The Weight Training Journal

10 Advanced Dumbbell Pressing Variations for Bodybuilders and Strength Athletes

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

Free-weights should always form the dominant portion of exercise selection for building muscle-mass, building strength and toning the body. Dumbbells are a highly effective free-weight that demands control and strict technique. And we all know that if you employ Dumbbell Pressing movements in your training it is a sure-fire way to add strength, mass and thickness to your Chest and Shoulders and indirectly to your Triceps.

In order to get the most out of your Dumbbell Pressing movements it is essential that you introduce variety by adjusting the style and technique of the basic and most valuable exercises. This will keep your body in a state of surprise and readiness pushing it towards greater levels of development and will build a more complete physique because it has been attacked from all angles and options.

A STANDARD DUMBBELL PRESS

More

Building Bulging Biceps

No-one has a perfectly balanced body with each muscle group complementing the all the others. To earn such a title is evidence of a long and consistent journey through years of good nutrition and great training. Everyone has some dominant body-parts that respond well to training and grow easily while other muscle groups are stubborn requiring an intense and strategically implemented plan of attack to see even small results. We are all so different and today we are talking about Biceps. I have had clients who have never trained before and have walked into the gym with a decent set of guns. For this they can thank their parents. Then I have had other clients who have built magnificent physiques but have had to endure extra torture to bring up lagging Biceps. They can also thank (or curse) their parents for this. This happens with all muscle groups but there is always a way to beat it. Make a plan. Never ever give up…..

Plan of Attack

Know the functionality and main movement patterns of the Biceps:

More

How To Use Creatine

Supplements are ergogenic aids utilized to enhance physical performance outside of normal dietary intake.

Bodybuilding supplements have evolved into a huge, diverse, confusing industry. There is so much out there with such a broad spectrum of choice that any first time user must feel baffled. Not only are there countless different types of supplements, there are the endless brands and companies providing them.

What does one really need and where should you get it? That’s not a simple question but here are my choices and advice after 10 years of experimentation and observation.

More

How To Use Dumbbell Hand Grip Adjustments To Maximize Your Weight Training Routines

In the pursuit of your physical goals you must always be receptive to education. If an opportunity to improve your training presents itself grasp it, learn it and apply it. Sometimes it is huge change such as a brand new training program other times it is a subtle concept like the one I will discuss today.

Once you have taken your physique to a respectable level you need to pay attention to these sort of details to fine tune the various areas of your body you consider to be sub-par. There will be sections of your body that lag compared to your dominant muscle groups. Therefore you must devise strategies to create symmetry and balance throughout. This will make you stand out from the crowd.

By adjusting something as basic as the hand grip on a dumbbell you can perfect the execution of an exercise. This will increase the specificity of the movement, which means the target muscle will be stimulated to its full potential. That is an unstoppable step forward.

More

Protein Supplements

About Protein

To understand the significance of protein intake to weight training individuals it will be helpful to get a little technical and start at the source of everything: What exactly is protein? and, What impact does it have on us?

Definition of Protein:

Protein is a formation of complex, organic macromolecules consisting of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, and sulphur. It is composed of one or more chains of amino acids. Proteins are fundamental components of all living cells and substances that include enzymes, hormones, and antibodies. These are all extremely important and are required for the normal function of an organism. Protein is essential in the diet of animals for the growth and repair of tissue and can be obtained from foods such as meat, fish, eggs, milk, and legumes. In recent times it has been developed into more potent forms in bodybuilding supplements that are widely used to facilitate intense training.

More

The Perfect Rep: Unlocking The Ultimate Secret For Permanent Effective Training

This will be the most important piece of information that you will ever read about weight training.

Repetitions… Your entire training career is composed of millions of them. You group them in sets and they are the basis of each workout. Performing them correctly is the difference between success and failure. A perfect repetition, seemingly simple, has many components and is powerfully effective. I am going to explain how to perform the perfect rep and why it is so important.

At the impressionable age of 14 I was lucky enough to be introduced to the world of weight training by a competitive bench presser and ex-Olympic wrestler. He was a cartoonish 5 foot 3, 65 kilo powerhouse with a barrel chest and black pony-tail mullet down to his arse. At his gym in Bellingen he would ensure that I learned and retained precise lifting technique during my first 12 months of training. Thank-you Kevin. Under his supervision I went on to become the Australian School-boys Bench Press Champion at the ripe old of age of 15 with a lift of 87.5 kilograms (192.5 pounds) at a HUGE (laughs) body-weight of 66 kgs (145 lbs). That was after only 6 months of training. Technique and intensity is EVERYTHING!

More

Time-Efficient High-Intensity Workout Plans

How you can shock your body into new levels of growth when you are short on time.

This might sound like a cliché, but we do live in a fast-paced, high-stress world where time is a valued commodity on short supply. There is nothing worse than rushing off to the gym, skipping parts of your workout and leaving feeling like you haven’t trained properly and have wasted your time.

I believe that you should have a specific goal to be achieved from every single workout and in pursuit of that goal you give nothing less than 100 percent effort. If you fall short of that level of focus and intensity on a regular basis you are wasting your time and taking a longer path to where you want to be. Make the most of the time you have been given. This, of course, applies to the rest of your life but today we are only talking about training. (Which, of course, is the most important part of your life – ha ha).

Normally you need around an hour to complete most workouts and maybe a little more time to complete a proper warm-up and cool-down. Some days, because of time-constraints, you might only have half an hour or 20 minutes or even 10 minutes. You probably think that I sound crazy by even suggesting that that may be enough time for a growth-producing workout. It is…..

More

7 Ways To Get Your Body Ripped For Summer

1. Lift Weights to Build and Tone Muscle

Increasing your muscle mass and tone will accelerate body-fat loss. When your muscles grow the demand on your body’s energy resources increase. Therefore your metabolism starts running at a higher rate burning more calories during rest and while you exercise.

Muscles require a lot of energy to:
- Fuel their normal function in rest
- To power the 3 main energy systems with ATP (Adenosine Tri-phosphate; the energy molecule), Glycogen (a string of Glucose molecules) and Adipose Tissue (Fat) during exercise
- To replenish energy stores after exercise when the muscles are drained and facilitate the sustained hyperactivity of the muscles chemistry

Bigger and stronger muscle also enhances your bodies’ ability to perform and sustain high intensity exercise. This in turn can increase the potential calorie burning effect of your workout.

More

How To Hold Dumbbells When You Workout

In the pursuit of your physical goals you must always be receptive to education. If an opportunity to improve your training presents itself grasp it, learn it and apply it. Sometimes it is huge change such as a brand new training program other times it is a subtle concept like the one I will discuss today.

Once you have taken your physique to a respectable level you need to pay attention to these sort of details to fine tune the various areas of your body you consider to be sub-par. There will be sections of your body that lag compared to your dominant muscle groups. Therefore you must devise strategies to create symmetry and balance throughout. This will make you stand out from the crowd.

By adjusting something as basic as the hand grip on a dumbbell you can perfect the execution of an exercise. This will increase the specificity of the movement, which means the target muscle will be stimulated to its full potential. That is an unstoppable step forward.

More