How To Get A More Toned Body

Sculpted and defined, we all admire the toned body of a male or female. How much more attractive it is to have muscles instead of flab. When you tone your body, you are simply replacing fat with muscle. Some of us think that lifting weights will automatically result in a toned body. This is a misconception held by many people. You have to combine some type of weight loss plan to lose the fat that covers the muscles. Light or even heavy weight lifting helps, but it does not automatically tone your body. Whether you’re young or old, it is always possible to get a toned body.

Train the Triceps
Years ago if you were to ask any trainer they would say to train the triceps. This doesn't mean doing set after set of pushdowns, kickbacks, and other so-called "shaping" exercises. Training your triceps for a big bench has to involve heavy extensions and close-grip pressing movements such as close-grip flat and incline bench presses, close-grip board presses, and JM presses.

Various barbell and dumbbell extensions should also be staples of your training program. Don't let anyone try to tell you the bench press is about pec strength. These people don't know the correct way to bench and are setting you up for a short pressing career with sub-par weights. I just read an article in one of the major muscle magazines by one of these authors on how to increase your bench press. The advice given was to train your pecs with crossovers and flies and your bench will go up!

This, along with many other points, made me wonder how this article ever got published or better yet, how much the author himself could bench.
I believe articles should go under a peer review board before they get printed. I'd like many of my peers to review these authors in the gym or better yet on the bench to see how much they really know. Bottom line: Train the triceps!

Keep your shoulder blades pulled together and tight.
This is a very important and often overlooked aspect of great bench pressing. While pressing you have to create the most stable environment possible. This can't be done if most of your shoulder blades are off the bench. The bench is only so wide and we can't change this, but we can change how we position ourselves on the bench.

When you pull your shoulder blades together you're creating a tighter, more stable surface from which to press. This is because more of your body is in contact with the bench. The tightness of your upper back also contributes. These techniques also change the distance the bar will have to travel. The key to pressing big weight is to press the shortest distance possible.
Keep the pressure on your upper back and traps.
This is another misunderstood aspect of pressing. You want the pressure around the supporting muscles. This is accomplished by driving your feet into the floor, thereby driving your body into the bench. Try this: Lie on the bench and line up so your eyes are four inches in front of the bar (toward your feet). Now using your legs, drive yourself into the bench to put pressure on the upper back and traps. Your eyes should now be even with the bar. This is the same pressure that needs to be applied while pushing the barbell.

Push the bar in a straight line.

Try to push the bar toward your feet. The shortest distance between two points is a straight line, right? Then why in the world would some coaches advocate pressing in a "J" line toward the rack? If I were to bench the way most trainers are advocating (with my elbows out, bringing the bar down to the chest and pressing toward the rack) my barbell travel distance would be 16 inches. Now, if I pull my shoulder blades together, tuck my chin and elbows, and bring the bar to my upper abdominals or lower chest, then my pressing distance is only 6.5 inches. Now which would you prefer? If you want to push up a bar-bending load of plates, you'd choose the shorter distance.

Here's another important aspect of pressing in this style. By keeping your shoulder blades together and your chin and elbows tucked, you'll have less shoulder rotation when compared to the J-line method of pressing. This is easy to see by watching how low the elbows drop in the bottom part of the press when the barbell is on the chest. With the elbows out, most everyone's elbows are far lower than the bench. This creates a tremendous amount of shoulder rotation and strain.
Now try the same thing with the elbows tucked and shoulder blades together while bringing the barbell to your upper abdominals. For most people, the elbows are usually no lower than the bench. Less shoulder rotation equals less strain on the shoulder joint. This means pressing bigger weights for many more years. I've always been amazed at trainers that suggest only doing the top half of the bench press, i.e. stopping when the upper arms are parallel to the floor. This is done to avoid the excess shoulder rotation. All they have to do is teach their clients the proper way to bench in the first place!
Keep the elbows tucked and the bar directly over the wrists and elbows.
This is probably the most important aspect of great pressing technique. The elbows must remain tucked to keep the bar in a straight line as explained above. Keeping the elbows tucked will also allow lifters to use their lats to drive the bar off the chest. Football players are taught to drive their opponents with their elbows tucked, then explode through. This is the same for bench pressing. Bench pressing is all about generating force. You can generate far more force with your elbows in a tucked position compared to an "elbows out" position.

The most important aspect of this is to keep the barbell in a direct line with the elbow. If the barbell is behind the elbow toward the head, then the arm position becomes similar to an extension, not a press.
Bring the bar low on your chest or upper abdominals.
This is the only way you can maintain the "barbell to elbow" position as described above. You may have heard the advice, "Bring it low" at almost every powerlifting competition. This is the reason why. Once again, the barbell must travel in a straight line.

Fill your belly with air and hold it.
For maximum attempts and sets under three reps, you must try to hold your air. Everyone must learn to breathe from their bellies and not their chests. If you stand in front of the mirror and take a deep breath, your shoulders shouldn't rise. If they do you're breathing the air into your chest, not your belly. Greater stability can be achieved in all the lifts when you learn how to pull air into the belly. Try to expand and fill the belly with as much air as possible and hold it. If you breathe out during a maximum attempt, the body structure will change slightly, thus changing the groove in which the barbell is traveling.

Train with compensatory acceleration.
Push the bar with maximal force. Whatever weight you're trying to push, be it 40% or 100% of your max, you must learn to apply 100% of the force to the barbell. If you can bench 500 pounds and are training with 300 pounds, you must then apply 500 pounds of force to the 300-pound barbell. This is known as compensatory acceleration and it can help you break through sticking points.

These sticking points are known as your "mini maxes," or the points at which you miss the lift or the barbell begins to slip out of the groove. Many times I'm asked what to do if the barbell gets stuck four to five inches off the chest. Everybody wants to know what exercise will help them strengthen this area or what body part is holding them back. Many times it isn't what you do to strengthen the area where it sticks, but what you can do to build more acceleration in the area before the mini max. If you can get the bar moving with more force then there won't be a sticking point. Instead, you'll blast right through it. Compensatory acceleration will help you do this.

Squeeze the barbell and try to pull the bar apart!
Regardless of the lift, you have to keep your body as tight as Monica Brant's behind. You'll never lift big weights if you're in a relaxed physical state while under the barbell. The best way to get the body tight is by squeezing the bar. We've also found that if you try to pull the bar apart or "break the bar," the triceps seem to become more activated.
Devote one day per week to dynamic-effort training.
According to Vladimir Zatsiorsinsky in his text Science and Practice of Strength Training, there are three ways to increase muscle tension. These three methods include the dynamic-effort method, the maximal-effort method, and the repetition method. Most training programs being practiced in the US today only utilize one or two of these methods. It's important, however, to use all three.

The bench press should be trained using the dynamic-effort method. This method is best defined as training with sub-maximal weights (45 to 60%) at maximal velocities. The key to this method is bar speed. Percentage training can be very deceiving. The reason for this is because lifters at higher levels have better motor control and recruit more muscle than a less experienced lifter. For example, the maximal amount of muscle you could possibility recruit is 100%. Now, the advanced lifter after years of teaching his nervous system to be efficient may be able to recruit 70 to 80% of muscle fibers, while the intermediate might be able to recruit only 50%.

Thus, the advanced lifter would need less percent weight than the intermediate. This is one of the reasons why an advanced lifter squatting 80% of his max for 10 reps would kill himself while a beginner could do it all day long. If you base the training on bar speed, then the percentages are no longer an issue, only a guideline. So how do you know where to start? If you're an intermediate lifter, I suggest you start at 50% of maximal and see how fast you can make it move for three reps. If you can move 20 more pounds with the same speed then use the heavier weight.

Based on years of experience and Primlin's charts for optimal percent training, we've found the best range to be eight sets of three reps. Based on Primlin's research, the optimal range for 70% and less is 12 to 24 repetitions. We've also found it very beneficial to train the bench using three different grips, all of which are performed within the rings. This may break down into two sets with the pinky fingers on the rings, three sets with three fingers from the smooth area of the bar and three sets with one finger from the smooth area.
Devote one day per week to maximal-effort training.
For the second bench day of the week (72 hours after the dynamic day) you should concentrate on the maximal-effort method. This is best defined as lifting maximal weights (90% to 100%) for one to three reps. This is one of the best methods to develop maximal strength. The key here is to strain. The downfall is you can't train above 90% for longer than three weeks without having adverse effects.

Try performing a max bench press every week for four or five weeks. You'll see you may progress for the first two, maybe three weeks, then your progress will halt and begin to work its way backward. We've combated this by switching up the maximal-effort exercises. We rotate maximal-effort movements such as the close-grip incline press, board press, floor press, and close-grip flat press. These exercises are all specific to bench pressing and all have a very high carryover value.

Train the lats on the same plane as the bench.
I'm talking about the horizontal plane here. In other words, you must perform rows, rows, and more rows. "If you want to bench big then you need to train the lats." I've heard both George Hilbert and Kenny Patterson say this for years when asked about increasing the bench press. When you bench you're on a horizontal plane. So would it make sense from a balance perspective to train the lats with pulldowns, which are on a vertical plane? Nope. Stick to the barbell row if you want a big bench.

How To Get Rock Hard Abs

Being a person who does daily workouts I have come to find out that working my abs has been difficult if you don't know what exactly to do or how to work them. I have spent numerous hours searching all over the internet for the right exercises and methods. I've tried everything but then I started working my abs in a different way, my own method that I believe works very well. Here I will be telling you what you need in order to get hard abs and what you can do to get the results you want in weeks or even less!

Things You’ll Need:
Dedication
Will Power
Discipline
Desire
Focus

Step 1: Lose a pound of body fat every week until you get your desired results. Unfortunately, you cannot spot reduce body fat. In order to see your abs you must rid yourself of total body fat. For every pound of fat you wish to get rid of, you have to burn an extra 3,500 calories more than you eat. So start off slow and burn 500 calories more a day than you consume—at the end of seven days you will have lost 1 lb. of unwanted fat. Shedding body fat can be done by what I think is the best way, and that's Cardio.

Step 2: Cardio, Cardio, Cardio. Do at least 1 hour of aerobic exercise per day at your optimal fat burning zone on an empty stomach if possible. The optimal zone has to do with heart rate during exercise and is the best way to get rid of stored body fat. To figure this out use this formula: based on how fit you are, train at 60 to 85 percent of your maximum heart rate (220 minus your age). Keeping your heart at a steady constant rate like this forces your body to draw energy from two sources: glycogen (converted and stored carbohydrates) and stored body fat. If you are somehow able to do this first thing in the morning on an empty stomach, you will have a greater chance of just drawing energy from fat stores. This is because after 8 to 12 hours without food, your glycogen stores will be depleted.

Step 3:Reduce or eliminate your complex carbohydrate (rice, breads, pasta) consumption towards the end of the day. Have those more with breakfast and lunch. Also do your best to avoid simple carbohydrates (fructose) especially towards the end of the day.

Step 4: Really do your best to have your last meal at least 3 hours before going to bed.

Step 5: Train your abs hard! While you won't see them until the body fat percentage has dropped to the required level, your abs will be stronger and appear more defined once it has.

Step 6: Weight train to build more lean muscle. More muscle means a faster metabolism.

Step 7: Drink lots of water and get plenty of rest.

Tips & Warnings:
- Getting a trainer or a workout partner can help.
- Be patient—this will not happen overnight.
- Get a heart rate monitor to make sure you are in the right target heart rate during your workouts.
- Check out fatburn.com to monitor your calories and chart your progress.

Bench Crunch (Upper Abs)

Start Position

Simply lie on the floor with your feet positioned atop a bench (or chair). Your knees should be bent at a 90-degree angle. Place your hands gently on the sides of your head and take a deep breath.

The Movement

Then, concentrate on flexing the upper abdominal muscles, pushing your lower back into the floor, and slowly curl your shoulders toward your knees as you breathe out. Aim your elbows toward your knees, flexing the ab muscles more with each inch your elbows move upward and inward. When your shoulders and upper back have curled up off the floor and your elbows are six to eight inches from your knees, hold that position for a count of "one-thousand-one, one-thousand-two" and flex those abs while pushing down with your lower back! Then, slowly return to the starting position while you breathe in. Pause for a moment, and then repeat.

Hip Up (Lower Abs)

Start Position

Lie on your back with your legs pointing straight up toward the ceiling, perpendicular to the floor. Keep your legs straight without locking your knees. Put your hands, palms down, under your butt, and keep your head on the floor as you look up at the ceiling.

The Movement

With your feet together and your legs straight, use your lower abs to elevate your hips off the floor or bench and slowly roll them toward your chest. When your feet are over your head, pause and contract your lower abs for two seconds. Then slowly release down to the starting position. Repeat.

Cross Crunch (Obliques)

Start Position

Lie on your back, knees bent, so your left foot is resting flat on the floor. With your right knee bent, place your right foot across your left knee. Your neck and head should be relaxed with your left hand at the side of your head and your right hand on the left side of your abdominals.

The Movement

Curl your body up with a twisting movement, bringing your left shoulder toward your right knee. "Unwind" as you slowly lower yourself back to the floor—touch your shoulders to the floor and repeat. After completing the set number of reps on the left side, switch to the right side and do the same.