Weight Training Tips and Articles

Try Dips For The Chest

  While dips are primarily known as a weight training exercise that targets the triceps, you can modify them a bit to target the chest. Doing dips for the chest is a great alternative to decline bench presses and will help build the bottom of the pectoral muscles for that chiseled chest look. Because dips for the chest requires you to move your body through space they are a harder, and consequently more intense, exercise for the pecs than decline bench presses.

  To perform dips to target the pectoral muscles you need to do then on a dip bar rather than between 2 benches. It’s even better if the dip bar is a bit wider so you’re not hitting the triceps as much as the chest. When you do dips for the chest muscles you don’t want your body to be straight becuase this will also target the triceps more. Try to get your lower body behind you so you are dipping at an angle like you would be if you were doing decline presses. Since you are likely strong enough to do a lot of dips this way you should wear a belt that allows you to add weights to it. As you do the exercise try to focus on getting the chest to do most of the work rather than the triceps.

  Doing dips in the style that targets the chest muscles is an old school weight training exercise that isn’t utilized enough by todays lifters. It’s the perfect exercise to do in any chest routine after flat and incline bench presses. Try them out to build more muscular, chiseled pectorals.

Increasing Bench Press Strength

  The bench press is likely the most popular exercise for weight trainers to perform. If you look like you weight train you’ll likely hear the “how much can ya bench?” question every now and then. A big bench press shows that you have the strength and not just the size. Because of this, most weight trainers want to be able to bench press as much weight as possible.

  The first step to increasing bench press strength is to make sure you’re using proper lifting form when you perform it. If you do sloppy bench reps you won’t be building as much strength in your chest as you wouild if you used good lifting form. It’s okay to have your back arched, but you need to keep your behind on the bench when you beench press. You should also contract your upper back muscles and pull your shoulder blades inward to pop your pecs out. Always lower the weight under control, do not drop it on your chest. When the weight touches your chest try to explode it upward.

  One great technique to increase your bench press strength is to identify where you are at your weakest during a rep and doing some sets that focus only on that part of the movement. Do this by setting up a squat rack so you are forced to only do the part of the bench press rep that you are weak on.

  You also need to make sure you don’t get overzealous and end up overtraining your chest from too many bench sets. If you’re still sore from your last bench press workout ou need to take another day or 2 off before you do them again.

Start Your Biceps Workouts With Cheat Curls

  While you need to learn proper exercise form for all the major weight training exercises to build real strength and avoid injuries, there is one exception to using proper form you may want to take advantage of - heavy cheat curls.

  Try heavy cheat curls at the beginning of your biceps weight training workouts to get the arms pumped up fast. You can do cheat curls with a barbell or dumbbells, which ever you prefer.

  To perform heavy cheat curls use a weight that you can do with pretty good form for a few reps and force yourself to get 8 to 10 reps with it. To cheat when you curl bend forward at the waist a bit to get the weight started upward and curl the weight to the top position as you straighten your back. The trapezius muscles are likely to come into play as well when you do cheat curls during your biceps workouts as you may need to shrug your shoulders to help get the weight up. The key to doing heavy cheat curls is in the negative, or lowering part of the exercise. Lower the weight slowly and under control. Barbell and dumbbell cheat curls are 2 of those rare weight training exercises where you can take full advantage of the negative part of an exercise without needing a spotter.

  When you do heavy cheat curls, cheat within reason. Don’t try to curl a weight so heavy that you may hurt your lower back. Just use a weight that will allow you to work your biceps hard on the negative part of the exercise, not a weight that’s too heavy to control on the way down.

  After 2 or 3 sets of heavy cheat curls you should have a nice pump in your arms. After this, do the rest of your sets of curls with proper form - keeping your back straight and not shrugging the shoulders to get the weight up.