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These are posts that help you choose exercises to fit your goals and how to perform them safely and effectively.
Squats are a staple exercise for any serious lifter. Whether increasing glute mass, building strong legs, or maintaining healthy joints, all lifters should learn to squat properly.
Even squatting light, using the proper form is essential. Here, we’ll explain everything you need to know to squat with perfect form. We’ll cover some common squat mistakes and provide tips to perfecting squat form.
[Read more…]Squats work nearly every muscle from your waist down, plus a few up top that fight to keep you upright under the bar. The primary movers are your quadriceps and glutes. The hamstrings, adductors, calves, spinal erectors, abs, and traps all pitch in as secondary muscles that stabilize the load and help drive you out of the hole.
This breakdown is built around the barbell back squat, which spreads the work across more muscle than any other squat variation. Switch the variation and you shift the emphasis. Front squats, goblet squats, and hack squats keep your torso more upright and lean harder on the quads, so dial in your front squat form if that’s your focus. Single-leg versions like split squats and lunges load one leg at a time, and you’ll find plenty of options in our Bulgarian split squat alternatives.
Below I break down all eight muscle groups the back squat trains, what each one does during the lift, and how to bring up the ones lagging behind.
[Read more…]The barbell row is among the best exercises for increasing back strength. Here, we’ll explain how to perform a barbell row with perfect form. We’ll also detail the muscles worked by barbell rows and explain the main barbell row benefits.
[Read more…]Deadlifts are a staple exercise for many gymgoers. Deadlifts are a multijoint compound exercise that build maximal muscle throughout the upper and lower body.
Here, we’ll cover the exact muscle groups used in deadlifts and explain how to increase muscle activation by deadlifting with proper form.
[Read more…]The bench press is an essential lift for increasing upper body strength and muscle mass, and is one of the most popular pressing exercises for building developed chest muscles.
However, the bench press is one of the most common causes of pectoral injuries and can cause severe pain and disruption to your training when done incorrectly.
Read on to learn how to perfect your bench press form, avoid common bench press mistakes, and learn some helpful tips to take your bench press to the next level.
[Read more…]Lat pulldowns are among the best upper body strengthening exercises for your lats and back muscles. Here’s how to do lat pulldowns with proper form, as well as some technique tips and common mistakes.
[Read more…]A strong core is crucial for nearly every physical movement. Many exercises exist for improving your midsection’s strength, stability, and definition. Most core exercises require minimal to no equipment and can be scaled according to experience or strength level.
The major muscle groups that the plank works include the core, glutes, hamstrings, upper back, and shoulder. Keep reading to discover why the plank is so effective for core strength.
[Read more…]Deadlifts are commonly found in most strength-building programs with several variations to choose from, including the Romanian deadlift.
The Romanian deadlift, more commonly referred to as “RDL,” is a variation of the conventional deadlift that builds and strengthens the posterior chain. The RDL targets more glutes and hamstrings, and less back than the conventional deadlift.
Furthermore, the movement begins from a standing position, whereas conventional deadlifts start from the floor. Considered to be a compound exercise, working several muscles simultaneously, the Romanian deadlift has numerous benefits.
This article will discuss the top five benefits of the Romanian deadlift, as well as key muscles worked.
[Read more…]Although a well-equipped gym is ideal for building muscle strength and size, several bodyweight exercises are very effective and oftentimes underrated. They also require minimal to no equipment so that you can do them anywhere. One commonly used bodyweight exercise is the pull-up.
Not to be confused with chin-ups, the pull-up exercise involves pulling your chin or chest up to a bar from a dead hang with your palms facing away from you. The pull-up is well-known for increasing upper body strength and size and the only equipment needed is a pull-up bar.
This article will review all of the muscles worked by the pull-up for determining best practice, form and execution to be included in any workout.
[Read more…]In addition to being a world-renowned actor and politician, Arnold Schwarzenegger is arguably the most famous bodybuilder of all time. Like Arnold himself, the Arnold press is a well-known shoulder exercise. The movement takes the conventional dumbbell shoulder press and rotates it in extension to make it even more challenging and effective.
The Arnold press is a great addition to your routine if you want to build bigger and stronger shoulders. This article will cover the benefits of the Arnold press and which muscles it targets to help determine if the exercise is a worthy addition to a weightlifting program.
[Read more…]Do you want stronger, more muscular upper arms and shoulders? Have you been consistent with your shoulder workouts but still lack definition and muscle mass? If you want to build thick, rounded boulder shoulders – you’re in luck.
Read on to learn why your deltoids aren’t growing. You’ll also find the best exercises and training strategies to help you grow weak or underdeveloped shoulder muscles.
[Read more…]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!
[Read more…]Are you frustrated by a lack of muscle growth and definition in your abdominal region? Have you been working hard in the gym and optimizing your nutrition but still have a soft, undefined midsection?
You’ve come to the right place. We’ll explain why your abdominals aren’t growing, the barriers to visible six-pack abs, and the best exercises and strategies to build a more muscular, chiseled torso.
Underdeveloped abdominals occur when your abs are weaker or smaller than other upper body muscles. Weak abs result from low muscle density of the abdominals, especially the rectus abdominis or visible six-pack section of your core. A lack of visible abdominals can also result from excess abdominal body fat tissue covering the muscle fibers.
You can strengthen weak abdominals by prioritizing effective core exercises to add bulk to the ab muscle fibers, improving the mind-to-muscle connection with your core muscles, doing heavy compound lifts, and managing lifestyle factors like sleep and stress.
You should also address your nutrition and training to reduce your body fat percentage and make your abs more visible.
Before embarking on the ambitious fitness journey to achieve a visible six-pack, ensure you don’t have a medical condition preventing you from reaching your goals. Some rare genetic disorders like prune belly cause a lack of abdominal musculature and other symptoms.
Other conditions like hypothyroidism, menopause, Cushing’s disease, sleep apnea, diabetes, edema, depression, and gut disorders can also make it extremely difficult to attain visible abs. Always consult your doctor to rule out medical issues and ensure your fitness goals, nutrition, and training plan are safe and appropriate for your health.
No matter how strong and well-developed your abdominals are, you won’t be able to see them if a thick layer of abdominal fat covers them. You can measure your body fat percentage using several methods, ranging from inexpensive calipers to sophisticated and expensive measures like hydrostatic weighing.
The level of leanness required for visible abs differs for everyone and varies significantly between men and women. You don’t need to get a precise body fat measurement. A rough estimate will help determine how far you are from being lean enough to see your ab muscles.
Even very lean individuals won’t be able to see their abs if the muscles are too small and weak to pop through the skin. Challenging ab work, like weighted and hanging ab exercises, will bulk up the muscle tissues to make them stronger and more visible.
One study found that ab roll outs using a stability ball, ball pikes, and hanging leg or knee raises most effectively engage the muscle fibers in the upper and lower rectus abdominis and internal and external obliques.
The primary function of the rectus abdominis is to move the torso between the rib cage and the pelvis. Exercises that shorten the distance from the sternum to the hips, like machine crunches or pike variations, build stronger, bulkier abdominals.
Some people win the genetic lottery and can maintain visible abs year-round without an overly restrictive diet and exercise regime. Unfortunately, for most of us, a permanently shredded torso and popping six-pack are impossible to maintain without sacrificing our social lives and mental and physical health.
If you are genetically predisposed to store more fat around your middle, prioritize developing realistic goals that align with a healthy and sustainable lifestyle. Even with optimal training, some people need to maintain an unhealthily low body fat percentage to see their abs.
You can do this for a while without too many consequences, but over a sustained period, your hormones, mood, libido, and quality of life will start to feel the effects of chronic dieting and intense ab training.
As discussed above, some people need to reduce their body fat to see their abdominal muscles. The most straightforward way of doing this is spending some time in a moderate caloric deficit to lose fat tissue as it is burned for energy.
To maintain strength and muscle mass when dieting, continue to consume enough protein daily. You also need enough carbohydrates to support your training sessions and dietary fats for healthy hormones, skin, and digestion.
Conversely, if you are already lean but have small or underdeveloped abs, you may benefit from eating in a caloric surplus to build more muscle tissue. Consuming enough total calories, good-quality protein, carbs, and fats will promote abdominal growth.
Targeted ab exercises are one part of the equation for dense, thick abdominal muscles. You also need to prioritize heavy compound lifts in your training plan. Heavy squats, deadlifts, bench presses, and lunges train your core muscles with high-intensity resistance, forcing them to get bigger and stronger to handle the load.
Many lifters can successfully build muscular abs without any targeted abdominal exercises and solely through heavy compound lifting. However, if your abs are stubborn or lagging, you may need to add around six to nine sets of direct ab training on top of your heavy lifts.
If your stress levels are high, you may face significant challenges in reaching your physique goals. Cortisol, the stress hormone, is linked with increased stores of abdominal fat tissue and a higher overall body fat percentage.
Stress from external factors like work, or internal factors like poor mental health, have consistently been associated with an increased risk of obesity and belly fat accumulation.
People leading stressful lives are also more likely to have less time to exercise, poor sleep quality, and a lack of time or mental energy to prepare wholesome meals.
These factors make building muscle, losing body fat, and having quality gym sessions harder. Making lifestyle changes that reduce stress levels will help you lose body fat, strengthen and define your abs, and lead a happier, healthier life.
Extremely low body fat can hinder your quality of life, impede your strength, and impact your libido and hormone levels. Since body fat distribution and visible abs are often down to genetics, don’t give up 90% of what makes life enjoyable to look 10% leaner.
There’s a good reason why losing fat becomes more difficult over time. When you approach a very low body fat percentage, your body will use compensatory mechanisms to prevent further weight loss. Although the human body is remarkable, it cannot discern between experiencing a famine and a calculated strategy to cut for summer.,
Your metabolism will start to adjust to keep you within your body’s preferred set point range. It may start breaking down muscle tissue, increasing grehlin (the hunger hormone), and making you highly food-focused. You may experience disrupted sleep as your endocrine system pumps out adrenaline to motivate you to seek food rather than rest.
In addition to targeted abdominal exercises, heavy compound lifts like squats, deadlifts, push-ups, pull-ups, and lunges recruit the abs to stabilize your torso. Use a combination of targeted abdominal exercises and heavy full-body lifts to target the abs in different ways and build stronger, thicker core muscles.
Underdeveloped or weak abs occur when your abdominal muscles lag in strength, size, or density. Common causes of weak abdominal muscles are poor form when doing ab exercises, insufficient volume for targeted ab training and heavy compound lifts, and poor nutrition.
Strengthen weak abs by performing a few sets of core work three or four times a week. Perfect your form, engage your core in heavy compound lifts, and optimize your nutrition to achieve hypertrophy and fat loss goals.
Your core comprises four main muscles collectively known as your abdominals — understanding how these muscles function will help you identify and address your weak points.
The transverse abdominis (TVA) is the deepest layer of your core. The TVA sits underneath the rectus abdominus and stabilizes the spine and pelvis, especially during heavy lifts like squats. Strengthen the TVA to build a firmer, flatter stomach, avoid injury, and create a strong abdominal foundation.
The rectus abdominis (RA) is the six-pack section of your core. These muscles sit closer to the surface of your skin and grow outward to create visible bumps on your torso. Your RA allows and controls the movement of your rib cage pulling towards your pelvis, such as the movement pattern of a basic crunch.
The external and internal obliques (EO and IO) work synergistically to control torso twisting and lateral flexion. The obliques are on top of one another, outside of your ribcage. Obliques are heavily involved in rotational core training like Russian twists and anti-rotational movements like the Pallof press.
If you do enough heavy lifting overall, you don’t need any specific ab training to maintain or build abdominal strength. To grow severely underdeveloped or weak abs, train them twice a week with six to nine total sets of direct ab work.
Bodyweight exercises generally provide enough intensity to maintain or build abdominal strength. If you have ambitious ab hypertrophy goals, weighted exercises will help develop thicker, denser ab muscles. Ahtlean-X provides a helpful overview of how to optimize your training and nutrition to achieve visible six-pack abs.
Your core muscles require a combination of higher-rep, lower-weight training, and heavier exercises with fewer reps.
You should do half your ab training with lower intensity and higher reps (15-20+) and the other half in the 8-12 rep range with higher intensity or added resistance.
No. Having visible abdominal muscles does not indicate a more robust core or better overall fitness. Genetics determine your body fat distribution and the visibility of your abs.
If you build muscle quickly and don’t store much body fat around your torso, you will find it easier to get a visible six-pack.
If you struggle to grow your abdominal muscles and are predisposed to store more belly fat, you will probably have difficulty getting your abs to show. Many of the fittest and most muscular athletes in the world don’t have a protruding six-pack. Focus on your performance goals and overall wellness, and don’t get discouraged or obsessed with an arbitrary aesthetic goal.
If you enjoyed this post, check out our other guides on how to grow lagging muscle groups.
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.
[Read more…]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.
[Read more…]Do you want to build a strong core but aren’t sure which exercises to choose? Perhaps you’ve been doing crunches, sit-ups, and leg raises for months without seeing the abdominal strength and definition you desire.
The obliques (internal and external) are a crucial but often neglected upper body muscle group that controls spinal rotation, stabilizes the spine and hips, and gives your torso a v-shaped taper.
We’ll detail the best exercises and training tips to fire up your internal and external oblique muscles and give you the strong, chiseled core you always wanted.
The 7 Best Ways to Grow Underdeveloped Obliques
Weak obliques happen due to focusing your core training on the rectus abdominis or the visible six-pack section of your abs. Your obliques are a vital muscle group that stabilizes rotational movements, controls forward bending, and aids in maintaining an upright posture.
You can strengthen weak obliques by including more targeted oblique exercises, prioritizing stabilization and anti-rotational core work, bracing your core during functional movements, and practicing diaphragmatic breathing.
[Read more…]Do you want to improve your posture and build a fuller, more muscular upper body? Your rear delts are crucial for well-rounded shoulders and a healthy spine and shoulders. Many popular shoulder exercises focus on the anterior (front) and medial (side) deltoid muscles. Read on to learn how to target underdeveloped rear delts for stronger, healthier, and more muscular shoulders.
Underdeveloped rear delts occur when the muscles on the back of your shoulders are smaller or weaker than other muscle groups in your upper body, like the front or side deltoids or the traps. Common reasons for underdeveloped rear delts include neglecting targeted posterior delt exercises, poor technique, and a weak mind-to-muscle connection with this small muscle group.
You can grow underdeveloped rear deltoids by increasing your weekly rear delt training volume, perfecting your technique, and moving through a full range of motion. You can also use advanced techniques like pauses and tempo work for added time under tension.
We’ll explore these methods for growing underdeveloped rear delts in more detail, so you can start building the boulder shoulders of your dreams.
[Read more…]Have your lower pecs stopped growing despite consistent training and seemingly endless bench pressing?
If you struggle to build a more muscular, fuller lower chest, you’ve come to the right place.
We’ll cover the best strategies to grow an underdeveloped lower chest, show you some of the best exercises, and explain the optimal rep ranges and intensities for lower pec growth.
[Read more…]Have you spent hours doing crunches and sit-ups without achieving a strong, stable core? Do you want to build a sound foundation that improves your posture, stabilizes heavy compound lifts, and gives you a chiseled-looking midsection?
Popular abdominal exercises often focus on the rectus abdominus, the “six-pack” section of the abs located on the front of your stomach. But these muscles are only one part of your core. Your abdominal training must target all the different core muscles that span from the top of your ribcage to your hips.
We’ve collated the best ways to build underdeveloped or weak core muscles. We’ll cover the best exercises, rep and set ranges, and intensities to strengthen weak core muscles.
[Read more…]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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