Weight Training Tips and Articles

Proper Bench Press Form

  The main exercise of any chest weight training routine is the bench press. You simply lie on the bench with a grip on the bar a bit wider than your shoulders, lower the weight to your chest and lift the weight. Of course, that’s not all there is to it. Many weight trainers try to lift the weight off themselves by raising their entire body besides their upper back off the bench and practically dropping the weight on their chest to get a bounce at the beginning of the lift. This is poor lifting form and you won’t be hitting the pectoral muscles as good as when you use proper form on the bench press. You’re also more likely to hurt yourself.

  To bench press properly you need to keep your butt on the bench while performing the exercise. Keep your feet on the floor and you’ll get a small natural arch in your back. Pull your shoulders blades inward and downward and contract your upper back muscles to “pop” your chest out so most of the resistence is targeting more directly on your chest muscles. Lower the bar under control until it touches your chest and try to explode the weight upward. Use a spotter on your heavy bench press sets if you can. If you don’t use a spotter you need to be absolutely sure you can get 1 more rep before you try it. Better safe than sorry.

Push-Pull Weight Training Split Routines

  Once you’ve learned how to properly perform all of the major exercises you do in your weight training routine, you’ll probably want to split up your routine. If you split your weight training routine you’ll be able to do some more exercises and sets for every muscle group without having to worry about overtraining since you’ll be getting more recovery time between each muscle’s workout. Splitting your weight training routine 3 ways will give you the ability to hit each muscle hard and get enough rest to allow them to grow in size and strength.

  One great way to split your routine 3 ways is to follow a “push-pull” routine. To perform a push-pull routine you train the upper body muscle groups that “push” weight at one workout and train the upper body muscles that “pull” weight at another workout with a separate workout dedicated to leg training. During your “push” workout you’ll train your chest, shoulders, and triceps, in that order. During your “pull” workout you’ll train your back followed by biceps. For legs, start out with your quadricep exercises, and follow them up with hamstring and calf training. If you have small calves you may want to work them a bit during one of your upper body workouts or do some running when you do cardio because they recover quicker than other muscles. Abs also recover quickly, so you can do some abdominal training at every other workout, or even more often if you want.

Now’s the Time To Start A Weight Training Routine

  With the Fall and Winter months coming, it’s the perfect time for you to start following a weight training routine. You can spend this time of year trying to add some muscle size and strength and have plenty of time to get ripped before next Summer. Start out by learning how to perform each exercise properly so you don’t developed bad habits by using sloppy exercise form. When you’re on a beginner’s weight training routine you should also focus on major compound exercise that require you to use multiple muscles to lift the weight. Examples of these exercises are the bench press, squat, and deadlift. of course you’ll want to do some isolation exercises, but you should save them for the end of your workouts.