Tip of the week Tip: You're performing side raises incorrectly

Full vs. effective range of motion

When it comes to training the shoulders, it's important to understand that full range of motion and effective range of motion are not the same thing.

Let's take dumbbell side raises. Full range of motion in this exercise would mean moving your arms all the way up until the weights are almost touching above your head. No one does this because everyone instinctively knows that this would not optimally stimulate the lateral muscle head of the shoulders.

The problem is that many exercisers still go too high. Instead, you should move the weights up so that the hands are slightly below the level of the shoulders. This is the effective range of motion.

Dumbbell side raises with optimal range of motion

The shoulder muscles are still stimulated, but the shoulder blade is not moved through an additional range of motion which leads to greater activation of the upper trapezius. As an added bonus, this limits the likelihood of the supraspinatus tendon rubbing between the humerus and acromion, which helps to reduce the risk of impingement.

Tip: Know how often you should train

How often should you train in the gym? This depends on several factors. Here's what you should keep in mind.

By Christian Thibaudeau

Source: https://www.t-nation.com/training/tip-know-how-often-to-train/

The frequency factor

Training frequency, or how often you train, is crucial. This is true for hypertrophy and even more so for strength. Scientists have found that training a muscle at a higher frequency is superior to training it at a lower frequency. Train each muscle at least twice a week to maximize muscle growth. Keep in mind that some muscles are trained significantly even if they are not the primary focus of the exercise. For example, the chest muscles are trained during close bench presses, even if the triceps are the primary target muscles of the exercise.

This doesn't mean that you should train all muscles three times a week, but that they should be trained at least to some degree two or three times a week for maximum growth.

Here is an example:

• Monday: chest, upper back
• Tuesday: lower body, quadriceps dominant
• Wednesday: No training
• Thursday: shoulders, biceps, triceps
• Friday: No training
• Saturday: back, lower body (with focus on the posterior muscle chain)
• Sunday: No training

With this training split, each muscle is trained twice a week and the biceps three times a week, if you count the secondary stimulation they receive on the back days.

Weekly training

Look at the training frequency of elite weightlifters and professional athletes. Most of them train 4 or 5 days per week, while Olympic weightlifters train even more frequently as their sport requires more frequent technique training.

If these people, who have superior genetics and are at the peak of their physical performance, think they are making optimal progress with 4 to 5 days of training per week, what makes us think we can cope with more?

Training 5 days a week or more may be used temporarily during an overreaching phase for a few weeks before a vacation or by people with a low stress life. But someone who is under a lot of psychological stress or a person who works physically should stick to 4 training days per week.

With a smart training split, you can train each muscle group to a certain degree with just four training sessions per week, twice a week. It would also be possible to achieve this with three training sessions per week, but the daily training load might be too high, which can lead to a lower training quality towards the end of the training sessions.

Rest days

Rest days are important to maximize muscle growth, optimize glycogen stores and achieve optimal neuronal regeneration - all of which are necessary for optimal training performance, which in turn is necessary for optimal muscle growth. A healthy immune system and a healthy hormonal system also require rest days. The schedule for rest days and training days that I recommend is as follows:

• 2 days training
• 1 day off training
• 1 day of training
• 1 day off training
• 1 day training
• 1 day off training
• Everything from the beginning again

Tip: The Viking rowing training session

Get tough and defined with this brutal metabolic conditioning workout. Here are the instructions if you dare.

From Adam Vogel

Source: https://www.t-nation.com/training/tip-the-viking-row-workout/

Vikings are best known for plundering, ravaging and their eye-catching helmets, but these guys also knew their way around a row.

Why rowing?

Rowing is one of the best full-body exercises there is. Each rowing movement works the back, legs, shoulders and arms concentrically to initiate the movement, while the hip flexors and abdominals work eccentrically to decelerate the extension of the torso at the end of the movement.

The Viking challenge

This challenge consists of four sets of rowing, with each subsequent set doubling the distance of the previous set. You should think of it as a mini race where maximum effort is required to complete the race successfully.

• Set 1 - 125 meters
• Set 2 - 250 meters
• Set 3 - 500 meters
• Set 4 - 1000 meters

The rest periods between sets should be as long as it took to complete the previous set. So if you needed 1:53 minutes for the 500 meters of set 3, then your rest phase between sets 3 and 4 would be 1:53 minutes long. Just as the duration of the sprints increases, so does the duration of the rest periods.

Tip: A new way to build broad shoulders

Training with bands seems kind of weak. But adding bands to dumbbells will make your shoulders explode. Here's exactly how to do it.

By Dr. John Rusin

Source: https://www.t-nation.com/training/tip-a-new-way-to-build-wide-delts/

A good use for those silly bands

Using bands to increase resistance is usually reserved for the big, heavy exercises, but it should also be part of the basics of smart shoulder training. The only problem? Equipment limitations. Bands are often too strong to perform enough movements through the full range of motion to achieve a good training effect.

The secret lies in the use of ultra-light bands, which have reached a certain level of popularity in commercial gyms. These bands are much thinner and allow for better adjustment of additional resistance when used in combination with dumbbells. Holding the ends of the bands together with the handles of the dumbbells works well for side raises and variations of this exercise.

Dumbbell side raises with bands

Always use the same light bands and increase the weight of the dumbbells. This allows you to train using repetition patterns for strength, mass, endurance and metabolic stress without restricting your range of motion or losing control of your shoulder stability.

Be explosive with bands

Another benefit that bands have to offer in side raises is the ability to train explosively without losing shoulder stability at the highest point of the movement.

Because the weight is lighter at the lowest point of the movement, when your hands are down next to your body, you are able to use your shoulder muscles more explosively, with the speed of the contraction being slowed down by the increasing resistance from the bands at the top of the movement. This is great for targeting the fast-contracting motor units of the shoulders while providing a novel, pain-free stimulus for your shoulder training.

Focus on increasing the speed of contraction during the concentric (lifting) phase of the movement, while performing the eccentric (lowering) part of the movement more slowly. Don't let the bands pull your arms down too quickly - resist them.

Tip: A question that every exerciser needs to ask themselves

If you want to become more muscular, stronger or leaner, then you need to ask yourself a question. Answer it honestly and you'll make better progress.

By Chris Shugart

Source: https://www.t-nation.com/training/tip-one-question-every-lifter-must-answer/

The question is "How does it work for me?" Here's why you need to answer honestly, even if the answer hurts.

That one guy...

We all know that guy. That guy who eats a lot of junk food and still stays lean. He only trains bench presses and builds perfect pecs. He can do massive amounts of cardio without losing muscle. He can drink like a pig and not get a beer belly. He's the guy who can do a lot of things "wrong" and still look good and move impressive weights. But there's this one thing...

You're probably not that guy. Most of us aren't. Too often people in fitness and bodybuilding follow and idealize the training or nutrition advice of one of these guys. But the fact is, he might be the only one for whom this strategy has ever worked. Maybe he doesn't even use this strategy himself. Maybe it was something he tried once and then wrote an ebook about it - and now he's trapped in this scheme that he popularized.

Maybe this strategy works for those who inject themselves with enough more than borderline chemicals, but are you one of those people? Maybe their workout and diet plans work differently for you.

Muscular, defined and sometimes ignorant

Ironically, these guys often can't even tell you what they're doing to achieve these impressive results. I once spoke to a bodybuilder and asked him about his bicep training. He described a pretty standard plan of curl variations - nothing really special. And then I saw him train.

He started every training session with close grip pull-ups. This definitely had an impact on his arm development, but he didn't even mention it when asked. Maybe he thinks this is just part of his warm-up. Or maybe he just likes to get a pump in his upper body area on leg day as well. The point is that he doesn't even realize what he's doing to get results.

I've also heard a male fitness model say that you should do cardio before bed to burn off all the food in your digestive tract. Aside from the almost painful flawedness of this statement, cardio workouts before bedtime cause cortisol levels to spike at exactly the wrong time and interfere with restful sleep.

But the guy had great abs and that's why people listened to his advice. Heck, maybe it didn't even work for him, but everything else he did made up for that mistake and he couldn't tell the difference between what really worked and what he got away with anyway.

This doesn't mean that you should now ignore all advice from muscular, strong and defined people. You can learn a lot from successful people and anecdotal evidence and observations can be very valuable. The lesson here is to be objective.

We've seen a lot of hucksterism and fraud in recent years. The "Paleo" expert who didn't eat Paleo, the intermittent fasting guru who doesn't practice intermittent fasting, the "expert" who says his style of training is the only true way, but who doesn't train that way himself and never has, and the steroid-free bodybuilder who is anything but natural.

How do you avoid falling victim to these people? Simply looking in the mirror regularly - or taking regular photos - can go a long way to helping you. Your mind may be infected, but your body is immune. Do you look the way you want to after following their methods or not?

Boasting about achievements

In bodybuilding and fitness circles, it's common to show off what you've achieved and also to brag about your successes. "I do this and look at me!" That's perfectly fine. Today, however, we see something different.

We see fat people telling us how great their diet plan is, we see weak guys telling us how superior their strength program is and we see skinny people saying that only the science-based plan they use is proven to build muscle. And yet they all look pathetic and don't move impressive weights.

In other words, they're not even bragging about their own accomplishments - they're bragging about the accomplishments of "that one guy."

The question: How does it work for ME

It's the most important question you can ask yourself. But answering this question can also be complicated.

First, because pretty much anything seems to work for beginners - even the most destructive diet or nutrition plans that will leave you looking worse than before in the long run will work...at least for a while.

Secondly, because we're pretty good at fooling ourselves. The problem is that we simply want to believe that our efforts and sacrifices will pay off. We've invested and it's hard to admit that something we're doing isn't working, even if it's obvious to outsiders. We drank the Kool-Aid and even thought it tasted great - we gulped and smiled. Let's stop doing that.

What can you do? Withdraw your investment

The appropriate psychological strategy at this point is to de-invest. Be so objective about your training and nutrition plan that you evaluate yourself as an outsider would evaluate a stranger. Leave your ego at the checkroom and take an objective look in the mirror and at your training log. Does it work just as well for you as it does for "that one guy"? And no, don't digress now and mention this guy's body development or quote a series of studies. What do YOUR body and YOUR performance look like? If you've given the plan enough time to work its magic, then ask yourself "Is it really working for me?"

If not, then withdraw your investment. Stop talking yourself into it. Be willing to give up this very appealing, science-based diet that is not working for you. Be willing to try a different exercise program that better suits your needs. Be honest with yourself. Only then will you achieve your goals.

Source: https://www.t-nation.com/training/tip-youre-doing-lateral-raises-wrong/

By Dean Somerset