Variety Adds
by David Gentle
Unless you are on a specialization program, i.e. training for a powerlift,
or Olympic lifting routine, to make an increase in body-mass or strength,
the chances are that you are working out on a ‘normal’ schedule.
The average is eight to twelve exercises for all round body parts or standard split routine. A normal training session for full body workout, after warm up, might be – alternate presses with dumbbells for deltoids and triceps, squats for legs, chest and general metabolism bench presses for chest, shoulders and triceps.
Followed by flies, barbell rowing for the lats, upper back and arms, French presses or extensions for triceps, barbell curls for biceps, reverse curls for forearms, lateral raises for deltoids. Calf raises for the lower legs etc. Split routines might follow the usual pattern of push/pull alternative sessions or upper and lower body workouts at different sessions.
Here we’ve provided a list for your future use, when you need a change of schedule to boost progress. Alternative exercise for various body parts, for reference for making a change, and adding variety to spice up your workouts.
So let’s take it from the top from head to toes (who wants muscular toes).
SCALP: (yes they’ve muscles) try wrinkling up your forehead and making funny faces. Recommended by all beauty experts to keep you looking young and help preserve your hair.
NECK: Looking from the back, main contributor to a thick neck is the TRAPEZUIS, muscle, for which you can do all types of overhead lifting, dead-lifts, and all forms of rowing with emphasis on upright rowing. Try narrow hand spacing, lifting elbows high.
Also shoulder shrugging while holding weights hits the spot. For the front, head resisting movements, using head straps or a towel, having a partner resist your head movements, wrestlers, bridges and especially the sport of wrestling, all good for tough necks.
SHOULDERS: consisting of mainly the trapezius with exercises as detailed above, and the DELOTIDS. The deltoids basically are frontal, or anterior, side or lateral, and back or posterior deltoids. To get that much admired ‘coconut’ look you need to develop all these sections.
All forms of pressing, dumbbells and barbells overhead. Alternative dumbbells press, press behind neck seated and standing varieties. For the side or lateral deltoids, lateral raises with dumbbells, upright rowing with barbell, lateral raises with dumbbells, upright rowing with barbell, lateral raises with dumbbells, upright rowing with barbell, lateral raises and cables or pulleys. In fact all exercises which move the arm in a sideway and upward movements against resistance.
The front part of the shoulders are given plenty of work with close grip barbell bench presses and forward raises with barbell or dumbbells, and all moves which raise the arms outward and the head. The rear part of the shoulders, get exercises with the multiple versions of rowing, especially the one arm dumbbell row, which lends itself to full range flexion and extension. Chest pulls with expanders or pulley/cables are excellent movements for this area.
Another specialized exercise is bent forward lateral raises with dumbbells. For this movement you will not require much weight to get an effective workout for the shoulder group.
CHEST: is the next muscle mass under attack second not to arms in popularity. The biggest muscles are of the chest are the pectorals or ‘pecs’. These are comparatively easily developed, hence their popularity. Use some caution, as you can actually overdevelop this area, and create unbalance and postural problems.
Utilize pressing, with a variety of hand spacing. The wider grip gets the outer part of the pectorals, the narrow grip pumps inner pecs. Dumbbells which require more control, have a different effect, mainly on the central pectorals.
Best of all most bodybuilders believe are dumbbell flies, being a concentrated movement for the entire pectorals.
Also recommended are fixed machine PEC DEC and similar compressions, for those without weights, try the many forms of press-ups or floor dips.
For the upper chest try incline bench pressing. For the lower, try the old stand-by vertical dips on parallel bars making sure you do the full range movement.
The chest of course is not just comprised of pecs. To gain chest expansion, and the health that goes with it, you must expand and involve the rib case. Still the best proven exercises are a combination of some form of SQUAT, in high reps, and BREATHING, pullovers. The main thing is to do enough reps, to become genuinely breathless with at least 20 or more reps. The pullovers can be practiced on your favourite bench with a rowing bell or use two hands on a dumbbell, end on or cross over bench. Only a lightweight required, as the ideas is To STRETCH your chest.
The SERRATUS MAGNUS are so named because they look like saw teeth. These muscles were not seen too often in the ‘bulkier, but now with the age of super defined physiques, they are noticeably pronounced making a beautiful tie-in with the abdominals.
Exercises to develop these muscles are prone flying motions, and again pullovers on bench. Remember as well as straight-arm pullovers, you can do the bent arm variety, an exercise in which you can use some very creditable poundages.
B.M. (before machines) bodybuilders were obliged to pull over the weight required for bench press, with the result that poundage in excess of 150 kgs. for reps were not uncommon.
Next on our hit list is the LATISSMUS DORSI “known familiarly as LATS. Again like the pecs, these muscles seem to develop quicker than some stubborn groups, and so you can always recognize a real bodybuilder by his or her “V’ shape.
Exercise choices include all variations of pulldowns on the lat machine, all types of chinning the bar to neck in front and behind, both wide and narrow grip and the many kinds of dead lift.
In truth, every time you lift a bar up from the floor, you are using the lats. Overhead pull downs with cables or chest expanders are also great for these muscles.
Another piece of apparatus that involves the lats is the compressing type of ‘bull worker’. Gymnasts discover rope climbing develops super lats as well as high biceps and strong rip, a great muscle builder for would be Tarzan’s (or Jane’s).
We have now worked half way down the body so will continue with the waist region or abdomen. The slowest set of muscles are the RECTUS ABDOMINNUS, developed by the many kinds of leg raises, both with straight legs, or if you have a back problem, then try them with bent legs.
The opposite movement used is sit-ups. Again you should bend the legs at the knees, with latest believing you need only just raise yourself several inches above the floor to bring into full play the abdominals via crunches or curl ups.
After that short arc other muscles take over, more especially the lower back group called the (ilio) PSOAS. This muscle although relatively unknown is extremely important and can result in major muscle imbalance causing many problems, such as back pain, limping and general bad posture and the multi-various troubles associated with it. But that’s another story, see later issue for low back training.
To return to the abs, other ideas are legs raises while training from a bar as good gymnasts practise, side twists, and of course side bends for the external obliques. Usually performed with a dumbbell in one hand. All overhead lifting effects the waist areas providing you are using free weights, thereby strengthening it.
We’’ bypass the ‘naughty bits you choose your personal methods and move on the upper thighs and buttocks. Most people do not wish to increase their buttocks, but they are important muscles and cannot be missed out in training. Known as GLUTEUS MAXIMUS, they are exercises in deadlifts, leg presses on the various machines, and all types of deep squats. Any form of heavy work and weight lifting which calls for weights to be lifted off the ground will bring you glutes into play.
On to the thighs, which consists of QUADRCIPES, FEMORIS, VASTUS INTERNALIS, LATERALIS and VASTUS MEDIALIS, these are extensions of the thighs. You also have biceps of the thigh which is the large muscle at the back of the leg, brought into use when the leg is bent bringing the foot to the buttocks.
The best exercises for these muscles, is the leg curl machine which is usually part of most home bench complexes. For athletes, try sprinting.
Another muscle in the leg is the ADDUCTOR which becomes involved when you wish to squeeze your legs together, useful in horse riding and similar pursuits.
Reverting to the earlier mentioned extensor muscles of the thigh, all squatting moves, front squats, back squats, bench squats, straddle lifts, leg presses, thigh extensions and of course widely practiced activities such as running, jumping etc.
The muscle we know as the ‘calf’ is called GASTROCNEMIUS, which is one good reason why we call it the calf, otherwise if we reduced it like pecs, or lats, it would come out as GASTROS, which sounds more like a problem with the old tum.
The main muscle group on the front of the shin is the TIBIALIS. The calves are exercised almost continually whenever we are standing or moving upright. All sports of the running variety especially sprinting develop the calves. Climbing, jogging, (whatever happened to jogging?)
Ed Note: too many injuries? ( hiking, football etc., are all good.) Running in the sand takes some beating.
Routine weight training exercises include raising the toes against resistance for the front part of the shin, and raising the heels as to barbell heel raises, calf machine raises, calf raises seated with the barbell rested across the thighs, and specific tensing and STRETCHING of the calf muscles.
Variety Adds © Copyright by David Gentle All Rights Reserved