BODY SHOP Blowtorch weak spots with these tools, techniques and high-impact workouts By Jeff O’Connell Perhaps your three deltoid heads are so strangely proportioned that only Picasso could appreciate their aesthetic beauty. Maybe the medicine ball you’re supposed to be using for training abs looks like it’s hiding under your shirt instead. Imperfections make us human. They separate us from machines. In bodybuilding, imperfections also separate you from the guy who struts offstage with the trophy, a cheque and a fitness babe on either arm. Don’t fix it if it ain’t broke? As reigning Mr. O Ronnie Coleman might say, “If it ain’t perfect, you damn sure better fix it as best you can — and right quick, too! ”PECS THAT SAG, NOT POP If your upper chest lags and sags along its upper half, doing presses and flyes on an incline is just the ticket. WORKOUT: This regime comes courtesy of 2001 Ms. Olympia shortclass winner Andrulla Blanchette, who suffered from this upper-lower imbalance at one time. EXERCISE: Incline Cable Flye SETS: 4 REPS: 10 EXERCISE: Incline Dumbbell Press SETS: 4–8 REPS: 10 EXERCISE: Cable Crossover SETS: 3 REPS: 10 EXERCISE TIP: Says Andrulla: “For incline presses, on the lighter sets I sit down on the bench holding two dumbbells, but as I go heavier, I lie down and have a spotter hand them to me. With my back flat on the bench and the dumbbells at my shoulders, wrists facing forward, I press. As I go, my natural tendency is to supinate my wrists slightly, so that my palms gradually go from facing forward to facing each other at the top. I feel my pec fibres screaming when I turn my wrists that way. I lower the dumbbells under control and repeat.” WORKOUT TIP: “For most exercises, dumbbells are a more advanced, individual form of the movement,” says bodybuilding great Kevin Levrone. “Going from a barbell to dumbbells on the incline press, for example, suddenly makes the movement much harder to control, which is good — you’re hitting the muscle fibres of the pecs with a slightly different stress, and you’re developing strength in the various stabiliser muscles involved in pressing at an angle. Suddenly, you’re dictating the way the weight moves.” BICEPS THAT LACK PEAK At the top of most free-weight curling exercises, the tension on your biceps often releases as your forearm goes perpendicular to the floor. One good fix for this is to concentrate on stopping just short of this point when you do biceps moves. You can also add a cable exercise to your training mix — high-pulley cable curls, for instance, provide continual tension all the way to peak contraction because of the angle of pull. Putting that stress squarely on the muscle at the apex stimulates growth right where you need it. EXERCISE TIP: “My favourite biceps exercise is the high-pulley cable curl,” says eight-time Ms. Olympia Lenda Murray. “Standing between two cable stacks, I grasp handles attached to each high pulley so my arms are stretched out parallel to the floor. Without moving my upper arms, I flex both elbows and curl the handles toward my shoulders. At full contraction, I squeeze and then slowly let the handles travel back to full extension.” WORKOUT TIP: “For those who are ready for higher levels of lactic-acid burning, including one-and-a-quarter reps can further improve results,” says John R. Gray, a doctoral candidate in spinal biomechanics at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada. “After completing the concentric movement, reverse the direction only for one-quarter of the range, and reverse again to repeat the concentric part of the movement.” Return to the original start position to complete one full rep. TECHNIQUE: On dumbbell exercises such as alternating curls, people often twist their wrists up as they complete the rep. Researchers writing in Electromyography and Clinical Neurophysiology showed that this action activates the short head of the biceps more than the long head, which makes for a less impactful stress where you need it most, on the long head, which is responsible for the peak. Keep your wrists locked into a palms-up position. LACKING SHAPE IN YOUR TRICEPS When it comes to triceps, just what is the “horseshoe”, anyway? It’s the shape formed at the top of the upper arms, near the shoulder joints, by thorough development of the lateral and long heads of the triceps. (The medial head is more prominent down toward the elbow.) Together they form a horseshoe shape on the back of the arm. STRATEGY: If you don’t see the horseshoe on the back of your upper arm, you need to develop one of those two heads — or both. Lying French presses, pressdowns and similar exercises are great for the lateral head. Meanwhile, overhead dumbbell extensions and other moves in which you move your arms away from your sides are great for emphasising the long head, although the other parts of the triceps will still get some action. MOTIVATION: “Beforehand, you want to go through your whole triceps workout in your head,” says sports psychologist David Kauss, an assistant professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, and the author of Mastering Your Inner Game. “Write it all down. By the time you get to the gym, you’ll be at the right level of intensity and have the right focus of attention to make your workout as productive as possible.” HERE COMES OL’BEER BELLY This “look” may rule at a beach barbecue, but it’s time to deflate you and your stomach. WORKOUT: This “belly-be-gone” workout comes courtesy of David McWhorter, an associate professor in the anatomy department at Kansas City University of Medicine and Biosciences College of Osteopathic Medicine. EXERCISES 1) REVERSE CRUNCH 2) CROSS-LEGGED OBLIQUE CRUNCH — Elevate your left knee and cross your right ankle over it; perform a twisting crunch toward your right knee for reps, then switch legs and repeat. 3) STRAIGHT-LEG CRUNCH — Perform crunches with your knees straight and feet pointed toward the ceiling. 4) BACK CRUNCH — Lie face-down and place your hands behind your head. Raise your torso until your chest is 3–4 inches off the ground. Return slowly to the start position and repeat. 5) VERTICAL HORSE STANCE — Kneel on all fours: hands below your shoulders, knees below your hips and torso parallel to the floor. Lift your left hand and right knee just high enough off the floor so a magazine would fit underneath them. Without allowing your pelvis to shift toward the supported side, hold that position for 10 seconds. Return to the start and repeat using the opposite hand and knee. Train your core with the same frequency you devote to other bodyparts. Initially, perform one set per exercise, 10 reps per set, resting no more than 30–60 seconds between each set. Add 1–2 reps per exercise each week until you’re able to complete 20–25 reps per exercise. At that point, begin reducing the amount of time you rest between sets by five seconds a week. Once you’re able to perform 25 reps per exercise with no rest in between, add a second set to each exercise. Go through the same progression of increasing reps followed by decreased rest periods. Ultimately, you should be able to complete three sets of each exercise, 25 reps apiece, with no rest in between. YOUR “V” IS MORE LIKE A “U” Some guys have an unimpressive shoulder-to-waist ratio for reasons that probably have something to do with bacon sandwiches, but it could also result from underdeveloped or unbalanced shoulders, particularly in the middle heads. “A majority of people have a disproportionate amount of their shoulder development concentrated in the front part of the deltoid complex,” says Tom Fahey, a professor in the department of physical education and exercise science at California State University. STRATEGY: If your current shoulder routine is based on overhead presses, you need to diversify. Combine exercises that target specific regions of the shoulder complex, especially the middle heads. Developing balanced shoulders inevitably requires lateral raises. WORKOUT TIP: Fahey says a bodybuilder is better off going light and staying strict than going too heavy on lateral raises. Cheating can destroy the delicate architecture of the shoulder joint. POSTURE TIP: “A slumped upper back is going to give the appearance of a more narrow shoulder base,” says Kyle Baldwin, an adjunct professor of physical therapy at the University of Southern California. “Correcting that will make you look wider and improve your lateral raises.” GOOD UPPER BODY, SKINNY-ASS LEGS Most people have a love-hate relationship with legs. They love the results they get from hard leg training, but they hate what it takes to achieve it. WORKOUT: Plagued by puny pins? This leg trash, courtesy of Dave “Scooter” Honig of Extreme Fitness in, New York — whose clientele includes LL Cool J and Wyclef Jean — kicks so much ass you’ll have a permanent Nike logo imprinted on your backside: Exercise: Leg Extension Sets: 2 Reps: 25 Exercise: Barbell Squat Sets: 4 Reps: 8–10 Exercise: Romanian Deadlift: Sets: 4 Reps: 8–10 Exercise: Leg Press Sets: 4 Reps: 50 or Exercise: Hack Squat Sets: 4 Reps: 50 NUTRITION TIP: Night is both the most important time for growth as well as the longest stretch you go without calories. So to maximize the benefits of your weight training, eat a meal right before hitting the sack. This nocturnal noshing should be based on a protein:carbs ratio of 2:1 or even 3:1. EXERCISE TIP: If your quads continue to lag, shock ’em by heading straight to the squat rack to begin your leg workouts (starting with some high-rep, low-weight sets to warm up), in keeping with Andrulla’s “Law of Exercise Sequence”: hardest first. M&F

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