5 Killer Back and Bicep Workouts For Building Muscle

There’s no hard and fast rule stating that back and biceps need to be trained together, but, anecdotal bro science aside, there is some logic to combining these two muscle groups that allow you to pull real hard.

Our guide to training the back and biceps together will teach you how to create maximally efficient upper-body workouts that build a thick back and bulging arms.

Why Work Your Back and Biceps Together?

“When you think about back training, the secondary or tertiary mover in any sort of row, pulldown, or pullup is going to be the biceps,” says John Rusin, P.T., D.P.T., C.S.C.S., owner of DrJohnRusin.com. So, for the sake of efficiency, “it makes sense to hit the biceps a little more directly in conjunction with their corresponding compound lifts,” (i.e. back movements that involve more than one joint; as opposed to biceps exercises where only the elbow flexes).

Generally, back and bicep workouts begin with rowing or pulldown exercises to hit the bigger back muscles when you’re fresh. Starting the workout with biceps curls would fatigue your arms to the point where they may not be able to assist you like they should on your back movements, so the logical approach is to save bicep exercises until after you’ve trained your back.

One of the most popular and time-honored workout splits in all of muscledom is the push-pull split, where you train muscles that push one day and those that pull the next. For instance, you could do chest, shoulders, triceps, quads, and calves on Monday, and then work back, biceps, glutes, hamstrings, and rear deltoids on Tuesday. This kind of schedule makes it easy to keep all your training in balance, and ensures that you don’t neglect any muscle groups.

Of course, you don’t have to train your whole body each day. You could do upper-body pushing one day and upper-body pulling—aka back and biceps—the next, and then a leg day later in the week. A back and biceps session fits easily into all variations of the push-pull split.

Back and Biceps Anatomy

The major muscles involved when training back and biceps include:

Back*

–Latissimus dorsi (aka, the “lats”). These are the big sheets of muscle that extend down the sides of your back and let you pull your arms downward and backward.

–Teres major. A small muscle below the shoulder that assists with drawing your arms down and back.

–Rhomboids. Upper back muscles that elevate, retract, and rotate the shoulder blades downward.

–Middle and lower trapezius (“traps”). These guys retract and depress the shoulder blades.

Biceps

– Biceps brachii: Your main biceps muscle, it twists (supinates) the wrist outward and flexes the elbow.

– Brachialis: This one lies between your biceps and triceps on the outer side of your arm. It flexes the elbow.

*When discussing “back training” in strength and conditioning circles, experts are usually referring to the upper back. The lower back—meaning the erector spinae muscles—are considered part of the core musculature, and are also involved heavily in leg exercises, such as deadlift and squat variations. You can certainly include lower-back exercises in your back and biceps workouts if you choose to, but be sure to factor in the stress that your other workouts may be putting on the area, and be careful not to overwork it.

The Best Back And Bicep Exercises

Back and biceps exercises can be broken up into different categories. There are three types of back exercises, and five types of biceps exercises.

Back

1. Horizontal pulls (rows). To understand how the back exercise categories work, picture your body in a standing position. If you pull something toward your midsection, you’re moving it along a horizontal plane. Any exercise done along that plane is a type of row—be it a seated cable row, face pull, one-arm dumbbell row, etc. Even when you change the position of your torso, such as by bending your hips back to angle it so your torso is parallel to the floor (as in a bent-over barbell row), you’re still pulling toward your body as if it were erect, and the exercise is still classified as a horizontal pull.

“Rows should make up the majority of your training volume for back,” says Rusin. “When rowing with dumbbells or handles, you can rotate the hands to achieve a more externally rotated position at the top of the pull [thumbs pointing away from you]. You can’t do that with pulldowns and pullups; with those, the shoulder has to internally rotate, and we’re already doing enough of that in everyday life through driving, texting, and typing. Our training should be trying to get us out of that, which is why I prescribe a ton more volume on horizontal pulls versus vertical.”

Target muscles: Rows effectively train all the major back muscles—lats, teres major, rhomboids, and trapezius. Developing the latter two in particular makes for a thicker, meatier back.

Exercise variations: Barbell bent-over row, one-arm dumbbell row, bodyweight row (with a suspension trainer or a barbell set up in a power rack or Smith machine), seated cable low row, T-bar row, landmine row, Meadows row, trap-bar row, chest-supported row, machine row (plate-loaded, selectorized, Smith machine), Pendlay row.

2. Vertical pulls (pullups/chinups, lat pulldowns)

Vertical pulling is a little simpler to picture than horizontal pulling. Movements that have you pull yourself upward in a straight line, or pull a bar down to meet you, are known as vertical pull exercises, and include the many pullup and lat pulldown variations.

Target muscles: Lat pulldowns and pullups emphasize the upper lats and teres major, adding width to the upper back.

Exercise variations: Wide-grip lat pulldown, neutral-grip lat pulldown, reverse-grip lat pulldown, wide-grip pullup, neutral-grip pullup, chinup, assisted pullup or chinup (using a machine or bands).

3. Isolation exercises (straight-arm pulldowns and pullovers).

While horizontal and vertical pulls are always compound lifts and involve the biceps as a secondary mover, exercises like the straight-arm pulldown and pullover, on the other hand, virtually remove biceps muscle involvement by keeping the elbows in a fixed position throughout. This allows you to zero in on the lats and various upper back muscles more directly, forcing them to do the work unassisted. “You’ll need to use lighter weight with these exercises,” says Rusin, “but the mind-muscle connection tends to be higher with these isolation movements.” That is, your ability to focus your mind on the muscles you want to train will be easier, and that improves their potential to grow.

Target muscles: Straight-arm pulldowns and pullovers emphasize the lats and teres major, with very little involvement from the biceps.

Exercise variations: Straight-arm pulldown (rope or bar attachment), one-arm straight-arm pulldown, dumbbell pullover, barbell pullover, cable pullover, dumbbell pullback.

Biceps

Because the elbow is a simple hinge joint, there’s really only one movement you can do for direct biceps training: the curl. However, curls can be manipulated through both hand and shoulder position to target the biceps (and their surrounding assisting muscles) very differently. Hence, there are five types of curls.

1. Supinated-grip curls (standard curls). In a typical barbell, dumbbell, or machine curl, the forearms are in a supinated position, with the palms facing forward at the bottom.

Target muscles: Supinated curls place the brunt of the load on the biceps brachii (the main arm muscles when you flex your elbow).

Exercise variations: Barbell curl, dumbbell curl (standing or seated), cable curl (bar attachment).

2. Neutral-grip curls (hammer curls). When you turn your wrists so that your palms face in toward your body, you’re doing a hammer curl (or some variation).

Target muscles: The brachialis muscle, which lies beneath the biceps brachii, becomes more involved in the movement, as does the brachioradialis, the meaty muscle that runs along the thumb-side of your upper forearm. However, the biceps are still the prime mover.

Exercise variations: Dumbbell hammer curl, cable hammer curl (rope attachment), neutral-bar hammer curl, cross-body hammer curl.

3. Pronated-grip curls (reverse curls). The opposite of a supinated grip, pronated curls flip your grip so that the palms face toward you in the down position and downward to the floor at the top of the lift.

Target muscles: Pronated/reverse curls hit the brachialis and brachioradialis to a greater extent than both supinated and neutral-grip curls.

Exercise variations: barbell reverse curl, dumbbell reverse curl, cable reverse curl, preacher reverse curl (dumbbell, barbell, or cable version).

4. Shoulder flexion (preacher curls). When doing curls using a preacher bench, the upper arms are locked into a position of slight shoulder flexion. Your elbows are held in front of your body.

Target muscles: The flexed shoulder position helps you better isolate the biceps, and helps establish a stronger mind-muscle connection (probably because you can watch your biceps as you train them!).

Exercise variations: Barbell/EZ-bar preacher curl, dumbbell preacher curl, machine preacher curl, cable preacher curl.

5. Shoulder extension (incline curls). In contrast to the preacher curl, you can get a greater stretch on the biceps by keeping the upper arms behind the torso (shoulder extension) throughout the curling movement. The most common way to do this is by lying back on an incline bench so that the upper arms are perpendicular to the floor throughout the movement.

Target muscles: Performing a curl while the biceps are in a stretched position puts slightly more emphasis on the long head of the biceps, the outermost portion of the muscle that provides most of the muscle’s peak when you flex it.

Exercise variations: Incline dumbbell curl, incline cable curl, standing one-arm behind-the-back cable curl.

How Many Back Exercises And Biceps Exercises Should I Do?

Although the back and biceps work together on virtually all compound upper-body pulling movements, the amount of work the two muscle groups can tolerate is vastly different. Rusin recommends anywhere from four to six exercises total for back and biceps in a given workout, using roughly a two-to-one ratio of back to biceps exercises. At the high end, this would mean four back exercises and two isolated biceps movements in a session.

“The back can be trained multiple days a week,” says Rusin. Since its muscles support your posture all day long, they’re very durable, and can recover from quite a workload. “But the biceps can’t take the same amount of training volume and frequency as the back. People often think about doing back and biceps workouts with a one-to-one ratio of exercises—doing one biceps exercise for every back exercise—but that doesn’t line up for long-term success in terms of health and results.”

Yes, the biceps are relatively small muscles, and smaller ones generally recover faster than big muscles. But the biceps act on the elbows and shoulders—two joint complexes you really don’t want to risk overworking, especially when you’re already training chest, triceps, and shoulders elsewhere in your week.

According to Rusin, “Most people simply can’t tolerate more than one day a week of dedicated biceps training in terms of shoulder and elbow health and recoverability—even the bodybuilders I work with.”

How Many Sets and Reps Should I Do for Back and Biceps?

A good rule of thumb, especially if you’re on the high end of the exercise count, is 2 to 3 working sets per exercise. A working set means not a warmup—you’re using a challenging load and going to failure, or close to it (within one or two reps of failure).

In many cases, you won’t hit the aforementioned two-to-one ratio of back to biceps exercises perfectly; for example, you may do 3 back exercises and 2 for biceps. In these instances, aim for a two-to-one ratio of total sets (in this example, 6 total sets for back and 3 for biceps).

Rusin prescribes 8 to 25 reps for back exercises (with 45–75 seconds rest between sets). For biceps, you can do 10 reps all the way up to 50 (20–45 seconds rest between them).

Rusin says you can tweak your back training to emphasize strength or maximum muscle growth (low reps for strength; moderate to extremely high reps for growth), but with biceps, there’s no need to train for strength. The elbows aren’t designed to curl ever-increasing loads, so you’ll get more out of them (and keep them healthy) by training them for hypertrophy (max muscle gain) via going for a big pump. “That’s what the biceps respond best to,” says Rusin.

How Should I Set Up A Back and Biceps Workout?

Just as important as the exercises you choose for your workout is the order you do them in. Rusin follows a simple protocol that delivers results in size and strength and minimizes the risk for injury. He calls the system the three P’s: Prime, Perform, and Pump.

1) Prime. You want to start your workout with an exercise that primes the central nervous system, essentially waking up the muscles you’re trying to train so that you can best recruit them throughout the workout. This should be a lift that you can really feel the target muscles working on. It may be an isolation lift or a compound one, but it should be done with fairly light weight so you can focus on form and making a mind-muscle connection. Done right, the priming exercise will help flush blood into the muscles and reduce your risk for injury.

For the back, straight-arm pulldowns, are a good choice. You could also go with a machine or chest-supported row (something where the body is supported and the movement is somewhat isolated). For the biceps, Rusin recommends hammer curls. Reps for both primer exercises should be in the range of 12–25.

“I always do neutral-grip curls to hit the underlying brachialis before fully lengthening out the biceps with supinated curls,” says Rusin. “So, for example, I wouldn’t do preacher curls before hammers.” Training the muscles in a stretched position when they aren’t fully activated can lead to biceps muscle pulls or elbow pain.

2) Perform. Following the prime, you’ll do one or two strength-focused lifts using heavier weights and lower reps (around 8, give or take). This is the real meat-and-potatoes of your workout, but don’t think that means you can skip the prime exercise and jump right into it.

For back, barbell and dumbbell rows are money. Pullups can also be done here, simply because Rusin says most people can’t do more than 8–15 reps of them, so they can’t go in the (next) pump phase of the workout. For biceps, barbell and dumbbell curls, or cable curls will suffice.

3) Pump. Here’s where you chase total hypertrophy and finish the muscle off using light- to moderate-weight and moderate- to high-reps.

“What we don’t want is the spine, core position, or posture to be the limiting factor in any back exercise when we’re chasing those higher rep ranges,” says Rusin. This is why an exercise like the lat pulldown is perfect here; being seated and locked into place minimizes core and postural muscle involvement. Seated cable rows, machine rows, and rows with a band are also good options.

For biceps, preacher curls, incline dumbbell curl, and band curls work well. “Any curls where you’re putting a stretch on the biceps should definitely be at the back of the workout,” says Rusin.

How To Stretch Before Doing Back and Bis

Warm up for a back and biceps workout by following these mobility drills from Onnit-certified Durability Coach Cristian Plascencia (@cristian_thedurableathlete on Instagram).

The Best Back and Biceps Workouts

All of the below workouts follow the Prime-Perform-Pump (PPP) protocol for back and biceps. Select whichever one(s) accommodates your individual fitness level and/or equipment setup. The workouts are meant to provide a basic template to illustrate the PPP concept; you can insert whichever exercises you want into the template as long as you follow the PPP guidelines.

Do only one back-and-biceps workout per week. However, advanced trainees should be able to handle additional back training during the week.

Beginner Back and Biceps Workout (Option A)

[See the video above at 00:58]

1. Straight-Arm Pulldown (Prime)

Sets: 3  Reps: 15–20

[See the video at 1:00]

See our complete guide to this movement HERE.

2. One-Arm Dumbbell Row (Perform)

Sets: 3  Reps: 8–10 (each side)

[See the video at 1:38]

Grasp a dumbbell in one hand and rest your opposite hand and knee on a bench for support. Keep a long spine from your head to your pelvis and square your shoulders to the floor.

Row the dumbbell to your hip, drawing your shoulder back and downward as you pull. Your elbow should not rise higher than your back. Lower your arm under control. Complete your reps on one side and then repeat on the other immediately.

3. Lat Pulldown (Pump)

Sets: 2  Reps: 20

[See the video at 2:08]

Sit at a pulldown station, and secure your knees under the pads. Grasp the bar with your hands outside shoulder width and your palms facing away. Drive your shoulder blades down and together as you pull the bar to your collarbone, and control its path back up.

4. Dumbbell Hammer Curl (Prime/Pump)

Sets: 3  Reps: 12–15 (each side)

[See the video at 2:27]

Stand holding a dumbbell in each hand by your side, palms facing in. Without moving your upper arms, curl the weights up until your biceps are fully contracted.

5. Preacher Curl (Pump)

Sets: 1  Reps: 25–30

[See the video at 2:45]

Sit at a preacher bench or use a preacher machine. You can do the exercise with both arms, or one arm at a time, as shown. Rest your triceps on the pad so that your elbows are near the bottom of the pad and curl the weight strictly. As you extend your elbows, stop short of straightening your arms completely.

Beginner Back and Biceps Workout (Option B)

[See the video at 03:07]

1. Lat Pulldown (Prime)

Sets: 3  Reps: 15–20 (submaximal weight)

[See the video at 3:10]

See the directions above. Use a weight that allows you to perform all the reps and a few more, but do only the prescribed number.

2. Suspension-Trainer Bodyweight Row (Perform)

Sets: 3  Reps: 8

[See the video at 3:30]

Grasp the handles of a suspension trainer with palms down and hang suspended with your legs extended in front of you. Brace your core and pull your body up until your back is fully contracted. Rotate your wrists so that your palms face up in the top position. To make the exercise easier, increase the height of the handles so your body is more vertical. To make it harder, lower the handles so you’re closer to parallel to the floor.

3. Machine Low Row (Pump)

Sets: 3  Reps: 25

[See the video at 4:01]

Attach a V-grip handle, or two individual grip handles, to the pulley of a seated cable row station. Keeping your lower back flat, reach forward and grasp the handle, allowing your shoulder blades to be stretched. Row the handle to your sternum, squeezing your shoulder blades together and downward. Lower the weight with control.

4. Cable Hammer Curl (Prime/Pump)

Sets: 3  Reps: 20

[See the video at 4:18]

Attach a rope handle to the low pulley of a cable station and grasp an end in each hand. Step back so there is tension on the cable and bend your knees slightly. Keeping your upper arms in line with your sides, curl the rope until your biceps are fully contracted, pausing for a moment at the top.

5. Dumbbell Curl (Pump)

Sets: 2  Reps: 30

[See the video at 4:40]

Stand with feet hip-width apart, holding dumbbells at your sides with palms facing forward. Keeping your upper arms at your sides, curl the weights up and hold at the top for a moment.

Advanced Back and Biceps Workout (Option A)

[See the video at 04:57]

1. Band Row (Prime)

Sets: 3  Reps: 20

[See the video at 4:58]

Attach a band to a sturdy object and grasp the other end with both hands, palms facing each other. Step back to put tension on the band, and get into an athletic stance with hips and knees bent. Row the band to your sternum and hold for a moment.

2. Bentover Row (Perform)

Sets: 3  Reps: 8–10

[See the video at 5:24]

Place a barbell on a rack set to hip level. Grasp the bar with hands shoulder width, and pull the bar out of the rack. (If you’re more experienced, and have a strong lower back, you can also deadlift the bar off the floor to start.) Step back, and set your feet hip-width apart, holding the bar at arm’s length against your thighs.

Take a deep breath, and bend your hips back—keeping your head, spine, and pelvis aligned. Bend until your torso is nearly parallel to the floor. Draw your shoulder blades back and down as you pull the bar up to your belly button.

3. Chinup (Perform)

Sets: 3  Reps: 8

[See the video at 5:54]

Hang from a chinup bar with hands shoulder-width apart and palms facing you. Draw your shoulder blades down and together as you pull yourself up until your chin is over the bar. If that’s too easy, add weight with a belt as shown.

4. Lat Pulldown (Pump)

Sets: 3  Reps: 25

[See the video at 6:11]

See the directions above.

5. Dumbbell Hammer Curl (Prime/Pump)

Sets: 3  Reps: 15–20

[See the video at 6:30]

See the directions above.

6. Barbell Curl (Pump) OR Dumbbell Curl

Sets: 3  Reps: 25–30

Stand with feet hip-width apart holding a barbell at arm’s length with palms facing up. Keeping your upper arms at your sides, curl the bar until your biceps are fully contracted.

[See the video at 6:46 for a demonstration of the dumbbell curl.]

Advanced Back and Biceps Workout (Option B)

[See the video at 07:05]

1.  Band Straight-Arm Pulldown (Prime)

Sets: 3  Reps: 15–20

[See the video at 7:07]

See our complete guide to this movement HERE.

2. Pullup (Perform)

Sets: 3  Reps: 8

[See the video at 7:53]

Perform as you did the chinup, described above, but with hands outside shoulder width and palms facing away from you.

3. Meadows Row (Perform)

Sets: 3  Reps: 10

[See the video at 8:09]

Set up a barbell in a landmine unit, or wedge one end into a corner. Stand perpendicular to the bar and stagger your stance, bending down to reach the bar with your lower back flat—head, spine, and pelvis should be aligned. Grasp the bar overhand and row it to your side. You should feel a stretch in your lat in the down position.

4. Lat Pulldown (Pump)

Sets: 3  Reps: 25

[See the video at 8:37]

See the directions above.

5. Cable Hammer Curl (Prime/Pump)

Sets: 3  Reps: 20

[See the video at 8:57]

See the directions above.

6. Preacher Curl (Pump)

Sets: 3  Reps: 40–50

[See the video at 9:20]

See the directions above.

At-Home Back and Biceps Workout

[See the video at 09:41]

1. Band Straight-Arm Pulldown (Prime)

Sets: 3  Reps: 20

[See the video at 9:42]

See our complete guide to this movement HERE.

2. Suspension-Trainer Bodyweight Row (Perform)

Sets: 3  Reps: 8–10

[See the video at 10:36]

See the directions above.

3. Band Row (Pump)

Sets: 3  Reps: 25

[See the video at 11:06]

See the directions above.

4. Band Hammer Curl (Prime/Pump)

Sets: 2  Reps: 30

[See the video at 11:23]

Perform hammer curls as described above, but holding an elastic exercise band.

5. Suspension Trainer Curl (Pump)

Sets: 2  Reps: 20–30

[See the video at 11:43]

Set up as you would to do the suspended bodyweight row described above, but curl the handles to your shoulders. Keep your shoulder blades drawn back together and downward throughout the exercise. Brace your core as well.

The post 5 Killer Back and Bicep Workouts For Building Muscle appeared first on Onnit Academy.

What Is The Straight-Arm Pulldown?

The straight-arm pulldown exercise is a variation of the classic lat-pulldown. In this case, you perform the movement standing and keep your elbows locked out the entire time. The straight-arm pulldown trains the latissimus dorsi through a long range of motion, and is helpful for people who have trouble feeling their backs work on conventional pulldown exercises. As a result, it’s a great movement for focusing on lat development.

How To Do The Straight-Arm Pulldown

Step 1: Attach a rope handle to the high pulley of a cable station. Grasp an end in each hand and face the cable station.

Step 2: Draw your shoulder blades back together and down, as if you were trying to stuff them into your back pockets. Think: “proud chest.”

Step 3: Draw your ribs down, tuck your tailbone under, and brace your core muscles. Your torso should feel like one tight, solid column. Bend your hips back until your torso is at a 30–45-degree angle.

Step 4: Step back from the station a bit so that you feel tension on the cable and your arms are fully extended overhead. You should feel a stretch on your lats (the muscles along the sides of your back). Set your feet at shoulder width.

Step 5: Slowly drive your arms down to your sides in an arcing motion with elbows locked out, so your hands end up in line with your hips, or just behind them.

Step 6: Reverse the motion slowly to extend your arms again.

The straight-arm pulldown may also be done with a lat-bar or straight-bar attachment, but the rope allows for better shoulder positioning and a slightly greater range of motion. As a result, you’ll get greater muscle activation. If possible, use two rope attachments on the same cable so that you can use a wider grip and get an even greater contraction in the end position. Another option is to use a band, which will increase tension in the end range of motion, helping you get a greater contraction at the bottom of the movement. You can also do this exercise as a single arm lat pulldown to further work the muscles involved.

In any case, it’s important to keep the elbows extended, as any bending will cause the triceps to get involved and reduce the involvement of the lats.

Muscles Worked in the Straight-Arm Pulldown

• Lats
• Upper back
• Rear deltoid
• Triceps
• Chest
• Core

Straight-Arm Pulldown Benefits

• Enhanced mind-muscle connection. The straight-arm pulldown is ideal for lifters who can’t feel their lats working on traditional pulldown exercises. Keeping the arms straight prevents the mid-back and biceps from taking over the movement, so you can focus on the lat muscles you’re trying to work more directly.
• Greater range of motion than standard pulldowns.
• Improved stability on deadlifts. The straight-arm pulldown strengthens the lats in the same way that they’re used when deadlifting—pulling the bar tight to your body (“bending” it around the shins at the bottom of the lift/around the hips at the top). The ability to keep the bar in contact with your body throughout a deadlift creates a stronger, more stable movement and reduces the risk of injury.

When to Use The Straight-Arm Pulldown

• Perform the straight-arm pulldown before deadlifts or other back exercises to prepare your lats for the effort and enhance their muscle recruitment. Because it provides an intense lat stretch at the top (starting) position, the straight-arm pulldown is also useful at the beginning of a workout to improve back and shoulder mobility.
• Try it at the end of a workout for 2–3 sets of 10–15 reps. This will pump an enormous amount of blood into the area, which by itself may be a mechanism for muscle growth.
• Use it in place of rows or pulldowns if you have a lower-back injury. The movement is isolated to flexion and extension of the shoulders, so it prevents unwanted motion or stress in the lower back.

How To Stretch Before The Straight-Arm Pulldown

While the straight-arm pulldown can stretch your lats and increase mobility on its own, you should warm up your upper body before you perform it. The following video, courtesy of Onnit-certified Durability Coach, Cristian Plascencia, is a sample routine you can use before an upper-body or back workout. (Follow Cristian on Instagram, @cristiangplascencia).

Regression

If you feel like back muscles other than your lats are taking over the straight-arm pulldown, reduce the load you’re using, or try them with a band instead of a cable. You can also perform the movement while standing up more vertically, which will place less of a stretch on your lats but will make the movement easier to control.

Progression

To make the straight-arm pulldown harder, use a longer rope or two rope handles at once to increase your range of motion.

What Alternatives Are There To The Straight-Arm Pulldown?

If you don’t have a cable station or band at your disposal, you can use the following substitutes to get a similar training effect to the straight-arm pulldown.

Dumbbell or kettlebell pullover. Lying on a bench and pulling the weight from behind your head to over your chest stretches the lats, but will also involve the chest and triceps to a degree, which isn’t ideal if your goal is ultimate lat development.

Gironda Pulldown. This pulldown/row combination works the back hard, but doesn’t provide the same lat isolation that the straight-arm pulldown does.

The post Master This Move: The Straight-Arm Pulldown Exercise appeared first on Onnit Academy.

Case in point: the rhomboids. In terms of back musculature, the lats—those big sheets of muscle on the sides of your back, often called the “wings”—are the big man on campus. But if you neglect the rhomboids, it will come back to haunt you by way of poor posture, decreased performance on big upper-body lifts like rows and the bench press, and, eventually, shoulder and/or elbow injury.

Give your rhomboids the attention they deserve, however, and you’ll feel better, walk a little taller (from better posture), and even lift more weight, resulting in a bigger, stronger upper body.

What Are Your Rhomboids?

The rhomboids are a pair of upper-back muscles—rhomboid minor, and, directly below it, the larger rhomboid major—that run diagonally from the cervical and thoracic vertebrae of the spine down to the scapulas (shoulder blades) on each side of the body. (They’re rhombus shaped, hence the name.) Despite sitting relatively high up on the back of the body, the rhomboids are often referred to as a “middle back” muscle, because you tend to feel the middle of your back when you do exercises that work them.

The rhomboids are small and thin. They’re dwarfed by the huge latissimus dorsi (lats) and the trapezius (traps) that lie over them. Their unimpressive size and low potential for growth is one reason the rhomboids are often disregarded and undertrained. The lats get all the love on back day.

Another reason is that you can barely see the rhomboids. They’re hidden by the trapezius (particularly the middle and upper portions of the traps) and are virtually impossible to detect unless you’re looking at a high-definition image of a very lean and well-developed physique.

The primary purpose of the rhomboids (both major and minor) is to hold the shoulder blades to the vertebrae in the spine. Their main function is scapular retraction, meaning that they pull the shoulder blades back and together, such as at the end of a properly executed rowing exercise or lat pulldown. The rhomboids also help to raise the shoulder blades up, as in a shrugging motion, as well as draw the shoulder blades downward, such as in a pullup/pulldown motion.

Why Work Out Your Rhomboids?

The rhomboids get worked during back exercises you no doubt already do, but the truth is, they have a low ceiling for growth. No matter what you do, they’re not going to get big and beefy. So why care about strengthening the rhomboids? The answer isn’t sexy, but it’s crucial: because weak rhomboids lead to loss of scapular control. When this happens, the shoulder blades don’t move properly, and that results in injury.

“The rhomboids don’t work in isolation, but they’re part of the whole story of scapular control,” says Ryan Chow, DPT, a physical therapist at Reload Physical Therapy in New York. “If you don’t have scapular control due to lack of rhomboid contribution, you have to pick it up from somewhere else—meaning, other muscles are going to have to do a job they’re not prepared to do and can get worn out as a result. Loss of scapular control leads to excessive motion in the shoulder joint, and could even lead to elbow problems down the road.”

According to John Rusin, PT, DPT, CSCS, owner of John Rusin Fitness Systems, one of the consequences of undertrained rhomboids setting off a chain reaction in your body is “tightness in the neck and upper back that can lead to postural imbalances and incomplete breathing.”

Bad posture is an epidemic these days, due in large part to the constant hunched-forward shoulder position we assume when using our cell phones, typing at a computer, and holding the steering wheel while driving. Focusing too much on upper-body pressing exercises (i.e., bench press, military press) rather than pulling ones (pulldowns, pullups, rows) in the gym only exacerbates the issue.

Increasing the volume of pulling exercises you do can help develop the rhomboids, but this usually just results in greater buildup of the lats, since the body recruits big, strong muscles to do any task they can for the sake of efficiency. The lats don’t attach to the shoulder blades, so postural imbalance may or may not be improved. The only way to make sure the rhomboids get worked sufficiently is to hit them with exercises that really isolate the area.

How To Train The Rhomboids

The key to targeting the rhomboids is pulling the shoulder blades back and together (scapular retraction), and then squeezing the muscles in that retracted position; this is what should occur at the end of a row. However, most people don’t achieve a full range of motion on their rows, let alone squeeze the contraction in the rhomboids. This is often times because they’re going too heavy. When you lift heavier than you’re ready to, you can’t drive your shoulders and elbows back far enough on a row for the rhomboids to fully engage.

Lightening the load on your rows is a good place to start when you’re trying to target the rhomboids. Less weight will make it easier to keep good form and concentrate on the rhomboid contraction. To train the rhomboid muscles through the greatest range of motion possible, Chow strongly recommends unilateral (one-arm) rows with a rotation at the top.

“I like using T-spine rotation to improve the amount of retraction you get,” says Chow. For instance, on a dumbbell row, after you pull the weight to your side, follow the momentum of the lift by twisting your working shoulder slightly away from the floor. “If you row with both arms at the same time, you’re not going to be able to cover as much range of motion,” says Chow. “By rotating while doing rows one arm at a time, you can protract the opposite side [move the opposite shoulder forward], which allows you to retract the working side even further.”

Because the rhomboids are involved in initiating downward rotation of the scapula, you also want to pull the shoulder blades down (while retracting them) when doing rows and even lat pulldowns. “Don’t let the shoulders come up toward the ears during a set,” says Chow.

“The shoulder blades need to move fully on the thoracic cage,” adds Rusin. “Not just down and back, but with rotation. Think of tucking your scaps into your back pockets when you do back exercises.”

Chow offers another important technique cue: keep your spine in a neutral position when you do any pulldown or row movement. “Don’t arch the lower back,” he says, citing a common mistake people make when doing rows, “and don’t let the upper back slouch.” You want your spine in a straight line so that you don’t risk injury to spinal discs. “You sometimes hear lifters using a ‘chest out’ or ‘big chest’ cue, but if you focus on that, it could cause you to arch the lower back. You don’t want that excessive lumbar extension.”

How To Stretch Your Rhomboids and Back

Use the following warmup drills from Onnit Durability Coach Cristian Plascencia (@cristian_thedurableathlete on Instagram) to prepare your body (and rhomboids, specifically) for any back training you do.

The Best Rhomboid Exercises for Strengthening Your Back

Below are three specific exercises, prescribed by Chow and Rusin, that will sufficiently target the rhomboids for improved posture, injury prevention, and strength and muscle gains.

1) Face Pull

Face pulls have become a popular prehab exercise among lifters because they activate the upper back musculature to improve posture and shoulder health. They do this, in part, by hitting the rhomboids, training both scapular retraction and downward scapular rotation.

Step 1. Secure a rope attachment to a cable pulley set to around forehead height. (You can also loop a resistance band around a sturdy object and grasp the free end with both hands.)

Step 2. Grasp the ends of the rope (just above the knots/rubber stoppers) with a palms-down grip, and step back from the cable column to create tension. Start with your body square to the machine, arms fully extended out in front of you, feet in line with each other, and knees slightly bent for stability.

Step 3. Contract your back muscles and bend your elbows to pull the rope straight toward your face, letting your hands go off to the sides of your head at around ear level. Your elbows should point outward.

Step 4. At the end of the range of motion, squeeze your shoulders blades together (retraction) and hold for a second or two. Reverse the motion to slowly return to the start position, and repeat for reps.

Do face pulls at the beginning of your back workout to activate the rhomboids, so that they’ll be primed to kick in harder on bigger exercises like rows, pulldowns, and pullups. Perform 2–3 sets of 15–20 reps, using a light-weight.

2) High-Angle, One-Arm Cable Row

In this exercise, the rhomboids are worked with constant tension. The cables create a slightly diagonal line of pull from high to low to capitalize on scapular downward rotation. You’ll also get torso (T-spine) rotation at the top of each rep to achieve full retraction of the rhomboids.

Step 1. Secure a D-handle attachment to a cable pulley and position it on the column at around eye level (to create a downward line of pull).

Step 2. Grasp the handle with one hand and step back from the column to put tension on the cable. With your body facing the machine, start with your working arm fully extended, your feet in a split stance (the one opposite of the working arm in front) and your knees slightly bent. Your torso should be at a slight forward angle, with your back straight. 

Step 3. Maintaining a neutral wrist position (palm facing in), contract your back muscles to pull the handle in close to your side, just above your waist. Keep your core tight to maintain a rigid torso.

Step 4. As you approach the end of the rep, rotate your torso to open up your working shoulder to the side. Hold the end position for a second or two, squeezing the contraction in the rhomboids (upper-middle back), then slowly reverse the motion to return to the start position. Repeat for reps, then switch sides.

Do this exercise near the end of your back workout, after heavier rowing movements, lat pulldowns, and/or pullups. Perform 2–3 sets of 15 reps, using a light-to-moderate weight.

3) Suspension-Trainer Reverse “Y” Fly

Unlike the first two exercises, this is a single-joint movement, where the arms are essentially removed from the action; the rhomboids, after all, have nothing to do with elbow flexion. The suspension trainer offers the challenge of having you lift your own bodyweight, but the exercise can be made less difficult simply by moving your feet away from the anchor point for a more upright torso.

There are two main variations of bodyweight reverse flyes: Ts (where you extend your arms straight out to the sides) and Ys (you raise the arms diagonally upward). Rusin prefers Ys for hitting the rhomboids. “The higher angle triggers more upward rotation of the scapulas [at the start of the movement] for a better stretch and gives you full range of motion of the rhomboids.”

Step 1. Grasp the handles of a suspension trainer hanging from a high anchor point (above your head).

Step 2. Keeping your body in a straight line, lean back so your torso is around 45 degrees to the floor with your arms fully extended. (The more upright your torso is, the less difficult the movement will be; move your feet forward and back to find the appropriate resistance.)

Step 3. Keeping your elbows extended, contract your back muscles to pull your arms overhead and back in a Y shape, so you lift your body just shy of vertical.

Step 4. Squeeze your shoulder blades together for a second or two, and keep them pulled down. Then slowly lower your arms to the start position. Repeat for reps.

The Y raise can be done either early in your back workout (as a pre-exhaust) or near the end—after rows, pulldowns, and/or pullups. Perform 2–3 sets of 10–15 reps, using a body position that allows for controlled movements and proper form.

How Do You Treat A Strained Rhomboid?

Injury to the rhomboids can result from playing sports or routinely carrying heavy objects with less than perfect posture—such as a backpack, gym bag, or heavy equipment. Rhomboid strains are usually caused by overuse.

According to Chow, one of the most obvious signs of a strained rhomboid muscle is a sharp pain in the upper/middle-back area when taking a deep breath. Symptoms can also include general tightness and tenderness in the area. The most straight-forward treatment is to ice the area multiple times per day for around 20 minutes each. Aside from that, there are three other treatment methods that may help as well: isometric training, deep breathing, and foam rolling.

1) Isometric Training

To train a muscle isometrically means to squeeze it, so the muscle isn’t shortening or lengthening, but tensing in a static position. “The tension will provide an analgesic effect,” says Chow, “and increase blood flow to jumpstart the healing process.” Even though you’re technically working an injured muscle, Chow says that simply tensing it isometrically shouldn’t irritate it (but, of course, stop if it does).

Chow notes that the isometric exercises he uses to treat a strained rhomboid vary from client to client. But each of the three movements described above can be done isometrically by holding the end position of the rep (using a light weight) for anywhere from 10 to 30 seconds at a time for 3–5 sets.

2) Deep Breathing

Deep breathing drills are often prescribed for general stress reduction in the context of meditation and yoga, but Chow and Rusin both recommend them for treating a strained rhomboid.

“A strain will cause incomplete inhalation due to a protective mechanism on the rib cage,” says Rusin, “where the rhomboids are local to.” Within a few days after you get injured, your breathing patterns will most likely have shortened. “Therefore, deep breathing strategies are a must for ensuring that the dysfunctional breathing pattern doesn’t stay around.”

There are any number of ways to practice deep breathing. Here’s one method, via our Star Wars Fuel Your Force program.

3) Foam Rolling

Self-myofascial release (SMR) techniques like foam rolling can provide effective treatment to injured areas by, in Rusin’s words, “reducing neurological tone in the targeted muscle tissue,” which essentially reduces tightness and helps the muscles relax.

For a strained rhomboid, Rusin recommends his 3-Way Thoracic Spine Foam Rolling series. Here’s a short 30-second video demonstrating the three drills, courtesy of Rusin’s YouTube channel:

The post The Best Rhomboid Exercises to Get A Chiseled Back appeared first on Onnit Academy.

What Muscles Am I Working?

The shoulder muscles are called the deltoids (or delts, for short). They’re triangle-shaped and originate at the collarbones, acromion joints, spine, and shoulder blades, and insert onto the humerus bones. Each deltoid muscle has three heads—that is, portions of the muscle that have separate sets of muscle fibers and perform a separate, distinct function.

Front deltoid. This portion of the muscle lies on the front of the shoulder, above the pectorals. It flexes the shoulder, raising the arm in front of the body and assists the pecs (chest) and lats (back) in rotating it internally. All pressing exercises, as well as front raise movements, will emphasize the front delts.

Lateral deltoid. The middle-head of the deltoid appears on the outermost side of the shoulder, between the front and rear delts. (Interestingly, while gym rats often refer to it as the “medial delt,” this term is technically inaccurate, as it’s actually the portion of the muscle that is furthest from the midline of the body.) The lateral deltoid raises the arm out to the side when the shoulder is internally rotated. It also does this when the shoulder is externally rotated (such as when your elbows are bent 90 degrees and you move your arms apart—imagine a “stick up” position, and you’re the one getting robbed!). Lateral raises are the primary exercise for hitting the middle (“side”) delts.

Posterior deltoid. The rear delt sits on the back side of the shoulder. It helps the lats extend the shoulder, moving your arm behind you, as in a rowing motion.

Benefits Of Working Out Your Shoulders

Should you require them to, strong shoulders will do more than make you look athletic in sleeveless shirts and tops. They help you carry all kinds of heavy things (groceries, luggage, your toddler), as well as reach, throw, punch, and press things. Best of all, they can help to prevent injury in any sports you play, even if they’re just weekend warrior activities like golf or softball. The shoulder joints are highly mobile, but as a consequence, are some of the most unstable joints in the body. Strong detloids help to hold them in position, and allow the the shoulders to absorb force more safely.

According to a 2013 study, since the year 2000, serious shoulder injuries have increased by five times among youth baseball and softball players. Strength training the shoulders is one of the best preventive measures to reduce injury risk.

The Best Shoulder-Strengthening Exercises

The following are my picks for the best shoulder moves for women.

#1 Lateral Raise

You know these already. There may be no better exercise for hitting the lateral head of the deltoid—the middle part that really gives your shoulders some width when looking at them from the front. If you feel a little pinch in your shoulders doing these, try bending your hips a bit so your torso leans forward. This should alleviate some pressure on the joints. Another tip: don’t squeeze the dumbbell handles too hard. Think of your hands as merely hooks to hold the weight. That way, your deltoids will take on more of the load (it won’t be dispersed to your hands and forearms).

Dumbbell lateral raises are tried and true, but you can also perform the lateral raise motion one arm at a time using a barbell in a landmine unit. In this instance, you lift the bar as if it were a long lever, which offers a number of benefits. For one thing, the movement becomes more strict—you can’t really get sloppy and swing the weight up like you might have a tendency to do with dumbbells. For another, you get to work the deltoids in three planes of motion in the same exercise. Most shoulder moves have you lifting weights either out to the sides or overhead, but a landmine lateral raise has a bar path that goes forward and rotates to the side—so it works all the deltoid musculature while still isolating the stress of the exercise to the shoulder. For more on this movement, see The Best Full-Gym Shoulder Workout For Women below.

#2 Landmine Press

There’s nothing wrong with pressing a barbell overhead, but some people find that it can irritate their shoulders, wrists, and elbows. Performing the same motion with a barbell in a landmine allows you to use a neutral grip, which lets your humerus bone glide through your shoulder joints more smoothly (there’s less risk of impingement). The press is also done on an arc, a more natural movement that strengthens the deltoids with less stress on the joints, and, in some cases, may even give you greater range of motion.

Landmine presses are great for getting your shoulder blades to move when you press, which doesn’t happen when you press off a bench or with some machines. Shoulder blade movement is important for any athletic activity you do (throwing, punching, etc.) You can do landmine presses with both arms, one arm at a time, standing up, or, as we show above and in the Full-Gym Shoulder Workout, in a half-kneeling position, which is good for learning the exercise, training your core, and stretching out your hip flexors to boot.

#3 Band Pull-Apart

You’ve heard the expression that too much of anything is not good for you, and that certainly applies to most exercises—but it isn’t so with the band pull-apart. It works the rear delts as well as the upper back, and since these areas are a weak point in virtually everyone, and pull-aparts aren’t stressful to any joints, you can pretty much do them as much as you want. The more total reps you do, the better your posture will become, and the more you’ll fill out the back of your shoulders (which probably look somewhat lopsided, as most of us inadvertently do much more work for the front delts than we do for the rear).

Pull-aparts are also easy to progress and regress. Choke up on the band more to increase the difficulty, and widen your grip to make it easier. You can even do both in the same set, starting with a lot of band tension and then reducing it as you fatigue to keep pumping out reps. As you only need a band to perform them, the pull-apart is easily done at home, so it appears in our At-Home Workout below.

#4 Rear-Delt Fly

These work similarly to the pull-apart, but can be done with dumbbells, cables, or even gymnastics rings. To really emphasize the rear delts, do them with your upper back rounded and your chest supported on a bench—don’t let your shoulder blades pinch together as you raise the weights; just lift with the shoulders and stop short of 90 degrees. To hit the rear delts and upper back together, lift all the way to 90 degrees and squeeze your back at the top (as shown above). Variations of the rear-delt fly appear in every workout to ensure balanced shoulder development.

How to Stretch Out Before Training Your Shoulders

Onnit Durability Coach Natalie Higby (@nat.trill.fit on Instagram) offers these two mobility drills to increase range of motion and stability in your shoulders and upper back.

The Best Bodyweight Shoulder Workout For Women

Pressing exercises are most people’s main go-to for shoulder training, but pushup variations work the deltoids hard as well. Change the angles you push at, and you can hit every corner of the delts. Another benefit of pushups is that they’re a closed-chain exercise. Because your hands are fixed to the ground when you do pushup exercises, you get greater overall muscle activation. Every rep not only works the shoulders, but your core as well, since it must fire to stabilize your bodyweight during the movement. The following routine requires only a floor and a wall to complete.

Directions
The workout is made up of 2 circuits. To perform a circuit, do one set for each exercise in the group, resting briefly between each, and then rest a minute (or more if needed) after you’ve completed the last exercise in the group. Repeat for the prescribed number of sets, and then go on to the next circuit.

After you’ve done both circuits, do the wall walkup as the last exercise.

Circuit #1

1. Plank Shoulder Tap

Sets: 3  Reps: 16–20

Step 1. Get into pushup position—hands under your shoulders and legs extended behind you. Tuck your pelvis slightly so that it’s perpendicular to the floor and brace your abs.

Step 2. Holding the position, alternate reaching one hand up to tap the opposite shoulder. Each tap is one rep.

2. Pike Pushup

Sets: 3  Reps: 10

Step 1. Get into pushup position and bend your hips, sending your butt up in the air as high as possible. Spread your fingers wide and push into the floor to activate your shoulders.

Step 2. Lower your head toward the floor until the top of it touches down gently. Tuck your elbows toward your sides as you lower. Press your body back up.

3. Superman Y-Raise

Sets: 3  Reps: 12

Step 1. Lie facedown on the floor and extend your arms in front of you to form a Y shape with thumbs pointing up.

Step 2. Raise your chest and legs off the floor, contracting your lower back and driving your shoulder blades down and together as you lift your arms up. Hold for a moment, and then return to the floor.

Circuit #2

1. Bear Pushup

Sets: 4  Reps: 8–10

Step 1. Get into pushup position, and then bend your knees and push your hips back so that your butt is close to your heels (you’ll look like a bear stretching its back).

Step 2. Push yourself forward again and lower into the bottom position of a pushup.

Step 3. Push yourself back up and into the bear position again.

2. Superman T-Raise

Sets: 4  Reps: 12

Step 1. Lie on the floor face down and extend your arms out 90 degrees to your sides.

Step 2. Raise your torso off the floor while simultaneously lifting your legs. Hold for a moment, and then return to the floor.

Finisher

Wall Walkup

Sets: 4  Reps: 10

Step 1. Get into pushup position with your feet touching a wall behind you. Tuck your tailbone slightly so that your pelvis is perpendicular to the floor and brace your abs.

Step 2. Begin walking your feet up the wall behind you as you push your body backward. Go as far up the wall as you can while keeping your core tight—don’t let your lower back overextend. Walk your hands forward again to return your body to the floor. Go slowly and control the movement. Each trip up the wall and back is one rep.

If this feels too easy, add a handstand pushup at the top position, when your torso is nearly vertical against the wall.

The Best At-Home Shoulder Workout For Women

This routine works whether you have a well-equipped home gym or are visiting your geat Aunt Tilly and only have access to two rusty, pink dumbbells she’s been using as a doorstop in the guest room. You’ll need to get some elastic exercise bands (if you don’t travel with them already, start!), but the weighted exercises don’t need much load to be effective. If you’re stuck with really light weights, just perform your reps more slowly, and really focus on making your form perfect. You can also shorten your rest periods between exercises and circuits to increase the intensity.

Directions

The workout is made up of 3 circuits. To perform a circuit, do one set for each exercise in the group, resting briefly between each, and then rest a minute (or more if needed) after you’ve completed the last exercise in the group. Repeat for the prescribed number of sets, and then go on to the next circuit.

Circuit #1

1. Banded Face Pull

Sets: 3  Reps: 10

Step 1. Attach an elastic exercise band to a sturdy object at about face level. Grasp the loop end with both hands and step back to put tension on the band. Bend your knees slightly to help you keep balance, and maintain an upright torso.

Step 2. Pull the band toward you until your upper back is fully contracted, and then control its return as you extend your arms.

2. Band Pull-Apart

Sets: 3  Reps: 10

Step 1. Hold a band with hands shoulder-width apart. Extend your arms in front of you. Draw your shoulder blades together and downward (think: “proud chest”).

Step 2. Extend your arms out to your sides, pulling the band apart.

Circuit #2

1. Overhead Press

Sets: 4  Reps: 10

Step 1. Hold a barbell with hands shoulder-width apart. You can take the bar off a rack, or, if you don’t have one, simply pick the bar up off the floor and clean it to shoulder level. Stand with feet shoulder-width apart and tuck your tailbone slightly so that your pelvis is parallel to the floor. Draw your ribs down and brace your core.

Step 2. Press the bar overhead, pushing your head forward as the bar clears it so that the bar ends up just behind your head in the lockout position.

Note: am empty barbell may be enough load for you, especially if it’s an Olympic bar (45 pounds), but any type of barbell is OK. If you don’t have a barbell at home, perform the same movement with two dumbbells.

2. Bottoms-Up Press

Sets: 4  Reps: 10

Step 1. Hold a light kettlebell in each hand by its handle and clean them up to shoulder level so they’re balancing upside down. (You’ll have to squeeze the handles hard to keep them balanced.) Stand with feet shoulder-width apart and tuck your tailbone slightly so that your pelvis is parallel to the floor. Draw your ribs down and brace your core.

Step 2. Press the weights overhead to lockout, and then lower them with control back to your shoulders.

3. YTL

Sets: 4  Reps: 10 (each letter)

Step 1. Hold small weight plates or very light dumbbells (3 pounds is good) and lie chest-down on a bench. Extend your arms toward the floor.

Step 2. Draw your shoulder blades down and together as you raise your arms up to form a Y shape, level with the floor. Repeat for reps.

Step 3. Raise your arms out 90 degrees to form a T shape. Repeat for reps.

Step 4. Bend your elbows 90 degrees and draw your shoulders down and back, rowing the weights to your sides. Rotate your forearms to face forward (your arms will form an L shape). Repeat for reps.

Circuit #3

1. Lateral Raise

Sets: 3  Reps: 10–12

Step 1. Hold a dumbbell in each hand and stand with feet shoulder-width apart. Bend your hips back slightly while keeping a long spine from your head to your hips.

Step 2. Keeping a slight bend in your elbows, raise your arms out 90 degrees to your sides.

2. 3-Way Shoulder Raise

Sets: 3  Reps: 8–10

Step 1. Hold a dumbbell in each hand and stand with feet shoulder-width apart. Raise the weights out 90 degrees to your sides (a normal lateral raise).

Step 2. From the top of the lateral raise, rotate your arms to face forward (as in a front raise).

Step 3. Raise your arms straight overhead (as in the top of an overhead press).

Step 4. Reverse the entire movement, lowering your arms back in front of you, then reaching out to your sides, and then lowering them to your sides. That’s one rep.

3. Dumbbell Rear-Delt Fly

Sets: 3  Reps: 10

Step 1. Hold a dumbbell in each hand and stand with feet shoulder-width apart. Bend your hips back—while keeping a long spine from your head to your pelvis—until your torso is about parallel to the floor.

Step 2. Draw your shoulder blades back together and downward as you raise the dumbbells out 90 degrees.

The Best Full-Gym Shoulder Workout For Women

If you have access to a fully-stocked gym, you have the greatest number of options at your disposal for the best possible workout. This includes a landmine unit, which will allow you to turn the good, old-fashioned barbell into a more sophisticated piece of exercise equipment with a variety of great uses. (If your gym doesn’t have a landmine, fear not—a corner in the room will work too).

Using the barbell with a landmine will make the lateral raise—a classic dumbbell move—into a three-dimensional exercise that will hit your deltoids in a brand new way, while reducing strain on the shoulder joints. The landmine also makes for more joint-friendly pressing. To that end, I’ll also have you using a power rack—another piece of equipment you’ll likely only be able to access in a gym. Doing barbell overhead presses against the support beams of the rack mimics a Smith machine press, but you still have to control the bar path. This gives you the best of both worlds: the stable, isolated shoulder hit you’d get from machine training, plus the muscle activation and strength component of free weights.

Directions
The workout is made up of 3 circuits. To perform a circuit, do one set for each exercise in the group, resting briefly between each, and then rest a minute (or more if needed) after you’ve completed the last exercise in the group. Repeat for the prescribed number of sets, and then go on to the next circuit.

Circuit #1

1. Landmine Raise

Sets: 3  Reps: 8–10 (each side)

Step 1. Set up a barbell in a landmine unit, or wedge one end into the corner of a wall. Grasp the very end of the sleeve (where you load the weight plates) and stand with feet shoulder-width apart with the end of the bar in front of your hips.

Step 2. Raise your arm up 90 degrees as you would in a normal lateral raise. Note that you’ll probably only be able to use the empty bar or very light weight. Don’t try to go heavy.

2. Half-Kneeling One-Arm Landmine Press

Sets: 3  Reps: 10 (each side)

Step 1. Stand in front of the barbell in a landmine unit, and get into a lunge position with your right leg in front. Lower your body so you rest on one knee in front of the bar, and pick it up to shoulder level with your left hand. Tuck your tailbone slightly so that your pelvis is parallel to the floor and brace your abs. Draw your shoulder blades back together and downward (think: “proud chest”).

Step 2. Press the bar overhead in a semi-circular motion. Think “around the world.” Maintain a tight core and your upright body position and keep your balance.

Circuit #2

1. Scrape-The-Rack Press

Sets: 3  Reps: 10

Step 1. Set a barbell up in a power rack at about face level. Stand with legs staggered and feet shoulder-width apart. Grasp the bar with hands shoulder-width, wrists straight, and elbows pointing down. Draw your shoulder blades down and together and tuck your tailbone slightly so that your pelvis is parallel to the floor. Brace your abs.

Step 2. Press the bar out of the rack and overhead while scraping it against the support beams. You want there to be friction, so push the bar forward as well as overhead. Lower it down the same way.

2. 3-Way Shoulder Raise

Sets: 3  Reps: 10

Step 1. Hold a dumbbell in each hand and stand with feet shoulder-width apart. Raise the weights out 90 degrees to your sides (a normal lateral raise).

Step 2. From the top of the lateral raise, rotate your arms to face forward (as in a front raise).

Step 3. Raise your arms straight overhead (as in the top of an overhead press).

Step 4. Reverse the entire movement, lowering your arms back in front of you, then reaching out to your sides, and then lowering them to your sides. That’s one rep.

3. YTL

Sets: 3  Reps: 8 (each letter)

Step 1. Hold small weight plates or very light dumbbells (3 pounds is good) and lie chest-down on a bench. Extend your arms toward the floor.

Step 2. Draw your shoulder blades down and together as you raise your arms up to form a Y shape, level with the floor. Repeat for reps.

Step 3. Raise your arms out 90 degrees to form a T shape. Repeat for reps.

Step 4. Bend your elbows 90 degrees and draw your shoulders down and back, rowing the weights to your sides. Rotate your forearms to face forward (your arms will form an L shape). Repeat for reps.

Circuit #3

1. Dual-Cable Rear Delt Fly

Sets: 4  Reps: 12

Step 1. Cross your arms in front of you and grasp the ends of the cables on two facing cable stations. Step away from the machines to put tension on the cables.

Step 2. Draw your arms out 90 degrees to your sides, squeezing your shoulder blades together at the end of the range of motion.

2. Cable Rope Front Shoulder Raise

Sets: 4  Reps: 10–12

Step 1. Attach a rope handle to the low pulley of a cable station and straddle it with feet shoulder-width apart. Grasp an end of the rope in each hand.

Step 2. Raise the handle in front of you with arms extended. Go up to shoulder level, and then lower back under control.

The post The Best Shoulder Exercises and Workouts For Women appeared first on Onnit Academy.

Rumor has it, however, that such development is genetic—you have the potential for it or you don’t. Some trainers say that an impressive inner chest is a product of steroid use, and that “natty” lifters just can’t isolate their pecs well enough to etch that kind of definition into their muscles.

But the truth is that—with dedicated, consistent effort—anyone CAN carve out a deeper inner-pec groove. Getting there primarily comes down to mastering three inner pec-focused exercises, and adding one chest workout per week to your routine.

Why Work Out Your Inner Chest?

It’s easy to joke about “guy cleavage,” but most men can’t deny that they would like to have the lines and edges you see on the inner pecs of bodybuilders and physique competitors. Called striations, they make the chest look more imposing and complete, sending the message that you’re a serious lifter who’s put his/her time in at the gym—you’re not just another “bro” or poseur.

But trying to target a specific portion of any muscle is a touchy subject in the strength and conditioning community. “Once a muscle fiber is contracted, there’s an all-or-nothing phenomenon,” says John Rusin, D.P.T., C.S.C.S., creator of Functional Hypertrophy Training. “If you recruit some portion of the pec, you’re going to recruit it all.” In the case of the chest, the same nerves that control the inner part of the pecs activate all the other regions—the upper, lower, and outer pecs. “So, the science will tell you, no, you can’t truly isolate one part of a muscle. But there are ways to target the inner pec fibers to help build that area.”

Rusin says that by focusing your mind on contracting a specific area of muscle (what bodybuilders call the mind-muscle connection, see below), and using exercises that stress contractions in the places you want to target, it is possible to emphasize very specific portions of that muscle for potentially greater development.

Anatomy of the Inner Chest

When it comes to working the inner chest, we’re technically only talking about one pair of muscles: the pectoralis majors. These are the big chest muscles that attach to the sternum. There’s a second pec muscle on each side—the pectoralis minor—but it’s smaller, and doesn’t reach the sternum, so it doesn’t need to be targeted when trying to bring up the inner chest.

The space between where the two pec majors attach at the sternum forms a vertical column. For a well-defined inner chest, these attachment points need to be as built-up as possible, so that each individual pec major is clearly separated from the other one and looks like it’s been carved out of granite. (You’ll have to be pretty lean as well for striations to show.)

There are four anatomical motions that the pec major performs:

• Flexion of the humerus (raising the arm in front of your body). This is accomplished by the clavicular head of the pec muscle—the pec fibers that attach to the collarbone.

• Extension of the humerus (lowering the arm down to your side). This is done by the sternocostal head—the fibers that attach to the sternum.

• Horizontal adduction of the humerus (moving the arm across the front of the body). Both the clavicular and steroncostal heads work together to move the arms in a hugging motion.

• Internal rotation of the humerus (rotating the arm in toward the midline of the body). Again, both muscle heads work together here.

In the gym, you can train all of these movements by using two types of exercises: presses and flyes. Pressing exercises, typically done with a barbell or dumbbells, are considered primary movements for the chest, because they give you the most bang for your training buck. As compound exercises, presses let you lift a lot of weight and activate a lot of muscle. But it’s the lifts that emphasize horizontal adduction (i.e. flye variations) that Rusin says are the most effective for targeting the inner pecs. “If you want to hit those inner fibers, you can’t just be doing bench press, dumbbell bench press, and standard pushups,” he says. “Horizontal adduction is the key to hitting the inner pecs, and it’s one action that most people never truly train optimally.”

Creating A Mind-Muscle Connection for Better Inner-Chest Gains

Bodybuilders speak of the mind-muscle connection as mentally zeroing in on the muscles you’re training to improve their activation. As former pro bodybuilder Ben Pakulski (mi40nation.com) explains in The Men’s Health Encyclopedia of Muscle, written by Onnit Editor-in-Chief Sean Hyson, C.S.C.S., to use the mind-muscle connection properly, you have to picture the two ends of the muscle coming together with each contraction.

In the case of the pecs, the muscles originate at the collarbone and sternum and insert on the humeral bones. When you do a press or flye movement, the insertion points pull closer to the origins. “When I train,” says Pakulski, “I’ll picture what my insertion looks like, and how I’ll bring that closer to the origin.” So, to get the most out of your inner-chest training, visualize the pec muscles’ connection at the top of your arms pulling toward the parts of the muscle that attach at your sternum. Imagine the inner portion of the pec fibers tensing and jumping out from your skin. It may sound woo-woo, but the mind undoubtedly has an effect on the body.

In 2016, a study in the European Journal of Applied Physiology had subjects use the mind-muscle connection during bench-press workouts. When the lifters visualized their muscles working, there was greater activation in the pecs and triceps. Also in 2016, a review in Strength and Conditioning Journal concluded that use of the mind-muscle connection could increase the effect of all factors that contribute to muscle growth, including muscular tension and overall muscle damage.

What Are the Best Inner-Chest Exercises?

Below are Rusin’s three favorite exercises for targeting the inner pecs.

1) Hybrid Flye-Press Combo

As the name implies, this exercise is a cross between a flye motion and a press. You maintain a neutral grip (palms facing each other) and perform an arcing motion with the arms, as in a flye, but you also bend your elbows quite a bit in the down position, like you do in a press.

“The hybrid flye-press combo really targets horizontal adduction at the top of the movement,” says Rusin. “This exercise goes against the belief that you have to do these really long moment-arm flyes,” that is, flyes where your elbows are almost fully extended. While some lifters think it helps them get a better stretch on the pecs in the bottom of the movement, that technique is dangerous for the elbows, and Rusin says it’s not necessary.

You can perform this hybrid move with dumbbells or cables, but Rusin prefers you use cables, because of the constant tension they provide. “With dumbbells, when the arms are in a vertical position, we lose our line of pull,” he says. That is, when your elbow and shoulder joints are stacked at the top of the movement, there’s no tension on the pecs—the weight is just resting on the joints. But when you use cables, the pulley system makes the weight continue to resist your muscles at every point in the range of motion, “and that keeps tension on the tissues through that portion of the movement.”

Note: The hybrid flye-press combo is NOT a standing cable crossover. Rusin wants it performed lying on either a flat bench or with a slight incline (the incline will emphasize those clavicular head fibers more, and therefore give you a better inner, upper-chest hit). “With standing flyes, people tend to compensate too much,” he says. “They increase upper back involvement, and they use the hips, when they should be concentrating on contracting the pecs to get the most out of them.”

How To Do the Hybrid Flye-Press Combo

Step 1. Set an adjustable bench at a slight incline (15–30 degrees), equidistant between two cable columns. Attach single-grip/stirrup handles to the pulleys at the lowest positions.

Step 2. Grasp both handles and lie back on the bench. Your elbows should be bent about 90 degrees. The pulleys should be in line with your shoulders so that the cables run more or less perpendicular to the weight stacks; if this isn’t the case, scoot the bench either forward or backward. If you like, rest your feet on the bench, which will add an element of instability to the exercise.

Step 3. Press the handles up while drawing your hands together so that they nearly touch at the top and your arms are fully extended over your upper chest. Squeeze the contraction hard, visualizing your inner pecs doing the work, and then slowly lower your arms to the start position.

2) Hammer Squeeze Press

Like the flye-press combo exercise, this move combines a pressing movement with an added focus on horizontal adduction, courtesy of squeezing a light medicine ball between your hands.

“This exercise is fricking amazing,” says Rusin. “It will instantaneously activate that portion of the pecs we’re talking about. It’s something that will get you sore in the right kind of way, especially in that inner-pec area. This will blow you up.”

How To Do the Hammer Squeeze Press

Step 1. Set a bench to a 15 to 45-degree incline and hold a pair of moderate-weight dumbbells with a light medicine ball secured between them. The purpose of the medicine ball is simply to have something to squeeze, not to provide additional resistance, so find the lightest ball possible—preferably a leather or Kevlar one that will stay in place and not slip out. (Have a partner place the ball between your hands and squeeze your hands together, or bear hug the ball with the dumbbells and then get into position.)

Step 2. Set up on the bench with your arms extended straight upward and palms facing each other. Press in on the ball by contracting the inner pecs and hold it isometrically. Think about your inner-pec fibers firing hard throughout the whole exercise.

Step 3. Maintaining the squeeze, bend your elbows to lower the dumbbells and ball down to your chest.

Step 4. When the ball touches your upper chest, press back up under control to the arms-extended position, squeezing the ball hard throughout.

3) Diamond Pushup

All pushups are underrated chest-builders. A simple way to target the inner pecs with a pushup is to narrow your hand spacing into what’s commonly known as the “diamond” position: the tips of your index fingers and thumbs touch each other, or close to it, forming a diamond shape between your hands. This will also activate more triceps muscle as well.

“The hardest muscle to build is the one you can’t feel,” says Rusin. “That’s why I like using the diamond pushup. You can feel that inner-pec area working, so you’re more likely to be able to build that area.”

How To Do the Diamond Pushup

Step 1. Assume a standard pushup position with your hands and toes on the floor and your body in a rigid, straight line from heels to head.

Step 2. Move your hands together so that the ends of your index fingers and thumbs are nearly touching each other (the exact distance between them should be whatever feels comfortable to you and won’t aggravate your elbows). The space between your hands will resemble a diamond shape.

Step 3. Bend your elbows to slowly lower yourself toward the floor. When your chest touches your hands, press back up explosively to full elbow extension. As you press up, try to draw your hands even closer together but without actually moving them—just tense the muscles and focus your mind on contracting the inside of your chest.

How Can I Stretch My Pecs?

Rusin doesn’t recommend stretching the pecs before or after workouts. “The shoulder is the most mobile joint in the body,” he says, “so rarely do we need more mobility there.”

He does, however, recommend one stretching technique during a chest workout to increase overall muscle activation, including the inner-pec fibers. He calls it “loaded stretching,” and it’s best utilized on the hybrid flye-press combo exercise.

Here’s how to do it: On your last set of flye-presses, after reaching muscle failure, lower your last rep down as slowly as possible. When you reach the bottom of the range of motion, hold that position for as long as you can (aim for 30 seconds). “This will light up every aspect of your pecs,” says Rusin.

Stretching a muscle under load creates even more tension in it, stimulating a growth response. Loaded stretching is another concept that is explained in The Men’s Health Encyclopedia of Muscle.

Beginner Inner-Chest Workout

The following workout, designed by Rusin, can be done once a week in place of your existing chest workout. You can also train other muscles (i.e. triceps, back, or shoulders) after your chest work in the same session. For the best gains in chest size, you should work your pecs one other day in your training week, either with the same exercises or other chest moves of your choice.

“You’re not training for power and strength with the inner pecs,” says Rusin. “This workout is about hypertrophy [muscle gain], so we’re going to implement higher reps on the inner-chest exercises and more total volume to deliver a good pump. You’ll definitely feel the inner chest working.”

1. Hammer Squeeze Press

Sets: 3  Reps: 12–15

See directions above.

2. Barbell Bench Press

Sets: 3  Reps: 3–8

Step 1. Set up in a power rack if you’re training alone, so you can set the spotter bars to just below your chest to catch the barbell if you can’t press it up. Draw your shoulder blades down and together to arch your back. Place your hands about shoulder-width apart on the bar.

Step 2. Pull the bar out of the rack without losing your arch and shoulder position. Lower the bar to your chest, right at the nipple line, tucking your elbows 45-degrees on the descent.

Step 3. Press the bar to lockout.

3. Cable Hybrid Flye-Press Combo

Sets: 3  Reps: 10–15

See directions above.

4. Diamond Pushup

Sets: 2  Reps: To failure

See directions above.

Advanced Inner-Chest Workout

Also designed by Rusin, this chest routine can be done once per week. The extra volume (and a more advanced diamond pushup variation) makes it slightly more challenging than the beginner’s routine above, but it’s still based on the same exercises that offer the best inner-pec hit.

1. Hammer Squeeze Press

Sets: 4  Reps: 12–15

2. Barbell Bench Press

Sets: 4  Reps: 3–8

Step 1. Set up in a power rack if you’re training alone, so you can set the spotter bars to just below your chest to catch the barbell if you can’t press it up. Draw your shoulder blades down and together to arch your back. Place your hands about shoulder-width apart on the bar.

Step 2. Pull the bar out of the rack without losing your arch and shoulder position. Lower the bar to your chest, right at the nipple line, tucking your elbows 45-degrees on the descent.

Step 3. Press the bar to lockout.

3. Cable Hybrid Fly-Press Combo

Sets: 3  Reps: 10–15

4. Feet-Elevated Diamond Push-Up

Sets: 3  Reps: To failure

Perform the diamond pushup as described above, but rest your fee on a bench or other elevated surface so that your torso is angled down toward the floor.

The post The Best Inner-Chest Workouts for Getting Sculpted appeared first on Onnit Academy.

It’s not just guys who want wider backs. Ladies benefit from broadening their lats because they make the waist look smaller by comparison. Meanwhile, a more defined upper back also looks great in a halter top, razorback tank, or backless dress, and a strong lower back helps you pull off a keyhole dress or crop top. And those are just the aesthetic benefits. Stronger back muscles are a must for good posture and injury prevention. Since most people (both women and men) focus on muscles they can see in the mirror, it’s the ones on the back side of the body that need the most attention, and must be built up for a balanced look.

Strengthen and Tone Your Back with These Workouts

The following are my favorite workouts for targeting every major component of the back musculature. Most of them are doable with only minimal equipment, but I’ve also included routines that are specially designed for a small home gym or a few pairs of light dumbbells.

Pre-Workout Back Stretches

Every workout should begin with a mobility warmup that prepares your joints, tissues, and nervous system for the kind of training you’re about to do. Onnit Durability Coach Cristian Plascencia (@cristian_thedurableathlete) offers the following movements for prepping the back and shoulders for strong pulling.

The Full Back Workout for Women

This routine works the entire back, from the muscles around the shoulder blades to the lats (the big muscles on the sides of your back) and spinal erectors (the ones that start at your lower back and run up the center).

Many people have trouble feeling their back muscles when doing exercises like pulldowns and rows. They feel the work more in their arms than in the back, and so they never fully activate the target muscles. This is why I’m starting you off with scap pullups. You simply hang from a pullup bar and draw your shoulder blades down to raise your body up. They don’t look like much—you’ll only move a few inches—but they’ll help you connect your mind to your muscles and feel your back working. This should help you focus on the right muscles during the rest of the workout. Note: don’t worry if you’re not strong enough to do a full pullup—you only have to pull with your back muscles on a scap pullup. Your elbows don’t bend.

Directions

The exercises are grouped and marked with letters. Do one set of 1A, then one set of 1B, and then 1C. Rest 60 seconds, and repeat for 3 total rounds. Perform the remaining groups of exercises in the same fashion. For the last two exercises, 4 and 5, perform only one set of each, resting 15 seconds after 4.

1A Scap Pullup

Reps: 6–8R

Step 1. Hang from a pullup bar with hands outside shoulder width.

Step 2. Draw your shoulder blades down and together to raise your body up. The range of motion will only be a few inches. Hold the top position a moment.

1B Band Face Pull

Reps: 12

Step 1. Attach an elastic exercise band to a sturdy object at about chest height. Grasp the loop with both hands a few inches apart and stand back so that your arms extend in front of you and there’s tension on the band.

Step 2. Draw your shoulder blades back together and downward as you pull the band to neck level, flaring your elbows out to your sides. Pause for a moment and then extend your arms again.

1C Suspension Row

Reps: 12

Step 1. Set the handles of a suspension trainer to about hip level. Grasp the handles and hang from them with arms straight. Draw your shoulder blades together and downward (“proud chest”). Your body should form a straight line from your head to your feet. Brace your core.

Step 2. Row your body up to the handles, contracting your back fully.

2A Seated Cable Row

Reps: 12

Step 1. Attach a V-grip handle to a seated cable row station and sit tall on the bench with knees bent.

Step 2. Row the handle to your sternum, drawing your shoulders back together and downward as you pull. Stay upright; don’t lean back.

2B Pilates Double Kick

Reps: 10

Step 1. Lie facedown on the floor and turn your head to rest on your right cheek. Bring your hands behind your back to rest one on top of the other. Draw your elbows out wide and down to the floor. Squeeze your legs together.Bend your knees to bring your heels to your butt—“kick” it twice—and then lower your legs to the floor again.

Step 2. Take a deep breath into your belly. Extend your arms behind you, toward the floor, and raise your torso off the floor while looking in front of you. Hold for a moment, and then turn your head to the opposite side, bend your elbows, and lower back down to rest on the other cheek. The next rep begins with another kick of the feet.

2C Posture Band Hold

Reps: Hold for 20–30 seconds

Step 1. Sit on the floor with legs extended and wrap a band around the bottom of your feet. Hold a loop of the band in each hand and sit upright with your shoulders down and back (think: “proud chest”). Engage your core.

Step 2. Row the band to your belly and hold the position.

3A Bent-Over Dumbbell Row

Reps: 15

Step 1. Hold a pair of dumbbells and, keeping a long spine from your head to your hips, bend your hips back until your torso is about 45 degrees to the floor.

Step 2. Draw your shoulder blades together and downward as you row the weights to your sides.

3B Renegade Row

Reps: 6–8 (each side)

Step 1. Get into a pushup position, resting your hands on a pair of dumbbells. Take a deep breath into your belly and brace your core.

Step 2. Lean your weight to your right side, pushing that hand into the floor. Your left side will feel lighter. Now row the left-hand dumbbell to your side, but avoid twisting your hips or shoulders. Lower the weight and repeat on the other side.

3C Pilates Dart

Reps: 4

Step 1. Lie facedown on the floor with your arms at your sides. Lengthen your neck and tuck your tailbone under so that your pelvis is perpendicular to the floor. You can rest your forehead on a towel. Inhale into your belly and brace your core.

Step 2. Extend your back to raise your head off the floor. Tuck your chin. Drive your shoulder blades back and down, and extend your arms as you rise, raising them slightly off the floor and turning your palms to face down. You should look like a dart flying toward its target. Exhale and lower back to the starting position.

3D Dancer Half Lift

Reps: 10

Step 1. Lie facedown on the floor, resting your head on the back of your hands. Tuck your tailbone under slightly so that your pelvis is perpendicular to the floor and brace your core.

Step 2. Take a deep breath into your belly and extend your back to raise your torso and hands off the floor.

Step 3. Extend your arms out and away from your sides, rotating your wrists so that your thumbs face behind you.

Step 4. Continue reaching back with your arms until they’re at your sides, palms facing the floor. That’s one rep.

4 Ballistic Row

Reps: Perform reps for 60 seconds

Step 1. Hold a dumbbell (or kettlebell, as shown here) in one hand. Bend your hips back while keeping a long spine from your head to your hips. You can raise your free arm out to the side to help you keep your shoulders parallel to the floor.

Step 2. Explosively row the weight to your side and then let it go, catching it with the opposite hand in mid air. Lower the weight under control, and then row it explosively and catch it with the opposite hand again. Work for 60 seconds and then rest 15 seconds.

5 Swimmer

Reps: Perform reps for 60 seconds

Step 1. Lie facedown on the floor and extend your arms and legs. Take a deep breath into your belly and brace your core.

Step 2. Raise your left arm and right leg. Lower them as you raise your right arm and left leg. Continue fluttering your legs and arms as if swimming. Work for 60 seconds.

Upper-Back Workout For Women

Most women don’t want big, bulky traps like a wrestler. But a little extra muscle and definition in the upper back goes a long way toward building overall body strength, and making an off-the-shoulder top look great on you. This workout targets the traps, rhomboids, and rear delts—no “bro” exercises like shrugs necessary.

Directions

The exercises are grouped and marked with letters. Do one set of 1A, then one set of 1B, and then 1C. Rest 60 seconds, and repeat for 3 total rounds. Perform the remaining groups of exercises in the same fashion.

1A Negative Pullup

Reps: 6–8

Step 1. Stand on a box or step so you can reach the pullup bar. Grasp the bar with hands just outside shoulder width (or use the neutral-grip handles if your bar has them). Jump up so your chin is over the bar and hold yourself there.

Step 2. Lower your body under control until you’re at a dead hang. (Aim for 3–5 seconds.) Jump back up to begin the next rep. If that’s too hard, perform only one rep, but lower yourself as slowly as you can.

1B Pilates Foam Roller Pull

Reps: 10

Step 1. Lie facedown on the floor and extend your arms in front of you, resting them on a foam roller. Point your thumbs to the ceiling. Take a deep breath into your belly and brace your core.

Step 2. Draw your shoulder blades down and together and maintain the position as you exhale, raise your torso off the floor, and drive your forearms into the roller. The movement will roll the foam toward you a few inches. Reverse the movement to return to the starting position.

1C Suspension Row

Reps: 12

Step 1. Set the handles of a suspension trainer to about hip level. Grasp the handles and hang from them with arms straight. Draw your shoulder blades together and downward (“proud chest”). Your body should form a straight line from your head to your feet. Brace your core.

Step 2. Row your body up to the handles, contracting your back fully.

2A Rear-Delt Flye

Reps: 12

Step 1. Hold a pair of dumbbells and, keeping a long spine from your head to your hips, bend your hips back so your torso is at 45 degrees to the floor.

Step 2. Raise your arms out 90 degrees, drawing your shoulders back and downward.

2B Seal Row

Reps: 12

Step 1. Lie chest down on a bench and hold a dumbbell in each hand.

Step 2. Take a deep breath into your belly and brace your core. Raise your torso as you row the weights to your sides. Hold the top position a moment.

2C Pilates Upper Back Lift

1Reps: 10

Step 1. Lie facedown on the floor (you can use a rolled up towel to cushion your forehead). Rest your arms away from your sides with elbows bent and palms flat.

Step 2. Draw your shoulder blades together and downward as you raise your arms off the floor until your feel your upper back contract fully. Hold for a moment.

3A Wide-Grip Cable Row

Reps: 15

Step 1. Attach a long lat bar to a seated cable row station and sit tall on the bench with knees bent. Your grip should be outside shoulder width.

Step 2. Row the bar to your sternum, drawing your shoulders back together and downward as you pull. Stay upright; don’t lean back.

3B Cable External Rotation

Reps: 12 (each side)

Step 1. Attach a D-handle to the cable of a pulley station. Set the pulley at about elbow height. Stand far enough away from the station so that the tension of the cable pulls your forearm gently in front of your body.

Step 2. Keeping your arm at your side, rotate your forearm outward until your knuckles point behind you.

Lower-Back Workout for Women

Virtually everyone deals with lower-back pain at one time or another—either because the person doesn’t lift at all, or because of the way that person lifts (i.e., bad form, like rounding your back on a stiff-legged deadlift, mountain climber, etc.). This routine strengthens the lower back with joint-friendly exercises that will help to alleviate pain and prevent any more of it. I borrow a lot of moves from Pilates here because they’re safe to perform and help the back feel better while you’re doing them.

Directions

The exercises are grouped and marked with letters. Do one set of 1A, then one set of 1B, and then 1C. Rest 60 seconds, and repeat for 3 total rounds. For 2A–2D, perform each exercise for 30 seconds and rest 10 seconds between moves. For the windshield wiper, just do 3 sets for the one move by itself.

1A Back Extension

Reps: 12

Step 1. Set the pad of a back extension bench so that, when you lie on it, the top is at the crease of your hips. Set up on the bench and secure your feet behind the ankle pads. Keeping a long spine from your head to your hips, bend at the hips and lower your torso until your body is bent 90 degrees.

Step 2. Squeeze your glutes and extend your hips until your body forms a straight line. Do not hyperextend your back to come up any higher.

1B Superman

Reps: 12

Step 1. Lie on the floor facedown and extend your arms in front of you.

Step 2. Brace your core. Raise your torso and legs off the floor as high as you can while reaching forward with your arms and back with your legs. Hold the top position for a moment.

1C Pilates Flat Back Reach

Reps: 12

Step 1. Keeping a long spine from your head to your hips, bend your hips back until your torso is parallel to the floor and reach your arms out wide. Twist your torso as far as you can to the right, keeping your arms spread as wide as possible.

Step 2. Twist as far as you can to the left. Keep your spine long with your lower back neutral. That’s one rep.

2A Swimmer

Reps: Work for 30 sec.

Step 1. Lie facedown on the floor and extend your arms and legs. Take a deep breath into your belly and brace your core.

Step 2. Raise your left arm and right leg. Lower them as you raise your right arm and left leg. Continue fluttering your legs and arms as if swimming.

2B Pilates Double Kick

Reps: Work for 30 sec.

Step 1. Lie facedown on the floor and turn your head to rest on your right cheek. Bring your hands behind your back to rest one on top of the other. Draw your elbows out wide and down to the floor. Squeeze your legs together.Bend your knees to bring your heels to your butt—“kick” it twice—and then lower your legs to the floor again.

Step 2. Take a deep breath into your belly. Extend your arms behind you, toward the floor, and raise your torso off the floor while looking in front of you. Hold for a moment, and then turn your head to the opposite side, bend your elbows, and lower back down to rest on the other cheek. The next rep begins with another kick of the feet.

2C Swimming Superman

Reps: Work for 30 sec.

Step 1. Lie facedown on the floor with arms and legs extended. Tuck your tailbone slightly so that your pelvis is perpendicular to the floor. Take a deep breath into your belly and brace your core.

Step 2. Raise your torso off the floor and spread your arms out wide and then behind you—as if performing a breast stroke—until your palms touch your legs.

2D Slow Bridge

Reps: Work for 30 sec.

Step 1. Lie on your back on the floor and bend your knees so your heels are close to your butt. You’re your tailbone under and take a deep breath into your belly. Brace your core.

Step 2. Drive through your heels to raise your butt in the air. Avoid hyperextending your lower back. Lower back to the floor HOW SLOWLY?

3 Windshield Wiper

Sets: 3  Reps: 8 (each side)

Step 1. Lie on your back on the floor and extend your arms out 90 degrees to your sides. Bend your hips 90 degrees and raise your legs straight up in the air. Take a deep breath into your belly and brace your core.

Step 2. Twist your hips to the left, lowering your legs as far as you can toward the floor. Raise them back up and to the other side. That’s one rep.

Dumbbell Back Workout for Women

Whether I’m working out in a small hotel gym or in my aunt’s garage with her little pink weights, dumbbells are my secret weapon. You don’t need more than a pair or two to get in a great session. Take this routine on the road with you.

Directions

The exercises are grouped and marked with letters. Do one set of 1A, then one set of 1B, and then 1C. Rest 60 seconds, and repeat for 3 total rounds. Perform the remaining groups of exercises in the same fashion.

If you’re limited to very light weights, simply perform your reps more slowly, extending the time your muscles spend under tension. If you have them, a pair of five-pounders, 15s, and 25s would work great here.

1A Overhand Bent-Over Row

Reps: 12

Step 1. Hold a pair of dumbbells and, keeping a long spine from your head to your hips, bend your hips back until your torso is about 45 degrees to the floor.

Step 2. Draw your shoulder blades together and downward as you row the weights to your sides.

1B One-Arm Bent-Over Row

Reps: 10 (each side)

Step 1. Hold a dumbbell in one hand. Bend your hips back while keeping a long spine from your head to your hips. Rest your forearm on your lead leg to help brace you.

Step 2. Row the weight to your side.

1C Alternating Row

Reps: 12 (each side)

Perform as you did the bent-over row but alternate arms. Row your left and lower down, and then your right. Avoid twisting.

2A Pilates Upper-Back Lift

Reps: 12

Step 1. Lie facedown on the floor (you can use a rolled up towel to cushion your forehead). Rest your arms away from your sides with elbows bent and palms flat.

Step 2. Draw your shoulder blades together and downward as you raise your arms off the floor until your feel your upper back contract fully. Hold for a moment.

2B Alternating Bear Row

Reps: 6 (each)

Step 1. Hold a dumbbell in each hand and get on all fours on the floor. Press your hands into the dumbbells and drive your toes into the floor to raise your knees about an inch. Brace your core. Your head, spine, and pelvis should form a long line.

Step 2. Row one dumbbell to your side, replace it, and then row the other. Avoid twisting in either direction and keep your core tight.

2C Renegade Row

Reps: 6 (each side)

Step 1. Get into a pushup position, resting your hands on a pair of dumbbells. Take a deep breath into your belly and brace your core.

Step 2. Lean your weight to your right side, pushing that hand into the floor. Your left side will feel lighter. Now row the left-hand dumbbell to your side, but avoid twisting your hips or shoulders. Lower the weight and repeat on the other side.

3A Bent-Over Twisting Row

Reps: 12

Step 1. Hold a dumbbell in each hand and, keeping a long spine from your head to your hips, bend your hips back until your torso is nearly parallel to the floor.

Step 2. Row the weights to your sides, twisting your wrists outward as you pull so that your palms face up at the top of the movement.

3B Swimmer

Reps: 16

Step 1. Lie facedown on the floor and extend your arms and legs. Take a deep breath into your belly and brace your core.

Step 2. Raise your left arm and right leg. Lower them as you raise your right arm and left leg. Continue fluttering your legs and arms as if swimming.

3C Swimming Superman

Reps: 10

Step 1. Lie facedown on the floor with your hands at your sides. Tuck your tailbone so that your pelvis is perpendicular to the floor and brace your core. Take a deep breath into your belly and extend your back to raise your torso off the floor while reaching out 90 degrees with your arms.

Step 2. Keep your torso up as you reach behind you with your arms. Lower yourself back to the floor to complete the rep.

At-Home Back Workout

Back is a muscle group that people tend to use a lot of machines to work. Cable pulleys give you a variety of ways to keep tension on the muscles in positions where there normally wouldn’t be much, such as at the bottom of a row. But bands are a good substitute for cables, and are much easier to store in a home gym. Meanwhile, old-fashioned dumbbell rows consistently come up on trainers’ lists of the best back exercises, because they work the back and core simultaneously. Both kinds of exercises form the foundation of this workout.

Directions

The exercises are grouped and marked with letters. Do one set of 1A, then one set of 1B, and then 1C. Rest 60 seconds, and repeat for 3 total rounds. Perform the remaining groups of exercises in the same fashion. To end the workout, do one set of the Pilates double kick by itself, performing reps for 60 seconds (or until failure).

1A Single-Arm Deep Bent-Over Row

Reps: 10 (each side)

Step 1. Grasp a light dumbbell in your left hand and take a long stride forward with your right leg. Keeping a long spine from your head to your hips, bend your torso forward until it’s about 45 degrees to the floor. Brace your torso by driving your right forearm into your right leg.

Step 2. Row the weight to your hip. Avoid twisting your shoulders or hips. Complete your reps on that side and then switch sides.

1B Bent-Over Twisting Dumbbell Row

Sets: 15

Step 1. Hold a dumbbell in each hand and, keeping a long spine from your head to your hips, bend your hips back until your torso is nearly parallel to the floor.

Step 2. Row the weights to your sides, twisting your wrists outward as you pull so that your palms face up at the top of the movement.

1C Pilates Foam-Roller Pull

Sets: 12

Step 1. Lie facedown on the floor and extend your arms in front of you, resting them on a foam roller. Point your thumbs to the ceiling. Take a deep breath into your belly and brace your core.

Step 2. Draw your shoulder blades down and together and maintain the position as you exhale, raise your torso off the floor, and drive your forearms into the roller. The movement will roll the foam toward you a few inches.

2A Alternating Bear Row

Reps: 6 (each side)

Step 1. Hold a dumbbell in each hand and get on all fours on the floor. Press your hands into the dumbbells and drive your toes into the floor to raise your knees about an inch. Brace your core. Your head, spine, and pelvis should form a long line.

Step 2. Row one dumbbell to your side, replace it, and then row the other. Avoid twisting in either direction and keep your core tight.

2B Bird Dog

Reps: 10 (each side)

Step 1. Get on all fours and tuck your tailbone so that your pelvis is perpendicular to the floor. Brace your core.

Step 2. Simultaneously extend your right arm and left leg. Avoid twisting in any direction. Return to all fours and repeat on the opposite side.

2C Swimmer

Reps: 10 (each side)

Step 1. Lie facedown on the floor and extend your arms and legs. Take a deep breath into your belly and brace your core.

Step 2. Raise your left arm and right leg. Lower them as you raise your right arm and left leg. Continue fluttering your legs and arms as if swimming.

3A Band Row

Reps: 10 (hold the last one)

Step 1. Sit on the floor and wrap a band around both feet and grasp the loop ends with both hands. Sit tall and upright.

Step 2. Row the band to your sides. Hold your last rep for 10–20 seconds.

3B Single-Arm Band Row

Reps: 10 (each side)

Step 1. Sit on the floor and wrap a band around your left foot. Extend your legs in front of you and sit tall. Draw your shoulder blades together and downward (“proud chest”).

Step 2. Row the band to your side. Complete your reps on that side and then switch sides.

3C Superman

Reps: 12

Step 1. Lie on the floor facedown and extend your arms in front of you.

Step 2. Brace your core. Raise your torso and legs off the floor as high as you can while reaching forward with your arms and back with your legs. Hold the top position for a moment.

4 Pilates Double Kick

Reps: Work for 60 sec.

Step 1. Lie facedown on the floor and turn your head to rest on your right cheek. Bring your hands behind your back to rest one on top of the other. Draw your elbows out wide and down to the floor. Squeeze your legs together.Bend your knees to bring your heels to your butt—“kick” it twice—and then lower your legs to the floor again.

Step 2. Take a deep breath into your belly. Extend your arms behind you, toward the floor, and raise your torso off the floor while looking in front of you. Hold for a moment, and then turn your head to the opposite side, bend your elbows, and lower back down to rest on the other cheek. The next rep begins with another kick of the feet.

The post Strengthen And Tone Your Back With These Workouts appeared first on Onnit Academy.

The Best Chest and Triceps Workouts for Building Muscle

But if you’re following an old-school bodybuilding split rife with supersets for these two muscle groups, well, you’re doing it wrong. You won’t just hinder your progress, you’ll open yourself up to injury. And, as you may have suspected, it’s hard to get big with your arms in a sling. With a properly structured chest and triceps workout, however, you can reap big benefits in strength and size. Here’s how to do it right.

Why Work Out Chest and Triceps Together?

The triceps work hard during all press variations, so it makes perfect sense from an efficiency standpoint to hit them in the same workout, maximize the pump, and keep your triceps progressing at the same rate as your pecs.

However, John Rusin, D.P.T., C.S.C.S. (creator of the Functional Power Training system), says you can’t pair these two muscle groups haphazardly. Specifically, lifters must be careful about using supersets—working two exercises back to back without rest—because fatiguing your triceps too early in the workout will only limit your pressing power.

“The golden rule of supersets is that they should make both movements better,” says Rusin, “not work to the detriment of both moves.” The problem is that a lot of guys will superset a lift like the dumbbell bench press with a triceps pressdown, which fatigues both the pecs and tri’s to the point where neither muscle group gets worked optimally. “In a pairing of five supersets like that,” says Rusin (which is typical in a bro split), “they’re shot after two. So they end up doing garbage volume”—sets that have no real training effect. “They have to use less weight, and their form goes bad.”

In short, if you’re going to train the chest and triceps together, the path to victory lies through straight sets of both chest and triceps exercises. That is, do all your chest work, and then your triceps exercises. Still, limited use of supersets—particularly late in the workout—does have a place for advanced lifters, which you’ll see in the workouts below.

Training the triceps ahead of chest is also out of the question.

“Every workout should be built around a KPI, or Key Performance Indicator,” Rusin says. “That’s true whether you’re training for the Olympics or general fitness.” In the case of a chest and triceps workout, the KPI would be a bench press or a pushup—a lift that you really need to get stronger on over time in order to see progress. Working triceps first would only limit your ability to do those lifts with your best effort and focus, and with maximum weight. (Side note here: you might be more concerned with getting bigger muscles than with the amount of load you can lift, but do remember that gaining muscle is based on progressive overload—you need to get stronger over time to drive muscle gains.) Choosing to start the workout with an exercise like heavy skull-crushers, for example, would not only be limiting to your chest training, but could also aggravate your shoulders and elbows.

Moreover, getting your pressing done first allows the triceps to ease into the workout, getting warmed up as an assistance muscle in your chest training and then ramping up to a finale where you hit the triceps with higher reps and leave the gym with a monster arm pump.

“From a sequencing standpoint, triceps training is very well tolerated late in a chest and triceps workout,” Rusin says. “The triceps have gotten maximal blood flow by that point,” and even though they’re a bit fatigued from locking out your elbows on pressing exercises, “you can use less weight to get the training effect.” According to Rusin, the main stimulus for growth in the triceps in a chest and tris session is the pump you get, not the mechanical stress of lifting heavy weights.

In short: By the time you’re done pressing, it won’t take much to push your triceps to the max, and that’s good news for your shoulders and elbows.

Chest and Triceps Anatomy

Here’s what’s under your skin in these two muscle areas.

Chest

– Pectoralis major. The largest muscle of the chest, pecs provide most of your pressing strength by drawing the arms forward and across your chest. The pec major has three portions that are sometimes thought of as being separate regions—the upper, middle, and lower pec—but they’re all one muscle. That said, certain exercises will stress one area over another to influence the pecs’ development.

– Pectoralis minor. Though it doesn’t have the visual impact of the pec major because it lies beneath the bigger pec muscle, it serves a stabilizing function and assists in scapular movement. It is best trained with dip variations.

– Serratus anterior. Located just below the pec major, these stabilizing muscles get their name from the fact that—on a lean, well-developed physique—they look like the edge of serrated knife.

Triceps

– Triceps brachii. As the name would imply, the triceps brachii is composed of three parts (but all are part of the same muscle): the long head, lateral head, and medial head. The long head and medial heads lie on the side of the arm that’s closest to the body, while the lateral head is on the outer side of the arm. All three heads work synergistically to extend the elbow and stabilize the shoulder joints, but the long head also helps to draw the upper arm down toward the body. As with chest, some exercises are better suited to work one head over the other, so you need variety in your triceps training.

The Best Chest and Triceps Exercises

Below are Rusin’s picks for the most effective movements for each muscle group (all of which he demonstrates in the workouts further down).

Best Chest Exercises

1. Pushup

“One thing that gets forgotten about, especially in old-school bodybuilding circles, is the pushup,” Rusin says. It may be unglamorous and old-fashioned, but Rusin says it’s “unbelievable for not only chest strength, but full-body functional strength.”

Unlike the barbell bench press, the pushup allows the shoulder blades to move freely, since they’re not pinned down by a bench. This adds a component of dynamic stability to the posterior (back) side of the body—something that can’t be done through pure isolation moves like flyes and cable crossovers, and helps build a more functional chest and upper back. Most guys treat pushups as a finisher, doing them for high reps at the end of a workout to burn out their chests, but Rusin prefers to make them a priority. You’ll get more out of the pushup, he says, if you load it with chains, sandbags, or a weight plate, and do sets of 5–15.

2. Dumbbell Bench Press

This go-to favorite for lifters of all stripes allows a full range of motion at the shoulders for a maximum stretch of the pecs. This is great for building muscle, but the fact that dumbbell pressing also allows natural rotation at the wrist is key for long-term growth and staving off injuries. Unlike pressing with a barbell, your joints can move through a path that’s right for them, rather than the one pre-determined by the bar your hands are fixed to. “They’re also great for making the mind-muscle connection,” says Rusin. That is, your ability to concentrate on the muscles you’re working to best activate them.

You can reap these benefits whether you’re pressing on a flat bench, at a slight decline of 10–20 degrees (tuck one or two plates under the foot of the bench), or at an incline of up to 45 degrees.

3. Barbell Bench Press

It’s a cliché, but Rusin says this time-honored measuring stick of upper-body strength should be a mainstay of any advanced lifter’s program, assuming you make a couple of tweaks (and can perform it without shoulder pain).

“The mistake that people make is that they bench with the same grip on the same bar on the same flat bench every time,” Rusin says. You need some variety with your barbell benching to keep your chest growing and avoid overuse injuries. Modest incline and decline angles work wonders to accentuate stress on the upper and lower sections of the pecs.

Change your grip every so often. “Most people will do well with a slightly narrow grip,” says Rusin. “Think of where your grip is strongest, and move it in an inch on each hand.” For most guys, this would be with your index fingers on the spot where the knurling (the jagged, criss-cross pattern on the bar) meets the smooth part of the bar.

Rusin says beginners should change up the way they bench every month. Advanced lifters can change it up as often as every week.

Best Triceps Exercises

1. Rope Pressdown

It’s the most popular triceps exercise, and also highly effective. However, too many people lean over the weight and rock into it as they’re extending their elbows. This uses the mass of the upper body to force the handle down and lift the weight up, which reduces activation of the triceps. This is why Rusin suggests doing pressdowns from a kneeling position. “There’s no hip involvement and no momentum,” he says. “Kneeling pressdowns isolate the triceps much more effectively.” Another tip: don’t just push down. “Drive your fists apart to get a little bit of shoulder extension,” says Rusin, “which targets the long head of the triceps.”

2. Overhead Triceps Extension

This move, done from a cable pulley set to head height, or with a band tethered to a power rack, places a maximum stretch on the long head of the triceps, which crosses both the shoulder and elbow, making it a key stabilizer for both joints.

3. Bench Dips

When done on a typical dip station with the body hanging between two bars and only supported by the arms, it’s natural to lean forward, placing most of the emphasis on the pecs and front deltoids. Dipping on a single bench is also a poor choice because of the stress placed on the shoulders. Instead, Rusin recommends setting up two flat benches parallel to each other—just far enough apart to fit your butt between them—and performing dips with a hand on each bench, feet on the floor, and your spine perfectly vertical (see the advanced workout below).

“Other dip variations can really piss off your shoulders,” Rusin says, “and it’s very hard to control spinal position between dip bars because there is no ground contact. But good things happen when the hands and feet are in constant contact.” Meaning: all the tension stays directly on the triceps. If you need external load to increase the difficulty, it’s easy enough to set a weight plate right on your lap.

How Many Chest and Triceps Exercises Should I Do?

It takes volume to grow, but total volume should be more of a function of frequency, or how many times you train in a week, than how many exercises, sets, and reps you can cram into a single training session.

“This is where bodybuilding splits fail,” says Rusin. “Because if you’re only hitting chest and tri’s once a week, I can almost guarantee you that you’re never going to optimally grow. Training once a week does little more than maintain.”

Training chest and triceps twice per week is a standard to which both beginners and advanced lifters should adhere. So if you train chest and triceps on a Monday, plan on hitting them again on Thursday or Friday. You can use the same exact routine, or employ some variables in grip, angle, and exercise selection each session.

Conversely, training chest and triceps more than twice per week—as some guys do to get ready for “beach season”—is just begging for a joint injury. You don’t need to do 20 different exercises for a muscle or hit it from every possible angle. Rather, says Rusin, “You need to get stronger at the KPI lift and you need to build in intelligent accessory volume.”

To that end, beginners should plan on doing four total chest and triceps exercises per session. Advanced lifters can aim for six to seven. Due to the triceps being active on pressing lifts (and the fact that they’re smaller muscle groups), you should generally do more chest work than triceps exercises.

How Many Sets and Reps Should I Do?

For just about every exercise of chest or triceps, Rusin likes 3–4 work sets (the real work you do, not warmup sets). But rep ranges fluctuate. You can go as low as 5 reps on heavy presses, and up to 15–30 reps for accessory work and isolation exercises—and possibly as high as 50 reps if you’re on your last set of the day.

As you approach your working sets on heavier lifts, Rusin prefers that ramp-up sets be in the same low-rep range you’ll use during the work set. He urges guys to resist the temptation to do more just because the weight is light. For instance, if you plan on using 90- or 100-pound dumbbells for work sets of 5 reps on the incline dumbbell bench press, you should warm up to it by doing a set using a pair of 30s for 5, and then a set with 65s for 5 (do two warm-up sets, bare minimum). The goal isn’t to engorge the muscle with blood before a heavy lift; it’s to train the movement pattern and prime your muscle fibers so that you can perform that pattern perfectly when exposed to a challenging weight. Strength coaches will typically refer to this as a “groove”—and you want to find the best one you can. Conversely, high-rep warmup sets will fatigue you and can reduce the amount of weight or reps you can handle on your main set of the day.

How To Stretch Your Chest and Pecs

Every workout should begin with a thorough mobility warmup that prepares your joints, tissues, and nervous system for the kind of training you’re about to do. Onnit Durability Coach Cristian Plascencia (@cristian_thedurableathlete) offers the following movements for prepping the chest and triceps.

How To Stretch Your Triceps

Beginner Chest and Triceps Workout Routine

Rusin likes to begin any chest session with an exercise that warms up the shoulders and upper back. The face pull will help set your shoulders for strong, safe pressing, so don’t skip it. After that, you’ll train the chest with low and high reps to recruit the widest range of muscle fibers, and finish off with a grueling triceps hit.

1. High-Angle Face Pull

Sets: 4  Reps: 15  Rest: 60 sec.

Step 1. Set a cable pulley to head height or tether a resistance band to a power rack at the same height. If using a cable, attach the rope handle to the pulley.

Step 2. Stand straight and, holding the rope attachment or band with both hands, pull toward your face. Squeeze for a second in the fully contracted position, and then return to the starting position.

2. Dumbbell Bench Press

Sets: 3  Reps: 5–8  Rest: 60 sec.

Step 1. Lie on a flat bench holding a pair of dumbbells at your shoulders. Your palms can face toward your feet, or in toward your sides, if that feels better for your shoulders.

Step 2. Press up to a full extension of your elbows, squeezing your pecs as you lift. Make sure that, when you lower the weight to the bottom position, you feel a stretch on your pecs at the bottom.

3. Loaded Pushup

Sets: 3–4  Reps: 10–15  Rest: 30–45 sec.

Step 1. Get into pushup position with your hands shoulder-width apart and legs extended straight behind you at hip-width. Tuck your pelvis slightly so it’s perpendicular to the floor and brace your glutes and abs. Have a partner place a weight plate, chain, or sandbag on your back for added resistance.

Step 2. Lower your body toward the floor, tucking your elbows close to your sides as you descend.

Step 3. When your chest is an inch above the floor, press back up, spreading your shoulder blades apart at the top.

4. Kneeling Rope Pressdown

Sets: 3–4  Reps: 15–30  Rest: 20–30 sec.

Step 1. Attach a rope handle to the pulley of a cable station. Grasp the ends of the rope and kneel on the floor facing the station.

Step 2. Keeping your elbows close to your sides, extend your elbows and drive your fists apart at the bottom of the rep as you squeeze your triceps hard. Hold for a moment, and then lower the weight. Allow your elbows to drift forward a bit at the top of the movement to put a stretch on your triceps.

Advanced Chest and Triceps Workout Routine

More experienced lifters need to warm up even more thoroughly than beginners, so Rusin prescribes a three-exercise shoulder blast first thing in the session to prep your pressing muscles. Then it’s on to some heavy benching and triceps supersets to flood the back-arms with blood.

1. Rusin Banded Shoulder Tri-set

Sets: 3  Reps: 10, 10, 10  Rest: 30–45 sec. (after the third exercise)

A tri-set is a series of three exercises. Do one set of 10 reps for each in sequence before resting.

A) Band-Over-And-Back

Step 1. Hold the ends of a resistance band in each hand. Move your hands away from each other so there is no slack in the band.

Step 2. Keeping your elbows extended, lift your arms overhead and behind your body so that the band touches your lower back. Then bring the band back in front of you. That’s one rep.

B) Face Pull

See the beginner’s workout above.

C) Band Pull-Apart

Step 1. Hold a resistance band straight out in front of you with your hands shoulder-width apart.

Step 2. Keeping your elbows straight, stretch the band by moving your fists out 90 degrees to the sides of your body; the band should stretch across your chest. 

2. Incline Barbell Bench Press

Sets: 3–4  Reps: 5  Rest: 60–75 sec.

Step 1. Set an adjustable bench to a 30- to 45-degree angle and lie back on it. (Set up in a power rack if you’re training alone, so you can set the spotter bars to just below your chest to catch the barbell if you can’t press it up.) Place your hands about shoulder-width apart on the bar.

Step 2. Lower the bar to the upper half of your chest, tucking your elbows 45-degrees on the descent.

Step 3. Press the bar to lockout.

3. Decline Dumbbell Bench Press

Sets: 3–4  Reps: 12–15  Rest: 45–60 sec.

Step 1. Create a slight decline by resting the foot of the bench on one or two weight plates. Lie back on the bench holding dumbbells at your shoulders.

Step 2. Press the weights to full extension of your elbows. Lower them back down until you feel a stretch in your pecs. Though the video above doesn’t depict it, Rusin suggests putting your feet on the bench to avoid an extreme arch in your spine. This can be dangerous if you’re a taller individual and place your feet on the floor.

4. Superset

Perform a set of the overhead triceps extension and then the loaded pushup before resting 45 seconds. Repeat for four total supersets.

A) Overhead Triceps Extension

Reps: 15–20  Rest: 0 sec.

Step 1. Attach a rope handle to a cable pulley set to head height, or use a resistance band set to the same height. Hold the rope or band with both hands and face away from the anchor point.  Step one foot forward and bend your hips slightly, angling your torso forward and allowing your arms to raise over your head with your elbows pointing forward.

Step 2. Without moving your upper arms, extend your elbows to full lockout. Lower the weight, getting a stretch on your triceps in the bottom position.

B) Loaded Pushup

Reps: 15­–20  Rest: 45 sec.

See the beginner’s workout above.

5. Dip Between Benches

Sets: 3–4  Reps: 15–20  Rest: 45 sec.

Step 1. Set two flat benches just far enough apart so that your butt can fit between them. Sit between the benches so that your hands can hold the edge of each bench without reaching backward, which would cause undue stress on your shoulders. Bend your knees and plant your feet flat on the floor.

Step 2. Lower your body between the benches until you feel a stretch on your triceps. Press up to a full lockout. For a greater challenge, you can load the exercise with a weight plate, sand bag, or chains on your lap.

See the companion piece to this article, “5 Killer Back and Biceps Workouts for Building Muscle,” for complete upper-body muscle gains.

The post The Best Chest and Triceps Workouts for Building Muscle appeared first on Onnit Academy.

The Best Arm Workouts For Getting Toned and Losing Fat

Whether you’re entirely new to lifting or are just looking to add more definition to your arms, we’ve got the master list of exercises and workouts you need to do for beautiful lines from your shoulders to wrists.

The Best Arm Exercises for Women

First, let’s clear up a popular misconception. Your muscles and your skeleton are structurally very similar to a man’s, so the same kinds of exercises your boyfriend uses to work his arms will work for you as well. By the same token, they won’t give you arms like his. Women don’t have the same levels of testosterone that men do, so building mountains of muscle just isn’t a big risk.

However, this isn’t to say that copy and pasting your man’s arm routine will optimize your development. There are some specific movements we bet will help you reach your arm goals a little more efficiently than doing just any old curl or triceps extension.

The following are my favorite arm exercises to program for women.

Dumbbell Shoulder Press Exercise

When a woman sees another lady with great arms, what she notices first are her shoulders. Having round, smooth caps on top of your toned arms gives the entire arm a more complete look. Plus, shoulder work contributes greatly to overall upper-body strength.

Because it’s a compound movement, a dumbbell shoulder press works a lot more muscle than just curls or extensions alone. An overhead press activates muscle at the shoulder joints and the elbows, so it works the triceps as well as the deltoids, and lets you handle heavier weights—another factor in recruiting more overall muscle. When you do them standing, your core also gets activated.

If you don’t already have a day dedicated to shoulder training, or do a few shoulder exercises during the week, add shoulder presses into the mix. You can throw them into any upper-body workout, or use them to start off an arm day.

Step 1: Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart with a slight bend in your knees. Bring the dumbbells to collarbone height, with your elbows in front of your body, palms facing forward.

Step 2: Engage your core and use your shoulders to press the weight over your head. At the top, ensure you’re completely locked out by bringing your head through so your ears are next to your elbows.

Step 3: Slowly bring the weights back down to collarbone level. As you bring the weights down, don’t relax. Keep everything engaged through the entire set.

Technique Tips: You may feel yourself arching your back to get the weights up. Refrain from doing this. Squeeze your butt as you press and think about keeping your ribs pulled down and core tight. Don’t allow the dumbbells to float away from your body at the top of the movement. Keep them on top of your shoulders.

Face Pull Exercise

Many people fail to train all the parts of the shoulders evenly, and that can lead to imbalances that cause injury. The deltoid muscle has three heads—front, middle, and rear—and most shoulder exercises hit the front and middle while the rear delt (on the back of the shoulder) gets neglected.

The face pull focuses on the rear delts and upper back, improving posture so that your shoulders, arms, and chest all look more prominent.

Step 1: Set the pulley on a cable machine to eye level or above. You can use a rope attachment or two single-grip handles. If you don’t have a cable station, attach a band to a sturdy object instead.

Step 2: Hold the handles in each hand with your thumbs facing each other. Step away from the machine so your arms are extended and take a staggered stance. This is where you’ll start.

Step 3: Pull the handles toward your face. They should finish at your forehead or jaw. Hold the end position (your upper back fully contracted) for a second and then return to the starting position.

Technique tips: Try not to move any part of your body other than your shoulders and elbows. Choose a weight that’s challenging but allows you to perform smooth reps.

Pushup Exercise

As mentioned above, pressing/pushing of any kind will engage your triceps, but I like to use the pushup whenever possible, because it gives you so much bang for your workout buck.

You don’t need any equipment and it strengthens your entire upper body and core, and the closer together you place your hands, the more emphasis you place on the triceps.

I also like programming pushups for women because they are so easily scalable. If they’re difficult for you, you can put your hands on a bench or a chair so your upper body is on an incline. That will reduce the amount of bodyweight you have to lift. If you want to make pushups more difficult, elevate your feet on a chair or bench.

Step 1: Lie on the floor on your stomach. Place your hands under your body, about shoulder-width apart. Flex your feet so your toes are on the ground and your heels are in the air.

Step 2: Tuck your tailbone under so your pelvis is perpendicular to the ground. Brace your core, squeeze your legs, and press your upper body off the floor until your elbows are completely extended. Keep your arms in close to your sides. Slowly lower until your chest is just above the floor to begin the next rep.

Technique tips: Don’t allow your lower back to sag toward the floor. Keep your abs braced like you’re about to take a punch to the gut, and squeeze your glutes.

 Overhead Cable Triceps Extension

Your triceps have three heads (hence the “tri” in the name). This movement is great for training the long head, which runs down the innermost side of your arm and provides most of the muscle’s strength. Using a cable helps keep tension on the muscle throughout the range of motion, so even when your arms are locked out, the triceps are still working.

Step 1: Attach a rope handle (or two single-grip handles) to the top pulley of a cable station. Grasp it with both hands and face away from the station, reaching your arms overhead with elbows bent. You should feel a slight stretch in the muscles. Stagger your stance for balance.

Step 2: Extend your elbows to lockout, and control their return to the starting position.

Technique tips: Don’t let your lower back arch as you do this movement, and try not to move anything other than your elbow joint!

Hammer Curl Exercise

Hammer curls hit the brachioradialis, the main forearm muscle. This area tends to be underworked because people like to favor the biceps, and stronger forearm muscles help to stabilize the elbow joint, reducing the risk of injury—especially if you do activities outside the gym like golf or tennis.

Step 1: Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart and make a slight bend in your knees. Hold a dumbbell in each hand, your palms facing each other.

Step 2: Keeping that same neutral grip (palms facing in), bend your elbows and bring the dumbbells up as you would a hammer. You should feel your biceps flex as you do this. When the top of the dumbbell gets to about shoulder-level, lower it back down to the starting position. You can lift with both arms at the same time, or alternate arms.

Technique tips: It can be really easy to throw your hips, lower back, and even your shoulders into this exercise in order to move the dumbbell. Engage your core and squeeze your butt to keep everything but your arms still.

Barbell Curl Exercise

Barbell curls are a solid, basic movement that works the biceps completely. Just remember to keep your elbows from coming up and away from your body. To ensure that the biceps do the work and not the front deltoids, keep your elbows at your sides.

The advantage to using a barbell over dumbbells is exposing your muscles to heavier loads. But if a straight bar bothers your wrists or elbows, you can get the same training effect from an EZ-curl bar (the bar with waves in it so that when you grip it your wrists are at an angle).

Step 1: Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart and make a slight bend in your knees. Hold the barbell with your palms facing up, hands shoulder width.

Step 2: Engage your core, squeeze your butt, and bend your elbows to bring the barbell up to shoulder level. Squeeze your biceps at the top, and lower back down.

Technique tips: As you get tired, you may feel like swinging the weight up. Keep good form. End the set before your technique breaks down.

How To Stretch Your Arms

Just like you’d do before any other workout, it’s important to warm up your arms before you train them. A good warmup will prime your muscles for the work they’re about to do and help to prevent injury. Use these two mobility drills from Onnit’s Durability Coach, Cristian Plascencia, before any arm training.

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Wrist/Elbow/Shoulder Mobility! ••• Wrist or forearm giving you some pain or discomfort? Spend a lot of time typing of texting during the day? Are you about to pick up a barbell for your workout today? ••• This mobility series is here to help decompress some tension within your joints and help your muscles move more efficiently when you are working out! Regardless if your doing upper or lower body workouts, your wrist and shoulders are integral parts of your success. Don’t neglect them for too long! ••• Try out these simple drills before OR after your next workout and let me know how you feel! ••• #totalhumanoptimization #onnit #getonnit #durable #durableathlete #flexibility #mobility #onnitsports #health #wellness #strength

A post shared by Cristian G. Plascencia B.S. (@cristian_thedurableathlete) on Sep 27, 2018 at 8:15am PDT

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Online Training Preview: Shoulder/Forearm/Wrist Decompression. ••• I’ve received a lot of messages lately asking for decompression techniques for the upper and middle back lately. It’s normal to have residual tension in our neck and traps due to our anterior dominated lifestyle these days. That tension you are feeling around the neck/shoulder many times is a protective mechanism by your nervous system to keep your spine safe. I have found this “Kneeling Seal to Kneeling Bulldog” to be very beneficial in activating the posterior tissues and being able to train internal rotation at the shoulder capsule safely; ultimately relieving a lot of tension hiding in our upper back. ••• Want to learn more about movements such as these to assist you in your longevity practices? Make sure you check the link in my bio or come visit me at the next Durability Certification, here in Austin, TX. ••• #durability #mobility #onnit #getonnit #durable #durableathlete #bodyweight #bodyflow #longevity #performance #athlete

A post shared by Cristian G. Plascencia B.S. (@cristian_thedurableathlete) on Feb 6, 2018 at 7:00am PST

Get Toned With These Arm Workouts

The best arm workout for you depends on your goals and experience level. Choose from the options below to find the right routine.

Beginner Arm Workout

If you’re fairly new (or brand new) to the gym, your priority should be to strengthen your biggest muscle groups. It’s a matter of efficiency: by concentrating on improving overall upper-body strength with compound exercises that let you lift heavy and work several muscles at once, you’ll see growth everywhere. At this stage in your training, you don’t need any direct arm work to get results.

Skeptical? The purpose of the biceps and triceps is to flex and extend the elbow. When you flex your arm (bend your elbow), you can feel your biceps contract. When you extend your arm (make it straight), you can feel your triceps contract. This means that doing any pulling or pressing motion will activate those muscles. So doing lat pulldowns and rows—primarily back exercises—will work your biceps just like curls do. Likewise, pushups and bench and shoulder presses will train your triceps.

This workout is organized with supersets (marked A and B). You’ll do two exercises back to back, and after you’ve completed one set of each, rest. Supersets get your heart rate up, so you can also burn fat while you’re lifting. It’s a win-win!

Superset 1

1A Lat Pulldown

Sets: 3–4  Reps: 12–15  Rest: 0 sec.

Sit at a lat pulldown station, and secure your knees under the pads. Grasp the bar with hands at shoulder width and your palms facing forward. Pull the bar to your collarbone, and control its path back up.

1B Dumbbell Shoulder Press

Sets: 3–4  Reps: 12–15  Rest: 1–2 minutes

See the directions above.

Superset 2

2A Bentover Row

Sets: 2–3  Reps: 10–12  Rest: 0 sec.

Place a barbell on a rack set to about hip level. Grasp the bar with your hands at shoulder width, and pull the bar out of the rack. Step back, and set your feet at hip width, holding the bar at arm’s length against your thighs. Take a deep breath, and bend your hips back—keeping your head, spine, and pelvis aligned. Bend until your torso is nearly parallel to the floor. Draw your shoulder blades together as you pull the bar up to your belly button.

2B Pushup

Sets: 2–3  Reps: 10–12  Rest: 1–2 minutes

See the directions above.

Superset 3

3A EZ-Bar Curl

Sets: 2  Reps: 12  Rest: 0 sec.

See the directions above.

3B Overhead Cable Triceps Extension

Sets: 2  Reps: 12  Rest: 1–2 minutes

See the directions above.

Arm Day Workout

This workout is for you gals who have been lifting consistently for several months or more and want to target the arms more directly. As I said before, in my experience, women who want nice-looking arms really have to start with the shoulders, so while you’ll do curls and extensions here, I’m also adding some shoulder work too.

If you already have a shoulder day, you can cut back on the reps and sets on the shoulder movements, or just make sure you give yourself two or three days between your shoulder day and this workout.

For this workout, we’re just going to do all the sets and exercises straight through. Meaning, you’ll start with the face pull and do all the sets for it before moving on to the dumbbell front raise, and so on. Focusing on one exercise at a time helps you avoid excess fatigue and lets you use heavier weights.

Rest as necessary, but I suggest limiting your rest to 60 seconds between sets.

Face Pull

Sets: 4  Reps: 12

See the directions above.

Dumbbell Front Raise

Sets: 4  Reps: 12

Stand holding a pair of dumbbells at arm’s length in front of you. Draw your shoulder blades down and together (think: “proud chest”) and raise them up in front of your body to shoulder level. Keep a slight bend in your elbows.

Hammer Curl

Sets: 3  Reps: 10 (each arm)

See the directions above.

Barbell Curl

Sets: 3  Reps: 12, as many as possible

See the directions above. Perform two sets of 12 reps, and then reduce the weight by 10% and do as many reps as possible.

Overhead Cable Triceps Extension

Sets: 3  Reps: 15

See the directions above.

Bench Dip

Sets: 3  Reps: As many as possible

Stand in front of a bench and place your hands on it behind you. Extend your legs in front of you and lower your body until your upper arms are parallel to the floor. Press into the bench to extend your elbows.

Arm Finisher Workout

If you’re an experienced trainee already on a full-body or upper body/lower body split, this arms finisher is the perfect way to end it.

The point of this workout is to add a little bit of extra work to your arms without having to radically overhaul your workouts. Throw this mini-routine on at the end of any workout you do twice per week.

Choose any biceps and triceps exercise. For example, barbell curls and overhead cable extensions. Now do countdown sets for each, starting at 10 reps.

So you’ll do 10 curls and then 10 extensions with no rest in between. Then you’ll go back to the curls and do 9 reps, and then extensions for 9 reps. Continue all the way down to 1 rep for each exercise.

It will look like this:

Curl x 10 reps

Overhead Cable Triceps Extension x 10 reps

Curl x 9

Overhead Cable Triceps Extension x 9

Curl x 8

Overhead Cable Triceps Extension x 8…

Curl x 1

Overhead Cable Triceps Extension x 1

At-Home Workout

If you train in a home gym (or your living room, with the coffee table pushed out of the way), all you need for a great arm workout is a single dumbbell or kettlebell.

To do this workout, you’ll go through a set of each exercise, one after the other, without rest. You’ll rest after you’ve completed one full round of the exercises. Do 3­–4 rounds, resting up to 2 minutes between rounds.

Decline Pushup

Reps: 8–10

Set up as you would to do a normal pushup, but rest your feet on a bench or other surface so they’re elevated.

Plank Walkout

Reps: 10

From your pushup position, keep a long spine and your core braced. Walk your hands forward as far as you can without letting your lower back sag toward the floor. Walk back. That’s one rep.

One-Arm Dumbbell Row

Reps: 10 (each arm)

Rest your left knee and hand on a bench or chair and grasp a dumbbell with your right hand. Let the weight hang straight down. Retract your shoulder and row the dumbbell up to your side. Lower the weight back to the starting position.

One-Arm Z Press

Reps: 8 (each arm)

Sit on the floor with a dumbbell in one hand at shoulder level and your legs extended in front of you. Keep your torso as upright as you can and press the weight straight overhead.

Bench Dip

Reps: 15

See the directions above.

Superman Row

Reps: 10

Lie on your belly on the floor holding a light weight in each hand (or your bodyweight alone may be enough). Extend your arms overhead. Squeeze your glutes and raise your torso off the floor as high as you can and pull your arms down, bending your elbows and drawing them to your sides as if doing a lat pulldown.

How To Lose Arm Fat

Unfortunately, you don’t get to decide where your body will lose fat from first. Where you gain and lose weight has a lot to do with your genetics, and can be influenced by health issues. So if you suffer from a little extra arm flab that waves at people whenever you do, there’s no workout you can do to specifically target and destroy it.

However, by gaining muscle and revamping your diet, you can firm up your arms and lose the fat that currently covers them. For guidance on eating better, see these other articles on the keto diet and the caveman diet (also great for cave-females).

Remember also that shapely, toned arms can only come from resistance training, and lifting weights is the best form of resistance. Further, results come from lifting weights that are heavy. You need to be expending effort as you lift, not just throwing around reps with a soup can in each hand.

As I mentioned in the beginning, most women don’t have the hormone profile to build muscle like men do, so heavy lifting won’t result in so-called “manly” arms. Also, building muscle is flat out really hard to do, whether you’re a woman or a man. Don’t make it harder than it has to be by challenging yourself any less.

Here’s the thing about how building muscle and burning fat works. Muscle takes up a lot of energy to create and to retain. That energy comes directly from the food you eat and the calories you’ve already stored. If you work on building muscle, and you’re not overeating, your body will have no choice but to oxidize fat to help grow and maintain your muscles. Your metabolism will be elevated all day long, even when you’re relaxing on the couch.

That’s one of the best parts about having more muscle mass: you can burn fat even when you’re doing a whole lotta nothing.

The post The Best Arm Workouts For Getting Toned For Women appeared first on Onnit Academy.