Posts Tagged ‘Bench Press’

Dumbbell Pullovers – A Forgotten Exercise That Can Add Inches To Your Chest

Friday, January 29th, 2010

The bench press is one of the most well known and effective exercises for working on the chest. It is the one exercise most guys think of when they want to get a stronger chest, and for good reason too. But, there’s another little body building secret that used to be a standard part of your average body builders’ chest workout; it’s called the pullover.

With the pullover, you basically lie on a flat bench and hold a dumbbell over your chest with two hands. Then you bend your elbows and slowly lower the weight towards your head; stopping when your elbows reach a 90 degree angle past your head. The rep is complete after you bring the weight back up above your chest.

Though you may not have seen many, or even any, people do this before, it is undoubtedly a great exercise. The problem with the majority of guys who workout their chest is that they don’t always workout their entire chest or, they might only workout some muscles in their chest a very small amount.

While the pectoralis muscles almost always get worked on, the serratus and subclavius, which are below the pecs, don’t get as much attention. The reason they’re important is that they give your arms and shoulders more maneuverability, which will improve your punching and pushing.

The most significant benefits of pullovers are that they stretch and expand your rib cage and put resistance on the whole of the upper body. Pullovers will therefore help you acquire a bigger and wider chest and rib cage.

A further benefit of pullovers is that you can do them at home with very little equipment. You don’t need a bench and upright racks to hold the bar that a standard bench press needs. All that you need to have is a barbell or a pair of adjustable dumbbells.

Both are good, so no need to analyze which one is better than the other. As always though, it’s important to use manageable weights so you don’t hurt yourself.

Besides, the chest pullover is supposed to stretch your body and not be a heavy lifting exercise. It is advisable to take your time doing it safely and properly. Just start off with a light weight and gradually build up until you get to a comfortable weight.

You should start off slowly and focus on the stretching and contracting of your muscles. Weight lifting experts emphasize that this is a stretching exercise; keeping this in mind will ensure that you get the maximum benefits from pullovers. As with other types of exercises, proper breathing, form, and body awareness are important too.

As a final point, performing pullovers toward the end of your chest workout will help maximize its effectiveness. The theory behind this is that since your muscles are full of blood and tight, stretching them will increase the amount of muscle you are able to build.

http://IronChestWorkouts.com is a men’s fitness blog dedicated to writing about the best chest workout information, tips, and exercises on the internet.

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How To Get Ripped Fast While Building Muscle

Thursday, December 31st, 2009


Gaining mass while losing belly fat has always been a much debated subject. One side says it’s unattainable to get rid of belly fat fast because of the energy and extra nutrients going to building muscle and then the other side says that you can do each but it isn’t very effective. There is a way how to get rid of belly fat fast while concurrently gaining new muscle and it is reachable with structuring the exercise routines correctly to amplify the metabolic rate so that fat burning occurs with an increased metabolic rate rather than through dieting.

A workout routine that includes exercises that give maximum muscle stimulation and metabolic load are what is needed to lose weight while getting abs. You cannot go into the weight room and do exercises that isolate muscle groups bodybuilder style and expect to get these results. For example when you do a bench press you are working several muscles in your upper body but there is minimal stabilization occurring with the legs and almost none in the abdominal region.


Instead of a bench press you could do single dumbbell presses on an exercise ball. The weight used is very light but there is major stabilization occurring in the thighs and the core gets an incredible workout stabilizing the body to do the one arm dumbbell press. Nearly ever muscle in the body gets worked while focusing on the chest here. It may not be the best exercise for developing Mr. Olympia size pectorals but it will allow you to increase muscle mass while losing fat.

To further work the upper body to increase the metabolic load you can do pushups with feet raised on a bench or swiss ball. Once again the amount of stabilizers coming into play here burns so many more calories you’ll be amazed at how the workouts just melt fat off of your body without even making changes to diet.

With the natural increase in metabolic rate through exercise while stimulating muscle growth it is then critical to have your nutritional plan in check when Building Muscle. The keep that metabolism surging you must eat 5 to 6 times per day. Not only will this help flood your body with fat burning enzymes but it is necessary to include protein in those meals for muscle recovery which will lead to growth. It isn’t necessary to eat massive amounts of protein for muscle growth as new science has been showing us that it is really the timing of the protein meals that is more critical to growth. Taking in a fast digesting whey protein prior to exercise and immediately after the workout is something you must do to gain weight while getting ripped abs.

Getting Ripped Abs is easy with a great program and Ab Workouts for efficient fat burning results.

If you are looking for some workout routines and other great tips and tricks check out how to lose fat quickly. Don’t forget to find out what the best stomach exercise is.

Thanks For Reading,
Diet For Abs


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Best Ab Exercise

Tuesday, May 19th, 2009


Diet for Abs two main problems when people choose an abs exercise.  The first problem being that they choose 3 or 4 abs exercises that all are basically a crunch.  While there is nothing wrong in performinEditg crunch as part of your abs routine, but you need to strengthen your entire core.

When selecting your abs exercise keep the following in mind.

  1. Your abs exercise routine should include some type of flexion.  This is where the crunches come in.  But notice that this is only one portion of your routine.
  2. Your abs exercise routine should include some type of twist.  This is important for training your obliques.
  3. Your abs exercise routine should also include some type extension.  This is mainly to strengthen your lower ack.  It is possible to create a muscular imbalance if too focus goes into the abs and not enough into the lower back.  This can lead to injury.
  4. Lastly your abs exercise routine should contain some type of stabilization exercise.  Isometric exercises like the plank work well.  This helps strengthen the all the stabilizing muscles that support the spine.  This will also lessen the chance of injury and produce a strong core.

The second problem in choosing abs exercises is that this is all they focus on.  Most abs exercise results in few caloric expenditure.  And since the abs and lower back are smaller muscle group working these muscle will not keep an elevated metabolism.

If you really want your abs to show you need to perform compound exercises that involve major muscle groups.  This will expend more calories throughout the workout and keep your metabolism elevated for up to 24 hours.  In some case more.

These exercises includes squats, lunges, pushups, bench press, pull-ups, bent over rows and military presses to name a few.  Make sure that these are included in your routine.

If you are serious about getting flat tight abs you need the right workout program.  The best program that I have found and follow is by Craig Ballantyne.

Click Here for the best and fastest weight loss program period.

Check out a sample abs circuit and cardio video below.

Beginning Interval Cardio



Best Ab Exercise

Thanks for reading Diet For Abs
Make sure that you visit the stomach exercise portion of the blog along with the lose fat quickly section.

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