Posts Tagged ‘Build Muscles’

Leg Exercises

Help for shoulder pain

A well defined and developed body is important for the overall health and look of a body. How many times have you seen a guy with a big upper body and tooth pick legs. This not only looks bad, it can lead to injuries and cause stress on the knees and hamstring injuries. Leg exercise helps with the overall development of your body. You should devote an equal amount of time performing leg exercises as you do your upper body. To achieve a well defined, strong, and balanced legs you must incorporate several leg exercises. Your leg exercise workout must have different exercises from different angles to develop all the parts for your Legs. Developing strong legs is crucial to preventing injuries to other muscles during exercises.

To get the best results you need to do 6-10 reps of each leg exercise. Choose a weight that you can do up to 10 for three sets. Once you can do 10 then move to a higher weight for maximal results. You can build up your Leg muscles by doing a variety of leg exercises with and without weight.

Choose at least 2 exercises from The Entire Thighs and Quadriceps group. Always do leg curls for hamstrings. Every week or so change exercises within each group.

Here are a group of the best leg exercises

Entire Thighs

Leg press

Sitting on a leg press machine, position your feet together against the crosspiece about should-width apart and toes pointed slightly outward. Grasp the handle grips or sides of the seat. Bend your knees and lower the weight as far as possible without changing the position of your hips. Do not lower the weight so far that your hips start to curl up off the seat! Then slowly push the weight back up using your heels, not your toes. Do not lock your knees at the top, but rather take the weight to just before lock. Then being to lower the weight again SLOWLY. You can change your foot positions to vary the angle on the muscle.

Squat

This is the best leg exercise for size, power, and overall development of your leg, it can also be the most dangerous. Make sure you have proper form when performing this exercise.

Hack squat

Step up with dumbbells

Place a barbell on your shoulders like you would if you were doing Barbell Squats. Step up onto a flat bench with your left leg. Then step up with your right leg so you are now standing on the bench. Step down with your left leg, then your right leg. Repeat, starting with your right leg this time. Be careful not to fall! Use lighter weights. Can also be done with two dumbbells in your hands instead of a barbell

Quadriceps

Dumbbell lunges

Place a barbell on your shoulders like you would if you were doing Barbell Squats. Step up onto a flat bench with your left leg. Then step up with your right leg so you are now standing on the bench. Step down with your left leg, then your right leg. Repeat, starting with your right leg this time. Be careful not to fall! Use lighter weights. Can also be done with two dumbbells in your hands instead of a barbell

Leg extension

Using a leg extension machine, sit in the seat and hook your feet under the padded bar. Adjust the pad and/or the seat so that your knees hang off the end of the seat and the footpad rest on the lowest part of the shins. Grasp the handles on the machine or the edges of the seat to keep your hips from lifting up as you perform the exercise. Extend your legs until knees are straight, making sure you remain seated flat on the machine. Raise the weight all the way, lock and hold briefly, then slowly lower the weight back to the starting position. Get the full range of motion and feel the muscle being worked during the entire movement. Do not SWING the weight up!

This is the best leg exercise for toning the quads an adding strength around the knees.

Lateral Squat

Double leg power jump

Cross your arms over your chest. With your head up and your back straight, position your feet at shoulder width. Squat down until your upper thighs are parallel, or lower, to the floor. Jump straight up in the air as high as possible, using thighs like springs. Immediately squat down and jump again. Can also be done with a barbell on your upper back or with dumbbells hanging at your sides.

Hamstrings

Leg Curl

Lie face down on a leg-curl machine and hook your heels under the roller pad. Your legs should be stretched out straight so that the pads rest on the back of your ankles. Grasp the handles under the bench for support. Remaining flat on the bench, curl your legs up until your hamstrings are fully contracted. Release and lower the weight slowly back to the starting position. Concentrate on using a full range of motion and do not SWING the weight up. You can point your toes to intensify the burn in your hamstrings.

This is probably the best leg exercise for your hamstring area

Use ice to decrease pain

Quickly Build Massive Chest Muscles – Top 6 Most Effective Exercises

Help for shoulder pain

One of my favorite all time lines from a television sitcom is “Would you rather have rock hard pecks or saggy man breast?” Well think about it, which would you rather have? Men aren’t supposed to have breast so let’s figure out how to get rid of those saggy man breast and build some rock hard pecks and massive chest muscles.
Follow these top 6 exercises to build your chest muscles and in no time you will have massive and impressive chest muscles.
Tip 1: Do not lock your elbows when you are at the top of the movement as this can put excessive strain on your joint. Keep elbows slightly bent.
1. Bench Press – This is an exercise that allows you to lift the most weight and is very popular in gyms. Unfortunately many people perform them incorrectly which results in a number of injuries.
Start by lying on the bench face up with your feet flat floor. Keep your abdominal muscles tightened so that your lower back is flat and protected. Keep your shoulder blades pinched together and focus pushing the barbell towards the ceiling with your chest muscles. Then slowly lower the weights back to the beginning position; do not let your upper arms go past the point where they are parallel to the floor as you can damage the shoulders.
Tip 2: Lifting the weight should be fast 1-2 seconds and lowering about 3 seconds. Much of the muscle building power of resistance exercises comes from performing this technique. So once you have lifted the weight, don’t waste the rest of the exercise and just drop it.
2. Seated Chest Press – Very much like the bench press with the exception that you will be using a weight machine for this exercise. Because of using a machine this exercise is a bit safer than a normal bench press.
Adjust the seat for your height so the handles are level to the middle of your chest muscles. Focus on you chest muscles and squeeze as you push the handles forward. Slowly bring the handles back just to the point where the weights are about to touch weight stack (don’t let it touch), then push back out again and repeat.
3. Dumbbell Flies – This exercise is very similar to the bench press and safer for those that do not have a spotter. It is also an exercise that forces you to use stabilizer muscles to keep the dumbbells under control.
Lie on the bench and hold the dumbbells out to your sides making sure to keep your elbows slightly bent. Now move the weights up in an arcing motion over your chest, then lower back to starting position and repeat.
Tip 3: Dumbbell flies will build the inner chest giving it a clear separation.
4. Cable Crossovers – This exercise is similar in motion to the dumbbell flies, the difference here is that cable crossovers keep tension on the pectoral muscles throughout the motion.
Stand with the pulleys locked into a position above your head, take a pulley into each hand and pull down so that you are now in a “T” shape. Standing with one foot in front of the other focus on the chest muscles as you bring your arms together in front of you. Hold this position for a second, then slowly release.
Tip 4: You should lower the weights with control so that it takes about 3 seconds to return to the starting position.
5. Pushups – A great way of working the chest muscles as well as the arms and building core strength. You also don’t need any equipment to do this exercise.
Get down on the floor on your hands and knees, place your hands just a further than shoulder width. Now straighten your legs and push your feet up onto your toes, keeping your body straight. Bend your elbows and lower into the pushup position. Push back up to the beginning plank position and repeat.
Tip 5: Make sure to keep your head and neck in alignment with the rest of your body through the movement. Hold your stomach in tight to support your back and if you feel the need for support then you can do a modified pushup by placing your knees on the floor.
6. Straight Arm Pull Overs – This exercise is great for building the pectoral muscles and expanding the rib cage.
Lie on your shoulder crossways on a mat so that your head is hanging. Hold a dumbbell with both hands over your chest and slowly lower in back over your head in an arcing motion, then raise it to the starting position and repeat.
Always remember to help avoid injury, before doing any exercises you should stretch your muscles and be warmed up. You should also stretch the muscles after working out as resistance training tends to shorten the muscles and you want to avoid this. A good way of stretching these muscles is to hang from a bar to stretch your entire body. The weight of your body will act as weight and you will feel a stretch in your chest muscles.

Use ice to decrease pain