Sous la loupe: le muscle en mouvement

Comment les muscles – véritables moteurs de l’activité sportive – réagissent-ils pendant l’effort? De quoi sont-ils composés et à quelles lois obéissent-ils? Portrait « intimiste » de ces artisans du mouvement.

Par Martin LaSalle 

L’effort musculaire décortiqué

Rattaché au squelette par des tendons, le muscle est constitué de milliers de cellules de forme allongée, appelées fibres musculaires. Ces fibres sont regroupées en paquets ou faisceaux, un peu comme l’intérieur d’un câble d’acier qui contient plusieurs centaines de fils.

Si l’on observait une fibre musculaire au microscope, on apercevrait des filaments minuscules, dans lesquels prennent naissance les contractions musculaires : dans chacune de nos fibres logent deux protéines spécialisées, l’actine et la myosine, qui ont la propriété de pouvoir se contracter et se relâcher.

En se contractant ou se relâchant, elles « glissent » les unes sur les autres et font ainsi bouger le muscle. Pour entreprendre cette action, les fibres musculaires ont besoin d’une « bougie d’allumage », à l’instar des véhicules moteurs. Cependant, une seule « marque » de « bougie » fonctionne dans nos cellules musculaires : l’ATP, ou adénosine triphosphate.

La production d’énergie

Dès qu’il est question de consommation d’énergie par le corps, l’ATP entre en jeu. L’ATP est un acide aminé à haut potentiel énergétique qui, après avoir capté l’énergie libérée par la dégradation des glucides, la libère sous l’effet d’enzymes, selon les besoins de l’organisme.

Chaque cellule musculaire renferme une certaine réserve d’ATP; c’est ce qui nous permet d’agir promptement et avec force, par exemple en situation d’urgence ou d’effort momentané. Cependant, cette réserve naturelle est limitée et se consomme en seulement deux ou trois secondes.

Heureusement, les muscles contiennent d’autres types de réserves pour tenir le coup plus longtemps : la créatine phosphate et le glycogène.

La créatine phosphate (CP) est un composé riche en énergie qui produit aussi de l’ATP. Grâce à sa présence dans les cellules musculaires, un effort intense peut être prolongé jusqu’à 15 secondes. Ensuite, le glycogène prend la relève : en se scindant, cette molécule de sucre présente dans les muscles et le foie produit à son tour de l’ATP.

Ces deux premiers types de production d’énergie (l’ATP-CP et l’ATP-glycogène) s’effectuent enmode anaérobie, c'est-à-dire sans apport d’oxygène. Lorsqu’ils fonctionnent selon l’un ou l’autre de ces deux modes de production énergétique, nos muscles peuvent soutenir un effort intense pendant 90 secondes au maximum.

Au-delà de ce délai, nos muscles pourront maintenir un effort moindre, mais soutenu, en produisant l’ATP en mode aérobie, c'est-à-dire en présence d’oxygène.

Trois coureurs, trois mécanismes énergétiques

Selon le type de sport qu’il pratique, un athlète peut compter sur trois mécanismes de production différents d’énergie (ATP) pour se mettre en action : ATP-CP, ATP-glycogène et ATP-oxygène. Voyons comment fonctionne chacun de ces trois mécanismes qui, au demeurant, peuvent se chevaucher selon le type d’effort commandé au muscle. Le sprinter de 100 mètres La performance qu’il livre ne dure guère plus de dix secondes. Pratiquement toute l’énergie dont il a besoin se trouve déjà dans ses muscles, sous forme d’ATP et de créatine phosphate (CP). Les muscles se serviront donc de ces ressources sans apport d’oxygène (en mode anaérobie). Au cours des deux à trois premières secondes, les muscles « brûlent » l’ATP emmagasiné et immédiatement disponible et, pour le reste de la course, c’est la CP qui prend la relève et produit l’ATP. Si les réserves d’ATP-CP sont épuisées avant la fin du sprint, les muscles font appel au glycogène, mais toujours en mode anaérobie. Une petite quantité d’acide lactique est alors produite. Le coureur de 800 mètres Tout comme le sprinter, il utilisera toutes ses réserves d’ATP-CP au cours des 10 à 15 premières secondes de la course. Comme ces réserves commencent à s’épuiser, les fibres musculaires font appel au glycogène stocké dans le muscle pour le transformer en ATP. Cette transformation de molécules de sucre sans apport d’oxygène (en mode anaérobie) produit de l’acide lactique qui, peu à peu, rend le mouvement plus difficile. C’est pourquoi une partie de l’entraînement du coureur de pointe vise à accentuer son endurance à l’acide lactique. Puisque la course dure plus de 100 secondes, le mécanisme à oxygène (aérobie) contribue également à la production d’énergie. Le muscle continue à utiliser les molécules de glycogène, mais leur transformation se fera grâce à l’oxygène contenu dans le sang. Le marathonien Certes, le marathonien fera appel aux deux mécanismes anaérobiques – notamment sur le coup de départ, durant certains dépassements et encore pendant le sprint final -, mais l’énergie qu’il utilisera proviendra essentiellement du système à oxygène. Ce système est plus lent que les deux autres, puisque les éléments nécessaires à la production d’énergie viennent de sources extérieures aux muscles, dont le foie. S’il est plus lent, le mode aérobie procure cependant au marathonien tous les éléments nécessaires à la production d’énergie : le flux sanguin véhicule vers le muscle de l’oxygène, du glucose, de même qu’un nouveau type de carburant, le gras, sous forme de lipides. Pendant le trajet, le marathonien modulera l’intensité de son effort. Lorsque celle-ci sera faible, ce seront surtout les lipides qui serviront à produire l’énergie. Inversement, l’énergie requise pour un effort plus intense sera fabriquée à partir du glycogène. Les boissons énergétiques qu’il avale en cours de route sont, notamment, un renfort de glucose. Des mécanismes superposés De façon générale, nos muscles font appel aux trois mécanismes de production d’énergie (ou d’ATP), durant la pratique d’une activité sportive. À titre d’exemple, au cours d’un match de basket-ball ou de hockey, les trois systèmes se superposent pour fabriquer de l’ATP : pendant un saut ou un lancer, les muscles font appel au mode ATP-CP; si l’on suit un adversaire de près pendant plusieurs secondes, c’est le mode glycogène anaérobie qui agit; et, naturellement, le système à oxygène fonctionne pour l’ensemble de la durée du match.

Les douleurs musculaires

L’athlète peut ressentir des douleurs musculaires soit pendant un effort intense, soit après.

Pendant un effort intense, la sensation de lourdeur et de fatigue extrême qu’il ressent provient d’une accumulation d’acide lactique. Cet acide est le produit de l’utilisation du glycogène en l’absence d’oxygène (ou mode anaérobie). Lorsque l’acide lactique s’accumule dans le tissu musculaire, il s’ensuit une production accrue d’ions d’hydrogène qui finit par affecter la performance du muscle.

En effet, lorsqu’un muscle est soumis à un effort intense pendant plus ou moins 60 secondes, la contraction en vient à limiter la circulation sanguine vers celui-ci. Privé de l’oxygène que véhicule le sang, le muscle continue à « brûler » le sucre qu’il lui reste. Cette consommation anaérobie produit alors de l’acide lactique, réputé pour perturber la contraction musculaire.

Pour poursuivre l’exercice physique lorsque les muscles actifs sont « gorgés » d’acide lactique, il faudra réduire l’intensité de l’effort pour que le muscle se délie et permette au sang d’y circuler de nouveau. En contact avec l’oxygène, l’acide lactique sera alors transformé en dioxyde de carbone et en eau. Ainsi recyclé, l’acide lactique sera en partie converti en énergie puisqu’il entre dans la production de nouvelles molécules d’ATP.

Par ailleurs, les douleurs musculaires ressenties après l’effort (jusqu’à une journée ou deux plus tard) proviennent des lésions microscopiques que l’exercice inflige aux muscles. Une personne peu habituée à l’exercice ressentira des douleurs plus longtemps que celle qui s’entraîne régulièrement. Pourquoi? Parce que la répétition d’un exercice conditionne les muscles à se régénérer plus rapidement et plus solidement. Ils deviennent ainsi plus résistants.

Tel est d’ailleurs le principe de base de l’entraînement intensif visant à augmenter la masse musculaire : on « blesse » les muscles afin qu’ils se bâtissent plus vite et plus forts, ce qui les rend plus performants et plus endurants.

Nous tenons à remercier M. Richard Chevalier, professeur d’éducation physique au collège Bois-de-Boulogne et auteur de plusieurs ouvrages sur l’activité physique, pour sa précieuse et généreuse collaboration.

Bibliographie
Chevalier R, À vos marques, prêt, santé!, Éditions du Renouveau Pédagogique, 3e édition, 2003.
Favre-Juvin A, Genas MH, Les besoins nutritionnels du sportif : aspects théoriques (111b), Corpus médical, Faculté de Médecine de Grenoble, Décembre 2002.
Kraemer WJ et al, Énoncé de principe de l’American College of Sports Medicine : Modèle de progression en entraînement de musculation pour les adultes sains, Medicine Science of Sports Exercice, Vol. 34, No 2, 2002, 364-80.

6 Ways to Outwit Your DNA and Build More Muscle

By: Denny Watkins

Here's a guaranteed motivation killer: After months or years of dedicated lifting, you realize that you'll never bench your body weight, jump high enough to reach the rim, or hit double digits on pullups. It's just not in the cards. You start to wonder why you even bother.

It may seem unfair, but there will always be guys—some of whom inevitably find their way to the bench or squat rack next to yours—who seem born to excel at certain exercises. The truth is, they were. And you weren't. But that's no excuse to cancel your gym membership. "Even if your body proportions aren't ideal, you can still perform exercises that maximize your body's potential," says Todd Durkin, C.S.C.S., the owner of Fitness Quest 10 in San Diego.

So don't give up. Instead, sack up and tackle the problem head-on. Here are some common traits that can lead to frustration in the weight room, and ways to make the most of what you have to build a better body.

Long Arms
The bench press may be a barometer of masculinity, but it discriminates against long-limbed lifters. While the distance the bar travels does limit both performance and results, long arms can also set you up for injury. A tall man's balland-socket shoulder joint—the place where his upper-arm bone meets his shoulder blade—is more vulnerable than a shorter man's. "You actually drive your arm bone into the joint, setting yourself up for rotator-cuff injuries down the road," says Martin Rooney, P.T., C.S.C.S., of the Parisi Speed School.

The workaround: With medicine-ball throws, you can focus on speed instead of on lifting weight. "You'll work more of the fast-twitch muscle fibers that come into play during quick movements," says Durkin. No medicine ball? Do 3 to 5 sets of as many pushups as you can in 30 seconds

Lying Medicine-Ball Throw
Lie on your back, using both hands to hold a heavy medicine ball against your chest. Push the ball just high enough into the air that it leaves your hands. Catch it, and immediately bring it back to your chest for the next throw. Do as many as you can in 30 seconds. Rest, and do 4 more sets.

Short Arms
"Most of the big powerlifters you see have a short, stocky build," Rooney says. It serves them well on squats and bench presses. But when the bar starts on the floor, as with the deadlift, short arms force you to drop into a lower starting position. That changes your leverage and adds strain to your back.

The workaround: "With a sumo deadlift, placing your legs farther apart helps your hands start closer to the ground," Rooney says. It also allows you to begin with a more upright torso, taking stress off your lumbar spine.

Sumo Deadlift
Stand with your feet about twice shoulder-width apart and your toes pointed out. Squat and grab the center of the bar using an overhand grip, with your thumbs 12 inches apart and your torso almost perpendicular to the floor. Without allowing your back to round, thrust your hips forward and stand up with the barbell. Then lower it, keeping it as close to your body as possible. Do 3 sets of 8 to 10 reps.

Small Hands
Short-armed men tend to have smaller mitts; this makes holding the bar harder for them. A small hand's grip gives out faster, reducing the amount of work you can do on pulling exercises, says Rooney.

The workaround: Since you can't grow longer fingers, focus on your forearm endurance with grip training, Rooney says. Add these exercises to the end of any workout.

Farmer's Walk
Grab a pair of heavy dumbbells and let them hang naturally at arm's length next to your sides. Walk forward as long as you can, and then put the dumbbells down and rest. (If you last longer than 1 minute, use heavier weights.) Do this 3 to 5 times.

Towel Bar Hang
Wrap a towel around a pullup bar. Grab the towel using an overhand, shoulder-width grip. Hang for 20 seconds, rest, and repeat.

No Butt
If you rolled a quarter off the back of your head, would it hit anything on the way down? If not, you have a flat back, most likely caused by a pelvis that's tilted backward at the top. A tilted pelvis puts your lower back in a vulnerable position, setting you up for spinal injuries.

The workaround: Strengthen your hip flexors. Once they're in shape, they'll pull your pelvis back to neutral and improve your posture, says Eric Cressey, C.S.C.S., cofounder of Cressey Performance, in Hudson, Massachusetts.

Lying Psoas March
Lie on your back with your right leg on the floor and your left leg off the floor and bent 90 degrees. Loop an exercise band under your right foot and over the top of your left foot. (You can also use a low-pulley cable with an ankle strap, looped around your left foot.) Keeping your right leg steady, pull your left knee toward your chest without your lower back tucking beneath you. Pause, and return to the starting position. Do 10 to 12 reps; switch legs and repeat.

Long Legs
For tall men—basically anyone over 6 feet—the back squat can present two problems, says Durkin. The first involves physics: The longer the bones in your legs, the farther the bar has to travel on each rep and the harder your muscles need to work to lift it. Even with perfect form, you'll have a tougher time adding size and strength. Men with shorter bones can do more reps with heavier weights.

The second problem is that your form is probably flawed. Longer bones have more opportunity to make false moves. You might struggle to keep your lower back in a neutral position (slightly arched) throughout the full range of motion. Or you might lean forward as you tire, putting stress on your lower back.

The workaround: Choose leg exercises that achieve more with less weight, such as the stepup. "You can work your legs hard but with potentially less back strain," says Bill Hartman, P.T., C.S.C.S., co-owner of Indianapolis Fitness and Sports Training.

Dumbbell Stepup
Holding a pair of dumbbells at arm's length next to your sides, stand in front of a step or bench that's about 18 inches high. Place your left foot flat on the step; your left knee should be bent 90 degrees. Push your left heel into the step and lift yourself up until your left leg is straight and you're standing on one leg on the bench. Lower yourself to the starting position. Do 8 to 10 reps and switch legs. To make it harder, place a barbell across your back.

Flat Feet
Everyone is born with flat feet, but most people develop their shock-absorbing arches in childhood. Sometimes, however, the arches never form properly, or they fall from repeated stress, injuries, or some combination of the two. Either way, you end up with feet that can pronate—roll inward—when you walk, run, or jump.

Flat feet can also limit your strength and power in the weight room. "When you pronate, you're in deceleration mode," says Cressey. "Your foot needs to roll in the opposite direction to push off." That affects your strength on squats and deadlifts, and acts like ballast when you jump.

The workaround: Your glutes and hamstrings act as "anti-pronators," Cressey says. Strengthen them, and you can compensate for the loss of power caused by your feet.

Hip Raise
Lie faceup on the floor with your knees bent and feet flat on the floor. Raise your hips off the floor by flexing your glutes so your body forms a straight line from shoulders to knees. Pause, and lower your hips. Do 3 sets of 15 reps; when it becomes too easy, lift one foot off the floor and do a single-leg hip raise. Start with your weaker leg and repeat the set with your stronger leg.




Wikio

The Top 10 Muscles Women Love

Sure, women love a guy with a chiseled six-pack. But that's not the only body part they check out at the beach (or in bed). And while each woman has a different favorite muscle, these ten (in no particular order) are at the top of every female's "what I notice" list. Take a look, then head to the gym and start sculpting.
6-Pack Abs
You could have biceps the size of bowling balls, but if you've got the beginnings of a gut, any discriminating woman will think twice before considering you boyfriend material. Their fear: A little excess midriff meat now means one fat, sloppy bastard in 10 years.

Powerful Forearms
Women see strong forearms and think you can do everything: Fend off a mugger, build a house, and maintain a dexterous touch long enough to leave them extremely satisfied. So roll up those sleeves, and let 'em have a look.

A Nice Butt
Women check out your butt because it's a clue to your worthiness as a physical specimen. If you're in great shape, it carries high. Otherwise, your rear end droops like a sack of old potatoes. Old, hairy potatoes.

A Broad Back
A wide back is essential for a V-shaped torso, and women's attraction to it is ancestral. "When it was important that our mates protect us from woolly mammoths on the plains, we looked for a gene pool that could provide us with protection," says Pega Ren, Ed.D., a sexologist in British Columbia.

Sculpted Shoulders
"The shoulder muscles are really the muscles of love and war," says Nancy Etcoff, Ph.D., author of Survival of the Prettiest. They also make the whole look when combined with a broad back. Strong shoulders literally sweep women off their feet.

Rock-Hard Calves
"Women want an overall sense of strength and fitness," says Etcoff. "If a man looks as if he can lift something but can't run, it looks disproportionate."
A Big Chest
"Women treasure your chest as much as you do theirs," says Emily Dubberley, a sex expert based in the UK. "Touching, kissing, and licking a man's chest is undoubtedly a turn-on for most women."

Large Biceps
In a poll of Cosmopolitan readers, 1 out of 5 women confessed that nice biceps on a man makes them "absolutely melt."

Strong Hamstrings
Many women prefer being on top because it lets them lean forward to rub against your pubic bone. Having well-conditioned hamstrings and glutes makes it easier to meet her halfway for more pleasure.



Wikio

More Quick Fixes for Problem Muscles

by Lee Boyce
Straight up, you're a soldier.
You tirelessly show up at the gym as scheduled for your four, or even five workouts per week — and you've built a pretty damn impressive physique to show for it.
The 160-pound, ACE certified personal trainers at your gym, daunted by your presence, approach you when no one's around and ask questions about what muscle group your current exercise is good for, and why it's more effective than their one-legged dumbbell stiff deadlift-bent-over row/triceps kickback while standing on the BOSU abomination.
Long story short, at your gym, you're the man. The hard work and consistency combined with good, intelligent, Testosterone-ish programming has paid off.
So what's the problem?
You're your own worst critic, and you're running out of ideas and tools to bring your body one step closer to the "freak" category. As my last article pointed out, applying some specific exercises to a few small muscle groups can improve the effectiveness of your lifts, resulting in not only more strength, but also more muscle-building potential. So you're doing it.
For my new "weak links" article, I took things from a different perspective. Improving performance in your workouts is paramount, but what about looking at things from a strictly cosmetic angle?
Maybe you just feel you can't get that coveted, full V-taper? Or maybe your delts, rather than look like bowling balls, look more like something you'd find on a pool table?
These kind of issues plague many an intermediate (and even advanced) bodybuilder, so it's time to conquer them once and for all with some crisp ideas to take your physique to the next level.
And yes, I mentioned intermediate and advanced lifters, so I'll say this now: If you're a skinny bastard, move on to the next article. This stuff doesn't apply to you. Eat, sleep, and follow any of the quality beginner routines found on Testosterone. It's amazing how many "weak points" magically disappear after you gain 30 pounds of newbie beef.

Physique Issue 1: Poor V-Taper

The "V-taper" I'm referring to is the ratio of width between the shoulders, chest/ribcage, and waist.
Many aspiring bodybuilders will seek out exercises to build the shoulders and lats specifically while following a "clean" (read: starvation) diet to ensure the waistline stays small.
Not a great plan for most of us.
Generally, eating a "get ripped-stay ripped" diet is a bad idea when addressing a weak point. Muscles need nutrients to grow, and unless you're exceptionally gifted, trying to maintain your 8-pack all year round is a one-way trip to the dreaded zip code of Physique Stagnation, USA.
Try playing the "illusion game" from the other side: Instead of dieting your midsection down to achieve that coveted V-shape, work on developing your shoulders and upper back to give the illusion of being wider up top.
After you've added a few valuable pounds of physique-altering mass, you can always hop back on your favorite fat-loss diet to drop whatever scant amounts of unwanted flab that may have found a home around your obliques and lower back.
With that little bit of business out of the way, here are the routines to get those forgotten muscle groups growing.
Neglected Muscle Group: Rear Deltoids                    
A solid set of rear delts can do wonders in bringing up the size of the shoulders, not to mention expanding shoulder-to-shoulder width.
They also help improve posture by externally rotating the arm, something that not only makes your chiropractor happy, but also contributes to an overall more impressive-looking physique by making the chest appear more prominent.
Reverse flies, wide grip rows, and high pulls all may be good choices to hit these bad boys, but it's time for a couple of new ideas.

The Rear Delt Tri-Set

Remembering the muscle's action can lead us to make some good choices to target a stubborn muscle group. Here's a great combo to try out:
A1) Seated DB power cleans, 10 reps (see video on right)
A2) Face pulls, 10 reps (Make sure to keep the elbows high and pull the fists right over the head!)
A3) Blast strap wide grip rows w/external rotation, 10 reps (See photos on right.)
Note: There is a strong rotary component to all of the above exercises. Conventional rear delt movements like wide grip rows, reverse flies, and high pulls all maintain a fixed position of the humerus during the movement (from a rotary perspective), therefore not giving the rear delts the most bang for their buck.
Perform 4 rounds of this tri-set to finish your shoulder workout and let the gains begin.
Another thing to think about is whether the rear delts are actually firing during other compound movements.
For instance, the correct finish position of a regular grip lat pulldown will require the rear deltoids to be active in keeping the elbows pushed under the bar, rather than flared back behind the body.
Simply thinking "elbows under" while keeping the shoulders depressed at the end of the movement can help achieve this.
Neglected Muscle Group: Serratus
The serratus anterior are located just under the arm on the ribcage and are embedded within the lats. Developing the serratus can be a huge asset for bodybuilders seeking greater upper body width: just watch bodybuilders do a classic lat spread and notice the added density a developed serratus anterior brings. In a very lean bodybuilder, they look like a bunch of ripe bananas covered in Pro Tan.
Truth is, unless you're a boxer, MMA fighter, or some kind of athlete that does explosive pressing, throwing, or punching movements, most training neglects the use of this muscle group.
The serratus elevates and protracts the scapulae, and nearly every upper body movement in the weight room asks for the scapulae to be depressed and retracted ("shoulders set" position) in order for the movement to be performed correctly.
Most people wouldn't think there are many ways to specifically target this muscle group, but I came prepared:
Serratus Front Raise — Set up an incline bench in front of a cable machine. Set the pulleys at the bottom and sit down in the bench, facing the machine. Begin a front raise movement, except don't focus on the deltoids being the prime movers. Keep your elbows slightly bent and let the serratus pull your shoulders apart and upwards.
Don't pull too high — level with the face should be the correct landmark for the finish position. (See video on right.)
Serratus Push Ups — Perform a standard pushup, except at the end of each rep, "unlock" your shoulder blades and allow them to move away from one another, bringing your chest as far away from the floor as possible.
Kettlebell Windmill — Another option is the Kettlebell Windmill. Relax Joe Hardcore, this ain't no steenking functional training lift — just an exercise where the KB is the right tool at the right time. (See video on right)

Physique Issue 2: No Trunk Volume

So you're wide as a barn door and someone looking at you from straight on would say that you have some good development. Problem is, you virtually disappear once you turn sideways.
The "two dimensional" look is something I personally battled for ages before realizing just what was going on. The reason you're still not filling out those XL T-shirts is simply because you have no trunk volume.
In other words, regardless how wide you get, if there's no volume or density from front to back, you'll be stuck in the "slim bastard" category at Men's Wearhouse for life.
Getting more trunk volume can come from expanding the ribcage along with thickening the fibrous properties of the muscles on the front and back of the body. Any takers?
If so, here are some prescriptions for what ails ya'.
Olympic Lifts for an Olympia Body                    
If you've ever watched a weightlifting competition on TV, you might've notice something in common with the athletes' body types: they all have relatively small arms but a ton of bulk through their torso (abdominals, lower and mid back).
This makes sense as the abdominals are responsible for rapidly recruiting and transferring the energy required to move the bar up to the roof. In English, lifting heavy stuff fast will potentiate a muscle to grow.
We all know Oly lifts aren't performed as arm movements — the abs are dominantly involved in projecting the bar up into the finish positions in the clean, split jerk, and snatch.
Throwing any of these exercises into your program can help give you that added depth or density through the torso that you long for, not to mention adding inches to your traps almost overnight, thanks to the explosive nature of the lifts.
(For a refresher on performing these lifts, check out this classic from Coach Thibs.)
Turn Up the Volume on Your Ribcage          
The intercostal muscles lie in between each rib in the ribcage. Increasing their size can result in "widening" the ribcage, so to speak.
Pullovers with a heavy dumbbell are a great exercise to hit the intercostals, and they play a double role because they pre-stretch the pec minor; often a tight muscle on many lifters I've worked with.
It's important to really allow the weight to "open up" the ribcage at the bottom of each rep, and then "pull through" with the lats and abdominal muscles.
For God's Sake, Just Deadlift!         
If you're expecting some long-winded paragraph on why deadlifts are important for trunk thickness, you must be new to this site. They involve so much of everything that it's almost a crime not to do them. The entire back gets a ton of thickness, and from a physiological level, the hormonal response is tremendous for packing on appreciable size, FAST.
Here's another way to look at it: How many 600lb-plus deadlifters can you think of that have skinny torsos that lack fullness? End of discussion.
Other Options           
So what would a "trunk volume" exercise combination look like? I've always been a fan of the vertical push/pull scheme, so ideally I'd scheme things in a "3 to 5 sets of 5 reps" framework to ensure the high threshold motor units (HTMU's) are getting sufficiently hit.
Here are a few effective options:

Day 1

A1) BB Deadlift, 3-5 x 5 reps
A2) BB push press, 3-5 x 5 reps

Day 2

B1) BB hanging snatch, 3-5 x 5 reps
B2) Dragon flags, 3-5 x 5 reps

Day 3

C1) Pullovers, 3-5 x 5 reps
C2) Zercher squat, 3-5 x 5 reps
In all supersets, rest as long as necessary between sets.
Adding these supersets to the beginning of your workouts will provide the added volume needed to build some size on your ribs.
Of course, make sure you're not doing the same movement as your actual workout (i.e., don't choose my "Day 1" protocol on the day of a full deadlift workout).
Also, depending on the nature of your actual workout, I'd recommend adjusting the percentage of the load you lift. It may not always be fitting to use your actual 5-rep max, especially if you have lots of heavy lifting planned in your workout.
However, if your workout is a high volume, sub-maximal workout, by all means lift nice and heavy! It will also ramp up your nervous system for a solid performance going forward.

Physique Issue 3: A Trifling Upper Chest

Full chest development is hard to come by. Many lifters shy away from doing as much incline chest work as they do flat, due in part to the flat bench being the most glamorized lift this side of the Atlantic.
As a result of this misguided fascination, the average North American lifter usually displays much greater development of the sternal pectoralis than the clavicular pectoralis (or upper chest).
Incidents of bodybuilders with too much upper chest and no lower chest are rarer than Lindsay Lohan acing a roadside sobriety test, yet the opposite can be found in abundance in any commercial gym. Remember how Arnold could balance a glass of beer on his pumped up pecs? Most lifters I see would struggle to support a shot glass.
So what can aid in getting the chesticles nice and balanced?  Once again, I revert back to the tri-set.

Upper Pec Tri-Set

A1) BB incline 1½ reps press, 8 reps
Lower the bar to the chest, then raise to the halfway point. Lower the bar again to the chest, then raise to full extension. This keeps the triceps "uninvolved" for each half rep you do, giving the upper chest twice the amount of work to do per set.
A2) Boyce cable fly, 12 reps (See video on right.)
A3) Suicide push ups, to failure
Make sure to keep hips high, and allow the head to travel as far towards the floor as possible. (See photos on right).
This can work wonders to bring up a lagging upper chest, and soon you'll have a manly shelf to rest your iPhone/protein shake/female friend on when your hands are full.

Summary

As mentioned earlier, this isn't an "Intro to size" article; it's a look at a few little things to think about adding into the mix to take your already "good" body to the "great" level.
Yeah, it may make your workouts run a little longer; hell, it may even mean tweaking your program so that you're in the gym an extra day per week.
At the end of the day, I'll bet you'll be glad you did it.

Lee Boyce works with strength, size, and sports conditioning clients in Toronto Ontario. He competed nationally as a sprinter and long jumper at the university and club level. You can contact him at lee@leeboycetraining.com 

Suicide push up

Blast strap wide grip rows with external rotationp

Dumbbell pullover

No shortage of upper chest here.

© 1998 — 2010 Testosterone, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

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Gain a Pound of Muscle Every Week

By: Adam Campbell

Maybe you've had sand kicked in your face. Maybe you've lost one too many attainable women to beefier guys. Or maybe you've read so much about weight loss that actually admitting you want to gain weight is a societal taboo. Whatever the reason, you want to bulk up. Now.

But forget about your alleged high-revving metabolism, says Doug Kalman, R.D., director of nutrition at Miami Research Associates. "Most lean men who can't gain muscle weight are simply eating and exercising the wrong way," he says.

Here's your fix: Follow these 10 principles to pack on as much as a pound of muscle each week.

Maximize Muscle Building

The more protein your body stores—in a process called protein synthesis—the larger your muscles grow. But your body is constantly draining its protein reserves for other uses—making hormones, for instance. The result is less protein available for muscle building. To counteract that, you need to "build and store new proteins faster than your body breaks down old proteins," says Michael Houston, Ph.D., a professor of nutrition at Virginia Tech University.

Eat Meat

Shoot for about 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight, which is roughly the maximum amount your body can use in a day, according to a landmark study in the Journal of Applied Physiology. (For example, a 160-pound man should consume 160 grams of protein a day—the amount he'd get from an 8-ounce chicken breast, 1 cup of cottage cheese, a roast-beef sandwich, two eggs, a glass of milk, and 2 ounces of peanuts.) Split the rest of your daily calories equally between carbohydrates and fats.

Eat More

In addition to adequate protein, you need more calories. Use the following formula to calculate the number you need to take in daily to gain 1 pound a week. (Give yourself 2 weeks for results to show up on the bathroom scale. If you haven't gained by then, increase your calories by 500 a day.)

A. Your weight in pounds.
B. Multiply A by 12 to get your basic calorie needs.
C. Multiply B by 1.6 to estimate your resting metabolic rate (calorie burn without factoring in exercise).
D. Strength training: Multiply the number of minutes you lift weights per week by 5.
E. Aerobic training: Multiply the number of minutes per week that you run, cycle, and play sports by 8.
F. Add D and E, and divide by 7.
G. Add C and F to get your daily calorie needs.
H. Add 500 to G. This is your estimated daily calorie needs to gain 1 pound a week.

Work Your Biggest Muscles

If you're a beginner, just about any workout will be intense enough to increase protein synthesis. But if you've been lifting for a while, you'll build the most muscle quickest if you focus on the large muscle groups, like the chest, back, and legs. Add squats, deadlifts, pullups, bent-over rows, bench presses, dips, and military presses to your workout. Do two or three sets of eight to 12 repetitions, with about 60 seconds' rest between sets.

Have a Stiff Drink

A 2001 study at the University of Texas found that lifters who drank a shake containing amino acids and carbohydrates before working out increased their protein synthesis more than lifters who drank the same shake after exercising. The shake contained 6 grams of essential amino acids—the muscle-building blocks of protein—and 35 grams of carbohydrates.

"Since exercise increases bloodflow to your working tissues, drinking a carbohydrate-protein mixture before your workout may lead to greater uptake of the amino acids in your muscles," says Kevin Tipton, Ph.D., an exercise and nutrition researcher at the University of Texas in Galveston.

For your shake, you'll need about 10 to 20 grams of protein—usually about one scoop of a whey-protein powder. Can't stomach protein drinks? You can get the same nutrients from a sandwich made with 4 ounces of deli turkey and a slice of American cheese on whole wheat bread.

But a drink is better. "Liquid meals are absorbed faster," says Kalman. So tough it out. Drink one 30 to 60 minutes before your workout.

Lift Every Other Day

Do a full-body workout followed by a day of rest. Studies show that a challenging weight workout increases protein synthesis for up to 48 hours immediately after your exercise session. "Your muscles grow when you're resting, not when you're working out," says Michael Mejia, C.S.C.S., Men's Health exercise advisor and a former skinny guy who packed on 40 pounds of muscle using this very program.

Down Carbs After Your Workout

Research shows that you'll rebuild muscle faster on your rest days if you feed your body carbohydrates. "Post-workout meals with carbs increase your insulin levels," which, in turn, slows the rate of protein breakdown, says Kalman. Have a banana, a sports drink, a peanut-butter sandwich.

Eat Every 3 Hours

"If you don't eat often enough, you can limit the rate at which your body builds new proteins," says Houston. Take the number of calories you need in a day and divide by six. That's roughly the number you should eat at each meal. Make sure you consume some protein—around 20 grams—every 3 hours.

Make One Snack Ice Cream

Have a bowl of ice cream (any kind) 2 hours after your workout. According to a study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, this snack triggers a surge of insulin better than most foods do. And that'll put a damper on post-workout protein breakdown.

Have Some Milk Before Bed

Eat a combination of carbohydrates and protein 30 minutes before you go to bed. The calories are more likely to stick with you during sleep and reduce protein breakdown in your muscles, says Kalman. Try a cup of raisin bran with a cup of skim milk or a cup of cottage cheese and a small bowl of fruit. Eat again as soon as you wake up. "The more diligent you are, the better results you'll get," says Kalman.

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Transform Comfort Food into Muscle-Building Fuel

By: Maureen Callahan, M.S., R.D.
It's a battle royale, with cheese. In one corner of your mind, there's the satisfaction of that trim, hard body you've built. In the other, there's the hamburger—juicy, tasty, covered with a blanket of melted Cheddar. Or maybe your struggle is against nachos. Or crispy fish and chips. Or pizza. Hard to believe there ever was a time when mankind could be seduced by an apple, isn't it?

To avoid temptation, you could wire your refrigerator to deliver a shock every time you open the door. Or you could continue eating pizza, nachos, burgers—all of your favorite comfort foods—without guilt. It can be done. With a few easy tweaks, just about any food can be transformed into good stuff that satisfies your nutritional needs, your tastebuds, and even your nostalgic cravings. Make your comfort foods this way and you'll have our blessing to pig out.

Burger
What's so bad?: Ground beef is shot through with fat, and that white-bread bun offers little but rapidly digested simple sugars.

Make it better: Start with extra-lean ground beef—if you don't overcook it, it'll taste great. Chop up some onions and thawed frozen spinach and mix them into the beef. The vegetables add vitamins and replace some of the moisture lost when you switched to leaner ground beef. Better yet, build those burgers with grass-fed beef or lean ground buffalo, at roughly 4 grams (g) of fat per 4 ounces. Researchers at Purdue University found that wild game and grass-fed meats have higher levels of good-for-the-brain and good-for-the-heart omega-3 fatty acids. Top it all off with a whole-wheat bun for some fiber.

You lose: 6 g saturated fat

You gain: Allicin, 47 micrograms (mcg) beta-carotene, 5 g fiber

Breakfast Sausage-and-Egg Biscuit
What's so bad?: The sausage patty is fatty (about 10 g per puck), and the biscuit is nearly devoid of nutrition yet contains 8 g fat.

Make it better: Do this yourself—it takes 3 minutes, about the time you'd sit in the drive-thru lane. Beat an egg in a small bowl and nuke it for 1 to 2 minutes. Top it with warmed-up Canadian bacon—a great precooked source of lean protein with only 2 g fat—and slide it into a whole-wheat English muffin. And have it with a glass of grapefruit juice (good luck finding that at McDonald's) instead of OJ. Drinking grapefruit juice before a meal helps decrease insulin levels and promote weight loss, according to research from the Scripps Clinic in San Diego.

You lose: 4 g saturated fat

You gain: 6 g protein, 4 g fiber, 94 milligrams (mg) vitamin C

Grilled Cheese Sandwich
What's so bad?: The 18 g saturated fat you take in from the butter and slabs of oily cheese. And the white bread is pointless.

Make it better: Use whole-wheat bread with part-skim mozzarella in between. Crisp it in a skillet moistened with a little olive oil. Losing the finger-licking buttery bliss is worth it. A recent study in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that an olive oil-rich diet can drop your chances of dying of cancer or heart disease by 23 percent. To protect your prostate, add a couple of lycopene-packed tomato slices. Likely to work late? Throw in a slice or two of lean ham. That will jack up the protein count, keeping your appetite in check.

You lose: 10 g saturated fat

You gain: 11 g protein, 5 g fiber, 1,000 mcg lycopene

Pizza
What's so bad?: Oil-pooling pepperoni, to start. Then a huge calorie count that comes mainly from simple carbs and saturated fat.

Make it better: Opt for a thin crust (fewer refined-flour carbs), use half the cheese, and replace the pepperoni or sausage with chicken breast, a lean protein that has just 1 g fat per ounce. (A little barbecue sauce is okay. Great, in fact.) The chicken gives you more muscle-building protein and a ratio of protein to fat that better satisfies the appetite. Add some sliced onions and peppers to rack up a little fiber and some immune-boosting allicin.

You lose: 10 g saturated fat

You gain: Allicin, fiber, twice the protein

Fish and Chips
What's so bad?: There's fat everywhere—the breaded and fried fish, the greasy potatoes, and the creamy coleslaw.

Make it better: You love the crunchy crispiness, right? Try pan-seared salmon—it'll crisp up real nice—for a healthy dose of cholesterol-lowering omega-3 fats and a potential brain boost. A new UCLA study on mice suggests that DHA, one of the fats found in high levels in fish like salmon, helps repair memory damage caused by Alzheimer's disease. Roasted potato wedges sprayed with a little olive oil are infinitely better than fat-soaked fried "chips." Grab a bag of finely chopped coleslaw makings at the grocery store and use either low-fat mayonnaise or, better yet, a tangy vinegar-and-oil dressing.

You lose: 8 g saturated fat

You gain: 4 g omega-3 fats

Nachos
What's so bad?: Just 13 ordinary corn chips contains 120 calories and 6 g fat, and you haven't yet ladled on the electric-orange cheese product, the greasy spiced hamburger mixture, or the sour cream. Do that and you're hoisting 26 g saturated fat into your mouth. Add thirst-inducing pickled jalapeño-pepper slices and you're getting a day's worth of sodium in this 1,129-calorie pile.

Make it better: Start with baked corn chips (less fat), add cooked pinto beans for fiber, and use reduced-fat sharp Cheddar and lean ground round. Top with cancer-fighting diced tomatoes (for lycopene) and diced fresh jalapeño pepper—it has no added salt but still delivers plenty of kick. The whole concoction is leaner, tastier, and way better for you. Go ahead, have some more.

You lose: 677 calories, 22 g saturated fat, 2,500 mg sodium

You gain: 14 g fiber, 2,300 mcg lycopene


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3 Ways to Build Lean Muscle

by CHAD WATERBURY on AUGUST 2, 2010

Men want more muscle; women typically don’t. When a guy sees a mixed martial arts fighter such as Georges St. Pierre, or a model on the cover of Men’s Health, he knows he needs to gain muscle. However, when a woman sees a body like Jennifer Garner had in Elektra, she typically thinks, “I’d like to tone up and look like that.” In reality, Jennifer had to gain muscle to get that lean, sexy look. Toning up is nothing more than losing fatand building a little muscle.

Whether you want to look like St. Pierre or Jennifer Garner in Elektra, your goal should be to gain muscle and lose fat – build lean muscle, in other words. Since women have a fraction of the testosterone men have, they don’t need to worry about packing on extra muscle.

There are two primary benefits to gaining muscle. First, you’ll look harder and more defined when you lose fat. Second, you’ll boost your metabolism. Even just a few pounds of additional muscle can have a significant impact on supercharging your metabolism at rest (the jury’s still out on how much a pound of muscle actually boosts your metabolism, but regardless, it helps).

First and foremost, your diet must be in order to lose fat. With that in mind, here are three changes you can immediately make to your current workout program to make it more effective for building lean muscle.

1. Use enough weight: focus on lifting weights that don’t allow more than 12 reps per set. As a general rule, start with a weight you can lift 6-12 times for the first set. Shoot for 25 total reps per exercise with heavier weights (6RM) and 50 total reps with lighter weights.

2. Keep your rest periods short: one of the biggest mistake people typically make is that they rest too long between sets. Your heart rate should remain elevated throughout the entire workout. At some point during the workout you should be questioning whether you’re resting long enough. No rest is best between exercises – just enough time to transition between exercises. 30 seconds is the most you should ever rest when fat loss is the goal. As a general rule, 10-20 seconds between exercises works well.

3. Do Full-body workouts: every time you train you should perform upper and lower body exercises. This drastically increases the metabolic demand of the workout and keeps your metabolism elevated long after you leave the gym. Choose one upper body pull, one upper body push, and a squat or deadlift variation as a bare minimum to meet the full-body requirement. And be sure to put in full-body cardio strength exercises (eg, squat thrust with overhead press with dumbbells) at the end of your workouts to really crank up your metabolism.

And speaking of Jennifer Garner, I just did a cool video interview with her trainer, Valerie Waters. You can check it out here.

Stay focused,
CW

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How to Eat to Build Muscle

by CHAD WATERBURY on AUGUST 16, 2010

Recently, I was hanging out in Venice with some colleagues when a guy showed up and started talking training with me. He had a typical male body, about 5’11″ and 170 pounds. In other words, you never would’ve mistaken him for an MMA fighter, much less a bodybuilder. So it’s no surprise that he wanted to add muscle to his frame.

“I want to gain muscle, but I don’t want to wake up looking like Arnold or anything,” he said. Then he asked for advice on how to train to pack on muscle. “But not too much of it.”

Poor Arnold – no one wants to look like him.

I’ve heard the “I don’t want to gain too much muscle” plea countless times. It always gives me a good laugh.

That’s because gaining five pounds of muscle, or 50 pounds, requires the same initial approach. I guess people think they need less of some variable (load, frequency, volume, etc) when they’re avoiding the “muscle bound” look that Schwarzenegger’s name has become synonymous with.

Gaining quality muscle mass takes time, even when you do everything perfectly. So there’s no need to worry that you’ll wake up and be burdened with a bodybuilding physique that compares to someone with one-in-a-million genetics who trains all day, eats all day, and uses steroids.

In 15 years I’ve never heard a natural guy claim he gained too much muscle, too fast. (If you happen to be that guy it’s likely that you’re not reading this blog.) The bottom line: if you want to gain muscle mass, do everything it takes to build it as quickly as possible. Once you’ve added enough muscle to suit your needs, then it’s time to consider dialing things back (the solution is as simple as eating fewer calories). Furthermore, most guys need more muscle than they initially think before they get the look they’re after.

The number one reason why guys aren’t gaining muscle faster than “really slow or not at all” is due to their nutrition plan. Your body must have the raw materials it needs to build muscle or else it’ll never happen, regardless of what training program you’re following. Think of building muscle the same way as building a house. Your training program is the blueprint; your nutrition plan is the raw materials. A blueprint without raw materials gets you nothing.

So, if you’re someone who wants to gain lean muscle mass, regardless of how much it is, immediately put these nutrition principles into play.

Muscle Growth Nutrition Plan
Calories: The first step for a muscle-gaining diet is to consume enough calories. A good starting point is your lean body mass (body weight – fat) x 16. So if you’re a 170-pound guy with 12% body fat, that means you have 150 pounds of lean body mass. You should eat 2400 calories per day as a starting point. If you’re not gaining quality muscle (the scale reads the same after a week), add 200 more calories each week until the scale starts going up. 2400 calories might sound low, but it’s not when you eat the foods that I outline here. The reason most guys think they need more calories is due to two reasons. First, they eat low-quality foods that are void of muscle-building nutrients. Second, their digestive tract isn’t healthy so they can’t assimilate all the nutrients they’re getting.

Protein: Consume one gram of protein per pound of lean body mass (150 grams per day for 170-pound guy with 12% body fat). That might not sound like much but it’s plenty when you get your protein from whole foods such as eggs, organic chicken, grass-fed beef, wild fish, etc. Your body can assimilate a greater percentage of the amino acids from whole food sources, that’s why you don’t need as much as if you just consumed protein powders. Each gram of protein has four calories, therefore, 600 of your calories come from protein. The only time I recommend protein powders is directly after your workout, as I’ll discuss later.

Fat: One-third of your calories should come from high-quality fats such as olive oil, coconut oil, fish oil, and the fats found in your whole food sources. Each gram of fat has nine calories. Since you need 790 calories’ worth of fat, you’ll need 88 grams per day.

Carbohydrates: Now you’re left with 1000 calories’ worth of carbs. Each gram of carbohydrate has four calories so you’ll need 250 grams per day. Yams, quinoa, oatmeal, wild rice and fresh fruits are ideal sources.

Workout Nutrition: What you consume directly before and after your workouts has a huge impact on how quickly you’ll recover. The faster you recover, the more often you can train. Put another way, recovery is key to adding more weight to the bar, or cranking out an extra rep with your next workout.

15 minutes before training: Take 10 grams of branched-chain amino acids with two grams of beta-alanine. I use Biotest’s version of both.

Immediately after training: Take 10 grams of branched-chain amino acids, wait 10-15 minutes, then drink two scoops of Sun Warrior protein mixed with five grams of creatine powder and eat 1/2 cup of organic raisins. If raisins aren’t your thing, mix 8 ounces of grape juice with 8 ounces of water, stir in the protein powder with creatine and drink.

Bonus Tips

Become an Alky: The only downside to eating plenty of protein is that it can be acidic and inflammatory to your body which, in turn, slows recovery and causes joint pain. This is especially true if you eat a lot of dairy. Therefore, I must emphasize that you need plenty of green vegetables in your diet. Don’t worry about counting them as calories since they contain little to none. Put fresh spinach in your morning omelette, have a salad topped with veggies at lunch, and eat broccoli with grass-fed beef at dinner. These are just a few examples.

I’m also a big fan of Green Vibrance from Vibrant Health. I take two servings each day mixed in water to ensure that my acids stay in balance.

Get More From Your Food: What you put in your body isn’t as important as what your body can assimilate. A healthy GI tract is essential for maximizing nutrient uptake. Think of your GI tract like the gas tank in your car. If your tank is full, adding more gas won’t help since it’ll just spill over. And if your GI tract is lacks hydrochloric acid (HCl) and other important digestive enzymes, adding more protein won’t help since your body won’t be able to break it down. If you have gas or bloating after meals, or if your breath smells like “rotten Indian food in a diaper” you might have HCl deficiencies. HCl’s role is to help your body assimilate nutrients and kill off bacteria. When it’s low it limits the amount of protein and calcium your body can absorb.

Now, I must mention that treating HCl deficiencies and digestive disorders is best left to your qualified physician. I can only mention what works for me. Don’t go into this blindly or else you could cause damage. The first step for correcting an unhealthy digestive tract is to eat plenty of vegetables and take afiber supplement, if you can’t stomach the idea of adding veggies to your diet.

As a side note, people who follow a vegan diet for a few weeks almost always improve their recovery, diminish joint pain, and boost their overall energy. Don’t get me wrong, I think there are limitations to a vegan diet since it’s difficult to get enough protein. But it’s worth mentioning that adding a lot of fruits, vegetables, and fiber-rich foods can help you gain muscle. The reason? A vegan diet improves your gut health. That’s why I recommend a vegan protein powder.

I could never follow a vegan diet for long before I hijacked Umami Burger or spent my retirement at Wolfgang Puck’s Cut in Beverly Hills. Therefore, I use digestive support from Premiere Research Labs. I take one capsule of Quantum Betaine HCl and one capsule of Quantum HCl Activator with breakfast, lunch, and dinner for three weeks. Then, I take one Quantum Betaine HCl with meals whenever I’m stressed out (yep, I haven’t stopped taking them yet).

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