5 Exercises To Alleviate Knee Soreness In Minutes

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A Sneaky Way To Bench Press More Weight

It's no surprise that everyone fights over the benches at the gym on Monday evenings. The bench press or variation of it should be a staple of every program. If you're one of the people scrambling for an open bench you're on the right track. When done correctly the bench press can be a full body exercise that will make you harder, thicker, stronger and more muscular in the least amount of time.

Benching is so popular it can be tough to find an open bench at times. But that's okay, and here's why.

The fact is, your bench is going to get stronger on days you're not training bench. That's right. You grow and get stronger while you're recovering. There are also other important muscle groups that need attention if you want to break your bench press rut.

While everyone is fighting over the benches we're going to make sure we're not neglecting other critical muscle groups that will help you bench press more weight.

You probably already know that when you start the lift you are primarily using your pecs, but after a few inches your triceps are going take over. Therefore we'll need to strengthen those triceps with some exercises like rolling dumbbell extensions and dumbbell floor presses.

Your back needs attention as well. You need to train this antagonist muscle group to avoid imbalances. Your lats also serve as a shelf and give you a more stable base to push from. Your back muscles help you stabilize the weight in the eccentric phase which makes up half the lift! Work your back on the same plane as your bench. Bench friendly back movements include barbell rows and close grip lat pull downs.

Since this is an article about bench pressing you won't have to concern yourself with the squat and deadlift right? WRONG!Squats and deadlifts trigger your body to release growth hormone and will temporarily raise testosterone levels in your blood. This puts you in an anabolic state and all your other muscles will benefit.

These are compound exercises that will add muscle mass and work your entire body. Besides you don't want to look like a light bulb do you? You know the type, guys with a huge upper body and tiny chicken legs. The deadlift will build your back up big time.

If you're a chest and arms type of guy here's something you'll be happy to hear. Bicep training can actually help your bench. The hammer curl significantly targets the brachioradialis which is the largest muscle in the forearm. Developing this muscle will help you at the bottom of the bench press and you can build your biceps at the same time.

Oh and if you are one of those guys that only likes to train the chest and arms, please reread this article.

Once you've got your head on straight give some of these exercises a try and before you know it you'll have first dibs on any bench you'd like to use and well on your way to that 300 or 400 pound lift that everyone is striving for.

Critical Bench 2.0 : Mike Westerdal Hits 630 LB Bench Press

Powerlifters compete in the squat, bench press and deadlift.

And they get big and muscular because they’re strong. Again, like I mentioned earlier… if you start lifting more weight than you usually do… your body must adapt in order to handle that weight.

It does that by growing bigger and stronger.

If you don’t get ANYTHING else at all from this letter, just remember that… because that alone will give you more results than anything else you do!

Bodybuilders… on the other hand… generally train for muscle growth and for aesthetics or looks. Not all bodybuilders are as strong as they look. Sure, there’s nothing wrong with that.

But if you’re like me… you probably want to have strength… as well as the lean, muscular look.

And believe me, you can. Not only is it possible, strength and size go hand-in-hand!

If you try to get stronger… each and every week… you’re GOING to get more muscular. It’s just a fact.

So if you’re looking to gain muscle as well as strength… you need to start focusing on lifting more weight. I dare you to find a guy who bench presses 400 pounds that doesn’t have a powerhouse body to match.

Click Here to Increase Your Bench 50 lbs in 10 Weeks

Gaining Muscle Weight is Not a Mystery

Today I've got a guest article for you from Mike Westerdal of Critical Bench. If you're trying to gain weight don't make it harder than it has to be…I'll let Mike take it from here…..

How you gain weight is no mystery. You gain weight by consuming more calories than you burn off in the course of a day. The excess calories, if not used by the body for energy, muscle building, or some other metabolic process, is stored as body fat. It’s stored as fat in case there is a future shortage of calories.

Much like you put excess junk you have around the house into a closet for storage, your body stores excess calories you haven’t used as body fat for future need.

The problem is, if you continue to eat the same amount of calories (or more) every day, there never is a future need and your body simply continues to store the excess as fat.

If excess calories are the culprit of weight gain, than the answer to achieving weight loss has to do with calories as well. You have to reverse the process that caused you to gain weight. You have to eat less calories.

I do not necessarily mean eating less food. I mean eating fewer calories, which is different.

There are two ways to have an impact on calorie expenditure in your body. Either eat less calories or burn more of them during exercise. I do not recommend going to extremes on either one of these but rather doing a little bit of both. When you diet and severely restrict calories, your body goes into a defense mode and begins to hold onto stored body fat.

While on a typical “diet” your body senses possible famine and holds onto body fat in case of future need. Also, your metabolism slows down because there’s not as much food to burn through and utilize.

So a drastic, sudden drop in calories is definitely not the way to achieve long term fat loss results.
Besides, how long could you possibly go on a restrictive diet before the feeling of deprivation makes you give in?

That is why diets traditionally do not work. You eat restrictively for a couple weeks and indeed have some success with weight loss.

But soon the diet becomes much too restrictive and you go back to the older, less restrictive way of eating. When the less healthy, less restrictive lifestyle comes back, so does all the weight you lost.

If you are trying to lose fat by dieting, you are always going to be in a position of playing “catch up”.

What I mean by this is, when you come off from a restrictive diet, you are going to “catch up” and eat all of the foods you felt deprived of. Instead of eating moderately and sensibly, the feelings of deprivation cause you to consume much more food than you normally would have if you weren’t dieting.

You’ll lose some weight on a diet and then gain it all back. Hence the term “yo-yo dieting” or “roller coaster dieting”

The solution? Do not eat restrictively and do not ban any specific foods.

I am a big advocate of eating regular, whole foods to lose fat. The foods you eat just have to be in smaller portions.

There isn’t any food you have to give up altogether for weight loss to occur. You just have to moderate and eat smaller portions, more often, for your metabolism to operate efficiently.

Cool, thanks Mike.

Now how do you know exactly how many calories you should be eating?

With these Done-For-You Lean Muscle Building Meal Plans they walk you through the easy steps of choosing the correct calorie plan. You get 24 different calorie plans that are each 84-days long.

Why This Works:

1. All your meals are planned for you so you don’t have to figure it out.

2. If you don’t like a food just use the substitution chart.

3. These meal plans are not restrictive and won’t leave you feeling hungry.

4. You’ll save money by only buying the groceries on your shopping list for the week.

5. They were designed by a professional nutritionist named Patrick McGuire that works with pro athletes.

Done-For-Your Lean Muscle Meal Plans — << Highly Recommended.