A well developed chest is high on the list for most men. Whether you want a bulky or more athletic appearance, it’s important to plan your workouts to avoid over-training. Below are two tips on how to build chest muscle.

Training Without Weights

Although weight lifting has gained tremendous popularity in recent years it’s still possible to build a well developed chest without weights. If you look at the physiques of athletes like gymnasts and sprinters you’ll often find well sculpted torsos without a lot of weight lifting.

The secret to developing a full chest without weights is variety and intensity. You can get a good workout by doing push-up variations as long as you strive to get better with each workout. If you’re stuck on thirty push-ups your body won’t grow until you can push past that plateau. When you feel your chest muscles fatigue you can gain additional strength by completing half and quarter repetitions.

Other variations to push-ups include placing your hands at different distances and raising your feet to work the upper chest. You can also change the workout by varying the speed you complete the push-up. Ten slow push-ups will be just as challenging as thirty normal speed push-ups.

Resistance Training

If you have access to a gym or a bench and dumbbells in your home you can work your chest muscles through bench pressing and butterflies. Your chest will change shape depending on the type of exercise and amount of weight you use. If you like the look of a bulky linebacker you’ll want to focus on heavy bench press movements. Choose a weight that allows you to complete six to eight repetitions to build muscle mass.

To build a more athletic chest you can sculpt the pectorals with moderate weight butterfly movements. Sculpting and building muscle definition doesn’t require a lot of weight, and typically requires ten to twelve repetitions to realize good results.

A common flaw with many workout routines is over-training, especially when you’re focusing on one particular body part. When you exercise your chest too often, they can remain in a constant state of fatigue which hinders the ability to grow and add new muscle tissue.

For more free tips visit the fat burning furnace.

About the Author

If you’re tying to get back in shape and build chest muscle, you can find more helpful tips at the fat burning furnace. It provides a step by step plan to help men lose body fat and build muscle as quickly as possible.

Take advantage of two special offers:

1. 10% off plus free shipping (using code: 11001 at checkout) at Total Gym® today.

2. Pay in Full at Total Gym® and receive a Free Upgrade, which includes an extended warranty, priority processing and more.

More than 2 million people have already purchased a Total Gym – including Hollywood celebrities, professional athletes, trainers, and folks new to exercise. These affordable gyms give you every exercise you need to work on strength training on all parts of the body — arms, shoulders, back, chest, abs, and lower body. It’s a complete body transformation and one of the easiest ways to exercise.

Total Gym® Home Fitness Equipment.

Exercise benefits everyone no matter what shape they are in. You may have bird legs, or heavy thighs on a pear-shaped body, or be in good condition from swimming or running, but you can still improve your health by doing weight-bearing exercises every week.

Since the large muscles of the lower body comprise over 60 percent of your muscle mass, it is necessary to include a workout to target them. In order to work these muscles properly, they require the use of heavier weights and a higher volume of work than say smaller muscles like the biceps.

Basic Exercises for The Lower Body:

The lower body, consisting of the trunk and legs, includes the major muscle groups of the gluts (buttocks); adductor (inner thigh) and abductor (hip); quadriceps and hamstrings on the upper leg; calves and soleus on the back of the lower leg; and the tibialis anterior (shin) on the front of the lower leg.

These exercises are only a sample of the workouts you can choose and they can be done with free weights, cables, or on circuit machines. Remember: variety is the key to toning muscles.

Cable Standing Calf Raise — At a cable pulley, attach a belt to your hips. Stand on the edge of a low platform or “calf block” on the balls of your feet, with your arches and heels off the block. Make sure the cable is short enough to allow full range of motion. Your knees should be straight throughout exercise or bent only slightly during the stretch. Raise up, allowing your heels to extend as high as you can, then lower the heels and bend the ankles, stretching the calves. These exercises will target the calf muscles with the synergist—i.e., a muscle that assists another muscle to accomplish a movement—being the soleus.

Reverse Calf Raise – This is similar to the (heel) calf raise described above, only now you will be positioning your heels on the front edge of the calf block and do toe raises. Begin by pulling the toes up as far as possible; then return by extending and pointing the toes downward. Repeat. This will target the tibialis anterior. Runners especially will benefit by training the shin muscles to prevent the types of muscle imbalances that cause painful shin split injuries.

Variations on the calf raise can also be preformed on a seated calf press machine, or on standing on a calf block with dumbbells or in a Smith with barbells. By doing both heel and toe raises you’ll work the lower leg and tone the V-shape that runs from your heels up the calf. Calf raises are great for both men and women who want to fully develop a nice pair of gams.

Cable Hip Adduction — A good exercise for the inner thighs. Attach a cuff to the inside ankle as you stand sideways in front of a low cable pulley. Grab the bar for support, keep your leg straight, and pull the weight by swinging your leg out, just in front of the outside leg you are balancing on. Return and repeat, then turn around and work the other leg. Adduction is moving the thigh inward with the hip straight; abduction (next) is moving the thigh outward with hip straight.

Cable Hip Abduction — Attach the cable cuff to the outside ankle while standing sideways from the low pulley. Keep your leg straight, pull the weight and allow the far leg to cross in front. Return and repeat. Then work the other leg. This exercise will work the hips and gluts.

For the next sets, move from the step-ups, to lunges, then to squats—in that order.

Step-ups with Barbells — A great exercise for the quads, and one that will be felt in the hams and calves, step-ups also serve as a warm-up for the upcoming squats and lunges. The exercise looks similar to the barbell squat since it’s done with a barbell placed on the shoulders. To perform this exercise: stand in front of a low bench or platform, and step up with the left leg, then the other. Then step down with the left leg; then the right. Repeat with the right leg stepping first. For variation, use dumbbells instead of a barbell.

The Lunge — A popular exercise with men and women bodybuilders, the lunge is good for toning the gluts, hams, and quads. To begin, stand with feet together and arms at your sides. Lunge forward with your left leg, landing heel first, then toes. Lower your body until your right knee is almost in contact with floor. Your shoulders will be over your hips. Load the front leg and use the back one for stability. Use a slow, smooth movement in order to allow tension to remain on the target muscle for a second or two. Step back up (toe/heel) and return to start position. Repeat with the right leg stepping forward. Lunges can be done with barbells or hand weights to increase intensity, and can also be preformed to the side or to the rear.

Squat with dumbbells — Stand with your feet comfortably apart, holding the dumbbells at your sides. Swing the weights forward in a controlled motion while bending at the knees and hips and lower to a sitting position. Slowly return to a standing position and lower the weights to your sides. The squat is the core exercise of any lower body training program and there are numerous variations using free weights.

Leg Press — Get in the machine and place your feet on the foot plate with knees and heels in alignment. Exhale, and push on the plate until your knees and hips are fully extended. Return to the start position where your hips should be completely flexed. Repeat. This machine targets the gluts and also hits the quads, inner thighs, and soleus. If you have knee problems, this exercise is a good alternative to the squat since you will be able to control balance and adjust the weight load. Some women also prefer the safety of the Leg Press Machine rather than performing squats with free weights and that’s fine, too. But for proper leg work, you must do one or the other.

Two important exercises that are often overlooked are the leg extension and leg curl. For best results, you should alternate these every week to allow specific muscles to recover. For example, you’ll be focusing on quads one week; hams the next. These terrific exercises will cut the upper leg muscles nicely if you do them properly.

Seated Leg Extension — Sit on the machine and slide your lower leg under the padded lever. Lift the lever, extending the knees until your legs are straight. Lower the lever to the start position and repeat. This workout targets the quads and should be done after squats or leg presses to help chisel and tone the front of the thighs.

Seated Leg Curl — Sit upright on the machine with your back against the padded support. Slide your lower legs over the padded lever, and lower the lap pad down against your thigh. Bring (curl) the lever down to full extension, then raise up to the start position until your knees are straight. Repeat. It’s a good idea to do this machine last after squats and the leg press. This machine targets the hams with the synergist being the calves.

Lying leg curls — To work the hamstrings, lie prone on the bench of the machine and position your lower legs under the lever pad. Raise the lever pad by flexing knees and bringing up (curling) the lever to the back of the thigh. Slowly lower until your knees are straight. Repeat.

The hamstrings are not fun to train but it is especially necessary to keep them limber, and a beautiful set of hams looks attractive on both men and women. Leg curl machines make the motion easier to do, but if the equipment is available at your gym, try all variations of legs curls (seated, standing, lying, kneeling, cable) for best results.

A Sample Basic Lower Body Workout :

Generally speaking, you should plan to do 2 to 4 sets of each, with reps of 8 to 20 depending on amount of weight used. Protect your joints by starting light and adding weights later as you progress in your training.

• Barbell Squat  or  Leg Press (3 sets of 12)
• Seated Calf Raise (3 X 12)
• Leg Extensions (4 X 12)
• Leg Curls (4 X
• Standing Calf Raise (4 X 20)

For more variation, throw in some one-legged training since you are likely to have a dominant leg and not even know it. (Snowboarders are aware of this phenomenon.) You can test yourself by training one leg at a time on most any free weight or machine exercise (for example, the seated calf raise) and see for yourself that one leg can usually do more reps than the other. Single leg training lets you isolate the muscle and promote more muscle fiber growth.

Design your workout according to your goals and be sure to change your routine every 4 to 5 weeks to keep your muscles guessing. By adding weight-bearing training to your weekly workout schedule, you’ll soon be on your way to achieving a good-looking, strong, and balanced lower body.

Advantages of Free Weight Training

To build strength, Milo the legendary wrestler of ancient Greece prepared for the Olympiad by carrying a newborn calf on his back every day until the cow was full grown.

Nearby, you can bet there was a woman hauling a 30-lb toddler on her hip who must have been watching and thinking … “muscle head.”

Each of us lifts heavy things as part of our daily lives, be it toddlers, equipment, groceries, or a number of things. Resistance training can make you stronger and these tasks will seem easier.

You don’t have to be an athlete to reap benefits from lifting weights. Anyone who is short of breathe when they walk up a flight of stairs or who just wants to feel and look better can achieve amazing results by adding free weight training to their weekly schedule.

Rage Against the Machines

Free weights or machines? That’s a question that’s often asked. Machines are a safe way to go if you’re new to lifting or are recovering from an injury, but check out the advantages of free weights. While specific weight machines leave out the stabilizer muscle groups (gluts, back, abs) and only allow the user to move the weight from point A to point B, free weights aren’t held in place by anything—just you—and that freedom requires coordination and balance from the core muscles and the bones. That means that the whole body gets involved in the execution of the exercise.

This added stimulus gives an individual the advantage of training movement, not just muscle, since the range of motion more closely mimics the activities of daily life. Since your body is in itself the machine, fitness experts consider free weights superior to exercise machines.

Pumping Iron: A Look at the Equipment

The term free weights generally refers to dumbbells and barbells. (But not babies.) They’re called free weights because they are used in ranges of motion based on the user, and not limited to a machine’s design. The weights are a staple at any club or public gym, and home users find that not only are they an inexpensive way to get in shape, a set of dumbbells won’t take up a lot of room and they are impossible to break.

Dumbbells are constructed of either a single fixed weight, or as a short bar with changeable disks called plates. A complete set of plates for dumbbells generally ranges from 2.5 lbs to 50 lbs each.

Barbells are comprised of a long bar and iron weight plates which range from 5 lbs to 100 lbs. A chrome or stainless steel straight bar is about 4 to 6 feet long and weighs 15 to 22 pounds. (In comparison, an Olympic bar weighs 45 pounds and can hold loads of over 800 pounds.) The plates are slipped on each end of the bar and held on with a clip called a collar.

Free Weight Exercises for Men and Women

Way back in 500 B.C., Milo figured out that the basic concept of progressive resistance training is to start with lighter weights and, as your muscles grow stronger, move to heavier weights. But while Milo hauled a heifer daily, weight training is not something that must be done every day to see progressive results. There are over 400 voluntary muscles in your body and you can stimulate growth in them by doing just 30-minute sessions, two or three times per week.

Design your weight training program to exercising certain muscle groups on one day and the remainder on another, with rest days in between. Use the rest days as an opportunity to get more cardio work in while your muscles recuperate. Aim for one to four sets per exercise, and do up to three exercises targeting each muscle group on their workout day. With any of the sample exercises below, adjust the weight loads and number of reps to your personal fitness goals.

First, the core lifts:

Bench Press: This is the popular exercise to work the chest and shoulders. Lie supine on the bench under the barbell, placing your hands about a foot apart on the bar. Lift the weight off the rack and extend fully, keeping your elbows at a 90-degree angle to your body and not against your sides. Lower the barbell slowly to the start position. Press. Repeat. For variation, shorten the hand distance on the bar to put more work on the inner pectorals and triceps.

Squats: Use a barbell or dumbbells to work on the largest muscles of the body, the gluts and legs. With your feet about shoulder-width apart, hold the weight at chest height, bending the knees and lowering your body down to squat in a parallel position. Then press the gluts together and rise up to the start position. Be sure not to round the back when doing squats and deadlifts as this will put stress on your lower back muscles.

Deadlifts: This exercise begins with the loaded barbell on the floor. With the bar touching your shins, place your hands wider than shoulder-width on the bar and outside your legs. Using a reverse grip, keep your arms straight and back straight, chest out, and thighs parallel to the floor. Lift slowly with arms straight and bar close to the body, rising to stand with the bar is about mid-thigh. Lower the weight slowly to the floor. Great for legs, butt and back! If you’re concerned about injury, you can start with an empty bar or train on lower back and abs strengthening exercises before attempting squats and deads.

Work that core with these exercises:

Good mornings: Stand with barbell on your back and bend over as if bowing to someone. Keep your chin up to keep from rounding your back. Great for the lower back; also works the hamstrings.

Lunges: Stand with the barbell on your upper back. Step one leg out in a long stride, landing on the heel then the forefoot. In the stride position, bend your knees and slowly lower your hips until the knee on your rear leg almost touches the floor. Raise up to the start position by forcefully extending the knee and hip of the forward leg. Switch legs. Your aim is to work until fatigued; when you feel a burn it’s indicating a release of lactic acid. This is a good thing. Lunges are brutal. Works the quads, glutes, hammys and lower back.

Dumbbell flys: Lie supine on an incline bench or flat bench, with a dumbbell in each hand, lift them above the chest with the arms fixed in a slightly bent position and elbows pointing out. Lower dumbbells out to the sides, keeping elbows fixed. Bring the weights back together over your chest in a hugging motion until dumbbells are nearly together. Repeat. Works the chest, with secondary emphasis on the arms.

Now for some secondary lifts:

Biceps Hammer Curls: Hold dumbbells at your sides, palms facing in. With elbows to the sides, raise one dumbbell until forearm is vertical and the thumb faces the shoulder. Lower and repeat with the other arm.

Dumbbell rows: Stand on your right foot and position your left knee on a bench. Bend and place your left hand on the bench. Your back should be flat, head raised and eyes forward. Holding a dumbbell in your right hand, pull your elbow back as far as it will go lifting the weight about to your ribs or as high as you can. Slowly lower the dumbbell to the starting position. Do one set, then switch arms. Great for triceps, shoulders and back.

Triceps extensions: Lie supine on a bench with your head close to the end. Using either one dumbbell or an EZ curl barbell using an overhand grip, press the weight over your head, bending at the elbows with your forearms parallel to the floor and keeping upper arms close to your head. Lower the weight towards the floor behind your head. Press the bar or dumbbell slowly back up to the start position. Repeat.

Other suggested isolating exercises and the muscle groups worked:

• OBLIQUES: side rows with dumbbells
• SHOULDER: lateral raise with dumbbells, overhead press
• BACK: flys (prone reverse & seated reverse), bent-over rows, deadlifts
• TRAPS: barbell shrugs
• FOREARMS:  reverse (or overhand) preacher curls with barbell

Learn to perform all free weight exercises in a slow, controlled manner of approximately two seconds on the difficult exertion or lifting phase (while exhaling), and three seconds to slowly return or lower the weight (and inhaling).

Start working out with free weight and bodyweight exercises and you’ll start feeling results within days, and seeing muscle tone improve on your body within weeks.  And don’t forget to follow a proper diet, and incorporate some of high intensity aerobics (at least 30 minutes three times a week) for best results.

What you will develop is a beautiful pair of strong and sexy arms that you’ll want to show off in a spaghetti strap dress or a sleeveless top. Toned arms will give you a boost of confidence and you’ll appreciate the increase in strength when toting the tot, hauling a heavy briefcase, or collecting an armload of garden pots.

And during your resistance training, don’t neglect working on your diet as well, which contributes to flabby arms. Bicep exercises will build the muscle underneath the fat, but won’t get rid of it. In order to see more tone and definition, you must get rid of the fat just like any other area of your body—and that’s done through more cardio (jogging, biking, etc.) and eating a proper diet.

So get started on an ongoing routine to develop greater size, strength, and shape in the biceps and in the rest of your body. Work slowly and with enough weight to grow the muscles safely and correctly. Make weight training a lifetime habit and enjoy those great looking arms.

Train the biceps for size, shape and strength

Is there anyone who doesn’t appreciate great-looking arms? Hard sculpted biceps on men, and  gracefully lean upper arms on women? And wouldn’t you love them on your body?

The biceps, those two-headed (“bi”) muscles at the front of the upper arm that flex the forearm, are one of the smallest, yet most eye-catching muscles on the body. They are easy to train using most any pulling or curling exercise and it doesn’t take a lot of grueling work to see real progress.

Women can and should do these exercises without worry, since females typically don’t see a size increase in muscles from strength training. Since women have up to 30 times less of the type of hormones that cause muscle hypertrophy, they can lift for strength and shape, and not worry about bulk.

You’ve probably sat at a bicep curl machine at the gym and wondered what the big deal is. Yes, the machine is designed to isolate the muscle but, unfortunately, most people tend to let the machine do most of the work. As you brace your upper arms on the pad, and grasp the handles, you’re performing some fancy elbow-flexing to move the handles and the weight. But how much are you really benefiting from it?

Move to Free Weights for the best advantages

It is difficult, though not impossible, to isolate most of the stress on a particular muscle. For this reason, free weights (weights that aren’t connected to a track or locked in a position) should be used whenever possible. While a curl machine attempts to isolate the work on a specific muscle, free weights use a compound movement by working a group of muscles, while still focusing the stress on one at a time.

To get an idea of this, imagine how muscles work together when opposing each other. On any given lift, one muscle is contracting and another is relaxing, such as the biceps and triceps when performing a biceps curl. Since the tricep must be worked, the bicep is not completely isolated. Hence free weights work the muscle, but go a step further.

Pick up a 10-lb dumbell in each hand. Immediately, you notice you’ve changed the dynamics of the workout by adding 20 lbs to your body weight. Now larger stabilizer muscles in your abs, legs, and back are working to keep you in balance. Using free weights develops your stabilizer muscles, not to mention your coordination, and this compound movement results in the most effective gains for muscle growth.

Use variation for the continued gains

If you’re new to strength training, keep in mind that the lighter the weight you lift and the more the repetitions you do, the more likely you are to tone the muscles but not see great gains in strength. So let’s take a look at a standard biceps workout using:

• Biceps Standing Barbell Curls
• Preacher Curls (seated on Preacher bench with dumbells or barbell)
• Seated/Standing Dumbell Curls

For the barbell curl: Stand with your feet comfortably apart and hold a barbell with both hands using a palms up grip about 18 inches apart. With the bar against your upper thighs, exhale, then curl the bar up to the height of your shoulders. Lowering the bar back to the starting position in an easy controlled movement. Do three sets of 12 to 20 repetitions, always to exhaustion. Be sure to use enough weight to completely exhaust the biceps muscle (i.e., enough that you can do at least 12 reps, but not more than 20 reps).

Seated/standing dumbell preacher curl (also called Scott curls): Position yourself behind a preacher bench holding dumbells, using an underhand grip. Working one arm at a time, lean into the bench, and lift the dumbell slowly upward in an arc until they almost touch the biceps, then return to the starting position. Use a full range of motion, including positive and negative tension, which means raising and lowering the weight slowly, rather than bouncing them up and down.

Alternating dumbell curls: Pick up two dumbells of equal weight in each hand, and do three sets of 12 to 20 repetitions, working to exhaustion. Hold them palms out and curl one arm at a time, then the other, up towards the shoulder. You can lift with the palm up (where the bicep is forced to carry the full load at all times) or use a supinating wrist twist. This latter routine, the twisting dumbell curl, is one of the most proficient means of shaping the biceps and produces the peak seen on so many bodybuilders.

When you want to train for strength, you increase the amount of weight and decrease the number of reps. You need to select enough weight that will allow you to exhaust the muscle—but now you’ll want to make only 2 to 8 repetitions per set. Just be careful to lift correctly and isolate the biceps, otherwise, you’ll end up with sore forearms the next day.

What if you don’t see the results you want?

You might be anatomically challenged and not know it. It’s true. For some people, the brachialis muscle (which runs underneath the outer part of the bicep) may be absorbing the majority of stress which limits what the biceps get to do. In other words, the biceps will only receive as much of the workout as the brachialis will allow, so concentrate on isolating the muscle.

Since biceps are receptive to the variety of free weights training you’ll need to experiment to see what is right for you. Likewise, if your muscles have developed but now resist further growth, you need to fool your body by expanding your arsenal of workouts. You can do that by frequently changing the different types of curls using barbells, dumbells, bench, machine, or cables.

Women lifters also like to add some fun exercises with strands of rubber tubing. You can use them standing or lying on your back, place the tubing over your feet, and you’re ready to pull. Do three sets of 12-20 reps and feel the deep resistance.

Just keep this in mind when lifting with free weights: For strength, do low repetitions (2-5); for size, do moderate reps (10-12); and for toning, do high reps (15-20). Mix up the workout by varying the weight and number of repetitions, and you’ll keep your body guessing. Give ‘em something they aren’t used to and they’ll build fiber for you, anticipating your next move!

Fatigue is the necessary ingredient for muscle growth and a rapid increase in strength. A typical workout will require you to rest and take off a day or two between workouts so your muscles can recover.

For example, once you’ve begun training the biceps and arms, you won’t see a noticeable change in size right away, yet your body is working continuously to increase the thickness of the muscle fiber. A muscle fiber is thinner than a human hair but can support up to 1,000 times its own weight, so increasing volume in the muscle fiber causes hypertrophy (increase in mass), which then allows for more force production.

But what happens during an exercise? In a fascinating bit of physiology, your body focuses all attention on a working muscle. When a muscle is asked to contract, your brain sends a message to the rest of the body to constrict blood vessels and blood flow is diverted from nonessential organs (your digestive system, for example).

Meanwhile, the working muscle dilates its blood vessels (vasodilation) and receives an increased blood supply. That’s why bodybuilders like to do bicep curls before a competition—because the exercise increases oxygenated blood flow to the muscle, which causes it to look bigger.

That immediate response is available because biceps are fast-twitch muscles. There are also slow-twitch muscles, and those are the large stabilizing muscle groups in the abdomen and back. The muscles of the arms and legs are fast-twitching, meaning they can contract and respond well to strength training. Since they are easy to over load and fatigue, it’s relatively easy and quick to produce bulging biceps and calves, while it may take months to develop cut abs. To put it another way, abs are difficult to overload and fatigue; therefore, difficult to tone and define.

Use Free weights to advance your training

Most fitness trainers will tell you that dumbbell exercises are a must in weight lifting. To get an idea of what they can do for you, imagine how muscles work together when opposing each other.

On any given lift, one muscle is contracting and another is relaxing, such as the biceps and triceps when performing a biceps curl with a dumbbell in each hand. Since the tricep must be move as well, the bicep is not completely isolated. Hence, doing multiple sets of repetitive exercises using dumbbells will work the target muscle — but it goes a step further.

Pick up a 10-lb dumbbell in each hand and do a set of ten reps. Immediately, you notice you’ve changed the dynamics of the workout by adding 20 lbs or more to your body weight. Now larger stabilizer muscles in your abs, legs, and back have to work to keep you in balance. By using free weights you’re actually developing your large stabilizer muscles (not to mention your coordination!) and this compound movement results in the most effective gains for muscle growth.

Reach Your Goals Faster

It’s important to do sets of dumbbell lifts in your weight training because they provide an advantage to toning your muscles – even if you train only two or three days per week for 20 minutes each visit.

The aim of weight lifting is to increase strength, but did you know it also creates a burn rate of 250 to 400 calories an hour?

Any improvement in your lean muscle mass and metabolism will help you to increase fat burn at all times (even while sleeping). This is something cardio alone can’t achieve. You need to add weight training to burn optimum calories.

Toning your muscles using dumbbells is essential if you want to achieve an ideal weight on your frame since a pound of muscle requires about 30 to 50 calories per day just to support itself, while fat cells don’t burn up a thing. So pick up a set of dumbbells, start pumping, and get off that plateau.

Sit cross-legged with your hands on your knees. Focus on your breath, while keeping your back straight, and allow your knees to gently lower to the floor. Take five to ten slow, deep breaths. On the next inhale, raise your arms over your head. As you exhale, bring the arms down slowly.

You’ve just experienced a beginning yoga pose called Sukhansana. Simple, yet amazingly effective. Ashtanga yoga’s dynamic exercises blend breathing and movement allowing your inner essence to unfold naturally, without strain. Some call it the most physical yoga, yet with proper instruction, the workouts are an efficient and, best of all, pain-free way to achieve total fitness.

The Most Talked About Form of Yoga Today

What seemed to evolve from the om-chanting flower children of the sixties has actually been around for centuries and remains enormously popular today. Celebrities such as Madonna, Sting, and Demi Moore are devoted to the daily practice of Ashtanga Yoga, also known as Power Yoga. In North America alone, over 18 million Americans are reported to be practicing some form of yoga and are reaping the benefits of improvements in strength, flexibility, weight control, increased cardiovascular and energy levels, an enhanced immune system, and stress reduction.

Since yoga focuses on exercise, breathing, and meditation, the combination works on the body from the inside out to increase efficiency which improves overall health. In a recent study done at the University of California-Davis, test subjects were measured before and after an eight-week period in which they practiced yoga four times per week. The participants showed a remarked improvement in: muscular strength, which increased by 31 percent; muscular endurance, by as much as 57 percent; and flexibility, which improved in some cases 188 percent. Even the uptake of oxygen entering the lungs, bloodstream and muscles, showed an increased of up to 7 percent.

Such results should not come as a surprise to anyone. Contrary to Western perceptions, strength, stamina and sweat, and not just meditation, have long been fundamental aspects of yoga.

The Origins of Ashtanga

The roots of yoga go back about 5,000 years to India; the pure form of Ashtanga yoga is said to be between 500 and 1500 years old, and is based on the teachings of Sri K. Pattabhi Jois. The word Ashtanga comes from the words ashta (eight) and anga (limbs), and it was described in classical yoga writings as having eight major parts, referred as to the “Eight Limbs of Yoga.” Yoga means “union”; a union of the body, mind and breath.

Modern Ashtanga yoga and its physical demands are what differs it from its yoga cousins, for example: Mantra yoga is a spiritual practice focusing on chanting; Iyengar yoga incorporates the use of various props such as cushions, straps and wood blocks; and Bikram yoga is a form of “hot yoga,” which is performed in a room heated to 100-110 degrees to facilitate sweating. While there are about forty different forms of yoga, no one is better than another, and they all provide similar benefits for your mind and body.

Ashtanga Vinyasa: Salute to the Sun

The basis of yoga is a series of twelve sequential poses beginning with a group called the sun Salutation (Surya Namaskar) performed in a single, graceful flow. Different styles of yoga perform the Sun Salutation with their own variations.

In yoga, the movement is initiated internally at the core of the body, rather than in the outer muscle. As you move from one asana (posture) to another, your body produces an intense internal heat that purifies muscles and organs, and expels unwanted toxins through a strong, cleansing sweat. This dynamic flow of moving meditation linked together with breathing technique, is called vinyasa. Vi means “to go” and nyasa means “placing” so the term describes the method of entering and exiting an asana.

Asanas are grouped into six series; each series unlocks a particular aspect of the body and the mind. The primary series [Yoga Chikitsa] are designed to detoxify and align the body. The second series [Nadi Shodhana] strengthens the nervous system and opens the energy channels that link the seven chakras, while the Advanced Series [Sthira Bhaga] integrate strength and grace to achieve divine stability.

Some examples of yoga poses, increasing in difficulty, are:

o The Downward Facing Dog pose (Adho Mukha Svanasana) : Start on all fours with knees under hips and the hands shoulder-width apart. Inhale, arch your spine, and look up. As you exhale, straighten your legs and pause. Push on you hands, positioning your body to form an inverted V, achieving a straight line from your hands to your shoulders to your hips. As you inhale, press downward into your hands and lift outward out of the shoulders, keeping your head between your upper arms.

o An intermediate asana, The Bow pose (Dharnur-asana): Lie on your stomach with your arms at your sides with palms facing upward. With your chin on the floor, exhale, bend your knees, reach back and grasp your ankles. While inhaling, slowly raise the legs by pulling the ankles up and raising the knees off the floor while lifting your chest off the floor. Lift your head as far back as possible and hold the posture as long as you can comfortably hold the inhale breath. As you slowly exhale, bring your knees to the floor, release your ankles, and lower the legs and arms straight down on the floor, assuming the prone posture you began with.

o An advanced asana, a headstand pose (Sirsha-asana): Start in a kneeling position, lean forward and place the forearms on the floor, keeping your elbows about shoulder distance apart. Clasp your hands together to form a tripod, raise your hips and place your head on the floor between your interlocked fingers. Lift your knees off the floor and raise the hips. When your back is vertical, slowly lift your feet off floor, and bring your knees in to your chest. Balance with the knees bent until steady, and then slowly raise your feet until your legs are straight up.
Many of the poses may seem easy, but the difficulty is increased with the length of time that each asana is held and the repetition of each vinyasa (series of poses). Asanas are taught in a sequential order and each level is to be developed fully before proceeding to the next level. This gradual training develops the strength and balance required for more advanced levels.

The No Pain Advantage

Yoga’s flowing movements will stretch and lengthen muscle fibers causing the muscles in the back, legs, chest and arms, to become stronger and streamlined, permitting more oxygen-rich blood to flow through them. In comparison, weight training can cause to muscles to tighten, making them stressed and congested with lactic acid, and it also increases the load on your joints. Ashtanga practices will keep the body moving so the muscles stay warm and lubricated.

Popular asanas, such as Downward Facing Dog listed above, helps to strengthen, stretch and reduce stiffness in the legs while strengthening and shaping your upper body. Regular practice of this pose in the Sun Salutation rejuvenates the body and gently stimulates your nervous system.

While Ashtanga is demanding, with daily practice your flexibility and strength will improve over time. Even if you are practicing only the physical aspects of yoga, you will reap healthy benefits and leave each session feeling invigorated, having washed away stress and tension.

Who can practice Ashtanga Yoga?

Don’t let its reputation dissuade you; every pose can be modified so that Ashtanga can be practiced by anyone at any fitness level. If you want to get started in yoga, you should talk to a local instructor with credentials (at least 200 hours of certified training). A class won’t be hard to find since yoga is offered at most health clubs and fitness centers everywhere. Plan on attending class twice a week or more, and you should begin to see results in 3 to 4 weeks. After each class you should feel calm, rejuvenated and not in any physical discomfort.

It is encouraging that a dynamic form of exercise so deep and basic, known for thousands of years, has been reawakened. Give yourself the time, free from interruption, to once a day sit on a mat, and get into direct contact with your inner, most powerful resources. If you have the motivation and determination to progress, and want to begin the life-long path of well-being and total fitness, then Ashtanga yoga is for you.

Guys, if this describes you, then you need to do some work to bulk up. For women, the problem is just the opposite: the glutes tend to run heavy because the butt has become a fat storehouse.

First let’s look at the muscles. The gluteals are your butt, which are comprised of three muscles. The largest is the gluteus maximus, the major stabilizer of the pelvis in charge of straightening the hip joint. The medius and the minimus are beneath the maximus. All together these three muscles help you move your thigh out to the side of your body (abduction) as well as rotate and extend the leg.

Men who have a flat bottom need to follow a very different lifting program than women who need to reduce this area. For a man’s type of body you should aim for mass butt building exercises that include squats with heavier weights.

Exercises for the Flat-Bottomed

If your moon is not full and you want to bulk up the back end, your weight lifting regime should be about doing fewer reps (8 to 10) but using heavier weights.

Here’s a just a sampling of exercises you should consider.

Squats

The barbell squat will aid both glute and quadriceps strength. Position your feet about one to two inches past your shoulder width and lower yourself down, in a slow controlled motion, and squat to a parallel position.

Once you’re in this deep squat, clench your glutes as you rise up to the start position. This exercise works just about the entire lower body, but if your quads fatigue before the glutes do, check your leg positioning to better isolate the glutes. Do three sets of 10 reps, working to muscle failure.

Enjoy!

The Smith Machine combines the use of free weights with the safety and control of a rack without the need for a spotter. The Smith Machine has been building better bodies for decades and can get you where you want to be… Bigger, Faster and Stronger.

Stiff-Legged Dead Lift

While standing, hold a straight bar and keep your feet about shoulder-width apart. Keep your knees soft. Slowly lean forward from the waist until you feel a good stretch in the hamstrings.

Then clench your glutes, contract your abs and keep your head up as you rise up to the start position. Do three sets of 10 reps.

Hack Squat Machine

As you work your quads, glutes, and calves, the engineered smoothness of the Leg Press / Hack Squat Machine spares your bones and joints.

To use: sit in the sled and position your feet higher on the platform than you normally do, because now you’ll want to put the load on the glutes.

Make sure you lower the weight a little, to keep from stressing your knees.

You need to perform a deep squat (knees to the ears) to force yourself into a great degree of hip flexion, and then extend out of it.

Angled Leg Press

This machine incorporates a unique 7-degree design to ease the stress and strain on the back and joints. Lie comfortably on your back, position your feet on the bar and press, and extend up.

Angled Leg Press – all of these types of lifts need to be done with what is called progressive overload.

The idea is to push the muscles beyond their normal demands so that they will adapt by becoming stronger and building more muscle fibers.

The result: a rounder rump.

An Awesome Set of Glutes

No matter which body shape you have, do the exercises to some level of muscle fatigue. Feeling a burn or some discomfort is a good thing but if you lift until you can no longer move, you’ve probably gone too far.

If you’re an athlete you’ll benefit from training the glutes as their development will increase your speed and power. Whatever your motives, the glut workouts for men mentioned here will improve muscularity and functional strength for anyone who does them.

Women! Don’t forget to work your buns as well!

Recommended Reading:

101 Ways to motivate yourself and get in shape. Number 43 may surprise you. Read all 101 NOW at Bodybuilding.com!