Thread: Hints and tips to mix up or perfect your training:

Originally Posted by MO

Instead...
Bring the dumbells TO THE TOP OF YOUR FOREHEAD!
On the way down, and only after your joints have enough heat in them and well and truley warmed up, keep them as inline with your neck or at very least, with your upper chest as possible.
So your arms are slightly stretched backwards and down rather than if you were working the middle portion of the pec - to the side and down. You could still be doing your middle part of the chest even though the bench is inclined, otherwise.

Holy crap MO, gave this a spin today and all I got to say is .

I was suppersetting these with incline dumbell flyes, and I used the same principle bringing them to the top of my forehead.

Cheers mate, just added a whole new dimension to my chest training. Now to bring up a weakness that has been bugging me for some time.

Originally Posted by MO

Yeah was going to get around to it but thought it was too much of a big jump before explainig proper technique first in the gym.

Giant sets is how i would always love to train if i had the chance (empty gym).

So... Giant Sets:

You choose about 4 different exercises for a body part and you do them all one after another.
So lets do back:
-Lat pull down to the front (right down to the chest, pause and contract and let your lat stretch out all the way up furthest it can take you - 10reps)

less than 5 seconds MAXIMUM (or you've stuffed everything up!) you go into...

-Barbell row to the chest - 10 reps real quick (going from real slow inthe last exercise to this all of a sudden - one extreme to another is the "theme" for this giant set workout)

...less than 5 seconds rest go into...

-Undergrip straight bar seated cable rows. Stretch out all the way upon bringing the weight back and squeeze hard upon pulling the weight in. Elbows tucked in to your hips! 10 straight strict reps.

...less than 5 seconds rest go into...

-D-bell rows leaning on an incline bench. Hard and heavy - 6-8 reps. No less and no more!

Once you have done each exercise ONCE one after another, you have completed ONE ROTATION!
Do 4 BUT EACH ROTATION WEIGHT IS INCREASED!! So choose your weight carefully from the start knowing that you will have to up the weight of each exercise 4 times.

Depending on your level of training this is most probably enough. Myself, i go for a little more to tell my back to grow.
I may choose an extra exercise after all that and go progressive sets.

There are so many "themes" that you can have with giant sets its not funny. This is one of many.
I have included slow pause strict reps, fast reps, continuous reps without pause but moderate pace and heavy reps. All fibres are taken care of here!

Hey MO would these "themes" be a good way of mixing up training for me as I don't have a gym membership and just use db's and a straight bench? I am mindful of the idea of "surprising" the muscles but the only thing I've figured I could change was the order I do lifts and I've added reps here and there. This sounds like a more effective way of mixing it up though.

Also back on page 2 I was glad to see a lift I was already doing, the supinating db fly :) As a newbie going through all the exercises I could do with db's it seemed like a good one to do because of that extra movement. I actually stopped doing it recently though because of advice on here but I'll add that in every other chest workout to mix it up.

Also MO do you reckon doing decline tricep extensions is similar to your skullcrusher exercise? That's one I've been doing for a while where you hold the db's hammer grip with upper armsslightly back and try to raise them just with forearms. Just wondering if it would be better on flat bench or what, since I don't have a bb. As it is, it works them harder than any other exercise but whether or not it's effective, I'm not sure.

Originally Posted by Snoopa

Hey MO would these "themes" be a good way of mixing up training for me as I don't have a gym membership and just use db's and a straight bench? I am mindful of the idea of "surprising" the muscles but the only thing I've figured I could change was the order I do lifts and I've added reps here and there. This sounds like a more effective way of mixing it up though.

Use your imagination and a set of dumbells and a bench will go a long way, even for an experianced lifter.
Giant set style of training could definitely be used.
More so, go to page 3 of this thread and look into posts #41 and #45.
Just about every change to training is listed there.

Originally Posted by Snoopa

Also MO do you reckon doing decline tricep extensions is similar to your skullcrusher exercise? That's one I've been doing for a while where you hold the db's hammer grip with upper armsslightly back and try to raise them just with forearms. Just wondering if it would be better on flat bench or what, since I don't have a bb. As it is, it works them harder than any other exercise but whether or not it's effective, I'm not sure.

Not one is 'better'.
Do both. The decline version will be a more successful aproach only because no one is used to hanging upside down while doing a tricep extension especially with dumbells.
If this is a breeze for you though, because you always do these, then the flat bench will be harder so go for that.
These won't be the same as doing my skullcrusher movement (behind the head and push back) unless you do the same movement of course, only with dumbells.

Give them a twist at the top of the movement so that fists are forward and squeeze the outer head.
You can target all the heads of the tricep with dumbell movements alone, so yes, it is effective.

Excellent advice as usual MO

MO

I have been experimenting with Dumbbell press, trying to squeeze the most out of it as a workout, becuase it's a great exercise.

Rather than move the DB in a triangle or toward each other immediatley, pressing them forward and keeping them apart like a bar movment till near the full extension bringing them to gether and squeezing the pecs, I seem to get an awesome pump and it feels really good, but I fear it could hurt my rotator-cuff becasue of the angle of the weight?

What do you reccomend?

Originally Posted by Dedication

MO

I have been experimenting with Dumbbell press, trying to squeeze the most out of it as a workout, becuase it's a great exercise.

Rather than move the DB in a triangle or toward each other immediatley, pressing them forward and keeping them apart like a bar movment till near the full extension bringing them to gether and squeezing the pecs, I seem to get an awesome pump and it feels really good, but I fear it could hurt my rotator-cuff becasue of the angle of the weight?

What do you reccomend?

No, i use this style too, Ded.
Keep going with it.
It's definitely only achievable with a weight that you can control for a few seconds during the movements you describe.

Raise up like a bar - at the top of the movement, make them touch and manually squeeze the pecs, then come back out apart - lower and repeat.

Can't see how it would effect your rotator cuff if YOU are in control of the movement and not the db's you are holding.

This is an absolute killer with shoulder press too!

Originally Posted by MO

Lat lengthening dumbell rows:

We'll see if you're still able to do them with 50kgs after this!

Instead of pulling the d-bell up in a straight line, reach forward atthe same time that you are lowering the dumbell to give the lat a good long stretch and then pull back right up near the waist.
Some would usually complain in feeling this exercise in their traps and rhomboids but not the lats. Doing it this way, you will feel it in the lower lats too.
So the dumbell moves in an arc. Again, reach forward as the dumbell is lowered to really feel the lats come to a full stretch (before i pull it back up, i personally let the dumbell sit on the ground to a stand still at the furthest spot i can stretch it out to) then pull the dumbell back up keeping it low the ground but heading up at the same time to a spot near the lower lat area.
DO NOT PULL IT IN A STRAIGHT OR VERTICAL LINE!
Think of the arc that was mentioned like a long flattened version of a 'C'.

G'day MO,

Mate I've done this exercise today at the gym my problem is I'm not shore how to position my body. I know you have one knee on bench and one hand it's just my other leg I'm not shore if I'm positioning it properly. I put it out and back if you know what I mean? and I take the dumbbell and put it in front of me as fair as I can go and bring it down and up towards my hip.

Originally Posted by 23spiro

G'day MO,

Mate I've done this exercise today at the gym my problem is I'm not shore how to position my body. I know you have one knee on bench and one hand it's just my other leg I'm not shore if I'm positioning it properly. I put it out and back if you know what I mean? and I take the dumbbell and put it in front of me as fair as I can go and bring it down and up towards my hip.

How you describe your leg positioning sounds right, Spiro.
Remember that it's just a tweak to the normal dumbell row, the only thing that is changed is the arc-like movement in which you move the dumbell.

With my dead lifts I position the bar close to my shins legs are about shoulder width and grip is out side my knees I look straight I suck my gut in and shoulders back and I try and hold this position. When I'm doing the dead lift I fill that I'm using my lower back to lift the weight of the ground instead of driving with my glutes and hammies then I pull my hips forward when the bar is up. Is there any tips on how to minimise my lower back from the lift and use more glutes and hammies?

Originally Posted by 23spiro

With my dead lifts I position the bar close to my shins legs are about shoulder width and grip is out side my knees I look straight I suck my gut in and shoulders back and I try and hold this position. When I'm doing the dead lift I fill that I'm using my lower back to lift the weight of the ground instead of driving with my glutes and hammies then I pull my hips forward when the bar is up. Is there any tips on how to minimise my lower back from the lift and use more glutes and hammies?

I'm thinking the weight is a little too much on the heavy side?
Provided YOU are in control, from the bottom of the movement, drive the weight up using mostly your heels.
At the top of the movement, purposely tilt your pelvis forward and squeeze your glutes hard.

Originally Posted by MO

I'm thinking the weight is a little too much on the heavy side?
Provided YOU are in control, from the bottom of the movement, drive the weight up using mostly your heels.
At the top of the movement, purposely tilt your pelvis forward and squeeze your glutes hard.

I understand I should drive my heels into the ground but my lower back kicks in. And the weight I'm using is not much today was 20kg on each side as I want to correct my form.

Originally Posted by 23spiro

I understand I should drive my heels into the ground but my lower back kicks in. And the weight I'm using is not much today was 20kg on each side as I want to correct my form.

It's a deadlift.
It would be odd if your lower back wasn't doing majority of the work?

If you are wanting more emphasis on the hammies, i suggest a stiffer leg rather than too bent at the knees.

Just ever so slightly before lockout.
There is no escaping feeling it in your lower back when deadlifting.

Originally Posted by MO

It's a deadlift.
It would be odd if your lower back wasn't doing majority of the work?

If you are wanting more emphasis on the hammies, i suggest a stiffer leg rather than too bent at the knees.

Just ever so slightly before lockout.
There is no escaping feeling it in your lower back when deadlifting.

Cheers Mo.

hey MO, just wanted to know, with biceps, what really hits the outer part, because mine seem to only grow inwards peak but nothing on the outer or the upper. any ideas?

Originally Posted by mondo

hey MO, just wanted to know, with biceps, what really hits the outer part, because mine seem to only grow inwards peak but nothing on the outer or the upper. any ideas?

Answered many times in this and other threads.
In short, just for you Mondo, close grip barbell curls and hammer dumbell curls.