Weight Training Tips and Articles

Shoulder Weight Training Workouts

  If you weight train, building bigger, wider shoulders is a must for that Herculean look most men are striving for. The shoulder, or deltoid, muscles are made up of the front, side, and rear attachments, or heads. For total deltoid development you need to do some specific training for each head of the shoulder muscles.

  Many weight trainers start their shoulder workouts off with military presses to the front. This is a great exercise for building the shoulders, but if you’ve been lifting weights for a while and have built some muscle size you may overdevelop your front deltoids as compared to the side and rear delts. Many chest exercises like the bench and incline press involve the front deltoids so you may not need to do as much work on them when you do your actual shoulder workout. Because of this you may want to start your deltoid workout with dumbbell presses. Dumbbell presses will allow you put more of the resistence on the side delts.

  Because of the work your front deltoids get from chest exercises and your rear deltoids get from back exercises you should do more exercises for the side delts when you train your shoulders. Building the side head of the shoulder muscles will help add width to them. Besides dumbbell presses, you can do many variations of side laterals to build wider shoulders. You can do side lateral raises with dumbbells, cables, or machines.

  You should also do a few sets of rear lateral raises for the rear deltoids since they only get some secondary work from back exercises. You want to develop each head of the deltoids as evenly as possible so you may want to avoid doing too much direct work on the front delts if they are overdeveloped during your shoulder workouts. Front lateral raises may not be necessary because of this.

  You can train your trapezius muscles with the shoulders if you want. The best trapezius exercise is the shrug. You can do shrugs with a barbell or dumbbells. To get the most out of heavy shrugs you should use chalk or wrist straps to assist your grip.

  Here’s a sample shoulder workout with most of the focus on the side deltoid heads.

Dumbbell presses: 3-4 sets

Dumbbell side laterals: 2-3 sets

Cable side laterals: 2-3 sets

Rear laterals: 2-3 sets

Shrugs: 3-4 sets

Drop set of your choice to finish with.

  Because the shoulders (besides the side head) are involved in so many upper body exercises it’s easy to overtrain them. A shoulder routine like this should help you avoid overdoing it and decrease the likelihood of injury.

Bicep Weight Training Workouts

  The biceps are a very popular muscle to train for most weight trainers. The biceps are almost always on display when you’re not outside in cold weather and are an easy muscle to show off. For most people new to weight training, the biceps are one of the muscle groups they want to add size to. Biceps training is also relatively easy to do and won’t take as much out of you as heavy leg, chest, and back workouts.

  While you should use proper form on all of your weight training exercises to prevent injuries and build real strength, you may want to start your biceps routine with heavy cheat curls. Cheat curls will get the blood flowing in the biceps quickly and allow you to get started with a good pump. Take a weight you can do 5 or 6 curls with good form and do 10 to 12 reps. To do the secong half of the set use some body english to get the weight up, hold it at the top for a second, and slowly lower it under control. After a couple of cheat curl sets do the rest of your biceps exercises with better form, maybe cheating a bit to get an extra rep or 2.

  When you do dumbbell curls for the biceps you should start the exercise with your palms facing you and rotate your hands as you curl so your hands are in the same position at the top of the movement as they would be for barbell curls. This will work the biceps better than just keeping the hands in the same position throughout the exercise.

  To hit the brachialis muscle between the biceps and triceps more directly you can do a few sets of hammer curls or reverse grip barbell curls. Hammer curls are a lot like dumbbell curls except that you don’t rotate your hands. You basically raise and lower your hands like if you were using a hammer. Reverse grip barbell curls will work the forearms as well as the brachialis.

  Towards the end of your biceps workout you can do a few sets of precher curls, cable curls, or dumbbell curls while seated on an incline bench. to finish your biceps routine you should do a couple of drop sets to end your workout with a nice pump in the arms.

Triceps Weight Training Workouts

  Many weight trainers tend to focus primarily on their biceps when they’re trying to build bigger arms. However, the triceps do make up more of the upper arms muscle size, so you need to do at least as much, or more, exercises and sets for them than you do for biceps. Strengthening your triceps through weight training will also help you get stronger on chest and shoulder exercises.

  The most popular triceps weight training exercise is the tricep extension. You can do triceps extensions many different ways - standing or seated (also known as french presses), lying (also known as skull crushers), or with cables and weight training machines. The variety of ways you can perform tricep extensions allows you to constantly change your triceps weight training routine and hit the muscle from many different angles.

  Close-grip bench presses are another great exercise for the triceps if you perform them correctly. You’re better off not lowering the weight all the way to your chest when you do close-grip bench presses because you could hurt your wrists. Stopping the weight a few inches above your chest will still hit the triceps hard.

  One great triceps exercise that is rarely performed is the reverse-grip bench press. Reverse-grip bench presses are basically bench presses done with an underhand grip on the bar. This exercise does take some time to get used to the movement, but is very effective for adding size to the triceps through bench pressing (you really don’t feel reverse benches as much in your chest muscles if you do them right). The secret to targeting the triceps with reverse-grip benches is to use a wider grip and lower the weight to about the point where your chest and abdomen meet. Be very careful when you first try this exercise in your triceps weight training routine - it will take a few weeks to get used to.

  Cable pressdowns with a bar or a rope are great exercises to do towards the end of your triceps workouts. Don’t go too heavy, and make sure to get a nice muscle contraction at the bottom of each rep.

  To finish your triceps routine off you should do a couple of drop sets with tricep extensions or cable pressdowns. Another great triceps workout finisher are supersets of lying tricep extensions followed immediately by close-grip bench presses with the same weight.

Sample Triceps Routine:

Triceps Extensions (however you want to do them): 2-3 sets

Close or Reverse Grip Benches: 2-3 sets

Different kind of Triceps Extensions: 2-3 sets

Triceps Pushdowns: 2-3 sets

Drop sets or Lying Triceps Extensions/Close-grip Bench superset: 2 sets