What’s the whole truth, bottom line, and final answer on abs? We’re about to clear up all the misconceptions. Consider the following your tome on ab training.

What Muscles Make Up The Abs?

The term “abs” can refer to all the muscles of the midsection, ranging from the deep core muscles that stabilize your spine to the obliques on the side of your torso that help you twist your shoulders and hips and bend to each side. But when most people say abs, they mean the rectus abdominis, more popularly known as the six-pack muscle.

The rectus abdominis originates on the pubic bone and stretches up to the xiphoid process (the bottom of the sternum), as well as the cartilage between the fifth, sixth, and seventh ribs. It works to bend the lumbar spine forward (spinal flexion), pull the rib cage down, and help stabilize the pelvis when you’re walking. When an individual is very lean with well-developed musculature, the rectus abdominis can appear to be six distinct muscles, but it’s only one. The six-pack look is due to a web of connective tissue that compartmentalizes the muscle. Whether someone has a six pack or an eight pack comes down to genetics alone—it’s the way nature shaped their abs—and has nothing to do with training or diet. (For all his gargantuan muscles, Arnold Schwarzenegger’s abs were always comparatively less impressive; he famously sported only a four pack!)

How Is Working Your Lower Abs Different From Upper Abs?

(See 00:30 in the video above.)

Bodybuilders have long believed that exercises that bring the ribs toward the pelvis (crunch variations, for example) work the upper portion of the rectus abdominis, while movements that do the reverse—lifting the pelvis toward the ribs—train the lower portion. Scientists and some trainers, however, have disputed this, arguing that, since there’s only one rectus abdominis muscle and its function is pretty simple, any movement that brings the ribs and pelvis closer together is going to work the whole muscle.

So who’s right?

A study from the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research measured rectus abdominis activation across six different ab exercises, concluding that, while some of the moves worked the muscle more than others, none showed much of a difference in which part of the abs (upper or lower) was activated. Still, other research has shown the opposite. One trial found that the old-school curlup worked the upper portion of the muscle to a greater degree, and the posterior pelvic tilt (basically a reverse crunch, in which the tailbone is tucked under, lifting the pelvis toward the upper body) favored the lower abs—just as the bodybuilders have claimed for years.

So far, the correct answer seems to be a little from Column A and a little from Column B. In his 2021 book, Science and Development of Muscle Hypertrophy, Brad Schoenfeld, PhD, CSCS, the world’s foremost muscle-growth researcher, concludes that while the entire rectus abdominis will be worked during exercises that target it, it is also possible to emphasize recruitment of the upper abs over the lower abs, and vice versa.

He writes: “Although somewhat speculative, there is a sound rationale for performing traditional crunch variations to target the upper abdominal region and performing reverse crunch variations to develop the lower aspect of the muscle… Not only do the tendinous intersections [of the rectus abdominis] suggest some degree of functional independence of the muscle, but its upper and lower aspects are segmentally innervated by the ventral rami of the lower six or seven thoracic nerves, providing a further mechanism for selective activation.”

Schoenfeld goes on to cite pro tennis players whose abs are bigger on their non-dominant side, which he says indicates that people can, to some degree, recruit not only the upper and lower abs selectively, but also the sides of the muscle.

Long story short: you can target different areas of the abs to shape them according to your goals, but you’ll never be able to isolate any one area of the muscle completely while turning off another one.

What’s The Difference Between Situps and Crunches?

Before we go any further, we should clarify some terms. If ab training really comes down to situp and crunch-type movements, let’s define what these are.

For many years, the situp was the primary ab exercise. You lie on your back with knees bent, and raise your upper body off the floor and up to your knees. This works the entire abdominal area, but it also recruits the legs and hip flexors, and it can be hard on the lower back (as we’ll examine in the next section). In the past few decades, trainers began recommending crunches in place of the situp—a more isolated movement for the rectus abdominis that requires you only lift your head and shoulders off the floor. It’s the safer, more targeted ab workout option between the two, but crunching alone won’t get you a six pack. These days, it seems best to favor crunches over situps, but perform them with different tools—such as a cable machine, stability ball, or inclined bench—to get more muscle activation without sacrificing safety.

Is It Safe To Do Situps and Crunches?

Whether you’re trying to work upper abs, lower abs, or both, the standard prescription is to perform some kind of spinal flexion exercise—i.e. situps or crunches—because bending the spine is a major function of the rectus abdominis.

In recent years, however, some athletes and trainers have contended that repeatedly bending the spine over time can lead to lower-back injury, including disc prolapse or herniation. The idea is that bending the spine pinches the intervertebral discs, gradually pushing them backward until they bulge out and press against a nerve, causing pain. While situp and crunch exercises may not cause back problems entirely on their own, they could throw gas on a fire that’s already burning in many athletes and recreational lifters. If you’ve been following a program that includes regular back squats and deadlifts, which compress the spine, and your lifestyle includes a lot of sitting and slouching (spinal flexion), you can understand how the concern arose. 

For these reasons, some experts recommend developing the abs using only variations of the plank exercise, where the ribs and pelvis are held still and the rectus abdominis, along with the other core muscles, contracts isometrically. Schoenfeld agrees that well-chosen plank exercises can effectively train both the upper and lower abs, but argues that there’s nothing inherently dangerous with spinal flexion exercises either, assuming you’re not already contending with a back issue. In a review he co-authored, Schoenfeld determined that, if an individual has no pre-existing back problems, spinal flexion exercises are not only safe when done as normally prescribed, but probably necessary for maximizing development of the rectus abdominis. If you have aspirations of competing in a physique show, where your opponents will surely have well-defined abs, you’ll probably have to do some spinal flexion exercises to get the ab development needed to keep up with them.

For abs that look great and perform well, including having the ability to protect your back, healthy people should probably perform both planks and spinal flexion. Schoenfeld and spinal-flexion critics do agree, however, that too much spinal flexion isn’t good for anyone. If you’re old-school and think that 100 crunches or situps every day is the only way to see results, you could be setting yourself up for injury. Whatever the ab exercises you choose, they should be performed with moderate sets and reps like training any other muscle, with time off for recovery afterward. (We’ll give more specific recommendations below.)

Tips for Isolating Your Upper Abs

Just to recap, you can’t completely isolate your upper or lower abs, but you can emphasize one section over the other with different exercises and careful technique. To lock in on the upper abs, “You want exercises that are going to bring your ribcage down toward your hips,” says Jonny Catanzano, an IFBB pro bodybuilder and owner of Tailored Health Coaching, a fitness coaching service (@tailoredhealthcoaching on Instagram).

This means crunch/situp motions of all kinds, generally starting with your spine straight and finishing where it’s fully flexed at the lumbar. Yes, that means you’ll be rounded in your lower back, which is a major no-no for most loaded exercises such as squats and deadlifts, where the spine has to be kept neutral for safety’s sake. But to fully activate your abs, you have to take them through a full range of motion, and that means crunching your body into a tight ball. If you have lower-back pain, you may want to skip these kinds of exercises and do plank variations (we have a good one for you below), but otherwise, a few sets done two or three times a week shouldn’t present a problem.

Perform your crunch exercises for moderate sets and reps (2–4 sets of 6–15, generally speaking); don’t train them heavy. This will help to prevent placing unnecessary stress on the lower back.

To get the most out of your upper abs, “Squeeze your glutes to tilt your pelvis back, so your tailbone tucks under you when you begin a rep,” says Catanzano. Called a posterior pelvic tilt, this helps take your hip flexor muscles out of the exercise, so that your abs do the majority of the crunching.

What Exercises Work Your Upper Abs?

(See 00:52 in the video.)

A study by the American Council on Exercise showed that, out of 15 exercises tested, crunches done on a stability ball—as well as reverse crunches done on an inclined surface—both worked the upper abs the hardest, and nearly equally. (Incidentally, the reverse crunch on the incline also ranked highest for lower-ab activation.)

But don’t take these findings as gospel. Only 16 subjects participated, and two of them weren’t counted because they didn’t complete the study. Still, the results do suggest that you’d be smart to include crunches done on both a stability ball and an inclined bench in your program, provided you can do them safely.

In addition to those two moves, Catanzano recommends the following.

Kneeling Cable Crunch

(See 01:00 in the video.)

This exercise isolates the upper abs as much as possible, and the cable ensures that there’s tension on the muscles even when the spine is extended (where they would normally rest in a crunch done on the floor). The cable stack also makes it easy to increase the load as you get stronger. Use a V-grip to go heavier, or a rope handle for greater range of motion.

Step 1. Attach a V-grip or rope handle to the top pulley of a cable station, and grasp it with both hands. Kneel on the floor a foot or so in front of the cable so that you have to reach forward a bit with your hands to grasp the handle, and you feel a stretch on your abs. You may want to place a towel or mat under your knees for comfort.

Step 2. Squeeze your glutes and tuck your tailbone under so your lower back rounds a bit and you feel your abs engage. Crunch down, pulling the cable down behind your head as you bring your ribs to your pelvis. When your abs are fully contracted, that’s the end of the range of motion. Slowly return to the starting position. That’s one rep.

Don’t get carried away with the weight you’re using. It should never be so heavy that it pulls you up off the floor at the top of each rep.

Seated Pulley Crunch

(See 01:47 in the video.)

Performing a cable crunch on a lat pulldown machine may be a more comfortable option than the kneeling cable crunch, as it makes it easier to keep your hips stable. 

Step 1. Attach a lat-pulldown bar to the pulley of a lat-pulldown station and sit on the seat facing away from the machine. Reach overhead and grasp the bar with hands shoulder-width apart and palms facing behind you.

Step 2. Squeeze your glutes and tuck your tailbone under so your lower back rounds a bit and you feel your abs engage. Crunch down, pulling the cable down behind your head as you bring your ribs to your pelvis. When your abs are fully contracted, that’s the end of the range of motion. Slowly return to the starting position. That’s one rep.

Hanging Leg or Knee Raise

(See 02:29 in the video.)

The pelvis flexes toward the ribs on this one, so it’s a good lower-ab move too, but it will hit the upper part of the rectus abdominis as well. Doing the movement with legs extended creates a longer lever and puts more tension on the muscles, but that will be too advanced for many people. If that’s the case for you, performing the motion with knees bent (a hanging knee raise) is a good modification. In either case, Catanzano warns that you don’t just lift your legs/knees. “That just works the hip flexors,” he says. “Make sure you bring your hips all the way up,” rounding your back as you do so.

Step 1. Hang from a pullup bar with your palms facing forward or toward each other. You may want to use lifting straps to reinforce your grip, so your hands don’t tire before your abs do.

Step 2. Tuck your tailbone under and raise your legs up, keeping your knees as straight as you can until your abs are fully contracted. Control the motion as you lower your legs back down. That’s one rep.

For the hanging knee raise, perform the same movement, but keep your knees bent 90 degrees the whole time. On either exercise, be careful not to swing your legs up or let them swing behind you at the bottom. You want your abs to do the lifting, not momentum, and swinging can strain your lower back.

Crossover Crunch

(See 03:52 in the video.)

Here’s an upper-ab exercise that also hits the obliques, the muscles on your sides that help you bend and twist.

Step 1. Lie on your back on the floor with your arms extended 90 degrees from your sides. Raise your right leg straight overhead, and then twist your hips to the left, resting your right leg on the floor. Cup the back of your head with your right hand.

Step 2. Crunch your torso off the floor and toward your right leg. Hold the top position for a second, and then return to the floor. That’s one rep. Complete your reps, and then repeat on the opposite side.

Pushup Plank with Tailbone Tucked

(See 04:45 in the video.)

If crunching movements aggravate your lower back, try plank exercises instead. Catanzano likes the classic yoga plank done a little differently—with the tailbone tucked under and knees bent to work the rectus abdominis more.

Step 1. Get into pushup position. Squeeze your glutes and tuck your tailbone under to activate your abs. Bend your knees and arms a bit so you feel like your midsection is hollowed out—abs braced, preventing your lower back from sagging.

Step 2. Hold the position for time. Aim for 30 seconds to start.

Your upper abs may get sore just from reading all this, but don’t make the mistake of thinking that training alone will produce a six pack. Exercise builds the ab muscles, but only a healthy diet can lower your body fat levels enough to reveal them, so if your belly currently hangs over your belt line, cut calories from your meals. Catanzano says that most men aren’t able to see ab definition until their body fat is in the range of 8–12%, and women need to be 14–18%.

See this guide on how to diet for abs.

How To Stretch Before Working Your Abs

Catanzano offers the following mobility drills for preparing your midsection for a session of ab training. Perform 10–12 reps for each exercise in turn, and repeat for 2–3 total sets of each.

Walking Knee Hug

Step 1. Stand tall and take a step forward, raising one knee to your chest as high as you can. As the knee rises, grab hold of your shin with both hands and pull it into your chest for a deep glute and inner-thigh stretch. Avoid slouching or bending forward as you do. Try to keep the support leg straight as well.

Step 2. Release the leg, plant your foot, and repeat on the opposite leg, walking forward with each rep.

Bird Dog

Step 1. Get on all fours with your hands under your shoulders and your knees under your hips. Tuck your tailbone so that your pelvis is perpendicular to your spine, draw your ribs down, and brace your core.

Step 2. Extend your right arm and left leg at the same time while maintaining your tight core. Don’t let your back arch. (Think about reaching forward with the arm and leg, not just raising them up.) Lower back down, and repeat on the opposite side. Each arm and leg raise is one rep.

Prone Scorpion

Step 1. Lie facedown on the floor and reach your arms out to your sides. Tuck your tailbone so that your pelvis is perpendicular to your spine, draw your ribs down, and brace your core.

Step 2. Raise your right leg up and reach it across toward your left arm. Reverse the motion and repeat on the other side. A touch on each side is one rep.

Prone Cobra

Step 1. Lie facedown on the floor with your hands on the floor at shoulder level, as in the bottom of a pushup.

Step 2. Press your hands into the floor as you extend your spine and raise your torso off the floor. Hold the top a second, and then return to the floor. That’s one rep.

Windmill Lunge

Step 1. Step forward and lower your body into a lunge. Extend your arms 90 degrees out to your sides. 

Step 2. Twist your torso away from the front leg until it’s 90 degrees, with one arm reaching in front of you and the other behind. Come back to the starting position, and then repeat on the opposite leg, twisting and reaching in the other direction. Each lunge is one rep.

The Ultimate Upper-Ab Workout

Below are two sample ab workouts, courtesy of Catanzano, that you can add at the beginning or end of your current sessions, or on an off day. Alternate between the two workouts (A and B) for no more than three total ab workouts in a week. They’ll both work the entire abdominal region, but will emphasize the upper part of the rectus abdominis.

Workout A

1. Kneeling Cable Crunch

Sets: 3  Reps: 12–15

2. Hanging Leg or Knee Raise

Sets: 3  Reps: 6–12

3. Pushup Plank with Tailbone Tucked

Sets: 3  Reps: Hold 30 seconds

Workout B

Perform exercises 2A and 2B as a superset. So you’ll do one set of 2A and then one set of 2B before resting. Rest, and repeat until all sets are completed for both exercises.

1. Crossover Crunch

Sets: 3  Reps: 12–15

2A. Hanging Knee Raise

Sets: 3  Reps: 12

2B. Pushup Plank with Tailbone Tucked

Sets: 3  Reps: Hold 30 seconds

3. Seated Pulley Crunch

Sets: 3  Reps: 12–15

For more ab training tips, see Get A Six-Pack In Your Living Room.

The post The Pro’s Guide To Upper-Ab Exercises & Workouts appeared first on Onnit Academy.

That’s a bummer, because the lats are essential for a physique that looks muscular and lean. When you flex them, they make your waist look smaller and your shoulders look wider, giving the impression of a powerful, even super-heroic upper body.

Whether you’re a regular guy or gal who wants to sculpt a more balanced physique, or a die-hard lifter who has aspirations of one day competing in a physique show (Bodybuilding, Figure, Classic Physique, etc.), we’ll help you get your back training on track, so that when you spread your lats, you look like you’ve sprouted wings!

What Is A Lat Spread and Why Do People Do It?

The lat spread is a traditional bodybuilding pose used in competition to highlight the width and thickness of the competitor’s latissimus dorsi muscles. The lats, if you weren’t sure, are the big slabs of muscle that run down the sides of your back. They originate on the lower three or four ribs, lower six thoracic vertebrae, and iliac crest (the top border of the pelvis), and insert on the humerus (upper-arm bone) just below the shoulder joint.

In a physique contest, the athlete is required to display their lats in two distinct lat poses—the front and rear lat spread. (The competitor must show the lats facing the judges/audience, as well as facing away, so the dimensions of the muscles can be appraised.) The term “spread” refers to how the lats appear when they’re flexed in a dramatic fashion. When well-developed, the lats appear to spread out from the person’s torso, and the effect is something like a bird spreading its wings—the back looks so wide and dense that you can see it from the front!

Of course, if you’re not planning on posing your physique on stage for sport, you don’t absolutely need to know the technique of flexing the lats aesthetically. But many people like to motivate themselves to get in their best shape by scheduling a photo shoot or other event where they’ll have pictures taken to commemorate their condition, and in that case, understanding how to show off your lats to their best advantage will help them get the credit they deserve, and prove that you put some serious time and dedication into building them. Scroll down for a full tutorial on how to pose your lats effectively when that time comes.

Exercises To Build Stronger Lats

The lats work to pull the arms from overhead to down to your sides, extending your shoulder joints. They’re the main upper-body muscles involved in climbing and swimming. For ages, the go-to lat-building exercises for bodybuilders and other weight-training populations alike have been the classic pullup, chinup, and lat-pulldown, along with various types of rows. These are all great options, but if you’ve lived on a steady diet of the standard lat exercises for years and still feel like your wings haven’t spread, we’ve got some variations to show you that may help you target your lats a little better.

These come by way of Jonny Catanzano, an IFBB Classic Physique pro bodybuilder and coach to physique competitors at all levels (@jonnyelgato_ifbbpro and @tailoredhealthcoaching on Instagram).

1. Reverse-Incline Lat Pulldown

(See 00:52 in the video above)

Pulling with your palms facing each other (a neutral grip) helps you to keep your arms closer to your sides during a pulldown or row. This in turn helps to focus the exercise on the lat muscles, as opposed to the muscles of the upper back. Furthermore, doing the movement with your torso supported on a bench makes the exercise more stable, so your muscles can focus purely on lifting the weight rather than trying to brace your body position at the same time.

“This type of pulldown primarily hits the lower lat fibers, which really contributes to the V-taper,” says Catanzano, referring to the impression the lats give as they descend from their widest point beneath your shoulders to their insertion at your pelvis. The lower fibers are usually underdeveloped relative to the rest of the lats, and adding size to that area will improve the cobra-hood effect of your lats when you spread them. In other words, it will make your waist look smaller while your back looks broad.

Step 1. Set an adjustable bench on a 45–60-degree angle and place it in front of a cable station with a high pulley. If the station offers dual pulleys, attach single-grip handles to them. But if it’s a single pulley, attach a lat-pulldown bar and then attach some single-grip handles to the bar at about shoulder width (we used Angles90 Grips in the video, another great option).

Step 2. Rest your chest on the bench and grasp the handles with palms facing each other (inward). Pull the handles down until your elbows reach your hips. Lower the weight with control.

Be careful not to pull the handles too far back—go until your arms are in line with your body. Pulling further than that can shift the emphasis to the upper back, and we want to keep it on your lats.

2. Close-Grip Cable Pulldown

(See 01:28 in the video)

You’re almost certainly familiar with the close-grip pulldown done with a V-grip handle attachment, but Catanzano recommends using two separate single-grip handles instead (preferably the type with soft, spongy material on the handle). These are the kind you’re probably used to using for chest flyes and lateral raises.

The single-grip handles will allow you to move your hands further apart as you pull the cable down, and that means more range of motion, so you can get your elbows closer to your hips for a full contraction of the lower lats.

Step 1. Attach the two handles to the pulley of a lat-pulldown station and grasp them with a neutral grip. Secure your knees under the pad so your lower body is braced. Lean back a bit so you feel a stretch on your lower lats, but try not to arch your back.

Step 2. Pull the handles down until your elbows line up with your hips. Lower the weight with control.

3. Reverse-Incline Dumbbell Row

(See 02:09 in the video)

This one hits the lats but puts more emphasis on the rhomboids in the middle back, which is literally the centerpiece of a rear lat-spread pose. “Developing this area will add to the overall width of your back,” says Catanzano. As with the reverse-incline pulldown, using a bench takes the lower back out of the movement and reduces your ability to cheat or use momentum, so the target muscles get worked in near isolation.

Step 1. Set a bench to a 45-degree angle and grasp dumbbells. Rest your chest against the bench and allow your shoulder blades to spread apart at the bottom of the movement.

Step 2. Row the weights to your sides with your elbows pointing at about 45 degrees from your torso. Squeeze your shoulder blades together at the top. You may want to use wrist straps to reinforce your grip, as your hands will likely tire before your back does.

4. Kelso Shrug

(See 02:52 in the video)

Done standing upright, shrugging motions work the upper traps, but when done with your chest supported, they hit more of the trap fibers, along with the rest of the upper back. Like the incline rows above, this movement will widen and thicken the middle part of the back, which contributes to a powerful lat spread viewed from behind.

Step 1. Set up as you would for the incline row and simply retract your shoulder blades, squeezing them together at the top of the movement. Keep your elbows straight. Lower the weights with control, and allow your shoulder blades to spread apart at the bottom.

Incidentally, Kelso shrugs can be done at the end of a set of incline rows to finish off the upper back. In other words, do a set of rows to failure, and when you can’t perform another full-range row anymore, simply retract your shoulders for a few reps of shrugs to failure.

5. Neutral-Grip Pullup

(See 03:39 in the video)

“Pullups with a neutral grip almost force you to keep your elbows a little in front of your body,” says Catanzano, “which is where your lats are more active than they would be pulling with your elbows flared out to the sides.”

Step 1. Hang from a bar using a neutral grip. If your chinup bar doesn’t allow that, attach single-grip handles as explained in the close-grip pulldown above. Your hands should be about shoulder-width apart.

Step 2. Pull yourself up until your chin is over the bar and your elbows are in line with your hips. Lower your body down with control.

If that’s too hard, attach an exercise band to the bar and stand on the free loop. The band’s tension will unload some of your bodyweight so that you can get more reps.

Sample Workout For a Better Lat Spread

Catanzano offers the following routine to bring up your lats and improve your lat spread. Perform it once every five to seven days. Rest 2–3 minutes between sets. Note that the neutral-grip pullups and Kelso shrugs are paired, so perform them in alternating fashion, doing a set of the pullup and then a set of the shrug without rest in between. Then rest 3 minutes before repeating until all sets are complete for the pair.

1. Reverse-Incline Lat Pulldown

Sets: 4  Reps: 10–12

2. Close-Grip Cable Pulldown

Sets: 4  Reps: 10–12

3A. Neutral-Grip Pullup

Sets: 4  Reps: 10

3B. Kelso Shrug

Sets: 4  Reps: 12

4. Reverse-Incline Dumbbell Row

Sets: 4  Reps: 12

A Lat Flexing and Spreading Tutorial

Once you’ve built a substantial set of lats, you can work on posing them effectively. Catanzano, who coaches posing as well as training for physique competitors, offers this three-step guide to mastering the lat spread.

(See 04:09 in the video for Catanzano’s demonstration)

1. Squeeze your shoulder blades together and place your fists on your hips. “Imagine holding a pencil between your shoulder blades,” says Catanzano. That’s how far back you want to pull your shoulders.

2. Drive your shoulders down. The movement is the opposite of a shrug, so get your shoulders as far south of your ears as you can. You should feel your lats get tense.

3. While keeping your shoulders down and your lats tense, roll your shoulders forward and slightly upward. Your chest and ribcage should lift in front of you, “nice and high and proud,” says Catanzano. Think about spreading your lats apart as wide as you can.

Catanzano warns that you need to have good shoulder mobility in order to spread your lats impressively. You should be able to raise your shoulders up and down and retract and protract them through a large range of motion—and pain-free. If you can’t, then you won’t be able to achieve the positions that showcase the lats to their fullest potential. If you need work on shoulder mobility, start with this article, Shoulder Mobility for Strength and Injury Prevention.

The post How To Lat Spread Like A Bodybuilder appeared first on Onnit Academy.

First, have a look at the article linked above, as well as its two followups (Part 2, Part 3). They explain my basic nutrition philosophy and lay out a framework for how you should eat to be healthy and perform well. (Trust me, it’s not complicated.) To gain muscle, all we have to do is add a little more food to the equation and amend a couple of the rules, so that instead of dropping weight, you’re putting it on—but only the right kind.

Here are the rules of eating for muscle gain. Try any of them that you like, but NOT all of them—at least not all at once. Trust me, they may seem simple but they’re powerful, and they can add a lot of calories to your day without you hardly noticing (that’s the point!). If you go overboard, you’ll gain fat. So experiment with one or two at a time and monitor your weight. If you’re gaining a pound a week, keep doing what you’re doing. If your weight doesn’t change after two weeks, add one or two more rules to your day until it does. If you start gaining more than a pound per week, you’re gaining too fast and it’s going to be more fat than muscle, so back off. Take it slow when you want to grow.

#1. Eat Protein Throughout The Day

Your body will absorb protein and put it to better use for muscle growth if you consume it in regular and roughly equivalent doses.

A 2018 review in the Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition concluded that subjects looking to add muscle should take in 0.4–0.55 grams of protein per kilogram of their bodyweight in each meal they have, aiming for at least four meals, or until they’ve hit a protein intake of 1.6–2.2 grams per kilogram of bodyweight for the day.

So let’s do a little math. To convert your weight from pounds to kilograms, divide by 2.2. Let’s say you weigh 150 pounds—that’s 68 kilos. The minimum amount of protein you should eat in a day (1.6 x 68) is 108 grams, and the maximum (2.2 x 68) is 150 grams. I usually recommend that people eat about 1 gram per pound of their bodyweight, just to keep things simple. In this example, it would be 150 grams protein, which is on the upper end of the spectrum, but not excessive. (For the record, it’s hard to eat “too much” protein. But if you do overshoot your quota a little bit, you’ll be fine. It’s just that extra protein won’t build any additional muscle.)

Now we need to determine how much protein you should have per meal. Generally, the hand-sized portioning guideline I gave you in the fat-loss plan will cover this amount, but let’s do some more math so you can see why.

Multiply your 68 kilo bodyweight by 0.4 grams, the minimum amount of protein you need per meal, and you see that you need to be eating at least 27 grams of protein at each feeding (feel free to round up to 30). Twenty-seven grams of protein is roughly the equivalent of a palm-sized portion of chicken breast, lean steak, and most fish. So, at that rate, you’ll need four meals over the course of the day to reach the minimum target of 108 grams protein, and five meals to get to the maximum of 150. (A meal-replacement shake with protein powder can substitute for one of these meals.)

OK, want the TLDR version? Eat a palm-sized amount of protein or bigger at every meal, totaling four meals and maybe one protein shake by the end of the day. That should give you the right amount of protein overall and per meal to build muscle.

This means that if you’re a person who likes to fast in the morning, you may want to reconsider this strategy when you’re in muscle-gain mode. Fasting forces you to consume most of your food (and protein) in a smaller window of time, and that doesn’t keep the anabolic (muscle-building) signal turned on as well as eating frequently does. Likewise, if you’re a busy person who forgets to eat and ends up having a huge feast for dinner. The science is clear that it’s better to have a nosh here and there than it is to inhale a 64-ounce porterhouse at the end of the day.

#2. Drink Milk (But Not Just Any Kind…)

Obviously, if you’re lactose intolerant, don’t do dairy, or just don’t like milk, skip this rule and move on, but it’s a simple hack that can really come in handy. I know I told you to cut out calorie-containing beverages in the fat-loss guides, but when you’re bulking up, drinking SOME of your calories is a convenient way to get them in. If you haven’t discovered this already, eating to gain weight isn’t always as much fun as it sounds, since pounding extra food can get uncomfortable. Sometimes it’s a relief to drink a glass of milk rather than shovel down another serving of chicken and rice, when you know that it will still give you the calories you need.

I’ll tell you a secret to help you get more nutrition out of your milk: drink one that’s higher in protein. Most milk brands offer about eight grams of protein per cup, but Fairlife’s is filtered in such a way so as to pack more protein per serving—13 grams, in fact. To control calories, opt for the reduced-fat, 2% variety, or skim. Yes, we want more calories in order to gain weight, but too many leads to gaining fat. (If you want to calculate exactly how many you need, see How To Set Up Your Diet for Fat Loss or Muscle Gain.)

In case you’re wondering, Fairlife’s moo juice is also free of GMOs and growth hormones.

#3. Eat Yogurt

Skyr is a mild-flavored Icelandic yogurt that’s naturally low in fat and sugar and high in protein. I like Icelandic Provisions’ brand, which packs 17 grams of the stuff per serving.

If you’re having trouble reaching your protein requirement, eat skyr as a snack between meals. (You can add a little fruit to flavor it.) Also, I have no hard science to back me on this, but I suspect that skyr might make you superhuman if you lift weights along with consuming it. Look up how many times Icelanders have won the World’s Strongest Man contest and you’ll see what I mean!

#4. Drink Casein Protein

Whey protein is arguably the king of muscle supplements (if you’re not sure why, see our guide here), but casein can be beneficial too. Casein is whey’s counterpart, a slower-digesting milk protein that can feed your muscles for a long period of time. Because of its slow absorption rate, I like it as part of a smoothie that you drink shortly before bed. Research has shown that pre-bedtime consumption of protein, including casein specifically, supports protein synthesis overnight—particularly if you work out in the evening.

#5. Go Nuts

A one-ounce portion of raw, unsalted, mixed nuts (enough to fit in your palm) has about 160 calories. Adding this amount to each of your meals, or eating it as a snack between meals, really adds up, contributing to the surplus you need to build muscle while also providing important vitamins, minerals, and fiber.

It’s healthier (and cheaper) than weight-gainer shakes that are loaded with calories and sugar.

#6. Have A Nut Butter and Banana Sandwich

If you need an extra meal to hit your protein number, or find that you’re still not gaining weight after implementing all of the above, finish your day with a peanut butter and banana sandwich (any nut butter you like is OK too). Wash it down with a glass of milk.

Eating it may make you feel like a kid, but at 500-plus calories, you won’t look like one after a few weeks.

While I recommend whole food as the basis for your weight-gain strategy, supplementing with creatine monohydrate can be useful as well. See our guide to creatine (along with more info on whey) here. 

And if you want to get more scientific with your diet, managing your intake down to the last calorie and gram, I’ll show you how to do that in this piece—How To Set Up Your Diet for Fat Loss or Muscle Gain.

The post New Year All You Muscle Gain Nutrition Plan appeared first on Onnit Academy.

By figuring out how many grams of protein, carbs, and fat you need to consume to reach your goal, and hitting those numbers each day, you empower yourself to have complete control of your transformation. It will also allow you to troubleshoot any problems that come up along the way with much less guesswork. Not gaining muscle? You’ll be able to assess how many carbs you’re eating versus fats, and which macro it makes sense to bump up. Hit a standstill in your weight loss? You’ll know how and where to cut calories from your day.

Pull up your calculator app and get ready to write down some numbers…

Step 1: Determine Your Resting Metabolic Rate

Your resting metabolic rate (RMR) is the number of calories your body burns at rest—just keeping you alive with no additional activity. There are many equations that nutritionists and dieticians use to determine this number and none are 100% accurate, but they all give you a solid starting point. I like the good ol’ Mifflin-St Jeor equation, which has been demonstrated to be more accurate than most. This formula takes into account your weight, sex, age, and even height.

First, you’ll have to convert your bodyweight from pounds to kilograms (divide your weight by 2.2) and your height from inches to centimeters (multiply by 2.54). 

For men:

(10 x your weight in kg) + (6.25 x your height in cm) – (5 x age in years) + 5

For women:

(10 x your weight in kg) + (6.25 x your height in cm) – (5 x age in years) – 161

Let’s plug in some numbers using me as an example. I’m a male, 205 pounds (93kg), 6’2” tall (188 cm), and 45 years old. 

Using the men’s equation, I find…

(10 × 93) + (6.25 × 188) – (5 × 45) + 5

930 + 1173 – 225 + 5 = 1,880

My resting metabolic rate is about 1,880 calories. (Note that it’s OK to round this number off.)

Step 2: Factor In Your Activity

We obviously don’t lie in bed all day (although some days it’d be nice), so we need to factor in how many calories our activities burn. 

If you work out or play sports 1–3 times a week, you perform what’s known as light activity, and you will multiply your RMR number by 1.375.

If you exercise or play 3–5 times a week, you’re moderately active. Multiply by 1.55.

If you train or are active 6–7 days a week, you’re in the “very active” camp. Multiply by 1.725. 

Finally, if you’re crushing it nearly every day AND have a physically demanding job as well, multiply by 1.9.

I lift weights for a total of about two hours every week, and I play tennis up to five hours per week, but my job has me mostly in front of a computer all day, so my activity level is probably only in the moderate range. Therefore, I’ll multiply my 1880 RMR by 1.55. That gives me 2900 (again, rounded), which is the number of calories I need to eat to maintain my weight.

Step 3: Calculate Your Calorie Needs

If you want to MAINTAIN your current bodyweight, aim to eat whatever number of calories you calculated from your RMR x activity factor daily. 

If you want to LOSE weight, start by subtracting 500 from that number. If you want to GAIN weight, add 500.

Step 4: Calculate Your Macros

Once you have your daily calories figured out according to your goal, you can break them down into macronutrients. This not only makes your calories easier to count, it lets you know exactly how much of each type of food you need to consume. You see, you have to take in a certain number of calories to gain or lose weight, but the breakdown of protein, carbs, and fat determines your body composition—i.e., how much of the weight you lose or gain is fat versus muscle. Some muscle loss is inevitable when you’re dieting, and when you’re bulking up, you’re bound to gain some fat too, but the right combination of macros will put the odds in your favor, letting you keep more of the tissue you want while you shed or maintain the kind you don’t.

Protein

Protein supports muscle growth and maintenance as well as satiety (feeling less hungry between meals), so it’s the most import macro. Every meal you eat should feature it, and when and if you snack, you should choose foods that offer primarily protein as well. Aim to eat about 1 gram of protein per pound of your bodyweight each day. You can get by with a little less, and a little more won’t hurt either.

Note that if you’re very overweight, eating your bodyweight in grams of protein is probably impractical and not ideal. In this case, eat one gram per pound of the bodyweight you’re shooting for. In other words, a 300-pound person who remembers looking and feeling their best at 200 pounds will eat 200 grams of protein daily.

Another way to look at it is to have 25–35% of your calories come from protein. Each gram of protein contains 4 calories, so if I’m following a 2400-calorie diet to lose weight (2900–500=2400), I should eat 600–840 calories from protein-rich foods. That equals 150–210g protein. (Again, for simplicity’s sake, I’m happy with eating one gram per pound, which for me is 205g… but since 200 is a round number and easier to remember, I’ll just go with that. I also think it’s a good idea to aim toward the higher end of the protein spectrum when you’re dieting to ensure that you preserve as much muscle as possible.)

Most of your protein should come from the purest sources available, which are animal foods. Chicken, lean beef, fish and other seafood, eggs, yogurt, and cottage cheese are some of the best protein sources, but protein powder supplements are OK too for convenience. Most animal foods will contain some fat as well, so to keep things simple and prevent the fats from adding up too fast, choose the leanest cuts of meat most of the time. Sirloin steak, for instance, has a better protein-to-fat ratio than ground beef. That said, count the fat grams in your protein foods whenever possible.

Tip: If you like to snack on cheese, or use it to garnish your dishes, Parmigiano Reggiano is a smart choice. It has the highest amount of protein, gram for gram, of any cheese—and even more than chicken, beef, or fish. We’re talking 10 grams of protein in a one-ounce serving!

Of course, if you’re a vegetarian/vegan or plant-based eater, you’ll need to get your protein through non-animal sources. Combining foods such as beans and rice, nut butter and bread, etc., can provide the protein you need, but beware of how many carbs and fats you’re taking in as well. Supplementing with a plant-based protein powder may be necessary to make sure you hit your protein goals without overstepping your carb and fat allowances.

Fat

Unfairly maligned for weak associations with heart disease and other health ailments for years, dietary fat is now recognized as an important nutrient for hormone production and overall health, but it still packs a lot of calories—nine per gram, which is more than twice what a gram of carbs or protein provides. That means that while we need fat in the diet, we don’t want to go overboard because the calories will add up too fast. That’s a concern even if your goal is to gain weight. Calories that your body doesn’t convert to muscle will be stored as fat.

I recommend you aim for 0.5 grams of fat per pound of your bodyweight to start. As with protein, if you’re very heavy, you’ll be better off calculating this based on your goal bodyweight. Using myself as an example, I would eat about 100g of fat per day at a bodyweight of 205. At 900 calories, that’s a little under 40% of the total I’m allowed.

Most of your fat intake for the day should come by way of your protein foods, as there will always be at least a few grams in chicken, beef, salmon, etc. Nuts and seeds, olives and olive oil, fish oil supplements, and avocado can make up the difference. You may also prepare foods with cooking oils, but be careful about your serving sizes, as they can add a lot of fat without your hardly noticing.

Carbohydrates

Now that you have your protein and fat numbers figured out, you can simply subtract them from your total number of calories to find the carbs you need. My 100g fat allowance is 900 calories, and my 200g of protein equals 800 calories, so that leaves me with 700 calories for carbs. Since carbs contain four calories per gram, that gives me 175g carbs to eat. This is a little under 30% of my calorie total.

Here’s your list of carb-rich foods: grains (bread, cereal, pasta, rice), legumes (beans and peas), tubers (potatoes, sweet potatoes, other root vegetables like squash and carrots), fruit, and green vegetables. Be sure to count the carbs in your starchy foods and fruits toward your carb total, but the green vegetables are so low in calories that you can eat as many as you want (of course, count any dressings or sauces that you add to them!). Realize that there are also some carbs in dairy foods (milk, yogurt), so try to keep track of those as well.

How Do I Track Macros?

Now that you know how much of each type of food to eat, you’ll have to get comfortable with reading food labels so you can add your macros up properly. A food scale to measure your portions is a good idea too. This may seem like a nuisance at first, but once you get the hang of it, you’ll memorize how many proteins, carbs, and fats are in your favorite meals and you won’t have to obsess over them.

You can estimate your macros to some degree by using the hand-portioning trick I discuss in the fat loss guides. This will allow you to eyeball your portions with some accuracy when you eat out, or otherwise can’t control the exact ingredients and amounts you’re served. But to stay as close to your macro numbers as possible, I recommend you read labels and keep a tally throughout the day. Apps such as My Fitness Pal can be helpful for recording your numbers, as well as telling you how much of this or that nutrient is in your meal.

Try to include at least one food from each of the protein, fat, and carb food lists above in your meal plan each day. Focus on eating a variety of fruits and vegetables, and the vitamins and minerals you need to look and feel great will take care of themselves.

Adjusting Your Numbers

The calories and macros you calculate here just give you a starting point. They should send you in the right direction on your cutting or bulking program, but you’ll have to keep an eye on them. Make sure you record your numbers daily, and take note of any days you exceed your allowances or fall short. If you’re totally compliant for two weeks and haven’t lost a pound yet, cut 300 or so calories from your carb and/or fat numbers (never protein) and see if that makes a difference. If you’re trying to bulk up and haven’t gained a pound after two weeks, add 300 or so more calories, pumping up your carb and/or fat quotas as you see fit.

In either case, slow and steady is the best progress. If you’re losing several pounds per week (when cutting) or gaining more than one (while bulking) you’re dieting too hard or eating too much, respectively, and that means you risk losing muscle/gaining fat. You may lose a few pounds in your first few weeks of a diet as your body sheds excess water weight, but you don’t want to see the scale go down by five pounds or so on a regular basis. 

However, don’t go by the scale alone. Take measurements and progress photos of your physique so you know the weight is coming off or going on in the right places. Monitor your progress in the gym and make sure you’re still getting stronger and have energy enough to fuel your workouts. You have to experiment, be patient, and pay attention to how your body looks and feels.

For recipes that make healthy meals, see the following:

Healthy Pork Recipes

Gluten-Free and Nut-Free Snacks That Taste Great

3 Killer High-Protein Lunch Ideas

3 Healthy and Easy Rice Recipes for Weight Loss

BBQ Recipes

The post How To Set Up Your Diet for Fat Loss or Muscle Gain appeared first on Onnit Academy.

Consisting of ST SPORT, ST IMMUNE, and ST GREENS (with more additions to arrive shortly), the Shroom Tech collection offers support for strength, endurance, mental stress, immune health, and general nutrition.^† Keep scrolling, and we’ll run you through each of these supplements and explain their use, ingredients, and the science that shows their effectiveness.

What Are Adaptogens?

The key feature of every Shroom Tech product is its use of adaptogens—plant compounds that help regulate the body’s stress responses. Adaptogens can come from mushrooms, herbs, or roots, and many have been used for centuries in Ayurvedic and Chinese medicine. 

Scientists think adaptogens work by acting on the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis—the interaction between the brain and adrenal glands—and the sympathoadrenal system—the part of the nervous system that helps control the body’s stress response. According to an article in the journal Pharmaceuticals, adaptogens may help with attention and endurance in situations where fatigue and/or sensation of weakness might decrease performance.¹ They may also help the body resist stress-induced impairments of the neuroendocrine and immune systems.

Basically, by helping to shoulder the burden that stress places on your system—be it from exercise, work, or seasonal health concerns—adaptogens allow your body to function at a higher level.

What Is Shroom Tech^® SPORT?

The flagship member of the Shroom Tech family, ST SPORT is designed to be taken as a pre-workout, or for occasional energy support, and contains only trace amounts of caffeine.^† It owes its power to a blend of adaptogens that includes cordyceps sinensis, a mushroom.

A double-blind, placebo-controlled study done at Florida State University found that subjects supplementing with Shroom Tech SPORT performed more volume in both their strength training and cardio workouts.^†2

Shroom Tech SPORT is available in capsules.

Shroom Tech SPORT Benefits

Training volume refers to the amount of work you can do in a training session. Generally speaking, the more work you’re able to perform, the more stimulus you provide to your body, driving gains in muscle, strength, endurance, or whatever other fitness quality you’re training for. Shroom Tech SPORT helps you turn up your training volume. This can mean more standing on the pedals for the mom who does spin class; more reps for the gym rat on his favorite lift; more shifts for the hockey player who used to get winded on the ice, and so on.︎ Podcaster and Onnit co-founder Joe Rogan has famously stated that Shroom Tech SPORT helps him squeeze in an extra roll at the end of jiu-jitsu class.^†

Skeptical? Let’s examine what the Florida State study revealed.

The participants were 21 male college students averaging 22 years of age. All were experienced, recreational gym goers (read: not fitness newbies for whom any kind of training would yield results). The men were divided into two groups that were roughly equal in terms of levels of body fat, strength (as defined by their one-rep maxes—1RM—on the bench press and back squat), and VO2max (the maximum amount of oxygen consumed by the muscles during exercise—a measure of endurance).

One group of subjects supplemented with Shroom Tech SPORT and one took a placebo, and both groups strength trained and did cardio on separate days. (There were two full-body strength workouts per week and two cardio sessions consisting of high-intensity aerobic intervals.) The workouts ran for 12 weeks and were highly supervised—each subject was watched by research personnel to ensure they did all the reps in their workouts, used appropriate weights, etc.

Again, the study was double-blind. That means that the researchers who administered the capsules never knew which was Shroom Tech SPORT and which was the placebo, and the college men didn’t know which one they were getting either.

The subjects did not change their diets, and no significant differences were found between their diets. They were, however, instructed to minimize caffeine, and were not allowed any caffeine prior to exercise.

It’s important to understand that both groups did the same workout program—and it was awesome. Subjects in both the ST SPORT and placebo groups lost weight and gained strength. Their body fat percentages dropped one to two percent. As a result of doing the same effective training program, there were no significant differences between the groups in total training volume or any of the other categories. But, when looking at the numbers on a workout to workout basis, The Shroom Tech^® SPORT subjects statistically (p<0.05) outperformed the placebo group by getting three more reps (28 vs. 25) on the bench press when using 72.5–77.5% of their one-rep maxes (1RM). These percentages mean loads that kept them in the 10–12-rep range. Three extra reps is a 12% increase.^†

These statistical differences were repeated when looking at the bench press and the squat combined. The ST SPORT group got four more reps, total—a seven percent increase—at the same intensity (72.5–77.5%).^†

Looking at the cardio, in each consecutive interval, those supplementing with Shroom Tech SPORT had a statistically significant (p<0.05) smaller drop in performance times as fatigue kicked in when running at maximal intensities. Their total running time dropped 41 seconds, or 4.1 seconds per round. This is a three percent decrease.^†

The placebo group, however, dropped by two minutes and 15 seconds—an 11% decline, or 13.5 seconds at the same intensity. Ultimately, the Shroom Tech SPORT group outperformed the placebo group by 8.8% in running volume.^†

The researchers concluded that ST SPORT supported training volume for strength work and high-intensity cardio at both moderate and maximum intensities, respectively.^†

What Are Shroom Tech SPORT’s Key Ingredients?

Cordyceps sinensis. A mushroom popular in Traditional Chinese Medicine, cordyceps is an adaptogen that grows at high altitudes. Research indicates that cordyceps helps support energy utilization during exercise. One study in the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine found that cordyceps aided exercise performance in people as old as 50–75,³ while a Japanese study showed positive effects on energy metabolism.^†4

Ashwagandha. Another adaptogen, ashwagandha is an herb native to India and North Africa, and has been linked to strength, power, and endurance gains—and that may only be the beginning (although the dosages in most of its research studies are greater than what ST SPORT contains). A study in the Journal of Ayurveda and Integrative Medicine showed that ashwagandha supported improvements in VO2 max and time to exhaustion among elite cyclists.⁵ Another study found that the herb aided not only cardiorespiratory endurance but also quality of life, as determined by a survey that subjects took about their physical and psychological health, social relationships, and environmental factors.^†6 

Meanwhile, a trial in the International Journal of Ayurveda Research indicates that ashwagandha can help with speed, strength in the lower limbs, and neuromuscular coordination,⁷ and an Indian study on hockey players showed it was helpful with the strength and stability of their core muscles.^†8

Finally, an experiment published in the Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition had men ages 18–50 take ashwagandha for eight weeks to supplement their weight-training.⁹ Their bench press and leg extension maxes shot up while they gained muscle in the chest and arms. At the same time, body fat levels dropped—more than twice what the placebo group lost—and testosterone went up.^† (However, in fairness, it is unknown if ashwagandha itself is responsible for the coincidental rise in testosterone, and more research is needed to determine the connection between the herb and weight loss.)

Green tea extract. A concentrated form of decaffeinated green tea, this extract assists with endurance performance. A study in the Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition found that subjects taking green tea extract saw a near 11% improvement in distance covered during a cycling test.^†10

Rhodiola rosea. An herb that grows in cold, mountainous regions like cordyceps does, rhodiola is an adaptogen that promotes endurance, both physically and mentally. A study in the International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism found that rhodiola supported endurance exercise capacity in young men and women.¹¹ The Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research also reported that rhodiola ingestion decreased heart rate during submaximal exercise, and appears to help with endurance by reducing one’s perception of effort during exercise.^†12

Two studies in Phytomedicine showed rhodiola helps outside the gym. One revealed that it promotes psychomotor function in the midst of mental fatigue in students during a stressful exam period,¹³ while the other showed that rhodiola helped regulate fatigue in doctors working under stressful conditions during night shifts, and aided performance on work-related tasks by 20%.^†14

Methyl B-12. Apart from assisting in the metabolic reactions that make you feel alert, Vitamin B12 is thought to protect the sheaths that cover nerves, so having inadequate levels is like letting the wires that run from the computer in your brain get frayed—the signals they carry won’t get relayed efficiently. Unfortunately, research shows that up to 40% of people may have B12 levels that are low or marginal—low enough for them to exhibit effects such as minor fatigue and occasional lack of focus.^†15

Vitamin B12 is hardly available in plant foods, so plant-based eaters are more likely to not get enough from their diet. A 2014 review of 40 studies in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that as much as 86.5% of vegetarians were at risk for deficiency. Supplementation, then, is critical.^†16

Shroom Tech SPORT contains a methylated version of B12, which allows for better absorption in the body.^†

Who Should Use Shroom Tech SPORT?

ST SPORT can be an effective pre-workout supplement for those who prefer a formula that is sugar-free and doesn’t contain copious amounts of caffeine. It may also benefit students, shift workers, or anyone else who burns the midnight oil and may need support for work-induced stress and minor fatigue. Unlike energy drinks or other caffeinated supplements, Shroom Tech SPORT doesn’t give you a jolt of alertness or burst of energy, but you should notice the difference in how you perform.^†

What Is Shroom Tech^® IMMUNE?

ST IMMUNE is a mushroom and whole-food blend designed to be taken daily to help the body maintain healthy immune system function. The mushrooms in this formula provide beta-glucans, a type of polysaccharide that acts as food for the good bacteria in your gut—the stuff that eats the “bad bacteria”—and also stimulates immune cell activity.^†

ST IMMUNE is available in capsule form.

Shroom Tech IMMUNE Benefits

First, let’s discuss how beta-glucans work in a little more depth. Your body can’t make these compounds on its own, and it doesn’t recognize them when you ingest them. So, while they’re perfectly safe to consume, your body is cautious, and suspects beta-glucans might be dangerous. As a result, it treats them like any other outsider. Your immune system responds by ramping up the release of white blood cells—the soldiers in your body’s war against bacteria, viruses, and other pathogens. An article in Medicina explains that beta-glucans support the immune system, essentially by introducing a source of stress to your body that provokes it to become more resistant to the stressor.^†17

What Are Shroom Tech IMMUNE’s Key Ingredients?

ST IMMUNE combines two ingredient blends: the Onnit Myco-Immune Blend™, which consists primarily of organic, beta-glucan containing mushrooms, and the Onnit Nutri-Immune Blend™, which provides extracts of various herbs and roots.

Onnit Myco-Immune Blend™

Organic chaga. Forming on tree bark in cold climates, chaga is an adaptogenic mushroom that has been used in traditional medicine for ages and is often consumed as a tea. A 2015 trial concluded that chaga may support the immune system.^†18

Organic turkey tail (Coriolus versicolor). Consumed around the world, the mutli-colored turkey tail mushroom acts as a prebiotic, feeding the good bacteria in the gut. A study in Gut Microbes found that turkey tail helps balance the gut microbiome.^†19 

Organic reishi. An Asian mushroom and adaptogen that grows under hot and humid conditions, reishi was shown in a Japanese study to have a positive effect on immune health.^†20 

Organic shiitake. Popular in Asian cuisine, a study in the International Journal of Medicinal Mushrooms concluded that shiitake mushrooms may support the production of B cells, the ones that produce antibodies that neutralize foreign substances.^†21 

Onnit Nutri-Immune Blend™

Turmeric. A plant most famous for its use in Indian curries, turmeric supplies curcumin, a compound that a review in the journal Foods determined can aid in supporting a healthy inflammatory response.²² Furthermore, the researchers stated, “A relatively low dose of the complex can provide health benefits for people that do not have diagnosed health conditions.” In other words, it’s healthy for just about anyone to supplement with turmeric. Add to that the findings of a Journal of Clinical Immunology review, which concluded that, thanks to its curcumin content, turmeric’s ability to promote immune system function is “beyond doubt.”^†23

Ginger. The spicy root offers serious protection for your cells. A review in the International Journal of Preventive Medicine showed that ginger helps the body balance oxidative stress.^†24

Oregano. The herb that helps give pizza its intoxicating aroma is actually pretty healthy when you take away all the fat and carbs. Research shows that it contains antioxidants, which support cells’ resilience to damage and help maintain cell integrity.^†25

Who Should Use Shroom Tech IMMUNE?

ST IMMUNE can be beneficial to anyone looking to support their immune defenses, and can be taken on a daily basis. However, it shouldn’t be seen as an alternative or replacement for other powerful immune-boosting practices, such as getting consistent sleep, minimizing stress, and following a healthy diet. Smart lifestyle choices still come first.

What’s The Difference Between Shroom Tech IMMUNE? And VIRUTech^® ?

Onnit currently offers two supplements that are primarily immune-system focused. Shroom Tech IMMUNE is a mushroom-based formula with botanical extracts, designed to be taken daily to maintain healthy immune system function. VIRUTech is a vitamin and mineral blend that helps support your immune system beyond what Shroom Tech IMMUNE was formulated to do alone. You should reach for VIRUTech when you are traveling, or any other occasion when you feel you need additional immune support, but make ST IMMUNE your mainstay.^†

What Is Shroom Tech^® GREENS?

ST GREENS is essentially certified organic vegetables and mushrooms that have been pulverized into a fine powder. One packet (5.1 grams) provides one serving of vegetables (equivalent to ½ cup), helping to fill in the gaps common in most Americans’ diets.^†

Shroom Tech GREENS is unflavored and free of sweeteners, so it can be added to a protein shake or meal-replacement smoothie without affecting the flavor. Think of it as adding the power of a small salad to your drink, although it won’t taste like it!

Shroom Tech GREENS Benefits

The USDA’s Dietary Guidelines call for adults to get two and a half cups of vegetables daily, and many nutritionists suggest eating more than that if you’re an athlete or active person. Still, research shows that nearly 90% of Americans don’t get enough produce in their diet.²⁶

Shroom Tech GREENS can make hitting your daily vegetable quota a lot easier. One serving contains the equivalent of 14 kale leaves, four spinach leaves, and one broccoli floret, along with a small amount of spirulina—a nutrition-rich colored algae that has been consumed for centuries. It also features three mushrooms that are common to the other Shroom Tech products and offer separate benefits for health and performance. A single packet of ST GREENS provides the equivalent of ½ cup of vegetables—which is one serving, according to government dietary guidelines. Altogether, ST GREENS supplies vegetable nutrition necessary for good health, as well as support for the immune system and exercise performance.^†

In addition, all ST GREENS’ plant ingredients are USDA certified organic, indicating that they were grown without the use of synthetic fertilizers, artificial food additives, and genetically-modified organisms (GMOs). Research suggests that consumption of organic foods may expose people to fewer pesticides than their conventional counterparts.²⁷

What Are Shroom Tech GREENS’ Key Ingredients?

Shroom Tech GREENS contains two special ingredient blends—the Onnit Organic Greens Blend and the PeakO₂^® Organic Mushroom Blend. The combination supports not only general health but exercise performance as well.^†︎

Onnit Organic Greens Blend

Organic kale. A cruciferous vegetable and a member of the cabbage family, kale contains vitamins and antioxidants—soldiers in the body’s fight to resist cell damage.^{†28, 29}

Organic broccoli. Another cruciferous vegetable, broccoli is known to contain vitamins C and K, as well as iron and potassium. Broccoli’s nutrition has been suggested  to support eye and heart health.^{†30, 31}

Organic spirulina. A phytonutrient-packed, non-toxic colored algae that grows in freshwater, spirulina has been suggested to aid endurance,³² promote heart health,³³ and help curb occasional respiratory distress (nasal congestion, sneezing, or a runny nose).^†34

PeakO₂ Organic Mushroom Blend

Organic cordyceps. See our write-up of cordyceps sinensis under the Shroom Tech SPORT summary above.

Organic reishi. See Shroom Tech IMMUNE above.

Organic lion’s mane. A shaggy-shaped mushroom that resembles its namesake, lion’s mane is often used in recipes for its seafood-like flavor. Studies suggest it can help support and protect brain cells, promoting cognitive function.^†35

Who Should Use Shroom Tech GREENS?

Shroom Tech GREENS can offer nutrition support to people who sometimes can’t seem to eat enough whole-food vegetables, either because they’re low-carb or keto dieters, or frequent travelers who don’t have easy access to healthy food or the time to prepare it. Of course, ST GREENS can also be beneficial to people who just can’t get excited about the taste of vegetables, and who often avoid them as a result.^†

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The post The Majesty of Mushrooms: Meet The Shroom Tech® Family appeared first on Onnit Academy.

We consulted a pro bodybuilder/strength coach to bring you the definitive guide to chest and back workouts—including three sample routines you can try. Whether you have aspirations of competing in a physique contest, you train at home with minimal equipment, or you’re just trying to make the most of a limited amount of workout time, you’re about to find the plan for building up your chest and back that’s right for you.

Can You Train Your Back and Chest Together?

“Chest and back make a great pairing because they’re antagonistic,” says Jonny Catanzano, an IFBB pro bodybuilder and owner of Tailored Health Coaching (@tailoredhealthcoaching on Instagram), “which means that while one is working, the other is resting.” This gives you the opportunity to speed your workout along by alternating sets for each muscle group with little or no time in between them, since there’s almost no fatigue that carries over from one to the other.

Imagine training only chest or only back by itself. You pick an exercise, do a set, rest, do another set, rest, and so on until your sets are complete, and then you go on to another exercise. There’s nothing wrong with this approach, but if you rest for two minutes or longer between sets (as the latest research suggests you should, if you want to maximize muscle gains), your workout time can easily extend to an hour or more—and you’ll have only worked one muscle area.

On the other hand, if you alternate sets of chest and back exercises, you can train both muscle groups at a much brisker pace. Your chest will recover while you work your back, and vice versa, so it’s possible to use shorter rest periods between each set and get your workout done in much less than an hour’s time—without rushing either muscle group’s recovery.

A study in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research had subjects perform three traditional sets of rows followed by three sets of the bench press, and, in another session, do the same routine again but with the back and chest exercises paired off and alternated. Researchers found that, when the lifters went back and forth between the two exercises in the second workout, they didn’t have to reduce the weights they were using as much from set to set. They were able to lift more total weight compared to when they did straight sets in the first workout—probably because each muscle got more rest before it was worked again.

Chest and back pairings are also great if your goal is fat loss. “You’ll burn more calories in a session training two big muscle groups together,” says Catanzano. “You’ll get your heart rate up higher than training one area at a time, and higher still if you decide to superset exercises.” That is, perform a set for chest and then one for back without any rest in between.

Furthermore, merging your chest and back training into one ensures that you’ll balance the work you do for each area. Many people (guys, mostly) will train chest voraciously, and then treat their back workouts as an add-on, doing only a handful of sets of lat pulldowns or rows. But if you plan to train both regions in a single session, you can easily keep track of the sets you do for one and match them with sets of the other.

If you’re interested in building strength, chest and back workouts will help you understand and focus on the relationship between a big back and a big bench press. “A stronger back lets you press more,” says Catanzano. “The lats help stabilize your torso when the bar is at your chest,” which is why many powerlifters do chinups or rows between sets of bench presses.

What Muscles Are Used?

Generally, when you’re talking about training chest and back together, you’re referring to the pectoralis major and minor (pecs), latissimus dorsi (lats), and upper back—comprising the rhomboids, trapezius, and teres major. The lower back—specifically, the spinal erectors—can certainly be trained as well, but many lifters prefer to work it on a lower-body day, as the lower back contributes automatically to squat and deadlift variations.

The deltoid muscles of the shoulders can’t help but get involved as well when you do any pushing and pulling, and the triceps assist on pressing exercises while the biceps and forearm/grip muscles work on your back movements.

Here’s a quick and very general anatomy course on where each of the chest and back muscles are located and what they do. (This isn’t a complete list, but these are the primary muscles you’ll target in a chest and back workout.)

Pectoralis major

This muscle has three heads and thus three different actions. The clavicular head, which runs from the collar bone to the humerus, raises the arm up and across to the other side of the body. The sternal head starts on the breastbone and reaches across to the humerus, so its fibers work to bring the arm around the front of the body. The costal head goes from the cartilage of the ribs and the external oblique muscle to the humerus, allowing the arm to pull downward from overhead.

Pectoralis minor

Lying underneath the pec major, the pec minor begins on the third to fifth ribs and attaches to the scapula (shoulder blade). It draws the tip of the shoulder downward, protracts the shoulder blade, and raises the ribs during inhalation.

Latissimus dorsi

The lat originates on the thoracic spine, lumbar spine, lower ribs, and iliac crest of the pelvis and connects to the humerus, just below the shoulder joint. It extends the shoulders, draws the arms to the sides, and helps with inhalation.

Rhomboid

A rhombus-shaped muscle (hence the name), the rhomboid runs from the cervical and thoracic spine to the scapula. It elevates and retracts the shoulder blade.

Trapezius

Like the pecs, the traps can work in three different directions. They start at the bottom of the back of the skull and the spine and reach over to the shoulder blade and collarbone in order to raise the scapula, retract it, and depress it.

Teres major

This is a small back muscle that assists the bigger ones. Originating on the back of the scapula, it inserts on the front of the humerus, and works to rotate the arm toward the body and draw it behind the body.

How Do You Set Up A Chest and Back Workout?

The way you combine chest and back exercises in a session is highly dependent on what you want to achieve. During his bodybuilding prime, Arnold Schwarzenegger liked to superset chest and back moves with little or no rest between them. For instance, do a set of incline presses followed immediately by a set of seated cable rows, rest a minute or two, and repeat. As we explained above, this a solid plan for speeding up your workouts and burning more fat, but it sets a pace that may be too intense for many people.

Research suggests that longer rest periods help you train with more challenging weights, thereby stimulating more muscle growth, so you could alternate chest and back moves with plenty of time between them—say, 90 seconds to two minutes downtime between your press and row—if muscle gain is your main priority.

There’s also no rule stating that you have to toggle between chest and back exercises. You could do all your chest moves first and then go on to back, or the other way around. “This may be better for less experienced trainees,” says Catanzano. “You won’t gas too early in the workout like you might if you were supersetting.” It’s also a good option if you want to zero in on one area at a time, giving your full attention to each one in turn, but without having to break them into two different workouts.

Finishing off one body part before you do the other may be wise if you see it as a weak point. Most people’s backs are underdeveloped, so doing all your back training when you’re fresh will let you work it with the greatest possible effort and focus. “If you have shoulder problems,” says Catanzano, “you might want to put back first, because it will warm up your shoulders and make your pressing feel smoother when you get to chest.” Yes, doing chest second may mean sacrificing some weight on your chest exercises due to fatigue, but if you’re dealing with cranky shoulders or other pressing-related injuries, learning to stimulate the muscles with lighter weight may be just what the doctor ordered.

How Many Chest Exercises and Back Exercises Should I Do?

The short answer to this question is roughly three to five moves for each muscle group per workout. For example, a typical old-school chest and back session might look like this:

1A Bench press

1B Bent-over row

2A Incline dumbbell press

2B Seated cable row

3A Dip

3B Chinup

(The exercise pairings can be alternated with rest in between sets, or superset without rest.)

But the right number of exercises for you depends on several factors. If you only have 30 minutes or less to train, you may have to cap your workout at two exercises per body part. On the other hand, if you plan on doing shoulder and arm work on a second upper-body day in the week, and therefore won’t be working chest and back again for another week, you may want to do more chest and back exercises to get enough volume in.

Volume is a major consideration when planning out any training program. A bodybuilder looking to fully stimulate every muscle will need to hit the chest and back from all angles, and that means more exercises and more sets. Whereas a busy professional who only wants to maintain strength and some athleticism can get by with much less work.

If you want the best muscle gains possible, research suggests you need a volume of 10–20 hard sets per muscle group, per week, to do the job. “I’d recommend a minimum of 10 sets,” says Catanzano, “and closer to 20 sets for weaker body parts.” All of these sets should be taken to within one to three reps of failure, he says—the point at which your reps slow down and you’re about to break form due to fatigue. As long as you keep these volume parameters in mind, the way you set up your workouts is really up to you.

Let the number of exercises you choose suit the volume of work you’re shooting for. For instance, if you’re aiming to do 10 sets for chest and back in a week, that could break down to five sets for each in two different workouts. This is a moderate and very doable amount of work for most people, and won’t put you at risk for overtraining. See below.

Chest & Back, Day I

1A Incline press, 3 sets

1B Chest-supported row, 3 sets

2A Cable fly, 2 sets

2B Straight-arm pulldown, 2 sets

Chest & Back, Day II

1A Dumbbell bench press, 3 sets

1B Inverted row, 3 sets

2A Dip, 2 sets

2B One-arm dumbbell row, 2 sets

You could finish each session with some shoulder and/or arm work for a complete upper-body workout, or leave the gym after chest and back alone if that’s all you have time for, or you plan to work those other muscles on a different day.

If back is a weak point, you should emphasize it with more volume. In this case, you could do 10 sets for it on Monday, and then another six sets on Friday for 16 total sets that week.

Chest & Back, Monday

1. Machine row, 3 sets

2. One-arm lat-pulldown, 3 sets

3. Seated cable row, 2 sets

4. Chinup, 2 sets

5. Dumbbell bench press, 3 sets

6. Feet-elevated pushup, 2 sets

Chest & Back, Friday

1. One-arm dumbbell row, 2 sets

2. Wide-grip lat pulldown, 2 sets

3. Dumbbell shrug, 2 sets

4. Machine press, 2 sets

5. Cable fly, 3 sets

Chest & Back Workout Tips

Catanzano offers some of the following pointers to help you get the most out of your training.

• If muscle size is your main goal, the amount of weight you’re lifting isn’t as important as taking your sets near to failure and using exercises that best recruit the target muscles. Catanzano says the barbell bench press is overrated for pec gains. Let the majority of your chest training come from dumbbell, machine, and cable work, which is easier on the joints and can allow you to work the muscles through greater ranges of motion and with better isolation. The same goes for back training.

• If you’re over 40, or trying to work around injuries, the way you sequence your exercises is extra important. Rather than starting with your heaviest lifts, begin sessions with dumbbell or machine work and put moves like the bench press and bent-over row later in the workout when you’re fully warmed up and mobile. “You could do a dumbbell row and dumbbell bench press first,” Catanzano says, “and then go into bent-over rows and barbell bench. Or, you could do flys before bench presses, and chest-supported rows before bent-over rows or rack pulls.” Your joints will thank you.

• If strength is a big priority for you, however, and you’re sure your body can handle it, you can sequence your workouts the opposite way. Do your heavy work like bench presses first, when you can give them your best effort, and then move on to lighter dumbbell and bodyweight work afterward.

• Cycling your rep ranges can help you avoid plateaus and hit big PR’s on your exercises. Catanzano likes to use three-week cycles, performing sets of 12–15 reps the first week, 8–12 the second, and 6–8 the third. Then he repeats the process. “You need to hit all rep ranges to maximize gains,” he says.

How To Stretch Before Doing Chest & Back

Prepare your chest and back muscles for a workout by first reducing the tension in them with some light rolling on a ball or foam roller—sometimes called a “smash.” This will help you access greater ranges of motion in your exercises; it also drives blood into the muscles to warm them up.

Chest Smash

Place the ball or roller against your pec muscles, right under your collarbone between your shoulder and breastbone. Allow your body to rest on the ball just enough to apply moderate pressure to the muscle—it shouldn’t hurt. Roll an inch or so in each direction, lingering over any positions where you feel the most tenderness, until they release. You can also extend your arm, reaching it overhead with palm facing up, and then taking it down to your hip while rotating your wrist as shown, to increase the stretch on the muscles in different ranges. Perform the smash for about a minute on each side.

Lat Smash

Place the ball or roller under your shoulder and into the meaty muscle on the side of your back (your lat). Lie on your side and apply gentle pressure to the muscle as your reach your arm overhead and out in front of you, rotating your wrist as shown. Perform the smash for about a minute on each side.

After you’ve rolled, perform the following mobility drills to further activate the muscles you’ll train. Do 2–3 sets of 5–10 reps for each exercise. Rolling and mobility drills are courtesy of of Cristian Plascencia and Natalie Higby, owners of The Durable Athlete (@durable.athlete on Instagram).

Cat-Cow

Step 1. Get on all fours with your hands under your shoulders and knees under your hips. Brace your core.

Step 2. Press into the floor, spreading your shoulder blades apart as you round your mid back toward the ceiling. Make sure only your mid back moves—the lower back should be neutral and braced.

Step 3. Pinch your shoulder blades together again as you extend your spine back to neutral.

Sky Reach To Arm Thread

Step 1. Get on all fours with your hands under your shoulders and your knees directly beneath your hips. Brace your core.

Step 2. Draw your right arm up and across your chest as you twist your right shoulder toward the ceiling and reach overhead. Be careful to keep your hips facing the floor.

Step 3. Reverse the motion, reaching your arm across your body and behind the support arm. Twist as far as you can, ideally until the back of your right shoulder touches the floor. Complete your reps on that side, and then switch sides and repeat.

Banded Shoulder Circles

Step 1. Stand holding an elastic exercise band (or dowel) with both hands outside shoulder width. Draw your ribs down, tuck your pelvis so it’s parallel to the floor, and brace your core.

Step 2. Keeping your arms straight, raise the band over and behind your head as far as you can. Reverse the motion to bring the band back in front of you.

The Best Chest & Back Workouts

Catanzano wrote up the following workouts, each with a different user in mind. One is ideal for the lifter who has access to a well-stocked gym, complete with free weights and machines. The second one is for the guy or gal training in a bare-bones home gym—a barbell, dumbbells, bands, and your bodyweight are all that’s needed. Lastly, there’s a workout for targeting common physique weak points—the upper chest and lower lats.

Choose the one that suits you best for now, and bookmark this article to refer back to the others. You may need them in the future!

Directions

For each of the workouts, follow the rep prescriptions below for every exercise. They will change weekly. Repeat the workouts for 6–8 weeks.

Week 1: perform 12–15 reps for each exercise.

Week 2: 8–12 reps.

Week 3: 6–8 reps.

Week 4: Repeat cycle.

Begin with 2–3 working sets for each lift (sets that aren’t warmups), and add volume over time. You can build up to 4–5 sets for some of the exercises, and consider having an additional chest and back day in the week to further increase the volume. If you consider either chest or back a weak point, aim to eventually perform 15–20 sets for it per week.

Remember that when chest and back exercises appear back to back, you can pair them off and alternate sets of each, with or without rest between them.

Videos are courtesy of Jonny Catanzano, @jonnyelgato_ifbbpro on Instagram.

Full-Gym Chest & Back Workout

1. Bench Press

Step 1. Set up with the bar just over your eyes. Make sure that your feet are flat on the floor and your shoulders, back, and butt maintain contact with the bench. Arch your back, drawing your shoulder blades back and down. Grasp the bar with hands just outside shoulder-width apart (you may have to slide them an inch or two in either direction), so that when you lower the bar to your chest, your elbows make a 90-degree angle.

Step 2. Unrack the bar and hold it over your chest. Lower the weight to your chest, tucking your elbows about 45 degrees to your sides. After touching your chest, press the bar back to the starting position.   

2. Incline Dumbbell Press

Step 1. Set an adjustable bench to a 30–45-degree angle, grasp a pair of dumbbells, and lie back on the bench, making sure your entire back is in contact with it—do not arch your back so that it causes your lower back to rise off the pad. Start with the dumbbells just outside your shoulders, elbows bent, and your forearms/wrists angled slightly (a V-shape).

Step 2. Keeping your elbows pointing at about 45 degrees, press the dumbbells straight up. Lower the dumbbells back down under control, until they’re just above and outside your shoulders.

3. Clavicular-Head Fly

Step 1. Attach single-grip handles (D handles) to two facing pulleys at a cable station set at shoulder height. Grasp the handles with hands angled 45 degrees and palms facing each other. Step forward so that your arms are extended at your sides, and there is tension on the cables.

Step 2. Keeping a slight bend in your elbows, bring your arms together in a wide arcing motion. Lower the weight under control until you feel a stretch in your chest.

4. Machine Low Row

Many gyms have a Hammer Strength low row machine, as shown here, but if yours doesn’t, try to mimic the exercise on a similar row machine, or set up an incline bench at a cable station.

Step 1. Adjust the seat of the machine so that, when you sit on it, the middle of your chest rests against the pad. Sit at the machine, brace your core, and bend at the hips—while keeping a long spine—until your chest is against the pad. Don’t let it come off the pad at any point during the exercise. Grasp the handles with a neutral grip (palms facing each other). Place your feet on the floor, and make sure your knees are out of the path of your arms when you row.

Step 2. Draw your shoulder blades down and together as you row the handles past your ribs. Be careful not to shrug your shoulders, and keep your chin tucked (don’t let your neck stretch forward).

5. Mid-Back Cable Row

Step 1. Set an adjustable bench to a 45-degree angle, and place the bench in front of a cable station with two side-by-side pulleys. Set the pulleys on the lowest level, and attach a single-grip handle (D-handle) to them. Rest your chest against the bench and grasp the handles with arms extended. Make sure you’re far enough away from the machine to feel a stretch on your back. Arch your back and brace your core.

Step 2. Drawn your shoulder blades back and down as you row the handles to the outsides of your chest, flaring your elbows about 60 degrees. Lower the weight with control.

6. Block Pull

Step 1. Rest the bar on blocks or mats so that it sits just below knee level. Stand with your feet hip-width apart. Bend your hips back to reach down and grasp the bar, hands just outside your knees. Take a deep breath into your belly and brace your core. Pull your shoulders back and down—think about trying to bend the bar around your legs like a pretzel; this will help you activate the right muscles. You can use straps, as shown, to support your grip.

Step 2. Keeping your head, spine, and hips aligned, drive your heels into the floor and pull the bar up along your shins until you’re standing with hips fully extended and the bar is in front of your thighs. Lower back to the floor under control.

At-Home Chest & Back Workout

1. Landmine Suitcase Row

Step 1. Load a barbell into a landmine unit, or wedge one end into a corner. Load the other end of the bar with weight, and stand behind the plates, both feet on one side of the bar. Keeping a long spine with your core braced, bend your hips back to reach down and grasp the bar. Your torso should be about 45 degrees.

Step 2. Draw your shoulder blade back and down as you row the bar the bar, stopping when your elbow reaches the middle of your torso. Lower back down under control. Complete your reps, and then repeat on the opposite side.

2. Incline Dumbbell Press w/ Neutral Grip

Step 1. Set an adjustable bench to a 30- to 45-degree angle and lie back against it with a dumbbell in each hand at shoulder level. Turn your palms so that they face each other, and your elbows are tucked at about 45 degrees to your sides.

Step 2. Press the weights overhead to lockout, and lower them with control.

3. Chest-Supported Dumbbell Row

Step 1. Set an adjustable bench to about a 60-degree angle and lie down with your chest against it. Your spine should be long and your core braced. Grasp dumbbells with your arms extended, and allow your shoulder blades to spread apart while the weights hang at arm’s length.

Step 2. Row the dumbells to your sides, drawing your shoulder blades back and down. Lower under control.

4. One-Arm Band Press

Step 1. Attach a band to a sturdy anchor point at shoulder level behind you, and grasp the free end in one hand. Hold the band at chest level with your arm angled about 45 degrees from your torso. Step away from the anchor point to put tension on the band.

Step 2. Press the band in front of you to face level. Lower under control. Complete your reps, and then repeat on the opposite side. 

5. Low-Lat Row w/ Band

Step 1. Attach a band to a sturdy anchor point overhead, and set up an adjustable bench behind it at a roughly 60-degree angle. Grasp the band in one hand and brace yourself on the bench with the opposite hand and knee. The working arm should be angled 120–150 degrees from your torso (i.e., if your arm hanging at your side is at zero degrees, and your arm extended in front of your chest is 90 degrees, the exercise should be done with your arm 30–60 degrees above that).

Step 2. Row the band down to your hip, stopping when your elbow is in line with your torso. Control the motion as you extend your arm again. Complete your reps, and then repeat on the opposite side.

6. Incline Dumbbell Fly

Step 1. Set an adjustable bench to a 30- to 45-degree angle and lie back against it with a dumbbell in each hand at shoulder level. Turn your palms so that they face each other, and your elbows are tucked at about 45 degrees to your sides. Press the weights overhead.

Step 2. Keeping a slight bend in your elbows, lower your arms slowly in a wide arcing motion until you feel a stretch in your pecs. Bring your arms back up in an arc until they’re overhead again.

7. One-Arm Dumbbell Row

Step 1. Place one knee on a flat bench and brace yourself with the hand on the same side. Your spine should be long and your core braced. Grasp a dumbbell at arm’s length.

Step 2. Draw your shoulder blade back and downward as you row the weight to your side with your elbow flared out about 45 degrees. Lower the weight under control. Complete your reps, and then repeat on the opposite side.

8. Deficit Pushup

Step 1. Place blocks or mats on the floor, or pile some weight plates as shown, so you create an elevated surface for your hands to rest on. Get into pushup position. Your body should form a straight line, with your pelvis slightly tucked so that it’s perpendicular to the floor. Brace your core.

Step 2. Lower your body between the blocks or plates until you feel a deep stretch in your chest, but don’t lose your pelvic position. Press back up.

9. T-Bar Row

Step 1. Load a barbell into a landmine unit, or wedge one end into a corner. Load the other end of the bar with weight, and stand behind the plates, feet straddling the bar. Grasp a V-grip handle (as used with cable stations) and, keeping a long spine with your core braced, bend your hips back to reach and hook the handle onto the bar. Allow your knees to bend. Grasp the handle with both hands, palms facing each other. Maintain your long spine and tight core as you pick the bar off the floor.

Step 2. Draw your shoulder blades back and down as you row the bar the bar, stopping when your elbows reach the middle of your torso. Lower back down under control.

Upper-Chest & Lower-Lat Workout

If you’ve been training a while, you’ve surely noticed that some of your muscle groups aren’t developing as well as others. When it comes to the chest and back, the upper portion of the pecs and lower section of the lats are commonly the weakest areas. Filling out the upper pecs will make your chest look bigger overall, and developing the lower lats will make your back appear wider (which makes your waist look smaller by default).

While you can’t isolate these areas completely, you can bias them with certain exercises and technique tweaks. Catanzano says that any row done with a neutral (palms facing in) grip and bringing the elbows tight to the side of the body—and stopping when the elbows are in line with the torso—will emphasize the lats over the upper back. To zero in on the lower-lat fibers (sometimes called the iliac lats, because they originate on the iliac crest of the pelvis), you need to perform pulling motions with your arm over and a little in front of your head (120–150 degrees of shoulder flexion), and driving your elbow toward your hip.

To attack the upper chest, you need to isolate the clavicular pec fibers as much as possible. The arm path to do this is similar to the one that trains the lower lats, but, of course, the resistance comes from the opposite direction. Incline presses and flys are the typical exercise choices, but make sure you perform them with a neutral grip and elbows tucked, so that your arms travel the same direction that the clavicular fibers run.

1. Incline Dumbbell Press

Step 1. Set an adjustable bench to a 30–45-degree angle, grasp a pair of dumbbells, and lie back on the bench, making sure your entire back is in contact with it—do not arch your back so that it causes your lower back to rise off the pad. Start with the dumbbells just outside your shoulders, elbows bent, and your forearms/wrists angled slightly (a V-shape).

Step 2. Keeping your elbows pointing at about 45 degrees, press the dumbbells straight up. Lower the dumbbells back down under control, until they’re just above and outside your shoulders.

2. Chest-Supported Low-Lat Row

Step 1. Rest your chest on an elevated bench, high enough so that your arms can hang straight down while your body is parallel to the floor. Keep a long spine and your core braced. Grasp a dumbbell in each hand.

Step 2. Draw your shoulder blades down and back as you row the weights to your sides.

3. Clavicular-Head Pec Fly

Step 1. Attach single-grip handles (D handles) to two facing pulleys at a cable station set at shoulder height. Grasp the handles with hands angled 45 degrees and palm facing each other. Step forward so that your arms are extended at your sides, and there is tension on the cables.

Step 2. Keeping a slight bend in your elbows, bring your arms together in a wide arcing motion. Lower the weight under control until you feel a stretch in your chest.

4. Incline Low-Lat Pulldown

Step 1. Set an adjustable bench at about a 60-degree angle in front of a cable station. Attach a bar to the pulley at the highest setting, and then attach single-grip handles to the bar so that you can grasp them with palms facing in. Lie with your chest against the bench and your arms extended overhead. Keep a long spine, and your core braced. There should be tension on the cable to start.

Step 2. Draw your shoulder blades back and together as you row the handles, stopping when your elbows are at your sides. Lower the weight under control.

5. Close-Grip Incline Press

Step 1. Set an adjustable bench to a 30–45-degree angle and lie back on it. The bar should be just over your eyes. Make sure that your feet are flat on the floor and your shoulders, back, and butt maintain contact with the bench. Arch your back, drawing your shoulder blades back and down. Grasp the bar with hands about shoulder-width apart.

Step 2. Unrack the bar and hold it over your chest. Lower the weight to your chest, tucking your elbows about 45 degrees to your sides. The bar should touch the upper portion of your chest, just under the collarbone. Press the bar back to the starting position.   

6. Rack Pull

Step 1. Set the bar on blocks or the spotter bars of a power rack, as shown, so that it sits just above knee level. Set up as you did for the block pull above—long spine, shoulders packed down and positioned directly over the bar, and core braced. Actively pull the bar tightly into your body, and maintain this tension throughout the rep. You can use straps, as shown, to support your grip.

Step 2. Extend your hips to lockout, standing up tall, and then lower the bar back under control.

Need more upper-chest training? See our guide to upper-chest workouts.

The post 3 Killer Chest & Back Workouts For Building Muscle appeared first on Onnit Academy.

Relax. You don’t have to scrap your current workout to do isotonic exercises, because, chances are, you’re doing them already. While the technical-sounding name makes for a good buzzword—hence the reason you see it showing up in articles and videos online from time to time and getting attention—isotonic exercise is an umbrella term for most of the movements you’ll do in a typical gym workout. With that said, it’s helpful to understand how and why they work to build muscle and strength (as well as aid your fat-loss goals), so prepare for a crash course on the topic—streamlined in layman’s terms so there’s no heavy lifting.

What Is Isotonic Exercise?

The term isotonic means “same tension,” which refers to the tension that’s placed on the muscles you’re contracting while they’re moving the joint(s) they act on. The idea is that you’re keeping the same amount of tension on the muscle throughout the full range of motion. Most of the exercises you’re no doubt already familiar with do this: pushups, squats, running, etc.

There is some nuance to this concept, though. “The term isotonic in resistance training has evolved away from its technical definition,” says Eddie Jo, PhD, CSCS*D, Director of the Human Performance Research Lab at Cal Poly, Pomona. “In real-life situations, your typical resistance exercise is not truly isotonic because of a variety of interwoven factors.” 

One of these factors, according to Jo, is the relationship between a muscle fiber’s length and the amount of force it can produce, called the “length-tension relationship” by exercise scientists. This is a description of how much force a muscle fiber can produce at different lengths. Each muscle fiber has an optimal length—a degree at which it can produce the most amount of force—which is often dictated by the ability of the two major contractile components of a muscle fiber (the protein filaments actin and myosin) to interact with one another. The farther the fiber is stretched or shortened past this optimal point, the less tension you’ll see in the muscle and the less force it will be able to produce.

Need a visual? Imagine doing a biceps curl. Due to the length-tension relationship in the muscle, your biceps will be strongest when the elbow is bent around 90 degrees. If it’s bent more than 90 degrees, the structures that make the muscles contract overlap too much, and it can’t contract as strongly. If the elbow is straighter (less than a 90-degree bend), there’s too little overlap and, again, the muscles can’t produce as much force.

Therefore, it’s technically impossible to maintain the exact same amount of tension on a muscle throughout the entire range of motion in an exercise—even a so-called isotonic one. 

The second concept that you have to consider with isotonic exercise is biomechanical advantage—the fact that different joint angles produce different mechanical advantages (or disadvantages) during a given movement. We’re talking about leverage.

The horizontal distance that the weight (or other source of resistance) is held from the point of rotation (the working joint) determines the force that’s needed to move that load. Further away (a longer lever) requires more force, and closer, less force.

Let’s look at how the glutes work during a back squat…

As you lower your body into the squat, the distance between your glutes and the barbell on your back gets longer and longer. As a result, their mechanical advantage gets worse and worse. When it’s time to power you out of the hole at the bottom of the lift, extending your hips to come back up to lockout, the glutes have to work much harder than if you had just done a half squat, descending only part of the way so that your glutes were nearer to the bar throughout the whole rep.

As you come back up, the glutes get closer to the bar, your leverage improves, and they don’t have to work as hard to extend the hips. In short, this is why the last few inches of a squat feel a lot easier to perform than coming up from the very bottom. 

Because of these two considerations, pure isotonic movement doesn’t really exist, especially in compound exercises that most of us do (squats, pushups, pullups, and so on). Dr. Jo explains: “There is no situation during dynamic resistance exercise where you produce constant tension, because in most cases, if not all, biomechanical factors are always changing and thus a change in tension is required.”

Therefore, the term isotonic is something of a misnomer. When trainers and exercise scientists throw it around, their intention is to describe the load that’s being moved to provide the muscle tension—i.e., it’s constant. The weight you lift on a squat or a pushup is the same throughout the entire rep—it’s not being modified by a machine or some interference. Nevertheless, the tension on the muscles will vary depending on the changing length of the muscle fibers and the muscles’ biomechanical advantage. So, while the weight may remain the same during the exercise, the way it feels to your muscles is changing all the time.

Did we say “no heavy lifting” to read this article? Sorry. But now that you understand the concept, it will get lighter from here.

What Are Examples of Isotonic Exercises?

Virtually any traditional exercise you can think of can be filed under the isotonic category. As we said above, you don’t absolutely have to know what isotonic exercises are because, more than likely, you’re doing (or have done) them already. Here are a few examples:

– Back squat

– Bench press

– Deadlift

– Pushup

– Pullup

– Biceps curl

– Triceps extension

– Dumbbell, barbell, or bodyweight lunge

– Leg extension

– Ab crunch

You may be wondering, then, what exercises are NOT isotonic. We’ll discuss that next. 

Isotonic vs. Isometric Exercises

While the name isotonic might be somewhat new to you, you’re certainly familiar with the term isometric, as it’s been a part of the muscle vernacular for eons. Isometric means “same length,” as in, during an isometric muscle contraction, the length of the muscles does not change (and neither does the angle of the joint they act on). Any time you’ve stopped to hold and squeeze a rep in a particular position, you’re doing an isometric (which is why they’re sometimes called “iso holds”). Pausing your arm at the halfway point in a curl, or holding your body at the top of a chinup, are both examples of isometric training—your muscles are working hard, but there’s no actual movement being performed.

Isometrics can be added to isotonic exercises to increase the intensity of the workout. For instance, after you finish a set of squats, you could walk over to a wall and perform a wall sit (“sit” with your hips and knees 90 degrees and your back against the wall for support) and hold for time. This is a good way to fry your legs.

You can use isometrics to make light weights feel heavier. If you have an injury, say, and you don’t want to risk aggravating it with heavy weights, you can hold isometric contractions at different points in the range of motion to make the exercise feel much harder, thereby removing the need for more challenging loads. This is also a smart strategy when you find yourself at an ill-equipped hotel gym, or your Aunt Tilly’s house—when you’re visiting for the holidays and only have access to the pink dumbbells she left to collect dust in the garage. By slowing down your lifting speed and holding the middle, bottom, or top of certain exercises, you can make the weight feel much heavier and get more out of it.

Slowing down your sets with isometrics is also a good way to ensure that your form stays tight. You’re less apt to race through your set and get sloppy if you have to stop and hold every rep.

You might also do isometrics to strengthen a weak point in a lift you’re trying to improve. If you find that your sticking point on the bench press is a few inches from lockout, you could perform bench presses with an isometric hold at that point in the range of motion. Set the safety catches of a power rack at that position and rest the bar on them. Load the bar with a super-heavy weight—one you can’t actually lift—and set up as if you were benching like normal. Try to press the bar, pushing as hard as you can for three seconds. Of course, the weight won’t move, but you will have performed an isometric that trains your muscles to be stronger in that position. With a few weeks of isometric training, your sticking point should be gone.

Another fancy exercise science term you may hear in conjunction with isotonics and isometrics is isokinetic training. Isokinetic means “same speed.” These exercises are done on special machines that adjust the resistance they provide based on your movement speed, ensuring that the pace of your reps is constant no matter how hard you work. That means that the tension on the muscles is maximal throughout the full range of motion. The best way for most of us to see how isokinetic exercise works is to watch the training montage in Rocky IV. The leg extension and machine ab twists that Ivan Drago does are isokinetic!

The major benefit of isokinetics is safety. Since the machine controls the pace, it’s commonly used in rehab settings to help people come back from injury with low-risk training. Research suggests that isokinetic lifting may be more efficient for rehab than isotonic exercise, but unless you train at an elite facility, or you’re paying for the best possible physical therapy, isokinetic training is impractical and out of reach, so we won’t spend any more time on it.

Remember also that Drago got KO’d at the end of that movie, so if isotonic exercise was enough for Rocky, it’s enough for you.

Benefits Of Isotonic Workouts

Isotonic exercises are effective and efficient. You train the target muscles through a full range of motion, which maintains, and can even increase, their flexibility. Training through full ranges also activates the greatest number of muscle fibers. To achieve similar gains in muscle and strength from isometric training, research shows you may have to train the muscle at four different joint angles—that is, hold and squeeze your reps in four different places. Ain’t nobody got time for that.

Isotonic exercises are also intuitive. You’ve probably been doing them for years, but even if you’re brand new to exercise, you can learn to perform the basic ones proficiently without much of a learning curve. There’s no fancy equipment required (unlike with isokinetic training), and you don’t need a protractor and a guy in a lab coat present to help you figure out the joint angles you need to train. Simple bodyweight training is isotonic training.

Whether your goal with exercise is to build muscle and strength, power and endurance for sports, change your body composition, or just stay active as you age, isotonic exercise should be your foundation. Isometric training and, if possible, isokinetic work, will only be adjuncts. 

Good Stretches for Loosening Up

Regardless of whether you’re doing isotonic, isometric, or isokinetic training, you need to warm up and prepare your muscles to handle resistance safely. Many people stretch as part of their warmup, intending for the temporary increase in range of motion to help them get more out of their exercises, but stretching alone doesn’t raise the temperature in the muscles sufficiently, and it can cause injury if your stretches are too aggressive. A better warmup strategy is mobility training, which combines stretching and light movement to both raise your core temperature and prepare the muscles to work through the ranges of motion that you’ll use during your workout.

Integrate some or all of the following mobility drills into your warmup routine, courtesy of Natalie Higby, co-founder of the Durable Athlete app. Perform 5–10 reps for each, and repeat for 2–3 total sets.

Straight-Leg Hip Circle

Step 1. Hold onto a sturdy object for support, and raise one leg up in the air 90 degrees. Keep the knee as straight as you can.

Step 2. Keeping your shoulders facing forward, draw your leg outward and away from you to the side. When you feel you’re running out of range, begin turning your foot over to face the floor.

Step 3. When you’ve made a complete circle, return your foot to the floor. Reverse the entire motion on your next rep.

Wide-Stance Hinge

Step 1. Stand with feet outside shoulder width and bend only at the hips, driving your butt straight back to lower your torso as far as you can. Allow your knees to bend as needed.

Step 2. Take a deep breath and then let it out, folding your body forward on the exhale so your fingers can touch the ground (or close to it).

Step 3. Bend your knees further as you tuck your pelvis under and slowly extend your spine to come up to standing again. 

Ankle Roll

Step 1. Stand with feet outside shoulder width and place your hands on your knees.

Step 2. Begin making big circles with your knees, shifting your weight to the balls of your feet, then the edges of your feet, and then your heels and arches as your knees move. You can reverse direction on your next set.

Sky Reach To Arm Thread

Step 1. Get on all fours with your hands under your shoulders and your knees directly beneath your hips. Brace your core.

Step 2. Draw your right arm up and across your chest as you twist your right shoulder toward the ceiling and reach overhead. Be careful to keep your hips facing the floor.

Step 3. Reverse the motion, reaching your arm across your body and behind the support arm. Twist as far as you can, ideally until the back of your right shoulder touches the floor. Complete your reps on that side, and then switch sides.

Floor Hand Rotation

Step 1. Get on all fours with your hands under your shoulders and your knees directly beneath your hips. Brace your core.

Step 2. Reach your right arm up and forward, and then, keeping your elbow straight, rotate it down to reach for your lower back. Turn your wrist so your palm faces up as you move. When the back of your hand touches your low back, draw your elbow down to the floor.

Step 3. To reverse the motion, raise your elbow back up, lift your hand off your low back, and rotate the arm back in front of you again. Complete your reps on that side and then switch sides.

See other mobility exercise options HERE.

Sample Beginner’s Isotonic Workout

Here’s a sample upper-body strength workout using isotonic exercises.

1. Bench Press

Sets: 4  Reps: 4  Rest: 3 to 5 minutes

Step 1. Set up with the bar just over your eyes. Make sure that your feet are flat on the floor and your shoulders, back, and butt maintain contact with the bench. Grasp the bar with hands about shoulder-width apart (you may have to slide them an inch or two in either direction), so that when you lower the bar to your chest, your elbows make a 90-degree angle.

Step 2. Unrack the bar and hold it over your chest. Lower the weight to your chest. After touching your chest, press the bar back to the starting position.   

2. Dip

Sets: 3  Reps: 15  Rest: 90 seconds to 2 minutes

Step 1. Suspend your body over the bars of a dip station and brace your core.

Step 2. Drive your elbows back as you lower yourself down. Once your shoulders are parallel with your elbows, press yourself back to the starting position. 

3. Pullup

Sets: 3  Reps: 15  Rest: 90 seconds to 2 minutes

Step 1. Place your hands on the bar with palms facing forward, just outside your shoulders. Hang from the bar but keep your core braced.

Step 2. Pull yourself up until your chin is over the bar.

4. Overhead Banded Triceps Extension

Sets: 3  Reps: 20  Rest: 60–90 seconds

Step 1. Attach a circle band to a sturdy object overhead and grasp an end in each hand. Step away from the anchor point and raise your arms overhead. Your legs should be staggered. Bend your hips back to put tension on the band. Your body should form a straight line from the top of your head to the heel of the back foot.

Step 2. Extend your elbows without moving your upper arms or torso. Switch the front leg on each set.

5. Dumbbell Reverse Fly

Sets: 3  Reps: 20  Rest: 60–90 seconds

Step 1. Hold a light dumbbell in each hand and hinge your hips back to about a 45-degree angle. Brace your core, and extend your arms in front of your body with a slight bend in your elbows (but don’t relax your shoulders).

Step 2. Raise the dumbbells out to your sides by squeezing your upper back and shoulders together. Make sure that your shoulders stay down and you are not shrugging during the lift. Lower the weights under control.

The post The Complete Guide To Isotonic Exercise & Workouts appeared first on Onnit Academy.

A guy or gal at the intermediate level also has license to start isolating certain regions of muscles in order to sculpt their physique to the dimensions they choose. For example, using lower-chest workouts to zero in on the costal division of the pec major muscle. Whereas a beginner can focus on basic bench press exercises to activate all the muscle fibers in the chest, a more experienced lifter may need to target the costal pecs more directly in order to see continued gains.

When well-developed, the costal pecs can add volume to the lower part of your chest that makes it stand out from the ribcage. It’s an awesome look rarely seen outside of bodybuilding or physique competition, and it signifies an advanced level of progress.

We brushed up on the research and consulted one of the world’s top muscle experts to bring you the best plan of attack for lower-chest gains, but be warned: it’s probably not what you’re expecting. (Hint: no decline pressing.)

What Are the Muscles In the Lower Chest?

In order to understand how to train the lower chest, we have to look at how it’s constructed and the way it functions. When lifters say they want to target their “lower chest” with a certain exercise, they’re talking about working the costal head of the pectoralis major. Note that most anatomy charts will identify the lower-most portion of the pecs as part of the “sternocostal head” of the muscle, but hypertrophy researcher Chris Beardsley says, based on the muscle’s actions, it’s more accurate to divide the sternal and costal muscle fibers into separate regions.

To understand what a muscle does, and therefore know what movements you need to train it, you pretty much just have to look at the direction the muscle fibers run, and know that, when they contract, they’ll pull the insertion point (where the muscle attaches) closer to the origin (where the fibers start from). For example, the sternal fibers of the pec (the ones in the middle area of the muscle) run straight horizontally, originating at the sternum and attaching to the humerus (upper arm bone). That means that when they contract, they’re mainly working to pull the upper arm straight across the front of the body. Therefore, fly motions and flat bench presses work the sternal pec fibers, primarily.

The costal (lower) fibers, however, run from the cartilage of the sixth rib and the connective tissue on the external oblique to high up on the humerus (see the illustration above). The fibers’ direction, then, goes diagonal and even almost straight vertical, so they work more so to pull the arms from where they’re out and away from the body to the front of the body and close to your sides (shoulder adduction). They also work to bring the arms from a straight overhead position to down in front of the body (shoulder extension).

(Of course, the clavicular/upper portion is another region of the pec muscle that acts on the arms. For more on this head of the pec muscle and how to train it, see our guide to upper chest training.)

3 Great Lower-Chest Exercises

Now that we’ve identified where the costal pecs are and what they do, it’s pretty easy to see what kind of exercises will work them.

1. High-To-Low Cable (or Band) Fly

Since one of the costal pecs’ main functions is to draw the arms from wide out to down in front of the body (shoulder adduction), it makes sense to do a fly motion that goes from high to low. However, according to Paul Carter, a strength and hypertrophy coach (@coachpaulcarter on Instagram), most people do these incorrectly, pulling the cable handles or bands across the midpoint of their body. This is beyond the range of motion the costal pecs work in, and it transfers the tension to the sternal pec fibers.

“The cue I give for execution is to punch the floor,” says Carter. “The plane you’re moving in has to run congruent to the orientation of the fibers, so the arms have to come pretty much straight down toward the floor.”

Another mistake to avoid is starting the movement with your arms up too high, to the point where your shoulders roll forward. “People think more range of motion is better,” says Carter, so they let the weight on the cables pull their arms farther back than they should go, exceeding the pecs’ active range of motion. Not only does this do the opposite of what you want, reducing the tension on the pecs, it can be dangerous.

Repeating this mistake can, over time, cause the humerus to poke forward in the glenohumeral (shoulder) joint, leading to a condition called anterior humeral glide, which damages the shoulder capsule. Basically, allowing your arm to go too far behind your body on any exercise will cause your arm bone to stab its way through the front of your shoulder. “You always want to keep the target muscle within the range that it can move the joint,” says Carter. In many cases, that could be a shorter range of motion than you expect.

Carter’s cue is to think about driving your elbows back as your arms come up on the negative portion of the fly (when your chest gets stretched). When they’ve gone as far back as they can go without your shoulders tipping forward, the range of motion is complete.

How To Do The High-To-Low Cable (or Band) Fly

Step 1. Attach single-grip (“D”) handles to the top pulleys of two facing cable stations, or attach bands to two sturdy anchor points overhead. Stand between the cables/bands and slightly in front of them, with feet staggered to help you keep balance. Grasp the handles with your arms out and away from your sides. Bend your elbows to take pressure off the biceps. You should feel tension on the cables/bands and a stretch in your chest, but be sure your elbows don’t point upward and your shoulders aren’t bulging forward.

Step 2. Drive your arms down toward your hips and slightly in front of your body, as if punching the floor. Don’t draw your hands across your body as you would in a sternal pec fly or dumbbell fly (don’t bring your hands together).

Step 3. Allow your arms to go back in an arcing motion to the starting position, again being careful not to let them reach to where your shoulders roll forward. You should feel a stretch in your chest but not your delts.

2. Costal Dip

The dip is mostly thought of as a triceps exercise, but if you can keep your torso fairly upright, you can change the focus to really blast the costal pecs. The form pointers here are the same as for the high-to-low fly—punch the floor, and avoid overextending the shoulders.

Using a band can help you get in the right position (Carter learned this from the biomechanics whizzes at N1 Training, @n1.training on Instagram). Sling one over dip bars and stand on it like a hammock, pushing your legs forward as much as you can—it should allow for the perfect arm path to activate the costal pec fibers. Understand that the purpose of the band isn’t to reduce the amount of your own bodyweight you have to lift, although it will do that to some extent, but to allow your arms to travel from behind the body to in front of it along the path that the costal pec fibers run. You don’t need a lot of band tension to support you—you need just enough to hold your feet in front of you.

How To Do The Costal Dip

Step 1. Loop a light band around dip bars and stand on the band. Suspend your body over the bars with arms locked out, and bend at the hips, pushing your legs forward so you’re as upright as possible.

Step 2. Drive your arms back to lower your body as far as you can without your shoulders rolling forward. Be conservative; it’s probably not as deep as you think (video yourself, or have a friend watch you to make sure you don’t go too low).

Step 3. Punch your arms down to raise your body up and lock out your elbows.

3. Dumbbell Pullover

The pullover is often thought of as a back exercise, but Carter argues that it activates the lower pecs (and pec minor) much more than the lats—and a study in the Journal of Applied Biomechanics agrees with him. Just look at the motion of any pullover (barbell or dumbbell): the arms move from overhead down in front of the body, and that’s going to require some pulling from the costal division of the pecs. Meanwhile, the extreme shoulder flexion involved (the arms moving far overhead) takes the lats out of their active range, and by the time the lats really kick in to pull your arms down for shoulder extension, the resistance the weight provides drops off considerably.

Carter believes that the high-to-low fly and dip have the costal pecs pretty well covered, but if you feel your lower chest is really lacking, experiment with some pullovers. Beardsley’s research suggests that doing reps with a partial range of motion, working near the fully stretched position, may better isolate the lower chest. So you could start a set by doing full-range reps and then, as you fatigue and can’t complete another one, finish with some half-reps.

How To Do The Dumbbell Pullover

Step 1. Hold a dumbbell by one of its bell ends and lie back flat on a bench. Press the dumbbell up and hold it directly over your chest with your elbows pointing out to the sides. Tuck your pelvis under so that your lower back is flat on the bench and brace your core.

Step 2. Keeping your elbows as straight as possible, lower your arms back and behind you until you feel a strong stretch in your chest.

Step 3. Pull the weight back up and over your chest.

Performing the movement with bands or a cable would be even more effective than using a dumbbell or barbell, as the band/cable tension would force the pecs to work harder as they get closer to the chest (which is where the resistance drops off with free weights).

For all of the above movements, Carter recommends working in the 6–10 rep range and adding reps and weight gradually.

“So is that it for lower chest? Wait a minute,” you say. “What about decline presses?”

For years, bodybuilding magazines have told readers that presses and flys done on a decline bench were the best way to hit the lower-chest fibers. Carter, however, says it’s not so.

Setting a bench to a decline that allows the arms to travel on the right path is tricky—it’s easier just to do dips, Carter says. Bodybuilders often take a wide grip on decline presses, mistakenly thinking it will activate more pec muscle, but it actually brings in more of the front deltoids and can be stressful to the shoulder joints. Remember, as with a dip, pressing needs to be done with arms close to the sides to work the costal pecs.

And the decline fly? Done with dumbbells, it would only provide adequate resistance when your pecs are lengthened (arms flared out). As your arms move closer to your body, the demand on your costal pecs would get less and less, and if you cross the midline of your body, the sternal pecs take over. You could use cables or bands to get around that problem, but again, the correct arm path would be difficult to achieve.

As we said in the beginning, an old-school barbell bench press will work the costal pecs as well—so don’t think you have to abandon benching if you want your lower chest to stick out further. Bench presses also work the middle (sternal) and upper (clavicular) pecs, which is why most trainers recommend beginners learn basic lifts when they’re starting out—they recruit a lot of muscle at once, making your training very efficient. With that said, basic, compound lifts don’t isolate any one division of any muscle, so if you have a specific area that you want to improve, they’re usually not the best choice—especially after you’ve been training a while and your gains slow down. As your training and goals evolve, and injuries come up, you may also decide that bench pressing isn’t a good fit for you anymore, and you need to work your pecs with exercises that train the muscle more in isolation.

“When you’re trying to bias a particular muscle,” says Carter, “there’s always going to be some overlap with other muscles, but if you do it right, the fibers you’re trying to bias will be maximally loaded while the other ones won’t be.” So while the dips we prescribed above will work your shoulders and triceps, they’ll mainly hit the lower chest as intended.

Benefits of Working Out Your Lower Chest

Building up your costal pec can help the muscle rise off the rib cage to a greater degree, rounding out the bottom of your chest. Carter also sees lower-chest training as having value for powerlifters.

“If you bench press in competition with a shoulder-width grip,” he says, “the costal pecs are going to contribute to that lift. So strengthening that division of the pecs will help your bench press.” In fact, Carter says that lower-chest work via dips, along with triceps training, should probably make up most of your assistance work for the bench press.

The Ideal Lower-Chest Workout for The Gym

The costal division of the pecs is a pretty small area, and most chest work you do (pressing and fly exercises) is going to activate it to some degree, so don’t go overboard trying to bring up your lower chest. One or two exercises for it in one workout should do it. Here are some ways you can set up sessions to focus on lower chest gains.

Sample Lower-Chest Workout Option A

If you train on a body-part split and you have a dedicated chest day, you could prioritize the costal pecs by training them first when you’re fresh. Then you could hit the rest of the chest divisions (upper and middle) as shown below.

Use several warm-up sets to work up to a weight that allows you the prescribed number of reps, and then take that set to failure (the point at which you can’t perform another rep with good form). For the costal dips, you can warm up with pushups. If you’re very strong at dips, you may need to add weight with a dip/chinup belt, or hold a dumbbell between your feet, so you can reach failure at 6–10 reps, or close to it.

1. Costal Dip (Lower Chest)

Sets: 1  Reps: As many as possible

2. High-To-Low Cable or Band Fly (Lower Chest)

Sets: 1  Reps: 6–10

3. Low-To-High Cable or Band Fly (Upper Chest)

Sets: 1  Reps: 12–15

Step 1. Set the handles on both sides of a cable crossover station to the lowest pulley setting. Grasp the handles, and step forward to lift the weights off the stack so that there’s tension on the pec muscles. If you don’t have access to cable stations, use elastic resistance bands as shown, attached to a rack or other sturdy object.

Step 2. Stagger your feet for stability, and let your arms extend diagonally toward the floor, in line with the cables—but keep a slight bend in your elbows. Your palms will face forward. Keep your torso upright and stationary throughout the movement.

Step 3. Contract your pecs to lift the handles upward and in front of your body. The upward path of motion should be in line with the clavicular fibers of the upper pecs—think: diagonal.

Step 4. At the top of the rep, your hands should be touching each other in front of you at around face level, wrists in line with your forearms. Squeeze the top position for 1–2 seconds, and then lower the weight under control, back to the start position.

4. Dumbbell Bench Press (Middle Chest)

Sets: 1  Reps: 15–20

Step 1. Hold a dumbbell in each hand, and lie back on a flat bench with the weights at shoulder level. Flatten your lower back into the bench and brace your core.

Step 2. Press the weights straight over your chest to lockout.

Sample Lower-Chest Workout Option B

Here, you’ll open with an incline press for the upper chest—a commonly weak area—and then do two lower-chest exercises back to back. Pullovers are done last when the pecs are fully warmed up and full of blood. Performing an exercise that forces the muscles to stretch so much should never be done first in a workout—put it at the end for safety’s sake.

Use several warm-up sets to work up to a weight that allows you the prescribed number of reps, and then take that set to failure (the point at which you can’t perform another rep with good form).

1. Incline Dumbbell Bench Press

Sets: 1  Reps: 6­–10

Step 1. Set an adjustable bench to a 30–45-degree angle. Grasp a pair of dumbbells and lie back on the bench, making sure your entire back is in contact with it—do not arch your back so that it causes your lower back to rise off the pad.

Step 2. Start with the dumbbells just outside your shoulders, elbows bent, and your forearms/wrists in a semi-pronated or neutral (palms facing in) position. 

Step 3. Keeping your elbows pointing at about 45 degrees, press the dumbbells straight up until your arms are just shy of full lockout. Lower the dumbbells back down under control, until they’re just above and outside your shoulders.

2. Costal Dip

Sets: 1  Reps: As many as possible

3. Dumbbell Pullover

Sets: 1  Reps: 8–12

Sample Lower-Chest Workout Option C

Many lifters like to follow a push/pull/legs split, in which they work all the pushing muscles on one day (chest, shoulders, triceps), pulling muscles another (back, biceps), and then quads, hamstrings, and calves in a third workout. In this case, your push day could start with some costal-pec work to satisfy the chest component.

Use several warm-up sets to work up to a weight that allows you the prescribed number of reps, and then take that set to failure (the point at which you can’t perform another rep with good form).

1. Weighted Costal Dip

Sets: 1  Reps: 6–10

Add weight to your body with a dip/chinup belt, or hold a dumbbell between your feet.

2. Dumbbell Bench Press

Sets: 1  Reps: 12–15

3. Dumbbell Lateral Raise

Sets: 1  Reps: 8–12

Step 1. Hold a dumbbell in each hand and bend your hips back so that the lateral deltoid (the middle head of your shoulder) is perpendicular to the floor.

Step 2. Raise the weights outward to 90 degrees.

4. Bent-Over Lateral Raise

Sets: 1  Reps: 15–20

Step 1. Hold a dumbbell in each hand and bend your hips back until your torso is nearly parallel to the floor. Keep a long line from your head to your pelvis, and brace your core.

Step 2. Raise your arms out the sides.

5. Overhead Banded Triceps Extension

Sets: 1  Reps: 8–12

Step 1. Attach a band to a sturdy object overhead and grasp an end in each hand. Step away from the anchor point and raise your arms overhead. Your legs should be staggered. Bend your hips back to put tension on the band.

Step 2. Extend your elbows without moving your upper arms or torso. Switch the front leg on each set.

The Ideal Lower-Chest Workout At Home, or Without Weights

You can target lower chest without special equipment, but we do suggest you invest in some exercise bands, and find a way to rig up a dip station (two sturdy chairs, or the parallel bars at a park could work).

1. Costal Dip

Sets: 1  Reps: As many as possible

2. High-To-Low Band Fly

Sets: 1  Reps: As many as possible

3. Pushup With Feet Elevated

Sets: 1  Reps: As many as possible

Step 1. Place your hands around shoulder-width on the floor, and raise your feet behind you on a bench, box, or other stable surface. Tuck your tailbone slightly so that your pelvis is neutral, and brace your core. Your body should form a long, straight line.

Step 2. Lower your body, tucking your elbows about 45 degrees from your sides, until you feel a stretch in your pecs. Press yourself back up, allowing your shoulder blades to spread at the top.

4. Sternal Band Fly

Sets: 1  Reps: As many as possible

Perform the same motion as the high-to-low fly, but set the bands at shoulder height, so the line of pull lines up with the middle of your chest. Bring your hands together in the end position.

Why Only 1 Set?

You may be surprised that we’re prescribing only one work set per exercise in these workouts, when you’ve probably heard for years that 3 or more sets is best. Scientists are still going back and forth on how much volume is needed for muscle growth, but Carter’s experience has led him to believe that one hard set—taken to failure—is all that’s needed, more often than not. This is backed by a very applicable study in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, which showed that only three total sets for a muscle group PER WEEK was enough to spark gains, and the gains were equal to what was measured in lifters who performed as many as 12 sets!

It’s important to note that the subjects weren’t newbies, for whom any amount of training would produce results. They had between one and four years of lifting experience, and were reasonably strong.

The researchers wrote: “Hypothetically, both low and high volume training may lead to microtraumas of the muscle fibers, but the high volume training at the expense of additional time and effort…

“The equality in lower and upper body strength development… indicates that when a minimum (threshold) level of strength training volume has been performed at a higher intensity the consequent physiological adaptations may be optimized and additional workloads (e.g., 12 sets per muscle group per week) do not contribute further improvements, at least over a short training period.”

In other words, hit your lower chest hard, and then get out of the gym!

The post The Best Lower-Chest Workouts for the Gym & Home appeared first on Onnit Academy.

– Creatine is a molecule found in animal foods that helps fuel muscle contractions. It has been shown to help users gain muscle and strength, and support performance in short duration, high-intensity activity.

– Whey protein is derived from cow’s milk. It is a fast-digesting protein that is rich in leucine, a BCAA that signals muscle protein synthesis. Whey can aid muscle growth and body composition.

– Creatine needs to build up in your muscles in order to be effective. Whey protein can be taken as needed to help you reach daily protein requirements.

– Neither creatine or whey protein is illegal or has been shown to be hazardous to health.

Creatine Vs. Whey Protein: What You Should Know

Creatine and whey protein are two of the most popular and effective sports supplements ever to hit the market. Both have been shown to help build muscle, but they’re two very different products that work in different ways. Price-wise, creatine is fairly cheap, while whey protein can be a big investment. So which one is appropriate for your goals and budget, and is it better to choose one over the other, or use both together?

We’ll examine both creatine and whey to help you determine the right muscle supp for you.

What Is Creatine?

Creatine monohydrate is a molecule that exists naturally in animal foods such as meat, eggs, and fish. However, you’d have to eat pounds of protein-rich food to get an efficacious dosage, which is why creatine is mainly discussed as a supplement.

Creatine plays an important role in fueling muscle contractions. The energy source for muscle is a molecule called adenosine triphosphate (ATP). When you lift, run, jump, or otherwise use your muscles, ATP loses a phosphate molecule and breaks down to a byproduct called ADP. For the muscles to keep working, they must regain a phosphate to transform ADP back into ATP, and that’s where creatine comes in.

Creatine monohydrate binds to a phosphate molecule to form creatine phosphate, which then restores ATP and your muscles’ ability to do work. In short, creatine supplies energy. It’s the main energy source for short duration, explosive, highly intense muscle contractions, such as those required in sprinting and weight training. (Creatine doesn’t do much for exercise that lasts more than a few continuous seconds. Stored carbohydrate, and then oxygen, fuel aerobic training, such as jogging and long-distance cycling.)

Supplementing with creatine allows you to do intense work for longer without fatiguing. In other words, it can help you to sprint a few more seconds at your top speed, get more jumps at your best height, and perform more reps with a heavy weight. This means that creatine helps you perform more overall volume in your workouts to get a greater training effect, and it’s one reason creatine has gained enormous popularity with bodybuilders and other athletes who rely on weight training.

Another reason muscle-seekers love creatine is that it helps draw water into the muscle cells. Muscles that are more hydrated will appear bigger, so some critics have accused creatine of only helping to create the illusion of larger muscles. But the fact is that hydrated muscles are better primed to grow.

Creatine has been popular since the early 1990s, and it’s come to be one of the most well-researched supplements out there. The International Journal of Sports Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism published a meta-analysis of 100 studies that concluded that creatine helps with body composition and resistance training performance, regardless of sex or training experience. 

If you’re a gym rat looking to get stronger, creatine ought to be on your radar. A review of 22 studies determined that lifters taking creatine averaged eight percent greater strength gains than those on a placebo; they also saw an average 14% increase in reps performed at a given percentage of their one-rep max (the greatest amount of weight you can lift for one repetition on an exercise). Their bench press gains were especially impressive—one-rep maxes shot up as much as 43%.

If you’re wondering if creatine can help you in sports, the answer seems to be a resounding yes. A study on elite wrestlers found that creatine aided both average and peak power on an anaerobic endurance test. Another trial on elite soccer players showed that creatine takers sustained jumping power while a control group got fatigued. Meanwhile, a similar study on collegiate volleyball players found that creatine helped users maintain jump height.

As far as research goes, here’s the big kahuna on creatine to sum it all up: the Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition issued a position stand in which it declared that “creatine monohydrate is the most effective ergogenic nutritional supplement currently available to athletes in terms of increasing high-intensity exercise capacity and lean body mass.”

Read more in our creatine guide.

What Is Whey Protein?

Whey protein is a component of cow’s milk that was historically seen as a byproduct of cheese making.  Farmers used to throw it away in favor of casein, the other protein in milk that can be processed into cheese. The nursery rhyme about Little Miss Muffet eating curds and whey refers to a dish of cottage cheese—casein protein being the cheese curds and whey the liquid that surrounds them.

Like other animal proteins, whey is complete, containing all the essential amino acids that your body can’t make on its own. This gives whey an advantage over plant-based protein supplements such as rice or hemp protein, which need to be combined with other protein sources to offer all the essential aminos the body needs.

But what really makes whey a rock star in the sports nutrition world is the amount of leucine it offers. Leucine is a branched-chain amino acid (BCAA), and research indicates it’s probably the most important amino for muscle growth, as it signals the body to activate protein synthesis. In its 2017 position stand on protein needs for exercise, the International Society of Sports Nutrition (ISSN) recommended that athletes aiming to maximize muscle gains eat protein-rich meals every three to four hours throughout the day (20–40 grams of protein per meal), with each meal consisting of between 0.7 and three grams leucine.

Whey protein is so packed with leucine that research shows it actually offers more of the stuff per gram than several other high-protein whole foods, such as eggs and milk—we’re talking two to 2.5 grams of leucine in a standard 25-gram scoop of whey. Whey tops casein protein (the other protein supplement derived from cow milk) and soy protein in terms of leucine content, and, as a study in the Journal of Applied Physiology showed, it stimulates muscle growth to a greater degree. 

But whey protein isn’t just for getting big. A 2014 study found that when subjects consumed whey before sitting down to their largest meal of the day, it helped to control appetite and promoted favorable changes in body composition and waist circumference compared to soy protein. A 2017 meta-analysis of nine studies showed that whey not only helped overweight and obese people lose fat, it also aided in reducing markers of risk for cardiovascular disease.

Whey protein supplements are available in two basic forms. It can come as a concentrate or an isolate. Whey concentrate is 70–80% protein, with the remaining components being some milk sugar (lactose) and fat. Whey isolate is 90% or higher, and has had nearly all the sugar and fat filtered out. As for which one you should choose, it really comes down to preference. Isolate is the purer, leaner option, but it’s more expensive. If you have trouble digesting lactose and want to better control your calories, whey isolate may be the better choice, but concentrate will save you money. With that said, there is more research on the benefits of isolate than there is on concentrate supplements.

Read more in our whey protein guide.

When and How Much Protein and Creatine Should I Take?

Whey protein has been hyped for its ability to be digested and absorbed into the muscles quickly, supposedly jump-starting the recovery process and improving muscle gains, but the importance of timing your protein intake has been overstated. Whey is indeed a fast-digesting protein, but a review in the Journal of the ISSN determined that total daily protein intake trumps timing, so there’s no great rush to consume and assimilate the stuff as long as your body gets enough over the course of the day.

One exception, however, is if you’re an athlete who does some type of training more than once a day. If you’re an MMA fighter, for instance, who lifts weights in the morning and hits pads in the afternoon, you’d be wise to recharge your muscles as quickly as possible after the strength training session so they don’t get depleted further by the skill work. Wrestlers and tennis players, who may compete multiple times in a day, are in the same boat. A study in the Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport found that subjects taking hydrolyzed whey protein—a type of whey that’s been processed so it digests even faster—were fully recovered six hours later.

How much protein you need in a day depends on your age, size, goals, and activity level, but the ISSN suggests around one gram per pound of bodyweight daily for individuals who strength train—and even more if you’re dieting, so you can preserve muscle mass while in a calorie deficit that helps you lose fat. So, a 200-pound person who lifts and wants to slim down should start eating at least 200 grams of protein per day. This can be done entirely with whole foods, but it’s often not practical (think: lots of chicken breast, tuna, and eggs), so many opt for protein supplements to help hit their goal number of grams. Whey protein supps offer around 20 grams protein per serving, and can be mixed up and chugged down in minutes.

As for creatine, timing may be a bit more important than it is for protein. One study found that consuming it post-exercise promoted better body composition and strength gains than when it was taken pre-workout, and another trial showed that subjects made better gains in their arms when they took creatine after workouts. But there doesn’t appear to be a bad time to take creatine. Whatever time allows you to take it consistently enough to see benefit is the one to go with.

And consistency is important with creatine. While a whey protein supplement can be taken as needed to help you reach your protein goals, creatine needs to be taken regularly so it builds up in your muscles. The standard recommendation is to follow a minimum three-day loading period where you take 0.3 grams of creatine per kilogram of your bodyweight (example: 23 grams for a 170-pound man). Then, back off to a maintenance dose of three to five grams daily thereafter. However, skipping the loading phase and taking two to five grams per day from the get go has been shown to work fine too—it will just take longer to see the effects because your muscles aren’t yet fully saturated with creatine. (But it may be more convenient and palatable than guzzling multiple teaspoons of powder throughout the day.)

Bodybuilders used to mix creatine with grape juice in order to disguise the chalky flavor and ensure better uptake by the muscles. Research shows that your muscles might retain creatine better when it’s consumed along with a carbohydrate source, but most studies show that mixing it with plain water, or blending it into any other beverage you like, works just as well. “A 2017 study showed that loading creatine alone aided physical performance to the same extent as creatine loading with carbohydrate ingestion,” says Vince Kreipke, PhD, CISSN, a performance specialist and member of Onnit’s advisory board. “This held true in both laboratory and real-world applications.”

Can You Take Whey and Creatine Together?

Both creatine and whey protein are effective when taken by themselves, and there’s nothing wrong with combining them if you so choose. One study showed no adverse effects in doing so, but the subjects didn’t enjoy any additional benefits by combining the two either. Another trial had essentially the same findings, although it’s worth noting that both studies were done on men middle-aged and older.

Now for the big question: is it better to take whey protein or creatine? 

The answer is really up to you. Containers of creatine are usually under $30 and can last you months, while tubs of whey protein can go for around $50 and, with regular use, will need to be replaced in only a few weeks—so creatine is the more budget-friendly choice. It’s also linked to more performance benefits, so, if you’re an athlete, or you’re looking for an edge in the gym, creatine may be the smarter choice.

On the other hand, people who train hard need a lot of protein, and many of them don’t get enough. If you have trouble making your protein requirement daily, whey will do a lot to get you there, and it’s a powerful tool for body recomposition. Of course, if you can afford both supplements and want to maximize your muscle and performance potential, take both.

“If you’re already meeting your protein goals with your diet,” says Kreipke, “I would go with creatine. It’s much harder to obtain from diet alone, especially if one is vegetarian or vegan [remember, creatine exists naturally in animal foods].” However, if you find you’re not making your protein quota regularly, Kreipke says to prioritize whey instead. “If you’re not giving yourself the proper amount of amino acids to recover, you’ll eventually have problems. And whey has more research than creatine does showing it can help you build muscle while you’re losing fat.”

Are These Supplements Illegal?

Neither creatine or whey protein has ever been illegal or deemed unsafe. One study showed that athletes who supplemented with creatine for 21 months while training intensely suffered no health problems.

If anything, creatine may help to preserve health. A trial in the Journal of Athletic Training indicated that DI college football players who used creatine had a lower incidence of cramping than those who didn’t take the supplement. In 2017, the ISSN declared that creatine may serve to protect the brain. The scientists wrote that “Given all the known benefits and favorable safety profile of creatine supplementation reported in the scientific and medical literature, it is the view of ISSN that government legislatures and sport organizations who restrict and/or discourage use of creatine may be placing athletes at greater risk—particularly in contact sports that have risk of head trauma and/or neurological injury.”

Whey protein is just as innocuous, assuming you don’t have an allergy to it. As with eating a lot of any type of protein, you may experience gas and other mild digestive issues from consuming large amounts of whey, but there should be little reason for concern if you follow label directions. Some critics have alleged that high intakes of protein can stress the kidneys, but a study in the American Journal of Kidney Diseases determined that people with healthy kidneys aren’t at any greater risk.

A 2016 study adds further support with findings that men who strength trained and followed a high-protein diet for six months suffered no ill effects to their blood lipids, liver, or kidney function. Also of note: following a high-protein diet increased the subjects’ calorie intake significantly, but they didn’t gain fat.

The post Creatine Vs. Whey Protein: What You Should Know appeared first on Onnit Academy.

– The triceps consist of three parts—the long, lateral, and medial heads. In addition to locking out the elbows as the other two heads do, the long head also assists with shoulder extension and humeral adduction (drawing the arm down toward the body).

– Triceps need to be trained with compound movements, exercises that start from the stretched position, and moves that emphasize an isometric contraction.

– Included here are stretches for the triceps, and three workouts designed according to the training equipment you have available: dumbbells, bands, or no equipment at all.

– Elbow and shoulder injuries can be gotten around by using shortened ranges of motion and relying on isometric exercises.

3 Killer Triceps Workouts You Can Do At Home

Most people have had to reevaluate their training over the past year. If you went from working out in a fully-equipped commercial gym to clanging around a few dusty dumbbells in your garage, you know how difficult it can be to keep up the variety and intensity you’re used to in your workouts. This is certainly true when it comes to training smaller muscles that we like to use cables and machines for—like triceps. You can figure out how to squat, press, and hinge in your home gym, but how are you supposed to hit the long head of your tri’s without a triceps extension rope and a multi-cable jungle gym?

Nevertheless, training at home can be a blessing in disguise. It gets us out of our rut of using the same old exercises we’re comfortable with—exercises that could actually be setting us up for injury—and forces us to explore the possibilities of bodyweight, band, and dumbbell training. If you’re still working your arms at home, and you’re still stumped on how to hit them effectively with the equipment you’ve got, this article may blow your mind… and blow up your triceps.

Benefits of Working Out Your Triceps

If you’re looking to fill up your shirtsleeves, don’t make the mistake of overemphasizing biceps training. The triceps account for two-thirds of the mass in the upper arm, so tri training should be your priority. Besides having a sweet horseshoe on the back of your arm that shows how hard you work out, there are some functional advantages to developing the triceps to their potential.

For one thing, they act as major assistants on any pressing lifts you do, helping the pecs and shoulders. (Some powerlifters actually argue that the bench press relies more on triceps strength than it does any other muscle.) A press is only considered complete, technically speaking, when the triceps lock out the elbows. Another reason to train tri’s hard is to develop all-around throwing and pushing strength. Baseball pitching, basketball shooting, volleyball spiking, shot putting and more all require powerful triceps action.

To help you understand why, let’s get clear on what the triceps are and how they work.

The triceps brachii is the large muscle that runs along the backside of the humerus (upper-arm bone) and consists of three portions, called heads.

Long head. This is the innermost part of the muscle. It’s unique among the triceps heads because it originates on the shoulder blade, and that means that it can help extend the shoulder joint and draw the arm in toward the body, as well as extend the elbow.

Lateral Head. The outermost portion of the triceps, the lateral head originates on the humerus and ends at the ulna (forearm bone). It only works to extend the elbow.

Medial head. Though it’s largely obscured by the other two heads, the medial head starts just below the lateral head on the humerus and inserts on the ulna. It helps form the upper part of the triceps’ horseshoe shape and, like the lateral head, works to lock out the elbow.

Fun fact: “Ceps” is a derivative of the Latin term for head, so, when referring to a muscle, bi-, tri-, or quad- will signal the number of separate units in that muscle.

The triceps having three heads means that small details in our training will adjust the amount of tension that’s placed on one head versus another. These can range from the angle of our movement to the type of grip we use on an exercise. It also means, as mentioned in the explanation of the long head’s function, that the triceps are a more nuanced muscle than most people realize, and they don’t just work to extend the elbow. The shoulder extension and humeral adduction component (drawing the arm down) is important to train as well when looking to develop both function and aesthetics. The triceps, in effect, support the humerus in the shoulder joint. With shoulder injuries being so prevalent, and a lack of stability in the shoulder being a common cause, training the triceps’ long head is critical for supporting the rest of your upper-body training. 

How Can I Build Strong Tri’s Without Weights? 

Most of the classic moves we are accustomed to utilizing to build the triceps require equipment that’s a little on the fancy side—cables, triceps machines, and fixed-weight EZ-curl bars. Those options may offer a wider array of triceps training possibilities, but they aren’t necessarily any more effective than what you can do with your bodyweight alone. Solid tri work comes down to making sure you check off three boxes in your program:

1. Use compound movements

2. Include exercises that start from the stretched position

3. Create isometric tension in the triceps

Here’s what all that means…

Compound Movements

Aka multi-joint lifts, compound movements are those that involve more than one joint, meaning that they recruit more overall muscle than single-joint isolation moves. Presses and pushup variations qualify here. To put on size, you have to progressively overload a muscle over time, increasing the loads you use and the number of reps you can perform with those loads. Since compound movements use more muscle (it’s OK to involve some muscles other than the triceps when targeting triceps gains, such as the pecs) and allow for heavier loading, they should be the foundation of any training program.

There’s a safety benefit to training compound lifts too. Going heavy on an isolation exercise like a kickback or machine extension puts a high level of stress on the elbow joint. The risk-to-reward ratio isn’t good. Compound movements, however, distribute the stress of the load over multiple joints, taking pressure off the elbow while still loading up the triceps.

Starting from the Stretch

Most exercises don’t begin with the target muscle in a stretched position. We don’t start squats or barbell bench presses from the bottom. But with triceps, you can start with the muscle fully stretched, such as when the arm is overhead and the elbow bent for an overhead extension movement (this can be done with a band when no weights are available). Starting from a stretched position makes the triceps work hard from the very beginning of the exercise, as they have to overcome the mechanical disadvantage of being all stretched out to extend the elbow. For the best triceps development, you need to include some overhead extension work that starts with the muscles on stretch.

Isometric Tension

An isometric muscle contraction occurs when the triceps tense but the arm doesn’t bend or extend, such as at the halfway point of a dip or pushup. Isometrics can also train the triceps’ function as a shoulder stabilizer—a rare thing in muscle-building programs. Including some isometric work in your program ensures well-rounded triceps training that not only pumps up the muscle but helps prevent injury.

How To Stretch Your Triceps 

Regularly stretching can give you access to more range of motion, and ultimately add to the lifespan of your training. Use these stretches before and/or after your workout to promote mobility in the triceps and reduce the risk of injury.

Kneeling Bench Stretch 

Sets: 3  Time: Hold 30 seconds  Rest: 30 seconds

Step 1. Kneel on the floor and rest your elbows on a bench or box. Tuck your tailbone so that your pelvis is perpendicular to the floor, and brace your core. Your body should form a straight line from your head to your hips.

Step 2. From here, sit back into the hips so the arms become extended overhead and you feel a stretch in the triceps. Hold this position with a tall posture.

Banded Overhead Stretch

Sets: 3 (each side)  Time: 30 seconds  Rest: 30 seconds

Step 1. Stand on one end of an exercise band with your left foot and grasp the other end with your left hand. Draw your left shoulder back and down and brace your core.

Step 2. Raise your arm overhead and allow the band to bend your elbow and gently pull your arm backward to stretch your triceps.

Static Cross-body Stretch 

Sets: 3 (each side)  Time: 30 seconds  Rest: 30 seconds

Step 1. Draw one arm across the front of your body. With the other hand, get a firm grip near the elbow and gently pull the arm tight to the body. To feel it more in your triceps than your shoulder, hold the arm closer to your hand than your elbow.

Triceps Workouts You Can Do At Home With and Without Weights

Do you have dumbbells? Then you can get a great triceps workout. Just an exercise band or two? That’s fine. Only your bodyweight alone? No problem. Here’s a routine for each situation.

Workout #1: Dumbbells

If you have a set of dumbbells and a bench at the house, you have more than enough to get a strong triceps workout. Dumbbells allow your hands and arms to go where they naturally want to, and that’s healthier for your shoulders, elbows, and wrists than using a barbell, which fixes their paths of movement. One of the most common reasons we get aches and pains after years of lifting is due to using fixed paths of motion for too long. Dumbbells accommodate your body, rather than the other way around.

Directions

Perform the exercises in the order shown. Complete all sets for one move before going on to the next. Do this workout on its own, or at the end of a session for other muscle groups.

1. Dumbbell Kickback

These have long been a staple for triceps training. The bent-over position helps you train core stability in conjunction with the triceps’ elbow extension.

Sets: 4  Reps: 12  Rest: 90 seconds

Step 1. Hold a dumbbell in each hand and stand with feet shoulder-width apart. Keeping a straight line between your head, spine, and pelvis, bend your hips back and lower your torso toward the floor. Bend your knees as needed until your upper body is nearly parallel to the floor. Brace your core. Row the dumbbells up so that your upper arms are in line with your torso and your elbows are bent 90 degrees.

Step 2. From this position, extend your elbows to lockout. Slowly return the weight back to the starting position. That’s one rep.

2. Neutral-Grip Bench Press

Dips are a popular triceps exercise, but if you don’t have bars to dip on at your house, or you have a history of shoulder problems, they’re out of the question. Doing dumbbell bench presses with a neutral grip—palms facing in—places less stress on the front side of the shoulder than dips, but mimic the movement to provide great triceps activation.

Sets: 4  Reps: 10  Rest: 90 seconds

Step 1. Hold a dumbbell in each hand and lie on the bench with feet firmly in contact with the floor. Hold the dumbbells with palms facing each other while your head, shoulders, and butt are in contact with the bench.

Step 2. From the bottom position, press the dumbbells up, directly over your body, until your arms are fully extended. Lower the weights back down with control, tucking your elbows near your sides. That’s one rep.

3. Single-Arm Tate Press

The Tate Press is a great option you can perform either on the ground or on a bench. Working one side at a time creates a balance challenge that emphasizes the core, while the internally rotated arm movement stresses the lateral triceps’ head the most strongly.

Sets: 4 (each side)  Reps: 12  Rest: 90 seconds

Step 1. Hold a light dumbbell in one hand and lie back on a bench. Press the weight above you as in a dumbbell chest press so your elbow is locked out.

Step 2. With your palm facing toward your feet, allow the elbow to bend and slowly lower the weight toward the center of your chest. Stabilize your upper arm so only your forearm is moving. When the weight touches your chest, extend your elbow again. That’s one rep.

Workout #2: Bands 

Bands are budget-friendly, take up minimal space, and can travel with you. One advantage to using them over free weights is the accommodating resistance they provide. That is, as the band stretches, the tension on it increases, making the movement more difficult as you complete the rep. This is ideal for triceps training. On most press or extension exercises with free weights, the load feels easier to lift the closer you get to lockout. But with a band, you have to work harder to overcome the resistance.

Directions

Perform the exercises in the order shown. Complete all sets for one move before going on to the next. Do this workout on its own, or at the end of a session for other muscle groups.

1. Close-Grip, Hands-Elevated Pushup

Similar to the neutral-grip bench press, this move mimics dips while minimizing stress on the front of the shoulder. The hands-elevated position also allows you to focus less on pushing up and more on pushing through the triceps.

Sets: 4  Reps: 20  Rest: 90 seconds

Step 1. Get into pushup position with your hands on a bench or other sturdy elevated surface. Your hands should be stacked under your shoulders while your body forms a straight line. Brace your core.

Step 2. Lower your body toward the bench in a slow and controlled motion. Once you reach the bench, press away by focusing on your triceps. That’s one rep.

2. Banded Triceps Kickback

Using a band for the kickback makes the movement even more effective than with a dumbbell, because the band tension makes the triceps work harder throughout the range of motion. Take advantage of the extra tension in the finish (elbows extended) position by holding an isometric contraction for a moment or two.

Sets: 4  Reps: 15  Rest: 90 seconds

Step 1. Loop the center of a band around the foot of a bench or other sturdy object, and grasp an end in each hand. Set up as you did for the dumbbell kickback (see above).

Step 2. From the hinged position, extend the arms against the tension of the band. Hold the extended position for a count of 2 before slowly returning to the starting position. That’s one rep.

3. Overhead Triceps Extension

This exercise starts with the triceps stretched, making it extra challenging. It not only builds strength in the tall-kneeling position, it improves shoulder mobility, and tests the core as well.

Sets: 4  Reps: 15  Rest: 90 seconds

Step 1. Kneel down on the floor and wrap the center of a band around your ankles. Grasp the ends with both hands and reach your arms overhead, allowing the band to pull your elbows bent. Straighten up so that you’re in a tall-kneeling position, and brace your core.

Step 2. Extend the arms up overhead, and hold for a count of 2. Slowly return the arms back to the flexed position where you began. That’s one rep.

Workout #3: Bodyweight

Don’t underestimate a bodyweight workout when it comes to hitting the triceps. If you don’t have the machines and free weights to hit the muscle from all angles, you can adjust the way you position your body to put maximum tension on the tri’s.

Directions

Perform the exercises in the order shown. Do this workout on its own, or at the end of a session for other muscle groups.

1. Kickstand Single-Arm Pushup

If you can do a true single-arm pushup, congratulations—you’re awesome. But in most cases, it ends up being a half-assed, half-rep joke. However, by elevating one hand slightly and extending the other one for support (kind of like a kickstand on a bike), a single-arm pushup can become less of a balancing act and more of a focused triceps- and chest-builder.

Sets: 4 (each side)  Reps: 8  Rest: 90 seconds

Step 1. Rest one arm on a raised surface (we used a kettlebell, but if you have no equipment, a low box or step is fine). Extend the other arm out to your side—it’s OK if only your fingertips reach the floor. Your body should form a straight line from your head to your feet.

Step 2. Slowly lower your body, tucking the arm that’s raised about 45 degrees to the body. Go down until your chest is level with, or just below, the surface you’re balancing on. Drive your hand into the surface to push yourself back up to the starting position. That’s one rep.

2. Fold Press

This pushup-esque move highlights triceps extension while also challenging shoulder stability. Think: long head of the triceps.

Sets: 4  Reps: 15  Rest: 90 seconds

Step 1. Place your hands on a raised surface, such as a low box or step. Get into pushup position with your shoulders directly over your hands. Draw your shoulders back and down—think: proud chest—and brace your core.

Step 2. Slowly lower your body by allowing the elbows to fold back under your midsection. From the bottom, drive your hands into the surface, extending your arms to return to the pushup position. That’s one rep.

3. Triceps-Focused Plank

Take your traditional plank up a notch. Shifting the pressure from the full forearm to the wrist and hand brings more triceps into the equation (in an isometric contraction). Meanwhile, your core is still working hard to stabilize the whole body.

Sets: 4  Time: 30 seconds  Rest: 90 seconds

Step 1. Get into a pushup position with your hands on a raised surface. Your body should form a straight line—pelvis perpendicular to the floor, and core braced. Lower your forearms to the surface but let your elbows hang from the edge, unsupported.

Step 2. Maintain this position, engaging the triceps isometrically to keep your elbows from sinking.

Triceps Exercise Alternatives If You’re Injured

Triceps work can be very demanding on the elbows. You have to remember that these joints get stressed significantly from your shoulder and chest pressing exercises, so additional work that locks out the elbows can lead to overuse injury. In addition, the pulling motions you use when you train back or biceps can irritate the elbows over time as well. Of course, you can train your chest, shoulders, back, bi’s and triceps in the same week—you just have to organize your workouts so that you can recover.

One strategy is to avoid doing elbow extension work too frequently. Try keeping it all on one training day. Working your chest, shoulders, and triceps in the same session (called a “push day”, because it covers all the pushing muscles) would allow you several days to recover before you work any elbow extension movement again. The rest of your training week can consist of a pull day—back and biceps exercises together—and a leg day, before the cycle repeats.

You should also consider how many heavy triceps exercises you do. If you’re already performing several heavy pressing exercises, you don’t need to max out your tri’s on barbell overhead or lying extensions. Go lighter for higher reps.

Heavy pressing often leads to injured shoulders as well as elbows/triceps. But the solution can be as simple as avoiding the ranges of motion that hurt while your injuries heal. See below for three examples of how you can train triceps pain-free.

1. Straight-Arm Banded Pulldown (Elbow Pain)

If your elbows are bothering you, don’t take them through a full range of motion for presses and extensions for a while. You can focus on the shoulder extension and stability component that the long head of the triceps provides. The straight-arm banded pulldown works the long head with hardly any movement at the elbow, and recruits the lats as well for some extra back work.

Sets: 4  Reps: 12  Rest: 90 seconds

Step 1. Attach a band to the top of a power rack or other sturdy object, and grasp the open loop with both hands. Hinge your hips back while maintaining a tall posture and driving your shoulder blades down and together to create tension in the back and arms. Your hands should be at face level.

Step 2. With arms extended, pull your hands down toward your hip pockets. Pause at the bottom, and slowly return to the starting position. That’s one rep.

2. Modified Landmine Press (Shoulder Pain)

A standard barbell overhead press can wreak havoc on achy shoulders, but pressing with a landmine unit can take pressure off the joints while still allowing you to train hard and heavy. With a landmine (a metal sleeve for the bar, attached to a rotating pivot point), you can press on an arc, so the bar moves more in front of you than overhead. This reduces the direct stress the shoulders are placed under.

Sets: 4 (each side)  Reps: 8  Rest: 90 seconds

Step 1. Load one end of a barbell into a landmine unit, or use a corner of the room (wrap a towel around the end of the bar to help protect the walls). Get into a half-kneeling position behind the bar—feet hip-width apart, both knees bent 90 degrees, and your pelvis parallel to the floor. Grasp the end of the bar with the hand that’s on the same side as the grounded knee, and hold it at shoulder level. Tuck your elbow in tight to your body.

Step 2. Keeping a tall torso, press the bar overhead. Focus on extending the arm at the elbow. Note that the bar will move on an arc, and you won’t finish with the arm straight overhead. That’s one rep.

3. Modified Triceps Plank (Elbow and Shoulder Pain)

If both your shoulders and elbows hurt, work on training the triceps’ long head while restricting motion at both joints. Doing a plank against a wall fits the bill perfectly, as your triceps and shoulders have to work isometrically to keep you from collapsing, but there’s little stress on either joint.

Sets: 4  Time: Hold 30 seconds  Rest: 60 seconds

Step 1. Place the bottom of your fists against a wall and walk your feet back until you feel your hands supporting most of your weight. Only your fists should touch the wall—don’t allow your elbows to rest. Tuck your tailbone slightly and brace your core. Keep driving your hands into the wall as you hold the position for time. When complete, push yourself away from the wall back to stand back up. That’s one set.

Get more at-home workouts for arms.

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