Everybody has been asking for leg exercises, here is my current personal favorite - leg extensions. It is important to note that there is a lot of controversy about this exercise, many physical therapists strongly advise against it. I emphasize this a lot but its even more important in this exercise, JOINT PAIN IS NOT GOOD. If you get any twinges of pain in you knee, STOP immediately.

It is very important to limit the range of motion on this exercise so as not to cause injury.  We want to only move the knee 20 degrees.  Hold the leg extended straight, then allow the foot to go down 4-5" (20 degrees) then back up slowly.  If you allow the knee to bend so much that it is at a 90 degree angle then you are putting incredible stress on the knee joint and are asking for injury. 

Also of the utmost importance is to perform this exercise very, very slowly.  No bouncing or using momentum whatsoever.  Try to count "one onethousand, two one thousand" when going up, and again when going down, thats the pace you should strive for. Its very tempting to do a bouncy motion because you can do a lot more weight that way but you are just begging to get injured if you do it. 

1. dont raise the dumbbells above your shoulders
2. go slow, try for 2 seconds up and 2 seconds down
3. keep the shoulders back, try to pinch the shoulder blades together
4. dont drop your elbows, keep them at exactly the same height at all times as the dumbbells
5. dont move any other part of your body in an attempt to help the weights up.  It helps to be seated to enforce this.
   

People spend hundreds of millions of dollars buying gym memberships and fitness equipment this time of year in preparation for their new years resolutions but you dont have to.  Getting in shape doesnt require money, just knowledge and dedication and this video will put you on the road to fitness.

In this video I will show you how to achieve your new years resolution of losing weight and getting stronger with a simple 30 minute home workout.  This video assumes that you have no experience with fitness or weightlifting so dont worry, we are not going to use any intimidating equipment.  You will feel better and have more energy after your very first workout!

OK, now for our workout, there are only three exercises - crunches for abs, pushups for chest, shoulders and triceps, and pullups for lats and biceps.  And dont worry, if you cant do a single pushup or pullup I will show you how you can get started and build up your strength.  This workout is for everyone, no matter how out of shape you are.  You probably did these three exercises back in PE as a kid, but I'm going to show you how to do them correctly so you dont get injured. 

On Monday/Wednesday/Friday do 15 minutes of cardio and this 15 minute workout.  On the other four days of the week, do 30 minutes of cardio.

Here are some in-depth videos if you want more information on any of the following subjects:

   Pushups:

            http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S990kHLMVFg

   Pullups:

            http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9WvH8at_xJw

   Crunches:

            http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TKg_cdwq9l4

   Getting 6-pack abs:

            http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PF5yTLzWyBU

            http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9J5uHdUsNs

Anyone can be healthier, have more energy, sleep better, and feel better about themselves through bodybuilding. Bodybuilding doesn't have to be expensive or take a lot of time, gyms are great but home workouts can save you time and money. A cheap dumbbell set from a garage sale or walmart is all it takes to get started with your home workouts.

For more information on home workouts, please see my free website (no advertising either):

http://www.scoobysworkshop.com

Limitation of Liability: Consult with your doctor before starting any exercise program! I am not a medical professional. It is your responsibility to critically evaluate this information and with the help of your physician decide if it is appropriate for you.

For wide, flaring lats the alternating grip pullup is great!  In this variant of the pullup we put much more load on one lat than the other to shock it into growing stronger.  This pullup is a stepping stone to a one handed pullup.  To do this pullup, one palm is toward our face and the other faces away from our face.  We center our body under the palm that is facing our face so as to overload this lat.  We do as many reps as we can in this position then, without rest, swap grips and do it the other way.  This is killer, dont expect to be able to do too many of these!

Anyone can be healthier, have more energy, sleep better, and feel better about themselves through bodybuilding. Bodybuilding doesn't have to be expensive or take a lot of time, gyms are great but home workouts can save you time and money. A cheap dumbbell set from a garage sale or walmart is all it takes to get started with your home workouts.

For more information on home workouts, please see my free website (no advertising either):

http://fitness.scoobysworkshop.com

Limitation of Liability: Consult with your doctor before starting any exercise program! I am not a medical professional. It is your responsibility to critically evaluate this information and with the help of your physician decide if it is appropriate for you.

Focus is one of the most important factors in the success of a bodybuilder, as important as nutrition or genetics.  You need to be 100% focused on your workout or you are wasting your time.   Most bodybuilders I see at the gym just go thru their workouts like each set was just something to check off their todo list, their minds are everywhere except on what they are doing.  Working out like that will not let you achieve your full potential.

There are two components of focus, what you do during your set and what you do between your sets.  When you are doing your set, your mind will be on two things and two things only:

1. thinking about what muscles are working

2. trying to 'feel' the muscle (more on this later)

During the set, no doing anything else.  No talking, no looking around, no thinking about what exercise you are going to do next.  Your mind is 100% focused on the set you are doing right now.  Lets talk a little about the first item, what muscles are working.  When a joint is rotating, a muscle is working.  If two joints are rotating then two or more muscles are working.  If you are doing biceps and your shoulder is rotating as well as your elbow then you are exercising your shoulder as well as your bicep.  By constantly thinking about what joints are rotating and what muscles are working you make sure you are focused 100% on the muscle you are working out.

Now lets talk about what  you do between sets by first listing what we are not going to do.  Between sets we are not going to:

• talk

• text

• read

• walk to the water fountain

• stretch

• do abs

• daydream

• look around and check people out

Here is what we are going to do between sets:

• think about our last set.  Did we meet our rep goal?  Did we use good form?  Did it feel good?

• think about our next set.  How many reps will we do?  How will it feel?  What is our reward if we achieve the goal or the punishment should we fail?

• visualize.  Visualize how we will accomplish our goal, close your eyes and see what it will look like and how it will feel.  There are many good sports programs out there to help will visualization, check them out

• practice muscle control, this will help us to 'feel' the exercise while we are doing it.   A car with loose spark plug wires doesnt develop much power because the anemic spark cant fully ignite the gas, similarly, if your brain doesnt have a good connection to your muscles you cant contract them fully.  The idea behind these muscle control drills is to improve the connection between your brain and the muscle so you can contract precisely the muscles you want and contract them 100%.  One of the early great bodybuilders back in the late 1800's was Sandow and he had amazing muscle control.  He came up with control exercises that are still used to this day in various reincarnation, read about Sandow and his methods here.  Sandow had amazing ab control, if you want to see a modern day example of a bodybuilder with great ab control, check out youtube user sixpackbn's video.

Here is one example of how you can work on muscle control for pecs

• hold a ball out at head level with your arms fully extended, elbows slightly bent

• squeeze the ball trying to pop it.  Feel your pecs flex.

• now try and flex your pecs but only squeezing an imaginary ball

• after you have master that, try and flex one pec at a time while the other is relaxed

I am a strong advocate of using lighter weights with perfect form but be careful not to use this as an excuse to slack off. You have to be 100% focused on what you are doing when you are using perfect form and higher reps because it can be too easy to just quit when you are bored or reach some arbitrary number of reps. It can take incredible focus to keep pumping out those reps and keep the mind from wandering, especially after rep 14 or so. If you cant focus intensely while doing the higher reps then you wont get any results.