The Ultimate Hard-Body Exercise
Here is an article by Mike Geary. He describes the effectiveness of the front squat and why it is one of the best exercises for creating a total body effect. Most long boring cardio exercises do not require the type of total body balance, stability, and coordination that the front squat and dead lift stimulate. What does that mean for you? Maybe more efficient core training?
Total body exercises are the best and most effective way to lose fat and train your body for the stresses of everyday life. The front squat and the dead lift require not only lower body strength but strengthen the core muscles that help to support the whole body as well as ripping the six pack that so many times is cleverly disguised. Enjoy! Train Fast! Explode!
The Ultimate Hard-Body Exercise
by Mike Geary, Certified Nutrition Specialist, Certified Personal Trainer
Author: The Truth About Six Pack Abs
The Front Squat
As you may have already discovered, the squat is at the top of the heap (along with deadlifts) as one of the most effective overall exercises for stimulating body composition changes (muscle gain and fat loss). This is because exercises like squats and deadlifts use more muscle groups under a heavy load than almost any other weight bearing exercises known to man. Hence, these exercises stimulate the greatest hormonal responses (growth hormone, testosterone, etc.) of all exercises.
In fact, university research studies have even proven that inclusion of squats into a training program increases upper body development, in addition to lower body development, even though upper body specific joint movements are not performed during the squat. Whether your goal is gaining muscle mass, losing body fat, building a strong and functional body, or improving athletic performance, the basic squat and deadlift (and their variations) are the ultimate solution.
If you don’t believe me that squats and deadlifts are THE basis for a lean and powerful body, then go ahead and join all of the other overweight people pumping away mindlessly for hours on boring cardio equipment.
Squats can be done with barbells, dumbbells, kettlebells, or even just body weight. Squats should only be done with free weights – NEVER with a Smith machine! My ebook, The Truth About Six Pack Abs contains the full story on why machines are so inferior and even potentially DANGEROUS compared to free weights.
The type of squat that people are most familiar with is the barbell back squat where the bar is resting on the trapezius muscles of the upper back. Many professional strength coaches believe that front squats (where the bar rests on the shoulders in front of the head) and overhead squats (where the bar is locked out in a snatch grip overhead throughout the squat) are more functional to athletic performance than back squats with less risk of lower back injury.
I feel that a combination of all three (not necessarily during the same phase of your workouts) will yield the best results for overall muscular development, body fat loss, and athletic performance. Front squats are moderately more difficult than back squats, while overhead squats are considerably more difficult than either back squats or front squats. I’ll cover overhead squats in a future newsletter issue.
If you are only accustomed to performing back squats, it will take you a few sessions to become comfortable with front squats, so start out light. After a couple sessions of practice, you will start to feel the groove and be able to increase the poundage.
To perform front squats:
The front squat recruits the abdominals to a much higher degree for stability due to the more upright position compared with back squats. It is mostly a lower body exercise, but is great for functionally incorporating core strength and stability into the squatting movement. It can also be slightly difficult to learn how to properly rest the bar on your shoulders. There are two ways to rest the bar on the front of the shoulders.
In the first method, you step under the bar and cross your forearms into an “X” position while resting the bar on the dimple that is created by the shoulder muscle near the bone, keeping your elbows up high so that your arms are parallel to the ground. You then hold the bar in place by pressing the thumb side of your fists against the bar for support.
Alternatively, you can hold the bar by placing your palms face up and the bar resting on your fingers against your shoulders. For both methods, your elbows must stay up high to prevent the weight from falling. Your upper arms should stay parallel to the ground throughout the squat. Find out which bar support method is more comfortable for you.
Then, initiate the squat from your hips by sitting back and down keeping the weight on your heels as opposed to the balls of your feet. Squat down to a position where your thighs are approximately parallel to the ground, then press back up to the starting position. Keeping your weight more towards your heels is the key factor in squatting to protect your knees from injury and develop strong injury resistant knee joints.
Keep in mind – squats done correctly actually strengthen the knees; squats done incorrectly can damage the knees. Practice first with an un-weighted bar or a relatively light weight to learn the movement. Most people are surprised how hard this exercise works your abs once you learn the correct form.
For complete descriptions of over 50 of the most effective full body exercises for stripping away body fat while developing a rock-hard body, download my e-book The Truth About Six Pack Abs
Train the Movement Not the Muscle
Train the Movement Not the Muscle – Isolation vs. Complex Exercise in Strength Training
by Aaron Ivey – Certified Athletic Trainer, Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist
As a strength training specialist, I get questions from friends and clients all of the time about the best way to train. I find that most of the questions, though genuine in their motivation, miss the most important benefits of strength training – function. One of the most popular questions goes something like this:
“Aaron, what is the best exercise to isolate my ___________ (any variety of body parts – biceps, triceps, abs, adductors, etc)?”
No matter what body part they insert into the question my response is usually – “Why is it you want to isolate? Do you want to be a bodybuilder?” Most of the time the answer is no.
So the first thing that they need to understand is that our body wants to work with the greatest number of muscles possible. It is more efficient and effective. The complex movements that our muscles create are achieved through the contraction of multiple muscles at one time. Some are more dominant than others with certain movements while others serve as joint stabilizers or accessory muscles. This article is meant to show how utilizing complex (multi-joint) movements is more effective and functional for sports demands as well as every day life and activities.
Isolation exercises are meant to train the body to use only one specific muscle group. In the long run this creates a body that works in a very non-functional way. In other words, in a way that is not natural. This can lead to injury and overuse type injuries because the muscles are not working together to create a movement. Instead, you have a bunch of individual muscles that, instead of a powerful, functional movement, create a jerky motion that doesn’t work well.
I have seen many people over the years suffer an injury that was created because of an isolation exercise. A significantly fewer number of injuries, if any, are caused by doing complex movements. Complex movements also create a more lean, muscular, and functional body that is better able to generate power and strength by working together to produce force.
If you look at any sport that requires strength, speed, power and agility you will notice that it requires complex movement patterns. Take a football or soccer player for example. They don’t train with isolation exercises. They are performing too many complex movements to waste their time doing bicep curls or leg extensions – neither of which will effectively make them more prepared for their sport.
Some examples of my least favorite isolation, non-functional exercises include:
• crunches,
• leg extensions,
• hamstring curls,
• bicep curls,
• tricep extensions, and
• the worst of all the abduction / adduction machine.
None of these exercises truly prepare the body for daily movements or much less athletic demands.
Some complex exercises that I like include:
• Squats and their variations
• Lunges (multidirectional)
• Deadlifts
• Step-Ups
• Push Ups
• Woodchoppers
A variety of different exercise routines can be created around these basic exercises. Upper extremity movements can be added to create a total body workout. Just 3-5 of these exercises in a circuit routine can be a real butt kicker. Basically any exercise that trains more than one muscle group at a time is a great complex exercise. Complex movements like these also train your abdominal muscles the way they were meant to be trained.
When you are considering what exercises are going to be best for you, remember to train movements with complex, multi-joint exercises and leave the isolation to the bodybuilders. You will create a more functional and healthy body. For more ideas about how to create a functional body that not only works well but looks even better, I suggest you check out the book The Truth About Six Pack Abs by Mike Geary. He does a great job at outlining the best way to make your exercise routine effective and fun.
interval training
