Bodybuilding Tips and Tricks

“Running the Rack” is an advanced technique which will totally fry your targeted muscle group. To “run the rack”, you’ll perform multiple sets back to back with no rest in between. For each set, you’ll go to failure, then decrease the weight and immediately do another set to failure. You’ll repeat this process until you’ve completed your prescribed number of sets. As an example, someone doing alternating dumbbell curls might start with 50lbs (in each hand) and work to failure, go immediately to 40lbs. to failure, and then drop to 30lbs. and finally 20lbs. to finish up. You just need to determine how many sets you want to complete beforehand so you know what weight to start with and how much to decrease it by each set. This is an excellent technique to employ if you want to really “feel the burn” but, like most advanced techniques, running the rack should only be attempted by experienced lifters and should not be performed every workout (this will help you avoid overtraining).

Many people (myself included) find working out to be an awesome, stress-relieving experience. Not only does exercising get those euphoria-inducing endorphins flowing, it can also clear and focus your mind. Problems that seemed huge and unweildy before you entered the gym may seem insignificant and easily solved post-workout. Even if the problem’s still a doozy once you’re through working up a sweat, at least you were able to take your mind off of it for a short time.

Despite these stress-relieving effects, some people find the gym to be downright stress-inducing. Going into a gym, especially as a beginner, can be very intimidating. Maybe you’re not totally happy with the way you look or you feel out of place. Maybe you’re unsure of what you should be doing or how to use the equipment and you’re afraid you’re going to make a fool of yourself. Or maybe you’ve got your whole workout planned out when you go into the gym, but it’s usually crowded and someone seems to always be on the piece of equipment you want to use and it’s driving you nuts! If you can relate to any of these examples, I’d like to offer you some techniques to make yourself and your workout better.

First, if you’re nervous, try to focus on your goals. In other words, the reason you joined the gym and decided to start working out. Remember, most things that are worth having in life take a lot of hard work to achieve and a great body is no different. Don’t let a case of the nerves screw up your long-term goals for a better you. Stay focused. On a more practical, less cerebral level, get educated. The more you know about working out and the equipment around you, the more comfortable and confident you’ll be. Read books and magazines and check out websites (like this one and many others) to become as knowledgable as you can. Think about any test you’ve ever taken…when do you feel more comfortable and confident? When you know the material like the back of your hand or when you haven’t studied at all and have no idea what you’re doing? In my proper form article I talk more about educating yourself on any exercises you’d like to work into your routine, but the bottom line is: the more you know, the better you’ll feel.

If you’re a person who’s very organized and likes to plan out their workouts ahead of time, congratulations. This is definitely an important part of bodybuilding. However, if, as I mentioned earlier, you get very stressed out when another person is on the machine you had planned to use, let me offer you this advice. If someone’s on “your” machine, don’t stress about it. Just look at it as something that will add variety to your workout. You should be mixing things up as much as you can anyway, and this will provide you the perfect opportunity to do just that. The best way to go about it, and what I personally do, is to have a sort of Rolodex of alternate exercises for each bodypart (or parts of bodyparts) in the ol’ noggin (once again becoming knowledgable comes into play bigtime!). Let me give you an example using a chest routine. I’ll list the “preferred” exercise order with just some of the alternative exercises that could be swapped in and out if need be.

Incline Barbell Press
Alternatives: Smith Machine Incline Press, Hammer Strength Machine Incline Press, Incline Press with Dumbbells, Circuit Incline Press, Push-ups with feet raised

Flat-Bench Barbell Press
Alternatives: Smith Machine Flat-Bench Press, Dumbbell Flat-Bench Press, Hammer Strength Seated Press, Circuit Chest Press, Push-ups

Smith Machine Decline Press
Alternatives: Dumbbell Decline Press, Push-ups with hands raised

Dumbbell Pectoral Flyes
Alternatives: Cable Flyes, Pec-Deck Flyes

As you can see, if you encounter any problems with a member of the gym clientele beating you to your intended destination, you can quickly and easily substitute another exercise into the routine in it’s place without effecting the efficacy of your workout in the slightest. It’s as easy as 1, 2, 3. Hope these strategies help and here’s to bigger, badder, and more stress-free workouts!

Most gyms I’ve been in have a Smith Machine available for members and the Smith can certainly be a very valuable tool in your bodybuilding routine. Basically, the Smith Machine is a large rack-like apparatus with a barbell attached to the front of it. The barbell is in a slot, on a track, and as such it can only move in the vertical plane (i.e. up and down). There are small knobs or cylinders protruding on either side of the Smith right by the barbell track and hooks on the barbell itself allow you to use the knobs to rack the weight at various points as the bar moves up and down.

The Smith Machine has several advantages and uses. Because of the way the machine is designed, it eliminates the need for many of the stabilizer muscles you normally would have to recruit when performing certain exercises using free weights. What this means is two things: 1) you’ll be able to more effectively *isolate* a particular muscle group and really work it over well and 2) you’ll be able to lift quite a bit heavier using the Smith than when using normal free weights. In addition, an added benefit is that, for all practical purposes, the Smith Machine eliminates the need for a spotter since you can rack the weight easily on your own at anytime during the performance of the exercise.

I find the Smith Machine is excellent for:

- breaking out of plateaus
- lifting heavier weight than you normally would be able to (this is often an integral part of pushing through the aforementioned plateaus)
- isolating a particular muscle group
- getting the “feel” and form down for a particular exercise before attempting it without the Smith
- increasing safety during exercise performance and eliminating the need for a spotter

Some exercises I like to perform using a Smith Machine are:
- Shoulder Presses
- Bent Over Barbell Rows
- Incline, Decline, and Flat Bench Presses
- Squats
- Barbell Shrugs

You can experiment with other exercises on your own as well.

Maybe you’ve been intimidated by the large Smith Machine in the past, but now that you’re armed with some knowledge and some recommended exercises, try working the Smith Machine into your routine. I think you’ll be happy with the results.

The Incline Barbell Press targets the often lagging upper pectoral region and some people believe that Incline Presses are a more effective mass-builder than Flat Bench Presses. Whether this is true or not, it’s definitely an exercise you should include in your chest routine. The Incline Press is a more difficult exercise than its flat-bench counterpart, so you should expect to lift quite a bit lighter than when you’re flat benching.

One last thought: although you should periodically mix up every aspect of your workout to avoid stagnation, it’s usually a good idea, in my opinion, to do incline presses before your flat-bench work. Doing flat-bench barbell presses first may leave your muscles too worn out to get the most out of the more difficult incline work. If you do Incline Barbell Presses first however, you should be able to get some good sets in and still have plenty of gas in your tank and muscle power left to recruit for some Flat Bench Presses.

Performance: Lie back on an incline bench and take hold of the barbell with a moderate-grip, palms facing the ceiling. Unrack the bar and raise it until your arms are fully extended. Bend your elbows to lower the bar to just below your neck. At the bottom of the rep, your elbows should be out and away from your body but slightly in front of your shoulders. Feel the stretch in your pecs and then contract your chest muscles and rasie the bar up until your elbows are almost locked out. Repeat for reps.

Muscle Emphasis: Primary stress is on the pectoralis major and minor, anterior deltoids, and triceps. Secondary stress is felt in the medial deltoids, and upper back muscles.

Here is a sample routine that will hit all of your abdominal muscles beginning with the lower abs and then moving on to the upper abs and obliques.

Hanging Leg Raises
Exercise Ball Crunch
Twisting Crunch
Side bends With Dumbbell

You should try to keep your reps relatively high, aiming for the 15-20 range. If you can easily perform more that 25, you’re probably not squeezing hard enough during each contraction or you should consider adding some resistance such as a dumbbell between your feet during the hanging leg raises or holding a medicine ball while doing your crunches. This routine can be performed one exercise at a time (3 sets each with around 30-45 seconds rest between sets) or (this is the way I like to do it) as one giant compound superset. You’ll perform one set of each exercise back to back with no rest in between. After you’ve completed one set of each of the four exercises, rest for 30-60 seconds (if you need to) and repeat for maximum burnage.

Seated Barbell Shoulder Presses (whether performed on a regular pressing bench or a Smith Machine) are a great mass-builder for shoulders (deltoids). While shoulder presses primarily work the anterior (front) head of the three-headed deltoid muscle, the other two heads (medial and posterior) are involved in the lift to some degree as well. I recommend starting your shoulder workout with these for a nice muscle-building pump before you move on to the (typically) lighter weight isolation shoulder exercises. Try to lift heavy on this one but, as always, stay in good form and be careful of straining or tearing your shoulder. Choose a weight you can manage as shoulders are prone to injury.

Performance: Set an adjustable bench at 90 degrees and adjust either the bar or seat height so you can comfortably reach up and unrack the bar. Sit up straight and make sure that, when lowered, the bar passes just in front of your face. Take a larger than shoulder-width grip (palms facing away from you) on the bar and unrack it. Slowly and in a controlled motion, lower the bar to approximately chin height, then flex your shoulders and power the bar forcefully back up. Try to keep the motion of the bar as perfectly up and down as possible, with your elbows under the bar during each rep.

Muscle Emphasis: anterior, medial, and posterior deltoid

The Hanging Leg Raise is a great way to blast your abdominals, particularly the lower sections of the rectus abdominus. It’s always a good idea to work your lower abs early on in your abdominal routine (then move on to upper and obliques) as many of the lower ab movements are quite difficult and you’ll want to be as fresh as possible when performing them. Hanging Leg Raises are a favorite of mine because they place a tremendous amount of stress on the abs and high stress = great results. The key when performing this one is to keep the motion slow and controlled and be sure to NOT allow yourself to start using momentum and swing your legs up (as I see many people do) in order to accomplish your reps. The focus here should be feeling the burn in your abs, not just rushing through an inordinate amount of reps. Note: If leg raises seem too difficult for you, you may want to start out with hanging knee raises until your abs are stronger.

Performance: Hang vertically from a pull-up bar (or hanging sleeves or a vertical bench) with your knees slightly bent. Slowly lift your legs until they come slightly past parallel to the floor. Pause for a moment and then slowly lower your legs back to the start. When your legs are just short of the starting position, begin your next rep. This will be continuous tension on your abs and minimize the tendency to swing.

Muscle Emphasis: the entire front abdominal wall, particularly the lower sections of the rectus abdominus (lower abs)

I put the “like” in quotes because the idea here is not so much that the muscle groups you’re grouping together are similar in nature, but that exercises that work the larger group typically also work the smaller one (at least secondarily). Training the upper body in this manner, you’d group together your back and biceps and your chest and triceps. Nearly all back exercises place at least secondary stress on the biceps and most chest exercises bring your triceps into play. Thus, following the principle of always working the larger muscle group first, you would train your back followed by your biceps one workout and your chest followed by your triceps in a subsequent workout. Here are some sample routines illustrating this idea:

Back/Biceps
Bent-over barbell rows
Lat pulldowns
Close-grip cable rows
One-arm dumbbell rows
Standing barbell curls
E-Z bar preacher curls
Hammer curls
One-arm cable curls

Chest/Triceps
Incline bench press
Flat bench dumbbell press
Pectoral flyes w/dumbbells
Cable crossovers
Skull Crushers (Lying French Press)
Tricep Pressdowns
One-arm tricep extensions