Information on Loughborough

Bicep Curl

Health Clubs and Fitness Centres

Bicep CurlBy Ryan Kelly

Ah, the old barbell bicep curl. The ultimate ego exercise for the ultimate ego muscle. Unfortunately, being such an important part of most (male) weightlifters routine, this move is often done improperly for the sake of looking strong. In addition, this is an easy exercise to do improperly. If you do not do it properly, your biceps will not grow! Follow these directions to get it right!

Begin with a barbell in your hands. Grip the bar with a shoulder length grip and allow your hands to hang down naturally. Stand up straight, however keep a slight bend in your knees.

Keeping your elbows at your side, your shoulders steady, and your lower back erect, curl the weight upwards in a wide arc. If your elbows do not stay at your side, you will be using your shoulders to move the weight. If your shoulders move you will be using your shoulders to move the weight. If your lower back moves, resulting in a sort of thrusting motion with your lower body, you will be using momentum to move the weight and you will probably end up hurting your back. I can say without exaggeration that the overwhelming majorityof people who do this movement make at least two of these three mistakes.

Go up as far as you can. At the top of your range of motion, there is small stress on your biceps so you should manually contract them as hard as you can. After this, slowly lower the weight to the starting position, again keeping your elbows, shoulders, and back steady.

For max muscular growth do 4 sets of 12 reps with as much weight as you can handle when you work your biceps. If you find yourself breaking proper form, you are using too much weight and you need to take some off.

Ryan is a 275 pound natural bodybuilder from Arizona. He runs the Muscle Building Section of Good E-Books.com, where he lists his favorite books for building muscle mass. Visit http://www.goode-books.com/gainmuscle.html today to see Ryan's picks!

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Lat Pulldown

Health Clubs and Fitness Centres

Lat PulldownBy Ryan Kelly

The lat pulldown is one of the fundamental muscle building moves for your upper back. If done properly, it will add pounds of dense muscle to your back. If done improperly, however, you will not make nearly the gains that you should make in the gym. Follow these directives to get it right!

Attach a long bar to a lat pulldown station. Stand up and grasp the bar with as wide of a grip as possible. Use an overhand grip. Sit down, still holding the bar.

Focusing on using the muscles of your upper back, pull the bar down to your upper chest. Do not lean back too much, as this uses leverage to move the weight. Keep your shoulder blades back. In fact, imagine yourself trying to crush an orange with your shoulder blades. Make sure to pull the bar to the front of your body, not the back. If you pull the bar down behind your neck you risk injury to the neck.

Pull the bar down as far as possible. If you are just beginning a strength trainingprogram, you may not be able to go all the way down. Do not worry, with time you will be able to, just focus on doing what you can. Once you have gone as low as you can, slowly allow the bar to go back to the starting position, remembering to keep your shoulder blades back.

For max hypertrophy (muscular growth), do 4 sets of 12 reps of this movement when you train your back. If you find that you are breaking form, take some of the weight off.

Ryan is a 275 pound natural bodybuilder from Arizona. He runs the Muscle Building Section of Good E-Books.com, where he lists his favorite books for building muscle mass. Visit http://www.goode-books.com/gainmuscle.html today to see Ryan's picks!

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How to Squat

Health Clubs and Fitness Centres

How to SquatBy Ryan Kelly

Squats are probably the most difficult however rewarding exercise you can do. It recruits more muscle than any other exercise, however it is also harder to do properly than any other exercise. Follow these directions to get it right!

Load a barbell on a squat rack with an suitable amount of weight, making sure that there is equal weight on both sides of the bar. Get under the bar and place your hands wherever gives you the most stability. Some people like a narrow grip when squatting, some like a wider grip, however most people grab the bar somewhere in between. Make sure that the bar is resting on your TRAPESIUS muscle and NOT on your NECK! Lift the weight and take a step backwards to avoid hitting the rack when squatting.

Keeping your knees relatively still, squat down by sticking your buttocks out behind you slightly. This movement is similar to sitting on a toilet. Do not let your knees pass over your toes! If your knees come forward over your toes they will be subjected to a very high amount of stress, and we want to minimize stress on our joints when we work out. The bar itself should stay in a vertical plane when you squat. That is,the weight itself should go straight up and down, it should not sway forwards and backwards. Also, make sure that your back remains straight when you do this movement! Although this is a leg movement, both your lower back and abs will receive a very strong workout from having to stabilize your body if you squat properly.

Lower your body until your knees form a right angle. Put another way, lower your body until your upper legs are parallel to the floor. If you squat any lower than this, it will put too much stress on the knees. From this point, use your legs and your buttocks to push the weight back up to the starting position.

Ryan is a 275 pound natural bodybuilder from Arizona. He runs the Muscle Building Section of Good E-Books.com, where he lists his favorite books for building muscle mass. Visit http://www.goode-books.com/gainmuscle.html today to see Ryan's picks!