelvis. When your abs are fully contracted, that’s the end of the range of motion. Slowly return to the starting position. That’s one rep.

Don’t get carried away with the weight you’re using. It should never be so heavy that it pulls you up off the floor at the top of each rep.

Seated Pulley Crunch

(See 01:47 in the video.)

Performing a cable crunch on a lat pulldown machine may be a more comfortable option than the kneeling cable crunch, as it makes it easier to keep your hips stable. 

Step 1. Attach a lat-pulldown bar to the pulley of a lat-pulldown station and sit on the seat facing away from the machine. Reach overhead and grasp the bar with hands shoulder-width apart and palms facing behind you.

Step 2. Squeeze your glutes and tuck your tailbone under so your lower back rounds a bit and you feel your abs engage. Crunch down, pulling the cable down behind your head as you bring your ribs to your pelvis. When your abs are fully contracted, that’s the end of the range of motion. Slowly return to the starting position. That’s one rep.

Hanging Leg or Knee Raise

(See 02:29 in the video.)

The pelvis flexes toward the ribs on this one, so it’s a good lower-ab move too, but it will hit the upper part of the rectus abdominis as well. Doing the movement with legs extended creates a longer lever and puts more tension on the muscles, but that will be too advanced for many people. If that’s the case for you, performing the motion with knees bent (a hanging knee raise) is a good modification. In either case, Catanzano warns that you don’t just lift your legs/knees. “That just works the hip flexors,” he says. “Make sure you bring your hips all the way up,” rounding your back as you do so.

Step 1. Hang from a pullup bar with your palms facing forward or toward each other. You may want to use lifting straps to reinforce your grip, so your hands don’t tire before your abs do.

Step 2. Tuck your tailbone under and raise your legs up, keeping your knees as straight as you can until your abs are fully contracted. Control the motion as you lower your legs back down. That’s one rep.

For the hanging knee raise, perform the same movement, but keep your knees bent 90 degrees the whole time. On either exercise, be careful not to swing your legs up or let them swing behind you at the bottom. You want your abs to do the lifting, not momentum, and swinging can strain your lower back.

Crossover Crunch

(See 03:52 in the video.)

Here’s an upper-ab exercise that also hits the obliques, the muscles on your sides that help you bend and twist.

Step 1. Lie on your back on the floor with your arms extended 90 degrees from your sides. Raise your right leg straight overhead, and then twist your hips to the left, resting your right leg on the floor. Cup the back of your head with your right hand.

Step 2. Crunch your torso off the floor and toward your right leg. Hold the top position for a second, and then return to the floor. That’s one rep. Complete your reps, and then repeat on the opposite side.

Pushup Plank with Tailbone Tucked

(See 04:45 in the video.)

If crunching movements aggravate your lower back, try plank exercises instead. Catanzano likes the classic yoga plank done a little differently—with the tailbone tucked under and knees bent to work the rectus abdominis more.

Step 1. Get into pushup position. Squeeze your glutes and tuck your tailbone under to activate your abs. Bend your knees and arms a bit so you feel like your midsection is hollowed out—abs braced, preventing your lower back from sagging.

Step 2. Hold the position for time. Aim for 30 seconds to start.

Your upper abs may get sore just from reading all this, but don’t make the mistake of thinking that training alone will produce a six pack. Exercise builds the ab muscles, but only a healthy diet can lower your body fat levels enough to reveal them, so if your belly currently hangs over your belt line, cut calories from your meals. Catanzano says that most men aren’t able to see ab definition until their body fat is in the range of 8–12%, and women need to be 14–18%.

See this guide on how to diet for abs.

How To Stretch Before Working Your Abs

Catanzano offers the following mobility drills for preparing your midsection for a session of ab training. Perform 10–12 reps for each exercise in turn, and repeat for 2–3 total sets of each.

Walking Knee Hug

Step 1. Stand tall and take a step forward, raising one knee to your chest as high as you can. As the knee rises, grab hold of your shin with both hands and pull it into your chest for a deep glute and inner-thigh stretch. Avoid slouching or bending forward as you do. Try to keep the support leg straight as well.

Step 2. Release the leg, plant your foot, and repeat on the opposite leg, walking forward with each rep.

Bird Dog

Step 1. Get on all fours with your hands under your shoulders and your knees under your hips. Tuck your tailbone so that your pelvis is perpendicular to your spine, draw your ribs down, and brace your core.

Step 2. Extend your right arm and left leg at the same time while maintaining your tight core. Don’t let your back arch. (Think about reaching forward with the arm and leg, not just raising them up.) Lower back down, and repeat on the opposite side. Each arm and leg raise is one rep.

Prone Scorpion

Step 1. Lie facedown on the floor and reach your arms out to your sides. Tuck your tailbone so that your pelvis is perpendicular to your spine, draw your ribs down, and brace your core.

Step 2. Raise your right leg up and reach it across toward your left arm. Reverse the motion and repeat on the other side. A touch on each side is one rep.

Prone Cobra

Step 1. Lie facedown on the floor with your hands on the floor at shoulder level, as in the bottom of a pushup.

Step 2. Press your hands into the floor as you extend your spine and raise your torso off the floor. Hold the top a second, and then return to the floor. That’s one rep.

Windmill Lunge

Step 1. Step forward and lower your body into a lunge. Extend your arms 90 degrees out to your sides. 

Step 2. Twist your torso away from the front leg until it’s 90 degrees, with one arm reaching in front of you and the other behind. Come back to the starting position, and then repeat on the opposite leg, twisting and reaching in the other direction. Each lunge is one rep.

The Ultimate Upper-Ab Workout

Below are two sample ab workouts, courtesy of Catanzano, that you can add at the beginning or end of your current sessions, or on an off day. Alternate between the two workouts (A and B) for no more than three total ab workouts in a week. They’ll both work the entire abdominal region, but will emphasize the upper part of the rectus abdominis.

Workout A

1. Kneeling Cable Crunch

Sets: 3  Reps: 12–15

2. Hanging Leg or Knee Raise

Sets: 3  Reps: 6–12

3. Pushup Plank with Tailbone Tucked

Sets: 3  Reps: Hold 30 seconds

Workout B

Perform exercises 2A and 2B as a superset. So you’ll do one set of 2A and then one set of 2B before resting. Rest, and repeat until all sets are completed for both exercises.

1. Crossover Crunch

Sets: 3  Reps: 12–15

2A. Hanging Knee Raise

Sets: 3  Reps: 12

2B. Pushup Plank with Tailbone Tucked

Sets: 3  Reps: Hold 30 seconds

3. Seated Pulley Crunch

Sets: 3  Reps: 12–15

For more ab training tips, see Get A Six-Pack In Your Living Room.

The post The Pro’s Guide To Upper-Ab Exercises & Workouts appeared first on Onnit Academy.

That’s a bummer, because the lats are essential for a physique that looks muscular and lean. When you flex them, they make your waist look smaller and your shoulders look wider, giving the impression of a powerful, even super-heroic upper body.

Whether you’re a regular guy or gal who wants to sculpt a more balanced physique, or a die-hard lifter who has aspirations of one day competing in a physique show (Bodybuilding, Figure, Classic Physique, etc.), we’ll help you get your back training on track, so that when you spread your lats, you look like you’ve sprouted wings!

What Is A Lat Spread and Why Do People Do It?

The lat spread is a traditional bodybuilding pose used in competition to highlight the width and thickness of the competitor’s latissimus dorsi muscles. The lats, if you weren’t sure, are the big slabs of muscle that run down the sides of your back. They originate on the lower three or four ribs, lower six thoracic vertebrae, and iliac crest (the top border of the pelvis), and insert on the humerus (upper-arm bone) just below the shoulder joint.

In a physique contest, the athlete is required to display their lats in two distinct lat poses—the front and rear lat spread. (The competitor must show the lats facing the judges/audience, as well as facing away, so the dimensions of the muscles can be appraised.) The term “spread” refers to how the lats appear when they’re flexed in a dramatic fashion. When well-developed, the lats appear to spread out from the person’s torso, and the effect is something like a bird spreading its wings—the back looks so wide and dense that you can see it from the front!

Of course, if you’re not planning on posing your physique on stage for sport, you don’t absolutely need to know the technique of flexing the lats aesthetically. But many people like to motivate themselves to get in their best shape by scheduling a photo shoot or other event where they’ll have pictures taken to commemorate their condition, and in that case, understanding how to show off your lats to their best advantage will help them get the credit they deserve, and prove that you put some serious time and dedication into building them. Scroll down for a full tutorial on how to pose your lats effectively when that time comes.

Exercises To Build Stronger Lats

The lats work to pull the arms from overhead to down to your sides, extending your shoulder joints. They’re the main upper-body muscles involved in climbing and swimming. For ages, the go-to lat-building exercises for bodybuilders and other weight-training populations alike have been the classic pullup, chinup, and lat-pulldown, along with various types of rows. These are all great options, but if you’ve lived on a steady diet of the standard lat exercises for years and still feel like your wings haven’t spread, we’ve got some variations to show you that may help you target your lats a little better.

These come by way of Jonny Catanzano, an IFBB Classic Physique pro bodybuilder and coach to physique competitors at all levels (@jonnyelgato_ifbbpro and @tailoredhealthcoaching on Instagram).

1. Reverse-Incline Lat Pulldown

(See 00:52 in the video above)

Pulling with your palms facing each other (a neutral grip) helps you to keep your arms closer to your sides during a pulldown or row. This in turn helps to focus the exercise on the lat muscles, as opposed to the muscles of the upper back. Furthermore, doing the movement with your torso supported on a bench makes the exercise more stable, so your muscles can focus purely on lifting the weight rather than trying to brace your body position at the same time.

“This type of pulldown primarily hits the lower lat fibers, which really contributes to the V-taper,” says Catanzano, referring to the impression the lats give as they descend from their widest point beneath your shoulders to their insertion at your pelvis. The lower fibers are usually underdeveloped relative to the rest of the lats, and adding size to that area will improve the cobra-hood effect of your lats when you spread them. In other words, it will make your waist look smaller while your back looks broad.

Step 1. Set an adjustable bench on a 45–60-degree angle and place it in front of a cable station with a high pulley. If the station offers dual pulleys, attach single-grip handles to them. But if it’s a single pulley, attach a lat-pulldown bar and then attach some single-grip handles to the bar at about shoulder width (we used Angles90 Grips in the video, another great option).

Step 2. Rest your chest on the bench and grasp the handles with palms facing each other (inward). Pull the handles down until your elbows reach your hips. Lower the weight with control.

Be careful not to pull the handles too far back—go until your arms are in line with your body. Pulling further than that can shift the emphasis to the upper back, and we want to keep it on your lats.

2. Close-Grip Cable Pulldown

(See 01:28 in the video)

You’re almost certainly familiar with the close-grip pulldown done with a V-grip handle attachment, but Catanzano recommends using two separate single-grip handles instead (preferably the type with soft, spongy material on the handle). These are the kind you’re probably used to using for chest flyes and lateral raises.

The single-grip handles will allow you to move your hands further apart as you pull the cable down, and that means more range of motion, so you can get your elbows closer to your hips for a full contraction of the lower lats.

Step 1. Attach the two handles to the pulley of a lat-pulldown station and grasp them with a neutral grip. Secure your knees under the pad so your lower body is braced. Lean back a bit so you feel a stretch on your lower lats, but try not to arch your back.

Step 2. Pull the handles down until your elbows line up with your hips. Lower the weight with control.

3. Reverse-Incline Dumbbell Row

(See 02:09 in the video)

This one hits the lats but puts more emphasis on the rhomboids in the middle back, which is literally the centerpiece of a rear lat-spread pose. “Developing this area will add to the overall width of your back,” says Catanzano. As with the reverse-incline pulldown, using a bench takes the lower back out of the movement and reduces your ability to cheat or use momentum, so the target muscles get worked in near isolation.

Step 1. Set a bench to a 45-degree angle and grasp dumbbells. Rest your chest against the bench and allow your shoulder blades to spread apart at the bottom of the movement.

Step 2. Row the weights to your sides with your elbows pointing at about 45 degrees from your torso. Squeeze your shoulder blades together at the top. You may want to use wrist straps to reinforce your grip, as your hands will likely tire before your back does.

4. Kelso Shrug

(See 02:52 in the video)

Done standing upright, shrugging motions work the upper traps, but when done with your chest supported, they hit more of the trap fibers, along with the rest of the upper back. Like the incline rows above, this movement will widen and thicken the middle part of the back, which contributes to a powerful lat spread viewed from behind.

Step 1. Set up as you would for the incline row and simply retract your shoulder blades, squeezing them together at the top of the movement. Keep your elbows straight. Lower the weights with control, and allow your shoulder blades to spread apart at the bottom.

Incidentally, Kelso shrugs can be done at the end of a set of incline rows to finish off the upper back. In other words, do a set of rows to failure, and when you can’t perform another full-range row anymore, simply retract your shoulders for a few reps of shrugs to failure.

5. Neutral-Grip Pullup

(See 03:39 in the video)

“Pullups with a neutral grip almost force you to keep your elbows a little in front of your body,” says Catanzano, “which is where your lats are more active than they would be pulling with your elbows flared out to the sides.”

Step 1. Hang from a bar using a neutral grip. If your chinup bar doesn’t allow that, attach single-grip handles as explained in the close-grip pulldown above. Your hands should be about shoulder-width apart.

Step 2. Pull yourself up until your chin is over the bar and your elbows are in line with your hips. Lower your body down with control.

If that’s too hard, attach an exercise band to the bar and stand on the free loop. The band’s tension will unload some of your bodyweight so that you can get more reps.

Sample Workout For a Better Lat Spread

Catanzano offers the following routine to bring up your lats and improve your lat spread. Perform it once every five to seven days. Rest 2–3 minutes between sets. Note that the neutral-grip pullups and Kelso shrugs are paired, so perform them in alternating fashion, doing a set of the pullup and then a set of the shrug without rest in between. Then rest 3 minutes before repeating until all sets are complete for the pair.

1. Reverse-Incline Lat Pulldown

Sets: 4  Reps: 10–12

2. Close-Grip Cable Pulldown

Sets: 4  Reps: 10–12

3A. Neutral-Grip Pullup

Sets: 4  Reps: 10

3B. Kelso Shrug

Sets: 4  Reps: 12

4. Reverse-Incline Dumbbell Row

Sets: 4  Reps: 12

A Lat Flexing and Spreading Tutorial

Once you’ve built a substantial set of lats, you can work on posing them effectively. Catanzano, who coaches posing as well as training for physique competitors, offers this three-step guide to mastering the lat spread.

(See 04:09 in the video for Catanzano’s demonstration)

1. Squeeze your shoulder blades together and place your fists on your hips. “Imagine holding a pencil between your shoulder blades,” says Catanzano. That’s how far back you want to pull your shoulders.

2. Drive your shoulders down. The movement is the opposite of a shrug, so get your shoulders as far south of your ears as you can. You should feel your lats get tense.

3. While keeping your shoulders down and your lats tense, roll your shoulders forward and slightly upward. Your chest and ribcage should lift in front of you, “nice and high and proud,” says Catanzano. Think about spreading your lats apart as wide as you can.

Catanzano warns that you need to have good shoulder mobility in order to spread your lats impressively. You should be able to raise your shoulders up and down and retract and protract them through a large range of motion—and pain-free. If you can’t, then you won’t be able to achieve the positions that showcase the lats to their fullest potential. If you need work on shoulder mobility, start with this article, Shoulder Mobility for Strength and Injury Prevention.

The post How To Lat Spread Like A Bodybuilder appeared first on Onnit Academy.

First, have a look at the article linked above, as well as its two followups (Part 2, Part 3). They explain my basic nutrition philosophy and lay out a framework for how you should eat to be healthy and perform well. (Trust me, it’s not complicated.) To gain muscle, all we have to do is add a little more food to the equation and amend a couple of the rules, so that instead of dropping weight, you’re putting it on—but only the right kind.

Here are the rules of eating for muscle gain. Try any of them that you like, but NOT all of them—at least not all at once. Trust me, they may seem simple but they’re powerful, and they can add a lot of calories to your day without you hardly noticing (that’s the point!). If you go overboard, you’ll gain fat. So experiment with one or two at a time and monitor your weight. If you’re gaining a pound a week, keep doing what you’re doing. If your weight doesn’t change after two weeks, add one or two more rules to your day until it does. If you start gaining more than a pound per week, you’re gaining too fast and it’s going to be more fat than muscle, so back off. Take it slow when you want to grow.

#1. Eat Protein Throughout The Day

Your body will absorb protein and put it to better use for muscle growth if you consume it in regular and roughly equivalent doses.

A 2018 review in the Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition concluded that subjects looking to add muscle should take in 0.4–0.55 grams of protein per kilogram of their bodyweight in each meal they have, aiming for at least four meals, or until they’ve hit a protein intake of 1.6–2.2 grams per kilogram of bodyweight for the day.

So let’s do a little math. To convert your weight from pounds to kilograms, divide by 2.2. Let’s say you weigh 150 pounds—that’s 68 kilos. The minimum amount of protein you should eat in a day (1.6 x 68) is 108 grams, and the maximum (2.2 x 68) is 150 grams. I usually recommend that people eat about 1 gram per pound of their bodyweight, just to keep things simple. In this example, it would be 150 grams protein, which is on the upper end of the spectrum, but not excessive. (For the record, it’s hard to eat “too much” protein. But if you do overshoot your quota a little bit, you’ll be fine. It’s just that extra protein won’t build any additional muscle.)

Now we need to determine how much protein you should have per meal. Generally, the hand-sized portioning guideline I gave you in the fat-loss plan will cover this amount, but let’s do some more math so you can see why.

Multiply your 68 kilo bodyweight by 0.4 grams, the minimum amount of protein you need per meal, and you see that you need to be eating at least 27 grams of protein at each feeding (feel free to round up to 30). Twenty-seven grams of protein is roughly the equivalent of a palm-sized portion of chicken breast, lean steak, and most fish. So, at that rate, you’ll need four meals over the course of the day to reach the minimum target of 108 grams protein, and five meals to get to the maximum of 150. (A meal-replacement shake with protein powder can substitute for one of these meals.)

OK, want the TLDR version? Eat a palm-sized amount of protein or bigger at every meal, totaling four meals and maybe one protein shake by the end of the day. That should give you the right amount of protein overall and per meal to build muscle.

This means that if you’re a person who likes to fast in the morning, you may want to reconsider this strategy when you’re in muscle-gain mode. Fasting forces you to consume most of your food (and protein) in a smaller window of time, and that doesn’t keep the anabolic (muscle-building) signal turned on as well as eating frequently does. Likewise, if you’re a busy person who forgets to eat and ends up having a huge feast for dinner. The science is clear that it’s better to have a nosh here and there than it is to inhale a 64-ounce porterhouse at the end of the day.

#2. Drink Milk (But Not Just Any Kind…)

Obviously, if you’re lactose intolerant, don’t do dairy, or just don’t like milk, skip this rule and move on, but it’s a simple hack that can really come in handy. I know I told you to cut out calorie-containing beverages in the fat-loss guides, but when you’re bulking up, drinking SOME of your calories is a convenient way to get them in. If you haven’t discovered this already, eating to gain weight isn’t always as much fun as it sounds, since pounding extra food can get uncomfortable. Sometimes it’s a relief to drink a glass of milk rather than shovel down another serving of chicken and rice, when you know that it will still give you the calories you need.

I’ll tell you a secret to help you get more nutrition out of your milk: drink one that’s higher in protein. Most milk brands offer about eight grams of protein per cup, but Fairlife’s is filtered in such a way so as to pack more protein per serving—13 grams, in fact. To control calories, opt for the reduced-fat, 2% variety, or skim. Yes, we want more calories in order to gain weight, but too many leads to gaining fat. (If you want to calculate exactly how many you need, see How To Set Up Your Diet for Fat Loss or Muscle Gain.)

In case you’re wondering, Fairlife’s moo juice is also free of GMOs and growth hormones.

#3. Eat Yogurt

Skyr is a mild-flavored Icelandic yogurt that’s naturally low in fat and sugar and high in protein. I like Icelandic Provisions’ brand, which packs 17 grams of the stuff per serving.

If you’re having trouble reaching your protein requirement, eat skyr as a snack between meals. (You can add a little fruit to flavor it.) Also, I have no hard science to back me on this, but I suspect that skyr might make you superhuman if you lift weights along with consuming it. Look up how many times Icelanders have won the World’s Strongest Man contest and you’ll see what I mean!

#4. Drink Casein Protein

Whey protein is arguably the king of muscle supplements (if you’re not sure why, see our guide here), but casein can be beneficial too. Casein is whey’s counterpart, a slower-digesting milk protein that can feed your muscles for a long period of time. Because of its slow absorption rate, I like it as part of a smoothie that you drink shortly before bed. Research has shown that pre-bedtime consumption of protein, including casein specifically, supports protein synthesis overnight—particularly if you work out in the evening.

#5. Go Nuts

A one-ounce portion of raw, unsalted, mixed nuts (enough to fit in your palm) has about 160 calories. Adding this amount to each of your meals, or eating it as a snack between meals, really adds up, contributing to the surplus you need to build muscle while also providing important vitamins, minerals, and fiber.

It’s healthier (and cheaper) than weight-gainer shakes that are loaded with calories and sugar.

#6. Have A Nut Butter and Banana Sandwich

If you need an extra meal to hit your protein number, or find that you’re still not gaining weight after implementing all of the above, finish your day with a peanut butter and banana sandwich (any nut butter you like is OK too). Wash it down with a glass of milk.

Eating it may make you feel like a kid, but at 500-plus calories, you won’t look like one after a few weeks.

While I recommend whole food as the basis for your weight-gain strategy, supplementing with creatine monohydrate can be useful as well. See our guide to creatine (along with more info on whey) here. 

And if you want to get more scientific with your diet, managing your intake down to the last calorie and gram, I’ll show you how to do that in this piece—How To Set Up Your Diet for Fat Loss or Muscle Gain.

The post New Year All You Muscle Gain Nutrition Plan appeared first on Onnit Academy.

By figuring out how many grams of protein, carbs, and fat you need to consume to reach your goal, and hitting those numbers each day, you empower yourself to have complete control of your transformation. It will also allow you to troubleshoot any problems that come up along the way with much less guesswork. Not gaining muscle? You’ll be able to assess how many carbs you’re eating versus fats, and which macro it makes sense to bump up. Hit a standstill in your weight loss? You’ll know how and where to cut calories from your day.

Pull up your calculator app and get ready to write down some numbers…

Step 1: Determine Your Resting Metabolic Rate

Your resting metabolic rate (RMR) is the number of calories your body burns at rest—just keeping you alive with no additional activity. There are many equations that nutritionists and dieticians use to determine this number and none are 100% accurate, but they all give you a solid starting point. I like the good ol’ Mifflin-St Jeor equation, which has been demonstrated to be more accurate than most. This formula takes into account your weight, sex, age, and even height.

First, you’ll have to convert your bodyweight from pounds to kilograms (divide your weight by 2.2) and your height from inches to centimeters (multiply by 2.54). 

For men:

(10 x your weight in kg) + (6.25 x your height in cm) – (5 x age in years) + 5

For women:

(10 x your weight in kg) + (6.25 x your height in cm) – (5 x age in years) – 161

Let’s plug in some numbers using me as an example. I’m a male, 205 pounds (93kg), 6’2” tall (188 cm), and 45 years old. 

Using the men’s equation, I find…

(10 × 93) + (6.25 × 188) – (5 × 45) + 5

930 + 1173 – 225 + 5 = 1,880

My resting metabolic rate is about 1,880 calories. (Note that it’s OK to round this number off.)

Step 2: Factor In Your Activity

We obviously don’t lie in bed all day (although some days it’d be nice), so we need to factor in how many calories our activities burn. 

If you work out or play sports 1–3 times a week, you perform what’s known as light activity, and you will multiply your RMR number by 1.375.

If you exercise or play 3–5 times a week, you’re moderately active. Multiply by 1.55.

If you train or are active 6–7 days a week, you’re in the “very active” camp. Multiply by 1.725. 

Finally, if you’re crushing it nearly every day AND have a physically demanding job as well, multiply by 1.9.

I lift weights for a total of about two hours every week, and I play tennis up to five hours per week, but my job has me mostly in front of a computer all day, so my activity level is probably only in the moderate range. Therefore, I’ll multiply my 1880 RMR by 1.55. That gives me 2900 (again, rounded), which is the number of calories I need to eat to maintain my weight.

Step 3: Calculate Your Calorie Needs

If you want to MAINTAIN your current bodyweight, aim to eat whatever number of calories you calculated from your RMR x activity factor daily. 

If you want to LOSE weight, start by subtracting 500 from that number. If you want to GAIN weight, add 500.

Step 4: Calculate Your Macros

Once you have your daily calories figured out according to your goal, you can break them down into macronutrients. This not only makes your calories easier to count, it lets you know exactly how much of each type of food you need to consume. You see, you have to take in a certain number of calories to gain or lose weight, but the breakdown of protein, carbs, and fat determines your body composition—i.e., how much of the weight you lose or gain is fat versus muscle. Some muscle loss is inevitable when you’re dieting, and when you’re bulking up, you’re bound to gain some fat too, but the right combination of macros will put the odds in your favor, letting you keep more of the tissue you want while you shed or maintain the kind you don’t.

Protein

Protein supports muscle growth and maintenance as well as satiety (feeling less hungry between meals), so it’s the most import macro. Every meal you eat should feature it, and when and if you snack, you should choose foods that offer primarily protein as well. Aim to eat about 1 gram of protein per pound of your bodyweight each day. You can get by with a little less, and a little more won’t hurt either.

Note that if you’re very overweight, eating your bodyweight in grams of protein is probably impractical and not ideal. In this case, eat one gram per pound of the bodyweight you’re shooting for. In other words, a 300-pound person who remembers looking and feeling their best at 200 pounds will eat 200 grams of protein daily.

Another way to look at it is to have 25–35% of your calories come from protein. Each gram of protein contains 4 calories, so if I’m following a 2400-calorie diet to lose weight (2900–500=2400), I should eat 600–840 calories from protein-rich foods. That equals 150–210g protein. (Again, for simplicity’s sake, I’m happy with eating one gram per pound, which for me is 205g… but since 200 is a round number and easier to remember, I’ll just go with that. I also think it’s a good idea to aim toward the higher end of the protein spectrum when you’re dieting to ensure that you preserve as much muscle as possible.)

Most of your protein should come from the purest sources available, which are animal foods. Chicken, lean beef, fish and other seafood, eggs, yogurt, and cottage cheese are some of the best protein sources, but protein powder supplements are OK too for convenience. Most animal foods will contain some fat as well, so to keep things simple and prevent the fats from adding up too fast, choose the leanest cuts of meat most of the time. Sirloin steak, for instance, has a better protein-to-fat ratio than ground beef. That said, count the fat grams in your protein foods whenever possible.

Tip: If you like to snack on cheese, or use it to garnish your dishes, Parmigiano Reggiano is a smart choice. It has the highest amount of protein, gram for gram, of any cheese—and even more than chicken, beef, or fish. We’re talking 10 grams of protein in a one-ounce serving!

Of course, if you’re a vegetarian/vegan or plant-based eater, you’ll need to get your protein through non-animal sources. Combining foods such as beans and rice, nut butter and bread, etc., can provide the protein you need, but beware of how many carbs and fats you’re taking in as well. Supplementing with a plant-based protein powder may be necessary to make sure you hit your protein goals without overstepping your carb and fat allowances.

Fat

Unfairly maligned for weak associations with heart disease and other health ailments for years, dietary fat is now recognized as an important nutrient for hormone production and overall health, but it still packs a lot of calories—nine per gram, which is more than twice what a gram of carbs or protein provides. That means that while we need fat in the diet, we don’t want to go overboard because the calories will add up too fast. That’s a concern even if your goal is to gain weight. Calories that your body doesn’t convert to muscle will be stored as fat.

I recommend you aim for 0.5 grams of fat per pound of your bodyweight to start. As with protein, if you’re very heavy, you’ll be better off calculating this based on your goal bodyweight. Using myself as an example, I would eat about 100g of fat per day at a bodyweight of 205. At 900 calories, that’s a little under 40% of the total I’m allowed.

Most of your fat intake for the day should come by way of your protein foods, as there will always be at least a few grams in chicken, beef, salmon, etc. Nuts and seeds, olives and olive oil, fish oil supplements, and avocado can make up the difference. You may also prepare foods with cooking oils, but be careful about your serving sizes, as they can add a lot of fat without your hardly noticing.

Carbohydrates

Now that you have your protein and fat numbers figured out, you can simply subtract them from your total number of calories to find the carbs you need. My 100g fat allowance is 900 calories, and my 200g of protein equals 800 calories, so that leaves me with 700 calories for carbs. Since carbs contain four calories per gram, that gives me 175g carbs to eat. This is a little under 30% of my calorie total.

Here’s your list of carb-rich foods: grains (bread, cereal, pasta, rice), legumes (beans and peas), tubers (potatoes, sweet potatoes, other root vegetables like squash and carrots), fruit, and green vegetables. Be sure to count the carbs in your starchy foods and fruits toward your carb total, but the green vegetables are so low in calories that you can eat as many as you want (of course, count any dressings or sauces that you add to them!). Realize that there are also some carbs in dairy foods (milk, yogurt), so try to keep track of those as well.

How Do I Track Macros?

Now that you know how much of each type of food to eat, you’ll have to get comfortable with reading food labels so you can add your macros up properly. A food scale to measure your portions is a good idea too. This may seem like a nuisance at first, but once you get the hang of it, you’ll memorize how many proteins, carbs, and fats are in your favorite meals and you won’t have to obsess over them.

You can estimate your macros to some degree by using the hand-portioning trick I discuss in the fat loss guides. This will allow you to eyeball your portions with some accuracy when you eat out, or otherwise can’t control the exact ingredients and amounts you’re served. But to stay as close to your macro numbers as possible, I recommend you read labels and keep a tally throughout the day. Apps such as My Fitness Pal can be helpful for recording your numbers, as well as telling you how much of this or that nutrient is in your meal.

Try to include at least one food from each of the protein, fat, and carb food lists above in your meal plan each day. Focus on eating a variety of fruits and vegetables, and the vitamins and minerals you need to look and feel great will take care of themselves.

Adjusting Your Numbers

The calories and macros you calculate here just give you a starting point. They should send you in the right direction on your cutting or bulking program, but you’ll have to keep an eye on them. Make sure you record your numbers daily, and take note of any days you exceed your allowances or fall short. If you’re totally compliant for two weeks and haven’t lost a pound yet, cut 300 or so calories from your carb and/or fat numbers (never protein) and see if that makes a difference. If you’re trying to bulk up and haven’t gained a pound after two weeks, add 300 or so more calories, pumping up your carb and/or fat quotas as you see fit.

In either case, slow and steady is the best progress. If you’re losing several pounds per week (when cutting) or gaining more than one (while bulking) you’re dieting too hard or eating too much, respectively, and that means you risk losing muscle/gaining fat. You may lose a few pounds in your first few weeks of a diet as your body sheds excess water weight, but you don’t want to see the scale go down by five pounds or so on a regular basis. 

However, don’t go by the scale alone. Take measurements and progress photos of your physique so you know the weight is coming off or going on in the right places. Monitor your progress in the gym and make sure you’re still getting stronger and have energy enough to fuel your workouts. You have to experiment, be patient, and pay attention to how your body looks and feels.

For recipes that make healthy meals, see the following:

Healthy Pork Recipes

Gluten-Free and Nut-Free Snacks That Taste Great

3 Killer High-Protein Lunch Ideas

3 Healthy and Easy Rice Recipes for Weight Loss

BBQ Recipes

The post How To Set Up Your Diet for Fat Loss or Muscle Gain appeared first on Onnit Academy.

Consisting of ST SPORT and ST IMMUNE, the Shroom Tech collection offers support for strength, endurance, mental stress, immune health, and general nutrition.^† Keep scrolling, and we’ll run you through each of these supplements and explain their use, ingredients, and the science that shows their effectiveness.

What Are Adaptogens?

The key feature of every Shroom Tech product is its use of adaptogens—plant compounds that help regulate the body’s stress responses. Adaptogens can come from mushrooms, herbs, or roots, and many have been used for centuries in Ayurvedic and Chinese medicine. 

Scientists think adaptogens work by acting on the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis—the interaction between the brain and adrenal glands—and the sympathoadrenal system—the part of the nervous system that helps control the body’s stress response. According to an article in the journal Pharmaceuticals, adaptogens may help with attention and endurance in situations where fatigue and/or sensation of weakness might decrease performance.¹ They may also help the body resist stress-induced impairments of the neuroendocrine and immune systems.

Basically, by helping to shoulder the burden that stress places on your system—be it from exercise, work, or seasonal health concerns—adaptogens allow your body to function at a higher level.

What Is Shroom Tech^® SPORT?

The flagship member of the Shroom Tech family, ST SPORT is designed to be taken as a pre-workout, or for occasional energy support, and contains only trace amounts of caffeine.^† It owes its power to a blend of adaptogens that includes cordyceps sinensis, a mushroom.

A double-blind, placebo-controlled study done at Florida State University found that subjects supplementing with Shroom Tech SPORT performed more volume in both their strength training and cardio workouts.^†2

Shroom Tech SPORT is available in capsules.

Shroom Tech SPORT Benefits

Training volume refers to the amount of work you can do in a training session. Generally speaking, the more work you’re able to perform, the more stimulus you provide to your body, driving gains in muscle, strength, endurance, or whatever other fitness quality you’re training for. Shroom Tech SPORT helps you turn up your training volume. This can mean more standing on the pedals for the mom who does spin class; more reps for the gym rat on his favorite lift; more shifts for the hockey player who used to get winded on the ice, and so on.︎ Podcaster and Onnit co-founder Joe Rogan has famously stated that Shroom Tech SPORT helps him squeeze in an extra roll at the end of jiu-jitsu class.^†

Skeptical? Let’s examine what the Florida State study revealed.

The participants were 21 male college students averaging 22 years of age. All were experienced, recreational gym goers (read: not fitness newbies for whom any kind of training would yield results). The men were divided into two groups that were roughly equal in terms of levels of body fat, strength (as defined by their one-rep maxes—1RM—on the bench press and back squat), and VO2max (the maximum amount of oxygen consumed by the muscles during exercise—a measure of endurance).

One group of subjects supplemented with Shroom Tech SPORT and one took a placebo, and both groups strength trained and did cardio on separate days. (There were two full-body strength workouts per week and two cardio sessions consisting of high-intensity aerobic intervals.) The workouts ran for 12 weeks and were highly supervised—each subject was watched by research personnel to ensure they did all the reps in their workouts, used appropriate weights, etc.

Again, the study was double-blind. That means that the researchers who administered the capsules never knew which was Shroom Tech SPORT and which was the placebo, and the college men didn’t know which one they were getting either.

The subjects did not change their diets, and no significant differences were found between their diets. They were, however, instructed to minimize caffeine, and were not allowed any caffeine prior to exercise.

It’s important to understand that both groups did the same workout program—and it was awesome. Subjects in both the ST SPORT and placebo groups lost weight and gained strength. Their body fat percentages dropped one to two percent. As a result of doing the same effective training program, there were no significant differences between the groups in total training volume or any of the other categories. But, when looking at the numbers on a workout to workout basis, The Shroom Tech^® SPORT subjects statistically (p<0.05) outperformed the placebo group by getting three more reps (28 vs. 25) on the bench press when using 72.5–77.5% of their one-rep maxes (1RM). These percentages mean loads that kept them in the 10–12-rep range. Three extra reps is a 12% increase.^†

These statistical differences were repeated when looking at the bench press and the squat combined. The ST SPORT group got four more reps, total—a seven percent increase—at the same intensity (72.5–77.5%).^†

Looking at the cardio, in each consecutive interval, those supplementing with Shroom Tech SPORT had a statistically significant (p<0.05) smaller drop in performance times as fatigue kicked in when running at maximal intensities. Their total running time dropped 41 seconds, or 4.1 seconds per round. This is a three percent decrease.^†

The placebo group, however, dropped by two minutes and 15 seconds—an 11% decline, or 13.5 seconds at the same intensity. Ultimately, the Shroom Tech SPORT group outperformed the placebo group by 8.8% in running volume.^†

The researchers concluded that ST SPORT supported training volume for strength work and high-intensity cardio at both moderate and maximum intensities, respectively.^†

What Are Shroom Tech SPORT’s Key Ingredients?

Cordyceps sinensis. A mushroom popular in Traditional Chinese Medicine, cordyceps is an adaptogen that grows at high altitudes. Research indicates that cordyceps helps support energy utilization during exercise. One study in the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine found that cordyceps aided exercise performance in people as old as 50–75,³ while a Japanese study showed positive effects on energy metabolism.^†4

Ashwagandha. Another adaptogen, ashwagandha is an herb native to India and North Africa, and has been linked to strength, power, and endurance gains—and that may only be the beginning (although the dosages in most of its research studies are greater than what ST SPORT contains). A study in the Journal of Ayurveda and Integrative Medicine showed that ashwagandha supported improvements in VO2 max and time to exhaustion among elite cyclists.⁵ Another study found that the herb aided not only cardiorespiratory endurance but also quality of life, as determined by a survey that subjects took about their physical and psychological health, social relationships, and environmental factors.^†6 

Meanwhile, a trial in the International Journal of Ayurveda Research indicates that ashwagandha can help with speed, strength in the lower limbs, and neuromuscular coordination,⁷ and an Indian study on hockey players showed it was helpful with the strength and stability of their core muscles.^†8

Finally, an experiment published in the Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition had men ages 18–50 take ashwagandha for eight weeks to supplement their weight-training.⁹ Their bench press and leg extension maxes shot up while they gained muscle in the chest and arms. At the same time, body fat levels dropped—more than twice what the placebo group lost—and testosterone went up.^† (However, in fairness, it is unknown if ashwagandha itself is responsible for the coincidental rise in testosterone, and more research is needed to determine the connection between the herb and weight loss.)

Green tea extract. A concentrated form of decaffeinated green tea, this extract assists with endurance performance. A study in the Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition found that subjects taking green tea extract saw a near 11% improvement in distance covered during a cycling test.^†10

Rhodiola rosea. An herb that grows in cold, mountainous regions like cordyceps does, rhodiola is an adaptogen that promotes endurance, both physically and mentally. A study in the International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism found that rhodiola supported endurance exercise capacity in young men and women.¹¹ The Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research also reported that rhodiola ingestion decreased heart rate during submaximal exercise, and appears to help with endurance by reducing one’s perception of effort during exercise.^†12

Two studies in Phytomedicine showed rhodiola helps outside the gym. One revealed that it promotes psychomotor function in the midst of mental fatigue in students during a stressful exam period,¹³ while the other showed that rhodiola helped regulate fatigue in doctors working under stressful conditions during night shifts, and aided performance on work-related tasks by 20%.^†14

Methyl B-12. Apart from assisting in the metabolic reactions that make you feel alert, Vitamin B12 is thought to protect the sheaths that cover nerves, so having inadequate levels is like letting the wires that run from the computer in your brain get frayed—the signals they carry won’t get relayed efficiently. Unfortunately, research shows that up to 40% of people may have B12 levels that are low or marginal—low enough for them to exhibit effects such as minor fatigue and occasional lack of focus.^†15

Vitamin B12 is hardly available in plant foods, so plant-based eaters are more likely to not get enough from their diet. A 2014 review of 40 studies in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that as much as 86.5% of vegetarians were at risk for deficiency. Supplementation, then, is critical.^†16

Shroom Tech SPORT contains a methylated version of B12, which allows for better absorption in the body.^†

Who Should Use Shroom Tech SPORT?

ST SPORT can be an effective pre-workout supplement for those who prefer a formula that is sugar-free and doesn’t contain copious amounts of caffeine. It may also benefit students, shift workers, or anyone else who burns the midnight oil and may need support for work-induced stress and minor fatigue. Unlike energy drinks or other caffeinated supplements, Shroom Tech SPORT doesn’t give you a jolt of alertness or burst of energy, but you should notice the difference in how you perform.^†

What Is Shroom Tech^® IMMUNE?

ST IMMUNE is a mushroom and whole-food blend designed to be taken daily to help the body maintain healthy immune system function. The mushrooms in this formula provide beta-glucans, a type of polysaccharide that acts as food for the good bacteria in your gut—the stuff that eats the “bad bacteria”—and also stimulates immune cell activity.^†

ST IMMUNE is available in capsule form.

Shroom Tech IMMUNE Benefits

First, let’s discuss how beta-glucans work in a little more depth. Your body can’t make these compounds on its own, and it doesn’t recognize them when you ingest them. So, while they’re perfectly safe to consume, your body is cautious, and suspects beta-glucans might be dangerous. As a result, it treats them like any other outsider. Your immune system responds by ramping up the release of white blood cells—the soldiers in your body’s war against bacteria, viruses, and other pathogens. An article in Medicina explains that beta-glucans support the immune system, essentially by introducing a source of stress to your body that provokes it to become more resistant to the stressor.^†17

What Are Shroom Tech IMMUNE’s Key Ingredients?

ST IMMUNE combines two ingredient blends: the Onnit Myco-Immune Blend™, which consists primarily of organic, beta-glucan containing mushrooms, and the Onnit Nutri-Immune Blend™, which provides extracts of various herbs and roots.

Onnit Myco-Immune Blend™

Organic chaga. Forming on tree bark in cold climates, chaga is an adaptogenic mushroom that has been used in traditional medicine for ages and is often consumed as a tea. A 2015 trial concluded that chaga may support the immune system.^†18

Organic turkey tail (Coriolus versicolor). Consumed around the world, the mutli-colored turkey tail mushroom acts as a prebiotic, feeding the good bacteria in the gut. A study in Gut Microbes found that turkey tail helps balance the gut microbiome.^†19 

Organic reishi. An Asian mushroom and adaptogen that grows under hot and humid conditions, reishi was shown in a Japanese study to have a positive effect on immune health.^†20 

Organic shiitake. Popular in Asian cuisine, a study in the International Journal of Medicinal Mushrooms concluded that shiitake mushrooms may support the production of B cells, the ones that produce antibodies that neutralize foreign substances.^†21 

Onnit Nutri-Immune Blend™

Turmeric. A plant most famous for its use in Indian curries, turmeric supplies curcumin, a compound that a review in the journal Foods determined can aid in supporting a healthy inflammatory response.²² Furthermore, the researchers stated, “A relatively low dose of the complex can provide health benefits for people that do not have diagnosed health conditions.” In other words, it’s healthy for just about anyone to supplement with turmeric. Add to that the findings of a Journal of Clinical Immunology review, which concluded that, thanks to its curcumin content, turmeric’s ability to promote immune system function is “beyond doubt.”^†23

Ginger. The spicy root offers serious protection for your cells. A review in the International Journal of Preventive Medicine showed that ginger helps the body balance oxidative stress.^†24

Oregano. The herb that helps give pizza its intoxicating aroma is actually pretty healthy when you take away all the fat and carbs. Research shows that it contains antioxidants, which support cells’ resilience to damage and help maintain cell integrity.^†25

Who Should Use Shroom Tech IMMUNE?

ST IMMUNE can be beneficial to anyone looking to support their immune defenses, and can be taken on a daily basis. However, it shouldn’t be seen as an alternative or replacement for other powerful immune-boosting practices, such as getting consistent sleep, minimizing stress, and following a healthy diet. Smart lifestyle choices still come first.

What’s The Difference Between Shroom Tech IMMUNE? And VIRUTech^® ?

Onnit currently offers two supplements that are primarily immune-system focused. Shroom Tech IMMUNE is a mushroom-based formula with botanical extracts, designed to be taken daily to maintain healthy immune system function. VIRUTech is a vitamin and mineral blend that helps support your immune system beyond what Shroom Tech IMMUNE was formulated to do alone. You should reach for VIRUTech when you are traveling, or any other occasion when you feel you need additional immune support, but make ST IMMUNE your mainstay.^†

REFERENCES:

1. Panossian, Alexander, and Georg Wikman. “Effects of adaptogens on the central nervous system and the molecular mechanisms associated with their stress—protective activity.” Pharmaceuticals 3, no. 1 (2010): 188-224.

2. Vince C. Kreipke, PhD , Robert J. Moffatt, PhD , Charles J. Tanner, MA & Michael J. Ormsbee, PhD (2020): “Effects of Concurrent Training and a Multi-Ingredient Performance Supplement Containing Rhodiolarosea and Cordycepssinensis on Body Composition, Performance, and Health in Active Men,” Journal of Dietary Supplements, DOI: 10.1080/19390211.2020.1822486

3. Chen, Steve, Zhaoping Li, Robert Krochmal, Marlon Abrazado, Woosong Kim, and Christopher B. Cooper. “Effect of Cs-4®(Cordyceps sinensis) on exercise performance in healthy older subjects: a double-blind, placebo-controlled trial.” The Journal of alternative and complementary medicine 16, no. 5 (2010): 585-590.

4. Nagata, Akira, Taeko Tajima, and Masayuki Uchida. “Supplemental anti-fatigue effects of Cordyceps sinensis (Tochu-Kaso) extract powder during three stepwise exercise of human.” Japanese Journal of Physical Fitness and Sports Medicine 55, no. Supplement (2006): S145-S152.

5. Shenoy, Shweta, Udesh Chaskar, Jaspal S. Sandhu, and Madan Mohan Paadhi. “Effects of eight-week supplementation of Ashwagandha on cardiorespiratory endurance in elite Indian cyclists.” Journal of Ayurveda and integrative medicine 3, no. 4 (2012): 209.

6. Choudhary, Bakhtiar, A. Shetty, and Deepak G. Langade. “Efficacy of Ashwagandha (Withania somnifera [L.] Dunal) in improving cardiorespiratory endurance in healthy athletic adults.” Ayu 36, no. 1 (2015): 63.

7. Sandhu, Jaspal Singh, Biren Shah, Shweta Shenoy, Suresh Chauhan, G. S. Lavekar, and M. M. Padhi. “Effects of Withania somnifera (Ashwagandha) and Terminalia arjuna (Arjuna) on physical performance and cardiorespiratory endurance in healthy young adults.” International journal of Ayurveda research 1, no. 3 (2010): 144.

8. Arvind, Malik, Mehta Vikas, Malik Sonia, and Sharma Pradeep. “Effect of Ashwagandha (Withania somnifera) root powder supplementation on the core muscle strength and stability in hockey players.” International Journal of Behavioural Social and Movement Sciences 3, no. 3 (2014): 83-91.

9. Wankhede, Sachin, Deepak Langade, Kedar Joshi, Shymal R. Sinha, and Sauvik Bhattacharyya. “Examining the effect of Withania somnifera supplementation on muscle strength and recovery: a randomized controlled trial.” Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition 12, no. 1 (2015): 1-11.

10. Roberts, Justin D., Michael G. Roberts, Michael D. Tarpey, Jack C. Weekes, and Clare H. Thomas. “The effect of a decaffeinated green tea extract formula on fat oxidation, body composition and exercise performance.” Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition 12, no. 1 (2015): 1.

11. De Bock, Katrien, Bert O. Eijnde, Monique Ramaekers, and Peter Hespel. “Acute Rhodiola rosea intake can improve endurance exercise performance.” International journal of sport nutrition & exercise metabolism 14, no. 3 (2004).

12. Noreen, Eric E., James G. Buckley, Stephanie L. Lewis, Josef Brandauer, and Kristin J. Stuempfle. “The effects of an acute dose of Rhodiola rosea on endurance exercise performance.” The Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research 27, no. 3 (2013): 839-847.

13. Spasov, A. A., G. K. Wikman, V. B. Mandrikov, I. A. Mironova, and V. V. Neumoin. “A double-blind, placebo-controlled pilot study of the stimulating and adaptogenic effect of Rhodiola rosea SHR-5 extract on the fatigue of students caused by stress during an examination period with a repeated low-dose regimen.” Phytomedicine 7, no. 2 (2000): 85-89.

14. Darbinyan, V., A. Kteyan, A. Panossian, E. Gabrielian, G. Wikman, and H. Wagner. “Rhodiola rosea in stress induced fatigue—a double blind cross-over study of a standardized extract SHR-5 with a repeated low-dose regimen on the mental performance of healthy physicians during night duty.” Phytomedicine 7, no. 5 (2000): 365-371.

15. B12: National Institutes of Health, Vitamin B12 Fact Sheet for Consumers. https://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/vitaminb12-healthprofessional/#h5

16. Pawlak, Roman, S. E. Lester, and T. Babatunde. “The prevalence of cobalamin deficiency among vegetarians assessed by serum vitamin B12: a review of literature.” European journal of clinical nutrition 68, no. 5 (2014): 541-548.

17. Sze, Daniel Man-yuen, and Godfrey Chi-Fung Chan. “Effects of beta-glucans on different immune cell populations and cancers.” In Advances in Botanical Research, vol. 62, pp. 179-196. Academic Press, 2012.

18. Glamočlija, Jasmina, Ana Ćirić, Miloš Nikolić, ngela Fernandes, Lillian Barros, Ricardo C. Calhelha, Isabel CFR Ferreira, Marina Soković, and Leo JLD Van Griensven. “Chemical characterization and biological activity of Chaga (Inonotus obliquus), a medicinal ’mushroom’.” Journal of ethnopharmacology 162 (2015): 323-332.

19. Pallav, Kumar, Scot E. Dowd, Javier Villafuerte, Xiaotong Yang, Toufic Kabbani, Joshua Hansen, Melinda Dennis, Daniel A. Leffler, David S. Newburg, and Ciaran P. Kelly. “Effects of polysaccharopeptide from Trametes versicolor and amoxicillin on the gut microbiome of healthy volunteers: a randomized clinical trial.” Gut microbes 5, no. 4 (2014): 458-467.

20. NAJIMA, Masatomo, Mitsuhiko MUNEKATA, and Hiroyuki SASAKI. “IMPROVEMENT IN IMMUNE FUNCTION BY SUPPLEMENT CONTAINED β-GLUCANS.”

21. Gaullier, Jean-Michel, Jowita Sleboda, Erik Snorre Ofjord, Elling Ulvestad, Minna Nurminiemi, Cecilie Moe, Tor Albrektsen, and Ola Gudmundsen. “Supplementation with a soluble beta-glucan exported from Shiitake medicinal mushroom, Lentinus edodes (Berk.) singer mycelium: a crossover, placebo-controlled study in healthy elderly.” International journal of medicinal mushrooms 13, no. 4 (2011).

22. Hewlings, Susan J., and Douglas S. Kalman. “Curcumin: A review of its effects on human health.” Foods 6, no. 10 (2017): 92.

23. Jagetia, Ganesh Chandra, and Bharat B. Aggarwal. “’Spicing up’ of the immune system by curcumin.” Journal of clinical immunology 27, no. 1 (2007): 19-35.

24. Mashhadi, Nafiseh Shokri, Reza Ghiasvand, Gholamreza Askari, Mitra Hariri, Leila Darvishi, and Mohammad Reza Mofid. “Anti-oxidative and anti-inflammatory effects of ginger in health and physical activity: review of current evidence.” International journal of preventive medicine 4, no. Suppl 1 (2013): S36.

25. Lagouri, Vasiliki, and Dimitrios Boskou. “Nutrient antioxidants in oregano.” International journal of food sciences and nutrition 47, no. 6 (1996): 493-497.

26. Centers for Disease Control. “Only 1 in 10 Adults Get Enough Fruits or Vegetables.” https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2017/p1116-fruit-vegetable-consumption.html

27. Vigar, Vanessa, Stephen Myers, Christopher Oliver, Jacinta Arellano, Shelley Robinson, and Carlo Leifert. “A systematic review of organic versus conventional food consumption: is there a measurable benefit on human health?.” Nutrients 12, no. 1 (2019): 7.

28. Sikora, Elżbieta, and Izabela Bodziarczyk. “Composition and antioxidant activity of kale (Brassica oleracea L. var. acephala) raw and cooked.” Acta Scientiarum Polonorum Technologia Alimentaria 11, no. 3 (2012): 239-248

29. Olsen, Helle, Kjersti Aaby, and Grethe Iren A. Borge. “Characterization and quantification of flavonoids and hydroxycinnamic acids in curly kale (Brassica oleracea L. convar. acephala var. sabellica) by HPLC-DAD-ESI-MS n.” Journal of agricultural and food chemistry 57, no. 7 (2009): 2816-2825.

30. Gale, Catharine R., Nigel F. Hall, David IW Phillips, and Christopher N. Martyn. “Lutein and zeaxanthin status and risk of age-related macular degeneration.” Investigative ophthalmology & visual science 44, no. 6 (2003): 2461-2465.

31. Conzatti, Adriana, Fernanda Carolina Telles da Silva Fróes, Ingrid Dalira Schweigert Perry, and Carolina Guerini de Souza. “Clinical and molecular evidence of the consumption of broccoli, glucoraphanin and sulforaphane in humans.” Nutrición hospitalaria 31, no. 2 (2015): 559-569.

32. Lu, Hsueh-Kuan, Chin-Cheng Hsieh, Jen-Jung Hsu, Yuh-Kuan Yang, and Hong-Nong Chou. “Preventive effects of Spirulina platensis on skeletal muscle damage under exercise-induced oxidative stress.” European journal of applied physiology 98, no. 2 (2006): 220-226.

33. Torres-Duran, Patricia V., Aldo Ferreira-Hermosillo, and Marco A. Juarez-Oropeza. “Antihyperlipemic and antihypertensive effects of Spirulina maxima in an open sample of Mexican population: a preliminary report.” Lipids in Health and Disease 6, no. 1 (2007): 1-8.

34. Cingi, Cemal, Meltem Conk-Dalay, Hamdi Cakli, and Cengiz Bal. “The effects of spirulina on allergic rhinitis.” European Archives of Oto-Rhino-Laryngology 265, no. 10 (2008): 1219-1223.

35. Mori, Koichiro, Satoshi Inatomi, Kenzi Ouchi, Yoshihito Azumi, and Takashi Tuchida. “Improving effects of the mushroom Yamabushitake (Hericium erinaceus) on mild cognitive impairment: A double‐blind placebo‐controlled clinical trial.” Phytotherapy Research: An International Journal Devoted to Pharmacological and Toxicological Evaluation of Natural Product Derivatives 23, no. 3 (2009): 367-372.

The post The Majesty of Mushrooms: Meet The Shroom Tech® Family appeared first on Onnit Academy.

We consulted a pro bodybuilder/strength coach to bring you the definitive guide to chest and back workouts—including three sample routines you can try. Whether you have aspirations of competing in a physique contest, you train at home with minimal equipment, or you’re just trying to make the most of a limited amount of workout time, you’re about to find the plan for building up your chest and back that’s right for you.

Can You Train Your Back and Chest Together?

“Chest and back make a great pairing because they’re antagonistic,” says Jonny Catanzano, an IFBB pro bodybuilder and owner of Tailored Health Coaching (@tailoredhealthcoaching on Instagram), “which means that while one is working, the other is resting.” This gives you the opportunity to speed your workout along by alternating sets for each muscle group with little or no time in between them, since there’s almost no fatigue that carries over from one to the other.

Imagine training only chest or only back by itself. You pick an exercise, do a set, rest, do another set, rest, and so on until your sets are complete, and then you go on to another exercise. There’s nothing wrong with this approach, but if you rest for two minutes or longer between sets (as the latest research suggests you should, if you want to maximize muscle gains), your workout time can easily extend to an hour or more—and you’ll have only worked one muscle area.

On the other hand, if you alternate sets of chest and back exercises, you can train both muscle groups at a much brisker pace. Your chest will recover while you work your back, and vice versa, so it’s possible to use shorter rest periods between each set and get your workout done in much less than an hour’s time—without rushing either muscle group’s recovery.

A study in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research had subjects perform three traditional sets of rows followed by three sets of the bench press, and, in another session, do the same routine again but with the back and chest exercises paired off and alternated. Researchers found that, when the lifters went back and forth between the two exercises in the second workout, they didn’t have to reduce the weights they were using as much from set to set. They were able to lift more total weight compared to when they did straight sets in the first workout—probably because each muscle got more rest before it was worked again.

Chest and back pairings are also great if your goal is fat loss. “You’ll burn more calories in a session training two big muscle groups together,” says Catanzano. “You’ll get your heart rate up higher than training one area at a time, and higher still if you decide to superset exercises.” That is, perform a set for chest and then one for back without any rest in between.

Furthermore, merging your chest and back training into one ensures that you’ll balance the work you do for each area. Many people (guys, mostly) will train chest voraciously, and then treat their back workouts as an add-on, doing only a handful of sets of lat pulldowns or rows. But if you plan to train both regions in a single session, you can easily keep track of the sets you do for one and match them with sets of the other.

If you’re interested in building strength, chest and back workouts will help you understand and focus on the relationship between a big back and a big bench press. “A stronger back lets you press more,” says Catanzano. “The lats help stabilize your torso when the bar is at your chest,” which is why many powerlifters do chinups or rows between sets of bench presses.

What Muscles Are Used?

Generally, when you’re talking about training chest and back together, you’re referring to the pectoralis major and minor (pecs), latissimus dorsi (lats), and upper back—comprising the rhomboids, trapezius, and teres major. The lower back—specifically, the spinal erectors—can certainly be trained as well, but many lifters prefer to work it on a lower-body day, as the lower back contributes automatically to squat and deadlift variations.

The deltoid muscles of the shoulders can’t help but get involved as well when you do any pushing and pulling, and the triceps assist on pressing exercises while the biceps and forearm/grip muscles work on your back movements.

Here’s a quick and very general anatomy course on where each of the chest and back muscles are located and what they do. (This isn’t a complete list, but these are the primary muscles you’ll target in a chest and back workout.)

Pectoralis major

This muscle has three heads and thus three different actions. The clavicular head, which runs from the collar bone to the humerus, raises the arm up and across to the other side of the body. The sternal head starts on the breastbone and reaches across to the humerus, so its fibers work to bring the arm around the front of the body. The costal head goes from the cartilage of the ribs and the external oblique muscle to the humerus, allowing the arm to pull downward from overhead.

Pectoralis minor

Lying underneath the pec major, the pec minor begins on the third to fifth ribs and attaches to the scapula (shoulder blade). It draws the tip of the shoulder downward, protracts the shoulder blade, and raises the ribs during inhalation.

Latissimus dorsi

The lat originates on the thoracic spine, lumbar spine, lower ribs, and iliac crest of the pelvis and connects to the humerus, just below the shoulder joint. It extends the shoulders, draws the arms to the sides, and helps with inhalation.

Rhomboid

A rhombus-shaped muscle (hence the name), the rhomboid runs from the cervical and thoracic spine to the scapula. It elevates and retracts the shoulder blade.

Trapezius

Like the pecs, the traps can work in three different directions. They start at the bottom of the back of the skull and the spine and reach over to the shoulder blade and collarbone in order to raise the scapula, retract it, and depress it.

Teres major

This is a small back muscle that assists the bigger ones. Originating on the back of the scapula, it inserts on the front of the humerus, and works to rotate the arm toward the body and draw it behind the body.

How Do You Set Up A Chest and Back Workout?

The way you combine chest and back exercises in a session is highly dependent on what you want to achieve. During his bodybuilding prime, Arnold Schwarzenegger liked to superset chest and back moves with little or no rest between them. For instance, do a set of incline presses followed immediately by a set of seated cable rows, rest a minute or two, and repeat. As we explained above, this a solid plan for speeding up your workouts and burning more fat, but it sets a pace that may be too intense for many people.

Research suggests that longer rest periods help you train with more challenging weights, thereby stimulating more muscle growth, so you could alternate chest and back moves with plenty of time between them—say, 90 seconds to two minutes downtime between your press and row—if muscle gain is your main priority.

There’s also no rule stating that you have to toggle between chest and back exercises. You could do all your chest moves first and then go on to back, or the other way around. “This may be better for less experienced trainees,” says Catanzano. “You won’t gas too early in the workout like you might if you were supersetting.” It’s also a good option if you want to zero in on one area at a time, giving your full attention to each one in turn, but without having to break them into two different workouts.

Finishing off one body part before you do the other may be wise if you see it as a weak point. Most people’s backs are underdeveloped, so doing all your back training when you’re fresh will let you work it with the greatest possible effort and focus. “If you have shoulder problems,” says Catanzano, “you might want to put back first, because it will warm up your shoulders and make your pressing feel smoother when you get to chest.” Yes, doing chest second may mean sacrificing some weight on your chest exercises due to fatigue, but if you’re dealing with cranky shoulders or other pressing-related injuries, learning to stimulate the muscles with lighter weight may be just what the doctor ordered.

How Many Chest Exercises and Back Exercises Should I Do?

The short answer to this question is roughly three to five moves for each muscle group per workout. For example, a typical old-school chest and back session might look like this:

1A Bench press

1B Bent-over row

2A Incline dumbbell press

2B Seated cable row

3A Dip

3B Chinup

(The exercise pairings can be alternated with rest in between sets, or superset without rest.)

But the right number of exercises for you depends on several factors. If you only have 30 minutes or less to train, you may have to cap your workout at two exercises per body part. On the other hand, if you plan on doing shoulder and arm work on a second upper-body day in the week, and therefore won’t be working chest and back again for another week, you may want to do more chest and back exercises to get enough volume in.

Volume is a major consideration when planning out any training program. A bodybuilder looking to fully stimulate every muscle will need to hit the chest and back from all angles, and that means more exercises and more sets. Whereas a busy professional who only wants to maintain strength and some athleticism can get by with much less work.

If you want the best muscle gains possible, research suggests you need a volume of 10–20 hard sets per muscle group, per week, to do the job. “I’d recommend a minimum of 10 sets,” says Catanzano, “and closer to 20 sets for weaker body parts.” All of these sets should be taken to within one to three reps of failure, he says—the point at which your reps slow down and you’re about to break form due to fatigue. As long as you keep these volume parameters in mind, the way you set up your workouts is really up to you.

Let the number of exercises you choose suit the volume of work you’re shooting for. For instance, if you’re aiming to do 10 sets for chest and back in a week, that could break down to five sets for each in two different workouts. This is a moderate and very doable amount of work for most people, and won’t put you at risk for overtraining. See below.

Chest & Back, Day I

1A Incline press, 3 sets

1B Chest-supported row, 3 sets

2A Cable fly, 2 sets

2B Straight-arm pulldown, 2 sets

Chest & Back, Day II

1A Dumbbell bench press, 3 sets

1B Inverted row, 3 sets

2A Dip, 2 sets

2B One-arm dumbbell row, 2 sets

You could finish each session with some shoulder and/or arm work for a complete upper-body workout, or leave the gym after chest and back alone if that’s all you have time for, or you plan to work those other muscles on a different day.

If back is a weak point, you should emphasize it with more volume. In this case, you could do 10 sets for it on Monday, and then another six sets on Friday for 16 total sets that week.

Chest & Back, Monday

1. Machine row, 3 sets

2. One-arm lat-pulldown, 3 sets

3. Seated cable row, 2 sets

4. Chinup, 2 sets

5. Dumbbell bench press, 3 sets

6. Feet-elevated pushup, 2 sets

Chest & Back, Friday

1. One-arm dumbbell row, 2 sets

2. Wide-grip lat pulldown, 2 sets

3. Dumbbell shrug, 2 sets

4. Machine press, 2 sets

5. Cable fly, 3 sets

Chest & Back Workout Tips

Catanzano offers some of the following pointers to help you get the most out of your training.

• If muscle size is your main goal, the amount of weight you’re lifting isn’t as important as taking your sets near to failure and using exercises that best recruit the target muscles. Catanzano says the barbell bench press is overrated for pec gains. Let the majority of your chest training come from dumbbell, machine, and cable work, which is easier on the joints and can allow you to work the muscles through greater ranges of motion and with better isolation. The same goes for back training.

• If you’re over 40, or trying to work around injuries, the way you sequence your exercises is extra important. Rather than starting with your heaviest lifts, begin sessions with dumbbell or machine work and put moves like the bench press and bent-over row later in the workout when you’re fully warmed up and mobile. “You could do a dumbbell row and dumbbell bench press first,” Catanzano says, “and then go into bent-over rows and barbell bench. Or, you could do flys before bench presses, and chest-supported rows before bent-over rows or rack pulls.” Your joints will thank you.

• If strength is a big priority for you, however, and you’re sure your body can handle it, you can sequence your workouts the opposite way. Do your heavy work like bench presses first, when you can give them your best effort, and then move on to lighter dumbbell and bodyweight work afterward.

• Cycling your rep ranges can help you avoid plateaus and hit big PR’s on your exercises. Catanzano likes to use three-week cycles, performing sets of 12–15 reps the first week, 8–12 the second, and 6–8 the third. Then he repeats the process. “You need to hit all rep ranges to maximize gains,” he says.

How To Stretch Before Doing Chest & Back

Prepare your chest and back muscles for a workout by first reducing the tension in them with some light rolling on a ball or foam roller—sometimes called a “smash.” This will help you access greater ranges of motion in your exercises; it also drives blood into the muscles to warm them up.

Chest Smash

Place the ball or roller against your pec muscles, right under your collarbone between your shoulder and breastbone. Allow your body to rest on the ball just enough to apply moderate pressure to the muscle—it shouldn’t hurt. Roll an inch or so in each direction, lingering over any positions where you feel the most tenderness, until they release. You can also extend your arm, reaching it overhead with palm facing up, and then taking it down to your hip while rotating your wrist as shown, to increase the stretch on the muscles in different ranges. Perform the smash for about a minute on each side.

Lat Smash

Place the ball or roller under your shoulder and into the meaty muscle on the side of your back (your lat). Lie on your side and apply gentle pressure to the muscle as your reach your arm overhead and out in front of you, rotating your wrist as shown. Perform the smash for about a minute on each side.

After you’ve rolled, perform the following mobility drills to further activate the muscles you’ll train. Do 2–3 sets of 5–10 reps for each exercise. Rolling and mobility drills are courtesy of of Cristian Plascencia and Natalie Higby, owners of The Durable Athlete (@durable.athlete on Instagram).

Cat-Cow

Step 1. Get on all fours with your hands under your shoulders and knees under your hips. Brace your core.

Step 2. Press into the floor, spreading your shoulder blades apart as you round your mid back toward the ceiling. Make sure only your mid back moves—the lower back should be neutral and braced.

Step 3. Pinch your shoulder blades together again as you extend your spine back to neutral.

Sky Reach To Arm Thread

Step 1. Get on all fours with your hands under your shoulders and your knees directly beneath your hips. Brace your core.

Step 2. Draw your right arm up and across your chest as you twist your right shoulder toward the ceiling and reach overhead. Be careful to keep your hips facing the floor.

Step 3. Reverse the motion, reaching your arm across your body and behind the support arm. Twist as far as you can, ideally until the back of your right shoulder touches the floor. Complete your reps on that side, and then switch sides and repeat.

Banded Shoulder Circles

Step 1. Stand holding an elastic exercise band (or dowel) with both hands outside shoulder width. Draw your ribs down, tuck your pelvis so it’s parallel to the floor, and brace your core.

Step 2. Keeping your arms straight, raise the band over and behind your head as far as you can. Reverse the motion to bring the band back in front of you.

The Best Chest & Back Workouts

Catanzano wrote up the following workouts, each with a different user in mind. One is ideal for the lifter who has access to a well-stocked gym, complete with free weights and machines. The second one is for the guy or gal training in a bare-bones home gym—a barbell, dumbbells, bands, and your bodyweight are all that’s needed. Lastly, there’s a workout for targeting common physique weak points—the upper chest and lower lats.

Choose the one that suits you best for now, and bookmark this article to refer back to the others. You may need them in the future!

Directions

For each of the workouts, follow the rep prescriptions below for every exercise. They will change weekly. Repeat the workouts for 6–8 weeks.

Week 1: perform 12–15 reps for each exercise.

Week 2: 8–12 reps.

Week 3: 6–8 reps.

Week 4: Repeat cycle.

Begin with 2–3 working sets for each lift (sets that aren’t warmups), and add volume over time. You can build up to 4–5 sets for some of the exercises, and consider having an additional chest and back day in the week to further increase the volume. If you consider either chest or back a weak point, aim to eventually perform 15–20 sets for it per week.

Remember that when chest and back exercises appear back to back, you can pair them off and alternate sets of each, with or without rest between them.

Videos are courtesy of Jonny Catanzano, @jonnyelgato_ifbbpro on Instagram.

Full-Gym Chest & Back Workout

1. Bench Press

Step 1. Set up with the bar just over your eyes. Make sure that your feet are flat on the floor and your shoulders, back, and butt maintain contact with the bench. Arch your back, drawing your shoulder blades back and down. Grasp the bar with hands just outside shoulder-width apart (you may have to slide them an inch or two in either direction), so that when you lower the bar to your chest, your elbows make a 90-degree angle.

Step 2. Unrack the bar and hold it over your chest. Lower the weight to your chest, tucking your elbows about 45 degrees to your sides. After touching your chest, press the bar back to the starting position.   

2. Incline Dumbbell Press

Step 1. Set an adjustable bench to a 30–45-degree angle, grasp a pair of dumbbells, and lie back on the bench, making sure your entire back is in contact with it—do not arch your back so that it causes your lower back to rise off the pad. Start with the dumbbells just outside your shoulders, elbows bent, and your forearms/wrists angled slightly (a V-shape).

Step 2. Keeping your elbows pointing at about 45 degrees, press the dumbbells straight up. Lower the dumbbells back down under control, until they’re just above and outside your shoulders.

3. Clavicular-Head Fly

Step 1. Attach single-grip handles (D handles) to two facing pulleys at a cable station set at shoulder height. Grasp the handles with hands angled 45 degrees and palms facing each other. Step forward so that your arms are extended at your sides, and there is tension on the cables.

Step 2. Keeping a slight bend in your elbows, bring your arms together in a wide arcing motion. Lower the weight under control until you feel a stretch in your chest.

4. Machine Low Row

Many gyms have a Hammer Strength low row machine, as shown here, but if yours doesn’t, try to mimic the exercise on a similar row machine, or set up an incline bench at a cable station.

Step 1. Adjust the seat of the machine so that, when you sit on it, the middle of your chest rests against the pad. Sit at the machine, brace your core, and bend at the hips—while keeping a long spine—until your chest is against the pad. Don’t let it come off the pad at any point during the exercise. Grasp the handles with a neutral grip (palms facing each other). Place your feet on the floor, and make sure your knees are out of the path of your arms when you row.

Step 2. Draw your shoulder blades down and together as you row the handles past your ribs. Be careful not to shrug your shoulders, and keep your chin tucked (don’t let your neck stretch forward).

5. Mid-Back Cable Row

Step 1. Set an adjustable bench to a 45-degree angle, and place the bench in front of a cable station with two side-by-side pulleys. Set the pulleys on the lowest level, and attach a single-grip handle (D-handle) to them. Rest your chest against the bench and grasp the handles with arms extended. Make sure you’re far enough away from the machine to feel a stretch on your back. Arch your back and brace your core.

Step 2. Drawn your shoulder blades back and down as you row the handles to the outsides of your chest, flaring your elbows about 60 degrees. Lower the weight with control.

6. Block Pull

Step 1. Rest the bar on blocks or mats so that it sits just below knee level. Stand with your feet hip-width apart. Bend your hips back to reach down and grasp the bar, hands just outside your knees. Take a deep breath into your belly and brace your core. Pull your shoulders back and down—think about trying to bend the bar around your legs like a pretzel; this will help you activate the right muscles. You can use straps, as shown, to support your grip.

Step 2. Keeping your head, spine, and hips aligned, drive your heels into the floor and pull the bar up along your shins until you’re standing with hips fully extended and the bar is in front of your thighs. Lower back to the floor under control.

At-Home Chest & Back Workout

1. Landmine Suitcase Row

Step 1. Load a barbell into a landmine unit, or wedge one end into a corner. Load the other end of the bar with weight, and stand behind the plates, both feet on one side of the bar. Keeping a long spine with your core braced, bend your hips back to reach down and grasp the bar. Your torso should be about 45 degrees.

Step 2. Draw your shoulder blade back and down as you row the bar the bar, stopping when your elbow reaches the middle of your torso. Lower back down under control. Complete your reps, and then repeat on the opposite side.

2. Incline Dumbbell Press w/ Neutral Grip

Step 1. Set an adjustable bench to a 30- to 45-degree angle and lie back against it with a dumbbell in each hand at shoulder level. Turn your palms so that they face each other, and your elbows are tucked at about 45 degrees to your sides.

Step 2. Press the weights overhead to lockout, and lower them with control.

3. Chest-Supported Dumbbell Row

Step 1. Set an adjustable bench to about a 60-degree angle and lie down with your chest against it. Your spine should be long and your core braced. Grasp dumbbells with your arms extended, and allow your shoulder blades to spread apart while the weights hang at arm’s length.

Step 2. Row the dumbells to your sides, drawing your shoulder blades back and down. Lower under control.

4. One-Arm Band Press

Step 1. Attach a band to a sturdy anchor point at shoulder level behind you, and grasp the free end in one hand. Hold the band at chest level with your arm angled about 45 degrees from your torso. Step away from the anchor point to put tension on the band.

Step 2. Press the band in front of you to face level. Lower under control. Complete your reps, and then repeat on the opposite side. 

5. Low-Lat Row w/ Band

Step 1. Attach a band to a sturdy anchor point overhead, and set up an adjustable bench behind it at a roughly 60-degree angle. Grasp the band in one hand and brace yourself on the bench with the opposite hand and knee. The working arm should be angled 120–150 degrees from your torso (i.e., if your arm hanging at your side is at zero degrees, and your arm extended in front of your chest is 90 degrees, the exercise should be done with your arm 30–60 degrees above that).

Step 2. Row the band down to your hip, stopping when your elbow is in line with your torso. Control the motion as you extend your arm again. Complete your reps, and then repeat on the opposite side.

6. Incline Dumbbell Fly

Step 1. Set an adjustable bench to a 30- to 45-degree angle and lie back against it with a dumbbell in each hand at shoulder level. Turn your palms so that they face each other, and your elbows are tucked at about 45 degrees to your sides. Press the weights overhead.

Step 2. Keeping a slight bend in your elbows, lower your arms slowly in a wide arcing motion until you feel a stretch in your pecs. Bring your arms back up in an arc until they’re overhead again.

7. One-Arm Dumbbell Row

Step 1. Place one knee on a flat bench and brace yourself with the hand on the same side. Your spine should be long and your core braced. Grasp a dumbbell at arm’s length.

Step 2. Draw your shoulder blade back and downward as you row the weight to your side with your elbow flared out about 45 degrees. Lower the weight under control. Complete your reps, and then repeat on the opposite side.

8. Deficit Pushup

Step 1. Place blocks or mats on the floor, or pile some weight plates as shown, so you create an elevated surface for your hands to rest on. Get into pushup position. Your body should form a straight line, with your pelvis slightly tucked so that it’s perpendicular to the floor. Brace your core.

Step 2. Lower your body between the blocks or plates until you feel a deep stretch in your chest, but don’t lose your pelvic position. Press back up.

9. T-Bar Row

Step 1. Load a barbell into a landmine unit, or wedge one end into a corner. Load the other end of the bar with weight, and stand behind the plates, feet straddling the bar. Grasp a V-grip handle (as used with cable stations) and, keeping a long spine with your core braced, bend your hips back to reach and hook the handle onto the bar. Allow your knees to bend. Grasp the handle with both hands, palms facing each other. Maintain your long spine and tight core as you pick the bar off the floor.

Step 2. Draw your shoulder blades back and down as you row the bar the bar, stopping when your elbows reach the middle of your torso. Lower back down under control.

Upper-Chest & Lower-Lat Workout

If you’ve been training a while, you’ve surely noticed that some of your muscle groups aren’t developing as well as others. When it comes to the chest and back, the upper portion of the pecs and lower section of the lats are commonly the weakest areas. Filling out the upper pecs will make your chest look bigger overall, and developing the lower lats will make your back appear wider (which makes your waist look smaller by default).

While you can’t isolate these areas completely, you can bias them with certain exercises and technique tweaks. Catanzano says that any row done with a neutral (palms facing in) grip and bringing the elbows tight to the side of the body—and stopping when the elbows are in line with the torso—will emphasize the lats over the upper back. To zero in on the lower-lat fibers (sometimes called the iliac lats, because they originate on the iliac crest of the pelvis), you need to perform pulling motions with your arm over and a little in front of your head (120–150 degrees of shoulder flexion), and driving your elbow toward your hip.

To attack the upper chest, you need to isolate the clavicular pec fibers as much as possible. The arm path to do this is similar to the one that trains the lower lats, but, of course, the resistance comes from the opposite direction. Incline presses and flys are the typical exercise choices, but make sure you perform them with a neutral grip and elbows tucked, so that your arms travel the same direction that the clavicular fibers run.

1. Incline Dumbbell Press

Step 1. Set an adjustable bench to a 30–45-degree angle, grasp a pair of dumbbells, and lie back on the bench, making sure your entire back is in contact with it—do not arch your back so that it causes your lower back to rise off the pad. Start with the dumbbells just outside your shoulders, elbows bent, and your forearms/wrists angled slightly (a V-shape).

Step 2. Keeping your elbows pointing at about 45 degrees, press the dumbbells straight up. Lower the dumbbells back down under control, until they’re just above and outside your shoulders.

2. Chest-Supported Low-Lat Row

Step 1. Rest your chest on an elevated bench, high enough so that your arms can hang straight down while your body is parallel to the floor. Keep a long spine and your core braced. Grasp a dumbbell in each hand.

Step 2. Draw your shoulder blades down and back as you row the weights to your sides.

3. Clavicular-Head Pec Fly

Step 1. Attach single-grip handles (D handles) to two facing pulleys at a cable station set at shoulder height. Grasp the handles with hands angled 45 degrees and palm facing each other. Step forward so that your arms are extended at your sides, and there is tension on the cables.

Step 2. Keeping a slight bend in your elbows, bring your arms together in a wide arcing motion. Lower the weight under control until you feel a stretch in your chest.

4. Incline Low-Lat Pulldown

Step 1. Set an adjustable bench at about a 60-degree angle in front of a cable station. Attach a bar to the pulley at the highest setting, and then attach single-grip handles to the bar so that you can grasp them with palms facing in. Lie with your chest against the bench and your arms extended overhead. Keep a long spine, and your core braced. There should be tension on the cable to start.

Step 2. Draw your shoulder blades back and together as you row the handles, stopping when your elbows are at your sides. Lower the weight under control.

5. Close-Grip Incline Press

Step 1. Set an adjustable bench to a 30–45-degree angle and lie back on it. The bar should be just over your eyes. Make sure that your feet are flat on the floor and your shoulders, back, and butt maintain contact with the bench. Arch your back, drawing your shoulder blades back and down. Grasp the bar with hands about shoulder-width apart.

Step 2. Unrack the bar and hold it over your chest. Lower the weight to your chest, tucking your elbows about 45 degrees to your sides. The bar should touch the upper portion of your chest, just under the collarbone. Press the bar back to the starting position.   

6. Rack Pull

Step 1. Set the bar on blocks or the spotter bars of a power rack, as shown, so that it sits just above knee level. Set up as you did for the block pull above—long spine, shoulders packed down and positioned directly over the bar, and core braced. Actively pull the bar tightly into your body, and maintain this tension throughout the rep. You can use straps, as shown, to support your grip.

Step 2. Extend your hips to lockout, standing up tall, and then lower the bar back under control.

Need more upper-chest training? See our guide to upper-chest workouts.

The post 3 Killer Chest & Back Workouts For Building Muscle appeared first on Onnit Academy.

Relax. You don’t have to scrap your current workout to do isotonic exercises, because, chances are, you’re doing them already. While the technical-sounding name makes for a good buzzword—hence the reason you see it showing up in articles and videos online from time to time and getting attention—isotonic exercise is an umbrella term for most of the movements you’ll do in a typical gym workout. With that said, it’s helpful to understand how and why they work to build muscle and strength (as well as aid your fat-loss goals), so prepare for a crash course on the topic—streamlined in layman’s terms so there’s no heavy lifting.

What Is Isotonic Exercise?

The term isotonic means “same tension,” which refers to the tension that’s placed on the muscles you’re contracting while they’re moving the joint(s) they act on. The idea is that you’re keeping the same amount of tension on the muscle throughout the full range of motion. Most of the exercises you’re no doubt already familiar with do this: pushups, squats, running, etc.

There is some nuance to this concept, though. “The term isotonic in resistance training has evolved away from its technical definition,” says Eddie Jo, PhD, CSCS*D, Director of the Human Performance Research Lab at Cal Poly, Pomona. “In real-life situations, your typical resistance exercise is not truly isotonic because of a variety of interwoven factors.” 

One of these factors, according to Jo, is the relationship between a muscle fiber’s length and the amount of force it can produce, called the “length-tension relationship” by exercise scientists. This is a description of how much force a muscle fiber can produce at different lengths. Each muscle fiber has an optimal length—a degree at which it can produce the most amount of force—which is often dictated by the ability of the two major contractile components of a muscle fiber (the protein filaments actin and myosin) to interact with one another. The farther the fiber is stretched or shortened past this optimal point, the less tension you’ll see in the muscle and the less force it will be able to produce.

Need a visual? Imagine doing a biceps curl. Due to the length-tension relationship in the muscle, your biceps will be strongest when the elbow is bent around 90 degrees. If it’s bent more than 90 degrees, the structures that make the muscles contract overlap too much, and it can’t contract as strongly. If the elbow is straighter (less than a 90-degree bend), there’s too little overlap and, again, the muscles can’t produce as much force.

Therefore, it’s technically impossible to maintain the exact same amount of tension on a muscle throughout the entire range of motion in an exercise—even a so-called isotonic one. 

The second concept that you have to consider with isotonic exercise is biomechanical advantage—the fact that different joint angles produce different mechanical advantages (or disadvantages) during a given movement. We’re talking about leverage.

The horizontal distance that the weight (or other source of resistance) is held from the point of rotation (the working joint) determines the force that’s needed to move that load. Further away (a longer lever) requires more force, and closer, less force.

Let’s look at how the glutes work during a back squat…

As you lower your body into the squat, the distance between your glutes and the barbell on your back gets longer and longer. As a result, their mechanical advantage gets worse and worse. When it’s time to power you out of the hole at the bottom of the lift, extending your hips to come back up to lockout, the glutes have to work much harder than if you had just done a half squat, descending only part of the way so that your glutes were nearer to the bar throughout the whole rep.

As you come back up, the glutes get closer to the bar, your leverage improves, and they don’t have to work as hard to extend the hips. In short, this is why the last few inches of a squat feel a lot easier to perform than coming up from the very bottom. 

Because of these two considerations, pure isotonic movement doesn’t really exist, especially in compound exercises that most of us do (squats, pushups, pullups, and so on). Dr. Jo explains: “There is no situation during dynamic resistance exercise where you produce constant tension, because in most cases, if not all, biomechanical factors are always changing and thus a change in tension is required.”

Therefore, the term isotonic is something of a misnomer. When trainers and exercise scientists throw it around, their intention is to describe the load that’s being moved to provide the muscle tension—i.e., it’s constant. The weight you lift on a squat or a pushup is the same throughout the entire rep—it’s not being modified by a machine or some interference. Nevertheless, the tension on the muscles will vary depending on the changing length of the muscle fibers and the muscles’ biomechanical advantage. So, while the weight may remain the same during the exercise, the way it feels to your muscles is changing all the time.

Did we say “no heavy lifting” to read this article? Sorry. But now that you understand the concept, it will get lighter from here.

What Are Examples of Isotonic Exercises?

Virtually any traditional exercise you can think of can be filed under the isotonic category. As we said above, you don’t absolutely have to know what isotonic exercises are because, more than likely, you’re doing (or have done) them already. Here are a few examples:

– Back squat

– Bench press

– Deadlift

– Pushup

– Pullup

– Biceps curl

– Triceps extension

– Dumbbell, barbell, or bodyweight lunge

– Leg extension

– Ab crunch

You may be wondering, then, what exercises are NOT isotonic. We’ll discuss that next. 

Isotonic vs. Isometric Exercises

While the name isotonic might be somewhat new to you, you’re certainly familiar with the term isometric, as it’s been a part of the muscle vernacular for eons. Isometric means “same length,” as in, during an isometric muscle contraction, the length of the muscles does not change (and neither does the angle of the joint they act on). Any time you’ve stopped to hold and squeeze a rep in a particular position, you’re doing an isometric (which is why they’re sometimes called “iso holds”). Pausing your arm at the halfway point in a curl, or holding your body at the top of a chinup, are both examples of isometric training—your muscles are working hard, but there’s no actual movement being performed.

Isometrics can be added to isotonic exercises to increase the intensity of the workout. For instance, after you finish a set of squats, you could walk over to a wall and perform a wall sit (“sit” with your hips and knees 90 degrees and your back against the wall for support) and hold for time. This is a good way to fry your legs.

You can use isometrics to make light weights feel heavier. If you have an injury, say, and you don’t want to risk aggravating it with heavy weights, you can hold isometric contractions at different points in the range of motion to make the exercise feel much harder, thereby removing the need for more challenging loads. This is also a smart strategy when you find yourself at an ill-equipped hotel gym, or your Aunt Tilly’s house—when you’re visiting for the holidays and only have access to the pink dumbbells she left to collect dust in the garage. By slowing down your lifting speed and holding the middle, bottom, or top of certain exercises, you can make the weight feel much heavier and get more out of it.

Slowing down your sets with isometrics is also a good way to ensure that your form stays tight. You’re less apt to race through your set and get sloppy if you have to stop and hold every rep.

You might also do isometrics to strengthen a weak point in a lift you’re trying to improve. If you find that your sticking point on the bench press is a few inches from lockout, you could perform bench presses with an isometric hold at that point in the range of motion. Set the safety catches of a power rack at that position and rest the bar on them. Load the bar with a super-heavy weight—one you can’t actually lift—and set up as if you were benching like normal. Try to press the bar, pushing as hard as you can for three seconds. Of course, the weight won’t move, but you will have performed an isometric that trains your muscles to be stronger in that position. With a few weeks of isometric training, your sticking point should be gone.

Another fancy exercise science term you may hear in conjunction with isotonics and isometrics is isokinetic training. Isokinetic means “same speed.” These exercises are done on special machines that adjust the resistance they provide based on your movement speed, ensuring that the pace of your reps is constant no matter how hard you work. That means that the tension on the muscles is maximal throughout the full range of motion. The best way for most of us to see how isokinetic exercise works is to watch the training montage in Rocky IV. The leg extension and machine ab twists that Ivan Drago does are isokinetic!

The major benefit of isokinetics is safety. Since the machine controls the pace, it’s commonly used in rehab settings to help people come back from injury with low-risk training. Research suggests that isokinetic lifting may be more efficient for rehab than isotonic exercise, but unless you train at an elite facility, or you’re paying for the best possible physical therapy, isokinetic training is impractical and out of reach, so we won’t spend any more time on it.

Remember also that Drago got KO’d at the end of that movie, so if isotonic exercise was enough for Rocky, it’s enough for you.

Benefits Of Isotonic Workouts

Isotonic exercises are effective and efficient. You train the target muscles through a full range of motion, which maintains, and can even increase, their flexibility. Training through full ranges also activates the greatest number of muscle fibers. To achieve similar gains in muscle and strength from isometric training, research shows you may have to train the muscle at four different joint angles—that is, hold and squeeze your reps in four different places. Ain’t nobody got time for that.

Isotonic exercises are also intuitive. You’ve probably been doing them for years, but even if you’re brand new to exercise, you can learn to perform the basic ones proficiently without much of a learning curve. There’s no fancy equipment required (unlike with isokinetic training), and you don’t need a protractor and a guy in a lab coat present to help you figure out the joint angles you need to train. Simple bodyweight training is isotonic training.

Whether your goal with exercise is to build muscle and strength, power and endurance for sports, change your body composition, or just stay active as you age, isotonic exercise should be your foundation. Isometric training and, if possible, isokinetic work, will only be adjuncts. 

Good Stretches for Loosening Up

Regardless of whether you’re doing isotonic, isometric, or isokinetic training, you need to warm up and prepare your muscles to handle resistance safely. Many people stretch as part of their warmup, intending for the temporary increase in range of motion to help them get more out of their exercises, but stretching alone doesn’t raise the temperature in the muscles sufficiently, and it can cause injury if your stretches are too aggressive. A better warmup strategy is mobility training, which combines stretching and light movement to both raise your core temperature and prepare the muscles to work through the ranges of motion that you’ll use during your workout.

Integrate some or all of the following mobility drills into your warmup routine, courtesy of Natalie Higby, co-founder of the Durable Athlete app. Perform 5–10 reps for each, and repeat for 2–3 total sets.

Straight-Leg Hip Circle

Step 1. Hold onto a sturdy object for support, and raise one leg up in the air 90 degrees. Keep the knee as straight as you can.

Step 2. Keeping your shoulders facing forward, draw your leg outward and away from you to the side. When you feel you’re running out of range, begin turning your foot over to face the floor.

Step 3. When you’ve made a complete circle, return your foot to the floor. Reverse the entire motion on your next rep.

Wide-Stance Hinge

Step 1. Stand with feet outside shoulder width and bend only at the hips, driving your butt straight back to lower your torso as far as you can. Allow your knees to bend as needed.

Step 2. Take a deep breath and then let it out, folding your body forward on the exhale so your fingers can touch the ground (or close to it).

Step 3. Bend your knees further as you tuck your pelvis under and slowly extend your spine to come up to standing again. 

Ankle Roll

Step 1. Stand with feet outside shoulder width and place your hands on your knees.

Step 2. Begin making big circles with your knees, shifting your weight to the balls of your feet, then the edges of your feet, and then your heels and arches as your knees move. You can reverse direction on your next set.

Sky Reach To Arm Thread

Step 1. Get on all fours with your hands under your shoulders and your knees directly beneath your hips. Brace your core.

Step 2. Draw your right arm up and across your chest as you twist your right shoulder toward the ceiling and reach overhead. Be careful to keep your hips facing the floor.

Step 3. Reverse the motion, reaching your arm across your body and behind the support arm. Twist as far as you can, ideally until the back of your right shoulder touches the floor. Complete your reps on that side, and then switch sides.

Floor Hand Rotation

Step 1. Get on all fours with your hands under your shoulders and your knees directly beneath your hips. Brace your core.

Step 2. Reach your right arm up and forward, and then, keeping your elbow straight, rotate it down to reach for your lower back. Turn your wrist so your palm faces up as you move. When the back of your hand touches your low back, draw your elbow down to the floor.

Step 3. To reverse the motion, raise your elbow back up, lift your hand off your low back, and rotate the arm back in front of you again. Complete your reps on that side and then switch sides.

See other mobility exercise options HERE.

Sample Beginner’s Isotonic Workout

Here’s a sample upper-body strength workout using isotonic exercises.

1. Bench Press

Sets: 4  Reps: 4  Rest: 3 to 5 minutes

Step 1. Set up with the bar just over your eyes. Make sure that your feet are flat on the floor and your shoulders, back, and butt maintain contact with the bench. Grasp the bar with hands about shoulder-width apart (you may have to slide them an inch or two in either direction), so that when you lower the bar to your chest, your elbows make a 90-degree angle.

Step 2. Unrack the bar and hold it over your chest. Lower the weight to your chest. After touching your chest, press the bar back to the starting position.   

2. Dip

Sets: 3  Reps: 15  Rest: 90 seconds to 2 minutes

Step 1. Suspend your body over the bars of a dip station and brace your core.

Step 2. Drive your elbows back as you lower yourself down. Once your shoulders are parallel with your elbows, press yourself back to the starting position. 

3. Pullup

Sets: 3  Reps: 15  Rest: 90 seconds to 2 minutes

Step 1. Place your hands on the bar with palms facing forward, just outside your shoulders. Hang from the bar but keep your core braced.

Step 2. Pull yourself up until your chin is over the bar.

4. Overhead Banded Triceps Extension

Sets: 3  Reps: 20  Rest: 60–90 seconds

Step 1. Attach a circle band to a sturdy object overhead and grasp an end in each hand. Step away from the anchor point and raise your arms overhead. Your legs should be staggered. Bend your hips back to put tension on the band. Your body should form a straight line from the top of your head to the heel of the back foot.

Step 2. Extend your elbows without moving your upper arms or torso. Switch the front leg on each set.

5. Dumbbell Reverse Fly

Sets: 3  Reps: 20  Rest: 60–90 seconds

Step 1. Hold a light dumbbell in each hand and hinge your hips back to about a 45-degree angle. Brace your core, and extend your arms in front of your body with a slight bend in your elbows (but don’t relax your shoulders).

Step 2. Raise the dumbbells out to your sides by squeezing your upper back and shoulders together. Make sure that your shoulders stay down and you are not shrugging during the lift. Lower the weights under control.

The post The Complete Guide To Isotonic Exercise & Workouts appeared first on Onnit Academy.

A guy or gal at the intermediate level also has license to start isolating certain regions of muscles in order to sculpt their physique to the dimensions they choose. For example, using lower-chest workouts to zero in on the costal division of the pec major muscle. Whereas a beginner can focus on basic bench press exercises to activate all the muscle fibers in the chest, a more experienced lifter may need to target the costal pecs more directly in order to see continued gains.

When well-developed, the costal pecs can add volume to the lower part of your chest that makes it stand out from the ribcage. It’s an awesome look rarely seen outside of bodybuilding or physique competition, and it signifies an advanced level of progress.

We brushed up on the research and consulted one of the world’s top muscle experts to bring you the best plan of attack for lower-chest gains, but be warned: it’s probably not what you’re expecting. (Hint: no decline pressing.)

What Are the Muscles In the Lower Chest?

In order to understand how to train the lower chest, we have to look at how it’s constructed and the way it functions. When lifters say they want to target their “lower chest” with a certain exercise, they’re talking about working the costal head of the pectoralis major. Note that most anatomy charts will identify the lower-most portion of the pecs as part of the “sternocostal head” of the muscle, but hypertrophy researcher Chris Beardsley says, based on the muscle’s actions, it’s more accurate to divide the sternal and costal muscle fibers into separate regions.

To understand what a muscle does, and therefore know what movements you need to train it, you pretty much just have to look at the direction the muscle fibers run, and know that, when they contract, they’ll pull the insertion point (where the muscle attaches) closer to the origin (where the fibers start from). For example, the sternal fibers of the pec (the ones in the middle area of the muscle) run straight horizontally, originating at the sternum and attaching to the humerus (upper arm bone). That means that when they contract, they’re mainly working to pull the upper arm straight across the front of the body. Therefore, fly motions and flat bench presses work the sternal pec fibers, primarily.

The costal (lower) fibers, however, run from the cartilage of the sixth rib and the connective tissue on the external oblique to high up on the humerus (see the illustration above). The fibers’ direction, then, goes diagonal and even almost straight vertical, so they work more so to pull the arms from where they’re out and away from the body to the front of the body and close to your sides (shoulder adduction). They also work to bring the arms from a straight overhead position to down in front of the body (shoulder extension).

(Of course, the clavicular/upper portion is another region of the pec muscle that acts on the arms. For more on this head of the pec muscle and how to train it, see our guide to upper chest training.)

3 Great Lower-Chest Exercises

Now that we’ve identified where the costal pecs are and what they do, it’s pretty easy to see what kind of exercises will work them.

1. High-To-Low Cable (or Band) Fly

Since one of the costal pecs’ main functions is to draw the arms from wide out to down in front of the body (shoulder adduction), it makes sense to do a fly motion that goes from high to low. However, according to Paul Carter, a strength and hypertrophy coach (@coachpaulcarter on Instagram), most people do these incorrectly, pulling the cable handles or bands across the midpoint of their body. This is beyond the range of motion the costal pecs work in, and it transfers the tension to the sternal pec fibers.

“The cue I give for execution is to punch the floor,” says Carter. “The plane you’re moving in has to run congruent to the orientation of the fibers, so the arms have to come pretty much straight down toward the floor.”

Another mistake to avoid is starting the movement with your arms up too high, to the point where your shoulders roll forward. “People think more range of motion is better,” says Carter, so they let the weight on the cables pull their arms farther back than they should go, exceeding the pecs’ active range of motion. Not only does this do the opposite of what you want, reducing the tension on the pecs, it can be dangerous.

Repeating this mistake can, over time, cause the humerus to poke forward in the glenohumeral (shoulder) joint, leading to a condition called anterior humeral glide, which damages the shoulder capsule. Basically, allowing your arm to go too far behind your body on any exercise will cause your arm bone to stab its way through the front of your shoulder. “You always want to keep the target muscle within the range that it can move the joint,” says Carter. In many cases, that could be a shorter range of motion than you expect.

Carter’s cue is to think about driving your elbows back as your arms come up on the negative portion of the fly (when your chest gets stretched). When they’ve gone as far back as they can go without your shoulders tipping forward, the range of motion is complete.

How To Do The High-To-Low Cable (or Band) Fly

Step 1. Attach single-grip (“D”) handles to the top pulleys of two facing cable stations, or attach bands to two sturdy anchor points overhead. Stand between the cables/bands and slightly in front of them, with feet staggered to help you keep balance. Grasp the handles with your arms out and away from your sides. Bend your elbows to take pressure off the biceps. You should feel tension on the cables/bands and a stretch in your chest, but be sure your elbows don’t point upward and your shoulders aren’t bulging forward.

Step 2. Drive your arms down toward your hips and slightly in front of your body, as if punching the floor. Don’t draw your hands across your body as you would in a sternal pec fly or dumbbell fly (don’t bring your hands together).

Step 3. Allow your arms to go back in an arcing motion to the starting position, again being careful not to let them reach to where your shoulders roll forward. You should feel a stretch in your chest but not your delts.

2. Costal Dip

The dip is mostly thought of as a triceps exercise, but if you can keep your torso fairly upright, you can change the focus to really blast the costal pecs. The form pointers here are the same as for the high-to-low fly—punch the floor, and avoid overextending the shoulders.

Using a band can help you get in the right position (Carter learned this from the biomechanics whizzes at N1 Training, @n1.training on Instagram). Sling one over dip bars and stand on it like a hammock, pushing your legs forward as much as you can—it should allow for the perfect arm path to activate the costal pec fibers. Understand that the purpose of the band isn’t to reduce the amount of your own bodyweight you have to lift, although it will do that to some extent, but to allow your arms to travel from behind the body to in front of it along the path that the costal pec fibers run. You don’t need a lot of band tension to support you—you need just enough to hold your feet in front of you.

How To Do The Costal Dip

Step 1. Loop a light band around dip bars and stand on the band. Suspend your body over the bars with arms locked out, and bend at the hips, pushing your legs forward so you’re as upright as possible.

Step 2. Drive your arms back to lower your body as far as you can without your shoulders rolling forward. Be conservative; it’s probably not as deep as you think (video yourself, or have a friend watch you to make sure you don’t go too low).

Step 3. Punch your arms down to raise your body up and lock out your elbows.

3. Dumbbell Pullover

The pullover is often thought of as a back exercise, but Carter argues that it activates the lower pecs (and pec minor) much more than the lats—and a study in the Journal of Applied Biomechanics agrees with him. Just look at the motion of any pullover (barbell or dumbbell): the arms move from overhead down in front of the body, and that’s going to require some pulling from the costal division of the pecs. Meanwhile, the extreme shoulder flexion involved (the arms moving far overhead) takes the lats out of their active range, and by the time the lats really kick in to pull your arms down for shoulder extension, the resistance the weight provides drops off considerably.

Carter believes that the high-to-low fly and dip have the costal pecs pretty well covered, but if you feel your lower chest is really lacking, experiment with some pullovers. Beardsley’s research suggests that doing reps with a partial range of motion, working near the fully stretched position, may better isolate the lower chest. So you could start a set by doing full-range reps and then, as you fatigue and can’t complete another one, finish with some half-reps.

How To Do The Dumbbell Pullover

Step 1. Hold a dumbbell by one of its bell ends and lie back flat on a bench. Press the dumbbell up and hold it directly over your chest with your elbows pointing out to the sides. Tuck your pelvis under so that your lower back is flat on the bench and brace your core.

Step 2. Keeping your elbows as straight as possible, lower your arms back and behind you until you feel a strong stretch in your chest.

Step 3. Pull the weight back up and over your chest.

Performing the movement with bands or a cable would be even more effective than using a dumbbell or barbell, as the band/cable tension would force the pecs to work harder as they get closer to the chest (which is where the resistance drops off with free weights).

For all of the above movements, Carter recommends working in the 6–10 rep range and adding reps and weight gradually.

“So is that it for lower chest? Wait a minute,” you say. “What about decline presses?”

For years, bodybuilding magazines have told readers that presses and flys done on a decline bench were the best way to hit the lower-chest fibers. Carter, however, says it’s not so.

Setting a bench to a decline that allows the arms to travel on the right path is tricky—it’s easier just to do dips, Carter says. Bodybuilders often take a wide grip on decline presses, mistakenly thinking it will activate more pec muscle, but it actually brings in more of the front deltoids and can be stressful to the shoulder joints. Remember, as with a dip, pressing needs to be done with arms close to the sides to work the costal pecs.

And the decline fly? Done with dumbbells, it would only provide adequate resistance when your pecs are lengthened (arms flared out). As your arms move closer to your body, the demand on your costal pecs would get less and less, and if you cross the midline of your body, the sternal pecs take over. You could use cables or bands to get around that problem, but again, the correct arm path would be difficult to achieve.

As we said in the beginning, an old-school barbell bench press will work the costal pecs as well—so don’t think you have to abandon benching if you want your lower chest to stick out further. Bench presses also work the middle (sternal) and upper (clavicular) pecs, which is why most trainers recommend beginners learn basic lifts when they’re starting out—they recruit a lot of muscle at once, making your training very efficient. With that said, basic, compound lifts don’t isolate any one division of any muscle, so if you have a specific area that you want to improve, they’re usually not the best choice—especially after you’ve been training a while and your gains slow down. As your training and goals evolve, and injuries come up, you may also decide that bench pressing isn’t a good fit for you anymore, and you need to work your pecs with exercises that train the muscle more in isolation.

“When you’re trying to bias a particular muscle,” says Carter, “there’s always going to be some overlap with other muscles, but if you do it right, the fibers you’re trying to bias will be maximally loaded while the other ones won’t be.” So while the dips we prescribed above will work your shoulders and triceps, they’ll mainly hit the lower chest as intended.

Benefits of Working Out Your Lower Chest

Building up your costal pec can help the muscle rise off the rib cage to a greater degree, rounding out the bottom of your chest. Carter also sees lower-chest training as having value for powerlifters.

“If you bench press in competition with a shoulder-width grip,” he says, “the costal pecs are going to contribute to that lift. So strengthening that division of the pecs will help your bench press.” In fact, Carter says that lower-chest work via dips, along with triceps training, should probably make up most of your assistance work for the bench press.

The Ideal Lower-Chest Workout for The Gym

The costal division of the pecs is a pretty small area, and most chest work you do (pressing and fly exercises) is going to activate it to some degree, so don’t go overboard trying to bring up your lower chest. One or two exercises for it in one workout should do it. Here are some ways you can set up sessions to focus on lower chest gains.

Sample Lower-Chest Workout Option A

If you train on a body-part split and you have a dedicated chest day, you could prioritize the costal pecs by training them first when you’re fresh. Then you could hit the rest of the chest divisions (upper and middle) as shown below.

Use several warm-up sets to work up to a weight that allows you the prescribed number of reps, and then take that set to failure (the point at which you can’t perform another rep with good form). For the costal dips, you can warm up with pushups. If you’re very strong at dips, you may need to add weight with a dip/chinup belt, or hold a dumbbell between your feet, so you can reach failure at 6–10 reps, or close to it.

1. Costal Dip (Lower Chest)

Sets: 1  Reps: As many as possible

2. High-To-Low Cable or Band Fly (Lower Chest)

Sets: 1  Reps: 6–10

3. Low-To-High Cable or Band Fly (Upper Chest)

Sets: 1  Reps: 12–15

Step 1. Set the handles on both sides of a cable crossover station to the lowest pulley setting. Grasp the handles, and step forward to lift the weights off the stack so that there’s tension on the pec muscles. If you don’t have access to cable stations, use elastic resistance bands as shown, attached to a rack or other sturdy object.

Step 2. Stagger your feet for stability, and let your arms extend diagonally toward the floor, in line with the cables—but keep a slight bend in your elbows. Your palms will face forward. Keep your torso upright and stationary throughout the movement.

Step 3. Contract your pecs to lift the handles upward and in front of your body. The upward path of motion should be in line with the clavicular fibers of the upper pecs—think: diagonal.

Step 4. At the top of the rep, your hands should be touching each other in front of you at around face level, wrists in line with your forearms. Squeeze the top position for 1–2 seconds, and then lower the weight under control, back to the start position.

4. Dumbbell Bench Press (Middle Chest)

Sets: 1  Reps: 15–20

Step 1. Hold a dumbbell in each hand, and lie back on a flat bench with the weights at shoulder level. Flatten your lower back into the bench and brace your core.

Step 2. Press the weights straight over your chest to lockout.

Sample Lower-Chest Workout Option B

Here, you’ll open with an incline press for the upper chest—a commonly weak area—and then do two lower-chest exercises back to back. Pullovers are done last when the pecs are fully warmed up and full of blood. Performing an exercise that forces the muscles to stretch so much should never be done first in a workout—put it at the end for safety’s sake.

Use several warm-up sets to work up to a weight that allows you the prescribed number of reps, and then take that set to failure (the point at which you can’t perform another rep with good form).

1. Incline Dumbbell Bench Press

Sets: 1  Reps: 6­–10

Step 1. Set an adjustable bench to a 30–45-degree angle. Grasp a pair of dumbbells and lie back on the bench, making sure your entire back is in contact with it—do not arch your back so that it causes your lower back to rise off the pad.

Step 2. Start with the dumbbells just outside your shoulders, elbows bent, and your forearms/wrists in a semi-pronated or neutral (palms facing in) position. 

Step 3. Keeping your elbows pointing at about 45 degrees, press the dumbbells straight up until your arms are just shy of full lockout. Lower the dumbbells back down under control, until they’re just above and outside your shoulders.

2. Costal Dip

Sets: 1  Reps: As many as possible

3. Dumbbell Pullover

Sets: 1  Reps: 8–12

Sample Lower-Chest Workout Option C

Many lifters like to follow a push/pull/legs split, in which they work all the pushing muscles on one day (chest, shoulders, triceps), pulling muscles another (back, biceps), and then quads, hamstrings, and calves in a third workout. In this case, your push day could start with some costal-pec work to satisfy the chest component.

Use several warm-up sets to work up to a weight that allows you the prescribed number of reps, and then take that set to failure (the point at which you can’t perform another rep with good form).

1. Weighted Costal Dip

Sets: 1  Reps: 6–10

Add weight to your body with a dip/chinup belt, or hold a dumbbell between your feet.

2. Dumbbell Bench Press

Sets: 1  Reps: 12–15

3. Dumbbell Lateral Raise

Sets: 1  Reps: 8–12

Step 1. Hold a dumbbell in each hand and bend your hips back so that the lateral deltoid (the middle head of your shoulder) is perpendicular to the floor.

Step 2. Raise the weights outward to 90 degrees.

4. Bent-Over Lateral Raise

Sets: 1  Reps: 15–20

Step 1. Hold a dumbbell in each hand and bend your hips back until your torso is nearly parallel to the floor. Keep a long line from your head to your pelvis, and brace your core.

Step 2. Raise your arms out the sides.

5. Overhead Banded Triceps Extension

Sets: 1  Reps: 8–12

Step 1. Attach a band to a sturdy object overhead and grasp an end in each hand. Step away from the anchor point and raise your arms overhead. Your legs should be staggered. Bend your hips back to put tension on the band.

Step 2. Extend your elbows without moving your upper arms or torso. Switch the front leg on each set.

The Ideal Lower-Chest Workout At Home, or Without Weights

You can target lower chest without special equipment, but we do suggest you invest in some exercise bands, and find a way to rig up a dip station (two sturdy chairs, or the parallel bars at a park could work).

1. Costal Dip

Sets: 1  Reps: As many as possible

2. High-To-Low Band Fly

Sets: 1  Reps: As many as possible

3. Pushup With Feet Elevated

Sets: 1  Reps: As many as possible

Step 1. Place your hands around shoulder-width on the floor, and raise your feet behind you on a bench, box, or other stable surface. Tuck your tailbone slightly so that your pelvis is neutral, and brace your core. Your body should form a long, straight line.

Step 2. Lower your body, tucking your elbows about 45 degrees from your sides, until you feel a stretch in your pecs. Press yourself back up, allowing your shoulder blades to spread at the top.

4. Sternal Band Fly

Sets: 1  Reps: As many as possible

Perform the same motion as the high-to-low fly, but set the bands at shoulder height, so the line of pull lines up with the middle of your chest. Bring your hands together in the end position.

Why Only 1 Set?

You may be surprised that we’re prescribing only one work set per exercise in these workouts, when you’ve probably heard for years that 3 or more sets is best. Scientists are still going back and forth on how much volume is needed for muscle growth, but Carter’s experience has led him to believe that one hard set—taken to failure—is all that’s needed, more often than not. This is backed by a very applicable study in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, which showed that only three total sets for a muscle group PER WEEK was enough to spark gains, and the gains were equal to what was measured in lifters who performed as many as 12 sets!

It’s important to note that the subjects weren’t newbies, for whom any amount of training would produce results. They had between one and four years of lifting experience, and were reasonably strong.

The researchers wrote: “Hypothetically, both low and high volume training may lead to microtraumas of the muscle fibers, but the high volume training at the expense of additional time and effort…

“The equality in lower and upper body strength development… indicates that when a minimum (threshold) level of strength training volume has been performed at a higher intensity the consequent physiological adaptations may be optimized and additional workloads (e.g., 12 sets per muscle group per week) do not contribute further improvements, at least over a short training period.”

In other words, hit your lower chest hard, and then get out of the gym!

The post The Best Lower-Chest Workouts for the Gym & Home appeared first on Onnit Academy.