As a strength and conditioning specialist I have to say that the kettlebell snatch is my personal favorite in all the kettlebell lifts that can be performed. If you want to know why this lift is so valuable then permit yourself a minute to tune in and continue reading this article. I have trained many athletes and many folks that are serious about fitness and this single lift proves to be beneficial for all of them!

Benefits Of The Kettlebell Snatch Lift!

1. Develops Explosive Power: I have trained many athletes ranging from football players to MMA fighters and I always say that if you are looking to run really fast or want to have the ability to punch someone really hard then the kettlebell snatch is the lift for you! Thats right, kettlebell snatches are terrific for the development of your core center which enables you to perform physical activities such as running, jumping, and yes even punching at a higher level. By performing this lift you must have sound technique in lifting the bell from either the ground or from a swinging action to a locked out position above your head. By performing this lift you are integrating the use of your shoulders, hips, glutes, abdominals, lats, hamstrings, and calves to soundly elevate the bell in a smooth efficient manner during the snatch lift.

This kettlebell exercise is terrific for the muscles of your posterior chain which us strength and conditioning professionals like to refer to as your “performance muscles!” The beauty of this lift is that you are forced to train a certain movement pattern to execute it rather than relying on trying to segment a specific body part. Your muscles must work together in a synergistic harmony in order to move the bell in a continuous manner. I like to think of this lift as being a hybrid type of an olympic lift. If you want to perform you have got to include snatches into your training routine.

2. Improves Shoulder Stability: I am a firm believer in overhead lifts. It baffles me when I hear some strength coaches and trainers say that they don’t believe in overhead lifting because of the danger of injuring the shoulder joint. This is a ridiculous mindset because the shoulders are placed under tremendous stress when an athlete engages in physical competition. The only way to strengthen the shoulder joint and all the stabilizing muscles that surround is by performing overhead lifts. Now it is true that most any lift performed incorrectly can potentially injure you, but so can any other exercise if it is performed incorrectly. Overhead snatches are hugely beneficial in allowing the shoulder to strengthen and even improve with mobility which is essential for athletic performance. Any restriction in mobility or strength in the shoulder while performing an athletic feat like a baseball pitcher throwing a fast ball can lead to injury. Strengthen your shoulders by developing them through the kettlebell snatch.

3. Unmatched Cardiovascular Conditioning: Once again, if you feel that your technique is sound in this lift then you can structure your workouts differently to achieve a different result. The beauty of this lift is that if you can perform sets of high repetitions or for a designated amount of time then you will see just why the cardiovascular benefit of it is so great! I don’t think that their is any other lift I can perform that revs my heart rate up faster than this lift. By performing 20 or 30 reps at a time of kettlebell snatches you are exerting your body from head to toe and your heart has to work like crazy to keep up with providing your body with the blood supply it needs to keep moving. The imposed demands that this lift places on your body is serious for the development of your cardiovascular output. If you want to achieve a high level of conditioning within the confines of your strength program then this lift is for you!

Feel free to access more of my material on this and many other effective strength and conditioning tactics if you want to improve your performance. Take the time to learn how to train correctly if you want to succeed. I’ll be glad to help any way that I can. Remember that most any athlete can train hard, but only the champions train smart my friend.

You now know that regular physical activity and exercise can help you avoid preventable diseases and add to both the quality and length of your life. If you are currently active, you are more aware of the benefits of regular physical activity and should be motivated to continue your efforts. If you are sedentary or sporadically active, you realize that you should not delay one day longer in making the behavioral changes necessary to improve your fitness level.

Identifying Your Fitness Goals

Before you initiate a fitness program, analyze your personal needs, limitations, physical activity likes and dislikes, and daily schedule. If you have inherited no major risks for fatal or debilitating diseases, your specific goal may be to achieve(or maintain) healthy levels of body fat, cardiovascular fitness, muscular strength and endurance, or flexibility/mobility.

Once you become committed to regular physical activity and exercise, you will observe gradual changes and note progress toward your goals. Unfortunately, you can’t get fit for a couple of years while you’re young and expect the positive changes to last the rest of your life. You must become committed to fitness for the long haul-to establish a realistic schedule of diverse exercise activities that you can maintain and enjoy throughout your life.

Designing Your Fitness Program

Once you commit yourself to becoming physically active, you must decide what type of fitness program is best suited to your needs. Good fitness programs are designed to improve or maintain cardio respiratory fitness, flexibility, muscular strength and endurance, and body composition. A comprehensive program could include a warm-up period of easy walking followed by stretching activities to improve flexibility, then selected strength development exercises, followed by performance of an aerobic activity for 20 minutes or more, and concluding with a cool-down period of gentle flexibility exercises.

The greatest proportion of your exercise time should be spent developing cardiovascular fitness, but you should not exclude the other components. Choose an aerobic activity you think you will like. Many people find cross training alternate-day participation in two or more aerobic activities(ie, jogging and swimming)-less monotonous and more enjoyable than long-term participation in only one aerobic activity. Cross training is also beneficial because it strengthen:, a variety of muscles, thus helping you avoid overuse injuries to muscles and joints.

Responding to the exercise boom, fitness equipment manufacturers have made it easy for you to participate in a variety of activities. Most colleges and universities now have recreation centers where students can use stair-climbing machines, stationary bicycles, treadmills, rowing machines, and ski-simulators.

What Do You Think?

You now have the ability to design your own fitness program. What two activities would you select for a cross-training program? Do the activities you selected exercise different major muscle groups?

Cross training Regular participation in two or more types of exercises (e.g., swimming and weight lifting)

Learning to Throw-the-Bat-Head (NOT “swing” the bat) is the foundation of a professional baseball-training program. It is also the 1st thing that you should do to develop your swing.

Top Hand:

You should learn to feel that throwing action from the top hand. You should feel the top hand throw or whip the bat head through the zone. As the ball is being delivered towards home plate, you should think about throwing the barrel “behind” the baseball. The pitcher is throwing the ball at you and you’ve got to throw the barrel back at the ball.

There are three movements that you must perfect when working on your top hand movements.

1. The first is throwing the barrel along the golf plane; truly feeling your hands whip the zone.

2. The second is throwing the barrel along the baseball plane and feeling the same whip in your hands through the zone.

3. The third is actually throwing the bat down the opposite field line.

Perform these three movements with both a regular grip as well as a split grip. A split grip means your hands are slightly separated an inch or so. These are simple movements and should be easy to learn, but doing them right is very important in developing your feel for throwing the barrel.

A brief review each of these movements:

1. Golf Plane:

The first movement you should use to develop this thrower’s feel is to take the bat along the golf plane. Using the golf plane keeps the bat light and this allows you to stay loose and relaxed. At the bottom of your swing, you simply throw your top hand past your bottom.

-When performing this drill, you just want to take that lead arm up and then just allow it to fall straight down. Before your lead arm gets to your front foot, you should feel your hands start to work and feel the bat whip through the zone.

– Notice how the lead arm stops before it gets to the foot and then all that’s working through there are the hands and the bat.

-It’s very important that you feel this whipping sensation and as that lead arm is going to stop before the foot, the lead hand works under, the top hand works over, as the bat head whips through and then the lead arm begins to move.

-When doing this drill and, in general as a hitter, you want to have a good, firm grip on the bat, but you always want to have nice, loose, relaxed wrists – – good grip, loose wrists.

Split grip:

It’s often a good idea to separate the hands an inch or two so that you can really feel what each hand is doing independently. If you do this, you really become aware how the top hand is throwing the barrel past the bottom hand.

Add stride to movement:

Once the hands are feeling good and you can really feel the throw in the hands, you can add some footwork, i.e. add a stride or a step into your throw.

– Throwing the barrel along the golf plane is a great movement to use in the on-deck circle or between pitches. It helps keep the batter stay relaxed and ensures that the hands are working properly.

2. Baseball plane:

The next movement you should master to feel the throw of the barrel is to simply take the same movement from the golf plane up to the baseball plane.

-Again, it is important that you get a good grip on the bat and keep very loose wrists.

– You should also feel the lead arm get to a point behind the front foot, and then it stops moving forward and allows the top hand to throw past the bottom to create that whip effect.

Note: When performing these dry swings, hitters should incorporate the top-hand release. It gives the batter the sensation of getting rid of the barrel, throwing the barrel at the ball and not “hanging onto it” afterwards. Hanging onto the bat throughout the entire swing can sometimes give the batter a very spinning, turning feel to his movement, which you don’t want.

A Major point of emphasis: don’t release until the top hand finishes. By finish, we mean contact with the ball AND the movement of the top-hand over-and-past the bottom-hand. We will also see the back-arm finish extension just after contact as the top hand gets over and past the bottom. We will not want to release the top-hand until we have completed these movements of the back arm/hand.

Split grip: again, just like on the golf plane, it’s a good idea to separate the hands an inch, maybe even two. The split grip allows you to feel what each hand is doing. Isolating the top-hand accentuates the throwing “feel”.

3. One arm throws:

Removing the bottom-hand and throwing the barrel along the baseball plane with just one arm can really help a player develop a feel of throwing the bat at the ball.

– Just attach the lead hand at the back-shoulder and feel the barrel in your top hand. Then simply step and make a side-arm throw of the barrel along the baseball plane. Start with dry swings.

-You will want to feel your hand whip through the zone. That whipping is felt as the top hand goes over the top just after what would have been contact with the ball.

-When performing a one-arm barrel throw, you want to try to stay square on the front side. Attaching the lead hand to the back shoulder would help with that.

-We really want to feel more tilt than turn on that front shoulder.

Note: In the early stages, however, it’s much more important that we concern ourselves with feeling the throw as opposed to developing perfect form. It’s a great movement for feeling side-arm throwing action of the high-level hitting pattern.

After we’ve developed a feel of the top hand throwing the barrel of the ball and the hand whipping the barrel through the zone, we can move on to the final movement for developing a feel and belief that we are “Throwing the Barrel”.

4. Throw the bat itself.

You want to make sure that you set up in a safe area in an open field or perhaps a position in front of the net. Be sure that anyone with you is not in front or to the side of you, but rather well behind you.

-The first time we throw bats, we’re not concerned with our mechanics. The purpose of this movement is to feel and see that the actions that you use to swing a bat are highly similar to the actions that you would use to throw it.

-Focus on the step and throw aspect of the movement.

-So that we don’t feel too much spin in these throws, we want to throw our bats down the opposite field line and as we release the bat, our hands and our body should be in the direction of the throw, again, down the opposite field line.

– Focus on feeling the one fluid movement aspect of the throw. It’s one fluid movement. In other words, we don’t start and stop when we throw. We don’t want to do that when we swing either. It’s one fluid movement.

Note: The step you take and the movements that the rest of your body makes, including your arms, all act to give speed to the bat head. The highest-level swing patterns most closely align with the high-level throwing patterns.

Again, don’t worry about perfect form on these throws. This is not an every session drill, but rather a movement to help you understand that the swing is essentially a throw. You can go back to it from time to time, especially if you feel yourself getting away from the smooth throwing pattern.

One of the biggest complaints my clients present during their sessions is a lack of flexibility. With the high number of professional computer jockeys in today’s modern world, the common complaints are limited range of motion in the hips and shoulders, pain in the neck, back, and feet.

Sitting all day, especially at an ergonomically challenging computer set up, creates a shortening in your hip flexors (the muscles along the front of your hip and thigh that pull you down into a chair). These muscles in turn pull your lumbar spine forward, causing tension and stiffness in the low back and bracing in your hips.

Additionally, 99.9% of everyone I see in my office sits incorrectly. I attribute this to a lifetime spent on soft, cushy couches and overstuffed easy chairs. Unfortunately, while plush seating may feel nice for a while, it has the effect of rolling your sacrum under so that your weight isn’t centered over your ischial tuberosities (sitting bones) but rather on the last vertebra of your spine (i.e. your sacrum).

Once your sacrum is jammed, your entire spine compensates. This is why a headache or sore neck is actually located in your pelvis, and why work around the hips and low back will generally result in greater shoulder mobility.

Here are 7 easy tips to increase your flexibility and range of motion while reducing pain and stiffness:

1. When sitting for prolonged periods, make sure your hips are higher than your knees. If your knees are higher than your hips, all of your weight falls into your pelvis while the job of holding you upright falls to your hip flexors and the postural stabilizers of your low back.

Instead of bracing your torso to stay upright, place your feet flat on the floor, one foot a few inches in front of the other. By pressing into the ground, you should feel support travel up through your legs and into your low back. Taking the strain off your back is the first step in allowing greater mobility.

2. Do squats* – full on, all the way to your heels squats! Squats force you to mobilize your ankles, knees, hips, and the facet joints in your spine. Most people who haven’t ever trained for this kind of movement find even a basic squat with no weight to be challenging.

When performing the maneuver, make sure your torso doesn’t pitch forward. Holding a small weight, a weighted bar, or a wooden dowel in front of your chest, as in a traditional front squat position, can help you stay upright.

If you are not flexible enough to keep your feet relatively parallel, start with your legs wider apart, feet turned out at 45 degrees. The more you practice squatting, the more willing your body will be to go all the way to the ground.

3. Practice sitting down on the ground and getting up without using your hands*. This is especially helpful for lubricating the hip joints, and it erases the fear that people develop as they age that they will fall and not be able to get back up. It has the added bonus of loosening the lateral rotators of the hip – the muscles that are implicated in sciatica.

Start by finding a way to bring yourself to a seated position on the floor, hands free. Then, get up, also without using your hands. Repeat the exercise several times, finding as many different ways to sit down and stand up as you can.

When the exercise becomes too easy, add a weight. Hold 10-25lbs (or more, if you’re comfortable) at chest height while sitting and standing. This not only mobilizes but also strengthens the joints.

4. When choosing a chair for your computer desk set up, select a firm, flat surface over any padded and contoured seats. Most chairs are designed for an “average” or “standard” body, and anyone who has ever shopped for the perfect pair of jeans knows that one size does not fit all!

Flat surfaces make it easier for you to sit forward on your sitting bones – your ischial tuberosities. You should feel equal weight on both your right and left tuberosities. If not, try to center yourself as best you can without contorting your body. Just relax down onto the chair.

Sitting on your ischial tuberosities is much more stable than sitting on your sacrum. Your postural stabilizing muscles can easily relax and reduce the bracing along your spine, creating instant mobility for your back (this is absolutely key in resolving back and neck pain!).

5. Take extra deep breaths. With all the stimulus coming at us from all directions – television, internet, books, MP3 players, digital advertising, children, pets…. – it’s easy to forget to breathe.

When you cease breathing deeply, your diaphragm becomes tight. Anatomically, the fascia of your diaphragm connects directly to your hip flexors, so if your diaphragm is constricted, your hip flexors will be, too.

Take time each and every day to lie quietly on your back. Breathe deeply, relaxing your rib cage, spine, and abdominal muscles. Allow your internal organs to rest heavily into your back. As you become more relaxed, direct your breathing down deeper and deeper into your pelvis, relaxing all of the tension in your low back, sacrum, gluteus muscles, and thighs. As you become more skilled at conscious breathing, you can begin to direct your breath all the way out the bottoms of your feet.

6. Practice dynamic joint mobility – taking each hip joint through a series of repetitive movements designed to increase the range of motion. This kind of movement increases the flow of synovial fluid, which lubricates the joints. It also provides excellent neurological feedback. Range of motion is a use it or lose it proposition; the more your remind your body that you need to be able to make large, open movements, the more willing your nervous system will be to allow you to do just that.

7. Stretch your hip flexors, especially after long car or airplane trips. As mentioned previously, sitting shortens the anterior muscles of your hip and thigh. To keep them long and limber, stretch daily, or at least several times a week.

Any maneuver that causes a lengthening along the front of your hip and thigh will lengthen the hip flexors. Some of my favorites include lunges* (keep your torso upright – do not allow yourself to fall forward over your front knee) and bridges* (a full back bend with hands and feet on the floor – modify this to a shoulder bridge if you aren’t quite ready for this pose).

The Tabata protocol is a high-intensity training regimen that produces remarkable results. A Tabata workout (also called a Tabata sequence) is an interval training cycle of 20 seconds of maximum intensity exercise, followed by 10 seconds of rest, repeated without pause 8 times for a total of four minutes. In a group context, you can keep score by counting how many lifts/jumps/whatever you do in each of the 20 second rounds. The round with the smallest number is your score.

Credit for this simple and powerful training method belongs to its namesake, Dr. Izumi Tabata and a team of researchers from the National Institute of Fitness and Sports in Tokyo, Japan. Their groundbreaking 1996 study, published in the journal Medicine and Science in Sports & Exercise, provided documented evidence concerning the dramatic physiological benefits of high-intensity intermittent training. After just 6 weeks of testing, Dr. Tabata noted a 28% increase in anaerobic capacity in his subjects, along with a 14% increase in their ability to consume oxygen (V02Max). These results were witnessed in already physically fit athletes. The conclusion was that just four minutes of Tabata interval training could do more to boost aerobic and anaerobic capacity than an hour of endurance exercise.

Although Dr. Tabata used a mechanically braked exercise cycle machine, you can apply this protocol to almost any exercise. For example, a basic Tabata workout can be performed with sit-ups. The more muscles used the better, so use full knees-bent sit-ups. Sit-up non-stop for 20-second intervals, followed by 10 seconds of rest. Repeat for a total of 8 cycles.

How effective can just 4 minutes of exercise be? … Very. You will be amazed at how intense the four minutes of exercise will feel. The intervals tax both your aerobic and anaerobic energy systems. To be clear, this isn’t “eight sets of eight,” although the goal of doing eight reps in each of the 20-second clusters is about right. Instead it’s “as many reps as I can get in” during the twenty seconds, followed by ten seconds rest.

It helps to be able to see a wall clock with a second hand during your four minutes of fun. Stop at twenty seconds, rest ten seconds, and go again. Watching the clock helps with your focus and also in keeping count of the eight cycles…

Here is a longer Tabata workout example. This workout consists of 4 separate Tabata Intervals, each 4 minutes. The total workout will last 16 minutes. Always begin with a moderate warm-up and cool down session. And if you are not already in good shape, check with a doctor before trying.

* Jump Rope

* Pushups

* Squats

* Chin-ups or Pull-ups

Note the 10-second rest periods in the Tabata workout are important, both physically and mentally. Not only do they allow partial recovery, they also provide psychological relief. Switching back and forth from work to rest makes the workout go quickly. Plus, it allows you to train at a higher level of intensity, which what intervals are all about.

Another good exercise for Tabatas is the “squat thruster.” The squat thruster is one of the great lifts being made popular by organizations such as CrossFit. Take two dumbbells and hold them at shoulder height. Squat down, pushing your rear-end back, keeping the dumbbells on the shoulders. As you rise up, press the bells to the overhead lockout position. You can either press as you rise or use the momentum to help “kick” the bells overhead. Keep your weight in your heals and go light! A 25 pound dumbbell in each hand is a very difficult thruster workout!

Pretty much any form of cardiovascular exercise that uses a large number of muscles can be tailored to fit Tabata interval workouts, so feel free to be creative. In addition to the exercises mentioned above, use them with sprints, burpees, a jump rope, the heavy bag, treadmill or rowing machine. Lessen the likelihood of injury by choosing a rate of intensity suited to your level of conditioning – be conservative. Incorporate variety into your Tabata workouts. A few sessions per week will offer plenty of intensity.

In this article we will take an in depth look at the facial muscle exercises and also face neck exercises out there that can truly help you achieve great looking facial features to help you get a chiseled jawline and look your most ultimate best!

First of all, did you know that the human face has over 56 muscles in it? It would be pretty naive to think that you could work out pretty much every muscle in your body such as your arms, chest, abs, or legs and not your facial muscles, right?

The simple fact alone that you can actually enhance and create a chiseled jawline by simply doing oblique side oblique crunches daily alone should be enough to tell you know that you really CAN enhance your looks and feel your best! But how is it that simply doing oblique side ab exercises can help assist in helping you to create a chiseled jawline?

It’s because when we perform these basic side ab crunches, we are actually working the muscle linings that make up the jawline/jawbone area also.

So, you really want to know how to get a masculine jawline? Here are some steps that you can do NOW to start helping you to notice a true difference!

TIPS TO HELP YOU BUILD A REALLY CHISELED JAWLINE:

The following tips should be considered ‘lifestyle changes’ that you should do in order to help you achieve the look that you want and deserve.

1. Workout! Lose weight! Just a simple thing such as exercising for at least 20 minutes each and everyday can ultimately help you get a chiseled jawline! And by performing interval cardio training, you are also helping to speed up your metabolism by these intervals. And we all know that when we speed up the metabolism that we are actually stimulating the fat burning reserves within our bodies that can help us to shed any unnecessary extra fat around the neck area. And it’s this unnecessary fat around the neck that can make us look fat and give us chubby cheek syndrome. This is exactly why I highly advocate doing simple interval cardio training for at least 20 minutes each and everyday, so that you can actually help shed and remove any fat that you may have around your neck area.

2. Work up a sweat! Using a steam room or sauna, you can also help to eliminate extra water from around your neck and face. This can ultimately come in handy many times over, especially when you are trying to get your cheekbones and jawline to come out.

3.Start doing some oblique side crunches. Performing about 100 side oblique crunches on each side is enough to help you start noticing your chiseled jawline.

4. JUMP ROPE- This simple workout/exercise equipment can literally transform your life! Just doing 10 to 15 minutes a day of jump rope can burn up to 300 calories! And the jumps is what actually make any saggy skin under your chin to get more tight and firm.

5. Do the small foods diet. This includes eating 5 or 6 small,fist sized meals a day. This way you will feel satiated more throughout the day. And also, this will greatly help to rev up your metabolism and stoke your fat burning fuels-metabolism!!

6. Perform interval cardio training. This is a great method for burning fat and losing any extra excessive weight that you may have around your jawline. These short 20 minute workouts can actually equate to a full 40 minute workout since interval training is considered THE new way to successfully help you lose weight and get in shape.

SOME ADDITIONAL TIPS:

1. Take some fasting days. Not eating after 8 pm would be ideal for losing weight and getting rid of any fat around your face.

2. Try chewing gum daily. This will help the muscles around your face get really firm over time.

I’ve personally known some guys that have successfully done facial exercises and have quite literally become addicted to them after seeing outstanding results from their face and neck exercises alone!

The feeling you can actually achieve and get from doing these face exercises are pretty amazing. So much, in fact in the first 2 weeks alone you will see and notice a remarkable difference. The amazing and profound results you can get from such face and neck exercises alone will make a huge difference in your external outlook on your own life. Don’t you think that you deserve to live a life of living to your fullest potential?

Well if you do, then you should definitely give facial muscle exercises and face and neck exercises a shot.

And just imagine how much better you will start feeling about yourself when you are walking into a room with your head held high, since you know that you look great!

More and more people are becoming tired of the “Bodybuilder” look. Let’s cut to the chase. Most people want to look good to attract the opposite sex. It’s really that simple. What kind of body does that? The answer is in multiple magazines, on tons of websites as well as in many playing arenas. The “Athletic Body” is the answer!

If you compare the bodies of today to that of the late 80’s and 90’s that are “attractive or desirable”, you will see that men are Athletic/Natural Muscle and women are curvy with good muscle tone. Gone are the days of the no-neck, roid-raging, waddling bodybuilder and the stick figure no-ass having bleach blondes with crazy crimped bangs. We have entered the hot athletic body era.

How do you develop the Athletic Body that the opposite sex wants to see on you? There are of course many ways. Let me be clear and mention I do NOT want to discount the importance of Traditional Weight Training. There are many benefits to weight training. However, for now I want to focus strictly on the Athletic Look. An athlete can do what? They can perform! In order to perform they must be able to use their body as a vehicle to respond to their every whim. Would you agree?

So doesn’t it make sense that in order to get your body to respond to your athletic desires (as is the necessity of the athlete), you should do workouts which incorporate body movements? Remember that “form follows function.” In other words, if you force your body to perform a function the form that is necessary for that function will follow. You are probably asking, “What are these functions that will create the form we want?” The answer is bodyweight exercises, and derivations of them.

Yeah I know! I love the weights and talk a lot about them; but, we can’t deny the results from good ol’ pull-ups, push-ups, and lunges, et cetera. You must perform these types of exercises to tie all the weight training together to create the ultimate athletic physique. Do you perform these exercises already or are some too difficult or boring?

If you find them too difficult or boring I have a couple ideas to help you out with that. Finding a way to make the exercises easier or more exciting can help you get to where you are able to push past that plateau. A great way to accomplish this is to add assistance, thus reducing your effective bodyweight in a given bodyweight exercise. If you already do many of these exercises with full bodyweight and find them too easy, I have a couple ideas to take them to a completely different level. This is accomplished by performing variations that spice up these basic exercises and stimulate the kind of results your workouts may currently be lacking. A great way to add structure and variation simultaneously to your workout plan is my using the right equipment for your body movement exercise.

At this point you’re probably wondering, “how is using this piece of equipment going to enhance body movement exercises?” The best way to describe this is to take the simple exercises, explain what they will do to help you reach your maximum athletic appearance development and give variations for each. Without any further ado the exercises for the ultimate athletic physique and their variations depending upon fitness level or fatigue.

Upper Body

Pull-Ups / Chin-Ups

Look at most athletes from behind and you will see an awesome V-taper. That is the result of a great set of Lats. What is one of the top ways to develop Lats? What else, but none other than Pull-ups and Chin-Ups! The problem is that many people can only do a few reps, if any. That is not enough to elicit the kind of changes needed to create the Athletic Physique. How do we overcome this? You can opt to use an assisted-pull up with the help of a plate-loading machine that will provide a counterbalance on your body weight, which allows you to work with less than our full bodyweight. The result is more reps and more results.

Now if you are already extremely strong, you can actually do 15 or more good reps! So now what? How about you try using ONE ARM! Most people can’t do TRUE single arm pull-ups (not the grab the other wrist kind, but true single arm pull-ups). With the assisted pull-up you can add some weight to counterbalance your own body weight and do single arm work. This is the perfect twist to a basic exercise to push your body to the next level.

Oh and let’s not forget that pull-ups and chin-ups are perfect for developing the biceps and rear delts, when done right!

Push-Ups

What can I say about push-ups? They are a staple for chest and triceps development. By placing your hands at a higher level you decrease the difficulty. By planting the feet higher you increase the difficulty. You can try single arm push-ups as well. If you want to mix the two ideas, you can come up with some serious chest development. An example would be to plant the hands at an elevated level and use only one arm. This reduces the load on that arm via the angle you are at and allows more reps. The result is a variation sure to challenge your body to adapt.

Dips

Many would consider dips one of the best exercises for triceps, lower chest and front shoulder development. If you are having trouble knocking out 10 reps then assisted dips are the key to getting past that plateau and getting the results you are looking for. If you easing knock out 20 reps then a drop set is an idea to take it to the next level. “A drop set on a bodyweight exercise?” That’s what I said! By adding weight to the counter-lever on the Dip-Assist on successive sets one after the other you are essentially doing a “drop-set.” As you know, drop sets are highly effective.

Lower Body

Squats / Lunges

Developing the total Athletic Physique means getting those legs going too! Often neglected by many TALKERS, always done by DOERS! Do you talk or do you do? If you are a doer and looking to get the balanced physique, it’s hard to beat squats and lunges. If you have difficulty performing squats or are coming off of an injury, assisted squats may be the perfect option. This allows you to work with less than your body weight to build up the necessary strength.

If you already do tons of squats this is a great way to work until failure and then hit additional reps with assistance to push to a new tier. Another way to use the machine to take this exercise to a new level is to be able to perform Single Leg Squat with the assistance. I don’t care how good of shape you are in. Single leg squats are very challenging. This apparatus gives you the chance to do massive numbers of reps with single leg for the extreme athlete for incredible changes in the Athletic Physique.

Lunges are another good exercise for the legs. To enhance the lunge or build up to it you can do Single Leg Press Downs on the Assistance Pad. Whether you are trying to build strength to lunge or push to a new level all you have to do is adjust the amount of resistance you add.

Abs and Lower Back

Crunches and Hanging Leg Raises

It doesn’t get much simpler than crunches to work the abs. Lie down on the floor and crunch away. Let’s say you want to take it to a new level. On a pull-up bar or using a plate-assisted machine, you can perform knee raises. This is a simple exercise. Just grab on to the bar and lift your knees being sure to tilt the pelvis for maximum abdominal engagement. If you find this easy you can keep the legs straight throughout the movement and do traditional Leg Raises. Whichever you choose, you are sure to hit the abs and lower back.

Ever since I was born I was small. All through elementary school, I was above average height, but still small. At 12 I started lifting a little and my chest began to grow a little, but I was still small. It was until age 15 a friend of mine showed me how to do some body-weight exercises and my arms grew a little, but they were still only 13 inches. At age 15-18, they were maybe 14 inches. For the next six years I think my arms increased about only 2 inches.

I wasn’t in any Gym, but nearly every day I would do body-weight exercises and gradually increase my reps. However, at that point, I had above average arms, but they were no where near to where I wanted them to be.

Then in my 26th year, I learned about the pull-up bar. My cousin was moving to another province and I was helping him to move. He had a pull-up bar there and asked if anybody wanted it. One of the other helpers said he wanted it but that couldn’t happen, I took the pull-up bar and immediately put it in my car.

What happened next was magic. I brought that pull-up bar home and immediately went to work on it. Day after day or night after night, I worked at it and gradually built up my strength until I was over 100 reps per session, then 200, then 500+. My strength increased incredibly and with strength, so did my size. Everywhere I go, people would see me and make some kind of comment. “Do you take steroids?” “What do you eat?” “What kind of exercises do you do?”

I even joined my first Gym a few years ago and to do this day, people admire my physique and what I can do in the gym. Now, it is almost a daily routine for somebody who I don’t know to come up to me and say hello or even ask me how to do a certain exercise. And I think that this is all because of the muscle that I’ve gained using the pull-up bar.

Now I don’t have the biggest arms in the world, but I sure am noticed anywhere in the world partly because of them. The last instance being on a resort in Jamaica wearing a tank top trying to enter into a buffet before being stopped by a waiter proclaiming that, ” no guns are allowed in the buffet.” Or even the next day on my way to that same buffet being stopped by three women who crowned me as “the best looking man on the resort”, while my wife was standing next to me.

This is just my story, but I know it can also work for you, because doing pull-ups on the bar is scientifically proven to raise your testosterone level. And we all know what testosterone does to muscle, it builds it. So if you are lacking in your upper body and need a big boost that will begin to get you noticed. Start doing pull-ups and do a lot of them. Until next time!

Everyone has a right to look different and gain an impressive personality. We are born to look good and stay good so it is fair that we adopt good techniques to stand tall and add a few more inches to our original height. You may think it’s not possible after the age of puberty or after your growth age is over, but that’s just a myth, in fact, you can grow taller whenever you want only if you have good ways to implement and effective tips to follow. Natural diet and exercises are the only way to increase your height.

Performing different workouts in the gym, growing tall and losing weight has become a trend for today’s genre. People like to try out new looks and change their entire look by gaining and losing weight and moreover, if they succeed in growing tall it will be a best thing for them to get noticed and recognized. All you need to have is time, dedication and concentration to perform a good workout and follow it daily.

There are question that may trouble you often, you may think, “How can we get taller when your parents are short heighten, or you may think how we can grow taller after the age of puberty is passed? So here are simple answers to your question and ways to grow taller. After spending hours and hours in the gym with heavy and dedicated workout and diet you do not gain results, this happens because either you are not practicing the right exercises, or maybe you do not attain right postures. It’s better to follow your gym instructor’s instructions, because he is the right one to help you successfully gain extra inches. So try to follow your fitness expert and get noticed with a good height and personality.

Have you ever suffered from shoulder discomfort after working out? I am referring to aching or sharp pain experienced in the front of the shoulder or lateral upper arm that is felt with overhead activities, reaching behind the back or even laying on the shoulder. These symptoms are often indicative of rotator cuff inflammation. This is a common problem for many people who perform resistance training on a regular basis. It is also a problem that can easily be prevented by modifying the following “dangerous shoulder exercises.”

Bench Press – This is a popular exercise chosen to build the chest, along with the anterior deltoid and triceps. Most teach taking the bar down until it lightly touches the chest. However, I believe this is unsafe because it exposes the anterior shoulder capsule to excessive load, in addition to compressing the soft tissue of the rotator cuff between the humerus and the acromion. Over time, with repeated bouts and heavy loads, the rotator cuff becomes inflamed.

Individuals with any anterior shoulder laxity (loose joints) or history of subluxation/dislocation are also at increase risk for rotator cuff injury or labral (shoulder cartilage) damage. Furthermore, you also have the potential to rupture the pectoralis tendon with full range pressing during heavy loads. The safe answer is to lower the bar until the upper arm is parallel to the floor (elbow bent to 90 degrees). This prevents the shoulder joint from moving into the unsafe range. The same advice applies to push-ups.

Lat Pull Downs – This is a good exercise to strengthen the back, but when done behind the head it can cause problems. Like the bench press, pulling the bar down behind the head positions the humerus in such a way that the rotator cuff can be pinched. This may depend on other factors, including the shape of a person’s acromion and degree of any present arthritis, but I still believe the risk outweighs any benefit. Not to mention that keeping the bar in front of the head still accomplishes the same movement for the target muscle, while eliminating the risk of shoulder injury. Remember not to sway during the movement, and position the body in a slightly reclined position, pulling the bar toward the sternum. Another unrelated reason not to do behind the neck pull downs is that it places undue stress on the cervical spine.

Military Press – This exercise when performed behind the neck with a bar, positions the shoulder in the aforementioned unfavorable position. Done repeatedly, the rotator cuff can become inflamed. Similar to behind the neck pull downs, you also expose your neck to unnecessary stress. It is safer to perform the exercise in front of the head or utilize dumbbells and work in the scapular plane. You must watch to avoid arching the low back and it is best to use a bench with back support to prevent this.

Dips/Upright Row – As before, the key mistake made with these exercises is allowing the shoulder to move beyond 90 degrees relative to a position parallel to the floor or perpendicular to the body. I always recommend stopping at 90 degrees to protect the shoulder capsule and the rotator cuff.

Dumbbell Lateral Raise – In my opinion, this exercise is often done incorrectly. The mistakes include lifting too much weight, keeping the arms straight, and raising the arms out away from the body in the plane of the body. The force on the rotator cuff reaches 90% of your body weight when the arms are raised to 90 degrees with the arms straight and in the plane of the body. That is a lot of force on four relatively small rotator cuff muscles. The target muscle is the lateral deltoid, but the rotator cuff is extremely active, and it functions to allow you to raise the arm by depressing the humerus so that it passes under the acromion during active elevation. When heavy loads are introduced in the wrong plane of motion, disaster usually occurs. I am fanatical about performing this exercise correctly.

The proper way to execute a lateral raise is to keep the elbows comfortably flexed (20-30 degrees) and raise the arm to no higher than parallel to the floor. The arm should be in the scapular plane of motion (approximately 30-45 degrees from being perpendicular to the body) and the weight should be relatively light. Once you feel you have to shrug or use momentum to raise the weight, you need to rest or lower the weight. In my opinion, this is one of the worst exercises for the shoulder if done incorrectly.

In summary, I want to emphasize that good intentions may spell bad results for the shoulder if proper form is lacking. The rotator cuff and shoulder joint is extremely vulnerable to heavy loads and repetitive bouts of exercise. Gradually, it may become inflamed and hinder or limit your workout altogether. Be sure to master form before increasing weight, and do not attempt to work through pain, as this often perpetuates the problem. Remember to assess risk and reward at all times, and rest assured that these modifications will not hinder your gains. Instead, they will prevent missed time in the gym and produce happier, healthier shoulders!