Strength Training: Beautiful Glutes, Thighs and Calves!

To build a balanced physique, your strength training efforts need to focus on both the frontal and the rear physique. So far, we have examined exercises for the entire frontal physique. Now, we will be completing the rear physique with exercises targeting the glutes, the rear thighs and the calves. We left off our discussion with the triceps.

In Know Your Muscles, I explained the whole concept of understanding your anatomy so that you are able to build full-body strength training routines that target every important muscle group. The result is a beautiful, sculpted physique and a fat-burning engine (even at rest)! So, let's go.

Exercises that target the gluteus medius include:

1. Seated machine abduction, and
   
2. Cable single-leg abduction

Those targeting the gluteus maximus include:

1. Barbell and dumbbell squats
2. 45-degree leg press and horizontal leg press
3. Cable single-leg kickbacks, and
4. Butt blaster machine

Building your rear thighs (hamstrings) should involve exercises such as the following:

1. Prone machine leg curls and seated leg curls
2. Single-leg machine curls
3. Dumbbell prone leg curls
4. Stiff-leg deadlifts, and
   
5. Goodmornings

Now, to complete the rear body, let's look at the calves. For the gastrocnemius muscle do any of the following exercises:

1. Standing machine and standing dumbbell calf raises
2. Standing bodyweight and standing single-leg calf raises, and
   
3. Leg press machine calf raises

Finishing off the calves with these exercises that target the soleus muscle:

1. Seated machine calf raises, and
   
2. Seated barbell calf raises

That's it. We are done with your body. You've now got a plethora of exercises to choose from to target your entire body, yielding a fat-burning engine and resulting in a gorgeous, lean physique. Again, if you want any of these exercises explained to you in more detail, just comment to this post.

Some of our future strength-training posts will involve building some great routines for you to show you just how easy it can be!

Have a fantastic weekend!

Healthy. Fit. Living Fully. for life

Sandy Huard, President, Women's Health Supply International

Strength Training: Work Your Triceps

Continuing with our series Know Your Muscles, we will now look at another group of muscles of the rear physique, the triceps. We left off our examination of the rear body muscles with exercises that focused on Building a Beautiful and Sculpted Back.

There are several strength-training exercises that target this muscle group, including:

1. Close-grip bench presses
2. Lying curl bar extensions
3. Seated overhead barbell extensions
4. Single-arm dumbbell extensions
5. Dumbbell kickbacks
6. Cable pushdowns
7. Reverse-grip cable pushdowns, and
8. Machine triceps extensions
   

Completing the back of the arm, let's look next at exercises that target the forearm extensors:

1. Reverse wrist curls
2. Reverse barbell curls, and
3. Rope wrist roller
   

And finally, the infraspinatus (the only visible muscle that is part of the critical rotator cuff). Key strength-training exercises include:

1. External dumbbell shoulder rotation
2. External cable shoulder rotation
   

For a good triceps workout, checkout out the article Working Those Triceps for Beautiful Arms.

Want help with any of these exercises? Then respond to this post with a comment. I'll be happy to explain any of the exercises to you, including giving you tips on proper form and technique.

That's it for now. Tomorrow we will look at Vitamin E, the recent research and the implications for Vitamin E supplementation.

Have a great night!

Sandy Huard, President, Women's Health Supply International

Strength-Training: A Beautiful Sculpted Back is Possible!

Building your rear physique is the next stage in our strength-training series entitled: Know Your Muscles. Up until now, we've completed the frontal physique. For today, let's talk about exercises that will assist us in building a beautiful and sculpted back - great for summer tank tops!

Let's look at the lats (latissimus dorsi) and the traps (trapezius) first, followed by the rear shoulders (deltoids) and the lower back (erectors). We will also include the supporting muscles of the lats, the teres major.

Working first the lats and the supporting muscles (the teres major), some key strength-training exercises that target this region include:

1. Chin-ups and pull-ups
2. Wide-grip, closed-grip and curl-grip pulldowns
3. Seated cable rows and seated machine rows
4. Dumbbell and barbell bent-over rows
5. Straight-arm pullovers

Next are the traps. Some of the best strength-training exercises for the traps are:

1. Barbell, dumbbell and machine shrugs
2. Upright rows
3. Straight bar pulldowns.

Targeting the rear deltoids (shoulders) is possible with the following exercises:

1. Bent-over lateral raises
2. Cable rear lateral raises
3. Pec deck machine rear laterals

And finally, there is the lower back (erectors). Here, you want to target with these exercises:

1. Weighted hyperextensions and hyperextension machine
2. Good Mornings
3. Prone floor and ball back extensions
4. Barbell and stiff-leg deadlifts

So that's it. The final posts will look at the triceps, the visible muscles of the rotator cuff (infraspinatus), the forearm extensors, the buttocks (gluteus), the rear thighs (hamstrings) and the calves (gastrocnemius and soleus).

After that, you will be able to build any number of workouts from the many exercises I've provided in my various strength-training posts. Reply to this post if you need information about any of the exercises mentioned above.

Take care,

Healthy. Fit. Living Fully.
Sandy Huard, President, Women's Health Supply International

Strength-training Exercises: Beautiful Arms and Thighs

As promised in Know Your Muscles, I will be providing you with strength-training exercises for the final 2 muscle groups of the frontal physique. To date, we've looked at the chest, the abdominals and the front shoulders, now its time for the upper arms (the biceps) and the thighs (quadriceps).

Some exercises that work the biceps include:

1. Barbell curls
2. Dumbbell curls
3. Preacher curls
4. Concentration curls
5. Cable curls

Exercises that work the quadriceps include:

1. Barbell squats
2. Front squats
3. Smith machine squats
4. Leg extensions
5. 45-degree leg press
6. Horizontal leg press
7. Hack squats
8. Lunges

Finishing up with the supporting muscle groups of the frontal physique, we have the forearms (flexors and extensors), the sides of the waist (obliques), the inner thighs (adductors) and the shin muscles (tibialis). Sample exercises are as follows:

Forearms:

1. Dumbbell wrist curls
2. Barbell wrist curls

Obliques:

1. Side bends
2. Dumbbell side bends
3. Broomstick twists
4. Bicycle crunches
5. Twisting crunches
6. Trunk twists

Hip Adductors:

1. Seated adduction machine
   
2. Cable single-leg adduction

Tibialis anterior (shin):

1. Ankle dorsiflexion
2. Band ankle dorsiflexion

Want instructions on how to perform any of these exercises? Reply to this post with your comments. Again, I am providing you with many exercises for your frontal physique so that you can add variety to your workout and you can structure a workout that will give you a well-balanced and sculpted physique.

Next week, we'll work on the rear physique, including the lats, traps, rear shoulders (deltoids), lower back, triceps, glutes, hamstrings and calves. When we are all done, you will structure a 2-3 set workout with varying levels of weight and varying repetitions to keep your body guessing and your muscles growing. By summer, you will look fantastic!

Have a great day!

Sandy Huard, President, Women's Health Supply International

A Recipe For Beautiful Shoulders!

Tonight, I'm going to share strength-training exercises that will help you build nice rounded shoulders, which will enhance and provide great proportion to your frontal physique. As discussed in my post A Lesson in Anatomy - Know Your Muscles, I am providing you with many exercises to work all of the major and supporting muscle groups of the body.

Over a series of posts, you will have everything you need to build many different strength-training routines, adding variety to your workouts and yielding quick strength gains as a result. So far, we've looked at the chest and the abs, so let's move on.

The front shoulders are called the deltoids. Exercises for the "front deltoids" include:

1. Barbell shoulder press
2. Dumbbell shoulder press
3. Twisting dumbbell press
4. Machine shoulder press
5. Front dumbbell raises

Exercises for the side deltoids include:

1. Dumbbell lateral raises
2. Cable lateral raises
3. Machine lateral raises

Between the neck and the shoulders are the upper trapezius muscles. Exercises that work the upper traps include:

1. Barbell shrugs
2. Dumbbell shrugs
3. Machine shrugs
4. Upright rows
5. Straight bar pulldowns

While we are at it, let's finish off from the shoulder to the neck with the frontal neck muscle, the sternocleidomastoid (SCM). Exercises that work this supporting muscle are:

1. Weighted neck flexion
2. Neck machine flexion

Many people have neck-shoulder pain because of weakness in some of the muscles mentioned above or from injury or tightness. Keep the weight manageable and consider massage as an integral part of your strength-training regime.

The name of each of the above exercises describes the exercise itself. However, if you are new to strength-training or are not quite sure how to perform any of the exercises above, then comment on this post. I will gladly describe the exercises in detail.

Have a great night!

Sandy Huard, President, Women's Health Supply International

A Lesson in Anatomy - Know Your Muscles

To develop your physique correctly, you need to understand what muscles to train. The basic anatomy lesson presented here will help you to develop a well-balanced, strong and lean physique. If you concentrate on only a few "problem areas" such as your glutes and hamstrings, you could end up with imbalances in strength, which can lead to injury. So, get your school caps on!

Your frontal physique consists of the following major muscle groups:

1. The chest (pectorals)
2. Abdominals (rectus abdominis)
3. Front shoulders (deltoids)
4. Upper arms (biceps)
5. Thighs (quadriceps)
   

Muscles that support or assist these major muscle groups in doing their job include:

1. The frontal neck (Sternocleidomastoid or SCM)
2. Forearms (flexors and extensors)
3. Sides of the waist (obliques)
4. Inner thighs (adductors)
5. Shin muscles (tibialis)

A well-rounded strength-training regimen should include exercises from all of the muscles noted above. Now, for the rear body.

Some very large and strong muscle groups are found at the back of the body, including:

1. The lats (latissimus dorsi)
2. Traps (trapezius)
3. Rear shoulders (deltoids)
4. Lower back (erectors)
5. Rear upper arms (triceps)
6. Buttocks (gluteus)
7. Rear thighs (hamstrings)
8. Calves (gastrocnemius and soleus)

Other notable rear body muscles include: the teres major (assists the lats) and the infraspinatus (part of the rotator cuff).

As with the front of the body, a well-rounded workout regimen should include the rear body muscles noted above.

In subsequent posts, I'll give you examples of exercises that work each of these muscle groups, so that you'll be able to create your own strength-training workouts quickly and easily. This will add variety to your routines and increase your overall body strength more rapidly. Before you know it, you'll be lean, strong and ready to take on any challenge.

Take good care of yourself. Have a great night.

'Healthy. Fit. Living Fully.' for all!

Sandy Huard, President, Women's Health Supply International