The 6 Worst Leg Strength Training Exercises For Men

Some legs workouts can be absolute detrimental exercises and must be avoided.   
   
When weight training for legs, the movements are never the same. Actually some move do more bad be executed with a lot of caution. In order to escape bad physical injuries and subsequent medical bills, the following no-no exercises are not worth the risk.

1. Knee Extensions

It is very risky to put your knees under a great force. Instead of doing a knee extension, try out some yoga movements in order to strengthen the flexibility of the quadriceps.

2. Using the Smith Machine

Smith equipment has a fixed elevation for doing squats. The vertical angle in particular is the most dangerous. If the body is fixated to a particular spectrum of movement, one cannot loco mote in the intended natural manner hence compromising the body mobility. It is the back that hurts the most when this exercise is executed.

3. Upright Rows

The exercise compels your shoulders to drift away from the torso while twisting in a dangerous internal point. This creates an immersive force at the shoulder joints. You also risk impinging your muscles or tendons. The wrists too are at risk due to excessive stress. The best alternative exercise is the bend-over row which in addition improves your bench press. 

4. Leg Press

The press equipment is not mechanically efficient for the body. It inhibits the proper functioning of joints while creating bigger tension on knees and the back. Leg presses are the major causes of a lumbar hernia in gym users.

5. The Lat Pull-down

This involves a pull behind your head and extreme rotations of your shoulders. The shoulder joint ligaments are also tensed inappropriately. These can lead to instability, impingement, and hyper mobility of the joints.

6. Bench Triceps Dips

The dips risk shoulder injuries. Putting the hands behind is a strenuous exercise for your elbows. The workout causes the head to come forward hence creating a discomfort.

Now that you know, weight training for legs must be done with a lot of care unless you want to end up a cripple. 

How To Stay Motivated For Weight Loss

You have joined the gym, tried to diet but still there is no progress in your weight loss goals. You begin with high motivations but with time, your motivation plateau. It could be that you get bored with consuming steamed veggies every night. If this describes you, here are a few motivation tips that will help to keep you on your track to success.

Set some realistic goals

The first step towards your diet success is to set the right kind of goals. In case you happen to set goals that are unattainable for instance, losing thirty pounds in a period of a few months, you will be setting yourself for failure. In case you focus on your health as well as creating good eating strategies; you are more likely to stick with the diet. Therefore, you should set some small goals such as 5 pound; you will get the confidence to help you continue.

Go slow

In order to achieve success, you will need to your entire lifestyle. This is not something that can happen overnight. You will be in a better position to maintain the weight loss if you do it in a slow manner. If you are starving, you are likely to feel irritable and your chances of failure will be higher. 

Expect setbacks

There are times when we all fall into temptation. The danger is not that single splurge but making it an excuse for bringing all every day.

Avoid being a perfectionist

Having the mind of a perfectionist will get in the way of your success. Whenever you slip up, you need to get over it and think about tomorrow.

Use a buddy system

In case you will be swimming upstream alone; it will be difficult for you to make any meaningful lifestyle change. This is why you will need to find other people who have a similar goal and this will help to improve your odds of success.


If you want to find more information about the motivational tips for weight loss, you should get in touch with Muscle Prodigy.

How To Increase Your Bench Press Using Proper Form

It doesn’t matter what level you are at bench pressing, there are many ways to increase your bench press through the application of proper forms. Take a look at these easy-to-follow rules for bench pressing.

• The grip : Firmly grab the bar with your hands at a low position and squeeze the bar with a full grip.
• The feet : They should stay grounded on the floor and align with the knees like in a squatting position. Under no circumstance should the feet be raised above the floor.
• The chest : Keep the chest high as if it is trying to reach the ceiling. Contract the shoulder and let your back remain tight.
• Forearms : They should stay perpendicular to the ground. They should form a straight line together with the wrist and the elbows.
• Racking : As you do this, lock the elbows and then push the bar above the shoulders and if possible, get off the lift.  
• Wrists : Keep the wrists straight and keep the bar low in a way that won’t hurt your wrists.
• Elbows : Tuck the elbows at 75 degrees from the bottom and maintain them at a straight position below the bar.
• Shoulders : They must be kept on the bench always and used for stability.
• The bar : It should be moved in a diagonal motion from shoulders to the chest. Never push it vertically above the chest.

If you apply the above bench pressing forms, you are sure to solve the mystery of how to get stronger on bench press and keep your chest, arms and shoulders safe. As you use the correct form, remember that you also need to bench press more in order to gain experience and improve the efficiency of your workouts. Assistance workouts may also help you increase your bench press although they cannot replace bench press. To improve your bench, you must press more often and heavily. To master the skill of bench pressing, you need to think like an athlete- focus on strength, power, and explosiveness. Remember to rest to prevent chest injury.

4 Rules for Training Like A Pro- Athlete

Are you envious of the guys you watch on television during athletic competition seasons? All you need is to train your body just like those athletes. Performing like a professional athlete entails more than just working on a stationary bike or a treadmill. These simple cardio exercises aren’t sufficient. What is required is a better program that focuses on strength, aerobics, and power.

How To Improve Athletic Performance

1. Explosive training

Explosiveness is all about the tempo of weightlifting. When weight training, perform slow reps and ensure that you maximize muscle tension. This technique is safe and it promotes muscle growth. To be explosive, start by lifting little weight and then do it at the fastest possible speed. As you continue, increase the weight and do a number of repetitions. This method develops powerful muscles and you will be able to perform quick lifts. This is what we call explosiveness. 

2. Fast movements

HIIT-High Intensity Interval Training is a technique that works for athletes. It trains the body muscles to work hard without getting fatigued. HIIT improves your speed and keeps you ripped. Best exercises for athletes that create fast movements include hill sprinting, sled pushes, and treadmill sprinting. Try these exercises two times in a week in 15 to 20 minutes sessions.  

3. Core training

Core muscles are trained for actions. It is a common belief that the abs are made of proper nutrition; however, if you focus on how to improve athletic performance, it is a must that you pick exercises that will work on your core muscles, not just for aesthetic value but for more action.

4. Backside training

The best athletes have a strongly built backside. The back consists of hamstrings, glutes, lats and spine muscles. Strong back muscles showcase power and speed of an individual. It means that you are meticulous in your training.

Training for athleticism is not only all about Olympic preparations. Anybody can improve on their normal training by employing explosiveness, power, and efficiency. Athleticism is centered on power, acceleration, balance and agility.

The Ultimate Guide To Pectoral Training

There are many controversies about chest training, for example, the right weight and the intensity of repetitions. Chest strength training should emphasize both mass building and strengthening of the pecs simultaneously. The principal for mass building and strength of the chest is heavy weightlifting. However progress should be gradual rather than instantaneous. Overworking the chest can be hazardous.

Top Chest Exercises

• Flat dumbbell press
• Reversed grips
• Incline dumbbell press
• Barbell bench press
• Machine decline press
• Incline barbell bench press
• Seated machine press
• Dips
• Incline bench cable fly

Ultimate Chest Workout strategy

• Lift heavily. If you desire a muscular and huge chest, focus on maximum reps for any chest workout.
• Perform those workouts that cater for overload progression, that is, constant addition of weight as time goes by. Note that the stronger you get, the bigger you become. There are specific exercises that however do not lead to progressive overload e.g. dumbbell flyes. They only expose you to injury risks.
• Proper work volume. You need to get right about the grand total of repetitions completed every week. The general weightlifting rule states that if you perform heavier repetitions, you only do a few and the opposite still holds.
• Recovery is important for chest development. Heavy lifting calls for more time of recovery period to escape the risk of over training.
• Emphasize on compound body movements and heavy lifting.

Chest training mistakes to avoid

• Focusing on wrong workouts. Some inappropriate workouts are those that involve machines as well as the isolation exercises.
• High rep training. It causes a stunted growth of the pectoral muscles. Unless you are using steroids, avoid high rep training at all costs. Steroids cause rapid development of muscles although they leave out the ligaments and tendons. That is how steroids spoil the joints by creating excess muscle mass that connective tissues cannot handle.

Building a powerful chest doesn’t require drugs; a little knowledge is all that matters and this guide is going to help chest builders to focus on primal areas.

Nutritional Tricks To Get Ripped Fast

There are high chances that you have heard of the traditional rules of getting ripped. This includes things like eating 6 to 8 meals in a day, ensuring that your cars remain on check and increasing your protein intake. On top of this, there are some rules that are not well-established. While these may look counterproductive, they are also proven to work. These are usually referred to as tricks as not every person has caught up on them. Once you include them as part of your nutritional regimen, you will end up getting hooked.

Cheat on your diet

It is possible to get lean without having to adhere to any clean diet. However, cheating occasionally may help you lose fat. However, this doesn’t mean that you should consume unhealthy foods throughout your day. It means increasing the amount of carbs and overall intake of calories in a given day.

Why this works

When strictly dieting, this lead to a drop in the amounts of the critical hormone known as leptin. This is the hormone that is responsible for keeping hunger at bay and raising your metabolism level. When the levels of this hormone fall, you burn fewer calories and eat more. When you overeat, the leptin levels rise and this keeps your levels of metabolism high and your hunger low.

Build muscles during high-carb days

High-carb days are responsible for raising the levels of insulin. This helps to fill the glycogen stores and to keep the metabolism burning in a more efficient way. While insulin is considered to be the hormone that is responsible for sugar crashes and fat storage, it also helps in building muscles. Whenever you eat, insulin gets into your bloodstream and this causes biochemical reactions in most of the tissues such as the muscle fibers.

Burn fat during low-carb days

After the muscles cells have gotten saturated with amino acids and glucose, any extra amounts of glucose are sent to the liver where they are turned into fat. In order to prevent this, you will need to balance low carbs with the high carbs.

How To Increase Your Bench Press

Bench press is the main workout for the chest. In most gyms, it is the standard measure of the ingenuity of a weightlifter. Every weight lifter craves for bigger bench presses, but the reason why some people have small chests even after hard works in the gym is because of poor weightlifting techniques. Correct techniques make a remarkable difference.

The right ways to bench press

• Using the correct form.
• Application of proper techniques.
• Lifting of sufficient weight.
• Consistency in workout programs.
• Pertinent assistant exercising.

Bench pressing tips

• First, identify your areas of weaknesses and work on them.
• Always let your elbows be firmly fixed at your body sides as you use the triceps to lift weights.
• Apply all your body energy in lifting.
• Firmly press against the ground with your feet to stabilize your position.
• Create an intense tension on your upper back muscles and never lift your back off the bench.
• Maintain straight and vertical movements of the bar.

Bench pressing techniques

Optimum effort

In this type of training, maximum effort is applied by lifting the highest possible amounts of weight for particular reps.

Dynamic Training

The basis for this technique is moving weights at the fastest speed possible. It creates an explosive workout session. It is recommended for one day in a week. However, little weights are used in here so as to enhance the swiftness of the movements. In each repetition, the bar is pushed up with maximum force despite the fact that a light weight is being lifted. In other words, the key point is to focus on the speed of the bar.

Bands and Chains training

The chains are meant to increase the resistance when the weight is above the body builder. The chain is fixed onto the floor as the bar rests. As with the bands, they give minimal resistance when the bar is lowered and are fixed at a firm object on the ground and around the ends of barbell machine.

If you want to find more information about the how to increase your bench press, you should get in touch with Muscle Prodigy.