Latest news with #EbenezerSamuel
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Health
- Yahoo
Want to Build Real Muscle in Less Time? Pull (and Push) Double Duty With a Chest and Back Workout.
WANT TO GET bigger and stronger without spending all your time in the gym? You'll need to learn how to train efficiently—and that means training with a plan. One of the simplest ways to do this is by training muscle groups together. For the upper body, that probably means you'll start by combining your chest and back workouts into one. Chest and back workouts are extra-efficient because they are opposing muscle groups. You'll push with your arms to hit the anteriorly-positioned pecs (in other words, the front side of your body) while you'll pull to work the posteriorly positioned (rear) back muscles like the lats, traps, and rhomboids. Supersets and other rep schemes that don't require long recovery periods can help cut your overall training time. Not sure where to start with a chest-and-back supersets workout? Here's a sample session designed by MH fitness director Ebenezer Samuel, C.S.C.S. that can get you started. Want more details about how this plan should work? Keep reading to learn more. Do the exercises in order, with exercises 1A and 1B as a superset. Perform both moves back-to-back, resting one minute after completing each set. Do the same for moves 2A and 2B. Do exercise 3 by itself, resting for 1 minute between sets. Finish with 2 sets of exercise 4. How to do it: Hold a loaded barbell with an overhand grip slightly wider than shoulder-width. Hinge at the hips and tighten your core, working to keep your shoulders slightly higher than your hips. Don't round your lower back. Squeeze your shoulder blades, then row the barbell to your chest. Return to the start. Sets and reps: 3 sets of 10 reps How to do it: Lie with your back on a bench, holding dumbbells directly over your shoulders, arms straight. Your core should be tight and your glutes should be squeezed. Bend at the elbows and shoulders, lowering the weights to within an inch of your chest, then press the dumbbells back up. Sets and reps: How to do it: Hang from a pullup bar with a shoulder-width, underhand grip. Keep your core tight. Squeeze your shoulder blades, then pull your chest toward the bar. Hold when you've pulled your chest to the bar, then slowly lower to the start. Sets and reps: How to do it: Lie with your back on an adjustable bench set to a 30-degree incline, holding light- to medium-weight dumbbells directly over your shoulders, core tight and glutes squeezed. Keeping your right arm straight, lower the left dumbbell to your chest then press it back up. Do that twice. Then keep the left arm straight as you lower the right dumbbell to your chest and press it back up twice. Lower both dumbbells to your chest and press them back up. Sets and reps: How to do it: Lie with your chest on an adjustable bench set to a 30-degree incline, holding light dumbbells. Let your arms hang naturally. Tighten your glutes, flex your abs, and squeeze your shoulder blades. Row the dumbbells upwards, aiming to drive your elbows higher than your torso. Squeeze your back at the top of each rep. Sets and reps: How to do it: Get in pushup position. Do one pushup. As you push your torso upwards, jump your hands in the air, into position for a triceps pushup, hands slightly narrower than shoulder-width apart. Do one triceps pushup, then jump (or step) your hands back to regular pushup position and do two standard pushups. After the second one, move back into triceps pushups position and do two triceps pushups. Continue laddering up until you can do no more good-form reps. Sets and reps: The principle behind stacking two opposing muscle groups in one training session is simple: You'll be able to do more in less time. Opposing muscle groups—individually known as the agonist and antagonist muscles for each specific movement—mean that the two muscles perform the opposite functions. Think biceps and triceps with flexion and extension of the elbow, and (of course) chest and back, with pushing and pulling. Since you'll be performing two different movements with two different muscles, you'll be able to recover without fully taking a break. This is the perfect opportunity to use a superset structure; rather than doing one exercise, resting, then doing another, you'll perform one exercise targeted at the first muscle group, then immediately proceed to one targeting the other. Then you'll rest and repeat. The chest-and-back superset session is one of your best training options. It's grueling and challenging, but it will leave your entire upper body with a vicious pump, and insure that you're hitting all critical upper body muscles. And while it's challenging, it's also smartly crafted: For the health of your shoulders and your posture, you always want to blend pushing and pulling exercises into your training. Supersetting a chest exercise with a back exercise insures that you do that. Lead with the back exercise in each pair first; for physique balance, you should aim to pull more weight (and more frequently) than you push in all your training. A chest and back superset workout also lets you move challenging weights; you'll wind up doing major movements, such as bench presses and rows, and by lifting heavy weights, you'll spur your body towards muscle growth. This isn't the kind of workout you want to do all week, though, especially if you're training hard. If you try doing chest-and-back supersets, think of doing them twice a week, with at least two days of rest for upper-body training in between. Chest-and-back supersets work ideally with a weekly split that has you training on a three-day split that starts with legs on the first day, places upper body on the second day, and includes a third day of rest and recovery. You Might Also Like The Best Hair Growth Shampoos for Men to Buy Now 25 Vegetables That Are Surprising Sources of Protein
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Health
- Yahoo
This Tiny Shift In Your Lateral Raise Could Save Your Shoulders Forever
Lateral raises help to beef up your shoulders, but can also destroy them if you don't do the exercise properly. Unfortunately, the simple move is also one of the most common exercises to screw up, whether you're an experienced gym rat or a novice. In our latest episode of Little Things, Men's Health fitness director Ebenezer Samuel, C.S.C.S. and fitness pro Jonathan Chadwell, show us the right way to get it done. For optimal muscle growth and joint safety, make the little change-up of doing your lateral raise slightly in front of you and protect your shoulders to boot. So, how do you go about setting up the better way to do lateral raises? Chadwell grabs the weights and Samuel breaks it down: 'The one thing you'll notice is that he's very, very careful with his positioning. He's got his elbows slightly in front of his shoulders as he's raising—that's helping to protect his shoulders,' Samuel says, noting that Chadwell is also focusing on keeping the position of his shoulder joints in something called external rotation, which gives your rotator cuffs more space to move. The external rotation here is key. 'As humans, we wind up living in internally rotated positions. [Internal rotation] is not a comfortable position for your shoulder,' says Samuel. That's why we want to emphasize getting away from this position in our training as much as possible and adjust shoulder position to external rotation. As you try to keep your shoulders externally rotated, that often translates into lifting with an open palm. 'We're trying to bias into situations that move us to an open palm,' adds Samuel. Frequently, people raise all the way out to their sides with their palms facing down to the ground. That doesn't help you get into the safer position of external rotation. There's a simple two-step approach to fix your form and avoid pain and eventual injury: "One: Get your wrists slightly in front of your shoulders as you're raising and, two, think about rotating your hands so that your thumbs start to move toward the ceiling as you raise [the weights],' offers Samuel. 'So make the adjustment and enjoy the safer shoulder gains for the next two decades.' As a bonus, following these guidelines for lateral raises can also incorporate your mid-back muscles into the movement. That's always a good thing, guys. Watch the video above to see all this advice in action. Get the Plan Get the Program Get the Program Get the Plan Get the Program Get the Program Get the Plan Get the Plan Get the Program Get the Plan Get the Program Get the Plan Get the Plan Get the Program Get the Program Get the Program Get the Program Get the Plan You Might Also Like The Best Hair Growth Shampoos for Men to Buy Now 25 Vegetables That Are Surprising Sources of Protein
