In Part I of this Build Muscle The Right Way Article Series, I spoke about the three most important keys I use for building muscle and gaining strength at the same time: Multi-joint Movements, Training for Power and Speed, and Working for Muscular Balance. You can read Part I here: Keys to Muscle Building.

Sample Upper Body Training Split

In Part I, I put a lot of emphasis on maintaining antagonistic balance so that you do not develop muscular imbalances that will cause you trouble later on down the road. Also as I stated Part I, if you perform your complementary Push and Pull movements on the same day, it can be easier to keep everything balanced. However, because I spend so much time training for Grip Strength, I run out of time in order to accomplish everything I like to do, so I split the two days up. Lately, my split has looked like this:

• Week 1 – Day 1: Push, Week 1 – Day 2: Pull, Week 1 – Day 3: Lower, Week 1 – Day 4: Grip Specific
• Week 2 – Day 1: Pull, Week 2 – Day 2: Push, Week 2 – Day 3: Lower, Week 2 – Day 4: Grip Specific

In other words, I go Push, Pull, Lower, Grip for the first week and then flip flop the Push and Pull so it goes Pull, Push, Lower, Grip the second week.

Sample Upper Body Push Workout

Here is a recent workout I did for Upper Body Push. This workout took place on a Monday. It was followed by an Upper Body Pull Day on Tuesday and then a Lower Body Day on Thursday. One week later, I followed the schedule and did my Upper Body Pull Day first and the Upper Body push day second, etc.

Optimally, the order of this day would go like this:

1. Overhead Power Movement: Requires the most skill and energy, so it should take place first

2. Bench / Incline Bench: Because the body is supported on the bench, even after doing a big movement like the Overhead Variations, I still feel strong on the bench going second.

3. Auxiliary Bench Movement: Examples could be Speed Bench Against Bands, Incline Bench, Dips – All these are awesome, especially if your shoulders are feeling good.

4. Isolation Movement: If isolation movements are your thing, you can include them here or you can do another auxiliary movement, work on the rotator cuffs, or bring up a weakness in your upper body (triceps, etc)

Bench Press

On this day, I started off with Bench Press, although often I will actually start off with Overhead Press, especially if I am using the Log. I was able to work up to an unassisted single of 365 on the Bench Press, for the first time in about a year. My all time best is 405 with a spotter.

Speed Bench Against Bands

In order to perform this one correctly and get the most out of it, you should be moving the bar much quicker than this. I should have either used lighter bands or lightened the bar weight, but I did not.

Military Press

My back was feeling a bit seized up after the heavy benching, because I was actually arching pretty hard for me. That is about all the angle I get. If I worked on my thoracic mobility more, I think I could get a better arch. Anyway, because my back was tight, I stuck with Military Press instead of a more powerful movement. Like I said, I like to do a Push Jerk, Push Press or a straight out Jerk movement first, but it didn’t work out that way this week.

Gironda Lateral Raise Complex

This is a combination I never even knew about until I reviewed the book, Vince Gironda, Legend and Myth. In that book he has what he calls the 8 Sets of 8 Keep-You-Honest Workout and the finisher for Upper Body Day is Side Laterals followed immediately by what he calls the Dumbbell Swing, but I have affectionately called it the Pirate Ship. Regardless of what you call it, it mimics the movement of the Pirate Ship ride at the amusement park in the way the arms swing rhythmically back and forth.

I don’t want to say that this movement pairing or even that just doing the Pirate Ship movement “fixed” whatever was aching in my shoulder the last few weeks, but after doing it every week for roughly 6 weeks straight as my finisher for my Upper Body push day, my shoulders have felt outstanding! I was able to perform dips pain free, getting my rib cage to touch the cross-bar on my dip station for the first time I can remember in years, and I was able to Bench 365 touch-and-go style for the first time in ages. I encourage you to try this out. At the very least the combination pumps your shoulders with a very nice burn.

This is how I set up the strength training muscle building workouts. Because I work a variety of percentages of 1RM, a variety of speeds, and train volume as well, I have been fairly successful at building muscle and strength at the same time as long as I am eating enough calories, staying injury free, and getting enough sleep.

I have had several months in a row now where I have been free of lower back injuries so I have not missed many workouts and recently my strength levels and size have increased.

Now that the latest Grip Contest, Gripmas Carol 2011, is out of the way, I plan on adding conditioning work back into my weekly routine separate of my workouts and cleaning up my diet as well in an effort to trim down a bit and get just plain ripped to shreds in 2012.

If you want to watch some of the stuff that I do for conditioning and fat loss, I can certainly film it, but only if you are interested. I don’t know if this is something you want to see or not on my site, so please leave me a comment an let me know.

Thanks and all the best in your training.

Jedd

For further information on building muscle, check out Smitty’s AMD Program by clicking the image below. This is one of the best Muscle Building Programs on the market, shares many of the same principles I am sharing here, and includes many other ways to keep you healthy and balanced in order to build muscle the right eway.

• Push Pull Workout for Powerful Upper Body Strength
• 3 Keys to Building Muscle the Right Way
• Top 5 Simple Muscle Building Tips – Essential Mass Building Exercises
• Vince Gironda – Upper Body Muscle Building Workout
• Great Tricep Finisher – Improve Pressing Power

I do a small amount of personal training here in my facility. I am lucky enough to have found some guys who will literally try anything I challenge them to do, and they often end up performing the exercises just as well if not better than me. One morning this week, my trainee and good friend Mark was here and I had him do an exercise for his Biceps that he said hit them very well. He liked it so much, I knew I had to try it later on in my workout as well.

Equipment Needed for This Lift

The way we performed this exercise was with a rope. The rope is about 6 feet long. If you do not have a rope, a towel will work fine as long as it is a nice thick towel. An old beat up towel is probably going to rip on you so don’t try it. We used two Pony Clamps to secure the weight onto the rope. That’s all you need!

Benefits of This Lift

I feel this lift is best used as a finisher for the Biceps. What I look for in a Finisher is something that just outright blows the Biceps up, pumping it full of Blood. I do the rest of my larger movements influencing the biceps (Chin-ups, Barbell Curls, etc) first and then use isolation movements like this to bring massive amounts of blood and expansion in. In addition, the pump and increased blood flow helps to fend off and recover from inflammation in the elbows and forearms (tendonitis, epicondylitis, etc).

How to Perform This Lift

The basic way to perform this lift is to grip the towel with the elbows positioned about 90 degrees. From there, you will take your top hand and shift it beneath the lower hand, keeping the hands in contact with one another with each re-grip.

Other Variations of this Lift

Instead of just maintaining a consistent angle of about 90-degrees, you can also vary away from that angle. In the video below, I start out with two sets where I keep my elbow angle around 90 degrees and then finish with a third set where I move throughout the ROM, changing a few degrees at a time. Both variations worked well for an awesome pump.

I definitely suggest you give this exercise a try. My arms were blown up for about an hour afterwards, and I even hit a bunch of Grip, so I’d imagine if this was the last thing I did, I would have had a pump for much longer.

Weighted Rope Curl Ups

Now here is a quick demo. Sorry for repeating some of this information in the video. You will see that once I get up to 75-lbs, this exercise is damn challenging. Feel free to change up the weights to make the exercise work for you.

Let’s Connect

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All the best in your training,

Jedd

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With this post, I want to list a few principles I follow in my training. Next week, I will cover some how to select the right movements and how to program them.

3 Keys to Building Muscle

These are the three main keys I follow in my training when it comes to exercise selection. Now, of course there are other things that go into it, but these are the main three things.

1. Multi-Joint Movements

If you want to put on muscle and develop strength, then you have got to get lots of muscle involved in order to do so. The best way to get lots of muscle involved is to select exercises that involve movement over more than one joint. Examples are Bench Press, Overhead Press, Squat, Deadlift, Bent Over Rows, Clean, Snatch, and other movements that are similar in movements to these.

Now, if you take a look at the exercises I listed, you will see that there is often movement taking place at two or more joints. For instance, with the Bench, there is movement at the shoulder and at the elbow, plus if you approach the movement like a Powerlifter does, you are using even more muscle across other joints as well.

Movements such as the Squat, Deadlift, Cleans, and many Olympic lift breakdown drills involve even more joints. With these we are working over the knee, hip, back and possibly the ankle, shoulder and elbow, meaning even more muscle is being involved.

In other words, select movements that are working larger portions of your body and keep isolation movements to a minimum.

2. Train for Power and Speed

I like to incorporate exercises of increased speed in my training. What I am referring to is explosive movements that produce an increased power output, such as Cleans, Jerks, Snatches, Stone Lifting, and other movements where virtually the entire body is working together in order to move large loads very quickly.

Another way I like to accomplish this is with Accommodating Resistance using exercise bands. I have bands of many different strength levels in order to be able to use this concept on different movements.

The Bench Press is a good example of how to employ bands in your training. Remember when using bands that the purpose is to move the bar quickly against the resistance in order to train the fast-twitch muscle fibers to fire quickly. These muscle fibers need to be stimulated like this, but most guys are missing this aspect. I say this, because when I ask people who email me about this they say they have either never heard of this type of training or haven’t bought into it. I am a firm believer in it and have been experimenting with how to incorporate it in different ways aside from just with barbells in my training and with my clients (these guys kick ass).

3. Work in Balance

One of the recent times someone wrote in, they wanted to know how to put muscle on their chest and shoulders and I asked them what they were currently doing. Their answer? Bench Pressing two days a week and Shoulder work on another day. Essentially three Upper Body Pushing days and each one was balls to the walls intensity.

One of the things I always tell people is that if you are trying to fill out your shirt, you’ve got to remember there are two sides of it to fill. You don’t want to be like Tom Cruise in the movie Knight and Day and look like your back muscles are non-existent.

There needs to be a balance between your pushing and pulling exercises in order to pack on muscle on the upper body, and do it safely. Remember, we are doing something that is supposed to be good for us, not something in order to set ourselves up for imbalances, poor posture and pain down the road.

What I suggest people do is for every movement where you are pushing something, try to also incorporate a movement where you are pulling. If you can pick out complementary or contra-specific movement patterns, that is a bonus as well. For instance, a complimentary movement pattern for the Bench Press would be Bent Over Rows or Seated Cable Rows (although, I’d suggest the Bent-Over variety in order to have a Ground Based Movement – another post for another day).

One other thing to think about with Balanced Training, keep in mind that if you are going all out for maxes on the Bench every time you do it and then you do Bent Over Rows with a fraction of the weight, that doesn’t count as balanced. The loading and effort need to be similar in order to realize benefits.

One good way to do this is to perform your Upper Body Push and Upper Body Pulling movements on the same day and match up the loading and effort that way. If you do it like this, it is easier to monitor than if you do it on different days.

Do You Have Muscle Imbalances, Currently?

If you have been following traditional programs and have not taken things such as antagonistic balance into account with your program, you could be headed for some issues. Unfortunately, imbalances can develop from more than just the way you program you workouts and your exercise selection.

Time seated in a car, time at your desk, time at home in chairs, and other considerations that affect posture can really do a number on you.

If you think you run the risk of having imbalances because you slouched in your seat in high school for years (like me), spend a lot of time at a desk at your work (like me), or have muscular imbalances due to an injury or something else, you should consider checking out Rick Kaselj’s Muscle Imbalances Revealed – Upper Body Edition.

I recently made Rick’s acquaintance on-line and began following some of his work and he has an impressive background. A few months ago he came out with a 2.0 Program for lower body and now he has updated his Upper Body Edition as well.

The sizable clientele he has worked with and the expert backing he has gotten is unbelievable. I strongly suggest you give his program a look if you are a candidate for imbalances. Here is my link: Muscle Imbalances Revealed by Rick Kaselj.

All the best in your training and look for Part II coming next week.

Jedd

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20% Sale on AMD 2.0 is Almost Over

Right now I am offering my AMD 2.0 system for 20% off and the sale ends Friday at midnight.

Is AMD right for you?  Check out these FAQ’s.

ACCELERATED MUSCULAR DEVELOPMENT –> MORE INFO

AMD FAQ’s

1. What is the AMD 2.0 and how is it different to other program out there?

AMD 2.0 is not just a program, it is a system.  It shows you the perfect template that you should utilize for every workout.  It has every essential component that you need to prepare for the workout and to eliminate all of the negative effects from the 23 hours of the day you are not in the gym.  Even though there are 24 weeks of workouts and 2 separate workout paths, the goal of the AMD 2.0 system is to teach you how to create your own programs so you never have to rely on clueless trainers again. I still get emails everyday from people who tell me they feel better, move better and have been getting stronger every workout as a result of applying the AMD method consistently in their training.

2. How do you KNOW these workouts actually burn fat and build muscle?

Because I’ve used these workouts with my clients and athletes and gotten amazing results.  Over the years this has allowed me to tweak and perfect the AMD 2.0 template to what it is today.  Fast and highly effective workouts that can be done in under an hour and leave you feeling better than you have in years.  The AMD 2.0 system has 2 – 12 week workouts, one for building muscle and losing fat and the other for building muscle and getting strong.  In fact, I just used the fat loss component to lose over 35 lbs myself and I feel great.  I’ve actually started jumping again after struggling with a bad knee for the last 20 years.

3. What if I’m a relative beginner?  Can I still use this program?

Definitely!  In fact, that is exactly who the BM/LF program is for.  The person who is new to the gym and wants to get started the RIGHT way.  And if you are a beginner, you can learn how to do the right exercises, the right way.  The key mobility, activation and warm-up movements that most lifters never learn about, will already be in your program.  So you don’t have to make the same mistakes I made when I started lifting.

4. I’m not a young guy, will this program still work for someone who is older?

If you are older, you have to use this program.  Trust me, I know.  As we get older we lose mobility, we lose muscle mass and we become more susceptible to injuries. The structure in the AMD program will bring back balance into your program and help reduce those every day aches and pains. You’ll feel better, move better and that makes all the difference.

5. Does this program work for women as it does for men?

I’ve used this same template and these same workouts for my female clients as well.  Issues like knee stability, upper back strength, posture and fat loss can all be overcome with a comprehensive program done consistently.   In my experience women are very tenacious and love when they start seeing results.  That is why I’ve received so much positive feedback from women who have applied AMD to their workouts.

6. What if it doesn’t work for me?

I have included an 8 week money back guarantee that after you try the program,  you’ll love it.  Give AMD an honest effect and be consistent on the program as it is layed out and you will get results and feel better.  If you don’t, you can email me directly and I will refund your purchase price.

7. When can I get my hands on AMD 2.0?
The system will be available on tonight (Monday, December 6th) at midnight.  I am offering AMD 2.0 at a 20% discount (and with some awesome bonuses) and will return the package back to the normal pricing soon.  I truly believe in the program and it has changed countless lives. I hope you’re ready to change yours. If you are all you have to do is click the link below:

ACCELERATED MUSCULAR DEVELOPMENT –> MORE INFO

What Do You Get With AMD 2.0?

• AMD Quick Start Guide
• AMD Essential Exercise Video Index
• AMD Primary Exercise List
• AMD AER (Recovery) Exercise List
• AMD Power CORE Exercise List
• AMD 2.0 Main Manual
• AMD Essential Recovery (AER) Manual
• AMD Power Core (CORE) Manual
• AMD Explosive Fat Loss Manual
• AMD Deadlift Manual 101 (Bonus)
• AMD Upper Body Fat Loss Workout Video
• AMD Lower Body Fat Loss Workout Video
• Deadlift 101 Instructional Video

As you can see, I try to over deliver with all of my products.  In fact, it took a solid 3 years of writing, testing and tweaking the AMD system to come out with the new 2.0 version.  Each manual and each exercise list has its purpose and fits perfectly into the AMD template.  This template is the model for all good workouts and it must be followed.  I also show you how to fit any program you are currently on, into the template.

ACCELERATED MUSCULAR DEVELOPMENT –> MORE INFOSimilar Posts:

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Accelerated Muscular Development 2.0

Click here to go check it out!

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