Here's a tougher-than-it-looks ways to ramp up your chest training, boost TUT for growth, and improve motor unit recruitment.
Negatives help you build muscle. Try this technique for chest training.
Use submaximal isometrics to build better triceps. Hold your first rep isometrically, then do 8-12 regular reps.
Jack up the metabolic and muscular damage, jack up your biceps growth. Try this superset.
When you do rows with a supinated grip, there's a greater overload stimulus on the biceps and you turn regular barbell rows into an arm AND back-builder.
Finish off your shoulder workout with this effective (but painful) exercise technique.
Build that back. Hold the first rep for 10 seconds, then knock out 8-10 reps.
Ball slams will help you recruit more muscle fibers. This means you'll be able to go heavier and build more muscle during your regular weight training.
Become a better athlete. Broad jumps are awesome for developing explosive horizontal hip power and athleticism.
A few sets of these after your warm-up and before doing your main chest exercises fires up the CNS and improves muscle fiber recruitment.
Looks odd, but this is a great fat-burning finisher. Do 6 reps per side for 8 minutes straight.
Toss this conditioning finisher in at the end of your next upper-body workout to burn some extra fat. Do 4 sets of 12 reps.
To really make these work, stretch your abs at the top of the movement and squeeze them as hard as possible at the bottom. Use a 3-4 second negative.
This is an awesome exercise for horizontal pressing power. It increases explosiveness and helps you recruit more muscle.
To do this correctly, resist forward flexion and stay more upright.
From the hang, fire the dumbbell up. Drive through the heels, fully extending the hips. Drive the elbow high and catch it overhead with knees slightly bent.
This variation of the press has you starting from a dead-stop every rep. Great for strength gains and working on weak points in the range of motion.
Also called the cross-body hammer curl, this neutral-grip exercise will hammer the brachialis, the muscle beneath the biceps, adding more size to your arms.
And a few sets of these to the end of your chest workout as an athletic finisher.
Start with one rep of each exercise, then do two on the next round. Keep the ladder going until you're doing 10 reps per movement on the last round. No rest!
Not only is this a great exercise for delts, it'll also strengthen your obliques and abs. Try 4-5 sets of 5-8 reps for strength gains.
Use an explosive dip and drive to power the dumbbell up, then take about 4 seconds to lower the weight.
Build head-to-toe stability and balance along with strong, muscular shoulders. Do 3-4 sets of 8-12 reps with a slow tempo.
Recruit more muscle, wake up your nervous system, and get more athletic. Squat jumps bridge the gap between jumping in sport and squatting in the gym.
Hook your feet into the straps of a suspension trainer and get in a push-up position. Bring your knees in to your stomach while lifting the hips and crunching your abs. Extend back out to a full push-up position.