Chest
For my pecs I prefer dumbbell flyes, dumbbell press, and barbell bench press(on smith machine). All three exercises can be performed on an incline bench of +22° (upper pecs), flat bench (middle pecs) or decline bench of -22° (lower pecs). When I use an incline bench, I keep the angle of the bench rather small to avoid that my front delts will do more work than my pecs. For the dumbbell press and flyes I am very careful not to lose the tension on my pecs at the top of the rep by bringing the weights too close to each other. For the same reason my grip is rather wide for the barbell bench press (which also reduces triceps involvement), and I avoid locking out my elbows at the top of the reps. In order to get a maximal stretch of the pecs at the bottom of the reps, I let the weights go really low for my dumbbell exercises and I fully extend my ribcage. Sometime I do hybrid dumbbell press/flyes in which I press the weight up and fly it back down, which gives a very powerful tension on the pecs during the down-phase of the reps. Sometimes I do a few sets of cable crossover, which completely isolate the pecs, or straight-arm dumbbell pullovers across the bench to finish my chest workout. Don't waste your time with machine exercises for your chest.
Abdominals
For my lower abs, I always do hanging or lying leg raises. For my upper abs I always do full range of motion crunches on a very steep decline bench of about -50°, where I arch my back as far as possible backwards (hollow back) at the bottom of the rep to fully stretch the abs, and arch my back as much as possible forwards (round back) at the top of the rep to fully contract the abs. During the crunch movement, my hip joints remain frozen, and the lowest part of my back remains horizontal throughout the whole rep. This is by far the most powerful exercise for the abs that I know. For both exercises I typically do 4 sets of 10 - 16 reps once per week. Don't waste your time doing million of repetitions of worthless exercises. Don't do any twists because they will damage your spine rather than giving you a small, muscular waist.
Forearms
For my outer forearms, I do palms-down dumbbell or barbell wrist curls. When I do the wrist curls with a barbell I keep my arms straight, when I do them with dumbbells I keep my arms (elbows) in an angle of 90°. I always support my arms on a (preacher) bench. Sometimes I finish with a few sets of standingreverse barbell curls.
Shoulders
I used to do many standing dumbbell presses and seated barbell presses on the smith machine when I was a teenager. However, now I only do standingdumbbell lateral raises (side delts), bent-over dumbbell lateral raises (rear delts), and standing one-arm dumbbell front raises (front delts) because they really isolate the different parts of the deltoid muscle, while all press movements heavily involve the triceps muscles. When I do dumbbell raises to the side, I sometimes do them one-arm at a time. Dumbbell front raises I always do one-arm. I never alternate left and right because I feel this violates the principle of continuous tension by giving too much rest at the bottom of the rep. I also like to do my one-arm dumbbell lateral raises while lying on my side on an slightly inclined bench as this puts extra tension on the muscle at the bottom of the rep, when the delt is fully stretched. Don't do any cable exercises for your shoulders. Dumbbell raises are the greatest to develop your delts. I keep my arms slightly bent, and raise them rather high. Be careful not to give your delts any rest at the bottom of your reps. Occasionally I do one-arm dumbbell upright rows, which is a great exercise for the side delt and upper trapezius.
Upper trapezius
After my delts workout, I do one exercise for the upper part of my trapezius. I prefer one-arm dumbbell shrugs, because they really isolate the upper part of the trapezius and allow me to have the greatest possible range of motion.
Triceps
There are many good triceps exercises. My favorites are: parallel-bars or bench dips, close-grip EZ-bar bench press, EZ-bar triceps extension on a slight decline bench, lying dumbbells triceps extension, standing one-arm dumbbell triceps extension, and EZ-bar cable triceps pushdown. These exercises are all quite simple to perform correctly, and target the triceps muscle from all different angles. Pay attention that you don't forget the principle of full range of motion.
Upper and middle back
The best exercises for your upper back (lats) are: wide-grip pulldown behind the neck, mid-grip pulldown to the chest, V-bar pulldown to your middle, andkneeled one-arm cable pulldown. The latter one is definitely the best lat exercise that I know as it allows an incredible great range of motion, especially when you rotate your torso 90° during the movement. I used to do lots of pull-ups (chins) when I was a teenager. However, as they don't allow varying the weight easily, I stopped doing them.
The best exercises for your middle back (lower lats and trapezius) are: barbell row, T-bar row, one-arm dumbbell row, and seated cable row. Since my lower back injury I stopped doing bent-over barbell rows, T-bar rows, and seated cable rows, and replaced them by seated machine row, and lying T-bar rowbecause these machines support the chest so that the stress comes off the lower back and legs. This way these exercises also become more of an isolation exercise rather than a compound power exercise, which allows you to put more of your energy in the targeted muscle group.
While training your upper and middle back, it is very important to realize that you are training your lats and trapezius, and not your biceps. Therefore you should focus on arching your back, pulling backward and downward your shoulders, and pulling together your shoulder blades during the up-phase of your reps, in order to obtain a full range of motion for your lats and trapezius.
Biceps
The best biceps exercises are: standing one-arm dumbbell curl, and seatedincline dumbbell curl. I always rotate my wrists during the reps to maximize the range of motion of the biceps. Once in a while I do EZ-bar curls, concentration curls, hammer curls, or preacher curls. I always make sure that I don't lose the tension at the top of the rep, and I never alternate my dumbbell curls because I believe this violates the principle of continuous tension by giving too much rest at the bottom of the reps.
Hamstrings
For hamstrings I do lying leg curls, seated leg curls, standing leg curls, andglute-ham raises. For the leg curls it is important to explosively curl the weight up and to strongly contract the hamstrings for a moment at the top of the rep, before slowly lowering the weight in a controlled fashion. Your knees must be positioned exactly at the level of the rotation point of the machine, and the pads at the lower legs must be placed close to your feet.
Glute-ham raises put a very strong tension on the hamstrings in their extended position, and give a great muscle pump and soreness. They have a similar effect on the hamstrings as barbell deadlifts do, but they are harmless for the lower back as they don't put any stress on the intervertebral discs.
Lower back
The only very effective lower back exercise that is 100% safe for the back, is the hyperextension. Don't use too much weight, focus on the contraction of the muscles in the lower back. I would not recommend you to do any stiff-legged deadlifts or good-mornings as they can be very dangerous for damaging the intervertebral discs in your lower back.
Calves
The best exercise for the soleus muscle is the seated calf raise. The best exercise for the gastrocnemius muscle is the standing calf raise. The latter I prefer to do one leg at a time, only using my body weight or holding a dumbbell in one hand. The standing calf raise can also be performed on a machine, both legs at a time. However, I feel a better control of the muscle when I do each side separately.
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