The Truth About Achieving A Ripped RockSolid Chest

Everyone wants a huge chest, plain and simple. It is all too common to see inexperienced lifters slaving away on endless sets of bench presses and cable crossovers in search of full, thick pecs. The reality is that there is nothing complicated about building an impressive chest. The bottom line for huge chest gains is consistency, effort and steady progression in weight and repetitions.

The chest is made up of two main heads, the pectoralis major and the pectoralis minor. To stimulate the chest using weights you will be using one of two motions: a press or a flye. If you want the greatest bang for your buck from your chest workouts, the true gains lie in your pressing movements. Flyes may have their place from time to time, but nothing can compare to the overall anabolic effect of high intensity pressing movements. I?m talking about the basic, bread-and-butter lifts such as heavy barbell presses, dumbbell presses and wide-grip dips. Save the pec-deck and cable crossovers for the pencil necked geeks on the treadmill; real men train with real lifts.

Like I said before, building a thick and well-developed chest is fairly simple. There are no secrets, magic formulas or killer techniques that will shock your chest into massive growth. Stick to your basic presses, focus on overload and progression, and I promise that you will see impressive gains. Here are the most effective lifts for packing muscle onto the chest:

Flat/Incline/Decline Barbell Bench Press:

A standard barbell press is the meat and potatoes of any effective chest routine. This basic compound movement will allow you to handle the most weight through the given range of motion. The incline press will shift more of the stress to the upper region of the chest while the decline does the opposite, targeting the lower/outer region. The flat bench press works the upper and lower regions equally. I highly recommend a standard barbell press as a basic component of your chest routine.

Flat/Incline/Decline Dumbbell Press:

Dumbbell presses are another basic and highly effective movement for stimulating chest development. The main advantage that they have over the barbell is that they allow you to move through a more natural range of motion, helping to prevent shoulder injuries. They also prevent strength imbalances from occurring since one arm can't cheat for the other. The only drawback is that you are not able to handle as much weight. Overall, a standard dumbbell press is an awesome movement that allows for great chest stimulation.

Wide-Grip Dips:

An amazing movement for the chest that is often overlooked. Make sure to use a wider grip and lean forward to shift the stress from the triceps onto the pectorals. If pressing your own body weight is not sufficient then you can always add weight using a weight belt. Dips are an excellent compound movement for overall chest development.

Here are a couple sample chest routines:

1) Flat Barbell Bench Press: 2 x 5-7
Incline Dumbbell Press: 2 x 5-7
Wide-Grip Dips: 2 x 5-7

2) Incline Barbell Bench Press: 2 x 5-7
Wide-Grip Dips: 2 x 5-7
Flat Dumbbell Press: 2 x 5-7

All sets should stay within the 5-7 rep range and should be taken to complete muscular failure. Write down the details of each workout you perform and focus on progressing in either weight or reps from week to week. There is nothing more to it than that. Good luck!

Sean Nalewanyj is a bodybuilding expert and writer of top-selling Internet Bodybuilding E-Book: The Truth About Building Muscle. If you want to learn how to build the greatest amount of lean muscle mass and strength in the shortest period of time possible, visit his website: http://www.MuscleGainTruth.com/

MuscleTesting and Applied Kinesiology: Uses and Tips on How to Use it

Muscle testing is an empowering energy technique that most anyone can use to better their health. Muscle testing functions as a subconscious lie-detector test and is used by challenging any muscle of the body. Over the years I have answered numerous questions about muscle testing, how it is used, how to make it more accurate, how people misuse it, and what things to pay attention to. This is the culmination of all those questions. Before using muscle testing, meditate or pray to become a clear channel and leave your ego out of the answers. Intention is everything in the world of healing.

You obtain better answers from your muscle testing by asking better questions. For example: Do I have permission to ask this question? Is this something I should let go of or participate in? Can I share this information? Am I asking the right question? Is there anything else I should be asking? And, will this be reasonable and in alignment with my morals and values?

Always ask yes or no questions?be clear and present when asking. Ask only one question at a time.

In Healing Work I use muscle testing for: Doing body scans for disrupted energy, testing for vanishing twins, to determine which disease is most plausible from a list of rule outs, for doing chiropractic adjustments on animals or figuring out where to place spot magnets, to determine the best treatments or healers to use, for emotional clearing work, to ask which flower essences, herbs, supplement, crystal and foods to combine for relaxation, immune building, serenity, and health. Muscle testing can also be used to test amounts.

Using Muscle Testing for Allergy testing: It?s useful for asking what side effects or benefits are being caused by a particular drug and in testing which flower, bulbs, grasses, shrubs, trees, molds and mildews or pollens you are allergic to.

Some fun and different ways to use muscle testing: Use it to test who is visiting from the other side, for backtracking the core cause of death, to choose which clothes to wear for best health or to look the best in an interview, and to pick the perfect gift or card for someone you love.

For Organizing Things: If goals and accomplishing tasks are important to you, muscle testing can be most helpful in prioritizing tasks and in determining how much time to spend on each item.

For Pet Health: Muscle testing can be used to communication with your animals. Ask your pet which foods they like and which will help their health, which name they would like to be called, or if they would like a companion. In my veterinary practice I use muscle testing to determine what the best antibiotic is to send home and for determining which foods to use in creating a personalized raw food diet.

I use muscle testing for nutrition and dieting by testing which emotions trigger the cravings for certain foods, to test which ingredients a person is allergic to and for asking the amounts of raw fruits and vegetables that would be best for the body.

For Spiritual Issues, muscle testing is used to: test the number of past lives or the number of lifetimes you have spent with someone, to track past lives, to ask whether someone is in your soul-pod, in tracking down spiritual lessons to focus on with a person and for tapping into the Akashic records.

In Helping with Environmental Issues, it can be used for: finding and clearing energy vortexes in a house, dowsing to find water, minerals, and the best places to build.

For learning purposes, muscle testing can be used to test the percent truth of a book or chapter, to test the truthfulness of a newspaper article, theory, or paper. I often use muscle testing to determine which books to purchase, or which topics to study next.

In Plant Healing muscle testing can be used to communicate with your yard, your garden and individual plants. Yes, plants talk too. I use it to figure out where to plant individual plants and to ask where the plant wants to be and if it is happy where it?s at, when to water, or what a plant needs to be healthier (more sun, water, soil, micronutrients, fertilizer, drafts, etc.)

Dr. Denice Moffat is a practicing naturopath, medical intuitive, and veterinarian working on the family unit (which includes humans and animals) through her phone consultation practice established in 1995. She has a content-rich website at http://www.NaturalHealthTechniques.com and free monthly newsletter. For many other healing techniques you can do at home, see Dr. Moffat's techniques page at: http://www.naturalhealthtechniques.com/HealingTechniques/healingtechniques1.htm

Most Powerful Bodybuilding Tip

If there is one surefire bodybuilding tip that I can share with you, which will skyrocket your muscle building efforts, it is rest.

Now you say rest. Yes, I am saying rest, don't workout. This may be way against the grain of your logical thinking, but according to sound physiology, it is right on. If you want to get bigger, stronger, and more cut; then I am recommending not to workout. Resting is the most powerful muscle building technique you can implement.

First off, your body develops muscle while you are resting, not during your bodybuilding workout sessions. Muscle fibers hypertrophy, or get bigger, and stronger than before, thus, get you ready to lift more weight during the next bout of exercise.

The entire muscle building process begins when you lift your first weight to a level of overload, or momentary muscle failure. You will be unable to move the weight for another repetition. This momentary muscle failure places stress on the muscle and calls upon it to adapt by becoming stronger to overcome similar resistance in the future. Thus, the growth process has been stimulated. Strength training to absolute muscle failure stimulates muscle growth, but doesn't produce muscle by itself.

Now you go home from the gym, and fuel your body to allow for an energy compensation to occur, which gets your body back to the energy level it was prior to your hi intensity training session. When this short step has completed, overcompensation begins. This is where muscle fibers thicken and begin to grow stronger.

The next question you might ask is how long do I rest? You rest long enough to complete this overcompensation process. Not resting long enough is the biggest mistake ninety nine percent of bodybuilding participants make. If you take the more is better approach by coming back before your muscles are fully recuperated, you will short circuit the whole muscle building process and decrease your bodybuilding workout results. Don't make this deadly mistake! Let your body completely finish growing before you stimulate it again with another bout of resistance overload.

There are a lot of variables that come into play when recommending the exact number of rest days. How hard did you workout? How many sets? How intense was the workout? The higher the intensity, and volume, the more rest days you will require between workouts. The average rest days vary between 3-15 days between workouts.

The best bodybuilding tip I can offer you for figuring out the exact amount of rest you need is by testing it. When I say testing, I am referring to keeping a training log to determine if your strength increases, decreases, or stays the same. If your strength increases, your rest is optimal. If it decreases, you need to take 1-2 or more days off to allow the growth process to complete. If strength stays the same, take another day off before your next bodybuilding workout session.

Your goal should be to become stronger with each subsequent workout. Get into the gym, stimulate growth, and then get the hell out of the gym to go home and grow.

Therefore, rest is the most neglected principle in the bodybuilding universe. Think more is not better. Higher intensity plus optimal rest equals muscle growth.

Please don't make this critical mistake, rest is by far the most important bodybuilding tip I can share with you. Follow it to obtain maximum muscle growth quickly.

***** Attention: Ezine Editors / Website Owners ***** Feel free to reprint this article in its entirety in your eZine, Blog, Autoresponder, or on your website as long as the links, text, and resource box are not altered in any way.

Jim O'Connor- Exercise Physiologist / The Fitness Promoter

Copyright (c) - Wellness WORD, LLC

9461 Charleville Blvd. #312

Beverly Hills, CA 90212

1-866-935-5967

Jim O'Connor is an Exercise Physiologist and information publisher of numerous health and fitness products. His latest work is a detailed audio guide of Bodybuilding Done Right. To receive his free report on the 5 most deadly muscle building mistakes visit Bodybuilding tip.