Posts by Heather Jacques

A common saying in the fitness industry is that “abs are made in the kitchen.” Essentially, your diet is the key to getting a 6-pack. Although you must be lean to have visible abs, building and strengthening your abs will help them stand out even at a higher body fat percentage.

It’s quite common for people to train their core by only performing bodyweight exercises and doing an absurd number of repetitions. However, the core, more specifically the rectus abdominals, is like any other muscle. You need to progressively overload your abs to grow and get stronger.

A chiseled midsection is impressive from an aesthetics standpoint, but it’s also important for performance, especially if you are an athlete. The strong core plays a vital role in nearly every movement and will make a big difference inside and outside the gym.

A weak core drastically increases your risk for injury and negatively impacts your ability to do various tasks. If you’ve noticed that any area of your core is underdeveloped based on strength, stability, or muscular development, it’s a good idea to address that as soon as possible.

If your upper abs lag behind, you’ve come to the right place! This article specifically focuses on improving underdeveloped upper abs. Increasing the size and strength of your upper abs will enhance your aesthetics and performance. Keep reading to see what are the best training tactics to get your upper abs to respond!

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Developed traps are a key indicator that you’ve spent some serious time in the gym. The traps play an important role in aesthetics, performance, and activities of daily living. The main function of the traps, also known as the trapezius muscles, is to stabilize the scapula, commonly referred to as the shoulder blades. The trap muscles help move your shoulders, neck, head, arms, and torso.

The traps are a rather large and superficial muscle group, so you can easily see them if they are developed. If you’ve noticed that your upper back doesn’t have that 3-dimensional look,  trap muscles probably need some work. Furthermore, strengthening your traps is a good idea if you experience head, neck, or upper back pain or tightness. Often, people have overdeveloped anterior delts and underdeveloped traps, leading to poor posture.

If this sounds like you, you’re in the right place! This article covers the 8 best ways to improve underdeveloped traps. 

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Nearly everyone who steps foot in a gym aims to improve the size and definition of their arms. The arms are often considered to be the “show” muscles. Every time you ask someone to flex, more likely than not, they are going to flex their biceps. The biceps play an important role in physique sports because they are heavily judged.

For those who aren’t interested in aesthetics, the biceps are still important for performance and daily life activities. It’s quite common for strength/performance athletes, such as strongmen, powerlifters, Olympic weightlifters, and CrossFitters, to tear a bicep during an event because they don’t train them nearly enough.

Whether you’re looking to increase the size of your biceps or get them stronger to a bicep rupture, you’re in the right place! We’ve compiled a list of the best training tactics you can implement to improve underdeveloped biceps.

Keep reading to learn about the optimal rep ranges, bicep exercises, training volume, frequency, and intensity for bicep hypertrophy.

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Have you noticed that your hamstrings don’t stand out like the rest of your lower body? If so, your hamstrings are probably smaller and much weaker than the quads, glutes, adductors, and/or calves. Not only do underdeveloped hamstrings negatively impact your stage debut, they also drastically increase your risk for injury.

Fortunately, there are several tactics you can implement to address shortcomings in the hamstrings! If you’ve noticed that your hamstrings lag behind the rest of your lower body, you’re in the right place! We’ve compiled a list of the best ways to improve underdeveloped hamstring muscles. If you use some of the tips listed below, your hamstrings will be a dominant muscle group in no time!

Below you will find the ideal exercises, rep ranges, amount of training volume, and intensities to stimulate hamstring hypertrophy. Keep reading to learn more and start progressing!

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“Bodybuilding shows are won from the back,” is a common saying in physique sports, meaning that no matter how good the rest of your upper body looks, you can’t make up for an underdeveloped back.

Even for those not interested in stepping on stage, building a strong back is crucial for posture, performance, and activities of daily living. The back is often underdeveloped compared to the chest, shoulders, triceps, and biceps because it’s not a muscle group you can easily see in the mirror.

So people don’t focus on building the back as much as the rest of the upper body. Not to mention, there are several back muscles that perform different movements, making it challenging to address the whole back. It’s important to target each of them to build an impressive back.

Fortunately, there’s a variety of training tactics you can implement to improve an underdeveloped back. Below you will find the optimal training volume, frequency, intensity, exercises, rep ranges, and more for back hypertrophy. 

Keep reading to discover what you can do to develop stage-worthy back muscles!

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Have you noticed that your upper chest doesn’t stand out like the rest of your upper body? It’s quite common to have an upper chest that’s smaller and/or weaker than the front, lower chest, triceps, side delts, and biceps.

If your upper chest is lagging and are looking for ways to fix it, you’ve come to the right place! We’ve compiled a list of the best ways to grow and strengthen an underdeveloped upper chest. You’ll also learn the optimal rep ranges, exercises, intensities, and training volume to kickstart upper chest hypertrophy.

Keep reading to learn more and start growing!

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Have you noticed that your front delts (anterior delts) lag behind the rest of your upper body? Maybe they seem smaller and/or weaker than your side delts, rear delts, chest, biceps, or triceps. If this struggle sounds familiar, you’re in luck!

We’ve compiled a list of the best ways to grow underdeveloped front delts. You’ll also find the best rep ranges, intensities, and exercises to help stimulate front delt hypertrophy!

Keep reading to learn more!

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