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Do you cycle
Creatine? I’m finding that after the third week I don't feel
the effect anymore.
My bench
press is pretty high for someone my size, but my pecs are flat.
What am I doing wrong?
I’m
looking for a way to really develop my shoulders. My problem is I
can’t do behind the neck barbell presses without aggravating
my shoulders. Any suggestions?
I’m
interested in quickly getting as muscular as possible. How many
reps should I do for each exercise?
What
exercises do you do to get the lower ridge on your pecs, that real
chiseled look?
Do you
cycle Creatine? I’m finding that after the third week I don't
feel the effect anymore. Back To
Top
Here's what I do with creatine:
week 1: load (20 g / day) week 2-4 : maintenance (10 g / day) week
5: load (20 g / day) week 6-8: OFF
Repeat Cycle.
I'm basically on for 5 weeks (higher than average doses), then off
completely for 3 weeks. This seems to work well for me and gives me
continual progress with my creatine supplementation.
Another important factor here is what type of creatine
you’re using. I never made great gains with creatine until I
switched to a creatine formula as opposed to just mixing the powder
up myself.
In particular, AST’s Creatine HSC has really worked well for
me. Other people see good results with EAS’s Phosphagen HP
and MET-Rx’s Micronized Creatine. And MuscleTech’s Cell
Tech is becoming increasingly popular.
I’ve found that it’s best to avoid generic creatine
monohydrate (the cheap stuff) as the purity is often in question
and it doesn’t seem to work nearly as well as the quality
formulas on the market.
My bench press is pretty high for someone my size,
but my pecs are flat. What am I doing wrong? Back To Top
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: unless
you’re a freak of nature or using a lot of juice,
you’ll NEVER build a first-rate chest by featuring barbell
flat bench presses. Powerlifting is one thing; bodybuilding is
something else altogether.
To fully work your pecs, you need to isolate them. While the bench
press is a good way for beginners and intermediates to start
building some mass, it’s not a very good exercise for
developing the pectoral depth and separation that are the hallmark
of a top physique.
If you’re not quite ready to give up those barbell flat
bench presses for inclines and dumbbells, here’s a simple
change you can make in your program to pre-exhaust your pecs and
spark new development.
After a thorough warm-up, start your chest training with dumbbell
flyes. Yes, FLYES. But that’s a finishing exercise you say.
Oh ye of little faith. It’s an isolation movement, and
isolation is what we want.
Be sure to take your triceps entirely out of the movement. Move
your arms in a very wide arc, and squeeze your pecs hard at the
top. In the top position, you should almost feel like you’re
hugging a big tree (just humor me). Use the heaviest weight you can
while still maintaining good form for 8-12 reps.
After 2-3 sets of flyes, then go to the bench press. You’ll
have to forget about poundage and focus on pump. Your pecs will be
fatigued, so you won’t be able to lift the usual amount, but
you’ll get a terrific pump and you’ll feel the
difference.
Try this for 2-3 weeks and you’ll notice some significant
improvement in your chest development.
I’m looking for a way to really develop my
shoulders. My problem is I can’t do behind the neck barbell
presses without aggravating my shoulders. Any suggestions? Back To Top
I tend to stay away from any movements that require you to push or
pull from behind the neck (Lat Pulldowns, Barbell Presses, etc.) as
I feel this puts the neck and the shoulder in very unnatural
positions that invite injury.
One of the best and safest exercises I’ve found for
all-around shoulder development is the Seated Dumbbell Press.
When doing seated presses for shoulder development, you want to
maintain the stress on your delts by not locking out your elbows in
the top position.
Locking your elbows out actually serves to take the weight off
your delts and thus gives them a momentary break from the set. This
break is clearly counter-productive to growth and development.
By maintaining continuous tension on the delts, you’ll
dramatically increase the effectiveness of this movement. You may
have to drop your poundage down slightly, but I’ve found that
with most people shoulders respond well to highly controlled,
continuous tension sets.
I’m interested in quickly getting as
muscular as possible. How many reps should I do for each
exercise? Back To
Top
While generalizations are often misleading, for adding mass to the
major bodyparts the following ranges seem to work best for most
people:
Chest & Back = 5-8 Reps / Set Arms & Shoulders = 6-10 Reps
/ Set Quads & Hamstrings = 8-15 Reps / Set Calves = 12-20 Reps
/ Set
Again, as always it’s important to work variation into your
training program. In particular, I like to periodically throw in
some high rep training.
What exercises do you do to get the lower ridge on
your pecs, that real chiseled look? Back To Top
I use a combination of Decline Presses with a wide-variety of
cable exercises to fully develop the lower ridge of the pectorals
and to burn the cut, striated look into the muscle.
While not generally a big fan of Bench Pressing for chest
development, I’ve had some success with Barbell Presses on
the decline bench. Make sure the decline angle is not too severe in
order to prevent the bulk of the stress from shifting over to your
arms and, in particular, your delts.
I like to use about a 35% angle on the bench here. For best
results use a shoulder-width grip and keep your arms in close to
your sides. Form is key.
I’ll occasionally mix things up by doing Decline Dumbbell
Presses in order to really stretch the pecs.
I like to use various Cable Crossover and Cable Fly movements as
finishing exercises for chest. The continuous tension that cables
provide is instrumental in developing a full rounded chest. Be sure
not to work against this continuous tension by jerking through the
exercise or by swinging body momentum into the movements. Strict,
smooth form will really pay off here.
Take care,
webmaster@bodybuildingpro.com
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