Relative Strength Advantage

Chin-ups and pull-ups for me are the most intense upper body exercises. Ever since I was a kid, I have been fascinated by them and had always wanted to master them. This wouldn’t happen until my early twenties and here I will share my approach with you. But first let me tell you what happened today.

[No picture of a dude struggling on the pull up bar? Lets have a totally random gorgeous woman instead! By the way, most guys are totally clueless when it comes to what women like about a man's physique. Here is the deal: hot girls dig the V-shape of the torso (the waist to shoulders ratio). Gunz or bi's or however you call 'em serve mainly to intimidate other guys.]

I Was Chilling After A Nice Walk In The Saturday Sun

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A reader of this site, Andy, asked me in Part I of the renegade rows series what to do once renegade rows become way too easy. He says he doesn’t feel his abs sore after workout. I will answer this in two parts. First, I wanna make something clear regarding muscle soreness. It is a sign of only one thing – that your body was not ready or adapted for the stress that caused the soreness. Nothing else. So you may continue to workout, especially when training for strength as opposed to muscle size (these are two different goals!), without needing to blast your body so that it’s sore every time.

[She wanted to know if getting that tat was a mistake. Hm, let me think, girl... Tell you what - I like the ink, but all this other extra stuff covering your body needs to go LOL!]

The second issue is whether you do the renegade rows with proper form to ensure that your core gets maximum stimulation. So in this article I will address the issue of proper form in more detail.

Here Is A Video With A Good Explanation Of The Proper Form For Renegade Rows

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The renegade row, developed and named by coach John Davies, is one of the hardest and most effective abdominal exercises. The reason for this is that renegade rows force you to use the primary function of the stomach muscles – stabilization. In other words the exercise teaches you how to keep your body as rigid as possible. You have no other choice but to contract your abs a hard as possible. Otherwise you won’t be able to maintain a rigid body.

1. Technique

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What if it were possible to achieve the core and abdominal strength of a world class gymnast while training at home, only for a few minutes per day with no equipment or gadgets? Well guess what – it is possible to do it if you master the L-Sit.

[You are a stud if you can hold this position for 90-120 seconds.]

1. Variations

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[Never hurts to have a pretty girl demonstrate exercises for you.]

The Glutes Are the Primary Movers of the Hip Joint

First – lets define “glutes.” These are the muscles in your butt. Glutes comes from the Latin name gluteus maximus. To me it sounds like the name of Russel Crowe’s character in the movie Gladiator.

So anyway, the primary role of the glutes is to make your upper leg go in alignment with the spine. In other words if the spine and trunk are vertical – the leg must too. So the thigh is pulled down and back. This extension at the hip is primarily propelled by the muscles you are currently sitting on.

Every Movement Involves the Butt Because it Is in the Center of the Body
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I think I became obsessed with basketball during the freshman year of high school. One thing I noticed was that all the older basketball players had great calf development. Well, they probably had good development of their whole bodies, but that was what I noticed cause we were wearing basketball shorts.

[Basketball players have good calf development because of their sport. Or is it that they develop their calves for their sport? Which came first lol?]

So anyway, I became a calf training fanatic. I remember I had a classmate who was into bodybuilding and I was asking him all the time about ways to develop my calves for basketball.

Here Is What I Learned
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The secret is to use your whole body. Just like in the hollow position, you have to tuck your pelvis forward and squeeze your glutes hard. The harder you can squeeze, the more force you can use from the ground, through your statically flexed quads, through the glutes and up towards the upper body and the bar itself. When your whole body is rock solid from flexing, no force dissipates and you are instantly stronger, without gaining an ounce of muscle.

[Note the tucked in pelvis and the torso shifting forward once the bar gets above head level. The key to the exercise is to keep the weight above your center of gravity - the middle of the foot.]

Here Is How to Military Press Correctly to Get a Strong Upper Body and Wide Shoulders

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Everybody keeps writing that the barbell deadlift is the king of exercises and that no other exercise will task your body so much. I agree and that’s why the exercise has a place in the Beginner Strength Training Full Body Workout. Even so, if you don’t learn to perform the barbell deadlift correctly, two things might happen.

[Here is how to perform the barbell deadlift.]
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The barbell squat is the first exercise in the Beginner Strength Training Full body Workout. In order to progress and avoid injuries, it is imperative that you perform the exercise with correct technique. What the exercise will give you is not big legs, but overall strength throughout the body. To get big legs from squats you have to squat very heavy.

[In the video I did not take the bar from a squat rack, but you should not do it like me. Instead, start the exercise properly from a squat rack.]
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